#This was the second version of the original idea

[yet-the-world-spins-on]

[Image Description: An Infographic describing the "SIFT" method of evaluating information, titled "The Four Moves," followed by a short description: "Use the SIFT Method to help evaluate information found online." Each step is in a separate box with a header, description text, and icon that matches the contents of that step.

The header for step one says "Stop," followed by "You found something that may or may not be true! STOP yourself from sharing it right away and follow the next steps." The icon is a warning hand surrounded by a black circle outline.

The header for step two says "Investigate the Source," followed by "Figure out where the information is coming from. A reporter? A scientist? A random person on the internet?" The icon is a magnifying glass with a question mark in it.

The header for step three says "Find better coverage," followed by "Are there credible sources talking about this claim or issue? See what they are saying about it." The icon is a simplified newspaper with pointing lines added on the sides

The header for step four says "Trace to original context," followed by "Find where the information was originally published. There might be context that was removed by the cycle of sharing on the internet." The icon is two small 'x's connected by a curving line of dots.

After the four steps is a box with the header "Reminders:" followed by two bullet points. First, "Bad things can happen AND there could be false stories about it. Both can happen at the same time." Second, "Not sure if it's credible? Don't share it!"

At the bottom of the image is the header "References" followed by "Adapted from library.nwac.edu/lateralreading/sift" End I.D.]

And as weaselle points out in another version of this post, it's also a good idea to search for the OPPOSITE of what you want confirmed. Weaselle uses the example of the infographic itself. Having searched and discovered that Mike Caulfield established the SIFT method, weaselle then suggested searching "Mike Caulfield discredited," "Mike Caulfield wrong", and "SIFT method bad" to see if anything pops up. Apparently nothing worrisome did, which is good news!

I am becoming aware of the effect a lack of trust in the media has had on people, paired with a dearth of research skills.

[alpaca-clouds]

Arcane Season 2 - How Bad Pacing Can Ruin Everything

So, Arcane season 2 ended. And I am sorry, I need to vent.

I am honestly not sure whether the rumors are true and this were originally meant to be more seasons. The Riot CEO apparently denies it, but then again, I have seen CEOs confidently go out on stages to talk about a project which they knew was cancelled at that point in time. So, sorry, but I will never ever trust a CEO. Lying is like 50% of their jobs. Being greedy is the other half. Sorry, not sorry.

I am gonna write something about disability in Arcane (overall) during the next few days, but let me just talk a bit about the pacing issues of season 2.

Spoilers for season 2 - all of it - obviously.

Believe me or not, but I know the exact issue of Arcane season 2. It is called: Too many characters. Too many plotlines. It is something that easily happens when writing an ensemble story (no matter what the format is you publish the story in - it happens in books, movies, shows, games). At times it works fine if you manage to weave the entire ensemble into the same main plot. But as soon as you wanna give everyone their own little storyarc with a bit of their own themes, it often goes haywire. Either you will end up dropping some characters to the side and not properly finish up their story, or you will end up rushing everything. Neither is gonna be good.

Here I am mainly thinking... Was the entire Black Rose/LaBlanc stuff planned to be there from the beginning? Was it put in later? I mean, given that the entire story felt like it might set up Mel as a Champion for LoL... How do I put it? Mel was too overdesigned in the show, to not be a future Champion. That was my feeling from the beginning. I don't know if they gonna make her a Champion, but man, it feels like it.

But no, the main issue really is the pacing. There is just too much stuff happening.

I will remain, that the thing that shows this better than anything was the second "arc" of season 2. Episode 4-6. And the general way the entire Caitlyn, Vi, Jinx thing plays out. We have the following things happen in the first six episodes of season 2:

Cait's mother dies

Cait swears revenge and asks Vi to assist her as an enforcer

Vi does not want to. Ends up getting drunk.

Vi decides to do it anyway.

They do a bit of chemical warfare for good measures.

They go down there. Fight Jinx. Vi cannot do it - partly because Isha.

Cait breaks up with Vi and becomes the evil fascist dictator

Vi becomes an alcohol addict.

Except, never mind, Caitlin is already feeling shitty about it next episode.

Jinx gets Vi and Magic Pixie Dreamgirls her out of her new-found addiction.

Jinx and Vi are good again. They go help Vander.

Cait meets Vi for the first time since the break up. They instantly are back on the same page.

Like, there is so many plothooks in this storyline alone that do go completely unexplored.

There are two characters here, that do play a role in the last three episodes too and that felt like they were some proper characters at some point. Those two are Maddie - the Scottish-dialect enforcer girl - and... Frankly, I do not feel like looking up the name. The big burly one, who after the break-up takes care of Vi.

Those two feel like they were at some point meant to be more real characters. But because of the pacing, they are barely ideas. Maddie starts making out with Caitlyn because...? I don't know. Because I literally do not know anything about this character but "she is an enforcer", "she is queer", "she is attracted to power(?)", and thats it.

And the other guy goes with Vi because... Uhm... I don't know. I know literally nothing about this chaaracter other than that he is big and an enforcer. *shrugs*

It most certainly feels like there was some planned version of this show, in which Cait and Vi both had a proper corruption arc. In which we really saw the two of them struggle. In which we actually saw Piltover and Zaun under the control of Commander Caitlyn and Noxus, and saw the horrible things they were doing and what it was doing with Caitlyn. In which we also saw Vi struggling with addiction and stuff.

But that was not the version we got in the end. Instead in this version... things go magically well.

Hooray?

Same with Jinx. Her mental health issues just magically get better when Isha is there, because that is what the story needs to happen now.

Here, too, it also feels like huge chunks of the story are missing. It feels like there was a story going more into the relationship of Sevika and Jinx for a bit. But if that story had been there once, it was most certainly no longer there. It was hinted at, yeah, but that's it.

And then there is the entire magic plot.

Look, I think among the fans of the LoL Lore I am not the first one to say: "Yeah, trying to marry the worldbuilding of Arcane to the established Runeterra worldbuilding does not work, because of the magic." Runeterra so far was always a fairly high magic world - at least that was implied by comics and short stories. Magic was a common thing in this world. Otherwise we could not have that many magic champions and a whole place whose entire thing it had been: "We are anti-magic Nazis building mage concentration camps!"

When Riot said, that Arcane was now the main canon, A LOT of fans of the lore were like: "You get that it is not gonna work." And yeah, Arcane Season 2 clearly shows how it doesn't work.

