#OH also everytime I was tagged in something or referred to in tags etc on a post during this hiatus

[hella1975]

hey idiots and hellions etc, i’m BACK on my bullshit <3 yes that’s right, this bastard little hiatus - which lasted a tad longer than i expected - is finally the fuck OVER. ‘jesus god please no’ i hear you cry, but i’m not listening because i am rejuvenated and self-cared to the nines and I HAVE FINISHED COLLEGE. LIKE. COMPLETELY FINISHED. i’m still getting my head around it because finishing school during a pandemic is literally just ‘wait did it just end? was that it? oh. sound okay’ and that’s that. a few updates because for some reason a good portion of you are ACTUALLY interested? and have been sending asks to keep up to date with me? and i’m hopelessly in love with you? anyway:

- no more exams!! so many wished me luck and i literally cannot express enough how much that actually made me feel better. i thought it’d be a fickle little thing, but the amount of times i was on The Verge Of An Education Induced Breakdown, remembering how many people were actually rooting for me was so comforting. and hey, i don’t think the exams even went too terribly! (touch wood)

- i now have like four months with zero (0) responsibilities and i fully intend to go off the rails in this time. i think i deserve it. i have a lot of plans with my mates so still should be pretty busy, but i’ll no longer be balancing fic-life with exam-life AND social-life, so it should all be smooth sailing from here <3

- chapter 34 is.... Going. i didn’t actually write nearly as much as i thought i would during this break (usually my body experiences one (1) bout of stress and immediately goes ‘oh? does this mean ‘write thousands of words feverishly without a break as a coping mechanism?’’ and doesn’t wait for a response) but that’s led to what i have so far of this chapter being very thought out and i’m v happy with the quality. but like i said, i’ve prioritised exams and friends and my mental health lately, so i’m still expecting another week or so before the chapter is finished. you’ll be getting the usual bullshit writing updates here though now i’m off hiatus. thank you again for being so patient with me

some smaller things that have happened that i’d usually have bitched about on here the moment they took place:

- everyone is having ‘college is finished’ parties and it’s forced me to actually spend money on clothes??? which is a big treat for me bc i’m so stingy when it comes to spending money on clothes. if ur reading this and you’re holding out on treating yourself because you think you don’t deserve it then this is your sign <3333 anyway the point here is that i look hot

- i also dyed my hair red (even though it sort of went pink? Idk? vibes and that cruise like a four wheel drive and that-)

- I’m currently 4 days into a 6 day bender, pray for my liver ❤️ (which means ironically I’m breaking hiatus at a time I might potentially be busy but it’s fine im here in spirit and physically I am slamming jagerbombs at the local bars)

- i emailed a parlour about getting a tattoo! i’m finally getting organised!

- I applied for my uni accommodation and that was the day, young children, that one hella1975 realised uni is actually very fucking close and not some faraway dream

- i am now self-banned from a bar in my town (self-banned = no one is actually stopping me from going back there except myself. it’s in everyone’s best interest...)

- i’ve started the Big Scary re-write of tales of the mirrored world!!!!!! i am so powerful omg

- anddddddddddddddd i hereby swear that if i have to look at an economic diagram ever again i will go fully sexily completely berserk <3 that’s right mr john maynard keynes and mr william phillips i am wishing violence upon your bloodline <3 

i’m back fuckers and i’m in a really happy place atm and I MISSED YOU ALL !! LIKE A LOT ACTUALLY I WAS NOT EXPECTING TO MISS YOU GUYS TO THE EXTENT THAT I DID !! PLEASE SHUT UP ABOUT IT !!

[fluffydancer618]

hello there, may i ask what in the fuck is happening in the rtgame tag and your board

(this isnt negative or anything i just genuinely wanna know and can you show the board?)

Short answer: Nothing is happening but also the giant butterfly effect started back in the summer of 2020 that what is happening, and here is my board

Long answer aka The History of Rtumblr In Summary That You Might Wanna Know If You Are New Here: So it’s all started on June 8th 2020 when RT took a break and when the post with just three words was created and this post was ‘Kevin has feet’ (or simply ‘khf post’), which later escalated into a big discussion about the veracity of this statement. From this post, besides important stuff like fairy!dan, mermaid!kevin, mafia coffeeshop au with a bear noises and etc., we also got a onceler dan aka Rtcler (aka the rtcler ask blog). And that was a story how rtumblr revived onceler. And yes, it was just the beginning.

So later we also got a greedler kevin aka Kevler (aka greedler kev ask blog) which led to the greatest soap opera i ever seen between him, rtcler, slorax damn i miss slime , sg, lumpy and many other people. I’m gonna skip this soap opera because of two reason: 1. I don’t have all day to fully explain it to you, buddy. 2. Tbh I forgot most of it so i can’t tell much anyway lmao

Anywho, that’s how tradition of doing cursed ass shit everytime when RT goes on break was born

So skipping to summer 2021, RT takes another break somewhere in August and, according to tradition, rtumblr (actually that one in particular started on twitter i believe but oh well) doing cursed ass shit again, more precisely creating RTSans and many others so called rtsonas but spoiler not as much as they gonna create in future (if you’re actually interesting how many rtsonas we have, you might wanna check this list of all rts).

One more little skip to another RTBreak (TM) in October 2021 and in this one we’re sexyman’d Magical John. Yup.

And then in November 2021 the worst nightmare of any person here /j (/hj?) /lh happened - RT visit rtumblr. And damn anon we panicked, we panicked so hard cause all this stuff above was in the main tag and it’s probably the tag he checked and only god knows how many of that he saw. And this led to a little paranoia about ‘What if RT has a blog now’ or how i like to called it ‘What if Rumble Tumble has Tumblr’. And because we’re all clowns (affectionate), it didn’t took very long before RTblogs (TM) started to appear and claim (well.””””claim”””” y’know) that they’re a real RT.

And one day, more exactly on November 14th, one of the clowns with a really.. floofy name looked at that burning mess(affectionate), took a sip of their conspiracy tea and said ‘Yeah, i can make it make sense’. And that’s how the first version of The Board (The full name is ‘The Board of rtcu and cmkcu’ or ‘Wtf is going on here’ board. Pick your favorite.) was created. But then some things happened and some info on it was incorrect /wasn’t full so they updated it. Then it happened again so they updated it again. And again. And again. Again. Again. Again again again. Ag- i think you get it. Feck i think i need to update it again actually- (Link on it in the short answer. You can also find it in ‘rt has blog’ tag. Well, if you can’t for some reasons, don’t worry. It will find you. You can’t escape it. No one can. And yes, the name of the tag is a reference.)

Then i accidentally started my villain arc aka the lore aka ‘do you love the color of rtumblr roleplay?’. Basically, everything with a tag ‘do you love the color of rtumblr roleplay?’ is the lore/something related to this lore and piece of it are scattered throughout entire rtumblr but here’s three main posts in order - 1, 2, 3 (They also have some branches but if you curious you can find it in their notes. And yes, the name of the tag is a reference.).

Ok, what we have next let’s see.. Oh. Oh fuck. Shit. I need to tell about this too, aren’t i. Ugh, fine.

And now it’s time for a final part when i just dump information on you without any explanation cause i am not sure how to explain it myself and also cause this post is already really long:

I’m rtcler’ child. ‘Like adopted?’ HA. Mpreg is canon here. ‘Who’s the second parent then?’ There’s five candidates on this role, so for now i just made a conclusion that it’s a polycule of six people (Rtcler, Sg, Rtsans, Kevler, Cupcler and God itself) + one stepparent (@/withspaces ).

So, answering your question: Nothing happening in the rtgame tag. As you can see, it’s just a normal state of being for us (/lh /aff).

That’s all. What? You still have questions? You have even more questions after all this? Yeah, i know that. It’s Rtumblr. You should have.

[thehaemanthus]

Tagged by @hyena-frog. Thank you, lovely!

Last song: Dancing After Death- Stripped, Matt Maeson. I feel like everytime i do one of these I end up listing a song from the Vesriel Playlist and that just tells you how much time I’m spending on this stupid story

Last movie: Vice. A little late to the party. It reignited my drive to get into the national security sector, promote diplomacy instead of using the military as our main instrument abroad, reigning in war powers, integrating human rights into foreign policy, so that’s good. It also made me go back and listen to lectures on Clausewitz, like a nerd. 

Currently watching: Merlin. Yes, the old BBC one, lol. I was late to the party again. 

Currently reading: Re-reading The Wicked King, but I’m going to move to Axiom’s End next. I also got Call Down the Hawk for the holidays and I need to get to that at some point.

Physical books: Okay, no one knows what this questions refers to, but yes. I have a stack of physical books I need to read. I like physical books, but it’s also really nice to have an e-book. I get it on the day it comes out, it’s more transportable in some instances, it takes up less room, etc. 

