#Started off strong with several attacks I actually initiated!

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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~

[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.”

[crystalelemental]

I think I'm getting tired of running Gauntlet.  I don't know if I'm gonna do this for the other Tapu like I initially planned.  Oh well.

General Overview Variety Agatha!  I was really harsh on this one, and to a degree, I stand by the harsh criticism.  But I also have to admit she's better than I thought. The Poison/Trap thing is incidental to her real utility, which I admit to seriously overlooking, largely because I hate resetting for MPR.

Agatha's main role is a buff support, and she acts as the midpoint between Classic Giovanni and Champion Bede.  Her trainer move offers better compression than Giovanni, and she has much better bulk.  But 1MP and lack of moves up next puts her WAY behind Bede in terms of effectiveness.  It's an interesting option.  Being able to boost both offenses and crit is highly valuable, and doing it so quickly is divine.  This is 3/5 Agatha's best trait: Team Sharp Entry means one use to capped crit, and access to MPR with either Berserk Bunch or All Ramped Up permits capping crit and one offense of choice.  Granted, you need to proc a 30% MPR at the start of the fight, but provided you do this, the efficiency with which Agatha can buff is divine.

But as expected, this comes at the cost of her everything else.  She can buff her own defenses per Pokemon move, but does nothing to sustain others.  Her recovery per hit on a foe with status only works some of the time and is a small amount, so she's woefully unreliable at healing up an ally.  Gradual Healing and First Aid 4 heals her, but repeated heavy hits like Azelf and Cobalion can wear her down faster than you want.  Her grid has options for supporting Leer, but it gives up her better traits in favor of...another inconsistent passive heal, and a one-use move gauge acceleration effect.  On that note, Agatha's main weakness is gauges.  She is not particularly fast, and a lot of her friends are fairly slow as well.  And here's where comparisons start happening.

Among the Variety units, I think Agatha holds more of a place over Bruno, but less of a place over Lorelei.  Bruno's sole existence is Screech; everything else he does really poorly.  Agatha's a fantastic buff bot for anything that needs offensive support, but pretty bad at just about everything else.  Lorelei, I feel, winds up exceeding her, based on a few things.  The first is that her buffs perfectly align, even at 1/5, to several key options like Lodge Silver and C!Iris.  Another is that she's reasonably bulky and able to take hits the same way Agatha does, but is backing up her team more reliably with Endurance, which actually does salvage matches like Regirock that Agatha otherwise struggles with.  Finally, Lorelei has gauge control with Recharging Strike built-in.  So personally?  I give this win to Lorelei.  Of the three supports, I very much like her best, although Agatha is a close second.

Hmm?  Oh, Lance?  Yeah, he's the best of the four by miles dude.  Better damage and sync than his Dragonite form and that's before the potential moves up next thing he does and the rebuff, Thunder Wave is stupid valuable for Gauntlet, buffs team crit, speed and accuracy, dude's a menace.

Vs. Latios Starting off pretty easy, let's talk about options that Agatha really helps.  Specifically, BP Zinnia.  Capped crit rate and a fast-acting attack buff is super nice for her, getting her to full capacity quickly and effectively.  With EX, Agatha excels at supporting this kind of DPS-heavy team composition, so long as gauge is facilitated.  I expected Iris' speed buffs to work in her favor.  They uh.  They did not.  So well.  But you can tell it was a fairly clean win regardless.

Vs. Tapu Bulu NY!Lance is a sad, sad man who can't really buff himself, and Agatha is here to help.  This was the origin of "oh god with the gauges."  It's obscenely bad with a four-bar move.  I brought Will for someone with high base speed and it did not help.  Still, Lance is strong enough, and Agatha tanky enough, that it didn't matter too much.

Vs. Tornadus This was the first attempt at "Agatha, you need to keep these guys alive."  I went with BP Sophocles, in part because I figured hey, he can self-setup pretty well.  Agatha shifted to her Leer focused grid as a result for added stacks of passive healing.  Or at least I intended to, before realizing that hey, using Leer is the same healing amount, at a worse rate than attacking.  So that's delightful.  BP Sophocles barely hung on, and it's only because we had trainer moves to spare later on so he didn't have to attack and die.  Also his gradual healing with Iron Defense.

Vs. Terrakion UUUGH.  Okay.  Bianca is a good recipient of Agatha's particular buffs, and I opted to try with Persian to debuff attack.  It worked out!  I guess if your tank is sturdy enough and you can only afford one offensive stat to keep in check, take out attack.  But this is frustrating.  Bianca's sync is hilariously bad, so thank god for Stored Power DPS.  But you also need to save the Psychic Terrain for later in the match and it's a rough time.

Vs. Cobalion Once again, Cobalion just blasts through a tank that can't reliably heal.  Surprise, I guess.  Ethan was chosen as the damage dealer because until he gets his grid, he's one of the saddest boys on the planet.  Magmar provides Burn, since Agatha's poison will perfectly complement the effect.  The one nice thing about Agatha is that her healing is non-specific; any status works.  That said, I probably should've used Hilda.  Leer would've worked out better, and Potion healing would have been delightful.

Vs. Azelf I wanted to not Sleep cheese.  So...this is what happened.  Bugsy was thankfully able to do it, and Persian's Charm kept sync from tearing us apart.  But man this felt closer than it should've been.  Agatha is Psychic weak, which is a major part of the problem.  Azelf would annihilate her without attack debuffing.

Vs. Uxie Uxie's weird, in that the DPS pressure is a problem, but only because it can't be stopped.  If it can be tanked, it's usually not too bad.  I opted for Morty, to showcase that Agatha's trainer move is pretty nice for options that need both offensive stats (Shadow Ball DPS, physical sync).  Striker Dewgong is here because it could boost speed and I thought this would help as a throwaway third.  It did not.

