#i thought very hard about information technology and there's still time. i just have such a passion for gender/queer studies

[non-un-topo]

Applying for my Master's in gender studies kind of feels like shooting myself in the foot, but then again, it's not a useless discipline if it's being systematically censored and erased.

[lovelyyandereaddictionpoint]

papa, me want more yandere jjk zombie apocalypse!!!

no pressure tho lol love your writing

Me when someone calls me Papa:

But seriously thank you Hope you enjoy! 🖤🖤🖤🖤

Zombie Apocalypse: Yandere Jujutsu Kaisen (3)

1  • 2

When you awaken it’s Nobara and Megumi who retrieve you for another tour

This time taking the time to let you partake in the activities with some of the residents

But it’s all to pass the time before Suguru comes to retrieve you

“Hey (Y/n) we have a few more tests to run and after that, I’ll let you go have fun with Satoru.”

Despite your reluctance to deal with the boisterous man you follow Suguru back to the lab where you first met him in

Chatting about anything you could 

“So I finally wanted to inform you about why you can’t go to the other neighborhood and why you have that wristband.”

“Finally! Even if I can’t be with them I want to see them still–”

“...(Y/n)...I’m so sorry.”

Setting you on the patient table Suguru informs you that your blood is the key to immunity against the zombie disease

Using some advanced technology to find you and put the wristband on you to label you among your group of friends

But that wasn’t all 

Holding you close he confides in you that in separate interviews your friend group had proven to be willing to go to extremes to get their hands on the cure

Said extremes were violent and alarming

all suggesting they’d abduct you and make you a living blood bag for them

It was actually not that far-fetched to you

You knew your friends were loosening their morals

You had to 

Especially after the betrayal from one of your members

It was likely that they may have come off that way

But you wonder if that would’ve applied to you as well

You really had no way of knowing

“(Y/n) I understand that this is difficult to take in…just know that me and Satoru are here for you. We’re going to protect you, no matter what.”

He was holding your chin as he looked into your eyes with promise

Letting him hold you in a hug

Suguru has a hard time holding in a smile that twitches widely on his face

After this Suguru takes the day off joining you to experience the different activities 

Satoru joined you both shortly thereafter

“Yay! My two favorite people are baking so adorably! It’d be a shame if someone came and tickled one of them relentlessly.”

“Sorry (Y/n).”

“Wait what—Ahhhh! Hahahaha!”

They’re pretty persistent when it comes to chasing away the thoughts of your friends possibly being as dangerous to you as they were to the zombies you’d been running from 

Enough for you to miss them when you once again say goodbye to Nobara and Megumi after they lead you to your room 

But before you can completely settle on your bed to sullenly stare at the ceiling the door to your room clicks open

“Heyyo you ready for me to show you what movies we’ve got? Of course, you are! C’mon, sweetcheeks!”

“Hope we didn’t wake you but we figured we’d hate to leave you alone.”

“Uh, thanks, you guys.”

“It’s no problem, the mind on its own is a scary place.”

“Yeah…”

“That’s why we’ll never let you go there! Now are you ready for the ultimate movie night? You’re not going to get a wink of sleep!”

That being said by the time the sun rose you were already resting on the couple your head in Satoru’s lap while Suguru held the rest of your body up

Completely oblivious to the second time the lock to your door opened up 

“You two look cozy!”

“Do not yell someone is clearly asleep.”

“So? I have the key to this door so it’s practically mine too.”

“The urge to decimate you always returns with a vengeance.”

“Ouch so cruel~!”

Suguru groaned and rolled his eyes at the both of them checking if you stirred at all

 while Satoru smiled at the blonde one of the duo only to receive an annoyed push of his glasses

“Nanamin you came back earlier than I expected.”

“Yes, my…partner took a very impulsive approach this time around.”

Suguru figured he’d chime in too, “Mahito did you bring any of them back alive?”

Mahito made a face putting a peace sign up as he posed mocking the anime signage now left as relics of the world before

“What do you think?”

“I don’t necessarily care, it’d just make things easier for them.”

“It is unbecoming of you to lie Doctor Geto.”

“Yeah, I could tell you were just itching to get your hands on those pigs!”

Suguru chuckled reaching to brush his hand against your cheek

“Maybe I was hoping to…enjoy a roast. It’s unfair if you’re the only one to enjoy the results of our labor.”

[spiritflakess]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63840811

If you recall months ago I was talking about a orufrey coffee shop Au. Just posted the first chapter, no coffee just yet. I’ll get there hopefully...

Witches’ Brew

Platforms: A03, Tumblr.

Words: 983

Status: ongoing!

Chapters: 1/?

Tags: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & CafésProfessor QifreyCafe owner OlruggioMenace BeldaruitThere will be coffee soon I swearBeldaruit used nepotismQifrey needs an extra large coffee

How many years had it been now? Nearly a decade, since he slipped away in the dead of night. Taking the last train out of that backwater town, doomed to rot in its own obscurity. It’s place not on any map, most likely only known for some variety of archaic family-owned business. He could still picture it, ‘the best plum wine in the prefecture!’ or who could forget ‘the renowned fabric store, it goes back 10 generations!’.

It makes him want to wretch, like he’d never even left the damn place long ago. People held such pride for keeping business in the family, didn’t they? Qifrey can’t even put words to why he feels such a distain towards the idea. Irony is not lost on him, after all, you could call his latest venture exactly that. Inheriting a job from the old man himself, his esteemed benefactor.

Beldaruit’s smiling face, the giddy, ghastly phantom that haunts his sugar high caffeine induced crashouts. Papers clutched in his hand, coffee in the other, the state he found himself in the ONE time he decided to read a letter sent to him! Trifling old bastard, knowing he was perfectly content being on his own! Qifrey was not living in a shoebox, sustaining off cup ramen and instant coffee to fuel his vintage book collecting , THANK YOU.

No, of course, that old coot had to so graciously inform him of his impending retirement and not so subtly imply that he’d given Qifrey an ever so glowing recommendation to take over for him. It’s like that phone he bought for him is a goddamn paper weight! A text would have been nice! Hell, even a phone call, ‘Hey son I recommended you for a really important reputation ruining if you don’t show job and they think you accepted! You better pack up your whole life and come back home ;D ‘.

A letter, a letter in this day and age. God forbid that man learn to use technology from the modern era, for all Qifrey knows he’s still practicing rituals to bring rain for a plentiful harvest season. The well-meaning smile he probably had while writing the affront to Qifrey’s ongoing decade long pursuit at independence is clear from the opening line.

‘Dearest Qifrey, how have you been? Our flowers in the garden have started to wilt. I remember how vibrantly they bloomed when you last visited, that was a hot summer! I think we’re in for a very cold winter this year indeed! My bones have been creaking I tell you, (not just because I’m an old man now *wink*)’.

‘That man is a clown.’ Qifrey hissed under his breath, hand pushing back his tangled mop of hair. He even took the time to write the damn thing with some kind of calligraphy pen and ink based off the fancy lettering. Always the flare for the dramatics with Beldaruit, ‘you can never leave too lasting an impression!’ he recalls hearing as a child. He got one thing right, his image stuck, no matter how hard Qifrey tried to run kicking and screaming from it.

He discards the paper back into his bag, instead shifting his focus to the book he deemed a suitable distraction. Cover warped with age, smelling of must and littered with yellowed pages. It would be the perfect distraction, if he were capable of being distracted. Alas, this was not a ‘I can ignore that my rent is due tomorrow by reading situation’ it was a full-blown intergenerational feud with his adopted father.

The professor knows it’s going to be on his mind purely out of fucking spite for the remainder of this train ride. Always acting without consulting him, doing what he thought was “best” for Qifrey. ‘I’m nearly 30, old man!’ He recalls shouting the last time he visited, only to be met with ‘Oh well I just figured that you would be a good fit at this school, and it;s local so you could come visit me everyday!’.

Dwelling is not going to help, he knows he should assert his boundries. He knows he should just call that school and explain to them, but then, how does he explain that to Beldaruit? ‘Yes, I rejected it because I can’t stand the thought of being like you?’. Oh yes, that would go SWIMMINGLY.

At a crossroads, as he would in reality love the job, a prestigious position as a professor at a renowned academy. Do you know what that would do for his piss poor resume? The fish haven’t exactly been frenzying over his 4 years of TAing or his part time stocking at his local family mart, and of course his meager year as a preschool teacher. Granted, he went on a wild goose chase and was a true crime podcaster for a hot minute, he is a responsible adult now!. Don’t get him started on all the pointless papers he published instead of actually finding a stable teaching job...

That’s all besides the point though, this whole thing stinks of nepotism! As it quite literally is, he’s 100% sure there were more qualified educators. The whole thing just leaves...a bitter taste in his mouth. Beldaruit worked to get that job, taught religiously at the small public school in town, attended conferences, other harder things. Qifrey just existed in relation to him, happened to be his ward, happened to have a teaching license, happened to have a bullshit degree saying he knew how to educate people.

So, in reality, as usual, he’s the real problem here. Another instance of him piggy backing off a kind old man's ridiculous amount prestige. Sure, he got a couple of rewards back in college, but he’d done jack shit in the grand scheme of things.

‘Lord help us all, me in charge of educating the next generation.” He scoffed, head leaning back against booth.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hi Raven!

I’ve read your recent writings for the Fellow blog event (the one where Fellow meets Jamil and the one where Fellow is informed of who exactly was in the NRC Playful Land group) and that’s got me curious.

I know this is mostly speculation, but who do you imagine Fellow’s ex-employer to be such that he would be so casual about the identities of his marks? People like Jack, Ace, and Trey are ordinary and come from ordinary families. I would understand for the likes of Vil and if you stretch it, Cater, who while rich and/or influential (or are the children of such people) can still be considered ‘regular’ rich kids. My point is that sadly I feel it wouldn’t be hard for their kidnapping to be labelled as a tragic disappearance and swept under the rug.

But then concerning others such as Kalim, Leona, the Tweels, Ortho, and such, it would spell much trouble for the kidnappers? As Jamil put it to Fellow, them disappearing isn’t a matter that can simply be hand waved away. I have no doubt that Fellow’s ex-employers aren’t small time crooks and actually have power, but surely that power has its limits in the face of what they would have to deal with. They wouldn’t be incurring the wrath of one force, it would be many. Many forces, I might add, with the power and resources to track them down even through unofficial means. As a side note, Book 6 showed us how Idia was willing to destroy the world for Ortho.

