#Or maybe absolutely no one is thinking this cause it's bonkers and in that case

[chosetoseethebestinyou]

OK not to go full conspiracy theory in here but. Did ruby's (presumed) mother's outfit remind anyone else of something?

The trousers? The boots?

And that's why there's another tardis there...?

Someone tell me I'm clowning

[elysiumnotes]

My 9-1-1 s8 Disaster Ideas/Wishlist

So I am going to spend the hiatus for 911 moving onto some of my brushed to the wayside hyperfixations now that the season’s over. Honestly after almost 15 years in fandom, I do not want to wade into the water of angsty ship wars and have already filtered out my tags and blocked certain blogs to ensure my peace.

However, I still will be thinking about my gay little wee woo show and I wanted to post my ideas, wishes, speculations, and predictions. Not necessarily in that order…..

Anyways! First things first, for this little post I wanted to speculate about what s8’s big disaster is going to be and my idea on how it could be done. (ABC if you’re lurking, please feel free to take the idea. You too, Tim. I give this idea away for free) What I think the s8 disaster is:

TORNADO / TWISTER

Now hear me out….as a Canadian, I have no clue if Tornadoes are common or even occur in places like LA. But with a dramatic ass show like 911 that has dealt with titanic-like cruise ship disaster, tsunami, earthquake, mudslides, wildfires, etc. it’s not out of the realm of possibility for them to completely the elemental set.

But moving onto how they would work it in…

I propose that it is used in the season premiere. (stick with me and imagine) LA is on Tornado watch and is hunkering down but the 118 get called to an emergency like they always do. (since it seems like their sector seems to be the entirety of LA, but I digress)

Unfortunately Captain Gerard is still the temp Captain while Bobby is out fighting the decision with the Chief. Obviously the crew does not gel with his leadership style which affects their ability to complete this rescue that’s in the path of the tornado.

Now this is where I get a little insane….Please stick with me on this….

This will be an Eddie centric 2 part premiere as he’s still reeling from Chris’s decision to go to Texas for the summer. (I refuse to have him leave completely) He’s kinda going stir crazy in an empty house now that his son’s not there. Instead of Buck being the normally reckless one, Eddie dives into the rescue against Gerard’s orders as the wind picks up. The tornado gets too close and the winds too strong that they can’t go after him safely and that cause the structure he’s in to collapse on him and knock him out.

Here’s the crazy part…

As he’s knocked out, we go into Eddie’s dreamscape consciousness that is just pretty much a 911 version retelling of the Wizard of Oz….

(I promise this will be a compelling arc)

…..which we will eventually learn is the movie he ended up watching the night before as had been having some cases of Insomnia now that Chris was gone.

Now you’re thinking, Elysium, that absolutely bonkers and how would they ever pull it off? Truthfully I don’t know how they would write but I can give the bare bones of what I imagine for it.

Eddie wakes up in weird not-version of LA after the Tornado passes to find a firetruck crushing the ‘Wicked Witch of the West’ Gerard.

He’ll take the Saint Christopher medal from the body (why? I don’t know… it’s his weird dream sequence about coming to terms with his grief)

No memories/vague recollection of what he’s doing. All he knows is that he has to get back home to his soul. His family.

Eventually he is found by ‘Glinda the Good Witch’ Evan ‘’Buck’ Buckley, who gives him a goal to work towards and solid advice to find the great wizard (Bobby) who should be able to grant his wish.

Obviously he will be joined by Hen & Chim as companions, each searching for their own thing. (not to be one-to-one with the Tin Man & Lion, but Hen’s thing would be about courage to fight the councilwoman and get Mara back. Chim looking for the heart could be maybe thinking about having more kids once Mara is back with Henren. You stuff like like that, idk)

Dealing with the Witch Gerard and the flying monkeys (which would be all the obstacles that the 118 face, grief about Shannon, unresolved catholic guilt, his parents taking his kid, etc)

Finally Eddie will make it to the Wizard (Bobby), the man he conflated and put on pedestal because the Good Witch Buck, who sees Bobby as his his father figure (which is a good thing don’t get me wrong), also did. Only to realize Bobby is also just a man like him, his true foil (narratively this would be made clear to the audience using flashbacks) who like him, only became grand because his pushed himself to work for it even through his grief and bad moments.

What Eddie realizes is that he was looking for his way back home to his perfect life and family, to a Chris who won’t currently be there. And that destroying himself to wait for him to come back won’t fix the issue. Glinda will also help him with this.

He realizes that the way to make amends is to do like Bobby and put the effort into that change. He going to make his home a comfortable space for Chris again, so when he does come back, he knows that things will be different. He’ll take time for himself to properly grieve Shannon (and get more therapy, god!) and take the space to delve into some self-discovery whole were at it.

Then he’ll wake up from being knocked out by his team, not including Gerard, once the Tornado is gone. Maybe they go back to the station after a checkup at the hospital and Bobby comes back saying he’s reinstated and Gerard is gone. (I’m not really planning for this stuff)

Now, I’m obviously missing some characters in this dream sequence but I don’t know where they would fit. And I’m avoiding some big sexuality and romantic notions in regards to Eddie.

Trust that I know and I want it too, but I also want to avoid the ship wars this summer. So I’ll leave it vague, even though to me the idea of Eddie being Dorothy is very explicit in what arc I want for him.

Let me know what you would cast the other 911 character as in this version of Oz. Also thank you for indulging my crazy idea. I’ll be back with more.

Also #RaviMainS8!

[thebluestbluewords]

And they were roommates

I’m having fun with the rise of red trailer! This movie is going to be absolutely bonkers and I’m going to have a great time. Also I think Red and Chloe should be in lesbians together.

"Who are you?" 

The girl jerks her head up from her paint. Her lips are red, not like blood, but like the last-season cherry red lip tints that were on trend before the current sheer glitter gloss phase swept in. "I'm your new roommate." 

Chloe stops. She’s— 

She’s misheard something. The girl must mean dorm mate, or neighbor, or else there’s been some sort of mistake. Sure, she’s living in a double room as just one student right now, but that’s because nobody else in her class needs the accessible shower on this floor. Unless this new girl also has a prosthetic? She can’t count that out yet. Maybe there’s just been a communication error. "My what?" 

The girl grins, and yeah, that’s definitely cherry-red lipstick. So last season. "Roommate. You have those here, right?" 

Chloe takes a second to assess the possibility that she’s been hit on the head and this is all a hallucination. Sure, she’s out of her room later than she’s strictly supposed to be, but there’s nobody but this girl around who could have hit her, and she’s been up late studying, not fencing. Her swords aren’t even out of their cases yet. 

The odds that this hot-but-weird girl is just a concussion- induced hallucination are low. Chloe pinches her own arm, subtly. Yeah, ouch. Odds of a hallucination are less than 5%, and dropping further the longer the girl stands here staring.  "Yeah, but this isn't my room. This is a hallway." 

Cherry-red rolls her eyes. Her hair is red too. Same shade, like she bathes in it. "Outside our room." 

"Okay,” Chloe admits, because yes, this girl is in almost the right place, if she really is who she says, and the school really gave her a roommate with no warning. “But this still isn't our room. You can't paint the hallways just because they're outside our room. It's against the rules, and also, it stinks. Can't you open a window before you vandalize school property?" 

"No." 

Maybe the fumes are what’s causing the hallucination. "Fine, then I'll do it." 

Red flinches forward. "No! No. You can't." 

Well, isn’t that something. Little miss trouble doesn’t want the whole school smelling her spray paint stunt yet. "Why not?" 

Chloe’s watching the girl’s face, so she sees the moment of hesitation before Red opens her mouth. "Because it's nighttime. Duh.”

Her mother always says that it’s important to have courage, so Chloe pushes. In the form of rolling her eyes. And popping her hip. She’s going to look like the most annoying, stuck-up princess ever, and then once her maybe-roommate gets angry enough, she’ll show her hand. "So? It's September. It's not too cold out. We're allowed to open the windows for fresh air, and besides, even if we weren't, you don't seem to care too much for the rules."

"I care about one set of rules. Mine." 

Chloe turns to the window, but she keeps the girl in the corner of her eye. "Cool. I care about being able to breathe in here, so I'm opening the window." 

She’s lucky that she catches the flinch. Red is good at keeping a straight face, even with paint cans in each hand and an unknown stranger harassing her about her artistic hallway design choices. 

"Fine,” Red casts her eyes up to the ceiling like she’s annoyed, instead of afraid. Or maybe she really is annoyed, and Chloe is just wildly misreading the situation. “Don't come crying to me when your face gets eaten."

"My—“ don’t think about kissing her. Don’t think about kissing her. Don’t. Throwing herself face-first onto that red smirk is the last thing that Chloe needs to do right now. Even though it would feel good and probably distract the girl from the whole vandalism thing. “My what?" 

Red throws Chloe a look like she knows exactly what she’s been failing not to think about. "Your face. Eaten off. By the toves." 

"Sorry, the what?" 

"The toves,” Red repeats, like Chloe’s the fool for not knowing what a tove is. “They're wonderland creatures, you wouldn't get it anyway. Just don’t worry about it.” The smirk is back. “Go ahead, open up that window. See where it gets you.” 

Wonderland. Red. 

Ohh, this girl is from the Red Queen’s court. The notorious topsy-turvy upside-down land where rules aren’t real, and if they’re not, then they’ve got to be followed anyway. Chloe’s never been allowed to travel to wonderland herself, but she’s got a souvenir snowglobe that her brother brought back for her un-birthday when she was ten, so she likes to think of herself as a little bit of a multicultural expert.   "If they're from wonderland, then why are they here?" 

Red spins one of her paint cans over the back of her hand. She’s not looking at Chloe anymore. Not that Chloe wants to be looked at. She’s cool, and calm, and she’s totally not feeling anything like butterflies in her belly from the way Red’s lips curve up at the corner.  

"My mom."

"This is a boarding school,” Chloe points out, only because it’s weird to have parents at school. Not because she wants Red to look at her again. “Why would your mom be here?" 

"To visit me?" Red’s voice drips with condescension. “Duh?” 

Right. 

Bubbly princess time. 

Chloe smiles, and forces the threat of a giggle into her tone. "That's fair. I deserve that one. Are you going to go inside our room, or just stay out here in the hallway?" 

Red spurts a little heart of paint around her own reflection in the hall mirror. "I don't have a key. Yet." 

"Did Fairy Godmother check you in? Or– Headmaster Uma. She's the one to see about that. She’s really cool, she probably won’t even give you trouble over showing up so late.” 

Another heart. This time it’s over her face. "She's dealing with my mom." 

There’s a message there, and Chloe’s not dumb enough to miss the fact that her new roommate, vandal or not, doesn’t want to talk about it. "Oh. Okay. I guess I can let us both in for tonight." 

Red adds a little lightning bolt from her other can, bisecting the hearts. “Much appreciated, princess. I’ll try not to get paint on your bed.”

[bbygirl-aemond]

What Was the Targaryen Maternal Mortality Rate?

