#Might post this on my Ao3 account

[imtotallynotthere]

Pavia hates it. He hates being forced to fight even if the rush of it is exhilarating. More specifically, he hates "dying." Many times, he's fought and been dealt a fatal blow. During that time, it's almost like fainting. He sees the blow coming but can't do anything about it as it hits him only for him to wake up back on the main screen. The "home screen" he sometimes hears it being called.

It's almost like he misses a part of his memory. Like a chunk was taken out and not given back. He knows that’s not the case, as he quite honestly died, but he can’t help himself from feeling that way.

Against the odds, he doesn't hate the player. He can see they're just clueless he's self-aware. He knows they wouldn't be making him do it against his will if they knew. He can hear whenever they panic when he's low, muttering about how they wish they had put a healer on the team and had enough luck to get a good one from a "banner." He's talked to others, ones who are aware. Granted, he can only talk to them once the player is off the game, and it isn't too many.

The player holds the tendency to stick only to one team. Something they seem to have experience doing by the way they talk about some game called "Honkai Star Rail."

The system he's trapped by doesn't allow him to stray far from his preprogrammed lines. He can change them up only slightly. Where his lines, though different, are so similar that they're barely noticeable. He hates that, but at least he holds some sort of control.

Saying the lines over and over again is something he holds large hatred for. It has become tiring, but he can’t do anything against the system. He's talked to X a few times about it, and X has said that even he doesn't know what to do, but he's working on it.

He wonders what X is doing because he hasn't seen him in a while.

Maybe he'll be able to talk to the player, maybe not. Whatever's the case, he'll keep trying. He's stubborn just as they are, and he'll keep pushing because the player is not clueless. He's taken notice of their brows furrowing when his morning line is different and when his battle lines sound more annoyed.

They'll find out in one way or another.

[hexedrosel-arts]

I like this drabble, so I'm posting it here

Bit angsty but this the Kindergarten Fandom whatcha expect

July xx, 20XX

The night was warm, the fireflies were all around. Monty liked this time alone, in the summer away from the other kids, no need to buy and sell. Just a time to look at his window and wait for tomorrow. Yet today he felt lonely, spending this summer alone… it felt so wrong. The kindergartens he went too, each closing down for the same reason, the journeys he went through, the deaths. Half of a school year of moving schools, making connections(no matter how stupid), killing the staff of some, sparing others, helping kids escape, or losing them. A stupid journey for a group of 16 kindergarteners to go through, it was something the kids never told their parents, they all got involved in one way or another.

Monty was usually just the market, there was no reason for him to get involved, he just wanted money, to pay for medical bills, to spend for his own gain. Yet he was, spending his 6th birthday wondering how any of this happened. When did he lose the childhood most kids went through? When did he get involved in plans to stop school principals from experimenting on other kids? When did his class all join in?

The fireflies were fading out, the sun was rising, Monty was alone. Those connections never lasted, friends came and went, and Monty didn’t care then. Monty cared now, the sunrise was beautiful and all he could think about was how he had no friends on his 6th birthday. Monty was alone.

[justjenah]

Latvia Mike: A Disconnected OverMike Hiding in Plain Sight

Of all the Mikes Walters (species) Latvia Mike is the one that seems to be most often taken at face value. He’s the responsible one, the one who likes to go into things with a clear plan. He prefers to abide by protocol if at all possible but will throw protocol aside if you give him a good enough reason

He’s the one true Mike, the only iteration that is allowed to use the name “Mike”, everyone else has to find something new. Michael makes this explicit when he tells MW that “‘Mike’ is taken” in episode 91 . 

More often than not, Latvia Mike has to do very little to earn his iterations' trust. His motivations are almost never questioned. This is likely in part because in addition to being older and more experienced than the "Mikey Generation," he has historically acted as a calming influence and a rational counterbalance to Michael's more inflammatory and reckless impulses. He is unafraid to challenge Michael or other "Michael Generation" iterations.

Not only that, Latvia Mike has often done his best to protect Mikey. For example he advises Mikey to lock his door after the Alaska Mikey incident and despite threatening to do otherwise, he ultimately tried to cover for Mikey when he was sneaking around with the calculator to investigate Edman's cure when he was supposed to be focused on helping the Texas posse break Base out of the Dome. And it's not just physically protection that Mike has offered but emotional protection as well. Mike offered to kill Innocent Hutner for Mikey, recognizing how difficult it might be for him.

It's not just Mikey that benefit from Latvia Mike's instinct to protect either. Mike has gone out of his way to protect Michael and MW as well. The man spent 43 days attempting to break Michael out of the compound. And while it backfired horribly, Mike protected whom he thought was the Dome iteration of Michael and insisted that the Michael who escaped to Texas keep his word and consolidate. While that iteration turned out not to be the Dome iteration but Lieutenant, it was a still a protective action. When they brought back an injured OverMike, it was Mike who most vehemently opposed killing the iteration and hatched the plan to train him and consolidate him instead of allowing Michael to kill the runaway OverMikes.

It seems likely that this habit of caretaking has afforded Latvia Mike a image of trustworthiness. And while he's not without his missteps, that image has been well earned—or at the very least well cultivated—among the Council of Mikes.

And yet I am fairly certain that Mike is not what he seems to be. Namely, I think there is significant evidence that Latvia Mike is not connected to Mikey. In fact I am not sure he’s connected to any of the Mike Walters iterations we’ve met so far. I’d argue that as it stands, in order to find a Mike Walters iteration that Latvia Mike is connected to you would need to travel back to before the first iteration of Mike Walters (species) was made.

Looking at all the evidence (and there is a surprising amount of it) I’d argue that Latvia Mike is actually a disconnected OverMike whose time period of origin is five years in the future from Mikey. 

This theory goes way back to not long after we first meet Latvia Mike. The evidence begins with episode 50, the second episode in which Latvia Mike appears.

In Episode 50: Propagation & Consolidation Latvia Mike gives us our first ever mention of OverMike in the show: 

“One goal at a time, right. Wouldn’t want to Propagate,” [Mike] said. “I remember the time. It gets better, eventually. It’s not always going to be you taking Edgar and Anne’s word on what you should do. But it’s exciting, right? Everything is shiny and new and you’ve got that new Calculator to play with. Do you have an O.V.E.R. Mike yet?”

“I don’t know what that means,” I replied.

“Ah, I won’t propagate that information, then,” he said. 

On its own, this isn’t much in the way of evidence. The first time I listened to this episode I remember thinking it was strange but assumed it was merely an easter egg of things to come. 

It isn’t until the next episode, 51, Corrections, Corrections , that I questioned Latvia Mike’s iterative origins. In that episode Latvia Mike and Michael show up at the house in Rugby North Dakota to rescue Mikey who has just had the ever loving shit beat out of him. Michael shows up and the two have the following exchange: 

Michael: So uh, I assume your instructions didn’t say to kill him or to let him die?

Mike: No, but I can’t imagine that it matters too much. I don’t think he’s connected to us. Did yours?

Latvia Mike assuming that Mikey isn’t connected to him or Michael is such a WILD assumption based on what we know up until this point. Mikey himself assumes that one day he will “become” them. Michael even famously tells Mikey in episode 44 “You turn into me, remember that.” (it’s even the name of the episode!). I’ll talk a little bit later why I think they are incorrect about Mikey “becoming” Michael, but suffice to say at least up until this point Latvia Mike is the only iteration of the three of them to explicitly declare any sort of disconnectivity. In 51 Mike states quite plainly that he’s fairly confident that at this point, Mikey dying shouldn’t really affect him. 

Exactly when in the timeline Latvia Mike becomes disconnected is a little unclear to me (more on that later) and I question his assertion that Mikey dying at this specific point in time wouldn’t affect Latvia Mike. That said, the point remains the same that Latvia Mike seems confident that at some point there will be enough disconnectivity between himself and Mikey that Mikey could die and Mike wouldn’t be affected. This assumption on Latvia Mike’s part speaks to knowledge that he has about his own iterative origins. 

