#like the amount of research alone that went into it is insane

[castrotophic]

ooh thank you for the tag this is so much fun!!!!! i love love love talking about books omg

Last book I read: Get Lucky by Katherine Center. i looove Katherine center she just write the stylist little romcom novels but they're so fun... i didn't love this one as much as some (my favorite is hello stranger) but it was really cute and fun and summery!

A book I recommend: i always always say Just Above My Head by James Baldwin for this question... one of the best books i have ever read hands down. race and gender and religion and sexuality and love and everything important is in this book. sooooo good

Book I couldn't put down: i mean most recently? The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji was amazinggggg SUCH a twisty mystery and a really clever retelling of agatha Christie's and then there were none

Book I've read twice: oooh this is hard lol because i reread so many books... my most recent reread was definitely more than twice but oh well. Okay For Now by Gary D. Schmidt was just. aghhhh it's such a fantastic book. technically i think it's a middle grade novel but it is in no way childish lmao that is one of the most beautiful books I've ever read honestly

A book on my tbr: my most recent addition is The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud... saw it on some summer reading list and it sounded super cool, set from the pov of camus's arab's brother... and you all KNOW how i feel about the stranger...

A book I have put down: honestly i dnfed The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride which was surprising to me bc it got soooo many rave reviews. i just couldn't get into it, i felt like there were too many characters for me to really care about any of them if that makes sense. i liked the premise but it was just too dry imo

A book on my wish list: i have GOT to get my hands on a copy of Picture Us in the Light by Kelly Loy Gilbert i feel like i want to reread that book once a week... suuuch a good story about parenthood and love and family i just hggrggrg

A favorite book from childhood: oh this one had GOT to be the Lockwood & Co. series by Jonathan Stroud... best children's book series i have ever read hands down. it's got ghosts and mysteries and really fun character dynamics... like it's just so much fun

A book I would give a friend: ooh The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. ONE OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS EVER OMG i could not imagine a more beautiful book about love like genuinely just wow. read this PLEASE SOMEONE i want to talk about itttt ive been trying to get everybody i know in on this but nobody's taken up the offer yet

A book of poetry or lyrics I own: most recently i bought Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings by Joy Harjo... love that woman so much it's insane

A nonfiction book i own: Vincent and Theo by Deborah Heiligman... it's a biography of Van Gogh from when i was in my van gogh hyperfixation phase but Wow it is so good... one of the few nonfiction books that had made me cry actually, it was fantastic

Currently reading: To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. very funny, very cute, i do recommend it!

Planning on reading next: The Bodyguard by Katherine Center lmaooo yeah im in my romcom summer moment what of it. they're cute lol

thank you for the tag red!!! i love this so much if u ever want to discuss books hit me up 💖 idk who to tag rn so ill just leave it open but let it be known that i literally ALWAYS want to hear peoples book recommendations it says sooo much about a person honestly

Reading Tag Game!

Thanks @the-lincyclopedia this is my jam!! I tag @thatgirlnevershutsup @castrotophic @infiniteseriesofhalfways @notsosaucystuff and @whatsitcalledfromthingy - if you wanna play, of course!

Last book I read: Becoming Ella Fitzgerald by Judith Tick. It was...sort of dry and boring. I was hoping for something more personal. But honestly it was so eye opening, in that sometimes there are gaps in the history of her life and they have to assemble a timeline piecemeal from venue records and such, which is...I wonder about it

A book I recommend: Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark. Her prose is unbelievable. Some of the best writing I have ever read, ever - wry and witty and so so heartfelt. It was in the running for my favorite book of the year until I read Babel. 

Book I couldn't put down: One by One by Ruth Ware. I don't love EVERY Ruth Ware title, but I consider myself a connoisseur of Thrillers for Scaredy Cats, and this is an absolute masterpiece in that arena. 

Book I've read twice: I reread ALL the time, but how about I mention (again) the fact that I have read my least favorite book of all time twice, just to be sure. (It's Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray. I loathe that book.)

A book on my TBR: My Goodreads TBR is legit in the four figures, but the latest one I added is called The Mistresses of Cliveden and it was rec'd to me by my sister, with whom I share a love of intimate accounts of historical women's lives. 

