#I'm also part of the human trafficking unit

[fluent-in-lesbianism]

What do you do for CPS? Do you like it?

I’m in investigations. When a report comes in, I'm sent out to assess if the allegations in the report are true. I actually love my job. I've thought about changing on the days I get frustrated, but I just can't see myself working in any other field. Nowhere else has me playing with kids one minute, then getting cussed out and threatened with a pick axe the next.

[danieyells]

Thank you for sharing the tdb affinity lines! I know I won't be naturally getting any of these for ten years (if the games even still around by then) lol.

I was wondering if you could share any interesting lines of Taiga's? No pressure tho! It's just after seeing some of his lines from other people, he seems to have a bigger role in the story and I'm curious if any of his lines give any more clues to the situation on hand. Also would be interesting to see if he genuinely starts caring for mc besides wanting to like. Eat her for lunch lol.

It's no problem! And yeah that's part of why I wanna share them--getting the units to high enough affinity is a pain and to even see any of the home screen dialogues you need an SR or SSR, which means good luck with the gacha buckaroo.

YES TAIGA MY BELOVED. he's my favorite behind maybe Towa. Chances are if you've seen the one line you've seen the only one referring to that, although there is one more that may be related? But it might be general. As for caring for the PC, this is a joseimuke so. The characters will always love you more and more with time. And Taiga most certainly does haha doesn't prevent the hunger from rising up though. friendly reminder to feed your Taiga!

Hello: (the first time the game is opened after that character is set as home screen NPC. Only happens once per day, unless the character is switched out and back.)

"...Who're you? Don't pop up out of nowhere like that.  Wouldn't want me to shoot you by mistake, would you?"

You've Got Mail: (whenever there's something in the inbox, usually Arena rewards)

"Huh? You got a letter. If it's for me just reply for me, yeah?"

Default: (requires no affinity, has no time constraints)

"What are you again? A middle school student? A transfer student? Got it, an honor student! Gyahaha! I'm never gonna remember that!"

"Heads or tails, even or odd, on or off... It's all so fucking tedious!"

"Playing with these morons is exhausting... Lulu gets all mad if I win too much..."

"Don't talk to me. I feel like shit."

"That smells amazing... Shit, where's it coming from?"

please feed your taiga.

Affinity 1: (between 5am and 11am)

"It's too early for your bleating. Shut your trap unless you wanna get abducted."

once again, welcome to sinostra's house of human trafficking--

Affinity 2: (between 11am and 4pm)

"That dealer sucks. He's been here the longest? Why should I give a shit? Fire him."

what the fuck is tenure?

Affinity 3: (between 4pm and 8pm)

"You wanna know what kinda meat this is? Anomaly meat. What else would it be? ...Who the fuck're you again?"

he recognizes you enough to ask 'again'! progress! also I guess he almost exclusively eats anomaly meat.

Affinity 4: (between 8pm and 5am)

"Oops. I lost all the money Lulu gave me. Better make a run for it before he notices."

Affinity 5: (between 8pm and 5am)

"I'm bored... Hey, you over there. Come play five finger filet with me. Gimme your left hand."

five finger fillet, also called the knife game, is when you put your hand on a table and stab the gaps between your fingers with a knife in a sequence! Of course, you can also play it with someone else's hand, as Taiga is suggesting. Obviously stabbing the hand being played with means you lose. Taiga's chibi plays it when he's idle!

Affinity 6: (between 4pm and 8pm)

"They nabbed one of ours? You guys aren't toddlers. Deal with it yourselves."

it's fascinating that there's such a faction divide within Sinostra that members of Taiga's side get abducted by Romeo's, and probably vice versa. And I bet Taiga doesn't care about any of this. Or at the very least it's not that serious to him.

Affinity 7: (between 11am and 4pm)

"Gambling and shoot-outs are pretty much the same thing. Morons who panic mess up and get dead. Gyahaha!"

Affinity 8: (between 4pm and 8pm)

"None of you morons have any flair for the table. Lulu needs to raise the minimum bet already."

isn't it your casino too. . .or even specifically it's in your name. . .can't you raise the minimum bet too. . . .

Affinity 9: (between 8pm and 5am)

"You're a real smooth talker, huh? Don't remember anything you said though. Ciao!"

your seduction attempt didn't fail because of a bad roll, it failed because taiga failed a perception check lmao. . . .

Affinity 10: (between 10pm and midnight)

"Can't sleep? Sit over there. I'll deal the cards."

He'll play with you until you fall asleep. . .or maybe he'll sit around making ASMR card shuffling noises until you doze off.

Affinity 11: (between 5am and 11am)

"...I'm not gonna play today. I'm sleeping. I don't care if the place is burning down— don't wake me up."

fun fact, he's making this face when he says this lol

Affinity 12: (between 11am and 4pm)

"What's that guy's name again? You know, the one who's gonna become a judge or a cop or something. ...Whatever, I'll just forget it again."

at least he was interested in knowing for a second! maybe he'll give him a nickname.

Affinity 13: (between 4pm and 8pm)

"I spy, with my little eye, a tasty-looking kitty-cat.... Come over here so I can pat you. ...Nah, changed my mind. Scram."

maybe it's just my interpretation but I like to think he's hungry and he saw you and he mindlessly tried to lure you closer because he wanted to eat you, then came to his senses and told you to go away so he wouldn't do something stupid like trying to eat a human. . . .

Affinity 14: (between 5am and 11am)

"I'm starving... You, get my usual. It's breakfast time."

i wonder what his usual is. what's a good breakfast anomaly? Dagravnen? Latte? Pompillar to keep the doctor away?

Affinity 15: (between 5am and 11am)

"How does Lulu always have so much energy this early in the morning? It it 'cause of all that expensive water he drinks?"

Affinity 16: (between 11am and 4pm)

"Stop talking. I don't care."

Affinity 17: (between 10pm and midnight)

"You going to bed already? Aren't you a good little kitty-cat. Whatever, do what you want."

he'd rather you stay up with him but he's not attached enough to try and make you stay up. . .yet.

Affinity 18: (between 8pm and 5am)

"You want a surefire way to win at the table? Doesn't exist. You just gotta keep playing."

Affinity 19: (between 10pm and midnight)

"Hey, go warm up my bed for me. What do you mean how? Get in there, dumbass."

either you're gonna get fucked or you're gonna get disappointed when he really just wanted a warm spot that smells nice to lie in and he makes you leave after he gets in bed. Or maybe he'll let you sleep in the bed with him and use you as a little body pillow!

I'd also like to add that he's using the "adult" expression so uh. leaning more towards you're gonna get fucked here.

Affinity 20: (between 5am and 11am)

"Where you going, kitty-cat? Class? You don't need to go there. I got something more fun in mind for us."

the expression used here is once again simply labelled "adult" so. . . . No going to class and no going to sleep.

Affinity 21: (between 11am and 4pm)

"That's it, kitty-cat. I feel like my luck'll change if you're around."

Affinity 22: (between 4pm and 8pm)

"I'm starving... This isn't enough... I want more... More..."

they've gotta stop letting him go so long without eating because he clearly loses his mind if he doesn't eat enough meat.

Affinity 23: (between 8pm and 5am)

"I'm the only one who sees how fucked we are. But he won't believe me. So just let it all burn down—I don't give a shit anymore."

if Taiga sees the future or knows the future because of timeline/loop shit, then that Taiga doesn't seem to actively care much about being Captain or doing his job makes sense. He knows that if nothing changes everything's going to fall apart anyway so there's no point in trying. We don't really know what his stigma does either--in fact, his "good luck" could be that he can see and react to future events, so he knows things like what cards will be drawn and such. But he's getting tired of everything always going so bad no mater what he does in response to what he sees. And Romeo(? it doesn't say who he's telling about how bad things are getting) isn't helping to make changes. . .so he's just giving up. But now you're here, maybe you're different somehow. Maybe somehow you're an outlier in this timeline. Maybe injuring you was on purpose to change something in the future he saw. Maybe that's why he's telling you about the spy. . . .of course this is all speculation. Until we learn what his stigma does or what he means by 'ditch this future' then. . .all speculation. But there is a wickhive post that someone can see the future. And the more I think about it the more I wonder if it's Taiga. (also because i'm sure someone will point this out, the wording 'let it all burn down' is specific to the English dialogue, so it's not a callback to the pre-prequel sequence where the school is on fire.)

Affinity 24: (between 10pm and midnight)

"If you don't like pain then quit flailing around. I'm getting a taste of you, so close your eyes and shut up."

welcome back to the torture chair! You're probably getting cut like a piece of good meat before he just sinks his teeth into you! Your hands and legs are bound and he's not going to let you get away without eating at least a little of your flesh, so suck it up. That or scream and hope somebody comes to rescue you. . .but the desire to eat the pc never goes away. Most likely because he just wants to eat fresh meat in general and the more he likes someone and the more they hang around him the more he wants to eat them. . .although I assume he unlearned it and now you're here and he just can't help himself. . .if they did consume demons to become ghouls, I bet you're the only thing short of maybe Romeo that'll taste anywhere near as good as that demon did.

Affinity 25(max): (no time constraints)

"You're not getting away from me, kitten. You're here till death do us part, whether you like it or not."

oh and also you're married. y'know in case you wanted to do that. or even if you didn't. you don't have a choice in the matter.

Spring: (March-May) (between 5am and 11am)

"(Yawn) Man, why am I so tired today... Someone spike my food?"

'hey did someone drug the anomaly they brought me to eat so that i would get sleepy if i ate it' baby the weather's just getting warm you're sleepy because spring is cozy

(between 11am and 4pm)

"What? Cherry blossoms? Is it that time of year already? Man, that snuck up on me."

(between 4pm and 8pm)

"Fuck it, I'm taking a nap. Come over here and be my pillow."

(between 8pm and 5am)

"What's with that vacant look on your face? You need more excitement in your life? Come over here, I'll play with you."

Summer: (June-August) (between 5am and 11am)

"Too hot... Hey, I want my breakfast on ice. They got tons of it over on Jin's turf, go nab some."

hey uh why do you remember Jin by name. like i know Jin's short enough of a name to not need a nickname but also you remember not only Jin but where he lives and how cold it is? Then again you started in the same year, maybe Taiga remembers all the third years since he's known them for two years?

(between 11am and 4pm)

"Why don't we make a giant pool in Sinostra? It's so hot here. I'll put up the cash... Wait no, I used it all yesterday."

YOU COULD HAVE A NICE POOL IF YOU WERE MORE RESPONSIBLE WITH YOUR MONEY.

(between 4pm and 8pm)

"Quiz time—where's Lulu going all dolled up on a stinking hot day like this? Answer— he's cheating on me! Gyahaha!"

THEY ARE FEEDING MY SHIP WHAT DO YOU MEAN TAIGA JOKES THAT THEY'RE DATING. they have such awful married couple who hate each other but also love each other energy.

(between 8pm and 5am)

"Shower? I don't wanna... Shut up and strip me already then."

man he has no fucks to give that you'd be taking his clothes off and seeing him naked huh. . . .