The clearest piece of evidence in support of my theory comes just a couple episodes later with episode 54, Connectivity . Mikey, Edgar, Marissa, and Anne are all working together at Base to troubleshoot the issue of Ravi having witnessed Mikey breaking into Tier Two. Anne suggests popping the tires of the golf cart that Marissa and Ravi both use on their patrol routes so that he doesn’t witness Mikey’s break-ins. 

And then Latvia Mike shows up looking like he “had been thoroughly chewed up and spat out”, with injuries including a clouded over right eye and a missing thumb that is long scarred and healed over. 

This is already pretty wild in that this tire popping correction that Anne, Edgar, and Marissa are planning has skipped right over Mikey. Mikey is unaffected by this plan to pop the tires. Even more interesting is that Michael is unaffected by the plan to pop the tires. 

But that is not the most damning evidence. Latvia Mike shows up angry, disoriented, and emotional. And in that state, in the middle of him issuing this correction to prevent his abduction, it seems like he let’s something pretty damn important slip: 

“I just have one minor correction here: did it never occur to any of you dolts that if the cart is out of commission on a certain night that SOMEONE might be captured and interrogated, imprisoned, tortured, used as a blackmail pawn and generally be a profound hindrance to Base for YEARS? All because the cart didn’t get fixed in time? That cart has to come crashing through the border of Tier 2 or Mike Walters is in trouble. So, if you’re going to go through with that, could you do O.V.E.R. Mike a big favor and make sure you drive one of those nails right through his brain stem while you’re at it and save us the trouble? ”

Let’s zero in on that for a second: “could you do O.V.E.R. Mike a big favor and make sure you drive one of those nails right through his brain stem while you’re at it and save us the trouble?”

Here, Latvia Mike strongly implies his connectivity to an OverMike. He essentially tells Mikey to kill OverMike, thus killing Latvia Mike, to prevent him from having to go through being “captured and interrogated, imprisoned, tortured, used as a blackmail pawn and generally be a profound hindrance to Base for YEARS”.  

Between the tire popping correction skipping over Mikey, and Latvia Mike himself implying connectivity to OverMike, it seems pretty likely that Mike is correct, he isn't connected to Mikey. He doesn’t even seem to be connected to Michael in the episode given that Michael was still a cowboy and seemingly unaffected by the correction but that feels less certain at this point (more evidence that Mike is not connected to Michael will come later though so hold your horses, pard). 

The next time it’s implied that there is not connectivity between Mikey and Mike is in episode 65, double knot . Mikey has recently escaped from the compound after his second imprisonment there (this is after Punished transported Mikey to the Latvian woods) and has been scooped up by Latvia Mike and Michael. On the ride back to Riga the following exchange takes place:

MIKEY: Oh! Oh, I have–I have notes from a mattress. Here–[paper crinkling] Here, read them it was definitely a Mikey but it wasn’t me. I found them in the mattress in my room at the compound. He must’ve put them there. Mike none of this happened to you? I was hoping you’d remember something. 

MIKE: No, can’t say that I do. 

Latvia Mike did not experience a second stay in the compound. This is not entirely surprising at this point given that we know from episode 55, The Surprise Field Trip, that Latvia Mike and Michael had no idea that the compound was based in Latvia until after the two of them came back to Mikey’s time period to establish Satellite Base. 

Latvia Mike and Michael never experienced a second stay in the compound (something Michael obliquely confirmed in his phone call to Ty Betteridge in episode 60, Ready to Die) or the Hunter’s destruction of Base. This is made even stranger by the fact that Mikey’s second stay in the compound is never corrected despite the fact that the Hunter’s attack on Base is corrected (Alaska Mikey makes this explicit when states that he knows nothing about the Hunter’s attack on Base or even what Base is yet was still transported to the Latvian woods by an unknown party when Mike goes to talk to him in episode 71, studies ). This implies that regardless of whether the Hunters destroy Base, Mikey’s second stay in the compound always happens. Which should mean that if Mike and Michael are connected to him, that those events should’ve theoretically propagated forward in time, much like what happened with the nails and the golf cart’s tire. 

The next bit of evidence isn’t so much proof that Mike is an OverMike but more that he and Michael are disconnected from Mikey. What I am referring to is the existence of Mustardseed and the runaway OvEdgars and OverMikes. 

When these two things are introduced Mike and Michael are just as in the dark as Mikey. They have no idea who Mustardseed is and the events of episode 78, Ax make that extremely clear. Furthermore it’s in episode 84, Panther , that Michael first learns about the existence of the runaway OverMike and OvEdgars. Which, again, their existence is never corrected. Instead the runaways are captured after their escape and consolidated. 

This implies that Latvia Mike and OverMike’s connectivity broke down at some point between the events of episode 48 (the event that the tire popping plan was meant to correct) and whenever it was that OverMike and OvEdgar made all those runaway iterations (which is implied to have have happened around episode 79, Mutiny). I’d argue the disconnection point is likely prior to episode 60 (Ready to Die) seeing as the OverTeam is executed along with everyone else at Base and Latvia Mike is totally fine (well as fine as one can be when lost at sea with your older cowboy iteration). 

This means that if someone wants to take out Latvia Mike specifically, they would need to kill OverMike sometime prior to the events of Ready to Die, or, like we see in 109, if you don’t care about preserving any Mike Walters iterations, you could simply kill Mikey prior to him iterating himself. 

The next time we see Latvia Mike possibly slipping up is in episode 100, Clipshow . It’s a blink and you miss it sort of exchange and on its own doesn’t seem like much but, taken together with everything that has come before, it reads like Mike speaking without thinking: 

MIKEY: Edgar said that he didn’t send anyone. What do we do?

MIKE: Take Bruno into Michael’s room and lock the door, Mikey.

MIKEY: W-What? Why?

MIKE: Because there’s an extra iteration of you out there and we don’t know what’s going on. 

MIKEY: I don’t see why that means that I have to go hide. He’s an iteration of you, too.

MICHAEL: Do what he says, Mikey.

Latvia Mike looks out the peephole of the door and sees a younger iteration and jumps to the natural conclusion that it is an iteration of Mikey. Note that he doesn’t think it’s an iteration of MW, which is a little odd. MW and Mikey are approximately the same age. A younger iteration is just as likely to be an iteration of MW as it is Mikey (if not more so given how iteration happy the OVER team was in Mikey’s iteration of the timeline). It’s made all the more ironic by the fact that it is OverMike (specifically Mustardseed’s husband) who is standing on the other side of the door. 

This episode also reintroduces the idea that Latvia Mike is disconnected from all of this time period’s OverMikes at this point in time because he seems completely unworried about Michael and MW executing the poor party crashing OverMike. It’s true we don’t see OverMike actually killed in the episode as it happens off screen but if Latvia Mike is connected to this specific OverMike, he is putting on a very good act and also seeming to take it on faith that Michael and MW won’t actually kill this OverMike, never mind the earlier evidence that Mike had no idea about Mustardseed’s identity or the existence of the runaways. 

If you’ve been sitting there screaming at the screen that I skipped right over one of the biggest pieces of physical evidence that Latvia Mike and Mikey aren’t connected, don’t worry, I’m getting to it. That’s right: Mikey’s brand. 

This brand has survived corrected timelines again and again and yet Latvia Mike and Michael are NEVER mentioned as having it and they are NEVER asked to show the brand as proof of their identity. On the contrary Latvia Mike seems to always check for Mikey’s brand. 

Notably when Mike shows up in episode 135, The Conundrum Of The Cowboy's Codex,  Mikey does not demand that Latvia Mike show the brand to prove himself, while Mikey DOES show the brand. In fact Mike’s “proof” that he is Latvia Mike is merely:  

MIKE: Wedding ring, cauliflower ear, a couple more wrinkles than you

And that’s it ! 

When it comes to Latvia Mike the brand is NEVER brought up as a means of proof and yet Latvia Mike uses Mikey’s brand as a baseline for proving Mikey’s identity time and again. Most recently, Latvia Mike does a brand check on Mikey in episode 153 when Mikey decides to do some futurescouting and drops by Mike’s house five years in the future. 

