#how can William be mentally stable

[caramelcactus]

Oh haha yay fellow depressed William Afton truther! Haha yeah that guy is barely holding on by a thread is he (neither are we)

Neither are we really. Ironically this guy is the embodiment of how I have been feeling for the last six months

Just wait until I drop the info about my other William. Androids!William is sane compared to him

[captain039]

PART 6 (Last Part) He’s Grumpy, I’m sunshine

Alpha!Logan x omega!reader

Warnings: AOB, age gap (legal), light swearing, grumpy/sunshine, anxiety, mental health issues, intimacy, violence, torture, plus size reader, medication usage for anxiety, depression and sleeping, heat pills, scent blockers, angst, hurt/comfort, PTSD, trauma

Set at Charles school

Your mutation: fire creation and control

Previous part <-

You haven’t left your room for a week you think. You sat in the corner mostly, your body would engulf in flames and you scream out in pain before exhaustion took over and they stopped before your body would regenerate. You’ve melted the door shut in the bomb shelter training area. Nobody could get through that or the thick concrete walls so you stay here making yourself safe making everyone else safe.

It feels more than dying an agony deep in the pit of your heart and stomach. It’s not just the pain it’s being away from him. You didn’t realise how much you truely imprinted on him, how you truely believed in that cell he was your alpha, it was the only thing that kept you going. You don’t feet hunger or thirst, thankfully there was a small bathroom through a little door in the shelter you could use. You hadn’t showered though, you don’t think you’ve brushed your teeth either. Charles tries to speak to you, Jean tries too but you just engulf in flames and cry out in pain knowing they feel it too. You want to rot away, wither into the ground or burn to death. You can’t die though, whatever they did it succeeded and you cannot die. No matter how much you burn you always heal too quickly always in between the stage of major burns and healing skin. You can’t cry anymore, barely able to move from this cold floor.

The doors ruined covered in slash marks and dents. He’s tried getting in so many times and failed. It kills him, he thinks that this is truely what dying feels like. Charles had kept you stable the whole flight and like a machine you walked down to the old bomb shelter and sealed yourself in. He hears every time you shout in agony before you pass out, his knuckles go raw and bloody every time before they heal. He’s begged Jean and Charles to do something but every time they try to connect there’s your pain in their features and they can’t hold even while you sleep. He hasn’t left the door since you got here, he knows he smells and his stomach is hollow. Jean brings him food and water but he doesn’t eat, knowing you’re not eating. He saw everything they did to you, made him watch like it was a damn cinema. Watched you burn yourself to death then heal just as quick. Watched every time they brought you back to the table, the exhaustion in your features, the sunken ness of your eyes, the black bags and pale skin before the regeneration kicked in. He knew though, knew you were exhausted and ready to give up and all he could do was watch. This woman that captured you both was a legacy of William Stryker same kind of fucked up though. She kept him on a heel, forcing him to give blood, bone marrow, tissue samples whatever the hell they wanted. He knew that look of panic to well and seeing it on your innocent face broke his heart. He was yours body and soul, heart and mind, he needed to be with you right now, needed to help you, help his omega.

You jolt when a red flash blares through the door and Logan’s raging in. Your whole body goes on edge begging him to stay the hell away so you don’t hurt him. He’s pissed or so you think, the look on his face, tight jaw and stern eyes as he quickly covers the length of the bunker. You sob and beg him not to come close but he’s there, arms wrapping around you in a tight embrace. You feel like lead and breathe him in fully. Your body reacts to your alpha and you almost collapse. You cry now, a burst dam down your face as he holds you tightly. Your arms go around him holding yourself as close as you can to him. You stay like that till you can’t cry anymore and exhaustion takes over.

“Logan” you mumble feeling like you’re going to collapse.

“I got you” he whispers. He smells just as bad as you, but his alpha scent is fully through your senses.

“We’re going to go have a bath, and get some sleep” he says, it’s not a request though and all you can do is nod.

“Up” his hands move to your thighs and you flush.

“Logan I’m too he-“ you go speak looking to him.

“Up, omega” he repeats and raises an eyebrow. You manage to jump and he lifts you easily, your arms going around his neck and his under your thighs. You rest your head on his shoulder, walk past Jean and Charles. You can’t look at them so you hide your face. You’re worried about engulfing in flames again, the simmering anxiety always there. He walks to the upper level, going down the hall before going into a room, his room.

“Logan” you mutter.

“I’ll burn everything down in here” you add with guilt. He thinks about it knows your right and lets out a small growl before he’s turning and heading to the direction of your room. He sets you down on the bed, that’s been replaced, as has the carpet and bedside tables. You run your hands over the sheets a light grey colour. Logan heads to the bathroom and starts to run the water before he’s back out in the bedroom. He closes the door and locks it before turning back to you. He looks worn out, probably how you look too, his hair a mess his beard unkept. You see the tears well in his eyes and feel it pang in your stomach.

“I’m sorry” you mutter trying to control your emotions.

“No, no don’t you dare apologise” he’s over quickly hands cupping your cheeks and wiping your tears. He takes a small breath closes his eyes as a tear rolls down his cheek. He presses your foreheads together as you cry. His thumb caresses your cheek as you lift a hand to hold his wrist.

“The bath” you mutter and he curses before going to the bathroom. He comes back out, leaning down to pick you up again, but you stand in shaky legs. You give him a small smile and he sighs but allows you to walk to the bathroom. You don’t dare look at the mirror as you settle down to sit on the toilet to take your shoes and socks off. Logan’s there instantly though the alpha kneeling and taking off your shoes and socks which no doubt stink. You’re embarrassed but he doesn’t care, his brows frowning as he concentrates. He glared at the suit given to you by the people who captured you and he growls softly. You cup his face this time and his eyes are instantly on you softening. You stroke his cheek feeling the course hair before you gulp a little and lean closer. He meets you and presses his lips to yours in a soft kiss that has you melting.

“Sorry” you mutter dropping your hands.

“Why?” He frowns a little breathless.

“My breath stinks” you mumble and he laughs the noise waking up something inside you as you smile.

“Bath’ll get cold” he says softly and you nod. You stand as he does and curse this suit. You strip without thinking, wanting to be rid of it. You glare at it as you kick it off with shaky legs before glancing up to Logan who has turned his back to you. You lift your hand to his shoulder only to freeze when you see flames dancing along your skin.

“Logan get out!” You yell in a panic as he turns around and sees your arm.

“Omega! Omega calm down” he says as you shake and whimper. He whispers your name softly a few times hands cupping your face as you try to back away. You’ve closed your eyes too scared to open them.

“Look at me” he whispers and you shake your head.

“Look at me omega” he says and your forced too open them. You breathe deeply seeing that they’re only flickering softly before disappearing. You stare at your arms then his face as he nods.

“Easy” he says softly and you nod. He helps you into the bath eyes never leaving your face as you sigh and feel your muscles relax. He goes to the bathroom cupboard, grabs out some new soaps, shampoo and conditioner, a sponge and a hair brush. He empty’s a container and rinses it out before lying on the bathtub side. He wets the sponge before showing you two bottles of body wash. You point to the left and he pours some on before gently washing your arms and shoulders. You feel hot again, your cheeks no doubt red at the affection the alpha gives you. Neither of you say a word and when you find flames dancing on your skin he sends out calming alpha pheromones to calm you down instantly. He washes your hair with gentle care and tenderness, you try to hide your tears as they come but your alpha knows as he mutters soft words. he presses kisses to your head your temples, your cheek while he washes you. You’ve washed and brushed your teeth, the waters gone cold though and you silently wish it didn’t so you could stay here. He dips his hand in the water and frowns though.

“Come on” he helps you out and wraps a towel around you before his arms go around you too.

“You’ll get wet” you mumble and he grunts in response making roll your eyes slightly.

“You need a shower too” you mutter.

“Saying I stink?” He says teasing to his tone as you huff quietly.

“I am” you tease back hearing and feeling him chuckle against you.

“Go dry and get dressed, I’ll be there in a minute” he mutters against your head before he presses his lips to it and lets you go.

“Take more than a minute please” you quietly sass and he growls teasingly before you leave the bathroom.

You sit on the bed in the towel, staring at the floor as images flash through your mind of what happened. You take a small breath listening to the shower as you walk over to the wardrobe. You put on some pyjamas and dry your hair before the shower stops. You feel. Numb. You’re clean thankfully but numb, you need to sleep, a proper sleep not passing out from exhaustion and waking up in agony. You need to find out what the hell they did to you too. Logan can’t stay here, your alpha can’t stay here not while you’re unstable, he may regenerate, but your fire, they’ve done something to it, made it even more dangerous.

You leave Logan, in the morning and go down to the training bunker. There’s a small bedroom attached to the bathroom where you stay. The doors been fixed already thankfully. It’s safer down here for everyone including your alpha.

“What are you doing down here?” You hear Logan’s gravely voice and sigh.

“I am trying to protect you! Can’t you see that I will kill you now!” You yell without thinking.

“Then do it, I don’t care” his voice is low and deadly serious and you struggle to breathe as you walk out the room and meet him in the bunker.

“You don’t get to choose where I stay or go” he says eyes narrow and brows furrowed.

“What part of I will kill you don’t you understand!” You shouldn’t yell at him, certainly not an alpha as strong as him.

“I will burn you, they did something to me!” You add body getting hotter and flames dancing on your skin.

“And I watched! I saw every fucking thing!” He growls back and your eyes go wide.

“They made me stay in a cell and watch like I was in a damn cinema with front row seats” he’s an inch away from you and your body trembles.