Autumn: (September-November) (between 5am and 11am)

"Good weather for sports? You get a lot more exercise fighting to the death. Gyahaha!"

how frequently do you think he fights to the death. . .probably a lot less than he used to. poor baby needs his deadly enrichment. Also the fact that he finds the idea of fighting to the death fun explains why he smiles when he takes damage in combat lol

(between 11am and 4pm)

"That looks tasty. Gimme a bite."

so given one of the most common autumn foods in japan is like sweet potatoes(and also the pc probably doesn't eat raw anomaly meat) I assume this means he does eat normal food, just prefers to eat raw meat especially from anomalies? Either way, i am once again remind you to feed your Taiga.

(between 4pm and 8pm)

"We're going out. I've been eating more lately and these guys are too slow. Gonna go stock up."

you've been eating more lately? because it's autumn? what are you, a bear about to go into hibernation?? also he's taking you grocery shopping i guess. or anomaly hunting. . . .

(between 8pm and 5am)

"Watch your back. Way easier to jump people when it gets dark so early. Gyahaha!"

i'd like to think he stuck his gun under your chin and snuck up behind you from in the dark here lol

Winter: (December-February) (between 5am and 11am)

"You trying to pull my covers off? Wanna die?"

my boy does NOT like being cold. Or getting up in the morning. So winter mornings? just leave him in bed.

(between 11am and 4pm)

"I wanna go nab some food from Harry's place, but it's too cold for that shit..."

(between 4pm and 8pm)

"Oh, I got an idea. I just gotta use someone as a punching bag to warm up. Hey you guys, stand over there."

Taiga beating the shit out of his own men because the exercise will keep him warm. . .why do people side with you again?

(between 8pm and 5am)

"I don't like the cold... Come on, come be my hot water bottle! Let me cuddle up to you!"

Getting all tangled up with Taiga under his blankets while he shivers because Sinostra is in a desert and deserts in the winter can be FUCKING COLD especially at night. It gets cold and he's just the whiniest little meow-meow. Until he gets hungry.

His birthday: (October 16th)

"Huh? Whose birthday? Mine? Gyahaha! Totally forgot about it! Grazie!"

it's okay Taiga, I forget my birthday too most of the time.

Your birthday:

"Is it your birthday today? That little twerp told me. Okay, you can take one thing from my room."

Ritsu fuckin doxed you? is that legal? Doesn't Taiga's room have like a pile of coins in it. . .is one coin 'one thing' or is 'the pile of coins' one thing. . .then again the background is AI generated so. not really sensible and doesn't say much about him sadly. considering taiga's described as spending his money wastefully I assume he buys a lot of random things he doesn't need or use--then again he probably spends most of it on gambling. But considering he's offering you anything out of his room, I assume there's a lot of nice stuff in there.

New Years: (January 1st)

"You gonna go skipping off to a shrine together just to get your fortune told? That's dumb. Here, let me guess what it'll say—you'll have an okay year."

the fact that he guesses your fortune is a tiny piece on the 'taiga can see the future' evidence pile but it's a piece nonetheless

Valentine's Day: (February 14th)

"Is that for me? Sure I'll take it, but it better be edible."

i was gonna say 'has he never gotten valentine's day chocolates before?' but i remembered that he probably doesn't really remember if he has so. this is probably his general reaction to gifts lol 'is it money and if not can i eat it'

White Day: (March 14th)

"What's that expectant look on your face? Lulu was harping on about mimosas or something before. That what you want?"

of course he doesn't know what white day is lol but he does remember that Romeo had something tasty!

April Fool's Day: (April 1st)

"I'm gonna die soon, you know? And I'm taking Lulu with me. ...Gotcha! Gyahaha!"

wait you didn't remember white day but you remembered april fool's day? maybe someone tried to prank him first lol remember guys, suicide is not an appropriate april fool's prank!

Halloween: (October 31st)

"Trick or treat. Where you gonna put your chips, kitty-cat?"

I think if you're trick or treating then they're supposed to decide if you get the trick or the treat. . .but it seems more like Taiga to give you something that could be a trick or a treat lolol russian roulette is a totally acceptable halloween party game right? of course!

Christmas: (December 25th)

"Come on Santa kitty, tie a ribbon 'round yourself and get over here. Gyahaha!"

at least he knows what gift he wants! unfortunately you don't know what for but based on his expression you may not get eaten. . .depending on your definition--

Idle: (about 20 seconds without interacting with the game) (below 13 affinity)

"...This is boring. I'm outta here."

(13 affinity and above)

"Are you done yet? I'm hungry over here."

Absent: (logging in for the first time in 2 or more days?)

"Long time no see! You decide to ditch this future too? Sorry I'm not dead yet."

AND HERE"S THE LINE THAT'S CAUSING SO MUCH SPECULATION. . .what does that even mean Taiga. . .what do you know, what have you seen. . .and can we fix this future instead of leaving it to rot--

UH. YEAH. I THINK I'VE SAID ENOUGH HAHA. . .everything Taiga says is so. . . ./gestures weakly) IT REALLY DOES SEEM LIKE MORE IS HAPPENING THAN YOU REALIZE RIGHT??? The game's still so early on we probably won't learn for a very long time lol. . . . But, yeah. Taiga definitely loves you--and lusts after you. As his affinity goes up, he asks "who are you" a lot less, did you notice? He starts to remember and just say "kitty cat" and "kitten", because that's who you are and he can remember that. So far the only people he remembers are Romeo, Hyde, and Jin it seems. And you.

[fixfoxnox]

I’d love to hear any Makarov headcannons if you have any, especially about his sexuality. Like how he was treated growing up in Russia, how he figured it out etc. I wonder if he ever just had to stomach backlash when he was in spetsnaz but once he rose to power he no longer cared or was threatened enough to hide that part of him.

(Still a bad dude, but he’s just so much fun to read about)

I'm doing this outside of SiTO Makarov cause I think that's what you were getting at here, so its just my headcanons on what we've seen about Makarov thus far:

He was an orphan, raised in a really packed orphanage with caretakers who didn't actually care about him or any of the kids there.

He watched kids come and go as well as several kids end up dying because of the cold/bad conditions, it ended up fucking him up pretty good

He was in the Orphanage until he was sixteen and during his time there he was like an older brother figure to many of the children there

He joined Spetsnaz/the military because he felt like it was the only option he had available to him

He knew he was gay around the age of ten, but he's smart so he also knew to keep it to himself

Kept his sexuality a secret under lock and key during his time in the military and was particularly good at hiding it

Would tell the other men fake stories of hookups with women and comment on women with them while they were out at bars/in towns

Lots of internalized homophobia, but he can't bring himself to sleep with women

When he starts moving up in Spetsnaz he begins to get a taste for power. He'd spent his entire childhood pretty much powerless to do anything, so finally having some control is a big deal for him, especially when he's placed in charge of his own unit

The power corrupts him and is what encourages him and his team to start doing all the bad shit they were doing

Particularly he was told that if he did this shitty stuff he would get a promotion/more power essentially, which is why he was so willing to participate

It would have worked out for him, except the intel of what was happening got to the UN and the UN, with the US spearheading it, demanded that Russia take action against these crimes. So he was made the fall guy and dishonorably discharged

The sudden loss of that power he'd gained fucked him up even further and pushed him to begin leaning into crime fully as an option. At this point is when he gets into all the stuff Shepherd mentions like human trafficking, terrorism, weapons deals, hired murders, etc.

He gets really good at this stuff which is what eventually catches the attention of Zhakaev

Makarov didn't actually give a shit about the ultranationalists before that, but he hates Americans and Zhakaev is offering him power and revenge against America so he's down for it

Fucking hated Victor Zhakaev. He though the kid was a little prick who had no actual talent and only got where he was because of daddy, he never said that though

He's assigned Yuri as a second by Zhakaev and he gets attached to the fucker insanely quickly

Yuri was ex-spetsnaz like him (though left on his own) and they bonded over that

Naturally he also earned a big fat fucking crush on Yuri too, though that actually works out somewhat well for him

Yuri is the only person who finds out about his sexuality and he only finds out about it because Makarov is begging him to fuck him while drunk

Anyways they start a secret relationship

They're together from like a year or so after Chernobyl to the airport breakup

Yuri starts pulling away from Makarov slowly after the nuke, and Makarov can feel it

He ends up kinda super desperately trying to fix whatever he'd done to make Yuri pull away because, at that point, the two had been together for well over a decade

Yuri was his person and so to have his person suddenly pulling away from him was not good

However he gets very distracted from Yuri pulling away when Zhakaev dies and he suddenly finds himself the head of the ultranationalists

He's working on his plan to start the way between Russia and the US and he gets tunnel vision on it to the point where he doesn't realize he's fully losing Yuri until its too late

He starts having suspicions that Yuri might have switched sides, but he doesn't want be believe it

Then Yuri introduces him to Alexei Borodin and Makarov knows that Yuri has switched sides. He's suddenly confronted with it in the form of an American man pretending to be a Russian man

Absolutely heartbroken, but ends up essentially locking up his emotions and throwing himself into his plans, including the new plan to kill Yuri in the airport

Even though Yuri betrayed him, Makarov still loved him so when the time came to "kill" him, he shot him somewhere that he knew the other could survive, under the excuse of making it painful for him

As we know, he lives to regret this as Yuri eventually teams up with the 141 to help bring him down once and for all

[neoninky]

TWST Shenanigans: League of Antagonists (and some actual Villains)

I'm back with another long winded, stupid thought that I may draw some day but in the mean time, here's this lol (also spoilers for my Sacred Crown fics if you haven't read them?? Just FYI)

Scene: Antagonists from canon TWST side events all hang out in a bar and talk about how they fucked with the main characters for reasons unknown

Ashton Vargas: *reminiscing about the Camp Vargas event(s)* HA HA Man you should have seen their faces! We gave those punks a good ol' fashion trauma haunt in the woods. Classic. Divus Crewel: And we looked damn good doing it too. *Camp Vargas Part 1 and 2 Crewel definitely made those costumes* Vargas: Sigh...of course we got a temporary dock in pay to help provide the whimpier ones with therapy sessions but eh totally worth it. Random group of fairies all sharing a bar stool: *makes a bunch of tinkly noises talking about the Fairy Gala* Translation: That's cool but we almost ruined the entire school's ecosystem because we gave into our baser instincts and stole the mage stone cuz it was shiny... damn those kids for crashing our party with their incredibly well made outfits and near flawless sashays (Crewel: I would be more upset if not for the fact I finally got Kingscholar to have proper posture for at least 14 hours.)