Fics: Oh? You want a list of my fics? You want to look at my AO3 profile, VivereLibri? You want to hear about an angsty second son who must break the careful rules he’s created, the rules that say he must push everyone away, in order to simply survive and protect someone who is helpless and needs him? You want to hear about Sabina, a character who exists in only a few lines in Red Rising, a woman who is terrified and seduced by a fate that she cannot escape? Can I tell you about the Heir, the prodigy, who is so afraid of his own potential that he won’t even explore it? Or the youngest child, gifted with absurd amounts of power, who accidentally wanders into people’s minds, who projects her emotions, who had so much more trouble living in a crowded world and expressing any sort of vulnerability? How much do you want to hear about what lies beneath the tip of the iceberg and all the fics I don’t have published yet?

Or...was this question about other’s fics? Can I go on and on about @hushedhands and The Laws of Inheritance and The Thing with Feathers, which turns a meh series into something with better worldbuilding, better characters, real stakes, and Oldest Daughter feelings that routinely make me too emotional? Or @thespianbooks, who’s doing a ACOTAR fic about Rhys and Feyre and their first child and war, a turbulent mix of violence and conflict with the brightest moments people can experience when expecting a child? Or @duskandstarlight who is writing about Nesta and Cassian and revealing the characters to me and, truly, might end up producing something that is slow and meaningful and complete and dare I say it might transcend canon. I could go way back and tell you about the other fics that I can’t stop thinking about, Weave Me a Myrtle Crown for instance, where, well...where @weavemeamyrtlecrown comes from (that’s my main blog, btw).

I’ve ranted a lot.

I like fanfic. 

Currently craving: Sooooo, I was craving something sweet. So I made myself a mug cake. It was a lot of mug cake. That was a mistake. 

Tagging everyone up there ^^^, as well as @hoe-for-ares, @artemisausten, @fandomoverflow, @zeynohayta I would tag Astrea but like you’ve already been tagged my dude, you’ve been taken

[gild-and-fire]

ggweek 2020: All About Rio

Tagged by the wonderful @inyoursheets and absurd @sothischickshe

Tagging (but no pressure!!) @fairhairedkings​ @missmaxime​ @briosgina​ @mrslackles​ 

Questions from here and I think I added a read more?

Why do I personally like or dislike Rio? (I added this one for fun)

A few different elements of Good Girls drew me in (humor, acting, UST, etc) and I have been hyperfixated hooked since! And not to get too real on the main--jk imma bare it all out here on the internet--I found Good Girls in a time when I didn’t really have much independence or agency in my life. So, obviously, beth being a boss bitch and rio being straight-up unhinged definitely satiated me.

Specifically, other than the fact that he is very very handsome and i would give him my life savings if he just said the word “muhney”, I love that he takes calculated risks (ie any risk he takes on beth), has fun being a prick (“what’s up, you miss me?”, “it’s too good, ma”, “need another bathroom break?”, “we’re consolidating”), has amazing outfits (no further comment), uses his charisma to cajole and charm people into compliance (rip Gil & Lucy), and yeah i just think he’s neat

What are your headcanons about Rio’s and Mick’s relationship? Did they meet through crime? Are they lifelong friends?

OH definitely best buds for LIFE who met during crime and then like just trusted each other’s judgement. I think Demon follows orders without a second thought (which Rio loves), Rio laughs manically whenever Demon says something sassy or rude (which Demon loves), and they neither one takes life too seriously, ya know? They’re both just having a good time and appreciate that the other is on the same wavelength.

Now that’s what is probable. What isn’t probable BUT I want dearly??

Mick barbeques every other month and Rio brings Marcus everytime

Rio and Mick have matching tattoos on their ankles from a very fun night in Canada

They play basketball together and the winner rubs the victory in the other’s face for the rest of the week. Rio always dunks on Mick, but Mick is surprisingly agile and good at stealing (bc he’s not wearing a tiny leather jacket duh)

Mick has tried to set Rio up with his many cousins by bringing them to the bar “coincidentally” at the same time Rio is there

They text each other pictures of their food and share restaurant/food truck suggestions

What are Rio’s hobbies outside of work and Marcus? What do you think he’d get up to on a day with absolutely no responsibilities?

ART! ART! ART! I will not accept any answers except for boxing/basketball and art. That man’s apartment was wayyy to gorgeous, and have you seen his hands?? I can only imagine the things he can do with a paintbrush

What do you think Rio’s goals for the future are?

Total mayhem and destruction (at the Boland residence)

What do you think Rio is bad at (cooking, dancing, singing, etc.)? How come?

There’s NO way he’s good at singing, but i would bet everything i have that he is a good dancer. I mean,, I could stare at the way he walks allllll day.

Why do you think Rio is drawn to Beth? + Why do you think Rio didn’t kill Beth?

Before I joined the fandom, I really questioned why either one was attracted to the other, and oftentimes, I was convinced that they simply were using each other for selfish reasons and for the sake of manipulating the other. Now, I still believe that they use each for selfish business reasons, but that genuine feelings and interests have also developed since around 1.06 and it has been challenging for both ever since business and personal have mixed.

I think the fact that they are two sides of the same coin makes their attraction so delicious for a viewer, but I think that they are both distrustful individuals and thus are destined to always second guess the other’s motivation even if they are being genuine. It kinda reminds me of Epifanio and Camila’s marriage in Queen of the South: they love each other, but the clash of their individual ambitions make it difficult to trust each other.

But, back to the question lol. I think Rio is drawn to Beth and hasn’t killed her because he understands her, sees himself in her, and enjoys how she challenges him. Specifically, they are both motivated by the desire to provide for their kid(s) and their love for crime. Beth hustles hard, leverages her unfortunate situations into advantageous ones, and only trusts herself--I think the same can be said for Rio and that he admires these parts of Beth.

What are your headcanons about Rio’s family? Siblings? Parents? Lifestyle growing up?

This is a tough one bc I absolutely love the different OCs created for Rio’s family and I think it’s so fun to see his older sisters clown him on the daily. However, I’m inclined to think he has one older sister because he drinks his respect women juice and has STRONG younger sibling vibes (re: constantly causing trouble but always acquitted). In my limited experience, I think older siblings have to be more responsible, and Rio plays it a little more fast and loose.

I would also venture a guess that if he had a “stable”/”traditional” childhood, he likely wouldn’t have fallen into crime? I have a hard time placing what his parents and upbringing was like, because I only have my frame of reference and like who thinks that’s sound judgement lol. But I suppose that Manny’s own backstory would be a good starting point: he grew up in a rough area, has traditional grandparents (who likely supervised Rio when his parents were working/not home), and is hustling to move up in the world. I also think that he is someone who has come to discover and define his own style over time, but wasn’t able to when he was younger.

Do you think Rio’s been arrested before Beth got him arrested in 1.10? When, and what for?

MY bby? My “too smart for his own good”, “two-steps-ahead” bby??? ABSOLUTEL Y  NOT  i think the shutdown episode is such a good example of why not, and i think we know that beth is a BIG, glaring exception in his normal business dealings, so getting arrested doesn’t happen often, if ever

If Rio weren’t a crime boss, what jobs do you think he’d be good at? Why?

OK so I went back and forth on this one. Let me explain my thoughts

I think he is well-suited for being a PM in tech because it requires “disruption” and Rio definitely loves to disrupt things lol, and he is a natural leader who can motivate a team to follow his lead.

I DO not think that working at a consulting firm or law firm or something businessy like that would be up his alley bc its way too stuffy and too many rules (ethics & compliance training, what the fuck?) But Rio is also good at being a snake

Maybe a math teacher? Before you laugh, hear me out. He’s good with kids, he’s good at math, and we know he likes to give lessons!! (does he do it well? Idk but obviously beth was ready to shoot boomer in S2 and then taught Max in s3, so there’s that lol)

But yeah, I think an entrepreneur in tech is perf bc is requires a certain degree of rule-breaking, a certain degree of charisma, and strong math/science skills.

[mongoosejpeg]

Random concepts my brain comes up with (or just random things I think of)

I tried to avoid angst (and u!sides) but....I came up with a lot of angst (i think?)....ajdhdh sorryyyyyy

Also....dont question anything pls....im very sleep deprived and dont know anything and dont take anything to seriously

Also....theres very bad english in here so...yeah....