“I’m staying right here by my omegas side whether she likes it or not, burn me to hell I don’t care” his eyes are intense and you sag defeated.

“Look at me” he mutters and you lift your head.

“I’m yours, I’m not going anywhere, you’ll control it, Jean and Charles will figure it out whatever they did to you” he cups your cheeks and you melt against the alpha.

“You’re my omega it’s my job as alpha to protect, provide and care for you” you feel tears well in your eyes and give a small nod.

“Ok?” He whispers.

“Ok”

Taglist:

@beanhardy

@gimmethatdilf

@the141bandicoot

@twinky-wink

@bontensbabygirl

@meowmeowyoongles

[cybercasket]

Sally Williams headcanons

(CW for discussion of coping with death + trauma. I go in-depth into Sally's mentality towards what happened, but I don't talk about the trauma itself.)

To start things off, this is based off of Sally's official character sheets (2017/most recent sheet) (2013) and what I remember from the story more than they are the fandom's perception of her. These headcanons might make more sense if you check those out first!

🧸 According to her creator La-Mishi-Mish, her body's age can change. She's chronologically in her 60s, mentally + spiritually 12 (her age at death), and typically appears 8. She used to have the ability to turn any age she wanted, but it got retconned because La-Mishi-Mish kept getting called out for being irresponsible and creepy with it.

So, I think that Sally's form can shift ages to some extent, though it's mostly subconscious and based on her state of mind. It's a little bit like the early Steven Universe episode "So Many Birthdays" except a bit more stable.

🎀 Sally is actually deathly afraid of becoming older, and does everything she can to maintain the persona of an innocent 8 year old girl.

To her, 8 was one of the last few good years of her short life--afterwards is when everything became bad and wrong, and she was subject to so much judgement, criticism, responsibility, and predatory behavior from the people around her that she couldn't handle at the time.

She's afraid that being much older than 8 will make her a target.

🎠 Sally romanticizes being younger a lot, though she also likes the way it makes other people perceive her. By behaving more incompetent, temperamental, and oblivious than she really is, she can make people believe that she's cute, innocent, and incapable of wrong. She has a strong internalized belief that being older is dangerous, while being younger is safe.

🧸 She age regresses intentionally (from 12 to 8) by heavily focusing on her more childish interests (eg. Dolls, girl toys, and princesses) and by pushing away/repressing parts of her that she seems too mature or grown-up (eg. Certain words, ways of speaking, and knowledge/awareness she has).

🎀 According to her creator, Sally spends a lot of time in the woods near her house playing with kids at the local playground.

I think she is absolutely DEDICATED to the act of being a completely normal 8 year old girl. She'll bandage the bleeding from her head, watch all their shows, learn all their games and slang, and even collect the toys they like so she can fit in and play with them.

🎠 Lately though, she's been having to tell kids that her parents don't let her use her iPad much. There's always a bit of an adjustment period for her between each new generation of kids, but she really struggles to wrap her head around Gen Alpha's modern technology.

🧸 Speaking of technology... She's not good at it. For a long time she didn't really bother to learn since stuff like computers and phones were associated with older people, and her not knowing how to use them fed into an image of her being cute and childlike. However, it's genuinely bewildering and confusing to her.

🎀 Do NOT play Roblox with her, it will take 20 minutes for her to join your game and she won't know the first thing about how to play it 😭😭😭. Though with enough patience, you could probably get her hooked on something like Adopt Me.

She's not good at other games either, though she usually doesn't try in competitive video games (eg. Mario Kart) on purpose because she doesn't really understand them, and likes seeing how happy the people she's playing with get when they win :-).

🎠 She has a ton of excuses memorized for why her parents are never there with her at the playground, and why the parents of other kids can't meet her parents.

Sometimes it doesn't work out so well, and she has to spend a few hours trying to find a way to wiggle out of a missing person's report... She usually hangs out farther away from where the adults are to avoid ending up in awkward situations like that.

🧸 Over time, her perception of her years from 0-8 and her years from 9-12 became really polarized--in her mind, her younger years were all really good, happy, and romanticized, and her older years were completely terrible and miserable.

Like, in her head 1st and 2nd grade were happy and peaceful, meanwhile 4th and 5th grade were completely miserable and that's when her life became terrible. Realistically there was good and bad in both, but she isn't able to see it that way.

🎀 Everything past 9 for her is a blur until she has to connect with people closer to her death age, which then makes her shift her physical appearance back to where it'd normally sit. Her older years become a little bit easier to process in that state.

She tries to act a bit more like a "big kid" to fit in, but she's extremely out of practice since she's almost always acting 8, so she ends up coming off a bit immature.

🎠 She misremembers herself dying younger often.

🧸 She doesn't like throwing temper-tantrums (especially around strangers) because it's difficult to tell how people will react to them, however she plans them out strategically and WILL have them if it means she gets what she wants. She represses a lot of her emotions and releases them during these (Though she does have plenty of genuine breakdowns as well, since she's mentally 12 and has been suffering from PTSD and depression for the past 50 or so years.)

🎀 Maintaining her appearance as a young girl takes stamina/energy, though being 12 takes the least because it's more authentic to her.

🎠 According to Sally's creator, she also haunts her childhood home. I think her house is her safe space where she can be herself without worrying about how she's perceived by others.

It's really messy (she's a bit of a hoarder and only cleans when the mess becomes inconvenient to her,) and she has a huge collection of toys and books.

🧸 Her toy collection spans multiple decades, and she even still has some toys from back when she was alive deep in her collection somewhere in terrible condition. She doesn't usually have whole sets, just a few pieces here and there she decided to keep from the people she plays with (whether they left them at the playground or she decides to pocket something small she likes but the other kid doesn't seem to care about while they're playing) or from CVS or something.

🎀 Sally really likes reading, but she's a little self-conscious about it because she likes to read books that are far above the reading level and outside of the interests of the average 8 year old, like Pride and Prejudice. She also likes watching old movies from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and has a secret obsession with Marilyn Monroe.

She also likes reading romance, but sex scenes trigger the hell out of her so when she comes across one, she gets out a giant black crayon (because black covers the words the best,) and just starts madly scribbling over it.

🎠 Sally likes horror a little bit too, because darker stories and themes often reflect how miserable she feels deep down. However, since she's 12 and doesn't have a large capacity for tolerating the heavier stuff, she usually keeps it light.

Most of it isn't worth much, but there's probably a couple things that are like $200 or something and she has no idea because she barely uses the internet.

🧸 When she runs out of stamina or gets too triggered, her body morphs into a very pale, bony, frail old woman with sunken cheeks. It's terrifying for both her and whoever witnesses it.

🎀 She doesn't kill, but I feel like it's less of a morality thing and more because she's too squeamish and also terrified of the consequences of getting aggressive/violent with someone who ends up attacking her back. Rapists in particular make her angry enough to almost want to kill.

🎠 She's emotionally attached to and chases Ben, but he doesn't reciprocate it. They're both technically the same age (both being dead at 12), but while Sally embraces her childishness and immaturity almost to a fault, Ben is deeply ashamed of and uncomfortable with his which leads to him feeling easily annoyed or disgusted by Sally. Basically, Ben is too much of an "Ew, that's for babies" type of kid to enjoy playing with Sally 😭😭.

[wisteria-tarot]

Can you do a reading on Kate Middleton; How is her health currently? What's the state of her marriage with William? & Their style of parenting. Their feelings towards the "British royal family" as an institution

Disclaimer: This reading is only for entertainment. Take it with a grain of salt. These are my personal interpretations of the cards with a sprinkle of intuition. Tarot is not set in stone it is not the end all be all of someones life.

How is her health currently?

queen of swords, 2 of cups (rx), 7 of swords, page of swords:

Her health might be affected by emotional stress, particularly if there’s disharmony or disconnection in her relationships. She could be experiencing mental exhaustion or overthinking, and there may be some avoidance of addressing health concerns honestly. While she might be gathering information or seeking answers, she may not yet be taking proactive steps to improve her well-being. It would be important for her to address any emotional or physical issues openly and take practical action towards better health.

What is the state of her marriage?

ace of cups (rx), 2 of pentacles, knight of pentacles, 7 of swords, knight of swords, temperance (rx):

There may be emotional disconnects or unresolved feelings between the partners, and the flow of love might feel stagnant or diminished. One or both partners may be struggling to maintain balance between responsibilities, leading to a sense of imbalance or chaos in the relationship. There may be a lack of excitement or emotional expression, and things may feel routine or lacking in spontaneity. there may be issues of trust or communication in the marriage, where one or both partners are not being fully transparent. There could be impulsive decisions or a sense of urgency, possibly leading to conflict or further emotional distance.

What is their style of parenting?

3 of swords, 5 of wands, the fool (rx), knight of wands (rx):

Their parenting style seems to involve emotional ups and downs, with potential for conflict and inconsistency. There could be emotional challenges or past hurts affecting their approach, as well as frequent tension or disagreements. Impulsiveness and lack of direction could also be present, leading to a reactive rather than a thoughtful or structured approach to parenting. They might struggle with follow-through and providing a stable, consistent environment for their children.

What do they think about the institution that they are apart of?

9 of pentacles (rx), 8 of cups (rx), 3 of swords, 5 of wands:

There could be a sense that the institution is not providing the level of independence, success, or security that they had hoped for, or they may feel unsupported or underappreciated in their role. They may feel stuck or trapped in the institution, unable to fully walk away, even though they are emotionally dissatisfied or unfulfilled. There might be personal or professional disappointments tied to their experience within this institution, which could affect their overall view of it. There could be frequent disagreements, power struggles, or challenges in working with others, creating a stressful or combative atmosphere.

