#i have to assume this is an error but it's repeated *multiple* times in the article

[nonstandardrepertoire]

fascinated and a little terrified by this music critic from 1926 who seems to be under the earnest impression that it takes two and a half hours to play Mahler 3. how slow are you playing that last movement, exactly????

[artificial-transmutations]

Closer Than Flesh - Emotions

Skyler feels confused for a moment. The sudden change in surroundings had not been by his doing. Compared to where he came from, it is cold, almost freezing. An entirely unpleasant noise fills his ears. Singing, no chanting, of several people. Skyler has long learned to hate the human voice. It is an instrument of violence, even more so than an actual weapon. Not that he abhors violence, but it is the lowest form of evil - there are just so much better ways to break a man than to break his bones. Although he cannot make out the exact words, his name is repeated multiple times.

The voice come from the darkness before him, and, as Skyler's eyes have adjusted to the dim light of the candles, he can see where it is coming from. A group of people, humans are standing nearby, singing and looking at Skyler expectantly. There is fear in their eyes under the hoods, like there should be. But it's not nearly enough for the situation they are in.

Skyler's first impulse is to teach those insolent humans the meaning of fear, but he is no rookie in this game. His eyes scan the ground, and yes, there they are. Circles and runes, symbols and pentagrams. A good deal of them is completely unnecessary, some useless and some even contra productive. But Skyler can also make out the correct warding symbols, drawn without mistake. Storming forward would bring him nothing but humiliation right now.

So, it's a summoning, and a proper one at that. It has been so long since some mortal being dared to summoning him that Skyler had assumed the knowledge had finally been lost. It has not, as it becomes clear.

Skyler takes a long look at the ones who have had the nerve to summon him. They are all wearing hoods and masks. A smart move, since he will seek them out later one by one and destroy their lives as punishment for this. It would have been easier if he had seen their faces, but Skyler is not discouraged. Humans always make mistakes. Their whole lives are just a string of errors, one after another. There is no reason this should be different. And the most error prone they get when they are afraid.

Now, judging by their relatively firm voices, this is not the first summoning they have done. It matters little. Their warding signs might stop him from reaching out of the circle, but inside of it, Skyler has all of his power. He casually creates his signature ambience: Red and black mists, that flow around him and give the impression of extending from his shoulders as gigantic wings. Time to give those little magicians the show they paid for.

"After tens of thousands of years, I have awoken! Who dares to disrupt my slumber and summon me to this plane? Speak thy names!"

Skyler let his voice boom and echo throughout the chamber at a ridiculous volume. All of that was bullshit of course. It had probably been merely a decade or even less since he had been to the human world. The question is just if the human's would be dumb enough to give him their names so eagerly. He can make out already that his show is not without effect. The singers in the back row were moving uncomfortably. Skyler can very well imagine to tend to them first after he is past that circle. Perhaps he would shrink them down, until they were really tiny and then crush them beneath his feet.

"You are Baelnath, the twisted master of flesh. By our powers you are compelled, and by our powers you are bound.", the front man addresses Skyler.

Skyler does his best to look unimpressed and bored. It is really no wonder that they knew his name and bynames. They had, after all, managed to call him here. Still, they are clever enough not to give away their identities so easily. Very well. It has been worth a try. Skyler changes tactics.

He swings a clawed hand at the front man, very well aware that the warding signs will stop his movement in the air. Skyler gives off a theatrical snort, as he cannot connect his blow. Don't overdo it, those were no rookies either.

He lets the mists around him sink to the floor somewhat and even adjusts his form to a slightly shrunken down version of his initial bodies, with slumped shoulders.

"I see, oh masters of the arcane. I am no match against your powers and have no choice but to serve you. Tell me, what is your command?"

Let them think they have won. The other time when humans tend to let their guard down is when they arrogantly think of themselves as the victor already. The important fact to know about humans is that they are greedy beyond measure. They only summon demons like himself when they want something. Some desire, some combat, it's always boringly similar. Given his nature, Baelnath has usually been summoned (in the times when it was way more common than today) to give beauty, transform an enemy into a hideous creature or, of course, grant immortality.

For a while, it had even been a fun game of his to play his part in the farce that was human society. Seeing kingdoms fall because the king has unexpectantly become a disgusting frog had something amusing Skyler couldn't deny. In the end, however, he doesn't like serving very much, so turning against the ones who called him is even more amusing.

The tricky thing about summoning is, that, in a correctly conducted ritual like this, the being called here cannot attack the ones on the other side of the warding cycle. In addition, once a command has been given, the magic will force him to comply to it - and then leave without any chance of revenge.

However, there are two obvious flaws that no magic of earth could ever get rid of. First, the obvious. After he is dismissed, the spell ends. Everything that comes after, the summoner has no control over. It is a common misconception that demons cannot come to the human plane without being summoned. In fact, Skyler does this a lot on his own. So, the wise summoner veils his face and never shares his name, so the demon will not find him after the ritual. That is also the cause that locations like this, obscure dark cellars, are never out of fashion for summoning rituals. Of course, that whole concept of secrecy brings some difficulties. You can't very well ask the being summoned to turn the enemy king into a toad without sharing who the enemy king is. And once the demon leaves the cellar to do the summoners bidding, he has a pretty good idea of where he is. So, to stay with the example, the safest way of asking a demon to turn the enemy king into a toad would be to have said king already captured and veiled as well. But then, you could also simply behead the hated monarch and wouldn't need to risk a summoning.

The other flaw is even more ridiculous. The big difference between the magic of humans and the magic of demons is that while the latter one focuses on the *meaning* of things, the former one works with the *wording* of the command. So, the summoned being has to follow the command it is given to the letter. Verbatim. If there is just the slightest room for interpretation, any possible way to interpret the command is permitted by the magic. Really the only thing that a being cannot do is go directly against the command. The logical structure of human magic also demands that more complex commands require a more complex summoning spell - which means that it's a real challenge for the summoner to formulate a command that doesn't give the called being the chance to horribly misinterpret his wish while also keeping the spell simple enough to cast it without making a mistake.

The latter flaw, combined with the error-prone human mind has always been a source of hilarity for Skyler. There had been enough women of the past to know that he is called the 'master of flesh' for his ability to mold bodies at will, but have not researched him enough to understand the focus of his powers - and had a whole lot to explain after their wish to be beautiful and irresistible has left them exactly that: The most beautiful man around, irresistible to other men. This has been a special delight since for some reason, humans have decided that two men getting intimate with each other is a sin warranting a death sentence. Skyler is sure that this will change again at some point, but he had gotten his good laughs out of those situations, nevertheless.

So, let's see what these idiots want of him - and how he can twist their words in their mouths.

The front man's face turns into a victorious smirk. Good.

"Vile demon, I do not command anything of you. Your evil doings have come to an end with this day, as your power will be taken from you this night. Hear me, for we are the binding circle. Your power shall be bound, and it shall be conserved forever in this stone, unreachable for you, who will be reduced to a powerless husk!"

Skyler can't believe what he is hearing. That... was not right. Human's should not have that kind of magic. They could not do that, right? Skyler was no expert on human magic, but it suddenly becomes clear to him that the runes and sigils around him are way more complex than they would have needed to be. Perhaps it's not all useless superstition?

Sensing his disturbance, the front man grins even wider.

"What is it, hell spawn? Did I make you speechless? Come on, let me hear it. You are not the first, nor will you be the last. The binding circle will bind all evil power until hell is empty. We have heard it all by now."

"HOW DARE THOU?!" Skyler boomed, gathering his strength to burst through the magic circle. "I WILL..."

Suddenly, Skyler's whole world explodes in a burst of world-shattering pain. He had not anticipated that anything could hurt like that. He just wants to curl up in a ball and sob, or better yet, die at the spot. Through mental tears, he can hear a male voice loudly shout "FOUL!", followed by a few words in a language he does not understand.

After escaping at the last second, Jake feels the familiar feeling of the world dissolving around him, including the little amount of clothing he had on him as he had touched the stone. Luckily, the stone's magic worked reliably as a clockwork and had taken him to safety immediately. With true interest, Jake watches as, again, his body changes. The first thing to go is the wheat blond color that Marcel's hair had. In fact, this time, his entire body becomes neatly shaved and groomed. At first, Jake is afraid he might be turning into a woman now, but with some relief he notices that only his pubic hair and his chest hair are cleanly shaved off - on his arms and legs there are still little hairs, although they take on a very dark brown color quickly. Since Marcel had been muscular before, there is not too much difference in his body that Jake can see changing. The most obvious change, aside from the hair is that his well-muscled body takes on the distinct shape of being cultivated and sculpted, not grown because of physical labor. The little layer of body fat he had as Marcel vanishes and reveals a flat stomach with visible abs. His chest is pronounced but not huge and his arms are muscular but not body-builder like. Still, he looks more fit and healthy than he has ever been in his entire life. Jake can also feel his face change, but since he has no mirror in the featureless void with him, he can only speculate about how he might look like.

His shaved groin makes his large dick stand out even more, giving the appearance of a really massive python although the real size has not changed much - it's just pronouncing how big of a dick Skyler has become.

The view is quickly obscured however, as the bright red fabric of a light athletic shorts of some kind forms over his groin, with a large white waistband that has some brand name on it in black letters. Down the center of the shorts, a single white line forms, accentuating his almost obscene bulge even more.

Around his hands, boxing gloves come into existence, solving the mystery about what athletic discipline this body might be taking part in. Lastly, as always, the world reforms around him, leaving faint swirls of red magic behind that quickly fade away. Apparently, he is in some kind of boxing ring in a medium sized room, with an opponent and...

Jake's world explodes again, this time making him see stars in pain. Instinctively, his gloved hands go down to his cock and balls, the very place where the opponents swing just came crushing in.

As Jake falls to the ground, writhing in pain, he can hear a voice from outside the ring call loudly "FOUL!", followed by a muttering of "God damnit guys! Vali! How hard can it be not to throw punches below the belt?"

"Sorry man!", Jake can hear another voice, nearer to him address him. "You just came like, out of nowhere there! Are you okay?"

The voice was interrupted by the angry voice from before: "And Dragoslav. How many times do I need to tell you to wear a groin guard? I don't care if you find it uncomfortable with your monster dick, getting hit in the balls is worse. God damnit! Come on, Vali, get that man some ice, training is obviously over for today."

Jake can't even catch a glimpse at the man angrily leaving the room, as he is still busy holding his aching groin. It helps a bit as Vali comes with a pack of ice shortly after, mumbling another "Sorry".

Jake's vision is slowly clearing, but his eyes are still unfocused, and he takes some time to sit up.

"Are you okay, Drago?", the man named Vali asks again, audibly concerned.

Jake manages to wave it off. "Yeah, it's okay. You have one hell of a punch though, fir-ar să fie [God damnit]!"

"Sorry, I really didn't mean to...", Vali begins, but Jake cuts him off.

"It is what it is." He feels a bit bad not to accept the apology of the other man but figures that he can feel a bit bad about himself, too. After all, he is not the one that got punched in the balls like that.

Groaning, Jake stands up.

"Can you drive? Do you want me to bring you to the hospital?" Vali is still persisting.

"Oh, come on, let me have some peace!" Jake bawls at him, grimacing from the pain, although it's receding already.

Vali looks dejected which makes Jake feel a bit sorry in the end.

"Listen, it's okay, just don't hit my balls again, okay?" Jake's voice is a bit softer now and Vali nods.

"I'm gonna head home now. ", after a moment, Jake adds: "Can you bring me to my locker?"

Vali looks a bit confused but does as he is told. Jake quickly grabs the sigil stone that has rolled away and follows. "I thought I hit your balls man, not your head", Vali jokes on the way.

With the help of the other man, Jake finds this body's locker and quickly gets dressed. In the pockets of his jacket, he finds a cell phone and car keys, which seems promising.

Jake exists the building, a plain concrete building captioned with some wild letters Jake cannot discern and looks around. There are only a few cars on the parking lot, and with the remote key, Jake quickly identifies the car: A black Dacia SUV. Nice!

Only after he has closed the car door behind him, Jake remembers that not only his balls have been hit but that there's his friend down there as well.

"Sky, are you okay?" he asks into the silence of the car.

"What the... fuck did you do, Jake" comes the answer from his dick, not without a groaning sound to accompany it.

"Me? Nothing!" laughs Jake. "You on the other hand had a fist-to-dick boxing experience, little dick!"

"Hilarious", Skyler remarks drily. "Okay. Hit me... with information. Where are we, who are you and how long was I out?"

"There's not too much to tell, I'm afraid. We ran into Baelnath again. That was really strange. We were swimming with Piotr, you know, the guy you..."

"Yes, I remember Piotr, forgive me if I'm not in the mood to get hard over him right now." Skyler interjects. "Sorry. Go on."

"Right. So, we were swimming with Piotr, or rather in the shower. He noticed my tattoo and then, he... somehow changed into that demon guy, Baelnath."

"Just like that? I could all of a sudden feel his presence."

"Just like that. Perhaps he had been the demon all along?"

"Hm. Unlikely. Why wouldn't he have acted earlier then?" Skyler’s voice sounds curious. "Is there nothing else you noticed? I don't get to see a lot from inside your pants."

"Hm. No, not that I... Well, actually, I had the feeling that a few people, including him kept staring at me during the day. I thought it was nothing, but..."

"Perhaps Baelnath uses his influence to make human spies." Skyler finishes the thought.

"That's bad."

Skyler agrees: "Yup. How long were you Marcel? Not even two days, right?"

Jake nods. "And we didn't use the stone."

"So... the demon can somehow track us. And the moment he saw your tat, he was sure it was us. Jake, this is bad! We need to do something - we can't keep on hopping to new bodies every two days!"

"I know! It won't work forever, as I said before! La naiba![To the devil!] Come on, you're the smart one, tell me what to do!"

"Calm down Jake. We don't have much time, but more than a few minutes at least. Where are we?" Skyler tries to soothe Jake, who grows frustrated quickly.

"I don't know! I'm some kind of boxer and my name is Dragoslav. And I have a nice car. That's all I know." After a short pause during which he looks into the car's central mirror, he adds: "And I look rather decent."

Skyler, who got a short glimpse of what Jake saw when he looked in the mirror can't help but agree. "Yes, you do. But let's focus for now, Jake. Do you have a cell phone?"

"Yep." Jake pulls it out again and tries face unlock first. This time, it immediately works. "I can unlock it, but I can't read any of the texts. If I thought Polish was wild with all the little accents and hooks, this is an entirely different level of weird."

"Can you show me?" Skyler asks.

"Sure. Here you go, dick, some dick-o-vision" Jake lowers his shorts and holds the phone in front of his dicked friend.

Skyler doesn't really like being dick again, but this is not the time for an argument, he figures. He looks at the display and almost cries out in excitement.

"Ha!"

"Ha?", Jake asks confused. "Did you recognize the language?"

"Yes, I did! But more importantly, I think this is the best place on the globe we could have ended up at."

"Debatable.", remarks Jake. "So, where are we?"

"Romania." Skyler says with a satisfied tone.

"Aaand... this is good why? That's somewhere in Russia, right?"

"Really, Jake? REALLY?" Skyler's mood has obviously improved quite a bit, as he teases Jake now.

"Wait, we had this conversation before, haven't we? Oh! Is Romania that country where you went backpacking?"

"Yesss!" Skyler draws the 's' longer than necessary in a victorious tone. "And the country where I found the sigil stone. Can you open the maps app and search for Tălmara? That's the town."

Jake does as he is told but does not share Skyler's joy.

