#I'm surprised so far at the results of my how many followers do i seem like i have poll

[grimandghoulish]

.

[niuniente]

Dear people over America. I woke up to this current political news which is devastating to say the least to minorities, women and the trans community on the other side of the globe. I wanted to do what little I can to help and ease your minds.

I'm a psychic. I have been doing divination (oracle readings) for 25 years. I've got a high success rate and my reviews on my store are 5/5 (you can see this for yourself). I asked the cards for clarification for all this; why is HE the president now, and how does the nearby future look for women and trans communities.

Please note that these are collective readings of the topic and might not correlate with your own personal experiences or how things are in your home state! So take only what resonates with you and ignore the rest. (If you wish to have a personal reading, that is possible; in that case, click here)

Why Trump is the president?

This result didn't surprise me because for the past 3 years I have heard many American people, who have had a near-death experience (NDE) to say that if they have gotten a view of America's future, Trump has always appeared as being elected for the 2nd time - but only for the 2nd time.

The Spirit tells me that Trump's personal lesson is to learn to see other people's points of views. That's why he chose such a position in society, where he would need to consider many different people from different backgrounds and life situations. He needs to understand how his actions affect others.

However, he is miserably failing with this personal lesson (unless something happens and he somehow completes it now in the next 4 years). Instead of going for harmony and seeing everyone's point of view, his priority is Power. With a capital P. That's what he desires, that's what he wants (MAGA movement is based on this; power back to America, America needs to be a powerful, unyielding boxer in the global ring - only a win matters).

I asked why he wishes for this Power and it's simply because of the power's sake. He loves to be in control. He loves to feel powerful. You all are asked, as much as possible, to detach from this drama he is causing because it indeed seems like he is close to a cult leader and loves to bask in this power. He loves the idea that he can command nukes and one of the most powerful countries in the world. To get this, he is ready to cause any kind of a shitstorm - after all, he has not learned to consider others, except maybe only his own family members.

This correlates with his views of an autonomic power, where he gets all the power and can be a dictator. There's no one more powerful person alive in the world than a dictator. Anyone following him is likely learning this same lesson of empathy and understanding, and failing in it. They all want to be the King of the Hill and by following someone who already is, makes them feel like they are, too. This is all drama for dramas sake because it makes them feel more powerful.

TL;DR: Trump's life lesson is to learn to respect and honor everyone despite their backgrounds and views. What a better way to do that as a president of a nation with so many nationalities and stories of people in it. But so far he has failed miserably in this lesson and has chosen blind worship of power instead. Stirring drama is his tactic to gain more power and followers. Detach from his and his followers' drama as much as you can; block, ignore, move on. His reign will eventually come to an end.

Future for Women in The US?

A toxic masculine energy wishes to control women of America and this is not related to any single individual. The rise of misogyny is real and tangible, and women are part of this "other party" the power hungry men do not want to contemplate. It's His way or No Way at all.

This will make women turn more and more away from men, which HOPEFULLY make these men see that in order to actually have a woman and a family they so much yearn to have is to love women. Not to hate them as they now do. Not to see them as assets or items or rewards of a job well done of being a man. More and more women will choose not to have kids, choose not to date or get married, and they will choose even more carefully men who are on their side, walking next to them as a unit.

In a way or another, women WILL fight and take their power back. Peace will not be an option. If this fighting can't be done visibly, it will be done in secrecy; helping other women out, warning them of bad men and risks, aiding others to better safety and to a better life. Mind you that this also covers trans women; there are trans women and trans allies in cis women who will be willing to help. Women will turn towards one another. Men who follow this old paradigm of controlling women will be met with women's bare teeth but other women will be met with peace. I don't see anything particularly related to women who follow misogyny but I imagine with this much mental energy here, women will not abandon them but educate them. It is possible some of these women, who support this kind of regime, will later change their minds when they see how it negatively affects them, their parents, sisters, aunts, friends, cousins, coworkers etc. Some women will die in order to wake others up.

Women will turn their nurturing energies - the one this regime wants to turn towards men and babies - towards themselves. Artistic expression and expressing their feelings through any form of art will be significant. Pay attention to what kind of art women do now - it's going to be directly reflected in what's going on now. Women seem to also be looking more after their bodies, keeping themselves safe. This low level energy of control and forcing women is echoes of the past and women of America, collectively and mainly, wish not to partake in it any longer.

When it comes to men, these men who have thought that Trump will deliver them a woman to look after them and have their babies will see that it's not the case. And, if it is, the marriage is not happy and many women will fight like a trapped wild cat, scratching the eyes out of any of the people who want to trap them. This will be genuinely boggling to them and might make them angrier but their lessons are to understand what human rights are and what it means to respect others as your equal.

TL;DR: Women will turn away from misogyny and forced motherhood more and more, turning their attention and care towards themselves and other women (trans included) and leaving misogyny men angry because they have not learned to love women (not your job to teach them this, sisters!). Artistic expressions in all forms among women will be very high as it will be a way to express and deal with these current energies. Women will be even more pickier with the men they date and get married with, or even interact overall with - as they should. Anyone who wants to rip you off from your human rights is not your ally or a good partner. This will not be a shocker to anyone else but the men who believe in misogyny, as they will not get wives or girlfriends any easier - it only gets harder.

Future for Trans People in the US?

Trans people in the USA (not every state, mind you) need to "erase" their existence. Like I saw someone saying here; if you know a trans person in the USA now, no, you don't. True identities will be hidden for the safety's sake and people will flock more into underground, smaller communities. Those communities will continue to exist and support one another. This is not a total erasure but it's erasure in a way that it is better to choose carefully who really knows your true identity and who are the people to whom you are performing the identity of your physical body. So trans men will pretend to continue to be women on the outside, trans women will pretend to continue to be men on the outside but in their own safe spaces and supportive communities, they can be who they truly are.

Now, trans communities and rights will not be erased. There can be a momentary setback and time when trans people have to carefully hide their identities for their own sake but it will not be permanent. Trans people, like women's collective, WILL FIGHT. Trans people will NOT allow themselves and their fellow trans people to be erased. The time when "transpeople didn't exist because this is woke idealism", as red-wing misogyny says, WILL NOT return. People who wish for these times to come back have fallen from the evolution of humanity. Trans people will not stop existing. They will fight for their rights till the end of the world. Liberation seems to be near and this looks, in America, to be the final dark hour before the new dawn. Hang in there!

The Spirit and the cards promise that trans people will get their freedom. There's no returning back to the time when their existence was forbidden. There's a flow of prosperity and lots of freedom in the future cards so any trans person there reading this - DO NOT GIVE UP. This is temporary. This will pass. You need to play with these nasty rules for a little while but it will pass.

There's a promise of balance in work and home life, so acceptance of trans people both in private areas of their life (home, friends, communities, online blogs etc.) as well as in public (school, work, society, hospitals, other people). That kind of a future is coming, also as we move more into the Era of Aquarius, which supports human rights, different gender and sexual identities without judgment, liberation of gender and sexuality and thus the human expression itself.

TL;DR: Trans people need to lay low for now and hide their true identities for their own safety. If you know a trans person, no, you do not. They will find the support they need in their own communities but trans people will not be erased. Trans people WILL fight and there is going to be a time in the future when they can openly (once again) be who they truly are, both at home and outside home. Flow of prosperity and freedom is in the cards as a promise of the future and these energies are massive. This is only the old paradigm's final efforts to stay alive as it croaks and is forgotten. American humanity will evolve to respect trans people's human rights, too.

EVERYONE SCARED IN THE USA, KEEP GOING! This is only a temporary moment of night.

[scribblesofagoonerr]

Cos' sometimes sleep isn't enough anymore | Inner Demons

⟫ Alphabet Challenge, C - Cos' sometimes sleep isn't enough anymore

Pairings: leah williamson x teen reader, arsenal wfc x teen reader

I guess I'm on a roll tonight? 3 parts posted so far, I'm not even sure how many parts this will end up with but, um, yeah, i hope you like this one and it's not to heavy to read.

Absolutely none of it's proof-read so yet again it could seem jumbled up or not even make sense but umm I can't sleep and my brain is overthinking at 4 am so this is the result of it :)

Thanks for all the continuous love and support on this so far!

Waking up in hospital, you think over your thoughts about what happened and wonder if you really did mean to do it?

tw: heavy angst, talks of SH, MH, suicide and death.

Bright lights and slow repetive beeps followed by the sterile smell of a hospital enrivoment.

That's how you knew it was bad when you woke up.

You really hadn't mean for it to get to that point though, you made the mistake of cutting deeper than you should have and now you have landed yourself in the hospital.

This was definitely not your smartest move you had pulled.

Something tells you it wouldn't be so easy to hide your pain behind a fake smile now.

You felt the wet tears covering your own hand along with the heavy weight of another body practically leaning on you.

"Geez, did somebody die in here or something?" Was the first words you spoke since you had fallen unconcious and of course, it was with your usual cocky teenage atttiude.

Dark humour has always been your go to, you hate to show any type of vulnerability.

"Y/N/N" Leah voice croaks in surprise as she sits bolt up right to look straight at you. "You're awake, finally!" she immediately breaks down into sobs again as she reaches towards you and wraps her arms around you.

"Yeah, I'm awake but there's no need to cry about it" You struck back with the same cocky atittude, that drove your team mates crazy but loved you never the less. "Seriously though, did someone die? Cos' you're crying that much right now that I'm begining to think so" you note, hiding your own pain behind the smile.

Just keep smiling, nobody will ask questions.

Everyone will think you're fine.

"Seriously, Y/N?" Leah is quick to smack you around the back of the head as she's now giving you one of her famous glares, one that you knew all too well. "You scared me to death, you little shit!" she admits, showing her vunerability.

"Ow. Ow-- Hey, you can't hit me, I'm fragile right now" You can't help but pout and hope for sympathy from the older blonde girl.

"Fragile, huh? You seem fine enough to be making jokes" Leah remarks as she continues to glare at you.

"Come on, you know that dark humour is the way to go sometimes Le" You grin at the blonde, who doesn't seem to have the same idea.

See? Totally easy to hide your pain.

Leah just stares at you in disbelief you're really cracking jokes right now, "You're unbelieve sometimes, Y/F/N" she mutters aloud.

"Uh oh, your using my full name, am I in trouble now?" You can't help to continue with your cocky, I don't give a shit attitude never the less you had worried all of your team mates like you did.

"Right now I'm just glad that you're alive," Leah admits as she rewraps her arms around you and squeezes you gently. "But if you ever scare me like that again then we'll be having a very different conversation!" she tells you, sternly.

"Okay" You wince slightly as the tightness of the hug that the blonde was very reluctant to let go off you. "Seriously, Le. I'm fine now, why are you still crying so much?" You ask, confused.

"I'm crying because I... I thought I had really lost you this time" Leah speaks her thoughts aloud as she still holds onto you like you would disappear all over again. "When I found you, like the... like the way I did, I thought you was going to die" she adds in, quietly.

Your own amused smile starts to falter as you glance down at the bandages wrapped around your arm. "I'm sorry... I am really sorry for scaring you like that" You apologise quietly, starting to realise the seriousness of it all.

You must've had all of your team mates so worried and right now you were only acting like a total jackass about it.

"I was so scared" Leah replies as she pulls away from hugging you before she readjusts to move onto the bed beside you. "There was so much blood, Y/N/N. I... I thought when we arrived at the hospital, it would be too late and I'd be saying goodbye to you instead" she explains, swallowing the lump that formed in her throat.

Shit, why did I go and do that? I've made Leah almost have a nervous break down.

How could you be so selfish? You didn't deserve the love you recieved from your team mate.

"I bet the bathrooms' a right bloody mess now then" You can't help the comment that slips out of your mouth.

Once again, dark humour is a key to hiding the reality of pain.

Leah clicks her tongue at your comment, although she can tell exactly what you're doing now.

You had been doing it all this long so easily, it was just that nobody realised it.

"Why didn't you tell me that it was getting bad again?" The blondes' question is something that catches you off guard.

Guilt-striken to hear her words, you found sudden interest with the crisp white sheets currently covering you.