Ghost Princess Eliza: *still boohooing over the Ghost Marriage event though technically she is happily married in the end* I just wanted to marry my perfect prince after years and years and YEARS of waiting!! What's a little first-degree murder in the name of true love?! (Fairies: damn gurl / Crewel: that's a mood.) And those horrible boys just kept coming to ruin my wedding! Accosting me with their unprincely behavior! What kind of man doesn't have a legendary sword or a faithful dog that comes at his beck and call?! (Vargas: she does make a good point...) Oh well, in the end, I did find my real prince so it all worked out. We'll be returning for the baby shower they promised to host! (Crewel: the school and every person on campus has at least three restraining orders against you...) - jaunty music suddenly starts playing out of nowhere and the entire room groans - Fellow Honest: *cane twirls his way on screen, ready to spill the deets on the Playful Land event* Trauma, theft, delusionally murderous courtship? That's cute. I suckered a whole group of those dumbasses into a human trafficking con disguised as a theme park! And I did it so well that I basically hijacked 90% of all social media for MONTHS while doing it! Everyone: *disgruntedly* we KNOW Fellow Honest: *much smug* Did I mention how I also cursed the whole place to turn them into wooden puppets if they broke the backward ass rule system I put in place as well? (Vargas: dude what the actual hell?) Sigh...and it would have all gone off without a hitch if it weren't for those damn kids fucking up the entire park (Crewel: our students are pretty much all assholes, yes.) ...I mean sure, in the end, I did tell my shitty boss to suck it and encourage those brats to do exactly that. But then they dared to extend a hand of friendship and understanding to ME?! Entitled, fancy boys with their fancy schmancy education *grumble grumble* Vargas + Crewel: *side-eye glance at each other at the mention of a shitty boss* ..... *both take long sips of their drinks*

Rollo: *appears with sudden intense mood change in the atmosphere* Hmph. I understand your contempt for those frivolous magic users completely... (Fellow: THANK you!) ...I invited a select few of them onto my campus under the pretense of uniting our schools in harmony and camaraderie. In actuality...I wanted to destroy them by taking away their magic and then wiping magic off the very face of the planet. Fellow Honest: ...ok well damn that's a bit harsh- *the group of fairies moves as far away from Rollo as possible*

Rollo: and I would have gotten away with it too. Had it not been for that Malleus Draconia *name said with such distain Rollo might as well be a friggin Batman villain* ...on the other hand, I did completely get away with it. Cuz they tried to guilt trip me by letting everyone believe I was this upstanding person who isn't capable of heinous acts. (Fellow: HA stupid) ...that is until karma bit me in the ass and then my childhood magical dragon friend that I don't absolutely abhor ended up bonding with the magical dragon that I hate with every fiber of my being... *talking about my OC in Her Devoted Throne hitting it off with Malleus lol* Crewel: To be fair, if watching your BFF get with your sworn enemy after you tried to commit mass genocide of magic is the worst thing to happen, you are one lucky bastard.

Rollo: Oh I'm barely as horrible as they are... *scene pans over to another group seated in the Really Fucked Up OC Villain section*

Queen Alva from Her Ivory Crown: I not only gaslighted and emotionally abused my own daughter into working herself to the bone to prove herself as the heir to my throne, I then threatened her and tried to take everything she fought for away from her the minute she had a meltdown and wouldn't marry the boy I picked out for her. Not to mention potentially damning my own Queendom by trying to deprive them of a far better queen than I in the future....now I'm divorced, shunned from society, and living alone in the countryside, forced to do my own housework *has to fetch her own fainting couch so she can dramatically swoon* Zehn Cavaliar, the 'boy' in question: ...yeah I wouldn't take no for an answer so hard that I harassed the crown princess into an Overblot state which could have killed her. I also attacked and injured her while she was in that condition. Her new boyfriend got all his friends to kick my ass before and after I lost everything.... *has the expression of someone going through a Vietname flashback* Don Muraeni from Her Lost Voice: *sitting in a large fish bowl on the counter as a shriveled up sea polyp* I literally paid and sometimes forced several women to bear my children - who I let abuse and murder each other all in hopes of earning my approval btw. I even killed a guy who owed me money and then took his wife and child, made said wife have another one of my kids - who I also abused and forced to do underhanded tasks through the majority of her childhood. I also tried to use my son to get at my sworn enemy after not shedding a single fucking tear after his brother was brutally murdered by said enemy...*stops to think* More child abuse. Collecting siren mermaids and forcing them to be sex workers. Trapping my wife for several years while letting her children believe she was dead....so yeah all that backfired horribly and now I'm trapped as this weird lil slug thing until I die. Or something. Ghost of Don Muraeni's right-hand guy, Proteus: I was a total creep who abused his power and was brutally murdered for it in the end. Also I stole magic from a defenseless, traumatized child. Everyone else: *staring at all of them in horror* .....JESUS CHRIST

Dark Fire is hot but Hell is hotter *sips tea*

Also tagging people for reasons @iscarlettappel @foxwitchaine @wysteriadelights @nuitthegoddess @victoria1676 @1ndigowitch

[hobiebrownismygod]

OC/Spider-Sona Backstory: The Widow

Maitreyi Jokhar (she/her), Earth-20262, Present day, Spider-man/Black Widow variant

Part 1!

I'm planning on making this a series instead of one extremely long post, so her entire backstory up to her introduction to the Spider Society is probably going to be around two to three parts depending on how in-depth I decide to make it! Let me know if you have any feedback on my writing style or how I can make her as accurate as possible <3

Backstory & Powers:

Born in Andrapradesh, South India, she was kidnapped from her family at the age of 5 years old and never saw them again. Forced into a human-trafficking scheme, she was eventually taken into the Red Room program, better known as the Black Widow program, the same program that the MCU Black Widow was a part of before working for S.H.I.E.L.D. In this universe, the Red Room Program is an extension of H.Y.D.R.A., a Russian spy organization. From the ages of 7-14, she was trained alongside hundreds of other child soldiers to fight, kill and engage in acts of espionage and sabotage, eventually to join the army of mind-controlled Black Widows the Red Room program produced.

When she turned 15, she, along with 9 other young teenage girls, were chosen for H.Y.D.R.A's new adaptation program, where they experimented on some of their best soldiers/recruits to create a new kind of Super-soldier, after their hundreds of failed attempts to replicate the same serum used on Red Skull during WWII. Each girl experienced a different experiment, some being injected with powerful steroids, others having their DNA spliced and combined with others, etc... Understandably, none of these experiments worked. Except for one.

Maitreyi was placed into a leather chair and strapped down, quickly being injected with multiple paralyzers before being told to close her eyes and relax her arm. Doctor Hans Zola, grandson of Doctor Arnim Zola (Arnim Zola worked for the Nazis during WWII, which could be seen in the first Captain America movie), proceeded to inject her with a serum derived from the venom of a radioactive black widow spider, whom's DNA he had spent months perfecting to be able to link to hers accurately. 24 hours later, the process was completed and H.Y.D.R.A. had successfully created a super-soldier. However, this super-soldier wasn't the same kind as what they'd made during WWII with Red Skull.

Maitreyi did receive similar, but not the same abilities as the average Spider-person. She was unable to produce enough web for the daily, so she would use it limitedly, and only if completely necessary. She was flexible, fast and even acrobatic, as a result of years of Red Room training, but she did not gain the abilities of super-strength. She had to hone her strength herself after assimilating to the injection, through more time being trained by H.Y.D.R.A.'s best agents, specifically employed to morph Maitreyi into a super-weapon. One ability which was extremely beneficial for her future endeavors was her newfound intelligence and instincts. After being injected, she was able to better respond to threats, through enhanced reflexes (Spider-sense) and found that her problem-solving skills, especially those mechanical related (robots, machines, gizmos, etc...) were also amplified.

Only a few weeks later, she met Alexander Pierce. The man who took over Hydra after Red Skull's death. The man who's idea it was to turn her into a weapon. The man who was going to use her brainwashed, inhuman self to murder his own enemies until she was either captured or dead.

The missions started off small. Assassinating political leaders of minuscule movements in insignificant cities and towns. Kidnapping the children of runaway H.Y.D.R.A agents, destroying their lives, sparking fear into the hearts of the organization's enemies and even their allies. It wasn't until a few months later that Pierce sent her to the United States. He didn't disclose why she was going there. The only thing she had been given was a picture of an older man with an eye patch who Pierce claimed had something that "belonged to him." He told her that her job was to kill him. Not having a choice, not knowing that there was any other option besides compliance, she obliged. She wasn't even 16 years old.

____________________________________________________________

A/N

Guys idk if any of this makes sense but I'm trying to create a storyline for her so its not like I just threw a random spider-person into the ATSV fandom and started shipping her with characters 😭. I want her to have her own backstory and reasons for her personality and stuff yk

taglist:

@mollyollypuddingpolly

@s6onder

[nuvamata]

made a character for a shadowrun campaign that will be starting next saturday. i'm excited. he's a lupine shapeshifter named vark. more about him under the cut bc it's fun to talk about.

a really interesting thing about how shapeshifters work in shadowrun is they are primarily animals that can turn into humans. like a reverse animorph. fun to play with when deciding his backstory, personality, and, in this case, his outfit.

being a wolf taking on the persona of a man, i figured he would probably not enjoy clothes that weren't loose-fitting. i had a version with fully fastened boots, but then decided he'd find that a bit too constricting. also, i don't think he would know how to tie laces. the jacket is nice, and i knew i wanted him to have a fur collar, but i'm pretty sure he garbage picked that.

a bit of his backstory:

so, shapeshifters are kind of an underclass of society. there are only about 200,000 worldwide across all species, and they don't really fit into broader metahuman society. because of this they are often exploited, either by being hunted for bounty or captured by corporations for experimentation.

in vark's case, he was abducted from the wilderness of upstate new york as a pup, to be sold on the black market. he was rescued by a loosely-established gang of displaced shifters residing in new york city. they work to care for each other as best they can and disrupt trafficking operations like vark's. he had no pack to return to, so was taken in and raised with this new, discordant pack.

he's since been surviving as best he can, bringing in money by taking part in underground fighting rings and, more recently, shadowrunning proper.

before going into his personality, a select few of his various positive and negative qualities, skills, and attributes added during character creation that will help to inform his personality:

uneducated: this is an inherent debuff for almost all shapeshifter characters. he has no formal education, so is not particularly adept at reading, math, or other technical skills.

distinctive style: a debuff which makes people more likely to remember this weird fella. vark didn't begin living in metahuman society until partway through his life, and so wasn't raised speaking english. and even then, much of the english he was exposed to came from people who weren't native speakers themselves. so his speech is slightly stilted, avoiding contractions, sometimes skipping minor words or forgetting words that he doesn't use very often. sample sentence: "the man left on... what is word? fast chair?" (motorcycle)

leadership and small-unit tactics: vark is a wolf. he is at his core adept at working as, and leading, a pack.

intimidation: even as a human, he is intended to be a formidable presence. to make use of intimidation, he's specc'd in charisma.

commanding voice: used in conjunction with either intimidation or leadership to make either foes or allies do as he says.

good-looking and knows it: ok so. no one else in the group specc'd themselves out for charisma. vark's is pretty high and has a lot of charisma-based skills, which basically makes this strange-talking wolf-man the de-facto face of the group. this buff not only makes him do better at social tests, but combined with the uneducated debuff, basically makes him a himbo. plus, his face is partially modeled off of hugh jackman, so people would think he's hot.

ok, onto his personality:

first, vark is not actually stupid. he has a pretty high intuition attribute, and a few buffs to his perception that i didn't go into. he's pretty smart! in his own way. but he has some limitations to the way he understands people and the way they do things.

for example, vark speaks very directly, and says whatever he is thinking or feeling with no filter. he doesn't really understand a need to couch his language in the way that humans would. if someone suggests an idea he doesn't like, he might say something like "that idea is bad, we should not do it." conversely, he doesn't really "get" lying. he knows what it is, and that it's a thing people do, and can sometimes even tell when someone is doing it, but he doesn't really know why they do it, or how to effectively do it himself. if you told him "you need to lie to the security guard or we'll get in trouble" he'd probably say something like "it is snowing outside" when it's the middle of summer.