This next bit from episode 166: Lucid/Psychedelic may or may not be anything but I thought it worth noting because Mike has often made clear distinctions between himself and Mikey and yet he says the following to MW, who is notably 32 OverMikes in a skin suit: 

MIKE [addressing MW]: You're me and I drink almond milk all the time

The final hint that Latvia Mike’s iterative origins stem from an OverMike (as of this writing) is in episode 167: Contradiction/Connection. Michael, Mike, MDawg, and MW all show up at the Crust Punk House to talk with Old Man and they end up roping in Skinner. During their conversation Skinner brings up Skuzz being kidnapped and wants to know if any of these Mike Walters iterations had anything to do with it. 

MICHAEL: None of us cowboys knows no one by the name of Skuzz. SKINNER: Skuzz? Skinny, messy hair, too cool for school, might have tried to work Broken Social Scene into the conversation while you were killing them or kidnapping them or whatever it was you did to them…

MIKE: Wait, Skuzz Skuzz? Like the one who mows the lawn at O.V.E.R.

  SKINNER: No, dummy the other Skuzz. Yeah, of course that Skuzz.

Mike is the only iteration in the room who seems to know who Skuzz is. Which doesn’t have to mean anything but seems notable if he is in fact an OverMike. If Mike is an OverMike whose experience of this time period was never marred by the existence of Mustardseed, then Mike spent considerable more time working and living at OVER and therefore had greater opportunities to get to know the landscaping team at OVER. Skuzz doesn’t seem to even ring any bells for Michael, meanwhile Latvia Mike is able to correctly identify whom Skinner is talking about. 

So where does that leave us?

My theory is that in Latvia Mike’s experience of this time period, he was Future Base’s OverMike. But in Latvia Mike’s experience of this time period things shook out extremely differently. My theory is that the OVER team was much more involved in Future Base’s goings on than they are in Mikey’s iteration of the timeline. In Mikey’s iteration of the timeline, the OVER team is rarely included unless Base requires them to sneak into Tier Two. This is a huge point of friction between the OVER team and Mikey’s Base. Yet this friction does not seem to have existed in Latvia Mike's iteration of this time period (or at least not to the point that it exists for Mikey’s Base and Mikey’s OVER team seeing as Mustardseed and the runaway OVER iterations are unique to Mikey's experience). 

For Latvia Mike I think that, unlike in Mikey’s iteration of the timeline, the OVER team continued to exist as an extension of Future Base for years. After all in episode 82, Digging , when Latvia Mike’s attempt to correct Michael’s disappearance using a calculator fails, one of the things that Latvia Mike attempts is breaking into Tier Two with Edgar to see if using the security.exe program will overcome whatever barrier is preventing Latvia Mike from issuing his correction. Again this isn’t some major piece of evidence but it does suggest that Mike and his Edgar are still familiar with 116E, Tier Two, and the security.exe program, something that Michael mentions being a vague memory for him at this point. 

I think at some point Future Base transitioned Latvia Mike and his Edgar to some sort of Satellite Base within Latvia Mike’s own time period and is likely where they got the idea to establish a Satellite Base in Latvia in Mikey’s time period. 

I believe that more than likely in Latvia Mike’s experience of the timeline, his and his Edgar’s roles shifted from being the OVER team to becoming a “disconnected corrections team” much like the role that Mikey’s OVER team’s played in episode 72, Council , in which they act as a corrections team for the peace treaty meeting that Base holds with the Hunters. So while Future Base works on their projects and conducts recon and technology retrieval missions, the OVER team (made up of Latvia Mike and his Edgar) are disconnected from their iterations (much like Tex and Outlaw seem disconnected from theirs) and able to respond to any timeline disturbances and issue corrections to protect Future Base. 

When events start to diverge more drastically in Mikey’s time period, I think Base realized that they needed a team back there to stop the ground shifting from under Future Base’s feet and undoing all of Future Base’s progress. When Michael traveled to Latvia Mike’s time period to help out (and escape from living in a time period without an Edgar), they had the perfect opportunity to establish a remote Satellite Base in the past with Michael and Latvia Mike, both of whom were tethered to Future Base's time period by Latvia Mike’s Edgar who would run missions from five years in the future. 

So. If Latvia Mike is a disconnected OverMike, how the hell did he become disconnected? I don’t have one specific theory for this but let’s at least look at different ways it seems one could become disconnected.  

In 168: Anonymous Councils/Edible Bombs , we first learn about disconnectivity devices. They are rare and expensive. MDawg recognizes it for what it is but it’s not made clear who else is familiar with them other than Other Chris and Old Man. It’s possible that Future Base got their hands on some disconnectivity devices and used them on Latvia Mike and his Edgar but it feels unlikely. Then again, maybe five years in the future time travel technology has advanced such that disconnectivity devices are easier to come by.

 Another way you might become disconnected seems to be as result of an incomplete correction. In the 101 timeline when the Hunters completely take over via a major correction (or many many many corrections layered on top of one another, who knows), Tex and Outlaw somehow are unaffected by the new timeline. They retain memories from the previous iteration of the timeline and are unaffected by the Hunter’s changes despite the fact that those changes clearly go back before Mikey and Edgar got together since Mikey and Edgar are not even dating in as of 2023 in the 101 timeline. If that can happen accidentally, more than likely it is something that can be done intentionally though I imagine it would take quite a few attempts to achieve the desired results and would be incredibly risky. 

Another possible way to create disconnectivity might be for an iteration to somehow correct their own creation. We know that the calculators solve paradoxes and it seems to me that if an OverMike corrected their own creation, that iteration would still have to exist in order to have issued that correction. But without the iteration event, the iteration that issued the correction would exist as a disconnected individual. 

Finally, one of my favorite disconnectivity practices is one that I think we are actively watching play out between Mikey and Michael. That is, through prolonged and significant interaction with/exposure to a past version of yourself that you start out connected to. This method I think takes significant time and exposure and that connectivity likely degrades slowly over time as the two iterations continue to interact and influence one another’s experiences of the timeline. This is why I think that Mikey will never “become” Michael.

Which one do I think Latvia Mike and his Edgar used? No idea! 

Now I know what you’re thinking. If this is true and Latvia Mike is a disconnected OverMike, why on earth hasn’t he told anyone? Why is he keeping this a secret? 

The answer is simple. It’s just smart. It’s good infosec and a matter of self preservation. Look at Mystery Hunter and Punished Hunter (and H, if we are counting him separately from Mystery). The fact that we don’t know their iterative origins makes them much more difficult to kill. 

Mike keeping this secret doesn’t have to be nefarious. We’ve seen time and time again that limiting the spread of information is key to staying alive and controlling the timeline. Latvia Mike can trust Mikey, MW, and Michael all he wants but that doesn’t make it safe to propagate the information of his and his Edgar’s iterative origins. Latvia Mike himself makes this point to Mikey in episode 153, Futurescouting when. When Mikey is suspicious of Tex for not sharing information Latvia Mike makes this case: 

MIKE: I will admit that is odd, but I would be cautious about jumping to conclusions. You know as well as I do that there are lots of good reasons to not tell someone everything you know, even if you know and trust the person. 

In the WOEBEGONE universe, keeping one's iterative origins secret, even from the people you trust is just smart. Hiding that information isn’t even about distrust, it’s about propagation risk—something which can happen accidentally very easily. Mike not telling Mikey (and possibly Michael) his iterative origins isn’t a sign of disloyalty or even distrust among iterations, it’s merely a sign of self preservation (never mind the preservation of Latvia Mike’s Edgar) because once that information is entrusted to anyone other than yourself, your very existence is at risk should that information reach the wrong people.

Now, why do I think that Latvia Mike isn’t connected to Michael? There are many little hints at this scattered throughout the show but I’ll just highlight a couple of them including a pretty major one from the most recent episode as of this writing.

First, even if they were connected at the start of the Latvian Sat Base’s creation, I think Michael has changed Mike’s trajectory such that Mike can never become Michael. Michael pulled Mike out of a deep depression and has repeatedly tried to guide Mike to make better, healthier choices than Michael has. 

A more specific moment that points to Michael not having connectivity with Latvia Mike is back in Episode 51. Michael asks Mike what his experience of Rugby was, something Michael would presumably know if he were connected to Mike.

