#If you want to read my takes you gotta come for them manually.

[daekie-gw2]

Your IBS/SoTO post is really good and I would love to hear your opinions about asura writing that got cut for time

OH, UH, OKAY. SURE. Disclaimer that a lot of the thoughts here I picked up from my friend @ratasum. (I honestly didn't expect that IBS/SotO post to get read by anyone so waking up & seeing it appears to have gotten onto the main 'circulating' version of the post and having people agree with me is a little wild, haha.)

As always, cut for length, I've never said in five words what I could say in twenty and trust me I've tried.

"Surely it can't be that long--"

I know. I'm a parody of myself. I'm sorry. Just like you cannot blame the scorpion for what is in its nature you cannot blame me for writing five and a half thousand words on funny goblin rat video game narrative.

ANYWAY. [CRACKING KNUCKLES] THE ASURA

OKAY. THIS IS GOING TO BE A MULTI-POINT -- I'm not going to call it an essay. It's not an essay. That implies a level of organization going in that there isn't, I'm slapping points in as I recall them (I am going to cite my sources, though). But there's a lot of miscellaneous things I'm going into here. Also this is shorter than it could be because I wrote a big chunk of it right after getting home from work, got distracted by making Limbus Company OC IDs for hours, and by the point I rotated back I was getting worried something would happen and I'd lose this post.

You may be able to tell which points I wrote later because I get progressively less informative and more AGGRESSIVELY WAVING MY HANDS.

EDIT THE NEXT MORNING: Added more stuff into Point B that I didn't realize I skipped over, my kingdom for a table of contents

Point A: "The current writers don't like the asura."

When was the last time you heard any character talk about asura tech or society in a way that wasn't derogatory? Just in SotO alone, from my memory and some very shallow wiki checks, we have:

Uenno: But we're... stubborn, our kind. Bureaucratic. It's all so stifling. Uenno: Zojja and I had the same realization. Expecting satisfaction from that city is like expecting a skritt to win the Snaff Prize.

...and, from Zojja's Journal:

Before I left Rata Sum, they considered me a battery without any juice. Well, I feel the same about them. ... The technological advancement of this place is far beyond Rata Sum. Seeing this would give the Arcane Council a run for their money... I bet they lost it after Cantha opened its borders. What I'd do to be a fly on that wall... ... If the council learned about any of this, ESPECIALLY the wizards' ability to create fractals, they'd try to quarantine the entire region. Rip it apart, piece by piece.

...and, from Zojja's journal from Tower of Secrets:

The council is too scared to put me back on fieldwork, and the colleges seem less than interested in having me teach. No talks. Nothing. Past my prime, apparently. Send me straight to the retirement facility. ... She used to be a professor in the colleges, but she left after years and years of frustration with the system. Students set up for failure, refusal to grow or expand (sound familiar...?).

Now take a quick jaunt to the wiki's summary of asura culture:

The asura value intelligence and intellectual superiority over all other attributes. Individual asura will dedicate an entire lifespan to building a portfolio of successful projects or becoming the foremost expert of some tiny aspect of the arcane. They constantly seek to prove their own intellectual superiority, and by extension the superiority of the asura race.

The writers are really trying to tell me that Zojja was damaged goods post-Heart of Thorns, but, like. She was one of the foremost geniuses in Asuran society and one of the two surviving students of the genius Snaff (or one, if you count us killing Kudu in Crucible of Eternity). She is the absolute foremost expert on Elder Dragons (Taimi wasn't this until LWS4ish, imo), was directly involved with the Pact offensive on the Heart of Maguuma, and has a "connection" (I'm not going to say friendship but yknow.) with the Sylvari who stole Glint's egg. And you want to tell me nobody would want to hear from her because she was disabled? They'd be breaking down her door to get her to teach.

I feel like a lot of this perception comes from Phlunt's overbearing smothering of Taimi getting spotlit during LWS3, but Phlunt is an obstructive, small-minded bureaucrat, even by Arcane Council standards; he doesn't want to be there, he sure as hell doesn't want to be busy chaperoning a twelve-year-old with polio in his "free time", and if he dissuades her from doing anything then he can kick back and relax. His chaperoning is not a microcosm of All Asuran Society's Relationship To Solo Geniuses Who Are On The Younger Side (afaik he was also supposed to be Inquest anyway, so that probably bleeds into some of it). Take a quick walk around Metrica Province or listen to ambient dialogue in Rata Sum! Even taking into account comments about bureaucrats in ambient lore in Rata Novus, which makes it a cultural thing, I honestly still don't really see what that would have to do with 'Zojja would be a pariah'. The fuck she would. I would excuse the Zojja diaries if it was Zojja is completely shutting herself away from Rata Sum society and convincing herself they don't want her, but it's... it's not! It's 'Rata Sum threw Zojja out with the bathwater'! In what world!!!!

EoD (I go into this a couple of points down the post) is also just like a conga line of asura going WOW CANTHA IS SO ADVANCED WE'RE SO BACKWARDS and it just feels baaaaaaad.

Point B: "Since LWS4, it seems like nobody on the writing team has really actually understood the asura, and they're either written as 'basically children' or 'crazy comedy gremlins'."

When was the last time we got an asura NPC who was, you know, actually involved in asura society or had asuran attitudes? Professor Smoll from April Fools doesn't count, don't give me that. Uenno in SotO only really talks about asura society to comment about how backwards it is/was compared to the Astral Ward's tech/setup, and although the Inquest are a genuine threat... since LWS4, when was the last time the game actually remembered that? They're cartoon goons.

(The Arcane Council is actually really interesting, too! Their job is to deal with all the mundane shit and bureaucratic matters and City Things, and nobody wants to do it, to the point it's common to trick others into accidentally taking the job or replacing you so you can quit. They sometimes try to kill each other. The Inquest is considered a bunch of criminal assholes by the average asura, but they're pretty distinctly a tool of the Arcane Council who uses them to work on projects that might be 'unsavory'.)

I'm not saying the asura aren't funny. They are. Even at GW2's launch, they were smack-talking little gremlins -- but they weren't comic relief. And I'm not saying everything Angel McCoy ever said was right (I am refusing to read the interview where she says cells don't exist on Tyria and everything is made of magic <3) but they're snarky little shits. Back in GW1 they were partially Invader Zim references. Asura are researchers and, I'm gonna say it, sapiosexuals first and foremost -- they're monogamists in the sense that romantic relationships are often between two asura fixated on the same idea.

ANYWAY. Asura are weird freaks and they're kind of memey little bastards about it but they're also insanely intense SCIENCE bastards, who prize being an asshole. During LWS4 the Inquest had live samples of the fucking scarab plague, were experimenting on the Olmakhan with it -- they're a genuine danger. The Inquest can be both funny Team Rocket villains and genuine threats due to their lack of morals!! They can be both!!

But what they're reduced to these days is... they're either childlike and need care (Dagda calling Zojja little one would be fine on its own, but combined with everything else...) or they're just Haha Funny Quip Guys. They're not dicks anymore. When was the last time an asura was an asshole to you in a way that wasn't immediately condemned by the story/narrative as them being an unreasonable small-minded jerk? I don't even necessarily think Arenanet has ever had a real consensus on how to write them, but there's enough content from basegame to LWS4 where you can absolutely write them with just as much... genuineness? not seriousness, but, yknow? as the sylvari or the norn. Like -- imagine if every sylvari we met was either a wide-eyed innocent or a Nightmare Court irredeemable asshole who was torturing babies and cackling about it. If every norn we met was a one-note jovial party drunk or a Son of Svanir who just went JORMAG JORMAG JORMAG.

That's what it feels like has happened to the asura.

Everything in this section from here on until Point C starts is a lot of really misc. disjointed thoughts but I couldn't make them work anywhere else and they seemed relevant still, so. Sorry. You get what you pay for.

...circa End of Dragons --

Taimi: Yes! Xunlai has an entire MedTech division. They make braces for conditions like mine. Taimi: They're incredible. I feel almost no pain when I'm wearing them.

I can buy that asura don't really have a lot of development into assistive devices as a whole because they're generally all pretty self-focused, but there's gotta be a krewe somewhere that's got physically disabled asura, right?

In Icebrood Saga, Phlunt and Taimi's focus during Champions on fighting Primordus -- even if they have to ally with Jormag to do it -- is kind of portrayed as... petulant? Ignorant? But, like, it is very reasonable to say that asura are culturally traumatized, I'd say. Their entire culture and people, over the course of fifty years, were pushed into involuntary migration from their home and into a completely new environment. If the Kodan are traumatized by doing the exact same thing but due to Jormag and that's taken fairly seriously, especially in Bjora Marches. The writing is bad here! Champions struggles a lot on a lot of fronts, and I know it's because that was because a huge chunk of the devs abruptly got dragged off to go make EoD, but they could've at least left someone senior to handle narrative and I don't think they did.

(That honestly ties into a bigger frustration, which is that for a season/expansion where we take care of the Asura-associated dragon and the Norn-associated dragon once and for all, it sure is about Charr. I don't think this is what they meant to do going in! I think the writers meant to have you deal with Jormag in the next season/expansion, and have them be an everpresent force puppeting people around who you never actually fought in Icebrood Saga. Fuck, I don't think you were even supposed to encounter Primordus here, it's not called the Fire and Ice Saga. But the mandate? orders? came down, and suddenly they had to figure out how to get rid of both twin dragons by the end of the season, and they didn't have enough space left to change direction from the charr (who did actually get some great narrative here, I think that was at least preserved).

Point C: "Existing content from LWS4 and earlier establishes that asura tech is extremely advanced."

Anyway I think EoD was generally pretty cool, but I also think they got very worried about potentially making Cantha come off as 'less advanced' than the asura and unintentionally seeming racist in that way, and they swung real fucking hard in the opposite direction. (If anything they probably would be further advanced than Cantha, though -- they were using dragon-magic to power their waypoints & cities back during GW1, and swapped to independent? ambient? magic when the Great Destroyer awakened & pushed a lot of them to the surface. I personally would've gone for the idea that it's deeply impressive that humans, alone, have created something on par with but not better than asuran tech, especially when using a powersource that the asura historically never got as far as the Canthans with.) Asuratech created fractals and a device that could completely destabilize fractals in order to fish up real entities stuck in them (I expand on this further down on my last point).

Moto built an entire fucking immersive videogame with a hammerspace teleporter.

Rata Primus in Sandswept Isles in LWS4 has a satellite dish, implying they've gotten asuratech into orbit.

Asura have had holograms and solid light for ages -- they were developing immersive VR all the way back in Rata Novus. Oola has a hologram. There's multiple hero points where you fight hardlight projections. What Do You Think The SAB Weapon Skins Are.

They're experimenting with radiation.

They have elevators.

They have televisions.

They have sous vide!

They've got holo-clipboards!!

Okay yeah sure it's one random throwaway line from a miscellaneous Rata Sum NPC but THEY HAVE NEWSCASTS, this guy's probably been here since the game RELEASED

HOLOGRAMS

Blish uploaded himself into a golem and he's just Like that now!!!

What the Canthans and especially Joon are doing with jadetech is incredible! But asura tech is not inferior to it. You could say 'dragonjade carries incredible magical power because Soo-Won is awake and actively filtering her power to create it, as opposed to the GW1 asura skimming some off the top of Primordus' and I'd go yeah, okay, that sounds completely fair. Joon having tech that can evaluate the drained Aurene? This makes sense! She's been directly interfacing with Soo-Won's magic for years and probably has a better understanding of the biology and process of Elder Dragons + how their magic works within their body than anyone else alive, including Aurene! If anything, her dragonjade could well be tapping directly into Soo-Won's domains of Water and Life, making dragonjade tech especially good for healing or creating assistive devices. You could potentially insinuate this, but I really don't think the game actually ever says this, so I don't know if I want to give it credit for that. (In fact, the game specifically says that the magic in dragonjade is stripped of all signatures, it's pure dragon magic, so really it says the exact opposite of 'Soo-Won's connection to her domains is so powerful that she infuses the jade she empowers with their essence').

Ankka's stolen Extractor even has a note on its wiki page that it acts similarly to existing asuratech from basegame personal story -- just scaled far, far up. It's not new tech! They've had this, just weaker!

ALSO SNARGLE'S AGENT SAYS ASURA DON'T HAVE, LIKE. VIDEO GAMES? MOVIES? MOVING PICTURES OF ANY KIND? YOUUUUUU HAVE HAD HOLOGRAMS FOR HUNDREDS OF YEAAAAARRRRS. HE'S LITERALLY PUBLISHING SUPER ADVENTURE BOX THE NOVEL. WHAT DO YOU THINK SUPER ADVENTURE BOX IS, LITTLE MAN

Kippo: You bet. But that's not all! D'you know Cantha's living in the future while the rest of us mopes are still eating dirt? Kippo: That's coming from an asura. They watch theater projected from their jade technology. Moving pictures! Kippo: I want K&M at the forefront of new media. Cause pretty soon, ain't nobody gonna be readin' books. Kippo: Maybe one day, the audience could even control these move-ies. An interactive experience. Feel like you're really there!

I hate this guy

Point D: "Gorrik and Taimi have both basically undergone character assassination over the years and had all their edges smoothed off, and SotO Zojja is Zojja in name (and voice actor) only."

LWS1 Taimi was such a fucking brat. Precocious, sure! But she was an asshole of a child who was constantly chafing against any adult in the vicinity and idolized Scarlet Briar. She was a deeply lonely girl who only had Zojja and she was kind of shitty! She was awful to Braham! And, like, I will repeat this again, she idolized Scarlet, the insane mass-murdering terrorist who poisoned and destroyed the entirety of Lion's Arch.

She was a kid. She was a brilliant, lonely kid, and she sucked as a person. After HoT, Zojja is basically comatose, and Taimi decides she has to step up as the Commander's asura tech expert, to prove that she's not just a child who has to be corralled, she's just as much a part of this as you are. And the way she tried to prove herself was by taking on as much responsibility as people would let her, and even some they wouldn't, and she kept being brilliant and she had to keep improving and improving and why didn't Rata Sum see she wasn't a child, and you never realized that maybe she was taking on too much because you didn't have anyone else who could do this research, and she was keeping all her vulnerability to herself -- because if she told you you'd tell her to stop and rest. Everyone would. And she needed to keep proving herself and being the best, the smartest, indispensable to Dragon's Watch,

and eventually it got her caught by Joko. He doesn't torture her, exactly. He traps her in her own assistive device, with limited air and no control, and then he sets Scruffy on you, and this teenage girl has to watch her only safe haven try to kill the only person who can save her as she slowly suffocates to death.

And she's fucking traumatized. And she's trying to put on a brave face but it really, really fucks her up. No time to cry. She has to be helpful, and useful, and if you make her go lie down and rest she's going to fucking scream. The key of Taimi, to me, is that in a lot of ways Zojja probably saw herself in her? An incredibly brilliant and desperately lonely child with nobody to advocate for her, turning all that frustration at her life and herself right back out at the world. If she never shows weakness and if she can be just as rough and tumble as the adults, they'll see she's not a baby. She's not a poor sick victim who needs to be protected.

She's Zojja's protege and Zojja was Snaff's protege and, like -- Zojja is not that old. She's maybe ten, fifteen years older than Taimi? No more than fifteen, I'd say. She's barely an adult when Snaff dies, and she has to be everything Snaff was and more. Zojja remembers what Snaff was for her, and she sees this impossibly smart progeny girl, and she thinks to herself Snaff was my lifeline out of that. and she's that for her.

And then she kind of sucks at it because she's Zojja and she's really not very good at communication that isn't her being a bitch, but, like, she was trying, probably. And Taimi was-is just as attached to her as Zojja was to Snaff.

But Taimi, unlike Zojja at that age, isn't alone. She has Zojja. She has everyone in Dragon's Watch. She has people who take her seriously and believe in her, and her greatest enemy is herself. The older she gets the more she levels out -- partially from the trauma but partially because she's just... growing up! She's still kind of a jerk, she's an asura and she knows she's the smartest person in the room most of the time, but especially when compared to Gorrik (who is admittedly amoral even for an asura), she's got a conscience. She's a firebrand of a girl who pushes herself too hard and she ribs you when you take yourself too seriously, because you've seen her at her most vulnerable, and she knows how hard you take it when you fuck up.

And she's your friend. She's a bitch but like the rest of Dragon's Watch she's your friend.

And by the point of EoD, all that assholery she was capable of has been shifted over to Ankka (who exists to die, unfortunately), and she has now been fully transformed into The Commander's Tech Support Who Says Funny Things And Listens In On Your Conversations. There's no bite to her. There is nothing uniquely Taimi about her anymore.

I wasn't a big fan of her losing Scruffy 2.0 either -- it feels like they were trying to go she's all grown up now, she doesn't need her security blanket anymore! but, like. She has an incurable degenerative disease. That was her assistive device who just also had a personality? Give her a hoverchair or a cane or something. They eventually gave her leg braces in EoD, which I think is fine and honestly works really well (& I wish we'd gotten to see her talking more with Joon and Yao about tech than we did), but. Mmm. It felt weird, you know?

-- ANYWAY BEFORE I MOVE ONTO GORRIK. I do want to touch base with Champions, because Champions was really where they started flanderizing her the most notably. It is completely reasonable that she suggests siding with Jormag, honestly, reasonable in a way the game doesn't treat it as and neither does the Commander, because she's kind of selfish! Jormag? Who cares? She hasn't been really dealing with the rest of the Icebrood Saga so far the way you and Braham have, she just sees 'Jormag's willing to work with us to kill Primordus and hasn't caused mass horrific destruction, they're a completely sentient person'. She sees a solution to a problem and she wants it now, you can talk about Jormag later, her entire race had to diaspora because of this thing and she was there the last time it almost woke up and things got really, really bad after that, what with Balthazar. Jormag is a problem, yeah! But they're not a problem that's hurt her. They're a problem she can look at and understand and speak to. Primordus? Primordus is a monster. It's a natural disaster. You can't convince Primordus to hold off on killing people, it's just what he does. But she can make a deal with Jormag to stay away from these people, maybe, and Taimi even now thinks she's the fucking shit and she's smarter than she is, and she thinks she can outwit Jormag.