Vs. Latias I HATE LATIAS SO MUCH UUUUUGH.  Okay.  Lance!  Similar issues to Morty, but now with Potion support!  Great!  Still need a fuckload of debuffs.  Physical debuffs on Leer doesn't do as much.  So Janine it is.  Lance is now able to kinda help, so long as he doesn't miss Hyper Beam ever in the first phase.  Otherwise you lose accuracy and may as well quit, because Hyper Beam will then never hit anything again.  I'm really pissy about this one, but on the other hand, Agatha carried 1/5 Lance over the finish line.  That's gotta count for something.

Vs. Regirock "Haha, I am being so clever, I'll use a Grass Striker with good speed and a Steel Striker with good speed and gauges will be solved!"  Not only were they not ideal, we also ran into the issue of Molayne not flinching the first Rock Slide, leaving us in a position where if he missed the second, everyone died.  I'm just saying.  Lorelei would've salvaged this.

Vs. Entei I opted for Wallace, who can buff nothing of his own.  I think this is my first time ever using Wallace for something other than Stall.  That said, using Winona, disqualified for cheating.  Seriously, Winona's such a reliable option for these Gauntlet clears, and like the only one of use for-

Vs. Moltres -the shitbird, who is just intolerable.  I opted for SS Grimsley, who can't use his trainer move or he'll die, and has Fast Track to hopefully fix up the speed issues over time.  Miraculously, this actually worked.  Because Winona was here flinching this thing forever and setting Rain exactly three times.  Without her, I feel like so many of these clears just wouldn't be able to happen.

Final Thoughts Agatha is...good.  I do like her kit quite a bit.  The buffing in particular is really strong for what it is, and I think she's deceptively good at tanking despite the slow ramping and lack of on-command healing.  The problem for her is the AoE meta.  She offers nothing to help save her allies at all.  Moreover, her healing being so inconsistent means she's pretty easily bowled over by repeated strong attacks.  Kinda like what you'd apply in Champion Stadium with offense parameters.  I tried her there, she's decent, but it gets scary.

She's very good at what she does, but what she does is very aligned to like...cap out the offenses of an ally that hopefully clears quick.  The only situation where you need EX on her is when they're a DPS unit like Hyper Beam, and aim to clear that way.  Otherwise, EX Striker for CS.

I dunno.  I have mixed feelings.  I think the buff kit and access to things like full Status Immunity ping the kind of tools that would be limited.  But also, if you're supporting physical, this is just a shittier Hilbert.  Like, he does the same buffs, but with better gauge control and consistency.  So Agatha is relegated to special attack buffing, where literally no one does it faster, but you're now competing with SC Lillie's flinch, and SC Jasmine's obscene bulk and Safety Net support, and SS Kris's Rain and stacks of special moves.  Agatha legitimately feels like a sync pair that could be general pool and it wouldn't seem that unusual.  Like all of these Variety pairs.  I mean except Lance.

[pinkrose05]

Oh this sounds fun, count me in!

Warning: Long Post.

(Oops.)

1- I went with Stelle because I like the deadpan menace vibe. Caelus is pretty neat in his own right, but Stelle... my beloved gremlin...

2- Yanqing! He's my son and I love and cherish him with all my heart. Go kick ass, subway surfer boi!

3- My pfp would have you think it's Argenti, but I actually have a terminal case of Ren hyperfixation. He's got sooo many different personality facets and involvement in several story branches that is just so neat to think about!

...as I do 24/7. Please send help.

4- Also Ren lol, he checks off all the right boxes (buffs his own crit rate, scales off HP, runs on basic attacks, has the single most satisfying followup attack in the game. Oh did I mention the sfx? I think I should mention the sfx. It's great.)

5- I wasn't too big on Guinaifen initially, but playing Aetherium Wars and Foxian Tale practically 180'd my view. She's so lively and charming, and her backstory makes her current persona all the more interesting, too. Ily xiao-Gui... please come home already....

6- This is probably a tie between Qingque and Hanya. QQ's RNG within RNG is hilarious when it goes off, but man, Hanya has some of the best animations in the game, period. Her SP recovery is also very comfy (<- Ren main who dies inside whenever the SP count falls below 2 in any team ever).

7- Silver Wolf.... I'm so sorry queen, you keep running next to guys I'm saving for. Next time. Next time for sure.

8- Belobog, hands down. The scenery is cool, the vibes are cool (or warm, if you're in the Underworld), and OST is some of my all-time favorite; I love those strings so much!

9- The Luofu had a pretty strong start, even with all the fetch quests. I may be in the minority here, but I really enjoyed Dan Shu's quest chain, and was very excited to see how they'd handle the moral dilemma thereof in future updates. Oh, to go back to these better times... *weary sigh of ancient soul*

10- Argenti's story quest may not have been lore-heavy, but boy, it definitely was one of the weirder ones- and that was fun! I won't go into detail here, but it changes... quite a few things. And that last cutscene... beautiful.

(Shoutout to the Serval + Gepard quest pair though; that one was great closure for the former, and a nice show of her dynamic with the latter too.)

11- Had he not been an established recurring presence (that already stole the thunder of another's quest), I would've nominated Ren for this one. However, my actual pick is Jing Yuan. I'd love to see centric content for the cat dad sometime... regardless of what it tackles, I'm fairly certain it'll be a good time.

12- Foxian Tale of The Haunted is the peak of events in hoyoverse games. 20/10, please keep up the quality in the next lore-heavy main event. Shoutout to Critter Pick for the babies, though!

13- Remembrance! Why wait for the enemy to take action when you can make them dissociate their way to death?

(Of course, the agony of running into freeze-immune enemies is unmatchable, but I still think it's worth. Elation is a solid second though, that Aftertaste explosion is just delectable.)