Hi all! I wanted to be able to put an actual number to the proportion of Targaryen women who died giving birth, namely to prove how absolutely bonkers GRRM is. So I went through the entire Targaryen bloodline and calculated it, bc I am very normal and reasonable about my hyperfixations. As a disclaimer, I didn't include anyone who died as a child before they were old enough to marry or have kids of their own. I didn't include any women without Targaryen blood, even if they were married to a Targaryen. I also didn't include anyone without a mentioned cause of death, because we can't treat those cases as examples of women definitively surviving childbirth. Finally, I didn't include Daenerys, because she hasn't died in the books yet.

Before you click the "Read More" button, please take a moment to guess what percentage of women you think GRRM killed off in childbirth. Some of you have probably already come up with a guess, because I posed a poll asking this exact question yesterday. Here's a bit more info in case it changes anything:

In the Medieval times GRRM based Westeros off of, the rate of mortality in childbirth was only around 1-1.5% (which is about the same rate as in modern times w/o any medical care). Taking into account multiple pregnancies & birth rates, this equated to a lifetime maternal mortality risk of about 5%. And in 2022, the childbirth mortality rate for women in the United States was about 0.024%. Taking into account multiple pregnancies & birth rates, this equates to a lifetime maternal mortality risk of about 0.04%. Also, here are the results from the poll:

Do you have your guess as to the rate of mortality for Targaryen women? Are you ready? Are you sure?

50% of Targaryen-descended women in ASoIaF die from pregnancy-related complications.

FIFTY PERCENT!!!

That is AT LEAST TEN TIMES HIGHER than the lifetime risk of dying in childbirth during the Middle Ages. It is OVER ONE THOUSAND TIMES HIGHER than the current lifetime risk of dying from childbirth in the US. GRRM I am shaking you and screaming. There are OTHER ways you can kill off your female characters! How do you have so much imagination and yet none at all?

For anyone curious, here's the list of women who died in childbirth. I included Aemma Arryn and Laena Velaryon because they're direct descendants of Targaryens who were having children with a Targaryen man when they died. I also included Gael because she specifically killed herself as the result of a miscarriage:

Daella Targaryen

Alyssa Targaryen

Gael Targaryen

Aemma Arryn

Laena Velaryon

Naerys Targaryen

Rhaella Targaryen

And here are the women who escaped death in childbirth, plus their actual causes of death:

Visenya Targaryen- old age

Rhaenys Targaryen (daughter of Aerion)- killed in battle

Rhaena Targaryen (daughter of Aenys)- old age

Alysanne Targaryen- wasting illness

Rhaenys Targaryen (daughter of Aemon)- killed

Rhaenyra Targaryen- eaten by dragon

Helaena Targaryen- suicide

There might be something to say here about Targaryen dragon blood magic, because there's also a super high rate of stillbirths. But also maybe GRRM is just dumb, because this super high mortality rate is honestly reflected across Westeros as a whole. It's ridiculous.

[flatstarcarcosa]

oh god i went to say something dragging norman!shep about harry but just had the thought of like

harry does in fact, end up making it safely off earth with an evac after the reapers hit but his grandparents/emily’s parents don’t, and because of comms being fucked there’s like three whole weeks where norman just doesn’t know anything and like.

yeah, sure, he got married young and became a dad young and had a wonderful plan with his wife and then. she died, and it threw everything askew and the thought of being a single dad when he knew he couldn’t evenly divide his time between his career and his child scared the hell out of him, so when his in-laws offered to take care of harry while he was enlisted he took it.

and then kept taking it, and using their goodwill to avoid the entire issue of you have a son that at best, sees you maybe twice a goddamn year and one day this will come back to be an issue for you but the two of them don’t have the animosity that their namesakes do, it doesn’t come from a place of mutual dislike and trauma. after all, by the time me3 rolls around harry is like MAYBE freshly 10 y/o.

and sure, people may think norman’s indifferent, at best, towards harry on account of him never bringing it up and the few people that find out about it also finding out at the same time about the whole ‘we never got married via official channels, i took emily’s name, and basically just didn’t offer anything up because we both knew if the alliance knew i had a new pregnant wife i’d get passed over on certain assignments because of the family thing’ and that, to them, is more bonkers than some of the other shit they’ve seen him do.

liara in particular has to go fucking SIT DOWN about it, because like??? hello??? she’s the shadowbroker. she dated this man. she’s the SHADOWBROKER and she didn’t know he’d been MARRIED with a CHILD??

norman’s assurance that it’s surprisingly easy to alter your own records before joining the alliance does nothing for her btw. but anyway.

it bites him in the ass finally when he has to ask hackett for a favor for keeping ears out on any news that may surface about harry. it stings less when hackett tells him anderson already told him about it, on account of anderson being the one to have brought harry to visit norman while he was locked down on earth.

he also asks bailey, a quick aside before going to see udina, because it’s not until the normandy docks at the citadel and he sees a news blurb about earth does it finally dawn on him. it wasn’t even intentionally putting harry out of his mind, it was just a matter of everything happening so fucking fast that he never got a chance to think of it at all.

and then it’s three weeks of just dead air. silence.

no one knows anything.

and then one day the normandy docks at the citadel for supplies, to eke out a couple small hours of carelessness amid the chaos. and the elevator AI informs him he’s needed at the civilian housing loading dock because apparently harry had just landed the day before and has been causing an absolute ruckus the whole time and while everyone understand he wants his dad, he really needs to understand that commander shepard does not have kids, child, i think you may need to see several doctors.

and norman knows immediately it’s not a case of mistaken identity and can’t help but release all of the tension with a loud laugh.

“yeah, that’s him, all right.”

[littleshysheep-at-da]

do you have any headcanons regarding the pontiff or demon lord?

Still gotta start with the obligatory I LOVE that people are still asking about my KumoDesu Headcanons❤️ it feels like a meme but my reaction is basically “VALIDATION” every time lmao🤣

Hmmmm I don’t really think I have any for Dustin? I guess I don’t think of him much haha. I do think he is a really well done Character and I would’ve loved to expand on him raising Shinbou though! Oh though funny enough two of my favorite lines in the whole Novel involved Dustin. (Paraphrasing vol 6) Ariel’s line about “language being humanities’s strongest weapon, and Dustin wielding it exceptionally well” just the idea of language as a weapon is really good. (Also Paraphrasing vol 6) Also Mera’s absolute DESTRUCTION of Dustin with “nothing you have/can give is worth as much as what you’ve taken” like wholly shit this line changed my whole way of thinking but damn is it true. Doesn’t really apply to Dustin cause I wouldn’t call him an abuser, but there are so many cases were you have to know your abuser/person who hurt will never be able to fix you cause people who do those things aren’t worth anything.

But for Ariel I DEFINITELY have a bunch, I’ll have to see what I actually have Written down though cause I thinking about it now I CONSTANTLY FORGOT TO WRITE STUFF DOWN AHHHH!

Again MASSIVE SHIPPER BRAINROT so a lot about Ariel for me is gonna be about Shiroai x Ariel because your honor Sapphic Spiders tm. But I also have a decent amount about the found family (that has them being the Mothers of) because my god she is such a Mom to Mera, Kyouya, and Sophia like,,, the Puppet Taratects too def but like,,,, she’s just such a Mom. It’s really cute to see the gap of her giving life advice and guidance to her kids but also getting dotted on herself by Shiroai (cough cough can I add a pet peeve that’s related to wlw Ships by saying for the love of fuck let both Women in a Lesbian Relationship be Feminine? Like why does one have to take the role of the “Man” let them both wear a Wedding Dress).

So my OT3, as you know by now, is Shun x Katia x Kyouya. But my OTP is Shiroai x Ariel. Though I think I have way more introspection for my OT3 over my OTP idk why, maybe cause there is more to introspect for the OT3 while the OTP is so blunt in Canon in my Opinion? I love them both so much though, like will Ship these two Pairing till my dying breath and even after that.

Intent versus Execution: I think an important thing to keep in mind with Headcanons/Shipping is Intent versus Execution, basically there are things the Author might not have intended but do Read a certain way. Though in Headcanon/Shipping I am not against fun and you are completely allowed to like bonkers crack (as long as you don’t mistake it for Canon or force it some people like some Fanon people do). But Two things I will say with my Two Fav Ships for Kumoko (OTP Shiroai x Ariel and OT3 Shun x Katia x Kyouya) is I feel both of them may not be intended by they do strongly Read as Canon (or at least strong basis for), to me at least anyway. With Shiroai x Ariel I feel the Author probably just is attracted to women himself but because of this parts from both of their perspectives come off as really Lesbain. With Shun x Katia x Kyouya I would say “they’re weird about each other (affectionate)”. It took me a while to realize but all of them (maybe not Katia as much as Shun and Kyouya) have other friends, they may not have been as close but they did have other friends. So the fact they all single their Relationship out as something special reads as Romantic/Polyamorous leaning to me. Especially because they always mention the Three of them, as a Trio.

Ships Part 3: Also Shiroai/Kumoko x Ariel… is good stuff. The way Kumoko talks about women… is just not heterosexual lol. Her joking about how she’s in love with them (calling herself a kept man with D and all her convos with Ariel about confessing her love) and staring at boobs. Also the quick and brief description of men versus how she talks about women (how when she talks about how Mera’s “probably a catch” sounds so unsure and like how a Lesbain would describe what to look for in a man). There’s a lot to support this of how they care about each other. And how they really don’t want anything bad to happen to each other. The “I’ll accept no other ending besides one where the Demon Lord is smiling” is cute af.

Part 1 Ship Discourse: Clone Fucking vs Incest: The Grandmother Ariel and Granddaughter Shiro thing. So I could see this being a reason for people not wanting to Ship Ariel x Shiro. But I always felt they joke about this because in reality they are not related like that. All of Ariel’s “Children” are technically made with a cloning skill so they’re biologically the same. And the Egg Laying skill the Queen Taratects use does the same thing as well. So it’s not incest it’s clone fucking. ALSO Shiro remakes her body with her own magic plus her mind is a God’s Deep Fake of a High School Girl and an Average Japanese Spider.

Shiro Spider Habits (but also Ariel too): By the way Spiders don’t have vocal cords, some species can make noise by vibrating (I’m not sure what body part?) that sounds like purring (which I like to think he and Ariel do to flirt) and jumping spiders can make “music” by hitting their segments together. However these are both mating rituals. Also dancing is a form of mating ritual performed by male jumping spiders to woo a female. So basically I just wanna say Shiro not speaking much makes sense when in her past life SHE LITERALLY COULDN’T. Also I think she was probably very offended by having to learn how to dance.

Family Part 3: I think Ariel sees Guli and Sariel as her parents and Shiroai sort of sees Oka as a mom too. Also family Headcanon/Au Mera, Sophia, and Kyouya call Ariel Mom and Shiroai Mama. But I can’t decide and actually recently I’ve been like it the other way around with Shiroai as Mom and Ariel as Mama.

Family Part 4: The Demon Army can communicate completely with inhuman noises (and gestures on Shiro’s part). Kyouya can speak Goblin (which you can’t convince me doesn’t just sound like hamster noises). Mera and Sophia being vampires I like to think can make high pitched noises like bats. And Shiro and Ariel can make a purring sounds but only do that to each other as flirting (this is real, though they don’t have vocal cords certain types of spiders can make a rumbling sound like purring as a mating call).