Indeed most recently in episode 172, Ghostfire, Latvia Mike says pretty specifically that he will not turn into Michael/Old Man and that in five years he won’t be doing the things that Michael/Old Man is currently doing: 

MIKE: You’ve seen me and Old Man in a room together. That's me from the future—kind of. He’s not necessarily me, but he is, but that doesn't mean that like five years from now that I’m going to be doing all the things that he’s doing now.

In the same episode Latvia Mike goes on to explain connectivity and gives the following example: 

MIKE: If you killed me, Old Man wouldn’t die even though I keep saying that he’s quote, ‘me from the future’.

Given that killing Mikey on his first day at OVER in 109 successfully eliminated all other Mike Walters iterations, thus preventing Mike and Michael from existing, this statement from Mike (that his death would not kill Old Man/Michael) seems like an especially important claim because Latvia Mike is indicating that there isn’t connectivity between himself and Old Man/Michael, who as of that episode is the closest Michael iteration we have. 

Now, if Latvia Mike and his Edgar are not connected to Mikey and Mikey’s Edgar, what does that mean? There are likely many ramifications of this being true but the one that leaps to my mind is the cure for Edgar. 

Mikey floats the possibility that since his Edgar has consolidated with Edman—who supposedly was cured by OI—that Mikey’s Edgar might also be cured. If Mikey’s Edgar is cured, that cure should propagate forward to all the other future Edgars that have connectivity to Mikey’s Edgar. 

Of course, if Latvia Mike’s Edgar is a disconnected OvEdgar, that would mean he did not receive the cure . While disconnectivity is, in many ways, protective and a tool that can be used to shield iterations from potential timeline meddling from hostile parties, in this instance it spells Latvia Mike’s Edgar’s doom. Mikey’s Edgar, Michael’s Edgar, MDawg’s Edgar all would benefit from this cure (so long as Michael’s Edgar is indeed still connected to Mikey’s) but Latvia Mike’s Edgar is still slated to die before October 2025. 

Worse, because Latvia Mike is hiding the fact that he’s a disconnected OverMike, his own Edgar’s death is misleading to Mikey and Michael. It would give Mikey and Michael the impression that their Edgars didn’t receive the cure and that they are still slated to die even though they very well may not be.

Only time will tell if this theory will bear any fruit but I’ll tell you right now, I’ve gone looking for evidence that specifically disproves it and it doesn’t exist. At least not yet. Of course, as with all things, only time will tell. 

[basilknell]

Vasily's Literacy

I’ve been asked a couple times about Vasily’s literacy, so here’s a quick overview of stats and pertinent information laid out regarding that idea. I’ll make my statement on my own opinion towards his literacy at the end, but for now I’ll focus on exact numbers and stats without interjecting opinion.

While this post primarily pulls specific stats from When Russia Learned to Read by Jeffery Brooks, I’ve read a couple papers and other books regarding these subjects I pull general statements from as well. Please note, though, that there were no large scale official census in Russia until 1897 so some of these stats from previous years could potentially be skewed.

Source Material

First and foremost: do we ever see Vasily read or write in the series?

No. However, this can be explained quickly away. Until running into Tsukishima, Vasily was likely (incorrectly) assuming that not only did none of the Japanese characters speak Russian, but they did not use the same writing system either. It would have been a waste of resources (paper) to attempt a conversation where a drawing could suffice. Additionally, there is no other scene in the series involving him and Tsukishima that would have warranted him writing to Tsukishima either. At least, none that we see. So, him never being seen writing does not necessarily prove he is illiterate.

Vasily’s Age

With that out of the way, there’s another important piece of information we need to pin about Vasily before we continue: Vasily’s age. While Noda specified he’s the same age as Ogata, Ogata is unfortunately given no age range. But, unlike these two, Usami does have a canon age: 26. We can use Usami as a frame of reference because Noda stated Usami is, in fact, older than Ogata. Thus, this means Ogata is 25 and so Vasily is also 25.

Now, I personally tend to make these two older, but for a frame of reference we are going to pin Vasily at 25 years old. The reason this is significant is to pin down exactly when Vasily went to school. If in 1907 he was 25, then the age he was deemed ‘school age’ (8 - 11) would be around 1890 - 1893. Of course, he always could have attended school at an earlier or later age, but for conjecture’s sake, we will use the average age such as these.

As I said previously, an official census was not published in Russia until 1897, but any previous information before that typically begins around the 1870s. So it would benefit us to default to 1897 statistics, but keep in mind that the stats are skewed a tad higher than they would have been.

Rural Literacy

Literacy in the late 19th century was not nearly as bad as people make it out to be (at a rate of around 21% in 1897), but only because rural numbers brought it down. For example, in industrialized cities such as Moscow, 70% of men were regarded as being literate. There were also a plethora of schools dotting the country, from Zemstvo-funded schools, to church schools, to state schools. It was often not the lack of schooling availability that caused a decrease in rural literacy compared to urban children, but rather social aspects.

I am unable to find exact stats for rural literacy rates around the year 1890, but literacy rose from 6% in rural populations in the 1860s to 25% in 1910. It’s also best to keep in mind, however, men were far more likely to be literate than women, and the young more likely than older populations as well. So, if we were to take an increased decade raise (rounding up to about 4% every 10 years), and exclude the population numbers from including women which will be about half the population, we get around a 36%* base chance Vasily is literate when he is from a rural population (of which he is – he is from Yeleninka, a rural town in the Orenburg voisko), still not excluding elderly populations.

This is still not a very high chance, but there’s some other factors to discuss. Firstly, would have to be involving his background. The reason literacy was so low in rural areas was because, although parents did place value on literacy because it allowed for social movement and potentially higher wages, parents simply could not afford the lost labor of their children attending school. If a family had several children and could afford the loss of labor, then a child was much more likely to attend school. So, even if Vasily’s family had been described as being poor by Noda, this had no bearing on Vasily’s likeness to attend school. Given Vasily is almost entirely assured to be in the military through conscription, he very likely had brothers. And if he had brothers – he was very likely to attend school compared to single children families.

Another factor involves his family’s occupation. Families dependent on agricultural work were less likely to send their children to school because it was expected for them to work on that same farm when they were older, thus limiting their need for literacy. But, if Vasily’s family were artisans or practiced some kind of craft alongside agriculture, parents highly valued literacy in comparison, and were more willing to spare the labor loss for schooling.

Religion also played a role. Specifically, those of the Old Believer faith tended to be more literate and push to educate their children regardless of their occupational status compared to regular Russian Orthodox peasants. Aside from a general cultural insistence on preferring literacy, there is no other reason why this occurred, as the only major difference between Old Believers and Russian Orthodox peasants was a matter of ceremony (excluding some fringe Old Believer cults). If Vasily came from an Old Believer family, they'd push for him to be literate regardless of the labor loss they'd experience.

Finally, some parents preferred to send their sons to school to lower their military conscription length. While university students conscripted only had to serve 1.5 years of the required 5 year length, those who completed at least 3 years of any schooling had that length lowered to 4 years. If a family had several sons, which meant their sons were eligible to be drafted by the lotto, they would be more partial to educating said sons.

For some stats: unfortunately I could only find the rate of attendance of boys in school for 1911. Please examine these stats with a critical eye that they should be lower. 88% of boys in rural areas attended school for at least 1 year, but by year 3 this percentage dropped to about 38.5%.

*My math numbers will be off because there were a decent amount of women who were literate, just at a noticeably lower rate compared to men. For ease of math’s sake, I removed them from the population entirely, though the original percentage statistic did include them. They originally were likely less than 1% of the literate population in the 1860s statistic I used as a base.

Soldier Literacy

While it is useful to look at literacy stats of Vasily’s background (being a rural resident), what’s more useful is the literacy rates of the army for when Vasily was serving.

By the 19th century, Russia realized the value in literate soldiers – but unfortunately for Vasily, schooling for soldiers that the government had originally created in 1855 was abolished across the 1890s. But this did not mean literacy still did not rise in the military, as certain soldier ‘uncles’ brought it upon themselves to educate other soldiers. In fact, literacy in the army rose from about 21% in 1874 to about 68% in 1913 – rounded up to about a 6% increase in literacy every 5 years. Vasily would’ve been conscripted into the army by 1902, and applying the rate of increase, there was about a 51% literacy of the army in 1899, and 57% literacy in 1904. A higher than half chance for Vasily, who we see actively still in the army by 1907.

