#i also loved it because my special interest was cats i think that fed into it a lot

[kerosene-saint]

thinking about how obsessed kid me was over the og Fionna and Cake episode of Adventure Time. I went crazy over marshall lee and prince gumball YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!!!!!!

[jimingyue]

Cat Tumblr Dashboard Simulator

🖋️ meowful-musings Follow

🕊️ birdwatching Follow

what's wrong with dry food??? my humans feed me it all the time and i think it's fine

💀 elusivehider-deactivated948204

op wheres the natural feeding option

🌲 outdoorsy Follow

you guys are getting fed?

#im a barn cat so maybe im missing something here #meowtthew don't look

7,192 notes

☀️ pawsitive-affurmations Follow

ITS OKAY TO BE A MOGGIE

ITS OKAY TO BE A MOGGIE

YOU ARE NOT LESS VALID IF YOU ARE NOT A SPECIFIC PEDIGREE!!!!!

☀️ pawsitive-affurmations Follow

extra special shout out to cats who have "common" coat colors. grey tabbies and black cats i am rubbing against your head affectionately <3

🪤 m0usetrap01 Follow

as a grey tabby i really needed to hear this :"3

#i feel like i never see positivity posts for moggies even tho we're the most common type of cat....

154,688 notes

🎵 rage-against-the-meowchine Follow

i cant believe there are cats ACTUALLY advocating for kittens to be separated from their mothers before 12 weeks??? kittens still need to learn how to interact with other cats before being placed into their furever home omg you guys know you're advocating for undersocialized and aggressive cats right

❤️ loving-paws284 Follow

um op some of us??? matured early??????? i was separated from my mother at 7 weeks and i turned out fine... interesting how you assume that kittens being separated from their mothers at a younger age will lead to the degeneracy of the next generation...hmm i wonder where i've heard that before...

🐈 fluffy-the-cat Follow

OP got bit too hard during a play-fight as a kitten and it shows XD

🐟 tunafeesh Follow

also op have you ever considered that just because somecat is kind of scared and unable to deal with strange cats or humans, it doesn't mean they don't deserve to be adopted?? you sound like a vet psyop honestly

🎵 rage-against-the-meowchine Follow

oh meow god saying that kittens should be fully weaned before leaving their mother is NOT veterinarian rhetoric and i never said that they deserve to be euthanized!!! my mother literally died when i was 3 weeks old and it seriously messed up my development so stop putting words in my mouth, thanks

anyway friendly reminder that underweaned kittens are prone to illness and often struggle with basic cat behaviors like litterbox usage, and in some nyavinces it's even considered kitten abuse

#discourse #cant believe "kitten abuse is bad" is controversial now

32,456 notes

🍃 naturalliving Follow

BORN TO DIE

WORLD IS A FUCK

猫神 Kill Em All 1989

I am trash cat

410,757,864,530 DEAD BIRDS

#outdoorliving #outdoorcats please interact #outdoorcat friendly

48,971 notes

🎣 salmonpurina Follow

can't believe cats are uncritically reblogging that born to die world is a fuck post. i know it's funny but op is literally an outdoor cat truther

#like cmon now you just have to go to their blog #lulu speaks

34 notes

💀 tabbystripes-deactivated098712

gentle reminder that pushing cups off the table is not cute and can cause a lot of distress in your human!!!! gentle reminder that our teeth and claws can easily hurt them more than they can hurt us!!!!

🐰 evil-tabbystripes Follow

evil reminder that the cup should always be pushed off the table. evil reminder that you should always bite and claw at your human no matter what. you can do whatever you want forever

💀 tabbystripes-deactivated098712

make your own pawst

💀 laser-point-deactivated8574721

umm i know a tomcat who did that and his human ended up putting him down so...

👬🏻 nyasunaruenjoyer Follow

Nyaverage shelter cat behavior

#not nyaruto #re-nyab #pickles shut up

545,460 notes

🌈 nyaoi-warrior Follow

saw two male cats sleeping together on the porch today. homeow behavior imo

💡 discourse-meows Follow

hey um what the fuck??? it's really not okay of you to go assuming other cat's sexualities, especially cats you don't even know???? as a queer cat i'm VERYY uncomfortable. real-ass cats didn't consent to your nyaoi fetish, thanks

🌈 nyaoi-warrior Follow

1. i was making. a joak

2. i'm literally gay???

#literally what's your pawblem

7 notes

🎩 amazingcatshow12 Follow

reblog if you've ever caught the laser pointer

🎩 amazingcatshow12 Follow

i know you fuckers are lying

🍭 gaykittens Follow

this tom hasn't caught the laser pointer

🎩 amazingcatshow12 Follow

shut the heull up

988,653 notes

🐾 b-e-a-n-t-o-e-s Follow

grey toebeans >>>>>>>>> pink toebeans and don't let the haters make you believe otherwise

🐁 ladymouser Follow

op shut the fuck up ALL toebeans are beautiful!!! just bc you're miserable and insecure doesn't mean you can bring others down based on things they can't control

🐾 b-e-a-n-t-o-e-s Follow

oh so the cat-human separationist wants to preach to us

[annie-writesstuff]

Come here, kitty, kitty! - Sylus (Part 2)

Summary: The curse of the Evol cats wears off. Majority of it, at least. Sylus finds himself in his 'human' form. However, your reaction is not what he expected. He thinks you're one of the most interesting persons he has ever met.

Warnings: None. Fluff. I really think Sylus is a green flag. Man is guarded, but when he opens up he's a softie. Tall, dark and handsome lol. He is whipped. It turned kinda angsty (sowwy). Slight - perhaps - spoiler/theory about his past if you squint.

Also, thank you to everyone who read part one! I am truly happy that so many of you enjoyed it!

And thank you to the Anon that messaged me! I am truly happy you loved the story! Thank you!

You can read PART 1 here!

The sun filters through your broken blinds. You scrunch your nose, eyelids fluttering until they fully open. Your [e/c] eyes meet your old wooden ceiling. A yawn leaves your lips as you stretch.

"Good morning."

"Morning!" You chirp reflexively, yawning once again.

Wait.

Slowly, you turn your head.

Sylus smirks, wondering if your half asleep brain has finally caught up on what is going on.

"Um..." You stutter, tugging the blanket closer to you. "Hi..?"

The smirk disappears from his face at your tame reaction. Every time he thinks he's got you figured out, you surprise him.

You should've been screaming, trying to get away from him, hurling objects in his direction.

Instead you're looking at him with more curiosity than shock.

"Red?"

He meets your eyes, and nods. "You don't seem surprised."

"I am!" You assure. "It's just... I don't know how to react. I mean... You looked so familiar. And when I looked into your eyes... I realized you were my little kitty."

"Your little kitty?"

A little flustered, you hurry to correct yourself. "I mean... the... the kitty..."

Rising his hand, he stops you. "Now, I do not like owing people. But you took me in and fed me. So thank you, kitten. Name your price."

Eh? A bit flabbergasted, you stare at him. "P... price?"

"Yes."

Honestly, you just want one thing. "Can I pet your ears?"

Pet his ears... is that what you want? Well, who is he to deny such request?

Rather than giving his verbal approval, Sylus leans down, so that you can reach the twitching ears atop his head.

He is a bit uneasy when your hand first makes contact with one of his ears, but he realizes that, just like yesterday, you're being careful and mindful. His ears are sensitive, but the way you're caressing them feels tolerable nice.

"You're a cute big cat." You smile, switching your attention to his other ear.

A tiny gasp leaves your lips as he leans into your touch, a lot more instinctively than consciously.

"If you tell anyone about this, there will be consequences."

You can't help but giggle, solemnly nodding. "Nobody will know."

He nodded, satisfied, and once you have had your fill, he moves away.

"Can I have your name?"

Normally, he wouldn't reveal his identity. However, because he is almost one hundred percent sure you don't know who he is, he complies.

"Sylus."

"How can I get you back home, Sylus?"

"I'd need to borrow your phone, kitten."

You nod, and without an ounce of hesitation, hand him your device, which had charged during the night.

Sylus uses the special code from the unknown number to contact the twins, which soon reply that they will be on their way shortly.

They don't press for any answers when he asks them to bring him a change of clothes.

Good. He is not in the mood to be answering anything.

At around an hour later, he has changed into his suit, and he walks out of your small bathroom, buttoning his dress shirt at the wrist.

"Thank you again for your... hospitality." He reiterates.

You nod, offering some water bottles to the masked individuals that came to pick up the 'boss', as they've called him.

"I hope to see you again, Sylus." You say softly, walking him to the door.

The taller male hesitates for one second, before looking down at you. "I look forward to it, kitten." He says.

This isn't going to be the last time you see him.

He's going to make sure of it.

Once he is back in his penthouse on N109 zone, Sylus can't help but feel bored.

His eyes darken as Mephisto updates him on your whereabouts. He clicks his tongue, expertly maneuvering a golden bullet with his fingers.

Money and power can give him anything he wants.

Except that the one thing he wants is priceless.

His Evol turns to dust the bullet in his hand as he decides his course of action.

Sylus has always found humans interesting, but you... are a complete enigma.

He wants to know every little detail. What makes you smile, what makes you sad. What ticks you, what excites you.

He wants things to go organically. The two of you have a bond, already, and he would never force you into anything, but he's quite sure that you're also thinking about him.

Fate... is cruel.

But it is wise.

You have found each other, and he firmly belives there is a reason why.

Maybe in this life, there is a hope for happiness for him.

[autisticdiluc]

yandere simulator ramble (mostly ab ayano)

see my thing is with yandere sim obviously there are a bunch of problems from alex himself being the developer, the panty shots in the game (because even tho it's used as blackmail with info-chan and sold to those who want it or wtv there could be a way easier way to blackmail the girls for points), the depiction that the bullies are gyaru giving the impression most gyaru's are mean/bullies, the fact that oh everyone is 18 even though they clearly arent?? amongst other things

yet even then there's something still addicting about the game especially with ayano being a yandere, or to consider: someone with obsessive love disorder (the highest 'level' or intensity of this). even then, although obviously everyone in the aishi family just has to be a yandere, it was gonna be obvious that ayano was gonna be one too right?