Then again, it could just be Fellow’s hubris getting the better of him such that he has vastly overestimated the capabilities of his ex-employers? He seems to me like someone on the lower rungs (sorry Fellow) of the Playful Land criminal endeavor and wouldn’t be privy to the details or who exactly is involved. I dunno, maybe I’m thinking too much into this. But it would be nice to hear your thoughts on the matter!

[Referencing this post and this post!]

Yes, Fellow is very small fish to fry compared to his employers. We learn in his Playful Dress vignettes that Fellow only took up the Playful Land gig because he happened to find a job posting for it that pays well. It's not likely that he has a lot of say in what goes on if they were looking to hire just about anyone willing to do the dirty work, despite claiming to be the park manager.

While he doesn't seem to know the exact details of who the more influential boys of the group are, he at least knows about their affiliation with THE prestigious Night Raven College (which is partly why he targets them in the first place). However, Fellow does still demonstrate complete assurance that they can get away with their entire operation. I think this is the result of two factors. One is, as you may have suggested, Fellow not knowing much about the inner workings of the organization (and thus having no knowledge of its limits). The other is far scarier (and seems to be more likely to me due to the evidence we have on hand), which hints at a criminal underbelly in Twisted Wonderland that holds even more money and influence than even the Asim family has. The latter is implied, as Fellow brags quite often about his benefactors and even discusses the construction of the park as being the result of many powerful mages. Cater also mentions early in the event that Playful Land has been trending on socials lately, but this also implies that NONE of the people that went missing after going to the park made headlines or drew suspicion to Playful Land. This means that not only do the people behind the park have money, but somehow also the far-reaching power to control literally every bit of information on the web about them. Let's not forget too that they SOMEHOW have the technological capabilities to jam and limit Ortho's capabilities, even though this guy was made by a genius inventor.

Now look, I'm not saying that frightening organizations like this don't exist in real life. To deny that is to be ignorant. What I am saying is that for game like Twst (where several of the main characters are from very crazy wealthy families), it's asking us to do a LOT of suspension of disbelief in order to sell the story. This is just the beginning of my list of gripes with the logic of Playful Land. If you want to read more of my thoughts on the subject, you can check out this post!

[yanderes-galore]

I have a request. A scenario where romantic yandere Master Chief becomes self aware and realizes he's in an video game. Though now he desperately wants to be with the reader.

Sure! This fic has two parts so this part will be a bit of a set up to the actual yandere behavior of Chief in part 2 (Hopefully).

I tried to make it make sense yet I still struggle with Self-Aware characters, lol 😅

Bigger Picture - Part 1

Yandere! Self-Aware! Master Chief Scenario

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Self-Aware game character, This is mostly set up, Slight obsession at first sight, Dubious relationship, Slight possessive themes implied, Possible OOC Master Chief.

The Master Chief has always been the best of the best of the best. People assumed he became who he is through hard effort and training. John was just naturally great.

But humanity's greatest hero had gotten help.

Was it Cortana who helped him through it all? Perhaps Blue Team? Maybe even the Arbiter, Thel?

While they have helped his journey, that was not the only help he got.

Master Chief, John, had gotten outside help. Help beyond his comprehension. This help was not Forerunner in nature, they were human.

They were you.

The Master Chief had been guided by you through his journey. He had fought through the Covenant, The Flood, and the Prometheans all with you. You were a presence who was meant to be Chief's other half.

You were also how John had realized his life was a lot smaller than he thought.

You see, like an AI, John's life is fabricated. All of these missions, all these lives he sought to protect, it all felt real. To him, it felt very real and important.

Then when he defeated the Didact and Cortana warped him to a new plane, Chief saw something. Before he saw Cortana again, he was a screen. He saw you, a device in hand.

Originally these images confused John. Who was it that he saw? Why did he feel... comfort.

When asking Cortana or any other part of the UNSC about it, they assumed he had brain damage. His scans showed he was fine, however. No one else knew about the figure he saw.

It would take a long time before Chief understood. To him it felt like forever, it was probably nothing to you. It was then he knew the truth...

He's fake. It's all fake. His life is only able to exist because of one presence, yours.

You were the only thing that made him relevant. Not only did you guide him, you controlled him. It took Cortana saving him after the Didact for him to understand.

This information cursed his mind.

John was no more a construct than Cortana, was he? He feels like he wasn't supposed to know this. He wasn't supposed to know about you.

Now John wanted to know more. For now he'd focus on his missions, yet he was always looking for a way to see you again. He wasn't sure what exactly made him want to free himself of your control, but it was a new goal.

John began to find himself fascinated by Forerunner technology much more than before. He wonders if this way he can find a way to you. The thought of learning the truth about you is what now drove him.

While you were simply playing your favorite game, you had no idea of what was going on. You had no idea that John was sentient. You had no clue what went on when the game was off

You were completely oblivious to John's desperate scour for the truth of his existence.

In fact you would have no idea what was going on until it's too late.

John began to fall for the idea of meeting you. Romantic attraction didn't occur in his mind, in fact it wouldn't until much later. All he knew was he needed to find a way to meet you. Even if it went against the mission.

The closest John got to seeing you was small glimpses. Occasionally he'd "hallucinate" and see you again in front of a screen. He began to grow attached to your guiding presence, yearning to learn more.

He didn't know your name, why he was seeing you, and why he needed to know this all now. Was there a reason? Did YOU choose for him to know?

Was he meant to see any of this?

John's search for information began to degrade his mind. He wasn't meant to know any of this. It wasn't in his code.

But as he continued, soon he became more than an avatar for some code in a game. Soon, he became more and more real as he grew more sentient. It builds up and up... until...

He finds a way.

By what appears to be by accident, Chief stumbles through a wall.

It was unintentional, it even scares the unshakable Master Chief for a moment. He... was in an entirely new place. One that look very green and... binary.

It was like looking inside of an AI. The scenery unnerved John as he explored. Was this also something he was meant to discover?

Then he finds it.

Amidst the darkness surrounded by green lights, he sees a screen. A screen that shows the person he's been looking for. He feels... relieved.

It's you.

That controller-like device of yours sits down on on a desk. Meanwhile you're looking through a bookcase. John doesn't realize he's drifted closer, reaching his hand out.

You looked so peaceful. A human who's not surrounded by intergalactic war. It's a feeling he's not very used to.

He stretches his arm out to the screen towards you. You've been tormenting his mind for so long. Now... he can finally know the truth.

When he sees you... his mind thinks of one thing.

You're his guardian... his guide... you're his.

He presses against the screen, visor not looking away from you... and he falls through.

[tarithenurse]

Inhuman

Fandom: MCU Pairing: Loki x fem!reader, eventually Stucky, more (some canon, some not). Word count: 1943. Contents: Preparations, admissions. A/N: Any questions are welcome. Please comment and like and reblog. Let me know if you want a tag.

Chapter 58

... Reader’s PoV ...

You’re rummaging through the kitchen for yet another snack when a gruff mutant appears who you recognize from the files. Logan. Even if it’s not lit, he’s still chewing on a cigar-stump as if his life depended on it. This means they have arrived with their plane although you haven’t heard the arrival.

“You.” It sounds like a growl when he talks.

Grabbing an apple you turn to face the mutant. “You don’t trust me.”

“Genius, ain’t ya?” He’s looking around the place, searching for something.

“Drinks are in the bottom cabinet…over there,” you point him in the right direction before heading towards the door.

He calls after you just before the door swings shut. “Just scored some points there, bubba.”

Gnawing on the apple, you wander the halls, looking for something to do. There seems to be a lot of activity in the war room, so that’s where she goes. Stepping through the doors, it’s clear that something has happened, as orders are flying about, most of them coming from Steve, who is the centre of the storm. Bucky leaning quietly against a desk, one boot resting on the other and arms crossed over his chest, as he studies the hubbub. Weaving over to him, you have to restrain yourself from reclaiming the spot where you used to belong next to him.

“What’s going on?”

“New ETA on the enemy vessel. It should pass Mars the day after tomorrow, which would give us an opportunity to grab it before risking people down here.” Despite the information, the former soldier is emanating the type of calm you have come to associate with his tactical mode.

You do not share the cool, reserved confidence. “So when are we going?”

Looking at you directly for the first time, Bucky shakes his head. “You’re not going anywhere.”

...

It’s crowded indoors with so many people at the Bunker. The Guardians have made themselves comfortable and are, for the most part, helping out as much as they can with the work on one of the quinjets and the X-men’s long, black plane. Both Rocket and Tony are having a field-day, exploring the technology while they ignore almost anything Beast, the blue fuzz-ball, tries to explain. He is the one who has invented the thing, and he is rather protective of it. The only mediator between the two parties is Bruce whose temperament and precision is very similar to Hank McCoy’s although his field of interest is different.

So there is McCoy, or Beast. And Logan of course, even though he keeps to himself. Storm, who appears to be the one calling the shots among them, has bonded surprisingly fast with Thor over their meteorological abilities.

Yes, it’s busy. In an attempt to escape the churning activity, you slip out the door. You have wrapped yourself up in a scarf and sweater beside the training gear and heads towards the small gravel road leading into the forest. Finding a rhythm in a light jog, you almost think you have escaped.

“Wait up!”

Steve. You are tempted to carry on, might even be able to outrun him now, but his presence always brings a sort of calm. He never doubted me after London. When he catches up, you find a pace fitting both of you.

The man is not one for small talk. “So how are you?”

“Okay…all things considered.” It’s non-committal but you can’t give a better answer than that.

Nodding gravely, he says nothing for a while. The muscles in his jaw are working hard and a deep furrow has appeared between his eyebrows.

“So…uhm…” His struggle to formulate his thoughts and his uncertainty is unusual.

In one of the trees, a squirrel is tugging itself further into its den, oblivious to the increasingly awkward atmosphere outside. “So?”

“It’s just…a lot of things have happened and it might not look positive right now...” He flails an arm helplessly. “But I think it’ll be alright. We have a strong team.”

“So what afterwards? Is that what you are wondering?” Yeah…what then?

“Well yeah. You and…Buck…” Steve looks almost desperate, trying to breach a subject so personal. “After all this…are you going to try…again…?”

Slowing to a walk, you allow yourself to think it through. “Are you asking for him or for yourself?” A strong blush spreads across his face. “On your behalf, I guess.”

Every interaction you have witnessed between the two old friends is quickly re-evaluated. All the times one has talked about or looked at the other appears different suddenly. Steve wasn’t just protective when Buck and I started dating…he was…jealous?