14- Kafka's a pretty fun bossfight, in that she's the most straightforward of the bunch. Just cleanse the effects, keep trading blows, and you'll get there if you believe hard enough. Also this fight gives you the Go, Bladie achievement, and few references in this game have made me laugh so hard.

15- Ahahahahahahaha... figured it out yet? Aha is a menace in all the best and worst ways, and I'm afraid they had me hooked to their shenanigans alll the way back from the start. Live, laugh, love, never gonna give you up-

16- Giovanni Di Giorgio Da Epsilon, the man of all time!

(....can you tell I'm an Elation folk enjoyer?)

17- Sometimes family is a pint-sized gamer, a coat afficionado, an occasionally feral but mostly just tired wet kitten, a gundam proxy constantly doing their best, and the cat that brings them all together like some sort of clairvoyant glue. We praise the Stellaron Hunter family in this household.

18- I'm not much for shipping, honestly, but kafblade reads romantically as well as it does platonically, so that's nice. I'll take any and all ship content if I like it enough, though.

19- Jingliu and Luocha's plan is vaguely intriguing, in that it ties the Luofu's story to several ships we might visit in the future. I wonder what the Marshal's take on this is, and what exactly goes on in the Xuling...

Honkai Star Rail questions

I spent all night last night catching up on events in Honkai Star Rail, and somehow I ended up thinking about whether I'd seen any posts like this one. I couldn't remember any, so I decided to make my own. Hopefully it will be fun for someone as we now test out our free Dr. Ratios and wait for 2.0 to arrive!

This is not a tagging sort of meme - if you play HSR and are in the mood, answer these! Feel free to explain or not explain as you see fit. Bonus points for including screenshots/pictures/art/whatever - not required, but no one ever argued with some pretty.

Note that I'm keeping this one positive, because my mood is "yay this is a fun game I'm happy it's here" and that's the general vibe I want to put out into the world!

*

Stelle or Caelus? (i.e., which default do you use, regardless of what you named them?): 

First 5* Character:

Favorite 5* Character (Story/General Characterization):

Favorite 5* Character (Combat/Play Style):

Favorite 4* Character (Story/General Characterization):

Favorite 4* Character (Combat/Play Style):

Existing character you haven't pulled yet but want:

Favorite 1.0 Zone (Location) - Herta Space Station, Belobog, or Xianzhou Luofu: 

Favorite 1.0 Zone (Story):

Favorite Character-Specific Quest:

Character who doesn't have a quest yet, but should:

Favorite Event:

Favorite path to choose in Simulated Universe: 

Favorite boss fight (design, combat, story relevance, whatever strikes you most): 

Favorite Aeon:

Favorite non-playable NPC:

Favorite non-romantic relationship (friends, enemies, complicated, whatever):

Favorite ship (if any - canon is irrelevant here, btw, this is all vibes): 

Plot thread you're most looking forward to seeing in the future: 

Bonus question: any other (generally positive) thought, theory, or headcanon that you've been dying to talk about, but haven't had the excuse to mention before:

[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. 

[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.

[redrobin-detective]

Side Effects of ghost powers

Hey all! I’m writing a DP fic called Side Effects exploring the physical and later mental/emotional impact of Danny initially getting his ghost powers. As an ICU stepdown nurse for 3 years, I wanted to view Danny’s accident through a slightly more realistic, medical lens. 

Note: I had to fudge a good amount because Danny really should have fucking died and there’s no getting around that.

I do recommend you read the fic first before reading this as there’s some spoilers. Or if you don’t care you can read on. So! The two factors we are looking at regarding the accident are: ecto-contamination secondary to electrocution. 

Electrocution

I was forced to downplay a lot of the severe symptoms of electrocution because, again, a bad enough shock will kill someone. My hand-wavey explanation is simply that the portal didn’t activate at a deadly voltage so he got a good shock but not enough to be fatal. I guess.

Muscle weakness/spasms: intermittent muscle spasms are common from shocks, muscles being activated by electricity and reacting to the lingering impulses. Danny’s is transient but quite annoying for a time. But his muscles are gonna be weak and achy af for days if not weeks after from the massive contractions caused by the shock and the after effects. Sensory issues: lots of things can cause nerve damage, including electrocution so Danny is experiencing some pretty severe neuropathy primarily manifesting with numbness and tingling throughout his body. His entire skin and peripheral nervous system got fried so while its mostly numb it’s also super sensitive for a bit of time causing massive pain and discomfort from your body tingling like a thousand bee stings. It’s worst in the hours after the accident but is something that never quite really goes back to normal both from the electrocution and his ghost half taking over and generally dulling his sense of touch.

Hearing/Vision loss: Like skin/nerves, your sensory organs in your eyes and ears would be affected by such a severe and allover electric shock. Danny has some blurred and occasionally double vision from his eyes not properly receiving/understanding input. Hearing loss is common following electricity given how delicate the inner ear is but I just give Danny some nasty tinnitus (ear ringing) for a bit. This inner ear problem also massively throws off his balance when he’s trying to move post accident. These factors are exacerbated by the ecto-contamination and mostly fade in the days following the accident before going away as his superhuman healing kicks in.

Heart Arrhythmia: an irregular heartbeat caused by the electrical impulses that control basal heartrate not coordinating they they should for a variety of reasons, in this case, massive electric shock. Danny would be somewhat aware of it, its not exactly painful exactly but you can just feel that your heart isn’t beating right. Secondary side effects are dizziness, chest pain, fatigue and shortness of breath. This resolves almost entirely when Danny stabilizes

Cognitive issues: Danny got his brains a little scrambled in addition to his molecules being rearranged. The first third of the story Danny is very clearly NOT thinking straight and Tucker/Sam should not have left him alone. Shocks can cause things like irrational emotional behaviors from hormone release along with memory loss and depression. He constantly waxes and wanes in mood and opinions on what to do in the story and never comes to a true decision that, damn lucky for him, worked out on its own.