Hmm sorry I really don’t have as much for Ariel!!! I’ll have to see if I have some more stuff to Write down (which will take a bit as I figure out how to Word stuff) so maybe I’ll add to this later we’ll see. One thing I do want to add to this with is a have a “Rating Insect/Arachnid Monster-Humanoid Designs Tier List” (that I have Posted on my DeviantArt but I need to fix some Formatting on it) and usually Characters like Ariel that only have Spiders Powers and aren’t Monster-ish (as good a Character as he is Design wise think Rui from Demon Slayer) would be a hard no for me buuuuut considering as a Series KumoDesu has had some of the BEST TIER INSECT/MONSTER DESIGN and are NOT cowards with making full Monster she gets a pass (also because I never said I wasn’t biased AF).

Anyway, thanks again BIG time for asking!!! I’m always willing to talk about my thoughts on KumoDesu because I am OBSESSED. These are crazy fun for me ❤️

(though heads up some of these might be drastically shorter than others cause I’ve gone through a decent amount of my longer already Written out ones already).

[applekiraz]

"That's absolutely bonkers, 'cause I think you're amazing in every single way." she couldn't help but laugh at how cheesy her words sounded, but she meant every word of it. Apple may have seem confident from the outside, but her life felt more like a performance at times. But everyone had their demons. "There's this one very grumpy ogre that said something that I think about a lot. Ogres -but in this case- people are like onions, and when you peel back each layer you can get a better understanding of who they truly are. I'd like to get to your core." Over the years she had learned to add on so many layers that it became easy to function. She wrapped her arms around Savika, losing herself entirely in their embrace. This kiss held so much meaning behind it, that it felt criminal to end it, but Apple pulled away with the satisfaction that there would be plenty more to share. "How about we call it for today, and go get cleaned up? Maybe order some take out?"

"No, no," Savika's hands rest on both sides of Apple's face, even though she was drunk when they slept together there wasn't an ounce of her that regretted it or didn't want it. In fact, she was happy it happened otherwise she didn't think she'd ever muster the courage to do anything but fawn over Apple every time she sees her. "You're different than me - you're so confident and out there, and just amazing and I just I guess the flirting went over my head." Everything about Apple felt so far from her reach, yet right here, and her eyes glinted as she listened. Her feet were ready to give out from her sweet words. "There's nothing else I want more," she murmured, closing the distance between them with a kiss.

[brightbeautifulthings]

Winter Soldier: The Complete Collection by Ed Brubaker

"'There are things from the Winter Soldier days that I'm just remembering. Weapons left in the field... dangers I can still prevent. I think maybe that's the path... a way to the redemption I've been looking for.'"

Year Read: 2022

Rating: 4/5

About: James Barnes, former Winter Soldier and the latest Captain America, is dead. At least, that's what the world believes, and Bucky prefers it that way for now. Once upon a time, Bucky trained other Soviet soldiers like himself, and when some of them are discovered and woken from stasis, he and Natasha Romanoff set out to track them down before they cause too much destruction. One of them has been awake for longer than they realized, and he's about to make it personal. Trigger warnings: character death, violence, explosions, guns, abduction, brainwashing, captivity, implied torture, guilt.

Thoughts: I love the way Brubaker writes Team Cap, so I'm slowly working my way through that series. This collection starts off a bit bonkers with killer gorillas and Doctor Doom being a total diva, and yeah, it's about as weird as it sounds. It almost feels like it's exaggerated for comedic effect (or maybe Doom is just Like That; it's my first experience with him in the comics), which is somewhat at odds with the darker tone of the Winter Soldier story. The story finds its stride when it settles into the soldier plotline. It's briefly touched on in the MCU, but as someone who's fascinated by Bucky's history, it was cool to get a closer look at his time training the other soldiers. To no great surprise, one of them ends up being the major antagonist of the run, but I like the glimpses of empathy we see in others like Dmitri.

I enjoy Bucky's narration a lot, which helps fill in some of the story and calls to mind voiceover films like Sin City. I also just love him as a character, and Brubaker writes him with all the nuance and self-hate we've come to love from Sebastian Stan's performance. This collection is peak WinterWidow content, which also feels like a completely wasted opportunity in the MCU. I never figured out why they didn't explore Natasha and Bucky's relationship more, except for the fact that they don't know what to do with their female characters and Bucky is treated as little more than a side character. (I love the MCU, truly, but it's not without its issues.) In any case, if you ship that, this is absolutely the collection for you. Lots of battlefield partners, kisses, and angst, angst, angst. I love them together, so I had a lot of fun with it, and I enjoyed seeing other Avengers pulled into the story near the end.

While I like the artwork generally (lots of black and red in the color palette, which really sets a mood), I found it difficult to follow some of the action scenes. I can't tell if that comes down to Guice's illustrating, or if it's just that the battle scenes are so chaotic, with so many characters, guns, and explosions. I had to backtrack a couple times just to figure out what was happening or who was saying what. Also, how dare they call this a complete collection when volume four isn't included? Which, fine, Brubaker didn't write that one, but now I'm going to have to chase it down.

[gailthulu]

I hate to be blunt but my uh my cousin's evil husband left a bowl of antifreeze out for all the neighborhood cats, which eats their stomach and intestines from the inside out, INCLUDING neighbors "barn cats". In my town garbage bags FULL of completely mutilated cats were found. They caught the guy but the damage was done. There was another kid in my neighborhood who did that, a kid at school who bragged about killing animals, the older class got sent home from a friend trip early cause kids went into a tractor supply and killed baby chicks. The police and animal control just tell everyone to shoot the roaming pets in their yards, and they absolutely do. What does everyone have to do to get through to you people just list every case of animal death there is? Oh but that's "triggering". Hm. Sad. Do you think the monsters in every neighborhood constantly killing outdoor pets are doing so in a humane manner? NO. They're mutilating them! Google it. Google what a pet looks like skinned alive, one crushed into the pavement, a burned one etc. If you can't even type it into Google how the HELL are you allowing it to happen to your babies? It's sick! What's next "my six month old infant has a brain so I'm gonna let it eat poison in traffic"? If you really don't care about valuing life then don't comment and don't own any living things. But you're not gonna give your uninformed, boldly ignorant opinion on animal care that will get people's pets and local wildlife killed in horrible ways. "Working cat" LMAO. I was raised on a farm, worked at stables and the local conservation facility. You don't know basic husbandry? You can't be bothered to educate yourself or even listen to experts. Animal abuse and neglect goes hand in hand and you shouldn't be allowed to own animals if you're going to throw them to predators, cars, and poison, etc... Here's hoping someone who can be bothered to give a shit confiscates your animals lol

my brother in christ, what the fuck-

not sure when you sent this bc i don't check my asks but like, instead of writing a goddamn novel telling me off for a comment i left on a post probably years ago, maybe put that energy towards rescuing an animal or something.

my views have changed a bit since that comment, assuming I'm thinking of the one you got so indignant about. of course i don't think letting animals, specifically pets, out by themselves is a good idea. domestic cats are like, the #1 cause of the songbird population decreasing (and if i remember right, the extinction of some). i also know people are sick and twisted serial killers in the making that will do terrible things to stray animals. but i swear to god if someone condescends to me like I'm a stupid fucking baby who doesn't know anything again i think i will explode. sending people vitriolic anons is a coward's move in and of itself, but like, going off on someone without knowing their background, without knowing how old the post or comment was, or without knowing them personally is generally just a bad move.

i know i should probably just delete this ask and go but like, the fact that people still do this whole 'i'm gonna send this person i disagree with a disgustingly long anon ask about why they're a terrible person' thing is fucking bonkers to me. i am sure you have something better to do than traumatize people like PETA activists trying to convince people to go vegan with animal torture porn.

y'all need to get a better hobby. or get a hobby, actually.

[leviathan-supersystem]

hm it does seem the evidence that the universe is flat is fairly watertight- in that case, assuming a flat universe, i would also assume an infinitely large universe, in which case that in turn leads me to be skeptical of the current narrative on the big bang and the age of the universe. maybe all mater in the visible universe was at one point a singularity that exploded, but i would be inclined to say that this is not all matter in the universe as a whole, and that the big bang was not the beginning of all space and time but just the beginning of all the matter that is currently visible to us, and that the universe as a whole is both infinitely large and infinitely old.

assuming an infinitely old and infinitely large universe in turn leads me to believe there are no parallel universes (though as consolation an infinitely old and large universe leaves a literally infinite amount of room for other sci-fi weirdness to speculate about if you're into that kind of thing). also it causes me to lean my agnosticism a bit more toward atheism than it already was.

also i find the notion of the universe being "fine tuned to life" insulting. if anything life is fine-turned to exist in the universe, but not even particularly well. as a philosophical question is just seems vacant to me, "why do we exist, instead of not exist?" well if we didn't exist we wouldn't be around to ask that question. so. also if we assume an infinitely large and infinitely old universe it makes sense that statistically life would emerge somewhere even if the universe is especially unhospitable to life- but also if there's only one universe, then what are we even comparing it to in order to describe it as being especially hospitable or unhospitable to life? like as far as we know our universe is the only way a universe can possibly be.

(that said, exposure to space travel is extremely unhealthy to human life, which doesn't seem especially hospitable to life to me. like i can easily just imagine a hypothetical universe where the entire universe is filled with a breathable atmosphere. boom, i'm already a way better universe designer at fine-tuning the universe to life than "god" is.)

at any rate, i think ideas like parallel universe/multiverses- and theoretical (or hypothetical) frameworks that support it, like string theory- are given way more credence in the scientific community than they should be because people like storytelling and worldbuilding potential they have despite the lack of real evidence for them. too many physicists got into physics cause they watched sci-fi as a kid and want to use math to prove their favorite star trek plot could really happen in real life (even if that's not actually true). string theory is an especially blatant example, just the most bonkers new age mysticism sci-fi worldbuilding, but being passed off as actual science and taken seriously.

of course, i'm not immune to this myself, my own enthusiasm for the idea of the universe being the surface of an n-sphere is obviously driven in part by my enthusiasm for the sci-fi weirdness of the notion of 4-dimensional objects. in the interest of de-fictionbraining myself, i'm going to conclude on the basis of the evidence of a flat universe that 4-dimensional (or more) objects cannot possibly exist in reality, which is a bummer, but as consolation i get to believe in an infinitely large and infinitely old universe, which is way better than 4-dimensional objects. i can finally breath a sigh of relief after years of believing the universe as a whole was only 13.7 billion years old, an absolutely soul-crushing thing to believe. finally i can bask in the glory of being dwarfed by a universe that is vast and old beyond my comprehension, instead of having to live in a puny inadequate baby universe.

of course i can't completely rule out the notion of the universe being flat but finite, and having some kind of barrier at it's edge. while i do think this is both the lamest and least credible option, it does also have it's own potential for sci-fi weirdness- what is the nature of the barrier? is there anything outside it? this would be the option that would most likely lead me to think there could be parallel universes. on the other hand it would also make me more likely to believe the big bang was in fact not just the beginning of matter in the visible universe but the beginning of space and time as we know it- though the possibility of there being an infinite bang/crunch cycle is still open, which, again, allows for it's own potential for sci-fi weirdness.

at any rate, part of the struggle with trying to perceive the world accurately is resisting the urge to believe in stuff because it's exciting and cool and has good potential for sci-fi worldbuilding and plotlines, and instead forcing oneself to believe the things that are most likely to be true on the basis of the material evidence. but the great thing about the question of the shape and size of the universe is that no matter what the answer is, you get to believe in something which is exciting and cool and interesting and makes for good worldbuilding. so that's nice.

also it's wild that literally the only three possible options for what would happen if an object went into space in a straight line as far/fast as it could possible go are:

it would go on forever, never hitting a limit

it would hit some kind of impenetrable barrier

it would end up back where it started

there are basically no other options and each of these three possibilities is staggering in it's implications

[lexpressobean]

Thoughts on Kikaichu as actual Parasites.