“Can’t blame me for caring. He’s my friend.” An almost indiscernible hesitation sneaks in before the last word.

“Steve…” you try to sound kind, “Bucky is more than a friend to you…isn’t he?”

You’ve stopped but the blond man is still pacing, fists clenched tightly as a shield in front of his abdomen. His shoulders are shaking despite the many deep breaths he hauls in. When he finally does turn to face you, Steve’s blue eyes are wet and big with a mixture of realization and fear.

“When I was lying there…in London...” His voice is shaky and he has to swallow hard before being able to continue. “I knew I wouldn’t die but all I could think of was what it’d do to Buck if I did. For years, he’d been gone from my life and it had been like a part of me was missing…the idea of him having to be alone…I…I…”

You already know what he is trying to say. “You can say it. It’s okay.”

“I…love him.” A solitary bird takes off, but otherwise the forest is calm in the wintry gloom. Breathing the cold air freely it’s clear to see that a stone has fallen from the former Captain’s chest.

“Does he or Sharon know?” That’s a couple of conversations you don’t envy him having to make.

Sending a small stone flying with a kick, Steve is back to fretting. “How could I? I know it’s the right thing to do…but in my time, this sort of…attraction was frowned upon…I haven’t told anyone before now.”

“You have to tell them, even if it’s hard.”

“They’ll hate me.” The thought alone is enough to make him pale.

“Not if they really do care about you.” Patting his arm, you try to smile encouragingly. “Start with Sam, if you need more backup. And remember that the truth always is better.”

Steve’s just about to answer, when a big shadow falls over them and with it comes a cackling sound.

“TO YOUR LEFT!”

Dumbfounded, Steve and you stare after the glowing exhaust of Sam, before the man touches down a hundred meters further up ahead the road. Almost soundlessly, the wings fold into the contraption strapped to his back, and a broad smile flashes white underneath the red-tinted goggles.

“Go get him, tiger.”

…

Time seemed to fly by before the mixed team left on an intercept course through space, but now that they are gone the minutes drag by in slow motion. All the guardians have left in there spaceship together with Tony, Bucky, Thor, Wanda, Vision, and Natasha.

It was with some trepidation for some of them, that they took off. Not because of the odds they are facing in terms of actually catching the spy alive, rather because of the mind boggling prospect of space travel. Once they make it out of the Earth’s gravitational pull, they are going to perform something Rocket calls a ‘jump’.

Space. It’s been years since humans learned they aren’t alone in the universe. Logically, it always made sense that there would be some form of life somewhere, the big question had always been if it was intelligent (compared to human standards) and friendly. The latter turned out to not necessarily be the case.

You have listened to the stories Thor has told and even Banner has tried to explain what he has seen while he was gone…but really? Stories can only relay a fraction of the wonders. Something is itching in you to get out there and explore. On the other hand you feel uneasy simply by the thought of your own upcoming destination. Uranus’ moon. Somehow, the rag-tag team of heroes will have to make a final stand there and win the battle, hoping that Earth will be spared in the process. Not the reason most people had to travel among the stars.

It will be a long time before the astronauts are back in range assuming everything goes well, and to use the waiting time for something, Clint has taken Steve and a quinjet to visit the Barton-family and Pepper, who is staying on the farm as well. I wonder if they have cows? You don’t even know if it’s a real farm and you have a hard time imagining Clint feeding chickens or anything like that.

In the hangar, Hank McCoy is entertaining himself with all the toys needed to upgrade the X-men jet in accordance with Rocket’s specs, and his two friends felt it was safe to leave him while they returned to the school.

Entering the living room, you aren’t surprised to find Sharon sitting on the couch with the feet up on the table. Several empty beer bottles are littering the smooth surface, and the blond woman doesn’t seem to have had any company.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude.” You turn to leave but are halted by a request to sit down.

Sharon’s voice is hoarse. “I’d like some…company.” She still hasn’t looked up but you know the eyes you’d see would be red and puffy. “I guess you know…about Steve and me…”

Sinking onto the soft cushions, you can’t say much to stop the pain of the other woman. “He told you.” It’s not a question.

“Yeah.” A sniffle breaks the silence, while the heartbroken woman turns the bottle in her hands. “I’m not even surprised…or mad.” She scoffs at her own words. “No. I’m mad, just not at Steve.”

“Why not?” The question is tentative, gentle in it’s own right.

“Because I should have seen it a long time ago. He dropped everything to get a chance at saving Buck.” Chugging the last beer, she places the now empty bottle hard on the table. “I’m just stupid for thinking –”

“You’re not stupid…and for what it’s worth, he probably does love you…” Just not in the way you need him to.

Sharon opens two beers, handing one over to you. “I’m sure you are right. He’s perfect, so of course he does.” Downing half of the bitter liquid, she shakes her head. “Well, at least I know it wasn’t me that was the problem. And now…I’ve resorted to drink it away in a binge. Classy move.”

“There are worse things you could do…” Probably not the ethical thing to say as a nurse.

“What did you do?” The agent leans back to study you.

Yeah, that’s not something I’m about to tell anyone the specifics of. “Wine, long bath…then bury myself in work.”

It’s not untrue…it’s just not all of the story but Sharon seems to accept it. “Worth a shot. And maybe find someone to hook up with.” Choose carefully. She has gotten up to leave. “You should try that if your plan hasn’t helped yet.”

“Yeah, well…I doubt that is an option at the moment.” Already did…won’t happen again…

“Oh, you’d have the chance if you took it. I’ve seen how he looks at you.” Sharon smiles crooked as she reaches the door. “You know who I mean.”

[drakorn]

Rewriting Veilguard Part 9 - The Dumat

Rewriting Veilguard Part 8 - The Inquisition

Disclaimer: I don't hate the game, I actually think it's quite great given the development hell Bioware went through in those 10 years. This is more of a hypothetical universe where there was less of that behind the scenes drama. Just a fun writing exercise.

Exploring the Dumat Submarine

Last time we decided to use the original concept of the Dumat submarine as our hub for the game, so I thought to dedicate this next entry to the ship alone, as we just entered a little breather phase between main missions. We just finished the prologue, got our title card, were recruited into the Northern arm of the shadow Inquisition, and are about to embark on our quest to stop the Dread Wolf. But before we can do that, we must acquaint ourselves with our base a little, so we shall do just that!

We shall now take a look at what immediately happens once the title card fades away, the Dumat as a ship, its contents, the NPCs you can meet there, and the upgrades you can perform on it. Let’s get right into it!

The Inquisitor Departs

Once the title card fades, we have another cutscene that shows the Dumat quietly floating beneath the moonlit waters.

Rook and Varric meet the Inquisitor and Charter at the captain’s cabin. Lavellan informs us that she and her Spymaster must depart the ship now, for their presence is bound to eventually draw some unwanted attention from the enemy, especially in the Inquisitor’s case. We notice that she seems a bit hesitant when speaking about the Dread Wolf.

NOTE: In this World State, the Inquisitor romanced Solas and swore to redeem him.

We do not get to question that yet. Charter lets us know that Harding has her contact details if we ever need to reach her, whereas the Inquisitor remains silent about her future whereabouts. She just says that she will monitor the proceedings of the war between Tevinter and the Antaam and use her resources to help however she can, as well as perhaps draw the attention of Fen’Harel’s agents to distract the Dread Wolf from us. But she’s confident we will meet again, and sooner than we think. Leaving the operation to Varric, the two bid each other farewell.

Isabela enters and informs them that their transport is ready. The Inquisitor and Charter depart, leaving us in charge of the Dumat.

Varric tells us to get accustomed to the ship before doing anything else; it truly is a masterwork of magic and technology blending into one. When we’re ready, we must make to the meeting chamber and discuss our first moves. He leaves us to it.

Now we get to control Rook again, so let’s…take a little tour, shall we?

Exploring the Dumat

The Dumat is a submarine in every sense of its functions, that much is true. But we must not forget that this is still a fantasy game, so the goal isn’t to make it look like a submarine as we know one from our time. We’re going to have some fun.

It should be mentioned that the Dumat isn’t made from metal, but from the same dark rock as most buildings in Minrathous. But that’s only one part of it. The Dumat may have been built in Tevinter, with Tevene materials, but she was built by dwarves and mages alike. Enchantments and runes are carved into the walls in aesthetically pleasing ways, the entire construction lives and breathes magic, just like Minrathous.

When we move through the submarine, it looks like we’re walking through an underwater mansion. There are arcane lights everywhere, floating orbs, and so much more. The Dumat is a submarine, yes, but it is very much integrated into the setting. And now, we get to take a look.

The Captain’s Cabin

The captain’s cabin is Isabela’s place, where she resides and plans. It is filled with trophies from her past exploits, as well as one or two memos from her time in Kirkwall. Isabela herself frequents either the cabin or the bridge mostly, but it is to note that NPCs can and will change rooms occasionally.

We can talk to Isabela here and ask her about her life and past adventures, even about that business with the Tome of Koslun if we pry hard enough.

Isabela is also the person we see about upgrading the Dumat, but we shall return to this topic later.

The Bridge

The bridge is located not very far away from the captain’s cabin and is one of the central locations on the Dumat. It is located above the majority of the ship, in a room with magically protected glass, allowing us to see what awaits us ahead. Isabela will occasionally be found here, steering the ship where it needs to go.

Rook’s Chamber

Rook’s chamber is a very comfortable and relaxing place. And I’m actually going to go out on a whim and say that it looks pretty much like the one we see at the Lighthouse in Veilguard, just a bit larger and containing an actual bed. But I love this whole aquarium window idea.

Here’s where we can find missives addressed directly to us. Personal stuff, mementoes, things like that. Here, we can also find the appearance-changing mirror that will allow us to enter the character creator once again.

The Common Area

The common area is this big lounging area, positioned in front of this transparent glass wall that lets us look into the ocean. A magically-powered arcane fire roars in a nearby fireplace. There are tables, couches, and books aplenty. Here’s where we shall be having some more relaxing times later. Many characters will often converge here for banter-related purposes.

The Armoury

The armoury is pretty self-explanatory. Here’s where we can purchase weapons and armour, as well as upgrade them! It is located somewhere in the back of the Dumat, where the loud sounds won’t disturb anyone.

And here’s where we’ll meet two more members of our crew. As Rook enters, a man immediately jumps at her and begins taking her measurements, exclaiming that yes, finally, finally, he can begin crafting new masterpieces! Another, much calmer man, pulls him aside and says “Wade, not this again. Take a deep breath.”

