#after hours of research the conclusion is:

[trash-shrike]

haha time to draw rhysand <- famous last words

Designed an illyrian body plan that balances book canon, aesthetics, and "realism" to my liking. Worldbuilding flying humans often comes down to how strong your ignorance and suspension of disbelief is :) In the case of ACOTAR though, we can just hand wave it and say black box magic is doing 99% the work.

[ronanlynchbf]

see too many ppl still defending jdepp or running with the "mutual abuse" angle so here's a video presenting basically all the (publicly available btw! for anyone to be able to look up!) information on this case. Let it be known if you still support jdepp i am assuming you have never done a grain of research into this in your life and just ran with public opinion and misinformation

[theinfinitedivides]

uh Anthony Ramos sir. how do we go from Mind Over Matter to Villano. how does that pipeline work exactly

[apoloniaspiegelgold]

Feeling very soft again thinking about how he just got back to work after being sick and the first thing he does is to come to my office and ask me to tell him all about what happened to me in the week that he couldn't be here. So I say something like "my supervisor had the audacity to criticise my paper despite saying that he hasn't even really read it yet" and I had been actually quite mad about that, but then he goes "Oh, but that's what you want, isn't it? Someone criticising your work, someone fighting back a bit?" And I stopped and felt my anger disappear instantly and I thought ... actually yeah, you're right, why are you right? Why was I even mad? Why do you know better what I want than I do?

[desertduality]

after hours of scientific research I’ve come to the conclusion that scar is slowly shrinking down to the size of a vex. will update as situation develops

[audliminal]

Survivability Bias Pt 1

Danny stares at the screen in front of him. The fact that he’s in a library is the only reason he’s not squealing at the clearly well-maintained website he’s currently exploring. As it turns out, this dimension does have NASA. That fact on its own isn’t too terribly surprising, considering all the other ways it’s similar to Danny’s home. What is surprising (and, in no small part, exciting!), is that in this dimension NASA seems to have much better funding. Danny had managed to resist looking up anything related to space for the first hour of his time in the library, but then Danny had chanced across an article about the ISS, and his resolve had crumbled. Not even fifteen minutes later, and Danny is here, exploring the very nice NASA website. Plumbing its depths, really, for all the information it can provide on what space is like in this world.There’s lots of new information; space research is definitely more advanced here than it was back home, and there’s occasional vague allusions to odd things like the livability of Mars, and other oddities, it’s almost like this dimension has come to the forgone conclusion that aliens must exist. Which is certainly an exciting thought, but it also seems odd to Danny. What divergent experiences lead to such a conclusion Danny wonders, as he absently hovers over the opportunities tab for the fifth time. He knows he really shouldn’t get his hopes up, but with a more funded NASA, maybe he could find a way to get a job there eventually. After all he has no real idea when, or even if, he’ll ever manage to go home, so maybe it’s okay to think about the future a little bit.

Maybe they’ve already come into contact with aliens, Danny thinks. Maybe I could get a job working with aliens! It’s that thought that gets him to actually click the tab, desperate to know if that’s even a possibility. The page that opens doesn’t really list specific jobs or anything. Mostly, it seems to just be advertising that NASA is always looking for smart people that are passionate about space (Danny’s definitely one of those things, at least). But there is an interesting little banner advertising a special summer camp for aspiring astronomers, ages 14-18. The idea of that is both surprising and exciting. Danny doesn’t think his home world’s NASA had anything like that. Sam had sent him through with some money, but he’s still unsure if it’ll even work here, and he’s also not sure he wants to risk getting in trouble if it’s just a really close match. Plus it’s definitely not enough to afford the inevitable cost of a whole entire space camp. Danny remembers going to summer camps a couple times as a kid and he knows they weren’t cheap. Still, Danny remembers that Sam had also given him a few pieces of really nice jewelry that he could pawn off for cash, and maybe that could let him afford it?.

It would be so much easier if Danny had a social security number. Or, like, literally anything proving that he really does exist. But, well, technically he doesn’t exist here. Obviously, physically he is here, but he certainly wasn’t born here. He’s basically an undocumented immigrant, just from a place that he literally can’t ever physically go back to. Even the computer he’s using right now highlights just how alien this place is to him, with its large, flat screen and graphics better than anything he’s ever seen in his life. It runs so smoothly, too, that he just knows Tucker would cry if he could see it. And this is what they have in a library. Danny can’t even begin to imagine what high end tech here might look like.

Everything here is strange and new, and Danny doesn’t even really know what he needs to catch up on. He wishes he could have stayed. He had wanted to stay. Of course he had. But after the second time the Guys in White managed to capture him, well, it wasn’t hard to see why they wanted him gone. So when Sam and Tucker and Jazz had cornered him, and explained that they’d found a way to send him away, to somewhere that the GIW couldn’t follow, he hadn’t argued. He hadn’t argued when they dragged him down to the lab, and he hadn’t argued when Jazz shoved a backpack into his hands, and he hadn’t argued when Sam had told him that she’d added cash and jewelry to what Jazz had gathered. He hadn’t argued as Tucker had messed with the portal, and he hadn’t argued when they pushed him towards it.

He can’t go home. Maybe just for a while, but maybe not ever again. He can’t see his friends, and he can’t go to sleep in his own bed, and he can’t come home from school and play Doomed with Sam and Tucker. But maybe all that wouldn’t be so terribly painful, if he could just have one little thing here that he couldn’t have done back home. Danny knows it’s a long shot, but he clicks on the banner, just to see.

The first thing he notices as he reads through the description, is that it offers a lot. Eight weeks, overnight in a specialized science camp facility, an opportunity to experience both a shuttle launch simulation and a zero gravity simulator? The opportunity to experience multiple different kinds of jobs? This isn’t some camp that wants to introduce kids to the idea of astronomy, this is designed for kids who already want to be astronomers. All in all, it’s everything Danny could have imagined and more. It’s not exactly cheap, though. Five thousand dollars isn’t exactly affordable when all you have is some cash that may or not work, and a few necklaces, fancy as they may be. After all, it’s not like Danny knows enough about jewelry to have even a hope of not being ripped off.

At the bottom of the description, there is mention of scholarships, though, and maybe if he angles it right, he can manage to make use of one of those? Danny glances through the list. He doubts he can prove himself worth the aptitude scholarship. His grades weren’t exactly good back home, even if he did have his transcripts. And he’s hardly going to get the financial hardship scholarship if he’s got no proof that he even exists here. One of the scholarships catches his eye, though, specifically because he has no idea what it’s for. 

Danny knows the word meta. It’s like self-referential shit or something. But it’s not exactly a scientific thing. That’s language arts stuff, the kind of thing Mr. Lancer goes on about, and there should be no reason for it to be a kind of scholarship. But maybe it’s an acronym or something? Danny mouses over, and clicks through to see what exactly it is, even if it probably won’t be relevant to him.

“Here at NASA we understand that people don’t always fit our standard expectations of normality!” The meta scholarship page reads. Danny tries not to let his hackles go up at the mention of normality. They can’t possibly be talking about people like him, after all. Nothing he’s seen so far has implied that ghosts have any sort of presence here. “In our efforts to expand our understanding of the infinite expanse of space, it only makes sense to do our best to work with those who do not conform to those expectations, especially when those exceptions often represent unique opportunities for possible field work. If you identify as a meta, and believe your talents make you uniquely suited to extreme environments, we welcome you to apply for our full-expense meta scholarship!*”

The introductory paragraph only leaves Danny more confused, and a bit wary. The references to normality and unique opportunities for field work have bile rising into Danny’s throat, and he shakily opens a new tab, and types the word meta into the search bar. If they’re experimenting on people here too-

The search returns an astonishing number of results. Among the first ones are a wikipedia article on metas, and so many news articles. Danny clicks on the wikipedia page first.

“Metas refers to an individual who possesses meta powers. Derived from the prefix “meta-”, meaning beyond or transcending, meta powers are innately defined by the natural capabilities of the general population. Thus, on Earth, the term meta, or metahuman, typically refers to anyone who has abilities beyond the standard human experience. A significant portion of metas can be attributed to the human metagene,  which typically triggers in moments of intense physical or mental stress, and can produce unique situational abilities. Other metas, may belong to other species who naturally have certain abilities, or to individuals who are granted powers by various deific forces or even objects.”

What.

It can’t possibly be that easy. This world can’t possibly be that perfect. Danny keeps reading. He realizes as he continues that this article is long, with literally dozens of subsections. On top of that, as he begins to read, there are references to numerous other events, and topics that he’s never heard of before. And by the time the librarian arrives to usher him out of the library for the night, he still isn’t finished with it, but he has learned quite a bit.

Apparently, it isn’t exactly as perfect as it sounded. Rather, this dimension has a long history of meta-related conflict. There’s been plenty of discrimination and mistreatment in the past; the kind of thing that Danny is more than familiar with. But on top of that, there’s literal, actual superheroes here. A lot of them. Superheroes that have fought against numerous world-ending threats and won. And those same superheroes have worked with the world governments, and ratified the protection of metas’ rights as being fundamental human rights. If Wikipedia is to be believed, Danny really is safe.

Still, Danny knows first-hand the way that governments can and will lie. And just because the internet claims that these so-called metas are treated fairly, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s true. 

Propaganda, Danny thinks. Who’s to say it isn’t all just propaganda? I need to be more careful about transforming tonight.

But the library does need to close, so Danny heads out into the second night in his new hometown, mind racing as he thinks about the implications of everything he’s read. The space camp seems so far away now, in the aftermath of the following revelations. Danny needs to get further from civilization if he wants to transform tonight. He follows the main street out, away from town. Maybe in a field somewhere, he’ll be okay? This doesn’t exactly seem like a large town. Even if it’s not true, Danny thinks as he walks. At least I’m not alone here. And I didn’t see anything about Anti-Ecto Acts.

[clingonlikeclingwrap]

More on Tim Drake’s Research Project ID Reveal AU

(Original posts)

1 / 2

(Inspired by the comments above)

Tim, after skipping a few grades, is in Jason’s class (before his death obviously). They’re partnered up on this assignment (to propose who Batman’s secret ID could be). Jason tries to get ahead of the game by very jokingly suggesting Batman is his adoptive father Bruce Wayne (backed up with some extremely ridiculous and frankly made up evidence), sorely underestimating Tim’s innate conspiracy theorist, who proceeds make shockingly accurate leaps of logic and come to the correct conclusion

Jason: Get this, Bruce Wayne is Batman because he likes fruit and you know what else eats fruit? Bats.

Jason: Haha sike, as if—

Tim: No I think you’re onto something

Jason: *incredulous panic* Wait no what

Jason tries to distract Tim from independent research by simply taking up every available hour of the day. He accidentally very aggressively befriends Tim this way. Unfortunately, Tim doesn’t sleep and Jason can’t control what Tim gets up to in the dead of night.

Eventually Jason gives up and fully embraces the hilarity of the situation because Tim is in too deep and at this stage he’s like “Bruce is an asshole anyway he deserves to have his secret ID revealed by a random 13 yo ha that’ll teach him to be a stupid stuck up—” (etc etc). And then the presence of Tim somehow acts as a sort of intermediary and improves Bruce and Jason’s relationship enough so Jason doesn’t end up running off to Ethiopia alone and dying, hooray!

[soleilapproves]

Werewolf!soap and human graduate student reader where her thesis is about how certain geographical locations affect werewolf behavior.

Your research grant can only pay you so much so you resort to living with one of the townspeople to save up for examination equipment. Not to mention getting all the way to a remote werewolf town in Scotland and receiving permission to study them took up a large sum.

Enter, Johnny ‘Soap’ MacTavish who’s temporarily retired from the military (he just hurt himself a little too much). He’s agitated and has nothing to do all day. Until he’s asked by the town’s mayor to let a certain human graduate student live with him while she does her on-site work.

Except he has never mated with anyone. He let alone does not know what it means to go through a true rut where all you want is your mate.

Now here you were, in the middle of bumble-fuck-nowhere, Scotland, a single suitcase in hand and a brick of a laptop weighing you down. You’re gross and sweaty after taking two flights, a train and a four hour bus ride to get to the town. Not a lot of the townspeople are too keen on you until Soap greets you with his signature boyish smile.

Only, he’s hit with your delicious scent. Intoxicating him. Mate, is all he can think.

Mate, is all he can think when he sees you sitting by the kitchen counter, typing away your experiments on your laptop. His cock growing hard at the sight of you looking so small in his t-shirt after your suitcase had been unexpectedly stolen. Werewolves are hostile to those outside their pack after all.