Knowing how skin and the body generally works on a medical level, the "hive" aspect of the Aburame clan really drives me crazy. 'Cause parasites are real, obviously, but the size of Kikaichu beetles makes absolutely no sense in comparison to irl skin parasites. At least not in a bee hive sort of way lol

rambling because my mind craves logic and I'm specializing as a wound care nurse but it's literally anime so what do I expect lol

No, wounds don't freak me out, I'm more terrified of generally handling vomit and babies than I am a dehiscence of a 15cm long surgical site lol. The human body can literally take so much abuse before it really starts to give and try to alert you that you need help! And once you give it help, it really can come full circle to the wound 100% looking like it was never there. The body is an amazing thing <3

However the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word "parasite" is always going to be "tapeworm". That's not gonna change. However, kikaichu are not worms and CERTAINLY don't grow that fucking huge or live that long. (A tape worm can live long enough to graduate with a fucking PhD. Can you believe?) I haven't been exposed to any urgent situations involving parasites yet, however, the one I would compare a Kikaichu to that is (unfortunately) also common is the scabies mite.

Very briefly, scabies mites (Sarcoptes scabiei) are technically a type of arachnid that grow no bigger than a bout 0.5mm in size, but CAN be seen with the naked eye if you're looking for them. They crawl around the skin and burrow specifically in the top layer of skin, called the epidermis. The epidermis is that protective layer of skin and can be between 0.5mm to 1.5mm thick depending on which part of the body you're looking at. After the epidermis, you have the dermal layer, which is where sweat glands, nerves, and capillaries are found. Scabie mites will not burrow that deep because they only burrow to lay their eggs and such. As they do this they can cause visible tunnels and other marks that can be mistaken for acne or other skin conditions if not properly identified. You'll most likely know because the itch is VERY BAD.

They're very easily spread by close contact and a scabies infestation needs to be treated with a prescribed pharmacological means.

However, kikaichu are definitely a lot bigger than 0.5mm. In the case of size, I would compare them at minimum to fruitflies/medflies, which grow up to 3-5mm and maximum to ladybugs 4-7mm.

3-7mm > 0.5-1.5mm... obviously. And the holes which Kikaichu swarm out of that the audience has seen before are about a size comparable Shino's nostrils, IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE!!

You're telling me those things were in his mouth?????????? S H I N O N O

That would mean, in realistic terms, the Kikaichu are fucking around in Shino's body to the bone and muscles and THAT'S A REALLY SCARY THOUGHT. Even just passing the epidermis to the dermis is alarming! Compared to the dry, protective epidermis that can and does take damage, the dermis can be 1-4mm thick depending on where you're looking and is where skin does it's business. All together that becomes 0.5-5.5mm of space BARELY big enough for a fruit fly do mess around in. It makes just enough sense in terms of THAT size, but last time I checked, having the skin penetrated to the dermal layer is just asking for infection to happen. You're first natural line of defense has been breeched, there's a pretty good chance you're gonna be bleeding (blood vessels) and general body fluids are going to be draining, which is bad for a multitude of reasons, and there's damage that gonna affect the nerves, and realistically this shit is going to be ABSOLUTELY painful if they're constantly manipulating those areas near nerves. These kinda of things CAN make new connections and things like that, sometimes damage is forever. (Case by case basis).

So my first thought to more or less "magically" solve the problem with anime logic, is that first of all, it's an anime and logic doesn't have to apply haha.

On a more sci-fi level, in which kikaichu are smaller than we've seen them shown, maybe they have been purposefully been allowed to burrow into the dermal layer of the skin at least because the blood vessels seem to be in direct contact with the chakra system. Kikaichu's prefered food is chakra, but they WILL mutiny and eat their respective Aburame from the inside out if they don't balance their chakra smartly. So it's safe to say Kikaichu are at least carnivorous as well, and so I only imagine these absolute nightmares would swarm their prey in the wild, and actively bite through and burrow into the body of the prey until they found the chakra system and went to town on that poor unfortunate soul. Eaten alive, how the hell did they "tame" them in the first friggin' place??

I like to think two things:

1) Kikaichu are passed down from parent to child, and the parent has control over the Kikaichu until they have been RIGOROUSLY trained for generations to comprehend that this baby/child isn't food, it's a new hive. If bees can comprehend time, Kikaichu can comprehend what an Aburame is. If they insist on trying to drain the babe or the babe just can't tolerate them, the parent takes the Kikaichu back and the babe is assigned another insect or position in general. Like hell they're gonna try to force a relationship like that.

2) As part of the successful symbiotic relationship, Kikaichu regularly debride the tunnels and borrows that they carve into their respective Aburame, and are naturally intuitive in avoiding as many nerves and blood vessels as possible. The chance of infection is never 0%, however, kikaichu are pretty good about taking care of their tunnels, and so it gives the Aburame more time to focus on their things, like increasing the amount if chakra in their system. To ensure that they stay healthy, Aburame are encouraged to eat as much protein and Vit C possible every day, whether it be meat, beans, lentils, eggs, oranges, tomatoes, or even supplements as times modernize. The dermis is living tissue and as long as debridement/tunneling is going on, it needs to be nourished as much as possible.

I don't know how the hell Aburame deal with the obvious drainage that would be coming from their bodies, assuming the dermal layer really is free game for the Kikaichu. But the magical solution is that... they don't? Because... drainage is minimal. The Kikaichu just do such a good job lol. Maybe they purposefully... carve entrances to be flappy, or they purposefully create pocket spaces underneath seemingly healed areas of skin to easily burst open when necessary. That's the biggest thing for me, leaking body fluids. There's no way around that shit besides straight up denial lol Maybe they wear a special kind of dressing underneath their clothes, or that's directly applied with their clothes. Maybe that's what that cute little backpack is filled with, who knows!!

Idk man. I'm sure the Aburame authority forces encourages many of their non-hive members to pursue medical nin training in order to give the clan more privacy in general too. All medics that claim the Aburame name are exclusively used by the Aburame Clan. A non-Aburame medic may end up healing tunnels and burrows that were meant to stay open because "oops" and now you have an X amount of insects possibly suffocating within a completely sealed pocket of the skin, and also now there's a very good chance that after those insects die, that whole area is gonna frickin' abscess and cause infection induced tunnels the longer it's left alone and GROSS THAT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN! THERE IS A DELICATE, ORGANIZED, SELF-SUFFICENT PROCESS TO ALL THIS!! A PROCESS!!!

Like... the other ninja in the NartVerse can make as many jokes, jabs, and comments about the Aburame as they please (INO? BITCH??? but to be honest I still love her lol). But these MFers are constantly playing Russian Roulette with these high maintenance demon spawn from hell, and there are VERY little defences against Kikaichu, virtually none. Like the only thing I've ever seen actively thwart Kikaichu across all media is killing them with mass fire, countering them with large amounts of poison gas (both very exterminator like) or literally just feeding them chakra until they're so stupid full, they can't move, the little gluttons. As far as genjutsu, it's been stated that it's both effective and ineffective, so idk about that. But the Aburame are just SO set up to be the living breathing embodiment of Shinobi as defined by the NartVerse. They're whole clan culture relies on the threat of enemies. If they have no enemies, the whole relationship is an exhausting endeavor for literally no reason. It's not worth it if there's no one to fight or protect! But when there is a threat, you want them on YOUR side.

I suppose the best bet is to incapacitate the Aburame individual asap and the Kikaichu will tend the individual, making escape easier. But, if you DID manage to kill that Aburame right away, that particular Aburame's swarm is now suddenly without its food source and without restraint.

What do you THINK is gonna happen, bro?? The second an Aburame loses their grip on their consciousness due to external influences, the bugs go bonkers because I'm pretty sure Kikaichu are simply persuaded to be in this relationship and have NO tolerance for bullshit like alcohol and overheating temps. If their Aburame dies, they probably cause just as much chaos as they would as a wild, unattended swarm. Then YOU BETTER HAVE fire or poison gas or SOMETHING handy. The only way to calm them down is to offer them chakra and a new host with equal or even more chakra reserves. Otherwise the mutineers must be eradicated.

And for serious... Like, any deeper and the kikaichu would be in the hypodermal/subcutaneous layer of the skin and that's where a lot of connective tissue is located. Let's NOT mess with that shit, shall we? NOT a good idea. It's called connective tissue for a reason first and foremost...

[just-dreaming-marvel]

Out Of Time ~ 107

MASTERLIST

< previous chapter

Word Count: 4,300ish

Summary: The team figures out the monolith and tries to save Simmons

“Do something!”

“Fitz,” Y/N got up and hurried to him. She was afraid to portal, scared of what the monolith might do. “Come on.” She grabbed his arm but he tore it away. “We have to get out of here!”

“Leave me alone!” 

He turned and decked Y/N in the face, causing her to tumble down the steps and to the ground. Y/N gently touched her face, pulling her hand back to see blood.

“Fitz! Y/N!” Mack shouted, rushing to grab Fitz from the container.

“Fitz, get out of there!” Hunter yelled, getting the door.

“Are you crazy?”

“Close it!” Bobbi yelled. “Close it!”

“Y/N!” Daisy rushed over. “Oh my gosh, you’re bleeding.”

As soon as Bobbi and Hunter closed the container, the monolith turned into liquid. Everyone was panting.

“Damn it, Fitz,” Coulson murmured, coming into the room.

“I had to know,” Fitz panted. “Had to— had to know—“

“I already lost Simmons to that thing. I cannot afford to lose you or Y/N, too.”

“Trying to get yourself killed?” Hunter wondered.

“Sorry,” Fitz said. “I won’t give up. I can’t give up.”

“None of us want to, Fitz, but…” Daisy tried to say.

“Fitz,” Bobbi knelt down in front of him, “you tried. Okay? You tried your hardest. Everybody knows that.”

“No,” he shook his head. “I missed something. I m… I missed something.” He wiped something off his face.

“What is that?”

“Proof.” Fitz got up and ran to the lab.

“Y/N,” Coulson said, the others turning to face her. She was still on the ground, breathing heavily. “Oh my…” There was a long cut down the right side of Y/N’s face. “Did he—“

“I’ll be fine…” She panted. “I’ll be fine…”

“Come on,” Daisy urged, helping Y/N up. “Let’s get that stitched up.”