First Part: Emotions

ryoba fed into the mindset that ayano needed that special someone to be complete so she could finally feel something and she's 'reassuring' ayano that she, ryoba, was the same way when she was younger as well until she found jokichi. ayano, as a child, knew something was wrong with her. there is no doubt that something continues to be wrong with her especially after her own mother teaches her to get rid of blood to use it later to "get rid of future obstacles." Obstacles which refer to the rivals; rivals who are just girls that have a crush on taro (minus muja kina and mida rana because theyre just creeps i fear). even so ryoba's words lingered in ayano's mind. that was ayano's reason to live - something to look for. which btw is kinda fucked up cause she's a child thinking this but also fair anyway,,

Jokichi has attempted to make ayano's life better. he has tried to be a good father; he has tried to be the best that he can be in order to make his daughter feel normal. but with how ayano is - how she is broken from the start - it was impossible. it didn't help that ryoba encouraged the behaviour almost, saying she was exactly the same as ayano AND how she wasn't worried at all. jokichi didn't like that but ayano is nothing but an empty girl. however, what i find interesting is that she felt pity for her father. despite everything she felt pity, and that!! is an emotion!! why i find this interesting is how she can feel something for someone else but not for herself. as a result of her pity, she began to act like other children pretending to be normal and happy for jokichi, despite how she knew that he didnt really believe her happiness himself.

and then!! ayano began to pretend all the time. to stop the bullying, to fit in with everyone because it was simply more convenient even if ayano didn't really care if it happened or not. she had friends (though she didnt care about them) and she had a routine established by pretending all the time. she grew resentful of being 'broken'. as funny as that is because she was supposed to broken, yet, she felt emotions to a mild degree. resentment (some might also say bitterness) is like more complex emotion rather than your typical joy sadness etc but it's still an emotion. and ayano WANTS to feel and have emotions anyway. she craves it, ayano longs to feel, its almost painful itself because she can't experience it to a high degree. HOWEVER!!!!!!!!!! as small as it is she's felt emotion: she's felt pity and bitterness and she wants and wants and thats so interesting. what's even more interesting is her length to have emotions. in her lore video, she is seen killing a cat to see if she felt something like guilty or remorse but nothing happened. this is where it (chronologcally) is seen that ayano is willing to do extreme things to see if she could feel something, so it's not a surprise when she's willing to kill her 'rivals' to keep taro.

now ayano is described as someone who has no personality, no hobbies, no true friends, nothing, just an empty husk of a person. however, when she meets taro that changes drastically. she has clearer and obvious emotions; she finally has the feelings she always wanted. although, i believe that she wouldn't react to having feelings the best especially after finding osana talking to taro etc etc. if you lived your entire life having no emotions (not any major or obvious ones anyway) until you find your someone (someone who you've been dreaming of, waiting for, needing) and all the emotions finally comes crashing down all at once,, don't you think you'd be more than a bit overwhelmed? she's been missing out on all the sensations people had since birth. she's always felt incomplete and then all of a sudden she meets taro and it fits like a missing puzzle piece finally being placed down. it was clear that taro made her feel happy, wanting love and all positive emotions. although, now that she has emotions: she's going to have to experience the 'bad' ones too. she'll experience anger, annoyance, fear, anxiety, jealousy, desperation, envy, hatred etc etc.

as soon as she sees osana talk to taro yeah you can tell she feels all the negative emotions all at once. she finally has emotions, she finally can experience what everyone else takes for granted, but osana comes in and threatens her. osana talks to taro, has a crush on him, and that sends a spike of fear and anger through ayano because ayano should not be stripped away of her newly found emotions. she needs the emotions. and as a result she needs taro because he is the one allowing her to feel this way. she's in love with the emotions. it's not love that she has for taro, not really, but she is obsessed. she has the overwhelming obsessive desire to protect and possess taro (which is literally the description of obsessive love disorder). she needs taro like how she needs air now that she's met him.

as i said like 3 paragraphs above she's going to be overwhelmed, like it or not, and whenever people are overwhelmed they tend to take an unnecessarily drastic and extreme path because when you're overwhelmed you aren't in the best mindset. ayano is still a human even if she was "broken" before. she makes mistakes and she's going to be overwhelmed by her emotions for a while especially because she feels like she's is almost dead when she's not near taro. taro is a trigger for her essentially. when he's near, the overwhelming feelings all come back. she felt dead before, now she doesn't and these feelings repeat over and over every time she's away from taro and when she goes near him again.

on another note, although ayano "has" taro currently, (in the sense she knows where he is, he's just in her reach and he's so close to being hers; the only thing stopping that is that he doesn't know completely acknowledges her, AND there are her 'rivals') she still feels broken and incomplete when not near him as mentioned. yet, this incomplete feeling hurts MORE because she knows who her someone is. im going to bring up the fact that ryoba and jokichi went to the states for a 'vacation' (to kill the journalist) without warning. i find it interesting because ayano is most likely to experience negative emotions more intensely than before. taro has brought the emotions to light so i believe she still feels them when she's not near him but it's so mild that it's barely there. despite that, there is no doubt that negative emotions are easier to feel. ayano was shown to be angry that osana has a crush on taro (and she wasn't near taro at the time) after finding out from info chan in the opening cutscene,, in fact she was at home meaning she was not close to taro at all. as i mentioned before though taro is almost like a trigger so its most likely just that. but even then the intensity of negative emotions she could feel may be easier to give into. so.... going with an idea that they are easier to give into, it's easier to feel even when not around taro. i believe the feeling of loneliness is something that is practically overtaking ayano's very mind.

ayano has always been lonely, before she met taro and after. she's been lonely in the sense that she never had been able to connect with her peers on a genuine note. lonely in the sense that jokichi only worried about her wanting her to be normal and ryoba was the opposite, not worrying at all. lonely in the sense she always felt incomplete, lonely cause she knew she wasnt normal, lonely because she needed to be fixed, lonely because nobody other than her mother and all those who suffered from the "aishi conditon" would understand her. and even though those with the "aishi condition" would understand, most have already found their someone (or killed themselves, some have been hypothesized to live even without their special someone, yet, theres no canon proof of that i think) so they werent "broken" anymore. and speaking of the those finding their someone it is highly likely that ryoba devoted more of her time to jokichi than she did to ayano. the reason i believe this is because although ryoba has jokichi, she needs him to love her as well. gonna leave it there because i can make a whole different ramble on that alone but!!! ryoba and jokichi are away in the states currently. so if ayano did feel lonely before, she's going to feel lonely in that empty house. a house too big with your own thoughts, own freedom and doing whatever the hell you want. ryoba actively encouraged ayano to do whatever she needed to do to get rid of the 'obstacles' in her life if she found her special someone. its no surprise with the eliminations you can do one of them is torturing your rivals (or even just mind breaking a random student). (On a side note Japanese houses don't typically have built in basements so ryoba had to literally custom add that)

anyway I bring forth another thing: neglect. however I'm going to go into detail with this with the second part: OLD

Second Part: Obsessive Love Disorder

Obsessive Love Disorder is something that Ayano has. Obsessive Love Disorder as said earlier is a disorder where a person feels obsessive over another person and feels the need to protect them. this isn't really looked at as an 'actual' disorder to psychologist but i couldn't give two bare fucks about that. let's break it down with SOME of the symptoms of OLD:

overwhelming attention to someone

obsessive thoughts

feeling the need to protect the person you're in love with

possessive thoughts and actions

extreme jealousy over interpersonal relationships

low self-esteem

may not take rejection lightly/easily

ignoring personal boundaries

overly controlling

being overwhelmed with emotions about a person that is disrupts your daily function

threatening the other if they leave

monitoring the others actions

blurring or crossing boundaries

anxiety

inability to tolerate time away

most if not all of these things can be easily associated to ayano's behavior. ayano stalks taro, occasionally fantasizes that he kidnaps her, dislikes all the girls who try and talk to taro, wants him all to herself, feels dead when he's not near, follows him home so she can spend more time 'protecting' him, cannot see a life without him (evidenced by 'snap' ending as when she kills him, she kills herself not long after), her first interaction with him shows her finally feeling emotions and as i said she's going to feel overwhelmed with them, anger and anxiety that a 'rival' may be able to take taro away from her, based on ryoba where she tortured jokichi i doubt that ayano would take lightly is taro tried to leave her, finally rejection results in quite literally being heartbroken AND snap so it's obviously not taken easily nor lightly etc etc

anyway!! those are some examples that relate to the symptoms now here are two of the many causes.

some of y'all (if anyone reads this actually but the group council in my head will suffice) may not like this one but number 1 is neglect.

neglect is one of those things that can be in several forms. the more common forms would be emotional neglect (AND!! physical neglect), e.g. not telling your child you're leaving to go away to take care of some 'business' until you're already gone. (even worse when the business is to kill a man but yk). with this neglect you're emotionally unavailable (and in this case also physically). to understand better emotional neglect it is when a child does not receive the stimulation and nurturing they need. ayano has not received stimulation or the necessary nurturing from ryoba because ryoba fully heartedly believes that all ayano needs is that special someone. in a sense, she is right but she was actively neglecting ayano by not helping her instead just repeating that someone will come to complete and fix her. (it must be remembered that not all neglect is intentional, but it happens anyway) as said in the example it can also be physical neglect as ryoba left a teen all by herself in a house whilst indirectly promoting the use of the basement through vague post cards and childhood lessons.

(And yes! Encouraging negative behavior is neglect because you do not care what happens to those around you!)

another form of neglect that ayano experienced was medical neglect. this form of neglect isn't as obvious but can be picked up in ayano's lore video. at the very beginning, it is stated that her first memories are that of hospitals, doctors and everything medical wise. this was most definitely jokichi's work as the best ryoba has stated on the matter was how they were similar and how ayano will find her someone to complete her. now later (but before ayano pretends) the hospital etc weren't mentioned again. it can be thought and implied that ryoba decided it was a waste to focus medically on ayano because she'll simply find her someone to cure her later. this can be thought out to be medical neglect because there could've been a small chance if ayano kept doing, if she visited more happy places there's a possibility something could've changed. even then this neglect isn't so obvious so it's easy to ignore. to add on though teaching your child how to clean up blood for not so good reasons is encouraging negative behavior and could be a contribution to her messed up mindset.

another reason would be delusional jealousy. this is inhibited by an instance or things that are false. this delusional jealousy can also make one believe someone is in love with them even if there are obvious signs that is not the case.

okay for this reason I believe the delusion itself is fostered by the fact that ayano needs taro so she believes he must need her. it's a common mindset even without OLD that if someone needs something, others must need it too making possessiveness and jealousy to form. because the game isn't complete and is likely not going to be complete in the next decade, it's hard to tell if taro would actually like ayano as a genuine person. (and I would say that it's kind of obvious that he doesn't but in game taro is a pussy? if you even stand near him for more than 5 seconds he's like "oh she's strange" "stay back get away from me!!" even when ayano isn't doing anything?? like in game I wouldn't be close enough where the pink love thing pops up and taro would still be like "get away from me!!!") but if ayano hypothetically talked to him like all of her rivals, then taro would maybe like her.

once again these two are not the only ones that can be associated with ayano but these are the only ones I wanted to discuss.

anyway ending this section to go to the next important one!! drumroll... Pacifist vs Murderer

Third Part: The Endings

this is the third part of my rant that consists of pacifist ayano vs murderer ayano which could be "Good Ending" Ayano and "Bad Ending" Ayano.

starting off with something a good bunch of yan sim fans don't actually agree on is that pacifist ayano is a completely different person than murderer ayano.

and you might be thinking "wrap it up luca,, pacifist is different than a murderer no shit"

but really it's more than that. pacifist ayano is different because she actually truly expresses her emotions when she's a pacifist. even if you gossip about the rivals or expell them where they don't show up to school anymore, ayano can be seen as a person who expresses her emotions because she's so much more than a murderer. this is even more vividly seen if you befriend the rivals. once again this is based off the two rivals that are out, osana and amai. if you decide to befriend osana and she comes to your house in the morning, there is the infamous talk where osana talks about her stalker and how she can't believe that someone could fall in love without knowing them. this, to ayano and the player itself, can be associated with ayano herself especially considering how she 'loves' taro without knowing him and has stalked him. now when ayano decides not to betray osana, giving her normal tea, it can be seen how desperate ayano is to keep taro without actually harming osana. osana may like taro, but ayano needs him. the desperation expressed through the befriend route shows the most human ayano ever. this desperation and longing for taro is carried through the same befriending route with amai (although her conversation involves jabs at having a "rival" and "eliminating" them).

