#Started off strong with several attacks I actually initiated!

[ilikekidsshows]

It would be one thing if Marinette was a loser protagonist on purpose, there are plenty of characters like that, but the writers are genuinely trying to sell Marinette as a strong female character who deserves her leadership position. The writers act like they've written Batman for teenage girls, but, if she was actually put next to any version of Batman or into similar situations, she'd look like a joke.

And, yet, Astruc treats this sad excuse of a superhero as not a joke, but some kind of gift he's granting to young girl viewers. Astruc is always ready with the "it's for little girls!" defense whenever someone complains about how Cat Noir is treated by the writing and the commentary couldn't shut up about how proud they were of Marinette's "growth" when she got a new powerup from Adrien's sidelining from his own narrative, only moments before she gives up on fighting the main villain and lets the world be destroyed.

Marinette is called the perfect version of herself and the Greatest Ladybug Ever in universe. Marinette is what peak performance from a superhero in the Miraculous universe looks like.

The people behind Miraculous, Astruc especially, seem to genuinely think that Marinette is a powerful character for little girls to look up to. The Miraculous writers really wrote their main lead to be a pathetic loser who fails at every goal she has and constantly whines about how hard she has it and went: "Yes, this is the kind or positive representation little girls deserve in a superhero catered to them."

That's why Marinette being so pathetic pisses me off so much. I love superheroes, and it's a genre that gets its strength from the idea of being cool. Weird physics, magic, moral conflicts and secret identities are all part of superheroes, but so is selflessness and willingness to help. When has Ladybug stopped to comfort bystanders because they were scared? Or to help a cat down from a tree? They're not the same spectacle of flashy superpowers, so the crew completely ignored that aspect of superheroes when they weren't actively mocking it.

It took us eight years, 5+ seasons and a new writer being added to see a Miraculous hero help someone in a way that didn't directly involve an Akuma attack and even then it was initiated by the tertiary heroes and Marinette only came to commandeer the operations because she was in one of her anxiety spirals again, not out of a genuine desire to help. We've only seen the tertiary heroes take the initiative in helping the community in a single episode. Such a basic concept of superheroes was completely unrepresented in this superhero show for so long, outside of a joke character the "real" superheroes mocked for not having powers. But, to me, The Owl feels more like a superhero helping his community than the main lead conspiring against her allies.

Frankly, I think it was the new writer Caroline Torelli, who started writing these superheroes acting like superheroes, because this new direction is there specifically in episodes they contributed to. It just shows how little the people behind this show's original conception actually understand superheroes. It's all about just the visual side of things, the costumes and flashy superpowers, none of the heart and sense of community. The Miraculers don't have civillian allies, like any other superhero would. There's recurring characters who are willing to take orders from Ladybug, but there's no actual connection, let alone community there. And I don't think Torelli alone is enough to fix all that to make Ladybug a cool hero after several seasons' worth of damage.

The Ladybug we see in the show is just so incredibly uncool and runs on empty drama that I feel sorry for the little girls being told that this is the superhero meant for them.

[aseuki]

Artfight Attacks Batch 1! Definitely got a bit overambitious with my pacing but it was all in good fun!

OC Names and @'s under the cut👇

Rosalivia - @bechnokid

Mir Arthur - @post-it-notes7

Tomio - Valentinelovesyou

Shiyō Hasegawa - @corsairspade

Bramble - @pollie-wog

Lady Alexandria - @deafeninggardenerpanda

Fayre - @humming-fly

[cerastes]

I picked up Qiubai from the current banner and know absolutely nothing about her. She worth leveling and if so is there anything I should know about her skills/talents and how best to use them?

Qiubai is one of those units whose banner was very untimely, smack between Lin and Chongyue's limited banner, and the Monster Hunter collab limited banner (not to mention that afterwards, there was Absolute Beast Ines to account for, and a bit farther down the road, fan favorite Muelsyse and Ho'olheyak), so a lot of people decided to skip her, making her one of the rarer Operators.

But I am not a lot of people, and my main reason is "She's Fucking Cool, Your Honor".

I think she's a damn good Operator worth investing in. The main criticism levied against her, besides the unfortunate timing of her banner, is that she's Not Thorns, which is like looking at a successful and highly skilled physicist and saying that he's shit because he's not Albert Einstein. The actual criticism I would levy against her, as someone that uses her all the time, is that she does require a bit of presence of mind to use her due to the nature of her Talents requiring procs if she's not supported appropriately, and her S3 having a rather long downtime.

So, Talents (E2 no pots): First is whenever she attacks enemies affected by Slow or Bind, she deals 40% of her Attack as extra Arts damage. This is a good extra bit of juice you can squeeze out of every attack, as well as a means to deal with high Defense powerhouses. Second is that attacks have a 20% chance to Bind for 1.5 seconds. Attacks that proc this 20% apply Bind first and then count the attack, meaning that every time she procs her Second talent, her first Talent is also activated. This is true, to my knowledge, to all Operators with similar effects (such as enemies receiving extra damage when Stunned in her range; the Stunning hit benefits from this extra damage instead of having to follow up to start benefiting). Her attack interval is 1.3, meaning that whenever she procs Talent 2, she'll usually get two free Talent 1 procs in, "usually" because sometimes the enemy is actually at the edge of her range or just wandered off, and the projectile doesn't land in time.

S1 is your least used Skill, probably, but it's not useless: It's Bind centric, and Binds the enemy for 2.5 (3 M3; M3 numbers in parenthesis from hereon) seconds, followed by a small AoE explosion of 240% (300%) Arts damage once it expires. It is Automatic and Attack Charged on a low limit of 5 SP (4 SP) so it reliably gets fired off. It's honestly not a bad skill, it's just that her S2 and S3 exist.

S2 changes her range into a single file 4 tiles forward and immediately slashes all these tiles to deal 240% (300%) Arts damage and enemies in this slashed ground are Slowed throughout the duration, 5 seconds. QB gets an steroid of +90% (+140%) Attack for these 5 seconds, and when the skill expired, the initial slash explodes once again for 240% (300%) Physical damage. The slash itself CANNOT hit air units, but QB's regular attack can, be wary of this. This Skill is your go-to for general use when you just need to kill regular enemies and elites, since it gives her phenomenal true AoE capabilities, a strong steroid, and since enemies are Slowed in the slashed area, she will proc Talent 1 every time while Skill is active (against ground units, that is). All of this on a very good timer of 12 SP (10 SP), making this skill's strength its ability to reliable, consistently use it: It's ALWAYS ready when you need it, and on longer fights against very strong enemies that you need to stall for a bit, you can use it several times.

S3 changes her range to one extra side tile forward, changes damage type entirely to Arts, Talent 1 is augmented by 1.5x (2x), gives QB +45% (+55%) Attack, Lord ranged attack penalty is negated, QB attacks 2 extra targets, so 3 total per attack, and each attack animation she does gives her 13+ ASPD for the duration of the skill, stacking up to 6 (8) times. This is QB's burst skill to deal with numerous strong enemies or even just one strong enemy, to be honest. She'll become a machine gun of Arts damage, and since she's attacking so fast, she'll likely keep proccing Talent 2 repeatedly, meaning, even more damage from Talent 1, which in itself also gets augmented. The sole weakness of this skill is that it exists on a 55 SP charge, unlike her very fast S1 and S2. It lasts 30 seconds. I recommend Mastering this skill first because its gains are actually very good, due to the Attack bonus and the Talent 1 augmentation coming into play for a very drastic increase in damage.

S2 is true AoE so you use it to deal with many enemies, S3 is Arts burst so you use it to delete strong enemies. You want to pair QB up with people that can Slow or Bind enemies so you can constantly enjoy Talent 1 bonuses instead of relying on Talent 2 procs. Her Best Match is Suzuran S3 for QB's S3, since that'll just make her become absurdly devastating, but for less bursty options (Suzuran's S3 also has long downtime), you can use Angelina S2, Podenco S2, Ethan, Dorothy S2, and other such Decel Binders and Operators with consistent ability to Slow or Bind. KEEP IN MIND: It needs to be the status effect known as Slow, capitalized, not just any slow effect! Meaning, Ch'en the Holungday, for example, who spreads movement speed slowing areas with her Skills, DOES NOT combo with QB for Talent 1 purposes. It needs to be the status known as Slow (which reduces enemy movement speed by 80%).

QB's main strengths are the ability to vary damage types, synergize well with support units to hose out great damage, have reliable true AoE that can be spammed, and good burst when that is necessary, further improved by synergizing well with a popular and strong Operator (Suzuran). QB's main drawbacks are that her S3 exists on rather long downtime, and that against highly Resistant enemies, her Skills will not fare particularly well, as they all have an Arts damage component to them (you'll mainly want to use S2 here, since her steroid affects her Phys damage output and the expiration explosion is Phys).

Overall, a very fun and strong Operator! I recommend investing in her, yeah.

[cogitohazard]

oh! oh! another OC question about storm! is there a reason beyond artistic decision that his blush is orange?

also, his opinions on the other sepherot, Angela, and Roland? (we know he has a relationship with chested.)

his blush is orange because his blood was turned yellow by corrosion (insect blood)

also because of this, he is somewhat cold blooded.

relationship talk below

Out of all of the Asiyah Sephirot, he only really has relations with Hod and Netzach

(For simplicity’s sake this is all Lobcorp timeline save for Roland ofc)

He has a strong friendship with Hod initially kindled from his interest and approval of her counselling program, in which both of them bonded over doing thankless work and… frustrating coworkers. He understands her struggles and wants to help her out while she helps him with his Severe Stress

Over time Hod has developed a reflex for confiscating Storm’s guns at the start of every counselling session so he won’t hurt himself and others. Its an evolutionary arms race for who can move faster (her reflex’s versus his ability to quickdraw)

He only really knows Netzach through Hod and getting booze off of him whenever he feels like it. He’s said a few things to Netzach while drunk involving Chesed that’s made Netzach a little afraid of him

He has an odd bond with his own Sephirot (the Tiphereths). He often butts heads with Tiphereth A (they both have quick tempers) but he feels painfully for her and Tiphereth B. They’re just kids and he’s extremely angry at what’s been done to them , and what will continue to be done to them in order for the SoL to progress.

The spaghetti making isn’t entirely serious but he does like to cook for them whenever they ask for it, even if they can’t actually eat it. They have fun with it and that’s enough to quell the rage in his heart for a little while at least

He doesn’t really know Gebura apart from maybe occasionally stopping by Disciplinary for a smoke break.

You know about chesed

He does not like Hokma. One bit. They would rarely ever come into contact but Storm would most certainly try to attack him in any way available to him. This is due to Storm’s awareness of the facility’s time stasis, which he pieced together from consistent feelings of deja vu and conversing with the Funeral of the Dead Butterflies. Hokma represents everything he hates about the hell he’s been ensnared in, and he wants to break the cycle at any cost.

