#I will not be providing additional context at this time

[lilies-of-the-fields]

jumping in to add information on ticks/fleas/pests and lawn maintenance!! @metapianycist is not wrong-- ticks are vectors for a number of dangerous diseases depending on where you live, so it's important to be aware of the risks !! --

and

there's a growing body of research with evidence suggesting that letting lawns grow tall(er) may help reduce pest pressure! including fleas and ticks

... this actually got super long, so, tl;dr

Not mowing for a month and letting grasses flower and go to seed is usually less work for us humans and more resources for pollinators at a critical time of the year. Taller grass can lead to more insects in general, but not necessarily.

if you're concerned about ticks as disease vectors, that's reasonable. Region and location can significantly influence how much of a risk there is of contracting disease. Pesticide/insecticide use might actually be more relevant than how tall your lawn is, though.

ok extra context & info below!!

i'm struggling to find up-to-date studies rn but the theory behind this is that very short lawn -- 'scalped'/ buzz cut or even 1" -- is an extraordinarily hostile environment for many creatures, including those that prey on ticks, fleas, and other insects that might eat our beloved plants. and so only the hardiest or most adaptable species can persist, e.g. fire ants.

when lawn (conventional turf grass is what I'm talking about here) is allowed to grow taller (3-4") then amid the grasses and the soil there is much more ecological complexity and shelter from the elements, etc. This allows many more organisms to survive. More complexity and more life means "pests" and disease vectors are better kept in check.

again, struggling w/ searches today but i will say that my background in ecology leads me to believe that the effect from reducing mowing frequency/raising lawn height is amplified by any additional strategies that increase habitat for wildlife (e.g. converting more 'lawn' space to native plantings that mimic local ecosystems), likely for the same reasons. the journal article below has a lot of great information although slightly out of date.

(it talks about organic land management in the original sense, that is, a systems-based approach that tries to promote ecological connection and health. Not simply "non-synthetic fertilizers and chemicals".)

"A Review of Organic Lawn Care Practices and Policies in North America and the Implications of Lawn Plant Diversity and Insect Pest Management" (2015)

and this bit from the abstract of

"Impact of mowing frequency on arthropod abundance and diversity in urban habitats: A meta-analysis" (2022):

"... manicured lawns disproportionately favor the abundance of “pest” species as well as ground-dwelling arthropods. Overall, the findings of the present meta-analysis strongly support the notion that a reduction in mowing frequencies in urban greenspaces benefits insect biodiversity."

if you're interested in this concept, i recommend checking out information about landscape immunity -- the idea that ecological health is directly tied to human health. Even the proximity of your yard to land w/ less human disturbance, or how fragmented habitat in your area is, can influence tick/fleas/pests populations and disease risks

if you just want to take care of your yard in a way that's hopefully less work and good for wildlife, i recommend talking to your county agriculture extension (often abbreviated IFAS, institute of food and agriculture sciences). Every county in the U.S. has one (it's actually a legacy of federal land grant programs that stole Indigenous land :/ ). They do provide information for individuals, business owners, even HOAs and local governments on pretty much anything relating to food & agriculture.

They will have place-based recommendations for managing your lawn/garden. Depending on your county you may want to ask specifically for integrated pest management strategies or no-mow groundcover recommendations. ime extension agents usually default to more conventional "lawn management" approaches when the subject is turfgrass and mowing.

pollinator conservation programs like Bee City USA are also a good bet for finding info like this, just with a much more specific eye towards ecological impact and quality

On the news I saw that they were talking about this thing called No Mow May where people don't mow their lawns in May because it's good for the bees. As an Autistic person I thought this was a great idea as I hate the sound of the wretched lawnmower.

Image Description:

Two people are shaking hands. One person is labelled as "some Autistic People" and the other person is labelled as "bees". The hands ate both shaking to agree on "No mow May". End Description.

[anotherscreed]

SORRY I FORGOT ABOUT THE MULTIVERSE THING. anyway this is like my fourth time trying to get this damn link to show up on this site so hopefully the fourth time'll be the charm or whatever since the third wasn't-

[A link is attached to a news website, apparently for the digital version of the Castelia Times. Upon clicking on it, the first thing that comes up—unless there is an adblocker involved—is a pop-up informing the website visitor that this is one of their five free articles for this month, and that they should consider subscribing to support journalism.

Once they've dealt with the pop-up as they will, though, the title of the article becomes clear: Anonymous Leaker Reveals Aether Foundation Involvement in 2017 Alolan Ultra Beast Crisis.

It becomes immediately clear after a handful of paragraphs that the reporter is not fond of Aether's recent expansion into other regions from Sinnoh to Unova and therefore is absolutely delighted that an anonymous hacker found and leaked security footage stored on Aether's own servers.

Previous leaks/data dumps provided by this particular hacker have ranged from revealing that a professor at Blueberry Academy was far more concerned with her ancestor's conspiracy theories than the well-being of her own students to leaking emails making it clear that the upper management of Silph Co. was not only aware of Team Rocket's plans to take over their Saffron City building but thought it would ultimately increase profits in the long run to allow the team to do what they wanted.

This, however, is something a little bigger. There are two main videos that have been shared with the wider internet, seemingly taken from security camera footage in the Alolan branch of the Aether Foundation.

According to the reporter, viewer discretion is advised, and they have provided warnings for Pokémon abuse, child abuse, and—for some reason—a woman named Lusamine Aether, who is apparently the current president of the Aether Foundation.

In the first video attached, Lusamine is shown verbally berating a young girl, referred to as Lillie, who looks very similar to her. She refers to the girl as disappointing in comparison to her companion—a girl of similar age referred to by Lusamine as Selene—before claiming that she doesn't have any children who would "reject her love" and that maybe if Lillie had been better, she could have saved Cosmog, something that seems from context to be a Pokémon that Lusamine will be forcing to "use its power."

The second video attached seems to pick up close to where the last one left off, albeit in a different room, and in one where there are numerous Pokémon implied from what Lusamine says about them to have been frozen solid and "preserved" while they were still alive. The girls from earlier are horrified before a boy in black who bears significant resemblance to both Lillie and Lusamine rushes in with another friend in tow.

The exact words "All I ever did was give you two all the love I had, and all you did was betray me! You have no right to ask for my attention now!" are uttered by Lusamine, before she declares in response to the other boy (who is apparently named Hau) that they once were family, perhaps, before her former children (who she describes as wretches) left her.

She then forces the Cosmog inside a container to use its power at the expense of its own wellbeing, opening Ultra Wormholes all over Alola in addition to one right there, before ordering someone working for her to "quiet those children for me" as she doesn't "want to hear from them again," which is a wild thing to say about a group of preteens (and one kid who looks like a young, particularly edgy teenager).

The reporter's article concludes with stating that neither the Aether Foundation's main branch nor their Unova branch have responded to a request for comment, and they're frankly unsure of how to get in touch with the hacker Sedici, but that the Alolan government is taking clear evidence of Lusamine Aether's involvement in the Ulra Beast Crisis very seriously and there are rumors of the International Police getting involved.]

[janitor-figure-a]

I can't believe the value of the fatt patreon. in bluff city movie club streets of fire theyre talking about some guys leather overalls and before I can even think about looking for an image to say Brnine wore this Austin with his human mouth says shout outs to the strap knocking me to a different spiritual plain, I can't COPE

[qpjianghu]

“How can you leave me just like that? What about Auntie Deng’s case? Huh? I’m talking to you. I’m talking to you. Hey.” -> Desire Catcher (2023) Ep. 17

[sateurn]

😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

These sobs really limited my tags?????

I have so many more thoughts this is so so much less than 1/2. Broski. Big dislike

[woodpecker-scanlation]

Woodpecker Detective’s Office Manga – Ch. 1 Pt. 2 (revised edition)

Next

Start from the beginning

[pagesofkenna]

Dogsred ch. 35

[batfluffs]

🍰[OPEN] 3D PIXEL COMMISSIONS!🍰

i have comms open for little low poly 3d models!! i can do humanoids and anthros, whether its fanart or your own characters/OCs! feel free to message me with any questions 💗

if you would like a model of something that doesn't fall under the basic humanoid/anthro shape, message me and we'll see if it's something I'm able to do! :D

the base price for a character model is £45 !

to order, you can message me on tumblr or order through vgen ~

my prices are in GBP, but your payment method will be able to convert it from the currency you use :)

more info/full order form below "keep reading/read more" !!

[ keep reading / read more . . . ]

💗 please make sure that you have read and agree to my terms of service before ordering! i know it's a bit lengthy, but these are always to protect me as the artist and you as the client. even if you choose not to read it, these terms will still apply to you.💗

IMPORTANT: since these are low-res models, i may have to simplify designs/omit minor details, but i'll let you know if that may be the case!~

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

ORDER FORM

when you're ready to order, please copy/paste the headings with the heart bullets, fill out your answers, then message the finished form to me!

under each heading i've included some information to provide more context to help you answer the form! you don't need to copy/paste those chunks of text.

if you have any questions about anything at all, feel free to message me first!~

❥ CHARACTER(S) (£45 each):

please include images/art of your character(s) for me to reference, and a description of their personality if you'd like!

❥ PROP(S) (+£10 each): yes / no | how many

anything you would like your character to hold, or have in the image! for example, food, weapons, books, small simple pets/creatures, etc.

❥ SIMPLE ANIMATION(S) (+£10 each): yes / no | how many

i can do various simple looping animations such as idle, walk/run, sit, spin, dance, float, etc.

if you have any other ideas or more complex animation requests, feel free to send me a message before ordering!

if you order multiple characters, please specify whether you would like them to be animated together or separately! having them together/interacting in the same animation is +£15 on top of the base fee to animate each character. (for example, 2 characters interacting would be £20 (£10 per character) +£15, for a total of £35).

(!!!) if no animation is desired, you will receive a tpose turnaround .gif of your character.

❥ PERMISSIONS: yes / no (+30% privacy/NDA fee)

i like to share my finished models to promote my artwork & commissions, and may also stream commissions as i work on them! for these, i'll give credit to you as the character owner.

if you would prefer to keep your commission and artwork private, you may do so with an additional fee of +30% of the commission subtotal added onto to the final price.

❥ OTHER ADD-ONS: (optional)

commercial use (+£30): for streaming, YouTube, anything where you may gain profit from it. if you select this option, please state what it will be for. if you have intentions to use my art for merchandise or other purposes, please contact me first as this will have different pricing!

rush fee (+£15): i will complete your model within 1 week of purchase!

model files (+£15): i will send you the blockbench file & texture for your completed model to do as you wish for personal use only, unless you have also paid for commercial use.

3D print compatibility (+£30): i will create a version of the model without planes, making it compatible for 3D printing. the full charge includes both the fees for sending you the model files, and 3D printing compatibility.

❥ PAYMENT PREFERENCE: paypal / kofi

paypal: i'll create an invoice for you that outlines your order details!

kofi: i'll ask you to send the payment as a one-time donation after we've discussed the commission info!

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

i take payment upfront via paypal or kofi before i will begin working!

estimated turnaround time will be 1 month, though it tends to be shorter than that! however, i'll update you with delays or if it's expected to take any longer than that <3

thanks so much for reading this and for all your support!! 💗

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

> you can find more examples of my pixel models/animations here! <

[fairuzfan]

Also re:necropolitics of israel (click)

A few days ago there were reports of Israeli soldiers "returning" bodies of martyrs they took like just straight up from Gaza. Here is a report about bodies being stolen from al-Shifa (click).

The director of Al-Shifa had reported the bodies being stolen back in November (click) before his arrest. The hospital workers mentioned not knowing why the soldiers would do that. The speculation of the photo-op arose because the photo-op of October 7th within Israel happened a month and a half after October 7th, after the Al-Shifa raid. People (Palestinians) noted that the level of violence done to the bodies seemed similar to what they had been seeing with the bombs in Gaza, and found it hard to believe that Hamas could inflict that much damage. There was a thread that was examining this idea but I haven't found it as it's been a bit. If I find it, I'll comment on this post.

But even then, Israel routinely makes corpses serve out their sentences or even outright steals them for the sake of enacting psychological torture onto the relatives of the martyr (click). The burial process is an essential step in mourning and grief, which means by withholding the bodies, they ensure that the family is unable to recover emotionally from the death of their loved one nor are they allowed to move on. This is essentially a form of ensuring that people are unable to resist as the emotional toll this takes on them is quite high.

