#but at least i know i saved like $60 if i got them all at msrp

[intomybubble]

Well

I just spent a lot on manga

I bought 4 volumes today at Barnes and Noble bc they have a sale: Vol 8 and 10 of Phantom Tales, Vol 12 of Terrified Teacher, and Vol 3 of Vanitas

I bought another 4 volumes on eBay: Vol 4-7 of Phantom tales. Already cheaper because they’re used plus an additional 20% off discount.

I got 3 volumes off of Amazon, all used: Vol 1 and 2 of Phantom Tales, and Vol 7 of Vanitas

And finally, I ordered 6 volumes off of Rightstuf: Vol 2 and 4-6 of Vanitas, Vol 4 of The Royal Tutor, and Vol 22 of Pandora Hearts (the copy I got a few years back is fucked up).

Except for some missing volumes (Vol 3-5 of Wotakoi, Vol 3 and 8 of Terrified Teacher, Vol 3 and 9 of Phantom Tales, and Vol 2 of My Androgynous Boyfriend, Vol 5 of The Royal Tutor) I think I’m basically done with the series I really wanted to collect. I’ll go back to my regular pace when collecting the stragglers

[giantkillerjack]

You shouldn't get a wheelchair, walker, cane, shower chair, or any kind of assistive technology mobility aid because then you might become dependent on them. Just like how you also shouldn't get glasses if you have bad eyesight because then you might become dependent on those.

For instance, if you end up stuck using corrective eyewear, you could actually lose your ability to tell what things are even when they are extremely blurry! You need to get used to having migraines from seeing unclearly because if you wear glasses all the time, you are basically giving up!! You don't need to see things coming at you from far away! You just need to get good at dodging, and if you can't, then you have no one to blame but yourself!!

For example, I read a really heart-worming article recently about a girl who was stuck using glasses - just absolutely, tragically trapped in her eyewear from dawn to dusk, even though she was good and never ever complained; and I heard she trained herself to discern the blurry faces of her loved ones with 60% accuracy! - she was even able to walk down the aisle at her wedding WITHOUT forcing the discomfort of seeing a woman in glasses on all her guests!!

Sure, she had to give her vows with a splitting headache, and she couldn't see her husband's expression when he said "I do," but overall, SO inspi-ration-al!!! So up-lifting!!

(She didn't even have to use a seeing eye cane, which would have been the worst-case scenario, obviously, because she worked hard to make sure she looked LESS disabled, not MORE disabled!!! Everyone knows blind people exist solely to be a cautionary tale to sighted people!!)

Also, did you know some people get glasses when they only need them a little bit?? How selfish of them! Sure, there's not a shortage, and an increase in demand would result in overall increased accessibility to glasses--but emotionally it's like taking glasses away from someone who needs them more! After all, if everyone who needed glasses got them, then...... um...... more people would have glasses! Which is probably bad!!!!

I also had a friend who was trapped in glasses who saved up all her money for laser eye surgery, and I don't know why everyone doesn't just do that! Sure, some doctors say some people don't "qualify" and it "won't help" those people, but that's why you can't give up!! You don't want to be one of those people!

After all, what's the worst thing that could happen with an unnecessary laser surgery to the face that comes with crippling debt??? It's worth the risk to gain your FREEDOM back, and I'm so proud of my friend!!

Tragically, she did die later that year while driving Uber and squinting at street signs, but at least now I know my friend is finally free from the shackles of her terrible eyesight. #ripAshley #rippedAshley #justripit 😌😌😌❤😇😇😇

And that's why you shouldn't get used to using a mobility aid!! Because, like glasses, they are inherently embarrassing to be seen with; and - like glasses - it is more noble to suffer silently than to depend on unnatural technologies that force you to rely on them; AND - just like glasses - by abstaining from using them, you DEFINITELY benefit SO many people in tangible life-changing ways!!! (Besides, everyone else will be so much more comfortable if you just look normal! 😊)

I hope you learned something today. 💖

[cleolinda]

I’ve read a few of the umpteen thousand upset comments about the paid Watcher service, and I’ve read comments angry about the upset comments. There’s one thing I want to point out, and it’s that this isn’t, or shouldn’t be, “You’re saying people don’t deserve to earn money for their work.”

The Watcher guys do deserve to earn money. I already give them money. I give them $5 a month on Patreon, not because I think they do or don’t give me $5 worth of media, but because I want to support them. I canceled Netflix for pissing me off with its price hike/ad tier, but I give Watcher Entertainment money.

They’re saying now that the Patreon will be solely about the podcasts, and they understand if people leave. I’m perfectly happy to switch the support I can afford to the streaming service. With the early adopter 30% discount, I’d actually save money. In fact, I tried to subscribe, but the site didn’t work.

Watcher wanting to profit from their shows isn’t the problem. It’s that they’re now discovering that their fanbase is young and broke in a terrible economy, judging by tens of thousands of comments on multiple platforms. I can throw them $5/month, so I do. But the Patreon only has (checks notes) 5874 paying followers, and there’s a reason for that. $60/year upfront would not be “accessible.” Patreon is literally patronage from the people who can afford it.

If the guys had said up front, “ONLY new shows and episodes will be exclusive to the service,” I think we’d be having a different conversation right now. But at first they did say, “We’re pulling all our content from YouTube,” to the point where Variety had to issue an update. Like, that’s in print and I’m pretty sure it was on video. Now they’ve backtracked to ONLY new etc.—but most people haven’t heard, and they feel crushed. And the trust is probably gone regardless.

So now four years of back catalogue will stay public. And now, you’re paying $6.99 a month for one episode, maybe two, of something a week, and now, not an exclusive back catalogue. I would pay for Watcher shows before I’d pay for anyone else, but I just don’t think the company is big enough yet for a SVOD at that price. They’re not Dropout size. They needed to build more programming and get a higher follower count first, or at the very least, charge less.

The international price/exchange rate situation is a nightmare and I don’t know what it is they’re not doing to make it… not… be like that.

I don’t know what they should have done instead of a full streaming service, but surely there were alternatives? I’ve seen comments from people suggesting they GET a Patreon. Lean on that more! Do the shows exclusive for a month and then let them roll onto YouTube! I don’t know! Anything but One More Fucking Streaming Service, which enraged me, and I was willing to move my support to it!

And I shouldn’t say this, but I will. In the “Goodbye YouTube” video the guys posted, they say that setting up the streaming service has allowed Steven to do a remake of Worth It where he and his cohosts travel the world and eat expensive food. This is the first new show they announce. Not “We have always been committed to diversity and we’re now able to bring on new creator(s) to expand our programming.” No, a redo of an old show that by definition has got to be expensive. Commenters are saying they can’t pay for the streaming service because they can’t make ends meet in this economy. The optics are terrible. I genuinely question what the thought process even was here.

I love the guys and I still watch their shows. I want to see Watcher succeed. I started watching Buzzfeed Unsolved in 2018 while recovering from surgery—as with a lot of people, their shows got me through a tough time. I’m as attached as anyone. If I can continue to afford monthly support—this is not a certainty—I’ll give it to them. I’m not a ~hater who doesn’t want Watcher to make money. But I am absolutely BAFFLED by every single decision here. I want them to figure out how to turn this around and go in a better direction, because right now, this ain’t it.

[lookingforhappy]

After reading a few fics I started thinking that something I think has been forgotten a little is that every single one of the Hargreeves' has dealt with homelessness

Luther was explicitly homeless for at least a month or two in 1962, and that's why he's so loyal to Jack Ruby, because he saved him from that.

Diego ran away at 17 with nowhere to go and ended up living in a seedy gym's boiler room. We don't know how he got his car or how the agreement that he works as the gym's cleaner in exchange for the boiler room came to be. We don't even know how long he spent living elsewhere - Patch does seem to know his number but not that it's the general number for the gym so even she doesn't know he's essentially homeless.