Because the way they put in the entire "Mel is magic, also the Black Rose is a thing" stuff just... It did not fit in the entire plot around it. Because Arcane had been designed as a world where magic was very rare and strange. But now Mel had to be magic and somehow had to be connected to the Black Rose.

Also... What the fuck even happened there in the end? Why put that in? Why make Mel go against LaBlanc? I am sorry, but that was simply too much for this plot. The entire Black Rose stuff stuck out of this plot like - pardon the pun - a thorn.

Generally there are several relationships that feel, like they had at one point been a whole more explored, but then got dropped to the wayside.

As I said, Sevika and Jinx are definitely an example. Ekko and Heimerdinger as well. I also feel like what was episode 7 of the show was probably originally more than one episodes and slower paced - though it still to me was the one episode in this, that kinda worked in of itself. And that the Ekko and Jinx relationship was better established.

I also feel that Viktor and that echo of Skye was probably at some point supposed to actually have talks. Like: "I will miss talking to you." - "No, you won't." Okay? THEN SHOW ME THEM TALKING PLEASE?!

Which kinda brings me down to the main thing that happened because of the pacing issue. Season 2 of Arcane knew only two extremes in terms of "Show, don't tell". Either it goes full "music video" in whcih indeed it just shows us shit without context or dialogue - or we get the information just via dialogue, in a complete tell.

This also shows in the last episode, with the entire thing of Piltover asking the Zaunites for help, after brutally surpressing them forever. Yeah, I see where they were going with this. About being the bigger people and planting seeds and what not. But frankly, there might have been a time and space for a story like that, if properly told (you know, with giving more of the Zaunites a voice in this story, showing more of the conflict and spacing this plot out over several episodes). But a) it was not properly told, and b) a world in which several genocides happen while Trump somehow won a second term is not that world. Yes, b) is not the fault of anyone working on Arcane. That was simply bad luck on their part. But a) is very much their fault - and even if we did not have a Palestinian Genocide and no second Trump term: Without a) being done properly, it would not have worked. It would have just not felt quite as miserable.

You know, the most frustrating thing about this was, that... While I think that one way or another I would still have hated how the show handles the topic of disability (again, I will write about this during the next few days), I generally might have liked the same plot, if it had been given the needed space to breathe.

Like... Sure, I would have never really been on board with "fascist Caitlyn", or rather with "fascist Caitlyn, who gets then forgiven by everyone". But I could have somewhat swallowed it, if that forgiveness had to be earned. But because of the breakneck speed of this show, it never got earned. I am not even talking about redemption arcs here - those are always a headache - but specifically about the fact that Caitlyn gets instantly forgiven by everyone.

Also, lol. The entire thing with Ekko convincing Jinx to come along off-screen. That was unelegant.

Heck, it feels in the first four episodes, as if there was an arc being set up for Sevika in general. And it feels like that arc needed to happen, given that Sevika ends up on the COUNCIL OF PILTOVER in the epilogue. However, that Arc just does not happen. Then, like... why set it up?

That is general the issue. There is a lot of set-up and very, very little payoff to any of it.

And here is the thing. I have heard people argue about whether or not this was meant to have more seasons. But frankly: I do not think that the writers who wrote season 1 would have written this story this way had they known it would be two seasons.

Mind you, compared to some people I would not rate the writing in season 1 higher than maybe 6 or 7 of 10. It was solid, but not overwhelmingly great. But season 2 in comparison is a 2 of 10, maybe a 3 of 10, if I am being gracious.

And frankly, I do not think any writer, who is in any way worth their salt, would write a story where a main character goes evil, and then do exactly nothing with it. I mean, sorry, us writers, we are a dramatic bunch. And we will not resist the drama being served on a silver platter unless we are forced too. I cannot imagine a single writer, who will go with the end of episode 3 and then not write a bunch of angst with Caitlyn and Vi - unless they were forbidden.

And mind you, CaitVi is by far the ship I am least invested in. But it is simply such a glaring example of where the plot is rushed in a way that it hinders the character arcs.

Oh, and also... Lest. Lest in the first six episodes clearly felt like a character, who was going to play a role. Only to then disappear to not be seen again during the finale. What happened to Lest? Is she dead? Is she alive? I guess we'll never know.

*sighs* I am sorry. I really am. I am just... very disappointed. This has been a mess. And I think it would not have needed to be.

Like, the animation is still the most pretty thing ever made in the world. But man... The plot? The plot sucks balls. And not in the sexy way.

[paperclip-skz]

Hyunjin's Love and Leashes (part 2)

The Offering

fem*Reader x Hyunjin

*WARNING*

contains: mentions of sexual content, and BDSM references, this is going to be a lot of parts and little parts to it (there is a cliffhanger at the end)

Also note: This story is HEAVLY influenced by the Netflix movie Love and Leashes. This is just "my" version of it, you could say. I am writing to write and I recommend you watch Love and Leashes. *** This is not an original idea, this IS INSPIRED BY A MOVIE/ANIME**

WC: 1.6k Part 1

You’ve done some research since your last encounter. Gathering as much information on dom and sub relationships. You’ve learned so much within these last few days. For example, it's common for a dom to gift an item to the sub to indicate a sort of “possession” over the sub. 

This leads you to get an idea. 

You walk into Hyunjin’s office, a place all too familiar to you. You walk in with confidence with a silver case in hand. He’s at his desk, typing away at his computer, focused intently on something. 

However, the second you walk in, his attention is placed on you. You walk in with ease, seemingly unaffected, but internally, your nerves are skyrocketing. Your black pin skirt rides up slightly as you sit in the chair directly across his desk. Your legs cross, your face is neutral, and the silver case rests calmly in your lap, along with a slim piece of paper. 

“Hello, Ms.L/N. How can I help you?” his tone is teasing, and the smirk that plays on his lips is evident.

“Hello” 

You can play this in two ways. The first way is to play this like any other business deal. Hand him the contract, make sure he understands what he’s signing, and carry on with what the contract entails. Or, the other way you can go about this since this isn’t any other ordinary business interaction, you can make this interesting. 

“What I have in my hand here,” you lift the paper out of your lap, “is our contract. This holds all the rules and limits I’m willing to go. If you don’t agree with something on this list, I want you to cross it out. And then, after you’ve read through it, sign it, and I will give you these.” You lift the silver case with your other hand. “I’ll tell you what these are once you’ve read and signed the contract.” 