He doesn’t really have any strong opinions towards Angela or Binah.

I feel like Roland might be a kind of uncle figure to him. Roland would like to tease him (especially about Chesed) and Storm is a very easy person to tease.

[blackjackkent]

House of Grief Boss Battle Report!

Initial state of play: THERE ARE SO MANY OF THEM OH MY GOD

Yikes on bikes.

As pictured, Viconia immediately starts out by turning several of her followers into wolves, which is really pretty mean because Shadowheart has a crippling fear of them due to the memory that was implanted in her head.

Intriguingly, the source of this is a series of connected abilities she has:

Wild. I'm assuming that if we came down here without Shadowheart and Hector had gone through the Mapping of the Heart himself, this attack would be keyed to him and to something he said during the conversation.

Shadowheart is NOT HAVING ANY OF THIS BULLSHIT:

Atta girl.

>:(

Looking at Viconia's other features:

That's going to make Shadowheart's abilities as a damage dealer pretty much moot unfortunately.

Holy tankiness batman.

I'm not entirely sure if she's meant to be a paladin or a cleric here.

She has 124 hit points, which compared to some of the bosses we've fought is really not much; this is very much a mob battle rather than a single target battle. The various other Sharrans around the room range from 30 at the low end to 150 at the max. Including her, we're looking at 20 enemies.

Hector and Karlach are such battering rams that I'm not overly worried about this, but let's see how it goes.

Round 1:

Given the debuff Shadowheart has against Viconia, getting the two of them apart as soon as possible seems like it should be a top priority. With this in mind, Hector comes in with Flurry of Blows for two pushes in a row.

Given the massive number of enemies on the field, I think Jaheira's conjuring abilities are (tragically) more relevant for this fight than her owlbear form is. Conjure Woodland Being puts a dryad on the field who can themselves summon a wood woad which puts two new ally combatants on our side for the price of one. I don't expect them to last very long but they are not intended to. XD

Of course, once again, despite the two extra fighters we just brought on the field and all the other more threatening members of our party, everyone goes STRAIGHT FOR JAHEIRA and starts beating up on her.

STOP BEATING UP ON THAT OLD WOMAN, DAMN IT.

Shadowheart lands a clutch Hold Person to take one of the Justiciars out of the fight temporarily and gets her spiritual weapon on the field for another ally.

It's really disheartening watching the like ten enemies in a row go in the middle of the initiative order.

And of course Jaheira goes down again before I can do literally anything about it. Maybe I should have owlbeared her after all. (Legitimately I don't know why this keeps happening. Normally I would blame my bad combat skills but I hadn't even done anything yet.)

Speaking of bad combat skills, I decide to send the wood woad over to try and draw enemies away from her, and forget it's next to a bunch of enemies already, which all AOO and obliterate it immediately.

This is not off to a good start. None of these enemies are strong in and of themselves but they're making a lot of progress through sheer numbers. Top priority instantly becomes getting the squishy enemies out of the fight immediately.

Round 2:

Hector puts this new plan into action immediately by one-shotting two of the squishies because he is a fucking wrecking ball of a man now.

Jaheira has biffed two death saving throws in a row.

Karlach wrecks one of the wolves; turns out it's a polymorph variant and reveals the person underneath when the wolf form runs out of health. Karlach wrecks that too. XD

Shadowheart is also in VERY rough shape due to Viconia focus firing her and auto-critting everything. I have her disengage and back away from combat and then cast Mass Healing Word. Tragically, everyone is bone chilled and apparently that persists through downstate, so literally nothing happens. Fuck.

This is actually going quite badly. The Sharrans spend their turns casting Darkness on a large portion of the battlefield (which they are immune to) and surrounding Hector in a big deathball. Between Bone Chill, Darkness, and the fact that our party is almost completely optimized for single target damage (except for Jaheira, who is unconscious), things are really not looking good.

Round 3:

Jaheira dies. Shadowheart gets downed on another crit from Viconia. I reload and reconsider the situation.

Attempt 2. I have Jaheira drop all her healing spells for now since we have Shadowheart. Instead, I have her load up everything she can do that does AOE damage or CC, and cast Stoneskin on herself before the fight.

It's called fashion, look it up.

This time we're going to do our best to keep her and Shadowheart to the BACK line and just topping up Hector and Karlach as much as possible and casting AOEs. I've also loaded her up with Daylight again in the hope that it might counteract the Darkness spells.

Let's see if this goes better.

Round 1:

We kick off with Jaheira dropping an ice storm on half the field and then running back towards the door. Only one of the bad guys eats shit on the ice, but it does considerable opening damage to a number of the squishies at once.

I also have her drop a grasping vine in the very center of the arena where hopefully it can mess up Viconia's day. It's a real Dr. Seuss ass lookin' thing.

Hector one-shots one of the squishies on the opposite side of the map and makes a good start on a second.

Viconia spends her whole action obliterating the grasping vine in one go, which is much better than her obliterating Jaheira so I'll take it.

Shadowheart flamestrikes two more enemies almost off the field entirely.

While Hector runs around the arena, this time we keep Karlach on squishy defense duty for now, beating up the Justiciar who is trying to get at Jaheira and Shadowheart.

The long string of enemy turns is still disheartening but not quite as disheartening as it was last time, so that's promising. Darkness on the field again. Two of the enemies eat shit in the ice field at last. Several of them get distracted by how shiny Shadowheart's spiritual weapon is.

Round 2:

Bone chill is really quite a problem but we made it through the first round without anyone taking a dreadful amount of damage.

Jaheira casts Daylight and it does indeed remove the darkness effect!

Hector kills THREE separate people on his turn.

Viconia goes after Shadowheart again at once but this unfortunately moves her into Karlaching range.

At this point I realize two critical things: Shadowheart's Spirit Guardians can do necrotic as well as radiant damage, and (to my surprise) the Sharrans aren't resistant to necrotic damage.

Let's fucking go.

During the enemy turns Jaheira's health starts getting dire again. We also discover that Daylight only removes EXISTING darkness and doens't prevent new ones from being cast, which is annoying.

Round 3:

Hector kills Viconia and one of the Justiciars. The quest completes, but the additional bad guys definitely did not get the memo.

I had a brilliant idea about sending Shadowheart to grab Jaheira and teleport them both out of danger with Dimension Door. This fails for several reasons - Jaheira is in the midst of darkness and thus Shadowheart can't target her for the spell, and Jaheira raised a wall of Entangling Vines which do damage to Shadowheart on the way in. So they're both kind of just standing in the midst of a lot of enemies while very injured and Jaheira is bonechilled. Rawr. Shadowheart just sighs and casts Cure Wounds on herself instead. Her spirit guardians still do mega work though.

We're starting to gain the upper hand, though. Karlach manages to knock several more enemies out on her turn. This has not been a clean or professional fight but we're getting it done. XD

In a moment of unusual generosity, the enemies decide not to go after Shadowheart and Karlach, both of whom they could easily kill, and instead take potshots at Hector and Karlach who are almost full health.

LOL jk [sigh]

Shadowheart mysteriously obtains a second bonus action from somewhere and I'm legitimately not sure where.

????

Oh, it's from her helmet - she gets an extra bonus action when below 50% health. Nice!

Down to three enemies remaining, which is feeling rather more manageable, even if Jaheira dies. (*spongebob arms outstretched meme* TEMPORARILY)

VICTORY! And we didn't quite lose Jaheira. XD

I'm so good at this.

[ciaossu-imagines]

Ikerev & Zombie Apocalypse?

Of course, anon dear! I'm so, so sorry this took forever to get back to you but if you're still reading, I hope you'll enjoy the headcanons I thought of for this AU!

Okay, so we're going into this with me forewarning everyone. By it's very nature, a zombie apocalypse AU is going to get dark, gritty, angsty, and probably a little fucked up and as I love getting the chance to get angsty and dark, you know things might get fucked up here and there with some of these headcanons. If that is not your cup of tea or something you think might bother you, it might be better for you to stop reading.

So now that we have that out of the way, if you're still reading, let's get this all started. So, in my head, this AU is less of an actual alternate universe. I still very much see this set in Cradle, with the same universe existing of Magic and the Magic Tower and the different armies. However, I don't see the armies as still really fighting each other - they are at peace and the Magic Tower, though definitely still shady as fuck and definitely still up to no real good, isn't thought of as an absolute threat. Everything seems good and peaceful and that's part of the real set-up of this AU.

So, to get to the real meat of this AU. So, everything is nice and peaceful. Life seems idyllic. But then things start to change. The Magic Tower, still headed by Amon Jabberwock, is doing what the Magic Tower always does - experimenting with the Magic Crystals, seeing what can be done with them. Their latest experiment is working with the crystals and humans to see if, by ingesting bits of the crystals and thus integrating them into the human body, they can enhance the boundaries of what a human body and mind can do. The experiments seem to be well-meaning, are sold as looking to find cures for aging, for disabilities, for anything bad that can possibly happen to a human body or mind. What they're really after, or at least what Amon wants them for, is to create his own army of superhuman soldiers to conquer Cradle, though not even his followers are really privy to that fact.

Too bad the experiments seem to be failing. Most of the humans experimented on are dying…and then things seem to change. Things start to appear to be going well and the Magic Tower rejoices and gets inspired to really test even further limits of the experiment. The long and short of it though - these new Crystal infused humans? They're super-strong, seemingly impervious to all harm except complete decapitation to sever the connection of brain and body, with superhuman senses…oh, and they all go insane. Like, their brain goes bad - all limiters are taken off and they start to act solely on impulses and basic desires instead of any rational thoughts or logic. They're extremely violent if threatened at all or if something stands in the way of one of their wants. They experience extreme hunger at points and if food isn't readily available….well, humans are a source of meat too. They crave sex, food, shelter, warmth, liquid. Some of them retain enough of their personalities to have cravings for things they especially loved before the experiments as well.

The worst thing? Though they start as mindless, they quickly seem to link up into some sort of hive-mind and they start enhancing their numbers. If they don't outright kill, they forcibly turn others into beings like themselves by forcibly feeding them crystals. If the person survives this, they join The Hive.

It starts in the Tower. Amon willingly joins The Hive, makes himself the Head of it. Dalim, being a Disciple of the Tower, is in this initial first attack by these creatures. Terrified and no longer trusting in Amon, Dum does do the right thing in the end and tries to ensure that the experiment dies in the Tower, that none of the infected escape the Tower. He helps get other Disciples out but unfortunately, he succumbs to an attack by several of the infected and gets forcibly recruited into The Hive.

The infected surge out of the Tower and it's not too long before the peace of Cradle is completely shattered and things become a full out 'zombie apocalypse'. The armies each do their best to fight The Hive and protect the citizens but still steadfastly refuse to join forces with each other until much later on in the story.