There are other factors to consider as well: Vasily’s rank and station. While the illiterate often went to the infantry units, specialized units had much higher rates of literacy. As I’ve discussed in the past, Vasily might have been in a specialized unit – an RIA unit continually supporting the Cossack border guards, or the Special Border Guard Corps. His literacy chance rises higher due to this factor, as literacy was especially preferred because of the ability to read topographic maps and telegrams.

It is not Vasily’s presence in a specialized unit that also increased his likelihood of being literate – it was his rank as well. While Noda removed most telling marks from Vasily of his rank, such as shoulder straps, there’s two glaring tells. Firstly, are his and Ilya’s binoculars. Ilya appears to be to be a Feldwebel (equivalent to an American First-Sergeant, British Sergeant-Major) given his position of ordering the other soldiers, and that he has binoculars which were only used by officers. He is, like Tsukishima, a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO). Vasily himself also has binoculars, though one could argue this does not inherently make him an NCO because Ilya has at least two traits marking him as an NCO. After all, Vasily could have stolen his binoculars and his overcoat is one that a private would wear (Ilya does wear a private’s coat as well. Though, I have addressed before that the uniforms of the border guards gang are completely incorrect regardless of rank, so I am unsure of how much weight this should be given).

That second tell is actually Vasily’s cockade. The cockade worn on the hats of soldiers denoted generally their rank and status. So, while Vasily lacks any other visual clothing tells, his cockade can give a general idea if he is of a lower or higher rank, which does indeed change his literacy statistics.

[Pictured are 3 cockades. The far left is the cockade of a lower rank soldier, while the cockades in the middle and far right are cockades of officers. Thank you to @rdstrpv for this image!]

This information is important because NCOs were almost demanded to be literate. It was essential for their occupation, as being able to read maps was one of the most important skills for an NCO to have. If Vasily was an NCO, which his cockade would indicate, he almost assuredly would be literate, or at the very least incredibly good at faking it.

[Pictured are the 3 different ways Vasily’s cockade is drawn.]

While in the anime Vasily’s cockade is given the appearance of the average lower-rank soldier, and typically this is how people place him. However in the manga, Vasily’s cockade is more ambiguous. When referencing it to the cockades above, it could pass as both a lower-rank or an officer’s cockade. The final example is of Noda’s detailed Vasily illustration that was not outsourced by an animation studio, nor constrained by swift time spent on manga panels. In this, Vasily clearly has on the cockade of an officer.

Obviously, given the anime drawing Vasily with a lower-ranking cockade and the manga is ambiguous, you could still make the argument he’s a low ranking soldier. Nonetheless, one should also consider that the government likely would’ve preferred to send a group of officers to apprehend a Tsar’s killer over, perhaps, privates, giving more credence to him being an NCO. That, and because Vasily was an experienced sniper in the war, it'd be especially strange he'd not received some promotions at the end of the war. And thus, Vasily’s literacy likeness goes up to almost-guaranteed. There were occasional examples of NCOs not being literate, but there were few and far in-between, making it unusual that a young NCO was illiterate in 1907.

Cossack Literacy

Of course, Vasily was not necessarily in the RIA. He could have instead been a Cossack. While the idea of an NCO and cockade still apply to Cossacks, I will still discuss Cossack literacy in the case you find Vasily to be of a lower rank.

Unfortunately exact statistical information regarding Cossack literacy has almost never been tracked before the Soviet period. Still, by the 19th century the Imperial Russian government had a special vested interest in educating their Cossacks, more so than their peasantry. There were many Cossack schools that taught everything from literacy to combat that children were almost required to attend. In fact, once entering the military at 21, Cossacks were required by the military to be literate unlike other soldiers, and if they were not literate they were mandated to pursue education while they were deployed.

This is not to say there were not illiterate Cossacks – one could finish their entire service as a Cossack without properly pursuing their literacy if they were crafty about it, similar to illiterate NCOs. But, again, this was unlikely. In comparison, Cossacks were far more likely to be able to read than that of the ordinary peasant in the army.

Final Thoughts

I’m of the opinion Vasily actually is literate, regardless of him being in the RIA as an NCO or a Cossack. He’s a very prideful character, and it slowly became a limiting stigma that one was illiterate in Russia, even in 1907. This is not to say Vasily can’t be illiterate – many of the stats I gave showed that there was a decent chance for illiteracy, especially if he was a first-born son to a farming family and only low-ranked. But in my opinion of all the facts culminating, I find I prefer the idea of him being literate. Have fun with this information regardless, and may it help you in whatever you intend to write or draw in the future!

A big thank you to @rdstrpv for her help in answering a couple of my questions to make sure I wasn’t misrepresenting information, and for her images. She's always a big help.

[goldies-cryptobitch]

Rewatched Wreck-It Ralph the other day because of that new King Candy analysis video and am lowkey tempted to write a short Cy-bug King Candy fic because god I love that guy and there's not a lot of fics of him staying in Cy-bug form.

If only I had the time, lmfao.

[sweet-old-hereafter]

So I said I was gonna write a nomae hunger games AU as a joke but I don’t think it’s a joke anymore-

From what remains of Caesar’s civilization hails the Kingdom of Pacifica, comprising twelve Clans and the Coastal City as its Capital.

Noa is a young ape longing for purpose and honor. Mae is an Echo that has had to scrounge for survival longer than not. The two live on opposite sides of Mining Clan; Noa in the tree manor with his family, and Mae beside the Mouth of the mines, where she and other Echoes are forced to do dangerous work by ape Overseers. Noa has held a secret in the distance between them for years; Mae can speak. And Echoes that can speak are forbidden.

This past further complicates when they are both to face the Primus Game, an annual fight to the death on the Coast that functions as atonement for a transgression neither was witness to.

In the crucible of these Games, Noa may discover his true self and be forced to betray it. Mae will have to grapple with what it means to be human, if that truly is the standard of worthiness she believes it to be, and the unsettling ambiguity that comes with hope. Their bond may serve as a microcosm of the relationship between apes and humans, posing one question: If we can die side by side, can’t we live?

This Primus Game will be unlike any other before it.

[zimms]

new york city

you called me last night on the telephone and i was glad to hear from you cause i was all alone you said, "it's snowing, it's snowing! god, i hate this weather" now i walk through blizzards just to get us back together

Derek twists the telephone cord around his finger, straining to hear Will's words down the phone. "Sorry, you're cutting out. The landline's a little dodgy."

He definitely doesn't fail to hear the crackle of Will's laughter down the phone. "A landline? What is this, Nurse? The eighties?"

"Shut up! My moms prefer it for some reason. And, I don't know, it has a bit of je ne sais quoi, a bit of nostalgia, a bit of style, y'know." To emphasise the point, even if only to himself, Derek winds the cable around his fingers a couple more times.

"I don't, but I'll take your word for it."

Derek huffs his own laugh before softening his voice. "Look, the point is that I missed what you said the first time. Please could you repeat it, babe?"

Will's voice comes through the phone. "I said that it's snowing here."

"Isn't it always snowing in Maine in December?" Derek says, "Like I thought that was a given?"

"Yeah, but it's the first time I've seen snow since I last saw you." Will's voice goes quietier. "I miss you."

"That was literally two weeks ago, Dex." Derek rolls his eyes, knowing full well that Will can't see him. "You can't possibly miss me that much; you literally went almost two years without talking to me between leaving Samwell and the spring." He sighs and grins to himself "But- I miss you too."

we met in the springtime at a rock and roll show it was on the bowery when it was time to go

One second Derek is bouncing along to the song that the band is playing, the next, his gaze is fixed on a very familiar head of red hair that's darting through the crowd at the gig.

Dex?

Derek is too packed in by the surrounding crowd to do anything but watch, tracking the figure of a man who, two years ago, he never thought he'd see again. Well, maybe not never, after all they'd been to two weddings together this summer alone. But the point is, it would never be just the two of them again.

He allows himself to be swept back up in the words of the song, singing along with the rest of the crowd, but he never truly stops staring at the back of Dex's head. It's fine; Derek will catch him at the bar after the show. He has to.