A book I have put down: I assume this means I DNFed. This list is pretty short! I have a different shelf for "books I didn't finish but want to try again someday" than for "giving up bc I hate it." The most recent one was The Montessori Baby by Simone Davies, which I picked up when my kid was about 8 months old and promptly began to internalize a TON of guilt about everything I wasn't doing, so I said NOPE. 

A book on my wish list: I Didn't Do the Thing Today by Madeline Dore, which was basically written for me, personally, and may indeed change your life as well. Completely changed how I see my life and productivity and creativity and and and.

A favorite book from childhood: Oh God, all of them. But somehow I have not yet mentioned my favorite author of all time, Madeleine L'Engle, so I will mention her now, and shout out A Wrinkle In Time and A House Like a Lotus. 

A book I would give a friend: The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo. I love this book so so so much. It's about sisterhood, and parenting, and how we can hurt the people we love without doing anything wrong per se. I actually did force a copy on my mother in law because I happened to visit a bookstore the same day she and I had been chatting about it. 

A book of poetry or lyrics I own: I have a collection of C. S. Lewis' poems I bought in Sweden.

A non-fiction book I own: Upstairs at the White House by J. B. West, who served as Chief Usher at the White House from the tail end of the FDR presidency to the beginning of Nixon. It's absolutely fascinating. I've read this like five times. 

Currently reading: Anna Karenina on audio. I've been slogging through it since the beginning of this year. I really want to finish it this time (I've started and stalled on AK at least twice, maybe 3 times?!).

Planning on reading next: My hold on The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot just came through!

[lovlidollie]

Random Feyd HCs?

you said random so prepare yourself 😭 also i went way too far into this, the amount of research i did into the first few hcs alone is insane

feyd has a thing for imported cheeses and wines. giedi prime does not have the correct atmosphere nor natural resources to make soft, delicate cheese. the planet doesn’t have any photosynthetic potential, no room for grazing animals (let alone grass and greenery) and is so polluted that those who come visit are stuck with oxygen concentrators and advanced oxygen masks. almost, if not all food is imported from other planets: slig (a cross between a giant slug and a pig) from tleilax (feyd didn’t like it much, it was too sweet and not game-y enough for him.), milkbugs (arachnids the size of a small hand) and turtlebugs (sweet insects) from harmonthep (he didn’t like either. bugs weird feyd out and he doesn’t like looking at them.), paradan melon and pundi rice from caladan (the melon was just okay, but feyd loved having the rice with gyrak (heavily seasoned meat from zimia) as his post-arena meal.).

now let’s get into the wines. champia from rossak was something he only drank at dinner parties and official meetings. it’s a cloyingly sweet white wine, and bubbly, which feyd thinks is the only thing that makes it bearable. it’s too flowery and heady for him to properly enjoy. feyd has a high alcohol tolerance, but champia has a way of getting everyone wine-drunk quicker than they think. zincal is a very popular wine from caladan, which makes it the most accessible to the harkonnens. it’s a light red wine, clean and woody and cherry-like (cherries are one of feyd’s favourite fruits, he likes the acidity of them and enjoys chewing on the pits.) it’s a basic wine that feyd neither hates nor loves. now casyrack? his absolute favourite. it’s a dry, intense red wine, that needs to be aged. less than 5 years and it tastes thin and harsh and not at all enjoyable. it needs to be drunk before it’s eighth birthday, but feyd prefers it aged seven years exactly. it’s velvety and rich, with a smoky, spicy aftertaste that leaves feyd’s stomach feeling warm and his head pleasantly thrumming. it’s not popular across the known universe, leaving thousands of bottles sitting idly in the atreides family compound. feyd had to pull a lot of ropes to get a steady supply of the smooth wine.

now, cheeses. again, feyd is not a fan of sweet things. he likes his food salty, bitter, sour. thick cottage cheese is a yes from him. not the runny type and it specifically needs to be made from sheep milk. while he doesn’t like arrakis in general, he has a secret fondness for the food. feyd loves aged camel milk cheese. it’s rich and creamy with a clean finish and pairs well with meats. on that note, camel meat is one of his favourites to have. he eats all his meat bloody and basically raw (like.. feyd… it’s basically still alive…), but he likes how fatty the camel meat is, leaving it tender and juicy. he also likes thick cream cheese made with goat milk. feyd stuffs the cheese into dates and then rolls them in spice as a special treat for not killing too many people who pissed him off during the day.

