#It means people no longer see the north as this dangerous place

[oifaaa]

i thought that you were eastern european or a person of color before i saw the flag. even then i had to google the flag.

Unfortunately I am just your average white Irish person tho that being said there has been a nice increase of Eastern Europeans and people of colour migrating over to the north in the last 20 years or so so definitely been an increase of non white Irish people

[sailorshadzter]

hi i still exist. :)

The music that plays is soft and slow, a song she recalls from weddings past, a staple from each and every Northern wedding she’s attended throughout her life. 

And yet somehow, someway, this time it feels different. 

Perhaps it’s the three glasses of wine she’s consumed or perhaps it’s the fact that she’s not been home in something like three years.

 There was nothing left for her here, after all. 

She looks up as the song ends, the crowd applauding as the band takes a moment to pause, to drink a gulp of water before they return to their places, the next song falling from their instrument strings. 

“Can I have this dance?”

The voice draws her out of her own mind, catching her off guard. She looks up and to her surprise, she knows the face grinning down at her, though it’s been something like a lifetime since they last spoke, let alone saw each other. “Jon,” she greets, smiling in spite of herself, red painted lips curving around the familiar syllable of his name. “It’s been a while,” she says, not answering his question; that question treads dangerous waters. Of all the people she expects to see at this thing, Jon isn’t one of them, and she suspects her best friend is to blame. 

“I know,” he replies, extending his hand for her to take.

It takes but a moment or two more before she relents, slipping her hand into his and allowing him to pull her onto her feet. Together they make their way out to the center of the dance floor, to where the dozen or so other couples already dance, the bride and groom included, as a popular mainstream love song plays by the band’s hands. “I’m surprised to see you,” she admits as they fall into step, the dance as familiar today as it was all those years ago.

“Me too,” he admits with a laugh, so soft and slow, for a moment she thinks she might drown in the sound of it. “I was surprised when the invite arrived.” She glances at the bride, her best friend, Margaery, and she reminds herself to have a conversation with her at a later date. “I decided I couldn’t turn down the chance to see a wedding like this one with my own eyes.” She’s laughing now and he’s tightening his grip on her waist. “I didn’t think you would come,” he says next, softer now, his gray eyes somber when they meet hers. 

What he means is I thought you would never return North after what happened here. The truth was, neither did she, but… Margaery had always been her friend, her best friend, and even when she’d been the one to fade away, Margaery had never lost sight of her. “I’m sorry…” he says next, his voice close to her ear, drawing her back in. “I shouldn’t have…” 

“It’s okay,” she says with a shake of her head, offering him a smile. “I couldn’t say no to her,” she says, glancing towards her smiling friend, drunk off happiness and wine as she dances with her husband. “Even if I had, I imagine she’d have brought me here against my will.” He’s the one laughing now and as the song ends, he does not let go of her hand. “Dancing is a dangerous game,” she says softly, tilting her head as blue eyes meet gray. 

Jon only grins, drawing her back in for a second dance. 

[ x x x ]

That night, she twists beneath the bedsheets of the hotel room bed he’d rented for the weekend.

She revels in the way he utters her name, in the feel of his hands threading through her hair, in the way he moves between her thighs. “Sansa,” he rasps, his breath warm against the hollow of her throat, a reminder of the warm bed she left behind all those years ago. When he pulls back, she finds herself drowning in those smoldering gray eyes, eyes still yet full of the stars she’s dreamed of since their last moments together. For three long years, she’s slept with other men, dated and partied, but every night she always found herself longing for something, for someone, she no longer had. 

It isn’t until he’s leaning in, kissing the salt from her lashes does she realize she’s begun to cry. 

[ x x x ]

When the morning sunlight spills in through the hotel curtains, she carefully slips from his arms and the bed. 

Tiptoeing across the room, she fishes her dress up off the floor, shimmying into it only to remember she can’t zip it up the back on her own. “Fuck,” she utters with a sigh, arm stretching at every awkward angle in an attempt to try anyway. As another curse is about to fall from her lips, she feels the brush of hands against her own and can feel the zipper make its ascent to the top, securing her back into the dress he’d nearly ripped from her body the night before. “Thanks,” she mumbles, swinging back around to face Jon where he stands in just his boxers, his hand lingering as if he means to touch her further. But, he must think on it, for it drops back to his side, tightening into a fist she does not notice. “I should go…” She turns away, thinking this would be it, this would be the last time… 

“Do you have to?” He asks, unable to stop himself. 

She stops, slowly revolving back to face him, those stoic features softening as gray eyes meet blue. “My train home… It’s not until Monday.” She admits quietly, thinking of the room in Margaery’s parents home she’s meant to occupy until then. 

“Let’s have lunch then.” He says with a grin and she’s laughing in spite of herself. 

“In this?” She asks, gesturing down at her slinky golden gown she’d worn to the wedding, wrinkled now from laying in a heap on the floor all night. 

“Sure,” he says, reaching for his own discarded dress pants, far more wrinkled than her dress. “We’ll go somewhere to match the wardrobe,” he shrugs on his white button down, allowing her to reach out and adjust his collar when he’s gotten it buttoned up. “You know the place.” 

Of course she did. 

“Fine, but then you must take me to get my bag,” she says as she steps back into her heels, kicked off the night before as he tackled her into his bed. 

“Does that mean you intend to stay?” He asks and she blinks, her heart skipping a beat. 

“Only if you want me to.” 

Jon grins, nodding, reaching out to take her by the hand. 

[ x x x ]

Her phone hasn’t stopped buzzing since they left the restaurant.

Between the old ladies who had spotted them having lunch and Margaery’s parents telling her that she’d come by to collect her overnight bag, she and Jon didn’t have much of a chance to hide they’d been together, even if they had intended to do so. But the hours of the day are spent whittled away by wine and talk, by sex and joy, so it isn’t until well past midnight that she finally slips away from him, to step out onto the balcony in just his t-shirt, to pick up her phone and dial the number that has relentlessly called and texted all day long. 

“Finally!” Margaery’s voice explodes in her ear after the first ring.

“No one would believe today was your first day of being married, considering you spent the entirety of the day calling me.” Sansa quips and her friend laughs on the other end and she can practically hear the smile in Margaery’s breathing. 

“And you spent the entirety of the day doing… Jon Snow?” 

Sansa laughs in response and Margaery shrieks, much like they were teenagers once more. “I knew it! That old Mrs. Hightower said you two left together last night but I didn’t believe her… Until mother called that is. How was it?” Sansa can picture her friend as she must have been right then, with that twisted smile she only ever wore when it came to talking about Jon Snow. 

“I’m not going home.” She says without missing a beat, without an ounce of hesitation.

Even that shut up Margaery.

“You’re… Not…?” She asks when she’s recovered her senses a moment later. “It must be good.” 

Sansa turns around, back to the balcony edge, staring in through the glass door to where she can see Jon still asleep in the bed. Her heart skips a beat and she knows it goes against everything she’s told herself over the last few years. It goes against everything she’s tried to do for herself, against the new life she’s tried so desperately to build. “No… Not right away, anyways.” For some reason, now that she’s come back to this place, to this person, she can only wonder how she ever left at all. “I have to go, I’ll call you tomorrow.” She hangs up before Margaery can answer and returns inside, slipping back into her place beside him in the bed.

He lets out a long, sleepy breath as he turns over, arm extending out over her hips. “I wondered where you’d gone…” He breathes into her ear, teeth sinking into the soft flesh of her earlobe as one wandering hand slides up beneath the hem of his shirt she wears. 

“Can I stay?” She asks quietly, thinking of what she’d just told Margaery.

Jon pauses, his fingertips brushing across the curve of her hip as he lifts his head, leaning over her so their eyes can meet. “You’re already here…” He says with the hint of confusion laced into his tone. 

“I mean… After Monday.” 

Jon blinks, realization dawning, and a grin spreads across his face, those eyes of his full of twinkling stars. She imagines their life as it always could have been, these long nights together, the early morning coffee cups, the boots he wears beneath the edge of their shared bed… Such thoughts fill her to the brim with warmth, with a sensation she’s only ever felt in his arms. “You can stay forever, if you’d like.” 

She smiles, thinking how sweet that sounded- forever. 

It could be theirs, just this once. 

[bekolxeram]

I have a lot of thoughts about Tommy being a part of the emergency landing rescue, just not shown on screen. If you read my blog regularly, you would know my stance for the past months.

I really want to write missing scene fics, but as you know, I'm not good at writing fiction. So here is something that's kind of a fic, but doesn't even come close to all of the hc I have for Tommy's role in the plane disaster.

Enjoy? And perhaps I would write more about it in the future.

I apologize for any OOC or general bad writing.

Everywhere he sees, is calm, static, empty and strangely menacing.

To the average person, the airport goes to sleep with the rest of the city, but to Tommy, the bustling cacophony of cargo aircrafts have been keeping him company in the dead of night ever since he transferred to Harbor. Adjusting from being a regular firefighter to a firefighting pilot was a difficult one for him. In his first year at Harbor, he often found himself staring at the ceiling at night, mind racing with the idea of all the doubts his father had instilled in him and all the people he hurt when he was deep in denial. The sole remedy to his wandering mind, was the soothing noise of jet engines powering up, carrying precious messages and memorabilia to the other side of the earth, bringing a piece of home to those who felt as lost as Tommy did.

But now, Tommy hears nothing but ocean waves and the occasional breeze from the shore.

Humans are not meant to fly. It’s through sheer ambition and stubbornness that people strap giant fans powerful enough to suck air down and away into submission, and be propelled into the air, thanks to Newton’s third law. Everyone who has been kept aloft by an iron bird knows, silence is deadly. It means there is no longer any machine in place to keep you airborne, you are about to fall out of the sky like a dying autumn leaf.

Tommy hears nothing but the looming sense of danger…

And the ground personnel trying to refuel his helicopter.

“Sorry, I’ll get out of your way.” Tommy takes his tablet from the chopper and starts walking towards the maintenance hangar, which is currently housing a fourth of LAFD’s total equipment. He takes a look at the ADS-B Exchange tab on his device, still showing a straight, stable flight path, sign of the sophisticated autopilot flying the aircraft to safety. With a more optimistic state of mind, Tommy walks towards his colleagues near the 217 engine, when suddenly, he spots the 118 truck right next to it.

“Hey, Captain Wilson! I heard Gerrard is in the hospital?” Tommy asks.

“Yeah, we haven’t heard from Presbyterian yet, but who cares? As long as he’s not dead, he can stay there as long as he wants and leave us alone.” Hen waves her hand, clearly dismissing any possible concern for Gerrard.

“I’m hoping for an early retirement.” Howie adds, still sarcastic, but not as cheerful as his usual self.

“So where’s Evan?” Tommy looks around, “I saw his texts about doing something bad and putting Gerrard in hospital, then nothing, I can’t reach him at all. Is he… suspended?”

“Not at all. For what it’s worth, he saved Gerrard’s live.” Eddie chimes in, “He’s probably stuck in traffic. Rush hour is always a nightmare.”

“Why would he be stuck in traffic, shouldn’t he be here with you guys?” Tommy frowns, trying to piece together what is going on.

Eddie, Hen and Howie look at each other, like they are trying to communicate with eye contact alone, who is going to break the uncomfortable news. “Buck went to get Bobby from the TV show set.” Hen says. Before Tommy can ask another question, Hen continues, “Athena is on that plane, she’s flying it.”

Tommy instinctively closes his eyes, and says a silent prayer. He has seen his fair share of pilot incapacitation induced talk-down landings in his career, but they have all been on light private aircrafts, never a commercial airliner. He takes a glimpse at his tablet again, Athena’s plane is still flying steadily towards due north, away from the ocean. That should be good news, right?

“Don’t worry. Modern airliners have so many flight computers that they basically land themselves.” Tommy tries reassuring the 118, “if there’s anyone you want on that plane, it’s Athena. That woman has survived the worst disasters and come out to tell the tales. She’s so resourceful. If there’s anyone who can bring the plane down safely, it’s her.” He points to Athena’s flight, tracked by satellite, on his tablet.

“Or… you? You’re a pilot, you can land that plane, right?” Eddie asks.

“I fly helicopters, Eddie.” Tommy states with a blank face, like it's a matter of fact.

“But you fly planes too, yeah? Buck told me you took him to Catalina on a plane the other day.” Eddie presses on.

“That was a single engine propeller plane, this one is a twin engine jet airliner with engines the size of a firetruck. It’s a completely different kind of flying…” Tommy stares at Howie, “… altogether.”

“It’s a completely different kind of flying!” Howie echoes, while the other two seem utterly confused.

“Really? Airplane?” Tommy gasps, unsettled by the fact that Eddie and Hen have never seen this cinematic masterpiece.

“Come on, you’ve never seen Airplane? It’s the greatest comedy of all time!” Howie cannot believe it either.

“Anyway, have you guys been able to get a hold of Evan? I’ve tried calling him many times, but he isn’t answering.” Tommy waves his phone around to get his point across.