Mate, is all he can babble to himself when he sees you having dinner with his family in the next town over so you could study regional family dynamics. He was wondering what it would be like if he brought you under the pretense of announcing your engagement.

Mate, is all he can think when he breaths in the scent of your unwashed clothes after you’d been too muddled in work to do your laundry. He just wanted to be a nice host and do your laundry for you. Nothing perverse.

The mayor often pats his back and thanks him for being such a good person. Especially to a stranger outside the pack.

Yeah, good person, even when all he can think about is having you wrapped around him, his name spilling off your swollen lips, and scratches on his back.

Your final conclusions were definitely going to be a little skewed.

I’m not a Soap fan but I’m def going to write about this some day

[aealzx]

_______________________

Prologue | AO3

Previous Next

_______________________

“You came all the way out here to ask me to identify a plant?” Pamela was understandably incredulous as she blocked Tim from entering her current residence.

“Weeelll,” Tim drawled, shrugging with one shoulder. “Spoiler and Orphan said you’d be the best to contact. We could go elsewhere, but then I’d have to find somewhere else for these bacon and egg sandwiches,” he explained, revealing the hand that was behind his back to be holding a paper bag for a local food joint. It was a bribe. Or payment for services rendered if one wanted to be posh about it. But he was fine calling it a bribe.

“Aw hell yeah!” Harleen’s voice came from further in the establishment, and Tim caught just the faintest hint of a smile twitching Pamela’s mouth. She tried to resist, but Tim held his ground with a decidedly innocent smile, the bag of egg sandwiches still held in offering.

Eventually Pamela sighed and held out her hand. “Fine. What identifiers do you have for it?” she relented, letting Tim set the bag of food on her palm.

“Not much honestly. The locals call it a blood blossom, but I doubt it’s a haemanthus coccineus. We don’t have a picture, but we’re told it looks like a red rose bud with black leaves,” Tim answered. He’d done his own research already while waiting for the food to be made, and that was part of the reason he didn’t feel bad for following through with the others’ idea to ask Pamela. He had a few guesses already, but it would be nice to get a second opinion.

“A rose with black leaves?” Pamela repeated, her disappointed expression becoming thoughtful. “That’s it? Nothing else?” she asked soon after, frowning deeper if possible.

“Nothing else,” Tim confirmed, both disappointed and pleased that Pamela also didn’t seem able to come up with an answer.

“Sounds made up,” Pamela answered bluntly, shifting to move back into the building. “There aren’t any roses with black leaves unless they’re mutilated. The closest you’ll get is a begonia switzerland if you’re just going by appearance.”

“Oh…. that’s what I thought too,” Tim hummed, raising a curled finger to his chin.

Pamela’s eye twitched. “Then why did you-.... Goodbye,” she stammered, then figured it wasn’t worth her time to deal with Tim further, and closed the door on him.

Tim could only snort in amusement, raising his voice for just a moment. “Thanks for the info! Enjoy the food!” he called, grinning as he turned to grapple himself back to the rooftops.

So the blood blossoms were either an extremely obscure name for some other plant, or they didn’t actually exist. And if they didn’t exist, then what had poisoned Danny? At least Dick and Damian were heading straight to the manor to follow up with Alfred about meals, and bring the tissue sample with the plant based poison to where Bruce could use their tech to better analyze it. And Barbara had already mentioned she’d meet them there, so while they might not have a good start on two of the three questions they should at least be able to figure out who these kids were exactly.

—----------

“They don’t exist,” Barbara’s conclusion about the five Phantom kids they had custody of was short, but did little to answer any questions the others had. After spending a few hours gathering her data she had decided to join the others at the manor, the three who had returned from the rescue mission, Bruce, and her now gathered in the Bat Cave by the computer. Admittedly that hadn’t been something they fully expected to hear, so there were sagging shoulders from both Dick and Tim at the announcement.

“You ran the search in all of the databases, yeah?” Tim asked, immediately trying to figure out what they had missed. Barbara was usually extremely thorough. It was hard to believe she came up with nothing on a group of five people. Especially when two of them had superhuman abilities.

“Yes, Tim,” Barbara responded quickly. “If you’ll let me continue before you try to solve the problem yourself I’ll save you some steps,” she added, getting a mildly teasing smile. When Tim relented with a mild shrug Barbara turned her chair back to the computer, pulling her reports up on the huge monitor.

“The DNA samples came up with no results. Amity Park doesn’t exist on any map. There’s no social media posts about any combination of their names. And the photo Jason sent of Jazz’s ID also has no results. It doesn’t even resemble the official driver’s license format of Illinois or any of the other states, so it’s not hard to see why the bank teller would call it a fake,” she listed, bringing up the reports from her data scouring as she mentioned them. “The only activity I can track from them is here in Gotham, starting 72 days ago. I believe that’s when they first arrived here.”

The date caused Bruce to shift, breaking out of his silence once it seemed Barbara had finished summarizing her findings and drawing a connection to a separate report he’d gotten more than a month ago. “72 days ago is when the Justice League got readings of an anomaly on the outskirts of Gotham. Investigations revealed some remains of unknown technology, but no one was there with it.”

“...What kind of anomaly?” Dick asked, tensing slightly at a thought that crossed his mind. Unknown DNA, unusable bank and ID cards, two of them claiming to be beings that were never heard of before now.

“Please don’t say multiverse breach,” Tim whined, revealing that he’d had the same thoughts as Dick.

Instead of answering them Bruce just opened a different report, having been locating it as his sons had been speaking. When the data appeared on screen both Dick and Tim let out extended groans, their forms sagging even more as Barbara chuckled softly.

“It had to be dimension garbage,” Tim whined more, squinting at the report confirming suspected multiverse breach residue in the affected area.

“That explains all the missing data,” Barbara commented, just glad to have an explanation for why all her research was coming up blank prior to the anomaly. It was because they literally had nothing on this earth before then, and not because they were some sort of geniuses that could manage such an extensive data wipe to make even her systems come up with blanks.

“That also explains why Dr. Isley was unfamiliar with the blood blossoms,” Damian added, seeming unfazed by the revelation.

“And literally everything else that was weird about them,” Tim encompassed, frustration bleeding into his tone. What kind of puzzle didn’t even have answers in this world? He felt like that was cheating.

“Do they seem aware that they are no longer in their dimension? We’re sure this wasn’t a deliberate transport?” Bruce asked, masking his growing concern for the dislocated children by suggesting they might still be hiding something.

“Please, these kids can’t hide anything that well,” Tim huffed, giving a wry smile. “The only reason they’re able to hide anything is because they’re also oblivious. Otherwise it’s way too easy to tell they’re keeping something a secret.”

Bruce only frowned more at the response, and Barbara couldn’t help add her own support of the idea that the Phantoms had no idea they weren’t even close to home. “They seemed to have had enough to deal with, I don’t think they had time to consider it. Almost 80% of their activity ties back to them looking for ectoplasm. The other 20% is just general medical care and necessities of living.”

“Ectoplasm is the stuff they said Danny needed,” Dick added unnecessarily.

“I remember,” Bruce responded, though he could also understand why the kids had such a hard time tracking down a source. Most of Gotham didn’t even believe in ghosts, and the only people he or his family knew that matched the category were Boston and Greta. “Their search led them to a Lazarus water exchange.”

“Yeah. But apparently even though it’s similar enough, the Lazarus water is ‘freaky’ and they don’t want to use it according to Danielle,” Dick confirmed, using air quotes for what the small girl had said.

“All five of them have traces of another substance I’ve never seen before that seems similar to residue from Lazarus water as well,” Barbara spoke up to add, reaching over to the computer once more as she once again had their attention. The DNA analysis reports were enlarged, and she used a screen sketch app to mark the unusual traces. “It’s most prominent in Danielle and Danny, though Danny’s levels read a lot lower. But the other three have small traces as well.”

“The one called Danielle made mention of Danny having expended a significant amount of energy, to the point his accelerated healing ability has been hindered. And that there was a lack of locations with an abundance of said energy for them to absorb,” Damian recalled, ignoring the face Tim pulled as he slowly turned to look at him.

“You made that sound way more complicated than she did,” Tim grimaced.

“Silence Drake,” Damian retorted simply.

Dick could only snicker while keeping his gaze on the reports like Bruce was doing. “This will make it easier to track some of the substance down. I’ll see if I can create a collection device to make it easier for us to get larger amounts, and work on a way to neutralize the residual plant material,” Bruce commented, already making plans for the next course of action.

“After dinner,” Dick enforced, resting his hands on the back of Bruce’s chair.

Bruce seemed to consider it, falling silent and keeping his gaze on the monitor, giving no answer other than a short grunt after a long stretch of quiet.

Dick only leaned on the chair more, pulling it back slightly. “Aaaaafter dinner, Bruce. Thirty minutes isn’t going to be that big of a loss,” he prodded.

“...Alfred put you up to this, didn’t he,” Bruce pointed out instead of responding to the request.

“He did,” Dick confirmed, admitting to being requested to make sure Bruce got at least one hearty meal before getting lost in his work once again.

Bruce considered it longer, and by then the rest of his children were already on their way back upstairs. Did he really want Alfred hassling him again? “... Very well. After dinner,” he relented, getting to his feet with a slight sigh and locking the computer screen.

_________________

Dimension hopping confirmed~ And I just realized I now have 2 fanfics that involve dimension hopping X'D that was unintentional.

Questions for the people following/interested: because I'm not familiar with most of DC or really DP's canon and fanon content and there's so freaking much of it out there, which characters would you like to see involved? No guarantees that they'll be in if I can't figure out how to get them to fit, but I need somewhere to start researching stuff X'DD. Also there's essentially 2 goals, wake Danny up, and get Team Phantom back home. How difficult should these tasks be, and which one would people rather have more focus on?

This fic originated from a prompt I found, so I think it might be fun to kind of keep that going? A different kind of writing exercise than what I'm used to. So that's why the questions instead of me just going heheh have a cliffhanger.

Though I will say I'm still of the opinion of no romance, so please don't suggest pairings |D

_________________

Tag list: @galaxy-sharks-and-bottled-ships, @starscreamlover, @nerdynonnativenarnian, @dragongoblet, @zeestarfishalien, @bellathecatastrophe, @cj-ghostemoji-destielpie, @asexual-insomniac, @wolfeyedwitch, @tkiesai, @fanaroff, @raven1508, @nebulainajar, @serasvictoria02, @oliocelottafanfics, @honeysuckletook, @omniithe-deer, @wolf-under-the-stars, @gingernutcalo, @that-random-fangirl

[aurae-rori]

DR RATIO ANALYSIS

SPOILERS FOR 2.1 CONTENT!

Now, you might be saying - "Aurae, Oh No! and Are You Satisfied? are much too basic songs to analyze Dr. Ratio to! Just because he's a scholar doesn't mean that he has academic trauma!" WRONG! Before we start, I have been researching psychology for approximately six years and I plan to go into it professionally. HOWEVER, that said, I am NOT a professional (YET. One day I will be. Yay for Aurae!) so understand that everything I come to conclusions about has been analyzed with some personal judgement, personal interpretations, and this is just what I have concluded with the info that I have deconstructed from his brain. If you disagree, that's fine!

I will be pulling from my own experiences with being a "golden" and "gifted" child, as well as the experiences I've had speaking to other people who were those. I will also be pulling from my experiences of researching and seeing how people with superiority complexes work, as well as diving into how those work (from what I've seen, as well as how they conceal a lack of self-esteem).

OKAY, NOW THAT THAT LONG AHH DISCLAIMER IS OVER, ALLOW ME TO WORK MY PSYCH ENJOYER MAGIC! Let's deconstruct Dr. Ratio like a lego toy.

Let's start off with how Dr. Ratio presents himself. When you first meet him, he seems like a haughty, arrogant asshole. He likes to PRESENT himself as a stoic, superior scholar who is purely in it to win it, and I got total "*stares down at your tiny body and laughs at how you lack knowledge*" vibes at the very start, due to how he goes around calling people idiots all the time. However, he DOES lose the idgaf war, and we can very quickly see that he does care for other people, even if in his own, strange way. Dr Ratio presentation: An asshole. The reality?

His entire character is based around the idea of helping the masses. He wishes to spread knowledge through the cosmos and give people who didn't have access to it, access. He's a harsh teacher, and calling people 'idiots' is NOT the way to motivate them, but he's doing his best™.