Warning: uh....might be u!sides.....idk ajshxh...itll be in the tags tho

Logan will quote a different school house rock song, everyday, to Virgil

Patton takes Romans sash and puts it around his forehead/waist cuz hes a pirate

Virgil steals Janus' cape and will be an airplane and everytime he passes a side he will say nyooommm

Roman will take Virgils makeup (who has a lot of different colors) and do the other sides makeup

Remus will take Logans glasses and wear them wrong on purpose cuz he knows it annoys Logan

Logan and Deceit don't do anything or take anything cuz theyre the parents™

Its legit canon that they have their own phones......Virgil has a lavender phone case, Logan has a gold case, Roman has a golden phone case, Patton has a red phone case (i think)

Everyday Virgil will give Patton a stone with a tiny piece of paper telling the meaning at the same time...everyday. virgil does this cuz 1. he has too many 2. it gives him smth to do and gets him to be a tiny bit productive

Janus has a bunch of plants a l o t o f p l a n t s like....almost an excessive amount

Dukexiety/tangled au.....repunzal as Virgil and flynn as remus (idk)

Logan t poses almost all the time

The way to tell Patton and Janus apart is that janus knows how babies are made (messenger falcons) and Patton does not

Virgil likes pasta with no sauce (pathta wif nu thathe) (if ya get the reference....good job)

Virgil has yet to have a debate with Patton, Janus and Remus

Every time there is a new disney movie roman will just be...*flappy hands* for like.....a good half hour before actually watching it

The mind vs. the heart is just an old married couple™ fight

"Oh ofc. i never wanted you to feel like you couldnt" like.....the way patton says it....sounds like a mix of Deceits voice and Pattons voice

Anytime the other sides/Thomas has a problem, Logan will dress up as Sherlock...and patton (no matter where he is) will pop up as Watson and the little arguement will happen everytime

Rhythm Redux has hints of Mandy goes to med school

Virgil is pretty short....not by much but still one of the shortest side. When his anxiety heightens, he grows taller for x hours. Then when he calms down, he goes back to his normal height

Remus would practice forbidden fruit all the time, so that when he and Thomas finally met, he wouldnt mess up (cuz ew...who wants tk mess up on their own song?). Sometimes he would scream it, especially when Virgil was around

In moving on pt.1 virgil said "no" and then his hand flew up to cover his mouth...which was deceit

Janus with a flower crown around his hat

Janus has a snek in his hat and its never ending...like a mandelbrot fractal

Logan info dumps about space and Janus is the only one who actually, truly listens

Are there healthy distractions has more analogical....

Logan will carry around a notebook and pen/pencil at all times....especially for Virgil...like...when he gets a panic or anxiety attack...logan will give him the notebook so he doesnt have to talk

Janus has several different bowler hats and the other sides (besides logan and maybe patton?) will steal all of them and hide them

Logan and Roman will watch movies together, purely to rewrite it....virgils there to have a disney debate with Roman

When Thomas gets really anxious, virgil will kick down a door and go through a window, feet first

they are their own villians

whats virgils, janus' and remus' biggest fears? Logan

All of the sides have/need glasses but Logan and Patton are the only ones who actually...wear them...obviously

For virgils birthday, Logan got Virgil a puzzle book (or Christmas)

Virgil met his new years resolution (like...he got it done)

*has to watch beauty and the beast for this one* technically....beauty and the beast isnt Stockholm Syndrom......belle traded herself so her father could be free....the beast never took maurice....he wondered into the castle by himself and got...captured....sooo technically...idk where im going with this ajsjxh

Virgil has a crap ton of funko pops

Everytime Patton goes into Virgils room, he'll come out scared of the curtains

When Roman said "you are nothing compared to the others" and his hand went over his mouth....was that deceit? like....him not wanting Thomas to even know about him or remus yet..or orange side?

"Im not evil" foreshadowing for remus

Patton can yell "i will physically fight you" as loud as logan can yell "falsehood"

Virgil is a Ravenclaw (i think we all knew this tho ajsjdh)

When Logan actually shows sadness (the like....one time he did) the other sides will give him validation (telling him hes right, he cool etc.) and just...give him love (they will also do this with the other sides too)

Logan will pop up and ask Thomas about the picture with circles that is hanging above Thomas's (?) couch.

Logan has yet to actually solve a problem by himself...... hes either used information they already knew, or needed/used the others help (sorry)

Virgils the only one Logans said "sorry" to....he usually says "apologies"

The dark sides have pan(heh) pancake and pillow fights (the darks sides....remus and Virgil and janus just stands there until something gets thrown at him....then he joins)

Every year for their birthday, Roman and Logan will always get a jar (or more) of crofters

Every time Logan has crofters (like...pb&j or toast or smth idkkkkk) he'll keep making puns for an hour straight (gay)

Virgil watched dhmis and got weirded out for like....a week

When Janus is around, Patton and Roman will make a bunch of snake puns and janus will stand there like :|

Logan is allergic to anything "sweet" like....butterfingers

Did....did you guys know...that the cast of sander sides....is...Thomas sanders....i just learned that....thats...crazy wow....when were you guys gonna tell me? (fun fact.....every fricken time thomas yawned in dwit....i yawned)

Virgil researches architecture or like.....studies it?

Remus and/or Janus is/are (?) a ghost....ok remus...

Remus is actually really smart and gets along with Logan pretty well

Virgil was the least...like...responsive(?) after forbidden fruit

Virgils eyes are more red in dwit (could just be Thomas and that he was tired or smth)

Whenever Remus walks past Patton, he'll take off his ears but then put them back on when he goes out of Pattons sight (english who?)

In the bloopers (not really but shhhhh) or smth when Remus knocked Logans teeth out, logan said "figuwawivwy"

Whenever Virgil "sounds the alarm" he (and maybe patton and remus) will go "weoo" for a few minutes as loud as he can

Logan has a baymax plush

Janus is obsessed with Hocus Pocus (despite Logan pointing out all the inconsistencies)

In clbg when patton said yes to thomas when he asked if there are anymore sides that were hidden away from him, he glanced at virgil (and logan) and virgil got super uncomfortable

Janus will always say the "you better watch out" vine

Everytime Logan has an idea, he'll say lightbulb out loud...like...just..."lightbulb" and the other sides just stare at him like.."wha-???" until he explains

[collective-laugh]

The Parent Trap - Request

Warnings: Swearing, tomfoolery

Rating: SFW

Word Count: 2100 and some change

So I wrote this with the intent of leaving the child(ren)’s origin ambiguous (whether they were birthed or adopted, etc.) and I didn’t give any of them names, but I did assign them genders and personalities. You either get adorable little children or asshole teenagers. No in between.

Also, the MC is gender ambiguous and referred to as ‘Baba’ by all of the children.

I really, really loved this prompt and it was a lot of fun to write!

Asra

Asra is basically this kid’s parent anyway.

He lets her “help out” around the shop and she likes giving back far too much change to customers she think are nice

MC and their kid, this little girl with the brightest eyes he’s ever seen and two little braids adorning her head like a crown, and it couldn’t be more obvious when she tries to set Asra and the Apprentice up

She’s too young to remember when they were together the first go round, and the Apprentice still doesn’t remember any of that, but that doesn’t deter the little girl at all

While she’s playing outside with the other kids, she walks over to the Bread Man’s shop and asks him for his “finest loaf o’ pumpkin bread”

Obviously, it’s bread daddy, and he gives her best piece of pumpkin bread goddammit

She manages to hide it in the little satchel Asra gave her, and she only eats a little off it, she swears, and joins her friends in their game of tag

She has this whole date planned out in that little head of hers. She wanted to light candles but her Baba is smart enough to keep the candles out of her reach, so she settles on putting two mismatched plates on the dining table and the slightly lumpy pumpkin bread in the center

Baba and Asra are downstairs in the shop, chatting together, and she clears her throat as loudly as her little vocal cords will allow her

“Dinner is served!” She announces, and Asra grins and Baba smiles and shakes their head

“Will you be joining us, milady?” Baba asks, still leaning on the counter

She scoffs, “No. It’s a date.”

Baba lets their head fall in their hands, and they laugh, before looking back at her, “A date, hm? Is it for Asra and the nice Bread Man?”

She just stands there, fuming at how horribly her plan was proceeding, and she scoffs again, “No! It’s for you and Asra.”

They both laugh this time, and Asra says, to Baba, “Well, shall we?”

Baba pauses a second, like they’re considering, but they smile, “We shall.”

She wouldn’t admit to peeping in on them eating their bread, but it was definitely worth it when she saw Baba lean across the table to kiss Asra.

Nadia

Nadia doesn’t know the Apprentice has a child at first - much less two little ones

They have a four year old and a twelve year old

She learns when the Apprentice comes to the palace for the first time, one child on their hand, and the other skipping ahead of them

The twelve year old boy asks far too many questions and the four year old boy is far too attracted to shiny things, but Nadia can’t help but fall in love with both of them. While the Apprentice is doing much of their searching, she volunteers to watch the both of them

And, obviously, the children fall right back in love with her, and devise their plan

The elder of the two decides to work on Nadia, and commands the younger to work on their Baba, because, hey, who can resist their baby?