“Maybe he’s driving, I wouldn’t worry about it. If we can’t reach him, I doubt you would be able to either. His phone is probably on silent” Hen replies.

“Oh, that’s not an issue for us. He has a special notification set up for me.” Tommy says.

“Does anyone still use ringtones or notification sounds in this day and age?” Eddie asks, innocently.

“Who says anything about ringtones?” Tommy smirks, “you know there are different patterns of vibration for silent mode, right?”

“Ah, smart,” Eddie puts out his hand for a fist bump, “Wait… uurrgghhh eww….”

“It’s a sex thing, right? I love you guys, and I support you, but I don’t want to imagine my best friends getting freaky… It’s weird.” Eddie withdraws his fist and puts his hand on his face instead.

“Sorry,” Tommy shrugs, peeking at his tablet again, “I should probably get going. The plane is making its final descent. Everything looks good so far, but you should be prepared anyway.”

Jogging backwards, Tommy makes one last comment to comfort the 118, “Hey! Howie, remember 2005, when you first joined? We all got called to the airport for a sideway landing gear wheel, but it turned out so well, no one was injured, not even a scrape. It’ll be alright this time too, okay?”

Tommy thinks he sees Howie giving him a thumb up, but duty calls, he has to focus on his job from now on.

[yunamedkostobot]

I just can't do with them

This person speaks like the Grievous POV in Labyrinth of Evil, when he speaks a lot about this events, is non-existent and this book directly preceeded Revenge of the Sith in Legends continuity. So, only magazine article, you know, it does not mean anything, and Jedi are completely innocent about it!

While I do not condone Grievous methods neither in Canon, nor in Legends, the Kaleesh invasion on Huk would not happen if not the Yam'Ree did not attack Kalee first and did not attempt to enslave his population. Where was the Jedi than? Where were they after it, when Kalee outright started to starve?

And it is not the first time when Jedi in Legends failed to help those who were in need.

There was Jabiim. This page when Stratus clearly sums up everything went wrong with the planet.

The planet used to be faithful Republic world, but neither Republic, nor Jedi helped them when they needed it the most. The result? Total majority of people of Jabiim supporting Stratus and CIS. Yep, maybe Stratus is pushing revanshist propaganda, but it would not have made the same impact of people of Jabiim, if there were not quite an objective conditions.

There was Findar with his population being enslaved by criminal overlords for more than ten years. Add the fact, the same overlords who conducted the experiments with memory wiping on people, and only the fact that Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi (who were heading to another mission) crash-landed here saved the findians from future nightmare.

The probability theory says that when one thing happens is the accident, coincidence, when it happens twice, and sistem when it happens thrice. So, make you own conclusions.

And even the argument about it no longer being canon doesn't really works. In Canon, Jedi outright ignored Czerka corporation literally enslaving its workers(what she by this time did not do in Legends). This exchange between Qui-Gon Jinn and Yoda really sums up what is wrong with Order right now.

«Qui-Gon had been too young to see the cracks in the bravado—the pain that all Dooku’s guidance and all Rael’s accomplishments had never been able to erase. “That he would effectively sell citizens into slavery—” “Grievous, this is,” Yoda agreed. Into Qui-Gon’s mind came the echo of Rahara Wick: What’s the point of having a Republic in the first place? “We should put an end to it,” he said. Yoda shook his head. “Not ours to decide, the fate of the treaty is—” “Not the treaty. Slavery.” Qui-Gon folded his hands in front of him, allowing the robes to obscure them—the most formal way in which a Jedi could address another. “Why do we allow this barbarism to flourish? The Republic could use its influence to promote abolition in countless systems where the practice flourishes. How can we fail to do this?” <.....> Qui-Gon’s patience began to wear thin. “This isn’t about imposing human ethics on nonhuman species. This is something humans do to one another, an atrocity we should put an end to.” “We? Not the chancellor, not the Galactic Senate, not even the people of the Republic, but the Jedi?” Yoda thumped his gimer stick on the floor. “Want to rule, do you? Dangerous this is, in one who would join the Council. Dangerous it is in any Jedi.” Qui-Gon knew all of this. On one level, he accepted the truth of it. On the other—“If we don’t stand for the right, what do we do? Why do we exist?”»

From the same book we know that Czerka corporation acts even worse, than IRL Russian nobility up to 1649 or American slave-owners. Their property can not be considered free unless they buy themselves out of it, no matter how long they were absent from Czerka's control(as Rahara case clearly indicates). Up to ratification of Council Code of 1649, Russian serfs who ran away from their masters can be declared as "wanted" only for 10 years and were considered free after that. The black slaves could use the Underground Railroad and get to the North or another country when slavery was illegal.

It's not a case for Czerka. They will never let their former property go, no matter how many time passed since the escape, or where their former subject had gone.

And Jedi stand and allow it to happen. Doing their part in Republic, yep, Yoda?

"Many ways there are of serving the right,” Yoda replied. “We work within our mandates, and there do as much good as we can. To do otherwise, to substitute our judgment for that of the Republic, is to repeat the mistakes of the past.” So instead we make different mistakes in the present? Qui-Gon kept this to himself."

And also, to what mistakes of the past Yoda is referring to? What mistakes are deemed worse than allowing slavery to exist? Even in the Legends the Jedi having closest ties and basically control of Republic(to some level that it can be considered religios teocracy) allowed them to defeat Siths and practically destroy them except one. And even then, after the victory they stepped down(too far IMO). What thing could be called mistake here?

I am gonna specify: the Republic had a lot of problems that have a need to be fixed, but there was one thing that made this state more durable or competent is having Jedi, but not as the «Galactic therapists»(therapy can not be forced onto living being without his desire, if it is not a conversion therapy), but as the protection from arbitariness and exploitation. If some planet was endangered, they could have contacted Jedi and ask for help. The main problem of Order in this case is the fact they did not do enough for the people they should have protected, blindly trusted some reports and never attempted to search for the truth beyond it(Kalee, Galidraan and Pijal to lesser extent) and also hadn't seemed to have their own outposts for survelliance or interference, or some rapid reaction forces since Ruusan reform in Legends(1000 years)/«Starlight Beacon»'s destruction in Canon(200 years). I can not call it anything else but shooting yourself in the foot.

The Jedi should have been more autonomous, should have had their own information information service, outposts in the Galaxy and forces of reaction. It was not necassary to cut their ties with Republic entirely, but distance themselves from Senate, so people wouldn't think that Jedi «blindly serve the corrupt Senate».

Jedi Uncrits: «But the Jedi are only 10.000 for all of Galaxy, they could not do it!»

Well, in this case it's better to drop your practice to recruit children under five(as Rael Aveross's case indicates), abandoning tons of kids and youths elder than this age(like Caris in Legends). Or what, they will not blindly accept everything Council says? Sorry for the Council.

[turtlesandfrogs]

So I was scrolling and saw this image in an article about the European heat wave,

And was like, uh, are you missing something there, buddy? Like all that red in northern Africa? Because that's a lot of red.

And I was going to give them the benefit of doubt, since I don't know much about the climate in Northern Africa, aside from Morroco and Egypt, which seem like really hot places, so you know, maybe it's normal there?

But nope, that's not the case:

"While the planet broke multiple records for average worldwide temperatures last week, a heat wave gripped northern Africa.

The region has been experiencing some of the most intense heat waves in recent years, but in many cases they’ve been under-reported due to misconceptions about Africans’ ability to withstand them.

“Africa is seen as a sunny and hot continent,” said Amadou Thierno Gaye, a research scientist and professor at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. “People think we are used to heat, but we are having high temperatures for a longer duration. Nobody is used to this.”

North Africa, the Sahara desert and the Sahel, a semi-arid belt north of the Sudanian savanna, are some of the most vulnerable areas because they have larger land masses relative to the rest of the continent, meaning they tend to heat up faster. Scientists have attributed the unprecedented temperatures to a combination of human-induced climate change and the return of El Niño, a natural phenomenon that alters weather patterns.

The Sahel, for instance, has been heating at a faster pace than the global average despite being hot already. Burkina Faso and Mali, both in West Africa’s Sahel, are among countries that are set to become almost uninhabitable by 2080, if the world continues on its current trajectory, a UK university study found. Its people are especially vulnerable due to shrinking resources, such as water, and poor amenities, and a dearth of trees and parks means there are few options for places to cool off.

“People talk of climate change as if it’s a thing of the future,” said Gaye. “Climate change is already here and we see its implications in people, livelihoods, economies and even in cultures.”

While studies on heat impacts on health are limited in Africa, research published last year found that children younger than 5 years old are particularly vulnerable to the hotter weather as they are less able that adults to self-regulate their bodies’ temperatures. The authors estimated that heat-related child mortality was rising in sub-Saharan Africa due to climate change. Other researchers have named the elderly, pregnant women and people who work outdoors, as groups at risk of heat strokes or heat-related infectious diseases.

Elsewhere on the continent, the crisis is also being felt. In the Horn of Africa, at least 43,000 people died in Somalia alone last year as a result of the worst drought in four decades. A study found that global warming is changing rain patterns and bringing more heat to Somalia and some of its neighbors, for longer stretches of time. Further south, unusually destructive cyclones in 2019 claimed more than a thousand lives in Mozambique and Zimbabwe alone.

“If we continue business-as-usual, the heat is not just going to get worse, it will get much worse,” said Mouhamadou Bamba Sylla, research chair in climate change science at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. “We are going to see more frequent, longer and more intense heat waves.”

Much of the continent, responsible for just 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions generated from burning fossil fuels, is ill-prepared for a hotter world. Meanwhile, Group of 20 nations, with air conditioning and access to functioning healthcare facilities, account for 80% of the world’s emissions.

Hundreds of millions of Africans lack electricity to even power a fan. One in three people in Africa is affected by water scarcity, according to the World Health Organization, so hydration can’t be taken for granted. Even shade is harder to come by due to widespread deforestation and land degradation. And only 40% of people on the continent are covered by early warning systems for extreme weather.

“More funds have to be allocated to climate adaptation and they need to be made more easily accessible to the most vulnerable countries,” Sylla said.

The UN climate talks later this year aspire to come up with a plan for richer nations to pay for loss and damages. But they’ve collectively fallen short of their commitment to spend $100 billion each year on projects in developing nations to cut emissions and to help them adapt.

“That’s where the issue of climate justice comes in,” said Gaye. “It’s not just that people are uncomfortable, climate change is killing them.”

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from The Nation:

In recent weeks, one story has failed to garner as many headlines or dominate as many social media feeds as it should have, despite its widespread implications. Right now, Canadian wildfires are once again issuing a grave global warning: Catastrophic climate change is no longer just a future dystopian possibility; it’s a present, inescapable reality.

While fires blaze across Western Canada, spreading smoke, making it harder to breathe, and diminishing air quality for people living as far away as South Dakota and Iowa, millions of people in Brazil are recovering from severe floods in Rio Grande do Sul, which, as with the Canadian wildfires, scientists and major research organizations have characterized as an alarming sign of what is to come from accelerating climate change.

Following the last Canadian wildfire season, as I watched smoke from hundreds of miles away blow over my home city of New York and turn the sky orange, I wrote for The Nation about the importance of learning from the precarious reality these fires reflected and of the imminent need for governments to promote serious climate policies. Today, I am astounded to see how governments learned nothing from that crisis. Having failed to agree to phase out fossil fuels at COP28, nations continue to lag behind on—and even outright contradict—their espoused climate goals.

As oil and gas companies continue to increase the production of fossil fuels, basically turning the earth into a microwave oven, the opposite weather extremes seen in North and South America affirm that immediate and global action must be taken to keep all of our communities safe. Such action means not only massively curbing greenhouse gas emissions in alignment with climate science but adapting to the terrifying new normal, especially as the slow-onset effects of climate change, like rising sea levels, make more and more places dangerous to inhabit. As long as governments fail to lead the way in these two essential charges, it’s clear that we ordinary citizens must use every tool available to us to shift political and economic conditions in the direction of a rapid and just transition to renewable energy. In effect, if our elected officials refuse to wake up to the climate emergency, we must force them to.

[imagine-silk]

Could you do Yandere Curie with a Darling that wants to travel and explore the wasteland of North America with her, from not only east coast to west coast, but also Canada, the Midwest, South, the Great Plains, everything interesting with only the two of them? Could you also have Darling be a Courser that wanted to start a new life after the institute was destroyed, so both of them are Synths who don't Age?

》Sorry this took a while, I've been indisposed to put it lightly.

Curie is pre-war, yes, but she wasn't made to go outside. She knows as much as the average person back then.

Even if running around is not her idea she supports it wholeheartedly. All she hears is you are going to be with her alone for the unforeseeable future because the world is a big place. And as far as she knows you'll be wandering around for the rest of time.

To make the time even longer she'll make up places. She swears there was a monument of Sole and it was in the south region. She really really wants to see it. Then there's the world's longest stump. Not the biggest. The longest.