There was a lot of things that you could have said, but would she want to hear any of it?

Nobody can help me with the way I feel,

I'm so tired,

I wanted to relieve the pain, I wanted a way out.

All of the questions racing through your mind, you actually began to wonder if you had cut yourself that deep on purpose? Did your own selfishness overshadow any other feelings inside of you.

The battle with your inner demons was just too much sometimes, you was just so exhausted now.

So, why couldn't you have just been left to die instead?

"What's going on inside your head, Y/N/N?" Leah's next question brought you out of your dark thoughts. "Talk to me, you know that I'm here to listen" she states with a gentle tone of voice.

Although the next words that you speak are nothing that she can be prepared to hear.

"I think... I think I wanted to die, I wanted an out on life" Your voice quivers as you admit the truth to the blonde, finally.

"W... What?" Leah looks at you with a mixture of shock and hurt.

"I'm so tired, Le-- I'm just so fuckin' tired. I... I can't do this anymore" You express your feelings as you feel yourself tearing up.

It was as if Leah hadn't quite regestered the words you had said, or she had but she refused to believe that you actually did want to try and kill yourself.

"The girls all went to get coffee, um I think that all of the girls will be back soon though" The blonde tells you quietly as she wraps her free arm around you and gives you a small smile.

Denial, it was so easy to pretend there wasn't anything to read into with your most recent confession.

"Leah--"

"I bet they'll be happy to know that you're awake now" Leah cut you off as she continues to give you that weary smile, you weren't sure if she was now clutching onto you a bit tighter in fear of you pulling another stunt like you did.

"Leah, didn't you hear me? I said I wanted to die!" You shout loud enough for her to suck in a sharp breath.

"I heard you, Y/N/N-- I heard you, I saw you, I... I was there for it all. I was the one who found you in the bathroom; You was lay in a pool of your own blood while you were slipping in and out of unconciousness" Leah broke her game of where she didn't pretend you as she turned to face you, you had her whole attention now. "I sat there, pressing a god-damn towel against your cuts, praying that you would make it and you... you tell me that you want to die? You don't get to die. You can't, we need you-- Damn it Y/N, I need you! Y... You're my family! So you don't get to tell me you want to die!" she tells you, the shake in her voice so evident that she's close to tears again.

"What? You... You want to die?" Beth broke the tense silence as she has a distraught look on her face.

"Do you really mean that?" Lia questions as her eyes widen in shock.

Neither you or Leah realise that some of the older girls had made their way back to your room, when they arrived they were delighted with the realisation that you were now finally awake after the long 24 hours but that quickly turned into shock and hurt when they heard Leah's words so boldly, that even the patients down the hall probably would've heard.

"I do, I did... I don't know. I'm tired, I can't... I can't keep doing this anymore" You admit out loud for every single one of them to hear.

You hear the blonde beside you suck in another sharp breath as she keeps her arm firmly attached round your shoulder.

The confession is left hanging in the air, leaving a tense feeling and it was suddenly so quiet that in the room that you were certain that you would even be able to hear a pin drop.

Nobody utters a word, a state of shock written across each one of their faces.

"Sometimes sleep isn't enough when it's my soul that's tired" You tell them, leaving them all stood there grief-stricken with the realisation that you really had been struggling for longer than you wanted to admit.

[lxvebun]

whisper of the heart pt II

bun's notes: I'm really glad you guys enjoyed the first one so much :3 hopefully you will like this one as well.

synopsis: Genshin boys voicelines about you!

content:Alhaitham/Kazuha/Thoma/Cyno x gender neutral reader (so they/them prns used) in this series, their vision is in tune with their emotions, part one explains it the best. Cyno was incredibly difficult i'm sorry if it sucks shsjsjs. Eng is not my first language so I'm sorry for any mistakes!

Part one

Alhaitham

About y/n:

"y/n and I go a long way back. They are a very intelligent, kind, and creative person. We studied under the same masters. Academic rivals? I wouldn't go as far as to say we were rivals per se, but the occasional competition between who got the highest score on an essay wasn’t out of the ordinary. Who won? Well, our scores wouldn't differ much at all actually. Even to the decimal, we usually got the same. When they asked our masters how such different essays could receive the same score. According to our masters, it seemed I lacked creativity in my writing, as they overdid the creative aspect. The masters words, not mine. Although I’ve read hundreds of books and essays in my life already, none could compare to the way y/n wrote theirs"

About vision:

"Unlike other people, I’d say I have decent control over my emotional elemental power, it at least doesn’t manifest in an obnoxious physical sense. That said, as much as I try to control it, the light of my vision starts to flicker and flutter to the rhythm of my heartbeat. So you can imagine the light show that starts once y/n enters my view *sigh* They think it’s, and I quote, "Adorable"...I suppose that makes it alright"

About relationship:

"Hah, You’re surprised I'm in a relationship? While It’s true that I don’t appear as the most approachable person out there, not that I mind, even I am not immune to love… While there’s no scientific proof out there that soulmates exist, against all logical sense, I’d like to believe y/n and I are."

Thoma

About y/n:

You haven't met y/n? Oh, they’re such a sweetheart! such a kind and inspirational soul. I’m sure you’ve seen them run around Inazuma City or Ritou before. They have the prettiest eyes and the most lovely smile. they run a lot of errands and help with general activities and festivals. In their free time, they usually help me out with housekeeping or acompany me to the market. You’re surprised I'm talking so lovingly of them? Well, of course, I would, they are my partner after all"

About vision:

"sigh I’ve had to switch to steel handle brooms instead of the normal wooden ones. It happened one too many times that I would be sweeping the floors and y/n would come up to me, resulting in small waves of fire to flutter around... Let’s just say, I’m glad my Lord has a hydro vision.

About meet cute!:

y/n and I both share a love for animals, I actually met them while they were nursing a bird back to its strength, the poor thing was still young and completely soaked because of the heavy thunderstorms. Word went around they were caring for it and I decided to take a look and see if they needed help, little did I know that I would be meeting the love of my life. We routinely feed the stray dogs and cats together when we’re both free:)"

Kazuha

About y/n:

" I was able to sense their presence in the wind long before I met them. A fragment of my soulmate in the form of a warm summer breeze, bearing the scent of roses and those familiar mapel leaves. As much as I wanted to follow it, I was still a wanted man after all. I couldn’t just return to Inazuma, no matter how much my heart cried for it.

At that time I started to keep a journal on what I was doing, what I was thinking of, and where in Teyvat I was whenever the wind carried them to me, So I could show it to them when we did finally meet. I never had the chance to finish that journal because our paths crossed sooner than I expected. Apparently, just as the wind carried them to me, it did the same for them. Fate has an interesting way of bringing people together. From the moment I stood face to face with them, I knew who they were and by the sparkle in their eye and the way they immediately rushed into my arms, I can guess it was the same for them. We’ve been wandering together ever since"

About vision:

"I’m well aware of how visions respond to your emotions. I don’t actively try to fight it, In a way, i think it’s quite romantic how my vision responds to seeing y/n by sending a breeze through their hair or twirling flower petals around them. They don’t seem to mind either"

About love language:

"From the moment y/n and I met, we decided to travel together. With every step we took, we got to know each other better, and with every rest under the starry night sky, our relationship grew stronger. They love nature as much as I do, and while I show my adoration for it in poems and music, they show their appreciation in colorful paintings and sketches. If we ever run out of paper on the road, I’m not against them using my arms as a canvas, the same way they allow me to ink love poems onto their skin. That way it doesn’t matter how far apart we are, we wear our love for each other on our skin

Cyno

About y/n:

"y/n? The fact that they are my partner is not something I tell many people, but since we are so close, yes, they are. They joined the forest rangers a while ago, I met them when I dropped of some books from the Akademiya Tighnari needed. And while I gave them to Tighnari, I decided it was a good time to tell my new joke…..Tighnari did not find it amusing, but y/n did. To this day, their laughs are still the sweetest melody I've heard, and I'm fortunate to hear them every day through my excellent jokes.

About vision:

"Please, don’t bring that up, I still feel bad about it. I didn’t know my vision would respond so strongly……fine, the first time y/n and I held hands, I got so...flustered I accidentally send a small shock wave where our hands intertwined. They weren’t hurt, but I still feel bad about it. It hasn’t stopped them from holding me though, I’m glad about that

About TCG:

"y/n and I are both quite the genius invokation tcg players, and the more rounds we play the more....energetic we get. Let's just say that Puspa cafe does have a noise limit....

For my birthday they got me a beautiful commissioned card with artwork of us on it. Having it around has become a good luck charm for me. I always keep it on the very top of my deck.

Thank you for reading angels!

[asirensrage]

Saudade - Chapter 6

Rating: Explicit Pairing: Mikey x OC, Hanma x OC, Ran x OC, Mikey x OC x Draken Fandom: Tokyo Revengers Warnings: swearing, violence, threats of violence, murder, smoking, sex, consensual sex between teenagers, alcohol, recreational drug use, mention of trafficking, torture, family neglect, mentions of sexual violence. isekai OC. memory loss. unbeta’d **warnings are not exhaustive** Summary: No one seems to realize she doesn’t belong until she finally runs into her “new” brother, Hanagaki Takemichi. Now, hearing his story, Takara makes the choice to help him and hopefully find her way home, but faking it til you make it only lasts so long when you start losing the memories of the life you had before. As Takemichi becomes the only family she’s ever known, how far will she go to protect him?

notes: Thank you so much for the comments on the last chapter. I'm so glad you've enjoyed it. I hope you like this one as well. This includes one of my friend's favourite scenes

Please be advised it does follow canon in this next part and that does include canon character death…in a junkyard…where our girl meets some of our favourite siblings ;)

I hope you enjoy it. Your comments mean the world to me. Thank you all.

also on ao3

fic masterlist - prev chapter

Takemichi tries to keep Takara out of the fight. The one that he’s already warned her changes their future and results in Hina’s death. She promises to stay away so that he doesn’t have to worry about her and breaks it the moment he leaves. She’s not about to let her brother do something stupid. Not when she can help. 

The junkyard where the fight is organized to happen is easy to find. It takes Takara a little bit to get past some of the people dressed up and getting ready to celebrate the day. Part of her regrets not being involved, being excited to scare others and gorge herself on candy…but she has enough weird things happening in her life. She doesn’t need to search for more. 

She pauses at one of the entrances, checking around quickly for the best place to watch this go down. Most of the spots are already taken by various boys wearing signs and colours she doesn’t recognize. The ground is also not solid which means she’s going to have a hell of a time walking over on her wheels. She hears a bunch of voices coming closer from behind and she makes a split decision, heading for a section that’s out of the way but seems manageable to sit at. There’s also not as many men in the area as others but she makes the choice to ask instead of barging in on their area they’ve claimed.

“Hey, you guys mind if I sit with you?” 

They look over at her in surprise. She doesn’t know if it was because she hobbled over in her skates or the fact that she asked. 

“What are you doing here?” the blond asks. 

“I came to see if my brother’s going to get his ass kicked again. Someone’s gotta look out for the punk.”

That gets their attention. “Your brother?” the one with the braids asks.

“Yeah, he’s in the Tokyo Manji gang.”

“You’re fucking brave, aren’t you? You know there’s a reason there are no girls here, right?” the blond asks again. 

“Family over gender,” she says, waving it off. “I’ll take off if I need to.” 

The two look at each other before the one with the braids nods. “Alright, you can sit. We’ll make sure no one touches you.”

She grins sharply before hopping up on one of the scrap heaps with her hands. “Thanks.” They don’t say anything else, eyes on the groups that are coming in to actually fight. Takara looks, trying to find her brother in a sea of black and bleached hair. It’s harder than she thought it would be. Draken however is easy, both by being tall and in the front. As is the asshole who stole a kiss from her. Her lip curls, unimpressed at the sight of him. 

They don’t seem to notice her, at least not at first as their attention is focused on the other gang…until Takemichi yells her name. 

“Takara!” 

She curses him under her breath as multiple eyes look toward her. “Idiot,” she mutters. The members of Toman frown at her presence, except for Mikey who nods toward her. She’s not worried about them though. 

