#it would be so statistically improbable to go 2 for 2 on ‘being in one of these places a lot’ and ‘catching an illness that wrecks your

[aldieb]

ok remember how i’m over it and can participate in life without randomly losing my shit at regular situations. well i do have to spend a bunch of time in an assisted living facility this weekend. which will be extremely fine

[theglamorousferal]

Persephone's Binding Part 4

AO3 Prompt Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Jazz guided Jason through the halls to the library, it seemed to be in a different wing of the castle from where the living spaces were. When they reached a split between a hallway and a set of stairs she hesitated, placing a hand on one one of the banisters and turning to face him. She looked at him considering before nodding to herself and picking up her skirts to go up the stairs.

"We'll take a shortcut over the wall, because you're death-touched you can safely breathe the air without it overwhelming you with intense emotions and obsessive behavior." She said absentmindedly to him as if air that could cause such things were normal.

"Uh, glad for that then?" He said following her. She opened the door at the top of the stairs and strode outside, not even glancing at the absurd sky.

It was eerie to say the least, swirling Lazarus and emerald green with purples and blacks making the sky look like an oil slick. He expected the air of the dimension that contains all the afterlives to be colder, but it was pleasantly warm with a gentle breeze blowing by. If he closed his eyes he could imagine standing on a hill watching the clouds go by. On one side of the wall they were atop was a courtyard containing plants that Ivy would drool for, it was nearly as overrun as her greenhouse.

He noticed one of the towers had what appears to be an observatory, though he wasn't sure what besides doors, floating islands and general terrifying shapes they would see through it. "What's with the observatory?"

She glanced at it and gained a fond smile on her face. "That's Danny's. He always wanted to be an astronaut but circumstances prevented that. That telescope can connect to any telescope in our home universe. Even the ones in deep space. He's going to IRU right now for aerospace navigation. There's a dimension he was hoping to spend a couple years in before he has to take the crown that has intergalactic space travel as the norm." She seemed to light up when she spoke of her brother, obviously proud of him.

"Wait, Danny's who you're Regent for? Not a son?" Jason wouldn't have minded if she had a kid kicking around, but to find that the kid he met earlier is the future King of Everything In-between was surprising.

"Oh, yes, Right, I'll explain everything I can once we get to the library, it's just through here." Once inside again, she took brisk steps forward to doors directly across the hall. "Here we are, my favorite spot is just this way."

They stepped out onto a second floor balcony of a three story high library. Books spanned from floor to ceiling in a room the size of a small stadium. Shelves and tables made from a purple wood polished to a shine. Deep red velvet seats on all the chairs and couches in each of the reading spaces. Jason stood flabbergasted at the sheer volume of books present. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned to see a conspiratorial smile in teal eyes. "I had the same reaction when I first came here. Come on, my favorite spot to talk is this way."

They made their way to a corner of the library that had a pair of chairs, a tea table between them and a small fireplace, lit with a ghostly blue flame. They sat and she looked at the fire, then at him, then back at the fire and sighed heavily. She closed her eyes, gathering her thoughts before she spoke.

"Once upon a time there were three scientists in college who wanted to build a portal to the 'Ghost Zone' as they called it so they could study an research entities they referred to as 'ghosts'. Their definition being that any entity that produces, metabolizes or consumes the substance ectoplasm is a 'ghost'." She paused here, clasping her hands together and looking down at them. "There was an accident, I'm not going to go into too many details for now, but just know that one of the scientists became something more than human. The first of his kind in a millennia, a statistical improbability. Some things happened and he believed that he lost the only woman he could ever love to the man that caused him to become something other than human, to become partially one of the creatures they sought to capture and experiment on.

She glanced up and stared into the middle distance, remembering. "Twenty years pass and the two other scientists are now married with children. They've had a lab in their home since they graduated college at the top of their field in ectoscience. They have a daughter and a son, both are born ectocontaminated though they don't know for years later. They've been working on a new portal, this time bigger, large enough to fit a car through." She laughs lightly. "I remember coming down and shoving granola bars and thermoses filled with soup when they were on work binges, determined to get 'just a little bit more done Jazzy-pants, then we'll go to bed'" She gazed wistfully at the fire. "They usually did once they finished whatever food I brought to them, not wanting to have a repeat of the last time they left something with old food in it and it gained sentience and mass enough to chew a few hazmat boots."

She seemed lost for a moment before she cleared her throat. "Sorry, um, where was I?" She blinked before raising a hand up pointing at the ceiling. "Right, the portal. So they spent a good decade start to finish on it. It was going to be their crowning achievement, but when they plugged it in they saw some sparks, but nothing else happened." She folded her hands together on her lap. "They left for a weekend. Went to search for some cryptid they had been meaning to go find for years, but had put off to work on the portal. I was in charge for the weekend, a thing I was used to from whenever they were on design binges. Danny had his friends over and I was in my room studying. I had my headphones on, I don't even remember what band was playing, and I think I was working on chem homework?" She shook herself from the thought. "Anyway, there was this power surge, I remember just thinking that I was mad that it happened right during my favorite part of the song and I was singing into my pencil. When the lights went out, I had the usual expected dread in the pit of my stomach, but something felt especially frightening in this moment. I didn't have time to dwell on it, shaking it off as just being paranoid. I was more concerned with getting my music back on after that. I should have realized something had happened." She tightened her hands until the shook, pale knuckles stood out.

"I'm not telling you details, but there was another accident with a portal, this time it was Danny. He became something more than human. He became the second halfa in a millennia."

"Halfa?"

"Yes, Half human, half ghost. An anomaly, a myth, a statistical outlier. He walks the line between life and death. He will have many titles once he takes the throne, and one of those will be the Balance."

"Damn, that's a lot to put on a kid. How'd that happen?"

"I found out all of this second-hand mind you. I may have known his secret when it all happened, but he didn't know I knew yet."

"How'd he hide suddenly having powers? I don't expect he had particularly good control over them at first, I know several supers who didn't."

Jazz hung her head in shame. "I was too deep in my own head at that point. I was neck-deep in research on how to parent troubled teens because while I missed all his slips for power usage, I did not miss his decline in grades. Especially when the chemistry teacher approached me about the fact he kept 'dropping' equipment." She held up air quotes. "Turns out not being able to control tangibility can cause mass amounts of property damage, who knew?" she shrugged her shoulders.

"So basically, the original halfa guy from earlier managed to gain wealth and power using his powers in increasingly shady ways. He also grew obsessed with my mom and blamed my dad for turning him into a halfa. He wanted revenge. He invited us all to a college reunion where he found out about Danny. Things happened and they became nemeses with Vlad wanting Danny to denounce our father and become his son with my mom at his side. You're allowed to say ew, it was very ew for a long time." She laughed at his scrunched up face. "Anyway, he finds out about ancient ghostly artefacts that are supposed to give the user unimaginable power, and finds out where they are. He finds out they are locked away with the former King of the Realms, and he expects to be able to just grave rob the ruler of the Infinite. He manages to get the Ring before Pariah wakes up, and somehow manages to escape back to out home dimension. All ghosts flee the Realms through the most stable portal available; the one in my family basement. This causes alerts to go out all across the town and my parents put up defenses for people to huddle under during everything. Some stuff happened and it ended up leading to Danny taking a suit our parents had built and defeating the former King Pariah Dark and sealing him away in the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep.

"Infinite Realms Law dictates that if the leader is defeated in single combat, and the combatant continues after said encounter, then they are to be crowned High Royal and any family members gain royal titles as well. Danny is, however, too young for his classification. He is too young by human years, he must be twenty-one for that, and too young for halfa standards, he must be a halfa for a decade. He won't be of the majority for at least another five years, and then he must have it on the following solstice. Until that time, he is High Prince and must work on learning leadership and combat skills." She gazed calmly at him, resigned for her brother's fate.

"So how'd you end up Regent?" She sighed and closed her eyes, shoulders dropping.

"We had a council for a while, the Council of Ancients, new and old working alongside the Observants. It worked for a little while, but something happening in my home dimension was causing issues. You see, the ghost problem in our town after the portal opened became a pretty big issue when property damage resulted in the thousands and you can't bill the dead. Danny was doing his best to fight off as much as he could, but he wasn't trained and was very new to his powers. It didn't help that our parents were shooting at him while he was trying to save people." She grumbled and Jason's hands tightened to fists.

"What do you mean they shot at him?" He asked as evenly as he could. He could feel the tinges of old hurts coming to the surface. A Batarang to the throat.

"They never hit him, he dodged every time. They didn't know it was him. They thought it was just a ghost, and to them, all ghosts were evil. They had a lot of bias in the majority of their research, but as soon as they found out who he was they immediately changed tack. They had Danny stay at Vlad's for a weekend, which was it's own can of worms, while they disarmed the house and set everything to ignore his ecto signature." She looked thoughtful. "Apparently Vlad wasn't a complete jerk that weekend either, Danny told him what they found out and Vlad, worried for the second of his species, actually helped him through some emotions and helped him train some. I think it's what started on his redemption actually."

Jason breathed out heavily letting his rage dissipate. "You keep saying 'the second' instead of the 'the only'. There are more?" He quirked an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, yes, there's Ellie and Dante. Ellie is my younger sister, she's a clone of Danny Vlad made, and Dante is an evil alternate timeline version of Danny and Vlad that fused together and is inhabiting a clone of Danny Vlad wasn't able to pull into consciousness." She let him digest that for a moment.

Jason choked out a laugh. "Man, and I thought my sibling situation was weird."

Jazz's eyes narrowed, appraising him almost like a predator eyeing prey. "Hmm. We'll discuss your family situation later." She cleared her throat gathering her thoughts. "Anyway, so the property damage led to the government getting involved. More specifically a branch known as the Ghost Investigation Ward or GIW for short. They were founded on the first research papers my parents produced which were heavily biased against ecto-entities on a whole. They were extremely prejudiced against ghosts.

"They started out as a nuisance. Someone easily distracted by getting their suits dirty or faulty equipment. Then the Anti-Ecto Acts were ratified. Then they got bolder. They paid my parents a fake amount of money to buy the house as-is with the portal. They planned to send a nuke in to destroy the Realms believing it to be full of horrendous monsters. Thankfully the nuke was a dud model and someone definitely got fired that day in ordering. But after that they just started to get worse and worse. They were starting to go after anyone who pinged on their detectors, which were just getting more and more precise as time went on.

"Here's the thing about Amity Park, my hometown. It was founded by witches fleeing the witch trials. It sits at the crossing between ley lines, and it's always been a spot that the veil was thin. Ectoplasm would leak through natural portals that popped up from time to time. Add a stable portal to the mix? The entire town was now ectocontaminated. They were now classified as liminal. They were now death-touched enough that they pinged on the GIW's equipment. They began raiding people's homes, accusing them of harboring ghosts. Danny's entire home room got taken in for questioning one day, they had set up little interrogation rooms like a blood drive in the gymnasium." She chuckled darkly. "They got so close so many times, too many times." Her left hand clenched into a fist.

"My parents found out about Danny when the raids first started. He'd decided it was time to come clean because it was only a matter of time before they came knocking at our door. Thankfully, they came while Danny was at Vlad's and they never had the guts to storm the billionaire's house. I managed to avoid detection by wearing a Specter-Deflector and my parents were always in their hazmat suits so they didn't ping either. Things got worse, Danny had to beg the Council to make an edict to not come through the portal for the foreseeable future.

"It didn't work, various beings saw it as a challenge. They began to lose faith in their future ruler. If he couldn't protect his little town and the people in it, how was he supposed to protect them? It was a common sentiment. It was something I grew tired of hearing during one particular fight." She stared at the blue flames of the fireplace, not seeing the flickering light. "Danny was down. Mom and Dad and Vlad were fighting together to both capture the ghost before they could do more damage and stop the GIW from capturing another ghost to experiment on and dispose of. The ghost was the fourth one that week spouting the same bullshit." She spat the word out like a curse, growling before looking into the middle distance with sad eyes. Softly, she spoke, "There was an explosion." She blinked, coming back to focus. My parents were down. My youngest siblings were now fighting. I made a decision." She squared her shoulders and tightened her jaw, determination filling out her features. "I had been helping Danny study to become King, I had read up on all the important laws. I took the Specter Speeder to the council chambers. I stood before them and declared as the eldest and therefore heir and head of the Nightingale family, the Royal family, and that I was at the majority for my classification, I would be taking the title of Regent until Danny reached his majority. I took the Crown and the Ring and my own suit and went to the fight.