"Okay, but why is that good? Two hours’ drive, by the way."

"Because if there is a place where we can learn how to stop the demon, it's probably the house where I found the stone."

"And why is that?" Jake is still not convinced but buckles up anyway.

"I will explain on the way. I had another... vision while you switched bodies."

"So..." Jake begins after Skyler has finished reciting what he has seen. "This sigil stone here contains the power of the demon?"

"Well, at least some part of it. He obviously is not entirely powerless, so it can't be all of it." Skyler answers.

"That explains why he wants it back at least. More importantly: Could you see the spell these mages were casting? Perhaps we can use it for defense?"

"No chance. I saw small fragments of the symbols only, and it seems that magic is a highly complex matter. I don't even want to imagine what would happen if we tried something like that, at least without proper explanation."

"You mean they could have lost their spell book in that basement, too and we're going to pick it up?" Jake says incredulous.

"No, that would be too good. But I would have seen it already the first time I was there, and we don't even know how long ago that was. The house is pretty old, so it could be centuries. No book would survive in that condition for that long."

Jake shakes his head. "This is just crazy, pulă [dick]. I mean, we're talking about demons and wizards. That's stuff right of a fantasy game here. I wonder when we will encounter dragons."

"Skyler", says Skyler. "And I hope we won't see any dragons. But yes, that's huge. I mean, just imagine: We just learned that freaking magic is real. If we knew how, we could become wizards!"

"To be honest, I don't know if I want to. Just getting home and being able to forget all that has a lot of appeal, too."

"Yes, you're right. One step after the other. Let's do everything we can to find out more at the mansion."

Skyler agrees. The drive is going by rather uneventfully, with Jake only stopping once on the way to take a quick piss in the woods. Skyler doesn't even think about these episodes much. For the time being, it's only natural for Jake to need to urinate, and even though he doesn't like being called that way, it's undeniable that this is part of his job description.

Finally, they arrive at the small town called Tălmara, where Skyler first found the sigil stone. It's not really big and most of the buildings around are obviously old.

Guided by the descriptions of Skyler, they find the street with the run-down buildings where the deserted house is located.

"Here we are", says Jake. He has put Skyler back into his shorts and since there is no attractive male around, Skyler's vision is again reduced to the inside of Jake's wide shorts.

"Okay! There should be a house at the end of the street. Three stories if I remember correctly. Oh, and there is a bush growing out of one window."

Jake looks around before he finds what he's searching for.

"Bush out of the window, roger."

"You can get in pretty easily through one of the windows. Uhm. I made sure nobody could see me back then, so the neighbors don't call the police, so..."

"Să-i ia naiba.[Fuck them.] What do I care if anyone sees me?"

"Jake, we have to be careful, we don't want to..." Skyler tries to reason, but Jake cuts him off.

"Look, pulă, we're doing this my way. Now shut up."

Why was Jake like that? Probably he was under a lot of stress as well, so Skyler swallowed an agitated response. He could feel the movement in Jake's athletic body, as he entered the building without much of a problem. Skyler remembers vividly that he had a lot of trouble pulling himself up through the window, but for Dragoslav's trained boxer body, this apparently posed little challenge.

"Shit, it's really dark in here", came a comment from Jake after a few moments.

"Your phone." comments Skyler but receives no answer. Instead, he can sense through the fabric of his shorts prison that the outside world suddenly gets somewhat better illuminated.

"You need to go downstairs." Skyler says.

"I know that!" comes the sharp reply from Jake, like through gritted teeth.

A whole while, nothing happens except for Jake moving around. Sometimes, he bends down, and Skyler can hear the clacking of stone on stone.

"What did you find?" Skyler finally dares to ask after about 15 minutes.

"Nothing!" comes the sharp reply. "This is useless! We've completely wasted our time here. There is nothing but rubble down here. Why did I have to listen to you?"

"How was I supposed to know?" Skyler defends himself.

"The whole damn thing was your idea. Stupid poponar [faggot]! We wouldn't even be in this mess without you!"

Skyler can't believe what he is hearing. Being stressed out is one thing, but where did that come from? "Wooha, slow down. I'm sure there is something we can learn here. Also, what the hell is wrong with you? Why are you like that all of a sudden?"

Jake draws in air and for a moment, Skyler thinks the next tirade of Romanian curse words will be flying his way soon. However, Jake slowly exhales again and says: "Fine. We will get our information."

With these words, Jake begins to climb out of the building again, completely ignoring Skyler's questions.

Outside, it doesn't take him long to find what he is looking for: An old woman leaning on a pillow, looking out the window. It is entirely clear that she has seen Jake enter the abandoned building, as she is looking his way as he approaches.

"Excuse me", Jake begins talking, swallowing his anger and trying to sound nice.

The old woman regards him suspiciously. "Who are you, young man?"

"I'm Jake. No, I mean I'm Dragoslav. Sorry. You need to tell me everything you know about that building back there."

"I don't know you. Why should I tell you anything?" The old woman is obviously even more cautious now.

Jake tries to smile the least intimidating way possible. "I'm just interested, that's all."

"I think I'll call the police", says the old woman with disdain in her voice now. "You're very suspicious."

Something inside Jake's mind clicks and he feels all the anger raising in him again.

"You... stupid târfă! [bitch]" His strong arms grab the old woman at the collar, and he begins to shake her frail body. "You will tell me everything you know right now or I'll freaking kill you, do you hear me?" Jake is shouting at the woman now, losing his nerve completely.

The woman whimpers and nods between the shakes. When Jake releases her, she begins with a weak voice: "I'm sorry, I don't know much! It's deserted for as long as I live here! They said there lived a wealthy family once, the Botezatus, but they don't live here anymore, for many generations. They say they made deals with the devil and one day, the devil came and killed them all and their friends. The ones who remained left the country after that."

"See, that wasn't so hard!" Jake says and releases the woman, his anger quickly evaporating. Only now that the rushing of blood has lessened, he can concentrate on Skyler's voice again.

"Jake, what the fuck are you doing?"

"Finding out the things we need to know." Jake says with a tad of satisfaction.

"But you can't just...Wait. Jake. Something is wrong."

Jake looks around and sees multiple people approaching. They are quickly heading for him, but their movement pattern is kind of weird. Suddenly, the old woman lets loose a cackling laugh. "Humans are just so... predictable." With that, the old woman, who has a slight reddish glow in her eyes now tries to grab Jake.

It's only because of Dragoslav's quick reflexes that Jake is able to pull away his hands quickly enough.

"Shit! Baelnath has found us!" he exclaims and pulls out the sigil stone. However, while the stone is showing some reddish glow, it's not nearly as active as the last times. Jake tries to concentrate nevertheless, wishing them away really hard... Without success.

"It's not working! Sky!"

"I think..." Jake hears Skyler’s voice inside his head. "I think Baelnath has learned. He's not really here, so the stone isn't fully active. He just sends his puppets!"

Jake looks around. No way to return to the car, the townspeople are quickly approaching now. It's not fair. If Baelnath can control so many people at once, they could at least have the decency to move slow as zombies. But those people were running at him now. A young man is the quickest and has almost reached him.

Out of pure reflex, Jake's fist flies forward, knocking the young adult from his feet.

"I can't fight them all!" Jake shouts and turns around to flee. He doesn't think, but just runs - back into the old mansion. However, this time, he doesn't go down where he cannot see properly, but instead uses his athletic body to climb up the crumbled floors. He quickly gains height and makes sure to collapse the ledge where he pulled himself up after him. Only after that, he realizes he is in the ruins of a room now, without any further exit.

"Cacat de prima mâna, cacat, și mai mult cacat! [Prime-time shit, shit and more shit!] Skyler! They're coming and we're trapped! What do we do?"

Skyler is thinking hard. "How much time do we have?"

"5 Minutes, tops!"

This is stupid. It can't possibly work, can it? Skyler strains his brain, but no better idea appears.

"Okay. I have an idea, but... it's absolutely crazy. It might work, but it will probably only add insult to injury. Jake. Do you trust me?"

"Yes! Out with it already!" Jake was clearly losing his nerves again.

"Okay, okay. Here is what you need to do. Jerk me off. Like, really fast! We must come before they come!"

"Shit! Are you completely out of your mind now?"

"I'll explain later. Or rather, if it works, you will see. I think I'm better at that. But you *need* to get started *now*!"

"I can't believe I'm doing that." Jake says and pulls down his shorts, grabbing Skyler with his meaty hand. "Then come on. You need to get hard!"

That is easier said than done, Skyler decides. He has not seen the pursuers, but he imagines them as some kind of fast demonic zombies just waiting to suck their souls out. It won't work like that. Skyler does his best to drown out the thoughts and focuses on recent memories. The hot face of Dragoslav. Marcel. Piotr. Unnamed Arab Guy. Jake. Dragoslav...

It is a feat of mind surely nobody has done before, but Skyler manages to slowly get horny despite the situation they're in. Marcel naked. Piotr in swim trunks. Thankfully, Jake does not comment anything, but begins to pump his cock as soon as there is the slightest bit of hardness in his dick. It's easier for him, since he only needs to do the manual labor - the hornyness washes over from Skyler towards him, getting him excited automatically, which is good. Jake is painfully aware that the noises of Baelnath's goons are coming nearer and nearer - and they will literally catch him with his pants down if he does not finish before they come. Probably even after that. What is Skyler thinking? Jake just hopes his clever friend really has a plan and has not lost his mind.

Jake has never gripped his cock so firmly or pumped it so vigorously before in his life. His biceps are beginning to ache, and his shaft is getting hot, but he doesn't stop.

Every pump feels really good. Drown out reality. Think sexy thoughts. Slowly, Skyler's plan seems to work, and the boundaries are blurring. Without Jake actively doing anything to it, Dragoslav uses his left hand to pinch his nipple. That sends an electric shock throughout his system. Skyler keeps pumping, Jake moans. They are coming closer.

Jake, no Skyler, no both of them keep pumping, his balls already contracting. The left hand groping around on the ground. Don't lose concentration. There is the stone. Yes! Yes! He is cumming! With a loud moan and a slight spasm in his cock Jake/Skyler shoots his load. And at the same time, their combined consciousness switches over to one singular wish - to get away from here.

Perhaps Skyler really is better at this - or it's the combination. But the same time Dragoslav's white cum hits the first climbers face that appears in the door frame, the world around them unravels.

Originally, I didn't want to write the next episode so soon. But it's just so compelling! You can read the previous episode here - or you can start from the beginning here. The next episode can be found here.

[alianoralacanta]

Hi, I wonder if you know what happened with Sainz's first attempted pit stop. I've seen some people blaming Ferrari and some Carlos himself, and I'm genuinely curious at this point. I've read that he was not greenlighted to pit, but then there are things like this https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCwqB7fNTuJ/?igsh=N2Jta2RkcDVxaGhv

I don't have access to the full radio transcript, and I'm confused about what was the cause of all this.

Warning! Long post alert!

First things first: this is the oldest of the asks I'm currently trying to clear from my backlog, and it came in on November 26. It is very likely anon has already answered this question from other people to their satisfaction. It is also possible that the explanation I offer might be treed (IT slang in my local area for something that became out of date as it was being produced), though I have tried to keep this up-to-date as further information came in. (The influx of additional information is one of three reasons I didn't reply to this ask the moment it arrived. Secondly, I detected the heat of the debating floor on this issue had become too high for a further response to be taken in the spirit intended and would benefit from a reduction before I attempted a reply. Finally, I made a new friend. Or potential friend. Their take on the matter, from a completely different angle, was such that attempting to do a complex engagement with the issue at that point would have led to a mess. And not the edible or fun variety. The inter-Ferrari arguments on F1blr were fraught enough without me creating personal drama into the mix). Secondly, I can't access Instagram (I also haven't been able to access Facebook since mid-2016, probably for the same reason as Mr Zuckerberg runs both), so I've no idea what the link says. In an attempt to economise on the number of posts required to manage the ask list, I may tackle this ask en passant:

Apparently more data has come out saying that Carlos isn't at fault? - Anonymous

(If that's not what anon was asking about, please clarify if possible).

With that warning, I will tentatively step back into the arena. Part 1: Prelude to the Pit Call

My understanding of the Carlos Sainz pit situation was that he was initially not greenlit to pit. In fact, Ferrari resisted Carlos' request for 2 laps. This was because the rate at which tyres were falling away meant that pitting as soon as Carlos wanted would have resulted in a 3rd pit stop being needed - poison to any ambition of a decent points position. Had Carlos looked after set 2 of his tyres better, instead of burning them in a vain attempt to avoid Charles Leclerc catching him, he would have been able to hold his tyres together longer, which would likely have convinced Ferrari that he could get to the end of the race without a 3rd stop. The TV calculations that claimed Carlos could have been 2nd with an earlier pit stop, assumed only 2 stops would be needed. However, the tyre wear Carlos was experiencing due to pressuring them too hard keeping Leclerc behind him, evidenced by his deteriorating times, did not support this conclusion. (I know F1TV and Sainz share a principal sponsor, but I am inclined to believe the failures of AI-generated "insights" are the true cause of this one, and that the same error would have been put on screen had it concerned any other driver in that situation). Sainz's repeated advocacy to pit changed Ferrari's mind and he eventually got clearance - too late in the lap for Ferrari to actually be ready. Had Sainz let Leclerc through immediately instead of holding him up for 2 laps against instruction*, at the very least everyone would have been given enough notice to make it possible for Ferrari to execute the request. * - "Against instruction" needs more specifics, because I've read multiple wrong takes on this in both directions (it definitely happened, and it definitely wasn't 5+ times in that segment because there weren't 5 opportunities to disobey in the timeframe). Carlos went against instructions 3 known times: - "Do not slow down Charles" at the very start of Verstappen's Lap 26 (this would have been into the last corner of the previous lap for Sainz) - "And let Charles by" on Lap 26 but before Turn 5 - "He said into turn five now" on Lap 27 (a whole lap after the previous one; it is unclear whether there was also an instruction to let Charles by on the last corner of Lap 26 as it's the easiest place on the track to do such a move. It would be expected but the partial transcripts I've seen don't list it). Sainz also went against the information he gave Ferrari at one point: - "Let him by in turn five" on Lap 26, before not doing so. (This for me was worse. Why would Carlos make a blatantly untrue statement, easy to fact-check, to his own race engineer? What possible goal could that achieve? The other parts could have been justified under one context or another, but this part is just plain self-defeating).