“Come to see me win, princess?” Hanma shouts at her. He’s grinning widely, looking completely unconcerned about the fact he’s about to be in the middle of a major gang fight. 

“Only to see you fucking bleed!” she snarls back. He just laughs, as though he expected that response. She turns her attention to Draken who’s watching it all carefully. “Hey! Draken! That’s the asshole I had to teach consent to!” 

Draken’s expression darkens just like she expected it to. She remembers the way he reacted to her telling them about it. Hopefully, he’ll take care of that problem. 

🐈‍⬛

She doesn't really know what's going on if she's honest. There's a lot happening and she loses sight of Takemichi multiple times as the gangs swarm together. It's only easy to see Mikey once he’s climbed up on the junk pile, even as he looks like he's defeated. 

She can sort of make out what the one boy is yelling at Mikey, which makes it seem like there was a bunch of drama behind the scenes that led to this build-up. It wasn’t surprising based on what she remembers her brother and Baji telling her, but it reaffirmed that it was probably one of those things where it all could have been avoided if the boys just had a proper conversation. 

She keeps her mouth shut, watching Kisaki make a call to arms to help Mikey. She could see how it looked natural, but based on everything she knows, it feels like a set up. It is too easy, especially with how he slipped through the sea of bodies to make it there. Then…Baji appears, aiming straight for him.

Takara remembers the way Baji told her he had a plan, that it would work but not that it was good and when she sees the one who attacked Mikey sneak up on him, blade glinting in the light as he stabs him, she knows Baji failed. She also knows this has officially gone too far. 

She digs out her cell phone, watching Baji force himself to stand, acting like he’s fine. She’s seen enough boys try to hide injuries so they could keep playing over the years, her brother included, to know he’s lying, even at this distance. 

“Hey,” she calls out to the two older boys who let her sit with them. “You guys might want to run. I’m calling an ambulance.” They offered to protect her while she was here. The least she could do was give them a fair warning. 

“Fight’s not over,” the blond with the glasses points out. 

“Yes, it is. Someone brought a knife to a fistfight. That means the rules changed and I’m stepping in before this goes off the rails. No one needs to die for some stupid shit.” She dials the number for emergency while the boys she’s with don’t move. They might rat her out for this, but she’ll take the chance. As soon as someone picks up, she starts talking fast, pitching her voice up higher so it’s less recognizable. “There’s a fight!” She gives off the location before continuing, trying to sound more panicked than she feels. “Someone’s been stabbed! I think they’re really hurt! Hurry!” She hangs up as soon as they confirm that someone is on the way. 

The one with the braids shakes his head, seemingly amused. “Get ready to move.”

Glasses glares towards her but Takara simply shrugs back, turning to see Mikey pummeling the one who stabbed Baji. She knows she should be concerned, but that seemed like a logical consequence for trying to murder a friend. Besides, the cops are on their way…even if she should have maybe requested two ambulances…

She watches as Baji calls for Mikey to stop as he stands…and then decides to be dramatic and stab himself. Again. 

Takara doesn’t think. She jumps off of the junk that she’s sitting on and hobbles her way over as she hears the boys panic, crying at Baji for what he’s done. No one’s putting pressure on the wound. Honestly, you’d think they were helpless.

She doesn’t listen as people try to stop her, managing to slip out of their grips before she can reach Baji and those who surround him. She can suddenly hear sirens and the panic around her increases. She ignores it, ignores the way Mikey stares at her as she pulls off her shirt and uses it to press against Baji’s stomach wound as she drops to her knees next to him. 

“Fucking idiot,” she mutters. Baji just grins at her. 

“Worked,” he says back before talking to her brother who moves in next to her, trying to cover her up from the gazes of the boys and men around them. She’s in a sports bra. Even if it’s not something anyone else here is used to, she’s fine. 

The one who stabbed Baji is stock still, staying even as Takara has to threaten her brother to leave. She’s not sure who pulls who away as Takemichi and Chifuyu leave, but she throws his jacket to Takashi so there’s no trace him. She doesn’t move, keeping her hands pressed against Baji and telling him that he’s not allowed to die. He grins at her again before passing out and she realizes that she hasn’t stopped the blood from the wound on his back. 

“Give me your shirt,” she demands, not even looking up at the attempted murderer. 

“What?” he asks, still seemingly in shock. She doesn’t know why. What did he think would happen? 

“Your shirt! Now!” 

He quickly strips it off, coming to kneel across from her on the other side of Baji. She grabs it and uses it to try to staunch the blood flow from the wound he created. 

“Is he..?”

“Shut up!” she snaps. She’s trying to save a friend and the cops are coming and she has to figure out what the story she’s going to tell is. Takara can only try because everyone else is fucking useless including the boy who stabbed her friend in the first place. Just because he’s passed out doesn’t mean he’s dead. There’s still time. 

It feels like forever before the ambulance finally arrives, paramedics praising her as they take over. Baji is taken into the ambulance and Takara stands in the junkyard alone, hands covered in blood and surrounded by police as they arrest the boy who stabbed him. 

🐈‍⬛

She’s covered with a blanket to give her some sense of modesty. She’s not sure if it’s for her or them. The police can’t seem to decide whether or not to praise her or tell her off for getting involved. Her story was that she was rollerblading and came across the two of them fighting. She saw Baji get stabbed and it devolved from there. She called emergency services and tried to help. That’s how they found them. 

She gets charged for being a public nuisance because of her rollerblading, because one of the cops recognized her, but it only comes with a small fine and a warning. She’s forced into slippers and doesn’t get to leave though until she’s picked up by an adult because she’s technically still a minor. 

“What about my friend?” she asks once they finally stop repeating their questions. “Is he okay?” 

There’s a moment of silence, the officers looking between each other, that tells her everything she needs to know. That explained why they suddenly came in earlier, their questions more demanding than before.

“Oh.” 

She had tried. Her hands were still stained with his blood. She could see it in the cracks of her skin and under her nails. She had tried. 

“Your friend died in the hospital,” one officer says softly. “They tried but��there–there was too much blood loss and his internal organs were shredded.”

“Fucking idiot,” She mutters again. She doesn’t say anything else. 

Takara feels as though she’s been submerged in water as the world moves around her. She can hear her father lecturing her for getting involved but she can’t really make out the words. It’s doesn’t matter. He’s not really hers. He finally falls silent, leaving her to her own thoughts on the ride home. 

She walks into the house, still wrapped up in a scratchy blanket, wearing thin slippers that threaten to fall off of her feet as her father tucks her blades away, and Takemichi comes running from the other room. He skids to a stop, looking at her. 

“Takara! What happened?”

“Baji’s dead,” she tells him, the simple fact it now is. She hears him protest, demand more information, but she ignores him, moving on autopilot to the bathroom. There is blood on her clothes and her skin. She strips, throwing the clothes in the garbage before stepping into the shower. She turns the water on as hot as she can stand it. 

Baji is dead. 

They weren’t close, but she liked him. He felt familiar, he made her laugh, and now he was dead because the boys in this world were fucking idiots. 

It was a sharp reminder of what awaited them, that the threat that continued to linger over Takemichi’s head waiting to fall in the future was real. 

She scrubbed hard at her skin. That was never going to happen to her brother. Just because the boys of this world were idiots, didn’t mean she had to fall into that same trap. Takemichi was going to be fine.  She’d make sure of it.  

🐈‍⬛

Takara has never been to a funeral like Baji’s.

Takemichi has yet to leave, to go back to his proper place in the future, and he leads her through it, whispering guidance. None of his advice helps when she finds her arms full with a crying older woman who is thanking her for trying to save her son. 

“Don’t thank me. It wasn’t enough,” Takara says softly. 

“It was,” the woman insists. 

She’s never dealt with this before but she hugs the woman back, hearing a voice in her head telling her that everyone deserves comfort, and she offers her apologies and assistance should the woman need it. 

The woman pulls back and cups her cheek gently, smiling softly at her as tears fall. “You’re a good girl. Your parents must be proud.” 

They barely act like she exists, but Takara nods and Baji’s mother is led away by another relative, back to her position for the wake. 

She sits with her brother. Their parents were too busy to attend a funeral for a boy they didn’t know, but they handed them money to contribute and left them to their own devices. They’re surrounded by friends, all of them here to offer their respects.

Chifuyu and Emma are crying, while Draken looks solemn. Mikey looks like he’s still in shock, like he did in the hospital when his men were around him and he was determined to be strong. It looks exhausting. 

Takemichi is crying. Of course, he is. She pulls out the tissues she brought in her bag because she knew he would and hands them over to him. Takara stares at Baji’s picture on the altar, listening to the service and the sounds of mourning but she doesn’t really hear it. All she knows is that it won’t be her, she won’t be sitting in a wake mourning again. She’s lost too much already. She won’t lose another brother. Not if she can help it.

tag list: @raith-way @zeleniafic @veetlegeuse @chickensarentcheap @residentdormouse

@themaradwrites @kingsmakers @thatmagickjuju @awkwardchick87

tr tag: @mitsuwuyaa @blackfire2013 @bleach-your-panties @reiners-milkbiddies

saudade tag: @thisbicc @scythegal

network tag: @pixelcafe-network

[something-tofightfor]

2023 Year End Summary

I usually use this post as a way to wrap up my year, and this one's no different.

See beneath the cut for some of the highlights of my year - and some thank you notes.

First story post of 2023: Competing For Christmas 6.2 - Let It Snow (The Scavenger Hunt)

Last story post of 2023: The Epilogue of Snow and Mistletoe (which will be posted later tonight)

Most Surprising Thing I Wrote in 2023: Wing Pit Daniel. Who the hell thought this would be a thing? Certainly not me.

Daniel + Vacation /First and 10  / Daniel + Beer / Daniel - Distracting Kiss / Smutsgiving: Sweet Potato Casserole

Something I never thought I'd write in 2023: Sex Pollen for Marcus Pike.

Things I'm proud of writing in 2023:

Tim Rockford Headcanons and the resulting Black Days

Liminality

Joel Miller: NSFW ABC's / All I Ever Needed / Everybody's Waiting For The Next Surprise 1 + 2

Over the course of the year, I wrote just under 434k words on a total of 23 series/stories/events.

This is 65k below where I wanted to be - but I definitely got sidetracked during a few months - including a few where I took vacations or my mental health was in the toilet.

My goal for next year will be 500k words again, but I'm going to set some specific goals for my writing, including finishing a few things that I've neglected for far too long. That includes:

Slopeside

Buried

Locked Down

Caught On

It's Dangerous To Fall In Love

Nightingale

I'm also going to finally release Baseball Jack in his entirety on you in 2024... get ready. I'm not going to lie - 2023 was disheartening from a writing standpoint for a lot of reasons.

Engagement was way down, the same small group of authors and stories seemed to be the only ones getting any sort of traction in the Pedro fandom, plotlines and characterization that I have no interest in writing or reading were the craze - especially for Joel, and actual feedback on things was almost nonexistent.

But that doesn't mean that I'm not proud of what I wrote, how I wrote it or why I wrote it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'd rather have smaller numbers overall and be absolutely happy with what I've put out and how long it took me to do so than rush things to hop in on current popularity or hope for instant success with a story.

My writing process hasn't changed - and while I appreciate and have respect for people that can and do post things without editing or rereading or sitting on their work and letting it settle, I've never done that, and I never will. I'll also never hold my stories 'hostage' or threaten to keep new chapters under wraps until engagement improves or I hit a certain number of likes/followers/etc. That's unfair - and for something that's supposed to be fun for both writers and readers, it's baffling to me when people do this.

And now on to the fun part: I read some amazing work from some amazing authors this year. The list includes but is not limited to:

@the-blind-assassin-12 @oonajaeadira @littlemisspascal @wildemaven @trulybetty @morallyinept @prolix-yuy @tessa-quayle @grogusmum @whataperfectwasteoftime @keldabe-kriff @katareyoudrilling @undercoverpena ... and so many more. You're able to do things with words and storylines that is SO impressive. We're all lucky to see and read your work. If I didn't include you, please know it's not on purpose. And it's not only writing: it's art, too. @stealyourblorbos @valkblue @thekawaiifruitworld @versatileginger @saminadorazahi @be-an-echo ... your talent is endless. thank you for sharing.