the most human and realest part of ayano is when she befriends the rivals and begs them not to confess to taro. (if it isn't obvious I love the pacifist ending because I like the raw desperation and human form of ayano compared to the murderer route)

in contrast to pacifist ayano, when ayano murders the rivals, her sanity obviously decreases. unlike in game where you can giggle or go near taro to increase your sanity, it's not that easy irl.

keep in mind if ayano doesn't increase her sanity and it goes below 20% then ayano starts hallucinating and murdering those around her. even if ayano could realistically easily increase her sanity after killing a rival that is to show that ayano will only be a murderer (something the headmaster and megami saikou thinks her to be). if ayano were kill and regain her sanity quickly she is as broken as people think her to be. she is truly nothing but an empty husk who follows her mother. she may have emotions but she isn't someone you can love. she isn't someone who can be seen as a human. like ryoba, ayano would most likely follow the path that ryoba led where ayano simply kidnaps taro at the end torturing him and making him her husband. as said earlier, negative emotions are easier to form so it would be easy to give in to the pestering intrusive thoughts to kill her rivals. it's the quickest way out and it's the true emotionless thing most want her to be. being violent seems to be the easiest way out and most often people take that route, however, in the very end ayano simply follows her mother's path of decay and destruction. murderer ayano is easier to conform, though, is that the real ayano? is she someone who can't be proven not to be broken? another thing is that if ayano does go this route and she doesn't get caught, all she ends up doing is create a cycle. she continues down the path that ryoba had laid out for her since the beginning. (which honestly is the lousiest route and ending to take because people just loveee the trope of repeating the cycle)

personally I don't care much for the murderer ending but I will admit it is interesting to see how ayano spirals and ultimately decides to kill off every single one of her rivals.

the next two endings are going to be briefly the genocide ending and "snap" ending.

genocide ending is simply the ending where ayano is a murderer but instead of just applying that to just her rivals she does it to the entire school minus taro. it's the 'darkest' ending depending on how you look at it because it proves that ayano couldn't stand anyone else coming between her and taro. she needed taro all to herself and she did just that by killing every single person in the school all in the first day of the week (minus the headmaster, taro, infochan and the guidance counsellor). in this ending you can tell that ayano's sanity is completely gone by the way she says "so..i killed them all" in the cutscene that plays. ayano says it in such a manic and inhuman way its obvious that she doesn't regret it now that she can have taro all for herself. at the very end of the cutscene it pans to taro being in the basement tied up. this is where its clear that ayano follows ryoba completely (if not surpassing her in terms of violent nature and sense due to how she killed every one instead of just her rivals) to keep taro as her senpai.

and finally, snap ending. Snap ending is by far the most interesting one in terms of endings. Before ayano kills taro with the knife, when she walks to every student she kills them with her bare hands. in this ending I believe that she's more "broken" than her other endings. she's given up on this world and she's willing to take out others who get in her way (literally). the others are so terrified to the point where they can't even move, they just watch until it's their turn. ayano feels nothing but heartbreak and there's no other option but to kill taro then herself. even before she kills herself with the same knife she used to stab him, the insistence of voices saying "do it" continue to loop giving her no other option but to join taro. this ending is so interesting because it shows how ayano physically cannot live without taro and how she's willing to make sure that nobody else has him. another thing interesting about it is the trope of "if you die, I die". this trope is placed into things like Romeo and Juliet where Juliet pretends to die and Romeo kills himself to "join" her. when Juliet wakes up and finds Romeo dead she soon follows killing herself actually to join him.

anyway I think I'll stop for now cause I've been at this for hours LOL

The End (for now..)

idk I like yan sim a lot and I love ayano's character (I doubt yandere dev was smart enough to do it on purpose but whatever.) Ayano is literally my girl and I love her so much ❤️❤️ ayano is just a girl she can do many wrongs and ill support her anyway

[winterwhisperz-blog]

hi hi!! hope you’re doing well :]

i was wondering if you could just do some general Mhin hcs? nothing in particular i just haven’t seen much written about them and bby needs some more love

thank you and have a wonderful day/night :]

YES OMG, tysm for this ask because I love Mhin so much—definitely think they deserve more attention—WHICH I SHALL DO MY BEST TO PROVIDE (also ty I hope you have a wonderful day/night too :D)

Again, hopefully these haven’t been done before—my memory sucks and I consume a lot of media so I might accidentally repeat stuff I’ve seen 💔

ALR LES GO

Warnings: None I think

General Mhin Headcanons

Plays the piano- OKAY HEAR ME OUT-

Imagine Mhin playing the piano, maybe because music helps them express their emotions better-maybe I’m just projecting but Mhin seems to have a harder time expressing how they feel through words(twins??) so they turn to music.

And maybe they also play music because it calms them down, and helps them stay grounded. Also it just paints such a pretty picture and I JUST LOVE IT SO MUCH

LIKE IMAGINE THEM PLAYING FOR U

Okay I’ll move on because I’ll probably become feral if I think about this too much

Ahem ahem

Had two pet cats—named Nyxia (meaning night sky EEEEEE) and Estella (star- or divine strength)

Like maybe they’ve always fed strays, and one time they even adopted two that followed them home.

One, probably Estella, was white and fluffy—and Nyxia was all black and silky.

Mhin is a cat parent, and now all cats flock to them

NOW SPEAKING OF STARS

Mhin LOVES STARS—and is interested in astrology

Before they became a hunter or before everything went downhill for them, it would’ve been rlly cute if Mhin was studying astrology and was RLLY getting into it

Like they’re such a nerd for the night sky and space and constellations and it’s SO CUTE because they’ll talk about this stuff for HOURS if people would let ‘em

I would let them 😇

Alr Alr Alr next one—

Unlike fellow Touchstarved LI—Mhin can cook.

Like they don’t usually have time to cook something extravagant—but when they do—Omg their meals are TOP TIER

They know how to spice things JUST right, and make the best desserts (though be careful—these are packed with sugar and sometimes are overly sweet)

They also cook special animal-safe food for the cats. Cute lil fish treats.

AWWWWWWWW

Okie this one is inspired by the Love Quiz thing and Mhin’s results.

Loves Spooky stories and exploring said spooky places—they have a weird love for the genre and ghost hunting too

They also come up with the best spooky stories and they tell them with the most deadpan expressions so no one ever knows if they’re true or not 💀

OKAY OKAY OKAY OKAY SO

Definitely the type of person that would randomly hand you a pretty rock that reminded them of you. (Without saying it did- you just get a random rock and look at them like “Thanks? 😳” ) you return the favor by handing them random mushrooms and snails

They do this for anyone they like. Kuras has a nice little collection of rocks in a secret drawer

Though they love cats and cats love them— BIRDS, are another story

Birds and Mhin don’t get along (A slight hint at their monster form but also because CROWS KEEP STEALING THEIR PRETTY ROCKS)

Perfect person to explore with, THEY LOVE EXPLORING. And since they can slide into the shadows and waltz around without being detected most of the time—they know a LOT of places, and definitely more secret exits and entrances(they’ll show you them at some point)

EEEEEEEEEEE

ALR, WE ARE DONE

Tysm again for the ask !! Mhin is just— GAHHHHHH

I think they’re my second favorite LI, RLLY EXCITED FOR THEIR ROUTE OMG

They are just such a nerd but can also kick ur butt and I just think that’s cool.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed those! And have a wonderful day, listen to a playlist full of your favorite songs, do things that make you happy, and get a bunch of fun compliments! (When the Sun’s missing from the sky, flowers turn to you instead !! 🫶 hehe, there I helped with that one- OKAY BYE NOW LOVE U)

[flowersandbirdsflyingfree]

oh shiiiii being fed before finals :o3333

i'm not too picky with what boomer shooter he's from, but postal was my hyperfixation for almost a year (graduated to special interest), maybe not p4 dude bc he's more father than daddy if you get what i mean.

for me, I'm a 5'2" transmasc fella, buzzed black hair, with mixed ancestry. I wear grungy clothing, usually with surface-level alternative bands (MCR, ICP)

people called me both militant and silly. i don't open up easily, but once i do, expect random noises, niche quotes and a running mouth. have mommy AND daddy issues. i have a fascination with numbers (not so excellent at math, though, think like dates and statistics), and an affinity for "little guys" (critters, creatures), sweets, and clowns. i dabble in weed and drink alcohol (my go-tos are gummies and rum n coke)

i play video games, draw cartoons, and am on a quest for knowledge (thank the auDHD) about my hyperfixations and special interests. for example, i tend to take pictures of irl graffiti to study different graffiti artstyles. as for MBTI, i'm xNTJ (flips around between INTJ and ENTJ a lot)

as for partners, i get romantically interested in men AND women, not sexually. a handful of fictional crushes i had/have are blonde and buff, but i think a sense of humor and compassion is WAAAY more necessary to win my damaged heart. (probably improper grammar)

thanks for reading and have an excellent holiday!!!!!!!!

Hello there! I hope your holiday is great as well. To be honest, both matchup and Postal exclusively, there was already an answer for you:

Postal 2 Dude

You already are on the same wavelength in terms of style and mindset. The Postal Dude also a bi king who has a taste for blondes typically, but just like you it doesn’t matter. It’s the heart that counts. Thank God you’re actually one of the good ones in this world.

He really loves your ICP shirt! Every now and then, he tends to sing a few of their tunes to himself while running errands. He might put on some of his fav bands in the car radio if you ever wanna listen! They’re usually 90s grunge and nu-metal bands. Ph8 is one of his favorite bands.

The both of you can just take a few hits of his bong (or chew some gummies its up to you) and lay on the floor during your highs to just infodump wherever the night takes you. He’s impressed how much brain you’ve got stored in there. He’s… something else. His stoned attitude ranges from “ha ha peen its” humor to “did you know if you rupture someone’s achilles heel real bad, it sounds like a gunshot and is pretty much permanently damaged forever?”

It’s pretty often for him to kick down doors and trespass wherever he pleases. He’ll gladly help you go to places like the city or abandoned buildings to study some graffiti art. Dude is also a backup bodyguard against any bad strangers lurking in the area.

I can also see you two making friends with little critters all the time. Maybe you encourage his softer side more when you feed the stray cats roaming about Paradise. One of them regularly visits to affectionately rub up against your leg. You name him Toki and check up on him every day by the restaurant district where he usually stays. Dude says he can’t be kept as a pet to prevent conflict because of a certain someone Champ

The Dude has more issues than a copy of a Freudian Monthly magazine. But he isn’t as hard as he lets on. You’ve been more patient with him than he feels he deserves. But you also get the struggle. Someone who knows the world isn’t sparkles and bullshit yet keeps going has a resilience he really loves. He won’t say it directly unless it’s late enough. But he damn well shows it in the way he treats you well.

[satanstruemistress]

@technomaestro You have no idea what you’ve just unleashed 😂😂😂

Between my roommate and I, we have 6 of the little bastards! (Affectionate)

Here they all are:

That particular one is mine. Her name is Pumpkin Leigh, she’s the only girl, and she was found outside my mom’s old house. She adopted me. She’s obsessed with me. All the boys look at her like she’s the reigning queen. (She is). She has zero interest in returning to her stray ways. She takes one look at the outdoors and goes “Ew, no thanks”. Addicted to cat nip. Plays fetch. Like a weirdo.