[transmutationisms]

hi. i am the person who asked you about crosswords a long long long time ago. anyway today i thought what if i do a crossword. since i do pay for the new york times for some reason. anyway it was so so so hard. well i did solve it it just took half an hour. which is too long to be doing a crossword. do you have getting better at crossword advice. i mean. everyone calls it blackthorn not sloe. i mean the obvious answer is to do more crosswords. what i am really asking is how do i find out the things that are relevant knowledge to specifically solving this newspaper's crossword, because it must be based in some kind of cultural locale thing. thank you!

first of all i implore you to stop paying for the new york times. if you just want the crossword, it's syndicated by the seattle times for free lol

anyway, in regards to your actual question: crossword solving is absolutely a skill you can hone, and one that depends partially but not exclusively on trivia knowledge. if you keep doing crosswords, you'll definitely notice some repeat facts/words that pop up (often due in part to orthographic factors, like having a lot of common letters or a spelling with alternating vowels and consonants), and paying vague attention to the major headlines in the nyt will also, unfortunately, sometimes be helpful in solving the nyt crossword specifically. but, a lot of crosswording also just depends on becoming more familiar with the medium and its mechanics. i'm not an expert solver, but here are some tips i've picked up through trial and error (& experimenting with puzzle construction myself):

i assume you know this? but just in case: the nyt puzzle changes in difficulty throughout the week. generally the 'fill' (the answers) stays at roughly the same level of linguistic/cultural obscurity regardless of what day of the week it is, but the clues will get harder throughout the week in the sense that fewer and fewer of them will be direct questions; they'll become increasingly reliant on wordplay, puns, heteronyms, &c. monday is the easiest, saturday is the hardest; sunday is always themed, is approximately the difficulty of a wednesday or thursday, and is a 21x21 rather than the usual 15x15.

on that note, you usually want to start a crossword with a first pass in which you only fill in answers you're positive about: usually that means clues that are 'straight' (not wordplay) or are just asking for, like, celebrity names you're sure you know. on later passes, you hopefully have a few of the crossing letters, which helps narrow down punny or obscure clues.

if you're uncertain about an answer, pay attention to where you're putting certain letters relative to the rest of the grid. for example, very few english words end in the letter u, so words with a u in them are rarely the rightmost or bottommost answers next to black squares.

clues have to match their answers in tense, number, part of speech, and language (eg, 'wanted' could clue DESIRED, but not DESIRE).

clues that end in a question mark are wordplay. clues in quotes could be a book/movie/song title, but could also be asking for a verbal synonym to the sentiment expressed in quotes (eg, "cut it out!" -> STOP). clues in brackets suggest nonverbal answers (eg, [ugh!] -> GROAN). the first word of a clue will always be capitalised because it is the first word, but sometimes this is also a way of hiding ('veiling') a proper noun. eg, 'French novel' could be a particularly obnoxious way of clueing a recent tana french release (here it would also behoove you to scroll by, eg, the nyt book reviews).

rebus squares (which usually only show up on thursdays or sundays in nyt) have multiple letters in one box. the letters in the box will spell out another word or acronym that ties into the puzzle's theme somehow. occasionally the rebus square will contain a symbol that represents a word, rather than letters. you'll figure out that a puzzle has rebuses if you find yourself repeatedly trying to jam answers you're confident are correct into grid spaces that are too short. look for common letter patterns within these answers to determine which letters are supposed to go into the rebus squares.

not all nyt puzzles are themed, but when there is a theme, cracking it will help you solve a few (usually centrally-located) clues. a theme could be a certain type of pun, a set of related trivia facts, &c. generally, 3–5 answers will be themed answers (usually arranged with vertical or horizontal symmetry within the grid), and an additional clue somewhere else in the grid will give you a hint as to what pun or topic ties the themed answers together. good theme answers will also match each other in certain grammatical or semantic patterns; you'll pick this up as you complete more puzzles.

[jonathankatwhatever]

Continuing. I want to spend a minute describing what it’s like in my head. I am getting ready to go work out and to buy cat litter. Music has been playing in my head, but mostly in the background. More like someone is singing and instruments and I catch snatches and bits, until suddenly I hear a clear singing voice doing a really lovely a capella piece better be true better be true or something truly horrible will happen to you. This repeats in a somewhat cheery manner, and then it started to morph into a rhumba, and then a spiritual.

What the heck is that? Is that you? It isn’t the same voice each time, so it sneak in and onto the stage with a clever mix of voice, tone and genre which makes it feel newer than it is, and so it carries the potential of multiple renditions. That’s an MB. So those song bits are MB’s, which is how I’ve described your stuff, except at larger constructed scales. Perfect verses yes, inside larger constructions, which avoid some of and embrace others of the genre expectations. Penetration through affine relations and thus affine spaces.

That material is opening up. Example is stochastic control and control theory. It’s fun to be able to read material that previously was impenetrable at the idea level because, like the internet says, too many redirects. That’s the parking lot confusion issue: which route, unable to line up the CR, stuttering behavior, error generated at the visible level, like oops can’t go out that way. Solution is generally to identify stutter point and go back up to find a better control point. Same with tremors, which I can induce and stop now by using a pinch movement and then locating the pinch control away from the actual pinching. I remember noticing this while watching an old woman shaking her walker to get it over the T tracks: she could not move any of her structure other than the flapping of her arms. That isolated the image.

So when I yell at you, or have yelled at you, it’s because I’m hearing yelling in my head. I’m hearing admonitions about my conduct all the time. These have diminished as I’ve become more me, as my identity has specified to myself and I assume you over CM1 and I really have to leave so don’t get me started.

I’m amazed at how much less my body hurts. Chronic pains have diminished greatly. I’ll always have and get pain, but discovering how to lower the importance of major pain issues has been fantastic. One effect is that I’m stronger. Like yesterday on the shoulder press machine I did 158lbs, which a full 20 more than I’ve ever done, and that 138 was more than I’ve done. I’m comparing to a seated not standing barbell lift. Standing is more difficult. And the weight came up, by which I mean I was so well aligned that it crept up and crept down with no shaking or pain either way, so it was just a question of being strong enough to push it up and lower it down with no CR issues. Great example of CR in life. My body has changed appearance in under 2 months. Amazed by that too.

[monitor-kernel-access]

very much digging the vibe of this somnium so far (the icepick indicating the correct key, for instance. i assume thats gonna be a repeated theme) but also oh my fucking god THERE ARE SO MANY DOORS... HOW AM I ALREADY THIS LOW ON TIME AFTER UNLOCKING ONE MENTAL LOCK. GIRL HELP

i will not be resorting to a walkthrough just yet though. im actually having fun and kinda wanna trial and error this even if it takes me multiple restarts :]

[akirathedramaqueen]

This needs to be talked about more.

I love this post and all the responses. :) And I love the nuance the show puts into this—that while both of these idiots clearly idolized each other, which is a problem, it doesn't mean they've fallen in love with just the idea of their romantic interest.

Speaking about Blitzø and pedestals. He does the same.

He put Stolas on a pedestal just as Stolas did, albeit for different reasons.

He believes Stolas is a prince, therefore privileged . . . except that status is nothing more than a gilded cage for Stolas.

He assumes Stolas is immortal and therefore can't be hurt . . . but he clearly can be.

He is sure there's no way Stolas could fall in love with him, of all people . . . jokes on you, buddy. You���re literally the last person who hasn't figured out yet just how head over heels the bird is for you. And frankly, so are you.

Hell, even Asmodeus knows.

That's not to say Blitzø's assumptions are completely false.

Stolas does enjoy luxuries Blitzø can't even dream of.

Stolas won’t die of old age or from ordinary injuries, while Blitzø has to confront his own mortality every day.

Stolas’s status does imply he's not supposed to associate with someone of Blitzø's class—and Blitzø is very aware of that gap, having been reminded multiple times just how wide it is.

But the events of The Full Moon and Apology Tour have completely shattered that pedestal for him. And, of course, Western Energy did so a bit as well.

Stolas can be hurt.

He can be depressed.

And he does love Blitzø—even if it took him reaffirming it twice, and calling Blitzø a motherfucker while doing it for the second time, for Blitzø to understand.

Well, blinders are finally down, at least. However much that fucking hurts.

But with all that said . . . the pedestal plays a completely different role here. While Stolas romanticizes Blitzø and wants to be saved, Blitzø uses the pedestal to find reasons why they can't be an item.

Because he's scared to admit that he loves feeling protected.

Cared about.

And carried around.

He's scared of his own feelings.

Feelings that make him want to give up his autonomy (sort of).

Feelings that make him way too vulnerable.

Feelings that make him put owl hoots as the ringtone for Stolas's number.

Feelings that make him yell in the street about how much he looks forward to fucking that bird again (and of course, totally not worry about why they haven't really communicated for months).

I do admit we’re yet to learn exactly why Blitzø fell for Stolas, but there are clues (not everything has to be said).

Stolas is down for whatever crazy shit Blitzø suggests in bed. He's supportive and kind. Protective, in a way. He’s never judged Blitzø for spelling errors or quirky behavior. It's funny considering the whole pedestal thing we're talking about, but I’d say Stolas's exact appeal lies in how he accepts Blitzø for who he is. And despite Blitzø denying it, he clings to that—to the feeling of being appreciated, supported.

And my guess is, this is how the whole conflict will be resolved. Despite Blitzø's deep-seated self-hatred, which makes him sure Stolas won’t want anything to do with him now, Stolas will still come around and double down. He’ll keep repeating that he still wants him, that he’ll keep saying it however many times it takes for Blitzø to believe it.

A lot of the discourse on The Full Moon/Apology Tour has revolved around the pedestals that our boys put each other on. But I think the pedestal Stolas has Blitz on in particular often gets misunderstood.

I've seen a lot of takes that says that Stolas can't really love Blitz. He just loves the idea of Blitz . . . the one he's built up in his head based on romance novels and rom-coms and soap operas.

I think the reality is more complicated, and that even though, yes, Stolas idealizes Blitz, he also very much loves Blitz for his true self.

Let's look at some times when Stolas saw "the real Blitz," as his quirky, resilient, innovative, low-class self, and very much loved that person, and not just the knight in shining armor version of him.

The Circus.

Some have used this moment to say that Stolas idealized Blitz as a fantasy of what it must be like to be free.

And . . . yes. BUT ALSO. He only falls more in love (in a kid-crush kind of way) when he sees Blitz mess up on stage, get booed by the crowd, and make a joke that's clever but quite dark and niche. Creatively, to work his way through a difficult situation. There is SO MUCH in this short minute that reveals to us AND TO STOLAS who Blitz really is.

Seeing Stars

Oh boy. Let's make a list. I'm too tired to make this exhaustive, but in this episode, Stolas sees Blitz

Being careless in a way that puts Octavia in danger

Using an absolutely stupid costume to disguise himself

Getting terrible stage fright

Going way off script in the sitcom in (again) a way that's niche humor and does not appeal to most of the audience

LITERALLY HAVING A BREAK FROM REALITY AND SHOOTING UP THE TV STUDIO

Okay, so when Via is in danger, Stolas is unambiguously peeved by the mistake, but he forgives Blitz because Blitz puts in effort to find Via and make it right.

And in the rest of these instances, Stolas EITHER affirmatively likes the cringy and silly side of Blitz's personality:

Or without the slightest hesitation, when Blitz shows a real weakness, focuses not on disappointment that this man is not his perfect soap opera hero, but puts that aside and tries to help Blitz get out of trouble.

There's also this moment in Western Energy where Stolas is absolutely unbothered by Blitz's atrocious spelling and is genuinely just happy to think for a moment that Blitz cares. I feel like someone COULD twist this to be about Stolas having blinders on about what's right in front of him, but I don't think so. I think he's fine with Blitz not having all the same strengths that his society clearly values, and just wants to be loved back by this person who he has genuine feelings for.

So what doesn't Stolas know about Blitz before The Full Moon/Apology Tour? He doesn't know that Blitz hates himself. He doesn't know that Blitz pushes away people he cares about. He knows that Blitz has walls up but doesn't know why. You can fall for someone without knowing their deepest darkest hurts-- you can even love them. But you do need to know these things to have a deeper relationship with the person.

His focus on romantic media is a problem because it forms his expectations about relationships, not necessarily because it blinds him to who Blitz is. He wants to be rescued. He wants to be chased after. He doesn't understand that good relationships take a lot of work . . . and he'll need to learn that.

But he doesn't just love Blitz for these ideas. He loves Blitz for being Blitz.

This, like many of these essays, was inspired by a conversation with @akirathedramaqueen.

[cries-for-no-one]

Bad Biographies: Linda McCartney (Eastman)

I was listening to a podcast discussing the Beatles and once again an "expert" repeated the myth that Linda Eastman attended Sarah Lawrence College. In the past I have gotten annoyed when I heard biographers and journalists repeating this because they haven't done their research. If they can get this wrong, how can I believe the other things they say.

Personally, I have a memory of Linda saying that this isn't true, although admittedly I cannot remember the source. So, to hear others say it wrong gave me the impression they haven't done much research.

But now I have heard it so often, and read it in otherwise good biographies, that I realize that bad sourcing is endemic among biographers.

The biography of Linda

The mistake doesn't come from Linda McCartney - Wikipedia:

Eastman graduated from Scarsdale High School in 1959. She then attended Vermont College in Montpelier, Vermont, where she received an Associate of Arts in 1961... After graduating from Vermont College, she attended the University of Arizona and majored in fine arts while taking up nature photography as a hobby. While she was studying there, her mother was killed in the 1962 crash of American Airlines Flight 1 in Jamaica Bay, New York. She then left the University of Arizona without graduating, and married Joseph Melville See Jr. (in June 1962) Their daughter Heather was born in December 1962. They divorced in 1965, and Linda resumed using her maiden name.

Nor is the bad bio coming from Biography - LindaMcCartney.com website. Which offers a shorter version of the Wikipedia.

Nor is it coming from Sarah Lawrence College, Noted Alumni | Sarah Lawrence College. The college follows events in the careers of previous alumni such as Yoko Ono. Linda, unlike Yoko, is not mentioned at all and is not listed as an alumna.

Linda McCartney at Vermont College » Mining for Old (archive.org)

In fact, I couldn't find a source on the internet that gave the wrong details. Unless it is an obscure source that I have not thought of I assume the bad source is a book or article (or several).

Without asking them directly or scouring through many biographies that I do not own or articles I cannot access, then giving an analysis. I am just going to call it a day on finding the source. But it is strange that it is easy to fact check.

In fact, I would say from 1997 there really is no excuse for getting this wrong.

Many Years From Now

In 1997 Many Years From Now was published. The authorized biography quotes Paul (and Linda) so extensively it is often counted as an autobiography or memoir. Paul had a say over the final edit, so any factual errors are official.

Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. | Miles (barrymiles.co.uk)

Paul and the author Barry Miles use the book to correct multiple myths they perceive as being spread. From how the book is written it seems to be a major motivation behind the book and reviewers criticized the defensive tone.

Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now book review | Miles (barrymiles.co.uk)

Here is the passage related to how Linda reacted to her mother's death...

"Linda moved to Tuscon, where she studied art and history. There is a myth that both Linda and Yoko Ono attended Sarah Lawrence, which was true of Yoko but not of Linda, whose brief academic career was at the University of Arizona. She was not exceptional academically and did not particularly enjoy it. It was an uncertain time in her life, she was mourning her mother and trying to find her place in the world." - Barry Miles, Paul McCartney Many Years From Now, Published (My version): Vintage 1998, Chapter: The White Album, Page: 507

Other myths about Linda that persist are mentioned in the book. Such as Linda being related to Eastman-Kodak, this circulates online, and it seems to only be due to her being a photographer with the surname Eastman. But I haven't come across it like I have this rumor, I assume the McCartneys have done enough to combat it, although it may just be due to how obvious it is that her father is actually a lawyer.

There are further rumors, that she slept with various celebrities or wasn't any good as a photographer, the McCartneys seem to just ignore these and just tell the story on their own terms. When gossip is a source, it probably depends on the biographer to how much weight it is given. Being a celebrity probably amplifies this kind of behavior towards you. Perhaps this celebrity drama creation is a factor for the myth.

Although Paul was criticized for being so defensive and feeling the need to set the record straight, somehow it hasn't stopped people getting this wrong. The book is an important source for information on Paul, his background and the band. It talks extensively from Paul's (and Barry and other insider's) point of view. Most biographers and Beatle experts would have this book, it is a heavily used source.

Why is the myth still repeated so often?

Given that it isn't very difficult to fact check, why do people keep getting this wrong?

I have decided not to name and shame the biographers and Beatle authorities I have heard saying this. I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't think it was a bigger problem. It seems to be a fact that is commonly believed but not examined enough for a basic fact check. Please take my word for it that this is a problem.