Daisy took Y/N to Coulson’s office and Bobbi brought all the supplies to help patch up the cut.

“He didn’t mean to,” Bobbi said quietly.

“I know,” Y/N responded.

“He just misses Simmons so much.”

“I know.”

“It hurts—“

“I know, Bobbi! Just stop, okay?” Tears formed in Y/N’s eyes. “Out of everyone here, I think I understand the most… I lost Bucky… no one could find his body… I was torn. I acted out too. That’s how I’m here… So I understand. I get that now we know Bucky’s alive, but we didn’t then. And I didn’t think he would ever come back… Honestly, at least he has hope. That’s more than I ever had.”

~~~

Fitz showed up in the office not too long later. He had a tablet in hand and pulled up his findings.

“Sand,” he stated. “Not just sand. Impossible sand.”

“The monolith’s case is a clean room,” Mack said. “There’s nothing in there but that rock. Not even dust.”

“Unless you blast it open with a shotgun and contaminate everything,” Hunter retorted.

“That’s not what this is,” Bobbi shook her head.

“Okay, the sand itself, not unusual,” Fitz continued. “Mostly silicone-dioxide particles just like on Earth.”

“Wait, are you saying…” Y/N paused. “You’re saying this sand is not from Earth?”

“Carbon dating show that—“

“It predates the Earth by a billion years,” Fitz interrupted Bobbi.

“So you think the rock is a portal?” Daisy asked.

“No. No, I’m proving that it’s a portal. Okay, to another planet, a-a very old planet. A crack in space-time that carried Simmons away… and carried the sand back. Which means…”

“She’s out there,” Coulson stated. “But it’s been months.”

“Yeah?”

“She could be long gone from wherever this thing dropped her.”

“Yeah.”

“She could be dead.”

“Yes.”

“But we’re gonna find out, aren’t we?”

“Yeah.” / “You’re damn right.” / “For sure.” / “Yeah.”

“Okay, Fitz, what do you need?” Y/N asked. “I can get Tony to bring some things as well.”

“Uh, uh, well, uh, more historical data. People have studied this thing for centuries. I need an expert on quantum mechanics and Einstein-Rosen Bridge theory. And a— a sandwich would be nice.”

“I might have an idea,” Coulson said, nodding, “about the other things.” He turned to Daisy and Mack. “You two, stay with our new inhuman guest. Be here for Dr. Garner’s assessment. Building that team is still the priority.”

“What did I say?” Daisy commented, her and Mack exiting.

“Bobbi—“

“I’m on this with Fitz,” Bobbi responded.

“Yeah, haven’t you been on this with Fitz the whole time? Hiding his trip to Morocco, covering for him on a constant basis?”

“Have I?” She smirked, walking out.

“And you know where you’re going,” Coulson said to Hunter. Hunter nodded and left.

“What about me?” Y/N asked. “I’m staying until Simmons is found. I’ve already texted Tony and he’s on stand-by if we need anything.”

“With me.”

~~~

Coulson explained that they were going to make a visit to a Professor Randolph. He was an Asgardian, hiding out on Earth. The team had a run in with him once when Y/N was on a break. Bobbi and Fitz joined them.

“I’m sorry,” Randolph said, reading a book inside of his cell. “I can’t help you.”

“Can’t or won’t?” Coulson questioned.

“Potato, puh-tah-toe.”

“And your reason?”

“The nightly news, cities flying into the atmosphere, government task forces, and now the public is freaking out about alien outbreaks. Pretty crappy time to be on Earth if you’re not a local, so I am staying low. And of course,” he chuckled, “there is my current situation.”

“Destruction of property, public drunkenness,” Bobbi clarified.

“And here I thought that Asgardians could hold their drinks?” Y/N retorted.

“Yes, well, Asgardians can generally hold their drink. It’s just, well, one night I tried to hold all the drinks.”

“Asgardians are also strong, right?” Bobbi questioned. “You could easily break out.”

“What? And miss dinner?” He chuckled. “Oh, no. Yes, norse prisons are surprisingly evolved—decent food, comfy bed, extensive library, and no attention being drawn to me. Come back in a few months, why don’t you? Maybe then I’ll be in the mood.”

“Can’t I just call in Thor?” Y/N muttered to Bobbi.

“We don’t have a few months,” Fitz stated.

“And neither do you,” Coulson said. “I don’t have to remind you that I saved your life. Though I did just mention it in case you forgot. But I’d still have no problems contacting those task forces you mentioned. I bet they’d go bonkers to have a real life Asgardian to dissect in their labs. I don’t know how comfy you’d be there.”

“Why, Agent Coulson…” Randolph said, standing up. “Are you threatening me?”

“I wouldn’t call it a… well, yeah, I guess I am. That’s absolutely a threat.”

“You’re different now. You know that?”

“One must accommodate the times or things get messy.”

“What’s with the hand?”

“Things got messy.”

“Well… you’ll have to cover my realize. And if there is a portal, which I will have to see to believe, you are diving into very dangerous waters here.”

“We live in the dangerous waters,” Y/N commented. “And have been for a while.”

Randolph exhaled sharply. “Alright. Well, it’s not like you’re giving me any choice.” 

He quickly tore off the door and the alarm started blaring. He grabbed his coat and they began walking out. Guards rushed in.

“He did it,” Randolph said, pointed at Coulson.

Coulson gave a nervous chuckle and a smile.

~~~

After talking themselves out of it, they took Randolph to the base. He walked around, observing the monolith.

“Well, I hate to disappoint, but it looks like your regular, old—“ He stopped when the monolith turned to liquid then back into a rock. “Oh. How often does it do that?”

“It’s random,” Fitz answered.

“No. No, no, no, no. It may seem random. But… something is clearly triggering it.”

“I’ve checked it against tides, relation to the sun, rotation—“

“On this planet. So you have no idea how to control it. Why come to me? I’m no interstellar-travel expert. I’ve never even studied gravitational lensing or zero-point energy fields or quantum-harmonic oscillation theory.”

“Yet you know all those words you just said,” Bobbi retorted.

“And you’re scared of portals,” Coulson added. “You’re scared of being dragged back home through a portal. Y/N?”

“It would be my pleasure,” Y/N replied with a smirk. 

She walked up to Randolph, opening a portal behind him and pushed him into it. Another portal opened on the other side of the room, causing him to exit from it.

“Impossible,” Randolph panted. “No human should be—“

“I’m connected with the Tesseract,” Y/N interrupted. “I can channel it. And I know it’s on Asgard and I’m pretty sure if I tried hard enough I could send you back there.”

“What I think, Randolph, is that in your drunken stumble through history, you’ve probably investigated every story involving a portal,” Coulson said. 

“And I’ve seen you eyeing all of your exits,” Bobbi added. “My knee brace, wondering if you can get away with it. The only reason you came with us was to confirm its existence.”

“And destroy it,” Randolph confirmed.

“You’ll have to go through me,” Fitz stated.

“And I could. Literally. But, then, I don’t know what amazon woman and robot hand are capable of these days. And don’t get me started with the Avenger over there. So I will help you get her back. I’m not entirely heartless. But if I do, I want your word that we will demolish this portal and no one passes through it again.”

“I’ll sleep better at night,” Coulson confirmed.

“Good. Well, I’ve investigated a lot of these wormhole rumors. But that’s all they were, rumors. None have panned out. So we know nothing of its origin.”

“Kree, maybe.”

“And this parchment was found with it,” Bobbi said, grabbing the paper and handing it to Randolph.

“Well, hello,” Randolph said, studying the parchment through the bag it was in. “I’ve seen this.”

“It’s a common Hebrew word.”

“Yes. What else do we know, Mr. Fitz?”

“Uh, well, the monolith changed hands a lot,” Fitz explained. “Germanic tribes, spent the hundred years’ war in France. But before the Napoleon era, it was moved again. I lost track of it somewhere in—“

“England.”

“Yeah. How did you know that?”

“Because I have seen this word carved into the walls of a castle in Gloucestershire, England, in 1853. To the plane!” Then Randolph started for the door, when no one followed he turned around. “W—am I allowed to say that?”

“Let’s all go to the plane, I guess,” Coulson agreed.

~~~

While on the flight over to England, Y/N was talking to Tony.

“Are you sure you guys don’t need my help?” Tony asked. “I could get there at the same time as you still.”

“I’m sure, Tony,” Y/N replied. “The lead we’re currently following seems solid.” Y/N sighed. “I just want to bring Simmons home so that I can come home.”

“You’ll find her. I know you will.”

“I miss you.”

“I miss you too.”

From the doorway, Fitz cleared his throat, drawing Y/N’s attention to him. He looked guilty.

“I need to go, Tones,” Y/N said. “I love you.” She hung up, slipping her phone in her pocket. “You need something, Fitz?”

“Yeah, I, uh…” Fitz started, coming to sit beside Y/N. “I need to apologize… I shouldn’t have hit you back like I did. You were only trying to help… I’m so sorry.”

“I know, Fitz.” She rested a hand on his knee. “I completely understand… I was the same way when Bucky died. Or, I guess, when I thought he was dead… So I get it, Fitz. I think that’s why Coulson called me in.”

“Or cause he missed you. You and May left, he lost his hand and Simmons… I think he just wanted a little of the good old days back.”

“Sadly, after we find Simmons, I can’t stay… I need some more time. I’m doing much better than I was. But I don’t think I can ever go back to this life full time. I don’t think it’s in the cards anymore.”

~~~

Randolph led them into the castle. They looked around with their flashlights, searching for the carving.

“Yes. Yes, yes,” the Asgardian exclaimed. “I came here for a costume ball. That was the pretext, of course, ‘cause I had heard rumors of travel to the stars. Found it all to be nonsense. But it was a fun party.”

“The carvings?” Coulson questioned, trying to get back to the point.

“Oh, right, right. Of course. So I was here admiring the stone work, and…” 

Randolph turned and shined his flashlight on the stones over the door. There was the word, carved in to one of the stones.

“The same as the scroll,” Fitz stated. “Death.”

“Maveth,” Randolph clarified. “Yeah, one of its translations is actually ‘death by punishment’.”

“Could mean no trespassing,” Coulson suggested.

“A Hebrew warning carved in an English castle struck me as odd. Out of place. Seems ancient.”

“But you stopped looking into it?” Y/N asked.

“A man dressed as an owl, of all things. I got him drunk enough to admit that no travel to other worlds was even occurring. Just ritualistic killings.” Everyone continued to look around as Randolph talked. “En, the whole thing stunk of half-baked satanism. Just some fabrications to entice new members. And, well, there were fire dancers. I got distracted.”

“Here’s another one,” Coulson called. “This is why I got rid of all the SHIELD logos on our vehicles. It’s like screaming for attention.”

“About time,” Y/N muttered.

“You know, there’s an ginormous eagle symbol on top of our jet,” Bobbi pointed out.

“Yeah,” Coulson agreed. “Sometime I can’t help myself with the cool.”

Coulson then pushed a stone in the wall, causing part of it to open up. Revealing a passage way.

“You certain about this?” Randolph asked. “It does say death by punishment.”

Fitz and Y/N went in, examining the walls. They made their way down the passage. Eventually it led to a round room, with old equipment in it.

“Okay, well, this wasn’t on the last tour,” Randolph said. “It’s an odd shoe for architecture this period. Definitely built after I was here.”

“Reminds me of the bunker under the Louvre,” Bobbi commented.

“What? There’s no bunker under the Louvre. That’s a joke, right? You messing with me.” Bobbi simply glanced his way and walked to the other side of the room and Y/N chuckled. “Alright, great. Now I’ll have to check.”

Fitz knocked on the metal he was studying. “It’s late 1800s,” he stated. 

He pushed the lever up. Suddenly, electricity crackled and the room lit up.

“Still got some life to it,” Coulson commented.

“I hear water,” Bobbi added. “Could be a stream underground, maybe hydroelectric power.”

On the other side of the room, Fitz hit the control panel on the wall and Randolph pulled down another lever. Suddenly, a round floor panel, in the center of the room, disappeared. They all walked up to it, looking down.

“This looks a lot like it was made to hold—“

“The monolith,” Fitz interrupted Bobbi. “This machine was designed to control the portal, to open and close it at will.”

“Do you know that, or is that just what you hope it to be?” Coulson asked.

“Well, there’s only one way to find out.”

Sighing, Coulson pulled out his phone and dialed a number. “Mack, I need you to load something onto Zephyr One and bring it to us.”

“What exactly am I bringing, sir?” Mack against on the other end of the phone.

“Yeah… you’re not gonna like it.”