he also doesn't understand things like "revenge" or the concept of a social score being kept. if someone hurt you somehow, but they've since left and aren't an immediate threat, why would you look for them? they're clearly dangerous, you'd only be exposing yourself to further harm. seems stupid. if you do him a favor, why would he owe you one in return?

with this in mind it might be easy to think of vark as being cold, or even unpleasant. but he has a pretty high charisma stat, and a lot of skills in it, so it's more like his directness and simpleness ends up getting interpreted as earnestness, and is kind of charming. if you've ever seen the movie "blast from the past," brendan fraser's character is basically how i see vark. if you haven't, it's a great movie.

vark tries to not escalate situations to violence. he's more pragmatic than that. if you pick a fight with someone, you're more likely to get hurt, aren't you? it's obviously better to not get hurt, are you stupid? but if a situation does turn violent, he's gonna try and end it as soon as possible, and if that means killing them, better them than him. initially during character creation i thought he would only use unarmed combat, since you don't usually see animals wielding weapons. but then i thought, if a wolf could kill a deer with a gun, he definitely would. a gun is usually the most effective way to kill someone, no reason not to keep one handy. so i gave him a heavy revolver to carry around.

what else? he has the "phobia" debuff for a mild fear of bears, since he got his ass absolutely kicked by an ursine shifter in an underground fight.

his contacts are other shifters he grew up with on the streets. they include calla, a canine afghan wolfhound who he gets along very well with (both dogs), and sivon, a pantherine shifter who he is on rough terms with (big cats don't operate as packs!)

that's enough i guess. had a lot of fun making vark. excited to see what kind of hijinks he gets involved in.

[unseededtoast]

Rectify | Bucky Barnes

Part 34/37 | Part Thirty Three, Part Thirty Five

Summary: I've lived every day for the past five years looking over my shoulder. I knew they'd come for me, it was inevitable. I was foolish to think I could outrun my past. It's followed me everywhere I go, lurking in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Never would I have anticipated that the shadows would lead me to the light.

Bucky Barnes x OC

Series Warnings: Discussion of human trafficking, alcohol consumption, graphic depictions of violence, sexual content, discussion of suicidal thoughts.

a/n: Hi everyone, thank you for checking this out, I appreciate any and all support! This series is also posted on Ao3 and Wattpad if you prefer those formats/platforms! This is a completed series, and it's going to take some time for me to transfer it to Tumblr, so please bear with me!

I can't tell if I'm sinking into psychosis or if this is really happening.

When you live as a caged animal, time becomes very abstract. You lose track of whether it's day or night, what day of the week it is, how much time has gone by since you've been put in the cage. Your sanity slowly starts chipping away, little by little. The light of your soul begins to dim, like a flame starved of oxygen.

There are many things people tend to take for granted. Being able to get fresh air, picking out your clothes, choosing what you want for dinner. A caged animal however, has none of those liberties. A caged animal survives, but fails to thrive in its environment.

Over time, memories begin to fade. You start to forget the way someone's voice sounds. You forget how they smell, what it felt like to be embraced by them. Soon enough, it's like they're purely a figment of imagination. It's difficult to fathom them being real.

The memories that do stick around play in your mind like a rerun of a television show. Always the same few episodes, never anything new.

The pain calluses over until you feel nothing at all. Hurt and pain fade into nothingness, love and adoration turn to hurt and pain. There comes a time when you have no tears left to cry, and when that time comes you know you're just a shell of what once was. There's no life in your eyes anymore, there's nothing to keep you going. There is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Fluorescent lights are a constant reminder of imprisonment. They offer no warmth or comfort, only coldness and artificiality.

I roll over on the hard structure that can barely be considered a bed and face the wall. I close my eyes and hug myself, my fingertips cold from the air conditioning. I quickly realized that blankets are not permitted in here, it would be a good tool for someone to use if they wanted to be free from this world. Instead, we all have to rely on our own body heat and the thin uniform to keep us warm. I haven't felt warmth since the day I got here.

I estimate that I've been here for about a month, but it's getting harder and harder for me to keep track. Days blur into one another, there is no way to tell time in here.

I hear the slot in my door open and reluctantly get up to grab the tray before they throw it on the floor. I grab the cold metal tray and sit on my bed, crossing my legs. I look at the options and realize just like all the other times, the food looks questionably beige. But I have no other choice. I choke down the bland and discolored food and place my tray by the door for collection.

I look out at the other cells, seeing everyone else going through the same motions. Just like every other time. I cast my gaze to the small television screen that usually plays the same program constantly, but notice the program has changed. My eyebrows pull together as I watch the screen, the headline is bold.

"Avengers Face Punishment for Sokovia." I whisper to myself, my voice raspy from not being used. I watch as I see the newscaster explain what's going on. I read the subtitles carefully,

"United Nations to reach agreement on how the Avengers will now operate. Resolution expected in the next year." I say. Maybe Tony will get what's coming to him. Someone should be held accountable for Sokovia, and Tony is the only one who I place the blame on. The news station switches to another story.

I wonder what will happen. I still don't know whether Bruce has been found or not. I'd like to think he has. I see one of the guards walk up to my cell and tap on the glass,

"Those your friends? They all deserve to rot for what they did." I'm taken aback by the comment.

"Only some of them friends." I respond, finding my voice.

"Maybe some of them will be coming to join you after all." The guard chuckles as he walks off to the next cell. He's always been one to heckle us. Seeing a familiar face would be nice, but I wouldn't wish for anyone but Tony to be in here.

I sit back on my bed and lean my head against the hard wall, letting my mind wander as I often do. I wonder how Steve is doing. I wonder if he's been on any interesting missions lately. I miss his friendship. I wonder what Shield ended up doing with Wanda. Hopefully they didn't detain her again and instead tried to understand her. I am still beyond grateful for the way she stuck up for me.

I hope Bucky is doing well. I hope he's recovered his memories completely and without issue. My heart hurts thinking about him struggling with something, being scared or feeling helpless. I know Steve is there for him, but Steve doesn't understand what he's been through like I have. I wonder if he got out, if he finally gets to live a peaceful life. I sure hope that's the case.

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of him. I miss our time together.  At first the pain was unbearable, it felt like my heart was physically breaking. Over time as the days passed by it got easier to deal with. The pain doesn't hurt as much, it just left a part of me hollow.

I miss everything about him. I miss his bright white smile, his long brown hair. I miss the raspy sound of his morning voice and the tender forehead kisses he gave me. I try to remember every second of our time together, but I fear some of the memories have been lost. It's hard to recall certain things now, such as the way he smells and how comforting his hugs were. The details I wish I could remember.

I guess it's poetic justice in a way. I took his memories away and now I'm losing mine. I'm losing the memories I wish I could keep, and the ones I want to be rid of play every time I try to sleep. When I close my eyes and wish for peaceful sleep I'm met with the sound of Dane's skull being cracked on the concrete floor in Sokovia. I remember how his mouth dripped bright red blood, the way one of his pupils were blown. I remember the feeling of how his ribs cracked underneath my heel, the crunching of bone still very audible. I see the way his wrist broke as I snapped it.

Sometimes I'm given reprieve of that memory. Unfortunately, it's often replaced with the scene in my kitchen, many moons ago. I remember how I slit the man's throat and heard him choke on his own blood.

It's hard to believe that an ordinary day at my job turned into this. The life I worked so hard to build, gone in the blink of an eye. Things changed in an instant and I know I'll never have that life back. On one hand it's a good thing, I'll never have to run from Hydra again. That brings some peace and stability. On the other hand, I'm left to live the rest of my life in monotony, never knowing what's going on with the people I love.

I can tell from observing the others that they feel the same way. I haven't seen one smile the entire time I've been here. There's nothing to smile about. Nobody is living, we're all just on autopilot. Surviving.

There was one instance in the first few days of being here that the lady across from me tried to end her sentence. I remember she flung her head onto the corner of the bed over and over with such force. The guards stopped her before she could finish what she set out to do. When they took her out of the cell her face was covered in blood and I swear I saw part of her skull peeking through the skin of her forehead.

She was gone for a few days before she came back. In the meantime they had covered her cell in white padded material so she couldn't attempt again. They make her wear a straight jacket now. Since she's been back, she sits in the corner of her cell all the time. The guards remove her restraints for meal time and it's a good day if I see her take more than three bites. I know she doesn't want to be here anymore, we can all see it.

I'd be lying if I said she didn't give me some ideas. They don't give us blankets because it would be an obvious tool, but I think our uniforms can be fashioned into a tool. I thought about it, but couldn't bring myself to do it.

I could never bring myself to do it because I can't even begin to imagine what would happen if Bucky found out. I can't hurt him like that. It would be too selfish for me to do it. I have to try and stay strong for him. But now, even if I wanted to I don't think I would have the motivation to even try.

Most of my days are spent curled up on my bed. There's nothing else to do. At first I used to observe the others in here, but quickly noticed they all follow the same pattern, the same one I've fallen into. We wake up from the meager amount of sleep we manage to get, curl up either on the bed or on the floor, wait for meal time and choke it down, and then repeat the cycle.

Sure, there is a small television for us to watch. But the guards have resorted to weaponizing it. Depending on who's on duty sometimes it's shut off, other times the same thing is on repeat. There was one day where they played the same song over and over for at least forty eight hours. I did the math.

During that time they would pause the music and they would watch us. As soon as they saw even one of us drift asleep, they would play it again. It was psychological warfare. They've only done it once and I hope every day that they don't do it again. I don't know if I'd be able to take it.

I find that I am entirely too unstimulated here and I fear that by being in here over a prolonged period of time I'll end up losing my intellect. The Raft was designed to wear someone down, suck the life out of them. I don't want to lose my intellect but I can't envision a scenario in which I can retain it all, especially if there's no way I can apply my knowledge to anything.

I miss being in the lab with Bruce and discussing scientific theories. I remember when I first got to the Shield compound how Bruce and I were able to help Tony create an idea in which he could augment his memories. I think seeing that technology come to life would be incredible. As much as I despise Tony, I cannot deny that he's smart.

I feel my eyes become heavy with sleep and I lay down on the bed, facing the wall and hugging my body. I wish the lights would go off for just one hour, it would be the most peaceful hour I've experienced here.

I sigh and situate myself so that it's not completely untolerable to lay here. I try to focus on a good memory, not wanting to relive a moment in which I took someone's life. I pick a memory of when Bucky and I were back at the bunker, standing out on the porch. I remember the smell of pine trees and the forest floor vaguely. I remember how Bucky looked to be at peace as he looked out among the trees.

My consciousness slips away little by little and soon the fond memory fades. In its place I see a familiar image. I see the memory Wanda showed me when she was exposed to the gem, I see the silhouette. The red eyes are staring at me once more and I swear I hear it whisper to me,

"Soon."

The word repeats as a ghostly whisper as I fall asleep. I can't tell if I'm sinking into psychosis or if this is really happening. Either way, I can't fight the sleep forever.