You're not safe by any means however. Though that could be said for a number of reasons. Synths are still a strange thing and have proven dangerous after the Institute was destroyed. Taking away someone's life, their home, doesn't breed good will. Not all of the synths wanted to leave.

Money isn't an issue. Curie is the wasteland's best doctor and there was no shortage of people with boo-boos. Sometimes she'll even rip people off by saying she has short supply so it cost extra. Not very ethical but her main priority was you and you needed money to stay happy, healthy.

When you can you travel with caravans. They share food, water, shelter, and company. Though if anyone gets a little too cozy she won't take too kindly to it. Very bluntly she'll threaten them so casually it's hard to tell if she's serious. She is and you have to stand in to say so.

There is also the issue of age. You'll never die of age but if you see other's too long you'll see them age while you don't. It'll hurt on all sides. But that's why Curie keeps you moving once she figured that out.

Years will go by in the blink of an eye. Another few years you see MacCready, a gray-haired mercenary who's skill is almost unmatched. And he's not amused when he sees the two of you. But catching up is nice.

Somehow everyone you once knew is long dead and you've not seen everything because Curie keeps making the list longer and longer. At a certain point you lose track of time trying to keep her reigned in. And that's what she wants. You are all hers.

[crystalninjaphoenix]

Taking Care of Business

A JSE Fanfic

SepticHeroes AU: Part 27

First Part | Previous Part

I'm starting to realize I tend to write longer chapters for this series XD I guess I just really can't help myself from going off with character interactions with these guys. In this chapter, Jackie goes back to SepTech to ask McLoughlin some more questions. Meanwhile, Marvin drops by Schneep's office, and Jameson gets to know this new guy he's met. Maybe they could be friends? Heheh :D

===============

Jackie landed outside the North SepTech location. He took a deep breath to prepare himself before heading in. Everything would be fine. Dr. McLoughlin said that he could stop by whenever he wanted without even needing to make an appointment. It would be fine. But as he walked through the doors, he still couldn’t help but be a little nervous. Was it just the natural anxiety of walking in somewhere like he owned the place? Or was it something more? Was he... suspicious of McLoughlin? Marvin had brought up some good points, after all.

No, no. He refused to judge the man before he even had a chance to talk to him. That would taint their entire encounter. For all he knew, McLoughlin just made a mistake when analyzing the Puppeteer’s mask. That’s all.

He got a visitor’s pass from the receptionist and then asked for directions again. He couldn’t remember the exact way to McLoughlin’s lab. She told him the way, and he managed to get to the lab pretty quickly. It was still a shock to see how different this futuristic basement was from the office building above. Everything white and metal. Jackie walked up to the double doors to the lab, and they slid open automatically. Cool.

The lab was just as crowded and messy as it was the first time he was here. Jackie’s eyes flicked over the robotic arms dangling from the ceiling, the monitors around the walls and standing in the middle of the floor, the wires and metal scraps and weird mechanical parts covering every inch of every surface. No sign of any people in here. “Hello?” he called. “Dr. McLoughlin? Are you in here?”

A moment passed. Then one of the monitors nearby turned on, its screen showing the words INTERCOM SYSTEM ACTIVATED. “Hey, Windstorm!” McLoughlin’s voice said excitedly. Coming from the speakers by the monitor. “I didn’t know you were stopping by!”

“Uh—y-yeah, last time I was here you said I could pop in whenever,” Jackie said.

“I did, didn’t I? Right. Sorry, my memory sucks sometimes—which I think I’ve also told you.” McLoughlin laughed. “I’m all the way at the very back. Come on over.”

“Sure.” Jackie hopped into the air, flying over the mess taking up the floor and towards the back of the lab. It’s a pretty big room. You could probably fit a handful of tennis courts in here end-to-end.

Most of the back wall was one massive monitor, but there were smaller monitors surrounding it. They were all turned off except for a couple right below the big screen. Jackie saw McLoughlin’s special SAM rise into the air and flew over there, dropping to the ground nearby. “Hey!” McLoughlin was working at some sort of console, sitting in a swivel chair that he spun around to face Jackie. “Good to see you! Welcome back to the lab.”

“Uh, nice to be back,” Jackie said, looking around. “What’re you working on now?”

“Theory and blueprints,” McLoughlin said, gesturing at the screen. “Trying to come up with new stuff. But I feel like I’ve hit a block, you know? It’s not really ‘artist’s block,’ but if you know what that is, it feels the same, I think. I’ve maybe got an idea for something to supercharge supers’ powers? But it might be dangerous so I’m not sure if I want to go through with it, lord knows the League would leap on it if they heard I was even thinking about that.”

“Uh... huh.” Jackie nodded slowly. “What do you mean? How would it work?”

“Well, it’d be most helpful for Type E, I think, supers who draw power from energy,” McLoughlin explained. “Basically it would give them a bigger dose of energy, but I dunno, there might be side effects from that. Might shock their systems. And I can’t exactly test that on myself like I did with the interface.”

“Right. I forget you have a fucking... chip in your head,” Jackie muttered.

McLoughlin laughed. “I’m a fucking cyborg, and I’m proud of it. Do you know how hard it was to work on an advanced prosthetic while you only have one arm and one eye?” He flexed the fingers on his right hand.

“Couldn’t you have gotten a less advanced prosthetic to help while you worked on the one you were making?”

“Well... yeah, I guess, but then I’d have to remove it—and that’s a whole can of worms. I figured it was easier to just wait until I was done.” McLoughlin shrugged. “Wasn’t so bad. I had the robots to help with a lot of it.”

“Speaking of, uh, your robots.” Jackie reached down, unhooking the Puppeteer mask from his belt. “Remember this?”

“Oh yeah, the mask!” McLoughlin nodded.

“Did you, uh, have your robots do the scan on this?” Jackie asked. “Or did you... How much... Were you heavily involved, or did you just leave it to the machines?”

McLoughlin chuckled. “I pretty much ‘left it to the machines,’ as you said. That’s a fun way of putting it, I’ll have to remember that.” His expression suddenly became serious. “Why? Is there something wrong with it?”

“Um... yeah.”

“Set it down there, then.” McLoughlin pointed at the nearest table. “Face-up. Tell me what this is about.”

Jackie set the mask down. The SAM flew down. Part of its metal casing slid open—specifically, the bottom part of the blue ring around its central camera—and a wave of blue light came out, scanning the mask slowly. “I took it to someone else about the mask—they, uh, asked to see it—and they said that it had been tampered with, that its LEDs were being controlled externally and so was the voice synthesizer. And they said there were cameras and microphones, and those were also being controlled externally.”

“Hmm.” McLoughlin frowned. “That’s a lot of modification. Huh.” He stood up and walked over to the mask, flipping it over as soon as his SAM was done scanning. Once it finished scanning the back side as well, McLoughlin took out that remote with the red button. “Importing scans from SAM-0 to the internal network. Display them on the nearest blank monitor.”

One of the screens turned on, displaying the scan the SAM made, a bunch of complicated white lines on a black background. Jackie didn’t understand it at all, but McLoughlin nodded thoughtfully. “Do you see them now?” Jackie asked.

“Yeah. That’s weird.” McLoughlin spoke into the remote again. “Compare these scans to the last scan of the Puppeteer mask.” A second set of scans showed up underneath the first, which shrunk in size so all four images could be displayed at once. Red circles popped up on the new SAM scans, highlighting the differences. “How did we miss this before?” McLoughlin muttered into the remote.

“It is likely that the differences are a result of modification done after the previous scan,” said a robotic voice from the computer speakers.

“No they’re not,” Jackie said. “How would that be possible? The mask was with me the whole time after you gave it to me.”

McLoughlin nodded. “Assume that the differences were there during the previous scan,” he said to the remote—clearly connected to the computer. “How could we have missed them?”

“It is possible that the damage inflicted to the mask caused errors during the initial scanning process,” the computer replied. “It is possible that the scanning equipment may need to be repaired or updated. It is possible that the scanning equipment or the recorded scans were modified by an outside party. It is possible that SAM-0 may have more advanced scanning equipment. It is possible that human error—”

“Thank you, you may stop listing possibilities,” McLoughlin interrupted. He glanced at Jackie. “You really have to stop it early, or it keeps iterating on problems and getting absurd.”

Jackie frowned. “It said... that the scans might’ve been modified by someone else?”

“Yeah, that was one of the possibilities.”

“That... might be likely.” Jackie hesitated for a moment. Should he tell McLoughlin about the new developments? Well, he’d already told the police. “Dr. McLoughlin... there’s someone else involved in the Puppeteer case.”

“Hmm? Oh, well, I guess that’d make sense,” McLoughlin said. “If there are cameras in the mask, and the lights and voice were being controlled externally, that just makes sense. Cause who would they be controlled by?”

“Exactly!” Jackie nodded. “This other person—this Anti-Virus, I’ve been calling them—”

“Anti-Virus?” McLoughlin raised an eyebrow.

“—they might be a technopath,” Jackie said. “I-I have evidence that they can see through cameras and send messages and emails and stuff.”

“That doesn’t mean they can get into SepTech’s system, though,” McLoughlin pointed out. “We have very high digital security.”

“Okay, but—but the Puppeteer was controlling people in SepTech, right?” Jackie said, his mind whirling. “If he got a hold on someone who worked with your system, like an IT guy, maybe, o-or even someone with a very high security clearance, he could’ve made them open up a path for Anti-Virus.”

“...oh.” McLoughlin went pale. “Well... shit.”

“Shit.” Jackie nodded in agreement.

“I-I can flush our system again,” McLoughlin said. “That should be able to drive out anything currently—but does it work the same for a technopath? Well, I guess if there are any viruses they planted or anything, it’ll get rid of that, at least. I’ll see if we can increase security, too, do a quick check on everything, make it harder for this Anti-Virus to get in.” He shook his head. “Can’t fucking believe it. The Puppeteer had a partner.”

“Um... no, actually,” Jackie said. “All signs point to the Puppeteer being blackmailed to do all this by Anti-Virus.”

“What?!” McLoughlin’s head snapped to Jackie.

“I know, it sounds crazy, but it’s true.”

“How the fuck do you know? You sound so sure.”

“I-I found proof,” Jackie said. He’d spent an hour yesterday making sure he’d copied the video tape JJ had left for them to find. But he only copied the part about JJ, electing to keep Dahlia’s involvement—Timekeeper’s part of the video—out of it. It might make a bit less sense, but he didn’t want to willingly tell the police a super’s secret identity. Not when Anti-Virus probably had her in their clutches. That felt like a violation.

“Must be some good proof, then,” McLoughlin muttered.

“Hopefully, combined with the mask, it’ll be enough to get—get Jameson Jackson out of the Vault,” Jackie said. “He doesn’t deserve to be in there.”

“I mean... the guy did mind control people,” McLoughlin said. “He’ll probably still be in jail, even if he was blackmailed.”

“But it’ll be a normal prison,” Jackie insisted.

“Hmm. True,” McLoughlin said slowly. “I’m just saying. The memories of people trying to get into my lab while I sealed up the one entrance will be in my nightmares.”

Jackie winced. “Um... sorry?”

“Why are you apologizing? You weren’t the one who did it.”

“Yeah, but... I-I don’t know, he’s not here to apologize, so I might as well.” Jackie laughed a little. And then his mind processed something. “Wait, one entrance? I saw a couple doors around the sides of the room, though.”

“Yeah, those only lead to storage rooms,” McLoughlin said. “All sorts of shit in there. I don’t even keep track of it all. I swear some of those doors I haven’t opened in years.” He shook his head. “Not the best organizer.”

“Oh I feel that,” Jackie chuckled. “Well. Anyway. Can you maybe print out those scans or something? So I can use them as evidence for the police?”

“Of course.” McLoughlin spoke to the computer again. “Print out all scans of the Puppeteer’s mask, including the ones with the highlighted differences.”

“Yes, Dr. McLoughlin.” A little tray popped out of the side of the console. There were several mechanical noises, and papers slid out of a slit in the console, landing in the tray.

Jackie walked over and picked them up. Yep, those were the scans. “Thanks,” he said. “I’ll be taking these with me. Oh, and the mask, of course.” He made sure to pick it up.

“No problem,” McLoughlin said. “And, uh, Windstorm? I’m so sorry about the scan from before. That it wasn’t accurate, I mean.” He looked down at the ground, embarrassment on his face. “I-I swear my stuff is better than that, usually.”

Jackie’s heart softened. “It’s okay,” he said softly. “You probably got hacked, not your fault.”

“Still.” McLoughlin sighed, then looked up again. “If there’s anything you need, let me know. Though, uh, the system flush will probably cripple my ability to do much for a while.”

“No I get it, that’s fine, really.” Jackie smiled. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Thanks for stopping by,” McLoughlin said. “Again, feel free anytime.”

“Will do.” Jackie gave him a little salute, then jumped into the air. “Goodbye.”