Extras!!!

What was she thinking when the tabloids picked up the story about william cheating?

7 of pentacles, 3 of cups, 8 of swords, 9 of cups (rx):

She may have been reflecting on what had been built up and whether it was worth continuing to put effort into, given the new revelations. she was considering how the story would affect her social circle or public image. She might have felt mentally overwhelmed, unable to see a clear way out, or like her options were limited. There might have been a sense of unfulfilled desires or a realization that the relationship, or the image of it, wasn’t as perfect as she had once believed.

What was with all the secrecy surrounding her dissaperance from the public eye?

8 of pentacles (rx), 5 of cups, 4 of swords (rx), 6 of pentacles:

The secrecy surrounding her disappearance could have been a way for her to step away from the pressure, especially if she was feeling like her efforts were not being rewarded or recognized. She might have been dealing with personal emotional struggles, feelings of regret, or sadness, which made her withdraw from the public eye. She might have been mentally exhausted, but at the same time, unable to find peace or relaxation due to external pressures or internal conflict. The secrecy could be tied to a desire to regain some control over the situation, possibly to re-establish balance in her life, get the attention or support she needed, or to recalibrate the way her personal and professional life was being managed.

Was there any truth to them being or getting a seperation/divorce?

9 of pentacles (rx), 6 of wands, the sun (rx), 9 of cups (rx):

There seems to be some truth to the idea of separation or divorce, as the cards point to emotional dissatisfaction, a lack of clarity, and potential instability within the relationship. While there is an outward attempt to maintain a positive image, the relationship might have been marked by unmet emotional needs and a lack of true fulfillment, which could have contributed to thoughts of separation, even if the situation wasn't fully transparent or acknowledged in public.

[fix-it-darlin]

Assigning Redacted Characters Songs That I've Had On Repeat Because I Have Nothing Better to Do

Unsweetened Lemonade//Amélie Farren - Porter, he's angry, abrasive, and scared, for a long time he's only seen worth in what he and his body can do, also he's technically undead and 'I fucked the reaper' is just too cool of a line not to pair up with this man, not necessarily everyone's favorite flavor but boy oh boy are there some layers to unpack in the future

Interlude: I'm Not Angry Anymore//Paramore - Darlin' post Quinn Arc, I know I've touched on how I head canon that Darlin's got an underlying level of anger due to shoving their emotions and also sensory issues (yes this is projecting), and since they're in a more healthy situation, they're learning how to let that anger go and have a healthier relationship with their emotions, this song just feels like a long exhale after letting some of that anger go and I just feel like that fits

Big Parade//The Lumineers - Sam, whole song is a bid to have someone stay as the singer has found new joy and love in this person, there's talk of violence and the push and pull of the stability of that moment and the chaos of the past, also just a solid bass drum through line that reminds me a lot of Sam for no good reason, it speaks to both Sam and Darlin' for me, but the stable through line and softness sells it as Sam the most

Sailor Song//Gigi Perez - Gavin, sexual undertones and just desperate yearning and love and this feeling of wanting to just hold and love someone with the full acceptance for who both of you are, has a fantastical romantic feel to it while also being very solidly set in the present day, also has an underlying but accepted fear that they will be separated someday but they will love eachother to the fullest while they still can, it just works

Heavy is the Crown//Linkin Park - William, I know that it's a loud song and that William is incredibly soft spoken but if you look at the lyrics I think you'll understand, it can be read as what he tells himself about his responsibilities and duties as a vampire king as well as how he situates his moral compass, he's a quiet man, but the effect that he has on the redactedverse is so loud, a loud song feels right

Safe Ship, Harbored//The Crane Wives - Treasure, look, I'm going to be plain honest with you, they probably have some mental health issues and are constantly prioritizing other people over themself and so they very rarely take leaps outside of the small world that they grew up in, Porter was an anomaly, sure they used to be more adventurous but they got worn down by everything everyone else had going on

Man of Stone//Matthew Thiessen and the Earthquakes - Asher, just feel like this ties in well to his struggle of feeling like he's a good leader and worthy of the position David's given him, also just has queer undertones to me and fits with that tension that Ash and David have going on in each universe

Foreigner's God//Hozier - Blake, look guy's pathetic but he also worships his partner like a god, religious trauma undertones as well as a narrative of control and grief? this is their song.

Retirement Song//The Longest Johns - dream! James, look, he just wanted to get home to his spouse, let him go home please, let him have that sweet reunion, let him have that quiet life

Siúil a Rúin//Colm Mcguinness - Avior, speaks to a great deal of heartbreak on the part of the singer who's lover has decided to put themself at risk for a cause they believe in and the struggle they have with letting them go and do it while also wanting them not to go, title literally translates to Walk My Love, I don't know it just feels right in line with Avior's conflict with Starlight with the main difference being that he hasn't resigned himself to just letting that happen

Automobile//KALEO - Sunshine, roadtrip! accident! also just this feeling of wanting to escape everything while having this tender closeness with someone who's been by your side for forever and letting them come along with you, no real angst for this one, just a nice little song

Classy Girls//The Lumineers - Vincent and Lovely, yes both our vampire guys leaving the Solaire clan get Lumineers songs, I don't know why but they're just Lumineers guys, Lovely was Vincent's out and wake up call in the same way that Vincent was an opening to the magical world and some of the fight that they didn't think they had in them, they're both fascinating to each other and for a time they both don't want to touch or break that fragile connection they have because they feel like it's not the right place to but they want each other so bad it's killing them

Bubble Toes//Jack Johnson - Angel, do we fuck with dancer Angel head canons? because I very truly believe that Angel was part of a couple of improve swing dance groups growing up and while those have broken up, they still take delight in it and for me, Angel in my mind is a joyful person who's fought to stay that way and this song captures a lot of that joy of dancing that they have as well as the boldness they choose to approach the world with

Like the Dawn//The Oh Hellos - Starlight, really captures the soulmates kind of dynamic they have with Avior as well as the slow realization of love and adoration, but also the underlying knowledge that something pulled them into this without any of their control

[sassyfrassboss]

People forget how orchestrated and deliberate Charles’ words were in his first speech. William was made Prince of Wales right from the start and Harry was wished well with his life overseas. It suits Charles’ ego and keeps his numbers steady if he keeps being viewed as the long suffering father- people find more empathy for that in the long run. IF Harry would come back it’s under lock and key with the funds privately given out of Charles’ wallet. The main and crucial thing is as long as it’s not out of the public purse- Harry can be given a job as a stable boy at Dumfries house for all I care. I don’t think Charles waited 70 years just to have his mentally unstable darling boy come and trample over his plan within 2 years of his reign. I am not trying to make Charles lovable here at all, whatever he will do or won’t do will be based on personal strategy whether we agree with it or not.

If Charles wants to bring him back and buy Harry and country estate filled with horses and chickens, by all means, as long as Charles is paying for it along with any security.

If there was a time that Harry would have been welcomed back it would have been prior to Spare I think. Maybe even afterwards, but what sealed the deal was Omid leaking that it was Charles who was one of the royal racists and that they are letters in Meghan's possession confirming this.

I just don't see how Charles can get past something like that. Especially given Harry admitted in the Oprah interview the "racist" conversation was a private conversation between Harry and this individual.

[ko-garashi]

What are your headcannons?? 👀

Well, here are my headcanons about William Birkin's post-mutation (if there was one, of course):

- Probably the first and most important thing is the lack of the ability to independently restrain the human species. Due to the fact that the G-virus is not stable in its mutation, William has to take injections to contain the virus. They don't cure it, they just make the virus more dormant.

- William has a constant headache and painkillers do little to help him. But he retains his mental abilities as before.

- Post-mutation William is more aggressive and hot-tempered. Although he tries to control himself in order to remain as cool-blooded as possible and not mutate from any little thing that pisses him off. And by the way, he copes with this successfully.

- By the way! He returns to his mutated form if he misses a dose of the drug, or if he feels severe stress (any strong negative emotion). As well as various more tangible injuries. No, of course, it’s unlikely that it will suddenly mutate from a cut on the arm, but if the wound is serious... (it’s important that it’s just a wound and not an amputation).

- In addition, William does not age much externally and internally, or rather, his process is too slow to seem obvious (again, this is not 100%, because the virus is in him, but at the same time it is partially blocked by the serum).

- And about regeneration! If he loses a limb, it will take him a long time, but the G-virus will restore everything back. (with a simple wound, the body will only generate cells at the site where these cells are lost. And if there is no limb, then it will take longer to expend strength and time. Therefore, it is easier for the body to mutate from a wound than from amputation... But does this apply to the head? I doubt it. And I don’t want to check what will happen if you separate the head. He’s not a designer, right?)

- And he also has a fairly accelerated metabolism due to the virus in him. That's why he's often hungry.

- William can turn back from mutation to the human form only in the G1 phase. The longer he remains in mutation and mutates, the more his consciousness will become confused and lost until it is completely erased. Therefore, he is afraid to use the mutation and does not do it often.

- He is basically afraid of his mutation, and not even because it is not stable, but because William is afraid that he will lose himself.

- William's right eye is damaged by mutations and he periodically has difficulty seeing with it in human form. (I still haven’t figured out how to justify this... It seems that not all of us would feel good if strange metamorphoses happened before our eyes)

- His mutation sites are covered with scars reminiscent of burn scars. At first he was very complex about it, but then he got used to it.