Champions could've been a really interesting look at Braham and Taimi basically trying to kill each other because they both have incredible cultural trauma layered on top of personal experiences that means they can't even consider not killing that specific dragon so super dead as a first course of action, and neither of them would be wrong about feeling that way, because if you haven't forgotten -- Taimi is barely an adult at this point, if she is at all, and Braham was a teenager during LWS1 and HoT. He's barely an adult either in the grand scheme of things! A scenario where both dragons are represented by one of your friends would've been really, really cool, and the challenge is 'how do we fix this without the dragons going out of balance'. And It Was Not That At All In Any Way.

I actually had this idea as I was writing this post but, like. Man. I understand the point of Ryland, Champion of Jormag, but I would've loved to see Jormag really gaslighting the hell out of Taimi and convincing her she's just as special as he is. She deserves special power and she understands Jormag, she's so clever -- just that slow horrible corruption through persuasion, through appealing to her pride. That's the asura cultural flaw! They know they're smarter than everyone else! Play to that.

This is partially because IN THE MEANTIME, FIRE ALARM makes me want to punch a table. I hate that voiceline. I hear it so much. Dragonstorm, why.

ANYWAY -- LWS4 Gorrik was barely ex-Inquest. Bioterrorist weirdo. The most autistic man in the world (love him for this). His argument against 'YOU WERE EXPERIMENTING ON THE OLMAKHAN WITH THE SCARAB PLAGUE?' is just 'I didn't vote for it but the results are FASCINATING also btw it's actually a pestilence, not a plague--'. His morals are entirely about what will let him do the most Bug Science. Sure, the Scarab Plague is one of the most horrifying contagions in history, but he is a scarab expert and he could infodump on this shit for HOURS. Do you remember that time he got arrested for bioterrorism after exposing himself to said plague, and his main concerns are 'people calling it a plague, not a pestilence' when they want his fucking head? Even when you get him out he just goes 'am I supposed to anticipate the neuroses of everyone around me?? Them freaking out was totally unreasonable'. Yeah, man, the fucking Elonians losing it about the potential of the Scarab Plague coming back is an unreasonable hysterical reaction. He doesn't care about people! He only cares about bugs! (This is an exaggeration but you get what I mean.)

The Commander: Joko intercepted the ship. Exposed all the crew and passengers to the Scarab Plague. Gorrik: Oh my, my, my—a full-spectrum outbreak! This is incredible! Taimi: Gorrik... Gorrik: Oh, right. Sorry. Tragedy. Terrible.

He's a freak! He's a freak of a man! I love him! COMMANDER HOLY FUCK DID YOU SAY CHAK from Jahai Bluffs lives in my heart. Weirdo guy. Incubated the roller beetle in his own body under his skin just because he thought it'd be cool. He never really grows a conscience even after Blish's death, because that's not who he is, that's not how he perceives and interacts with the world. He has a completely different perspective from you, and his priorities and predilections make him an impossibly brilliant scientist... who should probably not be allowed to talk to anyone he doesn't already know ever again.

Now circa EoD he's... what? What is he? Haha he's funny detective guy who can't read social cues and is dragging Rama into things. Oh, I guess he's an asura, so sometimes he says tech things. They have removed this man's deep freak nature from him :( The man I knew would've been out there doing fieldwork and dissecting void creatures yesterday. He would've been fascinated by the Dragonvoid glitching reality! Sorry, no, he doesn't do that anymore, he's just Funny Detective Guy, sometimes he does science things with jade tech because Rama is around and that means Gorrik is also there because he's Those Two Guys with Rama now. Sure. I like their dynamic but man did things happen to Gorrik to get there. I wish it could've been Very Normal Man Rama and a little goblin man who has decided Rama is his bestie.

(Also I'm deeply weirded out by the narrative pushing TAIMI IS AN ADULT NOW SO SHE'S GOING TO DATE GORRIK BECAUSE ADULTS GET IN RELATIONSHIPS unironically. I really do think the writers have forgotten there's like... a 15 year age gap between them and just remembered 'Gorrik's brother was Taimi's classmate, and he was close? in age to his brother, probably?, so it's fine' he's like 30, man. And if Taimi/Gorrik didn't feel so slapped together and like a way to pair them up so they're busy with each other and no longer narratively relevant outside of Tech Support, maybe I would be less bitchy! But I really don't like them symbolizing 'Taimi's not a little girl anymore, she's all grown up now!' by having her immediately display romantic interest in a guy who, like. You cannot tell me Gorrik fucks. I love him but I don't think he has ever contemplated fucking as a thing he would do.

They're research partners! They're good friends! But they are absolutely not in a romantic or sexual relationship. I don't believe it.)

Zojja... god, they did that woman dirty in SotO. They did her so dirty. I talked in my original post about how her narrative role here is actively sabotaged by it being Zojja and Caithe (or even Logan!) would've done it better, and I'm sticking to that. Anyway, the Tower of Secrets story summary includes:

I've never seen her out of her element or so unsure of herself; I'm used to the hypercompetent and defiantly confident golemancer of legend. This is an entirely new side.

Even taking into account the idea SotO wants us to accept that she's gone through character development offscreen and a full arc, Zojja would never. Zojja gets fucking mean when she's stressed or unsure, and even if it's been years and she's grown past that... she's still not going to wibble about it. This is part of the big problem with her writing, even in the base content for SotO: Zojja is very, very passive. She's nice, even! She mediates between you! She's your good friend Zojja (even though she was maybe friends with an asuran Commander, and she sure as hell was not making friendship bracelets with any other Commanders and wouldn't go YOU'LL FIX EVERYTHING :D after not having seen you for ten years). ...But asura in general, and especially Zojja, have a chip on their shoulder and they will prove themselves. There are ways they could've shown Zojja growing past that asuran cultural selfishness by really listening to and cooperating with other people -- the way they did it isn't that. I'm gonna call back to that Angel McCoy interview I linked earlier:

Sit back and watch the sass fly! A side effect of asuran intelligence and self-confidence is that they’re masters of the zinger. They don’t suffer fools lightly and don’t believe in sparing feelings. Workers expect to get snide comments from their krewe bosses, and progeny expect it from their parents. Teen asura, of course, give it back as good as they get it—it’s part of growing up. This verbal abuse may seem mean-spirited, but the asura don’t see it that way. They don’t take it personally. Their competitive natures drive them to greater heights of achievement. Remember, asura have survived against terrible odds, including their tiny statures. They’ve earned their attitudes, and a certain amount of bravado keeps them from being victims. With their jibes, they’re telling it like they see it, and if you can’t take the heat, get out of the laboratory.

Yes, this is asura overall, their cultural standards, but everyone in Destiny's Edge is/was -- to some degree -- a prototypical example of their race. And beloved Zojja was a prickly son of a bitch if you weren't the asura commander. She would never wibble. I really, really do think they gave her amnesia via wizardification so they can justify both 1. her never referencing your past adventures and 2. doing a bit of moeblobification. It's not gap moe if she doesn't have moments of being a bitch, Arenanet, it's just sparkling woobification.

They can have her talk about 'I used to be so mad at everyone' but there's a point where it's not 'reasonable offscreen character development', it's 'the writers telling us ACTUALLY it's lore-justified why she's written this way now, and she's telling you it, so she's a reliable narrator'. Zojja would be a completely unreliable narrator!! She's a bitch!! Like I said in the Taimi section, there are ways to write a character growing past being a total horrific bitch in ways that make sense! This isn't it.

This dialogue actually really frustrates me more than anything because it wants you to just... accept that nobody went looking for her, and that she didn't ever reach out because she didn't feel worthy of us. Nobody went looking? Not us, not anyone in Destiny's Edge, not anyone noteworthy in Rata Sum who would've cared about Snaff's brilliant progeny-cum-legacy and perhaps the best Dragon specialist in the world going completely off the grid and disappearing? And not even Taimi, an orphan whose mentor figure Zojja was so horrifically harmed in Maguuma that she was basically comatose. That Taimi? That Taimi would've only checked in on Zojja when she was in hospital, would've let Zojja turn her away when she wasn't ready for visitors, and wouldn't have looked for her or told anyone she was missing, not even the Commander? (okay she told us once but it was kind of a casual throwaway line. i don't count it.) Not only is it shoddy writing, it makes the Commander, Taimi, and all of Zojja's guildmates look like horrible people. We didn't check on you because the writers wrote you out of the narrative, girl.

Also Zojja doesn't say a single fucking thing about Snaff relating to Mabon at any point. A mentor who saw her for her and took her in and gave her a home? A father figure? This part does drive me insane actually because given SotO's writing I don't think they even thought about it. I don't think they meant to imply that she's basically having flashbacks to Snaff's death and that's why she flips out so badly at Mabon getting possessed and dying. I really don't think they did.

"But c'mon! Make a life-changing decision just after Mabon died? If it came from anyone but Dagda, it'd be emotional warfare." IT LITERALLY IS. IT'S LITERALLY EMOTIONAL WARFARE. THE GAME IS SO CLOSE TO POINTING OUT HOW CREEPY IT IS FOR DAGDA TO DO THIS, because with the base content drop for SotO they were at least partially interested in exploring the idea that the Astral Ward had a benevolent front but was ultimately culty and doing some horrible shit in the name of the ends justifying the means.

AND NOW SHE HAS AMNESIA AND WE SAW HER, LIKE, ONCE BEFORE WE WENT TO NAYOS. LITERALLY WHAT WAS THE POINT OF HAVING HER IN THE STORY AT ALL. THIS COULD'VE BEEN A FRIENDLY LAMP. Coulda been DUCHESS CHRYSANTHEA or someshit. Faren!! I don't know!! It's 2:30 in the morning I'm very tired, this post isn't getting any proofreading it is going out as is.

Point E: "This is actually just about Fractals, sorry."

I know they were thinking about continuing the Arkk storyline at one point, apparently that was the original draft for Sunqua Peak. Dessa's implied to have some deep connection to Uncategorized, which is explicitly not Rata Sum. When some prerelease images mentioned 'fractal' in the URL for SotO and it was apparently going to be about the Mists I was like 'oh, shit, are we getting closure on Arkk'? He's out there!! In the Mists!! Where is our fucking boy!!! (He's nowhere, the current writers' room don't know he exists. :') )

The major interactions with the Mists are generally Asura-developed -- Dessa and her krewe developed fractals as we know them, 'capturing' these Mists-echoes and preventing them from dissolving (and she also 'studied' at Rata Sum (though it 'didn't work out'), implying to me she grew up somewhere else and moved to Rata Sum for college before dropping out). And then Arkk managed to somehow break into the Mists physically, disrupt your transportation back from one, mash several Fractals together, let Mist Beings into the Observatory,

It's implied (to me, anyway) that there is or was a real Dessa who created the Fractal Observatory and then... got out. She had a kid before making the Observatory -- Arkk mentions she looks very young during Shattered Observatory, she recognizes him, and she has some unspecified connection to the Raving Asura -- who has an unsent letter to her which makes her deeply sad to read, and, also, yknow. The kittycat golems. He could be Arkk's dad, is what I'm saying.). And never knew her fractal echo was trapped inside the Mists, repeating forever and forever and forever. And then she died, or she disappeared (maybe something happened when fractals-Dessa tried to leave during LWS1 and reset?), and Arkk found out that she was still in the Fractals, and he managed to destabilize the fucking Fractals in his attempt to rip in there and get her out.

And the version we meet of him in Shattered Observatory is just an echo, too, trapped in the loop forever and ever and ever. Maybe there is a real one out there -- or maybe the Mists destroyed that one as he tried to escape the Shattered Observatory, and the only versions of these two that exist are their shadows endlessly looping (which is honestly what We only exist in the Mists…echoes of ourselves. is meant to mean, but hey, it's not specific enough, I read it as 'the versions of ourselves that we are now aren't real. we're just shadows of our real selves, who aren't here any longer'). Fucked up, man. Anyway they should've made one of the archwizards in SotO an asura

Asura. They're little bastards. Love 'em. In my universe my asura druid Svess is holding Taimi's hand and talking her fucking head off about how to make nitroglycerin and they're having a GREAT time

[hongism]

BOUNCY. - j. yunho, c. jongho (m)

➼ genre; smut ➼ pairing; yunho x fem!reader x jongho ➼ au; outlaw/mechanics!2ho, dystopian futurism, lore accurate ateez ➼ warnings; explicit smut, some terribly unfunny mechanic jokes i’m really sorry ➼ rating; m/18+ ➼ wc; 4.9k

‘Two for the price of one!’ the sign outside the shop had read, and well, you’ve never been one to pass up on a good deal.

part of the outlaw miniseries.

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➼ smut warnings; piv, unprotected sex, semi-public sex, fingering, manual stimulation, pussy slapping, spanking, hair pulling, choking, sloppy seconds, creampie, pet names: sugar, sweets, dear & baby, dirty talk, breeding kink, name calling: bitch & slut, voyeurism & exhibitionism, dom/sub dynamics, dom yunho, sub reader, slight bimbofication, spit play, size kink, praise kink

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You pull up to Outlaw Customs, the repair shop that’s become something of a second home for your car, two minutes before closing. If it were anywhere else — and anyone else running the place — you would never dream of being such a terrible customer, but since you know both men inside well enough to have a working relationship outside of this little business they run, you aren’t worried about causing any issues. And, well, if you do, Yunho will surely let you know in his own snarky way.

The garage door is still wide open, with Yunho on full display at the mouth of it as he works on the vehicle that’s always parked front and center. As you cross the threshold into the garage, your eyes catch on a sign propped up outside that you hadn’t seen the last time you were here. Two for the price of one on any repairs! A scoff slips out of you as you eye it, and that noise is what pulls Yunho’s focus from his work to you.

“You didn’t tell me you were running a deal,” you whine, drawing a laugh from the man before you.

“We still gotta make money somehow, sugar!” He nods his head towards the other side of the car, where another familiar face sits on the run-down couch you gave to them when they first opened up shop down the street from your apartment complex. It was something of a trade and an icebreaker: you needed a cracked headlight patched up, and they needed some furniture to fill out the garage and make it more homey for any customers who would come and go. Jongho gets up when you come over though, simply to move from the couch to the desk chair right beside it, and you take the spot where he was just sat.

“What’ll it be this time, sweets?” Jongho arches a brow at you in question and leans back in the chair. He exudes the same natural attractive confidence that he always has, and it shines through in the way he’s sitting with his legs splayed out and how one hand rests on his upper thigh while the other closes into a loose fist against the surface of the desk. He’s changed up his hair since you were last here too, now accentuated with white highlights that frame his head nicely. Your staring doesn’t go unnoticed, however, and he clears his throat gently when you fail to respond after several seconds.

“Oh, um, I’m in desperate need of a new tire. Back left. I think I hit a nail on the road or something, she’s been causing me trouble for weeks now.”

“And you didn’t come in sooner?”

You draw your lips into a firm ‘o’. “I started having issues two days after you demanded to do my oil change! Which I could have done myself really, but now — I can’t see what’s causing the issue, and no matter how many times I pump the damn thing, it still has shit air pressure. Besides, if you wanted to see me sooner, you don’t have to wait around for me to have another car issue to do so.”

Jongho shifts to find something on the desk. The tips of his ears are stained red, and that color bleeds down to his neck. “Yunho is the one who demanded to do the oil change though,” he mumbles, pulling out a clipboard with a blank sheet of paper attached to it. “I’ll go take a look and do a quick inspection to see if anything stands out.”

“Keys are on the dash!” you call after him before he slips out and leaves you somewhat alone with Yunho. Said man is laughing to himself as discreetly as he can manage but says nothing in favor of continuing his fiddling at the car. “Were you really the one to demand that oil change?”

“Technically no. But I did say that if he wanted an excuse to pull you over here then he could offer to do it for you.”

“Despite knowing I always do it myself?” you inquire as you push up from the couch. Your hands come to rest on your hips, chin tilting to match the attitude in your stance, and Yunho’s tongue pokes between his lips. His eyes move over your body in a quick series of glances before he knocks the round of his wrench against the headlight in front of him as though it’s a hammer.

“Um—” he fights to clear his throat but once he starts blushing, it’s impossible to miss against his pale skin. You step closer to where he’s crouched and squat down next to him once you deem yourself close enough — that being within touching distance, that is, where your shoulder can brush against his any time he tries to move even a hair.

“What are you working on?”

Again Yunho’s gaze finds you; this time, he lets it trail over your face first before going any lower, and you grant him a little smile for the bit of unnecessary chivalry.

“You’re too pretty to dirty your hands on me, sugar.”

“You say that every time,” you argue. You never get tired of admiring his side profile, but right now it comes with the added bonus that it watching his throat bob as he swallows hard around nothing but saliva and air.

“You don’t wanna make sure Jongho’s not changing your oil without permission again?” The roll of your eyes is far from subtle by any means, and the dramatization of the gesture brings a snort of laughter out of the man next to you.

“There are other inspections you can do, right? Since I’m a regular here and all.”

“Are you really in need of new tires, dear? From where I’m sitting, it seems like we aren’t the only ones who try to find excuses ‘round these parts.”

Leaning away, you put a hand over your chest and scoff. “The audacity of this man! Jongho, did you hear that?” He’s moving back into the garage as you call out to him, slapping the clipboard against the outside of his thigh. You only get a laugh out of him which seems to you like he agrees with Yunho. He lowers the garage door once safely out of the way and moves back to his seat at the desk. “See, he didn’t say he didn’t find anything.”

“He also didn’t say he did find something, sugar.”

“And, did he?” you prompt, eyes narrowing on Jongho’s back. Even though he can’t see you, he gives you the answer you want to hear with a quiet hum of affirmation, and you flick your chin back to Yunho to send him a smug little grin. “Besides, is there any harm in wanting a good deal?”

“That depends.” Yunho’s voice drawls a little, and he presses the heels of his hands against his thighs to help propel him into a standing position. The wrench in his hand gets tossed back to the cart nearby, bringing an echoing clatter to fill the garage with noise as your eyes lock. “Two for the price of one is a big deal after all.”

“And?” You stand slowly in contrast to how eager Yunho was to stand upright, but he watches your every move with rapt attention. In this game, it’s hard to tell which one of you is stalking the other — both playing the part of a predator so well that it’s indistinguishable. In your humble opinion, Yunho’s resolve is cracking much faster than yours.

“And it comes with lots of nice add-ons but they can be a lot to handle.”

“I never pass up on a good deal though,” you murmur through a pout, deigning to look down to the floor and back up to meet Yunho’s gaze through fluttering lashes. “I like handing big loads too.”

