#by introducing a virus of some sort into all of the different

[beardedmrbean]

An international operation against a large-scale scheme for financial crimes, money laundering and violations of international sanctions against Russia is taking place in Sofia at the moment. According to BNT, it is the company NEXO.

The ownership of the company is related to a former member of parliament and the son of a former social minister from the NDSV political party.

The suspicions are that the Bulgarians behind the large company acted according to the scheme of Ruja Ignatova and the OneCoin pyramid led by her. The Bulgarian woman known as the "Queen of Cryptocurrencies" is in the top 10 most wanted persons by the FBI. Europol and Interpol are also on her trail.

Prosecutors, investigators from the National Investigation and SANS employees, together with foreign agents, have begun searches of the Bulgarian offices of the company that trades cryptocurrencies worldwide.

The company's operations were carried out from the Bulgarian capital, and depositors were invited to invest in bitcoins and other types of cryptocurrencies, with promises of high returns.

The interest rates that investors would receive were many times higher than those of classic banking institutions and various brokerage houses. There are reports that the owners of the company, who are Bulgarians, have appropriated part of the assets amounting to several billion dollars.

The investigation into the activities of the crypto company in Bulgaria began a few months ago, after foreign services detected suspicious transactions, which were reported to be aimed at circumventing the sanctions imposed by the European Union, Great Britain and the United States against Russian banks, as well as companies and citizens of the Russian Federation.

Georgi Shulev – representing Nexo, son of former Deputy Prime Minister Lidiya Shuleva;

Antoni Trenchev – co-founder and director of several Nexo companies, former MP from the DBG, Reform Bloc;

Kosta Kantchev – director of Nexo Bank;

Kalin Metodiev – co-founder and financial director of Nexo;

Sokol Yankov – representing Nexo;

The company, which Sokol Yankov currently manages, said that Yankov left Nexo in 2019 and has had nothing to do with the investigated group of companies since then.

Georgi Shulev's office stated to BNT that he participated in the founding of Nexo in 2018. A year later, however, he left the Nexo group of companies and is suing the co-founders in Great Britain.

According to the Bulgarian National Television, Georgi Shulev is currently being questioned as a witness.

The former MP from the Bulgarian political entity "Reform Bloc", Antoni Trenchev, and his partner in the cryptocurrency trading company Nexo, Kosta Kantchev, fled to Dubai already in the fall of last year, BNT reported. This came after allegations of particularly large-scale fraud were brought against Nexo by the prosecutors of eight US states.

Regulators in California, Kentucky, New York, Maryland, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Washington and Vermont have announced that they are suing crypto platform Nexo over tens of thousands of cases of fraud totaling at least 0 million.

Nexo claims to manage billion in digital assets.

In recent months, the FBI has been investigating the activities of the Bulgarian crypto platform due to data on a hidden hole in the amount of over 4 billion dollars from investors, due to illegal financial activity - granting loans in exchange for collateral, as well as due to reports of abuse of the securities and goods of its customers.

The DFPI announcement revealed that Nexo offered annual interest rates of up to 36% on deposited crypto-assets to investors, significantly higher than rates on short-term investment-grade fixed income securities or bank savings accounts.

More details about the police operation read here.

[amiactuallydoingthisblog]

Alright, everybody, let me introduce you to Vocivos pathogenesis, the causative agent behind the void sickness. (aka I want to talk about how diseases work for 500 words) Content warnings for below the cut: discussion of diseases and infections, as well as a bit of body horror at the end. As a treat.

So, in my mind, Vocivos pathogenesis (Vocivos, L. adj, empty, relating to the void; Pathogenesis, Gr. n, mode of production or the development of the disease) is somewhere in between a virus and a bacteria. Like a bacteria, I think it can survive and reproduce outside of a host, and live in the soil/stone of the islands. However, like a virus, I think it can reproduce by hijacking a cell's existing machinery to replicate its own molecules.

Vocivos pathogenesis's reservoir is originally the void. That is where the microbes live and reproduce, acting more like bacteria than anything. Eventually, they are drawn upwards by the magic present in the upper islands, like how opposite charges attract, and start to live in the ground of the lower islands. Despite being drawn towards the magic, it also prevents them from spreading, which means that they are (currently) sort of stuck there.

Exposure to V. pathogenesis occurs when any mob or person makes skin contact with the ground. You don’t need to have an open wound to get an skin infection, and so any time a creeper/spider/skeleton/etc is walking on already contaminated ground there’s a chance for V. pathogenesis to infect them.

Infection starts in the skin. V. pathogenesis invades the skin cells, now acting like a virus rather than a bacterium, and starts multiplying inside the cells, and then just waits. The skin is where V. pathogenesis enters the host, and so that is where we start seeing symptoms (most notably, the black coloration of the infected) first. Because the microbe itself is void-black, as soon as it exists in the infected cells in high enough concentrations, we can start to see the infected turn black.

The infection quickly spreads to the bloodstream, most likely by entering the capillaries first and the veins to travel up towards the heart. This causes the black veins that Virgil noticed on the mind map. As the skin infection is starting to turn the host from the outside in, the infection in the blood is doing the same from the inside out.

Once V. pathogenesis has infected all of the host, it can start changing things. Every cell has all of your DNA in it, and the only reason you don’t have eyes on your arms is because different transcription factors told your arm cells which sections of DNA to express. V. pathogenesis starts affecting the release of transcription factors, telling the cells that would normally make skin or muscles to instead make eyes.

It also makes some more drastic changes, specifically up in the skull. V. pathogenesis causes the systematic weakening and then breakage of the skull, then uses your body’s already-existing process to reform the skull to have as many eye sockets as it wants. At this point, the infection has basically run its course, leaving a sort of undead void-possessed mob in its wake.

TL;DR: Vocivos pathogenesis lives in both the void and the soil of the lower islands, infects mobs through the skin, and eventually rearranges their bones.

[mossyivy]

I’m finally home after lectures and can write oh em gee…</3

Leon and his wife definitely met through Claire or Rebecca. I don’t wanna go too into depth because the note I typed out was way too long to submit and I didn’t wanna make people mad with scrolling. </3

You had been working at Terrasave for a couple months now, you were running tests on a sample that was deemed to have a new strain of the T-virus. The door to the lab suddenly opened, and there you saw him.

The man of your dreams. You swore your entire world stopped spinning as soon as he stepped into the room, hell, there were probably little hearts in your eyes. He came over and greeted both Claire and Rebecca, offering you a small wave and smile, which made you feel all queasy and sick.

The butterflies in your tummy were going wild, having to excuse yourself to do something entirely different o distract your mind. After about an hour or so, Claire finally finds you sitting at your desk, sorting through a couples files and so. She inquires as to why you bailed on them like that in a teasing manner, you just brushed it off and said you needed to turn in something before a deadline. (Completely lying.)

Claire already knew what the hell was going on, she decided to tease you by asking if it was because Leon was handsome, which you immediately shut down, becoming all red and shy almost immediately.

From then on—everytime Leon came to the lab, both Claire and Rebecca would purposefully leave and make excuses so the two of you could be alone. Safe to say, it worked. 🥹

- Anon! 🎀

(I'll say they probably met after Infinite Darkness So like 2007?)

Claire would be coming in strong every time he showed up. Immediately starts introducing you the second time he comes around, starts talking you up.

"Y'know Leon, she has a PhD in Molecular Biology."

"And a bachelor's in Neuroscience!" Rebecca adds, leaning over the lab table. You look up from your microscope glancing between the two women, smelling their bullshit from a mile away. You know exactly what they're doing.

"That's impressive, you must have been in school for a while to do that." You shrug, trying to downplay your accomplishments.

"8 years..." You meekly answer, trying to go back to your work as Rebecca taps the table, clearing her throat.

Her and Claire make up some kind of half assed excuse about needed to check up on further test results in another room and leave.

The silence in the room is deafening. You could hear a pin drop as your stomach was in massive knots. Until Leon's stomach growls, making you sit up straight and give him side eye.

"Are you hungry, or starving?" You smirk watching him side step around the lab table and grab Rebecca's stool. Sitting on the hard metal stool next to you.

"Ah, starving. Haven't eaten since breakfast. Probably should get myself dinner." You nod, looking back into the sample you're studying and take notes.

"Probably... grab something from that new Korean restaurant down town." You glance up from your work seeing the sheepish smile he's giving.

"I... Heard it was pretty good?" You add, staring with an unsure smile. His stomach growls again making your eyebrows raise in surprise.

"You should probably go get food before you start feeling nauseous." That was already happening with you. God forbid it be the both of you.

Leon nods, looking a little disappointed as he stands from the stool, putting it back in front of Rebecca's spot.

"Yeah, tell them I said I'll see them around. And you too." You nod, looking back to your work again before turning back to Leon as he opens the door.

"Leon." He freezes, head swiveling back with a half smile. "It was nice getting to talk to you this time. Be safe out there."

"Thanks Doc, you too." You roll your eyes as he steps out into the hall. Yelling to him as the door closes slowly.

"Don't make a habit out of the nickname!"

"We'll see!"

The next few times he comes around the same routine happens, Claire and Rebecca talk you up, leave, you two talk little by little and eventually he leaves for dinner. The same exact conversation every time...

After a few months of this Leon comes in again, you're alone for once and Leon wasn't scheduled for anything according to your paperwork.

"Hey, what're you doing here?"

"Just in the area." He leans against the lab table on his elbows, not scared to get close to you now. Your hips are nearly touching by how you're seated.

"So you came to see me." You scoff, looking at him with a tilt of the head. "Or are you looking for one of the others."

"No, just you. It's nice with just the two of us." Your heart nearly stales in your chest.