You lean forward to place the paper on Hyunjin’s desk. Without hesitation, he slides the paper in his direction and reaches for a pen. “I want you to read it, Hyunjin.” his eyes widen at the sound of his name. “Thoroughly”

“I trust you” is all he says. 

You feel a strange warmth when you hear his words, but he needs to understand all this. “Hyunjin,” you say with a demanding tone, “read it.” 

You can see his whole body go timid. He’s enjoying this, and you can clearly tell. His cheeks turn a delightful shade of pink, and he clears his throat. 

The contract 

Made this day _11/14_ of 2024 (the commencement date) Between  “Party A” ___ And  “Party B” ___ The Parties agree as follows. COMMENCEMENT AND TERM:

The parties enter into this contract on the commencement date fully aware of its nature and undertake to abide by its conditions.  This contract shall be effective for a period of 4 months

“4 months?” he lifts his head from the contact to you. 

“I thought that was a reasonable amount of time” you bash your lashes. 

He nods his head silently. Thoughts threaten to speak, but he holds them in. He continues to read.  

SUBJECT TO: “safewords” The party(ies) recognize that one of the parties may make demands of the other party that may push their personal, emotional, spiritual, and physical boundaries. In such circumstances related to this, one party may make use of one or both of the “safewords” provided.  “Yellow” will be used to attract the attention of the party close to her/his limit of endurance.  “Red” will be used to bring to the attention of the other party that the first party cannot tolerate any further demand. When the word is said, the first-party actions will cease completely with immediate effect.  “Green” will be used to indicate to the other party that all is well and to continue. 

“So you want to use the traffic light system?” he says over the contract. 

“Would you rather we use something different?” you interject. 

He shakes his head and loosens the collar of his shirt. A different kind of buzz strikes through you, and you notice how he’s being affected by just reading the contract alone under your fierce gaze. 

“Keep reading,” you nod.

PERSONAL LIMITS Please check off your limits.  ACTIVITIES:  I will engage in all of the following acts involving: Does party A consent to: Pain: this includes spanking, knife play, slapping, and, but is not limited to, genital pain.  Wax play Marking: this includes hickies, bruises, and, but is not limited to, red imprints.  Intercourse  Breath control Use of toys includes, but is not limited to; vibrators, dildoes, stimulating creams, blindfolds, gags, handcuffs, and bondage tape.  Breast/nipple play Roleplay Masturbation

Once he’s finished reading off from the list he looks up to you. “Intercourse?” he questions. 

Your heart skips a full beat. “I just found a random list online.” your confidence wavers for a second, not knowing exactly what his boundaries are. You can play without sex, but do you want that? You can’t lie; the idea of sex with Hyunjin excites you; it makes your body tingle in ways you're just now discovering, so when he smirks at you and checks the box indicating he’s okay with it, you can’t help but squeeze your thighs together. 

He looks over the list again and checks each box. You're not sure if he’s truly okay with anything or if he’s just okay with you doing anything to him. Either way, he signs each one. It's supposed to be all you need, but something inside you nags at you. 

CONCLUSION  We, the undersigned, have read and understood fully the procedures of this contract. We freely accept its terms and have acknowledged this by our signatures.  Party A __ Party B __Y/N L/N __

He gazes at you, a flicker of hesitation in his eyes, before shifting his attention back to the contract laid out before him. With a steady hand, he signs his name, the pen gliding smoothly across the paper. Just like that, the culmination of all your anticipation and meticulous research comes down to this singular act. The air is thick with unspoken tension as he lifts his gaze back to you, his eyes now full of expectation, waiting for your next words to break the silence.

You clear your throat and set the silver case on his desk. While placing the case on his desk, you grab the contact from him and set it in your lap. Hyunjin approaches the ornate case, his heart fluttering with excitement as if it were a treasure chest filled with secrets waiting to be uncovered. With a gentle touch, he unclasps the lid, the soft click echoing in the quiet room. As the case opens, he is greeted by an exquisite pair of steel silver glasses, glinting like polished jewels beneath the warm glow of the overhead light. 

He delicately lifts them from their plush velvet resting place, his fingers sliding over the cool, smooth surface of the frames. The glasses catch the light beautifully, casting shimmering reflections that dance along the walls. 

With a slight furrow in his brow and a playful glint in his eyes, he holds them up, turning them this way and that, savoring the craftsmanship. “Is this some sort of inside joke?” he asks, his voice tinged with mischief. “Could it possibly be a nod to that unforgettable closet incident?” His mind races back to the amusing memory, and a smile creeps onto his lips as he considers the possibility.

You giggle and say, “Not exactly. You will wear these glasses whenever you feel the need to be dominated. If you need me at any time, just touch the glasses and look at me. This will be a signal to me that you want to be controlled.”

His smile widens. His body buzzes with excitement, and he immediately puts them on. They look perfect on him; the framed glasses complement his features perfectly. It makes your breathing grow heavy, and a subtle slickness gathers at your core. 

Hesitantly he brings his fingers and touches the corners lightly, already testing your reactions. 

You smile at his boldness and cross your legs. You lean back on the chair letting your body stretch, and cockily you beckon him to your side with your finger. 

He stands up from his chair, his chair pushing back, and he walks around his desk to the side of where you're sitting. You look up at him, keeping your composure, and dart your eyes down to the floor, he follows carefully, lowering his knees to the floor. He keeps his eyes on you, watching every move you make. 

You have two options: You could have some fun with him, knowing he’d do just about anything in this position….or you could torture him a little and make him wait. Wait for what exactly, you don’t know, but that's part of the fun, too. 

You lean in closer, the warmth of your breath grazing his skin. He feels the tension ripple through his entire body at your proximity. “I’ll email you the details for your first play,” you whisper softly into his ear, your voice low and inviting. As you pull away, you catch a glimpse of his expression—a mix of surprise and a hint of a smile playing at the corners of his lips. You rise from your chair gracefully, leaving him in a moment of delightful confusion, still feeling the lingering sensation of your closeness as you walk away.

“Will it be soon?” he calls to you before you walk out his door. You turn back to him and notice he’s still in the same spot you left him. 

“I’ll keep you posted pretty boy” 

“Is that my nickname now? And how are you going to email me, when you don’t know my email?” 