A variety of reports and testimonies are linked in this article regarding the harvesting and removal of organs throughout the years by Israel (click). The most damning of the evidence is a testimony by Dr. Meira Weiss in her book "Over Their Dead Bodies." The article has a translated passage from Hebrew about the period at the turn of the century and their practices then (roughly 1996-2002):

“They would take corneas, skin, and heart valves, while noting that non-professionals would not notice the absence of these organs as they would place something plastic in place of the corneas and ‘take’ the skin from the back so that the family wouldn’t see it. In addition, the bodies of detained martyrs are used in medical colleges at Israeli universities for research purposes.” Weiss confirmed that “in the first Intifada, the army effectively allowed the institute to extract organs from Palestinians under a military procedure that required the autopsy of a Palestinian prisoner. The autopsy procedure was accompanied by organ removal, which was used by the Israeli Skin Bank established in 1985 to treat burns suffered by Israeli soldiers. This was after the Chief Rabbinate Council issued a ruling legitimizing it, which led to saving the lives of many Israelis who were injured during attacks on Palestinian citizens, continuous assaults, and wars — at the expense of Palestinian martyrs, according to specialized Israeli medical sources for burn treatment.”

It's worthy to note: as an occupying force especially, Israel should not be doing ANYTHING with these bodies and just returning them to the families. I've seen some people say "they didn't JUST harvest Palestinians' organs, they also harvested Israeli organs." It doesn't matter. They are an occupying force that enacts systematic violence on Palestinians especially and within this context, anything Israel does towards Palestinians is a targeted, racialized violence. It is widely known that Israel denies crimes it has committed until many, many years, especially from during the Nakba, such as well poisoning.

People provide evidence that organs can't be used after a certain point in time.... in this context (October 2023-December 2023), it's not about whether or not the organs were used for anything. It is specifically for the purpose of body desecration which Israeli soldiers especially have not been shy about. Here is a report during the bulldozer massacre in which people report that Israeli soldiers run over bodies for no other reason than desecration (click).

Also, remember the grave desecration that happened a few days ago? It was reported that they had stolen bodies believed to belong to young Palestinian activists then (click). This is widely known as 'necroviolence' on Palestinian bodies in order to humiliate them (click).

You cannot remove the context of an oppressive force (Israel) that is documented to have disrespected graves and bodies. You must analyze it within this context, not any others. Withholding bodies of Palestinians, no matter what they did while they were alive, is a form of disrespect and oppression on a subjugated population. To deny that this happens and to attribute it to antisemitism is not only disrespectful of Palestinians' mourning rights, but also an effort to remold the narrative into one of "Jewish people against Palestinians" by emphasizing the Jewishness of the occupying force rather than focusing on... you know... the fact that they're an occupying force known to enact violence on Palestinian martyrs.

[fawnsuga]

Andrew Blaze's Reddit Account & Its Contents

The user u/PioneersProductions was active in the subreddit r/PioneersProductions between October 21 and October 29, 2013. At some point during this period, the subreddit was set to private, which restricts the visibility of comments to third-party tools. Consequently, we are unable to ascertain the specific context of many comments, though some can be reasonably inferred.

10/21/2013, 7:42:05 PM

Nothing can replace BlogTV... YouTube's the easiest fix, but they have it set where you have to stream from your computer now. My internet isn't fast enough to stream. =(

Andrew's initial comment expresses regret over the acquisition and subsequent shutdown of the live streaming service BlogTV, suggesting that she was an active user of the platform.

10/24/2013, 1:06:41 AM

Sweet, wow dude, I can't even remember the majority of these pics. That's insane. Especially the ones from before 2011.

This comment appears to be a response to someone sharing old photographs, possibly of Blaze herself, although this cannot be confirmed.

10/24/2013, 1:12:26 AM

Alligator/Horse Head was created using Paint.NET and Windows Movie Maker. Alligator/Horse Head 2 was made with Photoshop and iMovie. I had two different versions of it: one that was used in the trailer and the one used in the final cut. That Horse Head was difficult to crop out (even with Photoshop) due to the hair on its head. The Alligator was comparatively easy because it was solid wood. Additionally, I posted a video of myself sitting on the floor in my parents' bedroom against a wall, asking for script ideas, intending to feature those whose ideas I used. Ultimately, I did not utilize any of the suggestions. Given that I only had Movie Maker, my options were limited. I would love to recut that video, but it is impossible since the Horse Head has been reduced to ashes. I also lack a clean photograph of it. I wrote Alligator/Horse Head 2 during my senior year of high school in November and did not finalize the script until the following summer. I had numerous drafts for it. James was originally intended to appear physically in the video, but time constraints prevented this, as he had to relocate.

In this comment, Blaze elaborates on the process of creating the videos Mr. Horse Head Meets Mr. Wooden Alligator 1 and 2. These videos represent a crossover between Blaze's character and one created by YouTuber makemebad35.

10/24/2013, 1:16:24 AM

I also dislike how I edited the two videos. The first one was excessively brief, while the second one was constrained by Damian's preference for a shorter duration. Nowadays, I would likely have produced a 10- to 15-minute video; however, 8 minutes seemed adequate for him. He managed to complete his portions in just 5 hours. The only inconsistency in continuity is that he wears the same black shirt at the end, where he calls me to request the Alligator back, which was meant to occur days later. It is implausible that the Alligator could have shipped from Maryland to Pennsylvania and arrived at my doorstep within the same day. I have since become a more meticulous editor compared to two to three years ago. I prefer to extend shots, making them more "film-like" (slower-paced). However, we were concerned that viewers would not watch a 10-minute video in its entirety. I would recut the entire video, but my footage was never stored; I did not acquire a terabyte drive until last year, leaving only a few videos saved on a flash drive.

Four minutes after her previous comment, Andrew provides additional insights regarding the aforementioned videos. The individual named Damian referenced in the comment is makemebad35.

10/24/2013, 1:19:03 AM

I could discuss the Alligator/Horse Head videos indefinitely, which is why I have refrained from revisiting the second one. They were foundational to my YouTube career and led to Horse Head Lives, which will soon connect to my Halloween franchise. ;D

Three minutes later, Blaze concludes her comments on the subject by mentioning the video Mr. Horse Head Lives. I am uncertain what the Halloween franchise refers to, but my best guess is that it pertains to the Finale Series, the initial videos in which Ember appears.

10/29/2013, 9:16:14 PM

You... just... wow....

This remark represents Blaze's final comment on Reddit. The specific context of her expression of shock or surprise remains unclear.

for @strvy-bvllet

[floating--goblin]

On Jutty Taylor and the new era

It's been roughly five months since an alleged victim of Jutty Taylor has come out accusing him of inappropriate conduct. With the dawn of a new era for Ghost and Taylor seemingly having been kept in the band, let us refresh our memory on the story.

This is not going to be an essay in defense of Taylor; I have no stake in this game and win nothing by sheltering a possible predator. I simply want to present the facts, as they are, as logically as possible, giving both sides the benefit of the doubt required, as in a court of law. The decision on where to stand is ultimately yours.

I will preface this with a disclaimer: the alleged victim is fifteen years old. I realize children aren't the most apt at relaying important details about complicated subjects such as a legal case or police investigation, so I will be extra lenient on their relaying of said details because it's entirely possible for a frightened child to constantly misspeak.

That being said, it does unfortunately make the case even more murky. The account should have been handled by the victim's parents, especially after backlash against the victim swept through social media. The fact no legal guardian has stepped in at best paints a disheartening picture of the victim's home life, and at worst weakens the case against Taylor.

As for me, I'm admittedly no scholar and this is a different justice system than my country's own, but I am a law student and know a thing or two which, I believe, would help offer a more in-depth view of the situation.

Finally, I cannot stress this enough: believe victims first. Yes, I fully stand by that statement. I do not however stand for "believe victims always, without or against proof", and while I am again not here to prove one point or another, some details about the case do not add up and it important to get the full picture, all the facts, as they are. That is my entire goal here, I cannot stress enough how little I want to get into a spat about this. This is meant to be a full report and only that.

Moving along-

On October 10th of 2024, the victim, named Grace, made this thread to Twitter, alleging that on March 8th of that year she attended a Drag Talk show, where she met Taylor. While taking pictures with him, she claims that Taylor's hand "fell on her backside", that when she tried pulling away his hand moved to her waist and that he pulled her closer, and that finally he put his hand under her jacket and groped her chest.

This is the only picture of the incident that Grace has provided, and according to her the only one that was taken that night. She also clarified later that behind them is a mirror, not the rest of the room.

Grace's friend Kuro has also posted these threads providing additional text conversations from after the incident, between them and Grace as well as Grace and another friend, where Grace recounted "feeling violated" and obviously distressed:

Thread one

Thread two

After this, several other accounts have come out making various allegations, none of which are of the same severity but which are of course equally important to take into consideration. These are as follows:

A thread by user olliesoleil alleging predatory intent in messages exchanged with Taylor. It should be noted that as of 2024, Ollie was 19.

A thread from another 19 year old named Logan, in which he claims that Taylor made flirty comments toward him.

An alleged message exchange from Taylor's ex girlfriend, aged 23 in 2024, no date or context given for the messages provided. Of note however is that they seemed to have been in a relationship around the time she turned 20.

Of note is also that no conversations with any ex-girlfriends were ever shown.

On November 24, Grace followed up by informing people following the story that the police were informed.

As of writing this post in March of 2025, there have been no more updates on this case. Grace has also urged any other possible victims to speak up and to reach out to LAPD or their local police force, but no one else seems to have stepped up since.

That is the last update we got from Grace.

Moving on to the other party involved, Taylor himself posted this one day after the allegations were publicized, following it with a more in-depth post and apology the next day.

On March 5th of 2025, Ghost has also posted a music video for their first release of the new album Skeletá, which features Taylor, implying his continued involvement with the band. The actual date of filming for the video is uncertain, as is whether or not Taylor's contract with Ghost has been renewed for the upcoming tour, as we all know the Ghouls are tour-only members and not officially a part of Ghost.

Taylor has not posted on his Twitter or Instagram since, and has not had a public presence online. None of his friends/bandmates have spoken about this either.

And now comes the difficult part: dissecting and putting everything in context fairly and coherently.

From the evidence shown, one thing we can reasonably agree on is that Jutty Taylor has a penchant for dating younger women, or is at least not put off by being involved with them. From videos of him and his stage demeanor it is also clear that he skews on the flirtier side, and is infamous for being very physically close with his bandmates regardless of gender.

That being said, all of the people involved here, save for Grace, are of age. Morality of age gaps aside, none of this falls into the sphere of illegality.

Furthermore, Ollie and Logan's claims are based on subjective interpretations of conversations. Logan has not provided as much as a paraphrasing of the "flirty comments" said to him by Taylor, and Ollie's conversation (link 1, link 2) shows them matching Taylor's level of enthusiasm, and in their thread they state that they thought nothing of the interactions at the time, only revising their stance in light of Grace's story coming out. All of which is, of course, valid. However, they were of age, thus nothing in the text exchange is illegal, nor can stand as evidence of predatory intent; it is purely a subjective view.

Similarly, Ferlizee's claims are offered without context or proof, and she was also of age throughout the relationship. Any assertion in the thread surrounding her that Taylor knew her before she was of age are unsubstantiated, as there is simply no source for them. She has since also deleted her accounts, which makes investigating the matter more difficult.

All this is to say, the only conclusion we can extract from these three accounts is that Taylor is perhaps overly friendly, that his sense of humor is perhaps easily misconstrued, and that his preference in partners skews on the younger side- although it should be noted that the only actual confirmed partner of his that we know of is Ferlizee, who was again of age. Any claims that he was or is currently dating Olivia Morreale are pure speculation and have never been proven, and she, too, is of age.

This is important, and I will make an aside about it, because it is a problem running rampant in the fanbase: we don't know anything about the ghouls' private lives. Nothing is black and white, and even the things they share with us may have more layers than initially apparent. Regardless of how close Jutty and Liv seem, we have never received confirmation that they are involved in any way besides being friends, and implying otherwise simply because of said closeness is a narrow-minded, puritanical way of viewing relationships between men and women. It is also massively invasive to dig into their personal lives.