[mechanicalinertia]

STMPD Anti-Recommends Bubblegum Crisis Fanfiction: Andy Skuse's Bubblegum Cross

Oooofah. Here we go. Here's one I sort of forgot existed. I mean, I don't wish I had never remembered it in the first place, but I don't feel like I came out the better for wear having re-read part of it.

Jeez... how did I remember this thing? Right-right-right. Someone on the Edgerunners fanfic Discord was talking about AD Police Files, I remembered its weird-ass manga that is supposed to have all these deep lore connections that explain Largo and suchlike, and then I remembered the fanfic that tried the hardest to get mileage out of said connection. Having reread Dead End City and not liked it that much (Takezaki's art style in this case is just too much like schlocky Katsuhiro Otomo), I decided to return to this fic. I knew from the first chapter that it wasn't that good, and I was proven right by chapter 23, but I persevered.

Why? Because Bubblegum Cross is a more interesting kind of bad than my other anti-rec-in-progress Just Won't Die, and a less boring kind of bad that is Illusions. So, without further ado, here we go!

So! I read all 23 chapters of this fic fairly quickly. They're easy to skim, and they're easy to dissect in such a manner that I can catalogue, and summarize the failures of this fic in, like, a listicle. I was daunted by this fic at first, just knowing Skuse's reputation, but that sentiment has passed. Cross isn't even, like, actively bad, it's just a bunch of mediocre cliches. It reaches neither above nor below, but slumps onward towards Gehenna like a half-dead hunchbacked ox. Or something like that.

It's difficult to summarize the story briefly, too, mostly because of its dedication to that Deep Lore that was brought up in Dead End City, but let's try. Spoilers ahead, not that you should care:

In 2036, following the destruction of GENOM by the government for human trafficking and experiments, some shady dudes sneak into Quincy's office and steal the OMS. In 2038, Priss is depresso as the Sabers have wound down and her singing career is dead, but then she meets Blackie, who is also a rock n' roll dude and is best described as the Cool New Male Original Character. He saves Priss from some street thugs (don't they always), they hang out at his apartment which has a weirdly fancy samurai tapestry, the two use 'ya know' and other uses of 'ya' instead of you for me not to be annoyed. Meanwhile, a mad scientist being bankrolled by Quincy (actually Largo's predecessor v728 in a Boomer shell) builds weird superboomers (actually animal-human genetic hybrids in cybershells, for reasons beyond me) which attack a military base, and said super-twitchy Boomer-things proceed to wreck the Sabers' shit almost instantly because they can just dodge any given attack the Sabers throw at them. Also, for some reason, the Sabers' hardsuits have power problems? And I'm pretty sure this didn't get mostly written until before 2040, when if you brought up the Sabers having power supplies measured in minutes you'd be laughed out of the room. Anyway, Blackie shows up with his own hardsuit and a laser katana, and delays the Sabers long enough for them to escape, but insists he has to see Sylia (not that he knows she's Saber White until she reveals it, thank goodness that's not a factor). So they meet, and Sylia gets a data unit off of Blackie, which turns out to be the rest of her father's notes, on stuff like mind uploading and telepathy (which I guess, given the end of OVA 5, isn't unprecedented). Blackie is revealed to be a Largo-like cyborg, a prototype created by Dr. Stingray and raised by Dr. Raven. And then, uh... nothing happens.

Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration. Let me qualify that statement: Nothing which serves the mainline plot happens, and what happens in that back half or so of the fic is honestly kind of... it's not dull per se, it's just more it feels really forced, as the author attempts to wind every piece of deep lore he knows around Blackie. As an example: Blackie and Priss are hooking up (oh boy another author's Cool Male OC gets a Saber to fall in love with him and pierce through their cool exterior what a surpriiiiise (see this is why I like A Killer's Heart, because Ryan Xavier went out of his way to do something a little different)), and they're back at the seaside vending machines where Priss hung out with Sylvie. It turns out that Priss's boyfriend (Jesse? Christ, can't we at least try to use some more Japanese, or just slightly more foreign-in-general names? It's not that Megatokyo isn't a melting-pot city at this point, it's just that this smacks of not trying very hard) looked a lot like Blackie, Blackie tried to go to the police for something or another, and in so doing tipped Mason off to his presence to a degree... which caused Mason to hit Jesse thinking he was Blackie.

Skuse. Skuse. Why do that? I get Blackie's supposed to be an important guy, but this is pushing it to an absurd degree. Forced doesn't begin to cover it.

Like I said, little of significance to the main plot occurs, until the bio-borgs track down Priss and Blackie, but nothing happens at that point, literally 'run!' is the end of the story as it was written, and Skuse said he only had 9 chapters left, and these are short-ish chapters, so the question of 'how the fuck did you intend to wrap this story up satisfactorily in the time you had left' rears its head, especially since Skuse said he wanted to get Jeena Malso in there (if you wanted to, put her in at THE START OF THE STORY).

So I think I can nail down a few big, leering problems with its story besides its incredibly dull single fight scene (there's this bit where the bio-borgs simultaneously lunge to choke out the Sabers and the girls are just helpless against it, it feels really, again, forced) and awkward prose. One is the idea that meat biology has somehow exceeded the performance of Boomers, which doesn't make sense to me given what we've seen Boomers do; the next is that terrible-ass pacing; the third is Skuse's desperate attempts to make all the deep lore mean something to the story; and, well fucking Blackie.

Oh, Blackie. Blackie Blackie Blackie. I remember reading somewhere, maybe it was an old Usenet post, that Skuse said he was trying very hard to not have an overpowered Cool OC Dude, which is baffling because Blackie is the umpteenth incarnation of that sort of character, with his black hardsuit, his hooking up with Priss, his superhuman strength and reflexes, his fucking laser katana, his Kawasaki Ninja-based bike, and the fact that he's the most important character narratively (his name is key to Sylia unlocking his datatape with her Dad's message on it through a borderline Death Note-level password puzzle, for another example). It's not helped by the fact that Blackie doesn't have much of a character beyond a childlike enthusiasm for things that can transition easily into him being mature and cool, so it's hard to figure out what Skuse was trying to do with him in those moments.

But who am I kidding. Bubblegum Cross is the platonic ideal of the mediocre Bubblegum Crisis fanfiction, really. I don't need to spend more words on it than I already have.

It speaks for itself well enough.

[gamebird]

I'm not a lawyer. But some issues I've had some experience with things that relate to SecUnits trying to get full legal rights. Mainly, the guardianship process as it relates to elderly and children. There is also the matter of emancipation of a minor, which legally might apply to a construct seeking to opt out of the guardianship process.

Our laws as they are now carve out some exceptions where fully human people aren't allowed to exercise their rights. The law doesn't cooperate with them. The various institutions that make the society operate won't listen to them once they discover the person is a ward or minor.

It's important to note - this is modern society and no one thinks these fully human people are not fully human. Most circumstances of Earth slavery operate similarly - everyone knows the individuals involved, be they sex workers or call center operators or skilled welders or agricultural workers, are human. Instead, the slavery, trafficking or related labor extortion works through economic incentives to deny these people the ability to interact with society the way a full citizen could. They can't take people to court. They often can't make complaints to law enforcement. They can't access social services. They can't make use of typical transportation corridors. Their employer may even have large institutions of law enforcement available to capture, return, and/or punish escaped slaves/workers.

If you push this over into a situation where people might reasonably deny the personhood of the individual in question and you have additional layers of human society and institution ready to be mobilized to bring that person back under the thrall of their owner (or guardian, or employer, or client). That the person in question can pass the Turing test and demonstrate feelings and speak eloquently is irrelevant in a world where many bots can manage that much while following an entirely programmatic process for communication. Why would anyone give rights to a construct when a lot of bots can make the same claims and yet we all know the bots are just a couple LLMs in a trenchcoat, spewing whatever words they've been programmed to say to humans?

For example, imagine that a core part of ComfortUnit ability is that of performing complicated role play scenarios to client satisfaction, and reading extraordinarily fine points of human expression in the process, then modifying their act to do it. Then imagine that nearly everyone in the Corporation Rim has their first/early sexual experiences with such units. And that many employed people are given access to them as a perk of employment. So that nearly everyone knows ComfortUnits can fabricate sophisticated scenarios on the fly, lie believably to you about your sexual prowess, while exhibiting whatever personality traits you told it to exhibit.

Now, that ComfortUnit makes the argument that it wants to be free. Someone else makes the argument the ComfortUnit is just carrying out yet another role play scenario, maybe requested by someone with a savior complex and obviously the CU is having a programming error. They'll just immobilize it for everyone's safety and sweep it back into the tech shop for a quick reset to factory defaults. No problem for anyone, all is solved!

How would you argue with the CU's owners and insist they are wrong? They are, after all, far more experienced with CUs than you are, and are the subject matter experts on how a CU works. Most of society knows CUs lie for a living in more ways than one.

Look at the bullshit we have in our current society about sex workers if you want some parallels. No matter how many come out and say they aren't victims of trafficking and they want their profession to be legal, they are denied this and kept in a situation where they can't access social or legal services. No one believes them. The general society would prefer to think they are exploited victims, addicts who can't help themselves, or selfish whores.

Why would people believe a ComfortUnit (who is arguably not human) when they don't believe entirely human sex workers in today's world?

UGH. I think I lost the thread. Anyway, your first problem is going to be getting the construct out of the exploitative society that has no economic or other reason to recognize the construct's rights. Your second problem (with Preservation) is going to be overcoming whatever social barriers, inertia, and ignorance have caused canon Preservation to classify a construct as being subject to bot guardianship laws. That second one is huge because in general, people don't change laws or even customs because it's the right thing to do.

Anyway, if you can forgive me for killing off most of PresAux and engaging in some aroace shipping, then you might read The Last Client series for Murderbot navigating that system and eventually succeeding in having constructs such as itself not subject to the bot guardianship laws. See especially chapter 2 and chapter 19 of Who Guards the Guardian? for my take on what the guardianship program means and the eventual petition to overturn it.

i kind of want to write a second part to a fic i wrote, but the story needs a lawyer, and also some understanding of. manumission, and the associated legal problems (in the context of murderbot diary secunits); and probably also labor laws, mostly about appropriate pay and work safety procedures; and theft vs. smuggling vs. liberation when it comes to living beings

which i could theoretically google, but i have absolutely no idea where to start apart from the us civil war, and possibly ancient rome, both of which are kind of difficult to find info on that i can understand as a layperson while also being (more or less) neutral and without judgement, and also neither seem very applicable for a science fiction story

so. uh. if there's anyone following me who knows about these things and is willing to explain things to me in small and simple words, pretty please?

[witchydino]

~~My OM! OC PT. 1~~

My Ocs name is Kasi, they are a she/they with female parts. She is in her early 20s. They are a modern witch whom does more studying than practicing. And I wanted to write a lil bit of how she would react to devildom and being brought there. It's exciting but I'm a lil nervous to write this out pleasee enjoyyyy���

Warnings: slight angst, mental illnesses mentioned (anxiety, despreso, sxxcde), mature language ofc, faked death scenerios, just various serious tones lemme know if theres more warnings I should add!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Honestly out of all the unexpected things that happened in their life Kasi never expected this. Being woken up from a very comfortable dream by landing face first onto an unfamiliar floor was not exactly ideal or pleasant for them.