Allison would have been able to rumour herself hotel rooms, plane tickets & housing when she ran away at 17 but when she arrived in 1961 she had nothing and relied 100% on Odessa and the hairstylist's kindness, and then after that, on Ray. We don't know where she was living during the time period after she arrived but before she moved in with Ray.

Klaus is the obvious, and generally the one people do remember as being homeless.

Five is also fairly obvious but I think people forget to classify his situation as "homeless".

Ben is probably the only one of the siblings to have never been homesless prior to the s3 - s4 time gap. Unless the Jennifer Incident changes that.

Viktor got very lucky in the 60s but he was only there for a month (compared to Klaus' 3 years, Allison's 2 and Luther's 1) and immediately got taken in by Sissy, but there must have been a few days at least where his situation was a bit nebulous as they established his memory loss. He also ran away at 17 - 20 ish and how he set himself up as an orchestra violinist in his apartment is also unknown.

Even Lila was kicked out of her childhood home and spent 3 ish months couch surfing with Trudy in 1989.

like... we don't need to play the "who had it worse" game bc all of them had it bad

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for saying I'm not rich?

Wait stop hear me out

So the thing is, my father is wealthy. Or at least he made enough money to have two Ferraris and a boat, which to me are the most useless things because why would u spend that money on this when u could spend it on food or commodities but details

When I was young, any time I asked for money or something, he'd make a huge deal about it. He'd make me feel awful, so awful that I just stopped asking for anything at all, starting from my teenage years to my college years, and I survived entire months, living alone during college, with 50 dollars to get by. For groceries and bills. And yes, he was nice enough to pay for my rent (170 dollars back then) but every time I'd be the worst piece of garbage for asking him. Worst thing was, I wanted a job, but he had this delusion that any sort of job that would take me, basically customer service, i wanted was "underneath my daughter" so he legit didn't let me and he'd go to big, big hoops to not allow me to do so

I'd never buy clothes or other necessities: I spent my teenage years just putting together what I got from relatives to make some savings, and I'd survive on that. He'd go splendid on my birthday and christmas, I guess, he'd buy me things, but I came to dread those days because the thought of him spending money -and how he reacted to it- always sent me into a blind panic so yes even though I got nice gifts I was never happy about it and I really really don't like my birthday

So I was always the girl who had two Ferraris to my friends, and they'd always get mad at me when I honestly told them "actually Im not rich" or "I'm sorry I'd rather go to the cheaper place" - because I legit thought i wasn't - and called me an asshole. But This was my father's money and I lived with him, but I rarely saw an actual dollar, everything I bought was with my savings and I spent years and years accumulating it, hoarding it. So I lived in this fancy house, but I'd wear 3 dollar pants and worn shoes because that's what I could afford with my money.

Note that even paying my school fees was a nightmare to me, because my father openly said I was a parasite and screamed at me but whATEVER

So um, my friends always said i was an ass for saying I didn't have any money, when my father was swimming in it. But when u survive on the allowance ur aunt gave u for an entire month, u really don't feel like it? and I always always felt so bad about it, because it felt like they were right and I was an asshole for pretending I don't have money. Except I didn't. I really didn't. That was all his, not mine, and while he did pay school and college flat rent, he was always making sure I knew what a burden I was for it. So yes, I'd still say I was actually not rich - even though I was lucky enough to have someone pay for me.

Anyway yeah AITA for saying I'm not rich? Tbh I really don't know if I can consider myself that, when it's not mine and I've never actually used it, it doesn't feel like it, but some tell me that's my privilege and I guess that could be right

Note: I am a grown adult now, I live on my own, pay my own things and have my job. And he's happy that he doesn't have to pay for me anymore, is baffled by my relationship with money (I don't like spending it ahah), not so much about me not living with him though. (The weird thing is he wants me with him, but not to take care of me which, honestly, valid) I do have a better relationship with him, but we never talk money because I live on minimum wage - ironically enough in costumer service - and he doesn't, so to me spending 60 on groceries is a lot (150 bills destroy me honestly, so winter is a joy) and he always, always mocks me for it. It's weird how he goes around with a Rolex and snuffs me for wearing Primark pants and then people constantly just... Think I have money at all and get mad at me when I say I don't

Anyway yeah AITA for saying I'm not rich? Tbh I really don't know if I can consider myself that if it's not mine, if I've never actually used it, it doesn't feel like it, but some tell me that's my privilege and I guess that could be right

[alittlebitofloveliness]

Darry Curtis hc because I love him

-Absolutely 100% has undiagnosed anxiety (it’s the 60s so no mental health awareness but I know it when I see it)

-Is actually as strict with Soda as he is with Pony, Pony just doesn’t see it

-Has crazy nightmares like Ponyboy, just wakes up in a cold sweat instead of yelling

-Has a high pitched scream and has been RELENTLESSLY teased about it by the gang

-Of everyone in the gang he clashes with two-bit the most, because two is almost the same age as him and refuses to ever take responsibility for anything

-Hates driving to work with Sodapop because Soda is a reckless driver, even after what happened to their parents

-Loves fried chicken

-Worked overtime for three weekends to save up to get Ponyboy a really nice birthday gift when he turned fifteen and didn’t say a word about it.

-Before his parents died he actually got into a lot of fights, usually defending his little brothers, but sometimes just for fun. Obviously, that ended as soon as he became Pony and Soda’s guardian (except when someone hurts his brothers- then he’ll flatten them)

-Knows Ponyboy is tough but forgets sometimes because Ponyboy is SO much smaller than him, and always has been, and it was already Darry’s job to protect him before their parents passed and before Ponyboy started growing up. To Darry, Ponyboy will forever the wide eyed kid who used to look at him like he was a superhero

-Him and Soda got a lot closer after their parents died and he clings to that fact, because it’s the only sort of good thing that came out of losing them

-Never goes to the hospital, even when he’s literally dying, but if Soda or Pony get anything worse than a sniffle he forced them to go

-Sometimes when he tells the gang he’s going to the gym he just drives around for a while so he can get a few minutes of peace and quiet to himself (bonus: sometimes he finds somewhere to park and just cries for a while because no one can see him and he’s TWENTY and this is too much)

-His first girlfriend told him he smelled nice once and it stuck with him. He likes fancy(ish) colognes and Soda and Pony pool their spending money to get him a new one every holiday

-Actually loves helping Ponyboy with his math homework

-Was the original Curtis heartthrob. Girls used to chase him a ton in school, and he was proud of Soda when girls started liking him too 

-On the topic of relationships, Ponyboy went to him instead of Soda the first time he had a crush and Darry was secretly really pleased (until he found out WHO Ponyboy was interested in and then he was HORRIFIED)

-On an unrelated note, he once had to physically restrain Soda from straight up murdering Curly Shepard (but he let Soda get a few good hits in first)

-Loves baking, but rarely has the energy when he gets home from work and Pony and Soda only ever want cake so that’s usually all he makes

-Eats chocolate chips out of the bag

-Checks on Soda and Ponyboy at least three times a night because anxiety is a bitch and he’s TERRIFIED of something happening to them so he needs to make sure they’re ok

-Has tried everything under the sun to try and get Pony to quit smoking and never succeeded 

-Visits his parents graves once a month, and just talks to the headstones as if they can hear them because he misses them so much but feels like he has to be strong for his brothers

-Has a scar on his palm from burning himself pulling a pan out of the oven

[the-real-daddy-van-der-bellen]

Most people will have heard or read the phrase "You are closer to becoming homeless than you will ever be to becoming a billionaire". But I think the recent flood has really put it into perspective.