Putting this through a human lens however, yes, it does not build up a case in his favor. If I may be subjective for a moment, it's not exactly the most moral thing to date 20 year olds in your 40s; but it also does not prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are a child predator. Twenty year olds are also capable of making informed decisions, and while protecting a demographic who has historically been victimized (ie young women) is important, it is also important not to infantilize grown adults. Determining whether or not Ferlizee or Liv are mature enough to be dating a 43 year old would require knowing them personally; in the same vein, determining how mature Jutty is and the kind of power he holds is also impossible, as despite his seniority he does not have the same base level of leverage over a person in their twenties that he would over a child.

So, alright. We've established the other alleged victims' cases are perhaps a bit shaky. What about Grace?

To start, she recounts that the picture offered was taken before the show, which, while uncommon for musicians to do and contradicting with Jutty's own statement, is still possible as either party's memory of the event may be poor. She also claims that there was a mirror behind her and Taylor's backs as they took the picture, in which you can see several people, at least one of them facing the incident. Now, this is important because it gives us witnesses: the friend taking the picture, and at least one person poised to see the event. At the time the picture was taken, Grace recounts that Taylor's hand was on her backside, which is credible as the mirror doesn't fall that far down, making it so the perpetrator could act unseen.

It should be noted that Taylor's arm doesn't appear to be angled toward the victim in a way that would suggest he was touching her, but it is still possible his forearm was bent toward her backside. That is important!

Next, as recounted, Taylor grabbed the victim by the waist, then put his hands underneath her jacket to grab her by the chest. The duration of this sequence of events is not specified, so it's unclear whether this could be passed off as an accident as Taylor claims, or if it was definitively an intentional case of groping. In the latter's case though, this was (once again) happening in the middle of a venue, with witnesses around and the victim's friend either holding or having just held a camera pointed at the scene. The fact no more pictures were taken is of course believable, but the fact no one else- not even the friend that was present- have come out is cause for doubt. A majority of Drag Talk fans have come from Ghost and travel from other states to see the band; they may not be a huge sensation, but they've gained some traction lately that would ensure at least one witness present would have taken to the internet to expose Jutty as a predator.

Messages between Grace and said friend were also very limited and the friend's response was offered incomplete, and it would appear that they remained somewhat lukewarm to Grace's feelings, which is a questionable attitude for someone who witnessed a full on sexual assault. That can however be written off as shock, we're talking about young teenagers here.

In terms of Taylor's own statement on the matter, if we assume these were fleeting gestures and that the part where he allegedly put his hands into Grace's jacket didn't happen, one can make the argument that he was attempting to initiate some friendly physical affection with a fan, which backfired purely by accident with his hands falling where they shouldn't have, a gesture which was misunderstood. This doesn't change the fact Grace felt violated, but it would also not make Taylor the perpetrator of a crime, only irresponsible.

Moving on to the legal case. As mentioned above, Grace claims to have reported this to the police, who have filed a case against Taylor. However given the evidence presented, the police would not have been able to do much beyond filing a report and possibly questioning Taylor about it. The evidence given is not strong enough to build a case on, especially for the LAPD, which is notoriously terrible with sexual assault cases.

To put it simply, the likelihood of Jutty having been investigated at any point is minimal. Even if the complaint fell in the hands of a serious officer, there is nothing to build a case on. It is possible Grace has more evidence that wasn't posted to Twitter, though it is doubtful as she is only fifteen, handling this on her own, and facing major backlash- all of which would have pushed her to offer everything she had, or to at least specify there was evidence she would only give to the authorities. Otherwise this would be a "he-said-she-said" situation, which would go nowhere with the police.

It is also possible however that she misspoke or misunderstood what was happening, and that police were involved, despite charges never being formally filed. In that case, a cursory investigation is the most that could have happened.

The lack of updates over the past five months offers some credence to this theory, as despite the legal system working slowly, if an investigation were to happen and charges filed, Jutty would risk being placed on the sex offender registry, which, while by itself doesn't ban him from travel altogether, would make him unable to enter certain countries- which of course would be detrimental to a world tour with Ghost, leading Tobias to terminate his contract. He has done so with Chris Catalyst over (as far as speculation goes) administrative issues with employing a UK citizen after Brexit, so he's not averse to firing ghouls for purely fiscal matters, should the morality of working with a predator not be enough of a motivator.

It must be reiterated that we don't know whether the music video for Satanized was filmed before or after the allegations, and whether Taylor has been hired for the upcoming tour; but it does stand to reason that, should these charges be credible and should there be a legal case against Taylor, that Tobias would have at least had his cameo in the video edited out or the video re-shot. Again, even if you don't believe Tobias would have done so because of the grisly nature of this crime itself, he would have surely done it to protect the band's image and profits. It stands to reason then that Taylor's presence does not pose a risk as Tobias himself has no reason to consider the allegations credible.

Now yes, being put on the registry happens after a conviction- but again, should there be credibility to this case, Tobias would have fired Jutty before a conviction happened so as to spare himself the financial and legal troubles, as Jutty would not have been able to reliably attend work due to court dates and a potential conviction looming over his head. In short, he would have been a liability that Tobias would simply not take, had this actually gone to the police. So why would Grace make this claim?

A minor additional point is that this case has not been publicized anywhere in any capacity, and that any attorney's first course of action would have been to advise Grace to scrub her account clean as, should justice rule in favor of Taylor, he could then use her posts to sue for libel. This advice is pretty much industry standard.

On the other hand this of course does not change the reality of whether or not he is guilty, as the legal system is massively fallible, especially in cases of sexual assault. I'm certainly not putting my faith in either the police or other men, because we know they tend to protect one another at any cost. Taylor's friends continuing to stay by his side and work with him aren't the strongest judge of his character, as bias exists.

In conclusion, what do we have? What's the TL;DR?

In truth, not much. This came out of left field and rocked the fanbase because it is obviously a horrifying possibility, and I command each and every one of you for the dedication to call potential criminals in our midst out. It takes a lot to demand accountability from someone you admire.

What is my opinion? I am no judge, I can't rule in either direction, and I am not interested in airing out my subjective views. This report has been composed as impartially as possible, using the circumstantial evidence available and doing as little speculation as possible, in order to offer people a full overview of the story. If you only knew of this from hearsay, now you have all the evidence arranged in one post for easy consumption. If you think you may have been influenced in one direction or the other by someone, now you may form an opinion of your own.

Moving forward I think the right course of action would be to stop idolizing celebrities, and to indeed stop viewing them as anything but ambiguous strangers from a moral standpoint. Even working under the assumption that Jutty is completely innocent, he still seems to be someone of more questionable morals than fans initially thought; which, while not a crime, is understandably disappointing. To prevent such disappointment in the future, I think we ought to remember we will never know these people personally, and that people are fallible and complex and that mistakes can happen, and that it's always important to take a critical eye to everything you see or hear.

That's all I had to say, goodbye and goodnight and hail our new Papa V.

[shurisneakers]

unsolved (vii)

Summary: Bucky doesn't even believe in the paranormal. So who the hell thought it was a good idea to stick him in a series about everything haunted for the internet's amusement? With his loose-canon of a teammate who has no concept of subtlety or shits left to give, to make things even worse. (Buzzfeed unsolved AU)

Warnings: swearing, frustrated bucky, obnoxious reader, mentions of hauntings and the paranormal.

A/N: hello. i am late again. i almost gave up but we are here. for better or for worse. i will most likely go back ad edit the second half again ok love u guys mwahmwah

Previous part || Series masterlist

Only after hours, nay, a full day of hunching over his desk, eyes red-rimmed and burning, four crushed cans of energy drinks next to him lending to him the nervous energy of a chihuahua, Bucky realises that there’s no beating it.

He absentmindedly takes another sip of the RedBull, flinching when the taste registers. Either he’d reached his threshold or the medicine flavour had begun morphing into something else entirely. The caffeine didn’t even work on him, so really, he was just placebo-ing himself into having energy. 

Every site he’s visited has had a vastly different interpretation; ones that don't match what he thinks has been happening, or the context past his past provides. Others are simply blatantly wrong based on the additional research he, in his infinite wisdom and totally accurate self-assessment tendencies, has been gathering in the last 3 days. 

The Star. Six of Cups. The Hanged Man.

Bucky knows he could ask someone in real life about this, someone who possibly had more experience than a simple website whose code broke every time he tried to scroll to the bottom. However, that would mean that he had to tell them his dead sister was probably haunting him out of her spite and hatred for the very fibres of his being.

Also, Bucky may be haunted by his dead relatives, but he’s not haunted enough to actually leave his room over it. 

Video consultations were also an option, but he’s convinced that if word got out that Bucky Barnes was half-convinced ghosts were following him around, it would make headlines for a mighty long week. 

Therefore, he resorts to shady, online websites that demand he pay up before giving him the results of the readings they’ve done for him. 

The “lady” that he paid to talk to using Steve’s credit card on mistytarot.com types for a very long time before a message comes through.

The thought bubble disappears for another half an hour, and Bucky thinks hat either she is a complete scam, or it’s run by someone who is about as technologically proficient as Steve was. 

But a message does in fact come through, and it’s enough to have him be covninced that the 20 bucks he blew on Steve’s card was worth it. 

Lady Lilia 

Considering that you think you’re being haunted, The Star could represent the absence of hope. Do you feel like you’re being trapped in darkness? As if you are being abandoned by the universe and with no room for healing?

B. Barneswell i forgot about it until now

Lady Lilia If your sister passed away a long time ago, the reason The Six of Cups may have presented itself is because you may be feeling like you're ensnared in the past, constantly reliving moments that hurt or confuse you, rather than finding peace. 

A frown grows on his face. 

Lady Lilia If you’re haunted by a person who used to be in your life and it is reminding you of past mistakes, The Hanged Man could be because feel like you're stuck in a cycle of stagnation, unable to move forward, as if these spirits are keeping you suspended in a state of emotional paralysis. 

However, if the cards were upright–

Bucky slams the laptop shut, inhaling and exhaling sharply through his nose.

From the corner of his eye, his phone lights up with the fifth missed call in the last ten minutes, but considering that he keeps that thing on silent, he never even noticed.

Shoving aside whatever he may be thinking for the moment, he checks the caller ID, only for feelings of confusion and despair to be immediately replaced with annoyance, or disgust even. 

He calls back anyway, preparing for the worst. 

“Did you drink all my RedBull?” Clint booms the second he picks up.

“No,” Bucky lies smoothly.

“Fucker, I know it was you. Pay me back. With interest.”

“No.”

Clint switches to whining. “You know I need that shit to stay awake at night. Some of us don’t have superhero cocaine in our system.”

“I don’t care, go to sleep at a normal hour.”

“Say, did you drink every last one?” Clint instantly switches to a curious tone for a second. “Because one of them’s not like the others.”

Bucky looks at the cans that littered his bedroom floor. “Why?”

“I can’t tell you what it is over the phone.”  

“Why?” 

“Let’s just say it’s not exactly allowed in the country, but–”

Bucky cuts the call and tosses it onto the bed. 

He runs a hand through his hair, softly exhaling while contemplating whether or not to continue the chat. Steve wouldn’t miss another 20 dollars, he had the wealth of a small prince with all that army back pay bullshit. In fact, Steve should ideally be funding more of Bucky’s endeavours. 

There comes a knock at his door.

Bucky immediately leaps off the bed, sprinting to the door, because he fuckin knows that knock, goddamn it–

He throws open the door before you get the chance to full body slam against it.

“Oh.” You blink, relaxing away from your stance. “Hey. How’d you know–”

“You do this every week,” he breaks in. “You do this multiple times a day.” 

“Don’t you dare say I’m predictable,” you warn, raising a finger. “I’ll start crying right here, then you’ll have to deal with that. You wanna see snot running down my–”

Bucky slams the door shut again, waiting to turn around. 

“Can you take me to the doctor?” Your voice is muffled through the solid wood.

It’s enough to make him hesitate, hand on the doorknob.

“What’s wrong with you?” he inquires.. 

“Nothing, I’m perfect,” you reply instinctively, before course correcting, “Wait, no, I’m sick.”  