“Oh my god.” Jongho’s voice and the following groan cut through the building tension. “Quit making gross innuendos and just fuck! Making me sit here and agonize through that shit, disgusting.” Your face draws into something close to a scowl, one that matches his expression when you turn to look at him. In a move of childish vengeance, you stick your tongue out at him.

“Let us have our fun!”

“Yeah, yeah, have your fun and fuck.”

“Not joining?” Yunho asks, hand running over the curve of your hip already.

“I’ll sit back and watch you get your fill first then have seconds later. You always feel best after he’s thoroughly used you, sweets.” Your expression is somewhere between bewilderment and a smile, eyes following him as he moves back to the couch and throws himself down to the cushions facing you and Yunho. “What? He leaves you good and loose for me.”

“Jongho.” Your tone is breaching the edge of chastisement, but the words you plan to continue with are knocked out of you in a soft oof as Yunho turns you towards the car and suddenly bends you over the hood without warning.

“He’s right, isn’t he? I do open you up quite nicely.” You brace your hands against the hood, pushing up just enough to send a look back at Yunho over your shoulder. He’s already moved back some, however, and redirected his attention to slipping his fingers between the band of your pants and the skin underneath. “May I, sugar?”

“Go on then,” comes your whispered response as you settle more comfortably against the hood.

“You look pretty splayed out against our gem, baby.” Your view of Jongho is entirely skewed like this, but you watch him as he speaks. Though still fully clothed, you get quite the eyeful of his crotch with the way he’s sitting in that same damned position that makes you want to crawl between his legs and suck him dry.

“Right where she belongs.” Yunho’s fingers are hot against your sex, cupping you through your underwear now that your pants are down to your ankles. He snaps the flat of his hand to the same spot, and the action draws a shiver out of you along with a breathy whine. “Are you up for subbing tonight, y/n?”

“Yes sir.”

“So good and I barely had to lift a finger,” Yunho coos down at you. Once again his fingers trail over the line of your lips and push fabric against your cunt, not enough to give you any sort of true stimulation but it makes your clit throb with want. “Still remember our safeword?”

“Bluebird.”

“There’s my good girl.” Yunho slaps his palm against your mound harder to accentuate his words. You let out a moan that catches you off-guard, but Yunho doesn’t allow you time to adjust to the new sensations. “Count for me, sugar.”

“How many do you think she deserves tonight?” From your perspective, you can see Jongho’s hand move in slow circles against the front of his pants.

“Hm, fifteen to start? She was mouthing off quite a lot with me earlier.” A chilling rush of adrenaline pushes through your body, a whine hanging at your lips and threatening to interrupt their conversation, but you bite it back by sinking your teeth into your lower lip. Jongho catches your slight blunder before you have the chance to hide it.

“Oh? I think she wants to say something, Yun.”

“What is it, sugar? You can count that high still, right? After all my cock isn’t in you yet. Your little head should be perfectly intact still.” Yunho slides a hand down your back and finds a resting place at your tailbone. He takes the fabric of your shirt into his palm before bunching it into his fist and yanking your body along the hood of the car. “Not a dumb cockslut yet, baby, come on and answer the question.”

“I-I can, yeah, I can count that high, sir.”

“Good girl. You sound nice and desperate already. Maybe you shouldn’t wait so long to come see us anymore, hm?”

“I won’t,” you whisper. Yunho’s hand comes down on your ass, slapping against the bare skin exposed by your panties, and the sting comes immediately. “I’ll come sooner next time.” Yunho clicks his tongue though. Your gaze is locked onto Jongho, however, and focused on following his movements as he pulls his pants down his thighs and lets his thick cock spring out fully erect and leaking at the tip already. Yunho tightens his grip on you. The pressure on your body increases tenfold, making it hard to breathe under the weight atop you. You feel hot breath cascading over your ear as Yunho inserts himself into your personal space.

“Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten how to fuckin’ count, sugar,” he hisses into the shell of your ear. His tone is so wildly different than the one he uses in casual conversation — biting and scathing to the point of muddling your thoughts with desire. Nothing quite compares to sex with an angry Yunho, though you rarely can rile him up to that point and even now you don’t have him like that, just the barebones of annoyance that tease something more.

“N-No! One, one, I’m sorry sir.”

“If he’s so distracting, I can send you over to him with no prep, dear.”

“No, it’s okay, I’m — I’m focused, I promise. Please continue?” His response comes in the form of two more slaps over the same spot as the first one, sharp and pointed to make the skin beneath him heat up further. “Three…”

“Now that I’ve got your attention, make sure I keep it, sweetheart.”

There’s no real need for that reminder in your mind because once he starts building a steady rhythm and delivering the spanks to your ass with mere seconds between each one, you have no choice but to focus on him. Jongho is still before you, a sight unfolding gloriously as he strokes at his length with lazy little jerks and no intention of bringing himself much pleasure beyond that. Even Yunho goes quiet in his ministrations behind you, leaving the air to be filled with the sounds of his hand on your skin and whatever broken number you choke out after each one. You want to twist and writhe under him, to alleviate some of the burn that’s so present on your backside, but each time you try to so much as shift an inch, Yunho delivers an extra slap to your cunt. Well-placed and effective too — so close to your clit that it makes your knees buckle and you fall back into the position Yunho wants you in to carry out his task. The first ounce of reprieve comes at eleven, right when you’ve settled to push through the pleasurable punishment to the end.

“You know, sugar, you’re taking this so well that I’m wondering if we should increase the number. You aren’t nearly red enough yet, and we picked an odd number. I can’t show equal love to both sides like that.”

“Twenty?” Jongho chimes in, smile twisting as you shake your head. “Thirty?”

“Twenty is fine, I—” you inhale sharply at the sensation of Yunho running his hand along your skin. His touch is cold now, a welcome balm to the heat that emanates from the spot he’s just been hitting so ruthlessly. Your voice is so shaky that you have to swallow to contain the tremble before continuing. “It’s b-been a bit since we did this, I’m not u-used to it.”

Yunho remains quiet as he rubs his thumb over your warm skin in soothing circles for several more seconds. “One more, baby. Then you’ll be done for tonight.” He’s merciful but not entirely gracious because the last sharp slap he delivers to you feels ten times worse than all the others before, and you roll your head to push it into the hood as you cry out at the impact. He catches you as your knees buckle under you, preventing you from sliding straight down to the floor, and as you’re scrambling to regain your footing, he hooks two fingers under your underwear band. When he yanks at the elastic, it snaps against your body hard enough to make you hiss, and it burns a bit when they slide over your sensitive skin.

“Didn’t she do well, Yun?”

You crack an eye open to look over at the man on the couch and make direct eye contact with Jongho to find his gaze far softer than it was minutes ago.

“Of course she did. I expect nothing less from our pretty lady, dear. And—” Yunho pushes two fingers between your folds and dips right into your hole, bypassing all the arousal that’s begun to leak out of you “—she’s sopping wet to boot. Perfect.” The praise makes your body sing, and Yunho rewards your easy obedience by easing his fingers in and out of you with little resistance thanks to that wetness he mentioned. “You still on the pill?”

“Y-Yeah, as always. Haven’t missed a day.”

“Then I can cum in you?”

“Yes… yes sir.”

Yunho groans, and he moves his hand up from the small of your back to feel at the back of your head. He takes a handful of hair into his hold and grips tight enough to pull your head up from the car hood, but it’s not too terrible that you feel any sort of dramatic pain from the act.

“Gonna breed you fuckin’ full of cum then,” he growls, leaning into your space and knocking his forehead against your temple. “Maybe so well that that damn pill won’t work? If I fuck it into you hard enough then your body won’t have a choice but to take my seed.” A loud moan tumbles from your lips at his words. The hand you have propping your weight up wobbles, and just before your elbow locks, Yunho releases you and grabs for your hips with both hands. You’re close to complaining about the sudden departure of his fingers when he nudges the tip of his cock against your folds, sliding along the wetness in a crude form of lubrication.

“Fuck me, won’t you?” you plead quietly. You hope that if nothing else, the look on your face will convince him to get on with things, but it must be a combination of everything — the heady arousal in the air, your tone and words, even the sight of Jongho jacking off to the two of you only a few feet away. Yunho sinks deep into your cunt then; he buries the full length of his cock deep inside you, stretching you open further until it feels like you can feel him in your stomach. Your body trembles and drops forward as you press your free hand to your abdomen like it’ll help you feel him better. “God, you’re so fucking big, Yun.”

“All the better to breed you with,” he says before planting a hand between your shoulder blades and urging you all the way down once more. Jongho is squeezing the base of his cock with his other hand now, likely to keep himself from cumming too early, and Yunho is notorious for two things: his short refractory period and how long he can go without orgasm no matter what kind of stimulation he’s under.

The initial drag of his cock inside you feels like heaven, and when he thrusts back against your thighs, he does so with such force that your insides churn.

“Is she tight?”

“Insanely,” Yunho responds through gritted teeth. You try to lift your head to look back at his face, eager to see how broken his expression is right now, but he stops you in your tracks. Again, fingers threaded through your hair and locking in close to your scalp to give him the best grip that won’t hurt you too terribly much. He yanks you hard with the next thrust, and it brings your head up at an angle that stretches you hard enough to make your muscles burn with the effort of accommodating to it. “Barely been two weeks and you’re this tight again, sugar, your pussy is fuckin’ insane.”

You would laugh at the absurdity of his comment if you could, but in your current state, the only noise that can escape you are choppy moans. They’re the kind that sounds like they could come straight from an amateur porno, and despite the garage being closed, it doesn’t offer that much privacy. Anyone who walks by will suddenly become privy to what sounds like a home movie being filmed behind the metal door.

“Didn’t expect her to be this tight, fuck, I might cum early.”

You can’t warn Yunho of the same for yourself: between his thrusts, the full weight of his balls slap against your pussy from the sheer force behind how hard he’s fucking you, and the steady rhythm is just enough to stimulate your clit even without head-on contact. He knows your body well, however, and how to play you like a fucking fiddle, so when your walls start pulsing around the thickness of his cock, he shifts the angle and drives his tip so deep into you that you see stars behind your eyelids.

“Fuck, sweets,” Jongho exhales under his breath. Your vision is blurry when you open your eyes, but it snaps back to black a moment later when the orgasm hits you all of a sudden.

“Fuck, fuck, f-fuck!”

“That’s it, sugar,” Yunho coos from behind you, and his hand relaxes to run down to the back of your neck. He presses the pads of his fingers into the flesh there, poking and prodding at the muscles that have suddenly gone tense in the tsunami of sensations sweeping over you, but his thrusts don’t let up even as your walls squeeze hard around his length. Yunho fucks you hard and fast through the brunt of your orgasm. When your body finally relaxes and the waves die down to let you swim in the aftermath of it, he’s still driving his dick along your walls and knocking against your more sensitive spots. “Should I breed you now, dear? Fuck you nice and full of cum then send you to sit on Jongho’s cock?”

Your mouth hangs open enough to let saliva out of it and onto the car, yet it smears across your face when you lose the will to steady yourself against Yunho’s pace.

“Pl-please, sir.”

Yunho lays himself over you and spreads his hands to sit on either side of your head. His hips still against your backside. The fuzz in your brain nearly drowns out the feeling of cum pumping into you, without a doubt filling you to the brim. He’s still in the throes of recovery when you nudge Yunho off and out of you. You would stay longer with him inside, to feel that warmth and fullness for some time longer, but your body moves on its own agenda with a pulsing desire lingering in your gut. Despite the weakness in your muscles, you walk over to the couch where Jongho waits patiently and quietly. His gaze is heavy on you when you drop your hands to his shoulders.

“Baby…”

“Don’t stop her now, babe,” Yunho interjects. You don’t spare him a glance over your shoulder or anything like it — the movements of your body are methodical and calculated, a firm straddle over his hips and spread legs before you reach down to put your hand next to his against the length of his cock. Together, you guide him into your used cunt, pushing him in alongside the cum threatening to drip out of your body. A sigh of relief leaves your lips once he’s securely inside you.

“Feel good?” you whisper close to his face. Jongho’s cheeks are flushed, his pupils blown own so wide that you can barely see the color of his irises, and his lips glisten with spit. You can’t help yourself, you decide. He has the same thought in his mind because he’s the one to kiss you rather than the other way around, lips finding each other in a fit of passion that makes your chest burn.

“I want more,” he mutters into your mouth.

“Greedy.” You lift yourself up from his lap some, enough to let his cock nearly pull all the way out of you, then sink back down with a spine-curling pleasure that makes you throw your head back and moan to the ceiling. Yunho’s form enters your line of sight, and his hand finds the base of your throat. He stands behind you, chin tilted to his chest so that he can stare directly down at you. He’s handsome beyond belief even at this awfully skewed and awkward angle.

“Open,” he commands while tapping along the column of your throat. Your lips part completely to allow him access to whatever it is he wants from you.

Jongho’s firm and strong hands squeeze at your waist at the same moment. He takes the control from your hands, and you hand it over without complaint to let him work your cunt along his length as he sees fit and to chase his pleasure in full. Yunho hooks his thumb on the back of your teeth. It effectively holds you open and steady for the moment he decides to spit down into your mouth. The warmth on your tongue makes you wince, but then Yunho is withdrawing his thumb and pushing up against your chin.

“Close and swallow,” he says in what’s likely to be his last act of dominance for the night. Your eyes remain firmly set on his face as you do so — slow yet deliberate so that he can see your obedience in its full glory. Your reward is the sweetest gift. He lays a kiss to your forehead and taps your cheek gently. “Good girl.”

You right yourself enough to look down at Jongho, sending your focus to the lover beneath you. He lets you take his face between your hands without saying a word, but the second you lean in for a kiss, he bites out his thoughts.

“You take dick like a bitch in heat, sweets.”

“Y-You’re the one—” your voice sounds about as wrecked as you feel “—fucking me dumb.” Jongho slides his hands along the lines of your body until he reaches your ass, where the skin is still sensitive and burning from Yunho’s earlier punishment. He palms the flesh harshly enough to make you cry out. “Want you inside too.”

“One wasn’t enough? How much cum do you need?”

“She’s a proper cumslut, really Jongho. You know this.” It’s unfair that Yunho sounds totally recovered and unbothered by the rough sex you just shared; meanwhile, you’re thoroughly wrecked and still going through the motions, working towards another impending orgasm on Jongho’s cock.

“Close?” he asks with a lilting tease hanging off his tone. You push yourself against him as best you can, close enough to knock your forehead into his.

“I bet you’ll cum first, big boy. Your needy dick is begging to breed me.”

Jongho’s nostrils flare at the accusation, but it’s an accurate one with the way his haphazard thrusts are becoming more and more staggered. Nothing inspires Jongho quite like a small competition though, even if it encourages him to play dirty and reach around to your front. He plunges a hand down alongside where his cock meets your body. Your bubbling complaints about his dirty tactics fall short at the mouth of your next orgasm, and he all but steals the air from your lungs with a few little twists of his fingers on your clit. He cums with you immediately after — but after nonetheless, as you’re certain he’ll note later on. Your body sags atop his even as he drives his length into you a few more times for good measure and to milk himself for all he’s worth, adding another load to what Yunho’s already left in you.

Said man makes another appearance too, with bottles of water in hand as he lowers himself to the couch cushions right beside you and Jongho. You take one of the presented bottles with a quiet murmur of thanks, easing up from your slumped position to take several greedy sips in an effort to soothe your poor throat.

“By the way,” Jongho tilts his head in Yunho’s direction. A moment passes that’s full of silent anticipation, and it’s only when Yunho’s brows start to furrow that Jongho finishes his thought. “Her tires are fine.”

The incredulous look you get from Yunho makes the ruse well worth it, and the small flare of anger that crosses his eyes briefly only serves to make you want to tease him further.

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this work belongs to caly / hongism (2023). do not copy, repost, or plagiarize in any way.

[staghunters]

The case for an ND reading of Jackie Taylor, a decently-sized post.

I got a lot of scrambled thoughts on this, and they need a space for coherence. Maybe this is more for my own headcanon-ing, but feel free to take this if you want to. A lot of this comes down to a certain reading of text that I do with a certain kind of lens that may not be there for everyone. And that's fine! This is just silly analysis stuff that I wanted to do.

Am I an "authority figure" on this? Probably not by some standards! I consider myself to be on some spectrum, but only my brother has a diagnosis (tm), so do with that what you will.

This a mix of new thoughts and some copy-pasted from messages i sent on discord once.

SO, where to start. The first proper introduction of Jackie with other people is that gruelling opening sequence, but I think the more interesting is her first scene with Shauna where we get the big chunk of what the history is between these two and on what dynamic they interact with each other.

Jackie's got the whole thing color-coded and planned out. She likes that, but from all the other things later in the episode -- and the season -- it becomes very clear that she likes to have some input that ranges from voicing her opinion to micro-managing in order to feel in control and somewhat safe in her position as (social) captain of the Yellowjackets.

That Shauna is going to Rutgers with Jackie is taken as a given by her. One interpretation is that Jackie thinks that Shauna, obviously, will go with her to Rutgers on the basis of their friendship. However, I would like to propose a lil switch in that maybe Jackie hopes that Shauna will go with her to Rutgers. Getting into Brown isn't nothing, and there's gotta be some pointers at High School that Shauna would be/feel overqualified for Rutgers.

High school is a game of social credits. Jackie knows what to wear, what to say, what to do. Coach points out her "influence", and she demonstrates some skills at conflict-resolution during the kegger. Soccer is a game, one that she's very passionate about, as is her supposedly on-and-off-ish thing with Jeff. The funny thing is that Jackie seems way more interested in calling out how her boyfriend's team has been doing at baseball, rather than stuff that concerns him (or the both of them) personally.

To segway back a bit: Everything is a game with rules. Jackie knows them, but is shown to be really out of her element in the wilderness and trying to bring back normal societal rules into it (this will be a surprise tool that will help us later). Is Shauna going with her to Rutgers a naive wish on the basis of their friendship, or is it also so Jackie can have someone to scout and feel out all the social conventions for her? College means that a new playbook needs to be made, and it saves embarassment if you can base it on someone else.