Actually, no, I'm going to go full psych into this. Okay, so here starts the Dr. Ratio and my FATHER COMPARISONS. My father is a professor and he is often called a harsh grader by his students. However, I've spoken to him multiple times because I was curious - why is he so harsh and diligent with his grading system? The answer is - he wants them to actually learn. When he's grading, he gives them harsh marks because he wants them to know exactly where they messed up, and he's always willing to stay after hours to help students understand where they can't. My father also is an enjoyer of knowledge, and for as long as I've remembered, he has prioritized teaching me how to think critically. He wants me to be able to think for myself - and I think that's what Dr. Ratio wants, too. He wants for his students to be able to fully comprehend and absorb the information that he teaches, and although his methods are harsh, he genuinely wants to help. My father's like this too - he hates students that waste his time or aren't here because their hearts are in it. Dr. Ratio hates people who aren't taking their education seriously because knowledge is important. Knowledge is a tool, and to disregard it completely is lowkey kind of insulting - especially when there are people who weren't privileged enough to actually get it, so this isn't something that you should take for granted. Dr. Ratio despises people who take knowledge for granted.

Also, I disagree with the claims that say that Dr. Ratio hates the genius society. He shows open respect for them in his voice lines. Just check them if you need proof. Also, I'll delve into the idea of Aeons and recognition later.

Now that we’ve established that Dr. Ratio kins my dad, let’s let's tackle the 'stoic' allegations. He is LOSING the idgaf war. Like, really badly. He has a temper of a thousand suns and snaps at people frequently, despite his 'impassive' face, his tone holds a LOT of emotion. He seems to feel very deeply and has a shit ton of empathy for others - why else would he be dedicating his entire career to helping others? Of course, he doesn't express this in 'typical' ways of being openly kind - but it doesn't mean that he doesn't care for other people. In fact, he seems to be pretty good at putting himself in the shoes of others and understanding them - expressed in the 2.1 quest where he tells Aventurine to tell him if he can't hold on any longer. Also, he loses the IDGAF war because he is actively trying to help people who want to learn and trying to spread logic and knowledge across the cosmos to those who didn't have it before. Would a man who didn't GAF do that? No!

Now that we've covered his view on knowledge and the way that he presents himself, let's turn to the way that he SEES himself. Now, this is where we get into the nitty gritty of gifted child trauma & academic trauma as well as crippling expectations. It's literally explicitly said in his character stories that he sees himself as mediocre, and it's canon that he doesn't have a good view of himself. His self-esteem is down in the fucking trenches along with my sanity as I write this analysis. The reality is - being called a genius your whole life doesn't really make you feel better about yourself. I'd know. I was. In fact, it makes you feel fucking worse when you can't live up to an expectation. We all fail in life. It's part of being human. But when you're held to such high standards - idolized for your knowledge and the way that you're 'gifted' - the crash comes really fucking hard. Failure is inevitable, and when people who are held on that pedestal experience it, they take it really bad.

The reality is that nobody - not even geniuses - are perfect, but you grow up believing that you are. Then, when you fail for the first time, it all comes tumbling down. The first time I came home with a bad grade was one of the most humiliating moments of my life. I hadn't studied because I was arrogant and I thought that I was smart enough to pass without putting any extra effort into it - because I was a 'gifted' child, right? I should've been able to do it without studying like the other kids. And that's the thing with gifted children – you grow reliant on that title. You cling onto it for dear life for motivation, as well as self-perception. Little by little, the person you are falls apart as you slave away to the perception other people have of you. I think basically every gifted child that I've ever spoken to is a victim of this – and of course, you can heal from this mindset - but it's a hard one to shake.

Ratio's way of presenting himself as being a 'genius' and 'arrogant' also seems to contradict the way that he calls himself 'mundane' at the same time. However, these are two mindsets that can coexist. One part of you believes that you are a genius and that you are perfect, while the other part is crumbling and calling yourself good-for-nothing every time you make a mistake. It's a tiring cycle to live in. This usually leads to people shutting themselves out and closing themselves off after living like that, pushing back your own feelings in favour of being the perfect child. However, we don't know the exact details of Dr. Ratio's childhood, but we can infer that he was held to a pedestal, and this is a very harmful mindset for a child to have.

His superiority complex comes both from how other people view him, but it's a way to cope with his crippling lack of self-esteem. I'm sorry my guy. Also helping others probably helps him feel like he's worth something and makes him feel better because he bases his entire worth off of what he can do and how he can help others. However, this is just my personal interpretation backed by what I have already deconstructed. 

In general, this is an easy way to crush self-esteem. You spend your whole life working to meet the image of what other people think you are. In fact, another reason why Dr. Ratio might be so harsh is because that’s the kind of attitude he holds towards himself when conducting research – he’s as hard on himself as he is to others. You end up hating the idea of failure, instead of seeing it as it should be - a way to improve and grow. Actually, I think this could be a reason that he went out of his way to break that illusion of 'worshipping geniuses' in the Space Station. Maybe some sort of childhood connection? Personal connection? In his endeavour to spread more knowledge and make people think for themselves and not blindly follow geniuses, to wake them up and let them think for themselves - maybe, somewhere, in there, he's helping that little child that was almost dehumanized for his intelligence. TLDR: Conflicting mindsets due to trauma, brain vs heart almost - his knowledge that he is a genius vs the crippling lack of his self worth.

Now that we've established Dr. Ratio's self worth, let's take a look at the impact Aeons had on him. Nous, the Aeon of Knowledge itself. I think in a world where the Gods are real, tangible beings that you can reach out and talk to - it makes sense that someone with high ambition and someone who's been called a genius his whole life would seek the confirmation of Nous. When you're a man of knowledge, and you've spent your whole life working with it, being praised for it – it feels natural to look for a god to look down upon you and bless you, right? The Genius Society – it should house him, because he is a genius as well, right? Imagine this – you have been called a genius your whole life, held to that kind of pedestal for so long, and now you wait for the recognition of the Gods. Because if you truly are a genius – then surely, a higher being will recognize your intelligence, right?

The invitation never comes.

And then, comes the doubt.

What if I'm really not a genius? What if everything I've worked for is a lie? Aeons are beings that are 'absolute'. If the god of Knowledge won't accept you or even cast a glance upon you, does that mean that everything was wrong. Gods see more than humans, after all. Gods know more than humans - and that spiral... I think you can see if. (If you don't let me know. I will ramble about how a failure like that can make you spiral down into a worse mindset). 

However, the reason why Ratio was never invited to the Genius Society is simple. It’s because he LOSES THE IDGAF WAR. Now, if we look at all the people we know who are in the Genius Society - we find one thing in common. They’re in it to win it for themselves. They don’t help others using the knowledge that they’ve gotten - they use it to pursue shit for themselves. The people of the Genius Society are inherently self-serving. They WIN the idgaf war. Ratio LOSES. Do we see now? 

Ratio’s empathy is the reason why he wasn’t let in. He is too human. Nous is a computer. Herta is detached from people. Ruan Mei is literally looking at life as test subjects. Screwllum is a robot. 

OUR DOCTOR MAN LOST THE IDGAF WAR, BECAUSE HE IS HUMAN AND FEELS FOR OTHERS!!! 

Also, it’s a plausible theory that Nous’s definition of ‘genius’ is different from the human definition of ‘genius’ – it’s a computer, after all. Who knows what’s going on in that code head of its. 

However, we still love you Ratio. Never stop losing the IDGAF war. 

TLDR: Nous is a computer. It is also in it to win it. It is also self serving. It gazes upon the hoes who are here to win it for themselves. Ratio is busy serving the masses and cooking knowledge in his frying pan. To it, there is no logical reason to be doing this. Therefore, no reason to invite this guy to the Genius Society. 

Ratio’s gifted child trauma says otherwise. He wants in. Why wouldn’t he? He’s been working his whole life as a genius. 

Nous is like… nah bro, you care too much. Ratio is like, ‘what the fuck?’ And then the AEON OF KNOWLEDGE GOES FOR THE MILK. 

Okay, now, quick shoutout to Ratio wanting to help others. He is just like me fr. SO BASICALLY, RECAP OF EVERYTHING I JUST SAID:

Ratio LOSES the idgaf war because he cares about other people. Spent his whole life as the golden egg, and then turns to the gods for recognition because of the inherent trauma of being a child genius. He goes, "hey bro, can you confirm that I am in fact a genius?" and Nous goes, "no, you are too busy cheffing for the masses." Ratio goes, "what the fuck?" and then we collectively realize his attitude comes from blocking off his feelings (while failing miserably), being salty about not being recognized, being put on a pedestal for his whole life, and his crippling depression *cough* lack of self worth *cough*. 

Oh, and the "I will never be enough" thought train probably hits him every single day. He is not enough to be recognized by a God. Gods are superior to humans. Maybe nothing has worth after all. Hey, that's Nihility! Hi IX, let's hear what you have to say.

*muffled ix noises*

I see, I see.

The consensus is: HE'S TRAUMATIZED BY EXPECTATIONS! HE WILL PROBABLY SUFFER FROM BURNT OUT GIFTED CHILD IF HE HAS NOT ALREADY!

Okay, now, before I delve into song lyrics (and I KNOW this has been long, just bear with me) I want to talk a little bit (read: a lot) about his relationship with Aventurine. We all know that he cares about Aventurine in his own way. But I want to pull in another idea that I didn’t cover before: 

Ratio’s fucking emotional constipation. 

Basically, the reason why he has trouble connecting with others is because he was most likely alienated by others as a symptom of being called a genius and being put on a pedestal. This makes him seem unapproachable to his peers, most likely, and therefore, as a result, doesn’t know how to properly connect with others. This just makes his way of presenting affection and care to others even more challenging – because he just doesn’t know how to do it in a healthy and clear way. Academic trauma causing emotional problems, because he’s probably a little bit out of touch with his own. Processing? No! Research. Also, this is very important for understanding Ratio’s character in my opinion, because he’s just a little guy who doesn’t know how to articulate. Maybe he’s got a touch of the ‘tism. Tism mutuals, do we agree or disagree? 

However, in comes Aventurine. Love Aventurine, but they are both emotionally constipated. Aventurine displays his affection in ways that Ratio probably only catches after re-analyzing their time together about five times. He’s also a very closed off individual – but Ratio knows this. A cute thing is that Ratio is patient where he needs to be, even if he’s generally a pretty hot-headed guy, and I’m like… bro… that letter… “I wish you the best of luck”... I will wait for you…. GAY ASS MAN…

Sorry the Aventio demons took over. Anyway, what I’m trying to say here is that they both have nonverbal communication with one another that they clearly decipher and Ratio obviously cares for him (he came back and almost jeopardized the plan just for the sake of his ‘coworker’... okay gayboy…) and they just have such a neat little dynamic… Aventurine lets Dr. Ratio do his thing… understands his emotional alienation to a degree…. they’re so neat….

Okay, Aventurine segment over. NOW, FINALLY, WE CAN GET TO THE SONG LYRICS!!! YAY!!!! We all cheered!!!

We are going to be here for two more amber eras, because I realized I actually want to analyze every single lyric from both of these songs. Brace yourself for like, 2k more words. Help. 

I think it’s only proper that we start off with ‘Oh No!’ the song that has haunted me since my childhood.

“Don’t do love, don’t do friends

I’m only after success

Don’t need a relationship

I’ll never soften my grip”

Remember when I mentioned that alienation was a big part of Ratio lore? Yeah, that manifests itself in this. When you spend your entire life chasing after knowledge and being held to that standard of untouchable genius, it makes sense that you couldn’t connect with others and that you turn your gaze only to success. Therefore, relationships that are interpersonal lose meaning for a bit – you’re just looking for answers and ways to help them, not connect with them. Also, this is what he wants to do – so he’s never going to pass down an opportunity to better himself or to help someone else. 

“Don’t want cash, don’t want card

Want it fast, want it hard 

Don’t need money, don’t need fame

I just want to make a change

I just wanna change, I just wanna change” 

This is directly alluding to his reasonings for distributing knowledge across the cosmos. Was he based on this song? Maybe he was. He’s not looking for money or fame, his ultimate goal is actually pretty selfless – to bring knowledge and give people the tools they need to think for themselves. He just wants to make a change – he just wants people to be able to have access to knowledge and help cure ‘stupidity’. He wants to do it as quickly as possible, always reaching for lofty goals that might seem impossible, but he will make them possible. 

“I know exactly what I want and who I want to be

I know exactly why I walk and talk like a machine

I’m now becoming my own self-fulfilled prophecy

Oh! Oh no! Oh no! Oh no, oh!” 