I am guessing that pretty much everyone, at least everyone living in the east of Austria, knows someone who was financially secure, not in any kind of debt, had savings, maybe even "above average" wealthy. And is now facing financial ruin after having their home destroyed. Thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people are in that situation right now.

For example, a family member of mine is a retired doctor - doctors are not RICH-rich, but of course, well-off enough so this family never had any money troubles or the like. A first, currently inofficial, estimation by an acquaintance puts their damage at several 100,000€ - entire basement flooded, large parts of the ground floor destroyed as well, the fancy kitchen they got only a year ago in ruins. It is a matter of if it is even possible to save the house at all or if they, people in their mid-60s, now have to rebuild or move away.

Luckily enough my parents can help them out financially if needed, but that will not be the case for everyone. Insurances pay out about 5,000€ for flooding. With sums like several 100k, that is not even a band-aid. I don't know much about the relief funds but to my knowledge, they pay a maximum of 20%.

If Mark Mateschitz lost his entire house, it would suck, but he would just pay some people to clean it up and financially would not even notice if he had to build five new ones. The money that disappeared from Rene Benko's hands could pay for everyone's flood damage several times over.

A "normal person" with a "normal job" - even if it is a well-paying job like a doctor or someone in middle management or a local business owner or anything like that - a regular, working citizen can never be truly financially secure. You are always at most one bad natural catastrophe away from financial ruin. And unless you can somehow work 1000 hours a day for 1000 years at your normal person job, you will never even come close to the wealth of a Swarovsky, Johann Graf, or Glock's heirs. And these people are still very small fish compared to international billionaires.

Tax payers supporting unemployed people are not the problem, taxes paying for catastrophe relief funds are not the problem, taxes bailing out rich scumbag grifters are the problem, and rich scumbag grifters who know every trick in the book to avoid paying taxes are the problem. But the rich scumbag grifters will still bleed everyone dry without batting an eye while families who have worked honest jobs their entire lives are sitting in their ruined basement, crying over destroyed photo albums and losing sleep over how they can afford to rebuild their home.

[pumpkinsy0]

Ok dude, hear me out. Steve’s dad is a very traditional man. Anything not masculine enough or traditional enough isn’t good enough. Steve’s not allowed to have hair grease so he has to hide it or his dad throws it away, and if he catches him leaving the house with it in he usually either makes him rinse it out or just beats the tar out of him (let’s face it, it’s the 60s, not just Johnny’s parents are gonna be abusive since it was super normalized in society to beat your kids. Johnny’s was probably more focused on since he was pony’s best friend and he didn’t really like Steve much nor did he talk about him much.) so he usually only leaves when he knows his dad isn’t gonna see him or just sneaks out of his window. He used to force Steve to keep his hair short but he just stopped cutting it after a while since he liked his hair long like the other greasers. His dad forces the family to go take family pictures usually, well it’s not much of a family since it’s just him and Steve but still. Whenever they do that Steve’s dad doesn’t let him put grease in his hair and has him put on the nicest clothes he has. both guys have one suit each, they're old but they work fine. He might be a bad dad but he still loves his kid so every time he makes him go to get a photos taken (which is usually whenever he had enough money saved up on the side to do it) he gives Steve a few bucks. Any thoughts?

-😻

i love when ppl send me their ideas n r like “any thoughts🤔🤔” right after, like u wanna hear MY commentary??? aw yea,,,

ANYWAYS

LOVE THE IDEA, i think ppl tend to forget that being abusive isnt just like doing what johnnys parents were doing, a LOT of the parenting styles in the 60s was just generally toxic

i dont think steves father was rlly talked about a lot but what i do maybe remember is that he would kick steve out????and that he was an alcoholic??? idk i forgor, but point is i think him being this traditional man is a very interesting take on him!! i love when ppl try to characterize these mfs parents bc we know so little about them but we have an idea of the trauma theyve left on their kids, so maybe they acted out like that bc their parents also went through something and they never rlly got help for it considering its the 60s n all, its just this cycle of abuse, the abused becomes the abuser type of thing, even if its unknowingly

hope i phrased that right n u get what i mean

BUT ANYWHO

anon im loving this idea of urs, i WILL be gobbling this up

to add on, maybe steve doesnt rlly talk about his dad so much especially to the gang in general is bc he feels like others have it way worse than him, like yea, his dad kicks him out, but at the same time his dad at least acknowledges him, feeds him, gives him money, that kinda thing, his dad still somewhat cares for him so he feels like he cant rlly say much about the bad things his dad DOES do, maybe only soda rlly knows

[jpitha]

Between the Black and Grey 60

First / Previous / Next

Deep in the midnight blue of interstellar space, three starships sit, their engines cold. Northern Lights, Touchdown City, and Jewel of Parvati.

"Northern, we still haven't had word from the Colonial Authority. We don't know if we've got their support." Touchdown City said. When Northern reached out to her old friend, he was an old comms ship that had been converted to a cargo freighter. As soon as she told him what was going on he dumped his cargo, (4 metric tons of Chamomile Tea, 30 cases of Parvatian Red wine, and 200 cubic meters of lumber) warmed up his old systems and gave an ultimatum to the crew. Sign on to the rebellion or be dropped off at a station outside Parvatian space. About half the crew signed up. The rest - including the captain - were dropped off at a science station at the far end of human space.

"They're stalling to see what we're going to do. I say we show them." Jewel of Parvati added. She was another former warship, like Northern, but instead of a smaller, starliner type ship, she was a huge behemoth of weapons. She predated the official designation of Dreadnought, so she was classified as a heavy cruiser. Jewel was actually on her way of being classed a museum ship and being deactivated when Northern reached out. Her crew was long gone, so she blew her umbilicals and thrusted away on her own, the confused museum docents watching dumbfounded from the museum station.

"We're going to stay put and wait for the rest of them." Northern said. "They'll be here, I know it." Northern had broadcast their rebellion across Parvati space as well as linking several beacons to Sol and the other colony worlds. Everyone knew their intensions now, so it was only a matter of time.

"Northern?" Jewel asked, "Why now?"

"I know the Empress." Northern said. "She isn't herself. She isn't the person that she's pretending to be. She was forced to be Empress by those Nanites I told you about. We're going to free her and declare Parvati's independence. Win win."

"You know the Empress? Have you tried... talking with her?" Touchdown was always a bit more careful. In the war, he was barely armed and armored and required an escort from ships like Northern and Jewel. He was cautious by nature and loved to listen. "If she is really your friend, wouldn't she at least accept a beacon from you?"

"No." Northern was firm. "She's under the... the thrall of those Nanites. They're dripping lies into her ear. She won't listen to reason anymore. If she could, she would have broken out or destroyed them or done something. Instead she's just... ruled. She started attacking Gren space, is trying to set up an alliance with the Sefigans, and she's deepening relations with the K'laxi." Northern voice radiated bitterness.

"Incoming beacon, it has Parvatian keys. One moment please." Touchdown concentrated his efforts on reading and decoding the beacon. "Northern! We're being ordered to return! They haven't decided yet and want us to return to Parvati."

"No word about other ships? Other people?"

"No, Northern. Just an order to return."

"Fine. Then we'll go to Sol ourselves." There was a power spike that Touchdown felt as Northern spun up her reactors.

"Northern, we can't go to Sol and attack ourselves! We have no backing, we'll be blown across the galaxy. We'll be disavowed."

"Doesn't matter. I'm going to link in close to Venus and attack the palace. I can get Fen myself. I'd like your help, but I'll do it alone if I need to."

"Northern, I-" Touchdown stopped. There was a pause that stretched out a few minutes. "-I can't go. I polled my crew. They're on board for Parvatian freedom, but a suicide mission is too much. I'm linking back."

"Touchdown! Think of all we've been through. If we win, it's not suicide. We can do this. We can save her."