"I told Dante and Ellie to get Danny and go, there was nothing that could be done for our parents. I subdued and contained the ghost and then beat back the GIW until they were at the borders of Amity. Then, using power I had just gained, I pulled the entire town into the Infinite Realms." She held out her hands, gesturing to the general vicinity.

He sat with that for a moment. "Wait, wait wait, you're just gonna skim over the fact your parents died?"

Jazz's eyes hardened. "Never." Her eyes glowed yellow for a moment and her hair seemed to float a bit when she said the word. "I just met you, and it's still a sore wound, I'd rather not get into it if that's alright with you." She held herself rigid as if expecting him to press the issue.

"Whoa, it's okay, nevermind, touchy subject, I get it. Most people I know have their parents as a touchy subject. Especially dead ones." He kept his posture open, slouching a little to show he didn't mean to pry.

She hummed thoughtfully, appraising him once more. "So, I told you my story, earlier you told me some of yours. I think that's enough sharing for one day. I don't know about you, but I am very tired. If you like, you may stay here. Just ring the bell on the mantle and Jeeves will be here to assist you. If not, I'd be glad to walk you back to the guest rooms, they are down the hall from the family rooms." She stood and waited for his response.

"Um, yeah, let's walk back together. I had a couple questions about some of the books in my room?" They walked and talked together as they made their way towards the bedrooms. They parted ways with a promise to read the same book and give each other feedback on it in a week.

"Well, this is me." He said awkwardly indicating the hall his room was in, hers was in the opposite hall.

"Yup, I'm not sure when I'll get the chance to see you tomorrow, I have a full day up until dinner, but I'll see you then?" She looked inquiringly at him.

"Yeah, definitely! See you tomorrow!" He said and turned down the hall. He jogged until he got to the door, opened it and then leaned against it falling to the floor. "Okay, so I may not have entirely screwed this up, but man, she's been through a lot already. Do I want to add my shit to it?" He thought to himself, spiraling until he was clutching his hair. He growled and stood up, then stalked towards the bed and flopped down on it, back first this time.

"I mean, I might be stuck here, so would my baggage really matter that much?" He laid there for a moment before deciding to get ready for bed. Once laying down again, he kept thinking of all the different ways he as a person could fuck this or her up if he pursued a relationship. He worried himself to sleep that night.

[peachjagiya]

sorry but the chances of that many bts members being queer is so unlikely…like yoongi is essentially confirmed queer and you’re tryna say ALSO jk and tae. literally 3/7 bts members are queer ? that’s rlly so unlikely like maybe one, maximum two, but three ? the chances of that are rlly minute. 80% of people globally identify as straight so the likelihood of almost half of bts being queer is rlly ridiculous.

There are five Woogas.

Statistically speaking 20% of them must be queer. That's one.

There are what, eight 97 liners.

20% of 8 is 1.6, round it up to 2.

13 individuals under Bighit label.

20% of 13 is 2.6, round it up to 3.

I know a family with four grown children and every single child is queer. Statistically improbable. Actually actual.

You can take any group of people and apply statistics to it but real life doesn't work neatly. I promise you we don't have to cut a gay loose when another gay comes along to join our violin quintet. "Sorry, David, we already have a gay, you're fucking our stats up."

So no, 20% of 7 does not equal three but flesh and blood has a way of telling numbers to go fuck themselves.

AND ACTUALLY whose to say Yoongi's queerness hasn't opened doors for people around him? I know I've thought a lot more about my sexuality since having more queer friends who just let me explore and find out who I am. You're born who you are but sometimes words and possibilities aren't open to you until someone else opens it up.

Aaaand they could identify as straight even if they're making out on the regular. Statistics don't leave room for nuance.

All this said, my overriding thought is a; why are you here?

And b; if I thought there was no chance of 3 of them being queer, why on earth would I be here? Like what do you want me to say? Oh good point, well this was fun but lets abandon ship?

[somechubbynerd]

That secret ending is genuinely one of my favorites ever, because it uses the medium of being a video game in order to make a strange and memorable moment out of what would otherwise kind of be a weird, off-hand thing you forget about since it happens so early in the game.

Tokiko asks you for "the nil number" in the earliest section of Chapter 2. You, playing for the first time, don't know what the fuck she's talking about, and you might have a ha ha funny moment about her being meta, since it turns into a gag if you don't have the information. She's also kind of explicitly tagged as a religious weirdo. "Moksha" and "nonuple X" and stuff.

So you're going through the game the rest of the time, maybe you've forgotten about her even asking about that number because, well, it's a murder mystery game. Murders are happening! These half-bodies are showing up across space and time! What the entire southwest fuck? You learn stuff about the player characters, you learn how the actual timeline of the game is going, and then you get to Tokiko's death.

Where a hologram recording of her reveals the nil number to you. A personalized number that every save file generates for itself, not something you can just look up.

In my case, I was more invested in continuing the plot than backtracking to replay old chapters, so I made my notes and forged ahead. We catch the killer, we solve the mystery, a disabled woman uses a minigun to mow down invisible people, the usual.

Everything's wrapped up nice and neat.

And then I remembered the number and figured I'd go see what was going on. Might be a fun Easter egg!

Oh boy.

It's an entire bonus chapter of a Weird Fucking Best Possible Timeline, all because Tokiko fucked off into a different reality.

The disabled girl is no longer disabled! People are alive that were chopped in half! Ryuki solved this case on the day Tokiko disappeared, so there was no need for the six year follow-up.

All because you, the player, Tokiko's fabled "Frayer", gave her information that she knew would be statistically improbable to guess, and impossible to know without going to the future and back with knowledge from a different person.

That's fucking amazing.

[water1oo]

.

growing up, i always had to sit in a corner of the room where i could see the entrance/exit, or at the very least, in a seat that offered the best visibility. if i didn't, i would constantly glance over my shoulder. because see, i had massive anxiety about mass shootings. you don't even want to know how stressed i'd get when the table offered would be right by the entrance, so i had to choose between viewing the room or the door.

at the time, i told myself it was perfectly reasonable to want a good vantage point, that it was smart of me. every public space i was in, i genuinely always thought there was a chance a mass shooting could start, even though i knew statistically speaking it was extremely improbable. but i always wanted to be prepared just in case this was the one time it would happen.

i remember even my friends knew to just give me the corner seats when we'd go to restaurants. one time i didn't want to be rude and let my friend sit in my preferred seat because she got there first. and then before the waiter had even come by, she apologized and offered to switch. i told her it was okay and to not sweat it, but she insisted and practically ushered me out of my seat. i remember feeling guilty, but also immensely relieved.

i knew that shit was not normal of me, even back then lol. i remember thinking about how "ocd" that was, but never for a moment considered i actually had the disorder, just that i did this thing that seemed like it. and looking back, i can absolutely see that as an ocd symptom.

earlier this month, i pieced together and realized that my fear of my parents being dead whenever they napped when i was a child—compelling me to wake them up—was actually a symptom. i knew i'd get in trouble, but i just had to wake them up, just in case. i'd feel guilty, but at least my parents were still alive. i'd rather they chew me out than be dead.

i've been trying to map how far back this goes and at first i thought it was 1 or 2 years ago. then 7 years ago. then 10 years ago. and then 14 years ago. and then 20 years ago. and now i am seeing it as far back as 24-23 years ago.

it makes me want to throw up, actually, because i've been living with this debilitating disorder since i was 4 years old, and the whole time i thought a lot of those things were just my personality. i thought it was normal, that i was just a lil weird.

it is such an insidious disorder. i only even caught it now because i took a graduate-level dsm class.

[mdmotalebhossainraju]

When it comes to lotteries, people have always been fascinated by the idea of hitting the jackpot and becoming instantly wealthy. It's a dream shared by millions across the globe, and with that dream come a myriad of myths and misconceptions. One such myth revolves around tools and systems that claim to increase your chances of winning — notably, the so-called Lottery Defeater. This article aims to debunk common myths about Lottery Defeater and provide a clearer understanding of how the lottery actually works.

What Is the Lottery Defeater?

The Lottery Defeater is often marketed as a tool or software that promises to improve your odds of winning by using sophisticated algorithms, data analysis, or "secret formulas." Proponents claim that it can predict winning numbers based on historical data, patterns, and complex calculations. But is there any truth to these claims, or are they merely part of a widespread scam aimed at capitalizing on people's hopes and desires?

Myth #1: Lottery Defeater Can Predict Winning Numbers

The Myth: The Lottery Defeater can accurately predict the next set of winning lottery numbers using algorithms and historical data analysis.

The Reality: The lottery is a game of pure chance. Every draw is independent of the previous ones, meaning that the numbers are generated randomly and have no connection to past results. Even in cases where software claims to analyze patterns, there is no scientific basis to suggest that past winning numbers can influence future draws. This is because most lotteries use random number generators (RNGs) or physical lottery machines designed to ensure that every number combination has an equal chance of being selected.

Debunking the Myth: The idea that software like the Lottery Defeater can predict future numbers is a misunderstanding of probability and statistics. No software can predict truly random events. In reality, tools like this rely on confirmation bias — the occasional "successes" are highlighted, while the countless failures are conveniently ignored.

Myth #2: Using the Lottery Defeater Guarantees a Win

The Myth: If you use the Lottery Defeater system, you are guaranteed to win the lottery eventually.

The Reality: No system can guarantee a lottery win. The odds of winning popular lotteries like Powerball or Mega Millions are astronomical, often reaching 1 in 292 million or higher. This is because of the sheer number of possible number combinations. Even if you had a tool that could analyze patterns, the randomness and the vast number of combinations make it statistically improbable to guarantee a win.

Debunking the Myth: Gambling experts and statisticians agree that using systems like Lottery Defeater does not increase your odds of winning. If there were a foolproof way to win the lottery, lotteries themselves would go bankrupt, as everyone would be using this method. The fact that lotteries continue to thrive is evidence that no such method exists.

Myth #3: The Lottery Defeater Uses Secret Algorithms Hidden from the Public

The Myth: Lottery Defeater has access to secret algorithms or insider knowledge that can crack the lottery code.

The Reality: Lottery systems are highly regulated and use secure random number generators (RNGs) or mechanical draw machines that are carefully monitored to ensure fairness. The idea that a third-party software has insider knowledge or secret algorithms that can beat the lottery system is not only improbable but also illegal. Any manipulation of lottery outcomes would result in criminal charges.

Debunking the Myth: Lottery companies use highly secure and tested methods to draw numbers. This includes external audits, surveillance, and rigorous testing of RNGs to prevent any tampering. The idea that a consumer software like Lottery Defeater has access to "secret algorithms" is a marketing ploy designed to exploit the gullibility of hopeful lottery players.

Myth #4: The More You Play with Lottery Defeater, the Better Your Chances

The Myth: By using Lottery Defeater consistently and playing more tickets, your chances of winning will increase.

The Reality: While it is true that buying more tickets increases the number of entries you have in a draw, it does not change the odds of any single ticket winning. For example, if the odds of winning are 1 in 292 million, buying two tickets changes your odds to 2 in 292 million — still incredibly slim.

Debunking the Myth: This myth exploits the misunderstanding of probability. The Lottery Defeater may suggest that by playing more frequently or buying more tickets, you are "due" for a win. In reality, each lottery draw is independent, and your previous losses do not make a win more likely in the future. This fallacy is known as the "Gambler’s Fallacy," a common misconception that leads people to believe that past events can influence future outcomes in random processes.

Myth #5: Lottery Defeater Is Endorsed by Lottery Experts

The Myth: Lottery Defeater is recommended and endorsed by industry experts or past lottery winners.

The Reality: Many testimonials and endorsements found on websites selling Lottery Defeater systems are fake or fabricated. It's a common tactic to display photos of people with checks or use stock images of smiling faces to create the illusion of credibility.

Debunking the Myth: Genuine lottery experts and mathematicians caution against using such systems. The only "expert" advice often comes from those who stand to profit from selling these tools. In contrast, actual lottery winners rarely attribute their success to software; instead, they acknowledge their wins as sheer luck.

Myth #6: Lottery Defeater Can Manipulate the Odds in Your Favor

The Myth: Lottery Defeater has a way to manipulate or influence the lottery system, tilting the odds in favor of its users.