You smirk, “I have my ways. Don’t reply late pretty boy”

******

a/n: I have no idea where I'm going with this series, I know its gonna be a lot of parts and A LOT OF build up.....let me know if yall like where its going.

[illmoraineakoi]

Or, continuing from this, consider:

Perhaps, the human-turned-Vessel isn’t alone when they wake up. Perhaps they aren’t the only Vessel left trapped in the Abyss. Perhaps, these others that look similar to what they now are can help them.

If they can communicate, it soon becomes clear that the others aren’t like themselves; they’re not human people shoved into these bodies. They seem to have been born into them like normal. They’ve been here for a long time.

If they can’t, the human still gets the impression it’s unique among them, through observing their behavior and their reactions.

Regardless, the others seem fascinated by them, how differently they act and behave. Maybe the others begin to mimic them.

Perhaps it’s the others who tell them of their memories, of the bright white light that they once saw shine from the top of the pit, calling to them, drawing them to ascend, that vanished before they could reach the top. Never returning. Maybe it’s that story, the insinuation that there’s a way out at the top, that provokes the escape attempt. Maybe the others are hesitant, fearful of the climb (of falling and cracking and breaking, irreparable, dying a slow painful death) but they chose to join them regardless, to help, the idea of freedom from this place too tantalizing for them to resist.

It’s easier to dig through several feet of hard dense rock with multiple ‘people’.

(Far harder to make a hole big enough to compensate for all of their horns.)

The result is the same: the sounds of their digging was heard by those in the Basin, and the King was notified. And given the area of origin, the King himself investigates.

He does not expect to come upon the sight that he does: a sub-adult Vessel helping another sub-adult try to wriggle through a hole carved through the hard basin stone, completely circumventing the sealed door entirely.

It is...almost amusingly ingenious of them. Had they not been Vessels, he would’ve been quite proud.

(Then again, if they hadn’t been Vessels, they would have never been in the Abyss in the first place. They would still be his children, carapace a healthy gleaming white, eyes full of emotion and thought, bodies full of life--)

As it was, the sight is neither amusing nor one to be proud of.

Instead, it is concerning.

Vessels should not have been able to do this. They should have the cognitive ability to do this. There shouldn’t have even been any left alive after so long down there, their bodies should have destabilized long ago…

So the fact that it was not just ONE Vessel but TWO that had managed to do this, to survive, to literally claw and dig themselves out of the proverbial grave he’d sealed them in, like the undead zombies he’d cursed them to be…

It was beyond unsettling.

He needed answers. He needed to figure out how they’d done this. All of it. How they’d survived, how they’d figure out how to escape, how they’d figured out how to cooperate, and most importantly: what it meant for the Pure Vessel plan.

His presence to them did not go unnoticed, and neither did the way they both seemed to freeze at the sight of him.

Their gazed locked for an uncomfortably long time, until he forced himself to break the standoff.

He unsealed the door with a wave of his hand, startling the two Vessels. Startling them. They startled-

There were more.

There were more.

Beyond the door, crowded atop the metal platform in a way that looked both uncomfortable and precarious, were at least a dozen additional Vessels. And that wasn’t even all of them, because he could see, deeper into the shadows beyond the platform, at least two other heads sticking up, likely from a lower platform. There could be even more on platforms even further down he couldn’t see.

He felt pinned by the weight of so many empty black gazes. They all felt accusatory, even though he could see that they weren't.

The situation, his concerns, had become significantly more dire.

One of the Vessels – one of the first two he’d seen, the one completely free on his side – moved. Stood, and moved to stand before the now open door, body hunched, ragged cloak membrane flaring a bit. It lowered it’s head, brandishing it’s horns towards him.

Defensive, he realized.

A defensive posture. Protective.

It held an old void-ravaged metal spike in it’s hand, the tip clearly blunted from when it had been used as a digging tool. As though it was ready to use it as a weapon should it need to.

The one still stuck in the wall was slowly wriggling back into the Abyss side of the hole.

There was something in his gut that was screaming at him, telling him that something was wrong, this wasn’t right, this couldn’t be happening--

He needed to figure this out.

It took quite a bit of coaxing, but eventually he was able to get them all onto solid ground out of the door and then to follow him back to the Palace. And it was during this time that he was confronted with the obvious fact that these Vessels were impure; very impure.

Impure in ways he hadn’t expected them to be.

They were remarkably physically stable, but they behaved unlike how he expected. They were wary of him, uncertain of their new surroundings, and yet also curious. Inquisitive. Upon arriving to the Palace, several heads kept swiveling to look at everything and anything with refrained fascination, while yet others did not seem to care in the least. There was one who particularly seemed inclined to get close and to touch things, to nose at them. Another seemed wary and uncomfortable with the wide open spaces. And yet still another to stare at him the entire walk, gaze hot with an emotion that he couldn’t read.

They had thoughts. They had emotions. And judging by the escape attempt, they were at least decently intelligent.

Vessels were not supposed to be like this. None of them were supposed to be like this. The Void was supposed to purge such qualities long before they ever hatched. It was supposed to make it impossible for them to develop such qualities as well.

He’d rechecked his work so many times before putting the plan into action. Looked at every future he could, despite his bluing foresight. He and Monomon had gone over everything with a fine-tooth comb.

This wasn’t supposed to be possible.

They weren’t supposed to be…

The first thing he does is write for Monomon, stressing that her presence within the Palace was urgent.

If Vessels could retain some innate qualities of livelihood, or if they could develop the ability to have such things despite their void nature...it jeopardized the entire Pure Vessel plan.

It was no longer a guarantee that the Vessel was empty like he’d assumed it to be.

He and Monomon would have to assess every new Vessel, run a plethora of tests on them. Figure out how, exactly, they were functioning and what, if anything, was inside of their heads.

(In the meantime, as he waited for her to arrive, he sends them off to the baths, because each one was utterly filthy from the Abyss. Particularly one who looked like they’d taken a dip into the Void Sea itself, somehow.)

(This turned out to be a mistake with at least a third of them. They soon became much more interested in playing in the water than cleaning themselves.)

Upon the completion of the assessments and the tests, all of which the new Vessels did not seem to enjoy, the data collected was exactly as the King had feared it would be. It showed, in undeniable terms, that every single one of the new Vessels not only had minds, but also an individuality about them. They had unique personalities.