There are so many talented people in this fandom that I wish I had more time to read and admire their work. That's one of my goals for 2024: to consume more content from people on tumblr and A03 and share it. I know I need to do better with this. I know I've been slacking. I don't want to do that anymore. My goal for 2024 is also to make some new friends on here, because to be truthful, I feel a little on the outskirts of so many friend groups, and that's no fun. So if you'd like to message me or say hello or interact, please feel free to do so. I'm also on Discord - somethingtofightfor is my username there. If we've interacted in any way throughout this year, please know that I appreciate you. I thank you for taking the time to read my work or reach out to me. I see all of the comments and messages even if I don't reply right away (something else I'm going to work on getting better about in 2024!!!) Happy New Year to all of you - I hope 2024 is bright and warm and filled with love and support. You deserve it.

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

I will not stand for Stephen Strange slander like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VIlrrQndG8

Well, that's a load of bullshit. I get not liking a character but this is such a basic misunderstanding of Stephen that I don't even know where to start.

I'm seeing a pattern lately in fandom that is starting to worry me a bit. I see many fans listing the mistakes of the heroes and using that to claim they're not actually heroes because they made a mistake or they were wrong once in the past. It's a weird belief that unless the heroes are perfect and do everything right, one single mistake is enough to condemn them. Or not even a mistake, if they take action and the outcome is anything but ideal and perfect and results in zero casualties, these fans will tear them apart.

Another thing that worries me is how many fans seem to be so against disobeying rules. I've seen this in discussions regarding CW, Wanda and now Stephen. A character not following rules is enough reason to be called a villain in these fans' eyes. But that only applies to the heroes though. The villains who do in fact break those rules are usually justified and coddled, their intentions assumed to be better than they really are and they're almost automatically made sympathetic by these fans.

Related to that, I've also noticed a lot of talk about the heroes sacrificing something big to save someone, and these fans wondering why would they even bother to do that. Like OP wonders why Stephen would get into so much trouble to save America's life when she's not that important and incursions are far more relevant. It blows my mind that these fans need to have it explained to them that yes, heroes do in fact save people. That's the whole point of their existence and the people they save don't need to be VIPs or crucial to the story, even if it's just one civilian... you gotta save them too. Do we really need to explain this now?

In Stephen's case, the whole point of his first movie is that he has to learn and let go of his need for control and his unmovable beliefs. It's to get him out of his comfort zone so that he will be open to other people's views so that he will see beyond himself. The OP just lists his mistakes and claims those are the only things that define him while at the same time completely ignoring every single time he showed he had learnt from them.

The NWH hate doesn't surprise me, Stephen was misunderstood heavily by a lot of fans in that movie, but I gotta say what bothers me the most is that OP seems to believe everyone suffered from the Snap... and what, Stephen didn't? The one man who had to watch 14 million different outcomes, who had to sacrifice his own life and had the weight of the entire universe upon his shoulders, who is most likely traumatized by it, he didn't suffer? No empathy at all for him?

And what's worse, OP blames Stephen for Wanda's behaviour. Lovely. Not the Darkhold, no, it's Stephen's fault. He should have reasoned with her. It's not like he literally tried to do that in the garden. 🙄

But this thing OP says is like a slap in the face: "Strange learnt nothing from any of this. He is still going to break the rules and cause problems because, ultimately, he's not really the one paying the price."

He's not the one paying the price. Unfuckingbelievable.

[dwcmarshalarts]

hey dwc! or is marshal ok? second ask ive sent you want but wanted to learn about it in your one piece i recall in the background seeing a UN blue armband with white cross which is your stand-in for the red cross which is pretty neat more recently you make an improved rank system however there was one issue i noticed, in that piece with the armband i recognised that the soldiers (enlisted) had different rank badges (in another older piece too) and was wondering if you could share a similair explainer for those too! officers granted are cool but its always neat to hear more about the military proletariat that make up the 99%, especially when they're the critical backbone like sgt's, and was wondering how you approached warrant officers if you went with a more american or british style (fellow worldbuilder here for a more cold-war era setting with some retro-futuristic undertones: not throwing shade but hearing about the enlisted is pretty cool, especially since i wanna know how the poor enlisted sailors, marines, soldiers & airmen get treated within the confines of the icc's military) additionally: in one of your other pieces for a comission i rememeber some destinctly british styled uniforms and was wondering if those were one-offs for that comission or those were the "space british" in the westminster area of the icc

being of (nominally) british origin / brought up in a country that uses the same rank insignia i've always had a soft spot for it and like to hear about our shared representation across space thats normally overlooked for more american influences i intend to ask in the future so prepare yourself for 8 trillion character long asks :ppp hope your having a good day <3

Many questions, but good ones nonetheless. Thanks, to start off with, your attentiveness to detail and dedication to following along enough to notice these things! Let's break it down one by one.

What about the rank system?

I'm presuming you mentioned this:

These are indeed enlisted, non-commissioned officer ranks. They also appear in similar, but different concept here:

As my story focuses on mainly commissioned ranks, I haven't really had much time to do/focus on the enlisted as much, as they (so far at least) have only had occasional appearances. Whenever I get to the meat of Season 2 and 3, they'll be featured more prominently.

That said, I haven't really nailed down the Enlisted rank system as much. Though I'm working with a friend to formalize it!

What about the Warrant Officers?

So, funny story. Years ago when I was much younger, I was obsessed with Civil War History. Still am, though maybe not to the same degree. I learned the command structure of commissioned ranks through reading the Orders of Battle and whatnot. To my surprise, that order has largely remained the same to this day, down to the insignia per rank. That's the springboard I jumped off when I set about assembling the ICC's Armed Forces, Ground Forces in particular.

The thing is, I'd overlooked Warrant Officers- since their institution was entirely predated by the 1860s by a whole 30-something years. As a result, I haven't really thought about where they would be. In my head, a lot of the specialist jobs held by them though would be taken by lower ranked Commissioned Officers (Junior or Senior Lt's.) But it'd make sense if they were around as well.

In any case, I have a clear idea for where we could see them pop up in Xever's story.

Treatment of the Enlisteds

The Interstellar Cooperation Circuit isn't the Galactic Empire. The I.C.C. is indeed geo/stellarpolitically predatory, but it generally treats soldiers within its ranks *fairly* alright, and not as disposable pawns like the Imperial Military/Stormtrooper Corps/(insert evil empire troopers from x sci fi series here). Mileage varies between the branches though.

Ground Forces I don't have any exact numbers, but the Ground Forces would by far be the largest branch in the Circuit military. The name "Ground Forces" would seem to imply they'd be analogous to modern "Armies." While they're largely inspired by that, and you'd be able to trace their in-universe lineage to them, they actually handle plenty more than just literal ground operations. The official name of Ground Forces is "Terrestrial Operations," which refers to any military action taken on a planet's surface. While this does predominantly consists of traditional, ground-based combat, this also does include terrestrial/surface navy and planet-specific air power components. Ground Forces's mission is long-term accomplishment of the Circuit's Foreign Policy objectives and spearhead of most terrestrial missions.

That all said, that means they have the most severe case of logistical sprawl. On the books, the Circuit has rules and regulations that protect individual servicemen from harsh treatment, unethical conduct, etc. The basics. But, especially for units in further off parts of the ICC reach, supplies can be short.

On top of all of this, Ground Forces are expected to handle a myriad of different climates, environments, and exposure to various degrees of colonization, urban development, etc.

There'd be no simple answer to how Ground Forces enlisteds are treated, as inner-system bases closer to the Circuit core would be better off than outposts in the peripheries, etc.

ICC Navy The ICC Navy, in sharp contrast to the Ground Forces, is proportionally better funded, better equipped, and frequently paraded.

Originally having started off as a glorified Merchant Marine, the ICC Navy eventually take from domestic Naval forces and became a formalized Military Branch some time in the 23rd century.

Since protection of Interstellar Trade and the power of keeping commercial lines open, as well as inter-system border security and Circuit defense was what allowed for Ground Forces to operate at all, the Navy became increasingly crucial. Life aboard the Circuit's fleets was, by comparison to the barracks on dingy outposts, a little bit more bearable. For Naval personnel, they didn't have to worry about the rocking of traditional, terrestrial boats, nor did they have to worry about favorable weather conditions. Their equipment didn't break down as easily, and outside of the rare, pre-war battery exchanges, any fighting that was done by the Navy was handled by the Naval Marine- which were significantly better equipped and trained than the Ground Forces, largely due to their much smaller size and specialized focuses.

Before the Second Galactic War in 2365, the ICC Navy expected such little, major combat that higher ranking officers frequently attended work in their dress uniforms instead of combat fatigues, as the job was largely more management than direct operations.

The Voidfarers The runt of the litter and the most recently added branch to the ICC's military, the Voidfarers are the ICC"s dedicated, independent starfighter corps. To separate them from Navy starfighters, the Voidfarers have "permanent" bases on planets or orbital stations, and their mission is less to engage in any potential heavy combat (unless directed to support Naval operations), and more to plug in the gaps not covered between the obligations of Ground Forces and Navy, such as protection of trade routes where sending a large naval vessel wouldn't make sense, or providing air support where Ground Forces may be lacking. As such, the Voidfarers have the least amount of resources, but are designed to function without too much support outside of hardware maintenance. Voidfarer units are usually quite small, and sparsely positioned, so a large part of the Voidfarer identity is how rare they are compared to the bigger two branches.

Day to day life for Voidfarers can comfortably be considered mundane- for even disparate/far off postings, action is seldom had.

Commonwealth of New Westminster

The British-inspired military uniforms you might be thinking of, while used in a commission, are indeed in-universe designs.

The history here is that the CNW was an area of space largely settled by Commonwealth Nations (predominantly the UK) during early space colonization in the 20th and 21st Century. Instead of steadily forging their own identity like Greksil (the crucial ICC Founding Member), they more closely followed their Old Earth institutions and still regarded the reigning monarch as their Head of State. During the First Galactic War between Old Earth and her colonies against Greksil and her allies, the CNW sat out, and when the war was over, served as the refuge for an escaping Royal Family when order on Old Earth began to collapse.

Ever since then, the CNW has been on a largely independent streak- partaking in interstellar deals while still refusing to kowtow. When the ICC was formed, they waited a couple decades to join, and would only do so on the conditions that they maintained a high degree of autonomy, including their own separate currency and military while also helping train and organize the nascent Circuit Armed Forces.

Hope that clarifies some things!

[roobylavender]

Hello, this is sort of related to your essay a few days ago about jason, but I was reading a short fic about what could potentially transpire had willis todd lived and instead chose to give jason up, and i was kind of surprised because in the comments it was mentioned that post-resurrection jason has no legal status and the author sort of stated having no official documentations means its easier for an abuser to keep their victims close to them and its like no? jason has no canon legal status because the writers dont care about him and dont care to explore their civilian life. not really some intentional (or unintentional) maneuver on bruces part.