They go searching for Nadia and Baba, respectively, but end up meeting at the fountain

4 asks, “Did you get them here?”

12 just shrugs and says that he found them at the fountain

The two of them get closer to listen in on the conversation

Baba says, “I don’t even remember either of them being born, Nadia...I don’t really know if they’re of my body.” They sigh, and the boys look at one another, “I love them, more than anything, don’t get me wrong...I just…”

Nadia puts a hand under Baba’s chin, and tells them, “You are the best parent I’ve ever met, regardless.”

And Baba’s little boys squeal with Nadi leans in to kiss them.

Julian

Julian was understandably nervous when he found out that the Apprentice was the parent of a lovely little boy...and even more nervous when he found out that lovely little boy was thirteen years old and nearing the puberty years

Julian knew that more than others, and the kid most certainly did not like him whatsoever when their ‘Baba’ tried to introduce them

But, the Apprentice does their best to make him feel better, and truly, he believes them, and he wants to be their for this kid

So, basically, Julian and MC were already together when MC’s kid met Julian

It isn’t until the boy sneaks out in the middle of the night, after the whole “you’re not my dad!” spiel, and Julian manages to find him before he’s gotten into too much trouble, if you discount the fact he was currently being held up by a pair of ruffians

Julian pulls a switcherooney and manages to get him away from them, running like the goddamn wind

That’s the kind of switch that lets the kid know that maybe this guy wasn’t so bad

The first time Baba kicks Julian out is after a really bad fight, and the kid only catches part of it, something about commitment and sacrifice

Julian leaves, slamming the door behind him, and Baba just breaks down in the kitchen, crying

The kid obviously checks on Baba first, making sure they’re alright, but after they try to tell him to just go back to bed, he sneaks out of his window to try and follow Julian

He finds him, sitting by the docks near Auntie Mazelinka’s house, pushing the eyepatch off his head and ugly crying

Julian basically tells him to go back home, that it was dangerous, and acts like he wasn’t just sobbing by the water in the pale moonlight

The kid has had it up to here with the damn theatrics, and he’s probably the most blunt in telling him to go back, that they belong together, and he looks the most unimpressed, but he’s also probably the most genuine

He sees how happy Julian makes his parent, and...he’s not as opposed to calling him ‘Papa’ as he puts on

Muriel

So Muriel

He doesn’t like the Apprentice, regardless of how much they show up and have supper with him and bring him groceries and talk to him

Fuck no

Okay, so he does like them, and values their company, but their kids give him a headache

They’ve got identical twins, and they’re these teenage boys who think they own the world and compete only with the formerly late count in arrogance, and Inanna fucking loves them, for some reason

The Apprentice - their “Baba” - just smiles when they crack jokes or chastises them when they take a joke too far, and is a fair parent, if a little lax

Muriel honestly does the “Office” camera look (you know the one) whenever they do some stupid shit

Once, whenever Muriel tried to talk to one of them, calling him by name, the other would respond but Muriel knows they’re fucking with him, and then it happens again, until it happens a grand total of fourteen times in the span of their two day visit

Muriel’s just done with these little shits, but MC keeps apologizing for their behavior and giving them That Look™, which has them withering under their stare

They see how much Muriel likes Baba and how much Baba likes Muriel, and figure that they might as well use their “super awesome twin power to hook two of their favorite people up” and the other sneers and says, “call it ‘hook up’ again and I’ll put leeches in your bed”

So, much like Nadia’s, one of the twins heads out to get Muriel and the other works on Baba

He has a note written in Baba’s hand (because obviously they have their handwriting down pat) and gives it to Muriel, and immediately he’s burning like a thousand suns as the implication that the Apprentice wanted to meet him in the market for...a date?

Muriel kind of sets into overdrive, and something very, very similar is happening at home (The Other One is convincing Baba that there’s a sale in the market, so, not too similar but hey)

The twin leads Muriel into town, and, like the bosses they are, slip off in the market when Baba sees Muriel

Before they can get an earful from Baba, they’re already gone

Muriel mentions the note, and Baba is confused as shit until they realize their sons were up to it again, but they end up shopping together, spending the afternoon together in a nice, amicable manner

Also they kiss for the first time but

Portia

So the Apprentice has the most adorable baby son, and Portia melts everytime she sees the little toddler just toddling along

Portia is ecstatic when they bring the little three year old into the palace when Countess Nadia hires them, and Portia is more than excited to watch him when she’s not helping with the investigation

She loves children, but wasn’t too fussed about the whole baby-making, considering the stories she’s heard

So, she loves this ready-made kid, but is kind of worried about when the mystery is solved

She genuinely likes the Apprentice and wants a relationship, but she doesn’t exactly know how to tell them that without making it all about the kid

Now, the boy loves Portia as much as Portia loves him, and has an infinite amount of love for Pepi

The Apprentice is chilling with Portia just outside her cottage, having a picnic, the kid playing with Pepi, who’s careful not to use her claws, and licks him until he squeals

The Apprentice laughs, and they and Portia sit around them, drinking lemonade, and it’s quiet, and nice, and Portia is soaking up the sun, despite the fact that she would burn like a lobster if she was out too long

Then, the Apprentice is ecstatic when the kid manages to pull himself up without a table or anything and toddle over to the both of them, babbling Baba’s name, and then…

“Baba?” He plops down on Portia’s lap and she just

M E L T S

But then it’s a little awkward because oh my gods, this kid thinks I’m his parent, and his actual parent is sitting right here

But the Apprentice just leans over and pecks her on the lips, and she realizes it’s not that bad after all

Lucio

Lucio is definitely used to being the sassiest, most arrogant, person in the room

And then he meets the Apprentice, and he’s like, head over heels, but he can’t really, like...make a move, considering he’s dead

But, when he comes back to life, after stealing their body (he gave it back) he’s pulling out all the stops

And this person will. Not. love him.

He thinks it might be him at first, might be that he’s too extra, so he tries to rectify it by sending a carriage of roses straight to their shop

It isn’t until he comes down to the shop for himself that he realizes that they have a teenage kid - at first he thought it was the Apprentice’s apprentice - who looks at him like he’s an annoying scab

They’re a smartass, and make glib comments, and the only reason they don’t have their head up their ass is because their nose is so high in the air

But they love their parent and try to close the door on Lucio because ‘leave them alone, goddammit’

And almost immediately, the Apprentice tells them, “Swear! Who’s at the door?” They come to the door, and mutter, “Fuck.”

Their kid just has this smug look on this face, and the Apprentice invites him in,

So now Lucio’s the smug one, while the kid’s the one who has this fish out of water look

“Baba, is that really the best -”

“Hush now, and go put the kettle on. We’ve got company.”

So, this is basically the parent trap but...with Meredith and the dad instead of the mom and dad

The Apprentice’s kid can’t stand Lucio, just because they’re so similar in personality, and has heard of all the shitty things he’s done, so they’ll stop at nothing to make sure the Apprentice doesn’t fall for him

They fall for him

Lucio makes increasing visits to the shop, and their Baba visits the palace a ridiculous amount of times, and they just don’t understand it

Eventually, they come to terms with the fact that their Baba’s “playing the field” and whatnot, and they and Lucio get in some of the worst arguments or funniest conversations, and the Apprentice is glad to see their two favorite people getting along

[unimpressedperson]

“10 Movies to Describe Me” tag

Hey, as I ever said, I LOVE cinema and going to the movies, watching documentaries, enjoying life by studying every nuance present on the 7th art.

Along life we have contact with a bunch of movies and references that affect our personalities, view of world, and even how we act towards some situations. Cinema is a powerful way of art, possibly influencing.

Everyone has a list of movies which influenced our personal growth. This list is all about it: 10 Movies you can use to describe me.

1 - Spirited Away

Well, I think Spirited Away was my first contact with cinematography eastern culture and made me go further in searching for more. I was 5 or 6 when I watched and fell in love with it.

Nowadays I know how to respect different cultures, have a deep interest in stories and mythologies from other countries. Thank you Studios Ghibli!

Influenced personality: Love for mythology and cultures.

2 - The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

I LOVE drag queens and everything related to that subculture. I remember watching that movie as a kid, after midnight and hiding from my parents, which advised me to sleep because I had school the next morning.

Everything seemed so colourful and amazing, almost magical. A explosion of music and dresses, high heels, makeup, big wigs and dancing.

While growing up it influenced my choices on sports, acceptance, music, and love for drag culture.

RuPaul's Drag Race is part of my love for drag queens, but it wasn't the first reference. Btw, support your local queens and art.

Influenced personality: Dancing skills, LGBT acceptance (when it comes to myself, I have nothing to do with someone else's sexuality), love for drag culture and pop music.