“Bye!” McLoughlin waved him off.

Now all Jackie needed to do was fly home and get that tape copy he made. He could deliver it and the mask with its scans to the police station today. They could look into it and start the process of getting JJ a proper trial. The sooner they started, the sooner they could finish, and the sooner JJ would be out of the Vault.

This would be enough. It had to be.

===============

Schneep was just getting ready to leave work when he heard a knock at his office door. He quickly clocked out on the computer—he could always clock in again if this turned out to be an emergency and not more paperwork—and called out, “Yes, come in.”

An unexpected face walked through the door. “So, this is your office, then?” Marvin said, looking around. “Not exactly what I expected. Then again, not sure what I was expecting.”

“Marvin?” Schneep blinked. “What are you doing here? Wait, I never told you where I work!”

“Sorry about that,” Marvin said, closing the door behind him. “I realized I didn’t have any way of contacting you. But I did remember JJ telling me where you worked once, so I figured I’d stop by.”

Schneep sighed. “Well, I suppose it does not matter that much.” He started shutting down the computer. “So I repeat my question. What are you doing here?”

Marvin glanced around the room. “Are there any... cameras in your office?”

“Security cameras? No, there are none in the offices at all. Only the places where actual important things are stored.”

“Do you have like... patient information in here or something? Wouldn’t that be important?”

Schneep stood up and walked over to the filing cabinet, tugging on the drawer. It didn’t open. “Locked. I suppose that is good enough for the hospital.”

“And... what about the computer?” Marvin jerked his head towards the desktop monitor.

“No cameras on work computers,” Schneep said. “No microphones, either. If you need either of those, you need to borrow an external one from IT and plug it in. Besides, even if that was the case, I just shut the computer down.”

“In that case, shut your phone down, too,” Marvin insisted.

Schneep rolled his eyes, but he took out his phone and did so, showing the shutdown process to Marvin. “There. Is this about Anti-Virus? You are worried about them listening in?”

Marvin nodded. “Just in case.” He paused, then narrowed his eyes. “You’re not going to call me paranoid now, are you?”

“No, not paranoid. Perhaps a bit over-cautious, but I don’t think you’ve crossed into paranoia. Paranoia would mean you are unjustified. And after hearing the truth about Anti-Virus from that video... I’d say you are very, very justified indeed.” Schneep shuddered a little.

Marvin relaxed a little. “That’s what I think, too. About... Anti-Virus. God, we’re all really sticking with that, aren’t we?”

“It is what they called themself in that text message, that is the closest we’ll get to this villain naming themself,” Schneep said. And he always thought heroes—and even villains—should name themselves. Otherwise the public would do it, and they would come up with something generic like ‘the Specter.’ Schneep’s name had grown on him over time, but he remembered being very annoyed about it at first, thinking anything he could come up with would be better. 

“Right. I guess.” Marvin sighs. “I bet Windstorm’s told the police about them, using that name. It’s gonna stick now.”

“Okay, we have talked quite a lot, and you still haven’t answered my question,” Schneep said. “What are you doing here?”

Marvin gave the room another look-around. Then he walked up to Schneep, lowering his voice a little. “Have you ever infiltrated SepTech?”

Schneep nodded. “Yes, a couple times. That is how Jackie met the Specter, actually. In the East location.” He’d gone there because he heard they had chameleon cloth. If he was going to get back into the game, he wanted an updated suit, and one that blended into the environment seemed like a good fit for him.

“Oh.” Marvin blinked. “Right. Okay. Well.” He coughed awkwardly. “What if... what if I commissioned you to spy on them some more?”

“Commissioned me?” Schneep raised an eyebrow. “What, am I an artist?”

“Depends on if you think it’s an art to break into places.”

“A skill, more like it.” Schneep grinned. And one he very much enjoyed using. He’d be happy to infiltrate SepTech... but he wanted to know why Marvin wanted him to do this. “So... what is this about, then? Spying on them? Why?”

“Because of that Dr. McLoughlin guy,” Marvin said. “There’s something up with him. Something suspicious. I’m not sure what, but I can’t shake this feeling that he’s connected to Anti-Virus. He might even be Anti-Virus.”

“That is a serious accusation,” Schneep pointed out.

“I know. That’s why I haven’t brought it up to the police. Well, that, and my whole... villain persona,” Marvin admitted. “But Windstorm wouldn’t believe me when I told him that there’s a connection.”

“Really?”

“He admitted it was suspicious, but said it could be a coincidence and isn’t doing anything about it,” Marvin clarified. “I think he’s even taking the Puppeteer mask back to Dr. McLoughlin so he can look at it. The guy who probably deliberately hid details about it! Hell, he might even have given it to him today!” He shook his head, anger clouding his features. “I don’t blame him for being so trusting—but I think it’s a mistake.”

“So... you think I could spy on Dr. McLoughlin for you, then?” Schneep asked.

“I’d help, of course. But I think you’d be best for actually going into the SepTech locations.”

“That is true.” Schneep nodded. “With the word ‘commission’ thrown in, I wonder, will you pay me for this? Or is this a favor for friends?”

“I mean, I can pay you if you want,” Marvin considered. “Not that much, but I have some spare cash. But... I thought you would want to do this. For yourself. And... for your family. After all, if McLoughlin is connected to Anti-Virus, he might have information on where Dahlia is. He might even be the man who took her, the man who made JJ do all that Puppeteer shit.”

Schneep clenched his fists. “You are appealing to my revenge?”

“...No,” Marvin said quietly. “I’m appealing to your love for them.”

“Well... that is the right thing to do.” Schneep turned away, looking out the office window at the cityscape. “If there is a chance that this McLoughlin man is connected—the slightest chance—I will take it. I-I cannot leave them behind.” Especially after he couldn’t convince JJ to run. He could have gotten him out of there before he got sent to the Vault. He knew he could have. But JJ didn’t want that. Schneep now understood that it was because of Dahlia. He wasn’t sure of the details, but he was sure that JJ thought fleeing the police would just put her in danger. Well... if this McLoughlin guy turned out to be connected to Anti-Virus, Schneep had a lead on how to get Dahlia out of danger. And JJ too, by extension. Those two were the only real family he had left. He had to do whatever he could to help them.

Marvin nodded. “Yeah. I-I know.” His voice broke a little, so he cleared his throat and moved on. “I don’t know how your, uh, infiltrations work. So I’ll leave that up to you. Just keep me updated.”

“How? I don’t know any way to contact you,” Schneep pointed out.

“Stop by my work,” Marvin said. “Here, if you have a pen and paper I can write it down, and my hours.”

“Ah, yes, of course.” Schneep turned back to the desk and pulled out a scrap piece of paper and a pen. “I will write down my office hours as well.”

“What do you do most of the day here?” Marvin asked. “SDER is a pretty specialized department. You can’t possibly have that much to do.”

Schneep laughed. “Well, since there haven’t been many super fights lately, you are right. Windstorm is very careful, which I will always be happy for. When SDER personnel are not taking care of super-related injuries, we have secondary positions. I am also a neurologist, and I specialize in patients with injuries that affect the brain and nervous system. That is why Chase was assigned to be my patient—his injuries fell into both my areas. Ah, here.” He handed Marvin the paper and pen.

Marvin took it, wrote down his work address and shift hours, then tore the paper in half and took the half with Schneep’s details. “Thanks.”

“Do you want to talk over the details some more, or should I just show up at your work once I have completed my first heist?” Schneep asked.

“Well, it’s not really a heist, I’m not asking you to take anything,” Marvin said.

“Are you suuuuure?” Schneep prompted.

Marvin laughed. “I’m sure. For the first couple times, at least. If we find out there’s anything worth taking, we can talk about it more.”

“Heh.” Schneep grinned. “Well, I look forward to working with you, then.”

Marvin grinned back. “The same to you.”

===============

JJ woke up with a pounding headache. He might have brushed it off before, but not today. Not after he heard about the neutrinalin and its side effects. Was this the first sign that the constant doses were catching up to him?

Well, he couldn’t just lie in bed all day. If he missed role call, the prison guards would come over to his cell and drag him out anyway. He was pretty sure they would do that no matter what. Given the listless state of most of the other prisoners, he was pretty sure that the only thing that would prevent him from having to adhere to the schedule... would be if he literally could not walk at all. So he got up and staggered out of his cell once role call was announced.

The cafeteria of Byrthon Vault wasn’t anything to write home about. It was completely bland, with stainless steel tables and benches and blank off-white walls. JJ got his food as he had every day before, and was about to sit down—when he spotted a shock of red hair through the crowd and immediately diverted course.

Soren saw him coming. He gave him a little wave as he sat down across from him. “Looks like you almost missed me,” he said. “Did you forget about me already?” He winked playfully.

JJ smiled a little. I woke up with a headache, it must be clouding my thoughts.

“Hmm. It does do that, doesn’t it?” Soren tapped the edge of his tray with his spoon. Looked like he’d already finished eating before JJ even arrived. Which made sense, the lower floors got to the cafeteria first at meal times.

JJ looked down at his own food. It’s going to get worse, isn’t it?

“Slowly, but yes.” Soren shakes his head. “Maybe it’ll be especially slow for you. I’ve noticed that the more powerful you are, the longer it takes for the shitty side effects to take hold. And rumors say you’re pretty powerful.”

I suppose so, he said. It must run in the family. She was—is very powerful. And Schneep seemed able to hold his own, too.

“You’ll be fine,” Soren said quietly. “I can tell.”

How? You don’t know me that well.

“Intuition, I guess? I’m used to listening to my gut feelings. They can save you more often than you think.” Soren shrugged. “So. How have things been in Daindover while I’ve been gone? Did things fall to chaos?”

JJ shrugged back. I remember hearing about a crime spree after Pathos—you—were arrested. But it calmed down. Windstorm took care of it.

“Really?” Soren tilted his head, intrigued. 

I don’t know the details off the top of my head, though, JJ said. Sorry.

“No, it’s fine. Can’t expect you to remember everything.”

I know things were calm for a long time after that, JJ said. Relatively, I mean. Seems like things are never fully calm. He paused. Then I came along.

Soren’s eyes flicked up and down, examining JJ. “I’ve been thinking about this. And you don’t like what you did, do you? The guilt on your face is clear as a bell.”

A bell? JJ asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You’re dodging the subject. But that’s fine. It’s clearly very personal, no need to tell a guy you met yesterday about it.” Soren chuckled.

JJ glanced around the cafeteria. If this conversation happened when he first arrived at the Vault, he would’ve been worried about sharing. Scared that if rumor got out that he wasn’t a big tough villain, people would attack him. But clearly, most of the prisoners didn’t have the energy for that. So, really, why not? I didn’t like it at all, he admitted. If I had a choice in the matter, it never would have happened.

“Someone forced your hand,” Soren muttered. “Blackmail? Threats?”

JJ blinked. How did you figure that out? 

“Comes with my line of work. I know a lot about... persuasion.”

Right. Soren was Pathos, and Pathos had been head of the biggest organized crime family this side of the country. JJ almost forgot about that. He narrowed his eyes slightly, looking Soren over. Did YOU enjoy what you did? he asked.

Soren blinked, as if no one ever asked him that before. He leaned back, looking thoughtful. “Some of it was exciting,” he said slowly. “But most of it was simply... business. I did what I had to do.”

JJ wanted to protest that you never had to become a villain... but that seemed a bit hypocritical. So instead, he simply asked, Why?

“Why did I have to? Oh, a lot of reasons.” The spoon tapped against the edge of the tray again. “Mostly to prevent something like that chaotic crime spree you mentioned. The one that happened after I was arrested. But it’s not fully that. After all, sounds like the city recovered soon enough.” Soren paused. “What about you? Do you want to talk about why you had to do what you did?”

JJ slowly shook his head. Not now.

“Right.” Soren grinned a little. “I get it.”

The rest of the breakfast passed in mostly quiet, with JJ occasionally asking questions about the Vault or its prisoners that Soren answered. Then breakfast was over, and JJ went back to his cell to lie down for a while. Maybe he could nap off the headache.

...Nope. It was still there when lunch rolled around. It wasn’t a strong pain, he’d certainly had worse, but it still dragged on him. Still, he didn’t want to miss lunch. So he got up and headed to the cafeteria.

Just like at breakfast, he spotted Soren easily and sat down across from him. Soren looked up as he did so. “Again?”

If you want me to leave, I will, JJ said. But you’re the one who asked if I wanted to sit with you, Soren. And you’re the only person who’s done that.

Soren laughed. “You got me there. Wow, it really does feel biting when you go to the trouble of spelling out my name. I get we’re not close enough for you to give me a special sign, but still. Feels like you’re dragging out the tone.”

JJ decided to take that as a compliment. Soren certainly intended it that way. Do you talk to a lot of people in here? he asked. There was that Angela woman. Anyone else?

“I’m sure you noticed that there isn’t too much talking in here in the first place.” Soren jerked his head to the side, indicating the cafeteria at large.