- His scars often itch. Like a swarm of little ants under the skin.

- Even in human form, William has sufficiently developed strength. Of course, he is not as fast as Wesker and in his human condition he will not be able to beat the crap out of someone (along with internal organs), but still.

- Each time during the process of mutation and return to human form, William experiences unbearable pain in his body. It's like you're being torn into so many pieces.

(if one day I have more headcanons, I will add to the list)

[starzfield]

Emil demands I send out apples xD // 🍎  :    how stable is my muse’s mental health?have they been diagnosed with any mental illnesses and  /  or conditions?do they have any undiagnosed mental illnesses and  /  or conditions?do they or should they attend therapy?

Well idk who so I'll be a bit random.

A few muses could make good use of some therapy I think, but none ever went.

Duncan definitely has some unresolved feelings and conflicts with his parents and trust issues, leading to some anger issues, Zephyr some kind of abandonment issue (or whatever can apply to his 'house guardian' case) that can translate into commitment issue (he avoids getting too attached to people/job/places), Erik has a pretty big case of paranoia (but for good reason).

Cal, oh dear. Lack of self-confidence leading to envy, fear of failure, hunger for success of any kind, all leading to bad temper and anger issues... He's quite a case.

Léo has some borderline psychopath or sociopath tendencies (forgot which is which) and probably way too extreme attachement to his sister, though it's not romantic (only family left and caring, plus twin sister). Blaize share the first part, but considering he's basically a killer, it's not really surprising.

Gabriel is a whole pandora can of worms. His youth commpletely twisted his view of people and relationships, making it really hard for him to have normal relationships of any kind with other persons.

Keith a strong denial (towards ghosts), Vincent is the walking embodiment of daddy issues.

Tora has a bit too much of want and need to prove herself to others, Aby just a lack of self-esteem regarding her voice and what that ensue. William struggle with his feeling of inferiority compared to his own family, but he's aware and it's manageable.

Reina, Haru, Jason, Seth and Lola are fine. Surprisingly, Fi is as well. Of course she revolted against her own family and their way of living, but she's quite healthy, only some small 'war flashbacks' (heavy quotes mark here) when something remind her too much of things her parents forced on her. Lukan, as a therapist... Well he isn't perfect, but he can easily spot his own problems. The situation with his family is complicated, but he managed to cut down the feeling of obligation to please them, and live his own life - though he received help. A tiny bit of denial and self convincing at time, maybe.

And Niel is an android so.

[houseofbrat]

https://x.com/victoria_ward/status/1897282958597263753?s=46

No wonder why he takes holidays every 3 weeks 😆, he needs to rest for the ‘burnout’ that maybe his football team caused on him.

Sorry, but I think that sometimes in the case of W (who is the one who repeats a lot the ‘we need rest for burnouts’ phrase) uses so much the excuse of mental health in order to be lazy and that’s why he is super stupid in how he manage his staff, he is a snowflake and he has a bunch of snowflakes in that office:

- Staff: oh sir, I am so tired after writing on your agenda the 3 engagements you have to do next week!

-W: oh go and rest, I will do the same, if you want, you can take holidays

(I really think that mental health is super important tho, but I hope you understand what I mean, and I don’t want to sound as if o can’t care less about mental health)

Anyway, it’s seems he doesn’t join to activities unless is 🎱, ���️, and some gardening and showing how clueless he is on that. But you will hear from his fans: how good he is on engagements (when he participates) and how ‘funny’ he is when he doesn’t participate.

I think he should stop doing mental health engagements. As in, pick something else dude!

It's 2025, not 2018. You need to branch out and visit things that just aren't in the narrow Royal Foundation focus areas.

That said, I've started wondering if William has a personality disorder of some kind. Diana was allegedly diagnosed as a borderline personality disorder while she was still alive, and descriptions of her behavior are textbook borderline personality. William does not exhibit normal work or personal relationship tendencies, even when you consider him against other well known people.

He cannot handle constructive criticism, which is why he is unable to do engagements outside his comfort zone.

He is so insecure that he hires YES MEN/WOMEN to staff KP. That Tina Brown quote is so telling.

His well-known anger-management issues.

He is super secretive & controlling regarding basic friendships. How many friends does he really have? Charles has tons and tons of friends. So does Camilla. Harry too except for those his wife separated him from. William? Does he have the ability to make new friends? I suspect not because he's too much of an irrational, control freak.

His irrational grudges, i.e. anger toward his father decades later over things that no longer matter.

That's just what I can think of offhand. I'm sure William's merry band of fangirls & apologists will have excuses for all of William's emotional problems, but it's very clear he is not a emotionally stable person.

But back to what you wrote.

He's lazy. He's uninterested in doing anything not associated with his pet projects. He's TOO INSECURE to anything different.

So, yeah, he's going to sit at home and suck his thumb on vacation because it's all he can handle.

When is that overseas trip happening? Next week? The week after? Or after the kids' Easter break?

Or is William not capable of going overseas for an engagement unless his wife is there to hold his hand?

[thepurplebacon]

How does Zadkiel and William in the same body work? Do you have any kind of difficulty controlling it or something like that?

The concept of the two of them is like flying an airplane. The two souls stay together and are ready together at any time, or one of them can control the body alone. It can be driven by two people or only one person can control it. But when two people have differences of opinion

At this time, there will be chaos, causing the control body to lose control of its mind, or it can only stay in place and wait for the two controlling people to mediate.

Otherwise, problems as small as falling while walking or as big as starting to go crazy and attacking people can happen. Only one person can control it. It is the most stable

Therefore, Zadkiel will ask everyone to keep a distance from him or leave him to avoid the sudden appearance of William or the conflict between the two at the same time

But as time goes by, people who stay in Springtrap will inevitably begin to lose their mental stability. They may even want to bite and destroy other people's bodies to obtain remnant simply for the support of their souls, or the simplest desire for destruction. Of course, the same is true for Zadkiel. He himself will gradually have the same tendency as William, so they are also resisting this instinctive drive.

This will also be a problem for them in controlling their bodies.

[connectionxterminated]

MAJOR FABLE WILLIAMS

-> HOST SHIFT INTRODUCTION .

-> NON-CANON M*A*S*H SHIFT .

-> COURTESY OF : WILLOW .

[ tagging hosts partners ] (I believe O is one of hosts partners as of yesterday from over-hearing their conversation from co-front, don't quote me on this, but I'm fairly certain they are! Maybe I'm missing something, not sure! Correct me if I'm wrong!) : @satyrsystem , @spareeees , @gmanwhore , @thewammys-house

You said, "Hey, whatcha doin' for the rest of your life?"

And I said, "I don't even know what I'm doin' tonight,"

Went from one conversation to your lips on mine,

And you said, "I never regretted the day that I called you mine."

So I call you mine,

Can I call you mine?

🐾〕 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋

『𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦: Fable Isla Williams (Nicknamed 'Snapper' & 'Silent' from a few officers around camp dur to her tendency to snap at people andnher tendency to yell out "Silent!" During meetings when officers aren't listening or are talking over the superior.)

『𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘐𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘺: Cisgender Female

『𝘚𝘦𝘹𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘖𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯: Pansexual

『𝘈𝘨𝘦: 37 Years of age (I originally had thought she was 35, turns out I was a little off!)

『𝘉𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘩𝘥𝘢𝘺: 1913, Saturday, December 13th

🐾〕 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘

『𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘤: Fable is known as a rather harsh and down-to-business type of woman, she doesn't take shit from anyone and will put her foot down whenever it's needed. She also has a major tendency to snap at people and bite their heads off if they overstep or misbehave. However under all this, Fable is a rather kind and bright woman, she has her moments of vulnerability and her moments of being a very loving and gentle woman. She also has her moments of vulnerability in the way where she feels hopeless and she's not as harsh as she is usually, during these moments she typically wears a tired and weary expression and her shoulders are slumped in a subtle but noticeable way. It's easy to tell that this woman isn't in a very stable mental position.

『𝘍𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴: Closed in spaces, being near any risks of falling or collapsing rocks, the fear of having rocks caving in on her, large open waters, the fear of being seen as how she truly is by a superior officer or a lower ranking officer.

🐎〕 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃

『𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦: Pincher Creek, Alberta Canada

『𝘖𝘤𝘤𝘶𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯: Equestrian Coach mainly focusing on Trick Riding & Expert Horse-back riding.

—☆ FUN FACTS: Spent around $1,590.00 on a pair of riding boots & a cowboy hat before the war. Apparently wore said hat a lot during the beginning of the war as a source of comfort. The only people who wrote her during her time in the war was her father and one of her riding students who grew to become a staple in Fable's life as her honorary little brother. During the war, everyone she met was walking on eggshells around her due to her personality. She has never once snapped at Radar, she refuses to do so. The only person who actually willingly approached her was Conwell, she was apparently very surprised by his willingness and how he actually treated her like a human instead of some kind of monster. According to Fable, the two ended up becoming very close to the point where Fable considered Conwell almost like a son to her, meaning Storm was considered to be Fable's grand-daughter. The white tuft in her hair is purely from stress, her face has features that show her aging and the visible stress the war is having on her.

[batsyforyou]

Of Elves and Men Part 1

Pairing: Beleg x reader 

Elvish Words: I mean Loth = flower as far as I’m aware but I don’t think there is anything else

Warnings: Brief mention of being buried alive, bugs crawling on reader, dark cave, betrayal, friends turned enemies, blood, the dead moving, one dead guy, implied beheading,  nightmares, hallucinations, sickness, character death, a slight mention of a baby at the end. If I missed anyone up here or in the tags please let me know. 