He lets his head drop against the door. “Go to the fucking infirmary.”

“The infirmary told me to go to the hospital. Can you just take me?” you bug. “They won’t discharge me unless I have someone with me to drive me back.”

“You have a head injury?” Bucky asks, before following it with, “Actually, that tracks.”

“Rude.” 

“Ask Nat.”

“Nat’s in Lagos.”

“Ask Sam.” 

“Yoga.”

“Clint.”

“Really.”

“Glad to know I’m your first choice,” he mumbles, opening up the door. 

You send him a blistering smile. “You’re my favourite choice.” 

______

“You gotta take this turn,” you instruct, too close to the actual crossing. 

“The nearest hospital’s five minutes away, what the hell are you talking about?“ he points out, eyes on the road. 

“We’re going to the one on King’s Road,” you read off of Google maps. “Take that lef-– well, you missed that. Now you gotta make a u-turn.”

“What’s the problem with Chastain Park?” he demands. “King’s Road is half an hour away.”

“This one’s got all my files,” you insist. “Otherwise I gotta start over and it's so much effort.”

“Aren’t you in a database?”

“Yeah, but not a medical one.”

Bucky lets out something akin to a growl and a groan. “What's the time?”

“Like eight thirty?”

“What’s the time,” he emphasises, because he most definitely had another email due from another lady on the internet who he had sent his cards to a few hours ago. 

“Fine, it’s eight twenty two,” you shoot back.  “Did that make a big difference?”

“Yeah, it did actually,” he fires indignantly, “My life is radically different. You have no way of knowing.”

“Liar. You’re a lying liar, who lies.” You scoff. “And details are for losers.”

“Losers can drive all the way back to drop you off at the infirmary and let them deal with you.”

You relent, flashing him a grin. “This won’t take long.”

“You say this every fuckin’ time,” he groans, before complying and taking a u-turn anyway.

“You’re fucking joking,” he states. 

“No, it’s actually called lying,” you correct casually.  

“Is this an abandoned hospital? What the fuck?” Bucky asks, staring up at the huge decaying building.  

The outside looks run-down, with cracked, weathered brick walls and broken windows. The entrance is blocked off with rusted gates, some sections of which have fallen over. As the car rolls up, the air is thick with a musty, damp smell, mixed with a faint odor of decay.

“Yes,” you say simply, opening the trunk of the car and pulling out all the supplies you had from last time. “Video time. Let’s go.”

“You didn’t have to lie,” Bucky mumbles. “I’d have showed up.”

You give him a deadpan look. “You famously never do.”

That’s fair, but also, that was the old Bucky. The new Bucky circa this week is a bit more… invested. He feels the need to gather some more information, and unfortunately, the only opportunity to do that is here.

So for the time being, he decides he will hang on. For purely selfish reasons. 

“Just tell me next time,” he grunts. 

You observe him for a second like you're about to call him out on something, but instead you simply say, “Okay.”

Bucky grabs his usual stuff– the spirit box, a lapel mic, while you levitate the camera. 

“Hello?”

You both look beyond the camera at the same time to someone stalking up to you.

“Who’s there?” demands a middle aged woman with straw blonde hair, wrinkles decorating sunburnt skin, and a navy blue jacket. 

“Uh–”

“Who are you?” she asks, cautiously stopping a few feet away.  

“We’re here on a video shoot,” you inform. “Just wanted to check the place out.”

“Oh, you’re one of them camera folk,” she says, ponting her flashlight at you. “Those ghost hutner types.”

“That’s us,” you agree, flinching from the bright light. “We're from The Graveyard Shift.”

“Who are you?” Bucky cuts in, because why should only the both of you explain. 

“I’ve been working security here for the last thirty years.” She shines her flashlight at the musty place. “Name’s Brenda.”

“Why does an abandoned hospital need a security guard?” Bucky inquires. 

“Management just underwent a shift. White collars are setting up a mall here, so they bought up the whole place, fired everyone and now they’re gonna build an all year ski world or something in there.” There’s a tick in her jaw as she draws it out. “Whole damn place is cursed. They better hope it only burns down.”

“Okay,” you drag out, giving Bucky a sideways glance. “Anyway, we’re gonna go check out the place. See if we can find some ghosts.”

“Oh, you’ll see ‘em, alright. Everyone who was collateral damage in the buyout is still in there.” Her voice is distant, arm coming to rest on her hip.  “You’ll have to hit up specific rooms. Y’all got a floorplan?”

“No, figured we’d just wing it.” You pause. “Hospital wing it.”

“Shut up,” Bucky replies on instinct. 

“You’re gonna be spending a lot of time in there if y’all dont know where youre’ heading. It’s a maze,” she continues, ignoring your brilliant joke. “I can show you the rooms, but I can’t guarantee that it has ghosts in there.”  

“Uhhh—” you begin. 

“It’ll cut down your time in half.”

“Deal,” Bucky says immediately, sticking out his hand for a shake.

Brenda sticks out her hand too, only to wince immediately, following it up with a curse.

“What’s wrong?” you interject.

“Damn back’s killing me,” she mutters. “You’d think death would stop the pain, but it’s not let up yet. Come on then.”

Both of your eyebrows knit together at her statement, but she leaves no room for a reply as she marches inward, one hand on the small of her spine. 

Bucky elects to use his phone flashlight, as if he keeps that shit charged above 40% at any given point of time. If anything is not going to make it out of the night alive, it was that thing. 

The air inside is stale and heavy, filled with the scent of mildew and old, rusted metal. All three of your footsteps echo in the silence, reverberating through empty halls with each cautious step. The moonlight  in conjunction with the flashlight casts long, unsettling shadows. The faint taste of dust lingers in the back of Bucky’s throat that he cannot get rid of. 

“Y’all gonna sleep in here tonight?” Brenda pipes up, swinging her flashlight around.

You look at Bucky with a grin that’s alarming.

His face immediately pulls into one of “What the fuck”

“No, we aren’t,” you announce instead. “But do people do that often?”

“You’d be surprised,” she comments. “You’re not the first folks we’ve had here with those fancy shmancy gadgets.”

“That explains how you have a tour all planned.” 

“We get a bunch of you every couple of months.”

“Who is ‘we’?” Bucky cuts in.

She pays him no need. “Y’all run a podcast?”

Bucky looks personally affronted. “No, we do not.”

“We run a YouTube channel,” you offer instead. “It’s for ghosts and stuff.”

“I see,” she considers, tone thoughtful. “So, this will go up online?” 

“Unfortunately,” Bucky murmurs.

“Have you caught ghosts before?”

“Not even one–”

“Several,” you chirp. “And we have a witch cat. Her name’s Alpine.”

Bucky narrows his eyes at you. “Since when is her name Alpine?”

“I gave her a bunch of options and she told me she liked that best.”

“The cat can’t talk.”

“To you. She and I chat shit everyday,” you dish back. “She hates that stupid fern in your room, she says it smells.”

That fucking fern was not even his idea. But Sam got it for him when he moved in, so there was a zero percent chance it would be leaving any time soon. 

“Tell her to fuck off.”

“Y’all got a large following?” Brenda interrupts.

“Building towards it.” You look at her before looking at Bucky. “Once we hit a sizable amount and Bucky becomes an official internet boyfriend, we’ll stop the series.”

He sends you a withering look. “We’ll be doing this till I die.”

“Nonsense, everyone loves you,” you dismiss. “You’re a pretty boy and extremely irritable. They think you’re hilarious.”

 His nose twitches, and he feels the need to clear his throat. 

“Your camera records ghosts?” Brenda asks again. 

“We’ve got a bunch of devices. We’ll catch it,” you sound confident. 

“Great, because here’s the first stop,” she says, pressing her shoulder onto a double door.

The door groans as she pushes, its hinges protesting with a long, rusty screech, the cold metal heavy under her hand. A stale gust of air hits your face, carrying the faint smell of rot as the door finally gives way.

She steps back with a small huff, stretching her back with a small, “Shit.”

The pale blue walls had turned greenish, wallpaper peeling away. Counters were covered with a thin layer of dust. Old tools laid unused on the surgical table, once stainless steel but now rusted. 

“A lotta deaths happened in this operating theatre,” she imparts after a bout of stretching. “They thought this place was cursed for a while.” 

The sterile, tiled walls are cracked and chipped, and the old surgical lights hang dim, their bulbs long burned out. The air still lingers with antiseptic that’s long since turned sour.

Bucky feels a little too acquainted with this setting. 

He doesn’t even realise his silence is palpable until you nudge his side, drawing his attention sharply back to you. 

“You doin’ okay?” you whisper.  

“Fine,” he says, tearing his eyes away from the tools and towards you.

It only twists his stomach a little. It makes him think of how different his reactions used to be even a few years go. 

“Old, dingy hospitals may not have been the best idea,” you admit to him, using the flashlight to shine a light in the corner. 

It occurs to him a second later once he forces himself to compartmentalise. 

“You okay?” he asks, voice low. 

“Yeah,” you reply, slowly looking around. “Just looks like my nursery.”

A small crease forms between his eyebrows. 

“Not gonna lie, mine was way prettier. Lot more mould on the walls,” you continue, tone light. “You know, timeless decor.”

His nose lets out a small exhale in the form of a laugh. “Leviathan not into blood stain wallpaper?”

“Couldn’t afford it. Fuckin’ place kept referring to itself as Hydra’s sister org but had none of the budget,” you say, swiping a finger across the dust. “You’d think that at least some of the people that left would give alumni donations, but no.”

Bucky snickers at jokes literally no one else would laugh at. It feels good for once, not to feel the need to censor himself to make others less uncomfortable. 

You take a step forward, camera following behind you. 

You shine the flashlight around the room, noting all the surgical trays piled together. 

But something flashes on the ceiling. 

You swing your flashlight toward it immediately, only for the table beside you a few inches away to start rolling, making a loud whining noise as it did, snapping your attention towards it.  

By the time you finally bring the light back up towards the ceiling, it’s gone. 

“What the–” you mumble. 

“What?” Bucky asks, looking up from where he was scrolling through his phone. 

“Could’a sworn I saw–” you frown at the empty space now, only an old defunct looking camera staring back at you. 

“Red eyes?” Brenda inquires, looking at you. “Yeah, that happens.”

Bucky glances up at you, and then the wall. “Probably just the lens glare.”

You scrunch up your face at her. “How’d you know it was red eyes?” 

“That’d be the spirit of ol’ Doctor Damon, chief of neuro,” she says. “You’ll find him here or his cabin, but that’s a few floors away. He never liked climbing the stairs.” 

“Right,” Bucky acknowledges monotonously. 

“When he worked here, he spent so long in surgery that his eyes were always bloodshot. One day he just dropped dead from exhaustion,” Brenda explains. “So his spirit walks around here, red eyes, wheeling surgery tables waiting for the next patient.”

“What’s he doing on the ceiling?” Bucky questions, going back to his phone. “He did his surgeries suspended midair?” 

“Are you trying to gatekeep the ceiling?” you scoff. “Have you never seen Spiderman hanging upside down for fun?” 

Bucky finally lifts his sight from the phone. “The doctor is not an insect superhero, he would have no reason to be hanging upside down–”

“How would you know if he’s a superhero or not? What if he was bitten by a bat?” you challenge. “Like a bat…guy. Batman.”

He jeers. “Then he’s got a stupid codename.”

“Oh, and Captain America is poetic genius.”

“At least Sam has a codename, where’s yours?” 

You narrow your eyes at him. “Maybe you should have paid attention when your mother was screaming it las-”

“Shall we move on?” Brenda asks calmly. 

“Yes,” the both of you reply simultaneously. 

She doesn’t even bother looking at you, almost as if she’d seen it all in her lifetime. 

“Besides, sometimes you can see him sitting on one of the operating tables. He doesn’t just hang out on the ceiling like… bat…man,” she explains, leading the way back out. 

“See?” 

“See what?” you ask. 

“Nothing,” he replies. “There’s nothing to see. That’s the fuckin’ point.”

You shove him lightly. 

Bucky bites back a grin.

_____

The morgue is silent. 

The ceiling is low and chipped, streaked with stains of old water damage, the paint fallen away in patches. 