~~~

It wasn’t long before Mack and Daisy arrived with Zephyr One and the monolith was being lowered into the hole. Fitz and Randolph were getting the systems working. Bobbi was guiding the container down, monitoring the monolith on the tablet she was holding.

“Zephyr One,” Bobbi called into the comms, “you’re clear to retract.”

“Wow. Room full of ancient gack,” Mack commented as him and Daisy entered the room. “Kind of reminds me of your office, director.”

“Realistically, what are the odds of this thing working?” Daisy asked.

“If we were realistic, we never would have gotten this far,” Coulson said.

“With anything,” Y/N added.

“Well, Andrew Garner thinks I need to be more so,” Daisy said. “He recommended three months observation and counseling before reassessment for Joey. Says I’m reckless.”

“Wonder what he thinks about me.”

“Don’t take it personally,” Coulson said. “He probably just meant that—“

“He said you’re desperate,” Daisy added.

“What? He didn’t say that. Did he say that?”

“I can read minds, Phil,” Y/N said. “He definitely said that.”

“You can read minds, too?” Randolph pipped up. “Why is the Tesseract gifting you all these things?”

“Long story.”

“Let me guess,” Bobbi came up to them. “I’m struggling to come to terms with physical limitations and losing my sense of self instead of redefining it.”

“No,” Daisy said. “He didn’t mention you.”

“Oh.”

“Oh, he did. That’s what he said.”

“Oh, good.”

“Yeah.”

“Mack,” Fitz called. “Mack, push that lever.” Mack turned to a lever. “No, the one— the one that’s— the one that’s down. The one— the one beside it. Push it.”

Mack did as directed while Fitz did the same thing on the other side of the room. The gears starting turning, the machine started working. The room began to tremble and the monolith turned to liquid.

“Fitz, it’s working!” Y/N exclaimed.

Fitz knelt down beside the whole, pointing a flashlight into it.

“It’s staying open,” he stated. “Light! I need more light!”

The trembling began to get to Daisy. Y/N watched with concern as she groaned and put her head in her hands. She went over.

“Daisy?” She quietly called. “Daisy, what’s happening?”

“We got a problem!” Mack shouted.

“I need some bloody light!” Fitz yelled.

“Fitz!” Coulson called, tossing him a flare gun. 

Fitz shot it through the monolith. Daisy held her head as she began panting.

“The gears have locked!” Mack yelled. “Bobbi!”

Y/N’s eyes grew wide as she saw blood coming out of Daisy’s nose.

“Daisy!” She exclaimed. Y/N caught her as she fainted, slowly lowering her down. 

“Skye?” Coulson called, coming up beside them. “Hey.” The trembling and machine stopped. “Skye, are you okay? Skye?”

“It’s Daisy,” Daisy replied softly.

“What?”

“It’s Daisy now,” Y/N responded.

“You’re really having a hard time with this, huh?” Bobbi wondered.

“Damn it,” Coulson muttered. “Yeah. Daisy, hey.” Daisy lifted her head up. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” she replied. Y/N helped her sit up. “I’m better. That pulsing sound was killing me.”

“What pulsing sound?”

“Are you serious? It was deafening.”

“The vibrations,” Y/N whispered. 

“What?”

“The vibrations. You can sense them. And there was so many, that it was too much for you. It’s kind of like, how if you’re all thinking at once, especially about a similar think, I can sense it.”

“Maybe, Y/N’s on to something,” Bobbi agreed.

~~~

The team was currently trying to find a way to put the machine back together.

“It’ll just rattle apart again,” Fitz stated. “We have to reinforce the connections.”

“Reinf— look, most of the workings are under the ground,” Mack said. “We just can’t tear the castle down. And actually, we’re lucky the room is shaped this way, or the machine might have shaken it apart on top of us.” The two bent down to try and pick a piece of the machine up.

“Wait. Wait. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s the point. Quantum harmonic oscillation theory, like the professor said.”

“I know that look,” Bobbi commented.

“It’s a strange shape for this time period because it’s made to resonate, uh, to—to—to—uh— create a-a quantized field within the stone.”

“Fitz, you’re talking, but we’re not totally following,” Coulson said.

“The room is a speaker. The machine is an amplifier. Uh, a sub—subsonic frequency to resonate with the monolith.”

“You saying you figured out a way to fix the machine?” Mack asked.

“No. I’m saying I figured out that—“

“We don’t have to,” Daisy said, glancing at Y/N. “I can do it. I can open the portal myself.”

“Daisy, no,” Y/N said. “It’s too risky.”

“If I can open the portal and help save Simmons, then I’m doing it.”

~~~

The team added a frame with a lot of rope, to lower some into the portal and bring them back.

“Well, turns out we’re standing in the in the middle of the world’s largest subwoofer,” Randolph stated.

“Yeah,” Mack agreed.

“If the point of the machine was to resonate the room at a certain frequency,” Daisy said, “I can do that.”

“And you can replicate it?” Coulson asked.

“Kind of drilled into my brain.”

“And it could kill you,” Y/N stated, not at all happy with this plan.

“How long do you think you can hold it?” Coulson asked. 

“Maybe a minute,” Daisy responded.

“If it’s too much, you pull back. I can’t lose you, too.”

“I got this.”

“Here we go,” Bobbi said, reentering the room with a machine. “Camera and data sensors are hard-lined back to us through a cable. No signal loss that way.” She clipped it onto a cable to be lowered into the portal. “If Daisy can hold it, we’ll get a visual of the other side.”

“That’s what we’re looking for,” Coulson said before turning to Daisy. “Alright, you listen to me. You take care of yourself. We lose that probe, nobody cares.”

“Uh, I’m confused,” Randolph spoke up. “What exactly is she planning to do here?”

Allowing her space, everyone moved as Daisy readied herself. She held both arms out to the sides, causing the parts of the old machine to tremble.

“Sorry,” she strained an apology. “Still tuning.”

After getting the right tune, she aimed at the monolith. Causing it to turn into liquid. 

“Hold it open as long as you can,” Fitz stated.

Everyone turned to him. He had clipped himself onto the cable. He ran towards the liquid monolith.

“Fitz, no!” Coulson shouted.

But Fitz jumped into the monolith, disappearing.

“I’m going in after him!” Y/N yelled. 

“No!” Coulson held her back. “I can’t lose you anymore than I already have.”

“But I’m the best chance to get back if Daisy can’t hold it long enough.”

“You don’t know if you can do that.”

“And you don’t know if I can’t.” They stared at each other. “If Daisy looks like she’s ready to give out, I’m going in. And no one can stop me.”

The trembling and the cable rope moving was causing the structure that was keeping it steady to lose up. Mack, Bobbi, and Y/N all quickly grabbed onto a different piece, trying to keep it steady.

“Damn it. Pull him back,” Coulson ordered, rushing around to where the cable was. “Get him back here.” He pulled the lever and the cable began spin back up.

“I can’t hold it!” Daisy shouted.

“Y/N, don’t! We can’t lose the both of you!”

Before Y/N could jump, Daisy stopped the trembles and the monolith burst into pieces. Every looked down in the hole, hoping, praying, for something to give. Suddenly, Fitz uncovered himself and pulled Simmons up. Daisy fell to the ground, Mack and Y/N rushing to her.

“You did good, tremors,” Mack said. “You did good.”

~~~

Y/N brought everyone onto Zephyr One quickly. Simmons needed to be checked out immediately and Fitz needed to be monitored in case of radiation. They laid Simmons in the containment module, hooked up to IV’s and allowed time to rest. Randolph and Y/N were standing outside as Coulson came to update them.

“They’re gonna be okay,” he informed. “No sign of radiation or infection. Fitz would never have found her, but she saw the flare. We brought a woman back from the dead today.”

“Yes,” Randolph agreed. “And, happily, you kept up your end of the bargain. The portal is destroyed.”

“Thank Daisy for that.”

“Yeah. Agent Coulson… what exactly is Daisy?”

“The call themselves inhumans.”

He looked surprised. “I have not heard that word in a very long time.”

“You know it?” Y/N questioned.

“I know more about them than I do you. You are something else… The Tesseract you said, that’s how you get your abilities?”

“Part of them.”

“Interesting.”

~~~

They were landing at the base when Y/N pulled Coulson aside.

“You’re leaving,” he stated.

“I am,” she replied.

“Anything that I could do to convince you to stay?”