A/N: I should tell you that I don’t actually expect anyone to read all this but if you do, I love you dearly. This was heavily inspired by my mythology class. Also, this was originally called “Immortals�� and I did change it. I’m sorry if there has been any confusion. I want to say that I had fun with this, but I didn’t. This story tried to kill me and frame me for murder at the same time. I felt so defeated over this fic I might actually have to take some time off tumblr to get some mental energy back. When I tell you I legit cried and went to sleep when this was done.

Warning I tried my hand at romance, but none of this came out the way I wanted. I don’t know if that means I wasted three months or what but yeah. Also, for the romance I did summarize some parts instead of writing all of it.

Thank you so much for the support @a-complation-upon-flowers and @asainbutnotjapense ! I’m so sorry for the wait.

Blackness. It is all you can see. 

Though the cool dampness of the hard dirt floor didn’t feel as uncomfortable as it once did. Maybe that was a good thing, a blessing in disguise. You had no idea how long you had been lying here, cold, stiff, and hungry. The only noise in this prison was the sound of water dripping. From the cavern's ceiling and down into the puddle below to join the rest. 

Drip. Drip drip. Drip. One-two-one, or maybe three. 

It was like the little droplets played in a marching band that never ended. 

You were not alone, what you could now tell as a man with a rotted face sat with you sharpening a knife and every once and a while he would mumble, “I told you not to follow me.” The sound grated on your ears.

In this place the mind talked, and it spoke loudly. After all, what else is there for it to do? Trapped in its cage made of flesh and stone, chained. It spoke of revenge, of hunger, of pain, of fear, and of anger—hurt. It ate itself up and left nothing. Leaving you to contemplate your betrayal and your inevitable demise.

Bugs and other things you couldn’t name, crawled, itched and tickled the bare skin of your arms. A thousand things with a thousand names moved across you. Like they and the dirt owned you. It was easy to imagine that this is what it was like to be buried. In tombs and in coffins with maggots eating at your flesh. Yes, you thought, this is what it is like to be buried alive.  

The story of how you found yourself in this predicament is a rather long one, but you felt that while you were here, you might as well recall the tale.

Everything is always innocent in the beginning. 

You remembered the days when you did not understand phrases like ‘orc-play’ or ‘orc-work.’ The sun was out on a nice summer’s evening, a warm breeze rattled the leaves and there was not a cloud in sight. Tilting your nose to the sky you breathed it all in. You and your friends Walter, his brother William, Rosetta, Terry, and Evelyn were all headed into town for a nice day out in the market. In the coming weeks the town was going to hold a celebration in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Stubble’s newest addition to their family and everyone was quite excited. 

To get into town from your house you had to walk past the cherry trees owned by Mr. Fiddle, the town's physician. Up past the apple trees of farmer Robert. Past the wheat fields of the Lady Grey. By the fields that housed the cows and past the barns that held the goats and chickens. On this path you could find the stables and fencing where the horses roamed. And finally, the guard house of Sir Martin and into the front gates. 

But you had barely passed by the wheat fields with your friends pushing each other and laughing merrily when you saw an old man sitting on the roadside. When you got closer you could see the man was old and dirty, clothed in rags and a torn cloak drawn tightly over his shoulders, as if he was freezing under the hot sun. Your friends ignore him and trot right on by laughing and giggling like he wasn’t even there. 

You stopped and considered him, knowing you’d never forgive yourself if you'd left him there. If you’d walked past him and left him ignored. You knew that pain all too well. Instead, you crouched down in front of him and asked if you could take him to your home to help him and he agreed. 

A way down the path your friends notice your absence and they look behind them and scuff. Watching you help the man to his feet. “Leave him be Y/n!” They called. 

“What business could you have with a man like him?” They laughed, Walter patting Terry on the back as he smiled. You ignored them at first but said, “My friends! I see your hearts are empty this evening. I will meet you tomorrow for lunch at the Inn.” You left your friends unsatisfied and grumbling as you led the man to your home. Though they did agree to meet you for lunch. 

Upon arrival you prepared a nice warm bath for him and helped the man into it. Scrubbing his back and washing his dark gray hair and pouring a cup of water over his head. It looked overgrown and his bushy beard was long. You asked if he’d like it trimmed but the old man did not reply. In fact, he did not say much during his time with you. He only kept his head low and bowed to his chest. 

You thought it’d be a nice thing to do. A decent thing. So, once you’d scrubbed him clean of dirt and grime you pulled him to his feet, toweled him down, gave him a nice robe and sat him in one of your kitchen chairs. You took a comb and a pair of scissors to untangle his glossy locks and cut him a new look.  

You combed and snipped and brushed and clipped again and again until you could see some resemblance of his face. He was handsome for his age, and you thought that he must have been breathtaking in his youth. Surely, he’d been a heart breaker in his day. When you’d shaped his beard to his face you grabbed some soap and applied it to his neck. Taking your only razor you shaved his neck clean and when you finally finished, you brushed his freshly cut bangs to the side, and you smiled at the sight of brown eyes. 

Deciding that the man needed some food to fill his belly and medicine for the night, you got up and went to the kitchen, working to prepare a hot home cooked meal for him. “Who are you?” You asked. No reply came, only the sound of his strained breathing answered you. 

You felt frustrated at first. After everything you’ve done for him, he would not give you his name? Quickly, you chastised yourself. This stranger was exhausted, sick and hungry. You knew you would be if you were in his place. After all, you did find him on the roadside. Give him time, you thought, he’ll come around. 

You didn’t have much in your pantry, but you cooked him mashed potatoes, some leftover meat, a bread roll and what fresh vegetables you had. While you were cooking you opened your cupboard and stared up at the only medicine you had. Medicine in this part of the land was hard to come by and very expensive. 

Most people couldn’t afford good quality medicine, nor did they have the skills to know what herbs helped and what didn’t. You were no exception. What herbs you grew were for cooking and tea. So, when a merchant came into town hungry and recently robbed of his belongings by bandits and thieves. You got him to trade you for the sole surviving item—elvish medicine. 

To even fulfill a mere fraction of the price you had to house him for a two week stay in your home, three hot meals a day, fresh clothes for each day, six of your best hens and a rooster, supplies for the road, your donkey, and what coin you could spare him. The whole thing nearly bled you dry.

Typically, only rich nobles could afford it. But when you confronted the man, he said he was going to trade it in exchange for gold so he could buy what he needed. Not only for what he needed during his stay in town but also his supplies for his trip. In the end the man had pity on you and accepted what you were willing to give him once you shared about your father…

You looked behind you at your guest. His head was bowed, hair dangling in his face, the robe pulled tight around his shoulders, and was shaking with fever. You looked back to the medicine and felt a shadow pass over you. Slowly, you wrapped your hand around the tonic and placed it beside his plate. 

When the food was finished you quietly placed the steaming plate in front of him with butter and jam for his bread and a warm cup of tea. “Eat up.” You say. “Once you’ve eaten, I’ll give you some medicine and then you can rest.” 

The man didn’t seem to notice at first, but after a moment, he picked up the fork and knife and began to eat. You sat at the table beside him thumbing the elven medicine. To pass the time you told him about your day and the upcoming events for the town hoping that he’d find it within himself to speak. 

Once he had finished and downed the medicine you supplied him, you helped him up your stairs and placed him in your bed to sleep. You went to leave, intending on talking to the seamstress about fresh clothes for him. It’d be expensive and there was a possibility you could not afford it, but you hoped the investment would be worth it. However, the man stopped you with a gentle grasp on your hand. 

“Thank you.” He said. You smiled, shocked and surprised to hear him speak, but pleased to hear it. “I was happy too.” You say. 

The old man looked at you, scrutinizing your face before nodding to himself, having decided something. “Listen stranger, I will not last till morning, this I feel deep within my bones. For your kindness and generosity, I will give you my land, my house, my animals, my fields, and I will order my servants to serve you as they served me. They will tend to you loyally, as if you were my blood. I will claim you as my heir and everything I have will be yours.” He coughed, lurching up from the bed in a fit. You were speechless, but quickly reached out to steady him, soothing him with sweet words as you did. You couldn’t believe what the man had said. What could this man possibly offer you? Was he not homeless? Without belongings? How could he claim to give you such grand things? You thought for sure he had lost his mind to old age. 

When his coughing had ceased, he gripped your shoulder and said, “Fetch me a paper and quill, and bring me Sir Thomas, my counselor, as witness. The man tends to set up his work at the law house. Tell him that Lord Arthur calls for him, and that it is urgent. Do this, and I’ll fulfill my promise.” 

Flabbergasted, your jaw fell to the floor. You didn’t know what to do, what to think! But your body moved on its own accord, and you rushed off to fetch Arthur what he asked for. 

You sprinted down your stairs throwing open the door to what used to be your father’s study. Running to the desk you grabbed a fist full of the cleanest papers you could find, and swiped the quill and ink, stumbling over your father’s chair in your haste. Quickly, you delivered what you had to your room, placing them on the bedside table. Before you turned, practically throwing yourself down the stairs with the unusual haste that consumed your being. You did this despite your misgivings and beliefs about the man’s sanity. Still, something in you told you to hurry, so you slung your warmest coat over your shoulders and grabbed your hat, clumsily falling out your front door. 

You raced to town as fast as your legs could carry you and ran past the front gates. 