The gig is in a tiny bar that masquerades as a club/concert venue, packed to the brim with people here to see bands make their first stumbling steps into the music industry. Derek first listened to these guys in his Senior Year at Samwell and fell head over heels in love with their music. They were even the soundtrack to his alarms for the year, greeting him before every 5am practice (because Dex was a total hardass).

After the final song, the crowd starts to disperse and Derek seizes his moment to chase after Dex.

He can't let him slip away from him.

Not this time.

Derek pushes through the crowd, apologising every step of the way, until Dex is finally within reach. Naturally, as soon as Derek goes to close his hand around Will's shoulder, the man in question takes a step forward and Derek takes a big handful of just air. "Dex! Hey! Dex!"

Will spins around and suddenly they're chest to chest for the first time in- Derek doesn't even know how long.

He forgets how to breathe.

"Nursey?" Dex's eyebrows furrow in that familiar way: the way they would when he couldn't figure out the problem with a particularly tricky bit of code, or when he was trying to figure out the best way to shut down the opposing team's attack. Derek hasn't realised until now just how much he missed that expression.

"Dex!" he says, trying desperately to sound normal and not at all breathless and relaxed. "How are you? I didn't- I didn't know you were in New York?"

Dex rubs the back of his neck. "I'm, erm, I'm not really, but I guess, I am?"

"Dex, I say this lovingly, but genuinely what the fuck does that mean?" Derek takes the opportunity to step back, breaking the physical contact between them at last. He can finally breathe.

"I'm living over near Lincoln Park, but I'm working for a start up here."

Derek laughs. "Dude, you could have just said that!"

"I was suprised to see you, okay!" Dex mumbles. "Though I'm not sure why I'm that surprised considering that you were the one that got me into this band, but it's whatever."

Derek pauses and considers what to say for a second, looking Dex up and down to try and gauge how much interaction with him Dex would be willing to stand. He takes another second to throw all of that consideration out of the window and just say fuck it.

He grins up at Will. "Can I buy you a drink?"

we kissed on the subway in the middle of the night i held your hand, you held mine, it was the best night of my life

One drink turns into two and two turns into four and so on and so on until the two of them stumble out onto the Bowery and into the open air at 3am.

Derek doesn't know how to describe it, but everything always feels easier at 3am. As they walk along the street towards the subway station, he brushes his hand against Dex's once, twice, three times until finally Will takes his hand in his.

They tangle their fingers together, relaxing into the easy rhythm that they lost at some point during senior year, and falling into each other's orbits yet again.

Derek tugs Will towards the Houston Bowery Wall, gravitating towards the explosion of colour in the night light. "C'mere." He squeezes Will's hand. "This is the Bowery Wall Mural. It's one of my favourite pieces of art in New York, especially this one."

"This one?" Will's voice trembles a little as if they're in a holy place rather than stood on the intersection of two busy streets in New York.

"They change the wall every so often, a constant fresh start, constant new opportunities. Sometimes they decide that a mural has had its time, sometimes other people decide for them, covering up the work with graffiti, showing the world what matters to them. But the wall always comes back with a newer piece of art, a never-ending cycle of hope and new beginnings."

Derek looks down at his and Will's interlocked hands and gives them another squeeze. "Last year, they decided to stop commissioning new murals because they kept being destroyed, but out of the ashes came this mural."

The wall is painted in a bright array of portraits, depicting people of all shapes and sizes. It takes Derek's breath away as he looks at it, even though he walks past it every week; there's something different about bringing Will here.

Will's voice catches in his throat. "It's beautiful. Thank you for bringing me here."

Derek grins back at him. "Thank you for coming with me."

Will's expression shifts and his eyes begin to dart around. "I should be going."

"What? All the way back to Jersey at this time? You're not going to get back until like 8am. Seriously, come back to my place; you can take the guest room."

(Internally, Derek kicks himself.)

"No, no, I can head back; I wouldn't want to impose."

"No, seriously I insist," Derek says, slowly beginning to steer them towards the subway station. "We're like ten minutes from my place on the subway; way better than going back to Jersey."

Will huffs a sigh, knowing that he's lost this battle. "Okay, fine. But I'll pay you back somehow, y'know."

Derek smiles at him as they enter through the ticket barriers. "I know."

(Derek will unashamedly admit that they made out in the empty subway carriage. Like c'mon, how could he resist waiting until he got home?)

because everyone's your friend in new york city and everything looks beautiful when you're young and pretty the streets are paved with diamonds and there's just so much to see but the best thing about new york city is you and me

Derek wraps his arms around Will's waist and pulls him in closer, letting their bodies slot together in the warmth of the bed. "I'm so glad that I spotted you at that gig," he whispers into the crook of his neck. "I couldn't let you get away again."

Will leans back into the embrace. "I'm glad you found me too." He wriggles a bit, getting more comfortable. "It feels like I was stumbling blindly around the city before you found me. Like New York and you are so intertwined; you are New York, New York is you. It was weird to be in the city without you, to be honest.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah.” Will turns around to look at him. “Seriously, Derek. I’ve loved the past four months of you dragging me around the city.”

Derek tickles his sides and Will squirms in his arms. “Drag?! I seem to recall you were the one that made a whole list of places that you wanted to see, including Co-Op City.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Will mutters, ducking his head. “Maybe we shouldn’t have trekked all the way out to the Bronx just for it, but I thought I should see it, okay? It was a big case study in my urban planning class.”

“I know, I know. I’m just teasing you.” Derek leans down to kiss his boyfriend. “I think it’s sweet, honestly. Especially considering you didn’t think to do any of this stuff in your first two months of living here.”

“I was getting used to a new city! I wasn’t trying to sight-see; I was trying to survive!”

Derek hums to convey his total belief in Will’s statement. “Uh, huh.”

“It’s true!”

Derek hums again and grins down at him. “Anyway, do you still have that list somewhere? I need to figure out what’s left on your New York bucket list.”

Will blindly flails his arm onto his bedside table. “Yeah, yeah. Lemme just find it.” He rummages around a bit more, before finally producing a crumpled-up piece of paper. “here you go.”

statue of liberty, staten island ferry, co-op city, katz's, and tiffany's, central park, brooklyn bridge, the empire state, where dylan lived, coney island, and times square, rockefeller center

“Okay, I think I have the perfect idea for what our final stereotypical New York sightseeing trip will be,” Derek says.

“Mhhm, am I allowed to know what it is?”

“You’ll find out in, like, three months, I promise.” Derek can’t resist and gives Will another peck on the cheek. “It’ll be worth it.”

wish i was there

Derek finally removes his hands from where they’ve been covering Will’s eyes for the past ten minutes. “Surprise?”

They’re stood just outside the Rockefeller Centre ice rink, which is filled with a hurricane of screaming children and couples desperately trying to keep their balance whilst holding hands.

Will chuckles. “I’d say yes, but somehow the fact that you blindfolded me when you caught me looking at a sign for the Rockefeller Centre says otherwise.” He pauses. “Also, the fact that I caught you stealing my skates from my apartment the last time we were there.”

“Okay, you got me,” Derek says, “but it was good choice, yeah?”

“Yes, definitely.” Will threads his hand in Derek’s. “It was a great choice. Plus it’s like full circle, y’know. We first met at an ice rink and it’s nice to bring the list to a close with an ice rink too. Especially considering how much our relationship has changed over the past seven years, though it was a bit touch and go for a while, eh.”

Derek can’t help himself; he laughs. “Eh? Have you been spending too much time with Jack, huh?”

“Shut up.” Will lets go of his boyfriend’s hand so that he can elbow him instead. “I’m trying to be romantic and poetic and shit; don’t make fun of me.”

“Okay, okay.” Derek says. “You said exactly what I was gonna say, is all.”

“Oh?” Will mock-gasps. “So, I was in fact being poetic and shit?”

Derek kisses him – mostly to wipe the smug grin off his face – and then pulls back. “Are you ready to go and show these kids and tourists how it’s done?”

“Aren’t we technically tourists for this exercise?”

“Shhhh.” Derek kisses Will again, just for the fun of it this time and as they break apart, he feels something wet on his cheek. “Wait, are you crying?”