3 - Blackfish

Oh ma'am, now we got to a very rough part of my personality: my HATE and INDIGNATION over zoos and aquariums.

I don't like zoos, not at all. Watching animals caged in small spaces and sad, oh boy, it makes me want to invade the whole place with a hammer and set them free.

Before watching Blackfish I didn't quite realize how bad everything was for fishes in Aquariums as well. Now, I want to start petitions against Sea World and Aquário de São Paulo.

I love animals, WAY MORE than I enjoy being around humans, so knowing how suffering is their life inside small places makes me want to cage humans and let them walk freely.

Influenced personality: Love for sea animals and thirsty for their justice.

4 - Inglorious Basterds

(This scene is one of my favourites lol)

#ILOVEHISTORYANDTARANTINO

Well, Inglorious Basterds is a very historically inaccurate movie, but I love it with all my stone cold heart. There are so many catchphrases and iconic moments.

I just love that movie. Nothing really special or meaningful.

Influenced personality: The need for kill Nazis lol

5 - The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I was a very angst teenage and depressed as well, not counting anxiety on the mix. When I was 13 The Perks of Being a Wallflower aired on cinemas, and suddenly all my concerns about acting weird and not normal, compared to other girls around and whose studied with me, kind of seemed so pointless, mainly because Patrick, Charlie and Sam seemed to have so much fun, even acting quirckly and being classified as misfits.

My story has nothing to do with neither of characters, but I related a lot to them. So I think a big part of me came and flourished after watching The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Also, it taught me the importance of speaking how you feel, therapy and trusting people enough to tell them when something wrong is going on.

The book is also one of my favourites, so I’m not impartial when it comes to The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Influenced personality: Not afraid of being myself, fight for human basic right of having mental health treatment guaranted and embracing my quirk personality.

6 - Erin Brockovich

Everyone who knows me well enough, is VERY aware of how independent and self-suficient I am. I hate depending on people for completing tasks or doing stuff, so most of the time I try to learn do things all by myself. It’s something natural inside of me, partly because I don’t get lonely, so the idea of depending on someone to anything makes me cringy.

Erin Brockovich is a movie I watched when I was 12 and the way Erin acted towards everyone, giving priority to her life and kids, not caring about everyone else’s opinion, it made me root to be independent like her (except for the kids and struggle to find a job). Erin exhales big dick energy, also the ending made me aplaud the movie (even tho I was alone at home watching it).

Influenced personality: I learnt how to classify my priorities, also improved my confidence on how I act, since Erin isn’t afraid of achieving things and proving her point, even if everyone else is against and won’t believe her.

7 - Lilo & Stitch

I think every single living human alive had at least one movie, you know this one movie, which you obsessed during your childhood. It doesn’t matter the genre, you watched it nonstop and pissed off your whole house with how repetitive movie marathons seemed to get with you, since everytime you picked whatever you were about to watch, your choice was quite predictable.

The movie I obsessed during my childhood was Lilo & Stitch (also Scooby Doo, where do you think I learned how to copy someone’s fingerprint by using pore cleanser and powder?).

As I mentioned a few items ago, I was a misfit and it played a big part on my life, being excluded from parties, playdates and games during P.E was common. It bothered me, but everything changed when we adopted my first dog, a dachshund called Xuxinha. We were Lilo & Stitch, whenever people treated me badly at school, I knew that she would be waiting for me at home.

Xuxinha passed away in 16th February 2017, and I still miss her.

  Influenced personality: It helped understand that people are douchebags, but as long as I have my dog/sister at home to hold and distract me, then nothing else matters. I learned the importance of surounding yourself with people who cares about your well-being, not caring specie, ethnicity, etc.

8 - Wonder

I don’t think this item requires a lot of text to describe why I felt influenced by it. Watch the movie and let’s sob together.

Influenced personality: Learned why appearance means nothing, and everyone goes through some struggle, so always be there for people who cares about you as much as you do about them. Also, always stand up against bullying, it may look like a joke now, but it can be the trigger for fatalities.

9 - Spotlight

I study Social Communication: Journalism, that’s what I’ve been wishing to do and want to be in the future. Even tho I decided what I wanted as my career YEARS before the release of Spotlight, it helped me define which kind of journalism I wanted to follow: Investigative.

It feels like I just made 4 out of 2+2, considering the fact that I love detective stories and would love to be a detective myself, but watching and acknowledging that all the investigation and  accusations were based on real facts, oh Ma’am, I can’t even describe the thrill consuming my mind only by imagining what it feels like to be involved journalistically in an investigation.

Influenced personality: My PASSION for investigative journalism.

10 - The Imitation Game

Last but not least: The Imitation Game.

Well, I constantly get annoyed on how biased our society is, for real, and whenever it happens I write poems and texts and protest, and piss off a bunch of people by only talking about a situation of inequality. When I first watched The Imitation Game the whole Alan Turing being castrated and killing himself because of homophobia and a VERY, I repeat, VERY narrow-minded society, it PISSED OFF THE HELL OUT OF ME, and I used this rage during a full semester of college paper works.

I named a group after Alan Turing and our semester project was basically about people being biased and killing genius because they cannot look further from their own bellybottoms. I won a “Oscar de Jornalismo”, which is the award that happens every six month in my college, prizing the best works from the semester.

It still makes me so angry to imagine what Alan Turing could had done if he lived for at least 20 more years.

Influenced personality: Well, it made me channel my rage about a situation and helped me to understand why we should discuss homophobia, racism, wars, etc, even harder now. Watching the world following the path for making the same mistakes all over again is frightening, and only history can help us.

- x-

It has potential to be a tag, so I’ll tag some people I want to know what movies inspired them. You don’t have to make a whole long ass text about your choices, just sharing is enough :)

@ohmydearmoonchild @okayycalum @emerson-moonchild @btsqualityy @theburntwaffle

[the-entity-with-determination]

2. Entry (30.10.2018, 2:30)

Dear Reader,

Today was a simple yet nice day.

School

Chris has finally returned to school today and made everyone's day a bit brighter. (he had some sort of a throat infection)

In the first period I had German. I gave the teacher my homework which I partly have worked on with Naomi (God bless u for helping me bro) and the rest of the lesson just consisted of analyzing a Text.

Second period was English. I normally sit in the first row with one dude from the friend group, but I was too slow and my place got claimed. So I sat down next to the quiet girl from my class. Honestly I want to find out more about her. And maybe even befriend myself with her. I've always noticed that she's sitting alone in the class and never really speaks to anyone. And when some of the teachers tell her to read something, she speaks in a really quiet yet clear voice. And she also never really smiles. I feel like I just should start talking to her. Because it's also very important to have some kind of social life in school. Isn't it boring to just. Not talk to anyone? I think I'll try to interact with her tomorrow. Anyways, back to the period. We were doing some "used to and would" grammatical exercises and as always, it was kinda boring cuz I'm literally doing this thing the third time. My notebook didn't work so I looked at the text with the quiet girl's (let's call her Amanda) computer.

In third period I had IT. And in IT I'm in the first group, which means I always get to interact with Chris and Roxy. It's always very fun to talk with them. But today was even more fun cuz the teacher didn't upload any new exercises to moodle (a school plattform) and I've done all the exercises the night before lmao. Also, I've said before that my notebook doesn't work, and I've asked Chris if he could just delete everything on my computer and put it back to factory setting. (I hope that's what it's called) and he said he wouldn't mind. I just gotta go and search for the external dvd player after I finish writing this entry. Since it was basically a free period, all of us just fooled around and made meme references. I think that some meme was born out of it too lololol.

Then the big break started (which is 15 minutes long). I honestly didn't want to leave Roxy alone in class (Chris and all the other dudes normally go outside to smoke) so I decided to stay with her. We were mainly talking about music. I showed her a nice song, she showed me a nice song. Nice.

Then we had IT again. We've basically done the same thing as in the last period.

In the last two periods which were Biology and French nothing much happened.

After school

After school I tagged along with Roxy. Last time when I did we went to a nearby second hand shop and she found a framed Van Gogh picture (she's a huge Van Gogh fan) and she really wanted to buy it but didn't have enough money (cuz she bought a "rocky horror show" vinyl in the book store we also went to last time.) The bookstore was the weirdest yet coolest one I've ever seen. Like. There were books EVERYWHERE.

And today she finally got to buy the Van Gogh pic and was very satisfied. We also went to "Buttlers" (some sort of home decor store) and she bought some fairy lights that glow in a warm way.

After that we went to McDonald's to chat since she still had some spare time (her train would leave in an hour). We talked about school, friends, and also her smol crush on a dude from my class (he's a chill dude). I've found out recently that he's in a metal band. And she also seemed to know. Buttttt she didn't know that he's the Vocalist of the group. And when she listened to one of their songs she literally fangirled so much it was adorable.