I see Jonah as being one of the first to die. It's not because he's not strong and more than a capable fighter. It's because he's just genuinely someone who doesn't have a lot of common sense. His death comes in the first wave of the infected out of the Tower. He chose bravery and doing his duty but, after seeing other soldiers downed and even seeing some be forcibly infected, his ego and lack of common sense really did him in and he gets slaughtered and eaten.

Though he'll last throughout most of the story, I do see Lancelot dying. It's his death that inspires the two armies to join forces and come together, actually. The thing is, as a magically strong person already, the Hive (and Amon, their leader) didn't want to kill Lancelot. No, they became almost obsessed with changing him, with making him a part of the Hive. Though Lancelot was strong and clever enough to hold them off for a long time, while saving someone else whilst in the midst of battle, he was left vulnerable for long enough to be force fed what was needed to ensure he would eventually turn. Though the only one who was aware of this was Kyle, who steadfastly maintained that they would find a way to save Lance, Lancelot knew what needed to be done. He told Sirius and Harr the truth of what had happened and begged his two best friends to do what needed to be done - to kill him.

Sirius was the one to actually end up doing the deed. He'd already lost most of his family and by that point, had seen enough other people die. He'd been so strong up until that point and he'd inspired so many people to keep going with his never give up attitude, his optimism that things would get better, and his hard work. But after that, after being forced to kill one of his oldest and dearest friends? He sure kept trying, so hard, but the fact of the matter was that after that, Sirius really started to give up. Another major story event really did him in and he almost recklessly charged into the next major battle with The Hive and was taken down. Those close by at the time said he seemed almost relieved as The Hive killed him.

That other major story event? It has to do with Harr. Harr was a Magic Tower Disciple who had abducted his position the second the Tower started experimenting on humans. It was just something Harr could not handle, could not get behind, so he left. He did his best to keep his eye on things with the Tower though, worried about what might happen. When the worst does happen, Harr feels immense guilt for not having done more to stop this from happening. He becomes obsessed with finding a cure for those infected, with stopping this with as little bloodshed as possible. Loki helps him, as does Kyle, who also becomes obsessive about finding a cure.

As the days and weeks go by though and they seem to be getting nowhere, Kyle starts drinking harder and harder and becoming more and more reckless in his efforts to learn more about the infected. He needs test subjects and by the time the armies manage to trap and transport an infected person to him, not only have they suffered major casualties, but the infected in question is normally dead as well. Kyle becomes tired of seeing people die and being helpless to stop it and he directly goes out into the field. Dead infected specimens aren't helping; he needs a live one and becomes bound and determined to get one. While trying to do so, Kyle gets captured and changed.

The newly infected Kyle is feral and attacks his former comrades, killing Loki. Between Loki's death and Kyle's change, combined with watching Sirius kill Lancelot just the day before, Harr cannot handle things anymore. It's too much and his brain just can't deal. Harr takes a dive, head first, from the place this all started - the Tower itself. He's dead upon impact with the ground, quick and painless, but dead nonetheless.

Because the idea, while horrible, was too delicious to resist…I really do see Dean being brutally savaged and beaten to death by his own infected brother. The sibling rivalry had carried over enough in the infected Dalim's mind for the need to kill his brother to be a major desire of his.

Now, I have always kind of headcanoned that Mousse has narcolepsy. Obviously he doesn't have a route so I don't know for sure if that is canonically true but I see that being his undoing in this AU. He gets infected in his sleep very early on in the story.

Oliver becomes very useful though. He devotes himself to making weapons and traps and fortifying buildings to become shelters. Though he doesn't go into battles himself and is very protected, he's such an important and integral part of everything.

I do see Edgar, Fenrir, and Seth becoming rather famous as front line warriors against the Hive. All or any of them alone become major targets of the Hive because of how many infected they take out and how integral a part of survival in this new world they become.

After Lancelot's death, Blanc and Ray become co-leaders, trying everything they can to gather and ensure the safety of all non-infected individuals. Blanc keeps an eye and really dedicates himself to ensuring the non-infected are safe and taken care of and that shelter, food, water, and basic needs can be met for everyone while Ray leads the more military side of ensuring continued life and safety for the survivors.

Zero ends up specializing in rescue missions, in getting groups of non-infected people to safety, and really ends up becoming Blanc's second in command. Luka, meanwhile, stays under Ray and does fight…Luka's biggest regret in everything though? That he couldn't save his brother. So he becomes foolhardy and reckless at times, taking risks he shouldn't, because to him, if he can save even just one more person…maybe that will take some of the guilt away, absolve him even a little. Even just a smidge.

[kagesora]

Angry Catboy Summons Elder God To Attack Military

Type: Original Fiction Length: About 1570 words Content Info/Advisories: Non-graphic violence, unspecified implications of cruel treatment, poisoning, extremely briefly mentioned ancient extinction of non-human people

Notes: Actually started this one in '22, and took exactly 364 days to finish it because writer's block. I sat on it for the better part of a year because after so long of fighting to write it I didn't like the latter parts of it. I like it much better for letting it sit for a while. I've got several lines in here I really like~

Summary: Cornered by the empire's military, knowing capture is a fate worse than even a tortured death, T'kal'miru stops holding back his power--and nobody is prepared for the force of nature that awakens in return.

Magic roared across his senses.  Not the usual whispers and whines of power called by the strong among the humans--no, this was a scream of power fit to tear the heavens asunder, shockwaves from its calling reverberating along the flows of magic in the world.  No human could have summoned such power--and with that power, echoes of emotion: terror for the self and another, a heavy grief deeper than the seas, and fury so white-hot even the ghost of its passage through his mind burned like the sun itself come down to the earth.

He stirred, his mind drifting towards waking, the dust and dirt of decades disturbed at his movement.  Long indeed had it been since he’d felt any reason to do more than sleep the eons away, his dreams seeking after those who had long before gone to where his soul could not follow.

Another surge of Power skittering along the edges of his awareness, stronger than before and overflowing with the intent of the one who summoned it--death, destruction, fire and wind and the crackle of lightning searing through all those who stood before it.

He opened his eyes.  Perhaps it was time to venture into the world once more, if only to see what sort of kin--such as still existed in this age, so far removed from his own--wielded power with such wrathful intent.

---

“No--!”

The shout, along with the rumble of the war-machines and the clamor of armor faded out for a moment, sensation replaced by an odd numbness and a pressure somewhere in the vicinity of her left shoulder.  Staggering back, her legs gave way as a sharp, squirming pain began to slip through her veins, digging towards her heart to better push its way into every bit of her flesh.  Her body stumbled into another, bright spots of warmth radiating against her where a chest pressed and where an arm wrapped, stark contrast to the freezing chill already creeping slowly on the tail of the pain.

Ah.  Tox rounds.

Just enough to suppress magic, just enough to kill the victim… Slowly.  Time enough to medicate later--if they decided to take their target alive.  And, really, dying over the next hour or two in agony beyond anything she could imagine?  Sounded like a damn good time compared to that fate.

Sound came back in full force as her initial shock wore off, but words still lacked meaning--the pain was making it hard to grasp what sounds formed which words.  Somewhere beneath her cheek thunder rumbled, more felt than heard.  Her head fell limply back, the effort to keep it upright pushing the nerves in her muscles to frayed threads.  She forced her eyes to focus, wondering if there were hallucinogenic effects in the poisons she could feel soaking into her organs.

Lips pulled back in a hate-filled snarl revealed small, sharp fangs in the mouth of the young man holding her to his chest.

Mods gone wrong, maybe?

She felt the thunder building beneath her cheek, volume and intensity rising until it pushed its way from the throat above her in an inhuman roar.  There were no words to this battle cry, only raw fury and grief.

And where the sound echoed from the armored forms before them, sparks chained body to body in a blinding arc of death.

The reverberation of his wrath drowned all else out, and on its heels the howl of the rising gale stirring from the ground beneath them.  Flames danced within the winds and forced those who would step over the bodies of their fallen comrades to fall back.  And with the rising of the winds summoned in his rage, tearing at their clothes, his hood wrenched back.

His hair whipped around him, and where cupped flesh should rest was revealed as a strange smoothness.

The cap atop his head shifted, and in the claws of the air it finally tore free.

Two pointed, furred ears pressed flat against his skull in rage.

Oh.

He was beastkin.

---

The humans retreated, the war-machines moving forwards to take their places, carelessly crushing the fallen beneath wheel and tread.

The wind ripped at the machines, smaller ones falling to their sides but the larger too heavy, too sturdy to be given pause by the gale around them.  Flames sputtered out upon metal, the wards protecting those within the larger of the machines.  The smaller, being automated, had nothing for the fire to threaten at all.

Grounding spells stopped the arcing death from finding a path along the metal to the delicate workings within.

They advanced, slowly, their cornered prey able to do little more than howl in rage and grief and exhaust itself as it summoned more and more power to lash ineffectually at their bulk.

The first of the machines opened fire.

And the world exploded around them.

Burning heat erupted from the sky above, so hot that it frayed the fabric of the world itself--colors not meant to be seen by mortal eyes danced within a whirling void, and a shadow so dark it burned with an impossible light of its own formed within the heart of the vortex.  Inhumanly large, a monstrous shape curled into a loose ball.

And then, it Woke.

The vortex burst open, the beast within unfurling into a vision from a nightmare: bipedal, with a muscular build.  Scales covered its form, head to heavy tail, becoming finer along the head and face where fur erupted into an untamed mane that floated curiously still despite the screeching winds.  Feathery wings of an incomprehensible span stretched from the back.  A mid-length muzzle stretched from the skull which housed eyes that watched the scene below dispassionately, the lips peeling slowly back to reveal fangs large and sharp enough to pierce a man straight through.

It lifted a single hand, and curled the fingers until only one, topped by a wicked talon, was left pointing directly at the army below.

Thunder boomed from its chest, its voice deafening the mortals below.

“Begone.”

A ripple spread outward from the foremost of the war-machines, spiraling into tendrils that wove their way through each of the armed soldiers and their machines.  Metal rusted over, the plants beneath them growing upwards rapidly to reclaim their husks, time passing through decades in the span of seconds.

The fleshy force of the army fared differently, though no better.  They seemed to grow fuzzy, indistinct, confusion and terror etching themselves into their faces for a moment before they simply unraveled, unworked from existence by a power so great they could not even begin to comprehend it.

---

Turning his gaze to the hunted ones, the only two beings left, he studied them in silence.  When flames erupted around him, summoned by the kin below, he merely breathed them aside and overwhelmed the power of the beastling.

Strong, even for kin.  I had thought any of such ability long extinct.

He allowed the power holding him in place to fade, and descended to the ground.  Dwarfing the two mortals staring up at him with terrified awe on their faces, he knelt before them to better see who had called such power as had awakened him.

One kin, and one human--the human dying of some sort of magical poison slowly destroying her body from within.  Blood upon the shoulder showed the way such a cruel thing entered her.  She would last another hour, perhaps, but it would not be a pleasant death.