Against one wall, old, disused morgue drawers stand open and half-broken, the once-sleek stainless steel now speckled with rust. Some of the drawers are bent out of shape, while others are stuck, sealed tight from years of neglect. Inside some of the open drawers, tattered, yellowed tags hang loosely from the handles, swaying gently as the chill air moves through the room.

“This room’s self explanatory,” she says. “Sometimes, you can hear spirits still trying to claw their way out of the drawers but they never open.”

“Skill issue,” Bucky mumbles under his breath.

“Shut up, oh my God,” you whisper-yell, still mouth pulling into a thin line to stop from laughing. 

“What?” Brenda asks, suddenly from near the drawers. 

You had no idea when she even went there. 

“Nothing,” you reply, before thoughtfully asking, “Bucky, truth or dare?”

“No.”

“Dare it is.” You shine a flashlight at one of the closed drawers. “I’ll give you twenty bucks if you get in one of them for a few seconds. Let’s see if the ghosts come at you.”

“You're deranged,” he replies, incredulous. 

“It’s for science,” you insist. “How else will you know for sure?”

“I’m sure it’ll be comfortable,” Brenda quips. “Like a coffin.”

The both of you look at her together in silence.

She shrugs. “It’s what I’ve heard from them.” 

You look at her for a second more, before turning to Bucky. “Anyway, if you want I’ll come lie in there with you.”

“How does that make it better?” he exclaims. “I am not lying in the morgue.”

“Even if I’m in there with you?”

“That’s even worse–”

There’s a loud knock from one of the drawers on Brenda’s side. She looks down at it, almost like she was expecting it. Soon, there are further loud thuds that come from inside the remaining drawers. 

“Hey, Magda,” she calls, before more knocks come from inside. “You’ve got visitors. Say hello.”

You grab the spirit box from behind Bucky’s ear and hold it in the direction of the wall. Nothing registers.

“Animals,” he answers the question hanging in the air calmly. 

“The spirits?” Brenda replies. “They’re not gonna like that.”

Sure enough, a few of the drawers start rattling on their own accord.

You look at Bucky with an eyebrow raised.

“What?” he carps. “I’m not gonna go lie down in there, if that’s what you want.”

“Come on, take one for the team,” you whine. 

“You take one for the team.” 

“I’m literally the one pulling all the weight around here. You do it.”

Bucky doesn’t agree with you on the last part, but the first one is undisputably right. He makes a mental note to start contributing a fuckton more if he plans on continuing on in the series. 

The rattling around comes to a halt eventually. 

“If none of you want to get in there, should we move to the next one?” Brenda points to the door. 

“Yes, please,” you confirm, sending Bucky a glare.

She leads the way up the stairs while you both follow, bickering and shoving lightly.

Once upstairs, Bucky glances down the hall, only to  see a large double door that is noticeably different from the rest you’ve seen so far. There’s a fading rainbow drawn on the front, little footsteps painted onto the floor leading towards it.

Bucky hesitates, steps faltering. “Is that the children’s ward?”

“Yes,” Brenda looks over her shoulder briefly. 

For a second, he wonders. Whether it was worth a shot. He hadn’t heard from her since the incident at the house, and the tarot cards have been suggesting nothing but reasons to believe she may actually be there.  

“Are we going to check that out?” he asks. 

“No, there’s nothing there,” she shrugs it off. “No spirits. I’ve asked the others too.” 

Bucky shifts uncomfortably. “Are you sure?”

You shoot him an odd look that he refuses to meet. 

“Yep. Next stop’s the other way.”

Bucky spares the doors another long look, before traversing down the hallway with you. 

“Why do you wanna go to the children’s ward?” you query, voice low. 

“Just thought it was worth checking out,” he replies, voice steady.  

“We can always make a run for it and go check.”

“No,” he says, giving you a curt shake of his head, “it’s alright.”

“We’re right down this way,” Brenda calls, turning a corner and disappearing out of sight.

“Coming!” you call back before spinning to Bucky. “Hey.”

“What?” he responds, moving at his own brisk pace. 

You tug him back with you with force. 

“What are you doing–’ he hisses.

You link your arm with Bucky’s, pulling him along with you as you walk, shutting him up. He eyes your elbow looped with his and the proximity with which you walked beside him and all of a sudden, the back of his neck feels quite warm, extending down to his chest.

“I think Brenda’s a ghost,” you tell him casually.

Bucky stops in his path, drawn very much back to reality. 

“Keep walking,” you grit through a smile. “I’m pretty sure she’s dead. Why else is she totally chill with the ghosts here-”

“Because there aren’t any. It’s animals.”

“Why is she saying coffins are comfortable? Why is she talking to the ghosts and knowing exactly where they are and aren’t?”

“I can make shit up too, look,” Bucky comments enthusiastically. “Oh, down the hall is the isolation room. You’ll hear heavy breathing because that’s where the tuberculosis patients were–”

“That’s one of the isolation rooms,” Brenda’s voice echoes down the hall. “It’s next up.”

You yank your arm away from Bucky when he blinks, a bit surprised himself. 

“Are you dead?” you whisper-yell.

“Only ‘cause the government declared it,” he sighs. “Do you know what a fuckin’ pain it is to get undead.” 

“Come on.” Brenda beckons to the both of you with her flashlight. 

With a slight shove, the door to the room swings open easily, but the smell of old paper and mildew floods your senses. 

The bed is now a rusted, sagging frame, the thin mattress long since torn and discolored with age. The once-clean sheets have yellowed and frayed, with remnants of old stains. Thin, brittle blankets lie in a heap on the floor.

The walls are bare, save for a few faded medical charts and broken instruments that were left behind in haste. The small window that once offered a faint glimpse of the outside is now cracked and filthy. The weak, filtered light that struggles through the dust-covered glass barely illuminates the room. 

“Patients who were highly contagious were quarantined here. Some of them died without family by their side, so you can still hear their cries. Some of them have problems breathing, so sometimes you’ll hear it through the vents,” Brenda explains. 

“I bet,” Bucky drags out, sending you a “I fuckin’ told you so” look.. 

Down the hall, something makes a loud sound, almost like something had crashed into the floor. 

All three of you turn towards it. 

Brenda’s face flickers for a moment before turning back to its regular calm. 

“I think someone’s angry,” she decides. “I’m gonna go check it out.”

“Do you want us to come with you?” you offer.

“I’ll be okay, I’ve known these people all my life. We’re friends,” she comforts. “Oh, sometimes if you look out the door, you’ll see shadows of people in the waiting room down the hall. They’re just old families lingering around, hoping for better results but they always leave upset.”

“Is there no way to get them out of here?” you ask.

She shrugs. “Unless you find a way to fix their disappointment, I doubt they'll leave. They’ll stick around until something improves or changes.” 

Bucky’s eyebrows furrow at the implication. If that were truly the case, and not just something he concocted in the deep, self hating crevices of his mind, then he had to figure out which part of the fucked up mess that he was had pissed his sister off enough to come back to let him know she was disappointed. 

You nod at her and she nods, spinning on her heel to exit the room, but not before she stops for a second, hand on the doorframe as she catches her breath, and one hand on her spine.

“Are you okay?” you sound genuinely concerned.

She flashes you a thumbs up, leaving without so much as another word. 

“She’s gonna come back with some bullshit about the hospital canteen staff dropping their pans or some shit,” Bucky remarks.

“Yeah no, that was me. I just wanted her out of the room so we could discuss something,” you wave it off quickly. 

Bucky stares at you.

“What? I dropped a cart. It’s not a big deal. Anyway, listen–”

“She’s not a ghost,” he states resolutely.  

“But what if she is,” you insist, a wicked grin on your face. “Imagine saying we got a ghost tour. By a ghost.”

“I can imagine saying that, yes. I have a very wide and limitless imagination.” 

“Ugh, what if we’re meant to help her find her way back?” You peer over his shoulder to see if she’s walking back. 

In the distance another crash sounds through the empty hallways. Bucky stares at you.

“I’m just making sure, it’s not like I’m hurting anyone” you insist, dismissing it. 

“You could've just closed the door,” he says, extending one hand behind him to slide it closed.

“Don’t do that,” you blurt out.

He stops, eyebrow raised.  

“I don't like when doors are closed,” you shrug it off. “Anyway, back to the point. We should totally figure out how to help her exit this realm.”

He slides the door back open slowly, narrowing his eyes at you. 

“EVen if she were a ghost, which she’s not– she seems happy here. Maybe,” Bucky comments, taking a seat on the worn out bed. “I can’t really tell.”

“She can’t be. Imagine being forced to roam the same hallways over and over again till the end of time.” you shudder. “Sounds miserable.”

Bucky shrugs, poking at the pillow, watching a cloud of dust fly up from it. “Routine sounds fine to me.”

“I’d hate it,” you counter immediately. “I hate routines. Fucking inescapable once you get stuck in one.”

Bucky watches you curiously as you shift up and down the small room. “How do you get anything done?” 

“I can get things done without a routine.” The camera follows your command, checking outside the window or the door occasionally facing Bucky. “Why?”

“Just asking,” he replies, checking the time on his phone. It’d been a while since Brenda had gone to investigate.

“And having a routine totally makes you an easy target. Haven’t you watched any assassination movies?”

“No. I didn’t like bringing work home.”

You look at him in surprise before your face splits into a smile. 

Something makes a noise from the wall adjacent to the door. 

You both look at each other, and he gets off the bed to go see what the deal is. The door is adjacent to the wall, giving him a clear look into the hallway that was still empty. 

A faint wail sounds through the vent above his head. You take quick steps towards where he was, and the camera follows suit, pointing at the grill on the wall.

You stand underneath it, spirit box raised as close as you could get it, but the damn thing picks up nothing. 

Another noise comes through, almost like someone was wheezing, before the vent rattles, stopping altogether.

You stare at it, before taking a gigantic inhale and exhaling obnoxiously, forcing all the air out of your lungs with a wheeze. 

“What the fuck are you doing?” Bucky stares at you like you're insane. 

“Well, you can’t just back down,” you argue. “I’m gonna breathe louder than that thing.”

“Jesus Christ,” he mumbles.

You give another gigantic inhale and exhale, rattling all the bones in your body, and the faint noise from the vent stops too. 

“We win,” you beam 

 “You’ve completely lost it.”

“Uh, no, I didn’t. I totally won.”

“That’s not what I–” Bucky starts but stops himself when you grin at him devilishly. 

He sighs, asking instead, “Should we go looking for her?” 

“I guess so,” you shrug. “We’re not exactly cut to be her saviours right now. I’m pretty sure she knows the layout of the hospital better than we do if she’s been haunting it for fifteen years.”

“Where did you get that number?” he demands. 

“Does it matter?” you urge. “Didn’t realise you’re a valid ghost only if you have a certain number of years in haunting.”

Bucky ignores you, taking off down the hall. 

“If you had to haunt a hospital or a ship, what would you choose?” you quip, matching his pace. 

“Hospital,” he answers without thinking much.

“Why?”

“I spent a lot of time in them,” he tells you, voice clear. “Steve’s mom was a nurse. We’d meet her there a lot when he got his ribs broken or his nose busted.”

The memory, though faint, is enough to pull a smile from him. 

“He also used to be sick a lot, so I used to come pick up his medicine for him,” he adds. “They used to know us by name because we’d be there nearly every second day.”

You exhale a small laugh. “Every hospital in the state of New York has a chart for Steve even now.”

“Fuckin’ guy just dosn’t learn.” Bucky shakes his head with affection-laced irritation. 

The hallways stretch out endlessly, dim and wide. A few doors line the walls, some ajar, revealing only darkness inside. The silence is unnerving, broken only by the soft sound of you and your footsteps.

Bucky looks over at you. “What about you?”

“What about me?” you hum, small smile still on your face. 

“What would you haunt?

“Ship, I guess,” you reply. “I’ve always wanted to be a pirate.”

“Should be your next job.”

“You gonna come with? We’ll turn it into a vlog.

“Fuck no.”

“Well, thanks for taking the time to really consider it,” you sing, not really offended. “Way to let me down gently, Barnes.”  

“What? It’s got nothin’ to do with you.” Bucky clarifies still, pausing before letting out, “I get seasick. Can’t be on water for more than five minutes before I’m throwing up all over the place. You want that in your vlog?”