“No, you idiot, it’s snowing.”

Oh.

So, it is.

Derek feels a little stupid right now, but he can’t tell if that’s because of the kiss or because he was so obviously wrong.

Will taps him on the shoulder. “Come back here, idiot. This feels like a pretty perfect ending to my first year in New York.”

Derek waggles his eyebrows at him. “Yeah?”

He’s met with an eyeroll, but Will also rewards him with a “yeah” and another world-stopping kiss.

Derek has to agree with Will: with the snow falling down on them and the hubbub of the city around them, it does feel like a pretty perfect ending to their first year in New York together.

you wrote me a letter just the other day you said, "springtime is coming soon so why don't you come to stay" i packed my stuff, it's on the bus, i can't believe it's true. i'm three days from new york city and i'm three days from you.

Will has to laugh when his mom hands him the mail stack, an envelope with his name on it sat on top. Did Derek seriously send him a letter for the two weeks that he was back in Maine? Well, yeah, clearly – that much is evidenced by the fucking letter in his hand.

In fairness, the gesture does have Derek written all over it.

He carefully rips open the letter, thankfully not wax-sealed like some of the love letters that Will had watched Nursey send in his earlier years at Samwell, and the contents spill out.

Will pick up the letter first and begins to read it.

Dear Will,

It’s hard to believe that it’s only been nine months since I found you again at that gig on the Bowery; it feels like we’ve been exploring New York together for years. But springtime is coming soon again and I’m hoping that I’ll never have to find you again, but instead that you’ll always be in easy reach by my side. You know how you said one night that to you New York is me? Well, in the past nine months, New York has instead become You and Me. I feel like you’re pulling back the curtain and I’m seeing the city I’ve lived in for my whole life in a completely different light. Everything is suddenly so much brighter and more beautiful with you around. I hope that this new light continues with the dawn of this new spring, a third new beginning for us perhaps, but just to make sure, would you do me the honour of moving in with me? I mean, if nothing else, it saves you (and, rather selfishly, me) the commute the Lincoln Park every other night.

I know it’s only been a week, but I miss you so much.

I love you.

Derek.

The other item sitting on the kitchen table in front of Will is a keyring with two keys and a picture of the one of the windows from the current Bowery Mural. The keys are engraved with the numbers #24 and #28 and Will can’t quite hold back the mistiness that begins to gather in his eyes.

Of course, after everything, Derek brings it back to hockey, back to Samwell, back to that period of time when they were inseparable, but constantly at odds with each other, so similar, but so different.

Will carefully threads his old keys onto the new keyring. A third and final new beginning sounds perfect to him.

because everyone's your friend in new york city and everything looks beautiful when you're young and pretty the streets are paved with diamonds and there's just so much to see but the best thing about new york city is you and me

[phoenixcatch7]

Unrelated to the last post but MAN I wish I could make a list of characters view the canon fics that do it so well across fandoms but I really don't want to risk opening them up to deletion. It's only recently that these sorts of stories have been allowed to stay up, as only a few years ago they were considered 'too close to canon' and could - would - get forcibly taken down from just about every site.

I've lost too many amazing cvtc fics to staff deciding they were bending the rules too much to just post a list of links but... I wish they were more popular because there's some absolute gems.

Here, I'll talk about a few things they did:

Killed the protagonist and everyone had to rewatch his memories to bring him back. This was very controversial in universe and it made it work so well.

The protagonist was oblivious to the reading, not part of it. This meant everyone could theorise and debate between themselves and actually REALLY solved the pacing and dramatisation issues common to these fics.

The protagonist actually replaced a villain in canon; the reading was done pre canon and the villain believed he had gone insane was the one acting like that. It was mortifying but seeing his body make friends and get a happy ending when he believed he was beyond hope and vicious about it was heart wrenching.

The young protagonist accidentally wished to be understood and a villain took advantage of it. It switched between the reading and reactions and the protag desperately trying to defeat the villain and make plans to run away to prevent his revealed secret getting him killed by the government.

The very large cast was split into groups, but could contact each other via texting. This enabled each group to have wildly varying reactions and theories without having to constantly argue and fight. It made it more fast paced, and added tension as the villains plotted unsupervised.

A very small cast were on a road trip and found the protags audio diaries of his adventures in the glove compartment. This was a Percy Jackson one, and it built off the books' first person format brilliantly.

The protags purposely wrote down their adventures in books and sold them on the market to fix their reputation and earn some money doing so. It involved people frantically trying to verify the books and evolved into a pr nightmare.

The orphan protag somehow time travelled back to when his family was in hiding with his books. His parents and uncles read the books and got to know their currently infant kid in the process. (This was a Harry Potter one, and both the series and author got permanently banned from ffn years ago and it had gotten all the way to deathly hallows 😭. It had been in progress for over a decade and was immaculately written, I miss it so much. Author if you're out there ily.)

Midway through canon a group of the protags friends combined all of their memories in a crystal ball and shipped it to a conference where just about every important figure was in attendance. They did not tell each other of the memories they included. They did not tell the exiled protag what they'd done. Many unexpected revelations and betrayals happened during the viewing. It also made it so the only scenes that appeared were ones where other people were there, which was so creative and well done.

The protag was a powerful psychic brought in for questioning and made it everyone else's problem. It was hilarious.

For a video game canon a handful of trusted allies (and villains before they went insane) were secretly delivered the games by THE TIME TRAVELLING GHOST OF THE PROTAGONIST IN DISGUISE and played them. The main focus was the main villain finding out a) how to even play video games (there was an ongoing joke about ridiculous video game logic) and b) the reasons he went insane, in excruciating detail, c) his victim's perspective including his own history that future him died not knowing about. One of his friends got a spinoff video game about how all his other friends died tragically. Many people saw their own traumatic deaths on screen with about twenty pixels.

A group of next gen kids accidentally fell into their parent's memories (of a war they'd been lied to about).

The protag was the 'child' of an omnipotent being who got sick of them being a self fulfilling prophecy (which ended horribly in canon) and locked them all in a fourth dimensional cave. In the same fic, the protag was using illusions to maintain the appearance of on-screen canon while fleshing out canon scenes and implications. Really well written and the character relationships were 👌.

The characters parents got the books, and had to reverse engineer the events that led up to canon and also which character was whose unborn kid.

A villain made a wish to publicly expose the main group's 'lies', accidentally exposed them as telling the truth and themselves as the corrupt liars. Whoops!

Traumatised side character time travelled back to pre canon from an apocalypse (that wasn't in canon), demanding the canon be viewed to understand and prevent the events that led to the apocalypse.

Characters broke after the events of canon publish their stories as fantasy books to the unknowing civilian public. The fantasy people accidentally get hold of it and everything goes to pot. I swear this is a totally different fandom to the other one.

Dead villain ghost secretly witnesses a viewing, time travels back to adopt the protagonist and change history to his image.

Crossover where one character was revealed to be a character from the other fandom in hiding with a fake identity.

Protag lost his memories and everyone uses a magical device/ritual to restore it, becoming witnesses themselves in the process.

Characters were forced to watch amvs of each other and had to try and extrapolate the order of events and the symbolism of the song. No one walked away with the full picture, but they got the main problems sorted.

Someone made an uncannily accurate play and the characters had to track the creator down to sue them (and figure out how they'd done it) without revealing that the portrayal was accurate.

A travelling seer took severe umbrage to the body stealing protag and exposed him with receipts. He spent basically the entire fic curled in a ball of mortification.

The protag on trial for many crimes got the magic viewing device used on him in front of everyone in the courtroom.

One fic was pretty normal but every time someone on screen got hurt or sick, so did their 'irl' counterpart. It sped up the fic a lot as no one wanted to linger on the worst bits. Also the author used canon implications, that the protag was oblivious to, to low key scare everyone who noticed them.

Crossover where the adults of one fandom fought over adoption rights of the other fandom's teen protag.

The author only used cherry picked moments of canon to massively streamline the fic, which worked! All the high moments you want a fic to cover - epic fights, dramatic reveals, important conversations, silly moments, developing relationships. And absolutely NOTHING else, there was very little context. Made for some excellent moments of people frantically trying to explain themselves lol.