JJ nodded slowly. It was the silence that had bothered him. The first thing that led him to notice all the other odd things about his fellow prisoners. 

“But I know what you mean. There do tend to be... groups.” Soren chose that word carefully. “Like in movies about high school, you get different cliques.”

What the— JJ couldn’t help but giggle a little. It seemed like such a childish comparison, and it certainly wasn’t something he expected Soren to say.

Soren raised an eyebrow. “Hey, that’s the best word for it, it really is. You’ll notice that someone will sit with the same small group of people over and over again. They don’t really open up to newcomers sitting with them. Which makes sense. In this place, everyone is dangerous. If you have a group you can trust, that’s probably enough. Why waste your limited energy on a stranger? Usually, people from the same sort of... geographical area tend to stick together.” He smiled. “Like how I asked you about Daindover.”

JJ nodded slowly. He understood that. And though he wanted to say something about how trust is good and people should open up more... again, it felt a bit hypocritical. He didn’t tell anyone about what happened to her. He didn’t tell anyone about the messages through the phone.

The rest of lunch was the same as breakfast, and then JJ again went back to his cell. The headache was still there. Still annoyingly persistent, sapping his will to do much of anything. It was even making it hard to sleep. Would it keep him up tonight?

Evening role call, and then dinner again. He found Soren for the third time and sat down. I was thinking about what you said at lunch, he said, starting the conversation this time.

“Oh? What?” Soren asked. “I said a lot.”

About me spelling out your name. If we’re going to talk a lot, and I think we are, it would be convenient to give you a name sign, even if we haven’t known each other for that long. This was very, very, very unusual. Names weren’t really a thing in BSL, using a specific sign for a person was usually reserved for friends and family. But... honestly, JJ didn’t care about that right now. His friends and family weren’t here, and they would never find their way in here. 

“...Really?” Soren raised an eyebrow. “Moving a bit fast, aren’t we?”

You’re the only person who’s been friendly to me, JJ said. I know it’s fast, but... He sighs. I think I better prepare to be in here for a while. Even if he hoped he wouldn’t be, it was better to act like he would. Just in case.

Soren stared at him for a moment. Then nodded slowly. “Alright. Can I choose my own?”

JJ raised an eyebrow. Do you have something in mind?

“Yeah. If I ever talk to someone in BSL and they need to refer to me, I’ve always asked to be called the same thing.” Soren made two signs: the letter S, and heart. “Or, if we’re being professional.” A similar set: heart, and the letter P.

S-heart, JJ repeated. Any meaning behind it?

“Well you know my powers. I manipulate emotions. Some say I manipulate hearts.” Soren flashed a smile. “You know, as opposed to thoughts and the mind. That’s why I adopted a heart motif whenever I dressed as Pathos.”

Makes sense, I suppose, JJ said. You know, people don’t normally ask to choose their own.

“Really? Most of the people I talk to who know BSL ask me to choose my own. Maybe I’m just special. Or maybe your experience is that different. Have you seriously never had that happen?”

JJ hesitated. Well... actually, my sister did. Just signing the word ‘sister’ tore open a wound in his chest. Did he really want to talk about this?

“Sister?” Soren looked intrigued. He leaned forward a bit... then back again. “You look... a bit pained, Jameson. Sore topic?”

A bit, JJ said.

Soren was quiet for a moment. “I... understand,” he said softly. “We don’t have to talk about her if you don’t want to.”

JJ shook his head. I don’t want you to get the wrong impression. I love her. But... she’s... She’s alive, but... He trailed off.

“You don’t have to talk about it,” Soren repeated, in an even quieter voice.

JJ took a deep breath. An explanation for the name thing, at least. Growing up, after I lost my voice, she was always D-twin. But then we got older, and she became more confident in who she was, and she asked if she could be flower-time instead. 

“Flower time?” Soren asked, failing to hide the amusement in his voice.

I know. JJ chuckled a little. I always picture an alarm going off, signaling flower petals to rain down from the ceiling.

Soren laughed too. “That’s such a vivid fucking image.”

I don’t usually have a very visual mind, either, which makes it even more vivid. That’s pretty much the only image I’m able to mentally picture. His smile faded slowly. Maybe because it always reminds me of her.

Soren stared at him, purple eyes like two deep wells of water. “It’s good that you two are so close,” he said quietly. “I have a sister too, y’know. Elena. She’s about fifteen years older than me, so we never really knew each other as siblings, if that makes sense.” He chuckled. “When I was ten she pretty much left the family so she could marry someone. So I didn’t see much of her.”

JJ blinked. I didn’t know that.

“Well, Elena was never much into the family business, so the news didn’t report on her to the public that much. Makes it all the stranger that the guy she married is an arms dealer, but the heart wants what it wants, yeah?” Soren shrugged. “Anyway. I always liked Elena, even if we weren’t too close. Liked her daughter, too. Wanted to be sure she was taken care of.” He stared at JJ for a moment. It seemed like he was... waiting for something? JJ stared back, confused. “Huh. Okay, either you’re more respectful than you are curious, or you never heard the rumors.”

Oh. You mean the ones about your brothers? JJ asked. 

“So it’s the first option, then.”

You were expecting me to ask about that?

“Seemed like it.” Soren leaned onto the table, propping his head in his hand. “I mean... if you hear a guy who’s rumored to have killed his father and brothers talk about how much he liked his family... most people would want to ask. Even if they were too afraid to.”

JJ shook his head. I know those rumors aren’t true.

Soren blinked. “You do, now? You seem very sure.”

He was sure because she found out the truth one day—and she told him when she came home from that fight. Well, why don’t you tell me about it, then? JJ said. If you were expecting me to ask.

Soren laughed. “That’s fair, that’s fair.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “Enzo and Nicolas were older than me, they should have gotten control of the family before me. But, after I developed my abilities, our father started seeing the... potential of them. They got jealous. And, in an effort to prove himself, Enzo got killed by that Razor Queen villain.” He laughed. “Who would’ve guessed a woman with knives on her hands would be deadly. Nicolas was a bit more cautious, but he still got angry and reckless. Died in an ordinary shootout... but not before he managed to poison our father and make it look like I did it. The man he got the poison from confessed to me, but said he’d rather die than share his involvement with the public. So, I decided to leave well enough alone... and figured I might as well use that rumor. People wouldn’t be eager to fuck with someone who did that.”

JJ nodded slowly. That lined up with what she’d told him that night. She managed to get the poison information from the very man—Hemlock, a villain known for poisons. And then said that Pathos told her the rest.

“Or... I could be lying about all this,” Soren grinned. “Maybe I really am that ruthless.”

Well, if you are, I still don’t have many options for people to talk to, JJ commented. So I’ll probably keep showing up for meals with you.

Soren laughed. It got overtaken by a cough halfway through, so he stopped. “God. Jameson. You’re really something.”

JJ blinked. Well... thank you? Oh. Oh no. Why was his stomach fluttering? This was not a good person for that to happen with, son of a bitch—

“But still, I have to ask,” Soren continued. “You didn’t seem surprised at all during that story.”

JJ froze. His mind whirled, considering what to do. Oh shit he was probably waiting too long wasn’t he? He had to say something. So he leaned forward. What if I told you... that my sister knew you?

Soren raised an eyebrow. “I know a lot of people. That wouldn’t narrow it down. If you’re comfortable with it... can you tell me her name? Spell it out, I mean.”

JJ hesitated. Then, slowly... sign by sign... Dahlia.

Saying her name felt like a knife being driven into his heart.

“Dahlia? Like the flower?” Soren asked.

JJ nodded. His vision was getting a bit blurry so he hurriedly blinked it clear again.

“That’s a nice name,” he said quietly. “I’m guessing she chose it, like how she chose her name sign? Good choice. The flower is often said to symbolize inner strength and elegance.”

Didn’t expect you to know that, JJ said.

A memory flashed through his mind. “Yeah, that way I get to keep my initials for the towels Mum monogrammed for us when we were kids. I want to keep that, you know? And more importantly, it’s a name with a strong meaning. But graceful, too. I think it really fits me. Or... I dunno, what do you think?”

He agreed, of course. It really did fit her.

“I know a lot of random trivia,” Soren said. He paused. “Are you... okay?”

Fine, Jameson signed shortly. He blinked some more.

“Do you want to keep talking?” Soren asked in a surprisingly gentle voice. “Or... should we stop?”

I’ll be fine in a minute, he said. Just give me a minute.

Soren nodded.

The rest of dinner passed quietly, and then they had to go back to their cells. But not before Jameson gave Soren a quick Thank you. It felt like a weight was lifted off his chest after that conversation. Maybe he needed that moment. Maybe he needed to remember her name.

===============

“Alright, I got everything,” Jackie muttered. “Tape, check. Mask and mask specs, check.” He put each item into his backpack as he listed it. A carefully discrete backpack. He was going to the police station as Windstorm, and he couldn’t have anything with him that would link Windstorm to Jackie Skye.

He was just about to leave his room when his phone vibrated. It was sitting on his dresser—he’d also planned to leave that behind—so he leaned over and picked it up.

A text message was on the screen, from a number labeled Unknown. You know who it is. Pick up the call.

Jackie’s blood ran cold. Was it—but how did they know—

His phone immediately started ringing, the same unknown number calling. After a moment of hesitation, he answered. “Hello?”

“Windstorm.” The word was spoken in a familiar inhuman voice. The robotic tones that he’d last heard coming from the Puppeteer. Or, more accurately, from the Puppeteer’s mask.

Jackie knew he had to deny this. “I-I think you have the wrong—”

“Don’t lie to me, Jackie Skye,” Anti-Virus interrupted. “I know the truth. That day, when you announced it to your roommate, my puppet was outside the door, and I was on a call with him. Listening. Making sure that everything went as I wanted. It didn’t, but it worked out eventually, and I learned something so, so interesting about you.”

Jackie felt his heart stop. He opened his mouth to say something more, but nothing came out.

“Not to mention that you are currently wearing your supersuit in full view of your phone camera.”

Jackie yelped, yanking the phone away from his head. His head darted around his room until his eyes landed on a stack of sticky notes. Quickly, he peeled one off and stuck it over the phone camera. It was at an awkward angle so it didn’t cover the speaker, but it worked. Reluctantly, he pressed the phone to his ear again. “What do you want? Are you going to threaten me? Big talk from someone still using a voice synthesizer. Afraid to reveal who you are?”

“Not afraid, but my identity is one of my greatest secrets, and I will take care to protect it,” Anti-Virus said. “As for what I want... I want you to stop this. Stop trying to free Jameson Jackson.”

Jackie’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh? So you’re threatened by him?”

“Not at all. But if I understand correctly, you are trying to free him through proving I was there. And I cannot have that. You cannot look further into me.”

“I think I can, actually. And I will. Bitch.” Jackie growled. “You forced someone to turn a hundred people into puppets. Clearly, I can’t have you walking around.”

Anti-Virus laughed. Jackie held back a shiver; there was something menacing in its robotic tone. “It does not matter what you can and can’t have, Windstorm. You will not look further into me.”

“Or what?” Jackie asked. “I know what your powers are. You can spy on people, big whoop. You can’t do much else.”

“Oh? Are you sure?” Anti-Virus said. “Very well, then. I will show you what I’m capable of.” And abruptly, the call ended.

Jackie stared down at the phone. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he just made a terrible mistake.

But he couldn’t stop. He wouldn’t let this villain intimidate him into leaving his friend in jail. Taking a deep breath, he put the phone down and secured his backpack with the evidence inside. Then he opened the window to his room and leapt out into the evening air.

[samieree]

Dawn of the North || Game of Thrones

Robb Stark x OC

(masterlists in the end) -> Prologue + description

Chapter I ''Beginning''

Since they ran away from home, they planned to save enough money to sail by ship to Essos and settle there, in one of the Free Cities. Their plans changed when it turned out that earning money was not that easy. Especially when you feel guilty when you rob someone.

When Amalthea thought about the situation that took place two years ago and their stay in the North, she would not have thought that her and Ryledia's lives would take this direction. She didn't think they would return to the North, it seemed to her that they would be best off in the lands of the Reach or the Riverlands. After all, they grew up in the Reach, this was the area they knew best. But after two years they found themselves back in the Kingdom of the North, and quite far in it. Okay, earlier, they had gone further, to some village between Winterfell and Dreadfort, but then they told themselves that they would not want to come here ever again. It was cold, they had to buy warmer coats and shoes, stay in inns at night... It was simply unprofitable.

But something brought them back here. More specifically, just south of Moat Cailin. They began their journey there when they learned of King Robert's death and that the North had called the bannermen and declared war on the Lannisters.

"We should buy some good wine from Dorne and have some fun." that's what Ryledia told her when they heard about the change on the throne.

After all, King Robert had always been the greatest threat to Amalthea's life - although his death didn't mean she would suddenly be completely safe. She had no doubt that there were still plenty of people who hated Targaryens and it made sense to hide her true identity.