Here is the fic in case your curious [and if you do choose to read I would love to know your thoughts!]:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/39350217

this is why the problems with under the hood in particular are so glaring and made such a mess of the canon to follow like.. i sympathize with readers who internalized all of the abuse jason was canonically subject to as a result of this book and those that followed it but it's also frustrating how few people actually question whether it made any sense for that abuse to have occurred to begin with. bruce's treatment of jason in under the hood not only contradicts the tenets of their relationship prior to jason's death but also those of bruce's relationships with other criminals who have done similar or worse. there seems to be this idea that bc jason is bruce's son that means he'll be harder on him but if anything it's precisely the opposite. the fact that it's his son should mean that it disarms him completely, as the 90s stretch of canon so thoroughly explored in its long-run play-by-play of bruce's emotional breakdown and near loss of faith due to jason's death. and this doesn't even breach the most crucial element to discuss—bruce's historically lax interpretation of the no-kill rule that in certain situations allows for singular collateral death. there's simply no world in which a bruce who wanted to murder the joker would subsequently be so averse to him dying via other means. i do think it's in character for bruce to have revised himself on the former point and realize outright assassination is not going to give him the solace or vengeance he thinks he needs (batman: year two and batman: full circle is a good duology that explores this concept via joe chill), but given his history i'm far less inclined to believe that preserving the joker's life would come at all costs and more specifically at the cost of jason

like idk at the end of the day i am genuinely unable to grasp my head around the idea that bruce would care about jason so little, not only with respect to the events of under the hood specifically but with respect to whatever else comes after. and i think all too many of bruce's relationships with his children in general are sacrificed for writers' desire to explore the narrative implications of batman and increased military hypervigilance. at some point the priority is no longer to portray how bruce feels about his children personally but how they can be retroactively read into his purported morality. which would make sense were he a cold character to begin with, but he's not. he repeatedly wears his heart on his sleeve and allows his feelings for others to cloud his "judgment". it is more likely that bruce would do everything in his power to get jason resituated as a civilian and absolve him of all crimes bc of his recognition of jason as a traumatized child for whom he feels like he didn't do enough—for whatever our issues with the classism inherent to bruce and jason's relationship, the truth of the matter is that bruce put the onus of responsibility on himself. that's something i actually really have a problem with being so obscured in post-resurrection canon bc nearly all of it puts the onus on jason instead while conveniently forgetting that it was bruce who repeatedly felt like a failure—than that he would withhold his benevolence merely for the sake of instilling discipline. that's not something bruce was even willing to do with ra's as their relationship improved over the years, and god knows ra's has been more than willing to commit worse crimes

anyway, i've more than gotten away from the point here, but yeah, at the end of the day the increasingly event-focused structure of big two comics no longer allows for exploration of the trivial. we don't get to see characters live anymore bc it's not directly important to anything therefore it's useless to even portray. what does jason having a legal id do for the narrative that dc wants to tell? realistically: nothing. his only purpose is to perpetually exist as the red hood, therefore reclaiming his real identity is either peripheral or entirely unnecessary to the plot (unless you're shawn martinbrough). and it's not to say that i'm opposed to capitalizing on gaps in content, you're more than aware i do that plenty with talia. but that capitalization also needs to be.. sensible. and i hate to be mean but i think it's incredibly lazy to take everything that fails to exist in jason's canon merely as fact

[chiropteracupola]

(from tgarnsl)

alas, poor ewen/ scrap stash?

this one is fun because I have almost more art about it than I have actual fic! both of these drawings are illustrations of it in one way or another, although both of them are somewhat edited from the actual scene in order to make a nicer drawing.

I have a tendency to revisit the same ideas a lot in my fic, and to do something adjacent to rewrites of my own work every so often, especially if I'm not entirely satisfied with the original execution, so this is partially a redo of my previous Keith-in-GITN thing. this time around, I've shifted the action to a little farther on in the plot, and so what I've got so far primarily concerns Ewen attempting to deal with Archie's death in a world where he's lacking a lot of the support structure that he has in original-flavor GITN, and of course still dealing with a pretty awful head injury!

the scrap stash, on the other hand, is just sort of a pile of interesting sentences and bits of paragraph that don't quite fit with any of the fics I've currently got going, but that I still needed to get out of my head in case I end up wanting them later. some of them are good, most of them are not, who knows what will happen to them in the end? I'll throw a few in with the longer snippet to give some idea of what I mean by that!

The commotion of the brain that had left Ewen so incapacitated after his cousin’s capture had resulted in effects lasting long after the initial battle with illness and pain, for he seemed to have been altered by more than grief alone. Where, now, was the fire and the strength, the man who had grinned as he raised his sword against Keith’s in Edinburgh, the man who had held Keith tight on the beach at Morar and dragged him hand-over-hand back into the living world? That Keith could not say, for all that he tried what little he could to draw Ewen out, to invite him back to himself. Keith tried as best he could to smooth the way, though he could do very little to soften the blow of Archibald Cameron’s death. Though he had not seen Ewen’s reaction to the death of Lochiel, some few years before, Keith did not expect that his friend’s grief had been quite so violent then as it was now.

Keith himself had not known his father well, nor had he much reason to fear the loss of his only brother. But Ewen had had both roughly taken from him over and over, his family tree decaying in both root and branch. Keith thought back — oh, that must have been an even fiercer blow to his friend than he had initially surmised, for now nearly all of the close, bright family that had once surrounded his friend were either dead or distant. So many members of the proud procession in whose company they had ridden out so soon after their meeting now lay dead, and as many in cold traitors’ burials as in the more familiar ground of their homeland. Those who now remained could likely be counted on the fingers of one hand, and Keith suddenly felt a rather sickening thankfulness in the knowledge that his own brother was safe and comparatively close by.

And Ewen, too — but the cheerfulness, that inexplicable tendency to be set to smiling simply on account of fair weather, seemed to have gone from him, and who could say how much more of him would yet be lost? No, such a thing could not be permitted. Keith would hold him fast, and keep him from slipping off into the mist after his cousins and brothers.

.

“You could have done far better, Ewen Cameron, than to take a soldier for your bride,” and so saying, he ducked his head and scowled into his collar.

.

He did not look as he had when Ewen had last seen him, with his face made young and afraid by the moonlight and his mouth falling open in something that was half fear and half surprise as blood ran warm over their joined hands.

.

The hills closed tight around him, and the fog came following with them. Keith shivered, and drew his cloak a little closer about himself, ill at ease in this strange territory.

.

With slow, idle hands, he traced the little pattern of freckles that lay as if hung like a pendant on a chain in the hollow of Ewen’s throat. The little touch of sunlight against skin exposed by an opened collar had left its mark there, as if passing on the slightest touch of gold.

[m-m--tv]

[-REVIEW-] IVE: I've IVE

Album cover taken from YoutubeMusic

Background pictures taken from reddit [1] [2] [3]

“It’s our time, we’re different, we like special things | Oh what a good time | I’m good, worrying about me is a waste of time | No reply after reading the DM you sent | That’s my answer (That’s my style)”

(english translation taken from colorcodedlyrics.com)

Ok, so first things first… this is my first album review in a looong long time, how exciting (and intimidating… kinda) ! If i’m not just de-rusting, I guess I am sort of debuting too, albeit today’s feature already debuted and this is another kind of debut for them but yeah you get the point.

Anyways, enough about me, and more about the feature in question, because it’s quite a heavy hitter ! If you’ve paid any attention to kpop lately, you might have heard of IVE – PAKs flying everywhere, broken records all across the board, enough albums sold to build a bridge across the sea and a handful of very strong songs to their name. What a year. Which made I’ve IVE (yeah), their first full-length project (and a full album at that !!!) all the more exciting; I mean, I really don’t consider myself an IVE stan (...yet?), even though I either really liked or LOVED everything they had released so far, but I can’t deny that I was impatiently waiting for April 10th to come – if only because, don’t lie, the thought of one of the leading girl groups of our times releasing their first album after an unbroken until now string of singles would at least slightly pique the interest of anyone. Well, it’s finally here, so what now ?

One of my main questions when this was announced was; just what sound exactly would they go for ? If ELEVEN, LOVE DIVE and After LIKE were all united in being excellent upbeat goodness, I wouldn’t really say they were cohesive sonically. And the answer is… honestly, a little bit of each ! But more precisely, I’ve IVE seems to follow in the girlboss crush (?) footsteps of After LIKE b-side My Satisfaction – somewhat of a surprise, but ultimately quite a pleasant one for sure. I maintain that My Satisfaction far outclassed After LIKE and was very close to being their best song and look at us now

I was actually a bit afraid of what the final result would be at first, especially after hearing the highlight medley. What I had heard was undeniably good, but not necessarily up my alley – to give you an example that stays within the kpop sphere, my heart is usually with the likes of T-ARA’s (immortal banger) Bo Beep Bo Beep. But I thought, well, it’s just a highlight medley… they have not missed so far… people said the songs they performed at the fanmeet were great (someone called NOT YOUR GIRL a Sistar song which DEFINITELY had me listening)… it’s IVE… surely an album tied to these insane concept photos won't miss… let’s wait and see. And I was right !! Because ultimately, I’ve IVE stands as an extremely enjoyable record !

The sound they went for here is very in-line with (what I perceive to be) their chic, elegant, cool girl concept; I’d say for the most part (mostly the b-sides) it’s very soft and never really in-your-face, quite easy to listen to with a nice flow, but at the same time it’s still really cool and commands your attention just by existing and doing it pretty much flawlessly. I’d compare it to silk. It straddles the line between cool and vibey & catchy and engaging perfectly; which I have to give it credit for, because like I said it’s usually really not the type of sound I'm fully into. I also think a lot of songs that go for it can easily fall in the trap of trying to be a ‘soft bop’ so hard that they end up feeling bland / boring / sanitized and turn into the musical equivalent of watching white paint dry. But here, it’s executed perfectly, from the subtle groove of Lips to the spacey synth touches of Cherish and many more. It’s also one more thing that works in the album’s favor, because as it’s located perfectly at those crossroads – for exemple, it’s both music to get ready to for a night out and music to actually live that night out to –, it’s a very versatile album that you’ll be more likely to run back to in different situations, and as such it’s always a strong player no matter where or what.

Part of why it works so well is that even though pretty much every song exists in that sonic universe, with super smooth modern beats and arrangements that feel minimal without ever becoming too sparse, they all have a different enough energy and goal that they try to achieve. You have the funk and playfulness of Lips & Kitsch, the calm and stillness of Cherish & Heroine, the subtle emotions of Mine & Shine With Me, the edgier sounds of Blue Blood, the super boppy joy and sass of NOT YOUR GIRL & I AM, and not only does it differentiates every track while also keeping the experience fresh without ever having to uproot the listener, it also helps the whole package come together into a strong album that at least touches every mark of what a typical album should be. Chill bops, boppier bops, more emotional bops, you have it all with no stark tonal shift; so as a self-contained work, I’ve IVE covers every ground it needs to in order to confidently stand tall while also keeping enough strengths redistributed in certain areas to add just that bit of charm that makes it shine. 

There is sort of an outlier here however, and that is track 7, Hypnosis; one hell of an outlier too, and one that I'm gonna have to give the spotlight to for a bit because whew. From the very beginning with those disorienting and rattling electric synths, you know you’re in for a treat, and the song is quick to confirm that. It’s almost the antithesis of the album, in a way; whereas I’ve IVE is elegant and subtle, Hypnosis is twisted and almost crooked in a way, with dissonants and irregular instruments crawling around the floor of a beat that ultimately proves itself to be SO addictive, contrasting with the soft and dreamy voices of the girls like a solar eclipse. Hypnosis takes the formula of the album and twists it inside out, resulting in this sort of shadow twin that feels like an occult experiment gone wrong in the best possible way. On 1st listen, it reminded me a lot of something I’d hear in the gym of Ecruteak City in Pokemon Gold, mostly because of those electric synths that have a very GameBoy Color quality to them, and god knows that hit me straight in the heart. If you feel bored by I’ve IVE "playing it too safe", then at least try this one, because it’s certainly experimental and genuinely such a great song like oh my god… no subtlety here, just a fever nightmare that won’t let you escape.

…Back to the album now. If this sound palette works so well here, it has to be said, it’s because the production is EXCELLENT. It’s clean, tight, professional and straight to the point, like a shiny, deep-cleaned high end kitchen. Good tools make for great work if used correctly, and the group was armed with nothing but quality here. But what I really like about it, and what lifts I’ve IVE higher, is that it’s littered with a bunch of sparkly flourishes that add the finishing touch to already strong songs. The kazoo in Kitsch, the violin-like strings in the Blue Blood post-chorus, the smooth piano and strings in the background of Cherish, the guitar slowly emerging in Mine for exemple; all are insanely neat little details that add so much to their respective song and truly take them there. In fact, I’d say that they make the softer songs like Lips & Cherish win over their more energetic peers such as I AM & NOT YOUR GIRL because that’s where they’re easier to pick up on and also where they work excellently, making use of the minimal landscapes to place themselves just where they need to and give the songs very pleasant depth – once again, that’s one of the ways in which I’ve IVE avoids the pitfalls of boringness, and that’s by knowing exactly how to mix its ingredients with the perfect amount of pop-up-y flavor to leave a mark. It’s not just “yeah make it as unoffensive as possible” minimalism, it’s minimalism where every little piece is perfectly arranged with the others and completed by that one touch which seals the deal. Their producers did amazing work, for sure, and it gave us such a treat to Listen™ to.