Jackie assuming that Shauna would go along to Rutgers to be her roommate can very well be an expression of "this is my best friend and my sole, kind, understanding constant in my life, and I need her there with me in this unknown territory." College means starting over from scratch, and if we assume the manual-based functioning to be true, then Shauna's presence there to take cues from could help a lot to smooth out this transition.

On the other hand, this is of course the opportunity to drop some masking that Jackie might've been doing. Shauna being there could then very well work against her

My greatest argument, I think, is that you can see the entirety of Jackie's lil subplot of going after Travis as an example of how such a process backfires tremendously against her.

A little step-by-step:

Jackie is shown to give Shauna multiple chances to come clean about the Jeff Thing. Shauna doesn't, but Jackie still sticks around her.

Jackie proposes the plan to have some fun with Travis to Shauna. Shauna voices her thoughts about it, underlining that it would be a bad thing to do to Natalie.

This notion is repeated throughout the episode. Travis himself brings it up, the high group of hunters brings it up, Nat herself looks not too pleased at Jackie and Travis slow-dancing at doomcoming.

There's an interesting reverse happening once the hunter girls confront Jackie about having had sex with Travis. Everyone is out of their minds, so idk how well we can factor in that almost all of them proceed to go after Travis despite mentioning once again that "he's Natalie's".

Doomcoming is post journal discovery, yet quite some time has passed between that and the episode. Jackie makes some very obvious comments at Shauna to signal that She Knows, and the Travis plan is set up after that. Hooking up with Travis can serve the plainly stated "I'm not gonna die a virgin :/", but over the course of the episode, it also creates this whole new catalogue of reactions from the others. And all of these, in their defence of Natalie, would speak in favor of Jackie if the news would break that Shauna had sex with Jeff.

So at the end of Doomcoming, we can get some sort of list of "rules" that would apply out here in the wilderness appendix for the section on CHEATING

People can call dibs on someone, and those are to be respected

Acting like the "bigger person" by calling everyone out on how little value it has out here is not going to do you any favors

The group will react badly if you crossed a line in their eyes. Taking someone's boyfriend falls under that.

It's how she plays the fight with Shauna! Shauna wants to bring up that most problems were caused by Jackie hooking up with Travis, which Jackie follows with an uno-reverse card she now (thinks) she has in her hands

If I (Jackie) hook up with Nat's boyfriend (Travis), then the group takes Natalie's side. Therefore, if Shauna hooked up with my boyfriend, then they should take my side.

And it goes so bad! Shauna outplays her by making the whole fight not about the cheating, but about their friendship as a whole, which Jackie has been viewing way differently and blinded than Shauna and the others. There's plenty of moments of Jackie "not reading the room" and either waving it off as the others being party-poopers or a lil mishap of her own.

Of course the big difference is that Jackie isn't really awkward in the highschool setting. She won homecoming queen for a reason, has many people looking up to her, and Coach Martinez probably made her captain for similar reasons. I guess what I'm going for with what's provided in Doomcoming is that Jackie lacks that "reading the room" skill (we can see it a number of times with Shauna in the pilot. In particular I'd say the Rutgers discussion, the boob dress, and telling Jeff to drop her off first) but makes up for it a lot by having a sort of manual of how to act in certain situations.

She's not seeing how Shauna might feel about her constant input on things. She's not seeing that others might orchestrate stuff outside of her knowledge. Nobody ever outright goes head-to-head with Jackie until the wilderness, and on good grounds there. If rescue isn't coming, we go to the body of water that's just been discovered. But the crash site is (ironically) safe. Whatever might happen if we leave it behind for something we're not even sure of?

It also doesn't look like Jackie has any (good) friends outside of Shauna. Might come with their years long codependence that nobody even wants to put themselves into, but also that with a captain position/being a generally popular high school student, she might not seem as approachable on a personal level. Jackie does make herself very open, and she's shown to be able to set up brief but very attentive conversations (Allie, Mari, Misty) but beyond that on a superficial level, there's not someone who she turns to when she suspects Shauna of something. Shauna's very obvious other friend is of course Taissa, but there's nobody out in the wilderness like that for Jackie.

and for some random bits:

Verbal stuff! The Beaches quote is peak, because who else would drop a line like that in such a moment. If Jackie's lying about not quoting it, then it does really speak of it being a hyper-focus movie (and we can also discuss why Shauna can recognize the movie from just the one line). But I think the possibility of it just being one of those phrases that you whip out like a vine quote, even if you've forgotten the origins of it

Presentation and maybe textures! Her luggage lacking skirts/dresses is… yeah. She wears a dress at the party in the woods and going to school with Shauna in the pilot episode, but besides the doomcoming dress, that's it. The article that says that while the others are already sharing clothes, Jackie sticks to her own wardrobe OR borrows some thing from Shauna (shoutout to the Doomcoming flannel!)

[captainlunaxmen]

All for the Cameras

Chapter 2

Finnick Odair x reader

This is a repost since the old blog doesn't work anymore. 🥰

Chapter summary: it's time for the big event. And better keep our eyes open.

Chapter warnings: none, except the usual mention of prostitution and usual hunger games stuff. Nothing too wild we still won't see Finnick in this chapter, but I promise it's going to be worth it.

Masterlist

"Snow is watching us." Haymitch says, we're almost at the Capitol for the final interview and the big celebration.

"Of course, he is. He needs to watch everything. Especially the inconveniences," I scoff.

"Yeah. And if he wants you to pacify the districts, I promise you, he's not happy." Haymitch continues, "instead of being in love, you two sounds like you're reading from a drilling manual."

"You try reading that stuff that Effie writes us," Peeta mutters.

"Snow doesn't care." I tell him. "That's not how you want to convince him."

"I'm open to suggestions," he says back, tired.

"We could get married," Katniss quietly suggests, not looking up at anyone.

"That's not helping," Haymitch comments.

"I'm serious. If, like you said we're on this train forever, it's gonna happen eventually. Why not now?"

"It does make a statement. I'll give you that." Haymitch then looks at Peeta who agrees, but quickly stands up and leave. Katniss looks at me.

"It's something we can try, you're right... they would want it to happen eventually." I shrug.

"It's settle, then." Haymitch drinks to that and Katniss looks at me with hope.

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

"Are you sure you don't want to come to the party?" I ask Haymitch before I have to leave for Snow's residence. "Lots of free alcohol."

"I don't need free alcohol." He chuckles amused, "I'm a victor. I already got that."

"Don't you want to save a damsel in distress?" I try again.

"Our president seems very well guarded on his own," Haymitch jokes, "he's safe."

I genuinely laugh at that shaking my head.

"See? I need that! Please?" I try to beg just one more time.

"Don't send me that look, Princess." He turns his head away ready to walk away.

"Fine, fine... I tried." I raise my hands up in surrender. "Wish me luck, at least. "

"Maybe they'll leave you alone tonight, too interested in the two lovers," he sadly smiles at me, hoping, rather than believing, his own words to be true.

"Yeah, maybe," I take a deep breath, "well... have a goodnight, Haymitch."

"You too, princess." He winks, "and eyes open."

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

The party is just as exaggerated as ever. Lots of people, lots of food and drinks and lots of lights.

I make my way through the crowd, towards the tables full of food and drinks, hoping to find something to make this evening more tolerable. I take a glass and take a sip, breathing deeply.

Some people come to talk to me, about the victors, thankfully.

"Two victors, exciting, uh?" One of the them says cheerfully.

"Very," I say with my usual forced smile.

"You must be proud, two victors on your turn on 12," a woman with very voluminous hair nudges me, "you were the talk of the town these past few days, you know?"

"Me?" I ask, surprised by that, usually everyone forgets about me during the victory tour.

"Oh yes, well beside the lovebirds." A green haired man chimes in.

"Why?" I start to get anxious, the necklaces feel a lot tighter than before.

"I heard a rumour... someone wants to put a ring on your finger," she whisper-exclaims with a wink.

"W-what?... I don't think... uh..." I stutter.

"C'mon, everyone knows you're Cal Kingslay's favourite." She teases, with a devilish smirk, "and it's rumored that he wants you all to himself."

"Isn't that wonderful?" The man cheers. "We could probably get two well awaited weddings this year!"

"I hope I didn't ruin the surprise." The woman adds, with, what I'm sure is, a fake apologetic smile.

"Of course not. Now would you excuse me, gotta wait for my Victors." I say turning around to walk as far as possible from them, I finish my drink in one go and soon take another glass. Thankfully it's announced the arrival of Katniss and Peeta.

I spot them walking through the crowd following Effie and heading to Flavius and Octavia so I quickly join them.

As they see me arrive they immediately smile, relieved.

"There you are," I say holding my hands out for them to hold, "I've missed you,"

All for the cameras.

"It's only been 30 minutes," Peeta plays along.

"And you can stay that long away from me?" I fake offence, "You wound me,"

Everyone around us laugh so I just decide to stick with them as long as I can.

Helping them play along is much easier than expected, especially with Peeta, Katniss is still a little uncertain, but I get her, it got me years and years to get used to the cameras.

After I unfortunately finish my fourth glass, I need another one, in order to survive this evening.

"Excuse me a second," I whisper at them and head to the other side of the room where I can get another glass of Whiskey.

I turn around to go back to Katniss and Peeta when I'm met with a firm chest.

Unfortunately I already know who this might be.

"Found you" Cal teases.

I look up at him, the blue in his hair is even stronger than I remembered, and a little longer too, he got bigger, more muscles for sure, eyes just as devilish.

"That you did," I try to mask my fear with a chuckle.

"I've missed you, you know, been looking everywhere for you since I got here," he says with a sweet tone, that only makes my skin crawl. He grabs my hand to play with my fingers.

"I've been here the whole time, chatting with the Victors you know," I take my hand back, "I should get back to them, exc-"

"They got you all this time," he stops me from walking away, "it's not the same without you."

"I..." I want to say something, but nothing comes out.

"I mean, it's fun and all with Finnick, but with you..." he lets out a big dreamy sigh, "with you it's so much better"

He says the last part leaning in, close enough to suffocate me.

"Excuse me?"

We both turn and see Peeta standing there.

"Peeta!" I say, both surprised and relieved, "Peeta, uh.. this is Cal Kingslay, his father was once the general himself"

"Nice to meet you, sir," Peeta extends his hand and Cal grabs it and shakes it.

"The pleasure is all mine, Mr Mellark," Cal greets him, he's tense though, he doesn't like being interrupted.

"Uh... Peeta, where's Katniss?" I ask to change the subject.

"She's dancing with the new Head Gamemaker," he explains simply, "but I still wanted to dance so I thought to ask you, if you're free."

"Oh, but of course," I say holding out my hand for him.

"But..." Cal starts.

"Oh, c'mon, he's our new victor, we can't say no to him, now can we?"

"Of course not," Cal says with a very evident forced smile.

That being said, me and Peeta go dance with the other people, I even spot Katniss with said New head Gamemaker.

"Thank you," I breathlessly say as we start dancing.

"You're welcome, you looked like you needed saving," he says with his kind smile, "who is he?"

"A fan" I simply say, "a very... uh... insisting one"

"I see," he nods.

"Thanks again, really."

"Don't worry about it." He laugh, "I mean, you helped saving me in that arena, this is nothing."

It's actually a lot more than he thinks.

I smile at him, grateful.

I then feel a slight tap on my shoulder, I turn around seeing Katnis and the Gamemaker.

"Mind changing partners?" He asks politely.

"Sure."

Me and Katniss exchange spots.

"It's an honour," he says once we're dancing.

"That honour would be the same if I knew your name sir," I tease.

"Oh, my bad, I apologise." He chuckles, amused, "I'm Plutarch Heavensbee,"

"Now the honour is mine," I say, "new head Gamemaker... when did they choose you?"

"Oh, I volunteer," he simply explains.

"Oh..." I let out a surprised laugh, "I see Katniss is already dictating fashion."

"Yeah, she's an inspiration, don't you think?" He says it almost as a challenge.

"I do," I answer seriously. "There must be more then... why volunteer?"

"I think it's time for the game to mean something," he shrugs and smiles.

"Mean something?" I wonder, "that's pretentious,"

"A little," he chuckles again, "so I'd keep those eyes open, if I were you."

My eyes snap back at his face, he's smiling, proud of himself.

Why? Does he know something? Does Haymitch know something?

Before I get the chance to ask him anything, the Capitol anthem starts and the crowd cheers.

"I'm sure we'll meet again," he says before following the rest of the people out for President Snow's speech.

I'm a little stunned, it's Effie's call that snaps me out of it. I quickly join her, Katniss and Peeta out.

We all gather in front of the residence, waiting for the President Snow to come out. I turn around looking for Cal, only to make sure he doesn't sneak up on me again. I see him looking around, for me probably, so I quickly turn around getting closer to Katniss.

At last the President comes out on his balcony.

"Tonight, on this, the last day of their tour, I want to welcome our two Victors." He starts with his usual charming persona, two young people who embody our idealsof strength and valor. And I, personally, want to congratulate them on the announcement of their engagement."

Everyone cheers. Peeta and Katniss smile at the crowd around them.

"Your love has inspired us. And I know it will go on inspiring us every day for as long as you may live." He holds up his glass and the fireworks start and I turn around to look at them like everyone.

I sense Katniss holding my hand and turning around. I want to look at Snow too, but the way she starts to squeeze my hand tells me all I need to know...

He doesn't believe them.

It didn't work.

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

I'm sitting in an armchair staring at nothing in particular. My mind can't help but think about whatever we can do to make their story more believable, but nothing, absolutely nothing comes up.

The riots in the districts surely won't make him happy, which means it will be worse for everyone else.

Fuck.

My head snaps back as I hear footsteps coming, I let out a sigh when I notice it's just Katniss.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," she apologises.

"Don't worry about it," I wave her off, "can't sleep either?"

She shakes her head, I motion for her to sit with me.

"Do you think we ever had any chance?" She then asks me.

"I guess, the positive side of me really hoped... but the realistic side knew." I sigh, looking down at my own hands, "I'm afraid it was too late from the beginning. And I don't mean from what happen in 11... I mean from the moment you took out the berries, that made the districts feel something, these riots all over the place won't be pacify by a love story. Snow knows that."

"He asked me to convince him," she explains, "to convince him ours is true love."

"He never believed you." I directly say, "not for a second."

"Why ask me that then?"

"Control." I simply answer looking up at her with a serious expression. "Show you he has control."

"How did you end up living like this?" She asks, she seems genuinely interested, but I'm not ready to share that part of my life with her just yet.

I smile at her, a smile that doesn't reach my eye.

"Aw... Katniss, I thought you knew the difference between living" I turn serious again, looking her dead in the eyes," and surviving."

With that I stand up, grab a bottle of what I think is rum, and head to my room.

-----------

I stand by the doors waiting for Peeta, Katniss and Haymitch to get off the train. The thought of going back to normal is dreadful enough, going back alone is even worse, I don't want to think about it.

"Home sweet home," Haymitch declares as he nears.

"Don't be so eager to leave me," I joke, holding my hand out for him to shake, he takes and kiss the back of it.

"You know, it pains me deeply," he teases back and I chuckle.

"Take care of them, will you?" I ask quietly.

"You take care of yourself, will you?" He lets go of my hand and leans down to whisper into my ear, "and eyes open" He smiles one more time before getting of the train.

"You'll have to explain that to me properly one of these days," I tell him as I watch him go.

"Isn't his whole character just... cryptic?" I turn around seeing Peeta and Katniss.

"Or just constantly drunk." Katniss chimes in.

"He's cryptically drunk all the time," I smile, "so... you got everything?"

"Yeah, we're ready to get home." Peeta smile back at me.

"Good... Good." I let out a deep sigh, "it's been a pleasure assisting you two. I guess I'll see you at the next Hunger Games, mentors."

"Thank you for everything, Y/n." Peeta pulls me in for a quick hug before walking away.

"Bye," I wave then turn to Katniss, "you okay?"

"Yeah... I think so." She forces a small smile.

"I wish I could do more," I tell her honestly.

"Thanks,"

"Say hi to your family for me, alright?" I smile again and she nods.

Once Katniss is out of sight a Peacekeeper comes up to me.

"Yes?" I ask.

"Your presence has been requested back in the Capitol. We'll be leaving soon." He tells me.

"May I know who requested it?" I ask, tired. I already imagine who-

"President Snow."

Uh?

"Did he say why?"

The peacekeeper doesn't answer and walks away. I stand here dumbfounded, wondering what he might want from me.

Is it because of Katniss and Peeta?

Is it because of the riots in the districts?

Is it because of the Quartel Quell? Does he wants me to be more participant or?

Then a terrifying thought comes to mind...

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

"You asked for me, sir?" I stand in front of his desk as he write something down.

"It came to my attention a rumour's been going around regarding you, miss L/n." He starts, still not looking directly at me, "a merry one."

"Sir?" I ask, my throat instantly dry.

"Cal Kingslay apparently wants to marry you," he finally puts down the pen and looks at me with, what might seem, a genuinely happy expression, "That's a wonderful news."

"Is it?" I don't know what he wants from me.

"Oh yes, the people can't help but be thrilled about. the idea. I, myself, think it's great news. After the contributions the Kingslays gave to the games in these last years, it will show, not only to the Capitol, but the districts as well, that you are an active part of this system." He explains, the hint of a challenge in his eyes. Challenge me to say no, to refuse.

I really want to, I want to scream at him and just run away. Being sold to all rich people in the Capitol is not the life I want, but being tied to him... permanently, it's more terrifying.

But I have no choice.

All I can do is swallow my pride and take a deep shaky breath.

"I... how... how will it happen, sir?" I ask.

"You two will get engaged once I announce the Third Quarter Quell, and get properly married after the crowing of the Victor. He will ask, you will happily say yes." He explains satisfied with my compliance, then he goes back at the papers in front of him, "That's all."

I don't need him to tell me twice, I immediately walk out of his office, ready to go home and just let everything out.

"Oh, before you go," Snow's voice freezes me on the spot, "Plutarch Heavensbee asked for your company, you will be escorted to his house immediately." He informs me.

I shakily nod and walk out of his office where two guards make way.

-----------

"Do you want some tea?" Plutarch motion for me to sit at a big wooden table, "perhaps something stronger?"

I nervously nod as I sit.

He walks away, I hear him talking to someone before walking back into the room I'm in with two drinks in hand. He offers one to me and sits by the opposite side of the table.

"I told the guards to come back in an hour, we should have enough time" he smiles and I nod again, still not sure of what to expect.