"Really?" Your eyes light up looking up at him. He chuckles with a nod. You go back to your work as he watches silently.

His smile never falling until he speaks up after a short while.

"So..." You look at him as he looks like he's pondering something. He looks oddly nervous for Leon of all people. "That Korean place is running a special this weekend..."

"Oh? Was it good the last time you went?" His face falls, shaking his head.

"I didn't end up going." You stare for a moment, confused.

"Why not?"

"Kinda weird going out to eat by myself to a nice restaurant."

"But you... You said you were gonna eat there?"

"With you. If you came."

"When did you ask me to come?!" Now it's Leon's turn to look confused, standing up straight, his mouth opens for a second to stutter.

"I-I told you I wanted to get dinner..."

"But when did you say 'Hey, you wanna go to dinner with me?'"

"It was implied... Usually when I ask straight forward I get shot down immediately."

Who the hell would shoot this man down? Was your first question.

"You... You wanted me to go to dinner with you, all this time? Oh my God we're both stupid." Your head sinks into your hands as her leans forward, looking you in the eyes.

"Sweetheart, you have a PhD. You're the farthest thing from stupid. I could have just asked normally." You rub your face with your hands, looking back at him.

"You wanna take me to dinner?"

"Yes... Very badly. Because I think you're pretty and smart. I'd be dumb to not at least try." You chuckle at his compliments as you nod, finally agreeing to go to dinner with him.

An from that day forward you two were each other's.

[cenorii]

RE headcanons again!

PART 2

This time I will add what animals I associate them with. Again I'll write a lot about some and just a little about others to supplement the last part.

Sherry Birkin

— It's hard to say what her favorite color is. She probably doesn't prefer any particular color, she likes dim palettes.

— I'm inclined to think that Sherry could have been Wesker's goddaughter. Birkins could have introduced him to her, and since Wesker has known William since childhood, he trusts him.

— She obviously attended NEST because Annette gave her a G-related pendant. Sherry probably had some instructions for emergency situations in which to use it, but kept it a secret. Chief Irons knew about the secret of the pendant, probably from William himself, because he was bribing Irons. And Wesker also knew about the pendant, it's in his first report.

— I recently rewatched all the clips of Sherry in re6 and noticed how reluctant she is to talk about Wesker every time the topic comes up. She never says anything bad about him, avoiding talking about him. I think that as a child, Wesker treated her well or seemed like a good person, but when she found out who he really was, she was deeply disappointed. She cherishes fond memories of this man, but keeps it a secret, because she will surely be convicted.

— Sherry calls Jake "Jake Wesker" instead of "Muller," even though she knows Wesker had nothing to do with his upbringing. Did she downplay the significance of Jake's mom? No, I would look at it this way. This is further proof that "Wesker" is not a negative word to her. She secretly treats him better than others treat him, so she called Jake by his last name with pride.

— In that moment when the runaway Jake and Sherry were changing clothes, they had a conflict. But I think Sherry was angry not only because Jake's words hurt the memory of her father, but also because they hurt the memory of Jake's father.

— Sherry was in government custody from 1998 to 2009. She was in custody mainly because of Wesker (file "A Deal with the United States" from re6). The government believed that Wesker needed a sample of the G-virus, but it was obvious that he had already gotten it through his own means. Perhaps this is a hint that there is some sort of connection between them after all. He could be her godfather who would want to return what was connected to him, or he wants to using her as research into how viruses are able to enter into symbiosis with humans. Sherry mattered to him in some way, and everyone knew it, including Sherry herself.

— I think she's in love with Jake, but because of little contact with other people and the outside world, is too shy to admit it.

— She has a deep respect for Chris and Claire, and considers the latter as close as if she were her second mother.

— The animal in which I see Sherry is a weasel.

Chris Redfield

— I think his eyes are gray. Gray eyes in real life can appear a different color depending on the lighting. In different photos with different lighting, they can turn brown, blue, even green. So I like to think that the confusion about Chris's eye color came about because of his gray eyes, which are just unlucky.

— For some reason, Chris doesn't like to show his young photos. Perhaps he is embarrassed by the fact that he used to be thinner and "weaker". Perhaps it makes him feel insecure. Or maybe he doesn't like his rebellious nature from the past.

— He's a golden retriever puppy.

Ada Wong

— Ada doesn't use perfume while she's on a mission so she doesn't reveal herself.

— She is black cat.

Wesker

— He hates ties. Maybe he was forced to wear them at some point.

— Wesker gives a fake name in non-serious situations like tailoring or meeting with the hairdresser so people won't be embarrassed or try to suck up to him. His name is more influential than himself, and it's a thing he doesn't like to abuse.

— Perhaps one day he wondered if he should have glasses with an interface.

— His totem animal is a possum. He's so good at playing dead.

— There is a stereotypical opinion of him based only on the outward image he builds for others. Few people delve into the lore or what is behind his fake "cool" image. So many people are susceptible to the halo effect, this is a cognitive bias where a person has a prejudice against someone based on their appearance or certain actions. People subject to this cognitive bias do not look at this person with a broad view, slipping into prejudice. This is why many are convinced that Wesker can't be bottom, and aggressively lash out at those who think otherwise. I, on the other hand, believe that Wesker is flexible in this regard, which is maximally not obvious. Wesker to me is "that" character from the teen shows, who builds himself up to be cool, but at night cries from loneliness or is very vulnerable. He's bottom, but that doesn't degrade his ego, it doesn't make him weak, because "bottom" he's only with those who "worthy" of him.

— Speaking of worthiness, I believe that Wesker is unwilling to use his powers all the time by thinking of other people as unworthy. Only Chris is worthy to stand up to that power.

— Wesker keeps Chris's dog tag.

Jill Valentine

— Jill's favorite color is sky blue, as it was the color she chose for her uniform in S.T.A.R.S. and continued to wear throughout her life. Every outfit Jill wore on any mission had shades of blue in it. It is definitely a color that she appreciates very much.

— Jill is definitely not the best cook, she can hardly cook anything better than scrambled eggs. She share this skill with Chris, who isn't very good in the kitchen either.

— Chris is her best and closest friend, her partner. They mean a lot to each other, but it's always platonic.

— Jill's orientation is bi. She probably liked Carlos, but I won't deny that there could have been a close dynamic between her and some woman too. Jill, like Chris, doesn't have much time for a personal life, so she didn't go into much detail about her preferences, nor did she have an love affair.

— She didn't like Wesker even before the betrayal. Maybe she realized before anyone else that there was something wrong with the guy, so she figured out his betrayal before Chris did, who resisted the information. She is perceptive and able to see through people.

— Her totem animal is a manul.

— In the days of S.T.A.R.S., she was the one who woke Chris, sleeping at his desk, just before Wesker or Chief Irons came in. She would cover her lazy (in those days) friend from trouble, getting the brightest and most genuine smile from him. Wesker knew of their machinations, but turned a blind eye to this childishness.

— She tries not to think of the time she spent under Wesker's control. Her dislike for him has only gotten stronger because of it. Of the horrible things about those years was not only violence, but also being with Wesker and Excella. Excella's flirting with Wesker was repulsive to Jill. She hated every moment of it.

— After 2009 her hair was permanently white, because of this she dyes it back to its original brown color so that nothing reminds her of those days.

[polaris-stuff]

Hey Noffy again

These last three episodes. Honestly I am still in shock.

As someone that was in the middel all the time. Right now at least the fandom seems United in being pissed (at what part certainly different, but i don't see anyone really liking this arc)

Right now...I don't think I gather my thoughts enough to say anything about the track the celestial family's arcs are going. Just that I am disappointed.

I am trying to find a way they can safe this arc.

Wich lies with that last but in the mgafs episode. The 'this all feels very orgistrated, moon losing his mind. Killing bloodmoon'. Or something along those lines.

If based on that. There is a sort of 'virus' reveal that some people have been speculating. I want something else to happen.

It still needs to hurt. That earth and lunar gave up on moon. Like it's the virus that made it all so quick and violent? (If that's what they are going for)

But still keep that part of the angst? I dunno. Something along those lines (still don't want old moon back without new moon. Answering for whats going in or the family trying to help. )

Gosh and I hate that sun wasn't here. People saying he needs to make a decision and then he isn't here?

I am afraid of next episode and what they are gonna tell sun. Sun is gonna be so utterly broken.

Uugh I think I am gonna join everyone in the fanfic reading.

I am still holding a sliver of hope they can fix this.

Or more I WANT THE SHOW TO FIX THIS.

I have not been in this community long. (Got introduced just around when Bloodmoon came back. ( A little before that))

I have not interacted with people much except in comments on ao3. Or asks where I can be on anon as I can't use my main. Or in the comments of threads.

But the people have been kind to me. Even if I held a different opinion. I've seen the joy this show gave. The art that it creates. And I am scared this arc is gonna destroy all that. Because people lose motivation because of this arc.

I really really hope not.

I hope the show brings it back. I hope they can do something. Even if for right now it feels like shit.

-noffy

I missed your asks, Noffy 🥺💖

Tbh I had no idea people were speculating about a virus until yesterday, and honestly, if it all ends up being about a virus (or the Ruin virus on Moon) I'll still be so upset. Because I won't be able to stop thinking about how Moon changed a little, became more aggressive and his family abandoned him at the first "No, I don't want help."

This whole arc only confirms the worst fears of all Moons: they will never be loved. They will always be the bad guys. << Which is btw what New Moon feared and talked to Earth about in therapy.

This arc feels rushed, gross, and not only did destroy the family, Moon's entire development was thrown in the trash. They butchered Moon's character. How are they going to fix this? Why tarnish the name of one of the show's protagonists so badly? Someone they're going to need later?