The Reality: Lottery systems are designed to be foolproof and immune to external manipulation. Modern lotteries use encrypted RNGs and are governed by strict legal frameworks to prevent any form of interference.

Debunking the Myth: There is no software or system that can influence a properly run lottery draw. The entire purpose of a lottery is to offer equal odds to every participant, ensuring a fair and random outcome. Any attempt to manipulate the system would be illegal and subject to criminal investigation.

Conclusion: Should You Trust the Lottery Defeater?

In summary, the myths surrounding Lottery Defeater are built on misunderstandings and deliberate marketing tactics designed to exploit the hopes of lottery players. Here’s the bottom line:

The Lottery Is Random: There is no software, tool, or system that can predict or influence the outcome of a lottery draw.

No Guarantees: Anyone promising guaranteed wins or insider knowledge is likely trying to scam you.

Play Responsibly: If you enjoy playing the lottery, do so with the understanding that it is a game of chance. Never spend more than you can afford to lose, and don’t fall for systems that promise the impossible.

Ultimately, the best way to approach the lottery is with realistic expectations. It’s fine to dream of winning big, but don’t let myths and scams like Lottery Defeater cloud your judgment. Play for fun, and remember that the odds are never in your favor, no matter what a software tool might claim.

[perpetual-fool]

-

Had a thought while compulsively going over my impossible people problem.

Was three levels deep in an imaginary conversation, trying to explain how if something is insufficiently specified then even if I do figure it out, I can't know that what I've figured is the thing they were referring to. And I was already starting to imagine some kind of crooked invalid response when I noticed this feeling, which was like the gears in my brain were slipping. So the thing is, explanations should work. Like, if I see someone struggling to screw something, I should be able to say "While that screw looks small, the head is actually sized for a #2 driver not a #1", and they would say "Oh!" and immediately grab the other screwdriver. And this sort of thing happens absolutely never. I'll get some kind of non sequitur like "well, I think it's fine", which causes me immediate cognitive dissonance because it clearly not being fine was the impetus for my mentioning it.

So, I'm not dumb. And if I were, it's statistically improbable that I would be wildly wrong 100% of the time. So this isn't an accident. I'm not failing to make connections, others are succeeding in snuffing those connections out.

I'm trying to figure out how to not be sorry. And I'm wrong, apparently, for not understanding. But I've had the 'attempting to clarify' conversation with virtually everyone who's betrayed be, all of them refused to give me straight answers. All of them refused point blank to give me the information I needed to understand. And that really doesn't sound like I'm at fault.

Is realizing enough to change one's feeling? I guess I'm no longer feeling sorry at the moment. Improvement, maybe.

[semi-imaginary-place]

4.0 stormblood pvp my beloved oh how i missed you. its interesting which items ended up being marketboard valuable and which werent. some items are very hard to get on the free trial but worthless on the marketboard. i pvp for the glamour and it took me 10 minutes to find where in the menu the actions were.

hmmm 3 plot threads: doma, ala mhigo, shinryu. i have a feeling like in 2.x ffxiv will be progressing all 3 at once, it would be interesting if they used the parallel narratives of doma and alamhigo to say something but i don't trust the writers.

not even out of rhalgar's reach and the game has crashed 6 times

if the ala mhigan resistance is so fractured no wonder illberd was successful if he could unite the factions. could take a leaf out of his book and do the same proping raubahn up as a figurehead to unite ala mhigo under.

attack on rhaelgar's reach: hooboy you can see how ffxiv was actually making money at this point so the dev team had an actual budget for like voice acting and fight choreography and animation. tsk cowards should have killed someone to drive home how zenos is a threat. kemp would have been the cliche choice so that the Resistance has to scrambled leaderless and even more disorganized. it would also give Lyse a chance to step up and unite Ala Mhigo as part of her character arc about struggling with diaspora identity. Y'shtola would be the other choice as the scions sacrifice yet another member and Lyse is faced with how her path is killing her friends. a concept i like is that all the scions eventually die so by the end there's no one you started out standing with yo but the devs are too cowardly to do so. like ship of Theseus scions as a friend group scions as a concept. (like when you first meet the scions alphinaud isn't a part of them yet). 3rd dude would also be cliche but i'd feel the worst about his death, brought back just to die is a terribly trope.

zenos sounds so incredibly bored i love the voice acting. that sword sheath is ridiculous why is it so big

i thought rhaelgar's reach was considered safe because garlemald didn't know where it was, and now that it is no longer hidden is it safe to stay here? oh lol they did kill meffrid aka the worst option. put on a bus since like level 20 msq and brought back just to die. waste of a character and his death is the least impactful of the 3. i just feel bad for him. because the last time the player sees him he's so angry and distraught and the player character is this last thread of hope and then you come and here see that he's found something meaningful to do

i've liked the soundtrack so far but its softer than i imagined. like there's a lot of lone soft piano.

sunk cost fallacy, but i don't want the old man to give up either. I feel for conrad.

this actually isn't a bad plan, i think i proposed something like this way back when i played 2.0

sidequesting! bioweapon black rose was developed and tested in gry albania using captured ala mhigans. comet's tail used to be a rhalgar holy site and the garleans used it for weapon testing. ala mhigan architecture traditionally uses stone and that made quarrying big especially when it was for royal palaces but garleans built using only metal.

I will say as a pipin enjoyer stormblood has been great with the pipin screen time

i have the unfounded yet strong suspicion that the writers who created yda in 1.0 are different from the people who wrote stormblood. they wanted a new character without having to introduce a new character. thus: lyse impersonating her sister. minfilia and lyse since they're both highlanders that inherited midlander models from 1.0 and they are like the only ala mhigans with very light skin, blue eyes and blond hair. like if it was just one i'd take that as a statistical improbability, but both of the major ala mhigan scion characters??? but them not looking like highlanders much is the same as cid being short in that in 1.0 midlanders were the only hyur model they had. its not going to happen but i dream of them revamping the models in 7.0 to be more like the other highlanders.

one thing i do like that arr (and maybe 1.0 idk didn't play it) sets up and then i see again here in stormblood is a theme of multiculturalism in the eorzean alliance vs the hegemony imperialism of the garleans. like the only way to gain respect in the empire in to act and be garlean so give up your original culture and try (and fail) to be as garlean as possible vs. the resistance is like hell yeah the snake ladies are great. there content in 2.0 that shows eorzeans can be just a racist as the garleans, but its hard to tell if it was done deliberately, if so actually that'd be a pretty good take. and there are aspects of this in the sidequests like where you help reunite the qiqin brothers or how they talk about how the ones outside uldah used to be regular merchants but the anti beastmen laws took away their livelihoodthe problem as with ffxiv as a whole is that its 50 (idk the real number) some writers all doing their own thing and they dont coordinate so while one group of writers are depicting the racism beast tribes face in eorzea, another group or writers is going haha look at these moral-less subhumans.so its not so much growth so much as the natural cycle of a old mmo where the writers are cycled out and we just so happened to get the anti racism ones as the msq writers where as before they were side quest writers.

[hamelin-born]

@sparklecryptid​ @raven-6-10

You know, I’m just going to respond to these in reverse order. Because the thought amuses me, and it’s that kind of day. To start out with - I don’t think the Curse would be directly responsible for the historically low birth rate of Lucis Caelums. 

(Seriously. There’s a very famous statistic about how roughly the entire population of Europe is descended from Charlemagne - if you go back far enough, everyone’s related to everyone else. The idea that the family line of Lucis Caelum descends in unbroken descent without  any branches at all is so improbable that there’s something fishy going on.)

(Why do I say ‘no branches at all’? Because if there were branches,  there would probably be a hell of a lot more what I’ll term ‘active magic-users’ in Eos.)

The indirect aftereffects of the curse might do it, though. If you’re cursed to inevitable ruin/doom/treason, it might make it a bit hard to find a suitable partner to make All The Babies With. Add in premodern infant mortality rates, and, well... A lot of Lucis Caleums might simply haven’t have had the time, a lot of the prospective spouses might have (wisely) decided that no, they didn’t want to get involved with this ongoing burning dumpster of whatever situation the Doom had conjured up, that kind of thing.  And listen, you will not convince me that, while ruthlessly pragmatic, so many Lucis Caelums had it drummed into them since birth to not go having casual sex because of the inevitable bastards that could be a succession threat (also, threat of kinslaying/treason, anyone?) that even the ones who were not Hopeless Romantics usually held out for marriage. 

Also because it sincerely amuses me to picture the Draconian desperately trying to matchmake his Crystal Kings so the line doesn’t go extinct before the Chosen King arrives. 

I agree with you; it’s just so much more delicious for the Line of Somnus to have absolutely no clue whatsoever about the Curse. Partly because Somnus, at least at first, probably didn’t think he’d done anything wrong (this is important, I’ll come back to it shortly) and partly because he believed that Bahamut had negated it.

Because - because, to expand upon (let’s be honest, create from whole cloth) the Curse’s mechanics... This is a Death-Curse. This is a Curse with the full power of a Lucis Caelum thrown behind it, holding *nothing* back (to be fair, Ardyn himself didn’t know at the time that he was going to be returning from death shortly). More than that, it is a Curse that, instead of Eru and the Valar, is most likely calling on Etro and Eos. And - 

I think that the real reason that Somnus didn’t believe in the Curse, despite the sheer power that it held, is because that when you call on those deities, it has to be for a righteous reason. The law of Karma; if it isn’t for a righteous cause, the curse turns on you.  

And Somnus - 

Somnus believed he had done nothing wrong. 

As it stands, this is a death-curse backed by 1) the full power of a very powerful Lucis Caelum (Ardyn put everything he had into it) 2) Etro and Eos 3) The full power of the StarScourge itself. And it’s only accumulated more strength and momentum as the centuries roll by. 

I don’t think that Leviathan would have told them about the Curse. Simply because I wanna include a living Regis  in the sheer horror of the revelation thereof - and you know what? It’s even worse if he finds out about it after he’s spent years coming to terms with Noctis’s inevitable fate. It’s worse if Noctis is standing right beside him when the Curse is rediscovered, and they find out about it at the same time. No, I’m not sure how they find out about it - an old, old manuscript that’s been forgotten about for centuries? A new archeological find? Gilgamesh, who probably was there when the damn thing was cast? 

And you know what image has been haunting me for days? 

The voice of whoever is reciting the Curse just - being overlaid as the recitation continues. Overlain with a stranger’s voice, rasp and cadence entirely unfamiliar, but the emotion unmistakable as it pronounces a terrible doom. Hate and spite and grief and betrayal, a black rage that could drown the world - 

Ardyn’s voice, echoing down through the centuries. 

(Hmm, maybe I should prompt that to @sparklecryptid?)

An AU where Ardyn actually cursed Somnus' entire bloodline with some suitably horrific fate* until either a) his own bloodline is returned to the throne or b) Somnus' entire line dies out.

*I was thinking Ardyn worded his curse a la Doom of the Noldor. You gotta admit it's hard to outdo that one when it comes to curses that completely fucked over all people involved.

I saw this and went ‘how can i make this hurt’ and decided to toss Ace into it because ~fun~

-

Ardyn does not regret the curse. He doesn’t regret when a child with brown skin and silver eyes full of magic stares at him and he doesn’t regret it when that child grows into a young man. There is nothing to regret, Ace is the progeny of one of Somnus’ descendants and he will face a tragic fate like all the rest of them.

(He does not think of the joy on Ace’s face when he shares fruits with his friends. He does not think of Ace’s laughter ringing the air when he and his gremlin friends launch fruit at Ardyn. Ardyn does not think of Ace and how he doesn’t know about Ardyn’s curse.

He doesn’t think about how Ace is innocent in this war between him and his brothers line.

After what, what bastard choses their bloodline?)

Ardyn does not regret the curse, but he can’t revoke it either. It has been too long, it’s magic is too deep for Ardyn to take it back.

(Ace’s home burns and he screams and shatters and is remade into something a bit more cruel.

Ardyn tries not to hate it.)

Ardyn can’t break the curse.

He can make sure it doesn’t claim his nephew.

(He crowns Ace as his under moonlight and starfire. A gift of a ring made of rubies is given and Ardyn watches as the curse laid on the line of Somnus falls from Ace’s shoulders.

Ace is his now.

As it should be.)

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

I have a crazy Twilight conspiracy theory.