Ratio knows his goal. He knows what he’s working towards. I do believe that he understands why he is the way that he is – he has a degree in Psychology, after all. He knows how he���s been hurt but at the same time, the trauma brain probably doesn’t want to recognize it and he hasn’t stepped into healing yet. He knows what he went through impacted him, but he’s too busy helping others to help himself. He’s becoming what he wants to be, and yet he’s not, all at the same time – which causes the idea of “oh no!” as a kind of cry for help, almost. He’s too proud to ask for it himself, of course, so he’ll fall alone until someone manages to catch him and give him the strength to continue holding on. Aventurine is that. 

“One track mind, one track heart

If I fail, I’ll fall apart

Maybe it is all a test

‘Cause I feel like I’m the worst

So I always act like I’m the best” 

Now, these are the exact lyrics that made me associate this song with Ratio in the first place. He’s got a singular goal that he will do nothing to stop at getting, that he goes so far to get to. However, as I mentioned earlier, failure is not an option for those who were deemed gifted or genius. You are perfect, so therefore you must live up to everyone’s every expectation and surpass them, too, in order to keep your perception of yourself intact. Ratio does not hold himself in high regard, but acts arrogant in order to hold himself together and not fall to the self-deprecating thoughts, even if they fall through the cracks. It gets tiring to hold yourself together like that for a long time, you know? 

“I’m gonna live, I’m gonna fly

I’m gonna fail, I’m gonna die

I’m gonna live, I’m gonna fly

I’m gonna fail, I’m gonna die” 

Remember how I was talking about contradictory mindsets and how they can coexist. This is them. The feeling of crippling self-hatred and lack of self esteem versus the idea that you can do it, you can make a difference – you were born a genius, this is what you’re going to do. This is the knowledge that you are a genius vs the lack of self-esteem that Ratio has. “Mediocre” vs “genius” mindset, eh? 

All the other lyrics in this song are repetitions of what I’ve analyzed before, so let’s move onto “Are you Satisfied?” 

To be honest, there are only a few lines in this song that allow me to connect it to Ratio, so therefore, I will only be analyzing them. However, if you think that other lyrics can connect to him, I’d be interested in knowing how. 

“What you’re gonna be 

It’s not my problem if you don’t see what I see

And I do not give a damn if you don’t believe

My problem, it’s my problem that I never am happy

It’s my problem, it’s my problem on how fast I will succeed”

Pretending to not care about how the world sees you is so fucking real. Sometimes, you really don’t give a shit, and sometimes it’s all you can think about. Ratio… doesn’t seem like he’s the happiest person. He works himself hard and he’s always chasing after a goal that must be exhausting. He’s always doing his best, and I think even with his empathy, it’s easy to start not giving a shit after trying for so long and so hard. Accepting help is one of the hardest things that anybody can do, especially with how much pride he has. His personal problems are his personal problems and he can deal with them on his own. 

“High achiever, don’t you see? 

Baby, nothing comes for free

They say I’m a control freak

Driven by a greed to succeed

Nobody can stop me” 

Nothing comes for free. A lot of the things Ratio has achieved is due to his own intelligence, yes, but also because of a shit ton of hard work. His goal is literally to cure the universe of ‘stupidity’ – and that’s a pretty large fucking goal. He is a high achiever who likes to know the details of every situation when he can in order to try and make things better, and he is driven by a greed to succeed. Why wouldn’t he be? Success is important, and success means helping more people. He isn’t going to allow himself to be stopped by anybody – not even anybody from the Genius society. 

Okay, and we have finally reached the end of my analysis! This caps at around 4k words, so if you stuck around for this long, thank you so much. I would love to hear any of your comments, and I hope you laughed a little bit. Thank you again! This means so much to me that you read. <3

[mxltifxnd0m]

having a witch s/o headcanons ⟡ s. winchester

pairings: sam winchester x witch! reader, sam winchester x gn afab! reader

word count: 1.8K

warnings: none really, no use of 'y/n', mentions of death and violence, some angst, fluff, dean being dean and not liking witches, [a part of season of the witch verse!]

a/n: ahhh im so excited for this little universe i've created and i hope you guys enjoy it as much as i had making it!!

as always enjoy the fic! please like, comment, and reblog! your feedback fuels me <3

[here's my taglist; read rules before sending in an ask]

𝘴𝘢𝘮 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵

⟡ before dating you/ how you met: 

the two of you didn’t exactly get off on the right foot when you guys met for the first time 

you taught at the local university in your town, trying to live as normal as a life as you could while being a witch

the boys were on a hunt in the town you were living in, and they thought that you were the witch that was killing the college students (they were your previous students, hence why they came to that conclusion) 

they had tried cornering you in your office after hours while you were working late but you managed to escape their grasp and flee. (you called in sick the next day and canceled classes) 

after the minor altercation the three of you had, you managed to track down the winchesters and confront them at their motel room, and you explained the situation to them (it was a rogue witch from your father’s previous coven that was seeking revenge on your family since they were betrothed to each other but your father had fallen in love with your mother, running away, and then having you)

you knew about the winchesters, who hasn’t? so you knew that they would be hesitant about accepting your help, but you weren’t doing it to help them; you were doing it to save your own behind and save your students 

dean outright refused your help, but sam, being the smart man he was, knew that without your help or knowledge, tracking down that witch would be difficult, so a hushed conversation later (you heard every single word that they said in that small motel room) they had accepted your help on the condition if you ever stepped out of line that they wouldn’t hesitate on killing you 

you rolled your eyes at their threat but agreed (you haven’t killed a human being in all of your years of being alive so you weren’t going to start now, though with dean’s attitude towards you, you just might break that record) 

working with the winchesters was like pulling teeth, but at the end of it all, you guys killed the witch, and the winchesters went on their merry way. 

you were hoping that would be the first and last time you’d ever see their faces, but alas fate is a mistress that you hate to serve, and they ended up at your office, posing as FBI agents once again and needing your help (it was mostly sam asking and dean standing next to him stone-faced)  

you flat out refused to help them, not wanting to be pulled into their world of crazy (your mother made sure you had as normal a life as you possibly could, and you weren’t going to give that up for the winchesters), so you swiftly sent them out of your office   but you weren’t very lucky later that night when sam had shown up on your doorstep and all but intruded on what you thought was going to be a quiet night

against your better judgment, you invited the gentle giant into your home, and you shared the pizza that you had ordered in silence before he tried once again to ask for your help 

it was either the wine you had consumed or his pleading puppy dog eyes (it was probably the combination of both) but you found yourself saying yes to help them 

you swore to yourself that this was the only time that you would help them 

but newsflash, they didn’t end up happening, after that hunt, you and sam had exchanged numbers, and you found yourself texting sam and helping them out with either research or spells that they needed for a hunt 

hell, even dean had gotten ahold of your number and texted you for help (but this was very rare and sam was typically the person to reach out and ask for help) 

then the texts with sam had crossed over from just asking for help and the two of you started to have friendly conversation with one another 

it was nice, being able to chat with him, you knew that sam was kind and intelligent in his own right so the two of you texted each other often before it turned frequent 

months had passed, and you had a tentative friendship with sam but before you knew it, you had developed feelings for the taller winchester and you were a little terrified about it (you knew that sam was generally more open about monsters, but there was a little voice in the back of your head telling you that he could always turn on you) 

you became distant with him, trying to be discrete about it but sam was perceptive and called you out on it, and you gave him a bs excuse about it 

turns out that wasn’t enough because a day later, he had shown up on your doorstep like he did when he asked for your help that night and practically confessed his feelings towards you

you were shocked by it, but managed to tell him that you felt the same, you melted seeing the grin that he gave you before he leaned down and captured your lips in a passionate kiss 

⟡ dating sam winchester 

at first, the two of you took it slow; you didn’t want to rush with sam, considering that you felt so strongly for him and sam to you

sam also had to deal with dean, knowing how his brother felt about witches, and even if you guys were on decent terms, the two of you had no idea how he’d feel if his little brother was dating a witch. 

so sam kept it from dean, but it wasn’t going to be for long, just until the two of you were comfortable telling him, but considering you lived a couple of states away, you’d hope it be soon because you knew that the older winchester wasn’t dumb and would question sam about his whereabouts if he visited you often. 

the two of you did long distance, which was difficult, to say the least, not seeing each other for weeks at a time, and with you teaching and sam traveling the states for hunts, it left a lot to be desired, but you guys found workarounds for it  

but there was an insistence that sam didn’t respond to your texts for at least three days, which was out of the norm (he usually took a day to respond if he couldn’t find time to respond if he was out on hunts) and so you panicked and tracked sam’s phone to a hospital (which worried you immensely). you immediately high-tailed it to the location where his phone was. you burst through the hospital doors, and dean was waiting in the lobby for his brother to be discharged and was confused to see you here 

then sam came walking (limping) down the hallway, and his eyes landed on yours, and before he knew it, your lips were on his, but he sank into your embrace nonetheless (dean looked at this scene with wide eyes and when you guys broke away, you expected dean to drag you off of his brother and possibly kill you) 

lucky for you and sam, dean liked you enough that you had his permission to date his brother (but that didn’t mean that he pulled you out of the motel room that the boys were staying in and threatened you lightly) 

soon after dean had given his seal of approval, sam asked you to move in with him in the bunker after a year of dating

you almost said yes immediately, but you said you would think about it since that would mean uprooting your life and abandoning a life of normalcy

it only took a week to think it through and about a month and a half later, you were moved into the bunker in Lebanon, Kansas living with the boys was a huge adjustment at first, but you guys eventually found your groove, and you had become an important asset in helping them out on research and spell work 

speaking about spell work, since you were born with your abilities (thanks to your father), magic came easy to you, but you only worked with healing magic and light magic (you studied everything else; it was good to be knowledgeable about all facets of the craft) 

but your healing salves and magic came in handy in their line of work any time they were injured 

you had a separate workspace when working with your craft (you had cleared out an old room that wasn’t being used and they were okay with it) 

you found yourself in that room more often than not and usually sam would come in and just study you as you bustled around the room (his gaze never strayed from your focused face as you worked and found it adorable when you slightly jumped when you looked up from the book you were reading to find sam smiling at you) 

sam never really expressed his feelings about learning about the magic you used, so you were thoroughly surprised when sam came to you asking if you could teach him 

you weren’t sure at first but eventually caved (those damn eyes of his would be the death of you) 

he was a good student and a fast learner, which shouldn’t have surprised you considering you knew how smart he was

but dating sam while you lived with him was a breeze (bar from the fact that even when he was a human heater, he stole the covers often and the little spats the two of you had, which most of the time were solved in a matter of hours and led to great sex) 

it was the first time in a relationship that you felt like you could be yourself for once, having to brush off the side of yourself as a hobby or hide it from your partners 

but with sam, you didn’t need to hide it and it felt so freeing

sam was understanding, compassionate, sweet, gentle, and so many more things that you could rattle off but it would take too long to even explain, but you couldn’t have asked for a better person to be your partner 

he’d given you the pet name of jinx, and at first it sounded like a nickname that dean would have given you, but it slowly grew on you, and he was the only one who could call you that (mainly because you threatened bodily harm if dean had called you by it) 

so in return, you’d given him the pet name of “my heart” which you thought was fitting because he did have it fully and you loved the blush that crept up his neck and bloomed on his cheeks when you called him by it

there were always going to be bumps in the road, and life-ending events looming over the two of you, but you were convinced that if he was by your side and you by his, you guys could do anything 

[ms-demeanor]

Maybe this is a silly question to ask about a podcast that 1) isn't fiction and 2) has hundreds of episodes, BUT. Do you have a favorite Knowledge Fight episode? Or maybe, idk, a favorite 'era' or type of episodes? A friend sent me a playlist of all the ones covering the Sandy Hook lawsuits - man those formulaic objections eps are fun! - and I've just finished listening to the last one on the list. So I guess I'm looking for recs on what to listen to next?