And you know what I hate more than everything? Sun doesn't know anything about what's going on. Puppet went, told him "you have to make a decision", Sun couldn't do it and Puppet went and sent Moon into space. Without authorization from Sun. And I hope Sun is really upset about it in the next episode.

Oh! And by the way! Earth comparing Moon to the creator felt like a stab in the back. The creator is a horrendous being who killed children for his own benefit, who does horrible experiments, and who planned and killed many people. New Moon has never killed anyone, New Moon was always helping his family, New Moon bought a house so Sun could have a place to relax, New Moon helped make Earth's new body with love, New Moon was so concerned about Lunar's well-being (when Eclipse came back) that he asked for and helped build a bodyguard for him.

New Moon was there ALL THE TIME for everyone.

But no one was for him.

I propose that the entire fandom pretend that this arc never happened :3 💖

[antianakin]

@assaultmech71 I'm putting this in a separate post because it IS a little off topic and that particular post is becoming fairly long and unwieldy as it is.

Part of my dislike of Luxsoka (and Lux in general) stems from my dislike of the episode he's introduced in. Heroes on Both Sides is supposed to show us that there's genuinely good people with legitimate grievances on the Separatist side and that Ahsoka is like... being kind-of ignorant by assuming all of the Separatists are evil assholes. However this is done SO SO BADLY the entire way through. I've talked about Mina Bonteri's whole sob story about her husband on some sort of base that got attacked by the clones and how unbelievable it is that the clones apparently just attacked an innocent base full of innocent people or something. There's NO WAY that Mina's husband wasn't involved in something either war-related or just sketchy and evil.

Lux on the other hand is sitting there being paralleled with Ahsoka where they're supposed to recognize that their lack of knowledge of the other side has caused them to be a little prejudiced towards each other. But while Lux has never actually met any Jedi and is making his entire opinion based on a lot of propaganda, Ahsoka HAS met Separatists, they just come in the form of military generals usually. Lux I think specifies "any Separatists who AREN'T military leaders" which is pretty unfair because those military personnel are STILL military leaders and effectively Ahsoka's counterpoint within the Separatist organization. Ahsoka has seen these people who claim to fight on behalf of the Separatist government do some absolutely heinous shit to actual innocent civilians (she's there for the incident with the Lurmens, the Blue Shadow Virus, Ryloth, and the Holocron Heist arc at this point). Ahsoka has genuine evidence to believe that the Separatists are, at best, ignorant of what's being done in their name, and at worst complicit in these actions being perpetrated by their military. Ahsoka isn't naive or ignorant the way Lux is, it's not a fair comparison. So their entire connection here is based on what amounts to a lie.

Lux also literally gives Ahsoka a once over when she bandies his own words back at him and asks him if she looks evil, which is juvenile and gross. And yes, he IS juvenile and Ahsoka does call him out on it a little, but still. It's not exactly a GREAT first impression here.

So basically a large part of the reason I hate him is because his entire introduction is just really really stupid and he represents this radically unfair perspective on the Jedi at this point just to make a point that isn't even ENTIRELY true.

Then we come to their second meeting where the whole episode ends with them saying they were a "good team" except that Lux fucks up approximately 20 different times and Ahsoka has to keep saving his ass and doing all the work. And Lux also betrays her like 4-5 separate times, he slaps her ass and acts like a misogynist to keep up an act with DEATH WATCH, apparently doesn't know or just doesn't care that Death Watch are literal terrorists, and is just overall completely awful and useless the whole time. They're not a good team, he's just a massive fuck up with delusions of grandeur who Ahsoka has to keep bailing out of danger over and over again.

He's better by their third meeting during the Onderon arc, but by then whatever feelings he may have had for Ahsoka seem to have faded and he's got a new girlfriend he's focused on and Ahsoka ultimately lets him go. But she's also JEALOUS of Steela for a while and it's impossible to figure out what she's even jealous OF. Like babygirl, I'm so frustrated with you right now, but you can STILL do better than Lux Bonteri. At least she decides to just move on by the end and we never see him again.

So yeah, Lux is a terrible person, a terrible love interest for Ahsoka, and Luxsoka is a fuck awful ship and I'm just so glad it got abandoned before it actually went anywhere and never came back.

[lesbianwyllravengard]

Please I’m begging you on my hands and knees please elaborate on Luis and Ada being foils

I am SO happy that someone finally asked me to talk about this I know I asked you to ask me I love you so much thank you because once I had this realisation it made me love both of their characters - and the re4 remake as a whole - so much more than I already did.

Explanation below the cut:

So first lemme define what a foil is when it comes to characters, not because I think you personally don't know Wilfred but in case anyone's reading this and wondering why I'm calling these characters aluminum wrap. I'm not, I promise it's a real narrative device. A literary foil is "a character whose purpose is to accentuate or draw attention to the qualities of another character". Essentially, a foil requires two characters to be identified, and they exist to contrast, reflect, or exist in an opposite way to their co-foil so as to highlight the other character's weaknesses, strengths, and personality. However, they are often also very similar in technical ways, and thus their behaviours and/or quirks that set them apart show the audience how some things just work for one character but not the other. Think of it like an inverted image, how some details look better in negative space but worse in positive space. This is true of narrative foils. In the remake of Resident Evil 4, Luis is written as a literary foil to Ada.

We first meet Ada in re2, and she's introduced as this mysterious woman who claims to be of the FBI but reveals no further details about herself. We as the audience/player behind Leon have to trust her to get to where we need to go, and she proves herself worthy of that trust. Leon doesn't question why she's helping him, because he believes that she really is FBI and that helping people is her job. He doesn't know her goal, but he's willing to help, and receive her help. However, at the end of re2, we find out that she's actually not FBI, that she was using that as a cover and she is actually a mercenary and spy, whose goal was to acquire a sample of the harmful G-virus and bring it to Wesker who was obviously going to use it for nefarious purposes, and she knew that. Leon (the audience) doesn't know this until the very end.

We first meet Luis in re4. Now in the original, he barely had any substance as a character, and his personality was simply an expression of cultural stereotypes and misogyny, masked under "charming flamboyance". In the remake, however, Luis does have substance as a character. We not only get more out of his personality, but we now know his goals, his flaws, and his interests. And just like Ada, he is a mysterious character with a dark past that led to him making bad decisions and aligning himself with bad people. However, the difference between them and the beginning of what sets them up as foils is that Leon (the audience) finds all of this out about Luis almost immediately. Unlike with Ada, where Leon took her word and went the entire game believing what she said, Leon was sceptical of Luis and had Hunnigan look him up - and sure enough, Hunnigan was able to find all sorts of information on Luis, despite Luis actively trying to make that information as well as himself untraceable. So rather than having the audience trust Luis outright like we did with Ada, and then having that trust threatened when we learn who she is later one, we learn who Luis is immediately, setting him up as someone who we should be sceptical of.

With Ada, by giving us a character to trust and see good in for an entire game only to end it with the reveal that she's actually working for the "bad guys", we are led to think that all of her actions up to that point were fake, that she was simply putting on a cover of kindness and care for Leon. And of course that's the wrong idea, as she clearly does care for him, which we see when he stupidly dares her to shoot him. And she refuses. IDK, even if I loved Leon, I would've shot him then just because he was being a cocky shit about it, but Ada is certainly stronger than me. Ada's actions prior to us finding out who she really is now are tainted, and we're led to see her actions as that of a facade. Adversely, with Luis, by giving us a character who's bad past we know outright and repeatedly meet up with throughout the game, we are led to see all of his actions from that point on as acts of redemption.

We first see Ada as a Good character and therefore all of her actions are that of someone just being herself, but with Luis we first see him as a Bad character, and therefore all of his actions are that of someone who must redeem himself. However, they are both very similar characters; but in the way the stories introduced them to us, and in the order they revealed information about these two characters to us, the narrative influences how we see these characters. Imagine if we had gone the entire game not knowing Luis used to work for Umbrella, thinking he was just Some Guy who happened to live in this village. Leon most definitely would have trusted him much quicker. But that 'Umbrella' background being the first real thing we learn about Luis means that his dark past will always be on our minds when we see him next. And it makes sense to us, given the events of re2, that Leon wouldn't trust Luis, even if the audience does. (Same with Ada; the audience could be distrusting of her, but narratively we see why Leon would've trusted her implicitly in re2.)

Both Luis and Ada are mysterious characters whose real moral alignment we are uncertain of for almost the entirety of their games. Both Luis and Ada tell lies to protect themselves or their cover. Both Luis and Ada withhold information they either feel too ashamed to admit or can't admit, again, to protect their cover. Both Luis and Ada - specifically in re4r - have a recurring theme of change. They both speak to Leon about people changing. They both show their own relationships with change. And yet, their endings are vastly different.

Where Ada withholds information and succeeds, Luis withholds information and is found out by Hunnigan. Where Ada can double cross Wesker and escape, Luis attempts to double cross Los Iluminados and gets found out and captured, which is how we meet him. Where Ada gains Leon's trust almost immediately and loses it at the end, Luis doesn't gain Leon's trust until the very end. Even when Leon shows situational trust in him - accepting Luis's help in the safe house, agreeing to partner with him to get the suppressant for the plaga for Ashley - he still doesn't trust Luis's motives, his goal, or even his character. Leon constantly questions Luis throughout their interactions, unwilling to believe this man would help them unless he had some ulterior motive.