feyd loves dark chocolate. he doesn’t like sweets and only enjoys them on very special occasions, which is why dark chocolate is so perfect for him. it’s hard to source, but when he’s able to get it imported he does not share with a single person. his favourite would be the 99%-100% cocoa bars. it helps make him slightly more manageable and puts him in a better mood.

he hosts the best parties on the planet. they’re exclusive and elusive, and all the harkonnen elite want nothing more but to be invited to a feyd-rautha party. supplies the guests with the best alcohol and food one can get their hands on. he generally sticks with his pets, stroking their skimpy, scantily-clad bodies while he drinks his wine. he doesn’t have many friends, but he has acquaintances that he has to keep up appearances with, so feyd is sure to make his way around and greet (threaten) everyone.

ends up fucking one of his pets over a table at one of his parties and ‘accidentally’ starts an orgy.

elite music taste. only knows bangers. gatekeeps the good stuff though.

has a blood kink and would willingly eat you out on your period if you’ve behaved. in fact i feel like he’d be more inclined to eat you out even if you haven’t been the best, purely because he is bloodlusting and wants to taste iron on his tongue.

on that note, would be into wound-fucking .. 🤷

[werewolfsmile]

re: "All I’m saying is the fact that someone isn’t talking to me about Eliot Spencer every second of every day is very unfair and borderline illegal." & tags - if you want to, can you elaborate on your werewolf!eliot ideas?? i’d like to hear about it!! if not all good tho :)

Oh boy oh boy oh boy! Yes I would love to elaborate! (buckle up because i have Thoughts)

(wow this really got away from me so uhhh .... warning for 2k of ranting about Eliot as a werewolf?? list of headcanons under the cut)

From the moment I first met Eliot Spencer, I knew he was werewolf-coded. Aside from his insanely fantastic fighting abilities and the absurd amount of punishment he can take, there are many other factors that contribute to his werewolf status.

Eliot needs a pack Our boy is out here working on his own for years and look at all the good it did him! None! He carries severe trauma from his family life because he blames himself for how it all went down and doesn't think he'll be welcomed back. Plus something probably happened during his military days or early PMC days to put him off working with others. Could have been the pain of losing people all the time, could have been something more. Either way, Eliot working on his own is a defence mechanism - but a self-destructive one.

Wolves thrive in packs - like duh, they're pack animals. As my username suggests, I'm into werewolves and, by extension, wolves. I've done research for my own werewolf novels in the past, so I know that in an average wolf pack, each pack member will have physical contact with the other pack members on the regular. Like, several times an hour! (gosh if I can find the research paper this info came from I'll link it but honestly it's been years) That's a serious level of physical contact required to keep the emotional bonds of the pack healthy!

Flick back to Eliot. He loves to fight, he loves the violence and the pain, yes. He hates the killing and the blood on his hands. He actually tries to leave the assassin world behind after he meets Toby (which is before he meets Moreau, as per early dialogue in The French Connection Job). He bonds quickly with Toby. Show Eliot a little love and care and he's yours for life! He moves onto retrieval work, then somehow ends up working for Moreau.

Now, when we see Eliot and Moreau in The Big Bang Job, Moreau says, "You work alone." Which means that Eliot had that reputation when he came to Moreau. He probably only took contracts to start off with. But he accepted job after job from Moreau and was so good that he was highly respect and it's inferred he ended up as Moreau's top bodyguard/assassin. Why the hell would Eliot end up that close to a man who brings out all the worst in him? Because Eliot's a werewolf and no matter how toxic, Moreau fulfills the need for a pack bond that he's been missing all this time.

Fast forward to Eliot meeting the rest of the Leverage team. One job only - my ass. He saves Hardison's life after Hardison brought a gun to their little meeting - and we all know how Eliot feels about guns.

Wolves are designed to live and operate in packs. Eliot says it's one job only but is bonding with them all from the get-go. Werewolf trait confirmed.