It would certainly be easier if they were able to go to another continent. No one would have paid attention there if Amalthea hadn't put on her dark red wig and just let her silver waves down. In fact, their story would have gone in this direction if Ryledia had agreed to Amalthea's proposal. Namely, it was about selling hair. Long, silver, light curls would be very expensive. The girl wanted to cut it as high as possible - she was wearing a wig anyway - and sell it for at least enough to get them both across the sea. But then she heard:

"No. You will not sell yourself."

Amalthea didn't see it that way. For her, it was just her hair, a beautiful but at the same time annoying part of her appearance. Especially since the longer they were, the harder it was to stuff them under the wig.

Apart from this argument, Ryledia added that it would not be easy for them to find a buyer, and if they found one, he would definitely ask them where they got the hair from. And then what? Would they say they were lying on the ground? And if they admitted that they belonged to Amalthea, they would risk that the merchant would discover their secret.

Returning to their current situation, Amalthea began to become suspicious as to why they had returned. While they were sitting in one of the inns, a few soldiers, rather high-born, came there. Of course, they were looking for the comfort of a normal bed, which they left at home when they went to war. Or women, one of the two. Anyway, this time no one was bothering them - and even if someone was, after politely refusing, he left them alone (unless he was drunk, in which case he needed a little help in the form of a push towards his friends) - it was rather... other way around. Ryledia did so, to be precise.

Amalthea didn't know the true nature of her friend's behavior as she sat and talked with the military men, laughing and drinking with them. Sometimes she kept Amalthea next to her, and sometimes she left her at another table - but then she looked at her discreetly almost every moment to make sure that she was in no danger, that no one was bothering her. The silver-haired girl finally thought that her close friend must have fallen in love. Or more precisely, what pushed her to this conclusion was that when one of the men suggested that they travel with them, from camp to camp - of course not to fight, gods forbid, they were women. It was just about... keeping company. Besides, they knew a bit about tending wounds and cooking, so they could always be useful. Especially since they had their own horses, so traveling wouldn't be a problem for them.

And that's how they ended up in the middle of a war camp. She was sitting next to Ryledia on a tree trunk by a fire over which rabbits were roasting. She didn't feel very comfortable here, much less as comfortable as Ryledia. She wondered if she felt the eyes of others on her as she did and wondered what all these men were thinking. After all, they left their wives - if they had them - at home... She wanted to broach the subject with Ryledia, but firstly: she didn't want to interrupt the conversation, and secondly: she didn't seem like she had the same thoughts. Maybe she hid it well, or maybe she didn't have any at all. After all, some blood divides them.

She sat and stared at her fingers, playing with them until she got tired of it. The conversation didn't interest her either, it didn't seem to be about any topics she could comment on, so she stayed silent almost the entire time.

She sighed and looked around. She didn't expect to see any familiar face, although deep down she hoped that she would see the boy who, together with his father, saved her and Ryledia two years ago. After all, he was the one who called the bannermen and led the army, so he had to be around here somewhere. But the camp with about twenty thousand people is huge. The chance of seeing him somewhere was-

She noticed a woman entering a tent. She did it immediately, after all, she didn't expect many more women to be in the camp. Especially since this one looked much older than her. She leaned a little in her seat, but she still couldn't see anything that was happening in the tent she entered. But now her attention was finally focused on something other than twiddling her fingers and listening to the boring conversation. She stared at the tent for a long time until her suspicions were finally confirmed: the woman she noticed was Lady Stark. She was the first to leave after a dozen or so minutes - yes, all this time Amalthea was staring at one and the same tent - and some time later her eldest son came out accompanied by someone else, his age or at most five years older. She recognized him immediately, even from this distance - and they were about a dozen meters away.

He didn't change much, except he had a beard now. His hair still curled into small curls,  had blue eyes, a warm, thick coat, and the silver direwolf pin adorned the clasp of the coat.

Their eyes met for a moment, completely unexpectedly. She mentally cursed that he happened to look in her direction and notice her, but there was only a faint blush on her face as she quickly turned back to the fire. She rested her elbows on her thighs and placed her hands on her cheeks to hide the pinkness before anyone noticed.

After all, she was what, seventeen? And she had just seen once again the boy for whom her heart had fluttered once before, and whom she had spoken about to Ryledia for so long that she had almost tortured her to death. Now she felt her heart racing again, but quickly calmed down.

At least for a while.

"My Lady?" she almost jumped when she heard his voice behind her. She should have expected it, after all the conversation had died down until Robb nodded and smiled that it was okay, they may talk freely, he came here for only one person. "What an unexpected meeting."

He was only a year older than her, not even a whole year, and he kept reliving that moment when his eyes fell on a beautiful girl and lingered on her a little too long. Then, at the inn, he did everything he could to hide it, but his father still teased him a bit about it later. Of course he noticed. Nothing was as embarrassing for Robb, although now he would give everything to have his father back, even if he had to argue with him that he had absolutely never been seriously attracted to any woman. He could at best discuss this with Theon, although he would prefer to keep it to himself. He would never start such a conversation himself, his feelings were his alone.

But now he decided to approach her. He could have ignored it, thought that he was just imagining it, that it definitely wasn't her. After all, he didn't even know her name. Neither her nor her companion. But he couldn't let go, he never could.

"Unfortunately, not in better circumstances than last time."

"I heard that two women joined in, but I regret that I didn't ask for their name right away. Although I haven't even had a chance to learn it yet." yes, none of them introduced themselves when they had the pleasure of meeting at the inn. "Could I?"

"Amalthea." she replied, smiling gently.

"I'm Robb Stark."

She wanted to say that she knew his name - after all, she was educated, or at least enough to know everything important about the world around her and the most important houses of Westeros, but her voice got stuck in her throat. Why? Because Robb took her hand and brought it to his lips, kissing the back of it. Maybe it was just an innocent, polite gesture, but her heart sped up, threatening to make her face blush.

"And your friend?" he asked, looking behind her at the brunette who was still busy talking with the soldiers.

She hesitated for a moment before answering, thinking about how his lips had just placed a gentle kiss on her hand, about the warmth of his gentle embrace when he was holding her hand for this short time.

"Ryledia." she also looked at her, but only for a moment, because she definitely preferred to look at the boy who touched her girlish heart than at the friend she was with every day.

"I hope you haven't had any unpleasant experiences in these two years like at that inn." he really wanted it to be that way, even though the chances were slim. After all, women traveling alone are unfortunately often harassed. But they didn't look like they were in bad shape.

If it weren't for traveling alone, he would assume they had family somewhere nearby they could stay with - at least one of them. They didn't look like they could be sisters, but anything was possible. He assumed that since Amalthea hadn't introduced them that way, they didn't have a bond deeper than friendship. Still - ladies traveling alone was like asking for trouble. For that reason, he was glad that they would stay with them, at least for a while. That wasn't the only reason, of course, but he didn't want to admit it yet. For now, he wanted to... get to know her. Just like that.

He couldn't deny it, she was pretty - he had eyes, after all. Who wouldn't like a slim girl with a visible waistline, fanciable breasts, amber eyes and long wine-colored hair? That's why he went so far with politeness as to kiss her hand while introducing himself. A gesture of respect, but at the same time he hoped that he had impressed her and that Amalthea would reciprocate his desire to get to know each other.

It is true that he has his duties, he leads people to war, he wants to save his father, but during the day he also has long moments when he is alone with his thoughts. He would gladly fill it with her, if she agreed to it, of course.

And if not, he would have to try harder than just kissing her hand while looking her straight in the eyes.

"Fortunately, no." it was a small lie on her part, because her and Ryledia's life had never been easy, even before they ran away from home.

Amalthea had always had the same fear as her father: being recognized. Over time, she got used to it and was less careful, no longer touching the edges of the wig to make sure her hair wasn't sticking out - and asking Ryledia about it every now and then, whenever she could do it discreetly...

They were both aware of the dangers their journey entailed, but they didn't feel like they had any other choice now. They could stay somewhere longer and settle down, but it's more complicated than it seems, fitting into a community that already knows each other well and you are a stranger. Traveling gave them freedom, even if it meant risking their health or even lives from time to time.

That's why Amalthea was surprised by Ryledia's quick agreement to the idea of ​​joining the moving army.

"If you don't mind... I'd like to have a few words with you from time to time, my Lady. It's very... relaxing to be able to talk about something other than the current situation."

"Why 'my Lady'? Maybe I'm not of noble birth? After all, I travel from city to city without staying anywhere for long."

"It's obvious." he nodded at her and looked at her from her feet to the top of her head. "The way you talk, how you carry yourself, the way you look. A woman from a humble home is not like that."

"Be careful, my Lord, maybe it will turn out that I am a lost princess?" she said jokingly, laughing with him. She ignored the way she felt Ryledia lightly tugging her skirt from behind to be careful not to say too much. But these are just jokes! He wouldn't take her seriously, anyone would laugh if they heard something like that while talking with her.

"Then I would have to call the Maester to remind me of all the rules of etiquette regarding behavior in the presence of the princess." he replied in an equally light tone.

They continued their banter completely unaware of two things: First of all: Yes, Ryledia, who was sitting on a trunk practically behind Amalthea's back, may have continued her conversation with the soldiers, but at the same time she was listening carefully to her friend's conversation with Robb. Secondly: Catelyn noticed them too, or more precisely, that her son was suddenly interested in some woman - where did she even come from? On the one hand, she was happy because he finally didn't look all tense, but she didn't know her, this probably wasn't a good match for him in any way, and she immediately thought of everything that could go wrong if her son will be reckless.

And that's how he'll be like if he becomes infatuated with her.

~

-> Chapter II ''Two worlds'' -> general masterlist -> Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon masterlist

[elluendifad]

2, 4, 5, 19

i answered this super late so it is no longer the month of Irmo, that was two months ago. oops!

2. Have you ever had a "paranormal" experience? If so, please describe it.

not necessarily in the supernatural/ghosts/cryptids sense, but magic shit does happen very regularly to me. my least favorite is 'impending danger' warnings from the gods, although i am grateful! my most favorite is when land spirits/spirits of place contact me first in a friendly tone, usually through beckoning trees and a shift in my perception.

4. Share your favorite animal and some of your personal correspondences associated with it.

im love all of them omg.... but for this month, we are observing the vala Irmo and many eldar associate butterflies with him! Butterflies are commonly associated with transformation due to their lifecycle, and so they are symbols for transgender folks and other kinds of personal transformation. We associate Irmo with transformation and recreating yourself to your ideal forms, shapeshifting, crossdressing, trans-sexualism and transgenderism. Butterflies are also precious to me for their role as decomposers and opportunists. Their lives are relatively short, and i will forever cherish the sight of great droves of them sipping minerals from the gravel in the creekbeds. They flit over the bone pit, they decompose flesh and feces and then rest on gorgeous flowers.

My region is home to a number of native butterflies with relatively small ranges, who need certain native host plants to rear their young on. They are one thread interlinked with thousands of others, unique to my home valley that i love. When i see the spicebush swallowtail, i see the spicebush, i see the unique place it has in the forest and the edgelands, i see the cup of spicebush tea. all of our desires and transformations are similarly linked to thousands of other threads, unique to the places and people that formed us.

5. Share your favorite gemstone/crystal/rock and some of your personal correspondences associated with it.

Labradorite, hands down. I wear so much labradorite and i adore it so much. The flash of feldspars is so gorgeous to me, and i have modeled my dressing colorschemes off of the variety of colors in labradorites. i associate labradorite with mystery and wisdom, and the values of perspective. the values of light and dark, how they are made for one another. I especially associate it with my patrons, the feanturi. each of them are so easy to see in the layers of light and darkness in the stone, the way there are layers of light and darkness in ourselves and the world. so i guess a shorthand/correspondences would be the spheres of the feanturi- fate, time, suffering/wisdom, dreams/transformation. sight within and sight without and the wisdom to understand them.

19. Is there a part of your practice that you perform daily or very often? If so, please describe.

potion offering i make tea, i sing (internally or externally) linde elenlote. this process is making the shape of the seven pointed star (elenlote, starflower) and intoning at each point the corresponding thing. round 1 is the days of the week, which in english is essentially: starsday, sunday, moonday, treesday, heavensday, watersday, powersday. this is a reflection on the world as created, the beautiful things in it that provide us life. the closure is 'arda' which means world, and falls on the starsday point to close the star. round 2 is the directions, which goes east, below, north, within, west, above, south. each direction has a pair of gods associated with it, and when i sing this sound of linde elenlote, i am reflecting on the big picture beyond the material aspects of creation-the gods are the thoughts of the Creator Outside Time. The gods loved the creation so much that they came to live within it with us and to prepare it for us. They are here with us, their designs are in everything and are ever changing.