That brings back up the theme of change. Luis asks Leon if he thinks people can change, and then Leon asks Ada if she has changed. Luis's death scene could very well be the first time - or at least, the first significant time - Leon has been forced to confront the idea that people change. His confusion regarding Luis's real motives the entire time as a result of learning that Luis used to work for Umbrella seems to be proof enough to Luis that Leon does not see him as someone who has changed, even though Luis desperately wants that to be seen. Adversely, Leon desperately wants to see some proof that Ada has changed, that she's not using him. He's learned from Luis, but he's stumped by his own personal lack of change. Leon doesn't understand how to identify that kind of change in someone; or at the very least, he doesn't know how to voice it. Ada replies "what do you think?", and this could be passed off as her usual way of avoiding the truth, but really she's asking him "Are you even able to know if I've changed? Did you ever pay attention to who I am, or did you lose sight of my character as soon as you learned something bad about me? Have I changed, or has your perception of me changed? Can I change to you if you never really knew me at all? What do you think about how people change?" (And I love this about her.) Luis is Ada's foil because the way Leon perceived Luis's change was so abrupt that now Leon is looking for change in everyone, even himself. And where Luis doubts himself and has to ask Leon - as he's dying - if Leon thinks people can change, Ada is sure of it.

And of course I have to add some serennedy in this. As @thebrokengate kindly mentioned, the dynamics between Leon and Ada, and Leon and Luis, are opposite. Leon trusts Ada and then that trust is broken; Leon doesn't trust Luis, and then that trust is earned, but too late. Luis isn't just a foil for Ada, but his relationship with Leon is also a foil for Ada's. We see where Luis fails in ways that Ada succeeded when it comes to their characters; but when it comes to their relationship with Leon, Luis succeeds where Ada failed. And it makes his death even more devastating as he had the potential to go further with Leon than Ada could, but he was killed, leaving Leon alone regardless. In both instances, Leon lost someone who affected him personally; but where one was lost with trust broken, the other was lost with their life taken.

Again, by giving us Ada's personality first and her background last, we soften up to her as a character before having to question everything we thought we knew about her, as who we find out she is contradicts what her actions have been. However, by giving us Luis's background first and his personality last, we start out sceptical of him, and when his actions contradict what we found out about who he is, we forgive him. I'll also take this opportunity to point out the misogyny in this fandom, as many fans still dislike Ada or believe her to be a bad person, when they love Luis. in many ways, they are the same character. We were just given details about them in a different order that influenced how we perceive their actions.

[television-overload]

Final thoughts on X-Files: Perihelion: [potential spoilers below, I'll try to keep it minimal]

(analysis below the cut)

The first half. I wasn't the biggest fan. I liked a few Mulder/Scully moments, of course, it was interesting to see what they were up to. But it all felt a little watered down. Like corporate fanfiction, a little colder and sanitized, emotionally. I think it comes down to having not enough time or space to properly flesh out the characters, and ultimately relies on the reader's preexisting understanding of specific details from seasons 1-11, as well as who these characters are, both individually and together. Having them basically planning to coparent and be roommates? That was a bit of a stretch. Suspension of disbelief getting tested pretty hard.

The side characters. I get it, they had to be introduced and given their time, but I found it difficult to get through. I don't know if it was too much time spent on them, too much detail, or what, but I found myself skimming through their bits at a certain point. Something just felt off there. There was a whole storyline that ultimately ended up being a red herring, and I sort of see it's purpose, but also I think it could have been cut back. It continued Chris Carter's weird pregnancy/violence pattern though, so make of that what you will. I just think it was a bit excessive. The first 2 incidents would have been enough.

Skinner. This is one area I think we didn't explore enough. More on that later.

Also, in my head, Scully moves back into the Unremarkable House, I'm rejecting this reality, even if it does make logistical sense to live in D.C. since... you know... that's where they work. But I have grown immensely attached to that house, so I will keep being unrealistic in my own personal headcanon.

The second half, once the mess of different perspectives and plot lines starts to converge, it got easier for me to read. As much as I hate CSM, his brief appearance drew me in, and I think they did that in a creative way. But that also wasn't explored nearly enough. Same with Mulder's dreams, and everything Vane (smoke guy) told Scully. Again, more on that later.

Another thing I expected to see come back: That slimy company Mulder got offered a job at. I guess it was just to demonstrate his unwillingness to compromise his character in the name of providing for his family, which I guess is fair.

Another warning for [spoilers] here, because I need to talk about this too:

I just didn't vibe with the overarching story of people developing superpowers and mutations from alien DNA and viruses. Much less it happening to Scully. Wait yeah, hold on. I'm adding that to the pile of things to talk about at the end. I just found it weird, which yeah, this is the show where vampires are pizza delivery men and a dude can squeeze through pipes in your building, but this for some reason was pushing too far, to me. It was hard to tell what we were supposed to make of these mutated people. I think what it comes down to is the sheer volume of loose ends, which is what I'm working toward here. Maybe it would be better if it were a less visible mutation. I get what they were going for, with the mutations getting out of hand, especially in a world that barely blinks when UFO's are confirmed to be real. But part of the allure of X-Files was them being the sole witnesses to a lot of this stuff. They were the only ones in the know with the willingness to fight back. I liked the idea of using gene editing to develop a virus that could reverse the damage, but again, I'd have liked it better if the mutations weren't so X-Men/Marvel Inhumans. It for some reason made me cringe 😂

Before we get to the loose ends and my thoughts on the final few chapters, I just wanna have a chuckle at the other cringe moments for me. Maybe it's just me being unused to reading things set in the modern day, but there were SO. many. pop culture references haha. It was maybe excessive, but correct me if I'm wrong. Mulder's new informant, especially, felt to me like a self-insert character in a teenager's first ever fanfiction 😅. I hate to say it, but that's how it came across. So much detail that read as "She's not like other girls/informants 😎." And then noting that Mulder actually kind of liked her 😂 it's giving 2014 One Direction Y/N fanfiction. Then there's all the nicknames for shadowy Syndicate stuff. I think the only way the original show got away with goofball stuff like "Cancer Man" and "Cigarette Smoking Man" was because it was established in a way that made you really fear the character, and that's a testament to William B. Davis' performance, too. Trying to repeat something like that that shouldn't have worked in the first place is tough. Feels like a bit of a reach. "The Inheritors," "The Executive," and also Scully and her friend coming up with code names for suspects or projects. Ehhhhh, just didn't come across naturally to me. It's hard to describe, but I've been thinking about this kind of thing in regard to fanfiction lately. How sometimes a determination to emulate the source material through callbacks or overly specific references can take me out of it, remind me I'm reading a derivative work instead of something that builds on it. These thoughts are only half baked in my own head, so I won't try to elaborate on them here.

Okay, now loose ends. There are. A lot... So much so, that they HAVE to be planning a second book. Or something, right? (🤡🤡🤡 season 12 where they get some basic, less interesting exposition out of the way via book release and then pick up there???)

In no particular order:

Scully's electrical super powers

Telling Mulder William might still be alive

Telling Mulder that William is possibly actually his son

Telling Mulder that this new baby is probably also his child and wasn't a science baby

TELLING MULDER SHE MIGHT MAYBE BE SORTA IMMORTAL KINDA?? TELOMERES???

Whatever the heck is going on with Skinner. Ya can't just leave him in a coma forever.

Alien DNA virus spreading throughout the earth / coming up with a reversal to get things back to normal (Skinner and Scully included, they haven't even really mentioned that)

Dr. Jones (Scully's friend) agreeing to help them save the world, at great personal risk to herself

That one lady can channel the dead. Yeah, I feel like we should dwell on that a little longer. Neither of them really fully accepted that was what had happened

Robin Vane and aforementioned lady relocating their little retreat full of mutants, under increased supervision by the Inheritors

Yeah. The Inheritors. No way they just leave that how it is. And Vane killed that guy and said "The Syndicate sends its regards" when here he's been taking out lingering members of the syndicate for years. What's up with that?

WILLIAM. I will say it again. WILLIAM.

So yeah, as you can see, this is clearly half of a whole story. I'll be intrigued to see if they continue this. I did like the second half a lot better than the first. Mulder and Scully looking forward to parenthood was cute, especially when they finally started talking things over. Talking about William. Acknowledging the loss they had suffered. Finding out the sex of their baby 🥹

I've read fanfictions that had Mulder and Scully feeling more in character than they did here, but it wasn't by any means *bad*. Again, might be a limitation of the medium, here. This isn't an MSR fanfic, it's a real book. There has to be a story and other elements than the two people we all came here for. It was still a worthwhile read, I think. If only to see what future Chris Carter has approved for his characters, and written by a genuine OG fan and member of this community of fans. How crazy is it to write a book and get emails from the creator of this series after having spent so much time in the 90s writing fanfiction for it?? I'm sure it was a dream come true for the author. I'd say it's what every fanfic author dreams of, but I think for some of us, it would be mortifying 😂 (though I've often thought it would be fun to be a writer on NCIS, because that show's writer room needs some help these days. I CAN FIX IT, CBS, CALL ME) ((I have no television writing experience))

I've gone on long enough. There's probably more I forgot to mention, but these are my thoughts, while it's fresh in my mind.

Now back to my regularly scheduled fanfic programming 🏃‍♀️‍➡️

[mariacallous]

Elon Musk just dragged ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence programs into the Trump crosshairs by repeating his warning that current AI models are too “woke” and “politically correct.”

“A lot of the AIs that are being trained in the San Francisco Bay Area, they take on the philosophy of people around them,” Musk said at the Future Investment Initiative, a Saudi Arabia government–backed event held in Riyadh this week. “So you have a woke, nihilistic—in my opinion—philosophy that is being built into these AIs.”

Although Musk is himself a polarizing figure, he is right about AI systems harboring political biases. The issue, however, is far from one-sided, and Musk’s framing may help further his own interests due to his ties to Trump. Musk runs xAI, a competitor to OpenAI, Google, and Meta that could benefit if those companies become government targets.