Yes, we’re bringing back Wade and Herren, the iconic duo from Origins. They did have a small war table quest in DAI, but here they are back in the flesh. Rook and her team need a true master craftsman to equip them, so a master we shall receive, as well as his very much needed stop button called Herren.

Wade immediately insists upon crafting the most amazing things ever, to which Herren quickly calms him down, apologising profusely to us. While Herren sells us normal stuff, Wade can do the special items for us. Just like in DAO, we’re gonna need pretty exquisite materials.

The Room of Runes

The room of runes is a pretty mysterious place aboard the Dumat. It’s pretty much the anchor for all runic activity that protects and powers the ship. Yes, there are dwarven runes all over the place, but this is the heart of it all. Each rune that can be found on the Dumat has its larger replica here. Powerful enchantments everywhere. It actually looks rather beautiful, as though we stepped into a glittering underground cave filled with various little stars.

As soon as we enter the room, we see a dwarven man with short blonde hair and piercing, striking blue eyes. When we greet him, he only has one word for us: “Enchantment!”

Another dwarf joins us, older, with greying dark hair, who introduces himself as Bodahn Feddic, and the young man next to him is his dear boy Sandal. “Say hello, Sandal!” “Hello!”

Yes, there is the other iconic duo form DAO that I’m bringing back here, because…why not? If this is the last entry in the saga, we may as well start tying up all lose ends.

The Feddics are back, oh yes! They are much older, true, but they are still the same people. Bodahn tells us that Varric brought them here from Kirkwall to, once again, do some good. Bodahn wanted to retire, but if his boy is meant for great things, he won’t be far behind to support him. I also need Sandal for something later in the story, but we’ll talk about that another time.

As you guessed, this is the place we go to for rune crafting, whenever we need enchantments. Sandal is going to be very happy to provide some. Bodahn, as always, is a merchant from whom we can buy our everyday stuff. He can also be found in the common area for the sake of ease.

The Garden

This is Harding’s place, a beautiful garden area located in the more central area of the Dumat. Originally intended as a place of quiet meditation, Harding found a better use for it by repurposing it into an underground garden. A magical light causes the plants here to grow.

This is the first time we can have a proper, long conversation with Harding, where we learn about her relationship to Varric and the Inquisition as a whole, and how she came to serve in the first place.

We also get some info regarding her and Varric’s hunt for Solas, as well as her opinion on him. She tells us that, yes, as a Dalish, we may see Solas as this purely evil trickster god, but he was something else at Skyhold. As a very devout Dalish, we quietly dismiss this as Fen’Harel tricking everyone into believing that he is more than irredeemably evil.

The Meeting Chamber

This is basically Dreadwolf’s version of the war room. Here’s where all the mission briefings happen. We can also often find reports from across all Thedas. Who knows, we might even have our own version of war table missions later.

This is one of the areas Varric often occupies, like in this case. We can ask him about how his story began, even though we know the official, famous version of it. If we like, we can listen to some brief recaps of the past few games through his point of view and how it seems like he just can’t get out of this shit.

We can also inquire as to what’s happening in Kirkwall right now. Varric, who is still the Viscount, says that he left Aveline in charge while he’s on this job. It is still the shithole it was years ago, but it is improving, at least he hopes so.

Of course, there are more rooms on the Dumat, but we shall unlock them as we move on through the story and add to her expanding crew. So I shall simply add on to them as we go along.

Upgrades

Let’s touch on the topic of upgrades now. I think the Dumat is an excellent opportunity to bring back a proper system to upgrade your base. Vigil’s Keep had one, Skyhold had…a very lite version of one, the Normandy had a pretty cool one in ME2. If anything, I believe we should be inspired by the Normandy when it comes to this.

There are story-relevant upgrades, as well as flavour and aesthetics. And all of them can be purchased from Isabela. The upgrades we have available to us at the beginning of the game are as follows:

Cloaking Runes: Give the Dumat a way to blend into the environment, rendering her effectively invisible seamlessly.

Dragon’s Breath: Provide the front of the ship with a powerful runic beam that she can fire from her maw.

Greater Movement: Provide more freedom of movement to the ship, causing her to be more fluid and less static.

Restoration Pool: Add a green-shimmering pool to Rook’s chamber, allowing her to reskin and respec.

Now comes one of the effects of disbanding the Inquisition: none of the upgrades have been commissioned and applied yet. Isabela explains that the Inquisition doesn’t have as many resources as it once did, and what it did have was mostly used to construct the Dumat.

Had we kept the Inquisition the big official organisation, we would be having more funds now, and those starter upgrades, as well as some decorations, would have already been purchased. But as it stands now, we’re going to have to provide the cash.

Mission Briefing

When we’re done exploring the currently accessible areas of the Dumat, Rook, Varric, and Harding all gather in the meeting chamber, where Varric will introduce us to the first two missions we can choose from:

The Dread Wolf is one of the most elusive beings in Thedas right now. As such, we need someone who is an expert in finding even the most cunningly evasive people. That would be Neve Gallus, a detective operating from Minrathous. From what we know, she’s currently looking into those blood collars that are meant to be used in the war against the Qunari. If we help her out, she can be persuaded to join us.

The Dread Wolf is an ancient elf, a god even. As such, it takes someone with great knowledge of the ancient elven world to figure out how exactly he plans to tear down the Veil. Varric would have usually suggested Merrill, but…we know how that worked out. As a Veil Jumper ourselves, we will immediately suggest Bellara Lutare, who has a track record of investigating the most ancient and dangerous artefacts found in Arlathan Forest. Varric is pleased, for he would have suggested her himself.

We now have a choice between us. Do we travel to Minrathous and assist Neve in her blood collar case? Or do we return to Arlathan Forest and seek out Bellara? One way or another, we need both of them.

And there you have it! A bit of a shorter entry this time around, but I really just wanted to give a bit of an overview as to what the Dumat is going to be like. There will be more, of course. Next time we shall see whether we help Neve or Bellara first, so get ready for some exciting location returns/introductions. Stay tuned!

[apostleofthreedimensions]

Timeline

A timeline of every time a Spacelander has visited Flatland! Starting with...

Flatland's Year 0!

My friend @frau-line had the idea of a messiah and an apostle that fell in love and lived in Spaceland together. I also saw an idea for a god myth that included a picture of a sphere with a line orbiting around it and thought that that was a banger design for a god(s). Though I cant for the life of me find it now... its a small fandom I'll see it eventually.

With that out of the way, heres these two nameless but lovely ladies. I think at this point Flatland would be in like, caveman times or something, but the line is a fast learner and quickly absorbed all information that the sphere gave her.

As for Spacelands society, theyre far ahead of Flatland, but still not nearly as technologically advanced as they are in the film. Maybe like aztec times...?

Theyve just found Flatland and know exactly nothing about it. They sent the sphere to go check it out, and when she came back a month later they had a Flatlander with them.

They study the line and Flatland and they find out... something... that makes it so they set a concrete rule to only ever visit once every thousand years to impart knowledge upon the primitive Flatlanders.

I have no idea why they decide to do this every 1000 years. Perhaps the line dies shortly after her ascension to Spaceland (due to gravitational forces) and the sphere is heartbroken and bitter and shes like "Flatland is extremely fragile we must only interact with it rarely or we will FUCK UP and KILL things"

Year 1000

frau-line fuels this scenario and the next as well. Her ideas are some of the most interesting and compelling I've seen so its hard not to steal :P

The messiah of the Year 1000 wasnt exactly thrilled to do this job, but the first official visit was something highly anticipated and that he was specifically taught to do, so he studied hard and practiced well. He thought it easy and simple until, well...

Unfortunately, the year 1000 apostle must have been at least a little unhinged before enlightenment, so this messiahs mission went wildly off the rails. As soon as he finished his geometry homework, he started a massive country-wide riot, and martyred himself before anyone could ask what he was rioting for.

As for his shape I think he was either a hexagon or an octagon i cant remember im so sorry frau line 😖😖😖

Any fucking ways the messiah is like

And he has some like. Idk not trauma, but he is a little fucked up by it and thinks he should have taken it more seriously or whatever. Who cares though

Year 2000

Saturnius and Areia. Thanking frau-line every day for creating these guys, their plot is so captivating and I have a huge soft spot for Ariea specifically.

Saturnius is a noble sphere prince that takes his job deathly seriously, and Areia is a low class line determined to spread the gospel no matter the cost. The cost ends up being a holy war that is far more destructive than the year 1000 apostle could have even imagined...

Nothing I could say about them could live up to Suovetaurilia, so please give it a read!

Year 3000

You know who these guys are.

Year 4000

Finally, my home grown boys!

Xerxes is very lacking in the self confidence department and is trying to be the best most effective messiah to date to prove himself. His hopes are shattered when he happens to pick Claude, an average pentagon working an average 9-5 job, who doesn't give a singular shit about the third dimension at all. Xerxes doesn't give up easily, and secretly interacts with Claude even after the millennial visit in order to convince Claude to become an apostle. Unfortunately, it turns out Claude is just as stubborn.

...And thats all I have! This is all just my personal headcanon, so I'd really love to hear what you all think the timeline looks like!!

[thebeastofblackmoor]

honest CW Drew Crew endings

Nancy: After multiple seasons spent wondering if her Hudson lineage made her a bad person, her fears are confirmed! Her soul was that of one of the original Hudsons who was the ultimate oppressor and sacrificed children to create monsters that would erase crimes from memory to defend perpetrators. Explicitly out of guilt, Nancy takes to the road alone to erase these beasts from the face of the world. She's in a distance relationship with Ace, though, so that's all we care about.

Ace: Despite being a genius computer hacker, Ace decides to get into medical examination. (Also alone and far away!) I guess the problem with getting a job in the field he was truly gifted at wasn't that he was having a hard time motivating himself or that he didn't have a good group to support him, but that he was not working with corpses! Despite having claimed in the past that he's never had a group of friends like the Drew Crew and showing no interest in the medical field before last season, he leaves them all to pursue medical examination. Except Nancy, who he's doing long distance with I guess.

Bess: After having been kicked out of no fewer than three households in her life and spending her entire childhood friendless and family-less, Bess's first actual home is burned down by an angry mob and her friends all leave town. She is explicitly devastated by this, but don't worry, this sudden and complete massively triggering abandonment is played for laughs! And she has a girlfriend, so rest assured she couldn't be happier.

