#i think some types of birds of paradise do something similar where it looks like theyll change the colour of their eyes

[filibusterfrog]

What do the eye sizes mean for Monty? Is it like a cat? I don’t know that much about birds

[rosavulpes]

OST

" Shadow ? "

She spoke with a bit of uncertainty in her voice , despite the force of the wind pushing against them steadily growing stronger the higher they ascended on the disconnected stone pathways that seemingly lead up to the heavens themselves . It wasn't causing them to slow down . If it were a different day ? She might have even challenged him to a race to the top ! But not today , not when Carol was missing .

Thus far , she hadn't really gotten an opportunity to talk to the black and red hedgehog one on one . Thus far ? Any time they'd talked it had been about the mission at hand , exchanging quick information during a fight , or planning with their group on what they needed to do next . She'd thanked him , they all had , but she'd had yet to be able to offer up a means of personally thanking him just yet .

This wasn't his fight . It wasn't his world to protect , yet he choose to do so anyways ... and did so with just as much ferocity as they did . He'd been there during most of their journey thus far , helped them out of some really tight spots , even their synergy during fights had been great ! but she didn't really know much about him . Just a name and something she was curious about . Something that he tended to use alongside of his name . A title . Not something like Captain Kalaw's self made monikers of being Avalice's " Hero of Justice " . No . Not that . She wouldn't be interested in asking him about it if she thought it was all just for show or to inflate an ego .

Lilac didn't know much about the Captain aside from his on stage persona as that was all he seemed to show when he was in front of them but Shadow's ? There had to be a story there , a reason as to why he'd say it . He didn't seem the boastful , overly egotistical type . At least she hoped not .

" Since we have some time till we make it all the way up to Paradise Prime , mind if I ask you a question ? Back when we met Merga , fought General Serpentine , you've been introducing yourself as the World's Ultimate Life Form to them . Why ? "

Controlling the output of his rocket skates to match her speed , he'd been keeping quiet during this particular part of their journey . Even though he had yet to be asked to comment , or to saying anything on the matter ... this world was something unique to behold . This floating island , while it certainly reminded him of the Echidna's Angel Island home . He couldn't compare the two . Whereas Angel Island , from what he'd seen , only showed sign of civilization closer to the heart , this floating island teemed with it . Albeit , only on one section if what he was seeing was correct . But still , these massive floating chunks of Earth held up in the sky that formed a sort of spiraling stair case up to the island ? It provided a sense of wonder .

He'd admittedly lost himself in it during those moments of silence as he wondered by what means the island , and the chunks of Earth that formed the pathway up to it were held up by . This world didn't have a substitution for the Chaos Emeralds aside from what Lilac had called the Kingdom Stone . But , the " stone " had previously lost it's physical form a few years ago so it no longer had a means of being focused into one point akin to the red emerald he carried with him .

Speeding together along the pathways , remaining near one another as a sort of forward guard , their companions weren't too far behind , but not close enough where they'd hear them talk either . Or hear his answer .

" It's what I am . It's what I was made to be "

His response was simple , curt , but he could soon see a look of puzzlement forming on her expression . Damned if he'd let her think even for a moment that he was in any way similar to the crazed bird by speaking without thinking .

" Unlike most others , I was not born free into the world . I came into this existence to serve a purpose . A very specific purpose . In my world , I was created to be the ultimate lifeform . No less . Everything that I am is a reflection of the careful design , numerous experimentations , and the many years of research undertaken by my creator as well as those that aided him in my coming to be . So when I say this to my enemies ? It's as much of a fair warning to them , as it is a part of my name "

While there was more that he could have said , much more , it was insight enough into his past that she had no business in knowing . Though , he hoped that this would satisfy Lilac's curiosity . Part of the reason as to why he'd even divulged further information rather than dismiss the question altogether had been because he'd overheard her conversation with Spade before they'd set out earlier on . Lilac had been stolen away from her family by him while still an egg before her own birth , taken to be put on a pedestal as a trophy for a gang that called themselves the red scarves .

She'd been taken in by them , after she'd unexpectedly hatched from her egg . Living through what he assumed must have been a difficult upbringing given that her voice was raised a few times over . He picked up on words such as " Wanted Posters " which had told him enough . She was curious about the past , her past , a different life that she might have been able to live had things played out differently . It was a desire ... that he could empathize with .

" Lilac , did Carol ever say much about her family during the time you've known her ? "

[tothemeadow]

I haven't seen much people requesting for snake bby so obanai x demon reader pls?Reader is like a succubus type of demon and when sent on a mission to kill her he falls into her clutches and it ends with smut 👀

‘in my dreams’ / Iguro O. x Reader

PLEASE STOP SLEEPING ON THIS MAN

warnings: NSFW, Obanai is a boob man, dream fucking?

words: 2,793

(a/n): I might’ve gotten carried away a bit

-

He’s always heard that sharks can smell blood on the water.

He isn’t a stranger to blood himself, used to the sightly images of gore and the rancid odor. It’s simply another part of his hellish life, bearing witness to mutilated remains of bodies and hunting down their killer.

It’s all in a day’s work.

It’s strange, though, when there aren’t any bodies to be found. Rumors of disappearances plague the night, travel from lips to ears, slowly spreading throughout the small town.

Takahashi’s daughter disappeared last night.

The doctor’s oldest son? Haven’t you heard? He’s gone.

For such a large number of people to be suddenly up and vanishing, it’s no wonder concerns have risen. It’s why Obanai’s here in the first place, determined to sniff out the culprit and promptly execute them. He’s dealt with similar cases before – finding the missing persons, only to find their remains or couple of bones – but this time… Well, it’s weird, to say the least. Not one person in this town knows where anybody could be, no strange sightings or feelings, nothing.

And, if Obanai is going to be completely honest, it’s infuriating as hell.

He’s not a patient person in the slightest. Perhaps that’s his curse and the sole reason why this case isn’t going anywhere; still, with the lingering danger hanging over these poor people’s heads, he needs to end this quickly. And so, cooped up in a small room at the town’s inn, he pours over his scribbling of notes, wondering just what kind of force he’s dealing with.

A demon’s nature can vary, depending on what kind you encounter. Obanai’s had his fair share of strange interactions – whether it be demons with multiple arms, pygmies, the facial features of a fly - he's nearly seen at all. But to take victims without leaving a single trace? That's where things get complicated.

"Dammit," Obanai grumbles, dragging a hand over his face. Kaburamaru flicks his tongue in concern, sensing his owner's unease.

This isn't going anywhere. The amount of time or effort spent trying to figure out where everyone has vanished isn't amounting to anything. How could this be? Obanai isn't some low level slayer, for gods' sakes - he's a Pillar. It shouldn't be this hard to put two and two together, yet here he is, staring blankly at his collected information. The idea of sending his crow to summon for help crosses his mind, but he hastily throws away the thought. No, that's not how this is done. He isn't willing to give up so easily.

As the hours drag further into the night, Obanai grows restless, twitchy. His striped haori sits to the side, folded neatly along with the shirt and overcoat of his uniform. Kaburamaru is already fast asleep, coiled into a tight circle at the edge of the futon. The wooden hatches of the window hang open, the night breeze drifting into the room with the sound of a singular solemn cricket.

A long, ornate kiseru dangles between his spindly fingers; it’s a rare occasion whenever Obanai smokes, so much to the point that the ones closest to him don’t even know he possesses such a fine pipe. He takes a slow drag as his he stares up at the moonlit clouds, the chilled breeze whipping the choppy strands of his hair against his bared cheeks. He wonders, truly, just how the hell he’s supposed to get to the bottom of this case if he can’t find anything to work with.

Perhaps the gods heard his woes - or he’s finally lost his mind - for an intoxicatingly sweet scent fills his senses.

Jasmine.

As far as Obanai knows, he hasn’t seen any jasmine plants when he came into town. This had to mean something - it had to. Opting his kiseru for his blade instead, he easily slips out the window, feet hitting the ground without a sound. Taking off into the night, he races through the town’s streets, eyes darting back and forth for anything out of the usual.

He comes to an abrupt stop when the scent of jasmine grows even stronger. He’s sure now that whatever he’s been looking for is here. A slight shuffling catches his attention; whipping his head to the side, a wooden hatch to a window bangs against the side of a house, but there’s no one to be seen on the other side. 

“Found you,” Obanai breathes.

Rushing over to the house, he drops into a crouch as he creeps closer to the window. Jasmine floods his senses, the irresistible aroma gripping onto his consciousness and practically demanding for him to come closer. Swallowing thickly, he ignores the sudden wave of heat flushing over his body as he peeks into the darkened room. A family of five lays on the floor, their bodies moving gently with the deepened breathing of a heavy slumber. Even now, Obanai has to resist the urge to shut his eyes and succumb to the flowery scent.

Although the room is dark, he can make out a strange pillar of smoke; ah, so that’s where the origin of the smell is coming from. Is it some type of mist demon? Flower? He isn’t entirely sure, but he doesn’t have the time to care. He needs to get rid of it now.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he unsheathes his blade, not wanting to attract attention to him yet. It’s a wish in vain, though; as soon as his blade is hanging in the air, the pillar of smoke rushes towards him, slamming into him and sending him flying. Obanai grunts as his back hits the ground, the sharp edge of rocks biting into the skin.

“Don’t you know that it’s rude to sneak up on others?” a low, creamy voice drawls. Goosebumps break out across the surface of Obanai’s skin and a shiver races down his back. The smoke dissipates, then, revealing a feminine figure.

Obanai’s breath catches in his throat. This demon - you - are unlike any other he’s encountered. Immediately, his eyes latch onto the pair of horns protruding from your skull, pearly at the tip and then fading into ebony. You’re strikingly beautiful, facial features soft yet demanding. Embarrassment warms Obanai’s face as his eyes drift across the curves of your body; your breasts swell over the tight, strappy top while the entirety of your legs and hips frame the long loincloth-like garment between your legs. Both your arms and legs have the same pearly sheen towards the end, just like your horns.

By the gods, you’re ethereal, even if the claws on your fingers could easily tear Obanai’s throat out.

“So is breaking into other’s homes,” Obanai manages to croak. Bringing himself to a stand, he takes a defensive stance, his blade held out before him. He feels strangely heavy, almost like his body craves to stay flat on his back.

Much to his surprise, you pout at him, arms crossing beneath your chest and pushing your breasts further up. “But it gets so lonely at night, you know?” you say, that seductive lilt in your voice deepening. At that, you make a show of sweeping your eyes over Obanai’s bare torso, and a slight smile grows on your pretty lips.

Obanai clears his throat. He can’t let himself fall for your tricks, no matter how incredible you smell or alluring you look. If these are the methods you rely on, chances are you’re a weaker demon.

“What did you do with the missing persons?” he asks, eyes narrowing.

“Missing persons? Is that what they’re calling them?” you say, a giggle following your words.

Obanai growls at your nonchalant confession. If there’s one thing he can’t stand about demons, it’s their inability of basic human emotion, the inability of compassion. Yeah, he decides that your head is going to look even better once it’s separated from your body.

“You see, pretty boy,” you purr, pressing a hand to your throat and dragging it downwards, brushing over a luscious breast and tracing over your exposed tummy, “in return for making their dreams come true, I get to have a snack.”

“Enough,” Obanai grunts, switching to an offensive stance. “Maybe I’ll be gracious enough to meet you in hell someday.”

Before you even have a chance to react, Obanai springs into action, launching himself off the group in a great leap, lungs tightening as he releases a breath form.

It doesn’t hit.

It doesn’t fucking hit.

In fact, you’re nowhere in sight. Instead of the dusty, moonlit road, Obanai finds himself in an onsen; a great bamboo pavilion stands tall above the pool of water, blocking the golden rays of sunshine from hitting him. Thin trees are scattered about the area, riddled with stone lanterns and garden rocks covered in moss. With a chorus of birds singing overhead, it’s like he’s in an entire new world.

Muttering to himself, Obanai scans his surroundings, wracking his brain and trying to figure just what the hell happened. One moment, he’s about to slice your head clean off and put an end to your terror -  the next, he’s in broad daylight in some overt paradise.

“Your dreams are beautiful,” that wonderful, wonderful voice of yours speaks.

Whirling around, Obanai sends splashes of water flying. “What did you do to me?” he spits.

You flash him a sly smile. “Why, I merely put you to sleep, pretty boy. Can’t be much of a threat if you’re not wide awake, no?”

Obanai curses under his breath. Of course you’re a dream demon - no wonder why there hasn’t been any bodies turning up. If only he had acted faster, got here sooner, more lives could’ve been saved. With a huff, he slithers further away from you, sinking below the water until only his face can be seen. “So what now? You’re going to try to kill me in my sleep? That’s a low blow and you know it.”

Sucking air through your teeth, you shake your head. Now that the two of you are no longer shrouded by darkness, Obanai really gets a good look of how utterly stunning you are. Again, he curses himself out, calling himself a fool for thinking such things when he should be killing you instead.

“Your blade isn’t here, if that’s what you’re wondering,” you tell him, a look of mischief crossing your features. “Silly boy - this a time meant for the two of us, not for you to end my forsaken life. Allow me to help you... relax.”

As you step to the edge of the onsen, Obanai finally notices the feeling of water caressing his thighs, his bare buttocks. You just had to make him naked in his dream, huh? What are you trying to accomplish, anyway? His eyes widen incredulously as your hands find their place on your torso, slinking over the swell of your breasts and around your neck; with a simple tug, your top comes loose. You merely let the garment fall to the rocks below, a small ‘oops’ slipping from our mouth.

Heat immediately floods to Obanai’s face and his groin; his insides squeeze in on themselves and he swallows thickly, thankful for the hidden protection the water provides. The look on your face is simply irresistible. Hell, even your breasts are as pretty as he imagined-

Shit, he inwardly curses, I shouldn’t be thinking like that.

But oh, you’re just so tempting, your hands squeezing your breasts, fingers rolling your hardening nipples as you stare directly at his flushed face. “Pretty boy,” you purr, “what’s your name?”

“Obanai.”

It’s out before he even knows it. 

“Obanai...” 

He really likes the way it rolls off your tongue, the dark glint in your eyes as you say it. Perhaps you can tell by his reaction alone - or maybe you like saying it - but you repeat his name, once, twice, thrice, and fuck does it drive Obanai insane. And then you’re reaching down, unfastening your lower garment and dropping it unceremoniously to the ground. Obanai’s cock twitches at the sight of your glorious body, the soft curves and glowing skin.

“Naughty boy, my eyes are up here,” you say. Again, you squeeze those beautiful fucking tits, a soft groan spilling from your lips. Obanai nearly goes feral from the sound; without further thought, he wades over to where you are. Jasmine clings in his nostrils, clouds his mind in a delicious haze, and he loves it.

You’re all too willing to meet his touch, body slipping into the heated water as he wraps his arms around you possessively. His body kicks into autopilot, mind going blank as he presses his lips to your throat. He should rip your throat out with his teeth, but there’s something magical about the way you arch into his touch, breasts pushing lewdly against his chest.

“Fucking-”

“Yes.”

A breathy moan spills from your lips as Obanai kneads your pretty tits, long fingers gripping possessively, wantingly. It’s almost ridiculous how hard he already is, his cock sandwiched between your bodies. He jolts as your hands land on his face, thumbs brushing against the ragged scars lining either sides of his mouth. 

“Don’t,” he grits, but it goes ignored. The air is sucked from his lungs as you brush your lips over his scars, murmuring something about how pretty he is before stopping at his mouth. You kiss him fervently, clawed fingers scratching his shoulders as you tongue the inside of his mouth. You swallow the husky groan that spills from his mouth, hand dropping down from his shoulder and wrapping around his hardening cock. 

“Ah, shit,” Obanai murmurs into your mouth. 

“Tell me what you want, pretty boy,” you whisper, hand slowly jerking on his cock. His breathing picks up as you quicken your pace, the water rippling with the movements of your wrists. “Your wish is my command.”

“Gods, you’re such a fucking tease,” he pants, eyes practically glowing against the pink hue of his face. Ducking his head, he sucks a nipple into his mouth, the wet warmth enveloping your breast and eliciting a delicious moan from you. Obanai wastes no more time, opting to prop you in his lap and pressing your back against a smooth stone. “I shouldn’t... but fuck...”

“It doesn’t seem like you’re angry with me anymore,” you husk in that damned sexy voice. A moan bubbles from your throat as Obanai starts rocking against you, cock slipping against your folds. It’ll only take a little push for him to fill that pretty cunt of yours, to stuff you full of his cock and fuck you raw. It’s what he wants.

“Shut up,” he grunts, mouth latching onto your nipple, his hand beginning to play with the other. A low, drawn out curse gets muffled by your chest as he finally slips his cock into you; it shouldn’t be physically possible, but your velvety walls seemingly clench around him and suck him in, your arousal making the slide impossibly easy. He hiccups on a breath, his entire body twitching as he pants. 

“The thing about succubi,” you drawl, sharp nails tracing down his spine, over the muscles in his back, “is that we’re the demons of sex and dreams. Oh, pretty baby, how much I’ve lucked out. Everyone else seemed like an appetizer - and you...” You pause, suck air between your teeth. “You’re like the damn main course.”

A helpless little grunt graces your ear as you fuck yourself on Obanai’s cock. His hips match your movements, your sopping cunt eagerly sucking him back in and squeezing around him. You’re so damn wet that it’s infuriating; Obanai wants more, more of your touch, your voice, that sweet scent clogging his senses. He can’t bring himself to stop touching your breasts, whether if it’s his hands or mouth. They bounce with the erratic rhythm of your hips, way too beautiful and hypnotizing. 

A breathless whine breaks through your cute little pants whenever Obanai smacks a hand against the ample flesh of your ass. “Is that you meant when you said you make others’ wishes come true? Have them fuck that tight pussy of yours? Huh?”

“Obanai, don’t be mean,” you pout. 

“Says a fucking demon that eats people.”

You hiss as his cockhead hits against your g-spot. “I can eat you too, so don’t get cocky, pretty boy.”

Obanai clicks his tongue, his brows furrowing. “You better keep that promise,” he grunts, thumb grazing your bottom lip. “I won’t take no for an answer.” He growls as your walls clench around him. 

“If that’s your wish, Master,” you purr, a slight chuckle following your words, “then it is my command.”