What is most curious to me is that it doesn't even matter. If you do not have a source for where she went to college, then don't mention it. It has nothing to do with the Beatles as a band and reflects little on her relationship with Paul.

Motive

When I have heard it used in discussions about her on Beatle Podcasts it was in relations to:

How her and Yoko attended the same school

Perhaps implying a connection between John and Paul's lives or the women they liked. Maybe a spiritual symmetry that is romantic to authors, but ultimately pointless and unnecessary. They had children the same age, loved art and lived in New York, isn't that enough.

However, perhaps the origin for this myth was mistaking Yoko's biography for Linda's.

Yoko at Sarah Lawrence

Speaking about how Paul liked posh girls

Drawing a parallel to his fiancée Jane Asher, whom he had split with a few months before Linda moved in with him.

I'm not sure how much evidence there is of this as some of his girlfriends and wives were posh, but others weren't.

But again it isn't necessary, just say she came from a nice area with a well-off family.

I have the feeling that there is some sort of shorthand by saying she went to that school. Like it meant Linda was super elite and privileged instead of attending the state schools and ordinary colleges.

Hopefully it isn't related to her background, coming from a Jewish family, sometimes people will project stereotypes in a weird antisemitic way. I have seen people comment (anonymously in comments sections) on her Jewish background as if that is significant.

A more generous analysis would be that as fans, commentators want the Beatles to have married high class ladies because it fits their ideals. The Beatles are special and so they shouldn't marry ordinary girls. This is a bit silly but subconscious biases may have an effect on what they believe to be true.

Other than that, I just don't know. They should know better but they don't. I don't want to pile on or irritatingly correct people. It just puzzles me that this myth persists. It concerns me because, although minor, if this isn't getting fact checked what else isn't.

The Future

One day in the hopefully not distant future this post (2022) will be irrelevant because they will stop, either because fact checking gets better (the dream), or more likely, because online people will correct them and embarrass them into changing.

[tainbocuailnge]

this theory on reddit mostly lists things I’ve been losing m’mind over since like 2017 already (to the point of having a dedicated tag about What Is Up With The Celt And Norse Gods but i kinda stopped talking about it after lb2 bc it gave zero answers lol) or things that further underline that Something Is Up but imo while odin’s involvement in caster cu’s saint graph is guaranteed at this point I’m also certain that it’s not a case of odin masquerading as cu like the theory implies, he genuinely is cu chulainn. in fact, I will say it’s the opposite

rather than odin using caster cu to manifest as a servant, it is cu chulainn who takes odin’s place

now this one will take a while so make yourself comfortable. there’s no reason to believe caster cu isn’t cu chulainn, his ingame and material profile both underline he and lancer are the same person. the way cascu talks to archer in first order would make no damn sense whatsoever if he weren’t legitimately cu chulainn, they blatantly reference their fight in front of the church in ubw. caster cu is undoubtedly the same person as every other cu chulainn.

BUT, interestingly enough, that fight at the church is also where archer says that cu’s gae bolg is stronger than gungnir. in fate/side material it says that gae bolg’s ability to always strike the heart is not an original function of the weapon, but rather something cu made himself. in fate/extra material it is further specified that this ability is one step below being classified as a divine authority. in fsn itself it says that this makes it closer in function to gungnir than his own father’s brionac. 

let me repeat that: gae bolg has functions that cu made himself, that are one step below a divine authority, that make it similar in function to gungnir, and gae bolg is the stronger weapon between the two.

a connection between cu and odin that the reddit post doesn’t mention is that in fate/extella, altera can smell the norse gods on cu. lugh isn’t a norse god, but cu stil assumed it was about his father. while easy to dismiss as some kind of translation error in a vacuum, in the greater context of all of cu’s ties to odin over lugh it’s sus as fuck

in scathach’s interlude, it’s brought up cu’s power might be getting split between his lancer and caster versions, although this isn’t an apparent issue with any other servant with multiple versions. however, cu chulainn was cut in half in fate/hollow ataraxia by lugh’s noble phantasm wielded by bazett, and this is reflected in caster cu’s design. his hair came loose and stayed that way, the spear he leans on to stay upright becomes a staff, and the third earring that prompted this fight dangles off it. a cu chulainn without gae bolg as noble phantasm or setanta’s “gae bolg user in training” skill is not possible because the spear is symbolic of his heroic and tragic fate, but fragarach is “a sword that severs fate.” if something like that were to cut him in half, a portion of cu chulainn unbound by that fate should become possible to manifest, right?

which brings me to something else I believe is very important here: cu chulainn’s heroic fate. because the thing about that is, he may have had that prophecy to ensure the result, but cu chulainn is a hero by choice, not by fate. he’s a demigod and a monster and was prophesied to great glory and untimely death, but his bond ce confirms that long before any of that was relevant he independently decided that he wanted to become a hero, and he continued to make that choice time and time again as he was repeatedly made to prove himself. even cu alter, the most monstrous we’ve seen him so far, insists on maintaining the dignity of a hero. he has aspects of gods and monsters alike but regardless of what his origins are, cu chulainn is the result of choosing the side of humans as a hero. his tragic fate is his own choice, and gae bolg’s ability to always hit the heart that represents this fate is a feature he made himself. as long as cu chulainn has gae bolg he will always be a hero, even if that weapon puts him on the level of a god, even if the bones it was made of make him look the part of monster, because it embodies his choice to be a hero.

the reddit post mentions it’s extremely likely that cascu will appear in lb6 and I agree, so let’s make a short detour to talk about someone else with a god level spear who is related to a camelot chapter. that’s right, I’m talking about lancer arturia alter! she noticed rhongomyniad elevating her to godhood and forcibly turned herself alter in order to remain human, even if it leaves her clinging to existeence with bleeding fingertips. notably, she appeared in the kara no kyoukai event where she is assumed to be an empty suit of armor, the same event where caster cu insists there’s no cu chulainn here. cu alter is a monster king but chooses the pride of a hero even so, a chapter later lancer artoria is a divine king who didn’t make the choice her alter did, saber alter is the person guarding the grail back in singularity F where we first meet caster cu, various forms of saber and cu keep circling each other in this “once is a fluke, twice is coincidence, thrice is a pattern” kind of way. lartoria alter is also one of the leaders of the wild hunt, same as odin, so there’s dots to connect there as well.

what am I getting at, you ask? I’ll tell you what I’m getting at. cu chulainn inherently has the capacity to be(come) the god odin, but chooses to be the hero cu chulainn instead.

here’s where the proof gets tricky and I have to veer off a little further into speculation rather than simply listing what’s right there in the text, because the missing puzzle piece is the reason why scathach is skadi. it seems the game is purposely vague about that in how it handwaves it as “they share a similar origin” without any further specifics or bringing it up in story, even though there’s plenty other heroic spirits with similar origins who don’t take each other’s names, like siegfried and his scandinavian counterpart sigurd (who are arguably much closer connected than scathach and skadi). even if the truth is indeed that their origin is simply similar and they blended together, it’s strange that scathach-skadi’s profile so strongly insists that she’s predominantly skadi when her noble phantasm is scathach’s gate of skye. a similar case is actually clytie van gogh, who is said to be predominantly clytie but even so her two noble phantasms are both van gogh’s, and curiously enough scathach-skadi featured in van gogh’s event as well. 

what is the reason for skadi being skadi and scathach being scathach even though skadi uses scathach’s gate and scathach uses skadi’s runes? if their origin is similar enough that their true names are getting combined, why are they still different? this is where it becomes theory instead of simply fact: the key lies in their decision to be either scathach or skadi. this mysterious shared origin of theirs at some point made a choice between siding with humans, gods or monsters, and the difference in that choice is the difference in their person. 

scathach is an immortal witch from the land of shadows but before that she was, as far as we know, simply a human who worked her ass off until the world itself was like “wow hold up, one human can’t do that much in their lifetime, you have to be immortal for this to make sense.” scathach HATES being immortal. as far as she’s concerned she’d much rather have died as a human, because all her human achievements became void now that she has infinite time to achieve them. her disposition as a teacher is a natural extension of this mindset: what scathach values the most of all is humanity’s potential to achieve impossible things in their limited lifespans. she is no longer human herself but she can still choose humanity’s side, and therefore she is scathach the godslayer. 

skadi on the other hand is a goddess inherently superior to humans, who cares for them from a place of taking responsibility for them rather than guiding them to achieve their potential. she lacks scathach’s skill or drive to improve as a warrior, and it seems that as “shining bride of the gods” she was more preoccupied with the happenings of other gods than those of humans. the skadi we meet had a lot of her options taken away as only survivor of ragnarok but she decided to live on as scandinavia’s divine guide and insisted on treating all of existence equally. skadi’s material profile notes that if she were to use her full authority as skadi, to choose the side of gods, the part of her that is scathach would shatter. but lostbelt skadi couldn’t pick the side of gods anymore now that she was the only god left. as someone with the aspect of giants she could have chosen the side of monsters as well, but instead she kept a careful balance between humans, monsters, and the one goddess left and therefore she is scathach-skadi, an existence somewhere between the scathach that unequivocally chose humanity and the skadi that unequivocally chose divinity. 

the situation is again similar to van gogh, whose existence is suspended between van gogh as human, clytie as monster, and the foreign god as divinity, and each of her ascension stages reflects one of those aspects. this would imply a third scathach(-skadi) who chose monsters, wouldn’t it? conveniently for my theory there does indeed seem to be a third one; skadi’s material profile mentions that summoning a scathach-skadi with a disposition closer to panhuman scathach is possible, and scathach’s material profile mentions that her body has another “stage” to it, which caster cu also mentions in the knk event. clytie van gogh’s noble phantasms are van gogh’s because she chose to side with humans, likewise scathach-skadi’s noble phantasm is scathach’s because, in letting herself be summoned to chaldea, she implicitly chose the side of humanity as well. 

now, back to cu chulainn and odin. cu and scathach are deeply tied as “the one who gets to kill you/me”, scathach and skadi share an origin, skadi and odin share a connection as norse gods and possibly lovers, cu chulainn and odin share an unspecified connection, and skadi feels poignant but unspecified emotions when she sees cu. caster cu’s first noble phantasm is a druid technique that never actually existed to match a cu chulainn who isn’t supposed to exist either, and his second noble phantasm is the full power of odin’s runes, unused by him because odin supposedly placed some kind of use restrictions on it. meanwhile cu’s personal modifications of gae bolg make it a spear similar to but more powerful than gungnir and altera reads him as norse rather than celtic, so it’s not only caster who suddenly has ties to odin, this is something inherent to all cu chulainns. 

remember what I keep saying about choice? scathach and cu chulainn are both heroes of the human order because that is the choice they made, regardless of their origins. extrapolating from the relationship between scathach, skadi, and cu to fill the gap odin leaves, what we can conclude is this:

cu chulainn and odin share an origin similar to the way scathach and skadi do, cu is simply the one that chose humanity while odin chose divinity

what this means for their exact relationship I can’t say, because it’s super vague what “origin” even means in this context. is it the origin of their literary tradition? is it their character concept? digging through the material books with my limited jp knowledge it seems the kanji used differ from those of the nasuverse magic concept “origin”, but even so it’s interesting that so many of the clues tie into the apartment complex that souren araya used to research origins. 

scathach and skadi aren’t directly related nor are they plausibly the same person, although skadi refers to scathach as her “other self” there is no indication that scathach does the same. what is notable is that “scathach” comes first in their combined name, skadi prefers “scathach-skadi” or “scathach-sama” over simply “skadi”, and skadi respects and fears scathach for her outrageous competence, confidence, and dependability. likewise, even if cu chulainn indeed shares an origin with odin, it’s explicitly stated that his gae bolg is more powerful than odin’s gungnir. cu could beat odin in a fight, scathach can snap skadi over her knee like a twig. those that chose the side of humanity are the more powerful and respectable ones, because this is fate and we will always choose humanity above anything else. that is why I say it is cu chulainn who takes odin’s place rather than the other way around.

right now the biggest mystery with no way to solve it yet is actually lugh’s identity, and by extension the identities of the whole celtic pantheon. as much as we’ve gone into various pantheons, the norse and celt gods are still a suspiciously large mystery. it's not unlikely that lugh and odin are the one with the shared origin instead, and it carries over into cu as lugh’s son. it could be that nasu read the same bit of old academia I remember reading and plays it as cu being an incarnation of lugh as well as his son. with the new valentines event a fha collab that brings up bazett’s ties to lugh is more likely every day. whether I’m right, and what the specifics of the situation are in case I’m indeed right, are something only time can tell. 

honestly though, if it turns out all of this is wrong and caster cu WAS in fact odin all along I’ll still feel vindicated for how my first reaction upon seeing him back in 2015 was “hold on, this doesn’t seem very cu-like of him.”

that’s all I got for theory directly extrapolated from fact, to wrap it up it’s time for some speculation and wishful thinking based on vibes alone.

lb6 as a whole seems to strongly be about “who you are meant to be”, about your destined potential. miss castoria is so different from OG saber that she lacks the name pendragon and it’s even possible to argue that she’s outright an artificial construct made by miss merlin, but even so she is “the once and future king that will come to britain’s aid”. its assigned crypter beryl is a beast in human clothing, and he is openly disdainful of the idea of living up to his potential. “becoming my best self is something I’d never want.” he says as he kills kirschtaria for trying to elevate humanity to godhood. beryl delights in failing to live up to his potential, in not being what he could or was meant to be.

caster arturia’s bond ce says “not a single thing is different. not a single thing is the same. for you have already met your other self.” which will no doubt smack me in the face with what it actually means hard enough to crack skulls once lb6 actually comes around. lb6 no longer has a fantasy tree and is maintained with rhongomyniad, the divine lance that forced arturia to choose between humans and gods. the lostbelt itself is a world of fairies rather than humans.

nothing is different. nothing is the same. you have already met your other self. your origin, your potential, is realized through a choice. you can be a god. you can be a monster or fairy. you can be human. all of those are the same, all of those are completely different. the only difference is the choice, and that choice makes all the difference.

gae bolg is the symbol of cu’s heroic ideal. it’s his choice to side with humans. and while caster cu’s materials state that getting his spear back isn’t his primary goal and he’s assigned himself the role of guide for now, he still misses it a lot. he doesn’t feel right not being a hero, he’s just acting the way he thinks a caster should, and possibly the only reason he even manifested like this is because this part of him was forcibly split off. 

the god level lance that maintains lb6. the god level spear made through his own choices. the fairies that he as druid has a stronger connection with than usual. his existence on the interstice between human god and monster, different in every form yet always exactly the same person. and, the use restrictions on ochd deug odin.

sooner or later caster cu is going to get his hands on a spear. it is going to be gungnir. the restrictions on ochd deug odin will be lifted and he is going to unleash the full force of odin’s magic. and he will still be cu chulainn. 

[anistarrose]

hey there! I appreciate you taking the time to post about the owl house runes, first off. second, I've found three different "of" messages in the last two episodes of season 1. have you found anything else besides the "blood" message on the book? thanks so much! my toh sideblog is raine-orshine if you'd like to message me :3

hi, and it's no problem!

I'm not aware of of three different "OF" messages in those two episodes, but I do know that Young Blood, Old Souls has at least one set of "OF" runes repeated as an error, because they reused the same background for the cursing flashback as the prior episode, and forgot to edit the runes out:

this is the one — I believe it also snuck into Keeping Up A-fearances in Season 2, lmao. in any case, neither I nor anyone else searching have found anything extra like a whole additional non-"OF" word, so I feel confident assuming any case of multiple "eye" codes per message is some kind of background error like this.