Character stared too long into the void, broke the fourth wall to watch their own media. They spent most of the fic about to cry.

Protags patron deities hosted a viewing to try and get him a gf/bf from their other avatars. He wasn't looking for romance but did eventually end up in a poly relationship.

Prophet reluctantly revealed his own version of events with the help of his sentient house. This was about a movie so it was pretty fitting thematically lmao.

There is so much potential!! There's so many ways to do it, branch out, give these sorts of fics a try! Don't get stuck in the rut of the same methods as everyone else, even in this genre there's all sorts you can do with it! Use some of these examples if you want! Get creative and don't forget you're writing a story!!

Of course, if you recognise or are reminded of these please don't link or name them*, but you're more than welcome to guess which fandom each belongs to XD!

*Except that Harry Potter one, please I need closure, it's been a decade-

[figachilles]

Wanted to share my fic on here too! Marinler fake dating.

So, as much as the thought of pretending to be dopily in love with Brad fills Beckett with a weird sickly feeling she can’t quite put her finger on, she has an obligation to put the effort in. Because Beckett’s a great friend. Because she never says no to a prank. And because Will – the Boimler who didn’t come back – definitely deserves it.

Mariner agrees to pose as Boimler's girlfriend at a Titan reunion party, in an effort to outshine Will after his big promotion. With ample practice, a lot of lying, and several glasses of champagne, what could possibly go wrong?

[desired-misery]

So about that whumptober...

Lots of words written, not that many prompts covered. Am I doomed? Probably lol

[mybrainisrottingat3am]

This is me being productive in history class.

[liesmyth]

omg Redditor???

YES! you won't catch me dead discussing any sort of media or politics on reddit but I love it for stuff like. cooking subs. fitness. various hobbyposting etc. I also get sports news on there and sometimes the comment sections on those are hilarious but sometimes it's the worst thing on earth. but it has trained me to look away! from bad internet opinions in a way that tumblr could never hope to achieve. I modded a couple decently big subs over the years and I used to get the most unhinged DMs there

I genuinely like reddit because I think it's like sitting at a table in a cafè and overhearing randos' conversations in terms of getting the pulse of what people outside your circles think about various stuff. BUT. I AM irrationally peeved whenever all the r/soccer dudes still think I must be a man. even though my account has a blatantly obvious female usernames and she/her in the user description.

[tangledspice075]

Stab, duck out of range, repeat.

It's alarming how easy it is to fall back on the old tactics. Of course, Polites thought 10 years of war would do that to a person. 

Following Odysseus's orders, he struck the heels and moved out of range, circling until the cyclops let down his guard again.

He doesn't like fighting. He doesn't think he ever would. But someone has to fight the war for the people who can't. Besides, he reassured himself he struck first. Even so, he mourns the life that must be shed.

The cyclops roared in pain, so loud that Polites heard it over the shouts of the men, and for one flitting moment, Polites feared the ceiling would fall. Suddenly the cyclops had its club in its hands. And it was coming straight. for. him.

Dimly he thinks he should run. Do something. Move! But his muscles wouldn't give.

He thinks he sees someone running towards him from the corner of his eye, but all he can do is stare at the club as it sinks closer and closer towards him.

Right as it was right on top of him, he felt someone push him out of the way. Skidding away from the club and on the floor, with a CRACK, the club fell. 

Suddenly he was a child, wide-eyed and staring as a boar charged closer and closer. And just like now, he was pushed out of the way. Polities saw Odysseus push him out of harms way as the boar's tusk grazed Odysseus's leg. 

Swiftly like a bolt of lightning, he had a feeling who pushed him out of the way.

No.

He scrambled up to his feet and ran over to the body.

NonononononoNO

“Captain…?”

There on the ground was the broken body of Odysseus. 

His captain.

His friend.

Dead.

He dropped to his knees, fumbling for a pulse, checking his breathing, anything.

Nothing.

He doesn't know what happened in the next few minutes, staring at Odysseus's body in shock.

He was only roused when Eurylochus moved towards him, shaking his shoulder firmly but gently.

"Is the captain...?"

"Dead."

His voice rang hollow to his ears, and Eurylochus gave him a look of solemn sorrow.

Not wanting to look him in the face, he looked around the cavern and wished he hadn't.

Odysseus was not the only casualty brought on by the cyclops. From a glance around the cavern, he saw at least a dozen men not moving, lying in a puddle of blood. 

The cyclops was lying flat on the floor, not dead, as his first glance told him, his chest rising and falling.

Polities stumbled to stand, and Eurylochus offered him his arm to stabilize. Not wanting to fall, he leaned on his arm.

Limping over to the cyclops, he and Eurylochus joined the still-standing men.

"We don't know what happened. he was standing one second and the next…" a man said, Polities not recognizing his face.

He stepped forward and took a quick inspection. The cyclops looks asleep, his breaths slow and deep. But something is off. It looks familiar... 

"Captain… must have put lotus in the wine."

Where is the captain?” A voice from the crowd asked.

There was a pause of silence. It said the answer far better than words could.

Polities saw the shock and confusion ripple through the crowd and the despair that soon followed.

Knowing he had to change the subject, he asked, “How are we going to escape? We can’t kill the cyclops, or we will be trapped inside.”

“And what shall we do with our fallen friends?” Asked another voice from the crowds.

Eurylochus, whilst ordering everyone to scout around the cave, replied, “we shall have to leave them here.”

Polites spun around in shock. 

“Leave our friends here!? The least we can do is give them a proper burial!”

“Carrying the bodies will slow us down,”

“So we leave them here to rot!?”

“We will likely have to retreat onto the boats and set sail as fast as possible. There is no room on the boats for bodies and no time for us to bury them.”

Knowing he is correct yet still refusing to leave them, polities stomped off.

Eurylochus watched as he lugged the bodies together and whisked around looking for something. Soon he had long sticks stacked in a cone shape. Swiftly he knew what he was making. A funeral pyre.

Looking around the cavern, he decided he could spare a few men.

Just as Polites was trying to light the pyre, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Jumping in shock, he turned around he saw a trio of men standing behind him.

"Eurylochus sent us to help." said the one who put his hand on his shoulder.

Polites looked over at where Eurylochus was. He was standing with his back firmly towards Polites, ordering the men to sharpen the cyclops' club.

Even during all of this, he smiled. Not as big as his other ones, just a small, fond one. But a smile nonetheless.

. . .

Looking at the pyre burning with the smoke drifting to the top of the ceiling, he felt a pang of sadness. Odysseus is dead. Ithica has lost its king, Penelope has lost her husband, Telemachus has lost his dad, who he didn't even get to know or meet. He had lost his friend. And the world doesn't even know of his death.

He looked down at the sword in his hands. Odysseus sword. He grips it tightly, and then, right there, he makes a promise. He would not let Odysseus go to the underworld with regrets. He would make it back home and tell Telemachus of his dad, so many stories that he would feel like he has known him all his life. He would make it back and tell Penelope the terrible news and offer the comfort he knows she will need. He would make it back home.

Behind him, Eurylochus walked up to him till they were side to side. They stood there for a moment, watching the pyre flicker and burn.

Then in unison, they turned and walked back to the crowd of men with the club now sharpened into a spear.

They would remember them.

And behind them, the flames of those who've gone burned.

[wispforever]

Step One

3k word fanfic. Since his father killed himself, Kakashi has wrestled with his own suicidality. These feelings threaten to overwhelm him from time to time as he gets older. Fortunately, he has the most annoying companion on the planet to pop up and interrupt at the best possible moment. Say what you will about Might Gai, but unlike Kakashi, he is always on time.

warning for suicide and suicidality, self-harm, OCD (obsessions and compulsions), pills, grief, death of a family member, death of a friend, blood (briefly), unreality, anxiety, and dissociation. canon character deaths do apply (Sakumo, Minato, Obito, and Rin, in this case).

Read it here

[thecryptidbard]

Okay ghosties I’m officially back to working on fics

[i-like-books-and-women]

I'm going through ao3 as one does and sometimes it's just like "ah you're new" cause I saw a fic tagged / but literally all the other tags are like "this is platonic".