[nightingaelic]

POODLES IN THE WASTELAND

i jest I jest

But 👀

What about pets? Either ones companions would have or a very uncommon one that someone wouldn’t think was a good pet, BUT IS. Deathclaws you can ride like a pony, mole rats that want belly rubs, cazadore’s as cattier pigeons! What are your thoughts?

Or like, Danse or Piper or Fawkes with something hilarious Idek ignore me

Oooookay, here’s my comprehensive list of companions - ALL companions, across Fallouts 3, 4, New Vegas and 76 - and their (headcanon) choices in wasteland pets. I’ll give a little explanation for each - particularly as many of these companions are transients and don’t have the luxury of owning a home to keep pets at. Also, I feel like most of the companions, while they might not necessarily like pets, would be somewhat fond or at least respectful of the pets of the Lone Wanderer/Courier/Sole Survivor/Vault Dweller, like Dogmeat and Rex. 

Bighorners

Lily Bowen: Everyone’s favorite super mutant grandma is already an experienced shepherdess in Jacobstown, and she’s more than willing to tear some night stalkers apart to keep her herd safe. If that’s not love beyond the norm for wasteland livestock, I don’t know what is. She’s probably given all of her bighorners names after the characters in the television reruns she used to watch on holotape in Vault 17, like Grace and Audrey and Lucille. 

Brahmin

Raul Tejada: Actually spent a decent part of his pre-war life living on a ranch, so he knows that most brahmin don’t deserve being labeled “irritable” just because people don’t know how to read their body language. I think he’d follow wild brahmin herds around a bit on a whim and keep them from coming to any harm, especially the little ones. He gives them names like the cattle he grew up with, Corazon and Gordo and Blanca. 

Rose of Sharon Cassidy: Doesn’t truck with the wild herds, but she knows that part of the success of a caravan lies with how well they treat their pack animals. All of her caravan’s brahmin have names - Penny, Magic and Sprinkles - and she’s careful to pair them up with drivers who are patient and work well with their various personalities. 

Cats

Butch DeLoria: While Butch ultimately decided to leave Vault 101 behind, I don’t think he would ever truly lose his fear of radroaches after what they did to his mom. Having a little friend to warm his bunk in Rivet City and pounce on intruders would probably set his mind at ease, maybe a black tomcat with one ear named Pepper. He might even gift his mom a kitten when he next comes to visit. 

Star Paladin Cross: I don’t think Cross much sees the use of an animal that doesn’t contribute to the community it lives in, like most of the Brotherhood of Steel. Cats, however, are excellent at pest control, even if the rats are bigger nowadays. I think she’d give the resident cats at the Citadel some pets in passing, and she’d smile when she has to extract playful kittens from inside her power armor frame. She’s especially fond of the cat colony’s matriarch, a scarred old tabby named Gemma. 

Curie: Upon her transition into a synth body, Curie is overjoyed with most animals and their new willingness to approach her for attention. She especially loves cats because she can pick them up and better feel their fur and purring. Her favorite cat is an orange stray in Diamond City that she calls Claude. 

Piper Wright: A companion for Nat when she’s out adventuring, an unbiased friend to bounce the latest opinion piece off of before going to print, and a lap-warmer for when you’re typing up the latest article about the exploits of the Minutemen - what’s not to like? The Wright family cat is a slippery, elegant calico named Sugar Bomb. 

Preston Garvey: While the Minutemen forts and settlements definitely lean more toward keeping dogs around for security purposes, I think Preston likes his pets quieter and less likely to bowl you over in excitement. The one most likely to sleep with him in his bunk at Sanctuary is a grumpy gray gentleman named Anchovy. 

Deathclaws

Veronica Santangelo: If anyone is crazy enough to swipe a deathclaw egg from a nest and try to hatch, rear and train a personal killing machine named Izzy, it’s Veronica. This will probably just alienate her from her Brotherhood chapter even more, but I’m sure she would take special care to make sure that her usual Mojave Wasteland haunts take a peek through a scope to see if the approaching deathclaw has a human on its back before taking a shot. 

Dogs

Clover: I don’t think Clover gets out beyond Paradise Falls much, so the only animals she’s used to are the dogs the raiders bring around when passing through. She probably has favorites among the usual visitors and enjoys tossing them bits of meat when she’s allowed to get away from Eulogy and Crimson. If liberated, she’d probably get at least three of her own dogs to watch over her while she sleeps: One small dog to carry with her, a Pekingese or Pomeranian descendant named Coco, and two large dogs to follow through on intimidation and protection, a mastiff named Rock and a Doberman descendant named Roll. 

Jericho: Jericho doesn’t deserve a dog but he’d probably have one around anyway to sniff out caps caches and hidden loot after he’s shot everyone in the vicinity. Some slinky beagle mix named Dewey, probably. 

Fawkes: I don’t think Fawkes would be picky at all about what kind of dog he’d have. He strikes me as the type who would adopt any half-friendly mutt he ran across. I do think he would have a bit of a soft spot for friendlier mutant hounds, though, and maybe view their mutated circumstances as similar to his own. He’d also be absolutely amazing at playing fetch. Just imagine how far he could lob a stick or ball. All of his dogs would have literary names too, like Byron and Agatha and Edgar. 

Craig Boone: Though he’s a bit of a prodigy at sniping, Boone knows his limitations when it comes to spotting hidden enemies on the horizon. I can see him having a hound dog at his side to find the more elusive ones and help him get rid of them faster. Maybe a bloodhound mutt named Bravo. 

Cait: Doesn’t like people, but she adores dogs. Having had the life where she’s been abused, exploited and forced into slavery, she’s keenly aware that those like the ones who took advantage of her treat dogs much the same. She’s very protective of any dog she encounters and is very likely to punch you in the face if you so much as look at one wrong. She’d probably name any pup she adopted Lucky. 

Hancock: Honestly, he’s just a fan of any animal that is happy to hang out with you whether you’re drunk, high, fighting raiders or patrolling downtown Boston. The Goodneighbor strays know him as the guy who always has mirelurk jerky in his pockets. His favorite is a rough-and-tumble, black-and-white spotted cattle dog descendant that he cheekily calls King George. 

Robert MacCready: He’s not quick to trust dogs, but once he’s sure they’re not a threat, they’re one of the few critters around which he’ll relax completely. He’s still a little wary of them around Duncan, but any dog that’s a part of his family is more or less his son’s permanent babysitter. 

Nick Valentine: Dogmeat is also basically his dog. The two have a history of working cases together, with Dogmeat just turning up whenever a trail goes cold and leading Nick to the evidence he needs to reopen his investigation. Nick doesn’t know how or why Dogmeat does it, but he’s not about to ruin a good thing. 

Strong: I don’t think he would turn down a ferocious mutant hound as a friend. He’d probably feed it mole rats and call it something like Killer. 

Foxes

Beckett: This former raider has a love-hate relationship with a fox that keeps going through his trash. He affectionately calls him Lil’ Bastard. 

Sofia Daguerre: Having crashed back to an earth she doesn’t recognize, I think Sofia would be tickled that the foxes of Appalachia have basically stayed the same despite the bombs. I can see her leaving dinner scraps out on her porch for one that she sometimes spots in the foliage, and slowly coaxing the critter to come into the light. She names her Scarlett once she finally convinces her to eat out of her hand. 

Mega sloths

Settler forager: I would not be at all surprised if this man ran into a mega sloth in the Mire and decided to try befriending it. The creature, probably surprised at this old guy’s nerve, decided to accept the handful of leaves he offered and grew slowly more fond of the guy’s persistence. It doesn’t know its name is Fergus but it does know that if a human is wearing overalls, it’s probably not a threat. 

Mole rats

Deacon: Alright, hear me out. Deacon has a fondness for underdogs, and mole rats are about as underdog as they come. I think Deacon thinks these little guys are cute despite their wrinkles and buck teeth, and I think he sees the value in having a tunneling pet that likes to collect shiny things. One of his deep cover hideouts is in an old tunnel system in the northern Commonwealth, where he hangs out with a young mole rat named Henry. 

Owls

Raider punk: This radio operator got wind of an abandoned nest of owlets in Appalachia early on in his career and, being the nearest to the report, decided to rescue the little guys. Now he has three owls that occasionally drop in at his camp to hoot and accept handouts: Nona, Decima and Morta. While he’s still fond of them, he’s usually disappointed that they aren’t the Mothman coming to visit. 

Rad chickens

Yasmin Chowdhury: Ever the opportunistic cook, she picked up the practice of raising chickens from the settlers at Foundation and has four hens of her own: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. The “ladies,” as she refers to them, give her a constant stream of eggs for omelets. 

Ravens

Settler wanderer: This gal has an affinity with birds, who are always on the move like her. She admires their ability to be untethered and let the wind take them far and wide. Nevertheless, she likes to scatter corn when they come close to her on the road, and formed a sort of friendship with a particularly handsome specimen that she calls Tornado. 

Wolves

Old Longfellow: This guy is the epitome of the meme about dads not wanting pets and then instantly falling in love with whatever animal enters their life. He probably found an injured wolf pup in his travels around the island and took pity on it, nursing it back to health in his cabin. It’s still got a bit of a twisted paw, but follows him around and listens like any other dog and answers to the name Lamoine. 

Yao guai

Porter Gage: I bet this guy adopted an orphaned bear cub and raised it by hand. Now it’s so big that even if Gage thinks he’s an easy target for other raiders due to his age, he’s much less likely to get singled out than he thinks because he has a yao guai following him around like a puppy. The bear’s name is Fuzzy Wuzzy. It has no hair. 

No pets, thanks

Charon: Too likely to accidentally wind up in the line of fire. 

Sergeant RL-3: Too easily corrupted by Communist influences. 

Arcade Gannon: Too much time spent getting in your way. 

Codsworth: Too likely to make messes. 

Paladin Danse: Too many wasted resources. 

X6-88: Too much of a liability. 

Ada: Too easy to lose when on the move. 

Solomon Hardy: Too unsanitary. 

[champion-leon-imagines]

Chronicles of Galar - Chapter 2 Part 1: Your Past & a “kidnapping” case

I’ll split this chapter into two parts, because this chapter is kinda longish. I apologize for any dumb grammar mistakes, because this was especially hard to translate from my first language. Well, to make a short summary, this is a full-Leon featured chapter and a little fluff :3 Also a little insight about your past in Amila.

You kinda felt bad about lying to your new friends. But after Taiko had speculated almost too much about your feelings for the Galarian champion, you had to make sure that it didn't spark any more rumors.

Because you actually had something else in mind than going back to the hotel. Your brother was actually in Amila, along with President Rose, his assistant, and your father, the retired Professor of the Region of Amila. The reason you'd left the cafe so quickly was because of Leon. He really didn't looked very healthy and even if Raihan tried to talk it down, you were convinced that Leon was overwhelmed by being in the spotlight everywhere and being so in demand.

You ran around the corner of the cafe, where all the reporters had gathered around Leon and showered him with questions. You were close enough to overhear a little. “Unbeatable champion Leon, that was a masterpiece of a battle! Defeating a Gigantamax Toxtricity while Charizard was completely at a disadvantage! How did you manage that? "

"Ahahahaha ... ha .. As I already explained to your predecessor .. and those before that, Pokemon types are no guarantee for a win! Charizard and I knew we were at a disadvantage and we only eradicated this disadvantage with tactics! Nothing else. Toxtricity was very strong! ”Leon laughed and scratched the back of his head in disgrace. Who knows how often he was allowed to answer these and similar questions today ... "Champion Leon! Allow us to take a few more snapshots at the scene! Please lead us to the place where you defeated Toxtricity! ” one of the journalists demanded. You only shook your head slightly at the insolence and intrusiveness of these people. Leon also seemed to be in need of explanation. You could tell that this interview was becoming increasingly uncomfortable for him.

"So .. uhm .."

You had to step in. "Unfortunately that is impossible.", you began and stepped out of the alley. The reporters turned to you, puzzled. Leon recognized you and blinked slightly perplexed. "And why is it impossible?" One of the reporters wanted to know and eyed you suspiciously. “Because the Toxtricity are currently breeding and mating. That is exactly why the accident with the Gigantamax happened. The Toxtricity only protected its babies. Right, Champion Leon? ” You asked, winking at him. Leon looked at you completely taken aback before he cleared his throat. “U-Uhm yes, I accidentally fell into a Toxtricity nest and the mother must have thought I was an enemy! We- We should leave them alone! ”He nodded. Now that Leon confirmed it, the journalists believed you.

“Well, then of course that won't work. But we still have some questions for- "

"I have to disappoint you there too, gentlemen.", You quickly intervened directly and fought your way through the crowd until you reached Leon and grabbed his arm. "But our champion has a very important appointment that he is way too late because of you." “Who are you anyway?” One of the men finally wanted to know.

“I am the daughter of the CEO of Aerial Industries, Amila's largest commercial company. And the manager wants to speak to Leon immediately. And your uncooperative behavior will only get him into trouble. So please excuse us now. “, You spoke then and simply dragged Leon past the reporters and onlookers. "Hold on, wait. Aerial Industries is interested in Champion Leon? We'd like to know more about that! ”One of them shouted, but you were already starting to run with Leon. “I'm really sorry, gentlemen. But it's still confidential between Leon and Aerial! We are not authorized to give further information! ”You shouted before you let go of Leon at some point after you were sure that the men weren't following you.

"I thought your father was Amila's professor? You didn't say he's also the CEO of Aerial Industries? ”Leon mumbled, perplexed.

"He isn't." You smirked, which made Leon even more confused. "But I couldn't get you out of there any other way." "You have ..", Leon started in shock, pointing at you with his gloved hand. “I took you out of this interview on purpose, yes. Because they pushed you pretty hard. You've already explained everything and they just haven't left you alone. And you looked so burned out I just had to act. Sorry. ", You said and clasped your hands apologetically. Leon just stood there, speechless, blinking. Then he started to laugh sincerely and put his hands on his hips. "I see. So that's how it was. Well, thank you very much for saving me. ", He smiled and when you looked into his face, you only noticed happiness and serenity. "Then you are not mad that I interfered?", You asked. Only now did you realized that you had acted on an impulse and that you had already intervened before your thought process was over. "Of course not.", The purple-haired smirked and put his hand on your head. “To be honest, that really came in handy for me. Who knows how long that interview went without you .. ", he sighed exhausted and took off his cap to fan himself with it. "Mmm, it must be exhausting to have so much hustle and bustle around you all the time.", You lamented. Leon laughed lightly and nodded. "That's it. Sometimes ... I don't want to be a champion anymore. I would just like to have some time for myself again .. A .. Mhm yes a short break .. and if it's only one day .. Does that sound selfish of me? ", He asked you. “No, why should it be selfish? You work almost non-stop, you go all over Galar for press conferences, photo shoots, while you make sure that Galar stays in balance and protect people and Pokemon. You really deserve a day off. ",You nodded. Leon then smiled in relief. “Thank you for seeing it that way too. Unfortunately, I can't allow myself to do that. ", He sighed. "Why not?"

"Well, I don't know where to go .. Everyone in Galar knows me .. and .. I wouldn't have a quiet minute," Leon mumbled. "What if you just spend the day off somewhere else?" You suggested. "Somewhere else..?"

You didn't answered him at all and just grinned when you grabbed his hand again and ran to the nearest Corviknight taxi. "Ah, hello there, where do you want to go?"the taxi driver asked and fed two Corviknight some berries. "Do you fly overseas?", You wanted to know and Leon looked at you questioningly. “You mean in other regions? Well, we have special taxi couriers for that. Which region do you want to go to? ”He asked. "Alola."

"Heh? Alola? ”Leon asked surprised. You smiled and paid the taxi driver. "Yep. A short trip to a vacation paradise. Perfect for our little break. ", You giggled. "Break? So it's not your honeymoon, sweeties? ", The taxi driver smiled and saw the young couple blush and gesticulate with their hands in panic. "No, no, no .. We are not .. So .. Haha .. Come on, let's just get in.", You laughed embarrassed and dragged a blushing Leon behind you.

You took a seat in the large gondola that was carried by the birds and tried to forget the embarrassing situation as quickly as possible. As a result, there was initially a rather uncomfortable silence while the gondola with the Corviknights started moving and the approximately four-hour flight to Alola began. You thought about how you had spontaneously persuaded Leon to run away with you, even though you didn't know each other very well. At this realization you gripped your head with a sigh. This action caught the champion's attention, and he looked at you when he became slightly concerned about your strange behavior. "Are you okay ..?" He asked. TYou blinked before you realized that you had sighed audibly and waved embarrassedly. "Yes everything is fine. I ... just feel a little bold. After all, I almost kidnapped you, didn't I? ”You asked with a slight laugh. Leon smiled and crossed his arms. “You could almost call it that. But .. As I said, this little break is very convenient for me, that's why .. you will be forgiven that you 'kidnapped' me. ", He said and winked slightly. You smiled at his answer and relaxed again. Even if you didn't know each other as well as you thought, the mood between you had been quite exuberant and relaxed since you had met in the Slumbering Weald. It was a sympathy that was hard to explain. "I am happy about that. Now it's time to go to Alola. How long did the taxi driver think the flight would take? ”You asked. “About 4 hours. Maybe half an hour more, in case the Corviknight need a break and have to rest. ", The purple-haired man thought and crossed his arms. “It's still a long time. Now that we have to sit around here anyway .. how about if we use the time wisely? ”He asked. "With pleasure. What do you mean with 'use our time wisely'? A fight is hardly an option. “, You thought and looked around. There was really not much space in the gondola ..