Then we parted ways and I went home. Riding with the tram was rly uncomfortable since many people were inside. Sitting in the bus was less stressful und I also almost fell alseep (I didn't sleep on Sunday night). But once I got out of the bus it was very peaceful. The weather was slightly foggy, the yellow leaves were slowly falling down on the ground, and you could hear children laugh in the distance. I always feel very at peace when I walk in my small village I love it. I also took a lot of pretty pictures of trees, flowers and etc.

Home

I came home and was greeted by my parents and the amazing smell which I've known ever since I was a kid. The good ol' Russian beet soup called "Borscht". Man if only locals knew what they're missing. After I ate I went to my slightly messy room. I'll probably clean it after I come back from Roxy's sleepover. I watched some videos. Had some deep thoughts and fell asleep at 16 something. And then I woke up at 00:36. And watched some videos again. I didn't do any school stuff since I don't have to do any homework til tomorrow. So it's chill.

Now

Rn I'm laying in my bed, listen to a nice Lo-Fi mix called "everytime I see you, I fall in love all over again" and write this entry uwu.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow I'll be hanging out with Naomi in her dorm. We'll study some stuff, talk about some fun stuff, have band practice and will return home a little late. But it's nice. Oh and my mother gave me a really nice jacket which also looks vintage-y. I luvvvv. So I'll also look like a snack tomorrow too yaaaas.

That's pretty much it. I hope you had a nice day too, reader! 🌸✨

(03:38)

[sparklyjojos]

400 pages into Cosmic, the plot picked up rather fast so here’s a short (’short’) recap of what’s been happening

As a foreword: the JDC books have weird chronology, so while Cosmic was released first, it takes place in January 1994. That’s two months after Tsukumo Juku solved the Geneijo case in Joker (solved it on the day of his 20th birthday, no less: 31.10.1993), and fourteen years after Ajiro Souji and 6-year-old Juku solved The Saimon Family Murder Case. (This chronological mess actually causes Seiryoin to spoil the other books in this. Which I understand, because the tragedy that was Geneijo influenced a lot of character development of the detectives.) After Geneijo, in December 1993, Juku traveled to England to help with the case of Jack the Ripper’s copycat, ‘Jackie the Ripper’, and since he’s still caught up in that case when Cosmic starts, he can’t (yet) go back to Japan to help Ajiro with the Locked Room Lord case. (The real reason is probably that Tsukumo Juku is like Son Goku, if you don’t carefully keep him away from the plot he’ll solve it in five minutes and there goes your tension)

---

So, the second part of the book starts with that thing I quoted about an unnamed mysterious androgynous stranger in a non-disclosed location sending a package with non-disclosed contents to JDC. (Hm, who can that be?)

Then we mostly follow Ajiro Souji, the JDC representative and a telephone detective, who’s having a very bad time. As if the initial murders and Pyramid Mizuno dying wasn’t enough, there’s also the thing where a guy they suspected to be the Locked Room Lord died in the locked room no. 20, and his place had evidence that he knew about the victims beforehand (but how?...). And then one of the newest victims of the Locked Room Lord is just a kid, murdered nowhere else but in Geneijo. That coincidence (or is it?...) spooks everyone in JDC, especially given that Souya -- Ajiro Souji’s son and the assistant of Ryuuguu Jounosuke -- was murdered there during the case just months earlier, and the wounds are still fresh.

(So basically, in 1980 Ajiro solved the Saimon Family Murder Case that had claimed Juku’s family including his birth parents, and then in 1993 Juku solved the case that had killed Ajiro’s son. It’s almost poetic, in a very tragic way...)

Anyway, stressed and exhausted Ajiro falls asleep and has a dream where he talks with Tsukumo Juku, who I guess is how his subconscious is showing ‘reason’ to him (Descriptions of their long-lived intergenerational friendship and mutual trust are really great, btw. Ajiro even notes that just hearing Juku’s voice is enough to calm him down completely, and that everytime they talk on the phone they’re both so happy as if they haven’t heard each other in years. Aww. Ajiro may be sort of a paternal figure to Juku, but it’s too early to tell for sure.) Anyway, dream!Juku tells Ajiro that to solve the current case he should ‘think backwards’, that is, think about the distant past; even more distant than the Saimon family case.

---

Upon waking up Ajiro is told that JDC got a mysterious package: a manuscript signed by a famous detective novel author Dakushoin Ryusui (濁暑院溜水). There are two problems here. 1) Dakushoin died in Geneijo, and the detectives even saw his corpse, and 2) the manuscript describes the first 19 locked rooms... including the ones that happened just hours prior to getting the package.

Other parts of the manuscript are 3 stories happening in 3 different times: in the Heian period, Edo period, and at the beginning of the 20th century. (It seems that what the dream!Juku told him about ‘distant past’ was true, huh.) The first two talk about alleged historical events when a ‘vengeful ghost’ called the Locked Room Lord caused the death of 1200 people each time, the third is about the famous mystery writer Edogawa Ranpo trying to uncover the truth about these events. The latter two stories feature a hundreds of years old man, Hikami Sensai, who relays the previous Locked Room Lord cases to the protagonists by giving them the previous written down stories.

Oh, and then there’s that part of the manuscript that talks about the future, predicting that JDC will fail to solve the case, the Locked Room Lord will complete his plan of killing 1200 people in a year, and then on New Year 1995 JDC will get another message from him that in that year, as well, 1200 people will die...

Ajiro is really spooked now. Soon after, when he calls Juku and discusses the contents of the manuscripts with him, they both suddenly realize they did briefly meet an old man called Hikami Sensai before -- fourteen years ago, right after the Saimon Family Murder Case. (There’s a very cute flashback, with Ajiro telling li’l Juku that he will surely one day grow up to be the pillar of all the detective work in Japan. Juku looks at him in a silent promise, his eyes shining with determination. I can’t overstate how much I love their relations in this.) They also talk about how the Jackie the Ripper Case and the current Locked Room Lord Case may have something in common, but we don’t learn the details.

---

Soon, Ajiro sets up a meeting to discuss the manuscript with other detectives. We meet the rest of the usual JDC cast, among them:

-- Hikimiya Yuuya, the statistics guy with a vast knowledge of mystery novels, usually Tsukumo Juku’s assistant (not now, since Juku’s abroad)

 -- Ryuuguu Jounosuke, the cryptography guy who wears all black, refers to everyone with very polite suffixes while talking about himself in third person, and while he looks really young he’s actually a few years older than Juku

 -- Kirika Mai, who mainly uses reasoning by elimination, who’s trying to figure out who her parents were (they died when she was a baby), and who holds Juku in very high regards after he saved her and helped her get into JDC

 -- Tsukumo Nemu, Juku’s younger sister by adoption (ie. she’s a Tsukumo by birth, Juku is a Tsukumo via being adopted by Tsukumo Ranma), whose reasoning is more based on ‘vague feelings’ about what happened than precise facts. She’s 18 in this book. She and Kirika seem to be great pals and work as partners, probably because tagging along through the Geneijo case made them understand each other

 -- Amagi Hyoma, who mainly drinks and sleeps a lot and I’m not sure what he’s even doing there

We also meet some not-detective assistants, as well as a bunch of police officers, including Tetsuko, an older sister of one of the Locked Room Lord’s victims.

Working together (mostly using Ryuuguu’s cryptography skills) the detectives discover that the names of the victims are all anagrams or otherwise wordplays on the names of the characters in the manuscript. It seems that whoever wrote it was either the murderer, or somebody who knew about the murderer’s plan, and encoded the victims’ names in the charactes’ names as a sort of ‘key’. The question is who wrote and sent that manuscript; Hikimiya (who’s a mystery nerd and read all of Dakushoin Ryusui’s books) believes it was written by Dakushoin judging by the style, word choices etc., but Dakushoin is dead (right?), so what’s going on? Some parts of the manuscript are different than reality, eg. the names of the victims, or that time a guy in one of the locked room stories calls JDC and talks with Ryuuguu -- in reality it wasn’t Ryuuguu, but a guy called Yaiba who picked up the phone. So maybe the writer lost contact with the culprit after some time and just guessed stuff? This entire mess is confusing to everyone.

At the point I stopped reading, the detectives all pair up and start serious investigation, chasing clues needed to discover the truth about the manuscript in many different places -- Dakushoin’s own house; Geneijo; the place where the guy suspected to be the Locked Room Lord lived that apparently has photos and maps related to the victims; a historical literature university group that can probably tell whether the Heian and Edo parts of the manuscripts are genuine or not; and also the place where Ajiro and kid Juku met that mysterious old man fourteen years ago...