The kin, now, he had power--but was exhausted by what he had thrown at those who would have captured them.  Were he rested, perhaps he could even save his companion.  But now there was little enough he could do, even to easing her passing.

“Why did they seek to capture you?”

The answer would decide their fate.

His eyes narrowed, his power probing at them and finding truth behind the words of the kin: sought for the sake of their power, that they may be used as weapons to subjugate others in turn.

So.  Even now such empires live on.  It is not enough that my kind were driven to extinction by their greed, they seek to prey upon our descendants and upon their fellow humans.

That would not do.

He reached one talon forwards, flinging his power in a binding net around the pair to prevent their movements.  The tip of the curved claw stopped above the wound in the woman’s shoulder, a soft glow gathering about it before dripping into the hole, power chasing the poison through her system and purging it.  He released the pair and withdrew his hand as she trembled and gasped, the wound itself closing as the last of her pain was brushed aside.

“None will disturb us unless I so will it.  You will rest, little ones, and then you will tell me of this world you have awakened me to.  I have slumbered for far too long.”

It was not a suggestion.  He watched Sleep overcome them, his power forcing them down beyond the threshold of dream and nightmare alike into the depths of the healing, restorative slumber they both needed so gravely.

He settled back on his haunches, shifting his wings and tail to make himself more comfortable.  He had waited eons for a reason to see the world once more.  He could wait a little longer to learn what he had missed.

[sobrevivenciatwd]

Walker behavior based off canon cues

Collecting some walker behavior info based off canon cues from the show in this post. Feel free to use this for your writing.

I had a couple theories on walkers, here are some canon scenes that possibly confirm them.

Walkers identify their prey by their movement

Walkers can definitely see. They aren't blind. However, obviously, they aren't smart enough to tell who is a walker or a human based off sight alone. The show makes it pretty clear they distinguish between the living and humans by scent, which is why several characters are able to walk among them by masking their scent. Noise is also a factor, as the scent disguise doesn't work for Sam and Jessie, who get attacked by walkers after screaming.

But: There is a scene in "30 Days Without An Accident" where Zach and Daryl are sitting by a window. After they fumble around a bit, walkers start banging against the window. Note how the walkers started banging against the window after they really started fumbling around instead of sitting still. How would the walkers have been able to tell that they're humans and not just random walkers?

My guess is that they made movements that walkers absolutely never made, and that gave away that they're human. There's a chance that the walkers heard them through the glass, though, but I personally don't think they were talking loud enough to be heard through glass.

In 5x5, Abraham is standing still in front of a window, not making any noise. A walker starts hitting the window, but in an absent-minded way, not because it's trying to get to Abraham. In all the other scenes where survivors were identified as prey by walkers, the walkers would bang against the window, but mind how this walker just accidentally walks against the window because it's stupid. It clearly doesn't know Abraham is a possible meal. And because Abraham remains quiet and still, the walker just turns and walks in another direction. This proves my theory that walkers need noise, scent or movement as a cue that there's prey, but by sight alone they can't identify you. You might as well be a fashion mannequin or something, they wouldn't know.

Running from walkers might actually get you killed

So what does that mean? That means that dozens of walkers could be nearby, as long as you stay quiet, don't make any erratic movements and none get close enough to be able to smell you, you will be safe as long as they don't head in your direction. My guess is that so many humans died during the initial outbreak because they didn't know this, they panicked, it might not even be that they screamed, but they might have run which would have given away that they're human.

Chances are, if there's a horde or a pack of walkers on the road, you might be able to get away by quietly moving similarly to a walker, hide somewhere and wait until the horde has passed. If you run upon sight, you're probably screwed.

Walkers can't actually smell that well

The virus doesn't turn the human sense of smell into a dog's sense of smell. Michonne was able to keep walkers off her just by keeping two chained walkers walking around her. There is one scene in which a walker gets too close and seems to get "suspicious" of Michonne, but note how Michonne remains calm and quiet and the walker loses interest and leaves?

They need to get very close to smell that you're human, or there needs to be some obvious noise or movement that serves as a cue.

Fun fact: Body odor puts you at disadvantage

The only time when walkers are shown to have a particularly sensitive sense of smell is when Michonne is bleeding. I would say that you wouldn't even need a wound to be able to be detected more easily by walkers, since there are other bodily fluids like sweat that also give off a pretty strong smell. I can personally smell sweat from meters away. So always wash yourself because if they are sensitive to blood they're probably sensitive to sweat at all.

[mysticdragon3md3]

🎐🎐🎐👊🎐🎐🎐🍱🍚🥟🥟🥟🥟🥟🥟🥟

6:41 PM 6/12/2025 WIND BREAKER E24 - AFTER THE STORM

6:43 PM 6/12/2025 For some reason…It's really touching to me, that they're going to have a whole "breather" episode, including Suzuri/Gravel, and not just leave the "redemption of former antagonists" for off-screen. They're really going to do the work of building sympathy for these characters, even though they were initially very severe antagonists. It makes me feel like Wind Breaker really knows it's themes about True Strength. The manga-ka knows what Strength actually is, and why Compassion is a mark of Strength. This is the tough work. The Truly Strong actually do all the tedious minutia. This is the hard work of building empathy, even towards the people it's the toughest to do so with. This is why Compassion is a mark of the Strong. I love this show. <3 ;u;

6:56 PM 6/12/2025 Been thinking, since this guy showed up in the previous episode and Tsubaki recognized him: He's probably going to represent what Sakura would have become if he didn't go to Furin and learn to make caring connections with others. But omg, I can't believe that Suo jumped into that fight where the leaders of 2 teams weren't allowing anyone else to take him on besides themselves. Suo is fighting on a level alongside 2 extremely strong (and Strong) team leaders! O.o!!! AND, Suo held is own! O.O!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But the fact that Tsubaki and Kanji attacked Endo BECAUSE he said that Sakura didn't belong in Furin, drives home that this fight is again, a conversation---just as this series has been demonstrating, and saying explicitly through Umemiya. This isn't a fight between commanders and the "big bad". That's not what this fight is about. This fight is about how strongly everyone feels that Sakura belongs with them, that they care about him, and how insulting the notion of him not belonging with them is. Even Nirei actually speaking up against such a dangerous enemy, was a big tip-off, that this scene is about emotions, emotional states, emotional bonds, much more than some physical fight to fill time with spectacle. Nirei is the heart of the protagonist trio. If he's shouting, then this is clearly a conflict of emotions, not so much of only fists. This conflict scene is not even just to build the physical threat of the eventual final villain. If anything, it's to foreshadow his threat to the characters' emotional arcs. The threat here, isn't that he's physically powerful. We haven't even seen him attack anyone physically yet. Endo's threat, what makes him a villain, is that he represents a temptation or alternate path for Sakura, that would have ruined him---would have ruined his happiness, made him a villain, and diverted him away from becoming Truly Strong.

7:06 PM 6/12/2025 SAKURA: "You've been yappin' all this time like you know me. No matter what anyone says… I'll decide where I belong."

A story theme I've really liked is the whole "I'll decide what I become." I think it started with a finale episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, that put the idea in my head of "constantly becoming". I think the episode may have even been titled "Becoming". That, combined with all the martial arts media I watched at the time, gave me an affinity for the idea that every decision contributes to what a person is Becoming, and it is an endless, constant process. In a lot of series, the villains are usually the ones who relinquish agency over what the are Becoming. That's also one of the reasons why I found the finale Kamen Rider Fourze so powerful, when Ryuusei changed his catchphrase "Your fate is mine to decide" (as a taunt to his enemies), to "I'll decide my own fate" or was it "My fate is mine to decide"---something like that. Maybe it just really clicks in with the part of my brain that thrives on story themes of Hope, when protagonists advocate that every moment is an opportunity to decide for yourself what you can/will Become. It means the past doesn't dictate who you are, the present can always become good as soon as you choose it to be so, and the future can always be better. Every moment is an opportunity for good, for better, to become Stronger. There is no Stagnation. There's only Hope. The idea of "constantly Becoming" is Hope.

7:15 PM 6/12/2025 omg Is Endo going to kick Suzui????????? ;O;??????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7:19 PM 6/12/2025 oh, thank gawd.

7:19 PM 6/12/2025 I feel bad that teh rest of Gravel isn't eating with Suzuri.

7:23 PM 6/12/2025 I feel like I have to note every single little thing that's touching to me:

Tsubaki moved to tears at Suzuri's first time playing videogames, after he said it's the thing he's always wanted to do. And they didn't show flashbacks, but we all already know Tsubaki is thinking about the first time he got to wear makeup.

Nirei remembering Endo comparing Sakura to himself then saying it's better people like them to be alone, then Nirei saying "Yes, I'll keep you company!" even though in the present scene, everyone thinks they're just talking about continuing to play videogames. ;u;!!!

The writing on this show is so good!!!! So many years, I heard analyses about how fight scenes should be ABOUT something, should be about character development, should be symbolic/analogies, and the best fight scene are ABOUT something besides violence or spectacle. Every single fight and conflict in this series has been representative of characters' internal struggles/arcs, clashing ideologies, etc. It's so good.

7:28 PM 6/12/2025 Did Endo kill the last person he liked enough to compliment??????????????????????

[jcmarchi]

Tracking emissions to help companies reduce their environmental footprint

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/tracking-emissions-to-help-companies-reduce-their-environmental-footprint/

Tracking emissions to help companies reduce their environmental footprint

Amidst a global wave of corporate pledges to decarbonize or reach net-zero emissions, a system for verifying actual greenhouse gas reductions has never been more important. Context Labs, founded by former MIT Sloan Fellow and serial entrepreneur Dan Harple SM ’13, is rising to meet that challenge with an analytics platform that brings more transparency to emissions data.

The company’s platform adds context to data from sources like equipment sensors and satellites, provides third-party verification, and records all that information on a blockchain. Context Labs also provides an interactive view of emissions across every aspect of a company’s operations, allowing leaders to pinpoint the dirtiest parts of their business.

“There’s an old adage: Unless you measure something, you can’t change it,” says Harple, who is the firm’s CEO. “I think of what we’re doing as an AI-driven digital lens into what’s happening across organizations. Our goal is to help the planet get better, faster.”

Context Labs is already working with some of the largest energy companies in the world — including EQT, Williams Companies, and Coterra Energy — to verify emissions reductions. A partnership with Microsoft, announced at last year’s COP28 United Nations climate summit, allows any organization on Microsoft’s Azure cloud to integrate their sensor data into Context Lab’s platform to get a granular view of their environmental impact.

Harple says the progress enables more informed sustainability initiatives at scale. He also sees the work as a way to combat overly vague statements about sustainable practices that don’t lead to actual emissions reductions, or what’s known as “greenwashing.”