Suddenly the lights go off and the room falls into deep darkness. I can still make out his face due to the lights coming from outside.

"What...?" I ask.

"You can never feel safer," he tells me.

"What's going on, Mr Heavensbee?" I ask, anxiety growing at every passing second.

"Tell me, miss L/n," he starts, voice a little quieter than before, "what do you know about district 13?"

[zykamiliah]

Hey, sorry to bother you, but I've been seeing something in the fandom that kind of confuses me, so I'm leaving this ask to my favorite svsss blogs.

I've been trying to get more into Shen Jiu's character, as he is pretty interesting and arguably a fan favorite, and I've noticed that, so far of the fanfics I've read, he is more often than not depicted as a good teacher. A harsh one, but still good? Or not terrible?

One that likes teaching, is involved with his students, taking the little of what we've seen of Shen Yuan's teaching methods and just, giving them a twist, "improving" them even sometimes.

Often it ends up being a show of how Shen Yuan was clumsy, not that good of a teacher (or of a Shen Qingqiu) and I'm... Kind of confused by this trend? Like, is it rooted in canon? Obviously this is still more interesting to read than the "SJ is just a tsundere that never did anything wrong ever" thing, but it feels kind of similar.

I cannot imagine a character as genuinely bitter and angry as Shen Jiu enjoying being a teacher, having a nurturing bone in his body or even being hands on in the teaching of his disciples, several of which he literally bullied out of his peak. But maybe it's just me and I'm wrong?

Was Shen Jiu a good teacher?

I guess I'm just curious of where it comes from. I like Shen Yuan's character, and it often feels like people take Shen Jiu's to show how bad at everything SY is, even if it isn't consistent with SJ's character and often lack nuances, in my opinion.

(Or even if the story claims loving SY while also stripping him away of everything that makes him interesting other than his obliviousness, but that's a whole other thing.)

Sorry again, and I also apologize for the long ask, I'd just figured you or someone that follows you might have an answer.

(Also, I get that fandoms gotta fandom, and I'm not saying people shouldn't write it or anything, I may be a strickler for canon but I'm not the police. Write what you want. I just wonder where it comes from, as I figure that knowing its origins might help me in the future, but I promise I'm not trying to start discourse or anything, so I hope I've made my point clear enough without offending anyone.)

hello!! :DD

well sj being ooc in fics is a common thing by now. people tend to portray him softer than he's in canon, to the point it sometimes turns his whole character upside down. in extreme cases, you'll be dealing with a bitter, more tsundere version of sy with sj's backstory, which is secretly what many people want IMO lol often this people also perceive sy as an incompetent dumb nerd that only knows about monster lore and has no other skills or abilities aside from that-- essentially, they fall for the unreliable narrator's trap of believing every lie he tells about himself.

it's never outright stated, but sj didn't like children, so is fair to assume he didn't like teaching or caring for them either. taking into account qing jing peak's toxic atmosphere pre sy's transmigration, AND the fact that sj was paranoid about being overthrown since he hadn't developed a golden core even after becoming a peak lord and taking lbh in, I don't think he'd be interested in teaching anyone anything. in a lot of cultivation novels, disciples are just given manuals and left to self-study them (like he let lbh use the fake manual, expecting lbh would die from using it. haha. such a good teacher!). this could be the case. aside from that, I don't personally think sj would want to provide any kid guidance. and that's not mentioning how he allowed and enabled bullying, targeted talented disciples, and overall was more worried about his own cultivation and survival and reputation than other things or people.

so where this fanon sj comes from? I'm not sure, really, but I think some people just want a version of him that's palatable AND defensible, like my friend furby says, a declawed sj that's just a poor misunderstood meowmeow who deep inside is secretly good and nice. it's a thing that people who struggle with liking "villainous" or "morally bad" characters do: twisting the narrative around to justify this character's actions. It doesn't help that he's SO complicated, and people who have very black-and-white thinking struggle to place him in either side of the spectrum-- it's the problem mxtx outlined through sqh and sqq's voices

ch.14 house arrest

ch.19 shen jiu

really, the fandom has just proved mxtx's point xD

anyway, there's a lot of misconceptions about sj. there are some pretty wild theories around. some fans also treat his abuse as The Worst Abuse in comparison to the Child Abuse he did, because of the (unconfirmed) hints that sj was sexually assaulted by qiu jianluo, as if SA is the worst kind of abuse and child abuse falls back on the tier-list ¯_(ツ)_/¯ because obviously anything that involves sex in inherently worse, apparently

in other cases, people are simply more familiar with the fanon version of the characters, and that's who they portray in their writing. after all, many people read the novel once and then go on to read dozen of fics; it's normal the fanon sticks more on the brain than canon (not judging! it happens to me as well lol) and those fanon versions are more popular because, as i said, this version of sj is more morally palatable (and bland and less fun ┐(︶▽︶)┌)

thank you for the ask!! :DDDD ❤️❤️❤️ i love receiving asks~

[femmmie]

THE ISLAND

Chapter 3: Spork

Note: this is quite a standalone chapter 😁 so you could only read this one. Or read the entire fic on AO3.

Amanda and Trevor are on a mission to be the first to report a story about an eccentric artist.

Chapter word count: 2.137

Rating: general or teen (alcohol)

Amanda was in a hurry.

The only one who could keep up with her was Trevor. He was her bandana wearing photographer and just as tall as her.

“This could be a big scoop,” she said while walking determinately to her car.

“Isn’t that Giarratana lady the artist who made that huge controversial 9/11 memorial in LA and did a whole performance art thing with it, but she got the year wrong somehow?”

“Yes! She’s crazy. But she’s apparently a genius and we need to get there fast before anyone else is tipped off!”

“Where are we going?”

“Silver Lake dog park.”

“Alright, let’s go!” Trevor threw his gear in the trunk and sat down in the passenger’s seat of the 1995 Portaro, one of the last of its kind.

“I wish new cars were this low-tech,” Trevor mused while playing with the manual window crank.

Amanda sped along the 110.

“I know! I wish they were too! I mean, we’d boil alive without AC, I had to let that be built in. But for the rest, I prefer this old timer over any malfunctioning crap they make these days.”

“Yeah, like at least this one works. Mine doesn’t do shit. Oh well. At least I still have my cars in GTA.”

“In what?”

“Never mind.”

Amanda glanced sideways at Trevor with a smirk on her face.

“I’m just playing with you, I know GTA. I used to watch my sister play, she was a nightmare oh my god. She kept jumping out of a helicopter close to the water, just to see if she could do it without dying, only to die again and again. It was SOMETHING I tell ya. So yeah, I know my games, I am down with the youth and everything.”

Trevor lost it.

“Amanda, there isn’t anyone who is less down with the youth that I know of, than you. And I say this lovingly!”

“HEY! That’s just because you don’t tell me anything!”

They joked back and forth.

“And that’s because I know you won’t understand!”

“TRY ME!”

“Alright, alright, sheesh!” Trevor fondly looked at his colleague. Amanda was so full of enthusiasm, giving it her all every day. They might work at a silly outlet, but she always pursued stories that had a social or environmental impact. And her sharp questioning made the articles so much better. It made Trevor want to follow her anywhere. To the end of the world if need be. Of course, the end of the world wasn’t far off anyway.

“I swear Amanda, we HAVE to play GTA together sometime.”

“Okay! We will!”

“It’s pretty much a Millennial game anyway.”

“Oh shit, I have to take a left here…”

Amanda drove them all the way to a parking lot which faced the entrance of the park. A couple of ancient proud pine trees encircled it.

“Okay, grab your stuff! I think I see something going on already.”

As Amanda and Trevor walked into the park, there was a small group of people standing huddled together. They approached in tall strides.

“Hi! We’re from People.com. Wow, you all look so nice, what an iconic shirt you have! But yeah, we are looking for Angela Giarratana. Do you know where she is?” Amanda asked the group.

“Hii, welcome! Awesome that you’ve come! But she’s already on the lake,” said the guy with the iconic shirt. He had curly, bleached hair, ripped jeans and retro Vans.

“Shit! Trevor, come on, we gotta go!”

“Yes ma’am!”

They reached the lake in no time. It was a nice park, a bit provincial and uninspired maybe, but the lake provided the trees, shrubs and plants with enough water to hold on and create an oasis in the middle of the city.

“ANGELA??”

They spotted a flounder in the middle of the lake, apparently with Angela on it. She was busy doing something, Amanda and Trevor couldn’t make out what.

“HI! YOU CAN USE THAT BOAT OVER THERE!”

Angela gestured to a bowrider a couple of yards away. They scuttled towards it.

“You can leave your stuff, Trev, nobody is gonna steal it and you won’t need it on the lake.”

“I guess...”

Trevor looked unsure. But he put his gear down, took his camera and held Amanda’s hand, helping her step onto the boat.

“Thanks. Oooh this is so wobbly…”

Trevor climbed in too and tried to start the motor. It was dead.

Amanda panicked. “Shit shit SHIT! What if the whole thing’s already up and we’re still here!”

“I saw some oars lying around on the shore. Shall I get them?”

Amanda blinked. “Yes. Yes, of course, that’s genius. Trevor, what would I do without you?” She spontaneously kissed him on the cheek.

Smiling abashedly, Trevor rowed them towards Angela’s boat.

“Hi! You guys are right on time!”

A woman with a wild bob-cut, big eyes and an even bigger smile stood up and bowed over to shake their hands above the water.

“I’m Amanda and this is Trevor,” Amanda matched Angela’s smile. “Thank you so much for letting People.com know of this amazing new project you’re revealing today.”

“Oh! Any time! You know, I just want people to hear my message. And you have a lot of readers. So, see this?” Angela gestured to some kind of contraption next to her on the flounder. “This thingy- this motor, will inflate my doggy. I just checked everything. We’re ready to go.”

“Okay alright! Wait! Trevor, do you have a good shot?”

“Maybe we should back up a little?”

“Probably a good idea!” Angela confirmed. “It’s a big girl!”

“I love big girls,” Trevor joked.

Amanda widened her eyes in fake-shock.

Trevor paddled them a bit backwards. When they were in position, Amanda got out her phone.

“I’m also going to live-stream it to our website!”

“Great idea!” Angela shouted from her boat. She started the motor. Trevor had his camera ready.

Angela was shouting even louder now. She had to, because the motor was roaring with an angry fervor. A small crowd had gathered on the shore of the lake.

“OKAY! HERE WE GO! WELCOME EVERYONE! THIS IS ABOUT LIFE! ABOUT FRIENDSHIP! ABOUT LOVE AND LOYALTY! IF WE FIND LOVE, THAT’S GREAT AND RARE! MOST PEOPLE, HOWEVER, NEVER FIND IT! BUT JUST LOOK AROUND AND PET YOUR NEAREST DOG! YOU’LL SEE THEY ARE THE FULL PACKAGE! THEY TEACH US ABOUT HUMANITY EVERY DAY….”

Something stirred in the lake. Slowly, a shape emerged from the water.

“WE ALL KNOW THAT PETS HAVE IT HARD THESE DAYS AND DOGS CAN ONLY GO OUTSIDE IN THE NIGHT AND THE MORNING. SO, TO HONOR MAN’S GREATEST COMPANION, I PRESENT TO YOU: SPORK!”

The shape turned into a giant dog. It wasn’t exactly realistic, but it certainly was an artistic impression of a dog.

“This is incredible,” Amanda said, looking at the hovering canine. She got a bit teary-eyed. She filmed for a couple more moments and then ended the stream.

“Why is it called Spork?” Trevor asked.

“MY DOG IS CALLED SPORK, I NAMED THIS AFTER HIM.”

“Awww,” Amanda wiped her tears, but more were flowing down. “That’s so precious.”

“COULD YOU GIVE ME A LIFT BACK?”

“Yes, sure, hop in!”

Amanda helped Angela into their boat and Trevor got them back to shore safely. The crowd applauded.

“How long will Spork stay here?” Amanda asked Angela when they stood firmly back on land.

“I hope for at least a year. I got a license for that period.” Angela’s voice was a little raspy from all the shouting.

“You kept everything secret for a long time. Why?”

“Well, you know, there’s always people who try and tell our stories for us. I want to do it with my voice, when I think the time is right.”

“I loved your speech. There’s hardly anything more human than to love a pet, isn’t there?”

“Yeah… Angela looked over Amanda’s shoulder. Amanda turned around.

“There he is!”

The guy Amanda talked to earlier came, carrying a small doggy.

“Oh my god, he’s so cute!” Amanda exclaimed. “Can we take a picture of you and Spork, and big Spork?”

“Of course!” Angela posed and Trevor took a couple of shots.

“You can stay here with us if you want, we’re going to have a picnic.”

Amanda and Trevor looked at each other.

“Yeah, sure, why not!” Trevor answered.

They all sat down on the grass, looking at mega-Spork floating in the warm but gentle evening breeze.

“Angela, have you checked that she’s secured, in case of extreme weather?”

“Of course, we’ve taken all appropriate safety measures and gotten the license from the city.”

“I had to ask, I’ll add it to the piece,” Amanda was already typing on her phone.

“You write your articles with your thumbs?” Angela asked, tilting her head and frowning, bemused.

“Honestly, it’s what works fastest for me,” Amanda answered without looking up. “There, I’m finished. Trevor, did you upload the pictures?”

“Of course.”

“Okay… and here we go! Published! Haha, we did it again!”

Amanda and Trevor high-fived.

Angela looked at them excitedly. “That’s amazing!” She said. “You’re so fast, oh my god!”

“The business of getting scoops is cut-throat,” Amanda explained.

“I bet!”

“And I can always add to it, if new stuff comes up. Speaking of…”

A woman in a pink pantsuit and a guy holding her umbrella walked up to the group of people.

“Very good, very impressive,” she said. Her long hair waived in the gentle breeze.

Angela quickly got up and shook the woman’s hand. “Thank you, mayor Catanese!”

Trevor took more pictures.

“I think this piece of art will inspire the people around Silver Lake to treat their pets and each other kindly and help each other out in these trying times.”

“I hope it will.”

The mayor posed for a couple more pictures, shook some hands and then left.

Angela sat down again.

“Politicians always want to be part of other people’s hard work, don’t they,” Trevor joked.

“I mean of course they do, that’s their job basically,” Angela answered. “But it does give me even more publicity.”

“You’re right, I’ve added the mayoral visit to the story just now.” Amanda winked. Angela blushed.

“And according to the statistics, this really bumped up the numbers,” Trevor added.

“You guys. You’re a great duo,” Angela said.

“We do work great together! Did you know we were wannabe actors at first?”

“Isn’t everyone in LA?”

“True. But yeah, I worked with the Groundlings, that was fun. And after I got this job, I randomly met Trevor at a restaurant, and we started talking. He also wanted to be an actor. But he became a chef instead.”

“Yeah, and that was nice for a while, but I just really love cameras and editing… Amanda really came through for me and landed me this photographer spot!”

Amanda smiled and rubbed Trevor’s arm fondly.

“He’s the best!”

Angela was beaming. “Wow, that’s so awesome! Did you know I also perform at our improv theater downtown?”

As it was getting a little cooler, the energy in the park got more and more excited.

“You do? Well, we’d love to come watch your show sometime!”

“You should join me! We could do a little something together maybe?”

“Yeah!”

“Hello again!” The guy with the curls sat down next to them and handed them a bottle of wine. “Let’s celebrate, right?”

“Yes! Today was a good day.” Angela leaned back and took a deep breath.

“This is Chanse by the way, he’s also an artist AND an improv actor.”

“Nice to meet you, Chanse!”

“Nice to meet you too, oh my god! Do you cuties want some cheese or nuts or something?”

“It’s like you read my mind!” Amanda exclaimed.

“I got you,” Chanse winked.

They had a great time at the picnic, and it was getting darker.

More people came into the park, finally daring to get out of their air-conditioned homes. They largely seemed to love the brand-new piece of art gracing their neighborhood.

“Wow, no way!” Amanda noticed that giant Spork had glow in the dark lines on it, spelling the word ‘friendship’.

Trevor took some extra pictures.

“Today was a good day indeed,” Amanda sighed as she laid her head on Trevor’s shoulder. She was drunk.

“Come on, I’ll drive you home,” he said softly. He helped Amanda up. She heavily leaned on him.

“Thank you two again for coming and for writing the article and taking pictures!” Angela also stood up. Amanda launched a big hug on Angela.

“Anytime, love!”

“Alright, alright, time to go.” Trevor ushered Amanda back to the car. It was her turn to sit in the passenger seat.

“I don’t want to go home yet…” Amanda mumbled. A moment later she was fast asleep.

[auberylis]

MyArtGallery 20230623 BIG UPDATE!

Hi everyone! I made a cool big update to MyAG - a free, fast-rollout gallery package for your personal neocities.org website. It is aimed at artists who value and curate their online presence and want their art to exist for more than while it's on someone's dashboard. MyAG is my contribution to the decorporativisation of the online space. And today, i made it a whole ton more usable, too - managing your online art gallery is almost as easy as tumblr now!

Meet the brand-new editor page! Before this, it used to be a neverending stream of html forms with crap layout.. now, it's almost state-of-the art web app shit! Essentially, it takes the form of what you see when you access your actual art gallery as a visitor, but with simplified design and neutral colours, and managing tools. To edit your artworks or groups - simply click on them and select "edit" in the popup menu! A nice lil' window appears, and you can change everything about your artwork or group in it. Adding new stuff is as easy as pressing "Add new..." and filling out a couple fields, too!

But wait.. there's more! Not only can you now delete your stuff easily (yeah, there were troubles with that) - but also, i implemented moving stuff around in a turbo-simple way! Click "move" and hover over any of the insert markers that pop up, click - and the artwork (or the group button) is moved to the desired location.

Pretty cool, huh? Sure is, and also sure as hell feels nice to have over 1K lines of code working neatly together for the sake of art without companies! I hope someone goes ahead and cooperates with me by running this at their neocities page and reporting any issues that emerge. Want to see it live? Here's a fresh stock deployment left untouched. And my own kandi museum runs on MyAG, too!

Grab MyAG and read the manual/tutorial at project's github page! Use this shit dammit!

If you want to contact me, DM here or use one of these!

Smaller updates:

Added a settings file checker. Since some keys will be coming and some will be going, the settingsChecker.html tool-page will check your current settings.js file for missing and deprecated setting keys, and point you to a quick-fix example!