---

Impressions so far:

I really, really like the parts with Ajiro and Juku. As you can probably tell.

Welcome to ‘things that only make you cry if you’ve read Tsukumojuku and also care too much about stuff’, featuring my poor detective son having a happy life and loving friends, and Serika and Tsutomu Kirika and Nemu being bffs and detectiving together.

There are some boring stretches, which I expected since Seiryoin’s slow pace is often criticized.

Juku’s biological dad was actually called ‘Ryusui’, even with the same kanji as in [Seiryoin] Ryusui, dkjfhkgjd, I mean yeah Seiryoin technically is his dad but still, really. I feel like at one point I’ll have to pull out one of those old Mary Sue Tests and put Juku through it just to see how many points he gets

The ‘historical’ stories were as expected a hell to read because of some archaic vocabulary and fragments like ‘Emperor X had two sons, Y and Z, and their mother was W, and then Y married J and had kids K and U with her’, that I guess the Japanese reader would recognize as historical figures but I don’t know anything about them and I got a bit lost. Yeah, that’s the fault of my ignorance.

This may sound funny, but if I didn’t know anything about the series and got to this point? I’d probably be 100% convinced that Tsukumo Juku is the Locked Room Lord. Solely because he’s hanging out conveniently away from the plot, and everyone describes him as so kind and smart and unearthly beautiful and trustworthy that he must be tricking everyone, right? I guess Seiryoin is playing on the readers’ expectation... by not playing on their expectations. The thing is, we don’t even know yet that Juku can faint people with his looks (a bit weird since you’d think somebody would mention that already). So all the descriptions like ‘his dangerous beauty’, or phrases that can be read as his looks / voice being both ‘amazingly beautiful’ or ‘terrifyingly beautiful’, or that his face and smile are juuust a little too perfect -- all of it kinda reads as if he’s actually ~secretly evil~, and not a genuinely nice man who just happens to also be basically the world’s least lethal basilisk.

[miraimisu]

Ask a Writer!

Tagged by the lovely @i-masshiro​, thanks babe! Love you tons, such a sweetheart D’: 

1. How did you come up with your username and what does it mean?

It doesn’t mean anything in particular! An old best friend of mine helped me pick it up when I was struggling with new decent nicknames. This is the one I use for all my accounts now.

2. Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback? (bookmarks/favorites, follows/subscriptions, visitor hits, kudos)

These Stones We Skip, definitely. It’s got like 90 comments (half of them me responding to those, so it’s narrowed down to 45 haha) +2k hits, 100 kudos more or less, and a bunch of bookmarks! I’m super happy with how the fic is being read and that people like it this much! Also if anyone waiting for an update is reading pls forgive me I’ve been busy I promise I will update pls don’t sue ;;.

3. What is your FFnNet/AO3 profile icon, and why did you choose it?

Actually, I think all my icons are Uraraka icons, excepting the one I got for FF.net which is actually Asuna from SAO. Last time I updated the page I was heavily into SAO so... pretty self-explanatory. My love for Uraraka needs no explanations either.

4. Do you have any regular/favourite commenters?

I do! And most of them are an incredibly fun bunch of them. Long, usual commenters are my shit, not gonna lie. Although I have lost some of them as my updates have become slower, but I hope they come to read someday.

5. Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?

Not really, unless it’s for some kind of reference. There was this line I hit where my style got smoother and a bit more polished, but from there below it’s kind of rubbish and I can’t read anything. All good things I write I can’t usually read because of self-awareness.

6. How many stories are you subscribed to? How many do you have bookmarked?

None and none lmao, I always drop kudos but I don’t think I have ever bookmarked anything, nor subscribed to because I don’t really have much time to check out stuff-- and when I do, I totally binge read it.

7. Which AU do you find yourself writing the most?

Fantasy AU because it’s consumed my life now.

8. How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total? (you can view this on the stats page)

I got 10 subscriptions on AO3 and 60 bookmarks!

9. Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!)

I would like to someday find the strength to write something venty someday, as I recently found out I somehow write much better and feel more satisfied when I vent my anger on writing. Something that doesn’t happen really often, but it happens and it’s great therapy!

10. Is there anything you would like to be better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments, updating better, etc.

Tons of things, most particular. I would like to become less paranoid over people not seeing my scenarios, thus making my style less complex to the untrained eye. Also, fighting scenes make me cringe because I suck so hard at making them depsite having clear pictures in my head /cries. 

11. Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often?

I am now very focused on Kacchako and iirc ir used to be a rarepair? but I think it will break out of that zone soon.

12. How many stories have you posted on FFNet/AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)?

3 on AO3, and 31 on FF.net. 

13. How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing program?

Tons of them that sounded great in my head. It’s that small snapping process of realizing a powerful story is too weak to be posten, and kinda let it rest.

14. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?

I keep them in my head and plan to write them. Only the fantasy AU for kacchako has made it out of my head, lol.

15. Have you ever co-authored a story?

Yes, and it was a wonderful experience.

16. How did you discover FFNet/AO3?

Weirdly enough, from DeviantArt! I would usually go there searching for art pieces and found some deep small fics, whose authors would usually have a FF.net account. I only knew of AO3 last year, but I think I read one a bit before that. Not exactly sure when.

17. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on FFNet/AO3?

Not at all, there is too many talented people in this damn kaccha house  (⁎˃ᆺ˂) they are all so good jdskak

18. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?

People usually call me Mira, but use others for Discord. 

19. Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write?

Lots of them! Every author that lies in my recs gallery has inspired me in one way or another. Though that place is kinda outdated so I may have to add some more, but all my friends have inspired me overall. They are all wonderful writers and artists and it’s amazing to be so surrounded.

20. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?

Don’t feel pushed to write queality straightaway, and always read other stuff to build new vocab and structures. Everytime you read, you will most likely learn something new as every author’s view gives you a new perspective on things. I have found it to be a great practice!

21. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?

Plot, always. Everytime I am listening to music and come up with a new snippit, I jot it down anywhere I can. Google’s Keep is a pretty nifty tool for this!

22. Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do?

Well, I only got maybe two! One of them was pretty lukewarm and more of an advice that I followed, and it was a good one despite the harshness of it. On the other hand, I got one comment that told me they were giving up on my story because it was too thick style and lore wise, but I didn’t mind at all tbh-- I already knew I was facing these kinds of risks when I started writing long things like these.

23. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, smut, etc..)

Fighting scenes in general kind of take a lot of time for me to work with, and same with some simply dialogue bits that I am like: and what now!? D:

24. What story(s) are you working on now?

My fantasy AU! pls if sb is reading Im sorry I will update soon don’t press charges thank

25. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?

I usually jot the deets down and push it aside until I am done with my main thing. It’s probably my best habit when it comes to planning, lol.

26. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?

Not really. I usually try to plan when I wanna update, divide my chap’s aproximate word count and split it in days!

27. Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?

Oof, definitely. Mostly because my English has improved along with my writing and that helps. A lot.

28. What is your favorite story(s) that you’ve written?

I did write one in Spanish that got lots of good feedback and invested readers, and I had a blast writing its lore and characters.

29. What is your least favorite story(s) that you’ve written?

I wrote a pretty dark fic once and it’s a fic I know I wrote well? but I am kinda ashamed of looking back at it.

30. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?

Maybe working on something that is a little bit more professional, or just enjoying myself. Got no clue tbh.

31. What is the easiest thing about writing?

I think I can be pretty ominous in some parts and be very subtle with foreshadowing. The art of subtlety is something I worship everyday.

32. What is the hardest thing about writing?

Trying to live up to those little scenes I had in my head, and writing them as good as possible. And description in general, sometimes. And word count consistency is something that worries me sometimes. Oh, and the endless fear of poking a plothole bigger than a damn blackhole.

33. Why do you write?

To make people entertained and happy if they want something to read!

I nominate the great artists and gals @animeniac​, @kacchanswife​, @hondaroo​, @kacchas​ and @liltoothbrush​! If you don’t reply I’ll press charges so hahaha! 

[impurelight]

Two Weeks With Flutter

For the two last weeks I've been playing around with Flutter which is a framework for building Android and iOS apps (it also has Web/Windows/Mac/Linux/ChromeOS support in development). And I really like it. I mean, I didn't always like it. When I first picked it up I thought it was needlessly complicated and frustrating. But as I started to learn what the things actually did I started to think it wasn't so bad. It might even be fun. But I guess that's the way with most programming frameworks.

So Flutter makes Android and iOS apps. How'd you expect it to do this? Probably something like HTML, right? Nope. Flutter uses Dart. The way it knows what to build is you have to override the the build() method and make it return your entire UI. The entire UI in one method. Yeah... that's going to get messy fast. Just take a look at one of my build() methods.