Ecto-Contamination

Alright so Danny got massively shocked, sucks right but people live through that all the time. Ecto-contamination is more tricky (not only cause its made up and I had to think about what symptoms it would theoretically produce) but because the effects are more life threatening. It’s also irreversible, once he was contaminated it was only something that could be survived not cured. 

So I theorized that Danny got shocked by the accident and was slowly dying of ecto-contamination and was pretty much clinically dead for a brief moment there, the death was enough for the large quantity of ectoplasm in him to immediately coalesce into a ghost (Phantom). So Danny was mostly dead but not quite, I’ve coded and brought back enough people to know it can be reversed somewhat. Danny becomes Phantom but the sudden stable formation of the ectoplasm into what its supposed to be, a ghost, caused his body to stop fighting the ectoplasm as a foreign invader and become part of the self. His core finished forming in his chest and his body started back up again, his ghost safely nestled in his once again living body as he slowly comes to grips with his actual death experience. 

Nausea/Vomiting: I likened the idea of ecto-contamination to radiation poisoning, something that is essentially the antithesis to life. One of the first symptoms of radiation is n/v which is also why it’s one of the first overt symptoms Danny has. He was heavily electrocuted/irradiated and his body wants to expunge it all. As for the ectoplasm/blood he vomits, that’s the next section. 

Gastrointestinal (GI) Bleed: So I was a little mean here. When one vomits up blood (or in this case ectoplasm/blood mix) it has to come from somewhere and a lot of the times it’s a GI Bleed. These are nasty, they need to be either cauterized or surgically repaired not to mention replenishing the blood lost. Fanon says that ectoplasm is at least mildly corrosive to humans so it is here, as it’s bonding to him, it’s literally eating him very slowly from the inside out which is causing a great deal of his internal pain. It’s not enough to be immediately life threatening but would kill him eventually. He developed some nasty bleeding ulcers in his stomach which let in blood and ectoplasm which were expunged. Danny’s core formed overnight and began healing the damage it had previously been causing but Dan is still gonna be vomiting excess blood/ectoplasm not to mention having black, tarry stools for at least a few days afterwards.

Hypothermia/Tremors: Hypothermia is when the body hits 95F/35C which Danny is just above at the start of the chapter. Danny initially starts shaking really bad (rigors) but as his body temperature cools further his shaking slows and eventually stops, a sure sign that the body is rapidly losing the fight to hypothermia and will likely die soon without immediate intervention. This is caused not only by the ectoplasm but his ice core shakily starting to form inside of him. Once he fully turns half ghost his hypothermia doesn’t change but it just no longer negatively affects him (I say Danny hovers naturally around 96-95F/35-33C getting much colder as Phantom at baseline. His body still can be damaged by going too cold but that’s a whole other post.) 

Incoherency/Hallucinations: I mentioned in the electrocution section that Danny is more than a little addled and the contamination didn’t help in that regard. Not only is he not thinking clearly but he’s also getting a little delirious and seeing things. Common hallucinations I see are: someone in the room watching you, things crawling on the walls, creeping shadows, you’re in the wrong place. I think its a solid 50/50 as far as Danny straight up hallucinating but also becoming more aware of natural ectoplasm that hangs around in the atmosphere. (And before anyone asks, yes Clockwork did come and visit, Danny just doesn’t remember)

Pain: Being electrocuted, irradiated, being dissolved slowly on the inside is enough to cause massive amounts of pain. Danny is 14, he doesn’t understand true pain and probably underestimated how much it would hurt. Once it got bad, it was almost paralyzing so it got to the point where even when he wanted to call for help, he couldn’t move or think past the horrible pain of his every molecule slowly dying and rearranging itself.

Weakness/Fatigue: I don’t really have anything much to add for this section that hasn’t been said in the others. Just the combination of all of the above meant Danny is so incredibly weak and fatigued, this will be problematic in the days and weeks following the accident as his body heals from the stress put on it. Poor boy was probably just getting past the worst of his symptoms by the time of the Lunch lady attack one month in.

Ghost instinct: Going off the medical rant for a minute to go into another aspect of the contamination present in the story, the idea of ectoplasm adding inherent ghostiness to Danny. Its common fanon that all ghosts (through ectoplasm) have their own unique code and language that is just omnipresent and instinctive. Such a massive, body altering dose of ectoplasm saw those things start to leech into Danny even before he became half ghost. The biggest is his fear of being seen, majority of ghosts are completely invisible and don’t want to be seen by the living. As Danny’s suffering and literally dying, he can’t bring himself to confess to his loved ones for very understandable reasons but also this ghostly instinct in the back of his head telling him to hide and get away. Other instincts are a strong attraction to the portal/Ghost Zone, lowkey being able to sense living people around him and a bit of an emotional dampener when Phantom. 

[the-bugs-under-ur-skin]

Yandere Sunny, Kel, Basil HC’s - Omori

[small spoiler alerts for Omori] 

[yandere Sunny x reader]

-Sunny is quiet most of the time, so he’ll probably be watching you more than talking to you

-That doesn’t always mean stalking, however. Even if you’re good friends he’d just stay by your side and have his eyes glued to you the entire time

-Don’t be mistaken though, Sunny definitely still has stalker-ish tendencies 

-He would take pictures of you on his own, but maybe if he needed to he’d steal a pic or two from Basil

-his love for you isn’t exactly a secret. his constant clinginess and red face is evidence of that.

-sometimes he’ll just wait outside his house hoping you walk by and ask him to hang out

-if you do end up hanging out, he’ll make sure you guys spend the whole day together.