“Musk clearly has a close, close relationship with the Trump campaign, and any comment that he’s making will hold a big influence,” says Matt Mittelsteadt, a research fellow at George Mason University. “At a maximum he could have some sort of seat in a potential Trump administration, and his views could actually be enacted into some sort of policy.”

Musk has previously accused both OpenAI and Google of being infected with “the woke mind virus.” When Google’s Gemini chatbot produced historically inaccurate images, including black Nazis and Vikings, in February, Musk saw it as proof of Google using AI to spread an absurdly woke outlook.

Musk is clearly no fan of government regulation, but he backed a proposed AI bill in California that would have required companies to make their AI models available for vetting.

The first Trump administration also targeted perceived bias at Big Tech companies with an executive order that sought to hold platforms such as Twitter, Google, and Facebook accountable for censoring information for political reasons. The pressure had a tangible impact, with Meta ultimately abandoning plans for a dedicated news section on Facebook.

Mittelsteadt notes that Trump’s VP pick, JD Vance, has also talked of reining in Big Tech companies and gone as far as to call Google “one of the most dangerous companies in the world.”

Mittelsteadt adds that Trump could punish companies in a variety of ways. He cites, for example, the way the Trump government canceled a major federal contract with Amazon Web Services, a decision likely influenced by the former president’s view of the Washington Post and its owner, Jeff Bezos.

It would not be hard for policymakers to point to evidence of political bias in AI models, even if it cuts both ways.

A 2023 study by researchers at the University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University, and Xi’an Jiaotong University found a range of political leanings in different large language models. It also showed how this bias may affect the performance of hate speech or misinformation detection systems.

Another study, conducted by researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, found bias in several open source AI models on polarizing issues such as immigration, reproductive rights, and climate change. Yejin Bang, a PhD candidate involved with the work, says that most models tend to lean liberal and US-centric, but that the same models can express a variety of liberal or conservative biases depending on the topic.

AI models capture political biases because they are trained on swaths of internet data that inevitably includes all sorts of perspectives. Most users may not be aware of any bias in the tools they use because models incorporate guardrails that restrict them from generating certain harmful or biased content. These biases can leak out subtly though, and the additional training that models receive to restrict their output can introduce further partisanship. “Developers could ensure that models are exposed to multiple perspectives on divisive topics, allowing them to respond with a balanced viewpoint,” Bang says.

The issue may become worse as AI systems become more pervasive, says Ashique KhudaBukhsh, an computer scientist at the Rochester Institute of Technology who developed a tool called the Toxicity Rabbit Hole Framework, which teases out the different societal biases of large language models. “We fear that a vicious cycle is about to start as new generations of LLMs will increasingly be trained on data contaminated by AI-generated content,” he says.

“I’m convinced that that bias within LLMs is already an issue and will most likely be an even bigger one in the future,” says Luca Rettenberger, a postdoctoral researcher at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology who conducted an analysis of LLMs for biases related to German politics.

Rettenberger suggests that political groups may also seek to influence LLMs in order to promote their own views above those of others. “If someone is very ambitious and has malicious intentions it could be possible to manipulate LLMs into certain directions,” he says. “I see the manipulation of training data as a real danger.”

There have already been some efforts to shift the balance of bias in AI models. Last March, one programmer developed a more right-leaning chatbot in an effort to highlight the subtle biases he saw in tools like ChatGPT. Musk has himself promised to make Grok, the AI chatbot built by xAI, “maximally truth-seeking” and less biased than other AI tools, although in practice it also hedges when it comes to tricky political questions. (A staunch Trump supporter and immigration hawk, Musk’s own view of “less biased” may also translate into more right-leaning results.)

Next week’s election in the United States is hardly likely to heal the discord between Democrats and Republicans, but if Trump wins, talk of anti-woke AI could get a lot louder.

Musk offered an apocalyptic take on the issue at this week’s event, referring to an incident when Google’s Gemini said that nuclear war would be preferable to misgendering Caitlyn Jenner. “If you have an AI that’s programmed for things like that, it could conclude that the best way to ensure nobody is misgendered is to annihilate all humans, thus making the probability of a future misgendering zero,” he said.

[thorn-thorny-thorn]

I really like that series that takes place over several years both irl and in cannon that has changing protagonists. Yeah that series that has a set type of humans among the regular humans for the first bit then exchanges it for another type of humans with stronger abilities that live along with regular humans. That series with the changing parts that could very easily be their own stories and kind of are but contribute to the overarching naritive. Yeah you know, that series with that one bitch that gets introduced at the start and then comes back later while causing issues for everyone because they refuse to die. However they get killed because of a character that is quiet. That series with that dad character that cheats on his wife and affair child has anger issues. That series where one character disregards all of humanity for their own desires, probably because they have come to hate literally everyone due to their own ideals, and ends the world with a realistically scary event that kills all of our faves. Also everyone is in the same place afterwards just in some sort of different state. That series with that shut in guy that has canonically fucked and we later find out what happened to at least one of the kids a women from his harem had. That series with the criminal organization where there's different people with different skills and abilities and one person from this part uses some sort of airborne virus to kill tons of people. That one series that had a single person in charge and after many people died the people said person was in charge of decide to kill them. That one series with questionable science. That series that originates in Japan but is arguably more popular in the West with some sometimes poor translations. That series with amazing songs. That series where we have a whole ark of a person going on a killing spree and by the end said killer ends up dying due to their neck getting mutilated. That series with that silly little kid in a criminal organization that may not be the smartest because he was given the option to leave but due to a flashback to his youth stayed behind and ended up dying due to holes in their body. That series where we have a protagonist completely changed their appearance. That series where there's some questionable names that sound like shit posts. That series that has colorful cast of characters that have all arguably did bad things but we love them nonetheless.

Yeah it's my favorite series

[handeaux]

In 1872, Cincinnati Ground To A Halt As The City’s Horses Succumbed To A Virus

It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie. For nearly three weeks in the autumn of 1872, Cincinnati was paralyzed by a virus with no known cure.

Humans were not susceptible to this virus. It only affected horses, but the entire operation of Cincinnati life and business depended primarily on horses. When the city’s horses were incapacitated, Cincinnati screeched into paralysis.

The strange episode began one evening in October when Dan Rice’s circus rolled into town. Four of the horses showed symptoms of some sort of respiratory illness and were taken to veterinarian George W. Bowler for treatment. Dr. Bowler readily identified the affliction as the “Canadian horse disease” that was then infesting the northern tier of states but doubted it would spread beyond his stable on Ninth Street.

Alas, Dr. Bowler’s optimism was unfounded and the next few days found cases throughout the downtown area. Journalists struggled to name the disease. “Epizooty” was a common label, but newspaper reports invoked “equine influenza” or “hippo-typhoid-laryngitis” or “epiglottic catarrh” or “epizootic influenza” and even “hipporhinorrheaeirthus”! Whatever they called it, the disease would hobble a city absolutely dependent on horse power to operate at all.

Josiah “Si” Keck, presiding at the Board of Aldermen, introduced a resolution to draft squads of men for duty at the city’s firehouses. With the horses out of commission, only manpower could replace horsepower to haul the heavy steam-powered fire engines of the day. Thankfully, only a few minor fires were reported during the height of the contagion.

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer [11 November 1872], other horse-dependent companies tried different alternatives:

“The United States Express Company has prepared to follow the example of the Eastern Companies. All of their horses, twenty-two in number, being completely disabled, they will at once substitute steers, and the streets of this city will show the curious spectacle of express wagons drawn by the propelling force of a farmer’s haycart.”

Historian Alvin F. Harlow, writing in the Bulletin of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio [April 1951], noted that the bovine substitutes were simply not cut out for jobs readily accomplished by horses:

“The oxen, with great, wild, pathetic eyes, slobbering, swaying slowly through the streets, were a strange spectacle to city folk, and were followed by crowds of children for a day or two, until the novelty wore off. But as agencies of traction, they were a disappointment. Not all of them were well broken to the yoke; few men in town knew how to drive them, and as they are—with the possible exception of the tortoise and the two-toed sloth—the slowest walkers in the whole zoological category, they did not accomplish much in a day, according to city standards.”

Just think of an entire city operating on the capable talents of horses, now immobilized by an unseen microbe. Garbage piled up as the city’s sanitation wagons stood idle. “Garbage” back then meant kitchen and table scraps which, even in the chill of autumn, ripened malodorously in unattended cans. The situation was even worse at the city’s slaughterhouses. Even though the butchers had stopped working – there were no wagons available to deliver the slaughtered pork and beef – there were likewise no wagons to dispose of the offal and trimmings. The stench was indescribable.

Cincinnati’s streetcars were horsedrawn in 1872. It would be a decade before electrical trolleys debuted. The entire commuter system of the city shut down and the Cincinnati workforce, from C-suite executives to the lowliest laborers, had to hoof it. Harlow describes an exhausting scene:

“Towards dusk each evening the great trek homeward began, and from then until 9 P.M. the streets were thronged with business men, clerks, bookkeepers, warehouse and factory workers, trudging wearily. To reach their work again at 7 or 7:30 next morning, when most people's day began, soon proved too much for some of them, and they took to sleeping in their places of business; which in turn became less and less necessary, as those businesses were compelled to shut down for lack of transportation.”

Even funerals were affected. Teams of undertakers pulled hearses to the depot of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton railroad, whose tracks ran along the front of Spring Grove Cemetery. Mourners followed along on foot until the hearse was loaded on the train, then rode out for the burial. Other cemeteries put interments on hold for the duration.

The city faced the serious prospect of starvation. Food arrived in the city by rail and by river, but there were no carts to carry it from the wharf or the depot. Fresh vegetables rotted down by the river while families went hungry just a few blocks north. Farmers from the suburbs refused to bring their crops into Cincinnati for fear that their own draft animals would succumb to the dread epizooty.