I do wish the songs themselves were a bit longer though – they’re already all pretty much great, but some would still hugely benefit from something like a longer bridge, an actual bridge, a post chorus, another verse… I’m thinking of Blue Blood in particular, it’s a good bop and serves as a great intro but it would blossom so beautifully if it was extended just a bit. Hypnosis also kind of suffers from this, but that one is so impressive that I kind of forget it’s very short lol, yet imagine if it was longer??? The 11-tracks length is perfect because the album doesn’t ever overstay its welcome while also having enough room to expand and do everything it needs to – you can’t take away from I’ve IVE that it’s an extremely concise experience, and that’s sort of a good thing. But I really think that effect would have been kept had the songs been given more time, so it’s a shame that a lot of them are pretty short, usually stopping at around 3 minutes. For all the things I love about it, I guess that’s the big drawback of the streaming era. In that way, it clearly works, because while writing this I went through the album like twice and I didn’t intend to do so at all but I just didn’t notice that it was looped lol, so here are the extra streams in question – but part of that does lie in the fact that like I said, I’ve IVE is an easy listen.

For a first full-length album, I’ve IVE was definitely a great start. It’s very approachable and appeals to a wide audience, but it’s not satisfied by just doing the bare minimum and sacrificing all individuality to reach as many people as possible. Instead, the album pulls out the tricks it has up its sleeve at perfect times to climb up to the next levels on this flawless model walk it’s taking – all without ever breaking a sweat. You can tell there was effort put into this and that they weren’t just like “oh yeah who cares this will sell anyways”. I’ve IVE invites the audience to get into its groove very smoothly, but it never babies them or insults their intelligence by giving them pleasing mind-numbness, instead opting to serve precisely-crafted offerings with that ‘connoisseur’ feel that they know will be genuinely appreciated. The end result is without a doubt a high quality product. Even if IVE’s concept is a match-made in heaven with the sound of the album – i honestly think this was the perfect road to take for them –, it’s still one that any group would be honored to have to its name. They landed on the ground strutting, and wherever it goes from there, this stop has not shown a single sign of wavering flames; if anything, they’re only getting higher thanks to a perpetually-refined craft.

Ranking:

Hypnosis 9.5

Next Page 9.5

Shine With Me 9.4

Cherish 9.3

Lips 9.2

Blue Blood 9.2

Kitsch 9.2

NOT YOUR GIRL 9.2

I AM 9.2

Mine 9.1

Heroine 8.8

Note: 9.3

Average: 9.2

…Now about me and this blog… as you know, this is my very first review, so this feels relevant to say here, but I’ll admit – allow me to be a bit dramatic – this is kind of a scary experience ?? I really don’t know what I’m doing and I’m still trying to tune this into something with a nice structure and good commentary and a strong footing that I don’t think I have found yet and I don’t even know if I’m just gonna lose interest after a week or keep it running for a month or two or a year who knows??? Certainly not me. So yeah it’s a bit shaky for now. But I guess I'll just keep walking until I get the hang of things ? (I haven’t even figured out Tumblr yet😭) So… until then, look forward to it !! (and I promise i won’t be pesky like that every single time lol, keep watching and you’ll see!)

[tetsuro-wulf]

The Wulf's Eye: RP Journal #141 | Many Worlds

Pub Crawl Gods where do I start? The event I can reach far back about is the Pub Crawl that Hiroyuki and I were invited to. They wanted us stationed at Camp Overlook, which brought on a lot of nostalgia. NightRaid, in its earliest days, tended to take a lot of jobs in small corners of Eozrea. Hiroyuki and I had the idea of making concoctions of sake brews put together after chatting with a good handful of buddies beyond the veil. Sake harmless to mortals buuuut.. come with effects that, say, briefly turn you into a sandal orrr.. summon forth a blizzard every time you speak or.. temporarily lose your face. No one dies, obviously, and they wore off but people seemed to enjoy the introduction to yokai shenanigans at the pub crawl.

Okami Dojo Quite enjoying the growing amount of students giving a try at the sword. Of course, I started our session with a drill review on suburi. This time we taught them about footwork and movement, which builds off the foundation of the sword.. much of my observation results in pondering introductions for the next class. I feel it's too soon to bring session three's original lesson plans, considering the majority are completely and utterly fresh at the sword compared to my previous class having a handful of partially practiced swordsmen. That and the majority seem rather shy about sparring... I'll be sure to change that. Much of learning the sword stems from lessons gained out of a spar. The wild spirit style will be breathed into these students eventually. For now, I'll plot out a proper session three.

Village in Time I don't even know how to go about explaining this portion, but to preface this as a reminder of time magic.. I don't know much of it. Bits and pieces of it, sure.. like within the Moon Kingdom, I've experienced it and other strange spells. Rakushi dropped this investigation on us about a village where a supposed mage watches over from a tower, yet there is a curfew where vicious void creatures attack so all must return home. The fluffy creature.. a familiar that insisted on being our guide, also warned we need to get the hell out by curfew. While we spoke to some locals, Rakushi and I approached the stall of a girl selling. I assume her mother's jewelry? She was less than enthusiastic until I insisted on buying her own jewelry, only to discover afterward that it had disappeared on me. I swear I didn't drop it. I have my theories, like.. the mage being dead, considering the fluffy creature stated she hadn't seen him in ONE HUNDRED YEARS unless he's immortal or something. Plus, some phrases to even access the tower he is in. I think he's locked in time, same with the rest of the villagers.. on some repeat. Surely that's why the jewelry disappeared? We're going to return and investigate again.

Hyakki Yagyo Another year of the parade upon us, this time new faces AND returning faces in Kugane. I'm surprised the Sekiseigumi entrusted us with yet another year, it helps we got a good word from the Asai and Muika clan after our assistance with the whole.. rivalry and bakufu crap. Of course, big brother set his shiki papers throughout town as usual. Volunteered onmyoji strolled throughout amongst their clan members, too. I think their good word helped us keep at it-- they get rowdy you see. Especially when they're too comfortable to bother going to the ones taking place in Yanxia. It was a great time all around, but I don't know if I would peel off my face again. Of course following the parade, ironically, was the opening of the bathhouse where we invite spirits yokai, mortals and it went well.. it was busier than the first opening too. Many seemed comfortably at home, and the new elixirs were a hit. I'm glad we got a tengu treatment request, thanks to Faern.

That was a lot to catch up on. My fingers are sore, so I'll be stopping.

[freyayuki]

Fate/Grand Order Mélusine, Lancelot, and Percival Pickup Summon Banner Part 1

The Avalon le Fae Clear Support Mélusine (Tam Lin Lancelot) Pickup Summon banner just started in the Fate/Grand Order (FGO) mobile game.

This banner features the following Servants:

★5-star SSR Lancer Mélusine (Tam Lin Lancelot) (#ad)

★4-star SR Lancer Percival

★4-star SR Saber Lancelot

This banner goes from 2023-12-17 20:00 to 12-31 19:59 PST (GMT -8).

Fate/Grand Order Guaranteed Summon Function

Fate/Grand Order now has a “pity system” but it costs 900 Saint Quartz or SQ for 1 rate-up SSR. If you happen to get the rate-up SSR before spending 900 SQ, you’re not guaranteed to get another copy even if you keep pulling until you spend 900 SQ. In short, this so-called pity system sucks.

Fate/Grand Order Pulling Resources

Sadly, pretty sure I don’t have enough to pity Mélusine right now. After pulling on the following banners:

5-star SSR Berserker Morgan

5-star SSR Assassin Koyanskaya of Light

5-star SSR Pretender Oberon

5-star SSR Caster Merlin

4-star SR Lancer Mysterious Alter Ego Λ or Mysterious Alter Ego Lambda or Lambdaryllis or Meltryllis

Started saving resources again. My plan was to keep on saving until the Mélusine banner shows up.

But before said banner arrived, we got a surprise 5-star SSR Avenger Space Ishtar (or Ishtar Ashtart or Ashtart or SpIshtar) banner.

I already have a copy of SpIshtar but was still tempted to pull on this latest banner of hers anyway so I could increase her Noble Phantasm or NP level some more.

IIRC, before that, haven't pulled on anything else other than the aforementioned banners.

I talk more about this elsewhere but, basically, ended up pulling on the Space Ishtar banner. Didn't spend that much SQ and was thankfully able to get another copy of Ishtar but doing that still cost me quite a bit of Saint Quartz.

I don't regret it. If anything, I regret actually stopping instead of trying to get more copies. Didn't want to push my luck though and thought it was better to just wait for the next Space Ishtar banner to try and get more copies of her. That way, I can at least guarantee I can get another copy of her. That is, assuming I can save up to 900 SQ anyway.

After that Space Ishtar banner, didn't pull anymore on any other banner, at least as far as I can recall.

Now the Mélusine banner is finally here, and I don't think I have enough to pity her. Haven't gotten the SQ and even the tickets in my gift box so I wouldn't be tempted to spend them which is why I don't know exactly how many pulling resources I have.

Also haven't bothered to convert any of my SQ fragments to actual SQ. And, IIRC, also have one Interlude or Rank-Up Quest mission cleared which will give me 10 SQ but which I haven't claimed yet.

Hopes for the Avalon le Fae Clear Support Mélusine (Tam Lin Lancelot) Pickup Summon Banner

I can only hope that I'll be able to get my 1st copy of Mélusine from this latest banner of hers. Also hoping I'll be able to get more than 1 copy so I can increase her NP level, unlock her Mana Loading Append skill, and possibly even level her up past 100.

NP5 would be really nice but that seems like an impossible dream, so hoping for at least NP2 or maybe even NP3.

Already have a copy of Saber Lancelot. In fact, mine is already at NP5, and I've already managed to unlock and max out his Mana Loading Append skill.

Currently have no plans of getting him past level 100 (heck, he isn't even past level 80) so really don't need any more copies of him. Hoping he won't troll me on this banner.

Have 0 copies of Percival so definitely wouldn't mind getting copies of him from this banner. Am actually hoping I can get him to at least NP3. If that happens, I'm seriously considering grailing him to 100.

Avalon le Fae Clear Support Mélusine (Tam Lin Lancelot) Pickup Summon Banner Pulls Results

Currently have 127 SQ and 10 Summon Tickets on-hand. Here are the results of my pulls on the Avalon le Fae Clear Support Mélusine (Tam Lin Lancelot) Pickup Summon banner. Only gonna list the notable stuff I get though.

Started with the tickets I have on-hand. This gave me the usual bronze and silver trash. Got 2 4-star Craft Essences but they were useless dupes.

Also got a dupe of the 4-star Craft Essence (CE) called Imaginary Number Attribute (increases Quick Card effectiveness and lets the Servant equipped with it start the battle with their NP gauge already partially charged), which is pretty good, but my 1st copy of this has already been fully MLB.

Aside from that though, was really surprised but also really pleased to get a dupe of the 5-star Craft Essence called The Black Grail.

My copy of this CE is currently stuck at Level 80 of 80. Need 1 more copy in order to be able to fully MLB this CE. So every time I pull on a banner, am always hoping that The Black Grail will show up.

The Black Grail is one of the best CEs in FGO. It increases NP damage by 60%. When fully MLB, it increases NP damage by 80%.

The downside or demerit is that the Servant equipped with this will lose 500 HP each turn but that’s a small price to pay for such a powerful effect.

So, so glad that, after all this time, I can finally fully max limit break my copy of The Black Grail.

Anyway, decided to do a multi-draw next. Aside from the usual bronze and silver trash as well as 1 useless 4-star CE dupe, also got a dupe of Saber Lancelot.

Ugh. How utterly disappointing. Got excited when I saw a gold Servant card. That is, until I realized it was a Saber card, not a Lancer one. And then Saber Lancelot or SaberLot appeared and - argh! How I wish this had been Percival or, better yet, Mélusine instead.