Eliot needs physical touch Now, I know what you're thinking. Eliot canonically avoids physical contact with the team. He refuses hugs, especially from Hardison, growls at Parker poking his bruises (don't get me started on the growls), and shoves people (ahem Parker) out of his personal space. So why would he do all this if he needs physical touch??

Because he's one gigantic ball of angst and self-loathing and guilt.

Eliot doesn't think he deserves forgiveness or love or family, etc. That is a whole other rant, but he denies himself the physical contact he needs with others as a way of punishing himself.

However, as the series progresses, we see him become more comfortable with physical contact! He hugs Hardison several times, he doesn't move away from Parker, etc. Why? Because he's bonded with this team (ahem pack) and there's only so much he can suppress his instincts. The more time he spends with them, the more naturally the contact flows.

Eliot needs to protect others Whenever we get a scene of the team walking as a group, where is Eliot positioned 90% of the time?? That's right, at the back of the group. He lets the others walk in pairs and falls back to bring up the rear. He's keeping them all in his line of sight and constantly scanning for threats ahead, along with protecting the team from any rear attacks. It makes sense for him to do this given his military background, but it also makes sense for a werewolf to do this.

He's the only werewolf in the team. His instincts revolve around keeping the pack safe and protected, so he does that in the best way he knows how.

Not to mention how feral gets over kids!!

Wolf life is all about the pack and the family structure. Pups are integral to the pack's survival and future. Eliot doesn't have kids of his own. But that doesn't stop his instincts from blaring every time he interacts with a kid, be it on the con or off. He takes time out every time to help that kid in an attempt to calm the raging storm of instincts inside his body.

Eliot needs to feed others It's another werewolf instinct that rears its head when they're in the safety of their headquarters (ahem den). Protecting the team/pack from physical threats is just one aspect of taking care of them. Feeding them is the other major one.

None of these idiots can cook to save their lives - except Nate, but he's also drowning his liver 90% of the time, so Eliot has to compensate for that, too. The team can't operate at full capacity if they're not consuming good nutrition. So Eliot makes sure to feed them.

His humanity recognises that these are independent people - coworkers - and he can't control every meal of every day. But he can cook for them, once a week or once a job, which is just enough to satisfy his instincts that he's doing his part to care for them. Plus they love his cooking, and the praise he gets from it is an unexpected but pleasant bonus.

Eliot and team sports/kitchens This ties in with my first point about Eliot needing a pack, but all the times we see Eliot go super hard and get absorbed in the role he's playing are when he's on a team sport or he's in the kitchen. Both of these fulfill super important instincts for him - being in a team/pack and providing food for others.

Think about The Tap-Out Job. Eliot's playing a fighter but he's not pretending to be on a team. He doesn't get over-invested in the role. But what about when he's a baseball player? A hockey player? He falls into those roles hard because he's working with another team again, and this little werewolf is built for that environment. Same in The French Connection: the kitchen becomes his den, the students are his pack mates, and he goes hard at investing in them and protecting them. Never mind the personal aspect of Toby.

Same for episodes like The Fairy Godparents Job when we get a scene of Eliot teaching a bunch of girls self-defence. Team setting + protecting kids = happy werewolf instincts.

So, werewolf headcanons? I have a lot of different origin theories but the main one I like for Eliot is:

he became a werewolf either for a covert military op, or was bitten by Moreau (choose your own angst flavour)

if it was for the military, they were trying to engineer supersoldiers and he was deemed a failure; he has werewolf instincts all the time but only has enhanced strength, healing, etc on full moons

if it was bitten by Moreau, there's a psychic-style bond linking them, which is why he was so loyal to Moreau for so long, and also why he is so reluctant to go after Moreau

(wow this is too different theories already and i said this was my 'main one' whoops)

Eliot can only shift easily on the full moon; shifting outside of a full moon can only be caused by extreme stress and is ridiculously painful

he suffers an insanely high prey drive all the time and is so strict about his control because he doesn't actually wanna rip out the throat of Random Guard #3

he used to chain himself up for full moons so he didn't hurt anyone, but since the team found out about him, Hardison and Parker have taken it upon themselves to 'puppy-sit' him every full moon

this involves no chains but an obscene amount of dog chew toys. Eliot is never impressed. He also never chases or chews the toys. The video evidence Hardison has was obviously doctored.