(Punkin on a Punkin)

This confused looking fellow is Oliver George. He’s my roommate’s cat. I love him. He hates humans in general? He has a crumply ear because he had a boo-boo of some sort. It got fixed, and it gives him character. He likes Pumpkin and my sister. He tolerates everyone else. If he escapes the house it’s at least an hour getting him back in, and it often ends with someone (me) getting shredded. He looks at me and says “You’ll never take me alive!” And proceeds to fight with all his ten-pound might. And then is super sweet when I finally return him to the house.

2-for-1 special, this is Jack Daniel (black) and Potter Maxwell (orange) they’re brothers from the same litter. Mom was a short haired calico and Dad was a long haired black cat. Jack got mom’s coat and dad’s color, Potter got mom’s color and dad’s coat. They’ve never been apart a day in their lives. Potter has the worst RBF I’ve ever seen on a cat, and Jack will only let you love on him while you’re trying to wash your hands. Any time Ollie escapes, Jack has a meltdown when he comes back in, because apparently he doesn’t recognize him.

This is Sylvester James and I think he needs 3 pictures to really hit home how fuckin’ insane his transformation was. We found him outside a friend’s house, and we thought he was just a normal sized escapee, bc he looked healthy enough, but then he got fed regularly and a safe place and he turned into that enormous, majestic, long-haired beast. He’s so soft. It’s like petting a cloud. He also talks a lot for no reason. Also an occasional prison breaker. If Ollie refuses to go quietly, Sylvester is the opposite. If he escapes you can just pick him up and you can hear his little pea brain go “Rats! *finger snapping noise* Foiled again!”

This fucking chaos gremlin is the baby, Floki Alexander. My roommate’s ex bf left him with us when he got dumped until he could get stable. He’s so sweet. He’s fucking insane. He’s almost three, and still has insane kitten energy. Loves kisses and cuddles and unattended glassware. If there’s a cup left sitting, Floki will knock it off and break it. Sits by the door, contemplates escaping. Ultimately does not.

Bonus:

This is Daisy Mae, she’s technically my brother’s dog but she’s really not friendly so he couldn’t keep her where he was living, so I took her and I’m working on socializing her better. He will have to pry her out of my cold, dead hands if he ever wants her back.

She loves her kitties so much. She gets kisses and snuggles and ear cleanings from them.

She’s also fucking rotund because the only way my ex-roommate could get her to warm up to him was by human food. She’s on a diet now, and we go for walks.

I was going to add more pictures to really solidify how cute they all are, but alas there’s a 10 picture limit on mobile apparently.

[a-jaded-mirage]

Mirage's Top 5 Picks Part I: Food from Video Games

As a general descriptor, I would say that I consider myself an infrequent gamer. I enjoy gaming, but I often do not have enough time to immerse myself in the experience or commit myself to playing entirely through something. I think the last time that I was able to play something from start to finish was honestly during COVID where I had the flexibility to see a gameplay through. Yes, I was one of the weirdos who thrived during the lockdown and relished in the extra time.

My boyfriend and I have these date nights every other Friday night where we pick a topic and make a presentation about our top 5 or top 10 selections for whatever category was selected. We cook or order some food, and we kick back and have fun learning little things about each other while also seeing where we have similar tastes versus completely different preferences. One of my favorite presentation nights we have done was about the top five foods from video games that we badly wanted to try while playing a video game.

Anyway, without further ado, here are my picks. I think it reveals a lot about the kinds of games that I enjoy, but also what my general culinary tastes are. I do love it when games and food can intersect in real life and be shared with others.

Number 5: Peanut Butter Butterpops from The Quarry

This pick is definitely a controversial one in some respects as it is a completely random detail from the overall game so not have the most solid defense for this one beyond the theme song being super catchy and peanut butter, in general, making me go feral. I love everything about the idea of sweet peanut butter puffs with salty crunchy peanuts and a dubious warning label. The mascot is a cool-looking squirrel with a neat red cap too, so there is some childhood nostalgia somewhere in there too, I guess. It is reminiscent of how I still willingly consume Scooby Snacks and goldfish crackers. There is also a level of nostalgia for the game too, because I think it was the last one that I had a part in playing through with my siblings.

Number 4: Freddy Fazbear's Pizza from Five Nights at Freddy's

Alright, go ahead and throw the tomatoes and garbage at me. I know this one is objectively a basic or trash pick. Hear me out, I am nothing if not a child of the 2010's. The Generation-Z mush that is my brain has a special corner in it for the possessed bear and his pizza place alongside all of the great YouTube channels fed by it. I also love crappy and greasy pizza in a neon context with a ton of arcade games. That is probably part of the reason why I graduated from kid's entertainment and birthday chains to eatertainment arcade sports bars. Anyway, all of this is to say that all pizza is unique and different in its own way (good or bad), and as a pizza connoisseur, I have always wondered what Freddy's tastes like.

Number 3: Natsuki's Cupcakes from Doki Doki Literature Club!

My love for this game in particular cannot be overstated as it blew my mind when it initially came out. I did not expect the turn it took, and it caught me off guard in the best way. The combination of your average romance visual novel with a rich and clever met-horror plotline was refreshing. I felt like it turned a lot of stereotypes on their heads and made some great commentary on the parameters of literature and creative expression. In any case, I also have a massive sweet tooth and love baking much like Natsuki. Her cat-decorated cupcakes looked super cute and fluffy, and that is something that I look for in real-world cupcakes. The dialogue also made it seem like the characters really enjoyed them too, so that made me want to see what was so good about them. I still have my fingers crossed that we could get another game related to this one from Team Salvato.

Number 2: Amanda's Graduation Party Macaroni and Cheese Bar from Dream Daddy

I know, I know, this is another interesting pick, to say the least. To be quite frank, I simply did not know how many options there could be for food bars. Macaroni and cheese is simply a core meal for me, and one that I have always enjoyed customizing. The options that are mentioned in the game sounded genuinely magical and made me lowkey forget the context of what was happening in the game for a solid minute after it was introduced. Dream Daddy is just such a fun game, and it was made so well. The characters are all developed with positive features and flaws all well thought out. The relationships they have with one another are compelling, the art style is beautiful, and the routes are engaging no matter how often you play through them. The mac and cheese bar was just another clever and fascinating feature of the world that the Game Grumps created.

Number 1: Butterscotch Pie from Undertale

This one is probably the most nostalgic for me, and it was one of the first games I played with my siblings. I do not know what it is, but I just love the tropes where food has a specific meaning in the world that it belongs to. In this case, the pie that Toriel bakes for Frisk is one of the most powerful HP-restoring items in the game. The best part about the pie is that it holds so much lore, and there are so many ways to use it in the game. I know that I was someone who most often saved the pie for the battle with Sans, but I have seen people use it in the presence of Asgore or even Toriel. To me, the confection is a physical item that represents a mother's love and spiritual nourishment associated with home, and I think that is super layered. This one had stiff competition for the top slot too because there were so many other foods from Undertale that I was convinced would make it to this position. There just is not anything like this one that invokes the same thoughtfulness in most other games that I have personally played.

Well, there it is. That was my top five list for foods that come from video games that I would try if given the opportunity to within the context of the game that it originates from. I have some honorable mentions that I might be inclined to share at some point too, as it was a wild ride trying to put this list together cohesively. Funnily enough, my boyfriend and I's picks intersected once, and it was Toriel's butterscotch pie. He ranked it his third choice and was pleasantly surprised that it was my first. Anyway, if you have your own top five, I would love to hear about them and the reasons why you may have selected them.

(NOTE: If any of this reads a little strangely, it might be because I accidentally deleted everything while editing and had to go back and re-type everything word for word)

[a-polite-melody]

I just got back from visiting with Diesel, after learning yesterday he has oral squamous cell carcinoma.

He is still acting himself, but you can tell he feels not quite right. I hope mostly from the painkillers and not because he’s in too much active pain.

I can tell he’s lost weight, but he still wants to eat. Not dry food, but he’ll eat wet food, and anything else that isn’t hard to chew, and goes absolutely nuts for Churu until he gets too fed up with some of it getting caught in his cheek by the tumor and has to lick and lick and lick to get it out, and then he’s not really interested in eating any more.

My mom, day to day, can notice differences in the size of the tumor, and found a new little one down on his throat this morning. His quality of life is still not perfect, obviously, but it’s still obviously not so bad as to require euthanasia yet, as of today, but that could change as early as tomorrow.

So I said goodbye to him, like really said goodbye, before I left. Because I don’t know if I’ll see him again before it’s his time to go. And I’m a fucking mess. Even though I rarely see him all that often because he lives with my mom, I still adore him, and I’m still going to miss being able to ask for a picture of him or for my mom to give him and extra treat for me.

Before this cat, I really was pretty… unenthusiastic? (not quite the right word but my brain is melty so whatever) about cats. When my mom adopted Diesel and as I bonded with him I also grew to love cats. We got another two cats (who Diesel has outlived) because our whole world had changed and we loved having a cat, and then multiple cats, around.

And my experience with him has been so special. As I got into dog training he became my “substitute dog” when I had to leave my dad’s (and so leave my dog) every other week. He was one of the most fun animals I’ve ever worked with in training because he not only adapted to me communicating with him in a new way, but I learned so much about how to adapt what I’d been learning about dog training to training something that wasn’t actually a dog, and working around the little challenges that would present.

Like all pets, he was also a friend and a teacher, and he means more to me than I think I could ever express.

I took one last picture of him before I left, and I’m going to put it under a cut because you can see the tumor on his face… but it’s still a great picture of him.

[sometransgal]

Some Good Things:

I recently found a toy for my cat that she loves even more than her previous favorite toy. She screams as soon as she sees it. She will carry it in her mouth, causing the bell to jingle, and then freeze and look around desperately like she’s trying to find the jingling toy (which is in her mouth)

I harvest wild allium seeds last fall, after being too depressed to gather seeds and thinking I’d missed the harvest season. They’re sprouting now!

I learned how to not overachieve at my job (it never gets appreciated) and now I use my free time to doodle or think of strategies for my special interests or crochet secretly in my hoodie pocket

I help take care of an older woman’s yard. She’s always been a “the lawn should be manicured grass” person, but I’ve shown her that some of the (native) “weeds” have beautiful flowers if allowed to grow, or they can survive in barren hard-packed dirt where grass won’t grow and eventually nurtures the soil so grass/flowers CAN survive there, or that some “weeds” can be trimmed to look nice while also providing vital habitat to butterfly larvae.

And that centipedes are perfectly fine to leave in the garden because they actually reduce the bugs that eat her plants (and stabilize the food chain). She took my advice about buying some native endangered plants, too, because I knew they’d thrive in the spots where commonly purchased non-native plants wither, and that leaving some leaf “litter” over the plants for winter protects them from the cold (and protects key insect species that are at risk due to relying on the heat of decaying leaves to survive winter)

Her yard is slowly becoming greener and more diverse. Lifeless soil is being fed and irrigated by “weeds,” and her pesticide usage has decreased thanks to the acceptance of centipedes/spiders, and as I clean up the leaf “litter” I find butterfly larva/pupae and relocate them to a leaf pile that is allowed to stay because it’s away from the house and can’t be seen from the road. I trim back the invasive garden plants to keep them from strangling the native ones, and my efforts are actually causing significant positive change this tiny square of the ecosystem. It feels good, to have my work noticed. The butterflies notice. The centipedes notice. They are happy.