They were still alive.

They were still his children.

Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

It was an agonizing revelation.

If all of these living Vessels were like this, then what did that say about how the ones littering the floor of the Abyss used to be?

Had he stood there, watching, as his children, still in possession of their personhoods despite the void infused into their beings, fell and died? Had he stood there, watching, and done nothing as they died?

He’d thought they were all empty. He’d thought that the ones who were incapable of climbing were defective, unstable, failures. Imperfect. That it didn’t matter, because they were nothing more than hollowed out corpses. Nothing more than void-corrupted bodies shackling a shade, devoid of thought, devoid of emotion, devoid of the ability to feel pain…

That there wasn’t anything left of the children they were supposed to be. That those children had died the moment the void consumed them, long before their residual bodies hit the floor.

He’d been wrong.

The models had been wrong, the predictions had been wrong, all of the work he and Monomon spent years developing and perfecting and working for months to make sure it was absolutely, perfectly correct…

It was all wrong.

And an uncountable number of his children had died because of it.

And he’d watched.

Likely, the only Vessels still alive were the ones he’d recently found, and the Pure Vessel. Why would any other remaining Vessels not come with the new Vessels in their escape attempt? No, the ones within his Palace, within the room he’d hastily set up as a sort of holding play room, were all that were left.

Two handfuls, out of so many…

Less than two dozen...

At this point, if the Pure Vessel was indeed born pure, and somehow remained so until now, it would be the biggest case of sheer luck he’d ever had. It would be the most extreme statistical anomaly possible. Somehow, despite everything about their work being wrong, they would have gotten what they needed out of it.

They only needed to confirm that it was still pure.

And if it was, they needed to isolate it from the other new Vessels, to prevent any potential influence from ruining it.

But there was also the matter of what to do with the new Vessels as well…

They needed care, and then tutoring. They had much they needed to learn, to catch up on. They needed to be taught how to read and write, how to socialize, manners and etiquette, personal care and proper behavior. How to be careful with any void they spill to not harm others. How to be royal children.

Plus whatever individual skills they might take interest in.

He does not know how to tell his Root.

No matter how delicately he tries to word it, how gently he tries to say it, the truth will hurt her. His mistake, his failure, will cause her pain. He does not know if she would even want anything to do with them.

Alive they might be, they were still Vessels. They were still a tainted, corrupted, disfigured mockery of how their children were supposed to be. Looking upon them as they were made his heart ache, he could not fathom how much the sight of them hurt her. Seeing them as they are, as Vessels, behaving and acting like normal bugs, possessing personalities like normal children, might be too much for her to bear.

But even if she could not give them her love as their mother, he would give them his. They deserved it, they’d deserved it long before now.

It would not be easy, figuring out how to manage and educate so many Vessels, but he would do his best to do so. To keep them safe, to offer them a comfortable life long overdue, to give them as much love as he’s able.

(The human-turned-Vessel is not sure what to think about this. They don’t understand the situation they’ve found themselves in. The King was calling them, and the others like it, his children, and it made them feel a bit uncomfortable. The others had been wary at first, but then accepted the role and designation of the King’s children fully and eagerly. They were struggling with this. They felt like an imposer among them, they were not like them, they were not the King’s child, adopted or otherwise.)

(At the same time, the others like them were treating them like a sibling. Calling them a sibling. Loving them like a sibling. They considered them a sibling, and the human-turned-Vessel wasn’t sure if they really understood that they weren’t. They felt like a hijacker of this body. But despite that...they enjoyed the bond they share with the others. They love being considered a part of a group. They enjoyed the companionship, they enjoyed not being alone. They found themselves wanting that love and affection the others freely give, but in doing so, they feel guilty. Their feelings are a flurry of conflict ions and uncertainty.)

(It did not feel right to simply accept it all without question. It felt like they were being greedy. Taking something they had no right to.)

(There was also the issue of the other that they had seen once before, but that did not join the rest of the ‘siblings’. They had clearly been the same as the rest of them, an identical creature, but they’d not seen it since that first initial encounter. Where they had seen and heard the King order it, like it was a servant. This concerned them. They did not understand why all the rest of the King’s children, the ‘siblings’ were always bundled together, yet that one was not.)

(It had already been outside of the terrible place. Beyond the barrier that looked uncomfortable like a door. Why?)

(There was so much going on in this place they did not understand, so much that seemed to be going on above their heads. It was unnerving. They didn’t like it.)

(They wanted answers.)

(And if they had to conspire with their ‘siblings’ against their new adopted ‘father’ to get information and figure out what the hell was happening, what they were, what that dark pit closed off from the rest of the world was...well…)

(So be it.)

[trislosherfan25]

Recent sculpture piece of mine, currently untitled - I will try to upload more of my work here in the future!

[moraggian]

redrew these

[hinamie]

ough haven't been unhappy enough with a piece to scrap it entirely in a while that doesn't feel good lmao,,, anyway turns out i lied about the gojo-centric 2parter gomenasorry it's lookin like a solo :'3

[anothergiselle]

Day 18: Swap

Although I thought about doing an universe swap with Alyssa/Charlotte and Maggie/Irina (basically a demon/human AU), I simply decided to do a hair swap for Mag and Iri because I've been kinda busy just taking care of myself :] I really really liked how this one turned out!!

[a-really-cool-blog-name]

Did somebody ask for adventure forward head canons that may or may not interfere with the actual canon because I haven't played the games in a while?

No? Screw you, you're getting them anyway.

Warning ⚠️ I am cringe, but I am free so I feel like that makes up for it.

VERY LONG LIKE INCREDIBLY LONG YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED DO NOT CLICK THAT SEE MORE BUTTON UNLESS YOU WANT TO READ ADVENTURE FORWARD HEAD CANNONS YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Also I say head cannons but like halfway through I derail into my AU of what crown of shadows and vein reveal would be like so I still think it's really interesting but I'm very biased.

("I hate celesteal!" I say, before making a bunch of head cannons around him.) I really like celesteal as a character I hate him as a person but I really love him as a character

Do not expect this to be arranged well it will not be. This is not chronological this is not even like grouping a character altogether this is really messy, I'm just getting all my ideas out.

The two different canceled sequels are both different timelines (that I may or may not make crossover in my head) and I have different ideas for how each of them would go so I will refer to them as crown of shadows (COS) and Vain revival (VR) to specify when it is only for one of the versions.