As humans attempted to fill the horse’s role, every wheelbarrow in the city was drafted into use and some sold for astronomical sums. Even so, as noted by Harlow, human power had its very fragile limits:

“If the load was very heavy, as for instance, hogsheads of tobacco, massive machinery or an iron safe of a ton weight, ropes were also attached to each side of the wagon and passed over the shoulders of two files of straining men, while three or four others, their feet striving for toeholds in earth or cobbles, pushed against the wagon's tail until shoulder-bones threatened to wear through the flesh.”

Among the worst effects of the pandemic was the inability to dispose of dead horses. Horses died in Cincinnati at the rate of twenty or thirty a day at the height of the disease in November 1872, and there was nothing available to haul the carcasses out to the reduction plants, where they might be turned into soap fat or fertilizer. Alderman Si Keck, who owned one of these “stink factories,” found a partial solution by renting a small steam-powered truck from one of the city’s pork-packing plants but could still handle only a few of the equine corpses.

By the end of November, new cases and fatalities had diminished considerably. As December opened, the city was almost back to normal, with a new appreciation of the four-legged residents who truly powered our city.

Only one case of a human contracting the epizooty was recorded in 1872. Joseph Einstein was a well-known dealer when Cincinnati’s Fifth Street was the largest horse market in the United States. Einstein spent weeks, around the clock, nursing his stock and developed symptoms remarkably similar to those afflicting his horses. Several local doctors confirmed that he had somehow succumbed to the dread epizooty.

Just as mysteriously as it appeared, the epizooty vanished, and never visited Cincinnati to that degree ever again.

[amphiptere-art]

Ok. I'm going to spit all my mer ideas here. Don't know which ones are still sticking and don't know which ones I might change. Either way just take everything I've ever said before about my mer lore as non-cannon anymore. This is a complete redo. And while I will try to preserve as much as I can from the original narrative. I am essentially making my own world.

Now let's start the complete redo of my mer lore.

Now this is taking a bit from the locked door of course. Which means that a lot of mythical creatures just kind of exist. Mer just kind of exist because the artist made them so. But we're going to try and spin the best logical explanation that a person could derive.

First let's set up the world. This is a course going to be an ocean world. We can't have creatures like Blue Moon simply wandering around in a non-ocean world. So Ocean world. Another thing is the different zones, and more particularly how you can have such giant life living lower in a zone without getting much energy from the sun or resources. Someone else and other rich areas need energy from something else like the Sun to strive. Most things that live in the dead of space travel from these rich areas. Meaning that we need a rich area that can live a little deeper.

Now of course I could do the thing I did before. Which is saying that the sun is God and is much much stronger. Making it so the Twilight zone is much much lower. Smushing this night light zone in between. But I thought of something that might be a little better. Now of course this world is a bit more magical. More subnautica less realism. So we're going to bring back this nice little fantasy idea from another story of mine.

Sun Stones. Perhaps also called Shadow Stones. Point is these are rocks that in the original story were held in this sort of middle earth like area. They don't produce light, But they do still produce an energy that can be taken by plants and other creatures. So we're going to introduce these lovely energy producing stones to make that lovely Twilight zone not so lifeless. Deeper below the Twilight zone and beyond. There are little clusters of these rocks. These clusters act very similar to reefs. They are nutrient positive areas deep in the dark. Shadow Stones before also made plant life go bioluminescent to get that energy. So that follows here. Essentially these are glowing reefs that are in the deep. They come in little pockets much like many reefs. So indeed the rest of the ocean is still pretty barren. But you have these little speck of light that many of these deep mer inhabit.

Now onto some options I made for myself on how these mer evolved. The first one is that they were a river species acting somewhat like a manatee. Soon diversifying into a large clad. Now while evolution is a godsend that can basically do anything. It is stuck in some regards. And just saying that a bunch of creatures derived from something like a manatee in two thousands of Leviathan class creatures that still have arms just doesn't make sense.

The second option, that I like much better, is that it's some sort of DNA changing virus. It will be an exaggeration of a DNA changing virus of course. But essentially this is a virus that could come through any sort of orifice Is that once inside starts to affect the host. Changing the DNA to have a more mer-like appearance. Increasing their intelligence and other things. Why are the creature that initially got it might not change dramatically. Any offspring it has will. And of course any offspring of that mutated offspring will have a more even concentrated version of the virus. Making a selection of mer that can mimic many species. There is no family tree connecting mer. Other than that virus and Whatever relations were from the parent species that was infected.

I'm going to say gigantism is actually a somewhat normal trait. The virus already makes them bigger to fit in with the whole Mer shape. A small fishes children will get unreasonably large. So gigantism is somewhat normal. Now here's the kicker. When a mer breeds with a mer. Usually the virus realizes that it doesn't really need to do too much. Usually making a replicate. But some of them don't realize that. And usually an error like that can spread. Especially when it is in a virus like form. Which is where you get leviathan's like blue moon. Basically the virus forgot to turn off that one trait that makes them so and so bigger than the base fish. Making them so and so bigger than the mer.

Another mutation that they get. Is that they have a capacity to breathe air. This is also another mutation that can improve through a reoccurring gene. Basically the standard Is it a good amount of being able to breathe air but not enough to live there. Depending on the species it could be better. Like something like a seal. But for other species I would compare it and more so to whales. We're basically they can breathe oxygen for a time before they need to dive. Something that can be improve the more they grow but as a youngling they need to breathe more water. Although with a certain gene mutation it can get extraordinarily better. Basically they will be able to breathe air much more efficiently the more that gene repeats. Meaning that some mer can hang out on the land as much as they can in the water. And others can only take breaths before diving back down.

Of course another mutation is the higher intelligence. It makes them similar to humans in some regards. Although I would call them more tribal. They have an understanding of families and protection in groups. They also have a sense of morals and other things like that. Of course they are still fish. And fish eat fish. That is simply the natural order. But sometimes that natural order is looked down upon do to morals. It's a personal choice. Usually those that form large groups and fish that swarm will look down upon cannibalism. While others that usually grow solo and are naturally solo predators when fish. I don't have so much of a pick. Although for the most part they will not eat family.

Humans still exist. There of course more alien due to the world. But they just look like humans. My pencil says so. So marking that off that they still exist. Humans are prevalent enough to cast nets and other things to catch the more standard like fish. They have become as much of a standard problem for the oceans as anything else. The only difference is that they don't have as much land to build on. So instead they usually build giant floating civilizations. Built out of stuff they could mine from under the ocean. Of which the ocean do to this environment is quite prevalent in similar materials to what you would find on the land. Humans just can't breathe water and therefore there are many floating civilizations.

Humans of course wanted to meddle with this wonderful little virus. It is an evolutionary marvel. Something you definitely want to have on your hands. So there's a bunch of labs and research groups that want to study. That original idea of humans being split into two groups around mer. One wishes to research them and basically take that evolutionary virus and change it to their own will. Either attempting to make it work on the human species so they can rule the oceans as well, or other things. There is of course the researchers. But don't necessarily want to meddle with the things that made mer. They wish to protect the species. Realizing also that they are a marvel but not for their uses.

This of course has a big battle between the labs mutating mer in horrendous ways. While the research group scrambles to not only heal what the lab group has done, But also from other humans just having a hard time with the mer. Humans will still take mer either for hunting pleasure or for their own battling rings. There's also just general disdain with the species for being smarter and able to unwind traps. The research group basically tries to corral mer into non-human areas and help those who have been harmed by humans.

No of course you can see this is a pretty settled world on how it's different from what I had before. But other than the world, DNA changing virus, And how humans have impacted things I haven't really talked about mer biology. At least excluding the DNA changing virus. Explaining how a gigantism works. I need to explain more so how they breed, and all those in between things. So let's set up one thing. The DNA changing virus just changes the mental capacity and their body. It doesn't really change the behavior.

Which means that overall. All Mer breed like the species that they're mimicking. Now of course mer of different species have bread with one another. Making hybrids of two different types of fish. In this circumstance usually the breeding will be one or the other. Usually supported by the body type that they took over most. An example of blue moon they breed more like an ribbon eel because They don't look like a leafy dragon. While someone like annular would do the leafy dragon breeding instead of the ribbon eel one.

Now of course there is the higher mentality mutation. This like I discussed before is more so why they make tribes. There are still differences between fish and stuff. Usually those at school will stay together. They will make tribes and usually have a cast. The leader is usually the biggest or the smartest. Other fish can challenge for the leadership position. Others will take upon different tasks to help their school. Shaman, healer, war Chief, etc. these schools will stay together for the most part unless one is banished or they wish to move on. They're is of course the solo mer. These usually are on their own or in family groups. Family groups usually splitting when they're older but they can continue to stay together for some time.

Which gets me onto the add-on with the breeding thing. While they will breed like the fish they derive from. Usually they will protect their nests unlike other fish. While breeding instances like salmon or other massive group breeding fish exist and they still breed in that fashion. It is instead more like the whole clan moving over to their breeding grounds to protect their eggs. Whether it is a solo fish or a school they will stick around long enough for the eggs to hatch. They will then care for they're young until It no longer is advantageous to do so. Such as the standard "you reached adult age" mannerism. Although some mer Of course don't follow that norm unless they want to.

I really hope I've gone through all the conceptions there. I don't know if I can think of anymore. So let's get on to rewriting the lore of mer Blue Moon a bit. I don't think it's too much but, just a bit.

So Mer Blue Moon is from a long line of experimented on Mer that played with the gigantism gene. Unfortunately they got caught. The research group basically snapped their wrist. Making them release all the giant mer. One of these was Blue Moon's father. Well Mom. Ribbon eels reproduce by coming out male as first and then turning female to lay eggs. But either way they layed their eggs. But due to being in a lab for so long they died shortly after. Running off so that their corpse did not drag predators towards their unborn egg.