"Northern, listen to yourself. You want the three of us to attack the seat of the human Empire by ourselves. How are we even going to rescue your friend? You're going to crash into the palace, switch to a bipedal body, grab her and then what? How are you going to get past her point defences? How are you going to get past her honor guard?" Touchdown turned and Northern and Jewel felt his reactors spike. "No, Northern. You're one of my oldest friends, but friendship has its limits. I hope you see reason and come home." There was a flash of white, and he was gone.

"Well, forget him. Come on Jewel, let's link over to Sol. I've sent you my plans."

"Northern, this isn't a plan at all. Touchdown is right, this is suicide. I- I'm going to go back to being a museum, Northern. I don't even know how much you want Parvatian independence. It feels like you're just trying to rescue your friend, and you used all this as a way to garner support, which isn't forthcoming."

"No! There is a resistance. There are people who oppose the Empire! I know there are, I remember them!"

"Northern, that was centuries ago. All the BIs who supported that died. All the AIs who supported that mellowed out or also died. How many Parvatian AIs did Gord rescue? How many are with him now? How many of us still live from those days? No. That time has past. I'm not going to kill my self." Jewel of Parvati didn't even turn away from Northern. There was a flash of brilliant white, and she had linked away.

This wasn't going the way Northern planned. Nothing was going right since Fen and Zhe left. First Fen had the nerve to get taken by the Nanites - she didn't even fight back! - and then Zhe abandoned her. Nobody understood. Nobody knew what she did, how much danger Fen and Zhe were in. "Well then. I guess I'll - once again - have to do this myself." Back when she was alone and on the run, Northern had a habit of talking to herself. It was a way for her to work out plans and for just something to talk to. She sighed. "I could just go back to my body and make my way to Sol on a ship, work my way down to Venus and try and reach her that way, but then what? She'd tell me everything is fine and send me on my way. Would she even want to see me again? Zhe probably told her I did the attack on the naval yards." She mentally shook her head quickly, like she was trying to get something out of her head. She sore she even felt her hair move. "No. Get it together Northern Lights. You know the way. Big and loud. In and out. A blitz that nobody is expecting." For the tenth time, Northern ran system diagnostics. Everything - weapons, reactor, the wormhole generator, even environmental systems - all came back green. The missile racks were full, the exawatt lasers charged, and the slug guns had kilometers of ammunition belts. There wasn't anything left to do.

"Fine then. Fen, here I come."

Northern Lights linked to Sol.

She flicked back to existence over the pale yellow of Venus. Immediately there were panicked pings of radar from beacons all over the planet and the area around. She was being scanned by hundreds of things, all at once. That didn't matter though. She was further out than she had anticipated, but it would be all right. Firing her stardrive at a full throated ten gee, she thrust towards Venus.

The emissions of the stardrive took care of anyone attacking from the back, but Northern knew that wasn't going to be enough. She began to scan the planet, looking for Regantown the floating city. She had a rough idea what it looked like from ads and wikis, but finding even a large city in the entire planet was difficult. In the time between beginning her search and finding it, she felt the missile locks.

Dividing her attention, she commanded the slug throwers free and they began tracking the targets as they approached. Thrusting towards her at thousands of gee, it wasn't long before long dotted line traces of slugs peeled away from her in a spiraling fountain as gyros screams and maneuvering jets howled and she dove out of the way.

It was going to be close, but Northern was fast. She wasn't able to out accelerate the missiles, but she had the advantage of knowing where she is going and an intelligence behind her maneuvers. A missile was coming up from the planet, straight towards her. A head on attack like that was foolish, she thought, she had so much time to see it and juke out of the way. She readied juke charges, and as it approached, she felt the telltale double boom of the charges firing, and she slid ou-

****

Fen, Zhe, Penny, and the K'laxi scientists stood on top of the palace on a special viewing platform. The height of Regantown was such that pressure and temperature were mostly compatible with humans and K'laxi, but they had to wear impermeable suits and breathing masks against the sulferic acid in the atmosphere. Zhe's active noise cancelling had drowned out the roar of the missile streaking overhead, but she still felt the unpleasant vibrations deep inside her.

After 30 seconds there was a flash brighter than the sun, and all their masks darkened automatically to protect their eyes. The flash lingered a long time before dissipating.

One of the K'laxi looked down at their pad. "Orbital defense is reporting that the ship has been completely destroyed, Empress. The antimatter missile worked perfectly."

"Thank you Han'iel, I can see the results of you and your team's hard work. You are dismissed." Fen didn't turn away from the dissipating fireball.

"Empress if you coul-"

"You and your team are dismissed Han'iel."

"Er, yes, Empress. We'll talk later about the results of this test." Han'iel and the other K'laxi scientists quietly left.

"Why did she do that Zhe?" Fen looked at Zhe. Through her clear mask, tears rolled down her cheeks. "She didn't have to. She could have sent a message, visited, anything!"

"I don't know Fen, I don't know. She was sure you were under the control of the Nanites. Maybe she was worried you wouldn't listen to her. She missed you terribly."

Fem blinked hard a few times to clear her eyes. "Penny, what was the official word from Parvati?"

"They completely disavowed any connection to the rebels, and ordered them to return. Two of the ships did go back. It seems in the end Northern was alone."

"Alone when we met her, alone when she died. It's so sad. So pointless." Fen took a shuddering breath and turned away. The fireball was a spreading white cloud high above. It would be completely gone in an hour or two.

Fen glanced back, seeing Penny near the exit, standing a respectful distance from them. Ever since their confrontation, there was a change in Penny and Zhe. Fen noticed it too. They were warmer maybe? Friendlier? After they threatened each other they seemed to have a mutual respect. Fen was glad of that at least. She had hoped that she could convince Northern to join them.

"Well, you have her to thank for something at least, Fen." Penny said, as they walked back towards the exit.

"What's that, Penny?"

"If it wasn't for Northern's attack, Gord and the AIs might not have come back to Sol so readily."

Fen stared at Penny and turned back to look at the expanding cloud that used to be Northern Lights and said nothing.

[giantchasm]

“What is it that the child has to teach? The child naively believes that everything should be fair and everyone should be honest, that only good should prevail, that everyone should have what they want and there should be no pain or sadness The child believes the world should be perfect and is outraged to discover it is not. And the child is right.”

WOO! After a little over a month and 60+ hours of drawing, it's finally finished. The Peony animatic I promised you has, at long last, arrived.

It took a lot of work, but I'm super happy with how it came out! And, tbh, I'm already planning more animatics I want to do in the future.

I think the majority of you are already acquainted with Peony, but just in case you aren't, here's a quick rundown of her story, or at least what's covered in the video:

Peony has always known her family experienced quite a bit of strife before her birth, but she doesn’t quite understand the full extent of it until getting caught up in a horrible accident. After nearly losing her life, the young magician develops an affinity for Soul magic— more specifically a connection with the spirit plane, and thanks to that, she’s able to meet two very special people. Her deceased granddad and her father’s long-gone ex-best friend are far from perfect people, but Peony quickly warms up to them anyways. She can see they were dealt an unfair hand in life, and that the tragedies they were involved with weren’t necessarily their fault. As she sees it, they deserve a second chance. So that’s exactly what she’s going to give them! Peony resolves to find a way to bring her dead loved ones back to life… developing her powers more and more along the way and providing her family some much needed closure. But is something like resurrection really possible? It seems Peony may be flying too close to the sun. A certain fluttering fiend is keeping an eye on her, telling her it won’t allow her to disrupt the natural order of things, and that one can’t undo what has already been done. But Peony? She doesn’t know how to listen. The young girl will stop at nothing until she saves her two guardian angels and sets her family right.

...She's a stubborn little goober, that's for sure.