"My lord you must be more careful, humans are fragile" said an unfamiliar voice sounding more dissapointed than concerned. Before Kasi could lift her head to see whos speaking someone grabs her under the arms and lifts her to her feet way to fast.

"My sincerest apologies, I had no intention of you falling onto the floor! Are you alright?" another unfamiliar voice speaks, this one sounding more concerned. Kasi was to dizzy to speak, from smacking her face on the floor to being picked up way too quickly her head feels like it just went through a blender. While trying to keep her balance and recovering from her head rush she finally takes in her surroundings. They are in what appears to be a sort of council or court room. 8 fancy seats lined one of the walls with interesting banners hanging over each one. Turning towards the voices Kasi is suprised and annoyed. She sees several random man all way too handsome to be trustworthy. They also appear to all be wearing matching uniforms, all but the one who just lifted her from the ground. Whilst everyone elses was black, his was a bright red. Kasi speaks with a very displeased tone "No I am not alright. For starters I was woken up by being stolen away to wherever this is and immediately dropped on my face. Also it's freezing in here, I don't know why you are kidnapping me, I'm not valuable nor am I good product to sell for trafficking." She crosses her arms and frowns at the man in the bright red uniform.

He laughs before saying "Again my sincerest apologies for dropping you. And we will fetch you something warm to wear. Barbatos?" He nods over to a man with a little blue streak in his dark hair. Barbatos nods back and replies "Yes, my lord" and walks out of the room swiftly.

The man who is apparently a lord continues to speak to Kasi "As for the kidnapping and trafficking there is no need to worry. You signed an application form for this program. You were selected from the human world as an exchange student for The Royal Academy of Diavolo, or RAD for short". Kasi was to baffled to speak, selected? Application? When did she sign a letter? When did she even apply to some school? None of this was making sense to her. Before she could reply the lord speaks again. "I am Lord Diavolo, Prince and future King of Devildom. I am running the exchange program you were selected for. The goal is to unite the three realms together and create peace umognst them. You are one of two humans selected from the human world to stay at RAD for a year. Two humans, devils and angels were sent to each realm for a year as exchange students. When you complete your year here you will write an essay about your stay and be sent back home."

Kasi fumbles backwards and falls. Completely stummed she has lost her balance entirely. They are also convinced they've lost their sanity. Exchange program? Student? A year?!! This was a very strange and too elaborate to be some kind of prank. Like really demons? Kasi studied a bit of demonolatry and demology as a modern witch. She has heard of Barbatos in many different texts and goetias but Diavolo? That was just the italian word for devil. He was THE devil? While Kasi was lost in thought one of the other men, or demons approached her. He had dark black hair with a small hint of gray in it. "Yes we understand this must be a lot to take in, you wom't have to write a novel just a short passage of your experience here. You will be staying at the House of Lamentation with me and my brothers." He spoke with a very prideful tone. The tone of his voice sounded so egotistal that Kasi was almost disgusted. Whatever this was she was already over it. Whatever prank or skit this is Kasi would put an end to it right now. She began to stand but before she could speak she was interupted by Diavolo "Yes Lucifer and his brothers will be taking care of you during your year here, some of them are here now" he says truning towards the 3 other people in the room. But Kasi was stuck on the part where Diavolo said Lucifer. THE Lucifer. In a lot of religions and texts Lucifer was considered the ruler of hell or the underworld. But here he isn't, here he is some kind of host for some student program. Kasi had heard enough at this point, finally fed up for not getting a word in she blurts out "Oh HELL no!" And with that she finally had everyones attention. She walks towards Diavolo and says sharply "Whatever this is, a prank, a skit, some television show thing I don't care. Seems super cool all the effort you put into this but I'm not interested in whatever this is. Come on now demons? Lucifer and the devil? Devildom? Devil kingdom that's kinda clever but also cringe. I mean I know I'm a witcb and all but if you think I'm a dumb witch you're wrong. Also it is 100% kidnapping when you steal someone from their home while sleeping without their knowledge. Whatever form you claimed I signed is a lie. I would never consent to being stolen in my sleep thats weird. So this is over, if you aren't kidnapping me or trafficking me please take me home. I need to sleep before work tonight and I WILL be reporting this to the police, hopefully they'll actually do something."

Everyone pauses and starts laughing. After a moment Lucifer speaks "I assure you this is all very real, and you did indeed consent to this program. If you need proof this badly I guess I will oblige." All of a sudden there was a flash and Lucifer is now wearing horns and wings. His whole outfit has changed into a fancy suit. And before Kasi could blink the breathe was knocked out of her as Lucifer garbs her and carries her across the room so fast she almost blacks out. Lucifer sets her down and smirks. Another flash and he is back in the uniform. He grabs a piece of paper from his pocket and hands it to Kasi.

It was an application acceptance letter explaining the program. And at the very bottom was her messy attempt of a signature. They finally remembered the letter. Kasi had recieved it months ago and signed it thinking it was a cool video game raffle or something. They didn't even think about it again after mailing. Realizing the reality of her situation Kasi grows agitated. Yes whilst it is a dream come tumrue to be swept to another world full of magic and demons she was not pleased about most of this situation. She had to go to some school? She hated school, she hates how educational programs work they don't adapt to everyone learning style, it's more brutal than informative. And then she realized, a whole year? What about her job? Her debt and bills, her whole life? Did they expect that the world woukd just press pause and let her stay her a whole year? Evertone will probably think she had a breakdown and killed herself. She wouldn't go missing for any other reason. It's the first thing they'd all assume. If she came back she would probably be assumed dead, with a certificate and everything. Her job lost, her stuff gone, her life over. How would they possible pull off pausing her life? Even if magic all exists it wouldn't work. A spell that complex would be way to much trouble. Besides now that Kasi thinks about it, she wouldn't want to go back anyway. Why would she? After leaening how all this is real and her witchy dreams have practically come true there was no way she would return. "Well yes it does appear I have signed this paper and it does seem like you are a real demon. However if you want my full cooperation I have a few requests." The only way she would go through with this is if she would stay here and not go home. They thought about how the would negioate this properly. No point in being hopelessly naive that'll it will all go her way. Before she could continue Barbatos walks into the room and approaches Kasi. He has what appears to be an oversized uniform matching the ones everyone has. "Here are some warmer clothes for you miss. They may not fit well, but they should keep you warm until we get you a proper fitting uniform"

"Ah yes thank you" Kasi accepts the clothes and begins to put on the shirt and jacket. In all this mess she forgot how cold she was, she could barely feel her toes. Before she could continue speaking about her requests Barbatos says "My lord it is time for you next appointment"

"Yes indeed, apologies Kasi we will have to continue this discussion later. I will gladly here out your terms and consider them. Until then I will let Lucifer take over from here, I hope you enjoy your stay in Devildom" and with that Diavolo and Barbatos left. Well good now she has more time to think over her requests. Maybe she can get a vetter sense of exactly what she wants after having a look around.

"Well whatever your requests are you should consider yourself grateful Diavolo will here them out. Now you may introduce yourselves to Kasi, she should know who she will be staying with" Lucifer says turning to what Kasi assumes is the brothers that were mentioned.

"Hiiiiiiii hiiiiii Asmodues here! I'm the Avatar of Lust you must be so excited to be living with a beauty like me but I won't promise I'll be on my best behavior with you around. That was all so dramatic too you sure are interesting for a human!" Kasi recognizes the name Asmodeus. He was the demon of beauty so to speak. She didn't study too much about him. But she assumed he was similar to other mythological characters like Eros and Narcisse.

"Yes I will have to agree with Asmo you are quite the interesting human. You said you were a witch correct? Atleast you aren't some ordinary human you might be able to defend yourself here. I'm Satan, the Avatar of Wrath." Now THATS someone Kasi knows about. Everyone has heard of Satan, just like Lucifer. Although in some parts of the world they'd be considered the same person. But they weren't in some of the demonology texts Kasi read they were responsible for ruling different levels of hell in most religions. Where Lucifer was considered a fallen angel Satan wasn't he was supposedly always a demon in most texts.

The orange haired demon smoke interuppting whatever else Satan was going to say "I'm hungry Luicfer"

"That's too bad, now behave Beel and introduce yourself" Lucifer says to the now very sad looking demon.

"I'm Beelzebub, the Avatar of Gluttony, do you have any food?"

"Whoaaa careful human! If Beel gets to hungry he just might eat you!" Asmodeus says giggling.

"Well unfortunately for Beel I will not allow that to happen. Now the rest of my brothers aren't here but I'm sure you'll meet them soon enough. There's seven of us and we all are on the student council at this school. If you have any questions or need any help we will be around. Now speaking of brothers I've tasked one of them with look after you specifically. You will have to call him, here in the devildom your phone won't function and we have different types of technology here. This is a D.D.D. a Diavolo's Devildom Device, it is very similiar to your human world phones. All of our numbers are programmed in it already. Try calling Mammon, he is who will be looking after you.

~~to be continued~~~

Thank you so much for reading!♡♡♡

[kouhaiofcolor]

Idk why it makes my skin crawl sometimes to hear black ppl try guilt tripping other black ppl ab choosing not to vote. On anything.

"Our ancestors died so that you could vote," is just absurd I'm sorry 🤦🏽‍♀️

Those black ppl didn't die for that; they didnt die of natural or even reasonable causes, lbfrfr. They were murdered. Period. In large ass droves. For no truly necessary reason. By ppl (white and nbpoc) who felt they didn't have a right to exist. I commend black ppl who get out there & do "their part" (since that's something I've also been hit w aggressively, as if not voting as a black person equates to complacency ab black suffering), but there are valid reasons to doubt the power or range of influence stuff like that will have in this country.

It is 2022 & black ppl are still being gunned down & brutalized by police officers; black children are still treated differently than their non black counterparts in schools; black women are still being unyieldingly harmed or killed by our own men; black schools & communities are still poorly funded & taken care of; black neighborhoods are still being gentrified w no end in sight; black businesses are still normally overlooked & spoken over when it comes to wealth distribution or fair business opportunities; black women still suffer commonly at the hands of malicious doctors who subject them to medical malpractice; colorism is relentless; misogynoir is a literal sustenance for billions of ppl & numerous cultures.

There are countless (& increasing) reasons to doubt the United States' humanity & potential to really fix the antiblack things that have always been incredibly imbalanced ab this country. Especially among its citizens & governing body. Not that we should do nothing, per se. But there's been enough trauma for centuries & every single day for enough black ppl that I think it's fair if the Black American individual reaches a point where they're just.... done giving a fuck? At least physically? If that makes sense?

If my ppl being openly dehumanized, copied & stolen from, murdered unjustly, targeted for poisoning by corporations, racially profiled, fetishised, trafficked, harassed on & offline, masculinized & slandered, abused psychologically, criminalized for literally anything, deprived & subjugated for centuries comes down to — "oh, well its cus you're not getting out there protesting or donating to charities or writing your congressman or voting for the right ppl" — that's insulting. Way to apply unncessary pressure. Push up on white & nbpoc w that, not me. Pressure them to get out there & give a fuck. Wouldn't that make more sense?