It’s enough to elicit a laugh from you, that in turn makes the corner of his lip curl.

“We could always–

Right in front of him, something moves darts across the wall at the end of the hall.

It cuts you off mid-sentence too, the both of you glancing at each other before turning towards it again.

Against the glare of your flashlight, another shadow darts across the wall. 

“That’s what she was talking about,” you whisper, slightly in disbelief that she wasn't wrong. “Shadow people. Do you think they got to her?”

Bucky rolls his eyes, continuing to walk on ahead. 

“Um, hello?” you scramble to catch up with him. “Where is your self preservation?”

“Against what?” he asks stoically. 

“That,” you say pointedly at the wall, when another figure darts across the wall and disappears out of sight. 

Bucky rolls his eyes. “It’s a shadow, the fuck’s it gonna do?”

“Haven’t you heard of shadow demons? Succumbing to darkness?” you chastise. 

Bucky stops walking, standing solidly in the middle of the hallway.

“Okay,” he says, refusing to budge. 

The hall goes silent, no movement other than the steady rise and falls of your chest. 

You stare at him. “Now what.”

“I'm waiting for them to do something,” he says. “I’m waiting to succumb to the darkness.” 

“You’re so annoying,” you bite, dragging him along with you. “And I’m tired, we’ve been walking for like, eight hundred hours. Let’s go.”

“We’ve been here for two hours,” he reminds you, taking a turn into the corner that the shadows disappeared into. “You did this to yourself.”

“Fine, next time I’ll bring an electric scooter with me.” You huff. “And I won’t even let you use it.”

“Where’d Brenda fuckin’ go?” Bucky mumbles, eyes squinting into the darkness to see if there are any clues.

“Where are you guys going?” Someone pipes up from behind you, sending the hairs on his neck up. 

The both of you spin around instantly, arms clenched in a fighting stance. 

“Sorry, it's a habit to take the scenic route back.” She chuckles, unfazed. “Not a lot to do when you’ve been here so long.”

The both of you lower your hands slowly, letting out an exhale.

“Y’all ready to head out?” she inquires, coolly. “I think it’s time we all get some rest.” 

The walk back is relatively quicker, ater she leads you down a path she calls a shortcut. 

The only thing that slowls you down are the occasional stops you had to make for her back ache.

Right by the entrance of the hospital, she holds onto the door frame again in the midst of explaining who was haunting the basements. 

After a particularly hard exhale and a clamour to stand back up, Bucky awkwardly clears his throat to ask, “Have you tried this stretch?”

“What?” Brenda asks, eyes curious. 

“Learnt it in physio. Doesn’t cure it, but it helps,” he explains, craning his neck to the sides, before taking a step ahead towards her.  

You watch him in thinly veiled delight as he shows her exactly what joint to bend and in which angle, and the degree to which she had to pivot.

He even uncomfortably guides her shoulders in the strangest yoga session you’d ever witnessed. 

“Should help,” Bucky mumbles, taking a step away. 

She raises her shoulders and drops it, lips pursuing and bows raising in a look that seems impressed. The small hunch she carried wit her seems to have disappeared too. 

“Let’s go,” Bucky doesn’t wait for a thanks or anything, taking a step away from her and towards the exit. 

“Now that you’ve fixed her back ache, how do we fix her haunting the place?” you ask lowly. 

“She’s not a fuckin’ ghost, she’s fine,” he whispers back. 

“Nothing about what she’s said tonight is normal,” you argue.

The night is clear and cool when you step out, the musty scent of the building dissipating almost immediately.

“Just say bye, we’re fuckin’ leaving,” Bucky shoots. 

You sigh loudly, giving him a glare at his lack of helpfulness before plastering a smile on your face and turning around. 

“Well, thanks for everything, Brenda,” you say, turning around to stick your hand out. “We sure couldn’t have–”

But she’s gone.

“Holy shit,” you say. 

Bucky looks over his shoulder at the disturbance, before turning around fully. “Oh, fuck off.”

“I told you she was a ghost,” you gush. “You fixed her back ache and now she has crossed over to the other side.”

“Shut up,” he replies, looking all over the place for a sign of where she could have disappeared to. 

“You did it, Bucky, you helped a lonely spirit,” you cheer. 

“I did not.”

“Hey!” Someone shouts from afar, commanding your attention to the gate again. 

“Not again,” Bucky mumbles, eyes snapping shut. 

“More ghosts,” you point out excitedly. “Come on, Charon, ferry those spirits–”

“You ferry your own spirits, I’m going to sleep,” he interjects, fully intending on ignoring the person at the gate and simply getting in the car.

“What are you guys doing here?” A man pants, jogging up to the both of you before Bucky had the time to leave. 

“We were just taking a look around,” you say, sticking your hand out, much to Bucky’s displeasure. “We heard the place was haunted.”

“Ah, I see,” he replies, taking in your appearance. “Podcasters?”

“No,” Bucky replies instantly. 

“We were just leaving,” you cut in. “We already got a tour by this ghost, and Bucky totally sent her to the afterlife.”

“I did not,” he seethes. 

“She disappeared after saying ominous shit this entire evening, what do you call that?” you challenge. 

“Going home,” Bucky responds, frustrated that he was clearly not afforded the same privilege.  

“Uh–” the guy holds up his finger. “--not to intrude, but you got a tour by a ghost?”

“Yes,” you bubble over with excitement. 

“And this ghost… did they have a backache?”

Bucky’s interest piques, the irritation giving way to intrigue . 

“You know her?” you puzzle.

“Uh yeah, that’s Brenda,” he admits sheepishly. “She’s very much alive.”

Bucky would have sworn he had never been this elated in his life, but unfortunately he realises very quickly that he simply does not care.  

 “She said she was a security guard here– wait, who are you?”  you tilt your head at him, seemingly not upset at all. It reduces Bucky’s non-existent triumph even more. 

“Travis Dowell, Labyrinth Inc. representative,” he says, shaking your hand. “We’re–”

“--the company that bought the place,” you complete, eyebrow raised.  

“Yeah.” He nods. “Brenda was a security guard here for nearly thirty years. We had to let go of her when we bought the hospital. We’ve been trying to turn it into an apartment for years, but there’s a lot of red tape that we have to get past because of healthcare reasons.”

“Yeah, she told us that it got bought,” you follow along. 

“Hospital was in the worst financial situation possible. There was just no way out.” He shrugs. “But she was super attached to this place. She didn’t take the redevelopment plans well, so she’s taken it upon herself to make sure it never happens, I guess? I don’t know, she spends a lot of time here convincing people that it’s haunted so that people don’t build anything here. She’s got an apartment close by so she knows when someone’s around. You’ll probably find her there, if you want.”

“You guys know about her?” Bucky questions, crease between his eyebrows.

“Uh, yeah, we do,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. “We sorta ignore her. Her schtick’s annoying, but it’s not the reason we haven’t demolished this place yet. Once all the zoning issues get cleared up, the building’s coming down. And besides, all the PR’s just gonna have people pay a shit ton to stay here. You know, novelty of it being haunted, and all that.” 

“How’d you know we were here?” you ask pointedly. 

“We’ve set up motion sensors in the place?” he replies. “You may have seen them. The red lights in the operation rooms. We know she takes people there.”

“Oh, that’s what that was,” you turn to Bucky who simply shakes his head lightly. 

“Yeah, she really goes the extra mile.” Travis shifts from one leg to the other. “There’s raccoons in the morgue that start running around if she hits the door. What else… oh yeah, she’s made a hole in one of the isolation rooms to make noises through the wall.”

Bucky wonders what will happen of all the footage now that none of it was essentially real. It made sense why she kept trying to find out where the video was going to be posted and how many people were going to view it now, as if a large number of views were going to save her beloved building. 

“So you’ll just let her do whatever until the demolition happens?” you question. 

“If it gets her to stop vandalising our office downtown.” He shrugs. “It doesn’t make a difference to us either way.”

“Right. So the real horror…” you say. “...is capitalism.”

Travis stares at you, before raising and dropping his shoulders. “Sure.”

“Alright.” You blow out an exhale. “Well, was anything about tonight real?”

“I mean, she really does have back pain,” he adds helpfully.

You turn to Bucky. “Net positive, then.”

Sure. Why the fuck not.

“Okay, Travis, thanks for this. You’ve been an immense help,” you say aloud, hoisting the camera onto your shoulders. “You can watch us on The Graveyard Shift, if we can figure out what to do with all these videos now.”

“Sorry about that,” he replies, shoving his fists into his pocket. “Good night.”

You watch as he turns and jogs away to his car that was parked a bit closer to the gate than yours was. 

Bucky plucks the camera off your shoulder and places it under his arm, even though he’s well aware you can carry fifteen of them at once.

“That was fun,” you tell him, seemingly over it already. 

“I’m fuckin’ starving,” he replies. 

Bucky should be glad then, that he didn’t bother with the children’s ward, if nothing about tonight was real–

“Travis, wait,” you shout all of a sudden. “What about the shadows?” 

“What shadows?” he calls back, confused. 

“The shadow people moving across the hall from the isolation room?”

He raises his eyebrows. “We haven't heard reports of that.”

“Fuck’s sake,” Bucky mumbles.

“Hell yeah,” you reply, knocking into his shoulder. “Haunted hospital, baby.”

When you walk into the dining room, you don’t really expect anyone to be there that late at night.

But fiery red hair pulled into a ponytail and an oversized t-shirt perched at the kitchen counter catches you off guard, dulling the arguing between you and Bucky as you argue the logistics of Brenda having a hand in the shadow demons. 

“Took you guys long enough,” Nat keeps her mug down on the counter before hopping off the chair. You note that it’s the same one you got her a few weeks ago from the flea market, the blue ceramic one.

“Oh, hi!” you smile wide, when she pulls you into a hug. “I thought you were in Lagos.”

“I was,” she replies, pulling away. “Got done early.”

“Of course you did. Overachiever.”

In the end of the common room, Bucky can hear the faint sounds of late night infomercials play through the TV. Clint’s legs hung off the couch as he lay snoring in front of it, blanket dropped on the floor in a heap. 

“Hot chocolate?” she offers. 

“I’m good, we went to the drive-through before coming back.” You beckon with your shoulder towards Bucky. 

She finally turns to him. “Hey.”

Bucky gives her a curt nod, glad that she’s back safe. 

“Why were you out so late?” She gives him a onceover, before raising an eyebrow. “Together.”

“Hospital date.”

“Video shoot,” he says at the same time, glaring at you. You shrug. 

Nat’s lip trails up into a smirk. “Put on your big boy pants and finally admit your crush?”

Bucky drags a palm down his face. “I do not have a crush.”

“If you say so,” she concedes innocently, eyeing him over the rim of her hot chocolate.  

“Are you all in on this? Do you have a quota to reach?” he groans. “Why’s everyone asking me this?”

“Who is ‘everyone’?” you sound delighted. 

“If you don’t want people to call you out on our shit, maybe don’t walk around with heart eyes,” Nat comments.  

Buck’s look is ice cold, but Nat just gives him a wink when you laugh. 

“Hey, I needed to talk to you about something.” She turns to you. “You free for a second?”

“Always,” you reply in earnest. 

Nat leads you a few steps away, hand on your shoulder.  

Bucky takes his seat at the counter, stealing a sip from Nat’s mug. Of course, it was fantastic. Overachiever.

He tunes out intentionally, focusing on the fact that Clint was splayed out on the couch with the TV on a low volume. He knows for a fact the blonde was asleep, and probably would wake up with the worst neck pain in his life, but this was the life he chose.

After watching Clint nearly fall off the couch twice, he looks away, not intending on prying on your conversation but vaguely watching the interaction out of the corner of his eye.

He frowns at what he sees. Nat’s face has turned solemn while she talks to you in hushed tones. Your eyebrows were pulled together, arms crossed over your chest. 

Bucky feels a shift in the air, but he’s not sure what exactly has gone down. 

Nat finally tells you something surely, and you nod. She cups the side of your face and you force out a smile at her, before her hand drops.

The both of you make your way back to him. He turns his gaze back to the counter. 

“You owe me a hot chocolate,” Nat tells him, before giving him a quick kiss on the temple and stealing her cup right back. 

“I barely drank any,” he retorts, eyes still trained on you.