Since i finally sorted out the XML entry order, some users may end up with their gallery groups or artworks displaying backwards after they update... i added "macro tools" to the gallery editor page, and the two available tools are to reverse all images and reverse all groups. If you run into such problem while updating, simply use the needed macro tool.

Figured out a bunch of small CSS bugs - stuff is laid out a bit neater now. Pretty sure there's more to come.. *cdi mario voice* and you've gotta help us!

[smidgen-of-hotboy]

Our Angel of Brahma, pt. xii

No thoughts, head empty. I need a nap. @ananxiousgenz @ceaseless-watchers-special-girl @the-private-eye @demonic-panini CW for: assault of disabled character (mentioned)

Ms. Starr,

I wanted to apologize for the way I treated you per our last discussion. You are right. You are not my child, and I am not your parent. Thank you for correcting me. 

In regards to helping you restore the comms: I will continue to help you, but once I have run out of recordings, we are done. I look forward to the article you will be writing but do not wish to associate with you any further. 

In regards to our last conversation: I am unable to reach you through your comms. Every time I call or message you I receive an error message. If you have blocked me, I ask that you unblock me to make necessary communication between us easier. If something else has happened to your comms, please let me know so I know to only communicate with you through emails. 

Best Wishes, Frannie. 

Dear Frannie,

My comms broke. I am trying to save creds for a new one. Please email me. 

-Calypso Starr

SOUND: COMMS BEEPS. RECORDING BEGINS. IRIS: Go on! Say it again! BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): (PROUDLY) This week on Brahma: after trying for nearly two years to prove the Rats are trustworthy enough, the Old-Timers have finally come around!  IRIS: More than that! I have supplies for the clinic again! BAIRD: We’re doing it! We’re doing it Iris!! SOUND: JUMPING AND FABRIC RUSTLING. BAIRD BREAKS INTO A BRIEF COUGHING FIT. IRIS(?) POUNDS THEIR BACK BEFORE LETTING OUT A SURPRISED YELP. IRIS: Oh! Oh! …Baird? BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): (RASPING) Shut up and let me have this. SOUND: FABRIC RUSTLING. BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): You aren't my parent. But I'm glad you're here. I'm glad– I'm glad that if there's anyone I got stuck with, it's you. IRIS: Oh… of course. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat for you. (A BEAT) And for whatever it's worth Baird, you've grown into a fine young man. BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): (SNIFFLING) Thanks… SOUND: FABRIC RUSTLING. IRIS: This does mean you have to talk to Talia now about this. You want to include her in creating a messaging system and using the Brats, it’s up to you to pitch the final sale. And you know she won’t be happy.  (BAIRD SNORTS) BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): Yeah, well, Talia’s never happy anymore. IRIS: Baird– for fucks sake, the Brat threw a rock at her! I would be pissed too.  BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): It happened two years ago! He apologized! They all did.  IRIS: Apology or not, she was still hurt by it. By them. Just because they apologized to her does not mean she owes them acceptance. And it doesn’t mean she has to tolerate them. Don't give me that look. You know I’m right and you just don’t want to admit it. BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): Fine, fine… who are you gonna pick to help run the clinic? IRIS: Whoever volunteers first, and if no one does, then I’ll take whatever I can get. It’s going to be a lot of information and reading that they’re going to have to digest. The manuals Hanataba left behind are hefty and it took me and Cyrus together to lift them on the tables. It’s going to take a long time before I’m comfortable leaving it to someone else to run.  BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): (SOFTLY) I understand. Really, I do. I’m not a little kid anymore. You have responsibilities to get back to finally. And if you gotta move back across town, that’s fine. I’ll be okay.  (A BEAT) IRIS: Come with me. You won’t be in the way, there’s plenty of Pests to wrangle all over the streets, and we could still go to the meetings together– BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): I can’t though. Josie takes care of the twins and Hank, Hank takes care of Talia and Mischa, and you and I take care of everyone. If you go, I have to stay.  IRIS: But– BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): You trust me and my decisions. You trust my judgment. I’ve grown into a fine man. IRIS: Young man, a fine young man.  BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): (A HINT OF A SMILE IN HIS VOICE) Yeah exactly. You trust me, so trust me with this. Trust yourself. If you go, I promise, I’m not going to die. IRIS: You better not, you still have another eleven years to go.  BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): So you’ll move? You’ll go? IRIS: I’ll– I’ll need to think about it. But it’s not a no.  (BAIRD HUMS) BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): How’d you and my dad even get involved in the Hanataba Clinic in the first place? IRIS: It’s kind of a long story. Put a pin in it for now and wait until we’re home, debriefed with the others, and had dinner, alright? BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): Fine. IRIS: I know you don’t see the harm in it, but the streets have ears. It’s dangerous out here.  BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): I know, I know… SOUND: COMMS BEEPS. RECORDING ENDS.

SOUND: COMMS BEEPS AGAIN. NEXT RECORDING BEGINS. IRIS: Really? You’re going to record me? BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): Of course! Me and the rest of the galaxy are dying to know: how did Iris Desrosiers come to work at a Hanataba Clinic? Why choose to work full-time in a Hanataba Clinic, when you don’t get paid for it?  (IRIS LAUGHS) IRIS: It’s not all that interesting. I needed a home after dropping out of university. I met Eve and Cyrus, and Cyrus introduced me to the clinician at the time, Mister Regis. Regis put me to the test, I passed, he passed away, and someone had to take over. The Revolutionaries were far and few apart. There was no organization back then. When Regis died, some people wanted to tear apart the Clinic. Strip down it down to its bones leaving nothing but the floorboards. In times of need, desperate people will do anything to save themselves or the ones they love. Including demolishing Hanataba’s Gift.  BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): But the clinic is still standing.  (VERY HOPEFUL) You convinced them otherwise. IRIS: I wish I could say that I did, but I didn’t. Your parents moved across town when Eve got her job as a Dome Warden. Cyrus kept coming back to help me fend people off from robbing the clinic. I was young, dumb, and way in over my head. Cyrus could hardly read the books so I spent a lot of time reading out loud to him.  Whenever someone got hurt, Cyrus would take them to me after doing an initial patch job. With a few years, I became part of the community. I established myself as a well versed caretaker. As someone who could be trusted to operate Hanataba’s Clinic. The thieving stopped. I was welcomed in the local Revolutionaries and, in turn after Cyrus did too much begging, they welcomed him too. (SHORT PAUSE) I’m sorry Baird. My work at the Hanataba Clinic gave me a place to stay. It gave me a community that looked out for me and became my family. And I ended up stealing Cyrus away from you and Eve.  BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): You know I don’t hold that against you anymore, right?  IRIS: I know. But– BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): Save it. We look back only to ensure we have not walked this path before. Not to bash one another over the head with our grievances. So stop your pity party.  (SHORT PAUSE INTERUPTTED BY IRIS SNORTING AND BREAKING INTO LAUGHTER) Don’t laugh at me! IRIS: I’m not laughing at you! I promise. I’m just thinking… how dumb I was to ever treat you like a child. I’ll take what you said to heart but you ought to do me a favor and take your own advice.  Charlie would want you to at least. And I bet if you started talking again to Talia she would too. BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): Ugh, don’t remind me about that. I don’t even know where to begin with her.  IRIS: Conversations usually start with a greeting. Maybe start there.  BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): And what do I do about Hank? IRIS: Leave him to me. We all wants best for each other. Josie and I can make him come around.  BAIRD (REVOLUTIONARY): Thanks, Iris… Thank you.  IRIS: Of course, Baird. So long as I’m around, I won’t let you fight battles on your own.  SOUND: COMMS BEEPS. RECORDING ENDS. 

Iris talk a lot about themself. For a life that “is not all that interesting” it sounds pretty damn interesting. 

The Galactic Civil War was still happening at the time of Peter Nureyev’s Revolutionary Stunt. Baird was 12 when that happened. I remember when the War ended, I was 13. They served cake and brownies at school that day. I took mine home to share with my mom, but she threw them away without ever telling me why. I think I know why you did that now. 

“Another eleven years to go” referring to Iris promising to get Baird to see past 40 (“Iris”)

FOLLOW UP: This puts Baird at about 29? 

“Decade”/”The Rats” at 27

Two years, not talking to Talia

“Hanataba” would put him at 29.

??????? I want to bash my head into the wall.

Baird and Talia stopped talking. At least some point in the last two years between this recording and the one prior (“The Rats”). 

Baird doesn’t call Iris his parent. I don’t think he needs to though. They’re parent enough to him without the title. 

“Conversations start with hello” / “Conversations start with a greeting” .... I do not owe Frannie an apology. And likewise, I do not expect one from her. Even if I did I will not receive it.

Questions:

How old was Baird when the Galactic War/Solar Intervention ended?

FOLLOW UP: How old is Iris? Eve and Cyrus? 

Iris knew Eve and Cyrus before Baird was born, what’s the story behind that?

Did Talia stop talking to Baird because he wanted to involve the Rats in the Revolution, even though they hurt her and Mischa?

Baird mentioned in the first recording "at least one person believes he built the Hanataba Clinic", where did this rumor come from? Perhaps the Rat that Iris ends up training?

[mimisempai]

Unexpected

Summary

When Casey followed Hunter B-15 to meet the man she called O.B., he certainly didn't expect to meet his lifelong idol, Ouroboros, the author of the book that never left his side.

But what he also didn't expect was that the other man would be so kind and have the most charming smile.

Notes

I fell in love with these two sunshines…

On Ao3

Rating G - 870 words

Casey followed Hunter B-15 and had no idea where she was taking him. But he appreciated not being tied to his desk and finally felt like he was doing something useful, so he eagerly followed her.

They arrived in a semicircular room that seemed empty, and B-15 called out, "Hey, O.B., this is Casey. I thought he could help."

A voice answered, "We're all gonna die!" but no one was visible.

Advancing into the room, B-15 called out again, "O.B.?"

Rapid footsteps drew their attention to the left, and Casey saw a man emerge from the stairs, shouting again, "We're all gonna die!"

Then, to Casey's surprise, he stopped in front of him and shook his hand vigorously, saying, "Oh. Hey, nice to meet you."

Then he gave him a quick smile and, not giving Casey a chance to react, continued on toward B-15, repeating, "We're all gonna die."

The hunter asked, "What do you mean?"

The man, O.B., put his things on a desk and turned to them and said, "The blast doors won't open."

Casey interjected, "Did you try the C-12 bypass?"

Then, putting his money where his mouth was, he pressed the appropriate control button as O.B. replied, "That won't work.

Casey chuckled slightly and asked a little mockingly, "Are you sure?"

The man casually replied, "Of course. I wrote it."

Casey froze and said nothing for a moment, mouth agape.

This guy had just said he'd written the command. But then... that meant...

Casey managed to articulate despite his stupor, "Wait..."

He pulled out the booklet he always kept in the back pocket of his pants and asked, barely able to contain his excitement, "You're Ouroboros?"

O.B. looked surprised that Casey had asked as he replied, "Yes?"

Casey, wanting to be sure, asked, pointing to the orange booklet, "You wrote the TVA guidebook."

The other man looked absolutely delighted when he asked, "You've read it?"

Casey immediately replied, not a little proudly, "Read it? I practically memorized it," then laughed slightly as he looked at B-15 before asking the other man, "Will you sign mine for me?"

O.B. replied enthusiastically, "Of course I will. Happy to do it."

They both leaned over the book and Casey showed him where to sign, "Yeah, just next to your picture."

"Hold on." 

It was B-15.

Casey had completely forgotten about her, and apparently O.B. had as well.

When she got their attention back, she continued, "You just said we're all gonna die."

O.B. became serious again, and in the same state of stress as at the beginning of the conversation, as he said, "Oh, right. The containment doors are locked, and only the person who designed it can open it with a live scan of his temporal aura."

B-15 caught on and calmly said, "He Who Remains."

O.B. continued, "And he's dead. So without Miss Minutes to help us override the lock, we're stuck."

Casey replied matter-of-factly, "So we have to convince a rogue artificial intelligence to come back to work.

O.B. replied, "Whatever we're doing, we gotta do it fast. The more those branches grow, the closer this thing comes to melting down. I'll build the device, but you need to find a way in or it won't matter."

They stood in silence for a moment, overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task, then B-15 was the first to come to her senses and headed for the door. Casey followed suit when he was held back by O.B., who had put his hand on his arm.

Casey turned to him and although he looked worried, O.B. asked gently, "If you don't mind... uh, Casey. I'd like you to come and talk to me about what you learned in my manual. That is, if we can get this mess straightened out. You're the first person to talk to me about it like this in... I don't know how long, and since I've never had any real feedback, I'd love to hear yours."

The last few months had brought many changes to Casey's life. Sometimes unsettling, sometimes very destabilizing, but the fact that someone wanted to talk to him and listen to what he had to say wasn't one of them.

And there was no way he was going to turn down an invitation from his all-time idol. The mysterious person behind the ingenious and practical words of the TVA guide.

So with a big smile on his face, Casey held out his hand and said, "It's a deal!"

O.B., also smiling, took Casey's hand, and this time the handshake was not hasty and rushed like the first one, the glances and smiles were not the polite ones of people who don't know each other, but of two people with a common interest. That, too, was new to Casey.

As he left, he told himself that he'd try to help as much as he could on his own level so that he could visit O.B. as soon as possible.

Of course, he was looking forward to talking about the manual, and his haste had absolutely nothing to do with O.B.'s smile.

Nothing at all.

_________

Still not beta'd

Still not my native language

Still hoping you'll enjoy this story 🥰

Still thanking you for bearing with me 😝

[ellies-enrichment]

Hey, no worries, dawg. You respond when you have the time and energy. Gotta take care of that dawg in you and give her some eepies every now and then. You've been going through A LOT between AoS and the TLoU picture. Hell, I ended up calling out of my second job today cuz that dawg in me is real eepy! 😴 ... And I'm first in line for a job on the docks rn. I feel a 12hr grain shift coming on for night hire... 💀

-aos anon🫂

P.S. can't wait for your next chappy on your new fic! 🤠 I mean, I can, but I'm excite about it! 🤠🤠🤠 And I've wanted to ask.... If you were gonna come back to your Prospie/Red Dead crossover fic eventually because BOY HOWDY I LOOOOOOOOOVE THAT ONE SO FRIGGIN MUCH!!! 🤠🤠🤠🤠🤠 I'm still on Chapter 2 of my own RDR2 playthrough because I'm just exploring (and getting ambushed and dying 💀) the map and hunting like no one's business rn. 🤠🤭

woogh a 12hr shift would end me im sure esp with manual labor you're stronger than me bestie

!!! I appreciate you reading it 🥺 i'm trying to get better about just posting writing rather than rewriting it a billion times and then never posting (the amount of prospie fics i have in my docs that will likely never see the light of day is insane) so this one is getting me into that routine hopefully (i havent rewrote a whole chapter yet and im halfway through chappy 2)

I expect to update Bounty Fic in the next few days if i can keep the train going

CEEHAWWWW !!!!! my beloved ceehaw she's on the backburner but i have the next two chapters outlined (if i can stop rewriting them lol) i just have to figure out which one is chapter 5 and then i can upload that one and then post the next almost immediately after but she is coming!! I think once I start RDR2 over again it'll respark the fixation of the wild west (ive been on GTA recently so it modernized my new born country and the vibes were off)

I remember my first playthrough once i got access to the open world i was a menace. I was never at camp. I was always out doing something. Hunting, robbing, killing and then feeling bad about it. I always found myself in Saint Denis i love it there sm. RDR1 is near and dear to my heart always because it's the first game i ever played on the xbox 360 and then when RDR2 came out i didn't even watch a trailer i just bought the game and it's still in my top 3 of all time games ever ive bought it for every system i can (xbox twice, playstation, pc) and if it was ever released on switch i'd buy it there too

[max--phillips]

Ok but do you have any advice for us bimbos *affectionate* when we go to a car mechanic bc it always feels like I go for one simple issue, and end up being told there's almost a dozen issues with my car 💀 when do u kno ur being swindled?😭

Yeah actually I do!! Because it’s happened to me before!

So, best case scenario is they tell you the thing you were worried about isn’t actually an issue and they try to direct you to an entirely different, unrelated problem. For instance: with my first car, which was a piece of shit to begin with, I had some transmission issues at one point and went to a transmission shop to have them look. At my. Transmission. Just the transmission. And a little while later the guy comes out and he’s like “yeah idk your transmission fluid was a little dark but it doesn’t smell burnt or anything so it’s probably fine. The issue you really have is that your entire front end is fucked and needs to be rebuilt.”

At which point you do the same thing you would do to a doctor trying to tell you to lose weight as a magic solution to all your problems (but you gotta kinda stroke their ego a little bit). “That’s a fair observation, and I’ll definitely take a quote on that, but I don’t think that has anything to do with the issue I came in for. Can you please help me figure out why my transmission was slipping/what that noise is/why it’s vibrating so much/whatever?”

At that point if they push back with “it’s probably just a fluke” or “I didn’t see anything wrong with it” ask for a second opinion, either have the same mechanic take another pass at it or ask if there’s another mechanic in the shop who can take a look. If they still give you shit, just take the quote for the work they apparently did want to do and find another shop. Any quotes they give you are indeed just quotes; you never have to talk to them again if you don’t want to. Just don’t pay for anything if all they did was a diagnostic and didn’t actually do any work!! Unless they explicitly tell you diagnostics cost money, which the vast majority of shops don’t do.

Worst case scenario is they start throwing all sorts of technical terms at you for issues that might be related to your main concern. At that point, you’re unfortunately going to need to do some legwork. Ask them for a quote for the work they’re suggesting. Most of the technical BS that they’ve thrown at you should be on the quote. Then take your car to another shop. Do not tell them that you’ve been to another shop or have a quote elsewhere. If they give you the exact same technical BS, chances are fairly good that they’re actually on to something. If they give you an entirely new batch of technical BS, you know they’re probably just fucking with you. There’s still probably some overlap between the two quotes; figure out what that overlap is, and that’s likely the work that actually needs to be done. Honestly, you might take it to a third shop just to rule out that one of the two shops was on to something & the other was just bullshitting you.

Some other various tips:

Read the reviews online! If there are a ton of complaints about being overcharged for unnecessary work, don’t go there!