Anshine and Stratosfear are happily married.

I don't know if this is cannon or not but Sheldon definitely made Miobot. And also accidentally made him sentient, oops, sure hope that doesn't come back causing both of you to get forcefully ascended to a higher existence.

Celesteal admire humans a lot mostly because he can't figure out where they keep coming from (he does not know how reproduction works) and he can't figure out how to make one.

VR! The shard saver is his closest attempt to a human looking mostly correct but having the little quirk of her having pink blood and also thinking it is normal for a person to not remember the first 15 years of their life (She does not know she is not human at first) The shard savior is also the only one of his creations that he considers to be his child.

It took Celesteal a couple hundred years to figure out how to make a sentient being at that point he was kind of already cuckoo bananas.

Yawgate was one of his earlier creations and often accompanied him to where he needed to go because Yawgate does the portaling.

The pure points did not learn how to speak English properly they were just imbued with that knowledge shortly after they were made. Unfortunately they are all British because of this. (Celesteal thinks that accent is the most quote on quote "cool" and therefore he speaks in it)

Celesteal refers to everyone using they/them most of the time because he does not know how genders work at all.

The first Star Savior is a 39-year-old closeted gay man named Stefan. (I accidentally stole that name from a fanfiction like 2 years ago, oops)

Mason is a 40-year-old and is also a closeted gay man. The main reason he became the mayor is because his father was the mayor and his father is now dead. The hat wears is his father's. He is also really tired of the may or may not jokes, yes he has heard it before it lost its funny factor since he was a child and heard it from people saying that to his father. Stefan doesn't think it's lost it's funny factor and still makes those jokes.

Mason and Stefan are childhood best friends and may or may not (Haha get it) have feelings for each other. Unfortunately, that issue won't be resolved for another 300 years. (Talk about a slow burn)

The second Star savior is a 28-year-old man named Nicholas (I also stole that name from the same fanfiction I read 2 years ago accidentally, oops) who has served in the military. His only remaining family members are his aunt, who he has a rough relationship with and his cousin who he has a fine relationship with, but he hasn't talked to since before he joined the military.

Anshine is really bad at naming things like "if he had a Dalmatian he would name it spot" type of bad at naming things.

Stratosfear for a brief period of time forgot his own strength because he didn't really have to do stuff like opening jars when he had to play the role of the star steeler and he's kind of been trapped for 300 years so not a lot of time to get used to how strong you are with objects and stuff.

Stratosfear is immune to poison and venom because he himself can make poisonous stuff if he really wanted to. He can also make red metal into any shape he wants, he just thinks scorpions are cool and so has a bunch of metal shapes in the shape of the scorpion tail, that is one of the very few things he got to choose for himself in that time loop.

Evon has somehow managed to in all her years of being a cashier, which is two, meet every single pre-point and not realize it. Evon goes by Eve. Whett is Eve's boss. Whett and Randall are friends.

Eve lives with her roommate Rose who has very obvious feelings for her and Eve is oblivious. (Would really be a shame if something were to happen to Eve which caused Rose to never be able to properly tell her her feelings, ha. On a completely unrelated note Rose is actually one of Nick's ancestors so maybe that's a good thing because he literally wouldn't exist if they were together oops. This just in, woman (me) who can't handle tragedy made another tragedy.)

Umbra may or may not be in a cult?? It's really unclear to an outsider if it's a cult or just a really dedicated group of people to studying the Moon. She does have powers from this because I think that's cool.

If Cynosura had a nickel for every time he has been brutally transformed he would have two nickels which isn't a lot but it's weird that it's happened twice.

He got cursed by a weird gem thing that was in his backyard when he was like twelve. Given the fact that he's already cursed he can't be cursed again so he goes out looking for those items to stop anyone else from being cursed. (Yes, he has ice powers I thought it would be cool for his pre point to also have them, shut up.)

Cynosura and Umbra used to be friends before Cynosura's cursing and then became penpals because they couldn't see each other in person they recently have started talking in person again. I feel it is important to mention that Umbra literally couldn't care less that he was cursed, she's more mad he didn't talk to her in person for that whole time. (They're like in their thirties I don't know the exact ages)

(Wow sure hope Umbra doesn't see something she's not supposed to see and go to run off to tell him and drag him down with her to be higher being of existence forcefully accidentally because she couldn't keep it to herself) (also Celesteal gets Cynosura pointified Midway through talking about how they probably shouldn't know this and how one of them might get hurt because he quote unquote "thought it would be really funny" Umbra tried to punch him in the face, to little success.)

Despair is an orphan and is also distinctly not human. (He's not exactly sure how to say what he is in English so he just goes with what everybody else calls him, a demon.) he also chose that name when he was an edgy teenager, his friends call him Dee because it's kind of hard to take the name Despair seriously. Despair still finds the name cool even though he is going to be twenty soon.

Cynosura offered him a place to stay shortly after he lost his parents at like 10ish. He takes up this offer randomly and then randomly leaves. They consider each other to kind of be like Uncle and nephew.

Eve, Despair, and Laoin are all friends.

Laoin is part dragon because I think that's cool.

Funny random thing I thought of, Laoin is friends with Trussy (I don't like that name that much I kind of want to change it but I don't know to what) who is friends with Sheldon And Laoin is also friends with Despair who is friends with Cynosura so when Cynosura needed house repairs once Despair mentioned that to Laoin who mentioned it to Trussy who then paired up with Sheldon to help fix Cynosura house while not knowing him directly at all.

Ixol gets pointified last and only gets pointified because his entire friend group mysteriously disappeared and he managed to -in his grief- figure out almost everything he had a board with red string across it and everything he was like one pin away from figuring out the identity of Stratosfear, I am serious. He figured out that the points probably where his friends because it's a little suspicious that each time one of his friends disappears there's a new guy with their exact personality who doesn't remember their past, this happened to him like four times. Cyalm when he realized what Despair had figured out was shocked and really impressed because he proceeded to do that and then never do anything like that ever again.

Yawgate is not supposed to let the pure points into other pure points dimensions but he does it anyway behind Celesteal's back because he feels really bad that they wouldn't be able to see each other any other way. (Celestial doesn't really care that much, he knows Yawgates doing it he just feels like it's not worth his time to stop it. Yawgate doesn't know that Celesteal knows about that) Only reason he didn't visit Stratosfear for that whole time is because Celestial specifically blocked off that pocket dimension.