What if vampires are the Great Filter? Stay with me for this one.

We know that humans have not openly contacted alien life in Twilight and likely have not at all. The most alien thing in Twilight are the vampires themselves. But before getting into that let's assume they are native to Earth.

We also know that Aro is the reason why modern humans are able to exist in Twilight. He orchestrated the facade that keeps vampires from decimating the human population.

Well, if this is so, without Aro there would be no humans. We don't see someone with the same vision as him in Twilight. Someone like him is exceptionally rare. In order for the Volturi to form two things needed to happpen.

1. Aro needed to have the idea. If not Aro then someone needed to have that idea or another one that would do the same thing.

2. Aro or his equivalent needed to succeed.

This was very statistically improbable. Chances are this would never happen, but it did.

Without Aro humanity would not exist as it does today and would likely not exist at all. If vampirism is naturally occurring here, what is to say it did not happen to alien life.

Knowing this, it becomes possible that aliens did not have an Aro or a Volturi. Without a Volturi they would have been overrun by vampires and gone extinct.

Vampires eventually stop working without fuel, fuel being blood, which leaves the haunting possibility of dozens, hundreds, even thousands of worlds inhabited by living statues that have all gone still. It's possible that going long enough without blood would eventually kill them, which might be better or worse. I'm not sure.

That is, however, assuming that vampires are natural. What if they are not?

Suddenly, vampires become a conspiracy, a plot to run humanity into extinction and of course, if it could happen to us it could happen to others.

What if vampires are pest control? A biological deterrent to prevent challangers on the galactic stage.

Or more sinisterly what if they are the end product? Perhaps Earth was seeded with life and vampires in order to produce vampires, and defied the natural order by continuing to survive.

Or perhaps Earth only has life because of vampires. What if the first vampire Was an alien?if this is the case then vampires are descendants of the only naturally occuring life and we formed because of bacteria or similar lifeforms that they brought to us.

The possibility that vampires exist wherever there is life, eventually consuming and destroying it is a shockingly likely one in Twilight. Aro of the Volturi may have saved not only humans, but the only chance for life on the galaxy if not universe with his crazy plan.

A beautiful, beautiful, conspiracy theory for the blog.

Twilight is Mass Effect everyone.

[wish-i-wasnt-a-coward]

Don’t be a coward

a/n: So, I’m super proud of this story but the first one did not do as well as I hoped. If you could, please like and re-blog it would make me so happy. Thank you all so much :)

Part 1, Part 2

Parings: Logince, Moxiety, and Demus 

Warnings: cursing, vague sex mentions, food, a ridiculous amount of pining, kissing, minor intoxication, alcohol mention (everyone is 18) 

Word count: 2,044

✧･ﾟ:*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ: *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ:*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ

Roman ran his fingers through his tousled hair, “Why is it so difficult to ask people out? '' he wined, dropping his head into his hands. Logan smirked from across the table, “asking someone to the ball is no more difficult than any of the abundance of sentences you have said in your short life” he sassed over his text-book. Roman just groaned and flipped the pages of his herbology book absentmindedly. 

Their study session was interrupted as Patton plopped down next to the frustrated boy. “Awww Roman, what’s wrong?” he asked and pulled out his homework. “He doesn’t have a date to the yule ball and is complaining about it, unsurprisingly” Logan responded for the grumpy Gryffindor. 

“Come on kiddo, you got this! Anyone would be lucky to have you as a date” the bubbly boy said, wrapping his arm around Roman, who was still sulking. “Tell that to Logan, he’s being mean” Roman grumbled. “mm-hmm” The Ravenclaw hummed, not looking up from his book. 

Patton laughed, “come on, there’s got to be someone you like!” Roman shook his head, “Yeah, like I’ve got a chance with them” Patton frowned, “that sounded a bit self-deprecating kiddo, don’t make me get violent” he chastised hugging Roman tighter. 

Roman looked incredulously at Patton, “I’m not being self-deprecating Pat, I’m just being honest. I’m a Triwizard champion and not one person wants to be with me” Logan looked over his book, “in a romantic sense” Roman corrected. 

“While that is statistically very improbable I do understand your distress, a Triwizard champion that does not have a date would most certainly be ridiculed during the first dance” Logan said, finally putting down his book. “I’ll be leaving you now, I will see you both at the feast,” Logan said, brushing off his skirt and sauntering away. 

“Hey, pat?” Patton hummed, “do you have a date?” The Hufflepuff froze, “why do ya ask kiddo?” Roman shrugged, “I was wondering if we could go platonically, if you don’t have a date of course” Patton smiled awkwardly, “Awwww, that’s sweet, but I already have a date. I’m sorry!” 

Roman eyes widened, “You- You have a date?” Patton nodded, “they asked me not to tell anyone but I figured you should know” the Gryffindor nodded, impressed. “I can not believe you got a date before me” 

Pattan grinned, “well you could always ask out Logan” Roman glared at him, “you know I want to ask out Logan. But he’s either gonna think it’s platonic or he’s gonna turn me down, and then I’ll be too heartbroken to dance” the frustrated boy dropped his head into his hands, “I’m screwed either way”. 

Patton just laughed and smiled knowingly. 

✧･ﾟ:*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ: *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ:*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ

The weeks leading up to the ball went far too fast. Of course Roman was as petrified as you could get. He had decided, dragons had nothing on this. 

He did end up with a date, some younger girl had asked and he figured there was no reason to say no. Logan did not receive a date but said he couldn’t care less. He planned to show up to support his friends, and then go back to the library. 

Roman could hear his brother shuffling around the back of the common room, probably trying to destroy his dress robes even more. He wasn’t sure if Remus had a date but he couldn’t bring himself to ask. Remus did his own thing, he would be fine. The boy straightened his deep red dress robes the best he could, took a deep breath, and went down to meet his date. 

The date in question wore a long orange dress, similar to Romans red. The two walked to the great hall arm in arm, she wasn’t very talkative and mostly seemed to be going out with him for clout. Roman was well aware that this was as good as he was going to get. 

But it was pretty good, the hall was covered in glistening decorations, and snow fell gently on their heads. Romans date squealed in excitement, but Roman really couldn’t care less about the hall.

Logan was there.

The Ravenclaw wore a simple blue button-down shirt tucked into a long black skirt that was embroidered with silver constellations. His mid-length hair was pulled up into a bun that had been impaled by his wand. The light of the decorations seemed to bounce off of him like he was glowing.

“Oh my, he looks beautiful” Roman nodded but his date wasn’t facing Logan. After a moment of confusion, he followed her gaze. 

Patton, yes Patton, floated down the staircase. His light blue floor-length gown flowed around him like water as he walked. A sparkly headband was nestled in his curly hair and light makeup adorned his face along with a wide grin. He looked like a goddess, or at the very least a princess. Of course, Logan looked better in Roman’s eyes but Patton was a close second. 

Virgil walked up to Patton, bowing deeply and holding out his arm. Patton giggled and took it, allowing himself to be lead away. Roman’s jaw must have hit the floor. Not only did Patton look amazing but Virgil had asked him out, and he had said yes!

Roman’s date clung to his arm a little painfully as they followed the pair to the Professor leading the champions to the dance floor. 

The first dance was clumsy, and the second not much better. Roman was a decent dancer but he kept getting distracted by Logan, who kept popping up in his peripheral vision while conversing with the guests. His date was not happy with him. As soon as the dance floor was full she stalked away angrily, her orange dress flying behind her.

Roman hoped she got a better dance partner. 

Patton and Virgil still flew above the others, Janus had found himself a date as well. It looked like a Hogwarts student, but Roman couldn’t place them. They both wore yellow and green dress robes and floated almost as much as Patton and Virgil. Perhaps slightly less elegantly but floating nonetheless. A stark contrast to Roman’s dancing moments before. 

The champion slinked off of the dance floor. Roman was so wrapped up in his thoughts he almost slammed into a familiar figure carrying drinks, “oh my gosh, I’m so sorry- Oh Logan! How are you” Roman said, smiling at the boy. 

“I’m doing quite well, thank you Roman,” Logan said happily, “would you like to find a seat? I wouldn’t mind talking for a while” Roman nodded vigorously and the two made their way over to an empty table. 

“Is it safe to assume you did not know of Patton’s date?” Logan asked. Roman nodded, “I knew he had one but I didn’t know who it was” Logan bit his lip thoughtfully, “Me as well, and your brother?” 

Roman furrowed his eyebrows, “my brother?” he questioned. “Yes your brother, is that not him dancing with the Baubax champion?” Roman looked back onto the dance floor catching a glimpse of the yellow and green dancers, 

“HOLY SHIT!!! That is my brother! I didn’t know he had a date, he’s going out with Janus! Why is he so clean!!!” Roman said, freaking out. 

Logan laughed, “yes I figured it would be a surprise. I was there when Remus asked, it was quite amusing. I was surprised Janus said yes” Roman grinned, interested, “tell me about it!” he said and shimmied closer to Logan excitedly. 

The two sat and talked for quite a while. By the time the dance floor had cleared a bit, they were both drowsy and perhaps a bit tipsy. “Dance with me?” Roman offered his hand, mustering what little courage he had left. Logan nodded happily, taking Roman’s hand and allowing himself to be led onto the floor. 

‘This is more like floating’ Roman thought he wrapped his hands around Logan’s waist. Logan was an excellent dancer, much better than his last partner (no shade to her but Logan is perfect in every way). 

As they danced they passed Patton who squealed excitedly and whispered something to his partner. Virgil smiled at Roman in a congratulatory way, Roman smiled right back. They also passed Roman’s brother who stuck out his tongue at Roman and flipped him off. Roman retaliated instantly, causing both Logan and Janus to laugh. 

Logan leaned his forehead against Roman’s shoulder, “I like dancing with you” he mumbled into the red fabric, “I like dancing with you too” Roman said his face now matching his robes. 

In a bout of bravery, he pressed a kiss to the top of Logan’s head. Logan pulled Roman even closer and breathed deeply. 

They stayed like this for hours. Patton and Virgil disappeared and Remus was unabashedly making out with Janus in the corner of the ballroom. Roman tugged on Logan’s sleeve after the Ravenclaw yawned one too many times. “Bed?” Logan nodded sleepily. 

Roman walked Logan to the Ravenclaw common room. Logan stopped in front of the door letting go of Roman’s hand for the first time since the ballroom. “Well, I’ll see you later,” Logan said, “uh, yah! Tomorrow” Roman waved. Logan turned to go. 

‘Come on, don’t be a coward’ Roman could hear his brother scolding him. “Logan?” 

The Ravenclaw wiped around, “yes?” Roman took a step, “can I, um” he glanced down at Logan's lips, Logan nodded, “you may”. 

Neither were sure who closed the gap. 

Romans head filled with styrofoam as Logan’s lips connected with his. The Ravenclaw moved his hands to cup Romans face as Romans arms wrapped around his waist on instinct. Fireworks exploded around them, skin was cleared, crops were watered, all was well with the world. 

Then Logan pulled away. “Good night Roman,” he said grinning. Roman stood shell-shocked and Logan disappeared up the stairs. The Gryffindor ran his fingers across his lips and smiled. 

✧･ﾟ:*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ: *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ:*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ

Weeks had flown by and the second task hung above the champion’s heads like swords. Logan and Patton helped Roman crack the egg puzzle in every way they could, but It just kept screaming. 

Virgil and Janus had started hanging out with the group of misfits. Janus was snarky and quick with a joke, they all grew to like him. Patton asked Virgil on another date and a few days later the two officially started dating.

Logan and Roman danced around each other both unsure how to ask the other out. Especially with the second task approaching alarmingly fast. 

“Roman!” a voice called from down the hallway, Roman turned towards it and smiled seeing it was Virgil, “Roman, I need to tell you something” Virgil painted, “yeah?”. “I know we agreed not to talk about the tournament because we’re both competing”

Roman tried to cut them off, “wait, listen. I never returned the tip about the dragons and you need to know” Roman looked hesitant, “I’m not sure…” Virgil sighed, “just…. you know the prefect’s bathroom,” he said. “Umm yeah,” Roman blinked, “it’s not a bad place for a bath” Roman blinked, “What? The hell does that mean???” but Virgil was already gone. 