"That's probably true .."Leon answered with a slight grin. “I was also more likely to think that it would be a good opportunity for us to find out more about each other. We already know a few things from the phone calls and other meetings, but .. there is still a lot that concerns me, ”he then admitted. "What are you concerned about? About me? “, You asked perplexed and pointed to yourself. Leon nodded. "Yes. For example, you said you were born in Amila. But you grew up in Sinnoh for several years of your life. You even started your journey as a trainer in Sinnoh. Why? Why not in Amila and why did you live in Sinnoh? Please forgive me if these questions are too private. Basically we're just acquaintances, ”he added quietly and scratched his bearded jaw. “Don't be silly, Leon. We are no longer acquaintances. We are friends. Well .. at least that's how I see it. ", You then spoke lightly. Leon then gave you an illegible look before smiling and showing you his signature grin. "Yes. I see it that way too. I was just a little worried about whether it was still too early to tell me something like that, "he added. You shook your head slightly at him. “But I want to tell you. I know that you can be trusted, champion. ", You started with a smile and then leaned back on your seat. "Well .. In our family, we were a bit short on domestic bliss for a very long time. But .. that is a bit longer story .. ", You sighed. “But we have time. You know, in Amila there was a trainer school academy in Sonnfelden. And every child had to go to this school when they turned 5. There you were trained and prepared to be a trainer for 5 years. That's where I met Cynthia too, you know. "

“Ah, the champion from Sinnoh? She was in the semifinals of last year's Champion Cup. That was a close match between Steven Stone and her. ", Leon remembered. You nodded. “She is not only the champion of Sinnoh, but also something like my big sister. But I'll get to that in a moment. In any case, she also attended the academy when she was younger, since her family was also from Amila, you know. And when I came to the academy, of course, she had been outside for a few years. But she stayed as a visiting professor and taught us a lot. For example, she helped me back when we got a loaned Pokemon in our second year. You get a Pokemon egg that you have to take care of and so that you get a feel for the Pokemon. During this time, Cynthia and I became very good friends, although of course she was much older than me. I just saw her as a big sister. Unfortunately, she had to go back to Sinnoh a year before I graduated, but she assured me that I could always go to her if I had worries .. And I made use of that faster than we both would have liked .. ”, you began and looked at your hands. Leon noticed the slight change in your mood. "What happened?" He asked, taking off his cap to place it on yours in a comforting gesture. You smiled and adjusted the cap before sighing deeply. "My parents were about to get divorced," you explained. “Although they could probably pull themselves together again to some extent. But suddenly they started arguing again and .. the evening before my final exam  .. I found out the real reason I as born. ", You said and bit your lip lightly. Although the events were in the past, it still seemed to be a burden somewhere. And now that you thought about it, Leon was the first person to tell all this to. “Our parents' marriage was about to end before I was born. The harmony had long been gone and my father took refuge every now and then in the arms of other women because my mother just didn't gve him what he needed anymore. Anyway, my mom decided to just stop taking the pill and get my dad to ... sleep with her one night when she was particularly fertile. The result came quickly and ... yes. And believe me, it's not a nice feeling to hear that your parents only got you to save their marriage. ", You sighed. "I understand that .. Above all, you were very young. That must have been a shock .. ", Leon said quietly and put his hand on your shoulder. You just nodded slightly. "That was. I just felt so misunderstood and of course confronted both of them with what they meant by that. And then ... I found out the true circumstances of their marriage and ... that I have an older brother in addition to Kaito. "

"Wait ... you didn't even know before that Mamoru was your brother? Did he grew up somewhere else too? ”Leon sounded confused, but at least one could understand that. You smiled sadly. “Well, Mamoru had drawn an even worse fate with these people than I did. Or it was more of a benefit to him who knows. Anyway .. after my brother was born, there was an attack from a wild Gengar in Sonnfelden. There was an university too, where father studied archeology and mother studied medicine. They tried to stop the Gengar, but it got out of hand and used.. Dream Eater on my hypnotized mother. She lost her memories ... of her entire life because of this. Her husband and son. Then father decided to get my brother to his brother, our uncle Brian, in Bad Lavastadt, Hoenn. They wanted to get him back when the therapies made Mother able to remember and feel better. But .. after seeing how happy my brother was with Uncle Brian and his wife, they no longer had the heart to do it. Since then, the harmony between our parents had diverged. They barely had anything to say to each other, they also no longer exchanged loving gestures and gradually the marriage of the two broke up more and more, until my father finally thought of a divorce .. ", You mumbled. "... and to avoid the divorce, your mother thought, a child would somehow save the marriage or keep them together?" Leon asked and squeezed your shoulder slightly affectionate in an attempt to give you further comfort. "Yes. That was the ulterior motive of my conception. And somehow they made me feel that quite often, but I never thought anything about it .. Until I found out why I was born .. "

"What happened after that?"

“The relationship with my parents was down. And I hadn't passed the final exam either, precisely because my nerves were so shaky and the whole situation at home just finished me off. I just had to get out of there. That was the only thing I could think of. Then I remembered what Cynthia had said to me before she left .. That she would always have her arms open for me and that I could always come to her .. Just .. how should I travel to Sinnoh as a 9 year old child? … Father's Alakazam .. “, you then began. “Father's Alakazam can read the minds of us humans. And if you imagine a place very strongly and your wish is big enough ... then the powerful teleport from Alakazam will manage to transport you there. And you can surely guess who I was thinking of, right? ", "Cynthia?"

You nodded. “You should have seen her puzzled face when I suddenly appeared in front of her. I told her everything and afterwards she took me to her grandmother in Celestic Town. So that's how it started, that's why I went to Sinnoh. That's why I started my career as a trainer there, and that's why Cynthia and Professor Carolina are like a family to me. " "And your brother? I mean .. You are in good contact with your parents again, don't you? Did Mamoru know about it too? I mean that the people who raised him weren't his real parents? ”Leon wanted to know. “I think Uncle Brian couldn't take it anymore and told him. At the time, however, I had been in Sinnoh for a long time. Mamoru and I didn't even knew each other until then. We met after I got home because Mother got sick. Very sick. But don't worry, she's fine. But he should tell you himself how it is with Mamoru and our parents. If I do that, he'll surely get angry. ", You laughed a little. Leon nodded and smiled. “Thank you for this private glimpse into your life and your family. I want to return this favor and ... that's why I'll tell you something about myself that nobody else knows. Not even my best friend, Raihan. ”Leon began. "Wait .. If even your best friend doesn't know about it, then you shouldn't tell anyone else ..", You mumbled, embarrassed. Leon laughed softly and waved. "But I want to show you that I trust you as much as you trust me."

“That's nice of you, but you don't need that. If I didn't knew that you trust me, I wouldn't have told you the story in the first place. ", You smiled. "Fine. But at some point I'll tell you whether you want to or not. ", Leon laughed and winked at you charmingly. "Thanks for the warning."

[platonic-prompts]

Creatures from Folklore: Slavic Region A-D

You ever need different creatures to base things off of, or just want some legends for a setting? Or heck, you ever just want to chuck a creature at someone and say you’ll figure it out? Well, do I have the posts for you. This one will focus on the Slavic Region but I’ll make more at a later date

Ala are considered to be demons of bad weather in several folklore, including that of Bulgarians, Macedonians, and Serbs. Their main purpose is to lead thunderclouds that produce hail towards fields, vineyards, or orchards to either destroy the crops or to loot and take them. They are very voracious and really like to eat children. Though one shouldn’t assume they limit their tastes to Earth, no. They sometimes try to devour the sun and moon which lead to eclipses and if they succeed it means the end of the world. People who encounter one may find their mental and physical health as well as their lives at risk. It is, however, possibly to gain her favor by approaching with trust and respect. These good relationships can be very beneficial since she (the ala) can make those with her favor wealthy and save their lives if they are in danger. Ala can take on many different forms: black wind, giant creatures with no distinct form, a monster either humanlike or snake like witha  huge mouth, a female dragon, a raven, various human and animal shapes. Ala can also possess people’s bodies. They live in the clouds or in lakes, springs, hidden remote places as well as caves, inhospitable mountains, forests, or even a huge tree. Usually hostile towards humans, they have powerful enemies capable of defeating them like the dragons.

Alkanost have an incredible voice, capable of making anyone who hears her song might forget everything in their search for paradise. A creature of good who resides in the garden of the gods or whatever version of heaven required, the alkanost has the head and bust of a woman and the rest of the body is that of a bird. Sometimes this creature lays eggs which assist in the changing of winter to spring. Basically she wouldn’t sit on her eggs just dump them into the Ocean-Sea and when they reached the bottom the weather would turn fair. Though i think that takes her out of the running for parenting awards.

Anchutka is a small malevolent spirit, residing most often in water or a swamp. Even without wings, it is capable of flight. One of its nicknames is the one without heels. This is a common theme to look for, as oftentimes evil forces have a limp. Though in some storied this spirit has lost their heels because they got bitten off by a wolf. This spirit is often a sidekick to a water spirit called Vodyanoy, and as such you should never say its name aloud since it will always show up.

Aspid, a type of dragon with a beak and other birdlike elements, resides primarily in the mountains, preferring solitude. When it invades a region, nearly always it caused universal devastation.

Baba Yaga: I’m pretty sure a lot of people know about Baba Yaga, the witch who lives in a hut with chicken legs and goes around in a mortar and pestle. She does carry a broom though, but she only uses it to sweep away her tracks.

Bannik is a spirit who rarely does any good for anyone. A mischievous spirit that has the appearance of an old man with long claws, he’s a spirit that inhabits the banya (steamhouse). Whenever people bathed in the banya, they would always leave on the third or fourth session to let Bannik have his privacy. They would leave him offerings of soup and regularly thank him. Bannik had the power to tell the future and if asked a question he would softly touch the askers back if it was a good future or flay it if it was a not so good future. Oh and Bannik, when angry, would claw off the skin of those who annoyed him. The banya was also the place of Russian childbirth, so there were measures taken to keep him from interfering. Part of the midwife’s job was to keep him away. And with good reason. Legends say that he ate or flayed children. So therefore the midwife would dip stones in the water and throw them in the corner to distract the steamhouse spirit.

Bauk hide in dark places and holes and abandoned houses. There they wait to grab, take away, and devour their victims. They have a clumsy gait and can be scared away by light and noise.

Babay, possibly the same thing as the bubak, isn’t often described so children will come up with what is most terrible for them. But despite this, Baby has been described as a black and crooked old man. When he is descibed he tends to have some traits such as muteness, lacking arms, or walking with a limp. He carries with him a bag and a cane. Baby lives in a forest or a swamp or a garden only to come out at night to walk the streets and scoop up the children he meets. He will walk close to windows and watched the children sleep. If they aren’t he’ll scare them with noises. Or sometimes he even hides under kids beds to take them away if they get up.

B��ędnica is a forest demoness, who leads people astray before leaving her victims alone in the midst of the forest to die of starvation or be eaten by animals. She is usually described as a young and pretty girl. The only way to chase her away is to use strong spells or to sacrifice something at home or during your hunt.

Blud is a fairy in Slavic mythology. An evil deity who causes disorientation and leads a person around and around aimlessly.

Bukavac lives in lakes and pools, coming out at night to make a loud noise. A six-legged monster with gnarled horns, it would jump people and animals and strangle them.

Bubak is often represented as a scarecrow with a skeleton as frame, which is connected with darkness, it is a type of boogeymen used to scare children. The skeleton often is describes as wearing a heavy black coat where it hides the children it steals.

Cikavac, a mythical creature from Serbian mythology and it kinda feels like a basilisk but way weirder. This thing is a bird that has a long beak and a pelican-like sack. You can acquire one at the low low price of your sanity and clear face. For you see, in order to get one, you need to take an egg from a black hen which a woman now needs to carry under her armpit for 40 days ( is now a good time to note that chicken eggs hatch after 21 days or so) and one cannot confess, cut nails, wash their face, or pray. After that the cikavac would suck the honey from other people’s beehives and suck milk from other peoples cows and then bring it back to their owner. It would fulfill its owner’s wishes and it would allow its owner to understand the animal language.

Chort, a demon or a humanlike spirit in Slavic folk tradition.  They are not exactly evil characters. Yes they try to trick people into selling them their souls in exchange for useless gifts. Yes those people are carried off into hell. But they are sometimes tricked into doing such things as building castle walls in a day. Sometimes is depicted as trying to bring evil characters to hell. A small, hairy man with a tail, horns, and one or two hooves. But due to shapeshifting abilities, the chort is able to appear in nicer forms and tries to trick people while in them. Though these transformations aren’t and can’t be complete, so there’s a way to know if one is dealing with a chort whether it be by small horns in curly black hair or a hoofed leg hidden within high boots. Though they share similarities, a chort is not the devil.

Čuma, aka kuga, is a personification of the plague in Serbo-Croation myths. Typically appears as an old woman wearing white, though in some cases has been depicted as a young woman. Direct mention of them were avoided and were usually referred to by godmother or aunty. According to belief, they lived in a far away land where they came from to infect people. Due to their hatred of dirtiness, if they found a dirty household they would be eager to infect it. Due to this, if a plague appeared,every house and its occupants must be thoroughly cleansed. In addition one could make offerings to of food, clean water, basil, and a comb.

Domovoi are household protectors, generally seen as kind spirits though they would harass the family they protect if said family was rude or unclean. This usually took the form of pulling small pranks until the family corrected their behavior. While domovoi are shape shifters, most depictions show them as small, bearded masculine creatures which are reminiscent of hobgoblins. In order to complete his chores and to fulfill his duty of protecting the house, the domovoi would assume the shape of the head of the household, sometimes working in the yard while the real head of household was asleep. (Guess spirits don’t have to worry about identity theft charges). They were also capable of turning into animals, rarely taking the form of a dog or a cat. Another facet of the domovoi was their ability to act as an oracle. Predictions are as follows

Dancing and laughing= Good fortune would come

Rubbed the bristles of a comb= a wedding would happen soon

Extinguished candles= Misfortune would fall upon the household.

Dziwożona, a type of female swamp demon from Slavic mythology, sometimes called Mamuna or Bognika, who lived in the thickets near rivers and streams and lakes. Thought to appear with foul weather around trees and swamps, they are known for being malicious and dangerous, and usually were previously living humans. Several types of people would be at risk of turning into one after death, such as: midwives, old maids, unmarried mothers, pregnant women who die before giving birth, and abandoned children who were born out of wedlock. Some depictions include an ugly, old woman who had a hairy body, long straight hair, and I quote “breasts so huge she uses them to wash her clothes”. I don’t know what that actually means and I don’t want to find out. She also wore a red hat with a fern twig attached. In case she wasn’t weird enough, she’d watch women with their little children.  Just chilling around making the kid sick and making schemes to get the mother away from the kid when she’d replace the kid with one of her own, a foundling/changeling.

[radramblog]

Cube Philosophy- The Best Cards?

A common mistake I see with cube is the assumption that every cube has to be playing the best cards around unless it has some weirdo theme going on. I believe this is largely a result of most people being introduced to the format through the Arena or MTGO cubes, since they appear to be WoTC’s idea of what a cube should look like. It’s very tempting to just get all the best and coolest cards so you can play with them all- the “Hall of Fame of Magic” style of cube has been rather popular for a long time. It’s the default.

But there are a few very good reason not to just play the best cards around, and as a lover of both hipster shit and jank I’d like to go into that.

I guess there’s four main reasons to not be playing all the best cards all the time. This might not sound like much, but I think those reasons are both valid and relevant, as well as fairly all-encompassing.

Reason Number One: Good cards, are expensive. This one is fairly obvious, but if you aren’t doing proxies and you don’t have cards on hand then it’s often not worth spending a ridiculous amount of money on the hot new standard green four-drop frop the hot new set (looking at you, Questing Beast). Particularly when it’s a fairly nonspecific slot, such as, well, (X)-Drop (Colour) beater, even moreso when there are likely cheaper but still very solid alternatives.

A recent episode of the Legendary Creature Podcast (a very good Commander/EDH cast) discussed “Midmaxing”, where you use slightly lower-powered versions of common effects to save money to use on more powerful but more unique effects- such as playing a few worse wraths and draws so you can save money for something like Hatred. This idea is easily translatable to cube- certain archetype makers like Splinter Twin are irreplacable if you want to make that deck function, but maybe you don’t need Noble Hierarch if you’ve got a couple spare Llanowar Elves sitting around. I actually doubled up a couple mana dorks to avoid putting such absolute nonce cards in- though I did have a spare Birds of Paradise sitting around so that got in.

The second reason is, funnily enough, power level. This is somewhat less applicable for those trying the high-powered vintage/legacy type cube, but when you’re introducing new cards, sometimes the balance of power ends up shifting…uncomfortably. Now, this is often offset by the power of testing, and cube like many a limited format is somewhat self-correcting, but not everyone has the time to test or the data and consistent playgroup to self-correct. Power level is a funny thing, and balancing a game is fucking hard- especially in multiplayer. But that’s arguably the fun of it. Cube has so many dials and knobs to turn and alter- one for every card you play, and more in a meta sense as far as numbers of certain types or subcategories of cards- so nerfing or buffing certain archetypes and colours by playing stronger and weaker variants of certain effects.

Point three in this medium-length diatribe is a lesson taken from Canadian Highlander, or as some call it, Vintage/Legacy cube but constructed instead of limited. And that is, that “best in slot” is not always such an obvious thing to determine, and different people are going to have different opinions as to what’s the goodest option. The specific note I remember is from burn/red aggro decks in that format- because once you pick up Lightning Bolt and all the other Very Good burn spells, do you go lean and start playing Shocks (1 mana 2 damage), or bigger and start going Lightning Strikes (2 mana 3 damage)? Similarly, once you’re out of the Best Counterspells, do you play more limited 2 mana ones, more powerful 3 mana ones, more powerful ones like Cryptic Command or Mystic Confluence, or the expensive free ones? It’s going to depend on your cube, but it means that the “best” one isn’t always going to be the same depending on who you are and where you go. This also kinda ties into the numbers issue, where you’re going to want different versions of effects based on the mana costs of other cards you’re playing, et cetera, et cetera.

The final reasoning is the old appeal to personality. Because a cube is your baby, and you should definitely put cards you enjoy in it- even if they aren’t the greatest things in the planet. If every cube was just every best card, they would look very similar and shit would get boring very quickly. Look, I’m just coming as someone who’s cube is basically just a bunch of cards I like, but you’re here to have a good time, right? A recent MaRo quote that made some waves was this, “if your primary goal is having fun- you don’t have to maximally optimize your deck.”. This translates fairly effectively to cube, as it’s a format where there can be more room for more fun cards. Especially since you get to play so many of them. I’m an advocate for silly cards, and cards I’m nostalgic for, and so what if those are a bit weaker?

 And uhhh yeah that’s the lot of them. Ultimately, like with most things with cube, shit’s up to you, and if you’re not relatively new to it it’s probably fairly obvious. But it tends to help to get these things down on paper. Er, digital paper, I suppose.

It’s been frustratingly long since I’ve actually gotten to play my cube, let alone update it. Hopefully I’ll be able to change that sooner rather than later. For now, I suppose I’m going to stare at it lovingly for another few weeks. Until then?