The TV clicks off and she drags a half asleep Clint back down the hall to his bedroom while the man rubbed at his shoulders, trailing behind her obediently. 

Meanwhile, you grab a glass of water from the tap, drinking it slowly as you head towards the elevator.

“G’night, Buck,” you tell him, passing by him.

“Hold on,” he says, voice less gruff than before as he watches you, face tight, “What’s going on?

You observe him for a few long seconds, but he gets the sense you aren’t exactly looking at him. Your eyes are slightly glazed over, and your mind is… elsewhere. 

“What do you do when people refuse to let go of something you’ve already escaped?” you ask finally.  

“What do you mean?” Bucky’s eyebrows knit together tighter.  

“Do you feel like everyone’s eyes are on you?” you say, voice strange. “Like there’s nowhere to go?”

“Where is this coming from? What’d Nat tell you?”

It seems to snap you out of whatever funk you were in, at least partially. “It’s probably nothing.”

His frown only deepens. “Is someone threatening you?”

“No, nothing like that.” You shake your head. “Don’t worry about it. It’s gonna be fine.” 

Bucky stares after you as you press the button to the elevator. He isn’t really sure what to make of the what you just shared. He isn’t even sure he should ask Nat about it later on considering that she didn’t want him listening in now. 

He watches the light above the elevator light up before a ding sounds through. 

“Just so you know–”  

Bucky’s eyes snap back to you, one step in the elevator. 

“I had a codename, too,” you tell him. “I just never liked it.”

Bucky is only left staring as you disappear into the elevator, leaving him in silence. 

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Next part

[yanmuffins]

I've been thinking and I've come to the conclusion that it wouldn't make much sense for Bruce to neglect one of his children.

Think about it, in canon, most of the mistakes he made that ended up harming his family were either because he was completely buried in work, or because he was slightly manipulated, both by the narrative and by third parties.

In addition, he also cannot fully communicate with others, both because of his early trauma, the loss of his parents, and all the loneliness caused by the grief he went through growing up. Not to mention the years of self-discipline and training he went through to become Batman. From everything he's seen and experienced, and all the scars he has, I can't imagine how much that grief and and especially a sense of justice, survived.

so I don't think he would simply neglect one of his children

What I propose is; accidental negligence. Think about it, if he is busy all the time with both Batman and his other persona, Brucie Wayne, and then the justice league, investigations, meetings of Wayne Enterprise, galas, charities, other rich people, the usual rogues gallery of Gotham, etc, etc, I don't think he has much time to spend with anyone.

He is able to spend more time with his other children because they are all vigilantes, like him, and are usually just as busy as he is. Having a civilian child in the middle of this mess wouldn't do much good, especially if that child doesn't know what they do most of the time, like, y'know, vigilantlism.

Imagine everyone's absolute horror when they realize, after the p&f reader is unfortunately busted, that they paid so little attention to that child that she managed to do all these crazy things right under their noses for the whole summer. And who's to say she hadn't been doing this before this summer? How many things have they inevitably missed in her life?

What I mean is that to counter the p&f reader's luck, everyone in the batfam is unlucky enough not to be able to spend time with her. And they are aware of it.

Their guilt would be immense and the angst would be delicious.

(And it would explain how Damian hás time to spend with p&f reader, since he's a kid and his only obligations are school, socialization and being Robin, so he would technically have more time??? If that even makes sense???)

context &. context.

YOU!! YOU GET IT!!

i wholeheartedly agree!

not that "accidental" neglect is any better, it's neglect all the same and has negative consequences in so many levels. but when we're talking about Bruce Emotionally Constipated And Terrible At Communication and Could Sometimes Make Better Choices Regarding His Kids Wayne, it could absolutely happen.

i'm not one to make character analysis because i have very shallow knowledge of Batman lore, but...

like you said, all of Bruce's children participate in vigilantism. they're all extraordinary, most have horrible trauma, and have relied on him for guidance. they are all Robin, and more relatable to him, in a way. that means he's consequently more involved in their lives, more physically there engaging with them, forming an emotional bond, acting as a mentor and father figure. on top of that, like you said, he has a whole life as Bruce Wayne and Batman going on.

which brings us to neglected! Reader, more specifically mine: P&F! Reader and Vampire! Reader.

on a... financial, material level, I believe they wouldn't want for anything. Alfred is the one managing their bank account and making sure they're well-provided for and though it's fun for angst purposes, i don't think they would have a tiny little bedroom isolated from everyone in the manor, mostly because it's our favorite butler who would select which bedroom Bruce's child would be staying at in this gigantic mansion with plenty unocuppied rooms. Alfred would NOT put you in the broom closet. it would be a bedroom that's at least as big as Damian's in Son of Batman, for example.

(i more than understand suspension of disbelief and playing around with all sorts of interesting concepts and characters, so I'm not criticizing anyone!)

in fact, i think it's kinda worse that, say, you have a bedroom that's a wall across from Tim's and he still kinda forgets you exist.

also, i believe Bruce's kid would absolutely have access to a more than generous amount of money. not broke at all.

so the only type of neglect going on here is of the emotional kind. your father and your siblings have created tight-knit bonds amongst themselves based on their shared experiences and the proximity brought by them all working as vigilantes, and you're just not a part of the club.

timing is also relevant.

P&F! Reader arrives at the manor some time after Damian, which means that not only have all relationships been formed over the years, Bruce has also experienced having kids, as well as having a biological child suddenly enter his life. they're a fish out of the water, and their dad is kinda awkward about this (apparently) normal child that showed up at his doorstep. while Damian is still kind of adapting, running around at night trying to bypass Bruce's security system and solve dangerous cases by himself, P&F! Reader is in their bedroom having a virtual sleepover with their Metropolis friends, streaming movies and eating caramelized popcorn.

fun fact: Damian and P&F! Reader are neighbors. he was not happy about Alfred placing his half-sibling on the room right beside his for the longest time. P&F! Reader has definetly caught him sneaking out, but they're no snitch. and you're right, he does have more free time, and he's also on summer break so no school and no homework to worry about. He's got free time to be his sibling's keeper.

and as we all know, the impression that P&F! Reader is just a normal regular kid that totally doesn't build ridiculous thingamabobs in their spare time, it's kinda easy to forget they're there amidst the Wayne family mayhem(s). Bruce is also kinda doesn't really know what to do with this kid or how to connect with them, but they don't really demand immediate attention and seem to be doing fine – so he probably shouldn't worry too much, right?

you could also argue that he's kinda awkward (emotionally constipated) with this kid and is very bad at consoling and accomodating them after the trauma that made them have to move in with him. he doesn't straight up forget they exist, although he starts paying more attention to them after Damian gets more involved in ther bio sibling's antics. and when it comes to siblings, it's just easier for their relationship to never evolve past more superficial interactions (with the exception of Damian who decides to mind P&F! Reader's business earlier on, more or less). P&F! Reader doesn't know about the vigilantism for a long time, so it's natural that they're excluded from any and all matters regarding that. and because everyone else is so busy with their own lives and P&F! Reader seems to be doing fine, so easy to overlook, has plenty of friends in and out of their new school and the Batfam is already a formed unit... Well, you get the picture.

there's also the matter of Damian. he is the kid that "needs more attention" because of his background. he's been through a lot. nevermind the possibility that you might also have gone throguh your own fair share of trauma, at the end of the day you're the easier kid. the "okay" kid with regular problems. which is sad and unfair, but that's what we're here for, isn't it? and Dick is the biggest offender when it comes to that.

not that P&F! Reader is bothered by any of that! They have an amazing summer ahead of them. 😎 It's definetly Batfam being unlucky that prevents them from spending time with P&F! Reader, but that allowed them to mostly enjoy summer without being smothered by their family. the guilt would be unmatched, that is for sure.

"And who's to say she hadn't been doing this before this summer?"

hehe :)

vampire! Reader (she was not mentioned but I'm talking about her anyway, spoilers for the fic because i want to rant) is a different story. again, timing. she arrived at the manor sometime between Dick leaving for Bludhaven and Jason being brought in, so she didn't really get a chance to develop a deeper emotional connection with Dick. that also means Bruce was a lot younger when he is faced with a biological child being thrown at his door, not to mention the less-than-ideal-circumstances in which she came to be in his custody.

and after trying to make her his newest sidekick didn't work, in the coming years he would dedicate most of his time to fighting crime as Batman and taking care of/mentoring Jason who had a rough past and is now his new sidekick. connecting and relating to Jason was easier than connecting with Vampire! Reader, but he always made sure to check on her and make sure she was okay (and the answer was always yes, because of course it was).

during this time Jason and Vampire! Reader were actually pretty close, but then he, uh. kinda died horrifically. so not only was Vampire! Reader dealing with the loss of her brother, her father was now full-on neglecting her, self-absorbed in his grief, so she felt the proper thing to do would be repress her emotions to accomodate her father and try to be his emotional support. not that it worked, but she was there! so we have the emotional neglect and we have Vampire! Reader starting to take a parental role for her own father because he's not being a parent for her. she was also completely alone in that huge manor with the exception of Alfred because none of the other kids were in the picture yet, and Dick had long since moved out. as you can see, not very nice :)

from then on she just kinda blends into the background. financially she's provided for. she is her father's daughter, so communication and expressing emotion are not her forté, but she tries her best to connect with the incoming batkids. it does not work. i have said this before, but she is the mature child, the (again) normal one who puts other people's needs before her, so she doesn't complain when Bruce makes time for literally every other kid who becomes Robin except her. but don't be mistaken: Bruce is definetly more controlling and aware of Vampire! Reader in comparison to P&F! Reader due to reasons (guess you can say early yandere signs?). Jason too is... Sort of complicated. the situation here is definetly darker and resonates with tone of the story better. and when Bruce realizes how terrible he was? oh, boy.

so I guess you can play around a lot with the neglectful! Reader trope, and that's what makes it so entertaining. yeah. that's all I have to say for today, I guess??

[ihazyourkitty]

I really try to avoid fact checking people in public comment sections on the internet, but sadly this time I couldn't resist.

There was a reel on Facebook explaining the "sad" reason why cetaceans in human care often receive ice. It's because they're given "dead fish" you see, and these frozen thawed fish contain less moisture than the live fish they eat in the wild, so the ice helps prevent dehydration.

First of all, this is half true. The other half is that many cetaceans just love getting ice.

Supplemental hydration can also include gelatin and squid. The latter two are not unique to cetaceans btw. Squid and specially formulated gelatin based foods are also used in many fish diets in part to provide additional moisture. They also count as enrichment, depending on the context.

In any event, this creator thinks it's sad... that caretakers are providing their dolphins additional hydration? What, does he also think it's sad that they get vitamins? Reptile keepers regularly dust their animals' food with calcium to make sure they don't get metabolic bone disease. Is that also sad? These things are standard zoological practices, not signs of neglect. Wouldn't it be sadder if they didn't do that?

(Reason #423 why framing matters).

"But it's not natural!"

Neither is running on a treadmill, but that doesn't mean it's bad for you. Also, I'm pretty sure ICE is one of the most natural things you could use....

"Well why can't they just give them live fish!?"

Because the logistics of sustaining a live colony for such a purpose would be an expensive nightmare. Do you know how many pounds of fish these animals need to eat in a day? Using them as an occasional form of enrichment might be feasible, but on the regular? Just. No! Tell me you don't know how fish care works without telling me you don't know how fish care works!

It's cruel to the fish, for the same reason that it's cruel to feed snakes live food (assuming they aren't picky eaters). Fish are not just props, they are live animals that can experience stress and pain!

Freezing the fish helps keep it safe to eat.

"Why not just release them back into the wild?"

Because that would also be cruel since they wouldn't know how to survive. Next question.

"How do they get dehydrated when they live in water!?"

Oh man. Oh man oh man.

Cetaceans get most of their hydration from their diet. A quick google search indicted that they can drink some salt water, though I don't know how true that is, and to be clear, their kidneys are likely much more efficient at filtering out salt than ours (someone who knows more about this, please feel free to correct me). Regardless, most of their hydration comes from their food. Lack of food leads to dehydration, both in captivity and in the wild.

But there was one guy who said that dolphins in captivity can't drink the water because it's chlorinated. This is not true. The residual amounts of chlorine left after their water passes through filtration is no higher than what is in your tap water.