That night Roman snuck down to the prefect’s bathroom, carrying the egg gingerly. He stripped down to his underwear and slipped into the huge bathtub. He turned back towards the egg sitting on the side. “This is crazy” he whispered to himself and screwed open the top. Screams filled the bathroom and Roman clamped it shut. 

“What the hell are you doing?” a voice called from the doorway.

Logan walked in, turning away red-faced when he saw Roman in the bathtub. “My question stands, what the fuck are you doing?” he asked embarrassed. “Umm, I got a tip that I should take a bath with the egg. Figured we didn’t have many other ideas, so...” Roman trailed off, equally red. 

Logan sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and turning back towards Roman, “did you try putting it in the water?” he asked exasperatedly. “no” Roman admitted quietly, picking up the egg and dunking it in the water. 

He took a breath and screwed it open. There were no screams, Logan gestured at the tub, “go listen”. Roman plunged into the water. 

Come seek us where our voices sound, We cannot sing above the ground, An hour-long you'll have to look, To recover what we took

Roman came up gasping for air. “what did it say!” Logan asked excitedly sitting next to the tub. Once Roman had caught his breath he repeated what the egg had said. 

Logan looked thoughtful. “Perhaps a see-dwelling creature… one that sings” he murmured. “Roman, do you know of any mermaid populations in the black lake” 

Roman nodded excitedly, “Logan you’re a genius” he exclaimed pulling himself out of the water and hugging Logan tightly. 

Logan flushed and pressed a kiss to Roman’s wet hair. “Thank you, but the work isn’t over yet,” he said, pulling away now soaking wet, “what does the second half mean and how are you going to be underwater for an hour?” he exclaimed thinking rapidly. Roman nodded, drying himself off and pulling back on his clothes. 

“Right, that may be a problem” he contemplated. “But a problem for future you and me. It’s late, we should go to bed” Logan shrugged, “you’re right, we should. May I walk you back?” 

And if Roman wasn’t there when Remus woke up, well, that’s none of your business. 

[onespiderfrommars]

HEY LOKI FANS

i thought u would appreciate my semi-coherent ramblings about the leaked loki s2 trailer that i sent my best friend yesterday while sleep deprived and swamped with schoolwork

part 1

here are some of my thoughts on this trailer bc i have composed myself enough to send them

1. LOKI IS SO.

2. seeing casey gave me SO MUCH SEROTONIN

3. i saw the red car and my FIRST thought was lightning mcqueen

4. the pruning of that wall in the tva is giving hela destroying the palace ceiling

5. the scene with loki and mobius sitting at the table i am so ill

6. is sylvie the one pulling loki through time? my initial thought was that lokis been out of his timeline for too long but that wouldnt make sense bc sylvies been out of her timeline for AGES so there has to be someone behind it so either its sylvie whos unseated kang or its a kang variant (which seems really likely bc of avengers 5)

7. i REALLY want to know if this version of mobius has regained his memories or if hes starting fresh with loki

8. not enough hair flips :(

9. where has ravonna gone? i want to know if she is still working for kang or if shes been wiped too

10. i would like to see more of sylvies backstory in this season, rn shes just an op “superior” loki and i think her character needs to undergo MASSIVE renovation to redeem her bc she had so much potential

11. this isnt gonna happen but i want an aoa lady loki variant so fucking bad dude

12. lokis powers and character needs to be more fleshed out this season.

part 2

a few more thoughts

1. its interesting the way that lokis depicted as being pulled through time. like theres no time door involved and when tempads are used to pull someone through time u can see the person moving its just sped up or slowed down. so why does it look like lokis almost like glitching? it makes me believe that this is either a kang variant or some other force outside of the tva

2. the way that loki disappeared was so weird like it looked like disappararing in harry potter

3. the desert?? weve seen two notable desertlike scenes so far: the gobi desert and pompeii. this definitely isnt either, bc the tesseract is what pulled loki to the gobi desert and pompeii was to test that one theory. im wondering why he would go there tho, like is he looking for sylvie or is he looking for kang?

4. in the scene where lokis glitching ljke crazy u can see that he has on the straps for lævateinn’s sheath thing, so therefore i can deduce that this is very shortly after the loki s1 finale

5. its therefore likely that mobius has no clue who loki is in this scene, but if this is when its set, wouldnt the hallway be full of minutemen? the timeline is falling apart the tva should be in chaos BUT its not which means that this is likely not a main hallway of the tva. so is loki looking for something specific or is he just aimlessly running. he probably has a relatively decent knowledge of the tva’s layout since he was able to find mobius in the last scene of s1 and hes been working there, so either this new kang variant thats taken over has drastically changed the tva’s structure, this hallway bears some significance, or im overthinking this

6. the bluish room loki enters immediately after is VASTLY different from the tvas typical appearance. is this some new part of the tva we havent seen or is it something else entirely?

7. i think its really interesting that loki pruned a whole wall. like i find it statistically improbable that during previous fights in the tva no one has ever hit a wall or the floor or something with their weapon. so THEREFORE theres something significant about this specific wall. why can it be pruned but not the rest of the tva? is it bc the wall was established by a new version of kang and therefore is considered “foreign” to the old sacred timeline? hmm

8. there are still three faces. its hard to see all three unfortunately but there are still clearly three. is this new version of the tva being run by a triumvirate of kangs? also the new avengers movie is called the kang dynasty so this implies multiple kangs.

9. oh i REALLY want to know what the room with the windows/arched ceiling is. its def the tva bc the person nearest to the camera is very clearly wearing the minutemen uniform

10. this new dude sitting behind that desk is handing loki and mobius a sticky note. he seems eccentric, im very excited to see more of him

11. sylvie is no longer running between apocalypses. why? shes clearly not trying to get the tvas attention or lokis but hes def actively looking for her.

12. casey :( if they kill him i will LOSE IT.

13. theres two figures climbing over a roof, prob loki and mobius (side note im so glad that it looks like were getting more lokius interaction bc in s1 it put their dynamic on the back burner too much)

14. im so excited for this scene of them undercover at a party/event FUCK DUDE

15. WHO ALMOST HIT LOKI WITH A CAR LMFAO

16. LOKI USING HIS ILLUSION MAGIC 😩😩😩

17. IS THAT A NEW FUCKING LOKI VARIANT OH MY GOD

18. NEW JUDGE NEW JUDGE NEW JUDGE

19. im so glad were getting little moments between loki and mobius ugh

[toomanyrobins]

MINIMAL LOSS

summary: Spencer and Y/N head into the Separtarian Sect and are greeted with trouble.

pairing: Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader

content warnings: few swear words, guns, character death, violence, cult behavior

word count: 3.7k

It had been a few months since Y/N had joined the BAU. Despite initial worries, she fit right into the team. She had joined the women for girls’ night and even helped Garcia plan JJ’s baby shower. Hotch was truly showing how much trust he held by sending the two youngest teammates on their own assignment. Y/N and Spencer were in a car in La Plata with Nancy, a CPS worker, on their way to Liberty Ranch. Spencer played the call for the three of them: “He comes into my bedroom and lays with me. He says it's god's will. I'm only 15. And I'm not the only one. Please help me!” 

Y/N turned to Nancy, “Who is the ‘he’?”

“I believe the ‘he’ that they referred to is the church's leader: Benjamin Cyrus.”

Reid flipped open the file and leaned forward so that Y/N could look at it too. She smiled appreciatively at him, “Benjamin Cyrus--No criminal record. No record at all, really. What else do you know about him?

Nancy shrugged, “It's rumored that he's practicing polygamy and forced marriages.

Y/N scanned the file as Spencer read aloud, “Do we know who the caller is?”

“Jessica Evanson is the one who the age fits, But...we can't be sure. I negotiated interviews with all the children. It wasn't easy.”

“Well, considering their view on outsiders, it would be best if you didn't identify us as FBI. Just use our real names and introduce us as child victim interview experts.” Y/N and Reid left their badges and gun in the car. The trio pulled up and was greeted by a single man lounging on the stairs. He seemed unimpressed by their presence and continued to read his book. Y/N noted that the act seemed a bit over the top and a definite attempt to appear nonchalant about their visit.

Nancy walked up to him, “I'm looking for Mr. Benjamin Cyrus.”

The man walked down the stairs, shutting the Bible in his hands, “You found him.”

“I'm Nancy Lunde. We spoke on the phone regarding the allegation.”

“Savages they call us because our manners differ from theirs.”

“We didn't come here to hear you cite scripture, Mr. Cyrus.

“Actually, It's a Benjamin Franklin.” Y/N smiled softly at the ever fact-driven Dr. Reid.

Nancy motioned at the two of them, “Y/N Emard and Spencer Reid -- they’re child victim

interview experts.”

“How far from God's word must we have strayed for there to be the need to invent a job called child victim interview expert?”

“We wish we didn't have to be here,” Y/N said.

So do we. But you are welcome, nonetheless. The children are in the school,” He pointed to the building behind him.

Nancy nodded and thanked him. The two women forged ahead, but Y/N stopped when she heard Spencer remark on the compound’s use of solar power.

“We're completely self-sufficient,” Cyrus explained, “Electricity, food, water. Ben Franklin said, ‘God helps those that help themselves.’ You look surprised.” Y/N noticed that Spencer was working to build a relationship with Cyrus and followed Nancy to begin interviews. They decide to start Jessica: the suspected victim. Y/N immediately noted the defensive posture that the 15-year-old held. Her mother, Kathy, stood beside her and looked much more submissive.

“So, what does a normal day on the ranch look like for you?” Y/N inquired.

“We go to school. We do our chores. And we treat ourselves and each other with the respect that God demands.”

“But you've never been off of the ranch?

Kathy spoke, “I brought Jessie here when she was 2.”

The young girl had a very sour look on her face and had her hands folded tightly in anger, “You've talked to lots of children in your work. Tell me, are their lives somehow better than ours? We devote ourselves to God.” Kathy put a hand on her daughter’s shoulder to calm her.

Y/N reassured the teen, “We are not here because of your religious beliefs.”

“Then why are you here?”

“We received a phone call alleging that an adult male member of your church was having inappropriate relations with the younger women here.”

“You're talking about Cyrus.”

Reid had joined them and heard the last bit of the conversation, “What makes you say that?”

Kathy tried to stop her daughter, but the indignation was clear. “Is it inappropriate for a husband to share a bed with his wife?

Y/N was shocked, “You are married to Cyrus?”

“Yes. Cyrus is my husband and a prophet. It's an honor to bear his children.

“Jessica, you're 15 years old. The state of Colorado requires parental consent.”

Y/N stared at Kathy and saw the regret in her eyes. She looked up at Reid, “She gave consent.”

Before they could continue to question, they were interrupted by members of the ranch coming in armed. They forced the three outsiders back and pointed their weapons at them. ”What's going on?” Nancy demanded. Three men came over and patted them all down. Y/N dug her heel into the man’s toe when she felt him linger. He groaned and stepped back with a scowl, nodding to Cyrus to confirm that all three were weapon-free.

“We just got a very strange phone call from a news reporter. Is there anything you want to tell me about a raid, maybe?” All three of them were shocked. Especially Y/n and Spencer since they knew that JJ had checked with other agencies before sending them in. Cyrus shook his head, “They don't know.” The men shepherded the woman and children through tunnels hidden under the buildings to a bunker filled with weapons. Gunfire could be heard overhead as instructions were given by Cyrus. 

Y/N and Spencer both saw how the guns lining the walls. She whispered, “Where did all these guns come from?”

Spencer shook his head, “I don't know. Garcia checked with the state police.” Nancy broke free of the group in the bunker and hurried up the church, thinking she could stop the raid from continuing. They heard the gunfire cease and he whispered again, “The raid is over.”

“What does that mean?”

“Either Cyrus convinced them to leave or this is over a lot faster than we thought.” When the men returned back down, Y/N realized that they were stuck in the compound again. Spencer inquired into where Nancy had gone and Cyrus explained that she had been shot by the Colorado authorities. 

“They’re pulling out.”

Reid shook his head, “Not for long.” They were stuck in the bunker while the male members of the cult all armed themselves. 

Y/N leaned over, “The team will have to be on its way now that a failed raid will be on the news. 

“With an average flight time of five and a half hours between DC and the La Plata County Airport plus the half hour drive out to the ranch, I estimate that they’ll be here by 4 o’clock, maybe 4:30 depending on who drives.” Y/N and Reid stayed trapped in the bunker, covered by an armed member at the door.