The whole formulaic objections series is good, i like the ones where they discuss Alex as a guest on Joe Rogan's Podcast, episode 25 about Dennis Montgomery is a good early example of Dan's research habits (episode 26 has the 4 ways to learn which is, like, foundational knowledge fight lore), Ep 392 about January 24th 2020 gets into a foundational thing for the covid info that will follow ("it's over for humanity, there will only be lone survivors" - they were VERY VERY worried about what they later decided was overblown) the responses to the court cases (602, 714, 715) that aren't formulaic objections are ALSO good, the episode about Bill Ayers (168) on infowars is really good, the episode about chompsky on Infowars is good (should pop up if you search chompsky in their episode list, 404 "Mr. Jones goes to CPAC" is good, and I like all of the multi-episode series about the documentaries. I like the episode when Jordan comes back to the US after the unite the right rally too - one thing I like in most podcasts I listen to is the leadup to and aftermath of big events, so I end up listening to November 2019 - September 2020 pretty intently across podcasts and knowledge fight is no different, they did good coverage of the way people were covering the Many Events of 2020.

I'm on my third full listen through and my podcast app shows that I've spent 4001.2 hours listening so far (I listen to everything at 2-2.5x speed) and I think they really start getting very very good after they kick off the formulaic objections. The early stuff is also good but they're also both excitable and more willing to jump to conclusions (I'm on about episode sixty right now and Dan is willing to make guesses about stuff in his time travel episodes and assert things that I don't think he would these days.)

I really like most of the "chatting with" episodes where they're talking to another person who researches in a similar space and I usually really appreciate Jordan's interviews but sometimes he's just too left for a more center guest and it becomes too awkward for me to listen to (I have to skip the Brian Stelter episode - I understand why Jordan interviews the way that he does and TBH I approve, I just can't listen to it).

If you're looking for another playlist to get started I'd say try episodes 130A-130E, which is the breakdown of the endgame documentary.

If you decide to start listening and you are coming across wacky wednesday episodes and finding yourself bored, just skip them and you won't be missing out.

(it may be a silly question to ask most people but it's not a silly question to ask me because I *DO* have my favorites out of nearly a thousand episodes of a nonfiction podcast about alex jones).

[onceuponatown]

The Great Molasses Flood was a disaster in Boston that occurred after a storage tank collapsed on January 15, 1919, sending more than two million gallons (eight million litres) of molasses flowing through the city’s North End. The deluge caused extensive damage and killed 21 people.

The tank was built in 1915 along Boston’s waterfront on Commercial Street, opposite Copp’s Hill. It was operated by the Purity Distilling Company, a subsidiary of United States Industrial Alcohol (USIA). At the time, industrial alcohol—then made from fermented molasses—was highly profitable; it was used to make munitions and other weaponry for World War I (1914–18). The tank’s immense size reflected the demand: it measured more than 50 feet (15 metres) high and 90 feet (27 metres) in diameter and could hold up to 2.5 million gallons (9.5 million litres) of molasses. Built quickly, the tank was problematic from the start, leaking and often emitting rumbling noises. Nevertheless, it continued to be used, and after the war’s conclusion USIA focused on producing grain alcohol, which was in high demand as prohibition neared passage.

At approximately 12:30 PM on January 15, 1919, the tank burst, releasing a deluge of “sweet, sticky death.” According to reports, the resulting wave of molasses was 15 to 40 feet (5 to 12 metres) high and some 160 feet (49 metres) wide. Traveling at approximately 35 miles (56 km) per hour, it destroyed several city blocks, leveling buildings and damaging automobiles. Although help arrived quickly, the hardening molasses made rescue efforts difficult. In the end, 21 people were killed, many of whom were suffocated by the syrup, and approximately 150 were injured. In addition, the Boston Post noted that a number of horses had “died like so many flies on sticky fly paper.” Clean-up efforts lasted for weeks, and Boston reportedly continued to smell like molasses for years afterward.

Numerous lawsuits were filed in the wake of the disaster. While victims alleged that the tank was not safe, USIA claimed that it had been sabotaged by “evilly disposed persons.” In 1925, however, it was ruled that the tank was unsound, and USIA was ordered to pay damages. In addition, the disaster resulted in stricter construction codes being adopted by states across the country.

For years, questions were raised over how such a seemingly benign substance could have caused so many deaths. In 2016, researchers released a study that placed the blame on cold temperatures. While warm weather would have caused the molasses to be less viscous, the winter temperatures made the syrup markedly thicker, severely impeding rescuers.

[a-certain-romance]

No One Knows

Characters/Ships: Yandere!Ruan Mei x fem!reader

Warnings: Smut written by a minor, Possessiveness, Fingering

For years, Ruan Mei has struggled with her ongoing research in the origins of life. Failed experiment after failed experiment. The emanator she created was only a short-lived example of all those years of hard work. Maybe it was too ambitious. And frankly, too large to manage. She needed something more stable, and tangible for long enough to be studied.

Through hours upon hours of trial and error, she finally succeeded in the creation of her most prized possession: you, her perfect little creation.

Her attempts at creating life were finally fulfilled with the help of that trailblazer from the Asteral Express. You were timid at first. Her modifications gave you the knowledge and ability to speak and read, but it took some time to warm up to her. Ruan Mei desperately wanted to study you immediately, but she’ll settle for simple observations until she gains your trust.

It was a slow process. If Ruan Mei has learned anything, it’s that she needs to learn how to show you affection. She spent more time with you when it didn’t involve her research. Although she’s been apathetic for some time, you’ve given her the courage to step out of her comfort zone. For the sake of this project of course.

Whatever she did worked. You eventually became as clingy as her past experiments. It’s only natural for you to adopt that same loving nature as the others have, but this time she’s enabled it a little more. She lets you be in the same room when she’s doing side projects and shares her knowledge of the biological and ecological aspects. She shares a lot of her pastries with you, and even makes the time to bake things with you. Sometimes when she’s spending a lot of time writing, she lets you lay your head on her lap for a while. She used to only see you as an influential accomplishment, but now she feels a sense of protective ownership over you.

She can’t keep you at the space station forever. Even though Herta doesn’t mind, she’s starting to get a little too curious about what Ruan Mei is keeping in that unoccupied level of the station.

And worst of all, her little creation is starting to wonder what’s behind those big steel doors that keep her locked in. And that just won’t do. She’s seen you giving those doors such longing looks, seen you tap and occasionally scratch the glass window. She makes a mental note to re-enforce the durability—‘just in case’. She knows she should observe your new behaviors a little closer, but she came to that conclusion a little too late the day she caught you stealing her card.

Were you…actually trying to escape? But why? She transformed this entire area just for you. Her past experiments have prepared her for what it takes to give something life; from food to sunlight to entertainment to company, what more can you possibly need?

“I’ll show you how much you need me.”

Her kisses are feather light at first. She pins you against the very door you intended on breaching. Even the pinning is gentle. You could probably struggle against her, but something tells you that she can easily overpower you with enough motivation.

Just as gently, her knee pressed right against your core. Her lips brush against your cheek, “Do you want more?” She asks sweetly. A little too sweetly. You shake your head, and she flips you around forcefully. In her breathy voice commands: “Hands against the door.”

Your palms shakily press against the surface. “Perfect,” she muses.

She strokes here hands all along your body, eventually settling on your waist. “Look at the way your body reacts to my touch. You’d miss this if you left me.” She kisses and nips your skin with satisfaction as her lips move down your neck.

“Only I can make you feel like this. I created you; I know your body like the back of my hand,” her thumb tugs at your waistband, causing your breath to hitch, “See? Spread your legs for me…yes, just like that, wider. That’s my girl.”

She rolls your pants down carefully to the floor, prompting you to kick them off. Your underwear follows soon after. She returns to her stance behind you. Her gloved hand finds its way to your entrance, and her middle finger is the first to push past your folds. “Be good for me.” She rasps, planting kisses around your shoulder blade.

Your slick coats her finger with every stroke. She retracts from you for just a moment to bite her soaked glove off with her teeth. She tosses it behind her before returning to your inviting warmth with an added finger. She sighs pleasurably, almost nothing is obstructing her skin from yours.

Her other hand forces you to look out the window as she scissors her fingers inside you. The glass is somewhat clouded from your panting, but you can make out the sight of how her green eyes bore into yours.

Her fingers curl and rub feverishly against your sweet spot. Your body shudders as you inch closer to your climax. “Let go,” she moans, “let go and cum for me.” Your slick spurts through her slender fingers as you climax.

As you come down, Ruan Mei whispers a few “good girl”s as she kisses your neck. Her arms wrap around your body possessively with no intention of letting go.

She’ll make arrangements for a more permanent residence to keep you close. No one knows of your existence, and she intends to keep it that way.

[mypoisonedvine]

PLEASE I HAVE A REQUEST:

Reader is deathly afraid of physical touch and she’s a student of Jonathan Crane’s. She begins to question whether or not exposure therapy is humane and decides to write a research paper against the idea of exposure therapy and Dr Crane plots against her and finds out her fear, inevitably forcing her to confront her fear with non/con(???)

I’m thinking totally brutal / slow burn and Jonathan is just a full psycho in this, not offering her any mercy. He Def does his research and Def traumatized reader

PLEASEEEEEEEEEE

(because this is just drabbles, I'm not going to be able to flesh this out the way you've envisioned, but I love the concept so I will do something based on it!) obviously this is dark, warnings for kidnapping and threats of noncon

haphephobia - the irrational fear or overwhelming aversion to physical touch.

You were far from the only psychopathology student who got into this line of work due to personal experience. Actually, more often than not, this interest begins for people with their own relationship with mental health-- maybe something as simple as a long battle with clinical depression, maybe trauma or abuse, maybe a history of addiction. You would hope that this made most of the students more equipped, more empathetic; that was true, but it also meant that there was a little more... instability among the cohort than you wanted to admit.

And yet, you hadn't even noticed that the worst of them all was right there in the front of the class, teaching.

"I read your paper," he explained, pacing back and forth, sparing long glances at you. "It was quite good. But your conclusions are weak."

Normally, if you'd been receiving this sort of feedback during office hours, you would just tilt your head and ask 'how so, Professor Crane?'

But considering you didn't even know where you were, strapped to an exam table in some dark basement, you weren't as inquisitive as usual. "See," he continued, approaching you, "if you want to disprove exposure therapy, you can't just do a systematic review of previous literature-- you need to get in the field, experiment yourself."

He lowered his voice as he stood closer to you, leaning over you, looking at you with a sort of fascination and pity.

"After all," he continued, "I'm a... fierce advocate of psychiatric experimentation."

"Yeah," you panted, the initial panic of waking up here fading into a general, steady terror, "I'm beginning to realize that."

"And you're always free to have your own opinion-- I think it's important that my students utilize their right to disagree with me-- but in this case, well, you just can't deny the results."

He was fucking smiling as he discussed it-- he was proud of what he'd done, of what he was going to do to you. "I can," you insisted, "if they're not ethical."

He rolled his eyes. "Always such a good girl," he cooed. "Let me worry about the ethics and you-- you can just worry about what I'm going to do now that I've got you tied up down here, where nobody will ever find you."

Bringing his hand closer to your face, you turned it away with a whimper. "Please," you whispered, "I-- you know I can't--"

"How does it feel?" he asked. "Right now, knowing I might touch you?"

"It's..." you trailed off, struggling to find a train of thought with him so close. "It's anxiety-inducing, obviously. It's dread."

"Filled with dread just because I'm getting close," he smirked. "You're in serious need of intervention, sweet thing. I can't believe you've gone without help for so long."

"This-- this isn't help, Professor--" you began to protest, but you winced as he gently brushed a finger over your cheek.

"You look like you're in pain," he noticed.

"It hurts," you hissed. "It hurts to be touched."

"Hurts how?"

"Like... like I'm raw all over. Like my body is one big burn," you whispered, eyes still shut tight as his hand moved down to gently caress your neck.

"And you've ruled out any medical cause-- an autoimmune disorder, hypersensitivity of the skin?"

You nodded, biting your lip to try to think of something other than the pain he was inflicting-- the pain you were totally helpless to. "There's no... physiological cause..."

"It's all in the mind," he finished for you, "and what a powerful mind you have. You're one of my best students, you know-- it's a shame you're limited by your fear. Fear of the truth, fear of breaking your precious ethics... fear of the future."

Your eyes shot open when his touch trailed down even further, toying with the neckline of your shirt; if any human contact was painful, you hadn't even prepared for the overwhelming anxiety of being touched in a way that had even the slightest sexual undertone. "Y-you don't really think you're that powerful, do you?" you pressed. "That you can take away fear?"

He shook his head. "No, dear, I don't have to," he replied. "I don't take it away-- I use it."

Just as his touch wandered, so did his gaze, and you shuddered under his dark stare as he started to properly grope you; his breathing picked up a bit, his lip twitched-- he even darted his tongue out for a second before smiling again.

"And now," he grinned, "I have you to use, too."