Morword is surprisingly optimistic for seeing an infinite number of alternative timelines that the future could go into many of which includes people she cares about dying. But she chooses to specifically not think about that.

Pasless is one of the only people who knows about the infinite amount of timelines cause unlike the rest of them there is only one him and he is just split apart infinitely, he does a surprisingly good job at keeping the different parts of him separate and not letting anyone else know that he is constantly doing that. He talks to Morword about it occasionally though. Morword doesn't let him know how much it bothers her that those infinite number of timelines that she sees do actually happen in a different timeline.

That whole speech Morword and Pasless gave about how "you control the future but can someone else control the past and if so would we know" was incredibly pre-planned, they practice that for like a month straight once Morword saw that someone was going to see them.

(Yes, I am a sucker for them considering themselves siblings, how did you know?)

Stratosfear has PTSD.

The Red x did not have a name he consistently went by until someone else decided to name him (I want the first star savior to name him but I am not sure if that directly goes against the canon) and then once he realized he could change his name he went ballistic with changing his name. Like, come on he did it thrice.

Blueband is one of the few humans the Red x personally likes blueband is very loyal to the Red x and as a reward for his good behavior he gets to be pointified and keep his memories (he's the red guy who tried and failed to guard the elemental points) he's a little upset that he can't wear his hat anymore due to the horns. When blue bands pointified form I forgot his name and I don't care enough to look it up see stratosfear he exclusively refers to him as the star stealer, this annoys Stratosfear greatly.

VR! The shard savior is a 20 year old (or at least she thinks she is) named Charlotte (hooray I didn't steal that name form that fanfiction I read 2 years ago) who, as previously established, thinks it is completely normal to not remember the first 15 years of your life and is Celesteal's favorite creation. (She does not know this)

VR! Verfection (Yes, he is a pointified version of the second Star saver, he has lost all of his memories.) is best friends with the Voxier. (Their friendship is the poster child for extrovert adopts introvert) Verfection is one of the very few people that Voxier actually cares about and makes them actually want to exist and not return to the nothingness he (supposedly) came from.

VR! Verfection and Charlie freaking hate each other.

COS! Arrolin and Ixol freaking die. And on a completely unrelated note Compale loses one of his legs. (They're not supposed to be able to lose those but voixer managed to anyway) You see the joke is that it's not unrelated Ixol dies so Compale won't, haha. (This just in woman (me) who, once again, can't handle tragedies has made another tragedy.)

Still COS! Ixol also had the ability to see ghosts and was able to see Arrolin's ghost she was happy about this, Ixol was not. Ixol could always see ghosts, he just thinks he's really lost at this time, he already knew he was probably insane this was just the tipping point for him to actually realize it. Once Ixol is dead he also becomes a ghost and realizes he probably should have told the others before he kicked the bucket.

Also COS! geez I have a lot of head cannons for COS! Said crown of shadows is a corrupting force that corrupts the user and when in a room with only one person will attempt to attach itself to said person's head. Voixer would have without the crown of shadows never tried to actually kill the points just try to figure out a method to go back to the void it's only the crown of shadows that gave him the idea of killing the characters in the story to also kill himself to end the story. Not that the rest of the points will ever know this except for Nicholas.

You know what I'm just going to tell you when it's not COS! Anymore okay?: Oopsie Daisy, Nick, you killed the guy who the crown was on and you were the only person in the room, guess what the crown is going to try to do. That's right! Force itself on your head. So Nick any actively crumbling building thing starts getting pointified, uh-oh. Luckily for him he's in an actively crumbling building (a sentence that has probably been said exactly once) and the rubble knocks the crown of his head, (Yay!) it also cuts off his arm (Not yay!) because he is not fully point yet and he does not get the neat ability to regrow his limbs until after one of his limb is already gone.

He wakes up surprisingly okay for just being under a crumbling building, he's also a point now and actively missing an arm and there's also this evil crown trying to get on his head so in his panic he tries it to stuff it in his bag, this somehow works in stopping it.

A little meme based off of that:

He's going to go by verfection now because he feels a little weird in breaking tradition of choosing a new name when you become a point. He also got the ability to see ghosts, get haunted by your dead friends, idiot. Surprisingly this is good for Verfection's mental health because that means he can't completely isolate himself. Voixer doesn't directly haunt him because he feels a little still messed up in the head and also feels guilt, a lot of guilt, and shame, quite a bit of shame.

Verfection just went back to living at his house because he didn't tell anyone where he lived. Verfection is not doing well because even though he got the crown off soon enough that he didn't go completely mad he still isn't doing great mentally and feels a lot of guilt because he got the memories of Voixer and now feels like he killed someone who didn't deserve it. He's mostly just trying to keep the crown safe to stop anyone else from getting it put on their heads. Surprisingly putting it in a bag still is working. Just for safe measures he locked it in a specific room that no one is meant to go into as well as putting it in a safe in said room. He still has not told his friends he's alive because he feels a lot of guilt and a lot of emotions right now.

Also Signol just loses her memory again, don't worry she'll get it all back when they managed to figure out how symbol breaking works in the crown of shadows timeline which I haven't figured out how they're going to figure that out but I know they will figure it out.

FINALLY WE'RE DONE WITH CROWN OF SHADOWS FOR NOW

VR! Verfection was actually a scrapped idea that Celesteal had he scrapped it because he thought it was too similar to the first star savior's fate. However those scrapped ideas came out whenever the world started literally breaking.

None of them know how points work (except celesteal for obvious reasons) exactly they mostly got it figured out but sometimes they'll just figure out something completely new about how they work for instance,

Okay after this point I'm just going to specify when the vein reveal section is done: There would be a boss fight between Stratosfear and Anshine in which they would fuse and then not figure out how to defuse until after they were uncorrupted. After Celesteal was brought back he revealed but that's just a thing they can do and I've always been able to do he just never mentioned it before.

Despite the fact that Yawgate is on the side of "we need to bring celesteal back or else the world will literally end", it is important to know he is one of celesteal's top five biggest haters. Probably being biggest hater number two or three. He was often threatened with being erased from existence by him and over time him threatening to do that to people that you love and actually doing it at least once causes you to dislike a person over time.