-he’ll purposely be stubborn and quiet to draw time with you out sometimes

-since Sunny doesn’t really have anything else going for him he might rely on you a little too much

-he legit can’t lose you, it’s his new biggest fear

-he really wants to invite you over his house for a sleepover because he just wants to wake up from one of those nightmares and know it’s all okay

-unfortunately, Sunny might never find the words to properly invite you over

-very protective of you, 100%

-he’s always ready to slice someone when you need it <3

-like legit, he wouldn’t mind killing someone in front of you

-hopefully you don’t mind it, he never learns his lesson and his anger can’t be controlled when it comes between you and danger

-Sunny is also pretty touch-starved when it comes to you

-he won’t usually initiate most affection however, he’ll give you hugs on special occasions

- more often he’ll just stand very close to you and would even lean against your side when it’s just you and him

-so hopefully you can understand and turn around to give him a hug

-he’d probably start to shake and his entire face will glow red

-like, for real, he’ll be all emotionless and stuff but even the thought of being actually touched can send him into a flustered panic

-if you ever have to go away for a bit on a trip or something he’ll probably be stuck in his own head, only thinking about you

-just talk to him when you can, it’ll help in the long run, i promise

-and when he finally has to move away at first he might cry and have several panic attacks

-he’ll lash out at some people that get to close to him during that time, it’s just too much

-eventually, he might hide out with you, or even try to force you to run away with him

-he doesn’t want to be alone again, please don’t leave him

-he’ll do anything to stay with you, because he loves you

[yandere Kel x reader]

-he’s absolutely love-struck, pining over you at every moment

-he probably tried to model his relationship after Hero and Mari’s

-so when Mari dies, Kel will probably will go from pretty lovesick to full on intense yandere

-you’re pretty much the only thing that floats around in his head all day

-it’s always about what you did that day or what he wants to do with you, where you guys should hang out

-at that point, it annoys him when he starts thinking about something else

-Kel likes to think of you guys as basically married

-he isn’t completely delusional though, he understands what your guys’ relationship is

-his jealousy might spike and his patience for others will thin when you actually start dating though

-he’s never really thought about romantic feelings, so when he does, it makes him nervous that other people have those thoughts about you

-sometimes, if they really push it, he’ll even yell at his friends and family

-it’s not a big deal to him, Kel is just being a good boyfriend and making sure you’re safe

-he’ll still apologize to everyone, it just might take him awhile

-even when he does apologize, he’ll still see himself in the right

-it’s also fun to imagine Kel snapping at Aubrey’s gang if they pick a fight with you

-he love planning your future together, no matter how close or far it is

-he’s always really giddy to spend time with you

-Kel will usually wake up really early just to get ready for you, even if you’re just hanging at his house or something

-he’s mega clingy, he loves hugging you, holding your hand, he’ll even grab onto your arm and walk around like that for the rest of the day

-he’s completely ready to protect you though, trying his best to be as chivalrous as his brother

-it’s super cool if you try to protect him too, he’ll probably fall in love with you all over again

-i could see him as one of those guys that has a shrine dedicated to you

-he misses you a lot whenever you’re not by his side so he just wants a piece of you with him at all times

-but he won’t steal anything from you, it’s all things you’ve made for him or some of your things you’ve generously let him keep

-(also, small headcanon but if you handmake him a gift or write him a letter/poem he’ll melt into a pile of yandere goo)

-another thing he’d probably do is give you some of his personal items because the thought of you missing him as much as he misses you hurts him so much its almost physically painful

-besides, what’s his is also yours! it’s not like he’ll never see it again, he’s at your house all the time

-he can’t help but prefer you’re house! it’s just so... you!

-he’ll get embarrassed about his feelings for you, but no matter how strong they get he’ll never see anything wrong with them

-he just sees his feelings as completely average, even when the people close to him start pointing out his obsessive behavior

-he cares about his friends and family, of course he does!

-but for you, he’d do absolutely anything for you

[yandere Basil x reader]

-while Basil likes plants, he also reminds me of one

-when a plant needs light, it’ll leans towards the sun

-and well, you’re Basil’s sun of course! he can’t help but stick around you, he needs you to live

-unlike the others, you’ll probably be protecting him more

-not that he wants to put you in danger, but he can’t really protect you, let alone himself

-and Basil is not above picking fights if it means you’ll pay attention to him

-he’ll probably start being a little more dramatic with everything too

-he’ll cry so you take care of him and keep him inside

-Basil will then bring up the incident if you ever try to drag him outside

-he gets way more excited then he should when you break down and stay

-since he likes to take pictures, it’s pretty obvious he takes a lot of you

-he probably personalized a photo album personalized to match you

-The album is your favorite color, covered in stickers of your favorite things, and of course it’s filled to the brim with pictures of just you

-he also has plants that remind him of you

-Basil probably talks to the plants like they’re actually you, too

-and if you ever make a flower crown with the same type of flower that reminds him of you, his brain might stop working

-he’s just so glad you like those flowers, so much that you want to wear a flower crown with them

-and then if you wear flower crowns together, he won’t stop blushing until you take it off

-he’s happy to have something matching with you, he finally feels like he’s just a normal guy with a normal crush

-of course, right after he thinks that he takes, like, 20 photos of you for his album

-Basil is probably the most insecure out of the three

-he’s completely terrified from the thought of you suddenly distancing yourself

-it’s a little ironic considering he’d probably avoid all his other friends in favor of your company instead

-and honestly, he’d probably try to distance himself from you too

-but you’re just so special that if you breaking through Basil’s barriers is easier done than said, seriously

-he had a nice safe space starting and now that you’ve come and imposed on that, you’re a permanent part of that

-hell, you might even become the safe space!