[pan-fangirl-345]

Books Bring People Together

Summary: A frustrated and stuck Kaminari comes to you for help, and it somehow blooms into something else along the way.

TW: I made Kaminari ADHD, so I'm sorry if there's anything wrong, I went off what my ADHD friends do and what a medical site told me. I myself am not ADHD, so again, I apologize if there's anything wrong with this. Small swears, and Mineta, which should be a warning in and of itself.

A/N: I have had this half-baked idea stuck in my head for months and I wanted it out, so I am giving you all this!

"Hey, um, (Y/L/N), can I ask you something?" Kaminari asked, sliding into the chair across from you at the common room table.

"Sure, what's up?" you asked, setting your pencil down on the paragraph you were reading.

"Um, this is kind of embarrassing," Kaminari admitted. "But, um, I'm having a really hard time with English right now, and I know that you're right behind Bakugou in grades."

"Where are you going with this Kaminari?" you asked, crossing your arms in front of your chest.

You had heard things about Kaminari, and after meeting Mineta and knowing that Kaminari hung around with him, you didn't have the best impression of him. You had just been placed in Class 2-A, and so far you had mostly hung around with what the other students were calling the 'Dekusquad'.

"I need someone to tutor me," he admitted. "Normally English isn't all that hard for me, but Shakespeare is whack and I don't understand half of it."

"You want me," you started, "to tutor you. Why not ask Bakugou? Isn't he your friend?"

"Yeah, but . . . Bakugou has . . . harsh methods, and I need someone who won't treat me like an idiot," Kaminari confessed.

"Alright," you relented. "Why don't we get started now? Do you have anything going on?"

"No, this takes precedent," Kaminari said, rushing to grab his things.

"Alright, here's my question for you," you said when he propped his book open. "Why don't you understand?" You saw the look on his face change and you winced. "Sorry, sometimes I have a hard time controlling the tone of my voice. Let me rephrase that question." You paused for a moment, thinking of the right words before you said, "What about this don't you understand? What's the one thing about this that trips you up?"

"The formatting for one thing," Kaminari grumbled. "Why the hell is printed like that?"

You chuckled, brushing hair out of your face. You had thought the same thing the first time you had read Shakespeare.

"Alright, how about you just read, and then you can ask me any questions while I work on my own stuff, alright?"

"That sounds like it might work," he admitted.

"If that doesn't work, feel free to let me know," you told him. "This is about what helps you remember the material better."

"No, like I said, normally this is really easy for me," Kaminari said. "Let's try it."

"Alright, and remember, if you have any questions, I'm right here."

"Thanks (Y/L/N)," he mumbled.

"Of course, I wouldn't be much of a hero if I couldn't help people, right?" you mused, smiling at him.

"R-Right!" he chirped, grinning back at you.

You both worked in silence for a little bit before Kaminari leaned back in his chair, rubbing at him eyes.

"You okay?" you asked.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm ADHD, so sitting still and trying to read this is a little hard," he confessed. "And I might be dyslexic, I've never been tested but sometimes reading is hard for me."

You frowned, biting the inside of your lip, running the situation through your head.

"What if I read it to you?" you asked, looking up from your chemistry homework.

"How? It's a play," Kaminari said.

"I used to be in a drama club in middle school," you told him. "It's set up like a script, or if we don't have the energy to act it out, it's not hard to pretend that it's a regular story."

Kaminari stared at you for a moment before he nodded.

"Yeah, yeah I think that might work a little bit better than me staring at the same paragraph for fifteen minutes without actually reading anything."

"What part are you on?" you asked Kaminari, moving to glance over his shoulder at the page.

"Portia is trying to convince Brutus to tell her what's going on in her house. I think."

"Oh, I adore this part," you muttered, mostly to yourself. "Alright, what has you stuck?"

"This part. 'I grant I am a woman; but withal A woman well-reputed, Cato's daughter. Think you I am no stronger than my sex, Being so father'd and so husbanded? Tell me your counsels, I will not disclose 'em: I have made strong proof of my constancy, Giving myself a voluntary wound Here, in the thigh: can I bear that with patience. And not my husband's secrets?' I don't entirely understand what she's saying."

Wow, English must've been his thing, he didn't mess up a single word, and he was able to read it fairly fluently, everything considered. It might have taken him a little longer than normal, but he had nailed it.

"Okay, so she's basically telling Brutus that she won't tell his secrets if he tells her what's going on, it doesn't matter if she's a woman or not."

"What was with the voluntary wound thing?"

"So, it depends. Sometimes, in plays, the women playing Portia will have a fake knife and stab themselves in the thigh, other times they pretend to slice themselves, depends on the director," you told him. "She basically cut herself on the thigh and said, 'If I can handle this I can handle whatever's going on inside your head.' Do you understand?"

"Yeah, but damn, this woman is a badass," Kaminari said, staring down at the pages."

"Right? Some people read that as psychotic, but it's Shakespeare," you told him, "everything in Shakespeare is psychotic to some extent."

"That's fair. Thank you for explaining that to me," he said.

"Of course, that is why you came to me," you replied, laying a hand on his shoulder for a moment before you moved back to your seat.

Kaminari, despite the things you had heard, was actually quite intelligent, it just took him a little longer to get the answer sometimes.

"Thank you so much for helping me," Kaminari murmured. "You were super helpful."

"Of course, I actually enjoyed helping you," you told him. "And if you need any more help, please, let me know."

"I will, thank you so much (Y/L/N)," Kaminari repeated.

"Have a good night Kaminari," you told him.

"You too!" he chirped before he headed up to his room.

You sat down at the table again, staring at the chemical formula in front of you.

So, if zinc only had one charge, positive two, and it was combined with thiosulfate, that meant that there shouldn't be the need for two of the zinc atoms, they would make the charge neutral.

You wrote the answer down, checking the textbook to make sure you were right. Polyatomic ions were a little more complicated than monoatomic ions.

There were only a few more questions, and then you could go to bed too, and you just hoped that there were no trick questions.

You were the last one in the common room, as usual, despite assuring Iida that you were right behind him when he went to bed an hour ago.

"Alright (Y/F/N), time for some good sleep," you muttered, shutting your book and gathering your supplies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You had been tutoring Kaminari for about six weeks, and he was definitely smarter than people gave him credit for. Sometimes he just needed a few minutes to think, or he needed something explained to him in a different way than everyone else.

Sero had been joining your little tutoring sessions too, and you had started doing them in Sero's room, since there were things Kaminari could mess with while he studied, and it was an environment where he didn't feel the need to prove himself.

"Hey, (Y/L/N), can you help me with this problem?" Sero asked, waving you over.

"Of course, what are we working on?" you inquired.

"Polyatomic ions, again," Sero said. "I need this extra credit."

"Alright, which one are you stuck on?"

"How do I figure out which Roman numeral goes here? Gold has multiple charges."

"You work backwards," you told him. "When you look at the formula, you need to figure out what charge dihydrogen phosphate has."

You gestured to the chemical formula.

"It has a negative one charge. Right?" Sero inquired, checking the list of common ions that the teacher had given them at the beginning of the unit.

"Right, and you have three of those ions, right?"

"Yeah, because there's a subscripted three outside the parentheses."

"So you have three of those, which means that those three together have a negative three charge."

"Right."

"So now you just have to figure out which gold variant has the right charge to cancel that one out."

"Well, there's only one gold atom, so it's gold three right?"

"Bingo, you got it."

"Oh, that makes it so much easier than what I was doing," he muttered, erasing the math he had been doing, writing down the way you had just shown him.

"(Y/L/N), can you come read through this essay for me?" Kaminari asked. "I think it's okay, but I need another eye on this."

"Sure, hand it over," you told him, taking the papers that he had handed to you.

You grabbed one of your signature blue pens and uncapped it, ready to mark anything you thought he could do better.

There wasn't as much as you were expecting. While Kaminari had a hard time interpreting things, once he understood, he was golden. He had a way with words, you noticed as you scanned through the paper he needed to hand in next class. You assumed that it gave him time to think about the right phrasing of things.

Other than a few grammatical and spelling errors, the paper was well written, and there was nothing major that needed fixing.

"Good job Kami, this is really good," you told him, ruffling his hair lightly.

He responded well to physical affection and praise, you had also noticed, and he made it easy.

Once you got past the typical shield he threw up, he was a nice guy with insecurities, just like everyone else.

He chuckled, leaning into your hand.

You noticed that the others didn't touch Kaminari as much as you did, despite having known him for much longer. They were worried about getting shocked, Sero had told you.

"Why though? He's never shocked me," you had told him.

"He can't control it sometimes, it builds up in his body and it needs an out."

"Well, that still no reason to stop touching him," you had mused. "If he shocks me he shocks me, it's really no big deal."

Kaminari had only shocked you once, during a thunderstorm when there had been a lot of lightning outside. He had gotten excited about getting a 90 on one of his tests, and had hugged you, giving you a slight shock.

He had apologized profusely, but you had waved his apologies off.

"It's okay Kaminari," you told him. "It happens to all of us sometimes."

You were finding yourself thinking about him more than you should've. You had become good friends with both him and Sero, and the other students had started coming to you when they had a question, but Kaminari was a little different.

It had started out with the flirty comments, but slowly those had turned into real compliments. He had been keeping Mineta away from you more and more, and he had even started laying off the perving with the grape rat.

He was a good guy, he really was, despite the playboy attitude. He was sweet, and he was just like every other person in the world.

"Thanks for tutoring us both," Kaminari said as the session was coming to a close.

"Yeah, you're really saving our asses," Sero agreed.

"Of course, come to me any time," you told them both, smiling as you made to head back to your own room.

"Hey, um, (Y/L/N), can I ask you something?" Kaminari asked.

"Sure. You know how much I love questions," you teased, smiling at him. Then you noticed his expression. "Kami?"

"Will . . . will you-" he chuckled awkwardly, messing with the seam of his pant leg. "Can you read something to me?"

"Yeah, of course," you said. "What is it?"

He handed you the book, and you smiled.

"My dad used to read this to me when I was little. I think that's why I love books so much," you admitted. "That was before . . . well, it doesn't matter now. Come on, we can head down to the common room if you want. Or your room, it doesn't really matter to me."

You had visited Kaminari's room on more than one occasion to return things to him, he tended to be a little forgetful, and he had often left things with you.

Despite the fact that everything you had learned about society told you that you should avoid being alone in a room with a boy, you trusted Kaminari enough to be alone in a room with him.

"I really like to read too," he confessed. "But sometimes my brain doesn't like to let me do it."

"I understand, it's okay," you told him, touching his arm lightly. "Are you sure that you'll be able to sit still long enough for me to get through any of it?"

Kaminari, after spending so much time with you over the last few weeks, had figured out how your voice worked, and he rarely got offended by your tone of voice anymore, which you were thankful for.

"Yeah, I like the sound of your voice, it helps calm me down. I think I might pay attention more if you read it to me."

"Alright, sure, let's go," you said, holding the book to your chest.

You knew this book like the back of your hand, and you had a feeling that Kaminari was telling the truth when he said he would be able to pay attention.

Kaminari followed you into the common room of the dorms, trailing just slightly behind, but he was in front of you the moment Mineta tried to get to you.

It amazed you how fast he could move sometimes, when he really wanted to.

"Get lost Mineta," you said. "I have nothing to say to you."

Mineta opened his mouth but a raised brow from Kaminari had him shutting it and heading to his own room so he could think his pervy thoughts in peace.

"I can't believe I was ever friends with that perv," Kaminari whispered. "I think I owe a lot of the girls apologies."

Kaminari glanced over his shoulder, and you smiled at him, linking your hands together.

You were proud of him, he had really grown lately, and you were glad that he was seeing how uncomfortable he had made the girls.

"I'm proud of you," you told him, and he beamed.

He responded well to praise, and being told that he had done a good job.

"Come on, we'll have to go to bed soon if we don't want Iida to lecture us again," you said, sitting down on one of the couches.

Kaminari sat down next to you, leaning his head on your shoulder as your propped the book open.

You didn't mind the fact that Kaminari was a little clingy, the contact was nice, and he always radiated warmth, though whether that was his normal body temperature or he ran hot because of his quirk, you didn't know.

You started the book off, barely having to look at the words as you read, changing your voice as necessary, stopping every once in a while to explain a word to Kaminari that he didn't understand, or to answer a question that he had.

It was nice, spending time with him like this, simply because he wanted to, not because he was going to fail a subject.

Somehow he had ended up with his head on your thighs, and you had one hand buried in his hair, brushing it away from his face, your fingers carding through it softly.

He was making a content noise in the back of his throat, and you smiled down at him, finishing up a chapter.

"Do you want to go to bed?" you asked softly, not wanting to disturb him too much, he had enough trouble sleeping as it was.

He hummed softly, leaning into your hands, and you smiled down at him softly.

You had never been one for crushes, they had seemed pointless, and there had never been a person who had caught your attention like this.

You had thought about it, of course, what it would be like to be in a relationship, but you had never thought that you would have to worry about it.

Well now you were worrying about it.

That nameless, faceless person that had been with you in those daydreams was starting to look frighteningly like Kaminari.

You had panicked when it had first started happening, until you realized that it would probably fade. You had had a friend in middle school who had a new crush every week, and you had assumed that it would fade with time.

It hadn't. That uneasiness that had popped up around him slowly melted into a nice warmth whenever he was close. You had started to stop worrying about whether he would like this, or hate that, and had started to show your true colors.

He had seemed to like you even more when you had started doing that, and you were glad.

But the only bad thing was that now you were noticing other things. His hands lingered a little longer than necessary when he helped you during training, his smile always seemed brighter when you made him laugh. His eyes always seemed to follow you around the common room, and he sometimes appeared at your side when you walked in.

You weren't sure if you just overthinking things or if he might like you back.

But this wasn't a simple crush anymore. You weren't sure what it was. It was a little too early to be love (even though it was just a rush of chemicals in the brain meant for human survival), but it was way past a simple crush.

Was there another step between a crush and love? Was this going to end with your heart breaking? Was there even a chance that he might like you back?

These were things that you kept in the back of your mind until you were alone in your room. Worrying about them in his presence made him worry about you, and you didn't want him to worry about you if he didn't need to.

"Kami, seriously, you need to go to bed."

"If I do, so do you," he told you, making you chuckle.

"I'll go to bed if you will. You are in my lap after all," you teased, pulling your hands away.

"That's fair," he murmured, stifling a yawn.

"Go to bed Kami," you whispered, standing up as soon as your legs were free.

They had fallen asleep a while ago, but you hadn't had the heart to move him.

"Alright," he mumbled, stumbling towards his dorm room.

You smiled softly, heading for yours.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You weren't sure what woke you up hours later. Maybe it was the three glasses of water you had drank before bed, or maybe it was the fact that your brain hated you almost as much as Kaminari's hated him.

You stretched, pulling a hoodie on over the tank top and shorts that you had gone to bed in, heading for the common room.

You weren't going back to bed any time soon, so you might as well get some studying done with a nice cup of tea or something.

You were almost surprised to see Kaminari sitting at the common room table with his books out.

"Denki? What are you doing?" you mumbled, wandering over.

"(Y/L/N)? What are you doing up?"

"I could ask you the same thing," you murmured, plopping into the seat next to him.

"Couldn't sleep, my brain went into overdrive the minute I tried to fall asleep."

"I at least got a good four or five hours in," you replied. "But it's Friday night, I should be sleeping in."