(Btw, this is another reason why live fish aren't typically used, because you don't house fish in systems that use chlorine, even in small amounts).

When I pointed this out to the guy, his response was that "most of their diet contains water from the exact same source."

To his credit, he did back down when I pointed out that this was wrong. But come my friends! As a fish person, let me explain to you why this is not correct!

Fish blood chemistry is not the same as the ambient water around them. They would not be able to maintain homeostasis otherwise. You see, their gills and kidneys help them osmoregulate.

Freshwater fish blood contains more salts than the surrounding freshwater, which means the via osmosis, water will enter the body, and unless they can compensate for this, the fish will swell up like a balloon, lose necessary salts, and basically drown. So what do they do? Their kidneys produce large amounts of dilute urine get rid of this extra water. Meanwhile, chloride cells in their gills take up ions from the water to transport into their blood.

Saltwater fish, however, have the opposite problem. Their blood has less salts than the surrounding water, so they need to get rid of extra salt. How? Well, they actually do drink the saltwater, and then their kidneys help filter out the extra salt. They basically produce very concentrated urine. But the kidneys cannot do this alone, so the chloride cells in their gills also help by basically working in reverse. They move extra ions out of the blood.

Elasmobranchs, crustaceans, mollusks and other marine mammals that may also make up some cetacean diets will have their own methods of osmoregulation.

All of this is to say, no, eating saltwater animals does not mean you're literally consuming ocean water, as these organisms have specific mechanisms for filtering out the excess salts.

This is, btw, why you can't just put a freshwater fish in saltwater or vice versa. They will die. Nor is this unique to fish, most organisms adapted for one environment don't thrive in the other.* Case in point: we cannot drink salt water, because our kidneys cannot handle that.

But some animals can! Take the salmon for instance. They hatch in freshwater environments, then move to saltwater, and then back when spawning season comes. How do they do this? Well, there are specific environmental/developmental triggers that cause their bodies to start osmoregulating in reverse. This does not happen instantaneously, however. They need time to adjust. They will migrate to brackish water, and allow their bodies a few days to adjust before continuing.

Some species of fish have higher tolerances for wider ranges of salinity/total dissolved solids (TDS) than others. Fluctuating these levels can actually trigger spawning in some species too! Discus, for instance, can be maintained in relatively harder freshwater than what they'd experience in the wild. But for breeding purposes, it's recommended to use softer water with lower a TDS. Given that discus can be more finicky, however, any of these adjustments should be made gradually.

On the other hand, there might be another species where a more sudden change is beneficial. Tropical fish native to floodplains that will experience sudden onsets of flooding from the rainy season, for instance, may need precisely that sudden rush of freshwater with lower pH and TDS to trigger spawning. Even if spawning isn't the end goal, simulating these seasonal fluctuations can be a very effective form of naturalistic enrichment!

....Oh dear, I went on a very nerdy tangent, because SCIENCE!!!! Enjoy.

*this can actually be taken advantage of in certain treatment contexts! Saltwater aquarists will sometimes do what is called a "freshwater dip", where the saltwater fish is very briefly immersed in freshwater to help rid them of harmful external parasites or bacteria. Usually, it's used when fish are first brought into quarantine. It's not 100% effective on its own, but it's one of the many tools in an aquarist's arsenal. Oh! This can also be used on sea turtles in some rescue situations! Again... SCIENCE!!! >:D

[jaal-ama-daravv]

I saw this and thought of you. Thoughts?

https://www.tumblr.com/chantrytears/767433095927463939?source=share

Link to Post - Courtesy of @chantrytears

Harding & Emmrich - Moving Too Fast Banter Dissection

Love you for thinking of me and tagging me in this because this banter is VITAL to Emmrich x Rook's dynamic.

The jist of the dialogue banter being discussed is as follows:

Emmrich gave Harding an item that didn't work, Emmrich states that he has been distracted. Harding: "What with you and Rook becoming..." Emmrich: "You noticed..?" Harding: "I'm sure you two getting together is... only Rook's kind of, younger...so" Emmrich: "It's not - What are you getting at harding?" Harding: "You two are sort of moving quickly.." Emmrich: "May we change topics?"

To initially answer this in relation to the OP post, I believe the 'moving quickly' is in relation to their infatuation and connection to eachother. This is particularly noticeable with a Mourn Watch Rook, however, it's still noticeable in another Rook. I note that with a MW Rook, Harding is privy to one of the very first conversations you can have with Emmrich in the Lighthouse. Where all three discuss Necromancy and the burial process, and Harding states that Rook sounds 'fancier' when discussing these topics (linked). This, for me, was Harding's first observation at the type of connection MW Rook and Emmrich share - a deep and unbridabled passion. Possibly leading to Hardings disposition on their eventual relationship.

Back to the moving quickly context, codex entries, letters, or bits of pieces of eachother's belongings in eachothers rooms would've been a lovely addition. However, I will work with what is provided. By the time this conversation from Harding is triggered, Emmrich and Rook have shown an interest in eachother and have opened up to one another. They share a bond, a great bond. And if you've read my dissections, you'll know that this bond reaches beyond the veil to other worlds.

Let us keep in mind that Emmrich has yearned for this type of love since he was a child. It manifested into craving affection, then enduring love, then marriage throughout his life. However, he never found it. So he gave up. He gave up and went in search of another purpose - Lichdom. Although this post focuses on the mortal path - Lichdom was always apart of Emmrich's plan. It is only that he has found either the love of his life with Rook or found the family he so desperately craved with the Veilguard - that he would be willing to let go of his dream of lichdom, for his other dream of untold love. Backed by a banter dialogue with Davrin, here.

Additionally, with that information - Emmrich is of course absoloutley infatuated and obsessed with Rook. Not only by who they are, but what they represent, to him. Love, enduring affection, companionship, potential marriage. Everything that Emmrich has dreamed of. Marriage was also a topic of discussion between Harding and Emmrich, find it here.

These two were most likely sneaking kisses, and holding hands in his library and the balcony throughout our travels during Veilguard. They are very much *heart eyes* at eachother, and that is obvious from the first quest of Emmrichs. I'm not surprised that the discourse of them moving too fast came up, because to others, they most likely were very affectionate, fast. And quite frankly, I'm a fan of it. I love two insane, soul bound, in love freaks who just go for it because they recognise eachothers souls. The two are made for eachother.

In saying that, let's think back to the argument scene, and his reaction, Rook's reaction. The reaction of two people, so scared to lose eachother, lose their future, their plans, their sought after love. After only just finding eachother. Emmrich is torn apart on the inside because what if he loses his dream? The two of them, are in love, almost immediately. Hence, moving fast.

Additinally, Emmrich does not want the conversation to continue. He's straight up, doesn't want someone's opinion. What would they know?

Don't worry - I have more, because there is more. This is actually a 3 part banter dialogue. [LINK HERE] Lets continue -

Harding: "Emmrich, about earlier...when I brought up you and Rook being together Emmrich: "Yes..?" Harding: "Look, you were in a crypt with all your dusty books and suddenly Rook bursts into your own life and.." Emmrich: "I keep my books pristine!" Harding: "I get it. Rook's, Rook. Wild and eager. Just whisking you away and now it's all candles and showers of ghost petals! It's great, but, you've also been kind of pre-occupied, ya know...mopey." Emmrich: "Mopey?!"

Emmrich has a tendency to be very short and aloof when he is defensive. Harding calls Emmrich mopey after Rook entering his life and they get close.

Now, part 3 -

Emmrich: "I am not, mopey, Harding." (annoyed) Harding: "Uh, yeah you are. You're so mopey you misalign the spirit ether- what's it, twice this week, and your skull thing is crooked! Emmrich: "My collar pin is perfectly straight." Emmrich: "Ohh (deep sigh), I do worry sometimes about what people might think about Rook and myself. Given our ages. Not to mention the spectre of acting like a besotted fool." Harding: "You're not...that bad. My Ma always says, it's fun to go at full gallop, but you still have to keep your eyes open, tree branches and stuff." Emmrich: "I will, thank you Lace."

Emmrich, is in love. A distracted, can't stop thinking about the love of my life, in love man. There is no other way to put it. He calls him self a besotted fool because he is a FOOL in love - at his age, he likely feels some shame around it. A 50 year old man, acting like a teenage boy in love. Hence, and as @chantrytears and I have stated, his cool, calm, confident exterior is a front. He doesn't want to come accross as a besotted fool, and because we play as Rook, we won't see it from our perspective until he starts to crack during the argument and afterwards.

His besotedness is evident in the banter dialogue throughout the game, (which is mainly with Harding where you find out about most of his 'endearment' past). He reveals he wanted to be married when he was younger, he gave up, 'until rook' with whom he now consider close family. The crooked skelton pin. Forgetting to align items correctly. Hell I know I've thought about fictional men and at times people where I forget to do thins, or do things wrong, because you're well, obsessed.

All in all. Yeah they may of moved fast, but not in our realities sense, in the emotional sense. and honestly? I love them for it. Still not a fan of any of Harding's dialogue here, but grateful we get to see Emmrich call himself a fool for being in love.

*drops mic*

[darenimoinai801]

Slow Damage: Fan Re-Translation Patch Release

For the second anniversary of Slow Damage, we’re happy to announce that we are releasing a fan translation patch.

We made this patch because we wanted the game to be understood better by people around the world, since most of the liberties taken by the English localisation cater mainly to the US audience.

Another reason for the patch is because the wording of the localisation greatly changed the perspective of the plot, the characterisation of the cast, the tone and impact of many scenes, and more… all for the worse, essentially resulting in players being misinformed, which is something we seek to rectify.

We have been working on this project for around 2 years. To avoid attracting trouble from the localisation company – at least too soon, that is – we made sure to keep this project secret until we were sure that we were finished with the patch and can finally share it online.

It is important to know that while this patch will only work with the English version of the game, we stress that this is not an endorsement of the English localisation, which was flawed enough to compel us to create this patch in the first place. Just as you downloaded this patch, we hope you are resourceful enough to find a way to play that does not further support amateurish and inaccurate translations. 

So in a sense, it would be your way of acknowledging and showing your appreciation for our hard work, as we have devoted a lot of our free time to this patch, and given the time and effort it took for Slow Damage alone, we don’t have any plans in repeating the process for any other games.

Of course, we do wish to express one more thing. We're not oblivious to the disputes regarding the English localisation, whether it’s criticism or defences. If you happen to find this patch offensive, we recommend that you merely pretend it doesn't exist. This patch wasn't made to sow discord, as we just wished to create an opportunity for people to enjoy a version of Slow Damage that is closer to the original Japanese one. 

You will find the installation guide and other relevant notes in the link to the patch below. Please read the translation notes added by the translator for more information about the game’s content. If you happen to stumble over a bug during your playthrough or have any other questions, you are free to contact us.

Lastly, we would like to inform you that the patch will receive a future update that will include some additional CGs edits which we are currently unable to do, but since the patch is playable overall, we didn’t want to withhold it any longer. Feel free to reupload the patch, but please keep the patch notes inside.

With that, thank you very much for picking up this patch, and we hope that it gives you an enjoyable experience with what will essentially be playing Slow Damage blind once more.

Note:Hello, the translator speaking here, I saw a lot of assumption flying around the translation that this is just an "edited" version of the original script and I like to make it clear that yes, this patch doesn’t retranslate every single sentence from new. First of all, because doing a completely new translation from scratch for free for a 50h+ game would take a lot of time and work, which I as an adult with a job can't provide, that being said I did retranslate a huge amount of the game especially in the later chapters (with some of the restranslation going up to 90% of the whole chapter). I read through every Japanese sentence in this game and retranslated every part where the translation, tone or context was off. The second reason why I didn’t retranslate everything from new is that I don't see a point in retranslating a sentence that was perfectly fine to begin with. We never had the intention of hiding the fact that this is not a "from 0" translation and that why it only works with the English game. So yes, a huge amount of the game text was translated from new again with only the Japanese text. Please don't let some post going around the internet, telling you that this is only "an edit of things we didn’t like" hold you back from trying the patch. Also the translation does not include any personal opinion of anyone who worked on this and is fully based on the Japanese text. Thank you!

Link