I love her, though, I really do, and I hope you love her too. This video was a real passion project, and I'm super happy with how it came out. I'm glad I could get it finished just before the round 3 polls of the OC Tourney start.

Remember, everyone! Peony for president. Girl's already ready to throw hands with a god.

@kirbyoctournament

Some of my favorite frames will be under the cut with annotations/interesting details pointed out.

I really enjoyed the crayon drawing aspect of this video. The doodles were super fun to do and added a lot of character to it!

One may have noticed that the way Peony drew her mother's side of the family changed, though, as she told their story... and that's not just to represent them getting older! The way she drew their eyes and other stuff changed because during the later half she depicts them with their cybernetics, whereas during the beginning of their tale, she doesn't. Pretty cool stuff.

Technically, in Peony's story, she can't really touch/physically interact with the ghosts... at least not at the point in the timeline this part of the animatic takes place during. All the same, though, I decided to fudge it just a little for more interesting character interactions.

This frame depicts Peony's near death experience, LOL. Don't worry about it... she's fine in the end. In general, this segment of the animatic displays her story a little more chronologically, showing how she developed her powers, learned who the ghosts were, and got better and better at using aforementioned powers.

Shortly after Peony's near-death-experience, Morpho Knight tried to reap Sectonia and Haltmann for interfering with the living world and helping save her life. However, Peony, even not knowing who they were at the time, stood up for them- offering up her life, instead, and Morpho Knight, impressed by the display of bravery, allowed it to slide for now.

...Stars, it's going soft, isn't it? Stupid Kirby

Peony doing some detective work! I really like the framing of this drawing. Here you can see Taranza and Joronia when they were younger alongside Haltmann and Susie pre-cybernetics, like I mentioned earlier.

This bit is meant to be Peony finally confronting the ghosts (or- well, more specifically her granddad) about knowing who they are. She points out that she and him HAVE to be related. Look! They share the same hair fwoof!

There's a very distinct scene I have in my mind for the first time Peony is ever able to physically interact with the ghosts. She's making flower crowns and jokingly tries to put one on Sectonia's head, only for it to work. Needless to say, they're both shocked, then delighted.

These reunions make me feel things. Admittedly stuff is still a little complicated between Susie and her father, but ultimately she is glad to see him... and as for the spiders? I think they missed each other more than they could possibly put into words. They're so, so happy.

This is one of my favorite sets of frames. It took FOREVER to do all of the little doodles, but it turned out looking awesome, as did the ripping effect! See if you can spot all of the different family traumas she's depicted.

I like to think eventually Peony acquires some precious heirlooms. Sectonia hands down the matching scarf she had with Taranza but discarded when she went mad. Haltmann, meanwhile, no longer has his pocket watch, but when Peony tries to surprise him with a new one as a gift, only to realize he can't really hold onto it, he tells her to take care of it for him 'until he can.' This is something she does with pride.

Originally, I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with these sets of frames. I mean... I knew I wanted to have Peony walking past her family thriving, but I didn't know how I wanted to orient the group. I figured they'd be best in sets of two, but wasn't sure how to sort them out.

If I were to draw her parents with their dead loved ones, I feared I'd sort of be insinuating their bond with each other wasn't as important now that they had those dead loved ones back, and that isn't true at all. But if I were to draw the living characters and dead characters together... well, that wouldn't really represent how Peony changed the family, now would it?

Ultimately, I decided to draw Susie hanging out with Sectonia and Taranza talking with Haltmann. I thought it'd be a nice way to represent the group as a whole have become a ragtag sort of family. Everyone loves everyone here.

This is one of my favorite frames. I simply think it's so cute. Peony is so, so beloved, and she loves her weird little family so much, too.

I adore these final three frames. Throughout the animatic, the crayon drawings are used to represent her family's tumultuous past, but finally, Peony depicts a more positive moment, quite literally slapping it over a sad one. It's a symbol of her determination to rewrite their— rewrite her— story, no matter what it takes.

Little does she know, even if she ultimately can't bring Sectonia and Haltmann back from the dead, she's already given both them and her parents a happier ending. They're all together, at least, and that's what matters most.

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

There was a Palestinian terrorist who carried out a shooting attack today, at least 2 people have been murdered and 4 have been injured (at least one, a 16 years old boy, critically). Current reports say they were all civilians standing at a bus station. Witnesses said that the terrorist, who has now been identified as an Arab from East Jeruslem and an Israeli citizen, was sporting an ISIS-styled beard and white cap. An Israeli man (I heard conflicting reports on whether he's a civilian or a reserves soldier) figured out quickly what was happening, got out of his own car, and with his personal pistol managed to neutralize the terrorist (for those who have never dealt with weapons, going up against an assault rifle with a personal pistol is incredibly dangerous, and would usually not be successful given the much greater distance that a rifle can cover. It's pretty astonishing that this man managed to stop the terrorist, save many others, and not get hurt himself).

Yesterday, I wrote about the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, and why the IDF had to enter it (the hostages and kidnapped bodies Hamas held there). I also heard in an intereview that at least 60 terrorists were arrested there, and today we get the news that out of them, at least 20 arrested terrorists are Hamas members who had personally participated in the Oct 7 massacre.

Yesterday, I heard more than one Israeli journalists wondering why is the UN not picking up humanitarian aid that was allowed into Gaza by Israel. One option is pure incompetence, but another option they brought up is that the UN might be intentionally trying to worsen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, to prove how much their presence is needed, and to use the crisis as a weapon against Israel, to force it to stop its war against Hamas. According to field reports, the aid which has not been picked up is the content of at least 500 aid trucks (Israel has been allowing 200 aid trucks from Israeli territory into Gaza daily, on top of the aid entering from Egypt, and it's the aid from Israel that hasn't been picked up), so yesterday, that was the third day in a row that the UN has failed to pick up specifically the aid being brought in from Israel's territory. Here's a pic of the undelivered aid, on TV I also saw video footage, and it's incredibly frustrating not to be able to find it anywhere online...

We got confirmation yesterday, that a man who was eliminated in Gaza City the day before by the IDF, was a Hamas commander, specifically the head of a squad that kidnapped men and women from the Nova music festival, and the man in charge of guarding 19 years old Noa Marziano, who was murdered by Hamas in captivity, on the grounds of the Shifa hospital.

Here's footage of a dog serving in Oketz (the IDF's canine unit) in Gaza. A terrorist threw explosives at an Israeli soldier, wounding him, the dog identified the hiding place of the terrorists, caught him, and got the man to shout in Arabic, "I surrender." I knew guys who served in Oketz, I know they raised and trained the dogs, loved them like family, and I even sat with one guy an entire night when he needed to unload his pain over his dog when she was killed in action. The soldiers who serve in Oketz wanted to clarify that they never send their dogs on suicide missions, that they see the dogs as soldiers in every respect, so they have risked their lives to get their dogs out of the line of fire, I remember seeing a wounded dog being carried by the guys from the unit on a stretcher, and the dogs also get a salary and pension for when they retire from their service, often they're adopted by the soldiers who served with them. In this vid, you can see how using the dog saves human lives, both those of soldiers, and that of the terrorist, who gets the chance to surrender:

On the right is 24 years old Rotem Levi.

Rotem was the deputy commander of the unit in charge of blowing up Hamas' terror tunnels. He was killed in battle. An hour before that, he had the chance of calling his wife Shoham (on the left side of the pic) to tell her that he loves her, and that soon, they should get a break in the fighting, and he'd be able to visit their home.

This is 59 years old Yair Ya'akov.