[xiubaek-13]

Gods & Myths

Prompt: J-Hope + 3. A breathy demand: “Kiss me” - and what the other person does to respond.

Setting/AU: College AU

Warnings: Alcohol use, frat party, sexual tension, lewd humour etc

Word Count: 3,278

You didn’t want to be here. Every fiber of your being wanted desperately to be anywhere that wasn’t at the Gods and Myths party at Ravenwood Academy. It’s not that you hated parties, or despised dressing up, rather, it was that you hated ending up alone at these things. Your friends always came with you, spotted someone they were crushing on and left without fail. Leaving you alone for the remainder of the evening, easy prey for drunk creeps to hit on. Usually you left before they saw you all alone, in your mind you wondered if you had a huge neon sign above you that said Easy Target.

Every time you brought this fact up with them their responses were the same. “Well maybe you should try it sometime.” “It’s not going to hurt you to have fun. Live a little.” “Just do, don’t think about it for once in your life.”

All of that was easier said than done though. Overthinking was a skill of yours, one excelled at. Your friends meant well, you knew that, but it hurt to realise time and time again that in some aspects, they just truly didn’t understand you. You weren’t as outgoing as them and apparently didn’t have anywhere near as high a sex drive as they did. They said you were too picky while you thought that sometimes they weren’t picky enough.

You wanted to be the person who could just switch off and live in the moment but you were too observant, too analytical and too concerned with how what you did at any given moment would impact your life. Other people got to finish class and leave their academic commitments in their dorm, not concerned with how their actions in the night would impact them in the future but not you, the burden of responsibility weighed heavy on your shoulders. You had to get good grades so that you could get a good job and a good career. That was what had been ingrained into you since you were a small child. Romance and frivolity just weren’t luxuries that you could afford.

Regardless of how you feel about social gatherings, you’re here, sitting on Minhee’s bed with Sora while they brainstorm costumes for each of you to wear. According to them this party was a big deal and proper thought should go into your outfit. In your mind it was just middle ground between angels & devils and toga party. Wear a coloured sheet and something on your head and drink. It seemed simple to you but to your friends, it was more. They were well known for their partying ways and impeccable costumes. How you ended up with these two as your best friends you’ll never know, but you wouldn’t have it any other way… most of the time.

Minhee stands in front of her wardrobe facing the two of you with her arms crossed in front of her, resolute in her statement. “As a history major I refuse to allow the three of us to be basic. There will be enough Aphrodite’s, Hera’s, Athena’s and Persephone’s in attendance so we need something unique.” 

“Why don’t we go as the three fates?” Sora offers as she flips through a Greek Mythology book.

Minhee shakes her head. “No, then we’d have to spend the entire night together so that our costumes made sense.”

“Wow, you make hanging out together sound like a punishment.” You remark.

Her eyes roll. “You know that’s not how I meant it. If we do a group costume then we have to stick together. At the biggest party of the academic year.” Next to you Sora nods. If she thinks this is convincing you that she wasn’t being harsh before, she’s sorely mistaken.

“What Minhee is trying to say is that Jaebum is going to be there and she wants to get that.” She chuckles as she looks at you. “We love you dearly, but we both have goals for this party, and apparently that means we need standalone costumes. Otherwise Minhee will be insufferable because she couldn’t jump JB’s bones because we did a group costume… which is not a crazy persons reasoning at all.”

You can’t help but laugh at Sora’s bluntness. You knew they’d both be wanting to impress their crushes and that they would not be sticking with you all night. Still, the reality of being alone at a party yet again kind of dampens the mood for you. “Then Minhee should be Nyx.” You state.

“Primordial goddess of the night?” She asks, to no one in particular.

You shrug. “Look if there was a goddess of determination to get that dick then I’d pick that one for you. This is the closest thing.”

Sora collapses into the bed in a fit of laughter at your words while Minhee feigns offence, doing her best to not laugh yet. “Are you calling me a skank?”

“Of course not. If I wanted to do that I’d have suggested Peitho.” Minhee sputters as her cool facade cracks and she joins Sora in a fit of laughter, doubling over and grabbing the wardrobe with her spare hand to brace herself as she laughs.

“You bitch.” She says as she regains her composure.

“Honestly, the lengths you go to for dick.”  You do your best to sound nonchalant but a laugh breaks through.

“For that uncalled for comment you get to be Hecate, it’s not in the mythology books but I’m pretty sure she was a snarky biatch like you.” She points at Sora as you crack up laughing. “And you can be Kotys, you party animal.”

***

The party is going almost exactly how you imagined it would. The three of you arrived, wading through a crowd of multiple Hades, Persephone, Zeus, Hera, Apollo & Aphrodite costumes. Minhee and Sora are ecstatic that no one seems to have picked the goddesses that the three of you did but a small part of you wishes you could blend in with the crowd, it would make escaping drunk horny guys later so much easier.

You had to give it to the decorators. They had outdone themselves this year. The large dining hall had been transformed into a Greek paradise. There was a Mount Olympus in the back corner, a Dionysus themed bar, hanging gardens, beautifully draped sheets around fake columns. There were games all around the room, based off ancient Olympics and myths. You spotted a stone grotto where you had to trick Medusa, a makeshift river Styx, the list went on.

It was hard to believe that this was the dining hall. The spot where you usually sat for your meals was currently the entrance to hell and where you normally sat was Yoongi, dressed as Hades, trying to convince people to actually pay him money to be kept safe. You laughed to yourself, remembering the time that Minhee had her sights set on him only to be shut down because he didn’t want to fuck someone who didn’t know what an arpeggio was. She had been livid for weeks. She thought it was some kind of pasta. You and Sora hadn’t let her live it down, much to her displeasure.

The rest of his group are performing similar grifts around the room. Namjoon is at Mount Olympus, dressed as Zeus and giving orders as King of the Gods. Jimin is dressed as Eros and is wandering around pushing people together, daring them to kiss. Dressed is a loose statement given the minimal amount of coverage he has going for him but that kind of goes hand in hand with being the god of sexual desire, attraction, love and procreation. Jin is dressed as Plutus and in his drunken stupor keeps telling everyone “Opulence, I own everything!” Taehyung is behind the bar, dressed as Dionysus, reveling in getting partygoers drunk out of their brains. Jungkook is Heracles, doing upside down keg stands and challenging people to arm wrestling and Mario Kart, probably not exactly the picture of the greatest hero but he fits the strongest man on earth part of the brief. Hoseok is Caerus, flitting around the room to each of the games and convincing people to do things they normally wouldn’t, telling them he felt lucky about their odds of winning if they did as he suggested. Whoever put those 7 in charge as hosts for the evening was either out of their mind or a genius.

Shortly after arriving Sora directs you to the bar, making sure the three of you have drinks in your hands at all times then drags your trio over to a group who are playing a range of drinking games loosely based off mythology. So loosely that you’d wager that they were just playing normal drinking games and adding one greek work to them to fit the theme of the party. You glance at Minhee, thinking she might have hit the nail on the head with the goddess she picked for Sora, who raises a brow at you as if to say I was dead on right?

You stand back with Minhee while Sora leads the next round of games, completely in her element as the life of the party. Out of the corner of your eye you spot the very person who Minhee keeps searching for. She probably thinks she’s being subtle but to you she looks like a lost bird with how much her head is darting around as she scans the room. You nudge her, directing her attention towards her mark. “He’s over there when you’re ready to go throw yourself at him.”

She scoffs at you and smirks. “Don’t be ridiculous, I won’t need to throw myself at him, have you seen me in this dress?” To make sure you get the full effect she twirls and poses for you, her shamelessness making you cringe.

“Oh my god, just go already.”

Sora appears beside you, laughing. “Looks like I have perfect timing!” she says as she latches onto your arm, her grip ironclad, tugging it towards the centre of the group where the games are being played. “Come on, we’re playing the next game.”

“Wha-” you start to protest, refusing to budge from your spot. You don’t join in at these parties. You observe. You’re not the free spirited type. You don’t know the social cues or the rules for these games.

“No excuses. If you fuck up the game you drink, if you win you drink. Pretty simple really.” She holds onto your arm tightly, no intentions of letting you flee. “For once, try to enjoy yourself.” She says.

Begrudgingly you give up trying to escape. She knows you too well and she has no plans on letting go of you until you’re in the circle and the game is starting. There’s no escape now, not when you’re surrounded. Your anxiety spikes for a moment, wondering if all of the people around you know that you don’t fit in here. That little voice in your head tells you that they’re judging you, mocking you, no matter how hard you try to ignore it.  

“What game have you been playing here?” Hoseok asks, appearing out of nowhere, his red locks wreathed in olive branches. That part of his costume irks you. Caerus was always described as bald, with one lock of hair, not a luscious soft looking full head of hair. At least he had the non aging, beautiful part down, because Hoseok was beautiful. His high cheekbones and strong jawline framed his face, inviting eyes and an infectious smile made him hard to resist. You have watched him from a distance at many parties, never actually interacting with words. A few times he caught you staring, only to raise an eyebrow at you and for you to avert your gaze. This is the closest you’d ever been to him at a party and you decide that it is incredibly unfair for him to look that good.

“Escape the Manticore.” Someone says at the same time as you say “Beer Pong.” Hoseok laughs as he moves to the center of the group. He raises his hands, beckoning those in the circle to listen to him.

“An excellent choice of game, however, might I suggest a change in proceedings before Jungkook/Heracles makes his way over here?” The noises from the group seem to lean towards agreeing to change games. Everyone knows that you can’t beat Jungkook at beer pong. The guy is stupidly good at it. Smiling, Hoseok continues. “Might I suggest Sirens Call?”

You scoff. “What’s that, truth or dare?” The crowd laughs at your comment.

“Closer to spin the bottle actually.” Hoseok responds, winking at you as he does so. “Alright, you lot” He says as he points to 7 others, Sora and yourself “are playing this round with me.” You do your best to ignore the wink, surely he does that to everyone. Like Sora, he’s always the life of the party. It probably doesn’t mean anything. Even if part of you wants it to.

Sora claps with glee as she realizes that his selection includes the man she’s been ogling all night, Shownu. He’s a mountain of a man with soft, kind eyes and Sora has been swooning over him for months. You know that she’ll shatter the bottle if it doesn’t land on him when she spins it.

“You look like you want to eat him alive Sora, maybe dial it down a notch.” You murmur.

Her eyes flit to yours for a moment, a mischievous grin on her face. “I’d rather climb him like a tree but eating works as well.”

You don’t get a chance to tell her to keep it in her pants as Hoseok produces a bottle and motions for the ten of you to sit on the floor. “The person spinning the bottle is the siren. Whoever the bottle lands on is their target. If their target succumbs to their call and kisses them they’re out of the game, Sirens were kind of evil guys, they lured men to their deaths. If you resist the siren for thirty seconds then you survive and they are out of the game.

The game progresses as drunken people lock lips and disappear from the game, often wandering off together to continue where they left off, much to Jimin’s delight. Shownu did his best to resist Sora, but your maniac of a friend legitimately climbed him when he refused her request for him to kiss her, straddling his hips and teasingly leaning in, ghosting kisses over his neck, face & mouth until he gave in and captured her lips with his. As she got up and lead Shownu away from the group she winked at you, happy to have secured her man for the night.

Hoseok spins the bottle next. You watch it spin round and round, wondering who it will land on and if they’re going to be able to resist his charms. To your surprise the bottle lands on you. You stare at it in mild shock. Hoseok isn’t supposed to get this close to you. No, you watch him from afar, wondering what it would be like to touch him, to be held by him, to kiss him. But those were only ever supposed to be thoughts, never a reality.

You watch with wide eyes as he crawls towards you, like a predator circling its prey. You don’t know if you are strong enough to resist him, not when his eyes were laser focused on you like that. He’d never looked at you like that before. Whenever he’d caught you staring at him he’d always kept that inviting look in his eyes but that was nowhere to be found right now. It felt like he was staring into your soul which unnerves you. You try to swallow but your throat feels dry, and your hand can’t seem to find your drink.

He closes the distance between the two of you quickly, stopping only once his arms are caging your legs where you sit. He is too close, so close that you can feel his breath fanning your neck, you can smell his cologne, you can’t concentrate. He licks his lips and leans forward, his mouth ghosting your ear. Breathily he says “Kiss me” then moves back slightly so that he can see your face.

If you do as he asks you’ll lose the game, but you will have kissed Jung Hoseok. That little voice inside your head tries to tell you that he’d only be kissing you because of the game, not because he has any interest in you. Another smaller voice speaks up, telling you so what if its only because of the game? You still get to kiss him and if the other voice is wrong, then you’ll have bagged Jung motherfucking Hoseok. Where is the loss for you here?

You stare at his lips longer than you care to admit, at his prominent cupids bow and soft looking lower lip, at the way he slightly smirks when he realises that you’re fixated on his mouth. It feels like aeons but in reality it takes only seconds for the two of you to stare at each other, your eyes flickering because for a moment Hoseok does look like a god, but one who is within your reach, and it causes a quiet breath to escape your lips.

Cautiously you inch forward, and Hoseok cups your cheek with his hand. He feels warm. You lean into his touch, letting yourself indulge in the moment. You press your lips into his, they are softer than you were expecting. He moves his head slightly and your lips slot together perfectly, his hand sliding into your hair. You could end it here, you had already failed the game and there was no need to continue the kiss.

Except that you don’t want it to end. You want more. You press into his lips harder, parting them, and you feel him smile into it as he deepens the kiss. Your hand grips his cloak, as if you’re scared he will let go of you and end this. The nature of the kiss shifts from a soft, sweet meeting of the mouths to a heated, passionate tangling of tongues. When you do break apart its because you both need air. His eyes are hooded and dark as he stares at you as if you are the only person in the room.

Gradually both of you realize that you have an audience and you blush furiously. Hoseok clears his throat and looks around, attempting to put on the mask of the host as he says. “That’s game over. You know how it works now, form your own teams and go.” He grabs your wrist and helps you stand, his eyes never leaving your face. It’s written all over his face, plain as day, that he wants to kiss you again. You want to kiss him again too, but not with so many people around.

“Come with me?” He asks.

[kurtty-drabbles]

Pirate au Redone (Part 4)

N/A: I think I´ll have to make a bonus part of this au later. This was a challenge to do and I hope I got it right.

@djinmer4 @dannybagpipesarecalling @bamfoftheundead @everykurt @muninandhugin

The ship has the name " Sesame" in big letter and font very eye-appealing and one lonely woman is watching the sky- seeing the birds flying by near the ship/yacht completely oblivious to the inner turmoil she carries in regards her new life- and the contemplation only stops when the Captain of the ship sits next to her offering her a drink-nothing alcoholic as she promised with a mischievous smile and a wink- and replies. "How life is treating so far, Kwannon?" and the Japanese woman has to pound this question for a minute or two.

"Captain Pryde" she humors the other woman even if she knows that pirates, well, real pirates, don´t have a yacht or aren´t so heroic as she´s lead to believe. "I have issues with Krakoa but I´m also ...thankfully for that abomination...look" she gestures her own hands and Captain Pryde follows the motion with her eyes calmly. "I´ve my body back...I´m not dead nor in some white woman´s body. I´m me again and ...this makes me think..." she trails off and Kitty Pryde encourages her to speak freely.

"I was born with nothing, I die with nothing and now I don´t even have the ''nothing'' anymore...Kitty, does God truly exist, or is this all a cosmic joke for him or her?" Kwannon question plug´s Kitty heart and she can remember a certain mutant who aside from loving piracy (among other things) and whose faith was something Kitty and him could talk freely-even through both have different religions it was also covered with a deeper respect for each other- and Kitty only answeres "I believe there is a God or even Gods...but, trying to understand them is a null point"

Kwannon nods but doesn´t seem to be a topic well- answered for her, yet, she´s gracious enough to change the topic. " You think we can trust her...of all people?" and Kitty narrow her eyes.

"Are you going to call her the pretender?"

"No...I´m just unsure of what to feel about her"

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Getting the title of the sorceress supreme from Dr. Strange is not something that will give any dark pleasure- Dr. Strange was a friend, if nothing else, and while his taste for women can be questionable at best, there´s no real pleasure in getting his tittle now- and Wanda Maximoff donning herself with the famous crimson cape is in agreement with its new master.

Tommy and Billy are working with her-Billy return from the space to learn his "twin" not only is working in a magic school but has some small traces of magic, and Billy, only respond by hugging his twin until the other threats to curse him for all eternity- and her magic school is now a real vision(sometimes, Wanda chuckles at this word. Sometimes, Wanda cries) with demons kids from Limbo and other parts of the globe or planes wanting safe heaven to learn magic.

The X-men used to be like that...or am I wrong?

The Sesame´s flag is in view and Wanda shakes her nostalgia away ("let the past in the past, Wanda") and is there watching as Captain Pryde is present and the one who is making an effort to go talk with Wanda-the rest of the crew looks unsure, she de-powered them not too long ago and not everyone is forgiving nor forgiving means friendship- and the two woman are now facing each other.

"You really are here..." Wanda´s tone is laced with surprise as she watches the yacht on the port and back to the captain. "Afraid of me?" she asked still impressed.

"I´m really here...Am I afraid of you? No, not really Wanda...Yet, I can´t ignore M day, I´d not blame you...in the full extension the others do...you were out of your mind and others try to take advantage...still, I won´t call you the pretender or any shit like that" Kitty responds with honest and while she´s never one to use swear words- and is something Terry Pryde installed on her since a young age- she feels this is an appropriate moment to use it.

Wanda only nods at her words. It is much better than she was expecting or hoping for. "Do you really want to do this? Krakoa isn´t supposed to be a paradise to all mutants?" 

"The paradise is more for horror island than anything else...and while I think Utopia is still a pretentious name...is better than a cult on an alive island...Can you help us, Scarlet Witch?" Kitty asked sincerely now. Nothing is bounding Scarlet Witch to do this task.

Wanda closes her eyes and opens with now crimson. "I´m Scarlet Witch for a reason...and I´m sorry...for what the Avengers did"

"Apologies from them mean next to nothing"

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Kurt Wagner noticed the absence of Logan, Scott, Jean, and even Ororo and is surrounded by people who in the past-and, not a too long past- were his enemies. Looking at Apocalypse gazing at him with wraith in his eyes mixed with envy does make his stomach rumble. Prof X is speaking and to be frankly, Kurt is not interested in listening any more.