[merrymorningofmay]

Uncommon OC Questions: 1, 8, 38, 40, D and E for the jsamn trio please (if that's not too many xD)

omg omg omg thank you so much!!!! no such thing as too many i love talking hgghghdfhdk

1: What’s the maximum amount of time your character can sit still with nothing to do?

john uskglass: can go uncannily still for hours on end when he's doing magic, like "you have to check if he's breathing" still, but absolutely starts fidgeting and losing temper after a minute in a "nothing to do" situation (or just leaves altogether, he's the king, duh)

william of lanchester: is actually pretty patient, can go couple hours of sitting in place like a normal person if he has to; the downside is if you leave him like this for too long he'll start overthinking and give himself brain damage

thomas of dundale: goes very still and quiet whenever he senses danger and can remain like this for a while, but otherwise will start pacing around/nudging people/being silly after like 10 minutes max

8: What were they told to stop/start doing most often as a child

john: "STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP" / (by thomas) "hide!"

william: "stop slouching" / "speak louder"

thomas: "stop crying" / "be like your brother"

38: What memory do they revisit the most often?

john: not the one to reminisce i imagine, but i think upon his return to england he would initially be baffled by small displays of like. kindness? basic decency? on the part of humans and replay those moments in his head later. idk if the gentleman with the thistle-down hair is a representative case but i got the vibe that jsamn fairies generally are quite self-centered and don't care for others beyond their own benefit/entertainment (which would make faerie a pretty cutthroat place for a literal child, and also explain why trust and betrayal were such sensitive subjects for john in his adulthood), so i think it would take young john some time to grasp that sometimes people (ahem thomas and william ahem) are just nice to him/one another because they're capable of sympathy

william: nostalgic af!!! thomas was born in france in my hc, so that makes william the one person in their trio to actually feel emotionally attached to england as his home. i don't think there would be one definitive memory for him, but he totally would hold his childhood memories dear (esp the bittersweet ones, what with higher mortality rates in medieval times + the north still being quite a scarred place, i imagine, emotionally if not economically. i mean, the gap between 1111 and the harrying is just a few years longer than the gap between me and chornobyl)

thomas: probably avoids thinking about his pre-faerie childhood too often, though i like to think that he used to have a dog and loved it a lot. and then he avoids thinking about his time in faerie too bc there's just a lot of unpleasant stuff there. there must've been some exchange between teen thomas and baby john in faerie that solidified their friendship, maybe john using magic to protect him or telling thomas something his family never would have, like "why do you care so much what others think", something along those lines

40: How sensitive are they to their own flaws?

john: what "flaws" (ok actually i like to think that deep down he's aware that his family backstory is pretty shaky and is himself not 100% certain that it's true, but decides to stick with it nonetheless bc he's stubborn. i hc that part of the reason he took john uskglass sr.'s full name rather than keeping just the "uskglass" part and choosing his own first name is to kind of assert to himself as much as to everyone else that yes, he belongs in the human world, he's claiming the place of this other human dude who totally belonged here, see! but i also believe this anxiety is like, half-realized and he never actually properly thinks about it. he's perfect and the strongest and the smartest and goated with the sauce etc.)

william: VERY but it's mostly the flaws he's convinced himself that he has, not necessarily anything that bothers other people. his solution is to sulk about it in secret forever

thomas: eh. he's aware of them and doesn't think much of himself in general but he's mostly "it is what it is" about it. (i think a sensitive topic for him would be having nothing to call his own; i hc that he's not too keen about magic after all those years in faerie and that he cut ties with his family after they failed to accept him back, so somewhere across those 300 years he'd try to find his own Thing kind of sokka-style, but that's more of a predicament than a flaw)

D: Have they always had the same physical appearance, or have you had to edit how they look?

yea i'm pretty much sticking with the first things that came to mind. like, things we know about william essentially boil down to 1 magician (= scholar); 2 can fill in for a king if need be; 3 has a moral compass but ultimately chooses fealty over it, so i just imagined a basic classic "introverted knight" type of dude, tall, dark, serious, nice beard, all that. thomas is kind of a contrast to him: younger, leaner, energetic, and a redhead for added fun; and john is. well. i'm a simple woman okay if i see a character i can bishounenify, i will xD

E: Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you?

WELL john is a hard no, william is the one i'm projecting onto the most so i guess?? but we wouldn't necessarily hang out much; i think i'd have fun being around thomas but i doubt he'd find my company very interesting. that's all assuming i have something to talk about with medieval noblemen x)

anyways THANK YOU SO MUCH IT WAS SO FUN!!! <333

[onlyonewoman]

Sometimes I feel like we forget how fast the world has changed in 34 years and how we keep forgetting that it's not really about the time, but the vast gap between what was possible in 1989 and 2023. I was 6 years old and probably doing some autumn themed stuff in kindergarten November 9th 1989, like gluing leaves on a paper or drawing mushrooms. It was a Thursday and I was too young to know about the Berlin wall or the fact that there were two Germanys. After all, I lived way up north in Europe and the first news from outside my country I can truly remember seeing, was the horrible Romanian orphanages with pictures of children kept basically in cages. I knew nothing about world wars or any wars for that matter and since my parents weren't metal fans, I obviously didn't know about a German band called Scorpions either. In 1989, I didn't know that the big map of Europe in my sister's geography book was about to change completely. The 90's recession hit hard and getting new books to schools wasn't easy, when thinking about how suddenly, we had 19(!) "new" countries instead of Soviet Union, East and West Germany and Czechoslovakia. Think about it! We went from these 4 countries: - Soviet Union - East Germany - West Germany - Czechoslovakia to 18: - Armenia - Azerbaijan - Belorussia (now Belarus) - Czech Republic - Estonia - Georgia - Germany - Kazakhstan - Kirgiziya (now Kyrgyzstan) - Latvia - Lithuania - Moldavia (now Moldova), - Russia - Slovakia - Tajikistan - Turkmenistan - Ukraine - Uzbekistan And then, barely 3 years later, when I was in third grade, the Yugoslavian war started and the maps in our then new Geography books went obsolete again. 1994, Internet wasn't yet a thing and we got classmates from countries we'd never heard of, learning that there was no longer a place called Yugoslavia, but in fact 6 to add to the increasing list: - Slovenia - Croatia - Bosnia - Herzegovina - Kosovo - Macedonia For a long, long time, these 24 countries were 5 and what little a kid would know about them, came in the shape of already obsolete world altas books and tv news we were too young to understand. Suddenly, many of us got new classmates from these new places and the names of Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia especially stuck. We saw pictures from Sarajevo on the news and when we turned 12/13 and started 7th grade, our new history books had a picture of a smiling East German soldier and a smiling West German woman pouring champagne from the Berlin wall. Heavy metal wasn't popular anymore but everyone and their goldfish knew Scorpion's "Wind Of Change" from 1990: "The wind of change blows straight into the face of time Like a storm wind that will ring the freedom bell for peace of mind Let your balalaika sing what my guitar wants to say (say)

Take me (take me) to the magic of the moment On a glory night (a glory night) Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams (share their dreams) With you and me (you and me)" This is not my old ass trying to tell young people here on this hellsite about the past, but time and pace - and the dangers of taking democracy, peace and stability for granted. Never in my life had I imagined another full scaled war in Europe after the horrors of Yugoslavian wars. I TRULY believed the likes of Putin and Lukasjenko would see how pointless, reckless and just... bonkers a war in Europe would be in these times. I GENUINLY didn't think I'd be listening to news of Russian soldiers demolishing a peaceful neighbor in 2022. I NEVER anticipated a Brexit and the potential risks it means for Northern Ireland, where there's been a declared, official peace only since 2007. Well, what's the fucking point of this history rambling from a 40-year-old relic? you may ask. The answer is simple. My classmates' Sarajevo in 1994, is just an older version of your collegues, neighbors etc. coming from Ukraine 2022. That my wild hope for this atrocious genocide at least will end in another Haag Tribunal, like the one the murderers like the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. I want to see Putin and his lackeys put on trial like Slobodan Milošević, Ratko Mladić, Tihomir Blaškić and other war criminals in the Yugoslavian war. Putin is just like them and there is no forgiveness and no excuses, no reasons even remotely acceptable for his war crimes. The massacres in Butja and demolition and ransacking of Kiev is no different than the bombings of Sarajevo. The images are the same and I NEED you to understand how these types of war stems from the sick grandiosity minds of despotes living in the past, dreaming of ancient "glory" because they are small, insignificant men who can't bear the thought of being slighted. You ALSO need to understand why Europe as a whole was so wholly unprepared for this. It's because we, as every other human population on Earth, really can't bear to constantly think the worst of our neighbors. We thought the times of war on this scale were behind us, not because we're better than others - HELL NO! - but because most of us thought everyone realised there were more to lose in a war than could be gained. We didn't anticipate that for the likes of Putin, "Wind Of Change" was never a song about hope for a brighter future, but more like a song of mourning.

Putin was 38, two years younger than me when the Soviet Empire began to collaps and we overlooked his crushed dreams and need for revenge - and the price he was willing to pay himself to go for it. Volodymyr Zelenskyj is 5 years my senior, one year older than my big sister. I try picturing him in 1989 as an 11-year-old, sitting in a classroom somewhere in Ukraine at the same time as my sister did, 10 years old. How both of them in their respective language had geography lessons with suddenly obsolete maps and how what was merely a piece of information for my sister, was reality for Volodymyr. Volodymyr in 1989 had no idea he'd one day lead Ukraine through a war as horrendous as the one that would break out in Yugoslavia 3 years later.

This, my youngsters on this precious hellsite, is why you can't declare people over 25 out of touch or ignorant or unable to change as soon as we don't live up to whatever standard of Internet purity setting the mood for the day. I NEED YOU TO KNOW HOW MUCH THE WORLD HAS CHANGED! I need you to understand how difficult it is for a small human being to know which leg to stand on at times, that it's okay to be wrong and that walls will be built and torn down, old contries dying and new ones rising in their ashes in what a while later will seem like a blink of an eye. I don't have to imagine Volodymyr or my sister hearing Wind Of Change on the radio in two different countries, not knowing English well enough to understand the lyrics and definitely not knowing how much the world would change before their eyes. I don't have to, because I was there too, just a few years younger and still gluing autumn leaves on paper with my classmates in kindergarten. And at the same time, somewhere in Sarajevo, a girl who'd become my friend and classmate in 4th grade, didn't know she'd see her hometown bombed to ashes and move hundreds of miles away, learning a new, difficult language and read the same obsolete geography book as I did - with a map that didn't show her country.

I want, so bad, for you people here too young to remember this, to take a moment and realise the nothing but astonishing changes that have taken place long before any you were born and how slow the news traveled before the Internet. Don't take this as a scolding because it's absolutely NOT! This is me urging you to be more gentle with yourselves, your peers and older as well as younger people because while history does repeat itself, it rarely does it in the same place or the same pattern. Milosevic or Putin, Radic or Prigozjin - different names but still coldhearted murderers and just as Milosevic didn't get to erase Bosnia-Herzegovina and Sarajevo from the maps, there is just no alternative in any fucking world, that Putin should be allowed to erase Ukraine and it's cities and people and culture. To all of you who's first present day images from a war in the West were those from Butja and Kiev: talk to people you know who are in their 40's and older. They might be able to tell you about the Berlin wall, the Soviet Empire and how a German rock group wrote a song that would be significant for what people hoped for when I was still gluing leaves and learning the names of the months, miles and miles away from the place where people older than me were starting to literally tear a wall down. Stand with Ukraine, stand on the right side of history and don't forget how close the past is, even when times truly seem to spin faster than ever.

[batri-jopa]

a meme!

Thanks for tagging me @notasapleasure

1. Are you named after anyone?

Not after a real person. My mom said it was a name of a doll in some kind of fairy tale that she watched (or read?) and she just liked that name.

2. When was the last time you cried?

A week ago. Well, I guess I asked for it: after all those years I just should have known better than dwell on that kind of stuff from the past and in this part of my hormone cycle. (You know stuff like one of these few extremally rare moments in your life someone from your closest family said sth that made you feel like shit but thinking about it years after still never fails to make you feel like shit all over again?)

3. Do you have kids?

No. Surprisingly no. If asked ten years ago I would most surely say I'm going to. Not that I ever really desired it so much. More that not wanting was always considered as something that is worthy of condemnation. So it was just that "normal thing to do" with no deeper thinking involved nor required, you know?

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

It depends but sometimes it feels like the last thing that is left to defence my mental stability. And I'd rather be commenting an absurdish situation (especially in my job) than a person.