George: After having been forced to work her entire life to support her sisters, George selects a notoriously difficult, stressful, and cutthroat career path. I guess she's passionate about it, although like Ace, she's never shown interest in being a lawyer for more than a season. We are informed that her mother just... got better offscreen and that her sisters are grown now! (After one in-universe year.) Rather than finally being able to settle down in her home and be cared for alongside her sisters, she also leaves Horseshoe Bay to hit the grindset far far away from her friends and family. But she's not alone! She has the most boring and random man in existence with whom she has 0 chemistry and we've almost never seen her interact with. Seriously, this is a good thing for her, trust us!!

Nick: Nick's ending is the only one that makes even a little sense, since he has had a long-established interest in tinkering and technology and had an established rapport with Tom Swift. However, the career that he got with Swift Industries is only brought up in the very last scene, presumably because the writers had to pull something out of their asses to justify him leaving Horseshoe Bay, too. He also has an eleventh-hour significant other to run off with.

Seriously, I get that the ending of everyone going their separate ways is supposed to feel "realistic" and like everyone is prioritizing their own happiness, but I am baffled by the fact that anyone in the writer's room thought these were good endings. Everyone's paths came out of nowhere and were way too sudden to feel realistic. The writers love to gripe that they weren't given the time to do the ending they really wanted to pull off, but if that's the case, then they should have adapted the ending accordingly! If they didn't have time to set up all these individual career paths, they should have worked with what they had set up. If they didn't have time to get us to love new romantic interests, just scrap that altogether; not everyone needs to be neatly paired off with someone. If they weren't able to show all the magical Horseshoe Bay adventures they wanted to, they should have left the group intact so that the audience could imagine more and the group would still feel whole rather than randomly and swiftly disbanded, especially since they only did one year of in-universe time, and that leads me to believe the Drew Crew will not keep in close contact. It's not like they're long-term friends.

The focus on everyone having a relationship and a career that trumps their friendship and established happiness in Horseshoe Bay just feels icky to me. Like the writers thought that having a high-powered career and an SO--no matter how irrelevant both are to the established character--is the only way to have happy ending and are the only things that matter.

[ilikereadingactually]

Gliff

Gliff by Ali Smith

this book really fits the mood of my 2025 so far: creepingly dystopian, but maintaining some hope, some avenues of joy and resistance. also, there's a horse, and i was once a Horse Girl, so that had deep appeal.

i loved Gliff top to bottom, but i want to call out the pacing first of all because it worked especially well for me. the way the story and the world unfolds, through the perception of a sheltered kid—and periodically, their future self—really captured the sensation i have right now, of continually learning new and increasingly worse information about how my country and others are actually being run, and where they're going. the innocence of Bri and their sister Rose, and how untouched they are by the literal and figurative brainwashing of technology, creates an opportunity to slowly explore more and more dystopian ideas and experiences that are already happening to other people around them. it's like watching a mystery unfold, and then getting smacked by understanding when Bri's future self interjects; i went on a roller coaster of fear for Bri and Rose, delight at their small and spirited acts of defiance, and the dread/hope mix that comes from knowing where a character ends up.

all of the side characters are exciting as well, real and specific in their personhoods, including the titular horse Gliff. that realism, all the weird idiosyncrasies of actual people, contrasts so effectively with the mundane horror of the world around them and with the very large messages the story is engaging with about knowledge, and community, and liberation, and kindness. about how easy it is to become a part of a terrible machine, and also that there's still hope to break out of it and create disruption on your way. that last part is a hard concept sometimes—that even a person who has been molded to do awful things, for whom cruelty has become normal, can reach a tipping point or find a way out, and what they do next is as important to consider as what they did before. it's a theme that's coming up for me across my media consumption, and it's one i am really trying to integrate into my thinking about the real world.

that was a little bit of a ramble, but this book has me thinking big thoughts! overall i really, really enjoyed it, and i'll be thinking about it for a long time.

the deets

how i read it: an egalley from NetGalley, unsurprisingly!

try this if you: love a horse as a metaphor, still have the stomach to read great dystopian fiction even though we're living in one, or if you watched Tomes & Talismans during library class in school and are still haunted by it

some lines i really liked:

She always missed out the g in conglomerate. I said she did this because she didn't know how to say it, she said it was because she was taking some of a conlomerate's power away from it by mis-saying it.

---

How do you get your education then? he said. We choose to be educated by things bigger than something so small it can be worn on a human wrist, I said. What other way is there? he said. I gestured with both my arms to everything around us. I don't get it, he said. You know, I said. Being here. In person. He looked thoughtful, then superior. I suppose it's not everybody that can afford an educator, he said. Then he told us some of the things his educator could do other than just educate. Heart rate, bloods, steps, nutritional breakdown of what you're eating, internet everything, camera, phone. Transform voice to text. Instantaneous translation but only forty languages (next model up more expensive does one hundred and thirty). Stream anything streamable. Tell the time.

---

What do we need passports for? she said. So we can travel to other countries and prove we're us, I said. Yeah but a passport doesn't prove we're us, she said. We prove a passport's it. We just are us. We're us right now and we don't have any passports to prove we're us. Not having a passport doesn't mean we, what, disappear.

---

A tyrant runs a country. He does this via a lot of other people doing this tyrant's work for him. They do it partly because they think he'll kill them or their families of they don't, and partly because it makes them feel powerful too. One of the things you're not allowed to say in this country is that the tyrant is a tyrant. Anyway the tyrant wakes up one morning to find there's this person out there who is going round telling the populace the tyrant's a tyrant and encouraging them to say so out loud to each other. So the tyrant has the person followed, then attacked, then beaten up and stripped of all their money. Then he has the person arrested, put in prison and occasionally tortured, and starved, and kept alone in the cold. But the person doesn't seem broken by any of it.

pub date: YESTERDAY (2/4/25)! go forth and get it! i really want to own a copy!

[wehdile]

Insane Transformer Prime AU that will only make sense to me and 1 or 2 other people :woozy:

Anyway. Starscream and his stupid armor get knocked down a big hole in Season 2 and I was thinking about what if his armor malfunctioned or he got knocked around enough to be incapacitated with the armor slightly retracted AND he fell into a Selkie moulin.

(Selkie are a fictional species of semi-aquatic marsupials who inhabit Antarctica in under ice moulins with five major ‘city’ moulins. They have fairly advanced medicine and textiles but have very little metal working and no electronics because of limited supply but that doesn’t stop them from having a thriving civilization as they try to avoid humans who, according to their mythology and history, drove them out of Australia and to Antarctica centuries ago. They’re generally fearful of humans and technology especially though the human technology taboo will relax in the coming years once humans flee the continent due to global warming. Anyway).

Outside of the five central moulins, smaller moulins exist. Usually they’re occupied by family units but any selkie that can swim can take over any empty moulin and sometimes groups of unrelated selkie form in moulins. This is one of the moulins that Starscream falls into, probably accidentally killing or injuring one of the selkie in the process which puts them all off approaching this screaming hunk of metal for a few days. Eventually, one of them is brave enough to approach and realizes that this hunk of metal is emotive and Looking at them which gets everyone to come over and have a sniff. Starscream at this point is pretty beat up and can’t (thankfully) crush the selkie like grape so he's forced to just watch them make noises at each other (talking but he doesn’t know that yet) and bemoan his horrible existence and just talk himself hoarse.

The selkie in this moulin aren’t too sure what to do since this Thing is clearly alive in some way but calling a doctor would be pointless since this Thing is metal and not flesh. After another few days, they probably get enough equipment together to drag his ass away from the center of the moulin and put him under some scrubby trees and by one of their caves so they can keep a better eye on him. A blacksmith, a very rare profession, is sent for as they pry the armor relic off Starscream (who screams and bitches about it but they don’t take it, they just put it next to him since it’s clearly a possession and they have no need for it) and go about their day while they wait.

Some of them try to feed him fish and water but he won’t take it and is incredulous that these furry organics don’t know that he needs energon!!! He is fucking starving!!!!! Eventually, Starscream’s linguistic processors or whatever would catch onto the fact that the fuzzy creatures are speaking a Language and he would start figuring it out which gives him something to do other than cry about how hard his scheming eunuch life is. I think most of the conversations, once they become intelligible, would be terse and crass with Starscream insulting the selkie trying to figure out what the fuck to feed this Metal Person and him alienating himself pretty quickly from most of the group. One selkie might stick around who isn’t really put off by his ornery behavior and informs him that he can’t be crass and cruel to people helping him. It’s just pointless behavior. It doesn’t really get through to Mr. ‘I NEED PEOPLE TO ADMIRE ME I NEED PEOPLE TO WANT ME’ Starscream but he would at least calm down a little once he’s certain he isn’t going to be A) torn apart for parts or B) thrown into the ocean and left to rot. But he’s still scheming because what can you do.

The blacksmith FINALLY shows up since she thought it was all A Prank and is perplexed by the Metal Person. She takes a very long time to get a grasp on Starscream’s body which involves putting parts of him in water and ‘reading’ them with sonar which is more difficult with metal but I think his plating is actually pretty thin compared to like, Megatron or Optimus Prime. So they spend a long time just mapping out his body and finally able to communicate, Starscream can advise the selkie on what to pull or push or remove since selkie have fairly dexterous paws and Starscream is constantly amazed that these yucky organics don’t seemingly want anything from him. He isn’t being held at ransom or against his will, they’re just genuinely helping him which he would view as very foolish but he learn from that one selkie that isn’t put off by his shenanigans that it took a long time for anyone to move to truly help him and that selkie are plenty cautious about who they help.

From here there’s some Cybertronian and Selkie culture exchange with Starscream gradually coming back into full form since the Selkie either have to wait until his body does the healing or steal from human bases (which they’re pretty good at already even if it’s taboo to discuss it in public). It isn’t anything romantic or Starscream pledging his loyalty to Selkiekind but a sort of begrudging respect for these organics who helped him out.

After also examining the relic, the blacksmith would give it back to him and Starscream would feel a little conflicted about leaving because this impromptu vacation has been a little relaxing but the autoboot scum and megatron are still out there and he can’t exactly leave the war effort so he’d head off to be a menace to the main cast but. Comes back sometimes to mainly check on how the selkie his kind of bonded with is doing and when he’s in Antarctica, he would be careful not to cleave any glaciers in twain.

that's it goobuhbuh

[unfortunate--moth]

Master Detectives: Milgram AU (part 1???)