Y/N needed grounding and turned to Spencer, “What is the playbook here?”

“If the BAU is put in charge, which I imagine they will be because we are inside, they will go for the minimal loss situation. Statistically, it is improbable that they will get every member out, so they will do their best to save as many as possible. With the indoctrination in cults like this, some will be too far gone. It will be impossible to convince them that what they have been following is a lie. They’ll first try to get out 1 or 2, then 3 or 4, and then as many as possible before it goes bad,” Spencer stopped talking and looked confused, “You haven’t told me to stop rambling.”

“Why would I tell you to stop? This is valuable information,” Y/N’s cheeks warmed, “Plus you have a nice voice. We are going to be here a while until someone gets in contact with Cyrus. Best to be informed and it seems that you’re a wealth of information, Dr. Reid.” 

Despite the situation, Spencer smiled and continued talking quietly to Y/N about the tactics used. She asked him questions and let him answer them with as much information as he had. Y/N had seen him get cut off by the others before, and she understood why they did it, but she realized he probably didn’t get to share to his heart’s content often and currently they had a minimum 6 hours of waiting ahead of them. That plan was cut short by Cyrus coming back down. He brought them all up to the church. The duo were off to the side, watching as Rossi came in carrying a box. He was patted down and Cyrus spoke to him. Y/N and Spencer were both careful to keep any hint of recognition off of their face, knowing that even a twinge of weakness could seal their fates. 

Rossi let his eyes pass over the duo, before turning to Cryus, “I’d hope you let me take the children.”

“Nah, they’re our protection. I remember Waco... we all do. They stay for now. While I pray for God’s guidance. Please don’t try to force us out.”

“No one’s gonna try to force you out of here.” The two men walked to the door and Rossi left again. 

The moment he was out the door, Cyrus ordered a member to prepare wine, “We are celebrating. Everyone drinks. Everyone rejoices. Because today we are one day closer to being with him.”

Y/N watched a scene unfold in front of her and brushed her hand against Spencer’s to get his attention, “Look at Jessica’s body language. The way she looks at him. She literally worships him.”

Spencer nodded, “There is no way she made that 911 call.”

They both watched as Kathy stood up to speak to her daughter, “Look how she comes between Cyrus and her daughter. She's inserted herself between them. I don’t think Kathy is as devout a follower as she wants people to believe. Cyrus isn’t the most important thing to her; Jessica is.” Spencer squeezed her hand in silent agreement. 

Cyrus began preaching from the front as all the followers drank the wine, “Acknowledge him in all things and he will guide your way. Drink to acknowledge him and I will guide our way. We will be with him soon. We drank the poison together. Mothers… Fathers… Children, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we fear no evil, for thou art with us.”

Y/N eyes widened and she looked up at Spencer, “What do we do?”

He shook his head, “Nothing.”

“We have to do something. These people just took poison.”

“Cyrus just told them they did. I think he's just bluffing. Just after he told them about the poison, he waited for them to start to react. Then, he nodded to Cole and he started writing. They're scanning the audience looking for reactions. They're writing down the names of the people who are crying.

Realization hit Y/N, “It's a loyalty list. So he knows who will follow him to the end.”

Cyrus spoke again, “Be still. There was no poison. Instead a test of faith. Because your adversary, the devil, waltzes about as a roaring lion, choosing whom he may devour. Watch each other for signs of weakness. You are your brother's keeper.”

After the test, they forced Y/N and Spencer back into the bunker. A guard again stationed by the door. It wasn’t long before Cyrus came back into the bunker, anger written across his face, “Which one of you is it? Which one of you is an FBI agent?”

Spencer and Y/N shared a look. “Why do you think one of us is an FBI agent?

“God will forgive me for what I must do.”

Spencer kept his face confused and innocent, “I--I don't know what you're talking about.”

Cyrus cocked a gun and pointed it at Spencer’s forehead. “One of you does. Who is it?”

Y/N knew that Spencer had built a rapport with the sect leader. She took a deep breath, “Me. It's me.”

Spencer looked at her worriedly as Cyrus uncocked the weapon. He flew forward and grabbed Y/N by her hair, dragging her into another room, “I told you not to put me in this position!” She tried to stand, but he backhanded her. She got up again, staring determinedly at him. This time, Cyrus threw her into the wall. Y/N crashed into a mirror and felt the shards cut her arms and face. He continued to preach while beating her, “Proverbs 20:30 tells us blows and wounds cleanse away evil.

Y/N remembered what Reid had said about the FBI trying to find a way to listen in, she had to stop them from coming in, “I can take it.” Cyrus thought she was antagonizing him and hit harder. She repeated herself, “I can take it.” Y/N hoped that the team understood that she could handle this fight and not blow the operation by trying to save her.

“Pride comes before the fall,” Cyrus punched her in the stomach and threw her to the floor. Y/N lay on the floor, trying to catch her breath after the last kick to her stomach knocked the wind out of her. He called for another man to come in, “Tie her up. Put her upstairs.

Kathy snuck into the room they had trapped Y/N in. She had brought a small first aid kit and cleaned the blood away from her face and removed bits of glass, “You should have told Cyrus who you were. He's a prophet. He predicted Satan's armies would come and lay siege to us.

Every inch of Y/N’s body hurt, but she knew she couldn’t give up. She looked at Kathy, “There's a name for that kind of prophecy-- self-fulfilling.”

“You don't know how dangerous It is to lie to him.”

“I know it would take a brave woman to defy him, Knowing the consequences. And that woman would have to have a damn good reason to do it. Kathy sucked in air when she realized that Y/N had suspicions about who made the 911 call that had led to them coming to the compound. She left the room and Y/N let her head fall back against the pillows, hoping that she was getting to the woman. 

She tried to track how long had passed but when the sun set, she had no measure of time. It hadn’t been long before the door to the room flew open and the same man who had tied her up entered. He roughly dragged her up and cut the rope binding her wrist. He kept his weapon trained on her and forced her into the church, where everyone else was. 

Cyrus stood at the altar, “It has come to my attention that some of our brothers and sisters have lost their faith in God. That they no longer love us. They want to abandon us. So when I call out your name, please stand.”

Spencer came up to her. She kept her eyes trained on the sect leader, “He looks pissed.” She turned to him and smiled softly when she saw the worry in his eyes, “Spencer, it's not as bad as it looks. I’ve had worse.”

“I'm so sorry,” Spencer scanned over Y/N’s body, taking in every injury inflicted by Cyrus. Moments like this, he hated his eidetic memory; knowing he would never forget the beating Y/N took to protect him. Their attention was drawn back to the members, 

“Look at who he's releasing. It's the ones who failed the loyalty test. I'll get word to the team. Wait for a sign from outside to indicate what time the raid will come.” Spencer walked away from her to speak to Cyrus. He turned and nodded to her, before she was dragged back up the room. Her arms were tied again and she was thrown on the bed. 

Y/N nodded off for a few hours, but had woken up when the sun had started to rise, cursing herself for falling asleep. Y/N situated herself on the bed and used her shoe to pull the blinds down. She knew that the glass needed to vibrate in order for them to hear her, “If you can hear me, I know you're coming. I can try to get the women and children down to the tunnel, but I need to know when you're coming.” She continued to repeat herself, when a red dot shone on the opposite wall, “Ok. Ok. I got you. What time?” The dot held steady for a moment and then moved 90 degrees. “3 a.m.?” The dot moved up and down confirming, “Understood. Reid is on the first floor somewhere with Cyrus. And, please, remember there are children here.” Y/N heard someone coming and dropped her foot, letting the blind close again.

Kathy came back into Y/N’s room. She helped her sit up and gave her a glass of water. This was Y/N’s last chance to convince Kathy to held, “Cyrus is planning a mass suicide. You made that 911 call.”

The woman shook her head regretfully, “This is all my fault. None of this would have happened if I hadn't of made that call.

“You were trying to protect your daughter. No one would fault you for that”

“There were other girls before Jessie. He--he would marry them in secret, and after a while he'd take another. And we weren't permitted to speak of it. So, when she asked for my consent, I wanted to just take her and run. But I was afraid she wouldn't leave him.”

“You wanted us to take her.”

“Well, I--I wanted to save her from Cyrus.”

“I can give you another chance. The FBI is coming here at 3 a.m. I need you to gather Jessica, the kids, the other women -- get them into the basement just before 3 a.m.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I have faith that you are a strong enough woman to do the right thing for Jessica.” Kathy stood and walked out of the room without another word. Y/N was left with the hope that she had gotten through to the woman. 

Only a few moments later, Kathy came back. She helped Y/N sit up and removed the bindings from her wrists, “You were right. They're setting the place to blow up. I told Jessie that Cyrus wanted her to gather the women and children.”

Y/N’s thoughts were on Spencer, “Where is the man I came in with?”

“He's in the chapel with Cyrus. It's 2:45, though, we gotta hurry.” Y/N and Kathy rushed to get the women and children down to the basement, careful to avoid any of the armed men. 

Once they got to the basement, Derek and Rossi were waiting for them. He rushed up to her, “Y/N, Y/N, you all right?

“Worry about me later, Derek. They've wired explosives.” Kathy and the agents rushed everyone out of the compound. 

“Where's Reid?”

“He's in the chapel with Cyrus.”

Rossi turned to her, “We gotta get you out of here.

“No. We've gotta get Reid!

Derek grabbed her shoulders, “I will get Reid. Get out of here. Get to safety. Go now.” Y/N nodded and followed after the rest of the members. She stayed watching the building as the other continued to run. Y/N had to know that Spencer was okay. The church exploded and Y/N fell to the ground, covering her head. Once the smoke cleared, she stood up, “Reid! Morgan? Reid? Morgan!”

“We're ok!” Derek called.

Spencer ran up to her and wrapped her in a hug, “Are you okay?” She nodded and he put his arm around her, helping her to walk to get medical attention. Only once he was certain she was getting help did he leave.

Y/N sat in the back of an ambulance as the paramedic pulled shards of glass from her arms, and bandaged and disinfected the cuts on her face. JJ came over to check on her, “How bad is it?”

“Everything is sore, but the worst is cuts from the mirror he slammed me into. They said I don’t even need to go to the hospital.”

“Take it easy and don’t move until one of us comes to help you. Understand?”

Y/N smiled, “You’re already such a mom, JJ.” The blonde laughed and sat next to her, one hand on her belly.  The rest of the night passed quickly and soon the team was on the jet back to DC. Y/N sat next to Spencer on the couch, “Hey.”

“Hey.”

Y/N gently pulled the book out of his hands and put her hand in his, forcing him to put all of his attention on her, “I need you to listen to me. What Cyrus did to me is not your fault. It was my decision, and I would do it again. Do you hear me?” Spencer nodded. Y/N smiled at him and handed him his book back. She tucked her feet under the blanket and put her head on his shoulder, exhaustion weighing her eyelids down. Spencer read to her, remembering what she said about his voice, until he was sure she was asleep. The team all shared looks at the familiarity between the youngest teammates and smiled.

When they landed, Spencer offered to drive her home. The duo ended up at Y/N’s apartment. They ordered Chinese food and Y/N let him turn on Star Trek and explain all of the science and how it was ahead of its time. By the end of the night, Y/N had her legs slung across his lap and a frozen pea bag on her bruised face. She fell asleep sometime during the fourth episode. Spencer turned the TV off and covered her with a blanket. He quickly put the leftovers and peas away, and even laid out some Advil and water on the coffee with a note for when she woke up. 

Y/N,

You fell asleep and I decided you need your sleep. I put the food away and the peas back in the freezer. Take the Advil when you wake up. You’re going to need it. Text me when you wake up and I’ll pick you up. You shouldn’t drive until you’ve healed.

Dr. Spencer Reid

[fridayfirefly]

Lost and Found [Part Eleven]

Masterlist | Ao3

Despite the fact that he didn't get to bed until 2 AM that morning, Damian still woke up at 6 AM with the sunrise. Sleep deprivation was the last worry on his mind when his Soulmate - beautiful, breathtaking Marinette - was sleeping just one hall down from him.

He met Alfred in the kitchen, already preparing for the meals of the day. The waffle batter was already mixed, coffee was already brewing, and butter was already softening on the counter. "Do you need any help preparing breakfast?"