Ask your friends! Chances are good someone you know knows a guy. If you’re still worried they might try to swindle you, bring the friend who recommended them to you with you!

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This means do preventative maintenance on your car. Get your oil changed (highly recommend getting full synthetic, you can usually go about 5k miles between oil changes), get your tires balanced and rotated. There are some special maintenance things for higher-mileage vehicles (ie with 100,000 miles or more); you can usually find that kind of thing in your owner’s manual.

Speaking of oil changes: for the love of god stop going to overpriced ass chain shops (Take 5, Valvoline Instant Oil Change, Jiffy Lube, etc). Literally go to Walmart (as long as your Walmart has an auto center) and ask for a full synthetic oil change. This will be just as good & not cost nearly as much.

If you must go to another shop to get your oil changed and/or tires balanced and rotated, they’ll probably try to sell you wiper blades. You can say no. You should say no. Buy them at Walmart, on Amazon, or from RockAuto. They will be a million times cheaper. And they’re very easy to change; most of the packaging comes with instructions, but YouTube is your friend—just search your year make & model and “how to change wiper blades.” (Ex: how to change wiper blades on 2013 Honda Civic.)

(If they try to sell you anything else, you can say no to that, too. An oil change is just oil & your oil filter. If they’re nice they might also top off your coolant and windshield wiper fluid. You don’t need to have them replace your cabin air filter or wiper blades or anything (although if your car is always stinky and you can’t figure out why you might wanna replace the cabin air filter bc it can help with that))

Know the penny trick for your tire treads!

If they try to sell you tires and Lincoln’s head is still pretty covered, they’re bullshitting you.

(Tires usually last about 10k miles unless something wack happens like you pop one or something)

(I can make a post about what to do when you get a flat tire if y’all want??)

Uhhhhhh that’s all I got rn, hopefully this is helpful!! If anyone else wants to chime in please do!!

[ltsaradharkness]

So my pawpaw and I were in an accident yesterday.

It was horrible. I couldn't stop it. I tried to warn him but it was too late.

We are fine, banged up but ok. The truck is totaled.

Absolutely gone there isn't a front end anymore.

I took today off because I was hurting too bad to work but tomorrow I gotta. Don't have a choice. Can't afford not too. (I'm not gonna be able to help with housekeeping Friday.) I'm turning fun colors and stuff. My whole right side and neck and shoulders hurt. Pawpaw's legs and back are bugging him, hurting real bad and stuff. He is having issues with other health problems too. And as upset as he is about the truck I know he is mad I got hurt and was in the truck. He is doing what needs to be done but he wants to be mad.

We went this morning and got the stuff from the truck and I felt it when he saw the front end passenger side. There is no tire. The other driver turned at the last side so he missed the door but we likely did a 270 to end up how we were. He was upset down on top of me when we stopped moving. It was a lot.

My narc aunt is making shit about her. Of course, that's what she does. But I'm not in the mood to just let it be. I'm sorry for nana she is going for a heart Cath tomorrow and stress makes her heart worse. But I'm not gonna just be silent or let he get away with shit. Like trying to tickle my ass earlier, gross, I was just standing there don't touch me. I joke with my nana if we are doing something and she or I bend over but it's weird when you walk behind me and start randomly ticking my ass. Don't touch me we ain't friends like that. They wanted to" well actually" me about it, no. Plain English, do not touch my butt. And calling me a liar about something so stupid as putting the dishes up. I was working on the kitchen and she decided to just get right in the way. Like ok then you do it. I went back to finish later and stuff was crusted so I put it in water. She put stuff in the dishwasher it's all facing wrong so it's not clean. So stupid. Read the manual. Wanna claim she isn't stupid but she is fucking ridiculous and a complete moron. Then asked if she could go with them to the hospital and then decided five minutes before they went to bed she wasn't gonna go. Why because she isn't gonna go to sleep early enough to go. I'm glad. Pawpaw doesn't need her there bugging him. Our family friend is going to take them to the hospital in the am and stay. If they need a ride back the next day we can work that out later. Told them to leave me keys etc and if need be I'll drive the car up to pick them up. Be a little difficult with my neck but it's ok I'll manage.

Some pics to come it's on my other fone.

[monstermaster13]

An American Werewolf In London. Ah yes, THE iconic werewolf transformation scene, no movie or tv show has ever come close to replicating this particular type of transformation and this one is iconic for numerous reasons…for one thing the excellent practical fx by Rick Baker and also you really do feel the pain that David is going through when he transforms, and it's no wonder this was Michael Jackson's favorite horror movie.

DocChester/Justparodiezman.

Darkbulflrog.

The Fly (1986). I've always said 'lovey-dovey is fine and all but…' which is true since when it comes to my transformation things I don't like to spend too much time on the lovey dovey stuff, I don't like to rush my transformations, I like to be as detailed as possible and go through the physical process in a way that goes through all the important details needed and sometimes I like to be a little bit gross, I admit that I can be a pretty sick and twisted bastard when it comes to my transformation interests, and this movie is to blame for it..he starts out looking sexy at first but when he loses parts of his body, good lord…poor Brundlefly. I will never think of flies the same way again, but I will definitely think of this movie and Jeff Goldblum whenever I see a fly. Cronenberg makes body-horror thought-provoking and makes it a journey of discovery about the human condition. Oh Goldblum, never stop being you.

Numerous music videos. Let's see, there's the infamous Fatboy Slim music video Right Here Right Now, there's also the Black Or White video which pretty much made morphing effects mainstream, so mainly videos to choose for that feature people being transformed or morphing effects, i've always had a fascination for becoming other people especially in dreams where I become a number of fictional characters and celebrities I admire. And i've always wanted to try my own hand at it, which I have…but not as well as the people who made these videos have.

Doctor Jekyll and Ms Hyde (1995). I used to be against tg because to me all male to female tgs sounded the same, you know..guy loses private parts, grows breasts, gets addicted to the dirty s-word and becomes a bimbo and all that stuff? But that was until I discoverered this movie and TG fiction on here, I discovered that not all TG stories are the same and a lot of them are interesting/fascinating to read and see. This movie definitely helped influence that, and definitely gave me a sort of simp-like fascination with Ms Sean Young.

Animorphs..especially the way the transformations were written and also the morphs on the cover. I envy whoever got to design the covers for these books, I have tried to do similar morphs myself but mine aren't as good, I remember the one of Ax morphing into a cow as the first cow transformation I ever saw in media and the first animal transformation that is a tg as well, to put it in context Ax morphs into a female cow since he acquired the DNA of a female bovine instead of a bull/steer. You gotta be real careful with your morphs ya know. Also Rachel turning into a monster version of herself was badass.

Big Wolf On Campus. Ah yes, this show. This show along with Buffy is my main influence in general. First of all the werewolf is a hero and not a villain, second…the dialogue in this show is amazing and humorous as well…and it helped shape me into the horror fanatic I am now. I love half-creature transformations where the person remains humanoid but has features like pointed ears, fur/scales on their hands or face and fangs or claw-like fingernails, I seem to have a fascination with claws or claw-like fingernails since I remember at one point trying to grow claws of my own…sadly, my fingernails can't grow long enough for that, shame.

Dungeons and Dragons. I still use the D&D monster manual as reference material when monster-making…and when I depict how werecreatures turn in my work I sometimes go by the same rules as D&D's take on them but add a bit of my own flair to it (my werecreatures aren't fully good or evil, but evil ones can be turned good/corrupted ones can be turned to the side of good again with certain types of spells). I still have a Wererat OC which I created for a campaign.

The mirror scene from Casper.

Blackbluedawg.

Numerous sites about werecreatures and shapeshifters. I'm not going to say the name of this artist out of respect, but he made me the man I am today thanks to his website and I think of him as a personal hero and influence, let's just say there are numerous sites that serve as my inspiration and his was one of them, cartoons (both multiple-episodes AND one shot episodes/specials), live action tv show tfs, comics, games, you name it. Also learning about werecreature lore in general inspired me to get interested in it. And I can't believe I didn't discover sites like this from the get go. Also that one History Channel documentary about werecreatures/shapeshifters and the were-deer…oh yes.

Wallace and Gromit: Curse Of The Wererabbit. If you haven't seen this movie, you should…it's a loving tribute to classic horror with the signature Aardman charm and it's hilarious.

Goosebumps. A mask that turns you into a monster if you wear it more than once? Sign me up. A werewolf story based on the legend of Native American skinwalkers? Sign me up. What's that? A choose your own adventure scenario except in Goosebumps form and you could possibly end up as a bat-creature or a werewolf or a monster in general? Boy, this series has it all including monsters and transformations galore. Of course if I ended up turning into a Werecreature i'd be a Were-Aykroyd, hey…turning into Dan Aykroyd honestly would be awesome, it's meant to be after all.

Teen Wolf (1985). Definitely this and the cartoon.

Lance/Weremoose. I love his morphs into Disney and other animated characters and in particular his Star Wars morphs. They inspired me and got me into photomanipulations.

Swatcher. As a fellow Grinch fan, I approve of his use of the Jim Carrey Grinch.

Jmmates. A whole channel dedicated to transformations/morphs…sign me up. Heck a few of my ideas for morphs have even been adapted, including a Pennywise and insect morph.

Thriller. We all know this video by heart, MJ is with his girlfriend and their car runs out of gas and so they decided to take a walk through the woods, MJ asks her to be his girlfriend and she says yes, he then warns her that he isn't 'like other boys', she doesn't know what he is talking about and he doubles over in pain, she asks him if he is okay…he jumps up and growls 'GO AWAY!' in a deep monster-like voice as he turns into a werecat. This transformation is no doubt as iconic as AWIL's transformation considering John Landis and Rick Baker BOTH worked on this one.

The Honey Monster. I used to be scared of this guy (same with Carrey's Grinch) but I can now see that this guy has a fanbase that definitely remembers the old commercials of people turning into this creatures's species fondly and some have done their own fanfiction for it, which I am so proud of.

Nibblahfrog. I have a fondness for turning heroes or actors who play heroes into things and that comes from Nibblah's Power Ranger monster transformation concepts and that helped me get into the idea of creating monsters of my own.

Numerous interactive stories.

[hopelesslyshippingthem]

To show how this rippled out, yesterday I went to work in the private health care sector in England. Bit of context; I work in a cellpath/histology lab where we get the bits of people from the NHS and from a few other places that need their post mortems processed. A normal day runs a bit chaotic, but doable. Get samples in, dissect, process, fix to slide, stain, send to pathologist or consultant, send back to client for patient to get results. Pretty simple? How could one little bug affect us, a private lab in the UK?

Well, it took down our computers. The thing we book our samples in on. The thing we record the details into. The thing we use to input the transcribed macros to the client can read what we did. What we use to scan the papers into. How we quality check, how we run our block and slide checks, how we see what levels are needed at microtomy. All of that was bricked into oblivion for a good several hours. IT, which all work from home on Fridays (which does not help us in the lab when something happens on Fridays, let me tell you), had to come in to try to get the lab to a functioning level.

Only the embedders that knew what in the hell they were looking at and what orientations should be needed were able to embed samples because like hell could you scan the block and pull up the details. Booking in? Impossible. You could only receipt samples, and some of these are URGENTS that we want to get moved. Microtomists were flying blind and again only those who could really understand what the slides needed could do it, but since we couldn't print labels we had to handwrite every slide. Needed additional cassettes because another margin needed to be taken? You gotta handwrite that too with a cellmark.

I think around like 10:30 we had the computers in some areas running again, but LIMS access was really spotty at times. Dragonspeak, our scribing software that auto dictates at dissection? Down. The whole day, it was unusable. Not even when my day ended was it working.

"But Hopeless, how does this affect you?"

I was scribing yesterday. So I listen to what's being done and copy it down. Normally this is mostly done on Dragonspeak because anyone who has ever had the soul-crushing task of dissecting/manual scribing for biopsies knows that trying to keep up with all that boring, quick, repetitive info is mind-numbingly difficult. Dragonspeak means I just need to focus on manually writing a few key details on the paper while checking for errors on the input box and getting all the important info recorded on the LIMS screen. But yesterday I was manually writing *everything*. Thankfully when I was on GI specimen (which are rather large and lengthy and by this time we could at least use LIMS to record block meta data onto cases), the dissector was an angel and let me me transcribe directly into the box as if she was using Dragonspeak. I was so good that several times other seniors thought she was using Dragon and apologised before they realised that little old me actually could keep up fairly well in place of the headset.

It took us hours to have all computers running. It will take a few days to manually enter in all those macros that weren't directly scribed into LIMS for speed, which is a lot of simples. It will take days to catch up from the delay from the computers being paperweights. We lost a lot of time, we lost so much time because of it, and we aren't critical care! Can you imagine hospitals? Those labs being down? If we, a small, understaffed lab next to a pub that is trying very hard, were rocked by it in a way that will affect us into next week, think of the labs in the NHS. Think of the panic as in the middle of something important like a surgery the computers bricked. We had no idea we relied on them that much until we all came in and were like, "But.... what can we do? How can we still work? These people need answers and we can't use our computers?" We had no idea one line of code could brick us back into the last decade or two. This crash absolutely killed people, and it rippled out into every single sector you can imagine somehow.

idk if people on tumblr know about this but a cybersecurity software called crowdstrike just did what is probably the single biggest fuck up in any sector in the past 10 years. it's monumentally bad. literally the most horror-inducing nightmare scenario for a tech company.

some info, crowdstrike is essentially an antivirus software for enterprises. which means normal laypeople cant really get it, they're for businesses and organisations and important stuff.

so, on a friday evening (it of course wasnt friday everywhere but it was friday evening in oceania which is where it first started causing damage due to europe and na being asleep), crowdstrike pushed out an update to their windows users that caused a bug.

before i get into what the bug is, know that friday evening is the worst possible time to do this because people are going home. the weekend is starting. offices dont have people in them. this is just one of many perfectly placed failures in the rube goldburg machine of crowdstrike. there's a reason friday is called 'dont push to live friday' or more to the point 'dont fuck it up friday'

so, at 3pm at friday, an update comes rolling into crowdstrike users which is automatically implemented. this update immediately causes the computer to blue screen of death. very very bad. but it's not simply a 'you need to restart' crash, because the computer then gets stuck into a boot loop.

this is the worst possible thing because, in a boot loop state, a computer is never really able to get to a point where it can do anything. like download a fix. so there is nothing crowdstrike can do to remedy this death update anymore. it is now left to the end users.

it was pretty quickly identified what the problem was. you had to boot it in safe mode, and a very small file needed to be deleted. or you could just rename crowdstrike to something else so windows never attempts to use it.

it's a fairly easy fix in the grand scheme of things, but the issue is that it is effecting enterprises. which can have a looooot of computers. in many different locations. so an IT person would need to manually fix hundreds of computers, sometimes in whole other cities and perhaps even other countries if theyre big enough.

another fuck up crowdstrike did was they did not stagger the update, so they could catch any mistakes before they wrecked havoc. (and also how how HOW do you not catch this before deploying it. this isn't a code oopsie this is a complete failure of quality ensurance that probably permeates the whole company to not realise their update was an instant kill). they rolled it out to everyone of their clients in the world at the same time.

and this seems pretty hilarious on the surface. i was havin a good chuckle as eftpos went down in the store i was working at, chaos was definitely ensuring lmao. im in aus, and banking was literally down nationwide.

but then you start hearing about the entire country's planes being grounded because the airport's computers are bricked. and hospitals having no computers anymore. emergency call centres crashing. and you realised that, wow. crowdstrike just killed people probably. this is literally the worst thing possible for a company like this to do.

crowdstrike was kinda on the come up too, they were starting to become a big name in the tech world as a new face. but that has definitely vanished now. to fuck up at this many places, is almost extremely impressive. its hard to even think of a comparable fuckup.

a friday evening simultaneous rollout boot loop is a phrase that haunts IT people in their darkest hours. it's the monster that drags people down into the swamp. it's the big bag in the horror movie. it's the end of the road. and for crowdstrike, that reaper of souls just knocked on their doorstep.

[audio-luddite]

Stuff.

I had an interesting exchange with PT the tube Guru about certain electronic components. I do not want to trigger them by mentioning the parts (weak humor attempt). I am still processing it.

I was following up on some more information about the transformer in my Franken-Amp in response to a question. I found the manual, and it gives a part number and that is it. Beyond that the jungle drums say it was made by Hammond (in Canada!?) and produced a rail voltage of 75V. She is huge and heavy.

Image from the 'net.

And that is as far as I took it.

While looking around the files on my computer I found a pdf of an old (of course) 1974 issue of "Stereophile" magazine. I had to read through it. I grabbed it a couple years ago as it is a bit of a watershed issue. In it there is a review of the Dynaco ST400 Amp, the Dynaco Pat 5 preamp and two Audio Research products the D76 and SP3a.

In summary at the time of publication the very best solid state amplifier available was the ST400. The very best tube amplifier was the ARC D76. The very best Solid State Preamp was the PAT 5 and the corresponding tube unit was the ARC SP3a, but not better by much over the little Pat5.

The ST400 was better than the Crown DC300, The Phase Linear 400 and 700. The P-Ls do not surprise me, the DC300 is/was an impressive beast popular with rock bands.

Depending on your speakers and if you wanted to compensate for something or other in the bass or extreme highs Solid state was better than Glass or visa versa. Fun read especially when you know how the story ends, if it has even ended.

Since then the ARC units are classic, collectable, but not great by today's standards. If you want to buy "Class" then good on you. Both are flabby to lumpy in the Bass and quite soft but lovely in the highs. I heard them both back when I could hear the flyback transformers on a TV.

The Dynacos have gone through a cycle of "they are all crap" to they were OK, to approaching desirability in the used market. Typical price is $700 USD in a recent ad. It can be a lot less if repair is needed. No romance though.

The ARCs are silly pricey as "collectable". Recent SP3a's are listed over $3000 typically. That ARC Classic 60 is, oh the price is down to $2250. It is the grandson of the D76. A basket case wreck of a D75 was selling for over a grand as first, needed a few grand in repairs if even possible, but yes there is that romance.

The ST400 is the daddy (uncle?) of my Franken-Amp. So take a ST400, strip out all the protection circuits and hot rod the living crap out of it and you have my beast. There is no Hardness in the treble and there is no cross talk in the stereo image. So by the late 70s even to the 80s it is at SOTA level. Ha there you have it.