5. What sports do you play/have you played?

Table tennis my love!❤ Any other I ever tried playing is not even worth mentioning (I played field hockey two or three times and football once or twice and I remember really enjoying it. But unfortunately girls were let to play it extremally rarely, we were expected to play volleyball or basketball - none of which I ever liked😑)

6. What's the first thing you notice about other people?

I'm not sure what kind of situation I'm expected to consider... So in the place where I am just a random person in the crowd (railway station and such) I would probably first notice if anyone looked angry or impatient or irritated - to make sure I can avoid getting on their way (e.g. being a patient in a waiting room it's about sitting quietly with your head low and ignoring any possible evil comments about healthcare and politics). As for when I'm feeling safe or even going to meet someone new - I will pay attention to people's face expression and eyes, I also like to see someone smiling or doing or wearing something that make me think we have something in common. Also I notice their clothes sometimes if I liked the colour or the pattern (I can't help it, my brain is of visual artist😅 It doesn't mean I judge ppl by their look. Many times I find something ugly in objectively pretty person that I did not liked and in somebody I liked I'd always find some beautiful detail, regardless their look)

7. What's your eyes colour?

Yellow on the inside with blue ring on the outside. I like to think it makes them look a bit green from a distance.

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

If only two options avaliable I'd rather choose happy ending. Life is scary enough😅

9. Any special talents?

Drawing I guess. I am able to project a picture from my brain to a flat paper with a piece of charcoal and it's like freaking magic. It never stopped to amaze me.

10. Where were you born?

In a town in north Poland.

11. What are your hobbies?

Drawing most of all. Also creating short stories on my head I then illustrate or longer stories I sometimes write down. Given more free time I also like to engage into pyrography, sewing stuffed toys or crocheting. From time to time I like to travel, most usually to one of Polish towns but traveling abroad I like too.

12. Do you have any pets?

Cat for the last 4 years. Before that I was having syrian hamsters for almost 20 years (16 hamsters).

13. How tall are you?

165 centimeters.

14. Favorite subject in school?

Mathemathics above everything else! Also liked Polish, biology and chemistry. Most hated was always sports, while geography, history and physics were dangerously close to "hate" line.

15. Dream job?

Dream as "daydream"? I sometimes fantasize if I was born again I'd like to be one of the graphics making animated movie, like those of a Pixar studio. Or a pastor officiating weddings of gay couples

Dream as what I wish or plan: creating art on request or design prints for t-shirt, cushions and children blankets, maybe designing playing cards too - just enough for me to be satisfied that I can do it and my client to have a personalized gift. At the same time working other job 2-3 days a week to earn just enough for a comfortable life.

Tag fifteen mutuals - that's the worst part, how do I get so much?😑 Okey, everybody, feel invited but not pressed: @figuringthengsout , @chrisoels , @morulezopelforever , @sharp-lines-in-charcoal , @parttimereptile , @greenbloodedskink , @krejong , @theflyingrhubarb , @sunlightismydestroyer-blog , @asteeee , @bylercultism , @princesspink48484 , @elephant-reincarnation , @angleshades , @sweetlullabyebye

[shroomsshroom]

First Time with LSD Edibles? Read This!

Here's to a whole new world of psychedelic experience. This guide is especially tailored for people like you who are embarking on the exploration of LSD edibles for the first time. Before diving in, we must equip ourselves with everything we need to know for a safe and fulfilling experience.

LSD Edibles and Where to Buy LSD Canada

So first things first, what exactly are LSD edibles? Similar to magic mushrooms or cannabis, LSD edibles are a form of food or drink products that have been infused with Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) - a potent psychedelic drug.

For those residing in the Great North, you can buy LSD Canada widely on the internet. It's as simple as typing DMT Online Canada into your search engine, and you'll be greeted with a plethora of resources including informative articles, user reviews, related products, and of course, sources to purchase it online safely and legally.

The All-Important Dosage of LSD Edibles

Fortifying the experience of LSD edibles begins with getting the dose right. As a beginner, it's always safer to start with a lower dose and progress gradually. When consumed responsibly, LSD edibles can offer a long-lasting immersive psychedelic experience.

Here is what you need to remember:

Start low, go slow: Begin with a lower dose and see how it affects you. The strength of LSD edibles can vary significantly, so it's best to consume a small amount initially.

Patience is key: The effects of LSD edibles take longer to kick in, usually about 30 minutes to two hours. So wait a while before deciding to consume more.

Setting matters: Your environment can have a big influence on your trip. Ensure you're in a comfortable and safe place for the best experience.

Safety Guidelines for LSD Edibles

Safety is paramount when it comes to experimenting with LSD or any other psychedelic substance. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind:

Never drive under the influence: The effects of LSD edibles include changes in visual perception, mood, and cognitive processes. This can make even everyday tasks (like driving) dangerous.

Keep water handy: LSD can leave you feeling parched, so it's always a good idea to stay hydrated.

Always opt for a trusted source: Make sure where you buy LSD Canada is reliable to avoid any adverse effects.

Switching Things Up—Venturing into DMT Vape

If you find the LSD edibles’ experience longer than desired, you might want to explore other options like DMT Vaporizers. A shortcut to hyperspace, the DMT vape offers an intense but short-lived trip compared to edibles. It’s a powerful tool for inducing breakthrough experiences and exploring different planes of consciousness.

FAQs

Can I Buy LSD Edibles Online legally in Canada?

Yes, LSD microdosing is decriminalized in Canada which means you can buy LSD edibles online from a reputable source.

What are the effects of LSD Edibles?

When consumed responsibly, LSD edibles can induce an immersive, psychedelic experience that may include heightened sensory perception, introspective insights, and visual hallucinations.

Are there any side effects to using LSD edibles?

Some people may experience physical discomfort such as nausea, vomiting or increased heart rate. Psychological effects can range from intense fear to ecstatic bliss. Always start with small doses and in safe environments.

Your Next Step

Let's wrap up our beginners' guide on using LSD Edibles and we hope you've learned the basics to have a safe and enjoyable psychedelic journey. Remember, the most wonderful travels are those where we're properly prepared and informed. So please take your time to explore, research, and ask questions.

Let's do this! You can go to shrooms911.ca for a seamless, legal, and dependable choice to buy LSD Canada and DMT online Canada. So why wait? Find out what's in the bracket of consciousness today!

[truckreincarnation]

Game-Breaking Bug | Manami | 5.5

Ahaha… she figured some people might take issue with her idea, but it still stung to hear Harriet of all people shoot her down so decisively.

“B, but it wouldn’t! This- this ritual was the escalation! The sole, singular purpose the fifteen of you were summoned for was for half of you to die and be thrown out, and the other half conscripted into an army of super-powered soldiers to destroy my king, and the place I call home!”

“This was ALWAYS going to end with a dead king, and everyone else on the world map damn well knew that. Why do you think they’ve been so quick to leverage it for their own ends? And I mean, everyone hated Calum. It’s kind of surprising he lived as long as he did…”

“A treasonous group of powerful rebel Incarnates is far more dangerous, and far more useful to them, than a known agent of the country Calamity was already at war with. But if you insist, I… hehe, oh, I’m sure he’d be happy to see me back there so soon, I, I could make it there in double time…! Nobody could stop me, I could!!”

Manami snaps her fingers, and her erratic jittering becomes supernaturally fast. She flits around the group in a way that, combined with her visual glitches, is almost headache-inducing to keep up with. She actually does take off like she’s seriously thinking about bailing mid-discussion, but Germain gives her pause.

“Well, you’re right about killing the nobles! That is a big part of our plan, after all. Nobody who would continue the old regime can be permitted the chance to do so. Gotta strike while the iron is hot, you know? And we have all of the irons in the fire. All of them!”

“This war will end. The capital is as good as ours. Whether we conquer it or tear it to the ground… Anything we can do is better than those bastards deserve, tormenting us Incarnates all this time… Ahhh, maybe it’s not too late to kill a couple of them personally…?”

Manami cups a cheek to her hand, clearly also getting lost in thought for a moment.

“Really, getting to return from the Abyss from whence they came isn’t anywhere near as bad as what they’ve been doing to us. And to their own people! No rotting corpses, no mess to clean up… just oblivion. Like taking a little nap. They won’t even know anything hit them.”

Her little reverie continues for a moment, daydreaming about Unfathomable Violence, before Germain’s next line of questioning snaps her out of it.

“B-but!! Yes! I have been completely upfront about the North being a safe place for both Bound and Incarnates, and that hasn't changed! I won’t force you to go there, but I do really really recommend it, at least while this all blows over. You’ll be welcome there. I swear it on my (work in progress) Demon King doujin series!”

On her- you know what, nevermind, that tracks.

“Last Haven… what a stupid name for that place. Seriously, that’s where Calum and like, all the dukes live. It’s more like ‘First Target!` Makes it really really icky that he’s using all those civilians as human shields! Yuck! I sure hope you trust that friend of yours to use some discretion when it comes to who they’re saving. I’d hate to have to hunt down more Summoners personally!”

“So, Germantlers, tee-bee-aich…? I can fly faster than you can personally mobilize, and I know exactly where I’m headed, and I could send all of the little letter birdies out on some inane deliveries… well, assuming they’re even functional anymore, because, wow, this address is no longer in use, lol! ... Ahem. All that to say… Right now, I’m in a position where my king’s plan to destroy Last Haven is about to go off without a hitch. It doesn’t really make any sense for me to be negotiating with you right now. It’s really not my problem if the shattered pieces of Calamity end up in a power grab instead of united under my king’s decisive rule.”

“I personally think doing this my way is gonna stop things way sooner, it's just… well, ooooone last little big boom of casualties and then no more fighting! Yay!”

“Seriously, nobody wins if this ends in a shattered power grab split between like, four other countries! The people everyone seems to care sooo much about protecting are gonna be caught in the middle of something even worse. We plan for peace once the war with Calamity is over. It’s going to be tense, sure, but we want the senseless violence to end too. It’s not our fault that retaliation is the only language the people with power in Calamity understand!”

“...”

“... Ahaha. But I’m a stupid, sentimental, silly girl. I… I really have valued everyone’s friendship here! Even yours. Even now! I… I don’t want to, but… I do want to…

“Y, you already said you didn’t… you don’t have a plan. What solution do you possibly think we could come up with together right now?!”

The visual stutter coupled with her haste gives off the distinct illusion of a pained expression trying to break free from her angrier, more determined core. But that’s probably just the visual weirdness.

Her entire body is shaking. It looks wrong. Her claws flicker, clenched, open, shut, red, blue, redblueredblue.

"This is… this is a courtesy…! I'm not offering this because I care about your stance on this as... as someone with a claim to representing the opposing state! I'm doing this for you out of respect for what remains of our friendship. Go ahead. Tell me why I should negotiate with you.”

[skeleton-in-a-hoodie]

Think I've come up with a way History Doesn't Repeat could continue.

Under a readmore cause I'm just spit balling.

I'm going to need to delete the last three chapters. I'll put the original versions of chapters 2 through 4 on my tumblr and then put a link to them on ao3. That way if anyone did like those chapters, they can still read it, and once Blood and Fungus is over I'll put them at the end, kinda like a deleted scenes section.

Going to need to re-edit chapter 1 to make it fit with the new plot, as Ardosia's Run is going to be completely overhauled. Instead of teams competing for prizes, it'll be more like one person enters and if they survive a course they'll get something they asked for. The more dangerous the course, the bigger the prize. Which means that rather than seeing Micha working with the rest of the fam, they're going to be going solo through the Run and getting their ass kicked.

To compensate for that, the section of the rest of the family getting to the space station will take place over several chapters. That way them arriving isn't so they can compete too, it'll be so they can grab Micha by the scruff and being like "What in the actual hell is your problem?"

Does mean that there's going to be less time for Micha and Ben to come to terms with *gestures at Wikus* everything, so I'll need to find a way to compensate for that in the last main arc.

Maybe there being more chapters set on Sol's ship will give Ben some time to forgive Oliver and Sherry. Think she'll forgive Oliver faster, because he was just a kid when the decision to keep her and Micha in the dark about Wikus was made, but Ben is going to hold onto her anger towards Sherry for longer.

Could give me a chance to make North more interesting too.

Speaking of which, I doubt this thing'll be as long as I originally planned. I'm throwing out most of my original plans because I honestly don't have the enthusiasm for them anymore, and to some extent I think I was being over ambitious. The new timeline will be Everything an Ordeal in Area Family, Blood and Fungus, the last main arc, and then the typing up loose ends stuff. So it'll be about four fix at the absolute most, as oppose to however many I thought of originally. Don't know if any of the one shots I previously planned will make it, most will properly just get absorbed into the larger fics anyway.

To keep certain characters in like Hive, I'm going to need to rework them. Hive was originally going to be another contestant in Ardosia's Run, but the Run doesn't have people fighting against each other anymore. I still really like them though, and I still like the thing I was going for with 3rd parties having tried to recreate the fluid and instead ending up with something more like the ooze from TMNT. So in order to keep them and mostly maintained their original character arc, I'm going to combine them with Meg from Everything an Ordeal. Think that'll make Hive more interesting anyway. Also the way I'm going to combine Hive and Meg makes the Captain significantly more deranged and also highlights just what a bad decision Nova crossing them was.

Might need to re-edit Everything an Ordeal to make bits of lore more consistent.

Plus I've been considering taking Donna, Micha's dog out, and instead making her a therapy dog Micha gets after they get back to Earth. Or even make her the Captain's dog Regina just, decides to keep.