So I made a post about this earlier but here I am putting my two interests together in a blender.

for milgram fans that don't know what rain code is, brief explanation: Rain Code is a mystery solving video game where you play as an amnesiac detective who has made a contract with a death god to solve mysteries. He's part of the World Detective Organization and many others that are part of it become Master Detectives by having these powers called Fortes that are very useful for mystery solving.

With that out of the way, I shall now begin rambling.

So obviously Es is the protagonist and Jackalope is our fucked up little death god. Es doesn't know why they're a detective and sure as hell doesn't know why the fuck they made a contract with an annoying little rabbit thing. So they also don't know their forte- if they even have one. but they meet the other master detectives and begrudgingly have to work with them even though they seriously don't want to.

Yuno | Forte: Glamour With her ability, anyone who looks at her will see their ideal partner. Romantic, platonic, or otherwise. She can only use it for a short period of time, but she uses it to draw information out of suspects. She doesn't take her job too seriously, and she rarely ever takes on jobs that could be dangerous. She excels with interrogation and information gathering, but when it comes to investigating, she isn't the best at it. Still, she's very observant.

Fuuta | Forte: Technology Manipulation He can manipulate technology. To be specific, he can take control over other devices, transfer data from one device to another, see things a person has deleted or hidden, and things of that nature. It comes with limitations, of course. There's a range limit to his ability, not being able to take control of other devices outside of it. A bit of a loose cannon as a detective. While is ability is useful, he tends to jump to conclusions and usually has to pair up with someone so he doesn't convict the wrong person. He is smart, and has solved many cases before, but he tends to work by his own rules rather than the WDO's.

Shidou | Forte: Instant Examination With his forte, Shidou is able to see the state of any living or dead body. He'll be able to see the state any body is in, what injuries there could be, if anything is in their system, and so on. He can't use it on bodies that are already decomposed. With his ability, he's most useful in murder cases. As a doctor, he's also helpful if anyone has been injured. However, his ability doesn't include healing. He can see everything, but he would have to fix things in the traditional way. So even with this ability, he's still managed to lose some people.

Amane | Forte: Divination With her ability, she can gain insight on the future of things. However, her forte is a bit fickle, and she can't control what she'll see. Sometimes it's incredibly useful, but other times it may show her completely unrelated things. Using it too much at once has negative consequences, often leading to her fainting or hallucinating. She didn't join of her own volition. Rather, she was scouted for it. She doesn't really have a interest in mysteries or solving them, but she's come to see them more as a test rather than anything else.

Thats it for now. As you can see, I only wrote down 4 characters mainly because I'm having a very hard time coming up with abilities for everyone else. It's a bit harder than I thought to come up with mystery solving abilities. but yeah anyways!! i may make another post about this if I come up with more, or I might just ramble about other ideas I may have in the future. if you have any ideas you'd like to share I'd love to hear :]

[fallloverfic]

Theory about Fyodor Dostoevsky's age

Spoilers for Bungo Stray Dogs chapter 113:

Maybe someone else has said this, and I admit my comprehension of the BSD plot and characters is a bit fuzzy. Apologies for the repetition and confusion. But well... here goes.

Sigma believes the memory of Fyodor in Bram's castle is at some point in the past, but there's actually no clear evidence it's in the distant past (relatively speaking, I'll get to it).

Things we know about Bram:

He is extremely clueless about modern tech up to seemingly the invention of radio (tech he's heard about, but not experienced). Anything past that, he has no clue. That would be the late 1800s/early 1900s. (Dracula came out in 1897, I imagine that's maybe a reference?)

He was cut into bits and stabbed with the Holy Sword Soluz Levni by Fukuchi around 8 years prior to the story present. This was maybe the second time this happened to him, but if it was the second time, he got his body back after the first time, and had it for when he fought (and lost) to Fukuchi, just like he got it back after the sword was removed the second time in the present.

So we can probably conclude: Bram had his whole body for a period of time up until around 8 years ago.

Considering what we see of Bram's territory and his mind control abilities, I would not at all be surprised if he somehow forced his people/area to be sort of... out of time, I guess? Kind of like the Amish. They're technologically and intellectually way behind, and maybe even informationally cut off (by choice, maybe, at least on Bram's part) - they might have no clue about politics outside their realm, and potentially kill or convert anyone who gets close. Up until Fyodor sneaks in, likely in disguise, to investigate a powerful ability user, possibly to enact that plan with Fukuchi.

This is not the first time Fyodor has been caught and held hostage by an enemy he got away from, in canon. He's smart, I don't think it would be hard to get fake old clothes, fake an identity, and pretend to be of the same time period mind as Bram and his people.

Sort of unrelated: I thought it was odd that we were seeing this side-by-side with Fukuchi's explanation of his plans with Fyodor. Yes, I wanna know what happens with Sigma, too, and what he saw in Fyodor's mind, but it's kind of random for a juxtaposition. Unless you assume... either Fyodor knew about Bram ahead of time, or suspected and we see him exploring, and/or was possibly already coming up with this plan for/with Fukuchi, and this was him getting more information/acting on the plan or something in preparation for Fukuchi. The latter of which means Fukuchi would have had to be alive while he was there.

If the event Sigma sees took place while Fyodor was plotting with Fukuchi, then it took place within the last 45 years, minimum (Fukuchi is 45, so a lot more recently than 45 years cause I don't think they were concocting this plan when Fukuchi was an infant).

Maybe Fyodor discovered Bram and his abilities way before he met Fukuchi, and just had the card to play when Fukuchi needed ideas. There's no reason, really, to assume the events (1 - Fyodor sneaking in to Bram's place, and 2 - Fyodor telling Fukuchi the plan) had to be chronologically near to each other, either. Could have been years - many years - apart. But I think the juxtaposition is quite fascinating. Anyway, it's not precisely decisive for the timeframe, just more subtly indicative of "maybe this was very recent, not ages ago and indicative that Fyodor Dostoevsky was around for the dinosaur times".

The central point I'm getting at, though, is: there's no reason to assume Fyodor did his sneaking into Bram's place much more than maybe a decade or so prior to the present. Perhaps around or right before he concocted this plan for Fukuchi. It's not the first time Fyodor's been drawn in by interesting ability users in canon. Immortal/long-lived Fyodor is obviously still possible, headcanon away. But it's not necessarily true. Like, having a lot of memories to browse due to living for a very long time could be why Sigma is still asleep. There's lots of reasons long-lived Fyodor could be true. But just saying.

[thoughts-with-hailey]

My Life in Prythian - Chapter Seventeen

Dresses

Summary: Dress shopping with Feyfey

I stared at the chocolate croissant on my dainty china plate, the steaming cup of peppermint tea next to it and the familiar sounds of Madame Murser’s tea room a low buzz in my ears. After the catastrophe of the night before I had little appetite, even for the magic that was a chocolate croissant. 

Waking up in Azriel’s arms, his front pressed to my back with his leg thrown over my hip and his arms wrapped do possessively tight around me I could barely move, had been a strange way to start the day. We had both been incredibly silent as we had both realized it was well past training time and no one had come to get us. Neither one of us seemed able to break the tentative truce that had somehow come from the crying jag and though there were a lot fo words left unspoken that needed to be discussed, it seemed we were both on the same page that things could wait. 

Feyre had shown up not long after we had disentangled ourselves from each others arms and yet refused to leave the bed, both staring up at the ceiling until her knock had interrupted us. She waltzed in all bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to start the day with our dress shopping and Azriel had reluctantly left us, but not before placing the softest kiss on my cheek and telling me we would talk later. 

Over an hour later I could still feel that kiss on my skin, along with the ache in my neck that reminded me he had bitten me too. Thankfully Feyre had stayed mostly quiet, seeming to sense my mood, and had suggested tea prior to our dress shopping. Though my appetite was non-existent I still said yes, needing some time before I could really put my heart into finding a dress for the ball. 

“Do you want to talk about it, Hails?” Feyre asked gently from across the table. I glanced up to see her compassionate silver blue gaze on me, her face honest and open and just waiting for me to confide in her. “Is this about the job offer, or about Azriel?”

“Both,” I sighed. 

She nodded knowingly. “I thought it might be overwhelming for you, and if I could have waited longer to inform you I would have. Dresses take time, however, and I didn’t want you to feel out of place at the ball in something that didn’t fit or rushed to find something that fit so you picked something you hated, otherwise I would’ve waited to ask you. Just know that Rhys and I would be honored if you took the position, and if you didn’t there would be no hard feelings at all. You would still be welcome to stay in the House of Wind, do your training with the Valkyrie, whatever you want.”

“I don’t understand why you are all being so nice to me.”

She frowned at that. “Why wouldn’t we be? You’ve been nothing but kind to us since you got here, showing us this wondrous technology you have, getting the house of make more of them, playing with Nyx, hanging out with me and Nesta, making Azriel actually have emotions. Ever since you got here you’ve made out lives better. Of course we are going to be nice to you.”

My lips twitched at the Azriel comment. “He really isn’t good about showing emotions, is he?”

“Not unless it comes to you,” she smirked from behind her tea cup. “When are you going to tell me about what’s going on there? You’ve been very close lipped.”

That was true. I was a relatively open book for Feyre as I had described my life in the human world all the way from my childhood with my mother to my most recent dating adventures before I’d ended up in Prythian (spoilers, there wasn’t much to tell in recent years), but when it came to Azriel I had always steered the subject away from there. My silence on the subject was partly because what was going on was fake and also because I truly had no idea what was going on. 

“It’s…confusing,” I offered. “I think that both of us enjoy each others company while also driving each other insane, so we aren’t entirely sure where we stand most days.”

“I understand that completely,” Feyre smiled wistfully, her eyes filling with memories as her voice turned soft. “Things with Rhys and I were so strained at first, then confusing. It took a while for us to figure it out, too.”

“Right, but Rhys is your mate,” I sighed. 

“Right,” she blinked, her eyes cast down towards her tea then. “Well. Things are different with your situation of course, either way I’m rooting for the two of you. You seem to make him feel something and that’s more than I can say anyone else has done. As far as if he’s good enough for you, I’m not sure yet. I want Azriel to be happy of course, but you come first.”

“You just met me,” I laughed, some of the tension I was feeling easing a bit with her assurances. 

“Girls stick together,” was all she said. 

With that I looked down at my croissant, finally finding the motivation to eat it. 

At least Feyre was on my side. 

Dress shopping is not for me. 