“Just producing data isn’t good enough, and our customers realize that, because they know even if they have good intentions to reduce emissions, no one is going to believe them,” Harple says. “One way to think about our platform is as antigreenwashing insurance, because if you get attacked for your emissions, we unbundle the data like it’s in shrink-wrap and roll it back through time on the blockchain. You can click on it and see exactly where and how it was measured, monitored, timestamped, its serial number, everything. It’s really the gold standard of proof.”

An unconventional master’s

Harple came to MIT as a serial founder whose companies had pioneered several foundational internet technologies, including real-time video streaming technology still used in applications like Zoom and Netflix, as well as some of the core technology for the popular Chinese microblogging website Weibo.

Harple’s introduction to MIT started with a paper he wrote for his venture capital contacts in the U.S. to make the case for investment in the Netherlands, where he was living with his family. The paper caught the attention of MIT Professor Stuart Madnick, the John Norris Maguire Professor of Information Technology at the MIT Sloan School of Management, who suggested Harple come to MIT as a Sloan Fellow to further develop his ideas about what makes a strong innovation ecosystem.

Having successfully founded and exited multiple companies, Harple was not a typical MIT student when he began the Sloan Fellows program in 2011. At one point, he held a summit at MIT for a group of leading Dutch entrepreneurs and government officials that included tours of major labs and a meeting with former MIT President L. Rafael Reif.

“Everyone was super enamored with MIT, and that kicked off what became a course that I started at MIT called REAL, Regional Entrepreneurial Acceleration Lab,” Harple says. REAL was eventually absorbed by what is now REAP — the Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Program, which has worked with communities around the world.

Harple describes REAL as a framework vehicle to put his theories on supporting innovation into action. Over his time at MIT, which also included collaborating with the Media Lab, he systematized those theories into what he calls pentalytics, which is a way to measure and predict the resilience of innovation ecosystems.

“My sense was MIT should be analytical and data-driven,” Harple says. “The thesis I wrote was a framework for AI-driven network graph analytics. So, you can model things using analytics, and you can use AI to do predictive analytics to see where the innovation ecosystem is going to thrive.”

Once Harple’s pentalytics theory was established, he wanted to put it to the test with a company. His initial idea for Context Labs was to build a verification platform to combat fake news, deepfakes, and other misinformation on the internet. Around 2018, Harple met climate investor Jeremy Grantham, who he says helped him realize the most important data are about the planet. Harple began to believe that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emissions estimates for things like driving a car or operating an oil rig were just that — estimates — and left room for improvement.

“Our approach was very MIT-ish,” Harple says. “We said, ‘Let’s, measure it and let’s monitor it, and then let’s contextualize that data so you can never go back and say they faked it. I think there’s a lot of fakery that’s happened, and that’s why the voluntary carbon markets cratered in the last year. Our view is they cratered because the data wasn’t empirical enough.”

Context Labs’ solution starts with a technology platform it calls Immutably that continuously combines disparate data streams, encrypts that information, and records it on a blockchain. Immutably also verifies the information with one or more third parties. (Context Labs has partnered with the global accounting firm KPMG.)

On top of Immutably, Context Labs has built applications, including a product called Decarbonization-as-a-Service (DaaS), which uses Immutably’s data to give companies a digital twin of their entire operations. Customers can use DaaS to explore the emissions of their assets and create a certificate of verified CO2-equivalent emissions, which can be used in carbon credit markets.

Putting emissions data into context

Context Labs is working with oil and gas companies, utilities, data centers, and large industrial operators, some using the platform to analyze more than 3 billion data points each day. For instance, EQT, the largest natural gas producer in the U.S., uses Context Labs to verify its lower-emission products and create carbon credits. Other customers include the nonprofits Rocky Mountain Institute and the Environmental Defense Fund.

“I often get asked how big the total addressable market is,” Harple says. “My view is it’s the largest market in history. Why? Because every country needs a decarbonization plan, along with instrumentation and a digital platform to execute, as does every company.”

With its headquarters in Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Context Labs is also serving as a test for Harple’s pentalytics theory for innovation ecosystems. It also has operations in Houston and Amsterdam.

“This company is a living lab for pentalytics,” Harple says. “I believe Kendall Square 1.0 was factory buildings, Kendall Square 2.0 is biotech, and Kendall Square 3.0 will be climate tech.”

[samueldays]

I am replying out of order here because @tanadrin has reply-blocked me, tumblr is a poorly designed site where I cannot respond to some of the replies on my own post.

I acknowledged diplomacy in my other post; I do not think Factorio is a metaphor for colonialism exactly, but it shows the view of a colonizer in a more general sense. In the pursuit of resources, the local population is a nuisance to be managed, not independents to be respected.

There are several ways of "managing" that population, Factorio is sometimes underappreciated that way. One way is warfare and expulsion. (Genocide is too strong a word, the default Factorio map is 2000km wide and biter-filled, the player would take hours of real time merely to travel to the edge of the map, let alone kill everything in the way.) This is in many ways the default.

A second way is using solar panels, nuclear power and environmentally friendly Efficiency Modules to minimize pollution and not upset the natives, there are players who have used this mode to successfully launch a space rocket without ever provoking the biters to attack.

A third way is capture/conversion devices to use on biter nests, and superfood to bribe/subvert them with so that they'll produce resources for the player.

Across all these, Factorio implements a subtle mechanic: the militarization level (named "evolution" ingame) and threat of the native population rises with two factors: how much pollution the player's industry has emitted, and how many biter nests the player has destroyed.

When the player develops bigger and deadlier weapons, this causes pollution. Factorio has an optional arms race: the more violently you play, the more pushback the game gives you. It looks like the usual enemies-scale-over-time effect of videogames, but it's surprisingly responsive to player behavior. It's tuned so that the player can outscale the native biters with a weapons focus, but this same mechanic is what enables the second way above: don't start shit, won't be shit.

re overseas support in Africa and Asia:

and if Factorio was actually modeling this, you would also have to be being supported from off-world by your home state, providing you massive amounts of supplies and manpower in order to make all this possible

The protagonist is initially supported from off-world by a massive amount of technological scaffolding which performs a similar function: the player-character-entity can carry entire trains and oil refineries and blast furnaces in inventory. Videogame convenience abstraction, blah blah, but in some sense the protagonist is really more like a colossal supply ship (or a fleet) that happens to use a humanoid icon for familiarity.

Also, when the player is establishing a new base in the midgame, it usually does use immense amounts of supplies from the starter base, which are carried in the ship-like inventory to the new site. "Manpower" also exists lategame and takes the form of swarms of construction robots (expensive to produce) that can be given a blueprint to build, faster than the main player-character-entity can build by hand.

One of my mutuals (foss?) remarked that Factorio is the best videogame about colonialism, it doesn't overbearingly lecture and it doesn't explicitly tell you it's about colonialism, it directly invites you to see things from the viewpoint of the colonizer who landed in a new world and started extracting resources. If you know the game and look at the map here, you can trace a thought process embedded in the image that goes something like:

hmm, my rapacious industry (southeast) is upsetting the natives, maybe I should build some solar panels and restrain myself

hmmm, the solar panels are underwhelming, I'll build some guns and walls on my frontier to repel native raids instead

hmmm, those cliffs and lakes over there would be good chokepoints, I can drive out the natives to create a buffer zone

hmmm, the landmass ends there, conquering the entire north peninsula would be more convenient to give me a shorter border, I just have to cleanse it of the increasingly violent natives. gotta arm up heavily. Bring the earthmovers and deforestation, it'll be easier to draw straight lines on the map than keep working with the terrain at this point.

Diplomacy with the natives? the default interface presents no options for that.

[kieuecaprie]

I must ask... Does Elpis have any particularly strong opinions on any of those funny managers? :3

As tempting as it may be to give you the full list and go off one by one, which would indeed be easy, it's probably best to pick off a few notable ones that caught the deer's eye (or ire).

Prethinker (Brian) - Elpis tried to reason with him but got shot down because they're just a "dumb animal" with "no intellect to speak of". So now they just plain hate him, full stop. Not enough to want to end his existence, more like they want to style on him in his own battle of wits. So, their opinion? "I despise him and I want to beat him at his own game, maybe then he'll realize what a pompous mee he is."

Duck Shuffler (Buck Ruffler) - Initially, when they moved to Toontown, they were somewhat intimidated by this manager's presence due to them being a newbie in the Toon Resistance at the time, but after training and getting acquainted with Buck, they really want to join Buck on his escapades to the casino and win BIG BUX. Their opinion of Buck is: "Used to be scary but is actually just a little goober. An idiot. A dummy. And if anything happens to him, I will shoot everyone in this room, and then myself."

Rainmaker (Misty Monsoon) - After an initially rough encounter with her, Elpis just kind of feels sorry for her because it just seems like she wants to have a good time but can't due to 1) some toons attacking cogs on sight and 2) her boss wouldn't like it. Nevertheless, they have attempted to make contact with her and tried their hardest to make friends with her. So far, they have been attempting to bring her a picnic and is currently trying to figure out her favorite drinks, which would be easy if it weren't for the fact that, well, robot and robots don't take kindly to most toon drinks, if at all. She is one of the biggest reasons why El has the opinion that they could potentially make friends with the cogs in the end, and maybe get them to loosen up and not be so stiffy and all about money and profits. Their opinion of Misty is: "One day I'll show you that toons and cogs can get along, Mity. I'll keep trying, no matter how long it'd take, for both of us."

Major Player (Dave Brubot) - I haven't experienced his fight in-game yet, despite having MML kudos awaiting promotion to level 10 because I'm slowly working on everything else first. I can wager that Elpis was initially weirded out when they found out about the video tape containing said manager's hijinks (if you could call eating cereal several hours straight as such...) but hearing that he was behind the snazzy tunes in the buildings they've invaded as well as hearing about the live performances, they're pretty much a fan. Maybe not as crazy as some because they tend to carry an air of composure (as much as a toon can be anyhow), but if they were to actually meet Dave, they'd probably be inwardly screaming the entire time.

Firestarter (Flint Bonpyre) - Actually feels really sorry for this dude, to the point where they've started to hype him up whenever they cross paths and encourage the poor guy, even when he accidentally sets something flammable on fire. This, of course, also means they want to crush him with a boulder but it's because they love him (platonically speaking, btw).

Chief Operating Officer (Thomas Saggs) - Not a manager, per say, but at the moment he gets a special spot here. Despite disagreeing with Thomas's opinions on some things (such as not really doing much to stop the cogs from taking over), they do find some common ground in a lot of things, as well as just generally appreciating the discussion as it is a welcome break from the wackiness of the toons and the outright hostility from most cogs. They have quite a bit of respect for him and are probably gonna be sad when the Toon Resistance decide to take on the Boardbot HQ, whenever it finishes construction that is, 'cause that means there's a possibility of fighting him.