“Excuse me! Coming through!” You shouted. Darting between men and women, evading rolling carts, ducking beneath overhanging signs, clipping shoulders and occasionally slamming into someone’s side. The people shouted at you, shaking their fists in the air and scolding you harshly as you ran through town. But you ignore them, dashing up the steps of the Law House and slamming open the door. “Excuse me!” You cried. A man startled up from his desk with a shout saying, “What? What is it?!” 

The man was tall and dressed in ivory robes. He had long strands of waved hair like gold, a trimmed beard around his face and his eyes were a sharp green. 

“I’m looking for Sir Thomas, a man that knows the law and counsels’ others, are you him?” 

“I am.”

“Then come quick!” You cried. “Lord Arthur calls you to my house and claims that he won’t survive the night.” 

The man moved at once, shoving all necessary papers and documentation into a brown bag and dashed for the entrance. Seeing him move, you turned on your heel and ran back to your house with shaky legs and empty lungs. Thomas followed you, overtaking your steps when he saw your house. “Where is he?” He asked.

“Up the stairs and in my bedroom!” 

Thomas flew past you; up the dirt path of your home and you watched him fling open your door and charge in. You tried to keep up, but your body was tired, and you slowed your pace to a walk, gasping for breath. When you made it to your door you leaned against the frame sweating and holding a hand to your chest as you wheezed. Goodness, I need to run more. 

Once you were sure your heart would not burst, you shut the door behind you and climbed up your stairs, following the soft voices that drifted down from your room. 

You couldn’t believe what was happening. Your day seemed so normal and sunny; how could it have turned so quickly? Though, you supposed it was for the best, whether the man could fulfill his claims or not the thought of him dead on the side of the road filled you with great sadness. You couldn't imagine what it’d be like to be sick and hungry, dying while uncaring people walked past you. Alone. Too tired to even ask for help. You shuttered and hugged yourself at the thought. You look into your room, but stay back in the hall for privacy's sake, your door open. Dying alone had to be the worst fate you could think of. 

It was well after dark when Thomas bowed his head, grabbing the sheets and slowly dragging them up over Arthur. Your heart sank, such a shame, you thought. It appeared that Arthur's assumption had been correct; he did not make it through the night. 

Thomas stood there a moment holding the bag close to his chest with his hand over the deceased. You wondered briefly if Thomas knew the dead well. He seemed so struck over Arthur’s passing and you didn’t know what to do. You stood there in an empty hall, watching as a man grieved instead of offering your condolences. At the very least, you could offer him tea. With that in mind, you quietly left making your way back down to the kitchen and putting some water over the fire to boil. 

Everything had happened so fast, and it left you confused and tired. Your mind felt as numb as your legs. You took a seat at the table listening to the fire crackle and pop and the cricket’s chirp. You rested your head in your hands unsure of what to do. The man, who you knew now as Arthur, was dead. Most importantly he lay dead upstairs. 

There was a dead man lying in your bed. 

You dragged your eyes around the dark room and furnishings. Did a person burn their bed and bedding when someone died? Certainly, they didn’t just wash and keep it for use. You scrunched up your nose at the thought, something in you churning at the idea of keeping the items in your house let alone putting them to use again. I wonder if I should ask the Lady Grey, you thought, her son is well versed in death. Afterall, he helps bury the coffins he creates. Maybe he’ll know how to dispose of unsavory items. 

And what about all those claims Arthur made? Should I ask Thomas about it? You yawned. Leaning back and listening to the wooden chair creak as you rubbed your eyes, exhausted. Would it even be right to accept those things if they were true? Did he not have any close relatives to take his land? And if he did have such grand things why then, did I find him on the roadside in rags? 

All this you pondered, your mind ran through and questioned every detail you could remember but you could not come up with a suitable answer or theory to solve the mystery of how this problem, and Arthur, had come to you. After a while you settled for hoping that Thomas could provide you with all the answers you wanted but you doubted it. 

The sound of water sizzling against coals caught your attention and you leapt up, quickly pulling the pot away from the flames and laying it to cool on the counter, leaving the tea too steep. You turned your attention back to your table where you still had messy dishes from when Arthur ate his last meal and you felt sorrow creep into your bones. You wish you had given him better food for a last supper. Alas, what was done was done. 

Sighing, you gathered up the dirty dishes and brought them to your sink to clean and swept up the hair off your floor. After all, it’d keep you busy while you waited, and it needed to be done anyway. You scraped whatever food remained off the plate and rinsed out the cup. The sound of running water worked to keep the silence at bay. Till you heard your stairs groan and your heart jumped into your throat with nerves, abruptly, you dropped the dishes to soak, shutting off the water. You barely got your hands dry before Thomas trudged in looking as exhausted as you felt. His eyes were rimmed red, his lips pinched, and he clutched his bag close to his chest with white fingers. 

All was still as you looked at each other, both of you at a loss for what to do next and the silence grew thick. 

“I—my apologies,” he cleared his throat and bowed his head low to his chest. “I did not mean to interrupt.” 

You smiled, his voice was deep and charming, effortlessly adding to the choir of crickets outside. 

“It is alright, I have just finished.” You gestured to your now clean table, “Please sit. I’ll get us some tea.” He nodded grateful for the distraction and sat heavily in his chair. 

From your cupboards you grabbed the best mugs you had and poured the drinks. Carefully you set the steaming beverage in front of him trying not to splash any out the sides. 

“Here, it is still hot so be careful.” 

“Thank you.” 

You gingerly took the seat closest to him as he had chosen to sit at the head of the table. And you didn’t want to risk offending him by moving too far away. Out of nervousness you licked your lips and skipped your eyes from him, “Well, Sir, I do not have much experience with matters such as this, so I’ll let you lead, when ready, of course. But know I have many questions for you.” 

Thomas sighed, dropping his bag to the floor and leaning back replacing the hold he had on his bag with the mug. “Yes, I know you do.” 

He stared into his drink for a time turning things over in his head and you let him do so in silence. Confident that once he had thought things over, he would have a quick and concise explanation. Though it seems you were out of luck. 

He took a sip from his drink and locked his gaze on you, but you squirm underneath his eye and could not meet his gaze instead you watched the fire lick the brick walls of its home. “I have decided that I will explain what I can in the morning but for now I insist that you come with me to town.” 

“What?!” 

Your head snapped around and you felt your neck pop, but Thomas looked resigned. “Yes, I believe that with all that has happened today it would be better if we continued in the morning.” 

“But-but I.” All you could do was stare dumbfounded. “I have so many questions!” You shove yourself to your feet, “And I cannot leave for town at this hour! I will stay on the couch tonight, if need be, but I will not go into town! Not at this hour.” 

You glared at your guest, unable to believe the absurdity of the situation. Awake all night with a dead man lying in your bed and he wouldn’t even answer you! He wouldn’t even consider sharing some of what he knows?! This was outrageous! Absurd!  

Thomas leaned into the table with passion in his eyes and desperation dripping from his lips. “My friend!” He exclaimed. “I do not ever plan on withholding information from you! Nor do I intend to. But I, well—” he gestured towards himself with a wave of his hand— “I cannot, do not, have it in me to continue with this tonight.” 

You paused your anger dwindling as you observed the man at your table. Indeed, he did look wary, and his shoulders slouched like he carried a great burden on his back and all at once you remembered this man mourning at Arthur’s bedside and shame flooded your heart. Here you were berating a grieving heart that could go no further than it had. Your mother would have skinned your hide. 

“My apologies, friend.” You placed a firm hand on his shoulder in comfort, “I forgot myself.”  

The corner of his mouth quirked, “No, I’m afraid you hadn't. I too would demand an explanation as to why I had a dead man in my house. In fact, you have been quite hospitable to me. The only thing you have forgotten to give me is your name.” 

You flushed red, “Ah, sorry, I am called Y/n.” 

At that Thomas grinned and raised his mug to you. “It is a pleasure Y/n.” 

“Yes, indeed it has been for you as well.” 

He ran a hand through his locks of gold and sighed, “And if it helps to convince you to come into town with me. I’ll tell you everything first thing in the morning and whether you like what I have to say or not I’ll buy new furniture and bedding for your room.”

Drawing your bottom lip between your teeth, you felt your reluctance break away. You could not afford to buy a new set of furnishing, nor could you imagine laying in that bed knowing that the dead had slept there also. But you couldn’t really afford a night at the Inn either… 

You shook your head, “I would agree to this, but I cannot pay for a night at the Inn anymore, the master there has raised the price too high.” 

Thomas shook his head and waved your words aside, “Nonsense! If that's what's stopping you, then I will pay for your room tonight.” 

“Oh, but I could not ask-” 

“But you aren’t! I am offering you my favor, after all, you are the one who has done so much already! Saving a man, you did not know from dying on the side of a dirt road? That is a good deed to be repaid.” 

Still, you hesitated, “Are you sure? I do not want to intrude.” 

Thomas grasped your hand with an endearing look in his eyes, “My dear, if it was such a trouble for me, I would not have offered.” 

“Well.” A small smile graced your lips, and you raised your free hand in defeat, “Alright, consider me convinced! I will go with you.” 

He clapped his hands together. “Excellent!” He pulled himself to his feet and motioned towards the door with a bow, hair falling from his shoulders. “After you.” Startled from his fine gesture and a little numb in the mind. You took one last look at your table, staring at the mugs still full of tea. I’ll clean those when I come back in the morning. Quickly you stamped out the fire and then without any further delay, you headed towards town with Thomas as your escort.

Part 2

Masterlist

[seriously-nobody]

Love's Dark Afflictions

Chapter 13

Warnings: Major Character Death, romance, murder, blood, gore, insanity?, mental instability, mention of grief

Preface: WELP this is gonna be a real one y'all. I had too much fun fucking around with this one, as you can probably tell. Please read the warnings, this one's a doozy.