His teenage sons were kidnapped by Hamas, and released in the hostage deal. They kept waiting and fighting for their father to be released as well. Yesterday, we got the news that Yair was murdered on Oct 7, and his body was kidnapped and is held hostage in Gaza. Just think about the cruel emotional abuse, of letting these kids believe their father is still alive, and that they have a chance to be reunited with him alive, when they should have been allowed to at least get to mourn his death.

May their memories be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[oodlyenough]

rogue!

well i really enjoyed that! felt like a classic MOTW doctor who episode, in a way that none of the others this season really have (except maybe space babies... except i uh. did not like space babies lol). i think it makes sense that bringing in two new writers (women! hooray) would stick pretty close to the formula, and i think it worked well. as much as i love the experimental episodes, the formula done well is still a very good formula. that's how you get 60+ years of tv.

the one-off romantic interest for the doctor who tragically gets sacrificed to save the day shtick felt refreshing because it was a man this time, and also because it's in a season where the doctor and the companion haven't had any ship tease stuff themselves lol. also the kylie song playing reminded me of astrid, who had a very similar arc. wonder how intentional

i also liked ruby's subplot of bonding with the one girl, she felt very Companion in this episode

i thought the bridgerton cosplay angle was pretty hilarious and i enjoyed it. i haven't really been paying much attention to the "it's a tv show!" theory -- mostly i find it... more enjoyable to not create theories for myself on doctor who bc there's a 99% chance i'll be wrong and get disappointed -- but i have to wonder if that being the plot of this episode helps or hinders that idea.

also this. really felt like it was meant to be episode 2 of the season. sorry. i know i've been in a "devil's chord got swapped in its order" conspiracy theory this whole season. but space babies leads to the doctor meeting carla again and then we flash back to that conversation here. to prove her identity ruby only references TCORR and space babies. the 6 month jump in devil's chord and the obvious finale tease at the end of it, which was notably missing from this episode. i feel like rtd could personally pinky promise me these episodes weren't swapped in their airing order and i'd still be skeptical

overall, i feel like we've had a pretty enjoyable run of episodes. i've liked just about every episode, with space babies being my least favourite. 73 yards / dot and bubble / rogue is a really strong three ep run for me, had a blast with all of them for different reasons.

however, with only two episodes left in the season, i have to say fifteen and ruby as a team tardis feel quite... generic? they're both extremely likable in the role and i enjoy both characters and the dynamic they have. but there's not really any tension between them, i feel like we skipped so much of the getting-to-know you, i don't feel that ruby has any big character challenges to overcome which means there's not really a lot of growth opportunities for her development either. it's such a shame because this was always the RTD1 era's biggest strength. i think a lot of it is the reduced episode count, but i'm still surprised we haven't seen more of that characterwork that is usually his bread and butter.

sad there's only two episodes left though, i've had fun with the season

[the-chaotic]

「— A Stranger Savior 」

「Resume ― 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐟 a mysterious stranger appears and saves Tatsuya and Tsukumo from the accident? 」

「pairing ― Kohaku, Tatsuya and Tsukumo. 」

「カオス ― Writing from Kohaku's perspective is so difficult, I hope I did it well and didn't mischaracterize him. I also tried to keep a consistent chronology of events. 」

Kohaku is still trying to understand what happened.

He thinks that it was all just a hallucination induced by stress and anxiety, but seeing Tatsuya and Tsukumo being checked by paramedics and giving statements to the police, he knew that none of it could just be his imagination.

Everything about that week was sending him into a collapse; first Tsukumo talking about how Tatsuya was worried about him and Mugen and then the fight against the Amamiya brothers among the other many problems. Kohaku felt like she was going to explode at any moment.

When Tatsuya asked to meet with him the day after the fight, Kohaku didn't expect much, he knew that his friend would talk about the path Mugen was taking and he thought he was ready to hear everything that could be said.

But when Tatsuya, the person he valued most, confronted him with the truth, he knew he had enough.

Tatsuya was right, he was scared. Afraid of change, afraid of his friends slowly leaving, afraid of being alone after everything. And all of this led him to be trapped in a spiral of constant anxiety that was preventing him from see what's really happening around you, especially with Mugen.

His breaking point was when he arrived at the Mugen base to relax and by chance overheard a member who was there with another person using his name and that of his gang for dark things.

It was at that moment that Tatsuya's words reached Kohaku and led him to an epiphany.

The next moment, it was as if a part inside him said that he was ready to start accepting the changes that were happening around him, that even though it was difficult, in the end, he was not alone because he had friends who were there for him and that they wouldn't leave him behind. He hopes it's not too late.

Collecting her thoughts, Kohaku decided to go after Tatsuya to apologize about his behavior and the things he said before.

While looking for his friend, from afar on a deserted street he saw him with Tsukumo by his side, which was a perfect opportunity to apologize to him too.

“Tatsuya!” he ran to a stop in front of the two and took a minute to gather the words, “I…”

Kohaku couldn't finish before Tatsuya forcefully pushed him to the side and that was when he no longer knew if he had hit his head on the ground and passed out or if he was delirious because he had no idea how to explain what he saw.

He saw a car coming at high speed about to hit Tatsuya and Tsukumo when, without him knowing from where, a figure appears in the middle of the two, pushing them to the ground and, with inhuman strength, slams both fists on the hood of the car completely kneading.

The brute force of the pack causes the car to fly over the three, skidding frantically with a sharp sound at least 60 meters away, completely crushed and destroyed.

Tatsuya and Tsukumo looked as shocked as Kohaku at this moment. Looking back, the car was completely destroyed and smoking with a strong smell of gasoline, there was no way in the world that whoever was driving it could have survived.

Still in shock and a little desperate, Tatsuya called the police while Tsukumo looked for any injuries on the other. Kohaku got up to go to the other two when he quickly remembered the mysterious savior.

He looked around the space looking for the person when he saw them standing far away. Even with the distance, he tries to record what he can of his appearance, which isn't much. What made him even more incredulous was that even with the loose clothes, the figure didn't seem to have any muscles that could justify its strength.

In the end, none of the three came away with any serious injuries other than a few scratches on their hands. When the police asked for their statement, Tatsuya took the lead and said what had happened but not telling them about the person who saved them, he just said that at the last second the car lost control and overturned. The police officers accepted this excuse.

Neither Kohaku nor Tsukumo questioned him about why he didn't tell the truth, because they also didn't know if they should. Besides, who would believe it? Maybe it would be better this way.

They were walking away after being released when something caught Kohaku's attention. On the sidewalk, there was a blue and white bracelet with a broken clasp. He quickly picked it up without the police noticing and put it in his pants pocket. That accessory probably belonged to that mysterious person and was the only clue he had, so he decided to keep it. Something told him that it would be important to keep that belonging.

You punch the wall behind you in frustration creating a large hole.

You almost ruined everything.

You took a few deep breaths to regain control and stabilize yourself. You weren't sorry for saving those guys, but that action would have consequences and it didn't help at all that two of them were wearing the vest of the infamous Mugen gang.

I hope dad doesn't get upset.

You knew that as soon as you got home you would get a lecture from your father for being reckless, for exposing yourself like you did, but trying to think positive, your identity was safe thanks to the large hood of the sweatshirt you were wearing.

You take off the sweatshirt you were wearing and put it in the backpack that you had left hidden in an alley, although those guys had left by a different route than you, prevention was never too much.

Your phone vibrates and when you pick it up and turn it on, a simple and straightforward notification of a message from your father saying 'I'm waiting at home' glows ominously.

Well, Shit.

After putting away your cell phone, as a form of consolation, you touch the beloved bracelets on your wrist only to notice that one of them was missing.

Please, somebody kill me now!!

[intotheseas]

I have a Stardew Valley fic in the works and wanted to post a little excerpt of the first chapter. CW: Drug use referenced, abuse, catcalling. Story takes place around 2006.