"This is a cult!" Kurt shouts ignoring Raven´s look- the woman may have given birth to him, but, she´s far from being a mother in any sense- and looks in disgust to the villains on the quiet council. "There´s only villains here. What type of paradise is this?"

And Prof X put an uncanny smile on his face-still wearing that helmet and Magneto is close by. As always- as he speaks in a leery way. "And that wouldn´t make you a villain as well? I know...I know what you did in some other universes. Nate may have used you as an avatar to live his wet dream, but, in other realities, you make you with a woman in front of your dead daughter´s cold corpse" and show the image to Kurt who denies this as being a trick.

"I´m not a monster. I´m not like this. I´m Kurt Wagner...and I refuse to be on this island" and tries to attack Prof X and is only meet with vines wrapped around his waist.

"Do you miss Kitty Pryde that much or are you just lonely?" Prof X sounds different now. "Because...I never thought you´re worth her time" and his golden eyes watch as each member on the clan is nothing more but vines. And Krakoa has made her decision to reject Kurt.

Sesame managed to fish Kurt Wagner with a bit help of luck- Kurt opens his golden eyes to see Kitty Pryde staring at him with a myriad of expressions. Concern is one of them- and Kurt breaks down crying as Kitty only hugs him.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Doug Ramsey is not one to think of himself as a James Bond type of spy or archetype, yet, Captain Britain aka Betsy counts on him and Doug wants to do something, anything to help his fellow mutants. Doug uses his power unashamed and telepathically calls Betsy.

"We have to take as many mutants we can..." his eyes are watching the scene incredulous. "That story of Dr. Moira being a mutant? Well...is fake as much everything else in this island" and the call ends with Doug looking at the clones of every single X-men and the versions of Dr. Moira...It has the words written "the last clone" and it sends a shiver to his spine as the clone opens her eyes and speaks one line.

"I´m a mutant, just like you" and the others continue to do so.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Queen Lilandra is looking at the New Mutants with a stoic expression enrobing her face and body language as well- The X-men aren´t enemies, per se, but aren´t allies and Queen Lilandra has a daughter she wants to prevent the X-men to ever meet- and Karma is the one to break the silence again.

"Where is Pheonix?"

"What do you mean? Pheonix has never left Earth...."

___________________________________________________________________________________________

Captain Britan and the Neo Excalibur are working to smuggle as many mutants they can from Krakoa- Doug can only calm the island for so long as he repeats his words to Neo Excalibur-and Rogue and Remy are running from the time. "Are they the real thing or ..." Rogue will later wonder if she jinxed this rescue mission as a good part of the mutants rescued...turned into green goo.

And Betsy takes a whiff in the air and screams. "Fire!" and Neo Excalibur runs away in their ship as Rogue can swear the shape of the fire is similar to...

No...it can´t be...

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Madeline Pryor concludes her tale many days ago, yet, still feels as if is lingering on Scott and Jean´s mind and Jean is the one not taking the news well-the resistance against Krakoa is ever surprised to see Jean and Madeline in a semi civil way- as the New Mutants confirm Madeline´s tale and everything else.

"So...this is all because I´m a bad mother?" Jean asked almost laughing -not a joyful one, rather one devoid of any positive emotion- and Madeline is not taking pity on Jean.

"Is a way to see things...Look, I´m not the greatest example either...Nate became a monster" Madeline´s expression softened a little. She can feel sorry for Meggan if nothing else-she, among all the members of the resistance, can understand how cruel truly is when someone takes your ability to do anything for their own gain- and she continues not bothering to look at Jean. "You thought Nate as your own and ignored your own daughter...yet, Scott is the only one who seems to still remember her"

Jean says nothing as she watches Scott and Kitty talk -whatever is about Utopia or how to deal with Krakoa is not important right now- and she wonders why she never bothers to check on Rachel Grey.

Thanks to Scarlet Witch, Utopia is back and unlike Krakoa there´s a chance of organic change into a real country-Emma Frost is taking diplomacy like a fish to the water and all the surviving mutants have no more complaints in regards Scarlet Witch, at least, it appears so- and Captain Pryde looks at Nightcrawler who looks still befuddled by everything, yet, refuses to leave Kitty behind.

If Pheonix wants a fight...she´ll get one...but if Rachel wants revenge...can I give this to her?

[rovvboat]

Painted Flaws - Colossus/Piotr Rasputin x villian!Reader

Part 11

A/N: send an ask if you wanna be added to the taglist! Lmk how you feel about this series!

Summary: You’re a villian with a moral grey area. You meet Piotr at an art exhibit, but both of you are there for completely different reasons. Though the attraction was inevitable, will it be enough? A growing passionate love wrought with secrecy, both of you try to move through this maze. But when the ball drops, what will you choose?

word count: 1.6k

The cold, light morning air fills the room – shifting the calm of the night into the warm ebbings of the day that snuck into Piotrs’ room.

He takes a deep breath and sighs as he awakens to the sound of the early birds, bringing a hand up to rub his eyes, and gently prods at his face. 

And that’s when he remembers the dream he had.

There you were, in his arms, pulling his face into a kiss that struck like searing flames in his heart – as if, in that moment, the rest of the world faded away, like the ground beneath him crumbled and brought you to your own place; you, pulling away for a fraction of a second to catch your breath – looking warmly into his eyes, slowing down time for him – before catching him back in another fond kiss.

Piotrs’ cheeks fill up with a slight tingle – as he tries to use his hand to cover an embarrassed smile at the thought of the kiss. His lips broaden as he scoffs against his palm, before brushing it down his face

 What are you doing to me, Y/N?

 He lazily scratches the light stubble on his jawline – before standing up to stretch out his arms and legs, and gets started for the day.

 As he got though the errands of the day – checking on Beasts’ progress in the lab, any disturbances in the city, and all the other things that came with being an X-Man – he felt like a schoolboy again, thinking about his crush whilst going through his errands – when he could just as easily recreate the kiss again.

He strides back to his room, carefully unplugging his phone from his charger, when he sees a text notification from you.

-

You thumb nervously on your phone screen, writing and rewriting the words to further your plans to end things where they were. You surely weren’t going to do it through text.

I would be the biggest asshole in the world, and then some, if I did that.

You finally decide to send the least risky message you could think of.

 [Good morning, Piotr.]

 It doesnt take even a minute to get a buzzing response from Piotr.

 [I was just thinking about you, my sweet lady... I hope you are well today?]

 You let out a huff, shyly biting back a smile that would otherwise fluster you further. You start typing out your response.

 [I would be better if you were here w-]

 You cut yourself off from the thoughts of flirty banter, immediately backspacing the sentence as you stop yourself from showing any sense of affection towards him – when the typing bubble danced on your screen, before another one of his texts slides up onto the conversation.

 [I would love for us to have some breakfast. Perhaps, spend the day together?]

 There’s an ache that sidles into the place where normally joy would be.

I can’t lead him on like this. But I don’t know how to finish things off… without him getting suspicious.

You bite your bottom lip, flinching at the thought of having to plan out the perfect escape, from something – someone – so kind and wonderful and sweet and…

Your face drops to the side in a show of submission – to your chosen ideals, and the consequences that all came with it.

You take a deep breath, letting your calculative side take reign of the situation. Emotions weren’t going to help you now, nor were they needed to complete your personal goals.

You quickly type out a message for Piotr, then click your phone off.

[I would love to, Piotr. But I have work to do. Maybe next time.]

You ignore the next few buzzings of your phone as you walk into the medical research laboratories, down the halls filled with the several people in labcoats rushing up and down, from room to room.

You stop in front of a plain white door – a carbon copy of every other door in the lab – with a plaque that read:

Dr Christopher Wong.

You take a deep breath, before knocking the signature ‘’shave and a haircut, two bits’’ rhythm against the door. A deep voice rumbles a disgruntled ‘’come in’’, before you turn the knob and step inside.

The man looks up expectantly from his piles of immaculately arranged files and papers, his large framed glasses flashing back the fluorescent lights for a second when he tilts his head at you, grinning at you in greeting. You’ve known Chris for some time now – and he was one of the few reliable people you had in your long list of contacts.

‘’It’s me, Y/N.’’

‘’Prove it.’’

‘’I don’t have time for games, Chris.’’

He laughs unsettlingly – ‘’and I don’t have time to be giving the wrong serums to the wrong people. Especially when it comes to messing with your Boss’ plans.’’

You sigh, before pulling out your identification card – namely, the one you used for underground work – and hold it up to him.

‘’Hmmm, alright. You’re lucky that I owe you a favour – and a big one at that. Going against your own boss? That insane lunatic? You must be really brave, or really stupid.’’

‘’I learnt all I needed from you, so you tell me,’’ you smile at him smugly, and he only laughs at your retort.

‘’Well, I’m the one helping you out, so I’m in the midst of figuring that one out as well,’’ he quips, before reaching under the table to pull out a drawer. When his hands come back into view, you see that he’s holding a thick tube of clear liquid.

‘’The anti-mutant serum you gave me – I ran tests on mutant cell cultures. It’s extremely potent, and I commend the genius who came up with it. From what I gather from your intel, it has the ability to kill anyone with the mutant gene – very similar to the Legacy Virus. It is also interesting – because when I tested it on latent x-gene cells, the one you brought from the boy, it seemed to activate them instead of kill them. The problem is, however, it would also be toxic to non-mutants -- which is something the official file for the anti-mutant serum failed to inform.’’

‘’Yeah, they had to cut their experiments short when I messed with their plans,’’ you fold your arms in satisfaction.

‘‘This one, however –’‘ he waves the vial of clear liquid infront of you – ‘‘will reverse all the effects of that anti-mutant serum, but it must be administered within 24 hours. I have some extra batches in store if you need them. And a copy of how to synthesise them saved and ready to be sent to anyone who’ll need it.’‘ 

‘’Thanks so much for doing this for me, Chris.’’

‘’Just don’t die, okay kid? I still need shooter in the game,’’ he jokes as he hands you the antidote.

You smirk and give him a curt nod, as you secure the antidote into your slingpack, and step out of the room.

 -

Colossus looks to his phone, worried at your lack of response.

Though he knew you were probably just busy, there was something that was gnawing at his heart.

‘’Trouble in paradise?’’

Colossus’ head jerks up in surprise as Cable walks into the briefing room, grabbing a chair as he sits across from Colossus.

‘’No, it’s…’’ Colossus snaps his phone back into his pockets, fumbling at an excuse for his uneasy demeanour.

‘’Don’t worry. I’m sure she’s just busy – life gets in the way,’’ Cable advises as he flips through the briefing notes and results from the DNA testing labs. ‘’Damn fucking shame we can’t pin a name to this fucking mystery lady, though. We’re probably going to have to infiltrate her last place of business,’’ he turns to Colossus, ‘’maybe a little distraction will help get the nerves off your mind. Besides, whatever these assholes are doing takes priority. I’m sure she’ll understand your duties as –‘’

‘’She does not know that I am an X-Man. I have not… told her,’’ Colossus looks away, ashamed to admit it to his teammate.

Cable observes Colossus for a moment, before piping up.

‘’Well, even if she doesn’t know – and though I personally think you should better get around to telling her – I’m sure she’ll stick around for you. She loves you, doen’t she?’’

Colossus looks up to respond, when NTW bounds into the room with a file in her hands.

‘’We have a lead.’’

***

Taglist!

@emma-frxst @chromecutie @fluffymadamina @master-sass-blast@marvelhead17 @onthequill @candle-light-writings

[askkrenko]

On Animals vs Animalfolk

The conclusion makes me realize: I don’t think you ever took an explicit stance about animal/human hybrid races.

Obviously, the current situation is a mess, with Leonin and Aven being Cat and Birds respectively, but Snake-people being sometimes Snake sometimes Naga, Lizard-people being their own things, Siren and Harpy mostly not Birds, but sometimes Birds, and this is only those we talked about recently. I don’t even remember what Loxodon and Rhox are tagged as…

So, what do you think would have been an good solution, if we didn’t have to deal with all the inertia of history? Are you strongly in favor of one or the other? Or do you think it should be decided on a case by case basis? Based on what other factors?

~ @death-burst

A very good question was asked in response to my Krenko’s Guide: Birds, and rather than just continually reblog that, I thought this deserved its own thread for people to answer.

The question of whether animal-people are their animal types (Like Leonin and Aven) or their own types (like Minotaur and Naga) is a pretty major one, and there’s multiple ways to deal it out, each with benefits and drawbacks. I’ll get into them below the break.

Option one: All animalfolk are the same type as their animals. 

That is, Minotaurs would be Oxen, Nagas would be Snakes, and Harpies and Sirens would both be Birds.  Now, the big benefit here is cutting down on creature types and letting it be easier to make decks of those types. “Cat” deck is easier than “Lizard” deck because cat people and cats are the same race, while lizard people and lizards are not. Oxen sharing a type with Minotaurs would give them the benefit of all that Minotaur tribal. It should result in the best gameplay response, but it’s also going to wind up looking the weirdest when you try to make sense of it.

 First off, as we see with Leonin and Aven, it creates this weird flavor option where a Leonin is happier to work alongside a housecat than alongside a Loxodon, which is just... a bit odd. Should Brimaz feel some sort of primal unity with a saber tooth tiger? Or a Leotau? Does it even make sense for a Siren like Malcolm (who needs a card ASAP) to think of a Bird of Paradise as one of “his people”? 

The second problem with this option is that not all ‘beast men’ as they are have a unified equivalent animal. Viashino are spread among Lizard, Crocodile, and Dinosaur. Most Merfolk are Fish, but Shadowmoor has the Seal-like Selkies. And then are Dryads and Treefolk supposed to be creature type “Plant?” Are Gorgons Snakes? Some of them certainly seem to be, but not all.

The third problem is that it makes a few creature types less immediately understandable. While people are accepting Leonin as cat people, declaring that Satyrs are actually Goats feels a bit off, as does seriously calling a Merfolk a Fish. We do it as a joke, sure, but actually writing Fish on the card would feel... off. Minotaurs as Oxen are more forgivable, but calling a Centaur a Horse just feels like a downright lie, even though a Centaur is more Horse than a Minotaur is Ox. It creates a disconnect where you actively feel certain things are mislabeled.

Option Two: All beastmen get their own race

That is, anything that uses the race/class style gets its own type. The big benefit here is that everything is clearly labeled and it makes perfect sense what works in tribe. Avens like Avens, but not birds. Minotaurs like Minotaurs, but not Oxen. Everything is exactly what it says it is. This is probably the most reasonable from a flavor perspective... but is awful for gameplay.

The first problem here is type splitting. Splitting Rhino from Rhox takes you from one type underused at 27 to two races under used at 11 and 16.  Splitting Aven from Bird is more comfortable, as both can survive on their own, but now you have an issue of future cards that care about them need to choose one or the other, no longer hitting both. This gets especially weird for one-offs. 

The second problem here is that some beastmen are one-offs. Scandalmonger is the only boar person. Wishmonger is the only unicorn person. Amphin Cutthroat and Pathmage are the only Salamander people, and that creature type is already tiny. There’s likely other instances here as well, but it certainly raises a question for the future. Would a lone turtle-person need their own type? 

Option Three: Mythological creatures get a type, invented ones do not

This tends to be the trend current Magic has stuck with, though there are a number of exceptions. If the creature is one from actual mythology and has some sort of expectation that the audience has heard of it before, it gets its own type. Otherwise, it uses its animal-men type. This is designed to be the easiest on the audience, as creature types are then what people instinctively think they are. When someone sees an ox-man, they know it’s a minotaur. When someone sees a cat-man, they don’t have anything else to call it, so it’s a cat-man. Magic can call it a Leonin, but that’s Magic’s made up word for it.

The major problems here come when invented races border mythological races. Orochi are Snakes because Wizards made them up, but Naga are also snake-men who are not snakes because they’re from mythology. This means we have two groups of snake-people who do not share a creature type, which is made all the more egregious by the fact that Orochi have a huge amount of tribal support as Snakes. A similar problem hits on Harpies and Sirens not being the same type as Aven. Further, a bunch of Dryads are clearly trees, but not Treefolk, which is a supported creature type. Wormwood Dryad, Gnalrwood Dryad, and Dryad Arbor, specifically, are just trees shaped like women.

Option Four: Purely case by case

Purely case by case is a reasonable idea, and would allow for the best mechanical and flavor balance for each type as it needs it, but this still results in major inconsistancy as a result, with players having no idea what’s what. Magic’s done a lot of this in the past, which is why we have Viashino and Cephalids.

This gets really messy really fast, and its biggest problem is that when deciding whether to make a new creature type for something is necesarry, one thing that should be asking is “how often do we plan to use these?” Lets assume a new world has a race of turtle-people. We can either label them as “Turtle” or as “Kappa.” The set’s got eight of them, because they’re a decent part of the world but not so big as to be planning a deck around them. A big question as to whether to give them their own creature type or not is if they’ll be iconic and memorable, and it’s really hard to know that until after the set has come out. If people really like them, they’re going to come back on many worlds, and as their forms change for different planes, it’ll be nicer to have the freedom to make different Kappa than just “turtles.” However, if people don’t attach to them, having their own creature type that most don’t immediately get will just be offputting and weird.

Option Five: Pipe Dream: Complete overhaul with wider types

So, I’m going to throw out first that I know full well a complete overhaul is unreasonable. I’d like one, but it’s just too much in  a game that’s mostly physical. That said, here’s how I’d do it:

All Beastmen are of a Beastmen type... But those types are wider. We’re starting to see this with Minotaur, which includes a number of rams on Amonkhet, and Zedruu, Having other suites of beastmen share typings would be a complete restructuring, but I think it’d work best for everyone.

Minotaurs would include all Ungulates here. This means Rhox, Scandalmonger, Wishmonger, but also easily opening the door for Elk-people to just randomly show up somewhere under the tag Minotaur. This would still only apply to bipeds, though, so Centaurs are still Centaurs (but a Centaur could include something with the lower body of any Ungulate.)

Aven would split from Bird, but absorb Siren and Harpy, and include any humanoid that has feathers and flies.

Ainok, or another name, would include Ainoks, Khenra, and Kitsune, as well as any other Caniform Beastman. Possibly also Feline beastmen, but I think Leonin are getting big enough to have all catfolk just be Leonin. Werewolves stay as Werewolves because they’re really not the same as other animalfolk.