“No… Look, I’m sorry, Phil, that I left and May left. But sometimes you need to tap out. SHIELD can’t be everything in anyone’s life… Even yours.” Y/N pulled him in for a hug. “If you need anything like this again, I’ll be there.” She pushed herself away, walking back towards the portal she opened. “Just don’t go opening anymore portals to other planets any time soon. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Bye, Phil.”

~~~

“But she’s safe? There’s nothing wrong with her?” 

“Nothing,” Y/N shook her head. 

“Wow,” Tony leaned back. “That’s… that’s—“

“A miracle. An absolute miracle.”

“And you’re sure you don’t want to join the team again?” Tony pulled Y/N in-between his legs. “You didn’t miss it at all?”

“I missed them. But not SHIELD. Plus,” she gave him a kiss, “I wouldn’t get to do that as much as I would like.”

Tony hummed. “Good. Can you do it again?”

next chapter >

NOTES: from now on the taglist when be added by a reblog. I will reblog it using my second account, @just-dreaming-marvel-2​. Just so that my main page doesn’t get too cluttered.

If you want to be added to the tag list, please dm me or send in an ask.

[dmsden]

Campaign Basics 11 - News & Rumors

Hullo, Gentle Readers. Our Campaign Basics series has been exploring the Angel of Chaos storyline, and, this week, we’re going to create a year’s worth of news and rumors for our campaign. As I’ve mentioned in earlier articles, having things happening elsewhere in the world generates a level of faux realism that will help your players believe in your campaign world.

You can come up with three major events happening in distant lands, fairly major events happening in the area of the campaign (in this case, Calengard), and absolutely bonkers rumors that might just have a shred of truth to them...or not. This gives you a fair amount to work with, and you can weave the actions of your major villains and NPCs through these events, and then even have the events of your major NPCs become news and rumors themselves.Since the hypothetical date of the beginning of the campaign is “1835 DR”, that’s what we’ll be working with. 

Let’s start with a bang and state that, in Deepnight 1834, an adult black dragon moves into northern Calengard. Obviously the dragon isn’t announcing its presence by hiring town criers, so, instead, we’ll use what the Monster Manual says about lairing black dragons. Maybe the first anyone knows about the black dragon is that thick fogs and swampier than usual terrain are making travel near the lair difficult and dangerous. “My Uncle Finn was waiting for a caravan to come to the tavern he runs up north. They’ve been having odd weather, though. Thick fog doesn’t usually spread this time of year, and the swamps are usually frozen over, so travel’s not so bad. But they’ve had thick mud and thicker fogs, and they think the caravan might’ve just disappeared into the swamp!”

Let’s go with a distant disaster in Frostchain of 1834 and say that an earthquake strikes far off Nath-Hilum, causing the ruin of some ancient structures and maybe the uncovering of an ancient tomb or forgotten dungeon. This might be good grist for a later adventure.

Finally, let’s end 1834 on a positive note and say that, in Aelwyn, a marriage is celebrated. Perhaps the Queen of Aelwyn finally finds a Prince Consort. That can be useful for later developments as well, depending on how things go.

As Deeprain of 1835 comes, our Black Dragon is finally spotted. “They think they finally figured out what caused that caravan to go missing a few months back up north. A Calengard knight saw a huge black dragon flying over the swamps up there. Best to avoid it! A dragon that big is likely to be mighty powerful.”

We don’t want to lose our main plot, so we’ll go with something related in Planting of 1835. Maybe a ranger who is a member of the Wardens of the Wildwood comes to town and warns about activities in the Caves of Chaos. “I ambushed a goblin who had strayed from his raiding party. He spoke of some new priest of Chaos trying to unite the factions in the Caves. It may be nothing, but be wary if you travel that way. There may be more than meets the eye.” I feel like I would hit the PCs with this rumor just before they depart of the Caves to give them a hint that something’s going on.

Let’s do something local and related to Calengard in Highsun, perhaps mentioning that the Castellan intends to hold a feast and tourney in Sunwane. This gives some interesting info, and the actual tourney could be an opportunity to get noticed by the Castellan or another powerful NPC or to make allies in the Keep.

Let’s do another distant one in Fireborn, this one a bit more neutral and state that conscription of soldiers has begun in Valkenholm, bringing worries of possible raiding parties or fighting. Other kingdoms quietly prepare, and the PCs might feel some of the effect of this in soldiers stopping them on civilized roads, stronger guard presences in towns and such.

Smokewatch could bring us a simply bizarre rumor. “My cousin Garnet says that the reason Valkenholm is arming for war is because the ruler of Aelwyn has fallen under the control of a vampire! The Queen is enthralled by the man she married, and neither of them are ever seen during the day any more! The Valkenholmers are getting ready in case this fiend orders war against them!” This can be blatantly false, or there could be some truth to it.

Sunwane brings the tourney, and, perhaps, some news of the Angel themselves. “I heard a strange story from one of my brother knights. He and his followers were deep in the Borderlands fighting the minions of Chaos when he felt a prickle on the back of his neck like someone was watching him. He turned and saw a little girl, standing on a hill. He turned to block a blow, and, when he turned back, someone was standing over her with huge wings...then they both vanished. I know not what it means, but there’s something strange out there.”

If your PCs might be powerful enough to take on the black dragon who moved in up north, then in Harvesting, maybe the Margrave offers a reward for its destruction. This is a good way to get the PCs headed in that direction.

Let’s go with a bad local piece for Treeblaze. Maybe local farms are having a really bad year, with crops being ruined. This could be for many reasons, from bad weather to a hag causing trouble. I’m sure you’ll decide one what’s best for your campaign.

Coldsnap brings in the cold weather and a crazy rumor, perhaps. “Did you know that mind flayers are terrified of gnomes? Apparently something about the way gnomish minds work is completely inedible to them, and they’ve been known to flee from groups of gnomes who all come together to sing at them. It’s true! My cousin Amber said her friend heard about it from a knight!”

We’ll end the year of rumors and news in Snowfall, with a piece about the Angel. “There have been rumors about an Angel appearing all over the Borderlands. In some cases, it helps people, but, in some cases, it’s protection goes to goblins, orcs, and other spawn of Chaos. Something strange is going on and no doubt about it!”

And there you have it. We’re starting to see some patterns emerging, and we have the beginning of a framework and timeline to hang the events of the campaign on. Next time, we’ll start thinking about the first major confrontation between the PCs and the Angel and what that might look like...especially if the PCs outright win.

[axemetaphor]

augh i kept forgetting to post this because i kept wantgin to draw mroe for it but i really suck at emulating Animal Crossing Art Style so im just going to go on a rambling explanation about this under the cut but the basic concept is. they deserve a vacation. and whats more relaxing than animal crossing? probably several things but let me have this ok

id had a bunch of ideas for mroe drawings in this style but Clearly, i am not very good at it, and every time i sat down to Try Again it ended up shitty. this is from literally months ago by now lmao

my Basic Concept was just. take the 3 of them and dump them on an animal crossing island, cause while ive been sick ive been playing a lot of new horizons to try and stay stable, and my brain likes to mush together whatever 2-or-more things im invested in together all the time. here’s some bullet points!

-john really loves diving for sea critters and frequently pulls up those bigass lobsters and eels and shit, he’s got an unnatural knack for it. loves to startle the shit out of dave by just whipping an eel out of his pocket. no thats not an innuendo stop that-- -amy loves planting/watering the flowers but shes not like invested in getting All The Different Types (although that Would be neat) she’s just having fun building a large flower patch. it’s slowly overtaking the island. also dave likes to just kinda sit in the flower patch -speaking of dave he kind of doesnt do much, i think he’d like fishing with john and/or amy and maybe hed like digging up fossils but for the most part hes just chillin, as he deserves to be, -amy likes the DIY recipe stuff though and will frequently politely ask dave to go fetch stuff for her. this has led to most of the villagers/islanders/whateverthetermis, the animal citizens, to have their Main exposure to dave be him wandering around with an axe at 3am because amy’s out of hardwood -speaking of the animal citizens, because i just really like them as a concept, i have no solid concept of who-all would be on their island but whoever they are, john is “friends” with All of them (and by that i mean he says theyre all his friends; whether or not they find him obnoxious Varies,) and amy is genuine friends with most of them/has spoken to all of them at least, and dave rarely if ever speaks to them. hes not very social. most of the animals are a little scared of him until they Actually get to talk to him and then they realize hes just an awkward misanthropic bastard -also in case it wasnt clear id think the 3 of them would all be in one little cabin i mean you can upgrade the shit out of those so they could all feasibly have their own spaces. but also i like polyamory and id say they all 3 share a room because fight me they do itd be cute. also of course the decor of their cabin is absolutely bonkers like listen not only does animal crossing have some weird items but nearly any living space john inhabits most likely has some very strange decor in it !  -tbh actually i think john would do Most of the decor stuff cause like based on the way his house is described i think he’d go NUTS for animal crossing’s Theme Decor Shit i dont know i dont actually do a bunch of that but i sure do think he would! amy would help out esp since she likes the DIY stuff, and i think dave is just kind of ..... allowing this nonsense to happen. letting john be free. probably convincing him to not change the theme every day, maybe every week, if only because it’s a bit of a hassle to have everything Constantly Rearranged.  -hang on wait i just thought of the 3 of them wandering along the beach and picking up seashells and now im like emotional over it bro pls. lovely. -also i jsut realized if daves the guy who digs up fossils he definitely talks to blathers a lot and thats an extremely funny thing to contemplate. the dude who seems to not really liek talking to people and the chatterbox owl. fantastic. you know dave is probably too awkward to tell blathers he doesnt want to hear all thsoe archaeopteryx facts! (also tbh maybe dave would actually like learning stuff) -also. john catches bugs just to give them to blathers and watch him freak out just a little about it.  -john always ends up buying fake art from redd but it’s fine because he just puts it somewhere in or near their cabin. amy however has the uncanny good luck to somehow always find the real artworks! dave doesnt talk to redd, he doesnt really care. -this ones definitely projection because my animal crossing island is a mess (And I Like It That Way Thank U Very Much) but john definitely is the guy who will dump extra furniture at random spots on the island. too much shit in storage? don’t need that Harmonious Chair right now? holding it in ur pockets just because u dont know where else to put it? just dump it on the ground! uncannily, john fuckin Always remembers where he’s put that shit when he happens to need it again. however this does mean sometimes the animal citizens will just ... find a mysterious new chair in their front yard.  -i know that terraforming is a new thing in acnh but i havent done it yet because i dont care about the whole 3 stars rating thing like listen im jsut here to run around and fill the museum if i feel like it but mostly pick up pumpkins and hoard bells for no reason and let my island be taken over by wildflowers. if any of the 3 are into that tho its john or amy--john just for the hell of it, amy would actually like try to Make Stuff of it -their front yard (and back yard if their cabin is put somewhere to allow that) is full of unused furniture as well. and also sometimes random dropped fruits or something, if dave is already carrying a ton when he sees something to dig up. -i think im out of shit to say right now but i might reblog to add mroe so. yes. if youve read this far then holy shit youre dedicated or really bored or something but whatever your reason is i hope this was A Fun Read and if it gave you any ideas Please Tell Me my inbox is open im sick and still in quarantine and i crave human interaction from literally anyone who isnt my parents. thank u 

[404fmdminjung]

aesthetic & headcanon — a mixture of figures

summary: minjung has elements from a lot of characters in western shows / movies — the top three being holly golightly, alice ayres and effy stonem. there’s a duality to each of these characters that have the contrast from their surface level characterizations to what’s really shown once the facade is stripped away. the pictures highlight 3 different expressions, all which radiate ‘minjung energy’ of each character. headcanon: elaboration on the characters / how minjung relates to them. warnings: mentions of smoking. alcohol. wc: 1019

effy stonem, skins

yes, when i first made minjung i did not know this character existed. yet, after binge watching skins — i realized, there are a lot of similarities with seo minjung and effy stonem. they’re both destructive in the tendency to hurt themselves at the sake of their hearts. an emotional inability to actually voice how they feel till they’re pushed over the edge.

she will be the first to runaway with love (has done before when she broke up with yeonggi the first time) — mainly because that sort of shit is suffocating to her, and she doesn’t see it as healthy for mind. but also short-sighted when she realizes not having love also causes a turmoil of events that cause her to dwell in self-ruination.

love love love — what’s it good for? absolutely thing. that quote resonated with minjung as she didn’t see herself ever stepping into permanency. similarly, effy has elements of these as well, where hers is more family trouble based minjung is more about the backstory where she moved around a lot.