By the time you enter the courtyard, the wind whips through the weeping willows, making their branches and the spanish moss sway eerily. You dismount, handing your horse over to the stable boy as rain drops spot the ground. You rush up the steps to take cover from the oncoming storm, entering through the double doors. “Y/n?” William steps out of the living room in search of you. “Hello William.” You give him a tired but warm smile. “What happened? Where did you go?” He gives you a worried look. “I'd rather not say.” You look down, remembering how you left this morning. He sighs, walking up, and embracing you. His kindness and warmth are a pleasant contrast to your lover. “Well, I'm glad you're here safe and sound.” He says. You melt into his embrace, trying to ignore the feeling of Alistair staring invisible daggers at you. “Sounds of body, maybe, but not of mind.” Alistair retorts. The clock chimes, signaling you to meet Madame Leota in the seance room. “It seems my time's up.” You sigh, parting from William. “So it seems. Best not to keep her waiting.” William frowns, his hand lingering on your arm, giving it a reassuring squeeze. You nod and walk down the hallway to the painting door. “I want you to be as silent as the grave, Alistair. Is that understood?” You say under your breath. “Whatever.” He huffs. “This whole cleansing thing should be a bore anyway.” He scoffs.

You open it to find Madame Leota meditating in her usual chair at the table. “Madame Leota?” You call her quietly. “Come in.” She beacons. You walk in, closing the door behind you. You sit where you used to and wait for her to slowly open her eyes. “Hello, dear.” She says softly. “Hello… how exactly does this cleansing work?” You fidget a little. “Just relax, close your eyes, and I'm going to ask you a few questions, alright?” She says. You give her a confused look. “Trust me.” She reassures. You close your eyes hesitantly and focus on your breathing. “How did you feel when you first arrived at the mansion? Back before the ghosts were here.” She asks. “I felt sad for William. That’s why I came here after all. To take care of him when no one else would.” You say, keeping your eyes closed. Madame Leota hums, thinking. “Alright, how did you feel after the seance with that hatbox ghost?” she asks. Your heart skips a beat but no one could tell, except for Alistair. “I felt exhausted. The whole encounter was very draining.” You say. You can almost feel Alistair rolling his eyes at you. “It was quite overwhelming wasn't it.” She says, agreeing with you. “Now how did you feel after your run in with the highwaymen?” She asks you. You pause and let your lip quiver for dramatic effect. “I felt grief for Florence’s death and regret for not saving her.” You choke. “Good, now, feel your grief.” She says in concentration. You make a few tears roll down your cheeks to make it seem like you're thinking of Florence’s death, even though you aren't.

Madame Leota hums again in thought. “Strange… I can’t sense it.” She says softly and purses her lips. “Sense what?” You open your eyes to gauge her expression. “Your grief, I can't seem to feel it when you're around. Nor can I understand your aura. It's like something or someone is interfering with my abilities.” She says. “What's wrong with my aura?” You ask, curiosity taking you. “It doesn't look as it used to. It feels different now, somehow… It seemed to change after the night we encountered the hatbox ghost…” She says, trying to connect the dots. “What changed in you?” She asks, looking back up at you. You can tell Alistair has that smug look on his face, knowing the truth. “I've been on edge ever since then. It's like the ghost is following me everywhere I go, but I don’t know why. Like it's haunting me for some reason.” You say, almost truthfully. “Oh dear.” She coos. “So that's the reason I've been sensing madness on you since then. That must be it. Why didn’t you tell me this before?” She asks, silently opening her book. “You already had enough to focus on, I didn't want to add anything more.” You say. “Here,” She flips to a page. “I can perform this banishment spell, but I need a possession of the ghost’s.” She says. Your blood runs cold as realization sets in. You remember what you have on your middle finger. His ring suddenly feels very heavy on your hand. Your face goes pale as a sheet. “Is everything alright, dear?” Madame Leota says. Your hands clench into fists on top of the table. Drawing attention to your hands Madame Leota notices his ring. “When did you get that ring?” She asks. The weight of what you have to do next hits you harder than an oncoming carriage. “No… I-I can't…” You say. You're not sure who to, maybe to her, to Alistair, or maybe even yourself. “What do you mean you can't?!” Alistair's voice booms in your skull. You screw your eyes shut and turn your head away. “What is it, y/n? You can tell me.” She says, directing her full attention to you. “You've given yourself away! You know what you have to do!” Alistair barks. “N-no this isn't- This can't be it.” You say in disbelief. You hadn't thought it would come to such a swift end. You thought you had more time. “Is the ghost speaking to you? What are they saying?” Madame Leota says mentally connecting the dots. You begin to laugh to yourself, tears falling freely from your eyes. “Why did it have to come to this? Why now?” You laugh and sniffle. “Y/n, please, I can help. Just let me in.” She says.

“Ugh, and you,” You giggle. “/you,/” You growl darkly. “you just had to try to help, didn’t you?” You say angrily. “You just had to go sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong!” You stand abruptly. Madame Leota’s eyes widen in shock at your outburst. And finally, finally, she realizes. “No, you couldn’t have…” She trails off, her hand covering her mouth. “Oh yes I could. And you know what?! I did!” You shout in maniacal glee. “You killed Florence and Jules?” She says in disbelief. “Them, and that idiot servant, I never learned the name of, that patched up my leg.” You gesture to the healing wound on your thigh. “His body is currently dangling at the end of a rope in the rafters over the living room. Really I thought you, or anyone for that matter, would’ve noticed by now that a ceiling appeared one night, but I suppose no one really looks up there. Anyway, continue.” You lean over the table, resting your palms on the surface. “I never felt your grief because you killed all of them?” She says. “Exactly!” You grin pointing at her. “And your aura, I sensed madness in you.” She says. “Right again! I am quite-” You roll your eyes and point at your head, making a circle with your extended index finger, gesturing you’ve got a screw loose in your head. “You killed them? How?” She asks. “You’re prolonging the inevitable.” Alistair says sternly. “Oh but it’s good fun isn’t it? Finally getting to talk about all of it?” You say into the air. “Who said that?” Madame Leota says, looking around. “Oh that’s just the voice in my head.” You laugh at your own joke. “He’s that hatbox ghoOost.” You wiggle your fingers at her, giggling. “Materialize, I demand to see the face of the soul that ruined my friend’s mind.” Madame Leota demands. “Go ahead Ali, you can show yourself. There’s no turning back now.” You sigh. “Don’t call me that.” He materializes beside you with his arms folded over his chest. “Aww poor baby.” You scoff, rolling your eyes. “So you’re the one that’s poisoned their mind with your horrid soul.” She sneers at Alistair. “Poisoned my mind? Please,” You snake your arms around Alistair, keeping your eyes trained on hers, “I was one inconvenience away from turning to murder. He was just the spark to my gunpowder.” You rest your head on his shoulder, as you gaze at her. “What have you done to them, you fiend?” She hisses at Alistair. Lightning flashes outside, illuminating the room from the glass ceiling above. Alistair’s face contorts into one of pure seething rage. “Now you’ve done it.” You say. “I AM NOT A FIEND!” He shouts, his voice reverberating off the walls of the small chamber. Thunder cracks and rumbles almost punctuating him.

“Enough of this. Your games may be fun, but I grow impatient. I want blood.” Alistair growls. “I suppose, if we must.” You sigh wistfully. Your eyebrows knit together with a thought. “What if you possessed me? We could take turns controlling my body.” You look at him. You feel him shiver against you at the thought of being able to physically spill blood again. “That would be /lovely/ darling.” He looks down at you, his pupils blown out. You nod, closing your eyes and taking a slow deep breath in, letting his soul into your body. You open your eyes and look down at Madame Leota. “Please, you don’t have to do this. We can figure this out together. We can get you help.” She pleads. You kick the nearest chair to you across the room in rage. “NO ONE CAN HELP ME!” Your voice, deep and booming, mingling together with Alistair’s. You feel Alistair take the lead, grabbing her crystal ball from its stand. He brings it down over head, hard and swift, again and again. Blood splattering everywhere. He only stops when he’s sure she’s gone. Suddenly your eyes adjust and everything in the room is a dark purple hue. Then you spot her. Her soul just leaving her body. Alistair holds the bloody crystal ball out in front of your body. His clawed hand shoots out of it, pulling her soul into the crystal ball, trapping her in it. Your vision goes back to normal and you both pant, catching your breath. Alistair slides your palm over the crystal ball to smear away the blood to peer into it. Something in the mist moves and then you see her, she opens her eyes. “How dare you! You rotten corpse! Your appearance is just as ugly as your soul!” She shouts. “Well, I’ve had quite enough of that.” Alistair says, grabbing her cloth bag from under the table and shoving the crystal ball into it. Her shouts, muffled and distant. “I’m sure everyone heard everything that just happened.” You frown at the thought of so many loose ends. “I have the property locked down so they shouldn't have gotten far.” Alistair says. “Perfect. No one is leaving this mansion alive tonight.” You say darkly, walking up the steps. You open the door to an eerily silent mansion, the only noise you hear is rolling thunder and rain outside. “I suppose they won’t be making this easy for us.” Alistair huffs. “Oh well.” You crack your neck and roll your shoulders. “Time to go hunting for servants.” You hiss and prowl down the hall, beginning your hunt.

Chapter 15

[cobraonthecob]

F1 2024 Predictions!