"What woke you up?" he asked, laying a hand on your thigh.

Kaminari, you had noticed, liked having his hands on you.

Not in the perverted way you had expected though. He liked having a hand on your thigh or on the small of your back. He liked an arm around your shoulders or his arm linked with yours when you all took class outings. He liked being close to you.

"No idea. It might've been a nightmare," you admitted. "I remember faint flashes, but it might've been something else."

"Are you going to be able to go back to bed?"

"Nah, I'll be up for a good while," you told him, leaning into his shoulder.

"Anything I can do to help?" he asked.

"Can you just . . . talk to me?" you inquired. "I like listening to you talk about things. Calms me down."

"What do you want to know about?"

"Anything. Everything. You."

"Did you know that I have a cat named Marshmellow?"

"What? No," you said, perking up a little bit. You had always been an animal person.

"Yeah. He's the spawn of the devil, but I didn't know that when I named him. All white, pretty blue eyes. Pure fucking evil," Kaminari told you, taking his phone out to show you a photo.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, he absolutely despises me," Kaminari said, handing his phone over to you. "Loves my sister though, so he isn't a complete psychopath."

"He's a cat, can animals even be psychopaths?" you asked, moving your seat closer to his.

"No idea, but it wouldn't surprise me if he is," Kaminari said, chuckling.

"You're right, he is pretty," you murmured, flipping through the photos quickly.

Kaminari hummed, but when you glanced up he was looking at you.

He had that look on his face, the look that he sometimes got when he looked at you. It was one of the reasons you wondered if he liked you or not. He looked like he was in pain when gave you that look.

"Denki?" you inquired softly.

"Hmm?"

"Why are you looking at me like that? Like you're in pain? Like you're hurt?" you asked.

You didn't like the way your voice sounded. That little hint of insecurity snuck in, your voice had that clogged sound it got when you tried not to cry.

You weren't sure whether you could handle his response to that, but you needed to know if being around you caused him pain. You needed to know if there was any chance that he hated being in your presence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Kaminari's POV)

Pain, huh?

Yeah, this was definitely pain, seeing her like this, swaddled in a hoodie he had left in her room accidently a week ago, covering her shorts, making her legs look a mile long.

He had tried to ignore it, tried to ignore the feeling in his chest every time he looked at her, tried to ignore the blatant male pride that came with seeing her draped in his hoodie, but he was only human after all.

Denki, after spending so much time with a girl that didn't tend to pull her punches, he knew how uncomfortable he had made the girls with all of his comments. He now knew how it made them feel when he said some of the things he had.

Denki never wanted her or any of the other girls to feel like that again, and he wanted to ignore some of the things that were running through his head, but she was making it hard when she looked at him like that, when she said his name the way that she just had.

"Denks?" she asked softly, moving to get a better look at his face.

Denki had never had a crush, not a real one anyway. He had had his eyes on Jirou first year, but that had been fleeting.

He was flirty, it was just his nature, but this feeling whenever he looked at her . . . that was completely new on him.

"Denki, are you okay?" she asked, putting her hands on his face lightly, making him look at her.

"Do you have any idea what you do to me?" Denki asked, placing his hands over hers. "I wasn't sure whether you felt the same way and I didn't want to mess anything up."

"Denki? What are you saying?" she asked, eyes bright with hope as she looked at him, running her thumb over his cheek softly, almost absentmindedly.

"I like you, (Y/F/N), I like you a lot, and this isn't some . . . three A.M. spur of the moment confession, but . . . it kind of is. The point is that you're smart, and all kinds of gorgeous, and there's so many things about you I wish I could list, but words aren't my thing, and I know that I'm rambling, but I really can't stop 'cause I'm terrified of what your response is gonna be and I don't want to fuck anything up and-"

"Denki," she cut in, smiling at him the way she did when she was fondly exasperated with him. "You have nothing to worry about. Absolutely nothing. I like you too."

"Why?"

Even Denki was surprised by the amount of confusion in his own voice.

"Because you're a dork," she stated. "Because you're smart, even if people don't always see it right away. Because you want to be a hero, because you like to make a difference. Because in the end, you're a good guy, when you get past the playboy attitude and shitty pickup lines. Because you're cute and all kinds of soft. Because apparently I have a thing for hyperactive morons with screwed up hair."

"Rude," he muttered, but she smiled at him even wider, and he knew that it was worth it.

"Am I wrong?" she asked softly, swinging her legs around to get closer to him.

"No, but that doesn't mean that I'm happy about it," he mumbled, pouting slightly.

She gave a small giggle, something that rarely happened, and Denki smiled, wide and unburdened.

"So, what do you say about going on a date?" he asked, tucking her hair behind her ear to get a better look at his face.

"I think that's the smartest thing you've ever said to me," she teased.

Denki pouted again and she touched his nose lightly, making it crinkle in response.

"That wasn't a no," she told him, wrapping her arms around his neck softly.

"You know, this looks good on you," he whispered, touching the hem of the hoodie carefully. "And it looks very familiar."

"It does?" She pulled away to look down at it and her eyes went wide. "I didn't even know it was yours. I just threw it on on my way down here. When did you even . . . .?"

"I left in there like a week ago," Denki informed her. "I thought you had just kept it."

"I didn't know it was in there," she admitted. "But I'm not sorry that I'm in it, it's very comfortable."

"We can share custody," he murmured.

"We'll have to," she agreed. "I don't think I can deal with never wearing this again. You actually have good taste in hoodies."

"Why are you so surprised by this?" he asked.

"Because most of the time your style seems all over the place," she replied. "But that's not a bad thing. It makes you unique."

"Normal is overrated."

"A normal sleep schedule is not," she said, standing up. She grabbed his hands, pulling him to his feet. "Come on, we can chill in my room if you want to."

"You aren't nervous about having me in there?" Denki asked.

"No, because I know that if you try anything I can knock you on your ass. I also trust you," she told him, linking their fingers together softly. "Is this okay?"

"More than okay," he breathed, stepping close enough to brush their shoulders together.

He could get used to this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Your POV)

It was a rare day when you and Denki got a day off together. Being heroes was tiring, and schedules were always weird, so when you both got a day off together, you always spent them together.

"You're up early," Denki murmured, slipping in behind you from where you were sitting on the window seat of your apartment.

He wrapped his arms around your waist, burying his face in your neck.

"The baby woke me up," you said.

Said baby padded into the roof, tail high in the air, a smug look on that cute furry face as he jumped up onto the seat, curling up in your lap.

"Marshmellow, don't lay on my book," you muttered, pulling the book out.

"Told you, he's fuckin' evil," Denki murmured, kissing your shoulder lightly.

His shirt was slipping off your shoulder, and Denki treated uncovered skin like a target, regardless.

"How long have you been up?" he asked.

"Only an hour or two, and you looked so peaceful, I felt bad waking you up. I know that you've been getting more action than I have these last few weeks," you murmured, taking one of his hands, kissing his palms softly, leaning back into his warmth.

"I love you," Denki hummed.

"I love you too Denks," you told him.

"Read to me?" he requested, and you smiled.

"Always," you replied, finding your spot in your book again.

[rotationalsymmetry]

Yesterday I saw a post about an article about an approach to reading that the article didn’t like.

I pattern-match. Data point one: child me listening to Tom Lehrer’s “New Math”, a satire about what was at the time a new way of teaching math, and thinking yes, that all makes sense though?

Data point two: random internet memes about the Common Core by people making fun of it in ways that did not make sense and suggested that they either don’t understand math or don’t understand education, in particular the idea that explaining things to kids multiple ways increases the odds that one of those ways will click

Data point three: I know people who learned to read (and learned very well) before kindergarten, ie on their own or at least without anything beyond whatever they picked up from Sesame Street, certainly without someone standing over their shoulder correcting them whenever they got a word wrong. Which suggests that making mistakes when reading silently does not actually prevent someone from picking things up later on.

Data point four: remembering reading the Lord of the Rings at age 10 or so and mentally reading a lot of those very long, unfamiliar names as things like G— or maybe G—l, rather than Galadriel. (Which, when I did sound it out, I interpreted as gal-uh-DREE-ul, rather than guh-LAD-ree-el. I got the correct pronunciation eventually from hearing my mom say it.)

Conclusion 1: people always get outraged about any pedagogy that’s different from how they were taught, probably the only way to avoid that is to never change pedagogies, which seems like a poor way to optimize things. That doesn’t mean an improvement is better, but does mean that outrage is not a reliable indicator of worseness.

Conclusion 2: the parent writing this assumed it was bad that her child was making wild guesses about which word was what and then moving on, and that it was better for her to insist that her child get each word correct before turning the page. But is it? Or is it better to do a 70% job and hopefully enjoy the book, with the understanding that kids can improve their reading ability even without being explicitly corrected, that perhaps explicit correction or prompting to sound the word out is neither necessary nor especially helpful to learning how to read compared to having ample time to just…read, even if some of the reading is full of mistakes? This closely mirrors other education controversies. “New Math” and poking fun of prioritizing understanding what you’re doing over getting the right answer. Objections to a “creative spelling” approach to learning to write where spelling mistakes are not corrected.

How music is taught: pros and cons of an approach that largely lets a new student experiment and play, vs an approach that’s focused on practice makes perfect?

How someone learns a new language, whether instant feedback on every mistake is more important than just frequent practice even if the practice contains errors? Thinking about being in drama or creative writing classes where the teacher had us give each other feedback and had to lean really hard into telling us to give positive feedback and trust that most mistakes are newbie nervous mistakes and that getting confidence through repeated practice is more important than being aware of everything done wrong.

Thinking about…is making sure a child doesn’t read “butterfly” as “bird” without some sort of calling attention to the mistake when the kid is just starting out, about teaching the child to read (surely it’s not about teaching the child to enjoy reading) or is it about obedience and embarrassment, oh no, if other parents know my child doesn’t realize that the word “butterfly” cannot possibly sound like “bird” they will think I’m a bad parent…

I mean, obviously the eventually outcome shouldn’t be a child who can’t read “butterfly”, but the question is how to get there and whether frequent external correction/phonetics prompting is actually more effective than just encouraging the kid to read a lot. Now, the article did say literacy rates “remained abysmally low”, but unless that was very bad wording on the writer’s part (a writers who seemed to be showing off their language fluency, so I’d hope not) what that means is literacy rates are about the same as under the previous approach. Which either means both approaches are about equally effective (kinda surprising but possible) or that there is a change for better or for worse that is evened out by other factors affecting literacy, at any rate it is definitely not damning evidence that the approach is worse than the approach the writer grew up with.

Oh, also right at the front of the post was the usual “there are people who misunderstand or maliciously misinterpret my post, clearly this is a failure of academic skills” your problem is still not a reading comprehension problem, that’s still just a fancy way of calling anyone you disagree with the r-word. (Short explanation for anyone who hasn’t heard my rant yet: people arguing with strangers online when they go onto social media when their brain is fried at work, when they can’t sleep at 3 am, etc is not really an indication of how well they can parse language when they’re actually operating on all cylinders, and the choice to start a petty argument with a stranger online is actually the problem; there are real people who frequently have trouble parsing language, most are self aware about it, I don’t think those people are the ones you’re getting internet fighting from. You’re getting it from people with normal reading comprehension who are confused because they’re tired/not using their brain fully because it’s their downtime, or perhaps because your writing was unclear, but somehow “ugh, kids these days will argue with complete strangers online, how terrible “ doesn’t give people the same sense of smug superiority as bemoaning the lack of “reading comprehension.” Ie, stupidity, you are just calling people stupid, it is morally neutral to have learning disabilities and also that’s not the problem here and also the people you’re hurting aren’t the people you’re arguing with, who are mostly just going to decide you’re a jerk as well as wrong, it’s people who know their reading comprehension is sub par and who are exquisitely embarrassed about it, because you pointed to the problem as being the reading comprehension (which is not always off in situations where op is complaining about lack of reading comprehension, sometimes their writing is ambiguous) and not the arguing with strangers thing.)

[saja-star]

This is not true. I can't speak to the study you are referencing, and individual outcomes for language deprivation can vary a ton, but the literature overall shows deaf people who have been language deprived can successfully learn a functional L1. I can also say from personal experience that I have met people with late L1 acquisition (after age 10) who went on to become skilled in multiple written and signed languages and got advanced degrees. Like I said, outcomes vary a lot, but we definitely should not treat language deprived people as a lost cause. Even among deaf people who do not have any exposure to a signed language in their lifetime, researchers now agree that homesign systems can be structurally complex and have internal rules (Senghas et al. 1993, German 2023).

Newport (1990) found that late L1 acquisition resulted in only a minimal decrease in performance on a word order task, but more significant issues with morphology. That said, note that the morphology chart here is a z-score, not a % correct, and that late learners were within one standard deviation from the mean on all tasks. (The letters here stand for tasks targeting different morphological structures, like Verbs of Motion Production, Verb Agreement Production, etc.)

Mayberry (1993) also found that on the receptive side, there were some differences in language processing. Given a task where they had to see someone sign a long sentence and repeat it back, late learners were more likely to make errors with phonological substitutions, where they mixed up similar-looking signs, rather than semantic substitutions, where they mixed up signs with similar meanings. This meant than when signers made errors, the errors of the late learners were more likely to be ungrammatical. This result was interpreted as evidence of a processing delay, where late learners were able to catch the phonological form of the sign but were not always unpacking its meaning in the short amount of time. However, notably, the late learners' responses were equally long (i.e., they were not forgetting whole chunks) and they signed at the same speed as other groups. Overall they did make more errors than native signers, but they were on par with hearing L2 signers.

These are just the two most foundational studies, and there is a lot of other literature on this from the past 30 years.

Quick soapbox: This is not at all to dismiss the harm of language deprivation. A number of studies, e.g. by Thacker, have documented how language deprivation can lead to profound harm to deaf people with mental health concerns who are institutionalized because they can't access preventative and outpatient services, are wrongly diagnosed due to language differences, are not informed about medical procedures because staff assume they aren't competent communicators, etc. Children should be given full access to language, and people who have already experienced language deprivation should be treated with respect and willingness to communicate regardless of their own language use.

what kinds of different environments would you like to raise kids in?

(For context, we're discussing absolutely unethical experiments here)

You'd want to raise a control group speaking some natural language, another group with no access to language at all (actually several groups, controlling for different variables; some kids totally alone and some with peers, for instance), and groups speaking different constructed languages with different feature sets. You'd want to try features and feature combinations that don't occur in natural language, and you'd need enough different groups that you could vary the features in a systematic way.

This is, for instance, the experiment that could put debates about UG to bed once and for all.

There are some observational studies that provide insight here. Studies on abused children who were raised without language have generally shown that they are incapable of learning language in adulthood, providing support not only for the critical period hypothesis (which is well-supported anyway) but for the idea that if some language knowledge is not developed during this period linguistic competency is permanently handicapped. Studies on children raised speaking Esperanto (a conlang, which now has a few hundred native speakers) generally indicate that they innovate a lot of grammar that is not present in the "official" form of the language, including introducing some forms of irregularity to Esperanto's unnaturally regular grammar. There is some debate around how these results should be interpreted though, in light of possible interference from the childrens' other native languages. Anecdotal observations of adult Lojban (another conlang) speakers also show them reducing unnaturalistic features to more naturalistic ones, providing at least some support for the idea that natural language is "like that" for unavoidable cognitive reasons of some kind.