-he now relies on every single one of your affections, all of you caring looks and smiles

-just stay by his side forever, let him be your number one priority

-he just can’t let anyone else have you, please just stay inside with him

-besides, it might be for the best

-the world is an absolutely terrifying place

-but Basil isn't scary, Basil is just your best friend!

-and you both can hide from the outside together

-always and forever <3

[love-takes-work]

When someone toxic needs a friend

I just wanna add a little personal reflection to the discussion of Spinel’s treatment in Steven Universe: The Movie.

A few signposts so you know where I’m starting with this:

A criticism I’ve seen: 

Steven was not particularly warm to Spinel. He did not hug her. He did not offer to be her friend. He spoke carelessly and triggered her toward becoming murderous again. He only cared about what she could do for him.

A perspective I’ve seen: 

LOTS of people with borderline personality disorder or strong feelings about abandonment personally relate to Spinel and are critical of Steven from this perspective.

Rebecca Sugar’s commentary on Spinel:

The thing about Spinel is that she’s a really toxic person. 

She’s so toxic that she’s literally trying to poison people. 

In my interactions with friends who have had a history difficult enough to make it hard for them to trust other people and sometimes even actively want to hurt others, it’s just a very difficult situation to navigate. In the case of Spinel and all of these characters, that’s extremely exaggerated because cartoons have the ability to be extreme exaggerations. I wanted to explore what it’s like when you’re trying to help someone who really doesn’t want to help themselves, who wants to embody the negative feelings that they have about themselves. I think that’s something really real. I hadn’t seen that in a cartoon before. 

Spinel, unlike many other characters, actually has the goal of hurting people, which is new territory for the show. She really wants to hurt Steven, and there’s a reason that she does—because she’s in so much pain. I just wanted to explore all the dimensions of that.

I also think Steven has his way of trying to handle and dissolve conflict. It’s not necessarily a good way for him to handle this situation. It really leaves him in a difficult state, and I think what I wanted to show in the way that they interact is that at a certain point, when you can’t help someone, you have to be able to protect yourself. 

Ultimately, he can’t really convince her to change. It’s something she’ll have to want for herself. But what he can do is protect himself from her, making it impossible for her to hurt him. 

It’s sort of up to you if you would like to love her. If you watch this movie and she, you know, frustrates you, that is totally fair. I want that to be a big part of who she is.

[From the AV Club interview]

So here are a few things I want to shed light on.

It’s very interesting that Rebecca intended Spinel to be read as “a toxic person” because so many fans fell in love with her, said they’d be her friend, hated intensely on Pink Diamond because of what she did to abandon the poor Gem, and sympathized with her directly. But Rebecca was looking at Spinel from Steven’s perspective. And that’s also what I did.

I’ve been Steven. I have VERY much been Steven.

When you meet someone who was done dirty, when you recognize the horror they’ve been through, when you see how much pain they are in and agree they have the right to be angry, it’s natural for empathetic people to offer themselves as comfort.

But when you’re Steven, you also know it isn’t YOUR fault either. Before you have the ability and experience to set boundaries, you can get sucked into other people’s stormy waters and think you’re helping if you drown in solidarity with them. What’s really important to preserving yourself is learning that you can stand on the boat and toss a life preserver. That it doesn’t ACTUALLY HELP to jump in the water and sink with them.

Some folks are angry that Steven didn’t jump right into sacrifice himself on the altar of friendship in the service of an intense, literally murderous stranger who tried to poison him and his planet and lash out at his friends, robbing them of their rich pasts and their relationships because all of it hurt HER so much. It is SO easy to understand WHY SPINEL WAS ANGRY. But nothing she was doing to Steven, his friends, or the Earth was going to fix her problems, and furthermore, she FULLY UNDERSTOOD that it was NOT THE FAULT of any of the people she took her anger out on. It was irrational, yes, and that is part of her dysfunction. But also, in these situations, what helps explain it still does not excuse it.

Some have railed at Steven saying he somehow forgave genocidal tyrants like the Diamonds but couldn’t be friends with a damaged Gem like Spinel who just wanted friendship. The big difference there is that Steven got involved with the Diamonds when both parties believed he was a different person. The Diamonds believed he was the lost Pink Diamond, and Steven has also spent much of his superhero life believing he WAS his mother and was therefore obligated to accept punishment for her crimes or to clean up the messes she made. Now that he knows he is not her and that she did some pretty horrible stuff, he also wants the right to stop feeling responsible for every person Pink hurt in the entire region of space.

Steven gave Spinel basically compassionate treatment. He did not abuse her. He did not insult her. He occasionally coddled her when it seemed important (and though some said he was too businesslike while he pursued his mission, he was literally looking at the world ending within two days if he didn’t solve the problem). And most importantly . . . .

He let her leave the garden.

Spinel stayed in the garden all those millennia because Pink Diamond told her they were playing a game. All that time, she had visions of Pink returning so she could see her smile, hear her laughter. We see a sequence where she tried to follow Pink out of the garden and Pink manipulated her into staying willingly. We watch those feet leaving and one pair of feet staying behind. We see Pink disappear.

When Steven goes to leave the garden, Spinel follows in the same manner. Some have criticized him for letting go of her hands.

But he invited her out of the garden. He didn’t say stay. He said come with me.

As he sang about her deserving someone better, he was sincere. But he did not say the person to make her feel found should be him. He did not want to take on another person with thousands of years of baggage who would require a specific brand of attention and so much tenderness to avoid snapping. He did not allow her to be held by the hand and led out. He recognized that she needed encouragement to leave this place because of what was done to her, but he wanted her to take the steps.

Compassionate people are crushed all the time under the weight of needy people who make it hurt to love. People like Steven can acknowledge that Spinel deserves love and deserves to be happy without accepting that it’s heartless to stop short of personally doing it. Especially when you literally have to take physical, mental, and emotional damage as a general consequence of offering support and counseling. It is sometimes just beyond what you can do.

