#and kept doing it until it dropped. which was... way more attempts than i would've been willing to put into it without her

[ladyofcrowsandcoffee]

rook story time: 7 please? 💜

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7. Rook being taught an important skill.

Carphira had been under the care of Viago for a few months now. Despite her natural talent in some areas like evasion, lock picking, pickpocketing, and gaining intel unnoticed almost every other talon saw a liability for their house. Viago whether due to stubbornness or seeing more than even Heir had in her was convinced she'd make a fine crow. Teia was also interested in her but felt Viago would be a better fit.She wasn't going to complain as it meant not having to steal or scrounge for food. She sat cross-legged across from Viago more focused on his multiple venomous animals in their enclosures than his arguing with Teia. Today's lesson was on poison making. Here's hoping I do better than my first time crafting a poison. Her first attempt at making poison went horribly she'd made a lethal poison but had melted the glass container used to mix it slightly. Viago was quick to throw it out the room when it started making a hissing sound with sparks coming off of it. Still don't know how he expected a child to craft a poison. Carphira tilted her head listening to the debate over if adder's kiss or quiet death was more appropriate to teach her. “Carphira join us we'll continue your lesson after lunch,” Viago said. Carphira stood up. Her dark red hair was in a ponytail. She followed behind both talons silently. The boots Viago recently given her were prone to making a clacking against the stone unless you deliberately made your steps land softer. She scanned ahead studying every door and hiding spot for a threat. Those almost two years on the street ingrained the habit.

“What’s a way to drop suspicion in public,” Teia asked.

“Disappearing into the shadows and weaponizing my age with a vendor or a unassuming person like a parent with kids. Particularly by asking if they've seen my parent teary eyed or asking for help finding an item on the list said parent sent me out for,” Carphira said confidently.

“See Viago she's a clever girl. Even the most determined spy would look at those big purple eyes filled with tears and think she's just a harmless kid.”

Viago made an annoyed exhale. Lunch was in the usual smaller dinning room instead of the one they used for meetings. It was filled with wood items and the occasional pop of red or purple. A small feast was spread out over the table. Carphira noticed Viago was standing against the wall instead of testing every dish. She narrowed her eyes slightly but kept her expression neutral. “Carphira part of being a fledgling is knowing what's safe to eat. You're to figure out which dishes are poisoned and explain your reason.” “So this is today's lesson got it.” The first item she investigated was the coffee items. The coffee based the silver stick test when she poured it into her mug. As did the milk. She studied the white sugar. Some the granules looked different in the crystal structure. Cyanide when in its crystal structure mimics white sugar while being undetectable until symptoms appear . “The sugar is poisoned with cyanide. The crystal structure is slightly different than sugar would be and is less uniform than the sugar crystals.” Viago didn't react more than rubbing his beard. The next two dishes were safe. A mixed berry salad was her next target. Let's see strawberries, blackberries, and something mimicking blueberries which can only be deadly nightshade berries. “There's deadly nightshade berries in the berry salad. They look like blueberries if you just glance at them.” Teia gave Viago a smirk. He was biting his lip slightly it would've been barely noticeable if she wasn't looking for micro-expressions or tells. Carphira hid how much this lesson scared her every time she turned to face Viago with her reasoning. With only two more items on the table to look at her stomach was twisting into a knot. The next item was a chicken pasta dish that wasn't poisoned. The final item was an aged manchego cheese. It being placed after the main dishes that were hot was already suspicious in itself. A semi soft cheese should be by the fruit in table placement. She studied it scrutinizing every detail. The wind was the wrong color instead of the usual yellow or beige color it was stark white. A nutty cheese can hide a nutty poison.

“The manchego is poisoned with arsenic. No Antivan worth their salt would ever place a semi soft cheese by hot dishes where it can melt. The rind should be a yellow or beige due to the plants used to wrap it. The pattern is slightly off because it isn't a true herringbone pattern but someone mimicking one. It's also a nutty cheese so a nutty poison wouldn't be noticed. Finally there's grey granules in the wedge cut from the wheel. They should've used yellow arsenic as it is more reactive and easier to hide in a cheese,” she said crossing her arms as she looked at Viago. He smiled proudly. Carphira relaxed just enough to release tension in her shoulders. While she trusted him to not let her die this was the first time he'd poisoned food and the stakes felted higher than they were. “You did good and were correct on all the poisons used. But you need to master being more subtle with your silver test a contract seeing that will get you killed.” “Told you she'd pass with flying colors. You don't survive as a thief without being observant. Carphira you did amazing especially on the cheese that's one I've seen full fledged crows fail on.” “I'll work on my slight of hand then. Thank you both.”

Carphira ate lunch in relative peace of mind. Except whenever she had took a sip of the coffee that was just black with cream. She managed to hide her disgust with every sip despite considering maybe the poisoned sugar would be worth the risk.

[emeraldspiral]

I think I've seen it suggested once that Zim goes easy on Dib because the disappearance of the son of the most famous man on earth might draw too much attention to his activities. I always just kinda thought that after BBRP, Zim might think twice about trying to kill Dib unless he really thought he could get away with it.

Looking at all the episodes where Zim goes after Dib in release order:

Zim first attacks Dib directly in episode 2b, NanoZim, in response to Dib taking an incriminating photo of him. His primary objective is to destroy the memory of where Dib kept the photo and then give him brain damage for good measure to completely neutralize him as a threat, but not to outright kill him.