Merfolk would absorb Cephalids. I don’t expect us to see enough different aquatic races that we need more than one type for aquatic animal-person.  Homarids are inhuman enough that I think we just want to tag them as Crustaceans. 

Amphin for any Amphibious Humanoid. 

Reptilians would get Viashino and Naga, because we really do recognize a difference between snake-people and lizard-people, and any turtle people would also become Viashno if they showed up. Orochi would become Naga.

And while I’m at it: Kobolds, Orcs, and Ogres are all Goblins.

This is more of a “if starting over” approach, of course, as too many gameplay effects exist to really encourage splitting pre-existing creature types.  Adding Siren and Harpy to Bird would be obvious and clear, but splitting Avens from Birds would be a logistical nightmare, and would require fighting for custody of old Bird tribal rewards.

Final Notes:

My actual suggestion at this point is, because they’re riding history, just... try not to make any new creature types, and fold in the old ones that didn’t get traction. Homarids can be Crabs now. It’s okay. We get that Homarids aren’t coming back in force, even if we still want to see a few. And when you introduce something like Naga, well, you’ve already got so much snake tribal sitting around, just let them use it.

You’ve got Viashino. Make use of it. Seriously. Viashino are inherently cool.

If you want to use a thing and really can’t find a proper type for it, like say deciding you want to do a set with lots of dinosaurs and not feeling right calling them lizards or beasts, or a set with lots of werewolves, or just needing Pilot as a new class because nothing else fits right, okay, but introducing the type Naga instead of using Snake or adding in Sirens that were visually very similar to Aven but were not Birds just doesn’t do anything because now you have a new type that you’re not even giving us the tools to use.

At least Aetherborn and Servo had lords.

I think “tools to use” is the real key here. I want the tools to use any creature type that exists, so if you’re adding a new creature type it should either be a clear label of mechanical similarity, like Processor or Pilot, or come with a card that lets me take advantage of that word. 

If you put a word on a card that does LITERALLY NOTHING, not even remind me how that card works, you’re wasting my time.

[bekaroth-reads]

Who is Harvey the parrot? (Rusty Lake)

One of the characters that had me thinking the most in the games was Harvey. The first thing that caught my attention was that fact that even though the bird is named Havey, she is female (shown by the fact that she can lay eggs. She has been in almost all of the games, and while some could argue that the developers are just reusing assets, I think there's a reason for her being there, especially in the later games. The first game that she was in was Cube Escape: Seasons, where we see her alive for at least 17 years, but perhaps more seeing as she appears to be fully grown at the start of the game. To understand if this was a long time for her to live, I needed to see if I could find what type of parrot she was. Harvey has a unique design, but I was eventually able to track down that she was more than likely an alexandrine parrot, or at least something similar. Her color is basically reverse of a typical alexandrine, but I take it like how Scooby-Doo doesn't quite look like a Great Dane. That being said, alexandrine parrots typically live for 40 years, making Harvey's 17 years realistic. However, as started before, Harvey was alive before seasons started, and was fully grown. While I could take the time to go through each one of her appearances to try to gain her actual age, it would be much quicker to point out that 1) Rusty Lake is a hotspot for supernatural activities, and 2) Harvey is absolutely a part of it. This is best proven in the games where you play as her, Harvey's Box, and Hotel. In Harvey's Box she is shown having extremely high brain functions, even for the type of bird she is, by thinking in full sentences and being able to find a way to defeat the corrupted soul that comes to take her. In Hotel she is shown as a more person-like figure than a pet parrot, even taking on the role of butler. Being alive thought Hotel and Roots makes her well above the 40 years that are typical. But, just how long has Harvey been around? In my personal opinion, Paradise is the first chronologically of all of the Rusty Lake games. One of the extra achievements has Harvey appear in a windowsill. This means that she was alive then, actually before, because, like in seasons, she is already fully grown. But, where could a fully grown parrot have come from? The Island of Paradise was far out into Rusty Lake which is surrounded by a large forest. The area does not appear to be one that parrots would be natural too, but the distance of Paradise from everything else makes it where it is highly unlikely for somebody's domesticated bird to be able to reach. The answer to this is that Harvey is from Paradise, or rather was from Paradise. Think of what happens at the end of Rusty Lake: Paradise. The rest of the family sacrificed Jakob and turned into beings that were like the masks that they were wearing, resulting in the characters that are in Rusty Lake: Hotel, including Jakob as Mr. Owl. The thing is, Harvey, whom we have seen as a being similar in Hotel, shows up in the game before the sacrifice of Jakob occurred. If we were to assume that a similar process would have had to be done in order to make her into one of these beings, the she had to have been someone sacrificed before. The most likely candidate, in my opinion, is Jakob's mother. I know that she is seen wearing the owl mask at some point, but if those really were important masks that they were saving for a ritual, why use it on someone that would only make that effects last for a little while? Everything that happened on the island was in line with the plagues on Egypt, the last of which is the death of the first born son. So, even if she was a first born, she would be a first born daughter. So, what do you do when you don't have the actual thing you need? You imitate the desired item. You copy the original, and hope that it will work. That is why her mask ended up being a parrot instead of an owl. Parrots are known for their mimicking abilities, an animal that reflected her imitating the ritual that should have been done on her son. This could also be the reason that even though she seems to be an Alexandrian parrot, her colors are a little off. That was because she is based more off of the parrot mask than an actual parrot. The same goes for all of the other animal beings. You can tell what they are, and you might even be able to find a close real life equivalent, but you'll be hard pressed to find an actual feature for feature example because they are just interpretations of the animals. This also asks the question; how is Harvey Jakob's mother when we see the mother's corrupted soul? This is something that I believe happens with the ritual. This is the best way that I can describe it: In the original Dragon Ball series, there was a man that sought to be rid of all the bad that was inside of him, but in doing so he split himself into two people, the good and the evil, rather than just being himself with out the want to do wrong. This is what happens with the ritual held by Jakob's family. The soul splits into the good memories(the animal creatures) and the bad(corrupted souls). My proof for this is the fact that in Rusty Lake: Hotel, you can see Mr. Rabbit's corrupt soul while he is still standing alive in the room. It is the idea of looking at your reflection in the water. That is why the more defined personalities are living one the top of the lake while that blurred, corrupted souls are almost always four at the bottom of the lake. Back to Harvey, though. The last thing that I really want to touch on is her name. Why would a female bird be named a typically male name? The meaning of the name Harvey is along the lines of, "being ready to fight," or, "a warrior". This fits her personality as she was willing to give up her life for her son, and continued to help him after death, showing him the way to continue in another form like she did, and helping him gain vengeance on those that wronged him. This was pretty long, but thank you if you read it. I would like to know what you all thought if you would like to let me know. :)

[aion-rsa]

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 1 Easter Eggs and References

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This Star Trek: Discovery article contains spoilers for the Season 3 premiere.

You’d think that a new Star Trek series set centuries and centuries beyond any of the shows and movies wouldn’t have that many references to the series and films that came before, right? Well, Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 might be set in a brand new time period — the year 3188 to be precise — but the narrative is built atop the layered history of Trek’s future history super carefully. Showrunner Michelle Paradise and Alex Kurtzman have mentioned several times that 930 years from 2257 puts them well past the constraints of canon, and yet, the debut episode of Discovery Season 3, demonstrates a meticulous understanding of where this show came from, and a desire to keep everything about the larger story of Star Trek, as tightly knit as possible.

In other words, there were a lot more Easter eggs and references in the newest Discovery episode than you might think. Here’s every Easter egg and reference we caught in the first episode of Star Trek: Discovery Season 3, “That Hope Is You, Part 1.”

The saucer of a Federation starship

The first thing we see as Book flies his impressive starship in an attempt to outrun Cosmo, is the wrecked saucer section of what looks like a Starfleet ship. The dead giveaway is the letters “NCC.” Was this a Federation ship from the 31st century? The 30th? Even older? We don’t know, and we probably never will. Every wondered what “NCC” stands for? Well, it’s never actually been established in canon, but in the early days of The Original Series it was designed as an homage to American ships having an “NCC” as part of their registry and Russian vessels using “CCC.” Some apocryphal books claim “NCC” stands for “Naval Construction Class” or “Naval Construction Contract Number.” Basically, the idea that Starfleet still views itself as a kind of Navy would support this theory, but since it’s not actually a Navy, that also doesn’t make a lot of sense. 

Space-time anomaly detected 

Book’s onboard ship computer tells him that a “space-time anomaly” is detected. This anomaly is the wormhole created by Burnham and the time crystals from the Discovery Season 2 finale, “Such Sweet Sorrow Part 2.” 

3188

Burnham lands in the year 3188, which is actually one year further than most fans guessed. Discovery jumped from the year 2257, which means we thought 930 years later would be 3187. But, as we learn later, Burnham also didn’t land on the planet Terralysium, even though that was her destination. Terraylsium was first seen in the Discovery Season 2 episode “New Eden.” Book tells Burnham the planet she ended up on is actually called Hima. Terralysium was in the Beta Quadrant. We have no idea where Hima is.

Burnham is happy there is life

You might wondering why Burnham is so happy that the computer says “Multiple life signs detected.” Well, the whole point to jumping in the future was that in all other scenarios, both Spock and Burnham’s mom, Gabrielle Burnham, saw a future in which an A.I. called Control had eradicated all sentient life in the galaxy. Clearly, that didn’t happen. Which means Burnham’s mission was successful. This is why later, she says, “I saved all the things.”

The last Red Signal is for Spock!

As the computer tells Burnham the wormhole is closing, she frantically sends an energy signal through the wormhole. This is the last of the seven red signals from Discovery Season 2. In “Such Sweet Sorrow Part 2,” Spock waited for four months to see the Red Signal, which was a message from Burnham that the crew had made it through the wormhole safely. Basically, this scene happens “at the same time” as the final scene onboard the Enterprise in the Season 2 finale.

“Delta shield”

As Burnham goes through her inventory she mentions her “emergency ration pack,” her “phaser,” and her “Delta shield.” The Delta shield is her Starfleet badge. Fans have referred to this symbol as a “Delta shield” for years, but it’s never been uttered on screen.

New opening credits

The Discovery opening credits have changed again! Here are the most significant changes 

The generic male-ish face now appears to be more female.

There is a line of Starfleet robots. Will they have a larger role to play later in the season?

In the first two seasons, the image of the Discovery-era phaser morphed into the TOS-era phaser. But now, it becomes a FUTURE PHASER.

Book’s ship is in the opening credits.

The new “future” Starfleet logo appears twice—nce by itself, and again, in the transporter. In season 2, a Section 31 badge appeared during this segment.

Michael busts out some Suus Mahna

While fighting Book, Burnham seems to employ at least a few moves from the Vulcan martial art known as Suus Mahna. This martial art originates in the prequel series Enterprise, but we first saw Burnham do it in “Context Is For Kings” in Season 1 of Discovery.  We also saw two Synths practice Suus Mahna in the Star Trek: Picard Season 1, episode 9, “Et Arcadia Ego Part 1.”

The nearest natural wormhole could be a DS9 reference

Book mentions that “the nearest natural wormhole is 100 lightyears from here.” This could reference the Bajorian wormhole from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. After all, there aren’t that many stable wormholes. That said, technically, the Bajorian wormhole isn’t “natural” since it was constructed by the Prophets, but from Book’s point of view, that might not matter. 

The Gorn destroyed subspace

Book says: “Wasn’t bad enough for you that the Gorn destroyed two lightyears of subspace?” This references two things at the same time. First, obviously, the Gorn, the lizard-race first seen in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “Arena,” and subsequently referenced in nearly every new Trek series, including several references in Star Trek: Picard. But, the mention of the Gorn having destroyed subspace means that parts of the interstellar communication network have been obliterated. Subspace is how people get messages around the galaxy in Star Trek. If parts of subspace are destroyed, this could explain why, the Federation representative, Aditya Sahil (Adil Hussian) mentions that long-range sensors “failed, years ago.” 

Book references Scotty….and Tilly’s other best friend

When Book says he wants to “whip-up a dilithium recrystalizier,” he’s referencing the idea of dilithium crystals being reconstructed artificially. In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Scotty does this to help get a stolen Klingon Bird-of-Prey home. And, in the Short Treks episode “Runaway,” Tilly meets Po, the Queen of Xahea, who also invents this technology. 

Benemite and Quantum Slipstream Drive

Book also wonders if there is some “Benemite lying around.” This references the Voyager episode “Timeless,” in which the crew tried to build a Quantum Slipstream Drive. Basically, if Book had a Quantum Slipstream Drive, he could get around a lot faster.

Tachyon Solar Sails

Book says “tachyon solar sails are slow as shit.” This references the DS9 episode “Explorers,” which sees Ben Sisko building an ancient ship that runs on tachyons solar sails. 

Don’t Even Get Me Started On Trilithium

Book completes his rant on different types of Star Trek propulsion and fuel by saying “don’t even get me started on trilithium.” This seems to be kind of a joke. In the TNG episode “Starship Mine,” Trilithium resin was kind of a waste byproduct of the warp engines that could be stolen and turned into a weapon. But in the film Generations, trilithium was something described as a “nuclear inhibitor,” meaning it could make stars implode. So, which is it? Both? Also a form of fuel for space propulsion? Don’t get Book started.

Orions and Andorians 

Burnham is shocked that the Orions and the Andorians are working together. The green-skinned  Orions originate in the very first (filmed) Star Trek episode ever, “The Cage,” though their culture was later fully explained in the Enterprise episode “Bound.” Orions have appeared in the Discovery era in the Season 1 finale, and also in the Short Treks episode “The Escape Artist.” The blue-skinned Andorians originate in the TOS episode “Journey To Babel.” Why is Burnham surprised the Andorians and the Orions are working together in some kind of official capacity? Well, the Andorians are founding members of the Federation. The Orions, meanwhile, were, at least in Burnham’s time, never part of the Federation.

Burnham is basically selling Star Trek collectables 

Book tells the Andorian that “there’s a real market for this stuff,” when he’s trying to sell Burnham’s tricorder. This seems like a wink to the idea that vintage props from TOS or TNG are worth a lot of money IRL. Basically, what Burnham has is a vintage Star Trek prop.

Portable Transporter!

Burnham is wowed by the personal transporters. In the TNG episode “Captain’s Holiday,” time-traveling aliens from the 27th century called Vorgons, appeared to have similar types of transporters.

Burnham says Tilly can’t do space drugs

While trying to get her to talk, Burnham is hit with some form of future narcotic that makes her a slap-happy. She says that the drug makes her talkative and then says “I have a friend with red hair, you cannot give her any.” This references Tilly, of course, but more specifically, the idea that Tilly did some space drugs in the Discovery Season 1 finale, “Will You Take My Hand?”

Aliens rebooted from TNG and DS9

The mercenary who is pursuing Book appears to be a Yridian. In TNG, these aliens were mostly thought of as “information brokers,” notably in the episodes “The Chase” and “Birthright Part 1.” Meanwhile, at least one alien who is in pursuit of Burnham and Book is very clearly a Lurian. The famous patron of Quark’s Bar in DS9 – Morn – was a Lurian. He’s the guy with the long face.

Book references the biggest plot arc from Star Trek: Enterprise

After Book and Burnham have a frank conversation about time travel, Book says: “All time travel technology was destroyed after the temporal wars. Outlawed.” The Temporal Wars references the Temporal Cold War in Enterprise, and probably, the outright Temporal War that happened at the end of Enterprise Season 3 and the beginning of Season 4 in the episodes “Storm Front Parts 1 and 2.” One fashion from the Temporal War Cold War came from the 31st Century, about a hundred years or so before 3188. 

Aditya Sahil references Spock

When Burnham meets Aditya Sahil, a Federation liaison in this time period, they have a serious chat about just how long it might take for the USS Discovery to actually show up. He says: “By the laws of temporal mechanics, they could arrive tomorrow…” And Burnham says: “Or in a thousand years.” This references a similar speech from Spock in the TOS episode “City on the Edge of Forever.” Like Burnham and the Discovery crew, Spock and Kirk are separated by time travel wonkiness. Spock says: “There is a theory. There could be some logic to the belief that time is fluid, like a river, with currents, eddies, backwash.” But later, Spock points out that “we can’t be too sure of our facts.” Even the earliest Star Trek time travel episodes dealt with people arriving at their temporal location at different times than people who were “right behind” them in the time portal.

Federation Flag 

The episode ends with Burnham and Sahil raising the flag of the United Federation of Planets. We already saw this flag in the trailers, but it’s worth noting that it does appear to have fewer stars on it than the flag from the era of TNG and Picard. Sahil tells Burnham he has been watching this post for 40 years, which seems to imply that this Federation flag is at least 40 years old, if not older. So, the question is, how accurate is the flag? Did the Federation start losing members before the Burn? Or is this flag pre-Burn?

At this point, we don’t know. But because Season 3 of Discovery is all about rediscovering the Federation, this flag might be the visual representation of not just the themes of the season, but the literal plot too.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 airs new episodes on Thursdays on CBS All Access. 

The post Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Episode 1 Easter Eggs and References appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[theseadagiodays]

May 25, 2020

Orchestrators of Attention

Hayati Evreni’s Persistence of Covid

I typically have a very vivid dream life.  Whole evenings of movies with characters I’ve never met and settings I’ve never seen.  It’s one of the reasons I so love to sleep.  Every night, I have an imagined altered reality to look forward to.  And most mornings, to keep the stimuli of these vistiations fresh, I regale Geoff with a detailed recollection of these colorful fictions.  But last night my reverie was disturbingly similar to my waking life.  Zoom calls with real music students that I’ve been teaching.  The delivery of our commissioned fence mural, which is actually scheduled for this Wednesday.  It’s like so much else during this period, where everything seems to be bleeding into each other.  Days to Weeks.  Work to Home.  And now, even the treasured boundary between my subconscious and conscious life has been compromised.

The fluid nature of perceived time in our current reality is problematic in so many ways.  We are animals who’ve found real comfort from the compartmentilization of our lives.  Separate spaces for every endeavor, from offices to gyms to libraries.  We mark time in dozens of essential ways, with calendars, outfit changes, meal routines, holiday celebrations, happy hours - most all of which have dramatically changed during Covid.  This weekend, I read the best explanation for why we find the circular time that has been foisted on us so difficult.  Man Booker International Winner, Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights is part travel-fiction, part-memoir.  Each vignette is a musing about the human propensity to wander.   Here, she explains why perhaps only those of us truly tied to natural cycles, like growing seasons, can thrive in circumstances like we face today.