Thankfully, this pull wasn't over yet. Because to my surprise, a gold Lancer card actually showed up. Hell, yes!

Please be Mélusine. I mean, I want to get Percival too, of course, but he's permanent like SaberLot meaning he can spook me on any banner I pull on whereas Mélusine is limited meaning she can only be pulled on banners where she's specifically on rate-up.

Also gonna need Mélusine for the Anti-Primate Biosphere, Tunguska Sanctuary event which is set to happen in a few days. This event will feature several raids.

Mélusine will be really useful for one of these raids. So will the MLB The Black Grail that I just got.

Anyway, so the gold Lancer card slowly starts revealing itself and -

It turns out to be my very 1st copy of Mélusine! Hell, yes! Super pleased to see this.

Here are some more screenshots of Mélusine:

After getting Mélusine, still have 97 SQ on-hand. Since I don't have Percival yet and I'm hoping to get more copies of Tam Lin Lancelot, decided to continue pulling.

My plan had always been to use all my remaining resources on this banner because, assuming I don't change my mind or some surprise banner shows up or something, the next banner I want to pull on is the one that will feature 5-star SSR Moon Cancer Archetype Earth or Arc or Arcueid.

That banner should show up sometime in July 2024 or thereabouts. After that, I want to pull for 4-star SR Archer Anastasia & Viy, Space Ishtar, and possibly for 5-star SSR Ruler Scáthach-Skaði as well.

Anyway, so I did another multi. Aside from the usual useless trash, got trolled by yet another copy of Saber Lancelot. Ugh. So annoying. Why couldn't this have been Percival or, better yet, Mélusine instead?

My next multi gave me a dupe of the 5-star CE called Heaven's Feel. This is similar to The Black Grail in that it increases NP damage (40% if it's not MLB and 50% if it's fully MLB).

The Black Grail is still better, of course, but Heaven's Feel is a pretty good alternative. The problem is that not only do I already have a fully MLB copy of The Black Grail, I also already have a fully MLB copy of Heaven's Feel.

Even back when my copy of The Black Grail wasn't fully MLB yet, I still used it over my fully MLB Heaven's Feel CE.

So I wish I could have gotten some other 5-star CE instead. Or, better yet, my 2nd copy of Mélusine and my 1st copy of Percival.

Speaking of 4-stars, this multi also gave me yet another 4-star SR dupe. It's not SaberLot this time but maybe that would have been better.

Instead, I ended up with a dupe of 4-star SR Assassin Wu Zetian. Not really interested in her so meh. Really wish this had been my 1st copy of Percival instead.

I'd take a new 4-star even if they're not the ones on rate-up or even another dupe of Saber Lancelot over Wu Zetian anytime. Because at least I can sell or burn the dupe SaberLots for Rare Prisms.

Sigh. Anyway, sent the Wu dupe to my Second Archive so wouldn't be tempted to burn her. Don't want to use the dupe to increase the NP level of my 1st copy since I'm not even using her and currently have no plans to use her.

If I actually end up needing her for some quest or something, then I can just get her back from my Second Archive.

My next multi didn't give me anything new. Didn't even get a dupe 4-star SR Servant. I did get 2 4-star CE dupes. One of them was Gemstone Shots.

Its effect is:

Increase Buster Card effectiveness by 8%. Begin battle with NP Gauge at 30%.

When fully MLB, its effect is:

Increase Buster Card effectiveness by 10%. Begin battle with NP Gauge at 50%.

My 1st copy of this has been limit broken twice.

I thought my next multi was gonna give me crap again, but then a gold Lancer card actually showed up. Hell, yes! Please be Mélusine again, please.

Unfortunately, the gold Lancer card didn't turn into my 2nd copy of Mélusine. It turned into my 1st copy of Percival instead.

It's nice to finally get my 1st copy of Percival but, at this point, I really wish this gold Lancer card had turned into Mélusine instead. With my pulling resources steadily going down, I doubt that I'll be able to get Percival to NP3.

Since he's permanent anyway, right now, just want to focus on getting more copies of Mélusine. Plus, as mentioned, could really use more copies of her to help with the upcoming raids.

Here are some more screenshots of Percival:

My next multi-draw was awful, to say the least. Only got 1 gold and it was nothing more than a dupe of a 4-star Craft Essence, and not even a good one. Meh.

After that, started doing single draws. One of my singles gave me another dupe of Gemstone Shots.

Now I can finally fully MLB my copy of this.

Also got another dupe of Imaginary Number Attribute and a dupe of another 4-star CE but other than that, didn't get anything good from these single draws.

The same thing could be said for my next set of single draws. In fact, this set was way worse since I only got 1 dupe 4-star CE.

Decided to do a multi-draw next. This time, I actually got a 4-star SR Servant. Too bad it was yet another dupe of Saber Lancelot. Ugh, if only he would stop trolling me, damn it.

This pull also gave me 3 dupes of 4-star CEs. One of these Craft Essences is called What Lies Beyond the Horizon.

My 1st copy of this has been limit broken 3 times so this dupe that I just got will let me fully MLB this CE now.

What Lies Beyond the Horizon's effect is:

Charges NP gauge by 4% per turn. Increases Buster card performance by 10%.

When fully MLB, its effect is:

Charges NP gauge by 5% per turn. Increases Buster card performance by 12%.

This CE is actually not that good since it has mixed stats. And there are better CEs with the aforementioned effects. But at least the art is nice.

And that's it. For this post, at least. There's more but gonna have to talk about the rest in another post since this one already reached the max limit of 30 pics per post.

Conclusion

So, what about you? Did you pull on the Avalon le Fae Clear Support Mélusine (Tam Lin Lancelot) Pickup Summon banner? What do you think about Mélusine, Percival, and Lancelot?

Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging this post.

Notes:

screenshots are from my Fate/Grand Order game account

[buraisu9009]

Carrying on the Cowl Part 1, A Batman Story

(Authors Note)

Well would you look at that my very first fanfiction story so a little background information for all of you first of all if you're taking the time to read this thanks for dropping by secondly a little background information I had to think long and hard as what I wanted this story to be about now as you could probably guess from the title this is a bad man story but the direction I decided to take with it may surprise a lot of people.

I was born in 97 and growing up in the 2000s and 2010s I saw a lot of the earlier superhero movies I grew up with the Sam Rami Trilogy for Spider-Man and I also watched a lot of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies which is the universe in which this story takes place.

I decided for my bad man story I was going to be pulling from three specific storylines the first obviously to set up a lot of the shall we say background is the Christopher Nolan Batman then I'm going to be pulling some details and characters from both The Dark Knight Returns storyline and Telltales Batman for a character that's going to be showing up later on.

So with all that out of the way, let's begin

~

(Story)

Years have passed since the attack by Bane his army of criminals on Gotham and for the first time in a long while it seemed that at last the city could sleep somewhat peacefully the Batman had given his life to defend Gotham the very City in which he grew up in but the city lost to Champions not only did they lose their Dark Knight but they also lost one of the light as well. For Bruce Wayne had finally given up the cow deciding that the long last his fight was over the job the mission done away with it's been many years under that cow countless nights fighting criminals in Gotham streets but he was getting older if you hadn't giving it up when he did someone might have finally managed to kill him.

Despite the bats plea to his oldest friend Jim Gordon to celebrate those that had given their lives in the defense of the city the old commissioner wouldn't have it he would make sure the city knew what had happened that day what had really happened how the bat had given up everything to defend them.

Yet despite the example of Bruce said despite the sacrifice that Batman had given the unfortunate truth is that crime never sleeps at least not forever true Gotham was slowly rebuilding itself, the GCPD now under the leadership of commissioner John "robin" Blake, was doing a much better job at keeping the peace and overall things seem to be going well but the criminal underworld in Gotham and elsewhere outside the city limits was far too large to be extinguished in just a few years time because just like the forces of light Darkness too was Finding its way back to the surface.

A new Criminal gang known as the mutants was starting to spring up everywhere around Gotham and unlike the forces that were led by Bane or the miscreants led by the Joker the mutants were far different, they were well trained organized fanatical and they were everywhere and their numbers were swelling. Pretty soon every street corner every neighborhood has some sort of mutant presence. There were plenty of theories as to where the group had come from some simply blamed it on useful Rebellion how the new generation was doing its best to distinguish itself from the crowd. The police had other theories some believe that perhaps a few of the criminals that were that band had released into the city had disappeared into the underworld and began rebuilding Gathering followers of Their Own.

The third and possible unfortunate likely Theory is that the mutants were simply a response to Gotham itself the city had a tendency to bring out the worst in people at the worst of times and the mutants seemed to Simply Be the latest result of that. Unfortunately there was a problem the mutants continued to grow and soon streets that were rebuilding and even recovering from the onslaught of crime over the past few years suddenly found themselves in the middle of a gang war between the mutants and local police.

Everything eventually culminated with a broadcast going out Citywide of the mutant leader threatening the city. He claims that the mutants were the new Authority and Gotham that the peace that they had enjoyed had made the city weak and they take Gotham for themselves, the future, the city, all of it, belonged to the Mutants.

Commissioner Blake found himself sitting in his office contemplating what to do years ago he had discovered the bat's Greatest Secret the bad cave all the gear all the weapons all the knowledge that Bruce Wayne had left behind was had his fingertips but despite his best efforts John Blake was no Batman in fact he himself wondered if he ever could be could anyone truly replace such a person be as well trained and disciplined and live up to the legend that was Batman?

Blake didn't have the answer yet as the mutant situation grew worst day by day he began questioning himself perhaps he should go back try at least try to take up the mantle after all what's the worst thing that could happen he gets killed by a mutant Thug in the street but as he thought about it more he just couldn't do it Batman gave his life and he couldn't replace him no matter how hard he tried what he could do is protect the city that he left behind and while he couldn't be Batman he could at the very least maybe use some of the information and weapons that he had left behind to help protect the city or at least that was the plan.

For you see why all this was going on will mutants were running the streets the police frantically trying to maintain order and commissioner Blake was going back and forth with his conscience and rational thinking there was another person who was seeing all of this go down.

Carrie Kelly had lived in Gotham all her life the native through and through though like much of the citizenry she hadn't had the easiest of times. Carrie was loved at her school she was a straight A student a great gymnast, had a best friend by the name of Michelle, all in all School kind of served as her safe haven as ironic as that sounds. Where is her home life was chaotic. Both of Carrie's parents were drug abusers most of the time being so absent-minded they hardly paid carrie any mind, and there were even a few occasions where her father got overly violent. This home situation caused Carrie to become far more self-reliant she taught herself how to cook how to do her own laundry but also more practical skills. Well in gym class she also took some interest in martial arts and self defense. Using her Gym training as a baseline she was able to incorporate some martial arts movements along with her gymnastics which allowed her to develop her own fighting style.

On top of this Carrie was also able to use her smarts to really delve deep into research and one facet of research that was almost an obsession was her research of Batman.

My other young girls her age were thinking about boys or catching up with the latest fashion trends Batman was Carrie's Rock her hobby her thing. She wanted to know and learn anything and everything when it came to to The Dark Knight. But that always been that way but her Obsession hit a high point when Carrie saw Batman fly over the ocean, and the bomb that was meant for Gotham, exploded over the horizon. She had always dreamed of meeting him, now, he was gone, and now Gotham was left without its protector.

For a time it seemed things were beginning to get better though. Crime was down, people were friendlier, and the future was bright, then the mutants came and everything seemed to be set right back to zero.

Something had to change

So, one night, while carries parents were still stoned out of thier minds, Carrie snuck out of her home and into the night. She had a plan, it was desperate and stupid, but, it was a plan. For the past few weeks she had been trying to hack into different servers around the city, seeing if she could pull up video footage from any and all cameras and at last, she had found something, the footage was old, years old st the time she had laid eyes on it but, it showed the batmobile, or the Tumbler as some called it, driving into a nearby alley and disappearing. Carrie tried finding footage to see where it had gone but, nothing, suspicious so, she got the address and headed out.