Once upon a time I was one of those girls who hated to wear dresses because I wanted to play with the boys, get muddy and run around wild. I’m still that girl, of course. No one is going to stop me from playing in the mud or splashing in puddles when I have a mind to. Somewhere along the way I developed a love for dresses and silk nightgowns and nicer things. I liked putting on a flowy dress in the summer and skirts with tights in the fall, I liked feeling cute and feminine and beautiful. What I did not like was the actual act of finding a dress because it meant that some lady was poking and prodding every inch of me, tugging my hair this way and that as she tried to ‘figure out my lines’, whatever the fuck that means. 

Standing on one of those circle things in the middle of the seamstresses shop with little more than my panties on as the female bustled to and frow carrying an array of lace and tule while Feyre grinned from the sidelines was not my idea of a fun time. 

“Not this color, it will look horrible with her hair,” the lady murmured, tossing aside a gown. “Oh, she’s a difficult one. Hair the color of fire but skin tone and undertones that put her as a summer? I suppose jewel tones will work well enough to contrast with her hair and not wash her out. The fit, however, is the issue. Curvy enough to fill out a dress, but her waist is too boxy. Legs for days and yet barely any torso to work with.”

I pressed my lips together as she continued her assessment of me out loud, trying my best not to sass her. It had already been going on for what felt like hours and we were nowhere closer to finding a dress, apparently. 

“How long is this going to take?” I asked Feyre quietly. 

“Nesta says she’s usually here for hours,” Feyre shrugged. 

I closed my eyes against the agony tearing through me at the idea of being there longer than five more minutes. “I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to last. Can’t I pick the color at the very least? I’ve been dressing myself for long enough to know which colors I look good in.”

The seamstress, Leotta, swiveled on her heel mid stride to eye me. “You arrived to my shop in all black. You get no say in this.”

“I look good in black!” I protested, thinking about my closet back home that was almost entirely monochromatic. 

“Good, not great. I will find a color that will properly suit you and you will wear it; end of discussion.”

I let her walk a few steps away before I mumbled, “Emerald is obviously the answer here with my hair.”

I saw her pointed ears twitch but she said nothing, continuing on her way to look through yet another rack of dresses. The next four she pulled out for me to try on were all emerald, though. 

When I was in yet another deep sapphire gown, one that I think looked great with both my hair and skin, the door to the shop opened. A familiar voice greeted the person at the front before I spotted Elain’s face in the mirror, her smile wide and her eyes knowing. 

“I heard that you two were here,” she greeted, taking a seat beside Feyre and leaning her head on her sisters’ shoulder. “Something was urging me to stop by so I could see how my own dress was coming along, and once I knew you were here I couldn’t help myself.”

Elain and I had not spoken since that day in the library where she basically threatened me, so seeing here there when I was already miserable had me fighting back a scowl. “Hello Elain,” I greeted as nicely as I could. 

“Hailey,” she nodded, her eyes scanning down my nearly naked body in a way that had me squirming with uncomfort. “I take it that Leotta has yet to find the dress?”

“We’ve been here for ages,” Feyre informed, sipping her wine. “It’s been pretty entertaining. I’m not sure who is going to snap first, Leotta or Hailey.”

Elain only smiled indulgently and shoved to her feet to go see the seamstress, who apparently loved Elain. The two of them bowed their heads together like old friends. After a few moments of discussion Leotta beamed at her conspirator, then rushed off towards the back of the rows and rows of dresses with excitement in her steps. 

“What did you do?” I asked Elain.

She looked over with an empty gaze and shrugged. “I told her what dress I saw you in, and she went to go find it.”

Feyre let out a laugh as her sister sat down next to her once more. Leotta rushed back in not a second later with a garment bag draped over her arms and a smile on her previously frustrated face. “Here we are, here we are! She’s right this is going to look stunning on you. Let me help you into it.”

I stood still as she dressed me, already having learned that protesting to the act would result in her tsking, and once everything was laced together she turned me to the mirror with a flourish. 

“It’s a bit out of fashion in the Night Court,” she murmured, tugging at the hem to drape it perfectly around my legs. “In the Autumn Court, however, they adhere to more traditional fashion and I think this will be one of the most stunning gowns there.”

I couldn’t speak. 

Starring back at me in the full length mirror was someone fit to be attending a renaissance fair. The dress itself was made of such rich, deep golden yellow velvet that drew out of the golden tones in my red hair and amplified the ruby ones. It complimented the slight color that tinged my skin, making my complexion look rosy and healthy. Long, billowing sleeves flared out from my elbows and a tight bodice gave my normally straight dimensionless waist a nice cinch. With a full skirt and ribbons adorning the neckline and hems I looked fit to sit on a throne. 

“Fuck.”

“I told you that was the one,” Elain said smugly from behind me.

“It doesn’t even need to be altered,” Leotta clapped her hands together with glee. “It’s a perfect fit!”

“It will be as long as she doesn’t continue eating so many croissants,” Elain murmured. 

Feyre, seeming to interpret that I was already at the end of my rope when it came to tolerance, quickly stood. “You look wonderful, Hailey! That color really does look perfect on you. Since we have a dress how about we head back to the house now? I’m missing my baby.”

Of course the mention of Nyx calmed me, and Elain seemed to understand she needed to shut her stupid mouth, so Leotta helped me out of the dress and packaged it up for me in a hurry before sending us on our way. 

[tobiasdrake]

Speedballs are online. Let's go set the sky on fire.

After a minor pit stop because it's STORY TIME.

Oh wow, I hated that even more than being yeeted. Give me a moment, I need to find the most valuable-looking thing I could possibly throw up on.

Nuh nuh nuh don't talk like that's a secondary objective. I promised you a murder with extreme prejudice.

I promise you, the next time Aephorul glances at this place he'll be like, "What the hell is dangling from Sky Base?" and it will the Catalyst with a power cord wrapped around whatever passes for their neck.

Because that's what friends do for each other.

But first, it's Story Time. Teaks has a new fable to tell us about Estrid!

Wait, mind magic or wind magic? I thought the Triumvirate said wind magic but I might have misheard them. I do that sometimes. It's hard to pay attention when other people are talking.

I don't... think I saw them using any mind magic, though. Unless that weird bird squawk thing the Illuminator was doing was mind magic. Then again, we might still have the Fuck Out Of My Brain Elixirs in our system. Resh'an never said if the effects wear off.

Alright, so I think B'st is a Songster, then. Resh'an mentioned them using Songster magic, but I hadn't made the connection that Songsters are a race. Which is functionally different from an Ovate.

Confirmed that the ancient peoples of this timeline are a different group from the ancient peoples of our timeline, though the similarities are nonetheless evident: Giant statue, transit ball.

*gasp* B'st's bestie! I'm already not liking where this is going.

Yeah, I had my understanding of this totally backwards. I thought they built Estrid long ago, and then Aephorul just repurposed the statue as a fake god for the birdfolk to worship. Because B'st implied that the Songsters' era was long before Aephorul and Resh'an were ever a thing.

But no. Aephorul violently commissioned Estrid's creation as part of the arrangement to purchase the Great Eagle for Resh'an.

So I guess Resh'an and Aephorul were already immortal alchemists palling around, not yet in conflict, when the Songster civilization was a thing. That does make some sense, since they'd need to still be around for Aephorul to use them for soul experiments and stuff.

So. I don't know what B'st was on about, then, with all that "What, did you think YOU were the oldest one here LOL" stuff. I need to just stop trying to make sense of things without you, Teaks.

Glad to see the gift of prophecy was alive and well in this timeline too. Guessing he didn't like what he saw, though. I feel that. I'm pretty sure prophecies only give you information that you'll understand once it's too late to do anything with it.

Except Garl. Garl always got the best prophecies.

Did he look far enough to see us, though? It's very important to me that he knew we would one day arrive in his world.

He was B'st's bestie, and he died trapped in that one stasis tank in Aephorul's workshop. I need to know that he had this one light to hang onto, that he knew how strong and brilliant and beautiful I am.

YES JACKPOT HE KNEW

Okay, I feel better about his terrible, tragic fate. I think B'st might be giving me stink-eye, though.

Okay, so maybe prophecies aren't all bad. When B'st said the battery could be used to restart the speedball network, I took it to be the last surviving bit of the old speedball power network or whatever.

But no, T'kor built the battery into Estrid as a secret long-term machination to be used only once, for this exact purpose. That makes sense.

HOLD UP WHAT

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA WHAT

I thought that was, like... Some kind of advanced precursor technology that Estrid was holding. BUT IT WAS JUST A HUGE ROCK

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

WHY WOULDN'T HE, IT'S JUST A HUGE ROCK

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

T'KOR WAS A MAD FUCKING GENIUS HAHAHAHAHA WOW

And he knew how brightly I shine and did all this for me. <3 I'm really sad he's dead now. I would have loved to meet him.

That's so sad. I'm genuinely touched by how much ingenuity and planning he put into all of this. I... I think I actually have a little nugget of grief for him after hearing all of that. I hope he felt good about what he'd done in his final moments.

...I hope....

*shouting over edge* THANKS BESTIE! YOU'RE REALLY SMART AND CREATIVE AND PROBABLY HANDSOME, AND I HOPE YOU KNOW THAT WE'RE ALL BETTER OFF 'CAUSE YOU WERE THERE! I'M GONNA DO SO MUCH VIOLENCE TO THE PEOPLE WHO DID THIS TO YOU!!! *kiss blow*

There. If he's seeing the future right now then he probably saw that. At least, I hope he saw that instead of me vomiting on the speedball winch.

Have a good life with the time you have, whenever you are, T'kor.

[the-zapped-part-timer]

Penn Zerothon Day 11

It's a Colorful Life🌈

My Ramblings: So it's not a big deal that Penn is chatting on the MUHU in front of passersby? Hm, ok. I guess we haven't been told that this is a no-no, I just that it was. I mean, such technology would be crazy to see. Anyways, BROCK AND VONNIE! KISS CAM! Hey Old Man Middleburg, what are you- oh, you wanna watch them make out? Ok...

Poor Penn, he just wanted to make the world a litter better and ends up almost killing Phyllis, who would've known it would be flowers, her weakness (and allergy). Wish someone informed Penn that, but did he really never question the "in case of flowers" button (which is just bombs)? Maybe he could've forgotten? Sashi and Boone know what's up. Three months to recover from that? Damn, Phyllis, you poor thing. I'm surprised she didn't lash out.

So colorism? Right? Is that what's happening in the Yellow Submarine world? Also getting flashbacks to the PSI King's Sensorium, which was also inspired by Yellow Submarine. Both wreck my eyes but I'd rather attend the "Feast of the Senses" than be here. But literally that's what's happening here, colorism or shadism. Throw some "The Sneetches" in there too.