I totally spaced on posting this... Thank you Anon for cheering me up during a low <3

[hiswitchcraft]

Okay, what are your special interests then? If you don't mind me asking.

I love you. This is my lucky day. So in those tags where I was talking about getting my special interest fed I was specifically talking about witchcraft but since you asked:

• Being trans. And not just my experience but other’s experiences. The beautiful parts of it like t4t, and the not so great parts like transphobia. The big and small ways transphobia manifests. How being trans can change your whole perspective. How it makes you a better witch (intersection of 2 special interests there.) Really just trans-ness and gender in general.

• Witchcraft of course. That’s how this account got started after all. I just wanted somewhere to let my interest manifest and other people showed interest! Also turns out probably being autistic can make you “good” at social media, oddly enough.

• Music and alternative subculture. This is the most varied one. Probably because music can vary so drastically unlike some of these other things and I’m into a lot of different kinds of music. A very very specific way this manifests is actually my hair. I used my hair to indicate special interests 1 and 3. When I get compliments on it (usually how bright it is) I’m always tempted to go into my spiel about how I get it that way and how anyone can do it and that I cut it myself too. Bleach isn’t as scary as it sounds my dears. 

• The public education system in the US and the many alternatives. Like the trans one this is a lil weird (what did you expect) but I think not going to public school shaped my experience as a person almost as much if not as much as being transgender. So I’ve become fixated on it in the same way. Hopefully you get what I mean!

• Wildlife. It started with birds and has shifted to cats, lizards, ants and probably other categories I’m forgetting. I just know a lot of general fun facts about wildlife too! This also has an intersection with witchcraft. Having lots of info on local wildlife has made me an infinitely better witch.

• Video games. Particularly sandbox survival games or cozy games. I’ve just always loved them in general and can play them for hours and it can become my only hobby. Like the wildlife one it will shift to certain games from month to month or from one year to the next and it’ll be all I talk about for a while. 

I’m so sorry most of this doesn’t have anything to do with this blog I just couldn’t resist! Ask questions if ya have em. My DMs are always open! 

[moemammon]

When I was in High School, my crush and I got into a fight and neither of us were talking to each other. One day I was headed up the stairwell to get to my science class, when I saw them coming up from behind... I don't think they had even noticed me yet considering that they were busy talking to their friend BUT I am slow going up stairs so even if I rushed up the stairs roadrunner style they would have caught up to me, well; the little corner that connects the steps going up to the second floor and the steps heading down to the ground floor had a large open window... and I jumped out, like I literally just jumped out. I didn't even think it through, I just saw the window and my body was like "Yep, IK what to do." I landed on a bush or tree? It's too big to call a bush but too small to call a tree, landed in a squat before my feet gave out and I fall onto my knees and got two large grass stains on my jeans knee part, couldn't walk right either after that landing, I was shaky all day lol but it was a risk well calculated bc the whole thing would have been so awkward. I mean we used to be like BFFS before the rumors began and then they started and we just stopped talking without warning, we couldn't even look at each other. Our science partners, bc we were in groups of four, literally got fed up of our bullshit bc we literally refused to acknowledge the others existence... anyway, I digress...

Anyway, this whole story is a long winded way of me requesting how the brothers would react to an MC that literally just jumps out windows to avoid awkward moments, or to dodge people that want to ask them for favors, or when they straight up want to avoid someone?

And sorry about the large ass message, but thanks for letting me vent

You have a special place in my heart, window-jumping anon. Just uhhhhhhh look down next time okay? Ily

The Demon Brothers react to GN!MC jumping out of a window to avoid an awkward moment

(Mario jumping sound effect)

Lucifer

He approached you after class to ask exactly what you were snickering at your D.D.D. about during class.

Must've been real funny if you weren't listening to your lecture, huh?

"I imagine you've somehow found something worthy of laughing about in Demonology 101?"

You do not have the guts to tell him that you and Mammon were texting back and forth, abusing a new photo editing app to alter pictures of the eldest himself.

I mean, take a wild guess about how he’d react to seeing how big you edited his head to be-

The avatar of pride lets his eyes pierce into you, like he's trying to stare a hole through your blanket of "uh"s and "um"s,

You don't exactly see a way out of this one, but you can NOT let Lucifer see your photo gallery.

So you glance to your left to the open classroom window, and do the only thing you can think of: you jump.

Luckily you're on the ground floor so you??? really didn't have to jump so dramatically. But the fact that you yeeted yourself into a bush JUST to escape has left Lucifer speechless.

Honestly? He so impressed with your dedication that he's not gonna stop you. Besides, he's gonna see you back at home anyway so-

Also thinks you might be hanging around Mammon too much because that 100% seems like a stunt he’d pull.

Mammon

GIVE GOLDIE BACK RIGHT NOW

He KNOWS Lucifer told you to bring the credit card to him, and he demands to know where it's hidden! He's positive you know where it is!

But you don't really though?? You just brought the card to him like you were asked. If anything, you're the victim here!

But Mammon isn't having that. The avatar of greed is circling around you like an angry cat, patting you all over like airport security to see if you've got his beloved card.

"Where is it, huh?! Ya really think you can steal from THE Mammon?! Even if Lucifer told ya to, who do ya think you are?!"

When he has confirmed that you don't in fact have his previous Goldie, he's now cornering you up against a wall.

If looks could kill, you would've exploded into a fine powder

And you feel like your mental strength is about to do just that. So what do you do after you notices the slightest of breezes caress your face?

You jump outta that open window, before Mammon can even finish his "Wh- Oi! What're ya-"

Even though you just face planted into the garden, you're up on your feet and making a mad dash for somewhere that wasn't here.

Mammon lets you run for ten while seconds before he's hopping out after you. You think you can outfox the Great Mammon?! Think again!!!

Levi

You... weren't interested in this movie in the slightest, but you didn't have the heart to tell Levi that. Especially not after he’d begged/harassed you for the past week about watching it with him!

Reluctantly you agreed, and now you were suffering,,,But Levi was ecstatic! This movie was a classic! Sure it was an old one and the acting was a little bad, but you could overlook that if you watched it with your heart, not your eyes!

According to Levi.

You managed to keep your eyes open for the grueling one and a half hour movie, enduring every corny line of bad acting, horrible CGI, and lame sound effects straight out of a 90s super hero movie, and now the hell was finally over...

Or so you though, until Levi followed that up by immediately pulling out a cosplay outfit worn by one of the supporting characters in the show.

Funny how it seemed specifically tailored to your measurements. Even funnier how Levi was looking at you with those damned eyes.

You knew what he wanted without him even having to say it. But one look at the gaudy outfit he presented to you made your heart burn with a sudden indescribable urge.... to escape.

Honestly you caught him so off guard by suddenly getting up and sprinting out of the room, that he makes a sound that's pretty much the noise equivalent of "?!?!?!?!?!?"

He watches you run down to the end of the hall, throw the window open, and fuckin JUMP. Pretty sure he just witnessed your death??

Also this kinda solidified his 'gross otaku' mentality, seeing as you literally jumped out of a window to get out of cosplaying with him. A simple no would've sufficed, MC.......,.,,..,,,

Hey gamers... can we get an F in the chat? 😔✌️💦

Satan

Satan lent you a book to read last week that he was sure you'd be interested in! He found it pretty interesting himself, so he wants to see if you'd like it as much as he did.

That being said, you don't have the heart to tell him that you,,, didn't read any of it. Well you kind of did, if the cover counts for anything.

You doubt he would accept that as an answer, considering how you told him how much you appreciated receiving the book, and how you'd definitely read it and let him know how it was.

So now, Satan had come into your room with two cups of tea, ready to settle down and have a nice, long talk about your thoughts on the riveting plot that you promised you would indulge in.

"I'm really glad you decided to read it. I found that the protagonist reminded me a lot like you. I'd like to know what you thought about it."

Satan sets down the tea cups, and one sip tells you that he brewed it exactly the way you like.

His expression is eager and warm as he waits for you to begin gushing about just how deeply the story touched you... how absolutely moved you are by the sheer majesty that was the book he lent you...

Okay yeah, you're sweating bullets. You can't imagine how the sparkly eyed avatar of wrath would react to learning that you chose the company of your D.D.D. over Satan's book.

You don't have such an ice cold hard that you can just crush this book nerds dreams like that! And every time you look at his expectant face, the weight of your crimes weigh heavier on you until... you break.

Satan watches in shock and awe as you almost perfectly reenact the big scene where the main character leaps out of the window of a building rigged to explode, before making their escape. And you did just that.

Wow.. he never thought you could be so moved by a story, but he completely understands...

Asmo

How many outfits, Asmo. HOW MANY OUTFTITS WILL IT TAKE TO APPEASE YOU?

He's made you model TWELVE outfits so far, and you swear if you see another ascot, you're gonna lose your mind.

Asmodeus doesn't seem to notice the way the light slowly fades from your eyes, because he's pulling out outfit number thirteen with that cheery smile of his.

"Isn't this one absolutely adorable? Look, this part will look lovely around your waist! This part here hugs your body in all the right places, and this-"

You can't do it. You've gotta get out of here. You'd love to stand around and get mild rug burn from trying on a billion different clothes, but-

Actually no you wouldn't.

You DID promise Asmo you'd hang out with him today, but this wasn't really your idea of a good time.

"-Oooh, just thinking about it makes me want to eat you up~! Here, put it on for me, will you? I'll give you a kiss as a reward!"

You would do no such thing.

You make a mad dash for his ornate window and push it open. He has no time to stop you as he helplessly watches you vault yourself out like the room was on fire.

"MC?! Wh-where are you going?? Come back here! Grass stains are impossible to get out of that fabric!!!"

Beel

He means well. I swear he does. It's just that Beel can be a little... overbearing when he's worried about you. He cares, okay?

But he hasn't seen you eat anything all day! You tell him it's because you've got a stomach ache from who knows what, and you promise you've had little snacks here and there to keep from starving, but he can't accept that!

Eating is important, and you need it to survive. So Beelzebub was currently trying to nudge your mouth open with a pizza slice, while you vehemently refused. "Just one bite. And then another after that. You have to eat, or you'll go hungry... and I don't want that."

Beel knows the true pain of being hungry, and he’d never wish that on you! So just forget about your stomach ache for two seconds and open up-

Not that you really can. The aroma of that pizza was not sitting well on your stomach, and you were pretty sure you needed a fast escape or you'd risk losing your lunch. Greasy foods didn't exactly mix well with sour stomachs...

Beel still won't let up. He has a strong hand planted firmly on the small of your back, as if trying to prevent you from leaning back any further in your attempt to escape the pizza.

"If you eat this, I'll treat you to dessert at Madam Screams," he says, as if bribing your refusal of food USING food will somehow work out.

You can't break his heart, but you seriously can't eat that! Your head is spinning, thoughts racing, face becoming greasier and greasier from the pizza pressed against it, and-

You snap. In a sudden burst of strength you break free from Beel's grasp, and sprint toward the nearest window. All you see is your chance for freedom, and you're taking it.

You leap out and tumble into the ground, all while Beelzebub wonders what?? Just happened???? Did you really hate pizza that much...?