High Roller (High Roller) - NON-CANON - Absolutely loves High Roller, in fact, they love High Roller so much that they have a shrine dedicated to Their Quackjesty in their home's attic. They never leave home with the green rubber duck and will happily shout out HR's favorite catchphrase: "It'ff High Roller time" and then High Roller all over the floor. Okay, okay, but to be serious about this, if High Roller were to exist in canon, they'd be a big fan of the fused cog, maybe not to the craziest extent but they'd still carry the green rubber duckie and be proud of being a member of the Low Rollers.

---

Those are the ones that kind of stood out to me right now either because I haven't truly experienced their battles in TTCC yet or because I haven't given too much thought to Elpis's opinions of a particular manager at the moment.

[silversatoru]

Hello! I saw that you’re taking requests. I hope this is the right place to request, I’m new to tumblr haha.

Could I request, Megumi x F!reader, heavy angst breakup sex? The rest of the details are completely up to you if that’s okay!

I loved the gojo one btw!

yes yes here u go!! i hope this is the kind of thing you were looking for!

burdens

fushuguro megumi x nonsorcerer f!reader

synopsis: you and megumi have been dating for a few months now, and he decides it’s time to call it quits. he’d rather break your heart than have to watch you die, but not before he gets to feel you one last time

tags/warnings: smut, angst, break-up sex, nsfw (18+), takes place in the jjk universe but reader is not a sorcerer

word count: 2484

a/n: writing angsty megumi breaks my heart every single time. i jus want to give him a hug

Megumi watched anxiously across the room as a couple nurses finished applying bandages to your arm, your eyebrows knitted together in pain as they brushed over the large gashes. He noticed the small twitches in your other hand —probably caused by a mixture of pain and anxiety. You were stupidly strong, probably one of the tenacious people he’d ever met, but he could tell that this was getting to you. All of the curses you couldn’t see, the jujutsu techniques that you didn’t understand, it was all becoming overwhelming — dangerous even.

The two of you had been on a date a few hours ago, a sushi dinner and then a walk in the park — something simple — because even the simplest things felt wonderful when he was with you. And that’s exactly how things felt today, wonderful, or at least they did before the two of you ran into a hideous curse. 

He should have noticed it, picked up on it’s cursed energy, anything — but he was so terribly distracted when he was around you. So when it caught both of you off guard and wrapped it’s grotesque fingers around your fragile body, he felt nothing but guilt. Nothing but shame and disappointment in himself that he had failed to protect you yet again. Exorcising it was easy of course, but the damage had already been done — your beautiful arm had been torn to shreds by the monster. Now the two of you were sitting in a pale, white hospital room telling lies about how you were attacked by a stray dog. 

Thankfully, other than the lacerations down your arm you were okay, your blood loss wasn’t too severe and the two of you had gotten here before any kind of infection could crawl it’s way into your skin. 

The car ride back to your small Tokyo apartment was dreadfully quiet. You’d made several attempts at conversation but Megumi continued to shut them down, a dark shadow of expressions cast over his face. You told him several times that this wasn’t his fault, that you understood the risks of dating him, but he just kept brushing you off. He’d told you several times to “shut up” or “be quiet”, and your heart ached at his bitter words — he’d never talked to you that way before tonight. 

When the two of you walked into your apartment, he was quick to slam the door shut and wrap a firm arm around your waist. He moved with a sense of urgency, forcing you back against the wall and letting hot, heavy breaths fall against your neck.

“Megumi-,” You pressed a hand to his chest, attempting to put some distance between the two of you but failing miserably — he was much too strong. 

You wished you could take a peek into his head, unravel his thoughts and figure out what the hell he was thinking. He was acting incredibly out of character since the two of you had left the hospital, and your chest was starting to throb with anxiety. 

He pressed a wet, messy kiss to your lips, making your heart leap into your throat and your stomach churn. You graciously accepted the kiss, of course, his lips against yours was the most blissful feeling in the world. However, as his tongue moved roughly around your mouth and his teeth bit down fiercely on your bottom lip, uncertainty crawled up your skin. Megumi was always so gentle with you, only ever touching you in the most gingerly ways, treating your body like a piece of the most priceless glass. So, why now was he gripping your skin so tightly you thought it might bruise? Why were his kisses sure to leave your lips swollen and sore? 

“Please, honey, let me have you,” He suddenly spoke, stirring you out of your thoughts. 

Honey, it was his favorite name for you, in fact he rarely called you by your actual name. Normally, that name sent butterflies swirling through your stomach, but this time was different. He said the word as if it left a sour taste in his mouth, as if he regretted having to call you that. 

“W-what?” You looked up at him with big eyes, big eyes that he refused to look into.

“Give me permission to touch you, please,” His voice was filled with so many emotions all at once — anger, despair, regret, need, hunger — there was probably more but he was impossibly hard to read right now. 

“Why are you acting like this?” You tried to plead with him, reaching up and cupping a hand around his soft cheek. 

“God, just say yes. Please just say yes and then stop talking,” His voice was almost a growl as this point, so uncharacteristically resentful. 

“I mean- yes? Of course? You’re always allowed to touch me. But why-” You spoke in confused, frantic breaths. 

“Thank you,” He immediately cut you off after gaining consent, wrapping a stiff hand around your wrist and practically dragging you back to your bedroom. 

He pushed you towards your large, queen-sized bed and then slipped his hands underneath his shirt and yanked it over his head in one long, swift motion. 

“Take your clothes off,” He demanded, undoing the drawstring of his sweatpants and letting them fall into a heap at his ankles. 

You wordlessly obliged, attempting to convince yourself that he needed this. He needed this and after you gave it to him, things would go back to normal — he’d just had a rough day, that’s all. 

It took him mere moments to aggressively pin you underneath him, though he was tediously avoiding your injured arm. He pressed a series of sloppy, wet kisses to your collarbone, slowly moving up to your neck and leaving painful imperfections all over your skin. You winced as he began to suck on a particularly sensitive spot, nibbling hard enough to make your skin sting and burn under his tongue. He continued to trail hungry, relentless kisses down the entirety of your body, covering every inch of your skin in aching love marks. You felt like you were on fire, the subtle pain and immense pleasure beginning to cloud your head — you were even starting to forget how tense things had been between the two of you just moments ago. 

Megumi sat up and stared down at you as he fumbled with his boxers, sliding them off and throwing them to the floor. He needed this more than he’d ever needed anything in his entire life — he needed to feel you one last time and then he needed to break your heart. 

He reached down and ran a single, slender finger along the folds of your entrance, a fire igniting in his eyes when he felt how slick you already were. 

“God, you’re too perfect,” He murmured, giving a harsh squeeze to the skin around either side of your hips, “Get on your hands and knees”.

His praise sent goosebumps up your arms and light blush across your cheeks, making things feel almost-normal. You flipped yourself over onto your knees, stretching your arms out against the bed and arching your back as hard as you could. 

With absolutely no warning, he thrusted forward with incredible force, sheathing himself deep inside you and causing a strangled scream to lurch from your lungs. His head dipped low as he let out a throaty groan, his long black hair hanging lazily over his face. Sharp breaths and pained whimpers rolled from your lips, your knuckles turning white from squeezing the bed sheets so hard. 

Megumi always started slow, he always whispered sweet praises into your ears, always asked if you felt okay — nothing between the two of you had ever been this rough and unforgiving. This time he set a steady pace right from the start, his hips rolling ruthlessly as he slammed himself into you. Your breaths were terribly uneven and completely muffled by the pillow your face was forced into. You gasped for air as he stroked with unbelievable force, catching the pillowcase in your teeth and biting down hard on the fabric. 

His pace slowed for a mere second, and you felt his fingers intertwine themselves in your soft locks of hair. You sucked in a sharp breath, his fingers tightening into a fist and yanking your head backwards. Once his hand was secured around the roots of your hair, his strokes intensified again. 

The initial pain of taking his forceful cock had subsided and replaced itself with immense pleasure, but your scalp was ablaze with a horrible, piercing pain as he tugged at your hair. The overwhelming combination of complete agony and intoxicating bliss caused a few tears to form at the edges of your eyes, threatening to spill at any moment. Your hips and ass began to ache, and you knew you’d be terribly sore tomorrow morning. The pain was starting to become more prominent and it was getting increasingly difficult to hold your back at such an uncomfortable arch. 

Megumi lifted his spare hand to his forehead, swiftly wiping the small beads of sweat that were forming above his eyebrows. He panted hard, moans and strings of curse words leaving his throat as he continued to rail you into oblivion. His throbbing member was starting to go numb from the devastating amount of stimulation, and he knew he’d need to finish soon. 

“Squeeze your legs,” His words were less of an instruction and more of a demand. 

You quickly complied, squeezing your legs closer together and feeling your walls constrict around his full length. The euphoric sensation was enough to send Megumi falling over the edge, his head flying backwards as he ripped his member free of your warm grasp. He wrapped his long fingers firmly around himself, jerking hard as he sprayed his emanation all over your beautifully arched back. Choked moans and aggressive cuss-words flew from his gritted teeth as his climax coursed through his body in waves. 

As the wonderful feelings finally started to wash away, he stared down at you with a horrible emptiness in his eyes — now came the hard part. 

He stood up and wordlessly walked into your bathroom, retrieving a towel to clean you up with. He wiped it lazily over your back and then tossed it into your hamper before beginning to collect his clothes that were strewn across the bedroom floor. 

“What about me?” You were sitting up now, your favorite blanket pulled up to your chin and clinging to your last shreds of hope.

You felt the need to hide your exposed body now that the two of your were done, his coldness heightening every insecurity you had.

“I have to go. Do it yourself,” He shot you a sideways glance, pulling his loose sweats around his waist. 

“What? Why do I feel like you’re not going to come back?” You could no longer fight the tears that had been lingering in your eyes for hours now. 

Everything was starting to make sense — you were slowly piecing everything together. His silence at the hospital, his refusal to speak to you in the car, his sudden hunger towards you, and now his unusual coldness as he practically told you to go fuck yourself. He was going to break up with you, wasn’t he? But why?

“Because I’m not. I think we should end things here”.

“So, that’s it? You just wanted to use me like a fuck-toy one last time, is that what this was?” You tried hard to keep your voice steady, but a few cracks forced their way out. 

“That’s really all you were good for anyway,” His words were like a knife to the heart, “You’re nothing but a burden outside of that”. 

A burden? That’s all you ever were to him? You refused to believe that, but his words were doing an excellent job at convincing you. After all, he was constantly protecting you from those terrifying monsters he called curses — maybe that really was a burden on him. You didn’t have any kind of other-worldly powers like Megumi did, so you truly were helpless whenever one of those things was around. Hell, until they were literally threatening your life, you couldn’t even see them. 

“You’re springing this on me out of nowhere, Megumi. You were completely normal just a few hours ago when we were eating at that sushi place! Is this because of that curse and my arm? Because if it is I’ll just work harder! You can teach me to use those cursed tools you told me about!” Tears were streaming down your face as you screamed helplessly at him.