I'm going to let a lot of people slot their characters in here. Because it allows for a baby adoption. But onwards to getting the family together before ripping it apart.

The standard scenario is that Golden red (sun) and tempting waters (moon) find the egg. Although in this world it's not so much because they want to raise it. More like they were planning on eating it. Unfortunately the baby hatched before they were able to react. So they were stuck with this child that had imprinted on them. They didn't necessarily want to raise the thing. So for Blue Moon was just left following people that didn't care about them and just hunting for themselves for the majority.

This is one of the basic story of Mer Blue Moon being a problem for boats happens. Basically they got so big and due to golden red and tempting waters being closer to humans. They caused a lot of issues. Mostly gaining their boating accident scars and other things. The research group was consistently trying to push them into deeper waters and tag them to at least keep track of where this giant fish was. Unfortunately Blue Moon is very good at taking off the trackers and kept coming back because of the imprint. Resulting in the same scenario where they just label the area as a hazard zone.

I'm going to add in mer Blackstar because I want to. He was unfortunately also caught by humans. But those lab researchers weren't caught. And they had a fighting ring. Basically Black Star was not only experimented on but also forced to fight other mer. Making them gain a general distrust towards any mer or human. The experiments were mostly trying to extract their DNA changing virus. Although there was of course other things that happened. This is the first time making Black Star as a fish. So I don't have a design. But the flecking gold design on them is actually scars.

Anyways thankful at some point the research group caught on. Although they only caught them at the fighting ring. So they have no idea of the experiments, just the fighting. So after spending some time trying to teach Black Star normally how to get along. They eventually gave up and just released him into the area. Black Star migrating over to wear blue moon lives. Blue Moon was of course much much bigger at this point. So when they first meet Blue Moon could have eaten him. But instead they could smell that something was wrong and decided to take pity. Black Star was frozen when this giant thing cuddled them. But soon started to see Blue Moon as their protection. Untrusting of any that came around and most didn't because of Blue Moon's size.

And that's what I'm going to set up. This is a more crossover cut area. Hopefully it's not two different from before. I just added in Black Star and changed the personality of golden red and tempting waters.

[digitalgate02]

Y’know, one of the things this fandom seemed to be divided into two parts is about Frontier and Takuya’s “Dark Evolution” in the story. Some pointed it was “Vritramon rampaging phase” in the story, and some would consider “Takuya reverting into Flamon” as the dark evolution of this series.

First, what are the characteristics of Dark Evolution, according to the older three series + Savers? Mixing strong negative emotions and forcing your digimon to evolve. All cases of Dark Evolution before and after Frontier were like this. (I know, the OG Taichi was mostly by being a reckless idiot, but i like to think the novel version explained something a little more about this event)

Character has strong negative feelings and then forces their or someone else’s digimon to dark evolve into a mindless beast. – That’s how things worked in Adv’99, 02, Tamers and Savers.

(you may notice that instead of Daisuke dark evolving his partner, it’s Ken who forces a dark evolution on Taichi’s partner. Which implies yeah anyone could do that. Funny enough, Ken also fits the criteria established in those series: He is a self-absorbed and arrogant kid, so those emotions are mixed in the mix and this is why he evolves Agumon into SkullGreymon first. He only manages to get MetalGreymon virus after he cheats with his Evil/Dark Spiral. Meanwhile Daisuke lacks malice, lacks negative feelings. So he’s just a dumbass in ep 22 getting into trouble in the process.)

However, Ghost Game brought a new view of this concept by introducing GulusGammamon. As you can see, Gulus is a dark evolution (somehow) and it differs from every mindless-beast-on-rampage case we watched until now. But before going into GG take on it, I’d like to talk about the peculiar case in Adventure’s reboot series (aka Psi, or Adv:2020) first:

So, one of the things we saw in the episode from the reboot is that Taichi was getting consumed by the dark miasma around the place. We never had something like this before as well – this series was trying to “corrupt” Taichi too. The last time we saw a “tamer” corruption was on a Drama CD which was more a very weird and for fun story (this was done before the Drama CDs for digimon started to get serious stories) than something to take seriously. Anyway, the reboot was trying to corrupt Taichi first. Second is… Taichi dies for a moment which triggers Agumon’s dark evolution based on Agumon’s strong feelings (and the dark miasma, probably). This is going to be reused in Ghost Game, actually.

Now, back to Ghost Game!! Fun facts for you: Gulus is the only Gamma-form to not have a ring on his wrist/paw. Also, Gulus does not need Hiro to evolve either! But it was triggered by Gammamon’s strong feelings at first – when Bokomon died in front of him. Other cases were probably for survival in a life-or-death scenario for him or any of the trio. Gulus’ has another speech pattern from the other Gammamon forms, and the most important detail is he’s totally sentient. Gulus is more like another personality to Gammamon than being a feral beast in rampage.

But what can Ghost Game help us to decide which “dark evolution” scenario counts for Takuya/Frontier?

First of all, if we ignore Takuya for a moment, Frontier already has a “dark evolution” character – Kimura Kouichi. Duskmon and Velgmon are evil forms, and they’re purified into Loweemon and KaiserLeomon later. And heck, Kouichi himself is the “Warrior of Darkness” c’mon guys!!

BUT, Kouichi’s role is most suitable for the “redeemed villain” category. So yeah, which of Takuya’s cases suit the dark evolution criteria?

I’d like to reveal that, maybe, Frontier was ahead of its time. Because now that we got Ghost Game to break the norm and show us a new approach from this concept, it can help us here to notice Flamon was sort of a dark evolution for Takuya.

Frontier already makes clear that the Beast spirit forms cannot be controlled that easily, and I’ll shamelessly plug Shiha’s meta about everyone’s cases here in case we start the discussion about Izumi again.

So if we consider Vritramon the “dark evolution case”, you could say most of the kids in Frontier had it too. Which is odd, right?

But, if you consider Flamon an unusual dark evolution case, one like Gulus is now, it makes some sense. Dark evolution in the Digimon franchise is sort of “punishment” for not raising your digimon correctly – It’s a challenge, and you have to beat this obstacle to gain the new power/form to proceed. Dark evolution does not always mean “evil form” as well, just, as Gennai puts it in the end of Adventure, “a form not suitable for certain occasions” – So this concludes my thesis that Frontier started the unusual dark evolution forms instead.

Thank y’all for reading~

[jeweledstone]

Recent Trayte Dream I Keep Forgetting to Fucking Post

DATE: 2/4/2024

OKAY. SO.

This dream post is basically context for a doodle from that drawpile I made involving one of the newest characters in my dream lore, Trayte. Specifically this one.

For those not in the loop so to speak, Trayte was a character from a recent dream I’ve had who apparently knew me since my early childhood and had a tendency to have rather severe, sometimes violent, mental breakdowns. In the dream he was introduced in, he ends up being unwillingly transformed into Pizzelle from Sugary Spire, which caused his mental state to become even worse. He ended up blaming me for the whole incident and swore he would one day take revenge on me for it, thus becoming a re-occurring villain in later dreams.

This post is regarding one of those revenge attempts.

So basically his thought process behind this “revenge” was that since “I” turned him into the character he was now permanently stuck as, he might as well try turning me into some other SS character as a sorta ironic karma thingy. Originally he was gonna have me turned into Rosette because apparently he used to have an unreciprocated crush on me, but I guess the hate/spite became stronger than the crush cause he eventually changed his mind and decided to tf me into Pizzano.

This (technically) makes the 4th character from a media I like to invade my dreams and try to turn me into a different character from their source material.

My brain has recycled the same plot element. Four (maybe five) fucking times.

Which is what we in the industry like to call

FUCKING BULLSHIT

Anyway, back to the plot summary. Since Trayte didn’t have access to any sorta reality warping abilities like “Dream” and Elias or weird black magic like Pizzahead, he ended up taking a more science-y approach to his little revenge scenario by sneaking into my house while I’m asleep and injecting this weird serum into me that would not only turn me into Pizzano physically, but also eventually take me over mentally as well. (The mental part was so I could feel the same pain Trayte felt over his own mental struggle between keeping his old identity and slowly being taken over by Pizzelle that he’s had since his own transformation)

So that happens, and at first the serum seems to work as intended and of course, that’s got me freaking the fuck out. And it only got worse when one of the serum’s unintentional “side-effects” began to show.

You see, turns out the whole transformation thing Trayte designed…

Was contagious…

So yeah, fuck me, it’s the Spamton Virus all over again, and my family ended up being the first one to have it “spread” to them despite me trying to isolate myself from them in hopes they wouldn’t get hurt by me once I finally lost control. It was around this point I kinda-sorta blacked out as Pizzano took full control only to miraculously regain lucidity several in-dream months later.

By then the infection had spread rather exponentially and there were very few uninfected humans left. I remember at first trying to “blend in” with the other Pizzanos hoping they wouldn’t find out I wasn’t “one of them” anymore.

They… actually found out pretty quickly and I ended up being outcasted by them. The normal humans wouldn’t accept me either since even though I was lucid, I was most likely still contagious. So I ended up spending a good portion of the rest of the dream as a loner, trying to survive in this post-apocalyptic world of sorts. At one point, I was looting an abandoned grocery store looking for food and such when the plot started up again.

Turns out, some members of the government were still alive and trying desperately to find a cure or something for the infection, and they just so happened to be bunkering in a building right next to the store I was in. (No idea why they chose GROUND FUCKING ZERO outta all places to hide out at while the rest of society suffered but since when has a politician ever made an actually smart choice in their life, y’know?) I ended up encountering them while exiting the store and their first instinct was to basically take out their guns and unload a shitton of lead into me.