[aspergerasparagus]

Oh no I did again, more toxic yaoi but this time there's a lot more of it cos I finally finished it after like a week. Woops.

Anyway Frankie discovers a new way to make money and the contestant is suffering once again. Enjoy.

Also on Ao3

Preparations for the new season had been progressing well, although it would still take them longer for this season given that certain cast members had been disposed of and their replacements were taking some time to be completed. In the meantime to keep the fans engaged and excited for the show's return Frankie had had a rather genius idea, if he said so himself. Well not entirely, Lucky had been the one to inadvertently mention it while making himself dinner. The human had mentioned that with all the cameras everywhere he was starting to feel like he was in one of those content houses he had seen online. This had of course led to Frankie badgering Lucky for the next few hours, demanding all the details especially after he accidentally mentioned the revenue such things were generating. Of course his contestant had adamantly refused to let Frankie stream him 24/7, kicking off about how it was “an invasion into their privacy”, wasn’t he aware the rabbit was already watching his every movement… Regardless Frankie had begrudgingly come to an agreement with Lucky, only being allowed to stream him during certain hours and not without telling him they were live. While this could have cut into the possible profits, it did also reduce the risk of someone slipping up while keeping the fans hungry for more.

So for the next week, Frankie would stick to his word and the new livestream would go on for a couple of hours each day, slowly gaining a following with people clamouring to see more of their adored winner. Of course while Lucky was the star, Frankie was always close by, always there to come up with ideas with what his little cash cow could do that day to earn them some additional funds and to moderate if Lucky started to act up. 

It was during their last livestream that Frankie finally noticed that there had been a gradual shift in the chat’s tone. Originally he hadn’t paid it much attention, leaving it mostly to Lucky to keep an eye on and engage when necessary. But as the days went on he slowly started to take more of an interest. It seemed that while there was still a good majority of people here just to see Lucky try and speedrun the parkour courses or make a fool out of himself, there was also a much larger subsection who seemed to be there not just for him. Frankie had found himself being mentioned more and more in the chat logs, which he assumed was due to his charisma and unusual appearance, but when reading through them later that night he realised it wasn’t just himself being mentioned, it was both of them within the same messages. A lot of research and googling terms later (seriously what did toxic yaoi mean?) finally led Frankie to the conclusion that a fairly substantial number of the viewers were only there to see Frankie and Lucky interact with one another. It seemed they were becoming the hot new “couple” and from Frankie had researched, couples streams made even more money.

The following day as always Frankie cheerfully made his way over to Lucky’s room, not even attempting to knock before he barged his way into the room. 

“Wakey, wakey my lucky contestant we have a new day of content to film and we are going to need to get started early as I have an extra exciting day for us!” Lucky just groaned and clamped the pillow tighter over his head in a feeble attempt to block out his intruder's chipper voice. Letting out a small snort of amusement, Frankie effortlessly yanked the pillow away before pulling the man out of his bed by his collar, earning him an earful. “Now, now none of that Lucky. I need you up and ready and looking your best for today’s stream. This is going to be the biggest one yet.” The man gave him a curious look from behind the mask (Frankie made him sleep in it, just in case), before finally yanking his shirt free from the rabbit’s grip.

“What’s so special about this one? Wait if you’re starting the next season early I swear I’ll push you into one of those grinder myself!” Frankie just waved his hand to dismiss his golden goose’s concerns as the man bristled next to him.

“Of course I’m not! We’re nowhere near that stage yet, do you know how hard it is to make a replacement for Henry. Urgh the investors are still pissed off about that one… Nethertheless I promise this will be a nice and easy stream. So you can wipe that scowl off your face and get dressed, I’ll even get breakfast ready for you~” Humming to himself Frankie saw himself out while Lucky just stared after him, a small shiver going down their spine. 

Frankie had been busying himself in the small kitchen he had set up when Lucky finally joined him. The man seemed on edge as he sat in the chair furthest away from the rabbit, their body stiff and ready to jump to action. His little contestant had good instincts, even if he didn’t know what Frankie had instore for him today he still knew him too well to not suspect something. Frankie purred softly as he grinned widened, that’s why Lucky was his number one contestant, the show's only winner. His special little human. Plating up the food he set it down in front of the man, who looked at it like it was poisoned. 

“Don’t look at it like that, it’s just normal food I swear. I’d offer to taste it for you but we both know that wouldn’t do much.” The sickly sweet tone didn’t reassure the Contestant  who hesitantly poked at it before slowly placing a forkful into their mouth, correctly assuming Frankie wouldn’t temper with the food, at least not without the cameras rolling. Smirking to himself, Frankie took a seat next to the man, resting his head in his hands as he took in the human, earning him a sour look.

“You’re being far too nice today.”

“Can’t I be nice to my biggest money maker?”

“Absolutely not, it’s you were talking about Mr murder parkour game host. I’m not stupid enough to think you’ve just turned over a new leaf. You’re up to something and I’m going to take a shot that it’s not going to be good for me.” Frankie could only chuckle and sit back as Lucky spat out his accusations. He was right of course, which only tickled the rabbit even more.

“Perhaps, but I assure you you won’t get injured, intentionally anyway.” Dropping the announcer voice, Frankie leaned in closer to Lucky who froze instinctively, his voice lowering as he murmured against their ear. “Who knows, you might even enjoy today’s stream. I know I will~”

Lucky bolted out of their chair like it had been electrified, causing it to clatter to the floor with a metallic clang as he pressed himself against the wall behind them. His body was shaking as he kept his eyes locked with the rabbit’s as they just let out a cruel chuckle, pleased with the reaction.

“Jumpy today aren’t we? Well I won’t torment you any more… for now at least. So eat up and I’ll see you when you’re done, Lucky.” Dusting himself off, Frankie left the man cowering against the wall shooting daggers at him the whole time until he was out of sight. Frankie could feel the pep in his step as he headed back towards his office to make sure everything had been set up as he had asked. He wanted everything to go as planned but given how suspicious and high-strung his contestant was being, he was sure he’d have to resort to his plan B. Frankie couldn’t stop the sneer that spread across his lips at that idea. He had hoped it would end up that way. Not only would it give the viewers something truly special to watch but he couldn’t deny it was getting him worked-up just thinking about it. Stopping at the entrance to his office he gripped the handle and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. There would be time for this later, for now he had to focus before Lucky eventually worked up the nerve to show his face and begin the stream of their lives.

It took Lucky less time than Frankie had expected for them to appear at his door. He really needed to stop underestimating just how impressive his star could be. Taking his usual seat, the man crossed his arms, huffing slightly, like a child annoyed with their parents for some perceived injustice, as he fixed the rabbit’s stare.

“Go on then. It’s not like I’ll be able to get out of this, but if you try anything Frankie I swear-”

“Oh hush, you’ll be fine Lucky. I promise. It might not even be that long of a stream in the end if you behave and follow the script.” Frankie could see their eyes narrow behind their mask, even less trusting of the creature now. Nonetheless he finally heard them sigh as they flopped back into the chair, resigning themselves to the whims of their showrunner.

“Fine. What have you got instore for me today? Speedruns? Parkour demonstration? Oh please don’t let it be another cooking tutorial that went so bad last time-” Chuckling Frankie held his hand up silencing the man.

“No, nothing like that this time. Thankfully. Today’s stream as mentioned will be a little… different. I’ll explain everything to you, and our audience, at the time. So come along, and no I am not telling you anything before you start making demands. Like I said you’ll find out in due time~” The smooth voice he put on did nothing to ease the contestant who, after hesitating for a moment, followed after him, mumbling under their breath about how bad he knew this was going to turn out. Of course Frankie could correct him, but honestly he was getting a kick out of keeping his little Lucky in the dark.

Typically Frankie did most of their broadcasts within the more centralised areas of the facility or within the lobby areas. Good lighting and “safer” areas where Lucky could show off his skills. But for today’s broadcast he had a slightly different idea, given he was sure he knew how the reveal was going to play out and it would save on time when the inevitable happened. Leading his contestant towards Frankie’s Frosted Peak, he noticed out of the corner of their eye how the man began to stiffen as he realised their destination. Typically Lucky avoided this area of the facility, most likely due to the possibility of a certain someone releasing the slime onto him but he did occasionally venture there if Frankie was in tow. Well he wouldn’t have to worry about the fear of drowning this time, something much worse would be chasing him this time if Frankie played his cards right. 

Reaching their destination the rabbit beckoned this superstar inside and positioned him just by the check-in line before clicking his fingers. At the sound a couple of drones whirled to life and drifted up into the air, slowly beginning to circle the pair, the cameras attached to them swivelling to fix themselves on their targets. Frankie saw Lucky’s eyes darting between the drones, a look of confusion coming over him. Of course these were a new product the rabbit had been able to purchase with the funds his little money maker had been able to so generously generate for him, and of course he’d gotten the best money could buy (well within reason, the investors were keeping a closer eye on his spending habits recently). Clearing his throat, Frankie took centre stage as the lights on the drones flickered to life and the familiar sound of the other cameras turning on echoed around the room. The chat screens soon began to flood with a wall of text, endless streams of messages that passed by so quickly it was almost impossible to read one before another immediately took its place. 

“Welcome ladies and gentlemen to a new stream! I’m sure you are all excited to see what we have planned for you today and I assure you today will be a very special episode. As you might have seen on our social media pages we have been planning a special little gift for our most devoted followers. You know who you are, I’ve seen the comments~” The teasing tone caused the chat to burst into a frenzy of messages, while Lucky just glared at the back of the rabbit’s head. He knew something was wrong and was about to voice his grievances before Frankie spoke up once more.

“So as a thank you from the both of us, we have a treat instore for you. First off a certain chat filter has been removed temporarily, you know the one I mean, and secondly your favourite host and his lucky little rabbit will be putting on a show for you, all you have to do is choose what show that will be~” Clicking his fingers again, the screen behind them on the Peak blinked on revealing a poll of some sorts. Frankie could only smirk as he saw Lucky squinting from behind his mask to try and read it before he froze, realisation dawning on him. Making his way over to his favourite contestant, a soft purr escaped the rabbit as he leant down to whisper in the man’s ear, his voice almost feverish.

“I told you this was going to be a special show, Lucky. Aren’t you excited? I am positively ecstatic myself. I wonder what option they’ll choose? You know which one I’m hoping for, don't you my little rabbit~” Lucky could only stare ahead, eyes transfixed on the screen as the votes began to pour in by the thousands, the words atop it, flickering menacingly back at him.

Choose our first date activity!

“W-what the hell is this about? What’s going on Frankie?” His voice faltered slightly as he forced the words out of his throat, still unable to process what exactly was happening. Letting out a soft chuckle, the rabbit nuzzled his cheek lightly causing Lucky to jump away from him, eyes wide with confusion before quickly a wave of anger spread over them.

“This is what all those bloody streams were for weren’t they?! Just some fucking excuse to make me play out your twisted little fantasies! How didn’t I see it before!” Frankie could only grin wider as Lucky finally began to put the pieces together. While he’d give the man credit, he was smart enough to be able to read the rabbit pretty well, it seemed he was fairly blind to the actions being carried out around him. Never realising the narrative arc being acted out around him by Frankie until it had to be spelled out for him on a giant screen with thousands pouring in to vote on his fate. Honestly Frankie would be disappointed if this wasn’t so satisfying to watch play out in real time.

Finally composing himself, Lucky rounded on the announcer, grabbing him by the bow tie and dragging him down to eye level. Frankie could feel the man trembling with rage (and embarrassment) as he glowered up at him

“Stop the fucking vote!”

“Oh? You don’t want our fans to help choose the perfect first date for us? Are you getting all shy again my little rabbit~?” The fake sincerity in his voice only made the man’s grip tighten on his tie. He’d never managed to piss off his little contestant like this before. Such pure, unfiltered animosity and resentment radiated off the tiny little human, it was practically suffocating and it was all directed solely at him. Frankie was completely intoxicated and loving every moment of it. 

Arousal probably wouldn’t have been the correct word to use to describe how he felt right now, given that he wasn’t technically able to feel something like that given his state of being, but he was sure this was a very close facsimile of it. Perhaps euphoria or delirium could also be used to aid in its description. Regardless, Frankie’s plan was playing out even better than he could have ever imagined and his little Lucky was playing his role perfectly. Now to see just how well the man could keep it up seeing as they were barely even halfway through the first act.

“I said stop the fucking vote!” 