Zim next attacks Dib in episode 4b, Dark Harvest. He only takes one of Dib's lungs so he can better pass for human in front of the skool nurse when he absolutely could've killed him in that boiler room.

In episode 5b, The Wettening, Zim drops a massive water balloon on Dib to win a prank war.

In 7b, Rise of Zitboy, Zim hypnotizes Dib to force him to reveal his house's security weaknesses, but otherwise doesn't harm him.

8b is Bad, Bad, Rubber Piggy, Zim's first actual attempt on Dib's life and the only one that kinda succeeded.

Immediately after in 9a, A Room With a Moose, (first time an episode was frontloaded with a Zim vs Dib plot) Zim has had enough of Dib and the rest of his class bullying him and launches them into a wormhole. Presumably he expected them to die in the titular room eventually, where Membrane would've been able to do fuck-all about it.

In 10b, Bloaty's Pizza Hog Zim captures Dib with the intent to experiment on him. Probably would've killed him eventually, but like a Bond villain he just had to give him the chance to escape.

In 12a, Bolognius Maxiumus, Zim turns Dib into bologna. It doesn't kill him, but it's unknown whether he intended for it to be lethal or not.

In 15b, Future Dib, Zim traps Dib in a cage with a monkey. IDK if his plan was for the monkey to kill him or to leave him there until he starved. Somehow Dib got out eventually and it's unknown whether he escaped on his own or if Zim just got bored of watching the monkey beat him up and let him out. Either way, setting the monkey on him was more about stopping Dib from interfering with his plan than getting rid of Dib outright.

In 16b, Walk for Your Lives, Zim once again captures Dib and uses him for experiments. In the end he launches him into an explosion, but his intent was more about his misguided belief that it would somehow fix the problem than thinking it would kill Dib.

17a, Megadoomer is the first time since A Room With a Moose that Zim unambiguously intends to kill Dib.

19b, Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom, after trapping him in a simulation just to find out if he was the one who threw a muffin at him, Zim launches another muffin at his head and sends him home with only psychological damage.

In episode 21, Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars, Zim spontaneously decides to try to land the Massive on Dib's head, believing he's about to finally succeed in his mission and wanting the Tallest to be there to witness it.

23b, Dibship Rising, Zim tries to make the Dibship drop Dib into the city cesspool, which would definitely have killed him.

So out of 14 episodes where Zim goes after Dib, he only overtly tries to kill him 5 times. BBRP was the first time, and he was very quick to try again in ARWAM, but in a way that would've put Dib beyond his father's reach so he couldn't be revived. After ARWAM, Zim doesn't try to kill Dib again until Megadoomer, when he presumably believed that even if Dib were to somehow come back in a badass mech suit he'd have the superior technology to overcome him. After that, Zim tries again in Backseat Drivers, when he thinks he's about to conquer earth anyway, and then in Dibship Rising, when if he'd succeeded, there would've been nothing left of Dib for Membrane to save.

Of the remaining 9 episodes Zim has the opportunity to kill Dib but chooses to experiment on him instead in Bloaty's and Walk for Your Lives, chooses to teach him a non-lethal lesson in The Wettening, Bolognius Maximus, and DWLoD, or just gets what he needs from him/does what he needs to to neutralize him as a threat in NanoZim, Dark Harvest, Zitboy, and Future Dib.

In Zitboy and Dib's Wonderful Life he doesn't attempt to physically harm Dib at all despite having him completely at his mercy. In Zitboy it kinda makes sense that he wouldn't try to do anything to Dib right there in the skool, but there was no excuse for DWLoD.

Bonus: In Enter the Florpus Zim sends Dib's dad away to space prison a shmillion lightyears away but neither sends Dib away to the same prison nor attempts to kill him.

I don't really know if there are any conclusions to be reached here. I guess for the series the logic of "Zim only tries to kill Dib when he doesn't think Membrane can do anything about it" more or less holds up but for ETF Zim doesn't really have much of a reason for not trying to kill him. Maybe he just wanted him alive so he can rub it in his face, or maybe even a shmillion lightyears away on Moo-Ping 10 Zim is still kinda scared of Membrane.

[paceplace]

i never understood why you did so many pacesetter battles until I beat him for the first time! now i understand. he scratches an inch in my brain that i didn’t know was there

DSGDHDJFJ YEAH pacesetter just completely rewires your brain the first time you fight him. it makes sense though since his mechanics are groundbreaking for a toontown game and he's the boss with the most replay value bc of it! although the way his fight is designed isn't the only reason why i fought him so many times. it's a big reason why, obviously, as i really don't think i would've kept going after i got shredder if i hated it, but meeting different people in pacesetter and seeing not only myself BUT ALSO others improve and learn from previous attempts is also what makes it enjoyable for me. there's really no way to describe how happy i feel whenever i get a group with people i'm familiarized with, whether its friends or randoms i've ran with before, and see them get a better handle on the fight as time goes on or reach their own milestones for pacesetter defeats [i'm not the only one with wins in the triple digits for pace! i know two of my friends are in the 200s for pace wins, one of which is our club owner (hi pippy if you see this) and i've met a handful of others who are well past the 50s/in the 100s who do this fight for fun]

i'm starting to ramble a bit LOL but the tl;dr is graham makes me happy in more ways than one and i'm so glad that you found his fight enjoyable!!! i wish you luck on getting his drops if you plan on getting them. who knows, maybe we'll even cross paths in-game at some point and fight him together