He never knew you were such a picky eater... To think you'd go so far as to jump out of the window though...

Belphie

You thought it was cute at first, when Belphegor wanted you to join him for his naps. And you didn't mind much. It was the weekend, you were tired, and he makes a pretty good body pillow.

But you didn't realize he planned for this to become an everyday thing. The youngest might not act it, but he sure could be spoiled.

But seriously, if you slept any longer, you might never have a normal sleep schedule again! It never occurred to you just how often Belphie sleeps.

He's definitely not human, because there's no way you can keep up with that, and maintain a normal lifestyle.

But the way he quietly, gently grabs your sleeve to cue your next nap session makes your heart clench. Why was it so damned hard to say no to this gremlin??

You were trying your best though, but the words always seemed to get caught in your throat. Belphie picked apart your excuses, doing everything in his power to take you back to the attic.

"You can study when you wake up." "Mammon wants to go shopping? Reschedule." "Lucifer told you not to be late to the board meeting? Just hide."

You're starting to get sucked into the sleepy lull of his voice, and it feels like your entire body is becoming heavy with fatigue. But no.... you resist!

Since there's no escaping this through words, you have to think fast. Fortunately, your fast thinking has led to an amazing solution!

Jump out of the window, baby

Belphie is just??? Did you fuckin???? Are your legs okay??????????????

He probably stops asking you to nap with him for a while, since you're willing to almost break your legs just to get out of it. You're gonna make him have weird dreams....

[bloededhoine]

world building cause twn doesn't part 9: mages

you probably know a lot about mages on account of them being fucking awesome and super sexy, so let's dive into what exactly makes them that way.

colour code cause i fucking love colour codes - already happened/introduced, probably s2, important background info, stuff that might be in the prequel, extras

series masterpost

what are mages?

put simply, mages are anyone skilled and educated in the use of magic. but, most mages are also incredibly adept in politics, science, and religion

the vast majority of mages serve on royal courts, but others are teachers, researchers, or just kinda hobos

anyone can use basic magic (ie witcher signs), but it takes both natural talent and extensive training to be an actual mage

also important to note that while druids and priests can and do use magic, they aren't usually considered mages since they're not as involved in politics and science

education

mages go to school! a lot! powerful mages tend to track down young potential students and bring them to a school to receive formal training

well, "bring them" is a bit reductive, it's more like kidnapping.

there are quite a few important schools, so let's go!

aretuza is definitely the one you are the most familiar with, mostly because it's just the best. aretuza is an all girls academy located in temeria, a northern kingdom known for its powerful mages

aretuza is led by a rectoress, an incredibly powerful sorceress responsible for training the young adepts. i think there's only been 4 ever, first klara larissa de winter (also the founder), then leticia charbonneau, then tissaia de vries (the milf right there, and rectoress as of twn), and finally margarita laux antille

ban ard is the boys version of aretuza, located in kaedwen. the magicians from ban ard are notably... unskilled? they're just kind of clowns. the rector of ban ard was gerhart of aelle, also known as hen gedymdeith, because there's nothing like a nonsensical pseudonym to up your credibility. gerhart was literally the oldest mage alive until his heart died. after him, dorregary of vole took over as rector

mages in the north are pretty much exclusively trained at either aretuza or ban ard, but nilfgaard has a magical academy too!

the imperial magic academy is a co-ed school in loc grim, one of nilfgaard's two capitals. the emperors of nilfgaard tend to hire mages directly from this school

types of mages

most mages tend to specialize in a certain area of magic, such as illusions, alchemy, divination, polymorphy, weaponry, or spycraft

this is extra useful when assembling a team. not that anyone in particular is assembling a team, it's just good to know.

the brotherhood of sorcerers

the brotherhood is the main organization of mages in the witcher. they basically set the rules of magic for all the mages in the north, which are that demonology, necromancy, and artifact compression are strictly not allowed. the punishment was exclusion from the brotherhood and being locked in dimeritium (mage kryptonite) for centuries, but practically no one followed the rules or was punished

the brotherhood exists on a hierarchy, with most mages in the north making up the lower level, the council of wizards in the middle, and the chapter of the gift and the art at the top

the council is made up of a small group of mages that hold influence over the brotherhood but still need to answer to the chapter, as of twn the members are yennefer of vengerberg, philippa eilhart, radcliffe, carduin, and fercart. sheala de tancarville was part of it too, but she left

the chapter has the highest influence of magic in the north (and possibly the continent). it was founded by herbert stammelford, aurora henson, ivo richert, agnes of glanville, geoffrey monk, and radmir of tor carnedd. by twn, all of them had died or left, so the chapter was made of tissaia de vries, enid an gleanna, gerhart of aelle, vilgefortz of roggeveen, and artaud terranova. narses de la roche was the grandmaster of the chapter in 1245, but wasn't that involved much after.

politics

after mages graduate, the brotherhood usually places them on the court of a king/queen as an advisor. they're supposed to help strategize, conduct research, and just heighten the magical abilities of a kingdom

do they do this? nope

most mages are meant to clean up their king's messes, but usually get fed up and rule the entire kingdom from behind the scenes to fit their own agendas

can mages have babies?

short answer: yeah! although magic can make it harder to have babies, lots of sorceresses would take extra care to make sure they were as unaffected as possible. the forced sterilization was tissaia de vries' idea, and since she trained the vast majority of sorceresses we meet, most of them can't have babies

and yes, it's irreversible. sorry yen

geralt's mum, visenna, was trained as a druid, so she was still able to have geralt while practicing magic

who are they?

we meet a Lot of mages, so let's get to know a couple, starting with the ladies!

let's start with the lovely lovely yennefer. she was trained at aretuza under tissaia de vries, who became a mother figure to her. yen was also the youngest member of the council, as of twn she's 90. yes, that's very young to have a position of that caliber, especially since yen wasn't even an official advisor to aedirn's king

we all know and love hate triss merigold. she's one of the youngest sorceresses we meet, at the first season of twn she's 40 (book canon, she's made older in the show). triss also studied at aretuza and is currently one of king foltest of temeria's court mages

sabrina glevissig. slutty sabrina (affectionate) was yennefer's classmate at aretuza and became advisor to king henselt of her native kaedwen.

fringilla vigo is supposedly yen and sabrina's classmate from aretuza, but she is actually quite a bit younger than both of them and went to the imperial academy in her home country nilfgaard. fringilla specializes in illusion magic and (in book canon) is really not evil. she's a little slutty and stupid, but so is sabrina and dandelion and about half the people we meet!

we see skelliger sorceress lytta neyd, aka coral, aka astrid lyttneyd ásgeirrfinnbjornsdottir, at the battle of sodden hill where she unfortunately dies. coral was also very fond of breaking the brotherhood's rule against article compression (magically turning a person into a jade figurine, a wholly unpleasant experience)

temerian sorceress keira metz is one of the youngest mages we meet, she's around the same age as triss, whom she serves on foltest's court alongside

i mentioned philippa eilhart as a member of the council, and i'll mention her again as the love of my life. philippa is old. like, over 300. she's also one of the only mages to master polymorphism, and spends a solid portion of her time as an owl. philippa is redanian king vizimir's official advisor, but she, along with trusted?? associate lover sigismund dijkstra, really rules the entire country with vizimir as a puppet

sheala de tancarville is yen and phil's colleague from the council, but she left because it got too realpolitik for her tastes. sheala's from creyden (same place as renfri), but very rarely served her country's interests in favour of researching magic and being a reclusive bookworm. i'm serious. her nickname is literally the recluse of kovir

tissaia de vries. easily one of the most powerful and respected mages on the continent, member of the chapter, current rectoress of aretuza, and general badass. like most scholars, she wasn't involved in politics and doesn't even have a known nationality.

francesca findabair, also known as enid an gleanna, is an elven sorceress and member of the chapter. by twn she's easily 150 and very well established, although a sufferer of chronic backstabber syndrome.

assire var anahid is one of fringilla's nilfgaardian besties, although neither are actually nilfgaardian. assire is our good friend cahir's great-aunt, a military expert, and mom to her cat merlin

onto the gents!

let's start with the worst, istredd! i for incel, s for stupid, t for testicle-less (once i find him), r for racist, e for ew, d for dead (again, once i find him), and d for dipshit. in twn he's in cahoots with equally disgusting sorcerer...

stregobor! *vomits* you remember him as the koviri sorcerer who loves tracking down and murdering young girls, many of which have been exiled from their homes and tortured. he's just a lovely guy.

vilgefortz of roggeveen is sort of a walking spoiler, so i won't go too much in depth about him, but we can know he was raised by druids and, when offered a magical education, refused. he then became a mercenary, then a spy, then a wanted man, and finally trained to become a mage. despite his unusual backstory and late start, vilgefortz was insanely talented and, at less than a century old, became a member of the most powerful group of mages on the continent.

i mentioned gerhart of aelle aka hen gedymdeithe, as the oldest mage alive. he's at least 500. and then some. he's also a member of the chapter, but this position is more of a courtesy than a meaningful addition to the brotherhood.

finishing up the chapter, we have artaud terranova. he's not important yet, but will probably be in season two. all you need to know is he's short and a little mean and trusted by vilgefortz

fercart of cidaris is the third (but only male and non-temerian) member of foltest's royal council, and fairly unimportant member of the council of wizards

carduin of lan exeter was advisor to koviri king esterad thyssen and member of the council. he was also one of radovid's advisors, which didn't go over too well as radovid's other advisor, philippa eilhart, doesn't share too well

last and sort of least, we have radcliffe of oxenfurt. he was advisor to demavend of aedirn, from whom he probably met yennefer.

[theres-no-protocol-for-this]

(forgive me I don't know how to message people on tumblr)

https://theres-no-protocol-for-this.tumblr.com/post/661822863164178433/send-me-a-number-and-ill-write-a-micro-story sated!

Author note: I think you did it just right. Also, this is for prompt #23.

ART showed me the small supply closet where it was keeping the kittens via one of its many cameras. One of the students had snuck a pregnant cat onboard (and by snuck, I mean ART knew the whole time and totally allowed it because Iris loves cats). And it had given birth thirty cycles into the mission.

The smallest one's not doing so good, the transport explained as it zoomed into a thin, absolutely miniscule creature that was dozing close to its mother. It can't attach well enough to feed.

I stared at the display. What do you want me to do about it?

Can you feed it for me? ART asked. I'll print all the necessary items from the recycler, but this requires the kind of precision my drones can't manage well.

I wanted to say no, that ART should get one of the students to help, but it sent me its most pathetic sigil in the feed, combined with a promise of more media watching while I fed the animal... Oh fuck it, the little brown kitten deserved not to go hungry, and I was a sucker for ART's pleading.

Fine, I grumbled and went to the supply closet where momma cat had chosen to give birth. On the way, I stopped by a recycler and grabbed the necessary tools, including a syringe and a bowl of warm milk replacement formula.

Following ART's instructions, I filled the syringe with warm liquid, settled comfortably in the corner of the closet, draped a blanket over my lap, and picked up the tiny kitten. The adult cat eyed me for a good minute but decided I was apparently permitted to handle her progeny. Small favors there -- I didn't want to get scratched for trying to help.

The little squirming body in my arms felt oddly soft and fragile.

Think of it as uncoordinated client with special dietary needs, ART suggested. Now, bring the syringe close and have a drop come out and see if the kitten's interested.