“I can’t. These people paid good money to watch us go on a cute date and they’ll get that. Neither of us can afford to make the big men upstairs mad at us now can we?” Hissing like an angry cat, Lucky lurked away from the rabbit, a look of pure resentment in his eyes.

“Bastard…” Frankie could only giggle before he turned his attention to the chat screens, to see what they thought of their little lovers tiff. They were eating it up. The chat had now worked itself into a frenzy as messages spilled in by the second, all clamouring to demand more. Suggestions on how Frankie should deal with his “naughty little bunbun”, people questioning how this was going to play, people chanting to get their choice to the top of the poll and a variety of other messages, all echoing the same fanatic energy as the rest of the chat. Now to give them a real show.

“But perhaps there is another way if you are really so set on not playing with me Lucky…” The man stopped his pacing to stare the rabbit down. It was clear that he wasn’t remotely close to trusting another word that came out of the monstrosities' mouth but if it meant getting out of his current situation he would at least consider listening. 

“The people need a show. They have all paid good money to be here, so we need to put on something that they’ve never seen before and that fits in with our clients… tastes. So I propose a little wager, nothing bad I swear. You won’t get hurt and if you win, no date. How does that sound Lucky?” The man just held the rabbit’s gaze and he let that offer process. There was the possibility that Lucky would refuse. Just say fuck it and go on the “date” regardless of what it would turn out to be and that would be that. But Frankie knew his little rabbit too well now, better then maybe he knew himself. He knew what he’d choose, that is why he’d planned this out. Why he’d even brought him to the Peak to begin with. He was playing right into his hand without even realising. This wasn’t for the viewers or the money anymore, this was just for Frankie’s entertainment now.

“... What do you propose?” 

“A little game. Very simple; you win, no date.”

“And if I lose, I have to go on the date?”

“Correct. You’ll also need to play along regardless of what is chosen. Give the people what they want.” Lucky fell silent again before finally sighing and resigning himself to his fate.

“What game do you have in mind? I’m guessing us being here isn’t a coincidence.” Frankie felt a shiver run down his spine as he turned to face the cameras once more.

“So observant my golden goose! I suggest we play a simple game of “tag”. You try to get away from me while I chase you. Manage to get to the top before I can catch you and you’ll win. I’ll even give you a head start~” The chat was lapping this up, the messages quickly devolving into mindless key smashing over the idea of them seeing the two objects of obsession playing out a common trope in their fantasies (Frankie was all too aware of the type of things that were being written about them regarding situations similar to this). Meanwhile Lucky just eyed the climb behind him. He’d done it before, he could easily do it again. Frankie was sure there he was thinking that there was a strong possibility he could beat him, hell Frankie (the actual one), couldn’t catch him. What chance could this little rabbit who spent all his time watching tv screens and narrating possibly do?

“Fine, but I get a 30 second head start.”

“10.”

“20. And no slime.” Frankie could only purr as Lucky went to take his place at the starting line, not giving the rabbit a chance to argue. 

“You can be so demanding my cheeky little rabbit~” Beckoning the drones, they followed after him and soon took up position, one coming to rest just beside the contestant while the other hovered just over Frankie’s shoulder. 

“Now chat, remember to root for who you want to win and let’s see if our only winner can beat the Peak once more!” Dropping the voice he chuckled softly. “May the best player win Lucky but I’ll warn you, don’t go easy on me. I’m not going to let you get away from me with what’s on the line.” Frankie saw them shiver before they snapped their head back around to focus on the course in front of them. Clicking his fingers the chat moved to the large screen on the peak, pushing the voting poll to the side so they could witness how the viewers were chanting for them.

“Okay, so on my mark! Ready, steady, run rabbit run~”

Lucky was off the starting line like a bolt, the drone shooting after him to make sure it didn’t miss a single shot. He was fast, faster then he was during the 57th season. All the training he’d been doing since he’d “agreed” to stay on was certainly starting to show itself off now. He was effortlessly vaulting himself over the obstacles set up in his path and sliding under others. However while Frankie was admiring his contestant he was also keeping a countdown in his head, counting down the seconds until he could go after his prey prize. The moment he hit 20 he coiled his legs up before launching himself up the first ledge of the course completely negating anything before it. Easily flipping himself up he looked up to see Lucky just ahead of him getting ready to deal with the rotating platform, the man risked looking over his shoulder after he heard the rabbit land and Frankie saw their eyes snap wide as he realised what the rabbit was up to.

“Fucking cheating bastard…”

While Lucky was used to the other Frankie simply chasing him down like a mindless beast, he was a lot more cunning, able to more freely utilise the benefits this body of his provided him. And he intended to utilise everything he had to put on a good show. Charging ahead after his fleeing contestant it didn’t take long till he was on their heel, getting close enough he could have grabbed them had they not suddenly swerved to the side, sending him off balance and threatening to topple over. Taking his momentary stumble Lucky quickly launched themselves to the next level, leaving Frankie to try and correct himself before pulling himself up after them. But Frankie didn’t care. This was so much fun! Chasing after his contestant like a scared little rabbit was definitely something he could get used to (he could finally understand the appeal the other Frankie saw in it), and he was thankful it would play out for longer. It also seemed that he wasn’t the only one enjoying this. He knew Lucky would deny it but he’d seen it when they’d dodged him. The spark in his eyes. He was enjoying this too and that only got the rabbit more worked up. The thrill of the chase infecting both of them and ensuring that both would give it their absolute all.

Higher and higher the two climbed, neither letting the other get a chance in. The chat screamed out for them, chanting their names over and over as they continued their game of cat and mouse. It was looking too close to decide who would come out on top as Lucky rounded the final bend and sprinted ahead towards the peak. Frankie was loving every minute but alas all good things had to come to an end and he had no intention of letting his contestant beat him. There was too much at stake after all~ Lining up he saw Lucky sneak a glance towards the peak, just a few meters and he’d be the winner. And that distraction was all Frankie needed. Lowering himself to all fours (undignified he knew) he launched himself forward tackling the man who only had the chance to yelp before they both crashed into a pile just a couple of meters short of the finish line. 

Without missing a beat Frankie pinned the man flat on his back, hands gripping his wrists as they struggled under him but it was no use, Frankie had caught his prey and he wasn’t letting him get away now. They both remained silent for a moment except for the contestant's laboured pants filling the air as he tried to catch his breath, eyes locked on each other. The chat must be losing their collective mind right now. Finally Frankie leant down, mere inches from Lucky’s face as the man just held his gaze. His voice was low as he spoke, a small quiver to it as he had yet to come down from the high of the chase.

“I caught you my little rabbit~” Unable to keep his composure at the suggestive tone, Lucky finally looked away earning him a chuckle from the rabbit on top of him. Given the small muted noise they’d made it seemed he’d embarrassed them. Cute.

“Fine, fine you won. Now get off me already! We don’t need to be giving anyone any more ideas…”

“Oh trust me, this is nothing compared to what I’ve seen them write about us~” The man could only flash him a look of confusion and concern at that comment but that was enough about that for now. Nuzzling his cheek Frankie finally lifted himself off the contestant, offering them a hand as they went to climb to their own feet. After debating for a moment he hesitantly took it only to cry out as Frankie threw him up into his arms, and while carrying him bridal style (for the fans), leapt off the peak earning him a number of curses as Lucky grabbed at him. 

Once safely back on the ground, and after having to dodge a kick to his face, the rabbit took up his position, making sure the chat was clearly visible.

“And there we have it folks! A race like you’ve never seen before here at Frankie’s Parkour Palace! Wasn’t that exciting? I know I enjoyed myself wholeheartedly throughout the whole thing~” The chat burst into life once more, clamouring to scream their praises, complimenting the contestant on how well they did and a lot of the chat becoming a little more descriptive as they went over how Frankie caught his bunbun and how they had wanted to see how it could have played out. Frankie could only smirk as Lucky went red behind their mask as he continued to read the chat. What till he saw the fanart Lucky had found of the both of them. Clearing his head he reached over and pulled the man to his side, slipping a hand onto his shoulder.

“However seeing as I was the winner it’s time to see what date option, you the chat, has voted on. I can hardly contain myself to see what option you have all voted on, and I’m sure Lucky is just as intrigued to see what you have in store for him! Now to final votes!”

Clicking his fingers once more the screen moved to show the votes, slowly moving up from the fewest to the final viewers choice. Frankie could feel Lucky stiffen under his hand, their hands gripping his costume for comfort as he awaited his fate, hardly able to breath. As the list slowly rose up, Frankie could only pull Lucky closer to himself until it finally reached the top voted option:

Winner: Dancing

“Ooooh so chat wants us to have our first dance together as our date~ It’s a little early for that but I’m sure it’ll be good practice for the future.” He had expected an elbow in the side for the comment but Lucky continued to stare straight ahead, eyes focused solely on the results.

“Anyway, we’ll be back in an hour and have everything set up for you then. So as a little bonus for being such a good audience, I would like you to choose the song. Remember to choose something appropriate that fits my little rabbit the best. I’ll let you in on a little secret to help you choose, my little superstar actually has some moves. Let's see if we can get him a tune he can show off to~” Now that got Lucky to rip his gaze away to look up at the host, alarm in his eyes as he processed what they had said.

“W-wait how… how do you know-” Holding a gloved finger up to his lips, Frankie hushed them softly.

“So we’ll see you in a little bit and get voting!” With that the feed cut off as the drones returned to Frankie, the chat feed still displaying as they debated about what song they should choose. Meanwhile, Lucky just stood there before violently ripping himself away from the creature, his eyes filled with fear as he stumbled back.

“How? How did you know that?!” Feigning ignorance Frankie just cocked his head to the side, like a confused pet who couldn’t understand their owner's request.

“Know what, Lucky~?”

“You know damn well what I mean you bastard! Did… did you rig the vote?!” Frankie couldn’t keep the innocent act up as he suddenly cackled and gave his contestant a cruel grin. 

“You didn’t think I wouldn’t know everything about you did you? A show like this means we have to run background checks on all contestants. Very thorough background checks. I know everything about you my Lucky. Where you lived, where you worked, where you went to school… who your parents were.” The last part made the man bristle up like an angry cat but the fear in his eyes reassured Frankie that he wasn’t going to lash out like last time.

“Your father was a dance teacher and in turn, when you were younger, he taught you too. Of course you never pursued a career in it, glad you didn’t by the way or you’d never have ended up here, but I am aware you did win some awards in your younger years. I just wanted to put those skills of yours to use is all~” As he talked, his voice dropping once more, he made his way over to Lucky who could only cower away like a little rabbit, fear gripping him like it never had before. He looked so small and fragile now as Fankie casted him in his shadow. So unlike him.

“Don’t act scared Lucky, I won’t do anything. All we’re going to do is dance and that’ll be it. Just a normal first date~” Frankie was sure that would have been the end of it, until something ignited in his little rabbit's eyes and without a chance to react they reared their head back and slammed it into his causing him to yelp this time as their forehead connected with his nose. Stumbling back in shock he clutched his face as Lucky held his ground, glowering at him, a small trickle of blood leaking from the crack in their mask. The rabbit remained silent for a moment, processing what had just happened before his smile grew wide. 

“Now that’s more like it Lucky~! That’s what I want! I hope you bring that passion to our dance! I can barely stand the wait now~!” This was the contestant he wanted. The one who had braved the show, who beat all the odds and even him in the end. The one who even when terrified held his own and refused to back down. His golden goose, his little rabbit, his “Lucky” contestant. His everything.

After being coerced into finally letting the rabbit treat his wounds (who knew headbutting something mostly comprised of metal would do more damage to them than the rabbit), Lucky now sat sulking on the side of his bed, nursing his bandaged head. He was still pissed off at Frankie given that whenever he looked at him the man just shot him a sour look but it didn’t seem there’d be any more violent outburst for the day. Hopefully.

“So seeing as this is an important stream, I acquired you some new clothing as while stylish and practical that suit isn’t going to cut it. You have to dress up for a date after all~” The man just rolled his eyes and pouted but Frankie was sure he was somewhat eager to see the new threads he got, seeing as the suits are all he’d worn for the last few months. Something different would make a nice change and probably keep him well behaved. Picking up the package he’s brought back with him as he’d gotten the first aid kit he handed it over, the other man taking it cautiously. After inspecting it he quickly began to tear through the wrapping before pulling out the suit jacket, shirt and pants that had been inside. 

“Oh wow. I’ve never had something this nice before.” 