Sedentary people prefer the pleasure of circular time, in which every object and event must return to its own beginning, curl back up into an embryo and repeat the process of maturation and death.  But nomads and merchants, as they set off on journeys, had to think up a different type of time for themselves, one that would better respond to the needs of their travels.  That time is linear time, more practical because it was able to measure progress towards a goal or destination, rise in percentages.  Every moment is unique; no moment can ever be repeated.  This idea favors risk-taking, living life to the fullest, seizing the day.  And yet the innovation is a profoundly bitter one: when change over time is irreversible, loss and mourning become daily things.  

So, given that most people in modern society are far more aligned with the nomad/merchant class, it makes sense that we are sentenced to this inevitable grief once our “Just Do It”, “Follow Your Bliss” plans get derailed off-course.   This analysis does not provide any solutions. However, I do think it absolves us of a certain culpability, so that we can stop blaming ourselves for feeling bad or for not handling the new norm as well as we should.  Meanwhile, I think it can still be helpful to look for coping mechanisms, and I’ve found some from Jenny Odell, the unintended Queen of Quarantine who I crowned such after the cogent messages from her 2019 book,  How To Do Nothing, came to be the perfect precepts for our time.

An avid bird-watcher, walker and observer, Odell is a proponent of slowing down to make space to notice.  She calls her book a “field guide to doing nothing as an act of political resistance to the attention economy.”  Her suggestions serve as antidotes to the distracting and fractured nature of attention that the limitless connectivity of our plugged-in lives demands.  So, while most of us are still highly connected online, there are so many other ways in which we’ve become uplugged from life as we knew it.  And I think she is suggesting that, perhaps, instead of seeing this as disconnection, or as an untethering, we can appreciate the space that this is creating for us to develop subtler forms of attention.

Odell describes herself, and all artists, as “orchestrators of attention”.  She sees artists as curators of objects and ideas, re-imagined in ways that allow us to see things differently.  I certainly turn to artists and writers to help me do this.  And ironically, it is a circular journey of a different sort that brought me to her wisdom in the first place.  Lately, I’ve found myself in a strange intellectual fractal.  A quest for philosophical nuggets that has me spinning inside a loop of similar thinkers.

I regulary subscribe to BrainPickings, the source of many such nuggets.  And that’s where I found Victor Frankl’s Yes to Life quote (from March 28 in this blog) about “the power to choose our response”. That newsletter also quoted Rebecca Solnit (Hope in the Dark), who I checked out further on Krista Tippet’s podcast, On Being.  Looking at older episodes of this show, I found an interview with Ezra Klein (Why We’re Polarized), whose podcast just featured Jenny Odell on May 8th: On Nature, Art, and Burnout in Quarantine. https://www.vox.com/podcasts/2020/5/8/21252074/jenny-odell-the-ezra-klein-show-how-to-do-nothing-coronavirus-covid-19  This inspired me to purchase her new book, with its page 9 quote of none-other-than Solnit, again, this time from her book, Paradise Built in Hell. Back down the Solnit rabbit hole, I found another Frankl reference in this book, now from Man’s Search for Meaning.  And so, the perfect circle was complete.  

May 26, 2020

Unproductivity

Labyrinth project by Emily Carr university mentor, Kitty Bland, and student, Mary Rusk - https://www.ecuad.ca/news/2020/kitty-blandy-and-mary-rusak-find-focus-during-pandemic-with-meditation-pathway

Circular time makes me think of labyrinths.  Mandalas of pathways that lead to nowhere, whose hypnotic ellipses draw our single-pointed focus towards the simple act of walking.   I have always loved these places of reflection.  And I find it erroneous that the term labyrinthian has come to refer to complicated places where we get lost. Because I feel that I actually find myself in such places. The only thing lost is a false sense of destination as the purpose in life.  

Odell subscribes to a similar viewpoint in How to Do Nothing.  Rather than a plea to escape reality, quit our jobs, or shrug our responsibilities, her book is an invitation to question what we perceive as productive. I think our current reality has many of us doing this.  My morning walk has me literally “stopping and smelling the roses” each day, as I’ve seen so many others do during this altered time.  

So, while it has encouraged me to see normally overprogrammed-teens watching sunsets and families chilling for endless hours on front lawns, I have also observed a pattern of apology amongst my peers, when they acknowledge having been “less-productive than usual”, during this period.  So, I’ve taken to meet this only with permission.  This is something I’ve increasingly given myself ever since my excessive drive, as a flutist, left me with a chronic overuse injury that was a wake-up call I’ve only recently been able to truly appreciate.

After this major uninvited “halting” of my career, I became acutely aware of how often people answer “How are you?” with “Busy.”  Particularly artists, who have perhaps been undercompensated, underemployed and underappreciated for so long, it feels like being “busy” is a badge of honor that implies their work is in-demand.  So, I get it.  But still, I have made a point, since this realization, never to answer that question as such.  Busy is not an emotion.  The truth behind the word - feelings of anxiety, overwhelm and fear - are perhaps too telling to reveal.  Because admitting them might mean we have to shift something.  They might force us to slow down and stop busying ourselves, which is maybe the scariest thing of all.  Because then, we have to face who we truly are when we are not “doing”.

To track my own “doing” during quarantine, I’ve been particularly careful about limiting my screen time.  So, I check it weekly.  But it was only this week that I finally went to the second page of the iPhone screen time data, where I found a strange categorization of time.  It breaks it down into Productive, Creative, Social, Entertainment, Reading and Educational use.  However, what they place in each category runs quite counter to what happens to be true for me now.  Photos are listed as a Creative pursuit, however many of my hours have been frittered away deleting unnecessary shots (attempts to capture moments that might have been more mindfully spent camera-free).  So, this endeavor doesn’t feel that creative to me.  Whats App is marked as Social but, of course, it’s now become the arena for some of my most my productive work, since I’m using it as a teaching tool.  And Notes is in the Productive category, even though, as a self-admitted list-addict, my worst time-waster is making and remaking these itemized scrolls intended to render me more efficient, when I can’t even imagine how much “productive” time I must have lost just writing them.

So, we all have something to learn from this clever street artist, whose balloon art gives us an important reminder.

May 27, 2020

Covid Art Museum

So far my “efforts” to do nothing more (as ironic as that sounds) have gone swimmingly.  I deliberately cancelled one of my Zoom calls this week, two other meetings conveniently got cancelled for me, and I was left with many more hours to spend spontaneously. Some of these involved lying in the grass eating gelato.  Others watching passerbys from my front stoop.  And one I spent biking the new “slow street” circuit in Vancouver, which has been designated a car-free zone to create more safe, physically-distant space for cyclists and pedestrains to roam.   That even our roadways are now on a diet from their usual busyness, seems to me a beautiful metaphor.

Of course, some of this time also involved digital daydreaming, as I prefer to romantically call surfing the web.  But using the intentional lens of seeking artistic responses to share on this blog makes even this indulgence feel more guilt-free.  So, this week, it landed me on a very cool Instagram page, full of visual reflections about this time (digital illustrations, photographs, sketches, watercolors and more).  In fact, it’s where I stumbled upon the balloon art, above, which evolved into my entire week of blog entries.  Quite a few pieces reference circular time in some way (above).  And a remarkable number of them depict doing nothing (below).  Jenny Odell is clearly on to something...

https://www.instagram.com/covidartmuseum/?hl=en

May 28, 2020

Hidden Symphonies

Udo Noll, a Berlin-based media artist and founder of Radio Aporee, a digital global sound map, documented before and during the pandemic

The music of my environment has always captivated me. In fact, I dedicate almost an entire chapter of my novel to birdsong.  I love the voice memo feature on my phone, which I use like an auditory camera, as I travel.   I’ve learned that this is not a habit many people share.  Until recently, that is.  Because it seems that suddenly, we are all beginning to listen more.   Now, with less traffic, quieter commercial corridors, and other colluding factors, there is left an amazing amplification of the soundscapes which always existed behind the din.    

Before Covid, a long tradition of deep listening has been cultivated by various sound artists.  American composer, Pauline Oliveros founded the Deep Listening Institute in 1985 (originally called the Pauline Olveros Foundation).  Here, she invited musicians to improvise and record, in particularly resonant and reverberant spaces like caves, to inspire extra-sensitive responsiveness.  

In the 70’s, Canadian composers, Hildegard Westercamp and Murray Shafer, started the World Soundscape Project (https://www.sfu.ca/~truax/wsp.html), which recorded Vancouver’s sonic landscape to illustrate the negative effects of noise pollution, ultimately resulting in more positive guidelines for urban acoustical design.

Acoustic ecologist, Gordon Hempton says that silence is not the absence of sound, but rather the presence of everything. In the short documentary, Sanctuaries of Silence, he offers tools for seeking silence amidst noisy urban life.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUxMdYhipvQ

But his suggestions probably never could have predicted Covid, which has achieved this result with alarming swiftness.   British sound artist and field recordist, Stuart Fowkes has been tracking the soundscapes of this disquieting time on his website, Cities and Memory.  https://citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds/

Here, you can click on one of 3,000+ global coordinates and listen to everything from empty flagpoles, and ticking radiators, to kites flying.  Anyone is welcome to contribute, using #stayhomesounds.  And this is my own addition to the catalogue:

Bullfrogs mating: https://youtu.be/ZoKT-RlDfs8

The New York Times, has tracked the music of the pandemic in another interesting way.  Measuring by decibels (below), they compare the soundscape of a normally busy Manhattan street, before and during quarantine. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/22/upshot/coronavirus-quiet-city-noise.html

Pre-covid nights sound more like quarantine days, averaging around 64 decibels.

Another bi-product of the pandemic is a trend towards birdwatching.  The world’s attention was brought to birding this week, due to an unfortunate racist incident that occurred in New York’s Central Park.  Christian Cooper was drawn to the park because of the orioles and yellow warblers he could find there.  While birding, he politely asked a woman if she would kindly put her dog on a leash. When she refused, he insited and she proceeded to call the cops.  Cooper was armed with little more than binoculars and a camera.  But apparently, his crime was being black.  The woman was white.  Luckily, he caught her ridiculous cry for help (“I’m being threatened by an African-American man.”) on camera.  The video immediately went viral and resulted in her being fired from her job. Graciously, he remarked today in the Times, that this punishment did not fit her crime, and while he wants to hold her to account for her racist behavior, he doesn’t believe that “her life needs to be torn apart.”

Whatever her fate, if this time inspires deeper listening for you, let’s hope your soundscape walks are far less eventful than his was.

May 29, 2020

Covid Shuffle

Brooklyn’s usually bustling Fort Greene Park, during the pandemic

From the beginning of social distancing, I have been quite fascinated by the complicated choreography we are collectively participating in.  I would give anything to be an eagle, looking down from above, just to witness the maze of interwoven patterns that our sidewalk dances create.   And I am not the only person interested in this do-si-do.  

If you search “six feet apart” on YouTube, you can’t imagine how many musicians, famous or otherwise, have composed new songs with this exact title (IE. country singer, Luke Combs, teen pop star, Alec Benjamin).  It’s just one of many things that illustrate the uncanny global resonance that is happening right now, even while there are still vast differences between the ways people experience this pandemic.

Personally, I’m partial to this rap, written as a PSA for UNC Health, by The Holderness Family, a modern-day Al Yankovich-style parody band comprised of former FOX sportscaster, Penn Holderness with his wife and kids. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XjfCeY4D2QI

Deeper into this search, I found another music video, by a different family band in LA, called Haim.  These three Grammy-nominated sisters have written the song, I Know Alone to express how quarantine living has felt for them.  Meanwhile, they appropriately dance to their lyrics six feet apart.

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.vulture.com/amp/2020/04/haim-i-know-alone-video-album-release-date.html

In the dance world, old colleagues of mine, from Flagstaff, Arizona, will host a virtual Festival that starts this Friday, May 29th, featuring original socially-distant choreography from movers all over the Southwest.  Fittingly, it’s called the Six Feet Apart Dance Festival.

https://canyonmovementcompany.org/cmc/upcoming-events/

Documenting the Covid shuffle in a very different way, Toronto geographer, Daniel Rotszdain created a “social distancing machine” to demonstrate just how difficult a genuine 6-foot radius is to maintain in public space.

And finally, this hip hop dance compilation, made in 2019, could be the anthem for our times.

MC Hammer’s Can’t Touch This - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJskIJGEsd8

[fabrickind]

Revolutionary Girl Utena Episode 5 Liveblog

The thrilling conclusion to Miki’s two-parter. This one got weirdly biblical. Join us for discussions of purity, the Garden of Eden, and enough repressed sexual fantasies to make even Freud blush.

Part of what makes the brotp interesting (besides that their counterparts also mirror each other) is that both Juri and Miki have a similar set of concerns and life path, but because of their specific circumstances (gender, sexuality, personality differences, etc.), in that they both seem to have everything on the surface, but are lacking something that they find fundamental to their emotional needs. The other characters have this to an extent, but it’s not explored quite like it is with these two -- Miki’s a prodigy who takes college-level courses in middle school, wrote a famous song for the piano when he was a child, fences at the national level, is said to be popular with the girls, etc., (and Juri is a fashion model who gets expensive gifts from designers, an even better fencer, presumably from a rich family, a champion bowler, etc.), yet these kinds of material riches aren’t what either of them want. Their lives look nearly perfect from the outside, yet they both long for some sort of emotional fulfillment predicated on a girl from their childhood. Of course, the nature of this fulfillment is different for the two of them, and it plays out very differently, but the point of this tangent is this: while we see Miki early on (and even later at points/depending on who is watching) as a meek and slightly faltering cinnamon roll (though he’s anything but), everyone in the school sees him as the ideal boy who fences at a national level, is super smart, and plays the piano like no one else. I think there’s something to be said about how he’s seen as meek and adorable and Juri is seen as intimidating and cold (by both the fandom and those in the show, on varying levels) for their respective character arcs.

We also find out in this opening scene just how hard Miki is on himself, wanting to attain perfection. It’s a very singular, masculine pursuit.

That’s dangerous thinking, Miki!

Miki places too much stock in his memories of the past and wanting to return to the garden. There’s a few metaphors that work re: the garden, so I’ll just toss a few out. Perhaps the most obvious one is the womb -- a place of fecundity where he can be as one with his twin, and a site of mythical wholeness before having to play out the painful drama of individuation and growing into normative masculine adulthood. Miki fetishizes (not quite in the literal Freudian sense but that’s along the lines of what I’m thinking here) the garden as a symbol of his childhood that he never truly had and wants desperately to return to. Here, time is almost his enemy as much as anything -- perhaps why he keeps such close tabs on it. (The garden is presumably seen by Miki as a pre-sexual/pre-Oedipal state, but it’s so full of life and flowers and fecundity that it’s impossible to not read repressed sexuality into it as well.) 

The other metaphor, and I’m not sure how it holds up, is the Garden of biblical fame. I think that this has a very similar kind of a thematic meaning as the more personal use of the garden as the womb cited above, though on a grander scale. This Garden of Eden metaphor would be wanting to return humanity to a sense of Paradise, before the Fall. This is a mythical site of Man’s mastery over nature and of not having any needs, or, in a sense, nor /needing/ any needs because everything is automatically provided for. This is also a very masculine kind of a fantasy, and is something that Woman can be blamed for losing. I think that in this sense, it’s interesting that Miki blames himself for losing this garden (poor kid blames himself for getting the measles -- vaccinate your kids, everyone! -- rather than blaming his sister for not going through with the concert), though as we get to know Kozue, we find that she fits pretty nicely into the archetype of the Fallen Woman, or, at least, tries very hard to fit herself into that archetype.

I’m not sure how well this holds up because it’s a very Western kind of interpretation, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense, especially with the apocalyptic overtones of this show -- after all, what is a revolution/apocalypse besides trying to bring us /back/ to the Garden? -- and with the ways in which Miki/Adam and Kozue/Eve parallel each other (with all of the weird overtones of incest that are in these two’s stories, but....more on that later, I think). (I’m using ‘apocalypse’ in the colloquial sense of a Christian-inflected end of the world and not in the literal sense of ‘revealing’ here.)

I don’t have anything to really say about this, but I really like this shot.

Note the use of the caged bird motif.

Something something Juri’s comment about how Miki’s imperfections are what makes him strong something

The only thing I’d really like to add to this is to note that Juri says that Miki’s fencing has “the strength of purity” and purity is a major theme in Miki’s arc, but it takes on a different meaning -- sexual purity/the purity of childhood/the purity of not knowing ‘adult’ things/the purity of not wanting to manipulate or use others to get your way vs. the purity of imperfection/rawness/something that comes from not being perfectly polished and practiced. It seems as if the show is positing a rawness to the emotionality of something that hasn’t been codified and thought about in that way. Of course, this version of purity is just as false as the ideal of sexual purity (wrapped up in notions of sex as what makes you ‘adult,’ wrapped up in notions of manipulating others, often sexually, to get what you want, etc.).

Because we all know what makes you an adult in this show -- fast cars and lots of sex.

Oh, poor Utena, taking everything perfectly literally all the time.

Nope, it’s the Garden of Eden. This metaphor just keeps holding up.

(Though, if this is the Garden of Eden and apples take on the meaning associated with that, does the metaphor only work for Miki’s arc, or does it carry over to the apple fed to Kanae? I’m getting far ahead of myself here though!)

The Student Council meeting here is a good one. No truly absurd shenanigans taking place, but it gives us some insight into both the workings of the council and the characters who are part of it.

(Side note -- I don’t engage with fanfiction on any level, but I have a weird urge to write a short fic about whoever the characters are who set up the SC meetings. Who are these people? Do the SC members themselves set up these elaborate scenarios? Does someone come in before the meeting and set it all up? Is it just...already there? I’m trying to imagine the people who have to drag in a single chair from nowhere and set it up in the middle of the roof and place a single apple on it [or set up a bunch of fans in the background, or release all those balloons, or set up an entire baseball game and hire players, etc.] just so that the meetings can be more ~dramatic~ and ~symbolic~) 

We know from Touga that they only act according to the letters from End of the World, and they haven’t gotten any letters. This goes somewhat against what Saionji said in the first episode, where he challenges them to fight him -- knowing, of course, that their hands are, effectively, tied. 