Interested didn't begin to describe it. The nameless ball of fur squeaked once and then lapped at the milk. I gave it more. It stuck the end of the syringe in its mouth and started trying to nurse. Within seconds, I'd figured out a good pace for the baby, and it was drinking like a champ. I could feel just how pleased ART was at this development.

When the baby was done, its belly looked rounder. An impressive amount of milk could fit into a thing that was smaller than my hand. Sated, the baby curled up on my chest and snoozed, a milk mustache on its face.

Milk comma, ART informed me. Its name is Unit. Iris and Yuriy named all of the kittens.

I frowned. What a strange name for a strange little fauna.

The kitten was sleeping so I didn't want to move and disturb it. Before I could say anything, ART started one of our favorite Worldhoppers episodes playing in the feed.

Mother cat decided I was friendly and came over to sniff at me, and then curled up on my lap. What the fuck was I supposed to do but sit here and let the animals sleep?

Apparently nothing.

And this... this felt not unpleasant. I could... enjoy this. Maybe. Never mind the complex emotions in my organic parts that I couldn't explain.

[jasontoddiefor]

Title: infinitely varied Ship: obikin Summary: Sometimes your husband decides to develop an artificial intelligence capable of free choice and something called a soul and succeeds in the middle of a Thursday night. Or, more concretely: he's in the middle of succeeding because said intelligence first has to learn how to speak.Also known as Obi-Wan and Anakin teach a tiny program called A.H.S.O.K.A. how to be something more than lines of code via the power of linguistics. AN: Happy birthday @ghostwriterofthemachine

Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.

Noam Chomsky

I.

Life was a query of expectations, margins on doorframes, bucket lists, first loves, broken hearts, and happy middles because only fools would settle for a happy ending when they had so many decades left to live. The thought never failed to bring a smile to Anakin’s face, no matter how frustrated, remembering the simple way Obi-Wan had proposed. There had been no fancy dinner, particularly stunning outing, or anything resembling outlandish romantic gestures. Anakin would have appreciated them because every act would have been colored by Obi-Wan’s love, but now, older and wiser than the rash youth who’s fallen in love at first heated debate, he preferred the way their proposal had actually gone down. A quiet Sunday morning, eating breakfast together on the sofa while the news droned in the background from Anakin’s old radio, a hesitant “I don’t need forever, but I want the present”.

And, well, for all his genius, Anakin could be a bit of an idiot sometimes, but not when it came to this.

Married life was interesting.

Somehow nothing changed, except also everything. They had bought a real house, moved out of their old apartment and made more compromises than Anakin had ever thought himself capable of, for they hadn’t been like fighting an uphill battle but dancing together. It had made him happy to paint the entrance hall in the shade of green Obi-Wan preferred if he got to paint the kitchen in the light blue he wanted.

Obi-Wan got the attic for his office where his antique book collection looked right at home, and Anakin got the basement where the hum of his servers and the generator powering them annoyed nobody else.

It was as close to white-picket-fence as it could be with two queer men, no kids, a bratty cat, and an anxious dog under one roof. His childhood self would be appalled to see how much Anakin, always the whirlwind, had settled. To a nine-year-old, Anakin probably looked very adult.

Anakin, however, did not feel very grown-up, banging his head against his desk in the middle of the night. Obi-Wan had gone to sleep hours ago, and so had Anakin until inspiration had struck and he’d snuck out of bed to return to his favorite project.

A.H.S.O.K.A may not be a child, but Anakin certainly could relate to exhausted parents when they complained about their children in endless repetitions. To this day, Anakin didn’t know why his mother figured it would be great parenting to encourage her WarGames obsessed kid to dig into the world of artificial intelligence when WOPR nearly started a nuclear war, but he’d forever remain thankful.

Or, he’d resume being thankful when he could finally get A.H.S.O.K.A to learn. He’d rewritten her code a thousand times. It was his ever-constant companion, from his first awful-looking early 2000s website to its current incarnation. A.H.S.O.K.A could solve simple logic puzzles, given that he fed her enough data. Her solutions to tasks could be downright hilarious, but they were not enough. He wanted her to be smarter, better, capable of gaining true understanding.

Perhaps, it was a dream for the future and not a Thursday night.

Anakin didn’t have any work tomorrow morning as he worked as a freelancer, so he could afford to pull an all-nighter. But his dear husband had planned a nice afternoon for them, so Anakin should call it a night or a morning as a glance at the clock told him.

Staring at the many lines of code again, Anakin sighed and leaned back in his chair and took another sip of his by-now cold tea. Obi-Wan would definitely complain that Anakin had snatched his favorite mug once he got up and couldn’t find it in the kitchen. Anakin had bought it at the last linguistic convention Obi-Wan had taken him to.

Language is a process of free invention, it read in delicate cursive before the rest of the quote disassembled in pure chaos.

Huh.

Now there was a thought. Anakin got out of his chair and left the basement, haunted by fixed principles and infinite combinations. Up in the attic, carrying Obi-Wan’s computer downstairs again, Anakin thought on interpretations and free creations. He was as giddy and nervous as he’d been on the morning of his wedding day, which had started similarly early. Connecting Obi-Wan’s computer, and more importantly, the priced result of his thesis, to Anakin’s server felt a little like unwrapping birthday presents.

language_acquisition_prediction.exe

Enter.

II.

Obi-Wan was not surprised when he woke to an empty bed. Anakin had a habit of suddenly pulling all-nighters or getting up early before the sun even thought of rising. Given that he couldn’t smell breakfast yet, Obi-Wan deduced that Anakin had pulled an all-nighter again. He slowly crawled out of bed to avoid disturbing Artoo and Threepio sleeping to his feet. Obi-Wan was pretty sure he shared his bed more often with his pets than he did with his husband.

He walked down the stairs to the ground level and went by the kitchen to prepare himself a cup of tea. To his displeasure, Obi-Wan couldn’t find his favorite mug and so had to settle for another. After another thought, he decided to make a second one for Anakin, lavender this time so Anakin would hopefully crash after breakfast. He put both mugs on a small tray together with a couple tomatoes. Obi-Wan usually wasn’t one for eating a full breakfast on workdays – that was the influence of Anakin and his mother’s kitchen – but he was the expert in smalltime snacks. With both in hand, he walked down the second flight of stairs, down to the basement. As expected, he found Anakin at his desk, clinging to what was bound to be a cold cup, staring intensely at his screens, which were running one program or another.

“Good morning,” Obi-Wan greeted him and kissed Anakin’s cheek.

“Mo-orning,” Anakin replied, a yawn interrupting him halfway. “Wait, what time is it?”

“Eight,” Obi-Wan said. “How long have you been up?”

“Uuuh.” Obi-Wan didn’t need to see Anakin’s face to know the answer. “Did you even go to sleep?”

“I did sleep for a while!” Anakin argued. “But then I had an idea, I mean, look at this!”

Obi-Wan gave the screens a closer look. Despite common misconceptions, he was not technically illiterate. Privately, he blamed the fact that Anakin was quite well known for his tech know-how and Obi-Wan tended to talk more about literature given that he was filling in as a lecturer in the British Lit. department. Nevertheless, Obi-Wan had gotten his professorship with a program he’d written, and the code currently displayed on the screens looked very similar to a section that had given him stress nightmares. “Is that my thesis?” he asked.

“Yes, sorta, partially?” Anakin replied. “I kind of took it apart a lot and maybe corrupted it a bit, but that’s not the important part! Look what she’s doing with it.”

She could only refer to one person, intelligence. There were a few constants in their life, their new house the most recent one, and Ahsoka was probably the longest. Obi-Wan didn’t know why Anakin hadn’t set her aside already, he was happy enough to leave other started-never-finished projects lying around, but the last time he’d even just suggested such, Anakin had looked heartbroken.

Obi-Wan looked at the screen Anakin was pointing at and began to read.

script input: inhibition auditory input 1 designation skyguy: /ˌɪn.ɪˈbɪʃ.ən/ auditory input 2 designation professor: /ˌɪn.hɪˈbɪʃ.ən/ analysis: mismatch diagnosis: outstanding

script input: better auditory input 1 designation skyguy: /ˈbet̬.ɚ/ auditory input 2 designation professor: /ˈbet.ər/ analysis: mismatch diagnosis: rhoticism? query: define

The text continued for a while, though apparently Ahsoka only picked out the mismatched parts in her analysis.

“Is that ‘Must have done something right’?” Obi-Wan asked, the connection between the words suddenly starting to make sense.

“Yes!” Anakin grinned. “I wasn’t quite sure how to teach her sounds properly because I hadn’t equipped her with a sound analysis program before and I figured that if babies just learn by listening to their parents, Ahsoka could learn by listening to us.”

“So you fed her audio of us singing?” Obi-Wan wasn’t sure whether to be impressed, confused, or just plain tired but decided to settle on confusion for now and let the course of the conversation determine where they’d end up.

“That too, but I actually just started by playing old voice messages. I figured getting her used to just one phonetic inventory would be enough for now. Honestly, for the first hour, I wasn’t even sure whether that would be of any use because she had no symbols to connect the sounds to, and I thought using the IPA might bias her.”

Because, of course, Anakin never deleted any of Obi-Wan’s voice messages and just kept them on his phone. The fact that he just glossed over it as if it weren’t anything special either made Obi-Wan smile.

“It’s cute that you think we have the same inventory,” Obi-Wan commented. “But continue. You just let her listen to sounds and then? Don’t tell me you gave her written texts.”

Anakin rolled his eyes and confirmed another one of Ahsoka’s queries before answering. “No, I gave her the IPA then and let her listen to the full inventory and then analyze which ones we use.”

That made enough sense. Obi-Wan was reasonably sure it was a great deal more complicated than Anakin was lying it out right now, but it was still within the realm of possible and not downright sci-fi. There were enough programs that could analyze speech and filter out patterns, recognize even emotions and tone. Feeding data to a computer wasn’t too different from the way babies learned, though, as far as Obi-Wan knew from talking to people with children, they didn’t like their progeny being compared to lines of code.

“And you accomplished this by feeding my thesis program, which is meant to predict the language acquisition of children, to Ahsoka?”

“Yes, that, uh, happened more or less,” Anakin said, his nose scrunched up just so that Obi-Wan knew he wasn’t certain. “I’m pretty sure I like, wrote some of it down. Not all of it because I knocked out at like 4 a.m., which resulted in pretty interesting inquiries on the great vowel shift.”

Obi-Wan froze. “She’s asking about the great vowel shift?”

There was a difference in the size of the Atlantic between analyzing sounds and recognizing a six-hundred-year-old change in pronunciation.

“Not really,” Anakin said. “She just noticed the patterns? And had inquiries? We’ve been following up on it since, mostly by also giving her written text, but I think that might have backfired and confused her a bit. I’m thinking of synching up the input with a visible feed so she’d learn to associate an actual object with the sound, but I’m not sure whether that wouldn’t just lead to her matching data instead of actually learning its relevance. Can teach an AI what an apple looks like, sounds like, tastes like, but that doesn’t mean you can teach it what an apple is and all that.”

Anakin smiled impishly, and unfortunately, despite his generally messy appearance, Obi-Wan still thought he was handsome. “Please don’t cite my book back at me like that.”