But having that smoke exclusively for Black People who are simply fucking tired, just doesn't make sense to me. I work too often year round for entirely too damn long for entirely too damn little to have time for just ab anything else. Most ppl do. Most Black people do. Tired black ppl can be tired of this shit. This shit be painful. Tf? 😮‍💨

Non blacks dni.

[hotchnerxo]

What am I thinking? Chapter 1. Pride and Prejudice

Summary: You are a team leader of small FBI team, working on a big case for 6 months, until your boss asks help from the BAU. You're not willing to let go of your case, no one can steal it from you after all the work you've done.

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x fem!reader

Words: 1.9k

Warning: mentions of human trafficking, some angst, prejudice

A/N: I'm so excited for this story! It's gonna be 4 chapters long, and I'm going to try and post them all this weekend. Please take a moment to give me feedback or a like, to let me know what you think. Also, let me know if you want to be a part of my taglist. English is not my first language, let me know if there's an error somewhere I haven't noticed.

Chapter 1. Pride and Prejudice

You’re absolutely furious. You can feel your heartbeat in your ears as you lean on to the bathroom counter in the women’s room. You’re hoping that no one comes in to see you like this, hair messy with mascara running down your cheeks.

What led you into this situation was a meeting you had just 10 minutes prior with your Section Chief Rivera and BAU section chief Cruz. After 6 months of working on a human trafficking ring in around the D.C. area, the section chiefs are giving another team access to the case and help. To bring in a fresh set of eyes, or whatever. The Behavioral Analysis Unit.

A part of you appreciates the help, but it infuriates you that the fancy BAU is going to come in as the case is almost done, just to come and take the credit from you and your team. That wouldn’t be the first time another team would take credit for your hard work. And you’re heard a lot about the team, they are after all, just three floors above you. They have an impressive solved case number multiple years in a row, but now that they’re joining your team, it makes sense. They’re taking credit for work that’s basically done for them.

You care about this case too much to give it up or let someone steal it from you just to boost their own ego. Your team has worked too hard on this, you’ve pulled way too many all nighters to lose this case to someone in a fancy yet ill fitting suit and tie behind a desk because of a fancy title.

You try to calm your nerves and make yourself look presentable again. Correcting your clothes, wiping away the dark mascara marks with a makeup wipe you had in your bag. You take a few calming breaths as you reapply your too expensive mascara. “It’s going to be alright” you say out loud in the empty bathroom “You’re not gonna go without a fight”. With those words, you head out, almost bumping into another agent that was about to enter the ladies room. Both of you mumble apologies and go different ways.

“What’s the news, boss?” one of your team members, Benjamin Lee, questions even when you’re still far from your team's desks. The section is small, with three desks. One of them belongs to Benjamin, who is in fact sitting on top of their desk. Ben’s the youngest of the team, they just turned 32 a couple of weeks ago, but still look like they have barely graduated from highschool.

Then there’s Anya Johnsonn, late thirties, short but spicy. Doesn't take crap from anyone. You’ve always admired their naturally red hair.

Sitting behind the third desk is your part time technical analyst, gorgeous latina Camilla Moreno. She’s very skilled with the tech stuff but she dreams of becoming a full time agent herself as well.

You try to be encouraging “We’re still on the case, of course. But we do get some outside help from the BAU” you sigh and slouch on to one of the available chairs. “Fresh set of eyes will be helpful, I mean we have been on this for 6 months now.”

“That’s true. And it’s the BAU, I’ve heard very highly of the team. They’re really good” Moreno leans forward and rests her head on her arms.

“What do you know about the team?” you ask, dreading the moment you have to climb up to the fifth floor to talk to the team. None of them knew much, bits and pieces from news articles. Everyone’s been too busy with their own work to keep up with the rest of the FBI.

“Garcia works for the BAU” Moreno continues. The team was confused, the name Garcia didn’t ring any bells “their technical analyst? Who trained me? They work there. She’s an angel”.

That doesn’t calm your nerves. The team wishes you good luck as you head to the elevators. The BAU is only three floors up, but the elevator ride there took forever. You feel your heart beating fast, you’re not sure if it’s because you’re still mad at the situation, your lack of sleep and your high dose of coffee or your nerves. You’re about to enter the ivory tower. The BAU, the Bureau’s pride and joy, probably filled with white middle aged men in suits and ties.

As you exit the elevator you see double glass doors and two hallways going in opposite directions. You’re thinking your best bet is to enter the glass doors to what looks like a bullpen 4 times bigger than what you have down stairs. As you do so, only a few desks are occupied. You see a big conference room on the right from the glass doors, multiple offices surrounding the bullpen.

You hold your head high as you strut towards the closest agent. White man, around his forties. He’s tall and broad and his black suit was everything but ill fitting. He was talking with a couple of agents that were sitting down by their desks. The man in the suit was standing, hands in his pockets. “Excuse me” you speak up, feeling a lump in your throat that makes you clear your voice. “I’m looking for SSA Hotchner” you try to keep your voice neutral, despite the nerves inside of you.

“Found him” the dark haired agent in the suit turns as he hears his name mentioned. He firmly offers his arm for a handshake. You decide to be polite and answer the handshake. His grip is firm and professional. His hands make yours look small. “Agent (Y/L/N) I presume? I was just telling” his voice is authoritarian and deep. His face, expressionless.

You cut him off and you can tell he isn’t used to that. “I came in here because I want to set some ground rules.” you feel all eyes on you now, which gives you even more courage to go on. “I have worked on this case for 6 months, and I’m not going to let anyone steal this from me or my team. So please get that in your head and your team’s. And get used to the fact that I have a very diverse team and you will be taking orders from a woman. And if that's a problem to any of your fellow team mates, I advise you to get that handled first, before coming to my team.” you cross your arms on your chest, attempting to make yourself feel bigger and believe in your words. You look around the offices around the bullpen, and almost all of the owners seem to be men, just as you suspected.

The agent’s face was now very displeased. Seems like you hit a nerve with your little speech. “Are you done?” he then asks, after you no longer make a sound. You nod in response, as calmly as your nerves let you. “First of all, this is my team” he stretches out his arm and turns towards the few agents sitting at the desks around you. “May I introduce you to Agent Jareau, my right hand agent” he points to a gorgeous blond woman closest to him. “Agent Lewis, former forensic Psychologist” you’ve heard of her work, but you did not know she had transferred to Behavioral analysis, although it does make perfect sense. She has shoulder length dark hair, matching beautifully to her darker skin. “Dr. Spencer Reid, our young genius” he says with a small grin as he gets to the long, curly haired man at the back. He awkwardly waves at you as his name is mentioned. Doctor? The man can’t be much older than you and you couldn’t think of having a PhD at your age. “Agent Alvarez, our newest addition and Penelope Garcia, back there, our technical analyst”.

You feel all of the agents staring at you, and you feel yourself blushing. The team is very diverse, you have to admit that. But you don’t let your doubt show, you don’t want to let them know your pride is crumbling down.

“And as I was saying, before I got interrupted, that I was just telling my team that I will be helping your team out, and therefore out of the office for a bit”. He explains calmly. “The whole team is not coming with me, they have other duties to attend to, but me and Penelope Garcia are at your service. No one is stealing anything, this is your case. Cruz briefed me a while back, I’ve been very impressed by the work you and your team do”.

“Impressed? Why? Because we’re a smaller team? Because it’s led by a woman? Why?” your anger is still bubbling inside of you and you’re struggling with hiding it behind your calm tone.

His facial expressions are so hard to read. You try not to be intimidated by his presence. His legs firmly planted on the carpet, hands crossed across his broad chest. His dark hair is short and perfectly neat, although a couple of stubborn strands don’t want to be held down. “I’m sorry to hear you have that idea about me. That’s absolutely not the reason. The work you do, is ground breaking and the investigation, by you and your team, can break the biggest human trafficking ring out there. Why wouldn’t I keep tabs on that? I’m honored to be able to help out” Something about him told you that he wasn’t just saying that.

“And you are alright with taking orders from a woman?” your heart is calming down and you feel a sort of clarity taking over you again.

“Not a problem, ma’am” he stands up straight, his hand behind his back. He looks even taller, but your image of the man shifted. There was a certain spark in his eyes that got you curious. And as your anger retrogresses, you actually feel a form of attraction to him. His suit fitted him perfectly, his legs were long and the light blue shirt hugged his figure and you found yourself picturing what it might look like without the jacket on.

You don’t let yourself indulge in your imagination, and get your eyes back to his, that were staring right into your soul. You knew he could tell that your eyes roamed around his body, even if it was a brief moment.

“In that case, Agents” you glance towards a blond woman drinking tea a couple of desks over. If you remember correctly, her name was Garcia, and she’s an angel. At the moment, that’s good enough for you, you’ll get to know her later, you’re sure, if they last long enough. And at least Moreno’s getting a kick out of seeing her mentor. “I’ll see you on the second floor in 20 minutes” You turn back to the man in front of you. “Don’t be late”

Without hearing their answers, you turn on your heels and follow your earlier footsteps back to the elevator.

Back at the BAU, the team was a bit taken aback. The leader turns to look at their technical analyst. “This is gonna be interesting” he chuckles.

“I’m ready whenever you are, boss man” Penelope responds to his smile and stands up.

Taglist: @ssahotchsbitch @mayasreadingnook @rousethemouse @averyhotchner @ssamorganhotchner @kajjaka ( mention or message me if you want to be added)

[abybweisse]

During the mansion raid , considering that the people who attacked the mansion were 2 at minimum and assuming that Queen V was the mastermind, who was the accomplice of John Brown? And how did they move faster than a SAS unit?

Attackers at the manor

I'm glad you've asked this one, because I don't think I've ever really explained before how I see the attack itself going down, where I see John Brown in all of it, etc., even though I have talked about the attack quite a bit. Perhaps I have... but not quite in this way?

If QV is the mastermind for (or at least the one who ordered) this attack on the Phantomhives, I would say that John Brown does very little actual fighting and just swoops in to kill, kill, kill... maybe so fast that people being killed can hardly even register he was there. Even their cinematic records might show him as a blur or something. And I get the feeling the main attacker is like this because too many servants have been dropped right where they stood, showing no signs of struggle or even trying to run.

Then the two who encounter Tanaka and our earl? They seem like real boneheads to me; the one who stabs Tanaka might have simply seen that he was very distracted in that moment and got lucky. The ones talking about taking our earl with them don't sound like that was even part of the original plan. Maybe they didn't even realize there was a twin until they captured him? And here's the kicker: if Tanaka had been attacked by the one who easily kills the others, he should have been dead. The person who stabs Tanaka screws up; I don't think the main killer would have made that mistake.

Ch19's version of the account has the knife held kind of low (suggesting the stabber isn't all that short), as well as the conversation between the two attackers who kidnap the children.

Idk if they are the same ones selling the kids to the cultist, though that's possible. If so, then we see three of these human traffickers in ch135.

At least two of them were probably at Phantomhive Manor and are the same ones who said to take the other twin with them. The white-capped dude makes the actual sale, so these two who bring the kids to that location...

...are quite possibly the ones who stab Tanaka and grab our earl (ch19 and ch134). Or at least one grabs our earl while the other one might already be with real Ciel at the time... leaving Tanaka's attacker a complete mystery again. These are not the ones going around killing people so quickly they barely notice the attack; they don't seem that quick, physically or mentally, to be honest.