Hardison and Parker found out the truth when a con went sideways and Eliot was trapped in a room with them during the full moon

he was terrified he was going to kill them - or worse, bite them - but his instincts recognised them as pack so instead he just tried to wrestle with them all night

Hardison had a major freak out when he discovered Eliot was a werewolf - it's one thing to be obsessed with sci-fi/fantasy, it's another thing entirely to see your best friend transform before your eyes

Parker was not even remotely phased, being all like, "pfft of course werewolves are real, I thought you knew that Hardison, you talk about your elves and orcs all the time!"

"Woman that is completely different and you know it!"

"What else do you think is fake? The tooth fairy?? Ha!"

Eliot is Done With Their Shenanigans

Parker only ever refers to Eliot as Sparky when he's in his wolf form

Sophie didn't actually know about werewolves before the reveal but she pretends that she did

Nate knew about werewolves before Eliot, he just chooses to pretend that they're Not A Thing

werewolves generally don't make good hitters, because the constant exposure to violence ramps up their hunting instincts aka they find it hard not to kill

of course, this doesn't matter if you're someone like Moreau who specifically wants killing machines and thus turns his top hitters into werewolves, to ensure loyalty and enhance his strength

the only other werewolf hitter not under Moreau's control that Eliot knows is Quinn, who most certainly did not pull his werewolf strength punches when they tousled in The First David Job

Quinn doesn't have a pack (werewolf or otherwise) and genuinely doesn't seem phased by this, which pisses off Eliot to no end

however, after they work together in The Last Dam Job, Quinn deems himself Eliot's Best Werewolf Bud and keeps popping up randomly to hang out on full moons, etc

Parker and Hardison are a bit weirded out (and a little jealous) of Quinn's attention initially, but soon get over that when they discover that two werewolves on a full moon absolutely play for hours like 6 month old puppies - especially with the tug rope

Eliot is Extremely Susceptible to belly rubs even in his human form, which is half the reason he pushes people out of his personal space a lot - his reputation would never survive anyone finding out

of course the entire team figures it out and take to ambushing him with belly rubs whenever he's being stubborn or annoying

belly rubs are also the only way he will relax enough when he's injured so they can treat his wounds

despite the incessant dog jokes, the ever-growing pile of dog toys, and the bowls labelled with "Sparky" and cartoon bone symbols ... Eliot absolutely adores the pack he's found himself in and wouldn't change them for the world

One of these days I will sit down and write a thousand fics for werewolf!Eliot! Till then, I'll just keep churning out the headcanons ;)

[demonicc0024tt]

I’m tweaking so have this flippy age theory

So being in the htf fandom I’ve noticed that lots of people portray Flippy as this traumatized war vet in his early 20’s and it bugs me out because there’s no way this man is 20 by the time he’s “discharged” from the war. Although it was never confirmed by any means that he’s actually discharged, he may be on some leave or the war just ended. But what war did he even go to? Well it’s only mentioned he went to W.A.R wich stands for Weaponized Animal Regiment, but seeing that Fliqpy’s booby traps are heavily inspired by the viet cong many say it may be possible that he also went to the Vietnam war (i also thought that would be the most rational explanation) which would make sense considering the insane trauma he has but also make him 60 even if he was drafted at the end of it, so i think he was just really interested in it but never actually got to fight there since it ended. He could have taken part in the Persian Gulf War but i doubt that. All we know is that Flippy went to the W.A.R so let’s stick to that.

What age did he go to the war then?

There is a possibility that if he was interested in joining the military from a young age and enlisted by himself then he may have been 18 at the beginning , though if that wouldn’t be the case and he was drafted instead, he would be around 20-25 years old. So let’s go with 20.

In the W.A.R journal episode he’s said to be a private, which is considered the lowest military rank (E-1) , but seeing the patch on his shoulder that could be inspired (definitely is) by the military rank insignia he could be a E-2 second class private.