When I actually fire the beast up I am happy with it. I gotta occasionally remind myself of that. I have to take a pill or maybe a scotch to suppress the tweak head in me. It comes in waves.

Remember everyone there is no best, just what you like. The goal is what you hear, not what you use to hear it. Really I mean it.

Good morning / evening to all, especially you PT.

[obeiii-mee]

Hey!! I just came across your page and I immediately fell in love with your writing style,, since your ask box is open, I was hoping to request MC getting hit with a spell or curse that makes them hate the brothers. (Like mystic messenger elixir, or danganronpa despair disease!) pretty much just how they would react if MC suddenly started to thrash and curse at them. (That sweet angst if you catch my drift) Thank you for taking the time to read this! <33

The Brothers with a Cursed!MC

———————————-

We gotta keep the angst train rolling because why not-

I’ll happily write anything to do with hate spells and the Danganronpa reference really painted it out for me nicely so let’s see if I can write angst in slightly smaller portions because there was an attempt! Thanks for the request by the way, this is the kind of thing that pops up in my brain pretty often, idk how I never wrote it out before now! You’re also very sweet for taking the time out of your day to request this <3

Characters: Lucifer, Mammon, Levi, Satan, Asmo, Beel and Belphie

Notes: uh, the title is pretty bland because I didn’t know what to write instead-

————————————

Lucifer:

-“What the hell are you doing here? Get out-I don’t want to fucking see you!”

-Knowing that he could’ve done something to prevent this honestly frustrates him in ways he did not think were possible

-As someone who doesn’t let his emotions get the best of him, the sight of you thrashing around in his brothers’ arms while yelling obscenities at him genuinely broke his heart

-Moments like this, when something so unexpected happens or when he’s genuinely hurt by the actions of others, stump him the most. His perfect self just vanishes and he’s stuck because he doesn’t know how to react

-Well, he’s obviously sad. Actually, sad doesn’t even begin to cover it. Your desperate attempts at breaking free and lunging at him were probably one of the most gut wrenching things he’s ever had to witness and that says something considering he was very much present when his sister was on the verge of a painful death

-However, perhaps more than anything, he is seriously pissed off. Whoever casted that spell, be it an accident or otherwise, is in deep shit the moment Lucifer discovers that they are the perpetrator and they will have to suffer accordingly

-This is the kind of thing that no one, let alone the Avatar of Pride, would forgive easily. Having a loved one be brainwashed or rather cursed to the point they make you the target of all their hate and distrust hurts. And that hurt will quickly turn into anger with time and before long, the demon in question will find themselves hanging from the ceiling in Cerberus’ room before personally being visited by Lucifer himself. Terrible fate really, but what can you do?

-Even so, none of that mattered in the grand scheme of things-after all, he punishes ignorant demons on a pretty regular basis and they can’t die as easily as humans so finding the time to torture such a miserable creature isn’t exactly a problem

-The problem was the aftermath; as much as he wishes to, he can’t get rid of the effects of the spell manually and unfortunately, he will have to wait for them wear off before you can return back to normal. Fortunately, on most occasions, jinxes like this don’t last for very long. Typically 2-3 days, though sometimes it can drag on for up to a week which he hopes isn’t the case

-In the meantime, the best course of action would be to supervise you for the next couple of days and see whether your condition is getting better or not. This is, unsurprisingly, a very difficult thing to do since you keep pushing him away and violently at that but it’s not as if he can just stop trying. Curses like this sometimes come on with side effects, especially when performed on humans and they can be pretty nasty. After studying previous cases of these incidents, he discovered its quiet probable for you to get sick or sluggish towards the end of the life span of the spell

-And he stays firm on the matter, even if you keep loudly protesting against it and even if he feels completely drained after each visit to ensure that you were not taking a turn for the worse. Believe it or not, your words are powerful enough to start wearing him down and not many people can say they have that kind of affect on the literal embodiment of pride. More than anything, Lucifer wants you to return to your usual self because he misses you and seeing you act this way towards him is really making him question a lot of things

-“I told you to just piss off, you prideful, two faced bitch.”

-“….MC, stop moving-I’m trying to check whether you have a fever or not. I promise to leave afterwards, but I can’t do that until I’m sure you’re not getting sick.”

Mammon:

-“Hey! Don’t fucking touch me, just stay the hell away from me!”

-Honestly, the first time you snapped at him while you were under that curse shook him to his core and he was just confused because he’s never seen you act out like this before. But then, your words start to settle in and he almost bursts into tears

-The whole time his brothers are trying to sort you out, he’s panicking in the background with tears running down his face until Belphie comes up behind him and slaps him on the head, telling him to get his shit together

-Truth is: he is freaking out. Badly. Like, extremely bad. He doesn’t know what’s happening or why, he just knows that you are not feeling like yourself at the moment because you keep throwing shit at him and yelling at the top of your lungs to leave you alone

-He doesn’t want to. Leave, that is. Mammon actually feels like physically attaching himself to you by now and he probably would’ve if it weren’t for his brothers, who sensed that having him around was not doing you any good

-The worst part though was that, after a couple of days of waiting around for the curse to wear off, you began to ignore him altogether and that probably hurt him more than the way you treated him before

-Mostly because, in that case, he knew you weren’t acting like your usual self and he could reason that it was definitely the spell was that forcing you to behave like this. However, being ignored hit a bit too close to home since this is a pretty common tactic you used whenever you were seriously pissed off at him. Granted, you only ever reserved it for very serious situations but when you did apply it, Mammon usually felt as if the world was going to collapse on his head

-The silent treatment was possibly one of the worst things he could’ve endured that week because of how unwanted it made him feel and overall just worthless for not being able to protect you from this kinda stuff. Actually, he wouldn’t have been surprised if you decided to blame this on him as well, even after you’ve regained some more of your senses. To him it made perfect sense

-For the most part, the whole time Satan and other various demon doctors were trying to treat you, Mammon was most likely off sulking by himself. If I were to guess, probably in his room, back to the door and knees pressed up to his chest. Since, obviously, he wouldn’t have any motivation to go out without his lucky charm present and accounted for, so locked inside his room seemed like the only solution

-His brothers were worried but not even Lucifer could drag him out and eventually they gave up. Honestly, they were hoping bringing you back to normal would convince him to set foot outside of his bedroom again, even though it felt like a bit of wishful thinking

-Realistically, he’s going to keep his distance from you for a few days after you’ve recovered because by then he would have become quite insecure about a lot of things and really didn’t want to be in your presence until he felt safe again. Though, it wouldn’t take an awful to coax him towards you once again. He fell in love with you for a reason, after all.

-As for the stupid motherfucker that decided jinxing you was a good idea, he better thank his lucky stars that Mammon was mourning for a solid week before he could act on his emotions of anger. In my opinion, that’s enough time for the demon in question to runaway, maybe to the human world, invent a new identity. Go on holiday. To the Balkans, maybe. I don’t know. Mammon would probably find him. And as tame of a demon as he can be, no one wants to feel the wrath of the second born

-“…..Mammon, just go.”

-“…please….p-please don’t say that…”

Levi:

-“What the hell are you doing here?”

-Probably asking himself the same question, to be honest. It’s clear that you do not want to see him and that his presence was nothing more than a hindrance but for some reason, he really felt inclined to stay

-Levi was the last of the brothers to find out about your sudden predicament. After all, the incident itself took place during school hours and he was at home watching anime the whole time. Not to mention, he turned his D.D.D off completely so he wouldn’t be bothered by anyone before his marathon was finished so even though the brothers were desperately trying to call him, he obviously didn’t answer

-It was horrible, to put it mildly. Having to watch you get forcibly get strapped to the bed so you didn’t have the chance to attack anyone and even when you calmed down, it was clear you didn’t feel like talking to any of them

-In a way, this whole ordeal is really just feeding into his inferiority complex because even though he knows the words you are saying are not sincere, they still manage to affect him quite badly because it’s coming from you

-Despite the explanation being reasonable enough, he fails to not take it to heart and it sort of shifted his whole perspective on your relationship, much like Mammon, because of his insecurities

-By the time you’re back to your normal self, he is not. Completely out of energy as one might say. And yes, he’s used to not sleeping for days in a row sometimes but this is different because he is not doing it to catch up on a show he missed or to play with his fish

-This is a matter of your health being absolutely on the verge of collapsing entirely while your whole personality flipped like a switch, which made him anxious enough to not crave sleep or his usual entertainment past times

-While you’re still sick, he’s essentially hoping to Lord Diavolo himself that Satan knows what the hell he is doing since he was the one in charge of taking care of you, with him being more of an expert than any of the others and all. It’s stressful and the way you keep talking to him wasn’t helping in the slightest

-In all fairness, he’s almost acting as if you’ve died and he’s in the process of mourning you. Mostly because to him you were a completely different person altogether and he refused to believe the actual MC would be so blunt and dismissive. Even if you were to believe half the things you were saying, it’s not like you would willingly say it out loud to him no matter what because you always took into account how he felt about everything

-That’s what he keeps telling himself, though your insults are starting to get at him the more he’s in your presence. To keep himself occupied, he attempts to find the person who’s cursed you as a way to avenge you. Levi knows his brothers probably already did all sorts of horrible things to them and they obviously deserve it but he wants to take some petty revenge too! And what’s pettier than completely destroying someone’s social life through social media, especially when it’s helping him deal with the current situation <3

-“Can you just fucking leave already, you piece of shit.”

-“….MC….“

Satan:

-“Piss off Satan.”

-It doesn’t take long for him to start matching your energy in terms of anger. I guess it’s to be expected since hostility is usually met with more hostility and this is especially true in Satan’s case. Though it’s not clear whether he’s angry at you or the situation as a whole. It may well be both, but just because he’s the Avatar of Wrath, that doesn’t mean he’s completely unreasonable

-As usual, he was just spending his free time inside the library of the House of Lamentation when Mammon came bursting in, panicking from the looks of things before proceeding to grab him by the sleeve and aggressively yank him towards your room

-The whole situation was pretty bewildering to begin with but then, when he noticed the exact state you were in and just how badly you needed medical help-or the demon equivalent by any means, he low key started freaking out as well

-Truthfully, it was a lot of pressure on him. It was obvious that all of his brothers had really high expectations of him and were essentially pushing him to ‘fix’ you within the next 24 hours, which was probably not possible anyway

-However, on top of all of that, your overall demeanour also caught him really off guard and he genuinely had no idea how to react to your altered self once he has been updated on the matter

-Naturally, he is used to fighting fire with fire but as much as he is inclined to do just that, it really wouldn’t be fair on you considering you are not exactly capable of resisting the curse in question

-Honestly, he’s just glad (and extremely tired) once the effects of the curse are lifted because the whole experience was draining for him and as a result, he couldn’t even imagine what you were feeling after you started regaining your senses again

-Though he’s not the Avatar of Wrath for nothing and he sometimes can hold grudges for various periods of time, he doesn’t really hold anything against you, no matter how much you may have upset him while you were in that state of mind and for a few days, he may just appreciate the fact that he was able to do anything at all as a way to help ypu

-In terms of the foolish bastard that thought doing this to you was a great idea, it doesn’t take Satan all that long to come up with some kind of scheme to take his revenge on them. The whole ordeal has left him incredibly frustrated and agitated, so who would be a better choice to let all of his anger out on if not the dumbass that caused you to go through all of this?

-Don’t worry—the fourth born tends to unwind fairly quickly after releasing some of his anger so he should be by your side the next morning as if nothing happened <3

-“I’ll fucking kill you-GET OF-“

-“…MC, for the love of all that is demonic, stay still. I am not in the mood for this right now.”

Asmo:

-“…just… get out…I don’t want to see you.”

-Yeah, that alone would do enough collateral damage to last him for the next few centuries or so. Though he’s always been good at being perceptive and noticing when something is amiss with either you or his brothers, even Asmo seemed to be take off guard by your condition

-The effect you have on him is devastating at times, you know? He genuinely doesn’t know how to feel about any of this because he’s not used to seeing you react in such a way and he’s certainly not used to his brothers acting in such a peculiar manner either. It was almost as if they were lost on what to do next and that terrified him to a certain extent

-Even though you were against anyone keeping you company, someone needed to supervise you for obvious reasons. If something were to happen or your condition were to worsen, then the outcome of that problem would be in your favour if someone was there to spot it in time. Asmo usually volunteered to stay, since he didn’t feel like doing anything else on most days now that you were bed riddled

-Of course, Mammon also tagged along quite often and the two of them sort of bonded this way, though the circumstances of their stronger relationship is dubious by all means. You wouldn’t be able to tell but despite absolutely refusing to leave your side for days on end, your words did start wearing him down a little

-It wouldn’t surprise him if he were to find out you really despised him and his siblings after everything they did to you. They still couldn’t identify the curse quite well but for all they knew, it could’ve been used as a sort of truth serum that forced you to say what was on your mind no matter what

-Luckily for everyone else involved, Asmo is certainly capable of brushing off the insults you may have hurled at him and even though he’s still hurt by your words, he seems to realise that now is not the time for him to be offended or to mop about, since your condition was suddenly going to worsen before it got better

-I guess Asmo has always been rather good at prioritising the things and people he considered to be important and you are, without a doubt, one of them so his main concern was to ensure that you get better, not to worry over what you think about him

-Surprisingly enough, he didn’t need to think about the good for nothing scum that cursed you to begin with all that much, mostly because his brothers went and took care of them long before he even had the chance to react

-Doesn’t mean he has no intention of hunting him down later (if he happens to still be alive which is doubtful) and giving them a piece of his mind as well. Does this imbecile know how much sleep he lost because of what he did??? How many hours of distress and lack of self care-yeah he is probably gonna end up taking it out on him

-The good thing about having a smart ass for a brother was that Satan did heal you and way faster than most them had hoped for. In a week’s time, you were back to your old self again and Asmo could finally….relax after several days of anxious waiting. If you expect him to unglue himself from you once you’re back to normal then you’re fatally wrong.

-“Why are you even here? I thought the perfect Asmodeus would never need the company of someone who is so clearly below him.”

-“….MC, I could never think that. I…need your company more than anyone else’s so don’t say that. It’s not fair...”

Beel:

-“I fucking hate you so don’t even fucking bother talking to me.”

-Really, startled doesn’t even begin to describe his reaction to the current situation because he just came in to ask you if you wanted to go to Hell’s Kitchen with him and he found you strapped to your bed, yelling obscenities at him whilst his brothers watched from the sides, equally dumbfounded

-Surprisingly enough however, even though he may seem like the type to get emotional (which he is capable of being no doubt), Beel becomes really frustrated and angry once Mammon explains what happened to you and why you were in such a compromising state of mind

-Like, don’t get me wrong, seeing you act so indifferently towards him hurts more than his hunger pains when he doesn’t eat for a whole day but knowing that someone out there purposefully tried to turn you against him and his brothers pisses him off a lot

-And it’s probably because he knows it took such a long time for things to finally settle down and for you to be accepted into their family just for this to happen so naturally he’s not exactly happy

-Of course, don’t expect him to go off on a rampage on his own (at least, not until you get better) because honestly, he could eat the idiot behind this whole facade if he wanted to but he wouldn’t be able to enjoy it knowing you were still very much stuck at home and bed ridden

-For the majority of your recovery, he obviously stayed by your side (though he wasn’t as committed to it as Asmo and Mammon because he constantly had to go and fetch more food from the kitchen)

-Probably slept in your room as well, him and Mammon most likely took turns because after a few days of this, they were becoming increasingly tired and your bedroom floor isn’t exactly an easy place for someone to rest. They figured they’re not gonna be able to do you much good if they are drop down exhausted all the time

-Beel probably envelops you into the hug of the century once it’s confirmed there are no traces left of the curse on you and he’s almost crushing you but that’s OK because it’s been a tough week and he needs it (you too tbh)

-I would say he’s the most unaffected brother by your interactions with him whilst you were under the influence of the spell. Even though you deliberately went out of your way to insult and insinuate all kinds of horrible stuff about him, he didn’t seem to take too much of it to heart and brushed it off almost??? Didn’t stop him from sighing in relief as you apologised to him for saying all of that

-“Go annoy someone else Beel, I’m not in the fucking mood.”

-“…MC, have you eaten anything today?”

Belphie:

-“H-HEY!! Fucking let go of me-what the hell are you doing??!!”

-Unlike his brothers, he does not believe in the art of allowing people to heal on their own nor is he any good at giving people personal space when they may want it, he is simply against it

-So he’s pretty much aggressively holding you no matter how much you thrash against him-he’s surprisingly strong for a demon that doesn’t actually do anything all day so no wonder you can barely move whilst in his embrace

-The whole ordeal has pissed him off and tired him greatly, like two seconds in and he can’t decide if he wants to take a nap or go end the piece of shit that started all of this to begin with

-Honestly, he probably decided against both because maybe-just maybe-he was more needed here, at least until you stopped throwing shit at him every time he entered the room. In a way, he thought his presence might help but that’s just wishful thinking tbh

-Not going to lie, even though he tries to make it seem as if this is not bothering him at all, it does. Out of everyone, your hatred for him is, in a way, the most justifiable. Whilst he can see your dislike of his siblings as something that was fabricated due to the curse, your feelings towards him could’ve been real for all he knew

-That could be the main reason he didn’t feel like pissing off despite you telling him to do so every hour of the day and eventually he had to be pried away by Satan once he decided his brothers were getting in the way of your recovery

-That week may as well have been torture because time was going too slow and yet too fast simultaneously and he was in a fucking horrible mood the entire time (your attitude rubbed off on him) so this eventually lead to him snapping at his brothers on several occasions and fights breaking out more often than usual

-Once you are back to your senses (more or less) expect a pillow to be thrown at your head because that time period was so stressful to him he could barely sleep and he was anxious as fuck. By now, we know Belphie expresses his concern through anger and snide remarks so that’s to be expected

-Even though he is grumpy by nature, Belphie is internally so relieved to know you were not able to control yourself whilst under the influence of the spell and just happy that now he is 100% sure you don’t hate him as much as you let on during the past few days. However, the best thing to come out of this situation?? He got dibs on breaking the ribcage of the bastard behind all of this and now he gets to be a torturous little shit to someone else for a change

-“Huh? What are you going to do? Fucking kill me again? I don’t give a shit.”

-“………..”

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