Red Bull: Obviously they’re going to continue to dominate. They have to get in their domination years before the 2026 regulations come by, so as far as 2024 and 2025 are concerned for me, Red Bull is going to aim to dominate and they will. The only thing I’d be interested in Red Bull in is whether or not Checo will have stable mental health to hold a smaller gap in points between him and Max, because what the hell happened after Monaco alsdkjfaklsdfj.

Ferrari: I am not a superstitious person usually, but if you have Scuderia in your name, your strategists are shit. AlphaTauri has this problem, and Ferrari is the same. At least Ferrari has a car that can get points (not great ones, but still points) whereas AT will be far away from the points. So hopefully 2024, the strategists gain more brain cells, otherwise, it’s just going to be a repeat of 2023.

Mercedes: The strategy is questionable at times, but what really needs to improve is the pit stop times. They’re doing better, but they NEED to get their heads out of their asses for that because that’s the real killer in my opinion. 

Mclaren: My surprise prediction of 2024, is that Mclaren is going to be the team that will come close to lighting a fire under Red Bull. Or rather; Oscar, Lando, and Checo are going to be fighting for podium spots after Max fucks off ten seconds ahead of them (a gracious guess, it would’ve been 20 seconds but I decided to be nice). We all saw Mclaren’s miraculous technological growth this year, so assuming Mclaren doesn’t bring a tractor at the start of the season, I can very much see a Red Bull vs Mclaren fight.

Also we need a lando win. Please, he’s been suffering for too long

Aston Martin: I don’t follow AM, so if anyone wants to bring additional info, I’ll be grateful, but I feel like they’ll bring the fight to P3 in the constructor’s championship against Ferrari and Mercedes. They seem to have decent strategy and pit stops, it’s just that the car is average with two good drivers. Maybe they should hope for more rainy races and Lance works his driving-in-the-rain magic.

THE MIDFIELD:

I predict that it’s going to be an Alpine-Williams-AlphaTauri/Racing Balls fight.

Alpine: if the Frenchpine civil war doesn’t fuck them up more, because Pierre really showed what he was made of. I can’t really estimate how good they are against each other because Esteban has had 6 DNFs total, 4 being mechanical failures, 2 retirements because of collision from other people running into him, and I’m not counting all the times Esteban has run into other people but no DNF because I’m not combing through every race lol. I think they’re equal, it’s just that Esteban’s car was plagued with mechanical problems and Esteban regularly finds himself in weird situations where he’s getting bonked into or he’s bonking into someone else. Alpine is going to be fighting themselves and the rest of the midfield lol.

Williams: Alex is definitely going to head that king of the midfield fight for Williams while Logan will quietly improve and hopefully get points. 

AlphaTauri: Daniel and Yūki are probably the best driver pairing AlphaTauri could ask for. Daniel’s experience and Yūki approaching his fourth year on the team means they have to be fighting for consistent points now from both of them, and that’s only if AT doesn’t give them a tractor to drive. Also, before anyone who didn’t pay attention to Yūki’s growth this year, you missed out. The two major times I can say that Yūki costed himself points was Singapore - I definitely think he turned too early in that first lap and doing it next to Checo of all drivers - and Mexico, where he turned on the outside and bumped into Oscar and spinning himself off the track. But most importantly, even though Yūki couldn’t crawl back into the points in time, he LEARNED, and in Brazil, he applied that when he didn’t do the same error when he and Lewis were fighting. 

Sauber: Hopefully with the shedding of AlfaRomeo, they’ll bounce back. But they’re my flop prediction.

Haas: This team flopping is a given. I will be pleasantly surprised if they pull a Mclaren and miraculously be consistently pulling themselves into P9/P10 every race.

[ofprincessesandqueens]

I'm a Gen Z and I like Kate a lot maybe because I can relate to her a lot. I'm a shy, reserved person and I have issues with public speaking due to my social anxiety.

I think the problem with Kate is that she's not relatable. She wasn't born rich but her parents took a risk, created their own business and managed to provide a great life for their children (which I respect a lot and it's crazy that the British press criticised them for years for not being aristocrats like being self-made is such a bad thing).

So, Kate pretty much lived a privileged life 90% of the time. She attended one of the most prestigious schools in the UK. Then, she went to university and had her degree. She never really had a stable career (which I can somewhat sympathize because paparazzis would apparently show up at her work and constantly take photos of her and she had to quit and go work for her parents).

Then her and William got married and she became sort of robotic, "cold" and never set a foot wrong. Again, not relatable because most people aren't perfect all the time but I can kind of understand. She was under such media scrutiny in her 20s and was constantly getting bad press that I think she feels like she has to be perfect to avoid media criticism.

Today, she's more of a rich stay-at-home mum who does some charity in her spare time and people my age can't relate to that. I just had my first child less than a year ago but most of my friends are not married and don't have kids and that's why most people my age are not really interested in her work in Early Childhood Education.

I found William a lot more interesting. You can see it when he's on solo engagements, he's a lot more funny, he's more relaxed, he connects better with the youth than Kate, he's a better public speaker than her, us Gen Z can relate more to his work with mental health, environmental issues and with committing homelessness and how he's been an LGBT ally for years (7 years ago, he became the first royal to be photographed for the cover of a gay magazine). I don’t get that same vibe with Kate.

Even some of my friends who are not monarchists at all are very interested in William's recent project in trying to reduce homelessness.

Thank you for your detailed POV. It seems like the first anon I got related to this conversation may have been right when she talked about Kate's communication skills and her lack or career before she got married. Both things you can understand from a personal POV but that causes an impact in the way she is perceived either way. I guess she is not seen as aspirational too.

[anonymusbosch]

Unfortunately it's really easy to exaggerate the implications of the finding. I went down a pretty massive rabbit hole reading the study being referenced here (“Unconditional cash transfers reduce homelessness” (Ryan Dwyer, Anita Palepu, Claire Williams, and Jiaying Zhao 2023)). and looking at where the numbers came from, and that $8277 per person cost savings shows up in the discussion of the results but directly contradicts the findings. When they directly estimated the cost of services provided to the people in the study by counting the days the people used those services, they found a savings of around $2400 per person over the year - meaning with the $7500 lump sum payment, it was $5100 more expensive to give people a lump sum rather than $777 cheaper.

So where did the $8277 value come from? Why was it brought up in discussion? As far as I can tell, it comes from

Saying the participants who received cash spent 89 fewer days homeless and assuming, contrary to what they measured, that ALL days homeless were spent in shelters (as opposed to on the streets, in cars, couch surfing)

Assuming a cost of $94 per night for shelter

... based on a different study

... which had ranges of $14 to $144 per night for different kinds of housing

... which includes the MARKET VALUE PRICE OF THE BUILDING AMORTIZED AS A CAPITAL EXPENSE

which you would find if you dug through that study's appendix.

And if you pick that value you see a "cost savings", even though you measured a loss in the work at hand.

Now, this study has some other major problems, but that one seems glaring. Come on. You calculated the cost based on the actual number of days spent in the shelter, found that it was only $2400ish lower, and then made a worse estimate based on other people's approximations and intentionally misrepresented how long people spent in the shelters?

Here's their actual data.

Values without parentheses are means, values in parens are standard deviations. "B" is the baseline survey and it covers the 12 month period before the study. Each 3-month survey captures 3 months' worth of spending. You can see that neither the cash nor control group used more than $7500 worth of housing in the prior year. Here's my little table showing the sums, for convenience:

so. their own data really seem to contradict the conclusion they draw by estimating with other people's approximations.

anyway. there are a dozen other glaring issues but I think the main point is well-summarized by figures they left in the appendix. These figures show the standardized outcomes for a bunch of things they measured at the 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12-month surveys:

Blue lines got cash, grey lines didn't.

By the end of the study period - really, after the first three months - there was virtually no difference on any metric between the cash and non-cash groups. None.

This study was pre-registered. It stated its hypotheses ahead of time as well as the way it was going to do its power analysis, and

EVERY SINGLE HYPOTHESIS IT PREREGISTERED FAILED. Not significant.

Even in the exploratory findings, they found short-term benefits but "The cash transfer did not have overall impacts on employment, cognitive function, subjective well-being, alcohol use severity, education, or food security."

Like, yes! Giving people money increased the time they spent in stable housing by about 55 days over the year. That's valuable! That's good! But it didn't have any meaningful effect on whether they ended the year in stable housing, or whether they got a job, or even the value of their savings.

There's a whole nother rabbit hole, which I'll spare you, about the sampling bias they have here (only people 19-65 years old, homeless LESS THAN 2 YEARS, citizen or permanent resident, with nonsevere levels of substance use, alcohol use, and mental health symptoms, which excluded 69% of the shelter population) (and who agreed to participate, and stuck with the study - down to just 35 people in the sample group, <5% of the shelter population) - and two more rabbit holes about their "people don't want to give homeless people cash transfers because they think they'll spend it on drugs" studies. The news story screenshotted in the tweet kinda misrepresents that aspect too - if you explicitly exclude people with substance use and alcohol use issues from your study, the people you study don't spend money on drugs and alcohol! and water is wet. But that's a post for another day.

but in short:

the program did not save money. and the study sucks.

**** for the record! I think that society should absolutely ensure housing for everyone, especially the people with highest support needs. that's the point of society! and in general I think cash transfers can be far more effective at getting people fed and housed for many of the same reasons the study authors do. I really, really wanted this study to hold water because it would be a great piece of evidence in favor of faster and easier and cheaper ways to house people. But because I wanted it to be true so badly, I knew I ought to give it extra scrutiny. which I think was solidly warranted. ****

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