Alfred shook his head. "Thank you for the offer, but I pride myself in my ability to keep this kitchen under control, no matter how many visitors we have. Besides, I'm sure you would rather spend your morning getting ready for your day with your Soulmate than in the kitchen with me."

Damian nodded. "I'll see you at breakfast, then."

"I look forward to meeting Miss Dupain-Cheng."

Damian left the kitchen and made his way to the gardens, thinking about the night before.

They had gotten back to the Manor at 1:30 AM, too late for the Parisian guests to meet the Wayne family. Damian walked Marinette to her room to let her get some rest, wishing all the while that they could stay up together until the sunrise. Rationally, he knew that Marinette needed her sleep, especially with the drastic time change, but his emotions refused to let her go so soon. However, logic won out in the end, and he kissed her cheek and wished her goodnight. As Damian walked Chloé to her room, taking over for Jason while his brother packed his bags back in his Gotham apartment, Damian asked Chloé for a favor. There was a certain plan he wanted to put into action, that he needed some assistance with. Chloé agreed to help him out and their plan was set: in the morning, Chloé would bring Marinette to her room so that the two girls could get ready together, while Damian brought to Marinette's room a vase of fresh-cut flowers and a handwritten letter asking to take her on a date.

Chloé called his plan "sickeningly romantic", but said it with the sort of wistful smile that made Damian send a text to Jason advising his brother to bring flowers for his own Soulmate. Maybe it was sickeningly romantic, Damian thought over the concept, but he knew that it wasn't a bad thing. Emotions had been difficult for him at first, growing up the way he did, but he now knew better than to try and hide that part of himself from Marinette.

Damian already picked out which flowers to cut days in advance, fragrant purple wisteria and delicate white roses, which he got from the garden before the morning dew had burned off of them. He placed them in the glass vase, arranging and re-arranging them the whole way up to Marinette's room. He knocked on the door, and when there was no reply, he nudged it open. A flash of red by the window caught his eyes, but by the time his eyes focused on the spot, nothing was there. Shrugging it off as a trick of the light, Damian placed the vase of flowers on her bedside table and set down the note beside it. The note, which despite its simplicity had taken several drafts to perfect, read: Dear Marinette, I hope you slept well last night. Breakfast will be served at 8:00 AM. With your permission, I would like to spend today showing you around the city. Once the wedding approaches, I'm certain that we will both be busier, so I would like to get as much time with you now as possible. Sincerely, your Soulmate, Damian

With his plan completed, Damian left the room to go get ready for his first day with Marinette. He quickly sent a text to Chloé, giving her the all-clear to let Marinette return to her room.

Damian had just gotten out of the shower when he saw a note sitting on his bathroom counter. In what was unmistakably Marinette's handwriting, Dear Damian, I would love to go on a date with you today. Sincerely, your Soulmate, Marinette.

Damian breathed out a sigh of relief as the lingering doubt that Marinette might have changed her mind in the last six hours faded away. It is a silly fear, one that Damian wasn't used to indulging in. However, Marinette seemed to bring out all the little human characteristics that the League of Shadows had trained out of him when he was young. A younger Damian would have hated Marinette for it, but in the present day, in the privacy of his room, Damian smiled and let the feeling of relief wash over him.

——————————————————————

Marinette, Chloé, and Nino were all at the dining room table with Jon when Damian entered the room. Marinette brightened up as soon as she saw him. "Damian!" If Damian thought that Marinette looked beautiful last night (which he did) with tangled hair and tired eyes from a seven-hour plane ride, she looked downright breathtaking that morning, in a pretty pale pink dress, with her hair done up in a bun, tendrils curling around her face.

"Good morning, Marinette. I hope you slept well."

"I slept great." A look of annoyance took over Marinette's face. "Even though someone woke me up early on someone else's orders." Marinette's expression shifted from indignation to a bright smile. "I did appreciate the flowers, though, so thank you for those."

"You're very welcome." Damian was pleased that she liked them. He was a little troubled by how intently he was watching her facial expression. "Concerning our date tonight-"

Damian was cut off by the sound of voices coming down the hallway. Richard walked in beside Babs in her wheelchair, the couple having a lively debate about what to do for their respective bachelor and bachelorette parties. "We have to hire one. How often in your life do you get the opportunity to hire a stripper?" argued Babs.

"Alright," conceded Richard, "We get one stripper, and we have him split time between both parties. Now onto decorations - I'm thinking we each pick the decorations for each other's parties, and then it's like a surprise when we get there. And I'm not only saying this because I found the best bachelorette decorations on eBay and I already placed a bid."

Chloé broke the silence that followed in the dining room, as a muffled laugh escaped the hand she had pressed over her mouth. "I'm sorry, but aren't you Waynes billionaires? Can't you afford to hire two strippers?"

"Not billionaires," Tim chimed in as he walked into the room with Connor. "Every time Bruce comes close to being a billionaire, he increases the wages of all Wayne Enterprise employees except for himself and donates a ton of money to charity."

"I suppose we could hire two strippers, but then what if one of them is better than the other. That wouldn't be fair," mused Barbara.

"We could have them switch halfway through, that way we each get the same experience," Richard added.

"How about, instead of arguing the logistics of strippers, you greet the Soulmates who just arrived last night?" asked Jon, with a tone of voice that very clearly demonstrated how absurd he felt their conversation was. Damian had spent too much time with Richard and Babs over the past few weeks of wedding planning - nothing that came out of their mouths phased him anymore.

"Oh, hello Soulmates of my brothers and Soulmate of my brother's Soulmate's brother. I'm Dick."

"Babs," said Babs with a wave.

"Tim."

"Conner."

Richard started pointing to each of the Parisians. "You must be Marinette, Damian's Soulmate. You're Nino, Jon's Soulmate. And you are..?"

"Chloé, my platonic Soulmate," said Jason as he walked into the room.

"I can introduce myself," snapped Chloé, glowering at Jason, who looked a bit sheepish as he sat down in the chair next to her.

Jason picked up his fork and waved it between Chloé and Marinette. "So you two know each other."

Marinette nodded. "We've all known each other since we were kids. Chloé, Nino, and I have been in the same class since maternelle - which you call kindergarten in America. We've been best friends for years now."

"Now that's a coincidence. Both sets of three Soulmates knew each other before they met up with their other halves." Richard nodded, looking the three Parisians up and down.

"Coincidence is putting it mildly. Statistically, it's incredibly improbable. I didn't run the numbers, but I'm sure if I did, it would be in the range of one in a trillion," Tim piped up.

"Good luck, I suppose," said Marinette with a shrug.

"Luck, coincidence, statistical improbability - call it whatever you want to call it. It's still mind-boggling that out of 7 billion people, you three - best friends who go to the same school - end up with Soulmates who are all family."

The conversation turned to other topics as the table waited for Bruce to arrive before they started breakfast. Richard got Marinette talking about her aspiring career as a designer, and it instantly brought Marinette out of her shell. Her passion and enthusiasm were contagious; Damian couldn't help but smile softly to himself as he watched her explain to Richard and Babs the inspiration behind her latest collection of dresses named The City of Lights, which incorporated elements of Parisian fashion throughout the ages, with a focus on finding innovative ways to incorporate light into the dresses. As Marinette was explaining in depth the pros and cons between tea candles and real candles (according to Marinette, an open flame near your hand-crafted creation is a very big con, but she felt so strongly against tea candle that she would rather her dress catch on fire than ruin the integrity of her design), Bruce walked in, wearing a bathrobe with the words World's Best Dad on the back, plaid flannel pajama pants, and fuzzy slippers. Overall, he looked nothing like the intimidating Batman and everything like a regular Dad on a Saturday morning. Damian had to admit, it was a good strategy for putting their new houseguests at ease, especially Marinette and Chloé, who were meeting their Soulmates' father for the very first time.

"Good morning everyone," said Bruce. He grabbed his coffee mug off the counter, filled it to the brim, chugged it all in one go, then refilled it and took it to the table. "What's for breakfast?"

"Pancakes," Alfred replied as he walked in with a platter stacked full of them. "Please don't spill any syrup on the tablecloth, it's a pain to get out. And before you ask, yes, I am talking to you, Richard."

"One time," Richard grumbled. "You spill an entire bottle of syrup on the tablecloth one time, and suddenly that's all anyone remembers."

Marinette laughed. "I take it I'm not the clumsiest person at the table, then."

"I'm not clumsy. I'm just sporadically situationally unaware," Richard defended.

"Clumsy," teased Babs, flicking Richard's nose and stealing the last bite of pancake off his plate. They were so effortlessly domestic, affectionate with each other all the time in a way Damian was beginning to envy. Damian kept his expression still as he sat in internal shock at the realization that he was jealous of what Richard and Babs had together. Damian was a naturally private person; he had assumed he would despise public displays of affection. However, with Marinette, he could see the appeal. Marinette had flipped his whole worldview on its head. Now he wanted romantic outings and for everyone to know that she was his. It was a strange and foreign feeling, but deep down it felt right.

——————————————————————

As breakfast winded down, Damian offered to show Marinette around the house. The first place he took her was to the gardens. Damian knew that Marinette didn't like surprises all that much, so he planned on explaining to her exactly what they would be doing for their date.

"The gardens are so pretty!" exclaimed Marinette. "Is this where the wedding will be held?"

"Yes. The ceremony will be at the gazebo in the center of the rose garden."

"I'm sure it will be lovely," said Marinette with a soft smile on her face.

"For our date today, I was hoping I could show you around some of my favorite spots in the city. If you would rather stay at the Manor, I understand but-"

Marinette cut him off. "I would love that. I might need to change my shoes though." She gestured to the three-inch heels on her feet."

"I would advise bringing along a pair of good walking shoes. I would hate for you to get hurt."

"It would be a shame to break my ankle on our very first date," agreed Marinette. "I'll just go grab a change of shoes and my purse, and then we can go."

Damian smiled at her. "I'll wait for you here."

Damian watched Marinette leave, thinking of all his favorite things he could finally show her, and all of her smiles he could finally see.

Taglist: @fanboy7794 @mikantsume @hetalia-lover-is-here @howtoshuckatlife @you-will-never-know-how-i-think @redscarlet95 @derpingrainbow @friedchickening @melicmusicmagic @beautym3 @kunstner1 @shizukiryuu @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @crazylittlemunchkin @black-streak @darkshadowguardian @mystery-5-5 @trubel43 @fandomfan315 @vincentvangoose @royalchaoticfangirl @mooshoon @drama-queen-supreme @kae690 @unabashedlyswimmingtimemachine @zoerayne2426 @littleredrobinhoodlum @lunar-wolf-warrior @dani-ari @sam-spectra @be-happy-every-day-please @xxmadamjinxx @interobanginyourmom @northernbluetongue @eliza-bich @romanoff-queen @scribblinggraveyard @dur55 @jeminiikrystal @sassakitty @miss-mysterys-blog @aegyobutpsycho2 @pirats-pizzacanninibles @chaosace @pepelachanel @sturchling @amayakans @athenalovesredsblog @boxercity1

[joezworld]

More Sodor Shenanigans

Not every prank on Sodor involves strategically used F-bombs. Sometimes your appearance is enough...

2015

“No! An’ that’s final! I hate paper mache an’ you know it!” Douglas said finally as Henry rolled into the shed. 

“What is it now you two?” He asked  - hoping he wouldn’t be involved in yet another daft argument about some intricate Scottish custom.

“The daft basterd over here disnae’ like my idea of a halloween costume!” Grumbled Siobhan. She’d been driving Donald and Douglas since the early 90′s, and the trio were so used to each other that they acted like they were fathers and daughter rather than engines and driver. Including the arguments.

“What costume?” Henry asked, wearily - he really didn’t want to be the replacement for Donald in tonight’s bickering. 

“I wan’ to do this wit’ him or Donnie and they both think it’s daft!” Siobhan stuck her ‘smart-phone’ in front of Henry’s face. A looping video was playing, showing an engine dressed up as a “ghost train”. The costume was quite frightening, and looked like it would scare children and adults alike. 

Henry told Siobhan this and she threw up her hands in irritation. “It’s a halloween costume ya great green wedge! O' course it’s supposed to be scary! People are supposed to get the piss scared out o’ themselves!”

“Well, I don’t think that sounds very fun.” Henry said finally. 

“Lands sake! You’re all a bunch o’ sissies!” Siobhan finally gave up and went home, grumbling the whole way. 