[eveningstar1516]

Rise of the Demon King ~ Chapter 7

Rise of the Demon King

Fic: Multi Chapter Paring: MC x Everyone (Mostly Lucifer) Type: Angst with a Happy Ending Total Word Count: 26,758 TW: Major Character Death, Reader gets stabbed with a sword through their chest so..., Abusive Parents, Past Child Abuse, Demon Hunters, Loss of Control Summary: You’ve done it. You’ve finally done it. You’ve managed to anger the demon king. Now you hold your head high as he hands down your sentence. AO3 Portal: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27065362

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Previously:

As he walked through the halls towards his next class, he made a vow to himself to try and feel that unfamiliar emotion until he could name it, then keep feeling it, because, for Satan, it felt like Y/N was right next to them, with their signature smile on their face, proud of him for focusing on a feeling opposite of his wrath. Should he start to feel his wrath taking over, he would picture Y/N, holding his hand, encouraging him to feel that unfamiliar emotion. One he soon learned was called ‘Philia Love’.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CHAPTER 7 - Virtue of Loyalty (4265 words)

Our trip to the palace was a quiet one. Michael didn’t seem to want anything to do with me since he flew quite fast and left me behind multiple times as I'd never flown before and flying was extremely difficult. No one offered any assistance so I tucked my wings away, which I managed to figure out how to do after I accidentally did so mid flight, and ran under him. Looking straight ahead after confirming that I was keeping pace with Michael, I spotted the Celestial Palace. My jaw dropped in awe as I ran. The thing was massive! At least 2.5 times the size of Diavolo’s castle and even more decorative. The white walls were adorned with varying shades of golden accents making the palace seem larger than it really was. As I got closer, I learned that it was sitting in the middle of a massive garden that was overflowing with different kinds of celestial plants and trees. Although both the palace and garden seemed to be overflowing with decorations, everything still fit perfectly and was quite pleasing to the eyes.

Approaching the marble steps of the palace as Michael landed in front of me, greeting some gardeners as they stopped and bowed their heads to him. Signalling for them to resume their work, he continued up the steps motioning for me to follow. Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I followed him looking as unfazed as possible. Upon entering I found that the outside of the palace does no justice to the massive interior. Abandoning plan to remain as neutral and unfazed as possible, I gazed in absolute awe at the decor, my mouth opening slightly. There were no lighting fixtures as massive windows lined the wall letting in more than enough sunlight through. A massive chandelier was located in the center of the room with golden and silver chains decorating it. The marbled floor also had silver and gold accents as a beautiful floral pattern was outlined. Hearing a chuckle behind me, I turned to see Michael looking at me with a smug smile on his face.

“Well how can you not expect me to be amazed by all this?!” I countered while spinning and gesturing around the room.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Your smug smile said it all Mike” I flashed him a wicked smirk of my own as I called him by the nickname. His face darkened significantly as his tone dropped to what would have been a dangerous level had I not have spent my life with demons. It just didn’t have the same undertones as Devilish.

“Watch yourself child”

Giving him an exaggerated mock bow I responded.

“My humble apologies Sir Michael. I will be sure not to repeat the same error in the future.”

“Very funny.” He scoffed and walked off. I got up and followed him through the palace until we stopped between two massive golden doors to what I assumed to be the throne room. Michael addressed himself and stated that he brought me with him. 2 angels donning Celestial armour opened the doors. Michael walked in with his head slightly bowed and his gaze lowered. I walked looking straight ahead as I subtly took the room in. It wasn’t as big as I expected it to be. A golden carpet leading from the door to the throne was the most extravagant thing in the room. In contrast to the rest of the palace, the throne room was quite modest. Even the throne wasn’t extravagant, built for comfort instead of elegance. God himself looked to be a 6’8 man in his late fifties with chestnut coloured hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He wore a simple white robe with gold accents. His eyes, a light blue colour, were emitting a slight white glow as we approached. Michael stopped a short distance from the throne and kneeled.

“Father, I have brought Y/N on your orders.”

“Thank you my son.” He turned to look at me.

“Y/N, you have caused quite the commotion in the 3 realms.”

I kept my tone playful as a polite smile made itself home on my face as I spoke with God.

“What can I say Father, trouble likes to follow me, wherever I may be.”

“That may be my child, although I am quite confused as to how you ended up here especially as a seraph. In case you didn’t know, that position must be earned here in heaven, so please explain to me, why I shouldn’t forsake you and have you fall to the Devildom?” He raised his right eyebrow and relaxed into his throne as he asked his question.

“Oh make no mistake, I didn’t want to come here in the first place, had I actually had a choice, I would have gone to the Devildom where I belong. Unfortunately, circumstances never seem to be on my side.”

“That still doesn’t explain how you came to be here, in that attire nonetheless.”

“Does it upset you that I come donning Lucifer's clothing and wings? I assure you, I didn’t have a say in my appearance. I am only staying here as long as necessary after all. I still wish to fall and return to my family.”

“Tell me child, how is it that a human finds comfort in the likes of demons rather than angels?”

“Whoever said I didn’t find comfort in angels? I find Simeon and Luke to be quite comforting whenever I get stressed with this whole 3 realms stuff. I just find the darkness of the Devildom more appealing as you and I both know what lurks underneath this “bright” soul of mine.”

“And yet you came here to me, why?”

“I presume you know the details regarding my untimely end?”

“Yes I am, although you weren’t due to perish yet, I do not dictate the souls within the Devildom realm. What of it?”

“I sacrificed myself for the brothers whom I have grown to call family so that they may continue to live despite being ruled by a tyrant whom you rivel for the title of “Devil””

“Watch what you say child! You are still addressing Father and not some random person off the street!” Ignoring Michael, I continued.

“I do not wish to return to the Devildom while it is ruled by King Abandon.”

“Child, I am aware of your relationship to the brothers as well as your loyalty to those you call family. I am also aware of the feelings you have for my eldest son. I ask you, has anyone told you about his duties while he was serving me?”

“Yes, Simeon and his brothers would speak about his time here as the leader of the council. Lucifer himself preferred not to talk about it but he answered my questions whenever I asked. I have also learned his work habits and often aided him whenever an overflow of work had come in due on a short notice.” God seemed to contemplate something. With a thoughtful look on his face, he addressed me.

“I have a proposition for you. You wish to fall and reunite with your family in the Devildom. I do not wish to have you up here, although you do not want to serve King Abandon.”

“That is correct.”

“I will grant your wish on one condition. I will allow you to return to the Devildom after Abandon’s reign is over, on the condition that you take Samael’s position on the council. You are to take over his responsibilities without attempting to sabotage the realm or abuse your power. Should you not be able to meet my expectations, or should you abuse your position, I will cast you out regardless of who is currently ruling the Devildom.”

Michael, who had stayed silent while his Father was speaking, was shocked by God's proposition.

“Father, are you sure this is the right way to go? Y/N doesn’t even belong here. Are you sure trusting them with Samael’s old position is a good idea?”

“Do you disagree with my judgment Michael? Do you believe me incapable of determining Y/N’s fate in my realm?”

Michaels face visibly paled as he realized the implications of his words. Bowing his head in mortification he answered his Father.

“‘O-of course not Father! I just don’t think that Y/N is qualified or ready to lead the council. They are unaware of how the Celestial realm operates and doesn’t have the experience that Samael possessed.”

Scratching his chin, God thought about Michael's words.

“You’re right Michael, you and the rest of the council as well as Simeon and Luke shall serve as their guide during their time here. You are to teach them how we operate and train them as to how to properly fulfill Samael’s role. You are to step down as the leader of the council once they have learned how to fill in the role themselves.”

Not being able to object to his Father's words, Michael agreed, although he tried to hide it, you could see how he clenched his teeth, obviously disapproving the entire idea and his new role as your babysitter.

“How about it Y/N, will you accept my proposal?”

“I have a few conditions of my own I’d like to add. I will accept on the condition that I return as soon as Diavolo is crowned king, no later and that other than the obvious changes that come with falling, no other changes will be made to me. I will follow your rules while I am up here and will serve you as long as it doesn’t result in any harm coming to the Devildom or Earth and their inhabitants. I will fulfill my role as Lucifer’s replacement during my time here, no more, no less.”

“Of course, that goes without saying. I will also add that you are to have no contact with any being outside my realm during your time here. We wouldn’t want anyone coming up here to retrieve you before our deal has ended now would we?”

“No, we wouldn’t. I accept your proposal to be Lucifer’s replacement until the time comes for Diavolo's crowning. Until then, I shall serve you and the council to the best of my abilities.” I stepped closer and kneeled before him as he sealed the deal.

“Alright then, as you are no doubt aware, each angel on my council represents a virtue. You shall as well. While Humility does not suit you quite right, I shall grant you a new virtue. One that could be considered a sin should it be applied incorrectly. I think you’d like that. Rise Y/N, Virtue of Loyalty.”

I rose to my feet as an invisible force caused my wings and halo to appear. They glowed a light blue as whatever magic God was using to tie me to the Celestial realm ran its course. Once the glowing dimmed down, I tucked my wings back in and bowed my head once more towards the being I now served for the time being and exited the throne room, making my way back to the House of Honors with Michael close behind. As we reached the front door, Michael turned me around. A hard and unforgiving expression on his face. A look of outright hatred in his eyes.

“Listen Y/N, just because Father has accepted you into the Celestial realm, doesn’t mean the rest of us have. You are still an outsider and I frankly do not trust anyone who has spent so much time around demons. I will follow Father’s orders in training you, but know this, Y/N, if I so much as suspect you of doing anything to upset the balance in the Celestial realm, if you hurt any of the angels here, I will take matters into my own hands. I will not allow a being as tainted as you to wreak havoc among the angels. Am I understood?”

Meeting his gaze, a smile made its way to my face as I responded.

“I will hold you to that.”

He took one last hard look at me and walked through the door. Left alone on the steps, I thought to myself, ‘Soon my demons, I’ll be back, soon’. I walked to the gardens and spent the next few hours tending to it until dinner.

In the Devildom. After they lost Y/N

As soon as they got home, Mammon went straight to Y/N’s room. How could he let this happen? He was their first damn it! He should have protected them, he should have stopped Lucifer, he should have done something! He entered Y/N’s room and immediately sat on their bed, made messily in their excitement to meet the king. He held their pillow, hugging to his chest as he started crying. Too lost in his own thoughts, he didn’t hear Asmo following him. Upon entering the room and seeing the state his older brother was in, Asmo put aside his own grievances and sat next to Mammon and embraced him, letting him cry on his shoulder. This reminded Asmo of a time in the Celestial realm. They were playing with Levi in the gardens when Levi tried to show off his tree climbing skills. As he was nearing the top, Mammon noticed the branch Levi was climbing looked ready to snap. He tried to warn Levi but was too late as the branch snapped and Levi fell. Mammon wasn’t fast enough to catch him. Levi ended up dislocating a wing and spraining his right shoulder. Asmo remembered walking by Mammon's room that night and heard quiet sobs, he knocked and opened the door revealing Mammon sitting on his bed, hugging his pillow crying. He sat next to his older brother and hugged him, assuring him that it wasn’t his fault and that Levi would be just fine. Coming out of the memory, Asmo did the same now, hugging Mammon and reassuring him that it wasn’t his fault. He couldn’t have stopped Y/N from giving that order and that everything will be ok.

“Will it be though? It just won’t be the same without them.”

“I know. It will be hard, Y/N was our family, but we’ll be there for each other.”

They slept together, holding each other in Y/N’s bed comforting each other until they fell asleep.

Present

It was an ordinary day for Mammon. He had just gotten back from a modelling gig at Majolish and was thinking up ways to spend the money he just earned. He was thinking of treating himself to a night out as he’d also gotten a math test back that day and passed with a 90%! Just as he was thinking about where to go, he felt the pull of a summoning. Mammon opened his eyes to find himself in an old cold basement. He scanned the room noting that the only lighting provided was a small bulb with a pull down string in the middle of the room and 3 small candles near the summoning circle. He found that the room was practically empty save for a thin mattress in a corner and some stairs leading to a door. He then spotted the one who summoned him, a little girl. She looked to be no older than 5. She was wearing stained and ripped overalls, one of the straps was missing. A light pink t-shirt underneath. Her brown hair was relatively short, only reaching her shoulders and was a tangled mess. Upon looking closer, Mammon noticed that she was covered head to toe in bruises and there were deep scratch marks on her arms and legs. He looked at the hastily drawn circle under him and found out that she drew it with some chalked rocks. She held an old summoning book close to her chest. Her big brown eyes looked so scared, yet if he looked closer, he could see what looked to be hope sparkling in the background. He could tell by looking at her that she held vast magical potential. Whoever put her here obviously knew the same.

“A-are you Mammon?” By Diavolo, she sounded so broken, like if he spoke too loud, she would shatter. Kneeling down to her level, Mammon put a soft smile on his face.

“Yes I am. What’s your name?”

“Cynthia”

“Ok Cynthia, what can I help you with.” Mammon doesn’t know what it was about the little girl, but he found himself genuinely wanting to help her. Maybe it was the way they looked at him with hope. Maybe it was because they were just a kid, or maybe, it was because her eyes reminded him of Y/N’s.

“I want to leave. My parents locked me in here. They don’t care about me. They only use me for their spells. Please Mammon, help me. I’ll give you my soul if you want, just please!” Tears came to her eyes as she pleaded with him to help her. Mammon upon hearing what these sorcerers were doing with their daughter, became enraged. He held his hand out to Cynthia with a smile on his face. He took the book from her hands and put it on the ground next to him.

“No, no, no. I won’t take your soul. It’s alright Cynthia, I’ll help ya. Why did you think I’d need your soul to help you?” “That’s what my parents said. They’ve been using me to try and summon you. I heard them arguing about who’s soul they would give to form a pact. Then they decided that they would give you mine.” Mammon didn’t think he could get madder, but by now, he was seeing red. Not only did her parents lock her up, they used her to try and summon him thinking he’d just accept a child’s soul to form a pact with them! Mammon was beyond angry.

“Don’t worry Cynthia, the Great Mammon will take care of your parents! You’ll be out of here in no time.” Sensing his rage Cynthia grabbed onto his legs before he made it to the stairs.

“No, don’t hurt them!” Mammon looked down at the girl in shock.

“Please don’t hurt them. They may have done all these awful things to me but they’re still my mom and dad! I don’t want you to hurt them, just get me out of here!” Mammon looked at the girl like she’d gone crazy. Her parents, who have locked her up in a basement, used her for spells, hell even tried summoning him in exchange for her own soul, she wanted them alive?! He saw how genuine she was being and he couldn’t find the heart to say no to her. Instead, Mammon knelt down to her level and took her hand. Cynthia looked at him with tears threatening to overflow. Mammon brought his other hand to cup her face, wiping away a stray tear with his thumb.

“Ok Cynthia, I won’t hurt them. I am mad at your parents for doing this to you, but if you don’t want me to hurt them, I won’t.” Mammon then brought Cynthia’s right hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it gently. A yellow seal formed on the back of her right hand and a matching pink one on the palm of Mammon's right.

“Now we have a pact Cynthia. I didn’t take your soul, I took your sadness. Did you know that demons could also take emotions to form a pact?”

“N-no. Does this mean you’ll take me far away from here?”

“Yes, and it also means that you won’t ever feel sad again. I know a nice witch who can take care of you. She will teach you how to use and call me with the pact. This way, whenever you’re in trouble, you will be able to summon me without drawing the circle again and I can come protect ya.”

“O-ok.” Mammon then picked Cynthia up and walked up the stairs, kicking the basement door down he walked through the house towards the front door. Before he reached it though, he heard a scream behind him. He noticed that Cynthia tensed considerably in his arms as he set her down, hiding her behind his legs. He turned around coming face to face with a middle aged couple who he preserved to be Cynthia’s parents. Her mom then yelled at Cynthia.