I made the mistake several times of getting very close to someone who treated me poorly while taking comfort in my presence. I cared that they were hurt and I didn’t know how to say “You deserve love” without stepping in and loving them. In EVERY case I was involved with, the person went from initially grateful to “why don’t you help me more?” shockingly quickly, and two of them deliberately tried to create situations where I would be trapped with them and isolated from others. 

I could get very personal here but I don’t think I need to. Those of us who relate all too well to Steven wanting to help others will have been in this situation. Your heart hurts for people who live with pain that has never touched you, but when they’ve made it clear with one of their first actions that they feel satisfied at the idea of ruining your life, trusting them could mean the end of you. Especially if they demand that you risk life and limb to fix and save them before you’d dare to call it love, and especially if they want to be fixed without feeling responsible for initiating any of it. Some people mistake suffering for working hard toward a goal. Both can hurt but only one is constructive. If I’m expected to spend extensive resources on someone, I need some partnership in the goal, and I can’t accomplish that with someone whose wish for companionship manifests as “I want you to feel as bad as I do, and will take steps to hurt you so I have someone to cry with.”

Steven risked his actual life while he didn’t have powers so he could go talk to Spinel, and he wouldn’t fight her when she wanted to fight. He protected himself while she spent her anger. He STILL put himself in the line of fire far more than a less compassionate person would. He took time and tenderness to listen to her story and sympathize with her, tell her she deserved better, bear witness to what she’d become after being treated like a discarded plaything, and bring her hope with promises of a new future and a way to feel found.

Sadly, Spinel flipped back to being murderous at the first sign that Steven might be about to prioritize someone other than her, reframing his reasonable needs as if he was planning to abandon her, isolate her, discard her. This was a trauma reaction, yes, and she isn’t entirely to blame for being upset because she was worried she was just being used and none of her actions were logically thought through. 

But does someone ever “deserve” the friendship of a specific person who can’t feel warm toward them because of their OWN bad experiences? 

No! 

Steven has a big heart but he has his very own huge storehouse of trauma, and being physically attacked with his family and planet put in danger over the actions of his mother is at the top of the list. Instead of assuming that the person who has trauma the loudest is the most hurt, can’t we just acknowledge that Spinel’s and Steven’s respective traumas make them NOT the best match for friendship?

The ending of the movie, with Spinel going off with the Diamonds, might seem a little disturbing with all the codepencency floating around there, but if you want to talk about compassion, I think this is a good place for Spinel to start. 

She just wanted to make Pink Diamond laugh and enjoy her life. She longed to do that for so long and then it all ended when she found out she would NEVER GET TO DO IT. I think bonding with the other Diamonds and having a familiar, safe place to experience the kind of love she’s used to will be a good FOUNDATION for building herself into a person beyond that. For now, she needs comfort. I hope they treat her well.

[nevertheless-moving]

Suicidal Misunderstanding XXI

Part I - - - - - - - - Part XVIII - - - - Part XIX - - - - Part XX

Star Wars Time Travel AU #27

“This is Master Kit Fisto, requesting permission to land.”

“Hold on one moment please, General Fisto.”

A crackling sound filled the air while Ahsoka bounced her leg anxiously up and down in the copilot’s seat.

“I’ve been told to redirect your shuttlecraft to auxiliary seven. Sending coordinates now.”

“Aux Seven?” Kit frowned at the comm. “Are you certain? That’s a deployment pad.”

“Affirmative, High Council Orders. You and Commander Tano are to land on aux seven. Have you received the coordinates?”

“Yes, yes- I know where I’m going. Thank you. Over.”

“Over.”

Ahsoka shot the Nautolan Master an anxious look.

“Maybe they realized Obi-Wan’s injuries were actually an attack and they’re redeploying me and Skyguy to go after the jerk responsible?” the Padawan asked hopefully.

Master Fisto grimaced. “I would hope they’re not sending you out into the field so soon but I suppose the Ghost Nebula crisis has been escalating. Ahsoka...if they are assigning you a mission and you’d rather stay at the temple-”

“I should be with Master Skywalker and the 501st,” Ahsoka said resolutely. “I shouldn’t have left them in the first place. Skyguy said I could help the war and see Lee Char and I just-” Ahsoka cut herself off with a slight snarl.

Kit sighed. “You’re a remarkable padawan and commander. I simply wanted to let you know I’m happy to support you if you wish to rest.”

The young tortugan bounced her leg a little more. “Thank you Master Fisto, but I’m fine.”

They spent the rest of the short flight in silence. When they finally reached the landing pad, they were met by a small contingent from the 501st, as well as Master Windu himself, who greeted them with a short bow and a placid expression.

“Master Fisto, Padawan Tano, I trust your flight went smoothly?”

“Yes, Master Windu,” Kit and Ahsoka said in unison.

“Padawan Tano- is there any thing I should be aware of that would prevent you from shipping off with the 501st? I regret that you won’t have time at the temple but...situations are escalating rapidly and it’s been agreed that the best place for you is onboard the Dauntless.”

Ahsoka straightened her spine. “I’m ready for my next mission Master Windu.”

“Sir-” Captain Rex interjected, “Does this mean that General Skywalker isn’t stepping down from command anymore? Surely you’re not shipping Ahsoka off alone?”

A muscle throbbed in Master Windu’s forehead. “General Skywalker’s status is classified.”

Captain Rex opened his mouth.

“As is General Kenobi’s. You will simply have to trust in the High Council’s decision. Padawan, follow the Captain to his transport shuttle. Master Fisto, you’re with me.”

Ahsoka started to move in a daze but Kit stopped her with a gentle hand to her shoulder.