When she arrived at the location there was nothing really special about the place a few barrels on fire smoke dumpsters you homeless people wondering around hell she even ran into a mutant on the way, but, it wasn't anything a good kick in the sack couldn't deal with. But she just couldn't put her finger on it if the Batmobile came in this direction it couldn't have just vanished so she started looking around and eventually she found something if you didn't know what to look for you wouldn't have noticed it but there was a slight crease in a nearby concrete wall with a dumpster in front of it and there was a draft which meant one thing a tunnel.

After a few moments she managed to find a button and the doorway opened, allowing her to slip inside. The tunnel was dark barely lit Kelly was only able to see you due to the flashlight on her phone she had no idea where this tunnel went or how far it was but she just started walking and walk she did for hours it felt like, she had no idea where she was going, she tired, hungry, the more she thought about it, the more this seemed like a stupid idea. Her phone was running out of batteries, soon she be in pitch black with no idea where she was.

That wasn't until she finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel which made her go into a full Sprint and what she saw at the end of that tunnel left her jaw on the floor, the tunnel gave way to a massive cave, the sound of water running in the distance, bats flying everywhere overhead, this was it, this is where Batman lived.

As she slowly ascended the walkways that were connected to the Cave opening if she saw it all the mass of computer or batman did his research most likely what was left of the batmobile of the bat cycle the bad jet was all here even if you trophies from old battles on the display case was the bat suit all seemingly untouched.

Carrie couldn't help her curiosity and she made her way over to the massive computer and dusted off the keyboard taking a seat on the surprisingly really comfortable chair. But of course with her luck there was no power luckily it was easy to reset once the computer came to life a message began playing.

It wasn't Batman or at least it wasn't him in the suit surprisingly it was Bruce Wayne saying that whoever found this and found the cave, and that they were welcome to it but, Bruce didn't speak to her, instead the message was for another, John Blake.

The commissioner? Carrie was a little surprised bad man had chosen John Blake as his successor or at least that seemed the case to her but the longer she thought about it the angry or she got if John was chosen to be the new Batman why wasn't he doing anything the mutants were running rampant and Gotham the streets were turning into a war zone it was like the day Bane invaded all over again just on a more reduced level but if things kept going the way they were it wasn't going to be like that for long.

Has she thought about it more and more her gaze turned to the bat suit and then the words Bruce had spoken were ringing in her head whoever found the cave was privy to it and everything within the weapons the vehicles but most importantly the knowledge. Carrie had studied, researched, and picked apart everything about Batman for years. How he fought, his tactics, the way he interacted with people. Could she truly replace Batman she didn't know maybe she was even foolish for even thinking she could but batman wasn't here anymore, she was, and Gotham needed a hero, and Carrie, she needed a purpose, and it seemed at last, within the caverns of this damp cave, she had found it.

Thus as the bats above circled around her head, her mind was made, and thus, she set to work, success or failure, sink or swim, and new bat rose that night, and soon, all of Gotham would know it.

[kai-skai]

First aid kits & skills Discourse

Yesterday, a post about having vs not having first aid kits at home made the rounds and sparked some discussion on my dash. This post is an attempt to summarize some of the Discourse as well as structure my own thoughts. (I'd also wanted to reflect on my own position, but this post has already gotten long, so maybe another time.)

One of the first things that happened after I saw/replied to the post was discussion about what counts as a first aid kit - apparently multiple people replied with some variation of "no, but I have XYZ (band-aids, disinfectant,…) at home to handle injuries". This was a good point and probably should have gotten more attention than it did - I suspect a good portion of disagreement about the use and/or necessity of first aid kits at home is ultimately down to different ideas about what a first aid kit is/contains. For example, many people made references to neosporin/disinfectant/the importance of cleaning wounds - regulation first aid kits in Austria and Germany do not contain any of this, so "should you have disinfectant/antibiotic cream/etc at home" is a very different question to me than "should you have a first aid kit at home". The same goes for pain meds, or activated charcoal, or thermometers. Also, many people referenced tourniquets. Which confused me until I checked a dictionary and learned that "tourniquet" can mean both "a thing you tie around someone's injured limb above the injury to reduce blood flow to the wound" (which is not contained in any regulation German/Austrian first aid kits), and "a compression bandage made out of wound dressing, gauze, and the actual bandage tied around everything" (the materials for which are). I'm still not sure what most people participating in the discussion meant - I'm left trying to figure it out from sentence structure ("buy a tourniquet" implies that it's a single thing, right…?), and that's just insufficient. (Okay, based on follow-up posts by one user, at least they do seem to mean the "tie this thing around the limb" tourniquets. This is genuinely interesting. Such tourniquets are not part of first aid kits or first aid classes here. My brain suggests this might be because people don't use them correctly (e.g. don't tie them tight enough) so the time/effort spent on first aid is better invested in more reliable methods, but I don't know if this is something I remembered from first aid or just made up as a possible reason, and in either case it wouldn't tell me why they're used in the US and not here. Lack of research? Different research results? Unknown.)

Another thing that happened fairly quickly was the conflation of basically all of the following:

having a first aid kit at home

knowing first aid

considering first aid worth knowing

believing nobody gets hurt ever under any circumstances

(seriously, people went from "first aid kits at home" to car accidents and soldiers at war and I just. There is no gunfire in my living room. If I biked the five steps from my bedroom to my front door and fell over I would not bleed to death. I cannot take the risk assessment of people seriously who see no difference between being at home and on a battlefield - even if that is reasonable for their living situation, it's too far removed from mine to have any value without, y'know, going into the actual details.)

That one "the reading comprehension on this site is piss poor" post remains true. (This should not surprise me anymore, and yet.) I was also surprised by how vitriolic the tone got in approximately zero time. (Should this surprise me? I don't know. It is known that the internet is Bad, but I didn't expect people to have such strong feelings on whether or not other people have first aid kits at home.)

Some people went "what kind of life do you lead where people are constantly seriously injured at home", and others went "what kind of life do you lead where people aren't". This could have led to incredibly interesting exchanges: what causes this discrepancy? Is it where we live? Our hobbies/activities? Things we heard from others, or saw in movies? First aid classes, and if so, different types of first aid classes? Why do I believe what I believe, why do you believe what you believe, let's check each others reasons and adjust our beliefs accordingly…

Unfortunately it instead devolved into "these fucking naive people who think they and everyone they love are immortal need a reality check, haha wait until you or your loved ones are bleeding out in front of you" and similar sentiments. (Also a lot of non-statements like "it's not essential until it is". Yeah, the same goes for knowing how to fly a helicopter, but I'm not taking any classes in that any time soon, and if you're not either we agree that "skill that could be essential in certain scenarios" is not the same as "essential skill", and we need additional information to decide what to learn/do.) Which is really frustrating. How is it that we can't even have productive conversations on a comparatively uncontroversial and important issue like this?

Aside from that, I learned approximately two things from reading through the reblogs/tags and replies:

Having a first aid kit in your car is not mandatory everywhere. Somebody used the example of a car accident in front of your house as reason for a first aid kit at home - I'd expect to get one quicker if I check the/any car. (There are crashes that don't leave much car, but not in my area.)

There is a kind of first aid class that exclusively focuses on bleeding emergencies which seems to be fairly common/popular in the US (Stop the Bleed). Huh. I looked around their website, but didn't find a reason for the focus. Bleeding emergencies were a rather small part of the best (and most recent) first aid class I took last (16h Red Cross class in 2015), and I'd really like to know if this is due to different frequencies of different types of emergencies (more gunshot wounds in the US), just a matter of branding/marketing, or something else.

[uniiiquehecrt]

#but yeah like it's mostly probably from comparison TO loki that ppl do this#bc like loki's always so many steps ahead everyone else looks dumb in comparison#but you'd NOT outwit thor just randomly#as a random person#nuh-uh - @thelibraryofsylphide

Hello lovely (i wanna ty for the reblog! ^-^)

I want to also add that Loki can't easily outwit Thor either. Contrarily, they're on the same wavelength a majority of the time; perfectly balanced as all things should be evenly matched, to be frank! :D The only real exception to this is in "Thor" (2011), when Thor is completely in the dark about everything happening in Asgard for 3 days while banished to Earth, (and he wasn't aware of Loki's betrayal before the Warriors told him so. He believed Loki 100% because that's his brother, who as far as he was concerned wouldn't lie to him about anything so drastic as their Father's death.), and kind of "The Avengers", but only because Thor and Loki had been apart for a year (with Thor thinking Loki was dead) and was not willing to torture his own brother for information on his plan. He was more concerned with the fact that Loki was alive at all, and how to convince him to return home with him as his brother. Which ultimately leads to a case that Loki has, canonically, only outwit Thor whenever it's an emotional manipulation at play that Thor was unawares of.

Loki's greatest strength is his intelligence and his ambition, absolutely! I'm not here to detract from that in the slightest. I like Loki as a character. But I've always thought that in the instances that someone compares Thor to Loki and the result of that is to somehow get the idea that Thor is somehow unintelligent as a result is completely mind-boggling to me!! (Not saying you're saying this, for clarification!!! I'm simply speaking broadly, because I do also see that assumption thrown about too! And it is horribly, grossly incorrect.) I think both boys can be incredibly intelligent, and that their strengths lie in completely different fields. A sort of... book-smart vs. street-smart instance. But that doesn't make one of them less smart. It also doesn't make either of them non-geniuses. They're both geniuses.

But to the point:

I feel as though whenever I read the take that Thor is "unintelligent because Loki is a genius", people often forget that Thor has tricked Loki before! Specifically in "The Dark World" when he sleights-of-hands Loki into cuffs. (He's then all cheeky and jokes about how "And here I thought you liked tricks ;D~", what a silly man)

He then tricks Loki (and the entirety of the Asgardian army, AND his own father, the who-knows-how-old warlord) again with the concept of his escape plan, leading everyone not in the know to think that he had stolen the "biggest, most obvious ship in the universe" to escape off-planet.

"You lied to me. I'm impressed."

This was all a very long con. A ruse, if you will.

Not to mention that the entire escape plan was entirely of Thor's own making from breaking Jane and Loki out to getting off planet at all. The only part that Loki's played was utilizing the bridges between worlds. Which was ALSO solely Thor's idea. Loki just agreed to the recruitment.

It's also heavily implied (if not just flat out canon.) that BOTH brothers worked together to create the plan to make it seem as though Loki had betrayed Thor to get the Aether! As Loki stages this rather theatric display following Thor's lead, I'd wager that this was also primarily Thor's idea, the same with the rest of the plan. (This is also working on the understanding that Loki, by the time he's had his "Trust my rage" moment, would have been full-tilt on attempting to prove to Thor that they can be more than enemies; that Thor can trust him after all. So, working together and following Thor's leadership would be instrumental in securing that trust. Which is entirely in Loki's M.O. by this point.)

On top of that, even in "Thor: Ragnarok" (surprising I know) Thor's intelligence is displayed to be on par with characters like Loki, because he's able to talk in science-fiction mumbo-jumbo with Bruce Banner when they were discussing their plan to get off Sakaar and back to Asgard.

All this to say that if you ever want specific and concrete examples on how Thor is perfectly intelligent, street-savvy, quick-thinking and altogether on par with characters like Loki, Tony Stark, and Peter Parker, here are not one, but five examples! :)

The definition of a himbo (according to urban dictionary) is as follows:

"Himbo - A dumb or naive man, who, despite looking like an asshole Chad, is actually sweet, respectful, and kind. Typically large, beefy, and relatively handsome, but friendly. Gentle giants, if you will. Perhaps the best example of a himbo is Kronk, from The Emperor;s New Groove. He is large, strong, and stupid, but extremely kind and respectful to everyone. He is also incredibly innocent and unaware of many events happening around him, as most himbos are."

The key words here being the following:

dumb or naive; stupid.

Other definitions also include:

An attractive man, often very buff or fit, that is not particularly smart or bright but often tries to be respectful, particularly to women.

A man who generally is stupid, but tries hard to be a respectful man.

Thor

is

NOT

A

HIMBO

and

has never been.

by any definition EXCEPT when approved by Taika Waititi.

But, thank you for seeing that he is, in fact, respectful, kind, and very hot.

We can at least agree on that much.