“You’d still be too weak even if I did teach you to use a weapon or two. Things between us just aren’t going to work, okay? Don’t make me keep saying it,” He shook his head, slipping on his shoes and walking towards the bedroom door.

“I hate you, Fushiguro Megumi,” You spat out his full name, “You could at least be honest with me. You could tell me you’re afraid of losing me, that you don’t want me to get hurt — but this ‘you’re nothing but a burden’ garbage that you’re spewing is bullshit and you know it”. 

“Maybe. But if I told you those other things instead, you wouldn’t listen, would you? You’d just keep telling me that the risk of being with me is worth it,” He turned around and looked at you with heavy, pained eyes.

“Do you know how tired I am of watching the people I love die? Things would be so much easier for me if you just stayed the fuck away”. 

He left after that, slamming the door behind him before you even had a chance to say anything. He couldn’t bear the idea of seeing you die — seeing a curse pop your head off or strangle your body into horrifying shapes. No matter how broken his heart felt leaving you behind, it was still better than being the reason you suffered a young, unfair death. 

It turned out that you were never the burden — the real burden was being born into the cursed life of a jujutsu sorcerer. A life of risk and regret, pain and suffering, watching people die young and in the most grotesque ways. Somewhere, in another universe, Megumi liked to think that he was born into a normal, mundane life where he was able to love you endlessly and give you everything you ever deserved. And god — in his eyes you deserved the entire fucking world. 

[my-current-obsession]

We have similar taste in that game! Heisuke is my absolute favorite, I love him as a character and his relationship with Chizuru. I love that she seems to have more agency and input with him, they actually feel like equals. One of my absolute favorite moments in the game is the (new to Kyoto Winds/Edo Blossoms) part where Heisuke is currently not with the Shinsengumi, but certain higher ups conspire to have her meet and talk with him since they can tell both parties are so depressed without the other. She's allegedly dressed up for a covert "spy" mission, but it was really just to help her and Heisuke talk without suspicion, since they're "just" a guy and girl enjoying each other's company. And the fact that it calls back to him wanting to see her dressed up like a girl from the beginning of the game! His awkward sincerity when he compliments her is right up my alley. IMO flirting hits so much harder coming from someone who rarely does it and/or is bad at it.

As for the other guys...

I do love the romance with Harada and the fact that at least ONE love interest stays human, but I have to admit it bothers me how down on herself and insecure Chizuru is in that route. It bothered me a little at the time, but now it's REALLY grating because I guess I can't help but compare it to Code Realize (which you and I did in reverse. Hakuouki was my first, Code Realize my second). Chizuru feels like a monster who could never have a loving relationship with a human... because she heals fast (compare that to a(n optional) moment in Heisuke's route where she weaponizes that to get free! When Kazama and Co attack the Shinsengumi base and she gets taken by Amagiri, she tells Heisuke to stab Amagiri through her! And he does it!). Meanwhile poor Cardia literally can't touch anyone without killing them. Chizuru feels really wangst-y in Harada's route specifically (she's not nearly as bad in any other route) whereas Cardia's angst across the entire game felt more earned.

I only played Nagakura's route once but I remember really disliking it for several reasons. I agree that it went too hard on him initially seeing her like a sister. That just made the pivot to romance later feel weird. Also there just... wasn't much romance in that route. Because Nagakura spent nearly all of it depressed as hell, because he was turned into a Fury against his will. I remember that really pissing me off. I absolutely understood his feelings (honestly I don't get why the writers insisted on making everyone but Harada a Fury or demon, especially in cases like this where he so clearly didn't want it), but it made the route really dour to play through.

I've always liked Okita but never quite understood why he's the big favorite in the fandom. He's a little TOO mean and tries TOO hard to push her away for me to fully get behind him, but I've always been fascinated by Chizuru seeming to be more into him and pursuing him compared to a lot of other routes. Even early on in the common route there's a trend of her looking to Okita, of all people, for his opinion or support on something.

In general I love that you can make a compelling case for her having a unique and strong bond with basically all the original Shinsengumi love interests. Heisuke is the one she forms an immediate friendship with, who cheers her up. Harada acts as emotional support, lending her and ear or a shoulder when she's feeling down.

Saito, she doesn't really notice it herself, but he goes out of his way early on to help her a lot. And he's typically the one to tell her what's going on or what something she doesn't understand means. To the point where she does start looking to him when she wants answers on certain things. Saito was who I got first in my blind run, and I do like him quite a lot, although in my opinion the scenes of his I like best are in a lot of optional or side stories. Most of which isn't in the Steam or Switch releases. But he's got HUGE gap moe of being just so into her and turning into a blushing mess when they decide to switch to first name basis or when he sees her while she's undercover as a geisha. Both those scenes are in the PS3 version of the game as bonus content, and I ADORE them. Sadly I haven't seen them anywhere else.

Okita, as I already mentioned, she's oddly invested in his opinion. She wants his approval specifically and pushes for him to notice and like her even when he tries to ignore or push her away.

Ironically Hijikata is the one I have a hardest time buying as a love interest. She's undeniably attracted to him, but their relationship feels so stiff and unequal with her playing a subordinate role for him that's not too far off from how he treats all the other Shinsengumi members.

Hakuoki was my second big otome game that I played, with my first being Code Realize! I started playing it again when it first released on the Switch, but now I’m going to restart it since it’s been awhile.

I remember reeaallly enjoying it. Though some routes were a bit more bittersweet, (I have a love/hate relationship with Okita.) aside from that, I remember really loving Harada and Heisuke.

Okita, I’m a bit mixed on. I love his character, and the relationship with Chizuru. But the ending!

My least favorite from back then was Shinpachi, which is mainly because he gives off more brotherly vibes.

[autisticandroids]

Okay so this was a while back but im preety sure you had mentioned an au of yours where dean is a serial killer and cas successfully stalks him but i don't think you talked about it more than that and i just really want to hear a bit more bc that idea sounds so tastefully fucked up

okay so. weeks later i finally end up answering this ask. it inspired this post btw. anyway spn is a show that's like. all about justifications, as i said in the post inspired by this ask. it's about having no choice and doing what you have to do. and like there is the phantasy embedded in it, a phantasy that is both indulged and punished. but most importantly it's justified. the monsters are super strong to show how brave our heroes are for fighting them, the main characters let out great wails of grief every time their lady loves are violently ripped from them (even though now they are free to do whatever they want), the narrative twists to show our heroes as correct whatever they do. the fantasy (of being allowed to enact violence, of being free from feminine "control," of being right) comes first. the material construction of the universe of supernatural comes afterward. whatever the fantasy is, the universe of supernatural will provide material conditions to justify its acting-out.

and what this means is that our protagonists, dean in particular, are constantly doing just horrific things, which in any other circumstance would be unconscionable. but the universe of supernatural provides justification for these acts. the point of my serial killer au which i think about so so so much is to ask the question: what if these justifications melted out from under their feet? what if dean was left holding nothing but a lie and the weight of everything he's done?

therefore, the premise of my au is such (under the cut because this baby is long):

john and mary winchester, in the mid seventies, joined a doomsday cult known as the men of letters. the men of letters were rather unusual for a doomsday cult, in that they believed that the apocalypse could be prevented by human behavior. this started as correct living, correct worship, yadda yadda, the kind of behavior and thought control that cults are known for, but with the justification of: if you don't do this, the world will end. eventually, this escalated to human sacrifice. the men of letters managed to untraceably kill two homeless people in the late seventies. but they eventually fell apart. however, a month after john and mary left the men of letters (mostly john's choice, mary still believed), mary died in a house fire. john took it as a sign from god that actually, the men of letters were right, and the world would end unless john himself did something about it. so he took some of the (intensely numerological) theology of the men of letters. and he worked out his own formula. and he applied it to the yellow pages. and started ritualistically killed people to prevent the apocalypse, with his two sons in the back of the car.

now, obviously, this is some kind of grief induced temporary madness on john's part, shaped by the mental abuse he suffered in the men of letters. but the thing is, once you've killed a couple of people to prevent the apocalypse. well. there's this thing called the sunk costs fallacy. john wasn't gonna question his own beliefs after that.

and he raised his boys to believe it, too, or at least he raised dean to. they didn't tell sam what they did until he was twelve, and sam didn't buy it, tried to call the cops on them several times but in the end, they always prevented him. eventually sam ran off to stanford, where he now lives under a cloud of guilt that he's too loyal to his family to rat them out.

john died a few years back of a heart attack, but dean is convinced it's because he messed up a ritual two weeks before it happened, so it pushed him further into this belief system.

dean's killings (and john's before him) are ritualistic and distinctive, obviously the same killer each time. but they happen anywhere in the united states, seemingly at random, there are inconsistent amounts of time between each one (sometimes as short as days, sometimes as long as years), and there is no particular victim profile. obviously, since our killers are following an arcane mathematical formula to make their choices for them, but the police don't know that.

castiel novak is an unemployed shut-in with a small inheritance which he's living off of, a cryptography degree, and an obsession with all things morbid. he spends most of his time on the reddit true crime forums, playing amateur sleuth. by complete chance, he happens to recognize one of the symbols frequently used in corpse displays by the so-called sioux falls satanic slaughterer (so named because the first time three of his victims were in the same part of the country, it so happened that they were all in sioux falls, south dakota. this was in the late eighties.) as being mostly only used by a little known cult group called the men of letters, which dissolved in the mid eighties.

he only notices this because, as a teen, he had a special interest in cults and fringe religious groups. the men of letters weren't a particularly notable or well known phenomenon; they were small, and a lot like every other cult that formed during the seventies cult boom. (no outsider ever heard about the human sacrifice; there were rumors, of course, but they were garbled, sensationalized, and mixed up with satanic panic fodder.)