Miki proposes the dissolution of the Council and the dueling system, though I’m not sure how genuine this is. Miki seems like the type who is willing to go with the flow in some ways, and he repeats, nearly word for word, what Utena said in the previous scene. (Later in the episode, of course, he is quite easily manipulated into wanting to duel.) He has an internal tension between wanting Anthy to be happy and wanting his own happiness (and selfishly taking that happiness), and it is his own selfishness that wins out. 

Of course Miki times where he needs to come in with his proposal in the meeting.

I love Juri in this whole situation. Part “older friend who takes on a sisterly role to lightly tease her kouhai but also give insightful advice” and part “projecting her own issues REAL hard onto Miki’s situation”

These lines make it very clear what is actually going on here. Touga repeats this line in a very perfunctory way, and Juri repeats afterwards “for the revolution of the world” in an even /more/ perfunctory way. They’re talking about a system that robs people of their personal freedom, and ‘smashing the world’s shell,’ but it doesn’t ultimately matter, since things will simply remain the same after their revolution -- in other words, they’re not questioning the system that is allowing and/or making them to fight for this power, and instead going along with it in an unquestioning way. The surface level of other systems may be ‘smashed,’ but the major structuring force, and the true power, is the system that’s telling them to smash those systems, aka End of the World. 

Someday, I aspire to be Kozue Kaoru levels of not giving a fuck.

I do not aspire to be Touga levels of ‘will bang your twin sister on your piano to teach you a lesson’ though.

I do, however, aspire to be Touga levels of ‘vaguely hitting on you by slipping things like this into casual conversation.’ 

 I would also like the record to show that Touga’s shirt gets progressively more and more open the more this scene goes on. Not sure if it’s a continuity error or if he’s just that extra.

Touga, in trying to convince Miki to duel, uses terms of ownership and possession. For Miki, it was never about Anthy’s actual freedom of choice or her own happiness and desires, but entirely about what she could do for him and how she could make him feel. I think Miki wants to think that he has Anthy’s actual feelings in mind, but considering how easily he’s manipulated into dueling with just a few lines about how it’s his God-given masculine right to possess Anthy (but only if he can win her in a duel), it was clearly never his primary motivation. As much as he struggles against growing up into normative masculinity, he very much already fits this pattern and doesn’t realize it yet. (though I would argue that his problem is more about adulthood than masculinity as such, but they’re tied together)

The more I watch this episode in-depth, the more painful it becomes. 

This series of shots is very telling -- talking about Anthy as a child (but obviously talking about Kozue), insert shot of the garden with the twins, immediately starts talking about Kozue in the same breath. I just want this boy to get over his semi-incestuous hangups about mastery, adulthood, and returning to wholeness. It becomes very obvious what his problem is here. I want him to quite projecting so hard about how he can’t own his sister so he wants to own Anthy as a substitute.

God, his whole arc is painfully Freudian. Fetishism is all over this sub-plot. Fetishizing the Other because he cannot return to wholeness within the womb. Someone stop him.

Nope, no one here is dealing with repressed sexual urges that are coming out as a sense of masculine possessiveness over the women in his life. Not at all. Sexual repression? Never heard of her.

Wait, so no one is supposed to know about the dueling game, and yet....Miki’s just challenging Utena to a duel in the middle of class, with all his fangirls watching? That doesn’t seem very smart.

The SG play today confirms what I said above -- Miki has all these material treasures, but the thing he really wants is not only intangible, but it is impossible and unspeakable.

Really, Miki? REALLY? After all your talk of wanting her to be ‘yours,’ you’re still going to pull the freedom card?

Rolling my eyes right out of my head on this kid.

I think there’s a parallel to be made to Utena here, though -- Utena wants to play the part of the Prince but acts like what she wants is Anthy’s freedom (despite the Prince role being dependent upon and constituted by a Princess/damsel to rescue), but it becomes so much more obvious and much earlier on with Miki.

Though, I have to say that Spira Mirabilis Gekijou is one of the best dueling themes in the whole series.

The stage may be geometrical, sure, but it’s breaking the laws of physics.

I would like to think that Anthy has some level of sincerity when she talks to Miki after the duel.

Kozue’s backstory (too lazy to screencap all of it) is pretty interesting here, since the poor girl is just a repository for various boys projecting their desires onto her. Something something that’s what heterosexual femininity is all about something. 

Actually, that’s what makes Kozue one of my favorite characters in here (did y’all know that I love Kozue so much? Because I really do). She’s been put into a very specific archetype by everyone around her, and instead of fighting against it, she runs with it. I’m not sure if she’s ever able to subvert the forms of power that are working on her by intensifying them so much (I don’t think that’s the lesson of the series), but she’s an interesting counterpoint to both Utena and Nanami’s styles of dealing with systems of power (that is, working to change it from within and totally rejecting the system, where Kozue intensifies that system). 

As for the piano playing, we’re back to Kozue’s imperfection being the missing ingredient in what makes the piano playing with the twins together so great. It seems to be less that Miki is so masterful that he’s able to correct for her poor playing, but rather that the poor playing and the excellent playing mesh into something that goes beyond technical correctness and into something truly new and interesting. 

So we know from the ‘next episode’ thing on episode 3 that this was only Miki’s second duel, and I’m trying to work through what that means for his story. I’m wondering who he fought before, and why he fought before. Was it some sort of initiation? Do they all fight each other, tournament-style, to determine who the first person to possess the Rose Bride will be? These two episodes are where he realizes that what he wants is to possess Anthy, so it wasn’t a similar manipulation the last time, though it could have been a similar type with a different subject. He’s portrayed as being young and innocent, but he’s not truly virginal when it comes to the duels, as he has fought before. 

That’s it for this week’s liveblog! Join us next week for...oh god, it’s a Nanami episode, isn’t it? And not even one of the better ones. Okay, join us next week for lots of shitposting! :D

[bookingbuys-blog]

How to Visit the Seychelles on a Budget

Posted: 8/1/2019 | August 1st, 2019 In this guest post, Ellie Hopgood from Endlessly Restless offers some handy tips on how you can visit the Seychelles on a budget! This is a destination I’ve always dreamed of visiting so I was excited to have her write some tips for the country! It’s always viewed as one of the most expensive in the world but, as this post shows, it’s possible to visit on a budget! The Seychelles, an archipelago of 115 islands off the east coast of Africa, are known for being extremely beautiful — and extremely expensive. The pristine turquoise water and white-sand beaches come with a hefty price tag. If you want to drop serious money on a holiday, the Seychelles definitely have plenty of places perfect for an eye-wateringly expensive trip, with high-end rooms at the Madame Zabre Spa Resort on Desroches Island going for almost $15,000 USD per night, as well as a plethora of rooms available in the $500-$1,000-per-night range. There are even whole islands commandeered by one resort, such as Cerf Island, which consists solely of the 24 villas that make up the aptly named Cerf Island Resort. But even though fancy resorts like that were way out of my budget, I was determined to visit these islands — and do so frugally, with a backpacker’s budget in mind. After spotting an obscenely cheap and convenient flight deal — and desperate to get out there and explore these beautiful islands — I booked round-trip flights from London without much research (though I don’t necessarily recommend this approach to travel planning). I typically travel in Europe (often in Eastern Europe), so my idea of what constitutes a cheap trip might be distorted. Paying over $15 for my share of a night’s accommodation pains me. So my eyes widened when I saw the average cost in the Seychelles. But the flights were booked, so I had no choice but to figure out how to see the islands on a budget. I set to work, reading blogs and forums furiously, but there was very limited information available. After securing some affordable accommodation, I braced myself for a painfully expensive trip — but in the end, to my surprise, it was so much easier to be budget-conscious than I imagined. Were the Seychelles the cheapest destination? No. But, I learned, they don’t have to be prohibitively expensive either. So, how do you save money in the Seychelles? Here’s how you can take an affordable trip to paradise: 1. Find cheap flights (they do exist!) We found round-trip flights from London with British Airways for just over $600, a deal so good that it sparked the whole trip. I always use Skyscanner, as that’s where I reliably find the best flight deals. As always, you’ll typically find cheaper flights if you travel in shoulder season; are flexible with exact dates, times, and layovers; and avoid school vacation periods. Some tips on how to save on your flight: Look at deal websites – Deal websites like Holiday Pirates, Scott’s Cheap Flights, and The Flight Deal often have great last minute fares and package deals to the islands. Search the main cheap flight websites – Skyscanner and Momondo let you compare prices and see if there are any budget carriers flying the route. Be flexible with your dates – Airline ticket prices vary depending on the day of the week, time of year, and upcoming holidays. Moreover, it’s always cheaper to fly during the middle of the week than on a weekend, because most people travel on the weekends and airlines hike their prices then. If you zig when others zag, you are going to find better deals. Travel hack – This is the best way to get cheap flights..because it gives you free flights. Airline rewards programs are a great way to get free flights, free upgrades, and free companion tickets. Points = free flights. Through credit card sign up bonuses, everyday spending, contests, online promotions, bonus points, and so much more, you can easily gain hundreds of thousands of points per year without ever spending extra money! To learn how to do this, check out this post! For more tips on how to find a cheap flight, check out this post! 2. Stick to cheap guesthouses (that serve breakfast)

The Seychelles don’t yet have a lot of budget accommodations, but I was able to find affordable rooms using Airbnb, though similar rooms are also available through Booking.com. There are also a number of small guesthouses and hotels that offer rooms for $60–100 USD per night. While some of these places have their own websites, like our La Digue guesthouse Liane de Mai, others can only be booked through platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com, like our self-catered accommodation on Mahé via CAMEC apartments. The best thing to do is to go onto your favorite budget accommodation site and put in the island you plan to stay on. That should show you a selection of accommodations so you can choose something in your price range. To keep costs even lower, try to stay somewhere that offers self-catering facilities or that serves breakfast. Self-catering allows you to save by preparing your own meals, while an included breakfast takes care of a third of your meals and lets you fill up on delicious fruit, toast, yogurt, and eggs that will keep you going for hours. You can also take a few snacks from breakfast, like rolls or bananas, for later in the day when you need a boost of energy. All the places we stayed made clear in their Airbnb profile whether a kitchen was available or if breakfast was included, though you could also email and ask. There is also a small Couchsurfing community in the Seychelles, with most of the hosts based on Mahé. Nothing is cheaper than free — so if you are fond of couch surfing and happy to stay on the main island, this might be a good option. Check out our comprehensive resource section for more tips on finding cheap accommodation! 3. Eat take-out Eating out in restaurants in the Seychelles is painfully pricey for fairly average food. A simple bowl of tomato pasta can easily run you $20 USD, while a three-course meal with alcohol will set you back $70–80 USD per person. However, the Seychelles is also full of places to get take-out, small establishments, and mobile food vans all over the islands, directly alongside main roads or signposted clearly, serving up local dishes for incredibly low prices. These are where many of the locals eat dinner, along with visitors who are looking for delicious and cheap eats. For only $3–5 USD, you can buy two main courses with a generous serving of rice and salad. These meals tend to be fresh, Seychellois dishes that change every day, typically curries made with fish, chicken, beef, or vegetables, served with rice and salad. There are also often Chinese-takeout-type dishes like fried noodles and rice. My favorite find was Mi Mum’s on La Digue, which served the most delicious chicken “zye zye” curry with rice and salad for the unbeatable price of $4 USD. 4. Take the bus

Taxis are insanely expensive — think $20 USD for a trip of only a couple of kilometers — and are not a viable option for anyone trying to travel on a budget. You can rent a car for around $40 USD per day, which may be manageable if you are traveling in a group or splitting the cost with someone, but still expensive compared to the cheapest option: the bus. (As a bonus, the bus is as much an activity as it is a convenient transport option, as the bus bounces up and down hills on a road bordering the ocean!) On both Praslin and Mahé, you buy a flat-rate ticket as you get on and travel as far as you need to, whether that is one stop or ten. On Praslin, a bus ticket costs 7 SCR (50 US cents) while tickets are 6 SCR (45 US cents) on Mahé. The buses come infrequently, so it is worth consulting the timetable. I was given a Praslin timetable at my accommodation (though you can also find it online), and you can download Mahé’s extensive schedule here. La Digue has very few cars and no buses, so walking and biking are the best options, which is also true for all of the smaller islands. 5. Stick to beach-hopping

While a small minority of beaches are only accessible if you are a guest of a specific resort, for the most part, the most glorious part of visiting the Seychelles (going to the beach) is completely free. You can enjoy the pristine white sand and blue water; watch the birds, bats, and tortoises move around the island; and explore the amazing undersea wildlife straight from the beach — and it won’t cost you a dime. My favorite free beaches are Anse Coco on La Digue, Anse Lazio on Praslin, and Beau Vallon on Mahé. One big exception to the free beaches rule is that Anse Source d’Argent on La Digue, which is one of the world’s most beautiful beaches, charges you for entry. The cost is 100 SCR ($7 USD) for a single entry, so go when you have time to spend the whole afternoon (or day!) enjoying the beach and its unusual rock formations. If you want to avoid the charge, then you can swim or walk through the ocean from just outside the entrance to the park and enter the beach that way. However, you’ll have to swim back out, as park rangers often check your ticket as you leave! 6. Bring enough sunscreen! An easy way to save a few bucks is to bring more sunscreen than you think you’ll need. Sunscreen is very expensive ($15 USD for a small bottle) but also very necessary, given the blazing equatorial sun that can burn skin in minutes. I was woefully underprepared for the amount of sunscreen I would need, so much so that within two days I had to shell out a small fortune for a big enough bottle to get me through the rest of the trip. If you can avoid buying this necessary item on the islands, then do. 7. Move slowly To get between the islands, you can fly or take a ferry. Neither way is particularly cheap. A return flight from Mahé to Praslin (which only takes about 15 minutes!) will likely cost $150–200 USD. Ferries are marginally cheaper: about $60 USD each way between Mahé and Praslin and around $20 USD each way between Praslin and La Digue. There is only one ferry provider serving each of the main routes between the three major islands, making you a captive audience for their high prices. So unless you’re Michael Phelps, you’re stuck paying whatever Cat Cocos (between Mahé and Praslin) and Cat Rose (between Praslin and La Digue) charge for the tickets. The less you travel between the islands, the cheaper your total transport bill will stay. 8. Minimize cash withdrawals (and use the right ATMs)

As in many other places, there are heavy charges levied on withdrawals at cash machines, to the tune of 100 SCR ($7 USD) per withdrawal. These withdrawal fees are fixed by the ATM and are different than foreign exchange fees. Charles Schwab and Fidelity offer cards that refund these ATM fees, though Fidelity does charge a 1% foreign exchange fee. However, a simpler solution than opening a new checking account is to be vigilant about which ATM you use. Barclays ATMs levy the withdrawal charge, while MCB ATMs tend to have no fee. A full list of MCB ATMs can be found by clicking here. ATMs will only give you rupees, though most prices are quoted in euros. You can bring euros with you or change them at the airport and banks for no charge. The Seychelles are largely cash-only, so figuring out how to get cash without incurring charges is important. For more tips on avoiding ATM fees, check out our comprehensive article on how to avoid fees when traveling! 9. Drink the tap water (or at least bring a bottle with a filter) While most online information says that the water in the Seychelles is not safe to drink, I quickly started drinking the tap water and was completely fine. Given the extreme heat and humidity, you will need to drink a lot of water, which adds up fast if you have to keep buying plastic bottles (not to mention the environmental impact of that much disposable plastic). If you don’t feel comfortable drinking the tap water, then I’d recommend bringing a bottle with a built-in filter or buying a SteriPEN or Lifestraw. Not constantly buying bottled water will help keep both your costs low and the environment clean. 10. Bring your own mask and snorkel

Unlike many beach paradises, you don’t need to go out on a boat to get to prime snorkeling territory. You can swim straight off the beach onto a reef and see rays, sharks, eels, fish, and more. I swam out from Anse Source d’Argent and was greeted by a friendly ray who let me follow him for half an hour in perfect peace. It was magical. However, renting a snorkel and mask often can get expensive. Snorkel rentals go for $10 USD a day or more. Bring your own to save money! *** By following the above advice, it should be possible to take a trip to the Seychelles that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg (maybe just a hand). If you stay in small guesthouses that serve breakfast, eat takeout for most of your meals, spend most of your time exploring the beaches, and hunt for a good flight deal, you’ll spend between $120–140 USD per day (less if you are traveling with someone and can split accommodation costs), though it’s also good to leave some wiggle room for putting money in the hands of any Seychellois guides or vendors who really make a difference to your trip. If you are willing to shell out more, then the sky’s the limit, but if splurging, I would recommend a guided tour through the jungle (it’s typically not safe to venture out alone) or diving, as the Seychelles are home to some world-famous dive sites. A whole day’s guided hike, including lunch and entrance to world-famous beach Anse Source d’Argent, costs about $70 USD, and each dive with Octopus Dive Centre was around $60 USD (less if you have your own equipment). I did both of these activities and they were completely worth it. I firmly believe that the Seychelles is one of the world’s most beautiful places and should be on the bucket list of any avid traveler. And, hopefully, these budget tips will allow you to visit the Seychelles without breaking the bank! Ellie Hopgood is an investment writer in London, covering topics in economics, politics and global finance. She writes about travel, politics and photography on her blog Endlessly Restless. She spends a borderline unhealthy amount of time editing photos and checking the cost of flights to places she has no immediate intention to visit. You can find her on Twitter (@elliemhopgood).     P.S. – Did you know I wrote a new book? It’s called “Ten Years a Nomad” and it’s all about the lessons I’ve learned from a life of travel. It features tons of stories and misadventures I’ve never told on this blog as well! Click here to learn more and grab your copy today! (I’m doing a book tour too! I’ll be in Austin, Houston, Denver, and San Diego next week!) Book Your Trip to the Seychelles: Logistical Tips and Tricks Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is left unturned. Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld. If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels. I use them all the time. Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are: World Nomads (for everyone below 70) Insure My Trip (for those over 70) Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all the ones I use to save money when I travel – and I think will help you too! Looking for more information on visiting the Seychelles? Check out my in-depth destination guide to the Seychelles with more tips on what to see, do, costs, ways to save, and much, much more! The post How to Visit the Seychelles on a Budget appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

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