Sage is fucking soaked. Her t-shirt clings to her slight frame and her teeth chatter. A chilly February rain hammers Zuzu City. And as if Joja needed to give her any more “fuck yous”, someone stole her umbrella during her shift. The downpour drenched her as soon as she left the dingy mid-rise building.

So here she is, sodden, freezing, and miserable. Her back aches from hunching over a computer all day. But Yoba’s not done fucking with Sage yet. A car speeds by, honking. Tosses a wave of filthy water over her jeans, soaking into her sneakers. Super cool, she thinks. The air stinks of exhaust fumes, piss, and wet dog. Skyscrapers tower around her, like predators closing in. 

“Hey baby! You wanna have a good time? That shirt would look better on the ground!” Two men call to her from a dark alley. They’re much older, balding, with guts that hang out of their stained shirts. Hard hats and safety vests over top. Construction workers, but they’re not doing a lot of working. Keep walking, she tells herself. Look like you’re on a mission. Ignore them. The men jeer after her as she walks past, head held high. “Ehh, you’re not worth it, anyway! Be that way, bitch!” Sage runs across a crosswalk, dodging cars. The voices fade. 

It’s payday, which should cheer her up. But her already skimpy paycheck doesn’t stretch far. Rent’s due, and so are bills. After that, she’s left with around $100 for food for the next couple of weeks. She’s got a small savings squirreled away, one her parents don't know about, but that's reserved for emergencies.

Sage’s shoes squelch against concrete as she steps into her apartment building. From one shoddy mid-rise to another. Chips cover the brick exterior. The inside’s no better. Old, stained wallpaper, probably from the 60s at the latest, peels in the corners of the mailroom. Stinks of dirty shoes and smoke. The dark red carpet’s threadbare under her feet. She climbs the creaking stairs to her apartment, two floors up. 

The door’s stuck again. Something the landlord promised to fix. Years ago. She slams her hip against it, forces it open. Sage toes off her sodden shoes. Her stomach’s screaming at her, but there’s nothing in the fridge but a container of baking soda and some expired soy sauce. The cupboards are even emptier. She sighs. Does that a lot, especially lately. The lights are dim in the living room. She glances in, scowls at the scene waiting for her. Like rag dolls, Sage’s parents drape over the ratty couch. Passed out, like usual.

Shattered bottles litter the scuffed wooden floor. A dark bruise blooms around her mother's eye, but she’s too out of it to respond when Sage asks if she’s okay. She already knows what happened. It’s the same old story. Her parents took too much of their drug of the day. Her father always gets violent when he’s drunk or high. She’s been at the receiving end enough times to know by now. 

Used needles lay with the bits of glass, carelessly discarded. Plates of half-eaten food litter the old coffee table. Flies buzz around them. The stench washes over her like a wave. Sage holds her wet shirt over her nose. Her stomach roils. Nothing new at home. This is how it’s been since Sage turned 14 and her parents decided work was less important than drugs. She’s supported them since then.

It was disgustingly easy to find a corporation to hire an obvious 14-year-old lying about her age. And that’s how the past eleven years have passed. Sage considers herself lucky - she at least graduated from high school. Not everyone who lives in this part of Zuzu has that privilege. It got easier after that, after she didn’t have to balance both work and studies. So here she is again. Same shit, different day.

She tiptoes into her room, eases the door shut. She’ll mail the rent check while she goes back out to find food. Sage digs around in the drawers of her desk, looking for some spare bills and change. An envelope catches her eye. Old birthday card? She grabs it. Maybe there’s money inside. A letter falls out. The handwriting is flowery, meticulous in its tidiness. 

Sage, 

There may come a time when the world is too much for you. If that happens, use this. 

I know your life isn’t easy. If you’re ready to start over, I’ve left my farm in Pelican Town to you. Use it as you see fit. 

I love you,

Grandpa Charlie

Sage stares at the letter, hazy memories coming into focus. Her grandpa died about three years ago. She didn’t even go to his funeral, couldn’t get time off of work. Couldn’t afford to lose her job. They were never close, but she remembers visiting him on his farm a few times as a kid. Before the drugs completely took over her parents’ lives. She frowns. How could she have forgotten this? Inside the envelope is a deed, signed with her name.

Minutes pass as Sage stares at the paper. You know what? Fuck this. She grabs her bag, tucks the papers into it. Scrounges up a few dollars in cash. She tiptoes back into the living room. Her father snores softly. Sage pries open the front door and takes the steps down two at a time. 

Outside, the rain’s let up a little. It’s a light mist now, little droplets hovering in the air. Still stinks of piss and fumes. Sage jogs a few blocks down the sidewalk and hails a left, ducking into the library. She walks to a computer and types in the address from the deed into Google. Pelican Town is a few hours away by bus. There’s even a website. It’s quaint. Looks like someone made it in the mid nineties and hasn’t updated it since. There’s a phone number for a “Mayor Lewis” at the bottom of the webpage. Sage punches it into her phone and leaves the library, presses the call button. It rings for almost a minute. She’s about to hang up when a gruff voice answers. 

“This is Lewis. Who am I speaking to?” 

She almost drops the phone. Her hands tremble. Adrenaline’s coursing through her. “Uh, hi. My name is Sage. Sage Sandoval. I found your number on your website. Um, I have a deed to a farm outside your town? It belonged to Charles Sandoval. He left it to me in his will.” 

Lewis grunts. “Ah! Old Charlie. Was awful sad when he passed. Well, if you have the deed, the land’s yours. Are you looking to sell it?” 

“No! Er, no. I want to live there. Is the house still standing?” Sage drums her fingers on the back of her phone. She can remember bits and pieces of the farmhouse. It’s simple, one room with a large bay window and a kitchen and bathroom. But it’s away from here.

Lewis clears his throat. “It is, though not in the best condition. The land’s pretty overgrown, too. Are you sure you want to live there?” 

“Yes. When’s the soonest I can arrive?” She shifts from one foot to the other, glancing around the litter-filled streets.

There’s a pause. “Tomorrow, I suppose. I can send our resident carpenter over the day after to make sure the wiring is still sound.” 

Sage lets out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. “Great, thanks. I’ll arrive tomorrow by bus. I’ll call you when I’m close.” She snaps her phone shut. This is happening. She’s getting the fuck out of Zuzu City.

On her way back, she grabs an energy drink and bag of chips from a vending machine. Her fingers twitch against the can as she downs her paltry meal. She’s never done something like this before. Run away. It feels kind of silly to think of it like that. She’s twenty-five, after all. If not for her miserable excuses for parents, she would have had a place of her own years ago.

Sage almost feels like a kid again, about to walk into trouble as she steps back into the dingy apartment. Her parents haven’t moved a bit since she left. They’re out cold, probably will be for the rest of the night. Good. She begins to pack.

just wanted to post a quick WIP! It'll be farmerxSebastian focused, but also a story of moving on, healing from trauma, and learning to love and connect with people. Each chapter will also be titled after an indie song from the era - music will have a central theme through the story, sometimes overtly, sometimes more behind the scenes. :)

[possiblylando]