I'm surprised there's no really wacky critters in this world. Just foxes, like Belvedere. Rabbits too, but we don't see them.

Rippen stating his distaste for rhymes is reasonable but, I'm sorry my guy, that's their way of life. He tried to voice them and I love his animation for when he did, his little hand movements.

COLORFUL WILHELM!

Veet much like the touch of the Hue's slowly losing their colors each time a rock is taken. Especially when Penn blushes and you see the color fade from his cheeks, very good.

This really is one of Rippen's better days, huh? Heroes are failing miserably, Larry's off with his fox, and he's been able to keep out of the bickering and obstacles of the two groups. I would have died of laughter or sheer second-hand embarrassment for the Trio as the Hues footballed the last rock into my wacky rocky knocker thing. Or I would go on a hot date with a volcano, good pun. Like he said, he can adapt to well worlds, especially wackier ones. He does have more experience, which helps too.

Rippen is so right to ditch the Drabs, he's tired of your color war. Even Sashi agrees with the idea of ditching, nothing states that they needed help from Hues, just save the rocks. But Penn has a lesson to make here! Penn solves colorism! While Boone still thinks the Hues are better.

How long has Rippen had those full-time villain business cards for? Must be sad just to see those wasting away in your apartment. Also, what does being a full-time villain entail? I don't know if they ever properly explained that. I keep thinking if he wins he gets to rule the world he won in, which maybe also that? But it is more than that, just don't know what.

That is the most Maurice LaMarche that Maurice LaMarche can get in his out of nowhere narration. Like I know he voices a lot of characters in the show, but it hits me everytime when he speaks here and his role in the next episode. Why are the rock eggs now just hatching? Do they do that everytime the need to spread color or something?

Now the ending, at first I thought Rippen was smiling because Larry is crying, we learn later on that he finds crying funny. But no! He's very caring and soft towards Larry! Yes, he did seem uncomfortable with the hug, he still assured him that everything will be alright. Such a randomly wholesome moment!

~The Characters~

Penn Zero: He wanted to make the world a little better, but that might be hard back at home, but hey! He did it here, and everyone is better for it.

Boone Wiseman: Boone, you colorist!

Sashi Kobayashi: Hated every second of being there but behaved very well. I would've committed arson.

Rippen: Almost a win, so close! But the power of newly found friendship beat him. Ok, but seriously, I can't stop thinking about the ending! It would have been so easy for him to blow up at Larry, especially after that failure, but he doesn't! He can be such a soft fellow!

Larry: He's gone for most of the mission to go and ride Belvedere, the bestest boy around! Until he bites Larry. Hopefully he learned his lesson that foxes aren't easy to care for. Foxes arr very different from elephants after all!

Dimension(s): It's bright, colorful and wacky... I would hate it there so much. My eyes would burn and I would murder a hue. Me and Sashi will go on a spree if we're here any longer!

Forms: No thanks to any of these. Rippen is the only one I sort of like, he a giant compared to everyone else and a has funny name, Grayson Drabswatch. Actually, Boone's is good to. He pulls of beards well, just like his dad.

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

Larry Manor🐘

My Ramblings: RACE TIME! Me and Penn are part of the scooter squad, who needs bikes? Also why did Sashi need a back-up wrench to sabotage Penn's back-up scoot? I get the joke, it's funny, but still. Either way she could have just used that grappling hook of hers and swing through the town, Spider-Man style.

But Penn has got a trick up his sleeve, big brain time! Why not just stealthy sneak into Rippen's car and hitch a ride? I bet he's done this numerous times before, he's way to confident in that. Larry does have a ride, but it's just so much easier to hitch a ride with Rippen on the way to their other jobs. Don't forget what the Pilot took from us! Poor Rippen must feel insane randomly hearing Penn's voice, don't do that to the poor old man!

Oh, Sashi tries to swing spider style but the mere idea of a flying shark catches her attention and she hits a pole. Same. My dad used to just say: "Look a distraction!" That always git me as a kid.

Boone's right, it's not about winning, it's about stealing form your opponent's backpack! I would do that. Pickled chubfish? I get why he would eat that, fish makes you smarter according to him... but would that even taste good? Doesn't matter, Phyllis ate the cupcake with the wrapper on, go queen.

MY GOD RIPPEN! The Trio wasn't the only ones racing but wow. They're in the same car and Rippen just hits another (empty) car from the sheer adrenaline like he's racing someone far behind him, slides over his hood, and he freaking tries to slam the Larry's door while he's opening it! Poor Larry has to put up with his ass.

I adore the concept for the episode. No power, no mission! So what will they do for the day? Go to Larry's place of course! Well, everyone doesn't want to at first, I mean, it's kind of weird to be invited by your principal to his place. But we get the sad realization that no one has come to his place, not even for any if his probably awesome parties. Rippen, Boone and Sashi don't give a fuck. I'm surprised that Boone doesn't wanna go. But Penn has a heart and why not? What are your going to do? Literally anything else? Nah.

Now we get to learn that Larry is loaded as hell by winning 32 lotteries. How? By buying the winning tickets, silly. It's that simple.

LITTLE PIECE OF LARRY GIFT SHOP, WE GOT:

Larry T-Shirts

Larry Snowglobes

Larry Mugs

Larry Decorative Plates

Larry Ballons

Larry Lights

Larry Boxing Jester Toy

Larry Toys or Dummys

Copys of A Principal to Live By (his book)

And possibly Larry Keychains? I don't know what those are

And later on we also see a:

Larry Oversized Novelty Hand

Larry Oversized Hat

Larry Back Scratcher (or I guess in this case a butt scratcher)

There's a sale, everything was $10 but now is $6... that's kind of sad.

TONY! THE CUTEST OF BOYS! MY TEACUP ELEPHANT BABY! Also this implies that either Rippen hasn't been here before or that Tony is new addition to Larry's family. Which is just those two.

"I'd rather drown in a pool of balsamic vinegar." That's such a good line, Rippen, and a great eyebrow cock.

Oh, to have a butler who also has a butler. Actually I just want a house. Also, hello Maurice LaMarche- I mean, Fredricks and hello Maria Bamford- I mean, Madame President- I mean Matthews.

Does Larry take the rollercoaster every morning? No wonder he's so wide awake. Also it's called the 32 Express... because he won 32 times.

Phil and Phyllis? Give me that chessboard! I want it so bad! Ah yes, the three means of communication, Penn's MUHU, Sashi's Specs, and Boone's phone... which he left at home. That's funny. Also hey look! He's got a Lazlo Matavaqua poster in his room! So, zapping is on, but no heroes or villains, what to do? Phil and Phyllis will just do it themselves.

The dining room is big and empty, just like the table that has 15 chairs but only 5 are filled. So sad.

We get to hear a bona fide Rippen joke! He got a good one so don't die laughing!

Rippen: What do you call a chef with bananas in his ears? Anything you want. He can't hear you!

Crickets. The joke isn't that funny but his delivery and roaring laughter from his own joke is priceless. Still, Larry didn't even laugh. I liked you joke, buddy. I wish I had that self-confidence when I told a joke.

Anyways, MASTER TONY IS MISSING! Rippen reaction, yes, the elephant. It's so unnecessary to have them say that, but it's funny!

"Why would I want $25 worth of Larry merch?" Why not, Rippen?

Thes dorks, I love them:

Penn: Is little Rippy afraid of a little competishi?

Rippen: Au contraire. Rippy welcomes competishi.

Wow Penn, don't even jump on the idea of helping Larry find Tony? Only when it's a competition and bragging rights? I like Boone and Sashi don't even try, they don't want to be here. Until they see the gaming room.

Why does he have a snake and bat room? So does Old Man Middleburg basically live here? Why is he here? Hmm, quite the mystery.

Remember when Rippen kind of comforted Larry in the last episode? Yeah, he's run dry of softness and niceties by this point.

How did Fredericks figure out that Matthews was behind it? I don't know, but all fingers point to her. A cliche as the butler did it. Rippen looks like such a creeper in those bushes.

Rippen found Tony, he won! That gift certificate that he doesn't want is as good as his! Why would Matthews do such a thing? Again, how did Fredericks know where Tony is? And why does he have Tony's adorable little beanie!? Ah ha! The other butler did it! But why? Because of the pain of being constantly be outdone by someone.

Deus Ex Pickled Chubfish. Was Penn just keeping that in his pocket the whole time? Fredericks probably thought he smelled like pickled death.

Sashi! Why are you tieing up Matthews!? Tony is safe- where did he go!?  Not the snake room that also has bats! Rippen killed a snake with the sheer force of his ass.

It's really depressing to see Rippen almost on the brink of tears about almost losing a competition to a child that doesn't really get him anything, just bragging rights (and a $25 he doesn't want). He's so desperate to have any one-up over Penn and to be proud of finally winning anything. How is he still doing his job? I know what that's like, to do a thankless job. I just recently quit. He wasn't crying, he sounded like he was going to, probably was gonna save that for home.

But oh no! Penn somehow alerted to bats he threw a rock at and attacked him, Tony is in Rippen's grasp now! Rippen is such a big kid sometimes.

So how did Phil and Phyllis' mission go? Phyllis rocketed Phill to a sun, no biggie.

Imagine if you will, seeing your nemesis/art teacher gleefully parading around his novelty items, boasting his win (that you gave him) like a spoiled kid and then he scratches his ass with a back scratcher right in front of you. How would you feel?

It enjoyed how they tied the butlers, and Penn and Rippen all together. Symmetry, my dear. Symmetry. I wanna see more of these two butlers relationship and to see Matthews carry Fredericks more, while singing to him.

Looks like Larry gonna have to change the name of the 32 Express to 33 Express! I like to think that after this stressful time of losing your teacup elephant temporarily, he decides to buy a ticket to blow off steam.

~The Characters~

Penn Zero: Just been listening his heart over and over recently, huh. That's sweet to see. He can be easily jerkass (he can be sometimes), but he's just a cool and kind kid, even to his enemies.

Boone Wiseman: Gamer time.

Sashi Kobayashi: Gamer time.

Rippen: The most pathetic and desperate man know to the multiverse.

Larry: He's got a giant manor, a zoo, a gift shop with his face on everything, a rollcoaster, two butlers, a gaming room, a snake and bat room, a greenhouse and the cutest elephant in the world! What doesn't he have!? More friends...