Widget build(BuildContext context) { return Scaffold( body: SafeArea( child: Stack( children: <widget>[ FutureBuilder<list>>( future: DatabaseManager.getAllTasksAsTasks(), builder: (BuildContext context, AsyncSnapshot<list>> tasks) { if (tasks.hasData) { return ReorderableListView( children: createWidgets(tasks.data), onReorder: (int start, int current) {}, ); } else { return Center(child: CircularProgressIndicator()); } }, ), Container(color: Color.fromRGBO(0, 0, 0, 0.4)), Hero( tag: "TaskCreate", child: new AlertDialog( title: const Text('Create Task'), content: new TextField( controller: textController, autofocus: true, ), actions: <widget>[ new FlatButton( onPressed: () { Navigator.of(context).pop(); }, textColor: Theme.of(context).primaryColor, child: const Text('Create'), ), ], )), ]// This trailing comma makes auto-formatting nicer for build methods. ) ) ); }

Yeah, I tried to move some things to their own methods (or classes which is more performant but you really only have to worry about that once you call setState()) but there's only so much you can do and so much you have time to do. If some normal person saw this they would probably say it's ugly. And to be honest when I first saw something like this I thought it was ugly too. It's even more messy if you try adding something to it. Paste your text, watch the entire thing go red, then try to add the end bracket in just the right spot (although a better way appears to be cut the old code, create the old container, and paste the old code). But as I got to know how it worked there was something actually pretty elegant about this.

It's sort of like designing something with Legos. You have your root UI, your scaffold, and that can have a child which is a list view and a floating action button. Only instead of Legos they're widgets. There's widgets for almost everything: list views, cards, centered content, images, text, etc. And if you can't find a widget that serves your purposes you can find one on pub.dev or code your own.

So apart from Widgets there's scenes... no views... I mean routes. OK, different frameworks call them different things. Basically just a page of your app. In Flutter they're called routes. In Unity they're called scenes. And the way Flutter handles routes is pretty interesting. It's like a stack of routes. When you go to a new route you call .push() and when you want to go back or if someone hits the back button .pop() is called.

It's pretty simple. But the code to create one of these routes is not. Like look at this:

class TaskRoute extends StatefulWidget { TaskState createState() => TaskState(); } class TaskState extends State<taskroute> { ... }

Every single time we want to create a new route/widget class. Why do we need all this boilerplate? Why do we need Stateful/State/Stateless (not pictured). I think it's for optimization or something but it's still annoying.

So now I should probably talk about the language Dart. Oh, Dart. It's not a bad language. Not as bad as Javascript anyways. The best way to describe Dart is to say it's a modern COOL (C-like Object Oriented Language) similar to other COOL's like C# and Java. Emphasis on modern. So as languages mature there's a tendency of adding random syntactic 'sugar' that no one really needs or asked for that only serve to alienate newcomers to the language. Like take C++. C with classes, right? Nope. Now it's this giant behemoth of a language that takes ages to compile. And I've noticed the same thing with C#. In fact most of the newer syntactic sugar additions to C# are in Dart. Almost as if the Dart team is copying from C#. Hmm...

And this is a particular sore spot for Dart which has a million ways to do everything.

So take typing. There is static typing which means the compiler knows the types of everything at compile time and can alert you of any problems. Then there's hipster typing which means you're going to get a nasty surprise when you run that line of code you haven't tested yet. So which one do you expect Dart to choose? Trick question, Dart uses both. And different tutorials use one or the other. It can make it seem like a tutorial is written in a different language.

And it's not even like some dedicated keyword. This is the difference between static typing and hipster typing in Dart:

// Statically typed; will not compile var myVar = "Hi"; myVar = 5; // Hipster typed; will compile var myVar; myVar = "Hi"; myVar = 5;

Also: allocating new object. You can define new objects (oh, and by the way everything is a reference type in Dart) using the new keyword. But you don't have to use the keyword. It's completely optional. Which, why even have the keyword? Also it's possible to define a method that returns something without actually returning. I mean, you get a warning if you do that but it'll compile just fine. There's also a bunch of weird syntax like Dog({this.id, this.name, this.age}). This is basically the same as saying:

Dog(int id, String name, int age) { this.id = id; this.name = name; this.age = age; }

And there's a large amount of using functional map-like syntax instead of for loops. You know, the standard syntactic sugar stuff.

So syntactic sugar isn't in and of itself bad. The problem is when you have so much syntactic sugar it gives you syntactic diabetes meaning the language gets so inconsistent that it is difficult for new comers to learn. This is definitely a problem for Dart: one tutorial might use the new keyword and explicitly type all their variables. Then the next tutorial might not do any of that and it gets very confusing very fast.

But it's not all bad. There are a few neat things you can do in Dart. For one there's no public or private. To make something private by starting it with an _. It sort of reminds me of Python where you make a function by just indenting. I think it's pretty neat. Also you can have named constructors. It's pretty cool as you can name a constructor something like FromDatabase(Map<string dynamic>) if you just read from a database.

There's also two type of exceptions: error and exception. Error is bad, you should not be getting errors. Exceptions are, well, exceptions. So just catch them normally. I don't really know the difference between these two though. There are assert which is only called in debug builds. Oh, yeah, Flutter compiles to a debug build by default but there are also release and profiling builds.

Also when defining a list, which you'll do a lot in Flutter, every element can end in a comma, even the last one. This is something I've been thinking about whenever I code outside of an IDE. Adding a comma when there shouldn't be one results in a lot of compiler bugs (or in the case of hipster languages runtime bugs). So I think putting a comma after every item, even the last item is the way to go.

Lastly there is Future and async. A function signature that implements these is something like:

Future<list>> getTasks() async

and then you call it like:

tasks = await getTasks();

This is a major thing in Flutter. The main way I use it is when I push another route. I say something like await push() and that stops executing until the route being pushed calls pop(). And then I can do whatever management I need to make sure the data is saved.

Another way this comes into play is I can use an async method to load a database.

Although, to be honest, I sort of think this feature is a little superfluous. Especially in the database example. Reading from the database is so fast that stopping the whole app as the database returns its results is likely good enough. And the poping of pages could be done with a callback instead.

So how is it to actually develop for Flutter? Pretty good, actually. The first major feature of Flutter is the hot reload feature. Everytime you save your app it is instantly recompiled and sent to your phone (if it is already plugged in and the app is started) so the app updates faster than you can turn your head to look at it. It's pretty cool. It sure is a big shift from Unity's builds that can take minutes just to get an APK that you then have to install. Although it can fail sometimes. Usually when you rename something, but that rarely happens. I should probably mention here that I use my phone to test. You can also get a virtual device but that's like a 1GB download and I don't want to do that.

As for debugging instead of crashing flutter will give you a red screen of death.

Which, I mean, looks pretty ominous. Couldn't they have put a smily face on it or something like Windows?

There's also the call stacks when you get an error. They're not as compact as Unity and there's a lot of scrolling and they usually contain tons of information about Flutter's internal calls I don't care about before and after the relevant parts of the callstack. But I mean it's serviceable. Better than not having a callstack at all or a callstack that rarely points to the right thing like... some other languages.

Now there's Android Studio. It's basically a less good version of a JetBrains IDE. There's no telling you how many times something is called, there's no refactoring tools, it doesn't tell you to import packages to fix errors, it takes an extra click to get into the search all screen (Ctrl+N vs Ctrl+T), and it doesn't alert you if something isn't used. And it still takes more RAM than Chrome. Like, what are you doing? But at least it supports the Material theme I'm using on Rider. Like, it doesn't matter if the IDE sucks, as long as it looks good, right?

The only thing it really has over Rider (which I was using for Unity C#) is that it automatically inserts a comment telling you that this end brace corresponds to a particular widget. Which given the nested nature of build() method is quite useful. Not useful enough to get me to not jump ship to IntelliJ though.

So last but not least: the problems I have with Flutter. And there are a lot of them. The biggest one is the documentation. You know, for something made by Google that is almost 3 years old you'd think it would have better documentation. But no. You still see things like: "Enables the form to veto attempts by the user to dismiss the ModalRoute that contains the form." In all fairness this is the exception rather than the rule. Most of the commonly used widgets do have good documentation. But when you click to what a class is you still get this nonsense.

And there are a few bugs still. I encountered one where if you use Navigator.pop() it does not trigger the onPop callback. You need to use Navigator.maybePop() instead.

So all in all Flutter is a fine framework and pretty fun to program for. The foundation is pretty solid, it's just some of the documentation that is not quite up to snuff and some things can be hard to do due to not having the proper widget. Two problems that I'm sure will be solved soon. And once they are I think Flutter has a pretty good shot at being the most popular framework in the world due to its ability to run on Android, iOS, Web, Windows, Mac, Linux, and ChromeOS with an identical experience on all platforms.