(the men of letters' two sacrifices were nothing particularly romantic or fantastical. they first lured panhandler josie sands back to their compound with promises of food and a warm bed when she admitted she couldn't get a bed at a shelter, and was thinking of getting caught shoplifting just so she could be under a roof in the county jail. the men of letters' leader, a man who took on the name alistair, forced his inner circle to dress in the ceremonial black robes he had given them when he initiated them into his nearest and dearest, and which his wife had sewn out of old bed sheets and dyed black with home made oak gall dye. these robes still left black smudges on the wearer's skin occasionally if they sweated too much. josie was laid, bound, on the altar, a slapdash thing constructed over the course of two days from scrap plywood and a couple of milk crates. a rich red tablecloth purchased at macy's for $3.99 hid its ugliness and gave it grandeur. alistair attempted to kill the struggling miss sands by bringing a sharpened kitchen knife down on her bosom and piercing her heart, but, having never killed a human or even slaughtered an animal before, was unaware of the problem presented by the human ribcage. after rather ineffectually poking at the area beneath sands' bosom with his knife while she shrieked in pain and terror for about ninety seconds, alistair tried a different tack, and slit her throat, which worked just fine, and she bled out quite nicely. the second and final victim of the men of letters was a local vagrant named larry ganem, an older gentleman who walked with a limp. he was lured back to the compound in approximately the same manner as sands, but instead of being bound, he was fed stew laced with sleeping pills. even if alistair hadn't slit his throat, he wouldn't have woken up. it's actually arguable whether he was still alive at time of sacrifice; mary winchester (eight months into her first pregnancy), who, as a member of the inner circle, was in attendance, actually tried to take ganem's pulse as he lay on the altar (now covered by a different tablecloth; the red one had turned stiff with sands' blood and been subsequently burned) and found nothing, so it is entirely possibly only sands' death can be directly laid at alistair's feet, and ganem's is the fault of mrs. ellen harvelle, who prepared the laced stew. regardless, these two deaths are lessons in the nature of human evil: it is very rarely skilled, suave, or smooth. it's often slapdash, half-hearted, and just plain incompetent. but that makes it no less grisly. alistair may have begun to drink his own kool-aid, as it were, and escalated this far out of genuine belief that the apocalypse was coming and it was up to him to stop it, but it is far more likely that he sensed the imminent collapse of his little empire, and wanted to bind his subjects to him through the horrors of shared guilt, considering two lives a small price to pay for the continued loyalty of his inner circle. and the tactic worked: the men of letters didn't start to collapse in earnest until almost four years later. perhaps if alistair had continued the killings, the men of letters could have lasted for far longer, maybe even up until the present day. but it seems that alistair, a psychiatrist by training and unused to violence, simply didn't have the stomach for it. unlike, say, john winchester, who before his time with the men of letters had done a two year tour in vietnam, during which he had killed three living, thinking human beings with the american government's go-ahead.)

anyway. castiel is the first person, ever, to make the connection between the men of letters and the sioux falls satanic slaughterer. and once that connection is made, castiel begins to research the men of letters far more in-depth. and he notices something: the theology of the men of letters was intensely numerological, filled with patterns, significant numbers, and even spiritual equations.

castiel thinks of the seemingly random selection of the slaughterer's victims, and has an epiphany.

he cracks all his fingers, and gets coding.

six months. it takes castiel six months to discover an equation that could fit the slaughterer's pattern. it's complex, but also clearly based on several of the men of letters' holy numbers, and accounts for every single one of the killings. it also suggests that there should have been two or three more deaths scattered across the years, but more than likely those did happen, it's just that they weren't reported as part of the slaughterer's portfolio.

but much more importantly, castiel's model can also make predictions. there will be two killings, fifteen days apart, in a city seven hours' drive away, six weeks from now.

so castiel waits. and he books a hotel room. and two months later, he's waiting outside 217 oak street when a shadowy figure climbs up a tree and lets itself into the upstairs window.

dean winchester is feeling particularly all alone in the world when he breaks into maisey banks' home (217 oak street). his father has been dead for half a decade, and he hasn't spoken to his baby brother for twice that. it's not like this whole grizzly saving the world business makes him a lot of friends. so once he's done killing maisey (which is easy, she was ninety three and dying of cancer anyway. she doesn't even wake up when he slits her throat) and arranging her corpse in the appropriate manner, with prayers and sigils, he turns around. and sees a man standing behind him.

smiling slightly.

as he watches dean gut this old woman.

dean freezes.

the man takes a step forward.

"you're very attractive for a serial killer who's been operating since the eighties."

dean is silent.

"family business, is it?"

silence continues.

"i'm not here to report you to police. i'm just here to see if my algorithm worked right."

and dean finally breaks his silence: "what the hell is wrong with you?"

what's fun here is that dean knows (or rather "knows") that he isn't a serial killer. so he finds what cas is doing, this amoral serial killer stormchasing, morally repugnant. because cas has no way of knowing he isn't a regular serial killer.

there's also the fact that that cas proceeds to flirt with him. aggressively. and follows him back to his motel.

but the thing is that dean is all alone in the world. and as cas continues trailing him around, he starts getting, well, flattered. and feeling a little bit less alone.

it doesn't take very long before they fall into bed. even if cas is an amoral stalker with a fetish for what dean considers a distasteful yet necessary vocation.

so. they fall into bed. they fall in love. they make a little life together, in dean's big sexy car. dean tries to explain to cas that he's saving the world. that these people's lives are a necessary price to pay. and cas seems to listen.

of course, castiel doesn't believe a word of it. but he's found that he likes dean. really likes him. and he realizes that the collapse of dean's belief system would destroy him.

so he sets about becoming as complicit in it as possible.

even to the extent where, when dean is hit by a car and ends up into the hospital a day before one killing is meant to take place, castiel agrees to take on the job. (he doesn't actually kill anyone, obviously. but he does use his extensive skill with computers to create three fake newspaper articles which make it look like he has.)

but five years later, something goes wrong. really, really wrong. dean miscalculates the formula. and by the time he checks his work, the actual date of the next kill, as demanded by the formula, has passed. in fact, so have three others. and the world didn't end.

dean collapses. he hyperventilates. all those people. all those people. for no reason. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people. all those people.

cas seems totally unfazed. dean stares at him in shock. but cas just takes dean in his arms, and whispers in his ear: "oh, dean, i never believed in the equation. i love you no matter what you've done."

and dean buries his face in cas' chest.

[phagechildon]

Another Hualian AU I might write eventually~! I actually have so many ideas for it, I just need time to actually write x.x and motivation. Sorta based off the the Hanahaki disease where the victims cough up flower petals, cept way deadlier and wicked

Xie Lian is sent to investigate an area where Heaven received a vast number of prayers from, begging for their missing loved ones to return. For the ones that do return, they pray for their health as they cough up flowers and branches until they die. A simple mission, one he’s done several times. However, after several days, he doesn’t return. San Lang trusts and knows he can handle himself, but something just doesn’t feel *right,* so he follows the red string. 

He stumbles upon a completely deserted village, no one left behind. Food is left on tables, indicating they left in a hurry. And in the center of town, his anger soars. On a stone slab lays Xie Lian’s bamboo hat which is covered in blood, the only reason it didn’t fly away was thanks to bloodied chains holding it down. On the ground is a black blade with an unknown purple tip, power radiating off of it in waves. It’s cursed, he realizes, cursed, poisoned, and almost alive. It explains why Xie Lian wasn’t able to free himself. 

The only reason he didn’t explode in fury is thanks to the little self control and caution he has, knowing if he spreads his aura, the perpetrators might run away if they were still lingering around. He refuses to take any chances that’ll prolong him from holding Xie Lian safely in his arms. 

He makes Yin Yu collect the knife and ask one of the oldest blacksmiths in Ghost City if they’ve seen anything like it. The ghost turns impossibly more pale, saying he should throw it away before it tastes anyone’s blood or soul

It’s a sword that belongs to an ancient creature that’s seeking revival by feasting upon misery and sadness. No one knows how strong the creature is, only that when it last woke, its aura blocked out the sun itself. Its believers and loyal followers are creatures of the woods, and are usually the ones responsible for wiping out whole villages. Nothing is left behind, though it’s hinted they’re kidnapped and used for more energy. 

The swords are crafted by devoted followers. The dipped purple edge is a poison that subdues the mind, dropping the victim's guard as the sword then pierces both the body and soul. After soaking up enough of the blood, it tears deeper until its colorless gem is dyed in their blood, becoming a seed, which then slips inside them. If they survive the initial attack, their skin will bare a mark on their forehead. 

Those who are dripping with misery usually survive for a while because the seed slowly absorbs them from the inside out. They start to cough up leaves and flower petals, and branches break their bones and through their skin. Some can even see the branches pressing against the skin, as if starts becoming almost translucent. Once it fully absorbs the owner, its most precious flower opens up (blooming out of where the mouth would’ve been) like a clam to reveal a brightly shining “pearl,” which is then fed to their god.

The sword Yin Yu is carrying is missing its gem, meaning it’s inside the person the blood belongs to. Xie Lian is a god, he’s immortal, but has suffered severely for 800 years nearly all alone, giving up on people, finding hope in people, and ultimately, completely and utterly giving up on himself. As much as San Lang completely detests the fact, he knows Xie Lian could easily resurrect this so-called god. He just hopes his Highness is using his “I can’t die so what does it matter how I feel or if it hurts” attitude for once.

After conducting more research, they learn they have their own secret world hidden within a forbidden forest even he knows to be wary of. There’s teleportation arrays all over the place, which allows these disgusting creatures to move around the world with ease, using the kidnapped people’s life force for energy. 

Since it feeds off misery, Hua Cheng knows it’s very dangerous for him to go in. But he refuses to rely on anyone else to get Xie Lian out, especially since they don’t know what they are doing to him. The infinity knot and red string are still okay, meaning he’s still alive. But that’s worrisome. If Xie Lian was sound of mind, he would’ve either escaped or called for help via their private communication array. Xie Lian might not know how to ask for help, even from him, and oftentimes forgot, but there was no way he wouldn’t *plead* for San Lang if and when they tapped into his memories of White No-Face ( Bai Wuxiang )

And if they were blocking the communication array, leaving Xie Lian’s strangled cries to fall short, leaving him all alone *again,* hell would be a paradise compared to what he’d do to all of them

This wasn’t a place he could just walk into though, even as a Ghost King. Even the Heavenly Emperor would find it extremely difficult to infiltrate it’s borders as the land itself must invite you in, as it’s part of the creature they were trying to resurrect. The creature is far older than the Heavenly Emperor, some rumors even say it was born the same time humanity was

So he finds a magical item to seal his memories away, only keeping the vital necessities and stringing together a false life. Naturally, he trusts Yin Yu with safeguarding the memories. If he doesn’t return within a week, he’s to shatter the mirror and free his memories. The consequences of having his memories rush in and making a scene are unknown, but he’d face them if it meant saving Xie Lian 

He’s banking on slowly recovering them while he’s on the inside, trusting his devotion to Xie Lian to make this plan succeed

Little does he know they’ve heavily drugged Xie Lian, his mind in shambles due to the effects of the drug and having three seeds in him, making him believe the victims are people of Xianle, creating the “perfect” world where Xie Lian gets to be the loved Prince he was always meant to be (the creatures did this to keep Xie Lian from leaving and finding a “cure” for himself). And Wu Ming, barely having his own memory (and being effected by the environment), has to break this fake paradise, unable to watch Xie Lian literally die more by the day despite how happy he seems, even if the happiness is forced half the time ... both having their memories gone, both having fleeting moments of extreme emotion for the other, not understanding, and longing that doesn’t make sense falisudhf the confusion and fear and aaaa very nice angst and comfort~

and that’s the premises but that’s giving so much away already but I just had to share ;////; I dont know anyone who likes TGCF flaiushdf so naturally I want to share it with anyone who’s interested~ hopefully i’ll be able to write it soon!ish fasdf naturally it’ll have a happy ending~