Closing his eyes for a moment and pinching his nose, Obi-Wan tried to focus. This was not how he expected to start his free day. He needed to wake up and possibly grab his notes to sort out this mess. This almost made him wish the car was still wrecked and Anakin would spend all his free time fixing that. “Did you have to start her on English of all languages?”

Anakin was fluent in two other romance languages; it would have been much easier to deal with a French AI than an English one. Sighing, Obi-Wan looked at Ahsoka’s latest question and promptly frowned.

script input: bear auditory input: /beər/ match found: bare analysis: mismatch diagnosis: failed word formation query: bear = bare? query: deletion >bare<?

“How long has she been doing that?” Obi-Wan asked.

“Doing what— oh, that’s new.”

So Ahsoka had jumped from matching sounds to text to comparing sound to words and then referencing those words against one another. That was a logical step, but also a step Obi-Wan wasn’t quite sure she should be doing without prompting.

“She thinks bear and bare are related because they have the same sound. Didn’t really expect that turn of events. Should I show her those are two different words?”

“Does she even know what a word is yet?” Obi-Wan asked in turn.

“No.”

“Then teach her what a word is first— after breakfast. I want your pancakes.”

“You never want pancakes on a Friday.”

“My husband also never decided to rope me into teaching an artificial intelligence morphology before.”

Obi-Wan needed a proper meal for this. He could talk to his students on an empty stomach, but he could not deal with the latest brand of Skywalker insanity without something sweet first.

“I haven’t—”

Ever the negotiator, Obi-Wan decided to shut Anakin up with a kiss. “After breakfast.”

Ahsoka’s many questions could wait for an hour.

[rjhpandapaws]

A Hand in the Matter

Chapter 11: All Your Friends in One Place

Tina was grinning at him over her beer glass, “So this new boyfriend of yours. When will Chris and I get to meet him?” Gavin groaned. They’d had this discussion at least a dozen times by now. Or at least it felt that way, “Tina, we’ve been over this. Richard isn’t my boyfriend. We’re just friends.” “Two things with that Gav.” Chris cut in, “Tina didn’t sat his name, and two, you spend all of your free time with this guy.” “He’s helping me with psychology. Midterms are coming up and they’re going to kick my ass.” Gavin took a drink from his beer, “Besides I doubt if he was interested in anyone at all that I would even be on that list.” Tina rolled her eyes, “Alright, gay crisis aside; what I meant is that we would like to meet him Gavin.” “Exactly.” Chris agreed, “He seems like a nice guy. We won’t scare him off.” Gavin let out a dry laugh, “You might not Chris, but Tina would send him away with his tail between his legs.” “I will be on my best behavior.” Tina pleaded and frowned when Gavin raised an eyebrow, “I cross my heart.” “Have a little faith.” Chris pushed, “We’re your friends after all.” Gavin gave a defeated sigh, “Fine, but we’re meeting at the cafe if I can even get him to agree. The bar would give him a panic attack.”

Tina whooped loud enough to turn a few heads despite the music and other conversations happening in the bar. Gavin and Chris both stared at her until she composed herself. This was exactly why Gavin was hesitating. As much as he loved his friends, they could be a bit much at times. “Does he know about Elijah?” Tina asked, “Does Elijah know about him?” “No to the first, yes to the second.” Gavin said flatly in hopes to avoid having this conversation before it turned into a game of twenty questions. “Teens, that’s enough.” Chris said, once again coming to Gavin’s rescue. That particular conversation died down and they made small talk until last call. They left their bar and went their separate ways with plans to do this again once Gavin’s midterms were over. Tina made Gavin promise to talk to Richard about meeting them, and with Chris as his witness he gave in. There was no getting out of this. He supposed he could see if he could convince Richard to wait until midterms were over or even after finals had ended to meet them. Assuming he wanted to meet them at all. Gavin got into his cab with the plan to at least approach Richard about it tomorrow while they were studying. He could possibly bribe Richard to say no with coffee. The last thing he needed was all three of them badgering him about his health. He and his bad habits wouldn’t survive.

Morning came with a slight hangover, but that’s what he got for coming home and immediately going to bed instead of having something to eat or something to drink before hand. He could still study, he just needed to take something for the headache. He rolled over to check the time, he had about two hours before he needed to leave. He got out of bed to get ready. After he showered and got dressed he made toast and filled a glass with water. He took the pain pills and chased them with his small breakfast. When that was done he checked his bag to make sure he had everything he needed. He fed Franklyn and checked his phone for the time and found two new messages from Richard.

Tall Phcker from Psych: The cafe is closed for a few days because a pipe broke. Tall Phcker from Psych: Is there another place where we could meet? Gavin: There’s a place near me called Pawsome Coffee. Its a cat cafe if that’s okay. Tall Phcker from Psych: That works. Can you send me the address? Gavin: Sure!

He wouldn’t admit to having to google it if he was asked, but as soon as he found the address he sent it to Richard. Gavin had been wanting to show Richard this place for a while and now he had the perfect excuse to. He was pretty sure Richard was going to love it. There was only the matter of not getting distracted by the cats.

As it turned out, getting distracted by the cats was the last thing that Gavin needed to worry about. Once they had ordered their drinks and sat down Richard was buried in them. A short haired white cat settled across his shoulders, a black one with longer hair settled into his lap, and two more; one grey and the other a red-orange; hopped up onto the table. The grey one pawed at his arm to try and get his attention. Gavin couldn’t help but chuckle as he came back with their drinks. “Well aren’t you Mister Popular.” He joked as he set their drinks on the table. He leaned over to grab what they would need once his hands were free, “Normally it takes a few visits for them to warm up to people.” ‘I Not Do Anything Special.’ Richard signed before he reached out to pet the grey cat. “I think you just have that effect on cats and some people.” Gavin remarked as he set the textbooks down on the table, “Are you even going to be able to study like that?” ‘Yes.’ He replied, ‘S-I-L-A-S Worse.’ Gavin laughed, he supposed that was true. Silas was quite the character from what he had been told, “There is that I suppose.” ‘Will You?’ Richard asked. “Yeah.” Gavin answered as he settled in, “I used to study here all the time before I adopted Franklyn. She doesn’t like it too much when I come home smelling like other cats.”

‘Dirty Cheater.’ Richard signed with a straight face and Gavin inhaled his coffee and started coughing. “God damnit Richard.” Gavin wheezed when he caught his breath enough to speak again, “You can’t just say things like that when a guy is drinking his coffee. You could have killed me.” Richard only rolled his eyes at Gavin’s dramatic antics as they settled in to study. Gavin asked questions when he had them, and if Richard couldn’t answer them he pointed Gavin to the part of the book where he could find what he was looking for. It was nice. They managed to study for a few hours before Richard gave in and began petting the cats that had elected him as their new tower. Gavin figured they were probably done for the day. He was out of distractions. “Hey, so I have a question.” Gavin started. He only continued when Richard was looking at him, “Chris and Tina were wondering if they could meet you. Apparently I talk about you a lot and they’re curious. Obviously if you don’t want to, just say so and I’ll let them know.” ‘Not Today.’ Richard said and Gavin nodded, ‘This Weekend Maybe? If You Not Busy?’ Gavin wanted to groan. Of course Richard would want to get it done as soon as possible, “How does Saturday sound? That’s Chris’s day off.” ‘Saturday Works.’ Richard agreed, ‘Can We Meet Here? Hand Brewed Hope Not Open.’

They spent a little while longer at the cafe talking and making plans for Saturday. Gavin him told him a little bit about Chris and Tina so he would know what he was getting into. He seemed excited which helped Gavin relax some. They parted ways in the early afternoon because they both had other classes to study for. The plan was to meet at Pawsome on Saturday around noon. Gavin messaged Chris and Tina on the walk back to his apartment.

Oh No! Its the Cops: Gavin: Pawsome Coffee Saturday at noon. Gavin: You’re lucky I love you guys. Pocket Police: The cat cafe from high school? Talk about nostalgia. I’ll have to pack allergy pills. In Chris We Trust: Cool. See you then Gavin: Don’t forget that you promised to behave Tina Pocket Police: Fine Pocket Police: You’re not any fun Gavin: I am plenty of fun under the right circumstances Pocket Police: No thanks, I’m gay Gavin: You are the actual worst Pocket Police: I have to have it out of my system by Saturday. Gavin: Fair enough

The week passed in a series of tests that Gavin was less ready for than he would have liked. It was Saturday before he was ready for that either. He loved Tina, but he didn’t exactly trust her to behave; especially with as curious as she had been about Richard. Her mouth had a tendency to runaway with her before her brain had the chance to catch up. Gavin wasn’t looking forward to having to play damage control if she got too excited. He wasn’t expecting the three of them to be settled in at a table and talking by the time he arrived. Chris was pretty fluent in Sign Language because he had taken it in high school, he was playing translator and also signing as he spoke. Gavin ordered his usual Carmel Macchiato and made his way to the table once it was ready. The cat he had to pick up so he could sit beside Richard let out an indignant squawk. “I swear you keep treats or some shit in your pockets.” Gavin said in way of a greeting. ‘I Thought You Said I Have Captivating Personality.’ Richard signed with a grin. Gavin rolled his eyes, “With people as well as cats apparently.” “Captivating personality huh?” Chris said with a laugh. “Oh shut up Chris.” Gavin remarked. “So am I the only one that doesn’t know Sign then?” Tina asked. “Yeah.” Gavin replied, “But I’m still learning so don’t worry.”

‘I Teach You If You Want.’ Richard said. “He said he could teach you if you would like.” Gavin translated, “ Or we could add him to the group chat.” “Why not both?” Tina suggested, “But it seems like he has enough on his plate with tutoring you so Chris can teach me instead. Lord knows we have enough time between all the hours we spend on patrol together or at our desks.” “Thanks for asking T.” Chris said dryly, “But that’s not what we’re here for.” “True.” Tina agreed, “We’re here to have coffee and a good time.” They talked for a while before they split into separate conversations. Tina and Gavin started talking about high school since that was the last time they had all ben at the cafe. Chris was signing rapidly to Richard about something. From time to time they would cross conversations, or someone would say something that caught all of them off guard and the conversation would stall for a while. It was a nice change of pace and Gavin found himself smiling so broadly that his cheeks hurt. They were getting ready to leave when Tina spoke up again. “We go out for drinks at a local bar on Fridays if you ever want to join us.” She offered, and her hand was half way to his shoulder before she stopped herself. ‘Sounds Fun.’ Richard agreed and Gavin groaned.

Gavin stared at Richard for a long moment, “We can cab together then I guess.” Richard grinned and Gavin found himself returning it. ‘Thank You.’ Richard signed. They parted ways outside the cafe and Gavin felt his phone vibrate a few times on the walk back to his apartment. He didn’t check it until he was inside.

In Chris We Trust added Tall Phcker from Psych to Oh No! Its the Cops.

Tall Phcker from Psych: Thank you for today. I had fun. Pocket Police: Of course! It was great to finally meet you. In Chris We Trust: See you Friday! Gavin: I’m in danger. Tall Phcker from Psych: Only if you don’t take care of yourself. Pocket Police: I like him In Chris We Trust: Same

Gavin rolled his eyes and locked his phone so he could relax for a bit. He was glad to see them get along but he didn’t want to read a play by play of them planning the demise of his bad habits. His biggest worry had been that Richard would be overwhelmed, but he was relieved that hadn’t been the case. Richard deserved all the love he could get.