loves the cigarettes and alcohol, but doesn’t drag people into it. instead, it follows her and without a crowd she partakes in it and with a crowd, she thrives in it. there’s a feeling of losing herself in these settings, where she doesn’t have to think about anything except jump around to loud music — in that case, they’re very alike.

the whole whimsical big picture? it’s less effy more minjung. yet, they still have similarities when effy pops in the big picture questions once in a while, only that is how minjung talks 99% of the time.

takes two steps forward only to take one step back, and doesn’t realize the repercussions till it’s too late.

a mental health not really addressed because she’s too busy living in the moment than dwelling on past things — this in turn causes it to fester and ruminate into something bigger in the end (i don’t think minjung will have a great downfall like effy though.)

effy also has these attributes where she has a smile no one can decipher — often times, minjung does that. will hold these things above people’s head like she’s talking nonsense, only to polish it off with a smile. people think of her as ‘bonkers’ as pandora says, and people know that minjung’s comments should just be brushed off and not thought about for long.

in my opinion, i think she’d resemble effy the most or maybe alice ayres.

holly golightly, breakfast at tiffany’s

whimiscal in the way she goes about life — that in the essence is minjung. having fun, ignoring the problems / history of herself for the sake of what is presented in the present / in front of cameras.

an american geisha? that isn’t minjung, nor is she an alluring siren (but holly was never meant as that characterization). 

holly golightly has this mysterious factor that fred can’t figure out, and in a way minjung does have this mysterious factor she keeps to not let people in too close for her. both in that regard have a defense mechanism in that way.

holly speaks in grand wording, the life of the party with no regard for tomorrow. minjung isn’t so much the life of the party, let’s get faded type gal, but she still does hold certain elements in her wording and her constant taste for excitement inside her bones. she doesn’t want boredom, doesn’t like monotony in many things — just because every three years she was subjected to something new in her history. i guess, elements of holly somewhat bleed onto her there.

love versus keeping up the euphoria from her own facade — she’d pick love everytime just as how holly inevitably ends up picking fred in the end. hopeless romantic deep rooted heart, that is her essence and she fools no one once the layers are peeled back.

acts like nothing phases her despite the whole world hovering over her head like a tight enclosed space, heralding her as

alice ayres / jane jones, closer

once alice is in love, she’s clingy — similarly to alice, minjung is also clingy? loves the feeling of being in love and letting everyone know it. she’ll show her love in front of people with a real disregard for anyone in the room except her partner. 

often times, love leads her to be blind — she has tunnel vision to the point where the ‘apple of her eye’ literally becomes her partner, but she still remains keen to every little detail of her partner.

i think — the reason i pick alice ayres as being close to minjung predominately stems from her way of clicking off, and closing herself off in face of heartbreak. the moment she senses something is seriously off, she’ll run like wild-girl and do something irrational. 

and alice is really calculative, and smart — she does things that people don’t expect until it’s too late while dropping little hints. that sort of long-term planning, and the small details is very minjung-esque.

because there’s love which consumes, and once that gets stripped away she feels bare for a time period — might cut her hair, do something crazy. give up a little because heartbreak hurts more than anything in her personal opinion.

i won’t spoil the movie, but the big plot twist at the end would be something minjung does — tell someone she doesn’t love them, and split to get lost so that she’ll never be found again. seems like her to harbor a lie for a long time just for the sake of love and protecting her own heart (though, in regards to yeonggi, she would never because their love is nothing like alice / dan’s).

honorable mentions

lee bona (the heirs) for the sake of jealousy that minjung has when she’s really in love

cassie from skins series 1&2 — the whimsical nature of never showing how she feels

blair waldorf — just for the pure ruthlessness of her when she gets angry / upset

[kat-tamin]

Kat Tamin SFW Alphabet

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

Her love language is quality time and acts of service. She wants to spend time with people doing fun things that love her. She loves those nights where you just sit on the couch and talk for hours about anything and everything. She shows her love by doing things for you, making you coffee or tea, helping you move, picking up groceries for you. She’s the one who will change the lightbulb in your apartment that’s been out since you moved in.

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

Kat’s an amazing best friend to have, fiercely loyal and kind. She’s the type to come over in the middle of the night if you need her. She’s also super fun to be around, always with a good energy that seems to last forever. She’s good with a girl’s night in or a night out. She can be friends with the boys, talk sports and beer. She’s the type of person who just has an aura of coolness that draws people in like a magnet.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

Actual cuddling, like arms around each other, faces pressed together for endless amounts of time isn’t her favourite. Small, short hugs are better. Her version of cuddling is sitting on the couch with your feet in her lap, her hand on your knee. Small touches are infinitely better than full on cuddling.

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

She wants to settle down eventually, but she still has time, so she’s in no rush.

Cooking is a no, unless it is very, very simple. She makes a deal with you as soon as you meet that if you do all the cooking, she will do all the dishes. That’s the only thing she’s good at, because the rest of her apartment is a mess. It’s not dirty, just seems full of things that aren’t in the right place.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

In her younger days, it would have been just a text. If you’re in a casual relationship, it still might be just a text. She doesn’t like to see people sad or disappointed. In longer term relationships, she has to make herself see you in person, she knows she owes you at least that. She absolutely hates it if you cry afterwards, because she feels so awkward and doesn’t know what to do.

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

Marriage is not a must for Kat, but a commitment is. She really doesn’t see the point of just getting a piece of paper to say you will be together forever. If a wedding is something you really want, she can compromise on a courthouse ceremony and then a small reception at a bar or restaurant, with just a few close friends and family members. 

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

Kat can be very soft when she needs to be. She uses techniques that she’s learned from work in emotional situations. In other situations, she might be more of a tough-love, especially to her friends who she thinks needs to hear it. Physically, again she can be. She drops kisses onto your forehead, or a hand brushing against your back as she passes by, but she also doesn’t like prolonged physical touch. 

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

She loves giving hugs to anyone who needs one. She’ll give you a hug when she’s introduced to you. Her favourite hugs are bear hugs, when she sweeps you off your feet, holding you so tight you can’t breathe and you have to laugh. She likes it when you wrap her in your arms, your head in the crook of her shoulder.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

Right out of the gate she’ll say things like “God I love you” when you bring her tea or cook her dinner. But when it comes to the big “I love you”, she waits a bit, until you’re in a committed relationship and she actually feels it. You’ll probably end up saying it first, and she’ll get a big smile and say it back, her heart so full.

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

She’s not really a jealous person, she trusts you completely. If a random person is hitting on you, she’s more concerned about your feelings of discomfort in the situation. She’ll step in to make you feel more safe, and send them packing.

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

Kat’s kisses are great of course. Soft, sweet kisses that leave you weak in the knees or hard, messy kisses that take your breath away. Her favourite place to kiss you is the top of your head or forehead. It makes her feel connected to you on an emotional level. She likes kisses on her neck or shoulder, even her ear. A smile is instantly on her face, even if it does tickle and make her squirm.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

She’s the eldest child of four, so she does have experience with kids. She’s comfortable with them, and enjoys spending time with younger children. However, she’s more than happy to send them back to their parents at the end of the night. She’s definitely child-free, no interest in being pregnant. Maybe once she’s higher in the ranks, she’ll take in a couple of teenagers having a rough time, but babies are an absolute no.

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

Kat sets her alarm ridiculously early, even on her days off. She likes to go to the boxing gym before work and get in a workout, or a jog around the park. She loves it when you join her, but understands when you just want to sleep in. Those days, she leaves the coffee pot or kettle on along with a note saying she loves you.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

Weeknights after work are all about relaxation. Take out or you cooking dinner and some good old Netflix and chill. Weekends are when Kat goes out, usually dragging you to a new bar or club with her friends. She just wants to be out with people, having as much fun as she can before she has to go to work, where it’s the opposite of fun.

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

Kat’s a bit of an open book. She tells you straight up what she wants in a relationship so she doesn’t waste time on someone who doesn’t want the same thing. She always tells dates that she’s bi during the first few minutes after meeting, so can weed out the ones who hate it and the creeps who love it.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

She doesn’t really get angry, not at you. When she’s at work, with perps, yes she can get angry quickly. She’s protective over victims, so her feelings are always out in the open. If she does get angry at you, it’s probably not because of you, you just happen to be in the room. She can take out her frustration over cases on you if she’s not careful. She realizes quickly that she crossed a line and says how sorry she is, and what happened that day to make her angry.

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

She’s a detective, so of course she remembers a lot about you. You can talk about a random Aunt and she’ll be like, “the one who lives in Florida with her younger boyfriend you don’t like?”. You don’t even remember you saying half the things she mentions about your life.

R = Remember (What is their favourite moment in your relationship?)

The day she told you she wants to be your girlfriend. It had been a decision that she’s been mulling over, wondering if she was ready to be with you and only you. But the minute she says it, and you get so happy, she knows she made the right decision. You kiss her and she’s never been happier.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

She works at a job where she sees the worst of the worst, so yeah she’s protective of you. She knows what happens to young people in New York City who aren’t careful. She buys you your first can of mace and shows you basic self-defence skills. She always makes sure to sit between you and randoms on the subway, not afraid to flash her badge if creeps get too close.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

She comes from a home with the motto: It’s the thought that counts. She didn’t grow up with money so she’s uncomfortable with spending huge amounts, especially on things like dates. She’s all about the experience of things, would rather give you concert tickets than jewelry. When it comes to anniversaries, she’ll just take you to your favourite places and give you handmade gifts that remind you of your relationship.

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

She’s incredibly stubborn, and doesn’t like to admit when she says or does something wrong. This causes issues, but if you explain carefully about how she hurt you, she’ll apologize sincerely. 

Less seriously, her messy apartment drives you bonkers.

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

She likes to look good, but isn’t super vain. She’s careful picking out her wardrobe, wanting to project confidence and a certain image so people can’t judge her. Her makeup and hair are always kept simple, unless it’s a special occasion. She’s most comfortable in her sweats and old t-shirts.

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

Kat wouldn’t feel incomplete without anyone. She is fiercely independent, a whole woman with her own interests and ambitions. In fact, if you said you felt incomplete without her, she would probably be turned off and end up dumping you.

X = Xtra (A random head canon for them.)

Kat has a mental calendar of every cheap or free event in the city. If you say you’re bored, she has a list of things you could do in that moment. Off-off-off Broadway plays that are terrible, cultural festivals in the park, free art shows at a local college. She reads the flyers that are stuck to light poles and bulletin boards. She’s the only one you know who takes pamphlets that are passed out on the street, advertising something new you could do together.

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

She hates neediness. She’s very ambitious, and will always put her job first. If you can’t deal with her ever-changing schedule, you're not the one. If you text her too much, or complain about her not responding, she’s instantly turned off. 

In general, she thinks racists, homophobes, misogynists, TERFs, and Republicans are scum.

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habits of theirs?)

She grew up sharing a bed with her sister, so she always sleeps on her side, curled up small, leaving you lots of room. She’s always cold, so she steals all the blankets. You end up getting your own separate quilt for yourself so you can sleep in peace.