Now, if you know anything about JeweledStone dream journal lore, you’d know that one of my abilities as a reality bender is that I’m basically fucking invincible (or at least, I can take a lot more damage than a normal person could, there HAVE been some recent dreams where I have died from being injured and stuff) (bruh I can’t believe my own subconscious fucking nerfed me lmao) so the bullets basically did nothing but slightly annoy me a little. For some reason, they ended up becoming less hostile towards me after that. (Could just be cause I wasn’t actively being aggressive towards/trying to infect them tho tbh)

The dream ended with one of the politicians revealing that they were also invincible and trying to order for a fucking nuke to be dropped on us to prove it.

And yeah, that was it, kinda disappointed it ended on a cliffhanger like that, but whatever.

[superman86to99]

Super Titles Round-Up (June 1994)

This month: Superboy fights Silver Sword (and the Clone Plague)! Steel fights his nephew! Brimstone fights alcoholism!

Superboy #5 (June 1994)

Introducing Silver "Don't Call Me Surfer" Sword. Superboy #4 ended with the Kid collapsing in his kitchen from the deadly virus that's running through the Superman books. In this issue, his friends take him to a Navy base so he can be transported to Project Cadmus in Metropolis, where they'll hopefully cure him. It's there that Dubbilex informs them there is no cure. Which sucks, but hey, at least the Kid gets his first consensual kiss out of it (courtesy of Tana Moon).

Rex Leech's tactful reaction is "There goes the best meal ticket we ever had, Roxy," but Roxy herself seems genuinely heartbroken about Superboy's likely death (and/or that kiss).

Anyway, the Navy can't send Superboy to Cadmus right away because they're bombing an island as part of some tests, but the tests are interrupted by a flying guy covered in silver metal. This is actually Dr. Kaua, the guy who got mad at Superboy for misplacing a magical spear in Superboy #3 because he wanted to use it to become Hawaii's first native superhero. Kaua later got his wish when he stumbled upon a mysterious receptacle that blew up on his face and bonded him with some sort of alien metal that gave him powers. He's now using those powers to get back at the Navy for bombing his beloved islands and the goats who live there.

Dubbilex thinks Superboy should sit this one out, given the whole "You're currently dying" thing, but of course he doesn't listen.

After a fierce fight, Superboy manages to knock Kaua out right before collapsing (again). Kaua, or Silver Sword as the Navy nicknames him, is locked up in a secret government base full of scientists who can't wait to cut him open, but Superboy's example inspires him to keep resisting them. The issue ends with Superboy and Dubbilex finally reaching Metropolis, only to find the city turned into a war zone, which leads right into Man of Steel #34.

Steel #5 (June 1994)

Steel's nephew Jemahl finds out that his gang members "friends" were the ones who shot a little kid, ran over his sister Natasha (she's okay, other than her leg), mugged his mom in an alley, and now plan to take out his grandma. Jem takes some of that Tar drug the gangsters have been using to become superhumanly jacked and intends to kill the leader of the gang, but he ends up fighting his disappointed uncle instead.

(Side note: This issue's cover should have been a remake of the Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85 one, but with a muscular Jemahl instead of Speedy the smackhead.)

Steel has to contain Mega-Jemahl until the drug wears off and the kid collapses. During the fight, John Henry learns that all the hits on his family aren't just an unfortunate coincidence: they were actually orchestrated by his old boss/mentor, the Colonel. As he holds Jemahl's body in a Pieta-like pose (lots of that going around these days), John swears that he's taking the Colonel down. Permanently.

This issue also features a seemingly non-sequitur appearance by Fred Bentson, that weird mailman guy we met in Man of Steel #34. Fred is dutifully driving his mail truck across war-torn Metropolis when a bomb goes off and causes him to hit head on the wheel. Suddenly, he finds himself in a completely different city called Dakota, where he's immediately hit by a truck and grabbed by some sort of shadow demon. Just as suddenly, Fred is back on Metropolis, getting saved from that explosion by Superman... who looks weirdly cheerful for someone who is currently watching the city he loves get blown to pieces (see Superman #90).

Incidentally, someone who looks just like Bentson also shows up in Milestone Comics' Hardware #16, which came out this same month and is set in a city called Dakota. What a curious coincidence.

The Ray #2 (June 1994)

Part 2 of the Superboy team-up, this time featuring some actual teaming up. Last issue, we left Superboy unconscious and Ray about to be smashed by that burning mountain man called Brimstone. Luckily, Brimstone suddenly decides to ditch the fight and go for a beer; apparently, a "defect" in his programming has turned him into a gigantic frat bro. Once he's alone, Ray feels bad about apparently killing Superboy and buries him under some rocks, but as we've established by now, nothing can keep that kid down.

At this point, DC's most prominent jacket-wearing, earring-sporting superheroes actually bond for a bit...

...before going off to prevent Brimstone from emptying every brewery in Hawaii. They come up with a plan to turn Brimstone off by dumping liquid nitrogen on him, but Superboy gets confused and accidentally douses the villain with a truck-load of orange juice, leading to the moment depicted in the cover in which Brimstone eats Ray. Superboy gets it right on his second attempt and Brimstone is neutralized before his fiery insides can digest Ray, but by now the teen heroes are back to arguing like a couple of, well, teens.

Gotta admit Superboy and Ray are a pretty fun pair in this issue. Can't wait for them to meet again in like 8 years, when Ray joins Young Justice!

Showcase '94 #6 (June 1994)

One of the stories in this issue is written by Karl Kesel and stars Sparx, the girl with lightning powers from Superboy's "Bloodlines" annual. Sparx's family disapproves of her decision to become a superhero, so she left them and went looking for an aunt who is also estranged from the clan. The most interesting parts of the issue are: 1) Sparx continuing to display powers that Superman will eventually gain when Kesel turns him electric (like intangibility), and 2) Captain Boomerang referring to the Flash as a "red wanker".

At one point, Boomerang manages to knock Sparx out, causing her to revert to her girl form. Upon noticing that she's "a young one," Boomerang creepily says: "Could be ol' Boomer'll get some pleasure out of the evenin' yet--!" The aunt then turns into a spider-like creature and almost kills Boomerang, but Sparx zaps her with energy to stop her. Sparx is like "Wait, you tried to kill that pervert who attacked me? This must mean you really are evil like the family says and also killed your husbands!", so they part ways. Sparx and her family will appear again in the future, but I don't think the aunt ever will. Good for her, they don't deserve her.

[clxckwork-sun-n-moon]

back again with some more questions!!!

for so cries the wolf; who's your favorite character to write? do you have a favorite fight scene? (i think about the one super early one between y/n and eclipse when they're sparring is my personal favorite; the flow of action is really well done and the tension is so so good!)

i love that while eclipse is tied to them, sun and moon were kept as their own distinct characters within the fic! are there any fun facts about the sctw versions of dca boys that you can share that aren't super spoilery?

dose monty know he is the best church grim/hell hound ever in the whole world and he deserves all the pets and treats and forehead kisses on his big ole skull head?

for tangled strings; it's been a while since i've reread chapter 1 but i love love love the set up we get in the single chapter so far! the characterizations are so good too; you can really feel how on edge/wary everyone is (for their own good reasons!) and that it'll be a satisfying journey for them to all open up and start to trust/be vulnerable with one another.

what inspired the specific aspects of curse sun and moon are under? what's their relationship with each other outside of the newfound one with y/n? (soulmates with each other, business partners, romantic partners, friends who got cursed together, related in some way, etc? or is it undefined for the most part?)

i might come up with some more questions after i get home from work but!! gently hands u these for now ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡ -pizzaplexjester (can't believe it's 2024 and we still can't send asks from side blogs smh)

@pizzaplexjester THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH~ aaaughh I'm truly delighted by the asks you're sending in

So Cries the Wolf

favourite character to write is a tie between Montague and Eclipse. in the case of Eclipse, I'm literally putting together his character as the story progresses, he only truly gets created in chapter 1, and every interaction he has develops more of their character and how they'll go on to carry out further interactions. in the case of Montague, he's just the most grounded character in the group, he's here to try and keep everything together, acting as much of a voice of reason as he can provide with all the events that are going on. he also acts as Y/N's tutor in a way, and makes for a nice way to provide a little more explanation into different cryptids or magical events in the story.

favourite fight scene to write was Y/N, Montague and Eclipse vs Roxy. it marked a point in the story that took it just from urban fantasy to full-blown horror, and there was something narratively fulfilling about working through the first fight where it felt like Team Ranger didn't have the upper hand in the overall situation.

the SCtW DCA boys are pretty close in personality to our classic Security Breach DCA boys. Sun is more snarky and blunt because he's dealing with adults now and not children, and Moon is more withdrawn because he's dealing with guilt from being forced to act on the virus' behalf. although we'll be sure to get some gremlin Moon in before the story closure.

Monty absolutely knows he's the best dog boy of all time, although he might need some reassurances about being the best church grim/hell hound. give him lots of skull head kisses, you'll have his tail wagging soon enough

-

Tangled Strings

for the specific aspects of the curse Sun and Moon are under, I wanted it to be something two-fold. the first part is something obvious and physical - the twisted wood hand - it marks them as having done something bad enough to inflict a curse, provides a mark of monstrosity. the second part will be introduced in the story itself, but it's something to do with removal of individuality and any sort of control.

their relationship is one of the very best of friends. Sun and Moon met each other at a musketeer training school, were pressed into spending time with each other to try and balance out the worst sides of their personalities, and proceeded to make each other even worse in the best ways. they ran away together, hit the road together, have been running scams together for years now. the only blight on their friendship has been that they never formed soulmate threads between each other....until now.