In the final fight of "we shouldn't bring back an evil dictator who literally locked up a guy for 300 years cause he thought it'd be funny I guess" vs "okay but we literally need to bring him back or else the world will literally end we hate him too" Verfection accidentally cuts Charlie's arm off which simultaneously makes Verfection's symbol break due to the intensity of it all and causes Charlie to realize that she is indeed not human because her arm is bleeding pink and is shattering into shards that are actively rebuilding themselves in front of her. All of the same time celesteal is actively getting remade from the shards collected.

Celesteal did not intend to come back after being killed he did not think that the world would just shatter into pieces, he thought it would be more like a crown of shadows if anything. When he does come back he's like "Oh. Oh. I messed up didn't I? I made a miscalculation somewhere... :D Hiiiii Charlie! <3 My favorite creation! How are you doing? Oh, you've grown so much! What are they feeding you around here?" And everyone's just kind of standing there like "what".

ALRIGHT I THINK THAT'S THE END OF IT

I definitely forgot some of my head cannons (I have a lot) but this post is getting so like incredibly long I think I'm good with ending it here.

Ending notes:

"Why do half of the pre points know each other? It's not very realis-"

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫 I don't care. And they all live in pretty close vicinity just because that's easier for me. And by pretty close I mean no one is more than like a city away.

"Where are the elemental points? You barely mentioned them."

Shut up they're still there I just forgot their names and I don't have a lot of ideas for them all I know is blue bands pointified form I forgot his name was supposed to be guarding them, he failed at guarding them. They all want the crown of shadows because it is immensely powerful even though it's a corrupting Force I don't know what happens next I haven't thought about them nearly as much as the others.

I also have several au's including the previously established vein reveal and crown of shadows au's I explained above and several others including "pathetic loser villain OC makes Nicholas have a bad time" (ASK ME ABOUT HIM PLEASE) and "what if Verfection was a pure point" and other various ideas.

[sonknuxadow]

sorry i know i cant stop people from having their headcanons or aus or whatever but i find it kinda silly when people present the idea of silver being shadows son as if its an actual plausible theory.... because all the "evidence" for it is very minor stuff thats easily explained away . and then theres also the fact that in the 06 timeline shadow was put back into stasis shortly after iblis destroyed the world because humanity was looking for someone to blame for it. and silver also says that iblis has been around since before he was born. im aware that the future is always changing so a future where an adult shadow is around to interact with a tiny little baby silver isnt entirely out of the question but wouldnt this plot detail make shadow being silvers biological father very unlikely if not outright impossible??

[bleachbleachbleach]

I don’t think I’ll ever be over the fact that Hitsugaya was, by virtue of Aizen’s letter, technically one of the primary/only suspects in Aizen’s murder and the overthrow of Soul Society. Because of the options, he has gotta be… one of the squarest (second only to Komamura, though at the time that guy had a BUCKET ON HIS HEAD). 

At the same time, though, Hitsugaya also manages to engage in only the MOST sus behavior.

Like, can you imagine the decadal Gotei audit. Some paper-pusher in 1st who was assigned to some other non-Aizen, non-ryoka project during the Soul Society arc gets put on the audit committee and he, like most of the Gotei, knows nothing about the ryoka invasion or the facts around the three captains’ “disappearances” some time ago (only as much as was reported in the SC). And he’s going through people’s personnel files and reading stuff like, what 🙃 the fuck,,,

Auditor: Do you have a connection to 5th Division Vice Captain Hinamori? Answer yes or no.

Hitsugaya: Yes.

Auditor: Describe the nature of that relationship.

Hitsugaya: We’re acquainted.

Auditor: Be more specific.

Hitsugaya: What are you getting at?

Auditor: Were you her arresting officer in August 2001?

Hitsugaya: Oh. Yes.

Auditor: And you assumed control of the 5th Division leadership shortly thereafter? What about 3rd Division Vice Captain Kira? You were his arresting officer as well?

Hitsugaya: Yes, though I’m not sure what that has to do—

Auditor: And SHORTLY THEREAFTER, did you not infiltrate the 3rd Division grounds and assault 3rd Captain Ichimaru?

Hitsugaya: “Infiltrate” is a little—

Auditor: We have third party eyewitness accounts stating that not only did you draw your sword, you released shikai, resulting in—

Hitsugaya: Resulting in nothing!

Auditor: AND IN A SUBSEQUENT ALTERCATION INVOLVING THIRD DIVISION VICE CAPTAIN, WERE YOU NOT 

SUSPICIOUSLY PRESENT FOR THE DETONATION AND DESTRUCTION OF A CIVILIAN BUILDING????

[Bleach e303]

[mushroom-for-art]

Probably shouldn't be posting this when I already have a fusion template up but eh.

I am accepting comments for this right now, all my optional things are open, one comment each please you can go as feral and as in detail as you want for your chosen part, preferably in order but if you're too anxious to make the choice of something/can't think of anything I get if you comment something else. I'll try to give whatever little bugger I get lore and a name afterwards. Any confusion just message and I'll explain

Free to use just save the image and make your own post, if you want to mess with head shape too or not have the optional things or want your comment community to give name personality nature ect obviously say in your own post what you do and don't want

[eemoo1o-animoo]

I ask myself “why not dadlaude?” sometimes and then am abhorrently reminded that… it will never be. It is impossible.

[arolesbianism]

Who wants to talk me down from making an oc inspired by the ringside reporter from rhythm heaven cause I sure am one hair away from staying up too late doing just that

[elftwink]

been reading fanfiction at the front counter at work as of late because our fiction selection that's available to read online is sparse, there's only so much academic non-fiction a man can read especially when he's just blindly in the catalogue looking up random keywords in the hope of finding something even mildly interesting, and i haven't been able to get out to my local library to fix my library card that doesn't let me log in and possibly has no associated email to access their ebook collections. and i can't do anything at the front desk that doesn't look work-related so i've been downloading pdfs of fics and emailing them to myself to pass the yawning void of hours between the 3 whole patrons who are there during the semester break.

anyway im telling you all this because i sent a few to myself and all but one (1) fic i was like oh my GOD he Would Not Fucking Say That. but i had nothing else to do not even work related tasks so i read them anyway. woe is me. i will learn nothing from this and do the exact same thing tomorrow probably

[necrotic-nightshade]

aaaaAAAAAAAAA?!!