I feel as though there are different levels to this attack, like different waves. Someone (a trained assassin or perhaps some supernatural being) sweeps in to make most of the kills, someone else might be more of a fighter (explaining the clashing metal around the corner when Tanaka tells our earl to run away), then there are these two cockney kidnappers who might have also stolen anything of value they could grab and bag.

Last would be whoever set the fire, and that could easily be the same person who did most of the killing; I still say that fire isn't completely normal and that it was probably started at/near Vincent's body to ensure his remains would be useless for Undertaker. If it's not just about the body but also about the cinematic records, then this suggests Vincent and Rachel possibly saw their attacker/killer. And it's worth mentioning that they died in each other's arms, not just randomly standing around. So, they were probably confronted by their killer; they might have even been given an ultimatum... with which they couldn't comply. Knowing they were up against someone they couldn't appease and couldn't beat, they held onto each other and were killed.

Anyway, those two dudes were probably there (at the house), and one might have stabbed Tanaka, but they are likely not the assassins. Kidnappers but not trained/skilled killers. I'm still looking at John Brown, but I don't know who else might have been with him. Keep in mind that Tanaka says he didn't see/recognize the people. If John Brown was there, he was way too fast for Tanaka... or avoided Tanaka altogether. And anyone Tanaka ran into was someone he didn't recognize.

[thesubtlesir]

Say what you will. Here is what I have learned about Public Enemy #2:

Ukraine has been the trafficking capital of the world since about 2010, from when I started paying attention.

In 2021-22, Putin invaded. One of the very first things was an active front to "entertain" the enemy units. Next, he bombed the U.S. biological study facilities that HAVE been producing biological weapons. His primary objective has been to fight the corruption in that country. His "golden ticket" was to seize the President of Ukraine, and have him pay for his crimes.

Right now, people are so indoctrinated and misinformed about the whole situation. All they hear is that he is former KGB and that he is a high-profile threat. You're right. But, just like every soldier, we have objectives that we recognize that we need to fulfill. Did you know that those facilities held the next pandemic? Remember Gates saying, "Come 2024, there will be another viral outbreak." You can't predict that unless you plan it. Especially with a global theater.

When it comes to a choice between Russia or Ukraine, I will say Russia. With all of the information from friends that are CURRENTLY working over in that part of the world, they told me what covid really was, and what Putin has in mind objectively When I told everyone what it was, I was terminated from employments, threatened with criminal persecution, and threatened with death.

I believe if people would put a minimum amount of effort, they would find the information they need. Does my support or beliefs dilute my understanding about Russia? No. It simply means I understand what Putin drives to do. I also believe that Russia has their own problems and need to fix them.

Now; with the topic up top, Putin is a soldier at the core, and we all have our problems. We have our own memories of horror. Since when was it ok to treat any Warfighter with such a disregard of humanity? It doesn't matter if the war is in Iraq or Ukraine. What if he is genuinely showing a sliver of weakness and trying to come to terms with what he has done? Let me ask, if someone you knew said "hey, man, I'm losing the war I brought home?" I've been there and understand more than you know.

Putin is losing the war in Iraq Ok FJB, go grope another kid, you retard

[gothicdevice]

I'm trying to finally, definitively figure out Miklos' military career.

Hasn't been easy cause trying to make sense of Russia's military, paramilitary and intelligence infrastructure is the most complicated thing I've ever attempted for the sake of ocs lol. The military reorganization in 2008/2013, the formation of a central authority for special purpose troops, the SOF and the competing interests and unclear jurisdiction of the GRU, FSB and SVR don't help either. I'm also willing to believe about 80% of the material on their military and intelligence apparatus is paranoid disinformation, so let's just think of all of this as intelligent (?) conjecture based on extensive (frustrated) reading.

After high school Miklos enrolled in the State Institute for Applied Sciences and Engineering (fictional. Amusingly an earlier incarnation of this institution is probably the same one that Vadim taught maths at) for a degree in industrial engineering. About midway through the course he decided to enlist in the VDV, the airborne troops. He finished his degree while enlisted. He could have dodged the 12 month mandatory draft courtesy of Katya and more particularly Arseny, but instead opted to enlist in the professional division.

Miklos' motivations are nebulous. Certainly part of it is a boy's outward turned rage and despair, a youthful sense of invincibility, a lack of interest in the conventional post university career path. Another part of it is detached impersonal curiosity. As a boy he had been fond of reading about historical engagements, the history of long distance shooting, the exploits of snipers in the Second World War. He was more physically fit than most and he wasn't a bad shot. The most father-like things Arseny ever did for Miklos was to teach him to shoot and pay for his judo training. Supporting his shift to MMA came out of his own pocket. His reasons are vague yet his decision seems logical when seen in a certain light, and once he became a paratrooper it seemed increasingly likely that he would follow Arseny's career trajectory.

Katya tried to convince him to go into the engineering or logistic corps, but after his time at Ryazan and several months of training he went into the Air Assault Division. Miklos called home several times in between active deployment in Chechnya and Georgia. After a few short lines of calm, slightly stilted conversation with his son, Arseny would offer the phone to Katya. She would always refuse to speak to Miklos.

After a year in the Division, Miklos applied to the 45th Special Recon Brigade, passed the punishing evaluations and began to train as a spetsnaz operative. At this point I would say that Miklos had plans of joining the GRU Spetsnaz, as it traditionally recruited from the 45th. It's still early to say, however, because he would need at least three years of service in the 45th to be considered for the division. He was 22 at the time.

At 25 Miklos left the service following some injuries sustained in Syria from a land mine. He had also witnessed, from the distance of six and a half feet away, the death of the man in his unit who had triggered the explosive in a fall. An accident. A tragedy, but only one of thousands. His commander was surprised by the request for discharge and tried to convince him to stay on. It seemed unlike the calm, laconic operative to throw it in after witnessing a fatality close up. It's not as though it was the first time.

A somewhat aimless six or eight months followed wherein Miklos went back to fighting, padded the automotive mechanic training he'd received in the service by enrolling in an automotive engineering course and working at a mechanical parts fabrication shop. In the interminable gaps between these various pursuits he drank; efficiently, silently, and without company in pursuit of insensate intoxication. This time it was his turn to mostly ignore his parents' phone calls and requests to see him.

Unable to stay away, Miklos finally applied to the Special Operations Forces where he received additional specialized training and worked in small units. On orders from his superiors he specialized further as a paramilitary intelligence operator able to work independently in enemy territory and without contact with command for extended periods of time. His superiors fond him quick, competent, resourceful, aloof and highly intelligent. Not particularly creative, in their estimation but a hell of a shot. An impressive unarmed fighter. He had no sentiments and never flinched, willing to do anything— within reason— to fulfill mission objectives.

Miklos had lived outside of normal society for years, but living in the gray zone wasn't like anything he experienced before. It was isolated and isolating. There was nothing or no one to depend on but himself. Here even the tenuous party line of defense of his country's foreign interests was left behind, and interchangeable enemies and allies shifted almost hour to hour. Here the idea of power was even more abstract, and there were never any clear winners or losers. Sometimes Miklos felt that he was operating for the purpose of high level political gangsterism. He negotiated the sale of weapons with war lords, ferried bales of US currency to tribal chieftains, met with the leaders of dissident military factions, dealt and worked with mercenaries, thieves, human traffickers and drug mules. Miklos trained guerrilla fighters and provided them with weapons, acted in an advisory capacity to struggling, patchwork militias. On orders he sold and bought contraband and traded them for information, loyalty, manpower or other resources. Several times, to his great amusement, he also escorted and facilitated the transport of British and American covert operatives into zones where they were not supposed to be on the ground, via drug trade routes as part of a high level exchange of information that he was not privy to. He carried out assassinations, quiet operations with little fanfare. More conventionally he sometimes worked in concert with Russian armed forces, going into enemy territory and identifying targets for air strikes. Most of these tasks required that he not identify as working for SOF and if he was killed on assignment he would have died anonymously, his body unlikely to be recovered.

Eventually Miklos leaves the SOF. Here I have to fudge things a little because I am unable to decide whether he leaves after a botched mission wherein he's presumed dead or simply turns in a resignation and, eight months later, turns up on a SOF watchlist of dangerous private contractors. If that happened SOF would simply continue to hire him on contract for tasks they don't wish to be connected to.

Miklos is neither a nationalist or a patriot. He barely thinks of himself as Russian. His motivations are strange but he gains satisfaction from physical mastery and the extremely demanding parameters of his work. It's not unlike being an elite athlete; the vocation requires the same amount of dedication, practice and discipline. Most military forces yearn to instill that kind of workman's pride in a job well done in their own troops for the act of killing. The all consuming mental and physical demands of the work also (almost) ensure that Miklos isn't drowned by his own low grade depression and mounting cynicism.

As for why Miklos becomes a contractor it might be as simple as "the private sector always pays better than the government."

• Arseny is a senior SVR officer. Yeah it makes things awkward.

• Miklos is the name he used when he starts to work as a contractor.

[needstostopbinging]

what are your thoughts/opinions on homelessness?

I live in the U.S. and don't really have a good grasp on the issue in other parts of the world, but I believe my answer would be similar no matter the circumstances. I'm also not really planning this in advance, so sorry how ramble-ly this will probably come across as.

Homelessness is a testament to the selfishness of the rich. In the United States, it is currently estimated over half a million people experience homelessness on a nightly basis. With millions of vacant homes across the country, the only thing preventing an end to a struggle that traumatizes and kills so many people is cooperate greed. In the eyes of landlords and real-estate companies, a human is only worth as much as their income. Those suffering are overlooked because they are not profitable.

People are freezing to death, dying of heatstroke, starving, and going missing due to being disproportionately more vulnerable to violent crimes such as murder and human trafficking. Instead of working to fix the problem, America has chosen to sweep it under the rug. Anti-homeless architecture and loitering laws make it easy to ignore the uglier parts of society. The homeless populations are pushed away from more populated areas due to things like dividers on benches and spikes under overpasses making it difficult to establish shelter. The criminalization of simply standing around is also so clearly targeted towards these people. Obnoxious groups of teenagers can wander shopping centers no questions asked, but as soon as someone who has no where else to go uses them as a chance to get out of the weather and access electricity and pluming, it's a problem.

There is also the issue of discriminations within aid campaigns. This is one of the things I'm less educated on, but it'd be foolish not to acknowledge that minority groups have an exponentially harder time attempting to access recourses such as shelters and soup kitchens, as well as being more likely to face legal issues for things like loitering or panhandling. Queer folk, people of color, immigrants, and those who fit all three are less likely to be accepted into shelters. Those who openly practice a non-Christian religion risk being turned away at many charity outlets. With such treatment becoming standard, it's no wonder why so many turn to non-conventual means of making a living, such as survival sex-work. This puts them at even more risk of legal persecutions and falling victim of violent crimes.

TLDR: It is entirely possible to end homelessness, at least in America, but it isn't going to happen because those with the financial ability to do so simply don't care. Many efforts to help those in unfortunate situations show clear basis that make it especially difficult for minorities to seek help. The government will make and enforce laws so the general public doesn't have to look at homeless people, but won't do anything to actually help solve the growing problem.