Douglas chuckled as she left, and went to speak to Henry. Before he could so,  he was rudely interrupted by the arrival of James and Gordon, who had decided that ‘waiting until they got into the shed to start an argument’ was out of date, and were therefore already bickering as they pulled in. 

-

The details of their argument were so mind-numbingly stupid that they don’t bear repeating, but they managed to keep going all through the night. 

Douglas and the other engines managed to eventually tune them out, and fell asleep around midnight. 

Henry, on the other wheel, was a very light sleeper on a good day, and was acutely aware of exactly when the Dynamic Duo stopped arguing. 

It was at 2:30 in the morning.

The Flying Kipper left at 3:15. 

As Henry blearily backed down onto his train at the docks, he began to plot an idea for revenge. 

-

Later that morning, Henry cracked open an eyelid as Siobhan wandered in to raise Douglas’ fire. 

“Siobhan - about that Halloween costume...”

-

October 30th

A good prank was not done alone, and Henry made sure to rope in Bear to ensure maximum efficacy. 

He chose the diesel hydraulic because unlike Edward and BoCo, who both had massive reserves of Tact and would therefore skimp on the truly messed up scary stories, Bear had no opposition to scaring the unprepared into a frightened, whimpering, traumatized stupor. 

It was actually a quite horrifying story that Bear ended up telling - about an (hopefully fictional) engine that was caught in a chemical spill, and was forcibly mutated into a ghostly monster as result - and Henry had to school his expression so as to not appear like a psychopath when he gleefully realized exactly how scared James and Gordon were. 

-

Halloween

On the night in question, everything was ready. Siobhan and her husband had spent most of the last week manufacturing a large amount of decorations that could be mounted to Henry’s boiler and tender, along with a giant, skull shaped mask that fit over Henry’s smoke box. It had red lights in the ‘eyes’ and belched ‘smoke’ from a fog machine under the jawbone. Henry saw himself in a reflection and agreed with the stationmaster’s assessment that he looked like he’d escaped from the bowels of hell.

A whistle had been sourced from America - a loud, deep, “hooter whistle” that the ‘ebay listing’ had said could be heard for miles.  

Finally, as the sun fell, Henry was ready. 

Siobhan had managed to get Henry on an empty stock train from the Crovan's Gate Works all the way to Arlesburgh, meaning that they’d pass through Tidmouth just as the other engines were returning for the night. (Dulcie and Isobel were thrilled to take part, and assured the pranksters that they knew how to scream and wail like they were being eaten - much to Siobhan’s delight!)

Just as the sun set, the signal dropped, and train 666 left the works, bound for Arlesburgh via all 7 Circles of Hell.

-

Their first “victim” came much sooner than they’d planned - roaring around the blind curve near Kellsthorpe Road station in a whoosh of steam, a high-pitched scream could be heard from the ‘up’ line. As his vision cleared, Henry could see a line of High-Speed coaches roll by, and realized that he must have given Pip or Emma a huge fright. 

“Sorry!” He whistled to the other power car - he thought it was Emma - as he went by. 

Of course, Henry hadn’t realized exactly how frightening his new whistle was, and proceeded to scare Emma just as much as he had Pip. 

“HOLY FUCKING SHIT LET’S GET OUT OF HERE!” Was the only response he got as the HST sped up and raced out of sight. 

Henry felt a little bad - he had no quarrel with the HST - but Siobhan, who could barely see through her laughter-induced tears, thought it was hilarious. 

-

Next up was Wendell, the works diesel. 

He had been hauling a rake of hoppers back to the works, and saw something coming towards him on the ‘down’ line. 

It whistled hello at him in a deep, demonic pitch, looked at him with beady red eyes, and whooshed smoke at him as it rolled by. 

Wendell stopped where he was - and neither he, nor his trucks, nor his crew, said much of anything for the rest of the night. The rescue engine sent out for them tried to get answers out of them, and only got: “I saw the devil, and he greeted me like a friend...”

-

At Knapford, Daisy was taking part in the station’s annual trick or treat festivities, when The Train roared past. 

The children were delighted to see an engine taking part in the costume competition, and immediately decided to award the ‘scariest costume award’ to the mystery engine. 

Nobody noticed until much later that Daisy had been so frightened that she’d burst an oil line. 

-

Tidmouth

The station’s annual Halloween celebrations were in full swing, and the humans were enjoying themselves. 

The engines? Not so much. 

“What a bunch of hoopla over nothing!” Grumbled Gordon. “Why would anyone ever admit to being scared?” 

“And why would anyone ever want to hide what they look like?” James said, clearly more horrified at the thought of people being unable to see his shiny red paint and dashing facial structure. 

“Because not all of us are emotionally bereft sticks-in-the-mud like you two.” Said Bear thinly. He had dressed up - in full British Rail Diesel Locomotive Green with the Double Arrow logo - and was very annoyed that none of his coworkers had noticed. 

“Aye.” Said Donald, who was eying the festivities with suspicion. Siobhan hadn’t made an appearance yet, meaning that she either wasn’t showing up - a statistical improbability - or she’d found someone to rope into her daft ‘ghost train’ idea. 

“I will say, Gordon,” Put in Duck. “For someone who speaks so definitively on not being scared, you seemed very frightened last night.” 

“Stow it.” The blue engine snapped. “You were scared too!”

“Yes I was, and I admitted it.” Duck said. “Although I believe you just admitted it as well...”

“Why you!” Gordon wheeshed and dissapeared in a cloud of steam. 

-

On the platform, The Fat Controller (the third) stared at the engine yards. 

“I do wish that more of the engines would get into the spirit of things.” He said to his wife, who was struggling to contain her mirth at the clash between her husband’s dour face and his absurd clown costume. 

“Just leave them Stephen,” She said. “Halloween isn’t for everyone.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re r- what the dickens?!”

He was cut off as a very loud whistle sounded in the distance.

It was long, it was low, it was loud, and it was ghostly. 

It stole the attention away from everything else in the area, and drew eyes to the station throat. 

In the yard, most of the engines began babbling to each other about something - they were inaudible over the confused murmuring of the crowd. Stephen noted that the only ones who didn’t seem frightened were Bear and the Scottish twins, who seemed eager and disbelieving, respectively. 

-

As they passed through the final signal before the station, Siobhan couldn’t help but keep a smile on her face. “Ready Henry?!” She said as she pulled down her skeleton face mask.

“Let’s do this!”

“Atta boy!” She crowed as she hauled back on the whistle cord, allowing the American whistle to bellow its haunting note across Tidmouth. 

Her fireman grabbed the paint-pot full of sawdust and chucked it into Henry’s firebox, while Dulcie and Isobel began screaming like banshees.

Henry, overcome with the absurdity of the situation, began cackling like an engine possessed as he rolled into sight of the platforms. 

-

It was a train. Right?

Right?

Stephen Hatt couldn’t be sure as the demonic, skull-faced, fire spouting monster rolled through Tidmouth. It was cackling madly, and hauling a train of the damned that squealed and shrieked as it went by. The monster, crewed by skeletal beings, rolled through the freight platforms without stopping, its glowing red eyes casting odd shadows on the terrified partygoers. 

He was sure that people were screaming, but the beastly whistle emanating from the ‘train’ was so loud that he couldn’t be sure. 

When it finally passed, disappearing into the distance like the Flying Dutchman of old, dead silence reigned over the platform. 

Then, a child somewhere on platform two spoke up: “That was bloody amazing!” 

The platform broke out in cheers, and Stephen collapsed onto a bench. 

“Did you plan that?” His wife whispered in his ear. 

“No!” He said at last. 

-

The shed

Gordon and James eventually stopped screaming around midnight, falling into a whimpering fugue state before finally passing out. 

Duck was paralyzed with fear, and the next morning he had to be hauled out of the shed and pushed onto his train before he started moving again. 

BoCo - who had been sleeping in the back of the shed, woke the next morning and told his co-workers about the horrible nightmare he’d had that night. When he was informed that it was no mere nightmare, he left the shed a wide-eyed, quiet, and subdued engine. 

A visiting diesel from a mainland freight company who had been parked by the diesel pumps said nothing for the remainder of his time on the island. When his story was confirmed by an equally frightened Pip and Emma in Barrow the next morning, he left the island, never to return. His tale of the ‘Ghost Train of Sodor’ spread far and wide across the British Isles.

Donald and Douglas, who noticed that the ‘demon train’ looked a lot like Henry, said nothing that night. The next day they privately told Henry that it was the greatest prank they’d ever seen, and never turned down one of Siobhan’s Halloween ideas again.

Bear was amazed to see one of his scary stories come to life, and was practically beside himself with pride at a job well done.

-

Arriving at Arlesburgh about half an hour later, Henry was greeted by horrified screams from Oliver - before he passed out in fright - and astonished looks from the small railway engines, who immediately knew it was Henry and demanded to know how he did it. 

Siobhan showed their controller the video she’d based the costume on, swore the small engines to secrecy, and was able to remove most of Henry’s decorations before Oliver woke back up. 

Isobel and Dulcie laughed themselves silly at a prank well pulled, and all parties settled down for a well-deserved sleep. 

-

The next day

“I can’t help but feel like I’m forgetting something...” Henry said to Siobhan as she drove him down to Tidmouth the next morning. 

“Me too.” She said as they pulled into the passing loop at Haultraugh. 

A very pale looking Duck rolled in with the morning’s train. He whistled a weak hello to Henry, and practically jumped off the rails when Henry’s ‘hooter’ whistle replied. 

“WHERE Did yOU geT ThAT?!” He demanded shakily. 

Henry now knew exactly what they’d forgotten. “I found it on the ground.” He said quickly. 

Duck looked more horrified than before. “It was REAL!” He said, scuttling away in terror. 

Fin.

--

Henry’s appearance is based off of the following ideas: 

https://youtu.be/8grHpQAB1jA?t=205

https://youtu.be/zBm-ONvNhS4

https://youtu.be/ZB1rTgUesDc?t=64

[navelgazed]

Lol I'm sorry I keep basically vaguing

Cw talk of intrusive thoughts and subjective reality

So like...I've had this thing my whole life, terror that something was going to happen to me. I used to not be able to sleep without every inch of my body being covered, I learned how to mask the sound of my breathing, because I was convinced as a child, or rather just terrified, that someone was going to come into our house and either shoot me or stab me while I was sleeping. I made sure to ask God to forgive me every night before sleeping because I was so scared someone would kill me in my sleep and I'd go to hell. When I was a child I literally could not go to the bathroom and close the door if no one was in the back half of the house because I was scared someone was hiding there and was going to kill me, or something scary would happen to me if I closed the door.

In my adult life, I still have to lock my bedroom door if I'm home alone for the night. I have had moments where I hear a noise and have been so petrified it's a home invader that I've sat in my bedroom for 30 minutes trying to convince myself to run to the front door because I'm already late for work. I will sometimes have intrusive thoughts about faces appearing in windows or ghosts right behind me that petrify me.

I have improved, somewhat, in that I can (mostly) sleep uncovered now, and that I can at least spend time in my apartment alone before dark without freaking out, and that I can most times talk myself down from the freeze response over the fear of turning around or looking in a window. I only freak out over the fear of seeing something else in a mirror on occasion.

I know this stuff is irrational and improbable. When people say stuff about brains creating reality, I'm not going to freak out and believe that means I can manifest a face in the window; it literally just means our perceptions are our view into reality, and that it is very difficult if not impossible to have a completely unbiased, factual view of reality, and that the only way we know to measure it is flawed because it is through self-perception.

I don't tell myself there's no ghost behind me or there's no one in the window or there's no home invaders because that stuff is literally impossible. Quite the opposite, a lot of those fears came from hearing about things that have actually happened to other people. I tell myself that because it's 1. Statistically unlikely and 2. Because it is not helpful to me to indulge in these fears and prevents me from going about my life. That is the practical reason.

I literally cannot allay these fears by telling myself that there's some objective reality where nothing bad or scary will ever happen to me because that's just as much denying reality as anything else.

The idea that you are locked into one single brain your whole life and your brain interprets what you see into something it can understand is just like...it's fact. Those interpretations can get fucked up in a lot of ways. General consensus about physical reality is important, but one man's hallucination is another man's religious revelation, and both interpretations are correct to each individual. It's your brain, and you need to figure out what helps you and what doesn't, and go with that. Trying to enforce a consensus about mental reality is sort of futile.