“Cynthia Maxwell Daemon! You come here right this instant!”

“Shut your mouth lady. She doesn't belong to you anymore.”

“Nonsense! She’s my daughter. She is mine to do with what I want!” Mammon's patience was running out. A scowl appeared on his face as he growled out.

“Listen here lady, I’ve got some choice words for you two that I wouldn’t care to say in front of the girl, but the fact that you thought you could summon me and exchange her soul for a pact with you? You're crazy to think I’d ever accept that kind of pact. Now Cynthia and I are leaving and you ain’t ever using her again!”

Cynthia’s parents then realized who they were talking to and their attitudes immediately changed.

“Please forgive us, Lord Mammon. We hadn’t planned for the girl to summon you. We apologize for the inconvenience the child caused you. If you would stay, we could reimburse you for your troubles.” Cynthia’s father bowed his head as he addressed Mammon. Mammon on the other hand outright laughed at that statement. Turning into his demon form he barked out

“You think her summoning me was an inconvenience?! You two are crazier than I thought! Now listen here and listen closely, neither of you are to come near or look for her. None of you are going to use her again. We are leaving and don’t ever bother trying to summon me again. Ya know, you should thank Cynthia. If she didn’t plead with me not to hurt either of you, you’d both be dead. Make no mistake, if either of you try to summon me or if I find you anywhere near her again, I will rip your hearts out and feed you to Cerberus. Kapeesh?” The dark undertones of Mammon’s voice got through to Cynthia’s parents as their faces paled in fear and they quickly agreed. They begged for his forgiveness and promised not to harm Cynthia again if he could just stay awhile. Not bothering with them anymore, Mammon picked Cynthia up and walked out, flying towards the one witch he’d ever trusted. When he landed, he realized that Cynthia was crying.

“Sorry Cyn, I didn’t scare ya, did I?”

“A-a little, but these aren’t scared tears. I’m happy. Thank you for getting me away from them and for letting them live.”

“Of course. The Great Mammon keeps his promises.” Mammon walked up to the door of the small cottage. He knocked and a young witch with long blond hair, green eyes, and freckles answered the door.

“Mammon what a surprise! What brings you here?” She opened the door gesturing for him to come in.

“Sorry, not today Kelly. I’m actually here for her.” Mammon stepped aside, revealing a scared Cynthia behind him.

“Oh my Diavolo! What happened to you, you poor girl?!” Kelly rushed forward cupping Cynthia’s chin as she inspected her body, taking in all the bruises and cuts.

“Kelly, this is Cynthia. She summoned me to save her from her parents. I was wondering if ya could take care of her. I know ya've always wanted a kid, so…”

“Of course! I could never turn someone in need away, especially a girl as cute as her.” She said while pinching Cynthia’s cheeks. Cynthia giggled in response.

“Ok then, Cynthia, Kelly here’s gonna take care of you. I promise that she won’t act like your mom and she will help you learn how to use both your magic and your pact.” Reaching into his pocket, Mammon pulled out the Grimm he’d earned that day. He then put them into Cynthia’s palm.

“Here ya go kid. Now if you ever visit me, you’ll have some money to spend.” Mammon turned to leave when he felt a tug on his sleeve. He looked down to see Cynthia pulling him down to the ground. He crouched down. Cynthia then kissed his cheek, giving him one of the Grimm he’d given her.

“Thank you Mammon.” She then ran behind Kelly’s legs and waved goodbye with a massive smile on her face.

It’s been a couple years since Mammon saved Cynthia. She’d grown to be a strong and skilful sorcerer. He’d visit her often over the years with something in tow for her. Mammon never spent the Grimm that Cynthia gave back to him on that day. Whenever Mammon had a tough time with the numerous witches he’d find himself in debt with, he’d always find his way to her, and she comforted him, never asking for more than his company, something he was more than happy to give. His brothers would always know whenever he went to see her as he’d always come back with a content smile on his face. Deep down, he wished that Y/N could’ve met Cynthia. They would have made great friends as they were the only 2 people who could make him smile like this. Mammon may not have been able to save Y/N, but he swore that he would protect Cynthia, no matter the cost.

[vitatranslations]

ENG-T Tokyo Ghoul: Jail (Ch.1 Pt. 1)

Here’s the first rough translation log for Tokyo Ghoul: Jail, a Japanese exclusive. If you want to know more about the plot of the game and the characters before starting, check out the Tokyo Ghoul wiki. I’ll also make a masterpost to put this in order. Since I’m using Google Translate for this and barely know a lick of Japanese, expect many errors. Google Translate can’t translate all slang or emotional phrases and sounds. If you’re reading along, feel free to send me asks with corrections or additions. First you’ll be met with the title screen. The options in order are: New Game Continue Gallery: This is where you can see CGs, listen to the soundtrack (music), watch videos, and see your battle record. Settings: Change text speed, sound volumes (including for each character’s voice), and some button mappings. You can also choose whether you want to use the rear touch pad here. ------------------------ If you’re starting a new game (which I’m assuming you are if you’re starting at Chapter 1), choose the first option. Any time Rio is narrating, it will be italicized. If he’s speaking, it will be in normal text. Multiple lines from a character in succession will be written as one piece of dialogue. [I’m starting this blog after I had already finished the first scene, so here’s a quick summary: You wake up in a room with no memory, but you’re worn out. A big burly man is standing in the doorway. He tells you you’re imprisoned and mentions the name Jail, while also telling you his name is Shiki Kijima ( キジマ 式 ), a ghoul investigator. You then remember that your own name is Rio ( 凛央 ), and that you were at home when suddenly you were kidnapped and brought to this place. The scene ends bleakly with Kijima saying something along the lines of ���Pain unlocks memories. Let’s have some fun.”] Now we’re in the next room in Cochlea prison outside of the cell, and we can see other cells. ----------------------------------- I was hurt many times, but I still couldn’t spit out the answer Kijima wanted. He asked me about the name “Jail”, and it was repeated many times. But no matter how much I was asked, I didn’t know the name. Kijima: Hmm, can’t you remember this far? Rio: ... Kijima: If it wasn’t acting, it would be troublesome. No matter how much ownership I have, it’s a rule that you shouldn’t dispose of Cochlea’s food without the permission of the prison chief. Is it okay to kill him if he’s on the escape? Such “accidents” are common. Here, look at this figure. Do you know? I’m enthusiastic about my work. Rio: ... Kijima: I just want to know. Who is “Jail”. Rio: Don’t....know... Kijima: Many investigators were buried by him. He’s a vicious eater. We call him “Jail” because his eyes look like bars when he’s in action. I also had a conversation (confrontation?) with him in the past. I lost my ears, extensive skin, right leg, and subordinates. I’ve been investigating ever since, relying on the pain and memory of that time. And now I’m convinced: you’re the “Jail” that did that to me that day. Rio: I don’t know...I’m just a ghoul....why do you suspect that I’m that ghoul “Jail”...!! Kijima: Why?....Then let’s ask one more question. Is your brother “Jail”? ...!! --Brother. This guy, how does he know I have an older brother? Rio: What happened to my brother... Kijima: [laughter] ...I’m scared...does it come out at this level? (Do you remember now?) Your brother is waiting in the VIP room of this facility. In this facility? Was my brother also captured by Kijima? Kijima: Let’s ask again. Was your brother called “Jail”. A brute that killed a large number of investigators. Was he a murderer? Rio: My brother...my brother isn’t the type of person who would do that! Kijima: Your older brother called himself “Jail”. Rio: ...!! Kijima: So we’ll release you. Rio, you’re protecting yourself, right? At that moment, a big back and a strong and gentle look came to me. He always protected me. Kijima: However, no matter how many discussions we have, he won’t tell me the truth. He only says “Release my brother.” [Since he wasn’t listening to me], he didn’t need to hear anymore. Because... Rio: ...!! This smell... Rio: Blood....? Kijima: I don’t think you need such ears. Rio: ...!!! A fluffy feel that is transmitted through the paper. Two “lumps”. Rio: Uaaa....ahhh!! Kijima: Please rest assured, I haven’t killed him. Rio: Why...why is this...!! Kijima: Did you say that? I just want to know. Who is “Jail”? Brother...brother...brother...brother...! Kijima: What’s next to your ears? How about your eyelids? I’m sure you’ll have the best night. Rio: Stop...stop it!! Please! Kijima: [kukuku] If you’re Jail, you should be honest, before that paper bag is full of “brothers.” Rio: Uaaaa... Investigator: Special Associate Kijima. It’s about time. Kijima: Oh, it’s already time. It’s too early for the fun time to pass. Then I’m looking forward to it, Rio. “Jail”. Killer of investigators. ...Not my brother. My brother wouldn’t do that. I’m the same. I couldn’t do that myself. I’m a powerless ghoul. Rio: (What can I do...) [End scene] Notes for this scene: I wasn’t sure if it was Rio’s ears that were cut off, or his brothers.

[bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture]

Whoo boy, been a little bit. I can’t really say much besides IRL sucks, so. Back to something that doesn’t suck, which is BNHA. This chapter is dedicated to the good bean Tenya, especially his little smile which forced me to change my pfp on discord because I just couldn’t.

I was kinda planning on doing arc summaries between sections, but honestly, the BNHA wiki already has those, so if you don’t want to go back and read through all the posts I’ve done for the pre-USJ chapters, just head over there and do a skim of the summaries there, I guess?

[No. 12 - Yeah, Just Do Your Best, Iida!]

I just love how his hand gestures are actual effective tools against enemies, I cannot even. Also, a good and friendly reminder that carbonated drinks stall his engines! I have never seen that used in fanfic, whether for crack or whump purposes… a shame.

We head right into the next morning from that battle training, with the kids being held up by the media as they ask about All Might. Izuku is a bundle of nerves as he awkwardly excuses himself to the nurse’s office, Ochako is a darling who describes All Might as super muscly, and Tenya goes into a whole ass speech with a lot of fancy language to explain the honor of being at UA and learning under All Might. 

(Honestly, I find it hard to determine whether this is genuinely earnest or if he’s picked up media warding skills from his parents and older brother. It’s probably genuine, but I just love the idea behind low-key troll master Tenya who learned from the best, aka his older brother.)

Katsuki, unfortunately, is still known as ‘the kid from the sludge incident’, which I mean. I am so fucking baffled at how long the media in this have held onto that 'sludge incident' thing, like, you'd think they'd have moved on to other things by now and don't really think about it much.

It’s the same with the general public (as seen in chapter 3), like, yes, I too would have a fucking complex and anger issues if all anyone thought about in relation to me wasn't my high grades or my skill in combat or anything, but that one time a year ago where I was almost suffocated to death while the people who were supposed to save my life did fucking nothing. I mean, Katsuki has always had a complex, but This Didn't Help.

Moving on, we see the media wondering who the fuck this messy looking dude waving them off is, while Aizawa just. Fucking shoos them like they’re dogs or kids or something. His words seem like a vague attempt at being polite about shooing them, but with the hand gesture, well. Basically comes off more as a chastisement. 

...honestly, this feels so weird that no one knew about it even though the kids who got in got a message from All Might saying he’d be teaching there. The only thing I and the others can assume is that there was an NDA on him teaching until it was announced to the newspapers on the first day of classes. Which would explain why it didn’t hit the news until said day…

Whatever, it’s weird, let’s just move on.

One of the reporters steps forward, asking/demanding a chance to speak to All Might about his sudden shift to teaching, only for the guy behind her to try and call out a warning - just a touch too late, as the sensors over the gate react, causing the daunting hunk of metal serving as a gate to slam closed right in front of her. Gonna guess she’s new to the reporting scene. The guy explains that the UA barrier locks down if someone without a school ID approaches the gate, and that supposedly there are more sensors throughout the campus.

The panel gives us a diagram of the three ‘levels’ of sensors - the gate/wall around the school, the walkway to the school, and the school itself. Which I think correlates to the security levels that come up later, since it’s a ‘level three’ breach, which means the school was broken into. Was it… always that fucking simple and I just totally glossed over that detail until now? orz

While the newsfolk complain about not getting comments from UA, we get to see the back of a ~mysterious figure~ who definitely isn’t the primary antagonist of the entire series. God, you can see his individual neck vertebrae.

Horrifying.

We transition to 1a’s homeroom, with Aizawa going over the battle training as well as their grades / evaluations. Aizawa calls out Katsuki and tells him to grow up and stop wasting his talent, which Katsuki grudgingly accepts. Izuku jolts at being called out next over his broken arm, and accepts the chastisement of learning to control his quirk, because trying isn’t going to cut it. Aizawa does soften the blow, however, by repeating that Izuku has potential, assuming he overcomes that issue.

With that done, Aizawa ‘Plus Extra™’ Shouta gets the whole class tense by drawing out the next class announcement. While I think it’s a translation error, the whole class sweating as they wonder whether it’s another brutal pop quiz is hella funny. (I’m guessing it was meant to be ‘test’ which would reference to the quirk assessment as well as the battle training, but ah well.) The whole class sighs in relief as one as Aizawa finally reveals that their task for the morning is to choose a class president - a normal, school-like thing in comparison to the past two days.

Pretty much the entire class has their hands raised to volunteer for the position, with Katsuki being particularly aggressive about it (as per the norm). Even Izuku has his hand shyly lifted up from the desk, while his narration notes that the position in normal schools entails mundane tasks, but in UA’s hero course means leading the group - a position suited for a top hero in the making.

Tenya calls for them all to quiet down, drawing attention as he goes on to explain how leading people is a task of heavy responsibility, but that ambition is not equal to ability. He is so intense it’s hilarious as he explains how the office demands the trust of its constituents, and that if it’s to be a democracy, then he puts forward the motion that they choose their leader through election.

Seriously this is just so fucking hilarious, I love this boy so much. And I love whoever it is that calls out that this is a classroom, not congress. 

Tsuyu points out that the class hasn’t known each other long enough to build trust, and Kirishima notes that everyone will vote for themselves. Tenya points out that that is precisely the reason that anyone who gets multiple votes will be the best suited for the job. He then checks with Aizawa if this is allowable, which the teacher agrees to so long as it’s quick. And a quick transition, we reveal the winners-

Izuku with three votes, and Momo with two.

Everyone else, it seems, still has one vote, which was their own (as predicted). Izuku is shook. Katsuki is shaking in anger as he demands to know who the hell voted for Deku. Ochako is whistling and looking away, thinking that she’d better not let Katsuki find out.

(Also of note is that Sero is already approaching Katsuki and making a joke here about it being obvious Katsuki wasn’t one of Izuku’s votes, and then seemingly laughing a bit when Katsuki’s temper turns on him?

Hard to say for sure, but it seems Sero is the first of Katsuki’s future friend group to approach him and get away with poking at his temper. Which I feel is something very much overlooked by the fandom in favor of Kirishima for fairly obvious reasons.)

Tenya, meanwhile, is in a funk as he notes he has no votes, and that that is the harsh reality of office. Momo is concerned as she notes that zero votes meant he voted fro someone else, while Sato points out that Tenya was the one to suggest the election, so what did he seriously want? Izuku and Momo go to the front of the class - Izuku a nervous wreck while Momo’s just exasperated with the situation. Aizawa confirms their positions as he gets out of his sleeping bag, and the class talk a bout about the suitability of the chosen pair while Tenya continues to sulk in his seat.

With that, the first half of the chapter is done, so I’ll call it here. I can certainly say I learned a thing or two today, and I hope y’all did as well!