“I suppose not but you deserve something nice for our date. Plus it was in the budget so I coughed up a bit more. I want you looking your best for your fans.” Rolling his eyes he gently laid the suit down on his bed, treating it with the utmost care as the rabbit just smirked watching him. It might be the first time the man’s worn a suit before in his life bar for interviews, but it did tickle him to see that even though it was a gift from Frankie, he still treated it so gently.

“Well gone on, try it on. It should fit given as I had it made for you using your measurements. I need to make sure you’ll look presentable.”

“R-right, right- wait, how do you know my measurements? Oh you know what, never mind. I don’t think I want to know right now.” Groaning he went for the zipper only to hesitate as Frankie continued to watch him showing no signs of leaving.

“Frankie, I’m not changing with you watching.”

“You’ve done it before during the first time you were here. It’s not like I haven’t seen it all before.”

“Frankie get the fuck out before I headbutt you a second time.” The rabbit could only giggle, heading out to give his little rabbit some privacy. Such a shy little thing.

After a few minutes, Lucky finally stepped out. He seemed almost shy as he opened the door, presenting himself to Frankie, like a child trying something on for their parents to gauge their approval. Frankie’s eyes lit up immediately as he came over to inspect his contestant, circling around them as he checked it all fitted correctly.

“Well look at you, someone does clean up well don’t they~”

“Shut up. I feel stupid.”

“Well you don’t look it. Someone might even say you look handsome or is the word hot nowadays~” Grimacing beneath the mask, Lucky shooed the rabbit away as he chuckled to himself.

“Please never say that again. Honestly though, do I look okay? I don’t want to embarrass myself more than I already have today.” Taking a step back, Frankie ran his eyes over the man as he twirled around on the spot for him. He could certainly turn a few heads in this get up, good thing Frankie was the only one around to admire him.

“You look good Lucky, I’m being honest. You know I wouldn’t lie to you without reason.” Humming the man patted the front of the suit before nodding.

“Okay, if you say so. Shall we get this over with then.”

“Lucky, remember what you promised. You need to play along and act like you’re having a good time. So wipe that sour look off your face. I’ve also thought of the perfect place that can act as our dance hall for the evening!” Offering up his arm to his date, Frankie beckoned the man and with a groan he obediently took it, allowing himself to be led into the unknown.

Frankie hadn’t been lying when he had said he’d thought of the perfect place to turn into a dance floor. Considering most of the facility was covered in parkour equipment (or bodies) there had been only one clear choice, Hexa-Havoc. Dropping down into the arena, Frankie let Lucky down as the man inspected the area, a nervous look in their eyes. He hadn’t been here since he’d won and from the way he’d started to pick at his jacket, it didn’t seem he was particularly pleased.

“This was your idea? How are we supposed to do this on a floor that’s constantly falling?” Frankie just shook his head as he went over to a hidden control panel in the wall, starting to fiddle with the settings.

“The floor only starts to fall when the game’s started up, I’m not going to do that so I assure you it’s stable. Don’t trust me, run around and check it for yourself.” Finally getting the right settings down, he slammed it closed and made his way over to his date for tonight, the man turning to meet his gaze.

“You ready?”

“It’s not like I have a choice. But to warn you in advance it’s been awhile since I’ve you know…” Frankie dismissed him with a wave of his hand.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, besides I’ll be leading so you’ll have nothing to worry about. Just follow my instructions like you always do and we’ll have our viewers melting in our hands in no time.” Speaking of viewers, it was time. Clicking his fingers like last time, the drones suddenly descended from the darkness above before the screens lit up, chat suddenly coming to life as the feed started up once more. Seemed they’d been anxiously waiting for the return of their favourite couple and seeing as one had undergone a drastic costume change since they were more than eager now. The screens filled with excited messages at the sight of their winner and how good he’d look on the rabbit’s arm.

“Welcome back dear viewers! I see you’ve been craving our return but as promised here we are, back to entertain you once more with a very special bonus so lovingly picked by you, our viewers. Now without further ado, let us get this date underway and be kind to your sweet contestant, he’s a little shy. It’s our first date after all and I want it to be memorable~” Frankie couldn’t help but look over at his golden goose as he spoke, the man tutting and averting his eyes, but the embarrassment was clear. “Now let’s get down to business and see what song was chosen, it’ll be a surprise to all of us so let’s hope it was a good one.” Spinning on his heel, Frankie made his way over to Lucky and with all the charm of a fine gentleman bowed and offered up his hand to his date.

“Now then, may I have this dance my little rabbit~”

The lights in the room suddenly dimmed, the flooring changing from the technicoloured patchwork of colours to a soft blue, coating them and everything in the light. Lucky hesitated , his hand floating between them both before music suddenly started up from the unseen speakers that surrounded them.

Open the curtains

Lights on

Don't miss a moment

Of this experiment

Oh, the book is strange

Like clockwork orange

Keep your eyes buttered till the end.

Snatching his hand, Frankie pulled him close to his chest, Lucky instinctively grabbing at his shoulder with his free hand. Throwing him a dirty look, Frankie could only smirk as he slipped a hand around his contestant’s waist and started to lead their dance. Of course Lucky was slow off the mark, fumbling slightly with his steps, trying to keep up with the rabbit best he could. Pressing him closer Frankie took charge and soon they were matching one another perfectly, as if they’d choreographed this from the beginning.

Cut it off, cut down your loss

All that stubborn loyalty is gonna get you killed

In a world built on convenient theories

For the puppets on TV

There is comfort in the strings

If you're gonna control me

At least make it interesting theatrically

Frankie led his contestant around the floor, spinning and swinging him around with ease. Locking eyes with one another, the rabbit was surprised to see Lucky smirk before he spun himself into his arms, his back to his chest. Taken aback the rabbit could only freeze up, now this was a side he hadn’t seen before. But it was only a momentary lapse, Frankie letting out a purr as he slipped his hands back around his little rabbit.

“Keep up, Frankie.”

“Oh, I will don’t worry~”

Down, down, and down I go

I tell myself I'm a tough girl

Down, down, and down I go

I could never, ever, ever touch the soil

Slipping away, the drones turned their attention to Lucky as he took centre stage. He was getting into it now as he showed off just what he was capable of. He was so controlled in his movements, moving between each action almost without having to think. He made it look effortless. Frankie could only watch as his little rabbit became the highlight of the show, just like he had last time. His superstar was at it again.

My heart goes right

My head goes left

And end up on your bed

Huh

Coming up behind him, Frankie snaked an arm around him, wriggling an eyebrow at the last line which earned him an eye roll. Worth a try. Taking his hand once more, they continued their dance across the floor, so in sync it must be a sight to behold for the viewers. Not that Frankie was really paying attention to them. He’d see the takings at the end, right now his Lucky had his undivided attention.

Sure I'll be your marionette

Here, tug on my thread

Spread me open for dolly pink, snow white artificial beauty

Maybe we're all cold machines

Stuffed in the human skin

With human sins

Sewed up by the gods of city

“Hold on.” Frankie’s voice surprised Lucky who only just managed to wrap his arms around the rabbit in time as he extended to his actual height, easily lifting the man off the floor as he swung him around. He could hear the other man cursing him out as he refused to put him back down, but he didn’t seem to be too mad, given how he heard him a small snort of laughter slip out.

Cut it out, you've already lost

All that precious bravery is gonna get you hurt

In a world that feeds on the minority

May that self-centred belief lead you to peace

If you're gonna replace me

At least have the audacity to kill me thoroughly

As Frankie lowered him down, Lucky hesitated as he caught the last couple of lines. Locking eyes, Frankie could see the words hitting a little too close to home, his money maker starting to remember where he was, what he’d gotten himself into. Quickly sweeping in he took his hand, continuing their dance. This little game of theirs was his and his alone to control and it would only end when he decided it was time.

You gave me strength

Hopeful curiosity

Maybe there are still happy answers left for my discovery

What's the colour of the electric sheep you see?

And if you love me

Can you love your everything too, for me?

Coming to the end of their dance, Frankie pulled the contestant closer to himself as their movements began to slow before he finally dipped them as the music faded out. Leaving them alone with the sound of Lucky’s heavy breathing and his heart hammering away in his chest. He could feel their hands trembling slightly as they held onto his neck for support, realisation about their situation truly coming into clarity for the first time as the monster and man faced one another. Frankie let out a soft growl as he gently lifted Lucky’s chin, forcing them to crane their neck up so they were practically touching now.

“What do you think we are now, Lucky? A prisoner and their warden? Business partners? Lovers?”

“There is nothing here but vitriolic flirting.” Frankie could only chuckle at his answer, he wouldn’t expect less from the first winner of the show. Truly there was no one else like them. Leaning up he placed a “kiss” against their masked forehead.

“I’d be hurt, but you seem to know me too well my little rabbit~ I wouldn’t want it any other way. So let’s continue this dance until the end, I promise you I’ll be the one to end it. No one else deserves that honour except me.”

“...I know, I wouldn’t expect anything less.” His voice was so small as he spoke, almost sad knowing how he would meet his end. Some would have found comfort in the fact that it wouldn’t be the other Frankie but he could be just as bad if he wanted to be.

Releasing his chin Frankie trailed his hand down Lucky’s neck before suddenly tightening his grip around it, not enough to do anything, just enough to make his point. He felt the man swallow nervously beneath his hand but he didn’t break eye contact, holding his own once more.

“You know, when the time comes around I promise I’ll make you a spectacle. Your end will be deserving of all that you’ve done for me and the show. It’ll be unlike anything we’ve ever seen before!” Frankie was getting worked up just thinking how’d he do it. It had to be spectacular and go down in history, but he still had plenty of time to figure out the details. He wasn’t in a rush to get rid of his cash cow just yet. 

“How considerate of you, but remember Frankie, you’ll still have to catch me first. And I’m not going to let it happen again.” Frankie barely had time to register the sucker punch that was swung at him, only just managing to block it, releasing Lucky’s neck in the process. The rabbit couldn’t say he was surprised by the action but still a little shocked at how close his little rabbit had gotten to landing another hit on him so soon. Such tenacity. 

“Oh, keep this up and I might have to punish you~” Lucky just shook his head before releasing his grip on the rabbit’s neck, letting himself go limp and slipping out of their grip.

“I assure you being here with you is enough punishment but if you do, don’t get it from those guys. You should see what they’ve been saying...” He motioned to the screen behind him, Frankie finally acknowledging his viewers as he glanced at the chat. Oh, oh yeah they were losing their minds once more and with the filter removed they were being a little bit more descriptive and graphic then previously. It seemed the dance and their little interaction afterwards had gotten them into a frenzy. Demanding more and for Frankie to take things further, but they’d have to wait till next time. Frankie wasn’t going to get anything more out of Lucky tonight, except maybe a kick in the teeth.

“Well chat I hope you got everything you wanted and more with this stream! Also let’s give our little superstar a round of applause, even I was surprised just at how well he could move but we’ve all seen him on the courses so we shouldn’t expect anything less. Now until next time, I hope to see you soon!” With that feed cut off, leaving Frankie and Lucky alone. His little golden goose had his back to him, lost in thought no doubt about. He’d had a busy day so Frankie would cut him some slack. Slinking over he gently nuzzled their cheek, snapping them back to reality as they shooed him away.

“How about some dinner? My treat. I even have some wine so I can “wine and dine” you properly.” Lucky still seemed a little distracted but quickly shook his head clearing his thoughts. Not wanting to dwell too much on the rabbit’s promise any longer.

“Yeah alright, I could definitely go for a drink right about now. So what do you have in mind for food?”

“Well we could always try making something togethe-”

“Hell no you stupid rabbit! I’ve already had a stressful enough day as it is, don’t joke about something like that! You just cook me something seeing as this is all your doing. I deserve to take it easy for once.” Frankie could only laugh as Lucky put his foot down, the man pouting at him from behind his mask.

“So demanding, alright I’ll see what I can do. And I’m going to count this as our second date you realise. So will I be coming home with you after this?” 

“You’re lucky I don’t turn hexa-havoc back on and see how long you can survive it.” Snortin Frankie held out an arm letting Lucky (begrudgingly) to climb on as the rabbit began to scale his way back out of the stage. Overall Frankie had to say that everything had gone better than he could have expected, he couldn’t wait to see the taking from today~ It had to have been their best show to date! Looking down at Lucky, clutched in his arm, he couldn’t help but smirk. He couldn’t wait to see what his “Lucky” contestant would do when the time came for their final show. Frankie knew he wouldn’t disappoint him regardless of what the outcome would be. That’s just who he was. His contestant, his everything.