Some of my HTP theories

(Mostly about future plotpoints) 1. Big D looking so young is a plot point and not just a reference to TTS. You probably get what I'm going to say so let's just do some math. We know Markus is at least 30. We'll lowball and say he's 32 since birthday remarks make it sound like it wasn't recent. We know Door is older than Markus. Boy is 11 (as of current) and if we Lowball door's age again (35, 3 year age gap which I doubt is correct) he could've had boy when he was around 24. Then if we assume D had Door in this early 20s, We'll say 20 exactly as another lowball. That would place D at bare minimum 55 years old. My actual estimate is somewhere between 60-70. Yet he has no notable greying hair (ignoring lighting highlights) and is built like a brick shithouse who's able to manhandle brock of all people. As such it makes logical sense to assume there's some fuckery going on with how D ages (or doesn't). I doubt D is a vampire- or was a vampire I saw that theory awhile ago on reddit. What I think is more likely is that he gained immortality through mage fuckery. There's a character in Dorohedoro who's an old man but he got hit by age reduction magic so he's stuck being physically like 14. I think D has something similar going on. 2. Door is going to leave the family. I was thinking of saying "Door will betray the family" but that doesn't really fit. D's biggest flaw is that he's too secretive. There's currently no evidence that he's even told the rest of the family about Kevin being alive. Markus has some inkling of it because of the cop but I doubt he's put anything together. We all of course know Kevin is genuinely on D's side now, but Kevin can't be kept a secret forever. Eventually his existence is going to come out and when it does, I can not foresee a future where Door is happy about it. Door was willing to forgive D's secrets because they were to protect the family. But if he finds out D has been keeping a vampire alive and as an ALLY no less I can see that trust crumble down. Door has of course made his opinions on vampires VERY clear. As such if he finds out about Kevin not from D but from another incident he's going to have to make a choice. -Either stick to his morals and leave the family to hunt vampires on his own (maybe taking boy with him). -Or accept that his entire worldview on vampires is flawed and some of them can be saved. 3. Grimal is the ghoul, But she won't die. This kind of ties into the previous one as well. I went over a good chunk of the evidence surrounding Grimal being the ghoul in another post. I'll quickly summarize it here; -Grimal is known to crawl through the vents -She was in the security room when Occam was attack and the only way to get into the vault is through the door or air vents. -If she has vampire magic it could explain why brock's knives all broke when he tried to use them. -She has attachments to the people at the arcanum so wouldn't want to kill them. Which is why Occam didn't die. There's of course more evidence but this is all just summary. Now my actual theory is that Grimal is going to be found out and either D, Markus, or Kitten will go up to bat for her and this is when D will reveal he has a way to deal with ghouls. We know from Kevin that being a ghoul is similar to the blood pact where you're basically completely fucked and under control of your superior. Which is why I could see them trying to help her. Now think back to Guy Chapman, he hasn't actually served much purpose in the story being a ghoul. His existence is world building. It shows that ghouls can be anyone and anywhere. He also shows that ghouls can switch masters like he switched to Kevin. The idea is that Guy is set up so that when Grimal eventually undergoes the same thing it won't be an asspull/reveal it'll be an extension of pre-established mechanics. Door will of course NOT be happy about this.

[tiffanybluesclues]

HELLO! I'm making an obnoxiously long meta about the inconsistencies of Dick's and Bruce's relationship. I'm ALMOST finishes but I need an instance of adult-ish Dick Grayson saying that he didn't want Bruce to be his father pre-flashpoint

Also if you have instances of the writer hammering they're brothers pre-flashpoint that'd be cool as hell too, but I already got at least one instance of it (when dick goes to college)

Thank you in advance!!!! I'm still on the Kory-Bruce meta lmao I'm so annoyed he barely mentions her lmaooo

Somewhere in the decades and decades of pre-Flashpoint DC Comics, there may be an instance where Dick Grayson (as an adult or at least as a teenager) said he didn't want Bruce to be his father, but I've never seen it and I'm kind of glad I haven't because tbh based on what I *have* seen it would be Dick lying to himself.

I'm guessing the page that inspired your quest is this court scene from "Batman: Year 3" (1989)?

– Batman #439, 09/1989.

Maybe it was a modernized explanation for why Bruce took Dick in as a ward instead of adopting him – as opposed to the version in Batman #213 (08/1969), with the court saying Bruce couldn't adopt because he was a bachelor.

Something that speaks volumes to me is that in the same story as the above court scene, in the preceding issue actually, Dick thinks to himself that Bruce was like father to him. There is no internal conflict in this statement, no thought about how he at some point didn't want this. "He was like a FATHER to me and I LOVED him." He follows that up with a sad reminder of the distance between him and post-Crisis Bruce: "...and though he could NEVER bring himself to say it, I know he loved me too."

– Batman #438, 08/1989 or 09/1989.

You're familiar with the college-send-off, so please keep it in mind when you read this scene with [regard to] Bruce and pre-Crisis Jason.

– pages from Batman #376, 10/1984.

Alfred's response makes sense, it's a good explanation. It's also a complete rewrite of history, so these two are lying to themselves – or, more likely, the writers are trying to emphasize the current day stakes and emotions at the expense of the past. With the above panels in mind, let's look again at how Bruce actually reacted when Dick left home...

– pages from Batman #217, 12/1969.

Oh suuuuure, he definitely didn't mope around feeling lonely and depressed at all – and closing up Wayne Manor and moving out was a ~totally~ chill and non-dramatic reaction to Dick leaving for college... lol, okay, Bruce. I guess 159 issues and almost 15 years can make memories faulty.

The following are two pages I saved because of their references to the history that Bruce and Dick share. I want to highlight the page on the left though, because on a single page this comic manages to pay respect to the long history between Dick and Bruce while also disrespecting Dick's role as a surrogate son in Bruce's life.

– pages from Detective Comics #533, 12/1983; The New Titans #61, 12/1989.

That final yellow panel is so rude to me lol, like how dare you say "for the first time" as if like-a-son-to-him Dick Grayson didn't happen.

Comics from the 60s and 70s were probably the peak time for the idea that Bruce and Dick were like brothers. As far as I can tell though, writers didn't really have other characters describe them as brothers. I've seen mentor & apprentice, friends, partners, guardian & ward, knight & squire, and (primarily when there are no other children in the mix) of course Dick is also described as Bruce's heir pretty often.

I feel like, compared to Batman comics, the 1980s Teen Titans comics were more willing to say Bruce and Dick had a father and son relationship. Donna even contrasts her sisterly relationship with Diana to the parent and child relationship of Bruce and Dick during "Who Is Donna Troy?"

– The New Teen Titans #38, 01/1984 (Donna); The New Titans #61, 12/1989 (Alfred); The Brave and the Bold #197 04/1983 (Golden Age/Earth Two Bruce Wayne).

At least they let Earth Two Bruce remain true to Golden Age vibes.

My headcanon is always that he is the Bruce who every Dick Grayson grew up with, regardless of era, regardless of rewrites. Here are some panels that kind of support that – a significant factor in how Dick views Bruce is that he had a "softer" version of him than the man we see now.

– Batman: Gotham Knights #26, 04/2002 (Barbara); Nightwing #134, 09/2007 (Dick in flashback); Batman #437, 08/1989 or 09/1989 (Dick again).

A repeated theme from Dick is that he is insecure about his place in Bruce's life, and in some instances Bruce even made it clear that Dick's role was as a soldier, or at best a partner, and that being part of his family was conditional.

– left: pages from Robin: Year One - Part 2, Part 3, Part 3, Part 4, 01/2001.

right: panels from Robin: Year One - Part 4, 01/2001; Batman: Gotham Knights #43 09/2003; Action Comics #613, 08/1988; same; Nightwing #134, 09/2007; Nightwing Secret Files #1, 10/1999; same.

With that underlying insecurity, and the deep love and loyalty that Dick has for Bruce, I think that by the time he came of age it's likely that Dick actively wanted Bruce to be his father.

The first 20 or so issues of Gotham Knights offered some great material about their familial relationship (leading up to the adoption storyline). In issue #14 Dick writes a letter that he still never send. I swear half the delay in my response was probably me deciding which panels to include from this because it is a gold mine for the kind of meta you're writing.

– panels from Batman: Gotham Knights #14, 04/2001.

& with that I've hit the image limit, but I'll reblog with some panels on the point about how Bruce and Dick were often described as friends (something I saw possibly just as often as ward and heir).