“Mace- surely you can tell young Tano more than that before sending her out- she’s already partially informed regarding the situation with Master Kenobi. I realize time is of the essence but a Padawan’s place is with their Master, correct?”

The troops shifted and Captain Rex openly scrutinized General Windu. The Jedi looked calm. Too calm. He was hiding something. Obviously. 

“I’m afraid it’s all classified, including what you’ve already been told. All I can tell you right now is... to trust in your General.”

Rex, already close to his breaking point, snapped at Windu. “Are you talking about Krell?! That demagolka is-”

“Watch your language, Captain.”

“Yes, sir.”

Master Fisto frowned heavily “Mace, I’m not comfortable with this. As a fellow council member, I ask we delay sending Ahsoka until we’ve had a chance to discuss things further- I’m happy to fly her to a rendezvous with the 501st if that’s what we decide.”

Windu shook his head firmly. “I’m afraid that time of the essence and the matter isn’t open to discussion. You have your assignments. Padawan Tano will be technically placed under Master Krell’s watch, though I’m explicitly assigning her to focus on her duties with the 501st. Padawan, you’re to focus on your military responsibilities with Captain Rex, not training with Krell; he’s received a copy of my orders in the regard. Everyone needs to trust that the council has- a bigger picture than any one campaign, or any one person.”

A hint of frustration crept in Master WIndu’s tone and Ahsoka swallowed down her bitter thoughts.

“Yes, Sir,” she said, saluting the Master of the Order with military precision. Rex snapped off a salute as well, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder before guiding her away.

“Mace, what the-”

“Not here.”

“I’m not-”

“Not. Here.”

Master Fisto cast one last look at the retreating 501st before chasing after the Human Jedi Master, the force too turbulent to tell him if it was the right decision.

To Kit’s continuing dismay, he was led not inside the temple, but to a nearby speeder. Mace was dead silent for the short walk, gesturing silently to enter. Kit’s lips tightened but he climbed in, a temple guard starting to fly the moment the doors shut.

“Mace-”

“Read this,” Master Windu said brusquely, pushing a datapad into the Nautolan Master’s hands.

Master Fisto scanned the screen, large eyes growing wider the longer he read. 

“No!” Kit gasped, floundering in the force for reassurance, but Mace’s shields were like durasteel. Kit softened slightly.

“Master Kenobi...you really don’t know where he is?” 

Mace stared out the window.

“Keep reading,” he said hollowly.

“...You think he might attempt to assassinate Dooku? AND the Chancellor? By himself?”

“He was...disconnected from reality at points,” Mace said carefully. “He was aware of that fact, but seemed to blame the Sith and the Politicians for the war. His...trust in the Order is severely shaken.”

Kit continued to scroll through the pad, pausing and reeling in horror. “He stabbed Skywalker?!”

Mace nodded tersely. “And now Skywalker’s AWOL as well. He handled Obi-Wan’s initial...breakdown as well as can be expected, given the circumstances, but his continued shocking behavior after waking up...Skywalker was already severely shaken before Kenobi got to the worst of his ramblings.”

“Force,” Kit said heavily, rubbing his forehead.

“I know I wasn’t fair to Padawan Tano, but the council felt the need to get her off planet and away from specifically dangerous elements.”

Master Fisto groaned, leaning back. “I can’t believe the expansion region is considered a safer option than the temple.”

Kit looked out the window. “Mace...why are we heading to the Senate Rotunda?” 

Windu seemed, impossibly, to tense up even further. “I need you to brief the Chancellor on Kenobi.”

Kit’s head whipped around, tentacles flailing behind. “I just landed on planet,” he responded in disbelief. “Wouldn’t it be better for someone was actually there to do that?”

“I can’t,” Mace said, a hint of anguish breaking through his shields and voice, before his jaw clenched shut.

Kit drew back, alarmed by the falter in stoicism.

Master Windu’s collected himself with a shaky breath. “I have to ready the 187th; with Kenobi and Skywalker out of the picture we need every General on the front lines now. I’m sure the Chancellor will agree, once you brief him on how dire the situation is.”

There was a short pause as the two collected their thoughts.

“...The last few days have been hell, haven’t they?” Kit asked quietly.

The Harrun Kal Jedi chuckled darkly at that. “They’re nothing compared to the shit-show that’s about to unfold.” 

Master Fisto bent over, dropping his face to his hands. 

Windu steeled himself before continuing on. “I need you to organize the Chancellor’s defense. Try to stress to him that he should be guarded by a Jedi at all times- tell him- tell him whatever you have to about Kenobi, so far he only knows that he was ill, but you’re authorized to give more details than I previously disclosed- his medical file is attached. Tell him our worst suspicions if need be. The fact that you’ve been off-world...makes you...above suspicion in some respects. I’m...sorry Kit. I know I’m throwing you in without proper support but...it’s the best I can do. You’re going to have to explain to the Chancellor how stretched thin we are.”

The Nautolan smiled weakly. “You don’t have to apologize, Mace, you’re the one heading to the front.”

Mace didn’t reply.

The speeder arrived at the Senate Entrance.

Kit steadied himself, grabbing the datapad and holding it like a shield as he marched inside. The speeder peeled away, heading back to the temple. Master Gallia pulled off the temple guard mask, frowning even as she navigated back the way they came.

“I don’t like this plan,” she protested again.

“Neither do I,” Mace agreed. “Do you have a better one?”

“We don’t know that Sidious’s mental abilities are that strong,” she said desperately.

“We don’t,” Mace agreed again. “All we know is that he’s subtle enough to conceal himself from us for over a decade while gradually steering us towards destruction, and also powerful enough to defeat us all in combat.”

Adi Gallia took a long meditative breath, desperately seeking calm as the force roiled, massive waves of upheaval rippling across the galaxy.

XXII