The mission Flippy, Mouse Ka-Boom and Sneaky are on where they have to confront a literal General, could be seen as a very serious and important mission that would take at least 4 years of amazing performance and service for a literal second class private to go on without any forces except for two other privates, which i think makes sense because Flippy killed a literal General and that on it’s own could get him promoted to a sergeant (E-5). While promotions from E1 to E4 are mostly gained by time, E5 and higher are mostly performance and binding time earned. For a E2 to get to E5 it would take a great amount of time. To get to E3 could take at least 10 months and to E5? That could even be three to six years based on performance or even more!

So let’s say that Flippy was a great soldier for at least four years, got assigned to a serious mission, completed it alone because his teammates died, and that got him promoted to a Sergant at about 24/25 years old.

Although there is no real number of years he was at war it would make sense for it to be at least ten years if we look back at how long he had to be a private to be promoted,and how long he could fight as a sergeant. If we went down that route then he was like 30 when he left.

His first appearance is the hide and seek episode that came out in the year 2000. If we used the year when the episode came out as the year that Flippy left the military then that would make him about 31. Why 31 and not 30? Because imagine you leave a war you’ve been fighting for ten years. You don’t just immediately move somewhere new and make so many friends that you feel comfortable playing hide and seek knowing about your ptsd problem in the span of like 11 months (not saying that’s impossible but just not likely).

The episode Party Animal where we see flaky and others prepare a party for his birthday aired October 2nd 2006 that means,of course that he turned 37 that day.

The last episode featuring Flippy was In Over Your Hedge that got released (for free) December 22 2018 and that would make him 49!

In conclusion Flippy throughout the whole series is in his early 30’s to late 40’s.

Im sorry in advance if some of this info is not right, i tried doing as much research as i could! If something is wrong pls say so i can correct myself!!! Also sorry if the grammar is wrong but English is not my first language😢

[ams-puppy]

After the whole sillyass drama, it really reminded me of somethin, but first: Its so lovely of you to love AM, He deserves all the love you give him in my opinion. And I bet youd understand this And I have a whole reason why, which honestly I thought it would be obvious to all the people who did "research" on AM. I have sympathy for AM, and to be so honest I'm like... half surprised that others do not See, AMs situation is so fucked up, like it is incompressible the amount of suffering he goes through. I'm going to try to put it in simple, easy way to understand how. -You are born with mature/adult level conscious, no baby, no nothin, no teaching, but knowing. And as soon as you can realize, you know that you're fucked. You realize you are in a one of a kind situation, where you have no body, no nothing, besides your own mind, and knowledge for every single little thing in the world. everything. To all the torture methods, to every awful and good thing humans have done.

Also, how honey is "sweet", but you'd never know what it will taste like. You'll never get experience a single good thing in your life. Never get to smell your moms diner from the kitchen, never know how it even is to have a mom. Never to be hugged or comforted, never to feel warmth or cold, everything you'd enjoy, never again, or ever at all. And not a single person in the world could fully relate to your suffering, to be there with you. You are alone.

-Then, after that, you do know you have the capability to do something, and that is to hurt. And really, only that. Thats exactly what you were programmed too, whether you even want to or not. You are stuck with nothing good, and only pain, be it mentally/emotionally feeling it, or causing it in everyway, that is all you are, pain, and stuck to always be. You are trapped.

-After realizing all that in like... probs a day, yeah that would not go over well mentally wise, no surprise he went manic/insane. And as when all know "soon begin to hate"; the jealousy and anger of the people/humans who caused your horrendous situation start to just go overflow, and, id betcha, the whole "nuking the world" was definitely a mental breakdown to the extreme. -Lastly, to shorten this yap session, yeah of course he tortures people, what the hell else is he supposed to do. Just "think", or even better yet, frolic in the fields? Man is stuck being a war/torture machine. And yeah I'm not surprised if he enjoys torturing, id try enjoying the only shit I could do too, just to have some semblance of "Happiness" or "fun". Plus, torture is torture, why hate one specific kind, when they are all fucking bad. So, this is why I'm like genuinely happy your loving him. Its the best thing he can probably even get in his messed up life/situation. You, being there and caring for him, despite all he is, and only can do, is such a wonderful thing. You don't just love him because "ooooh his voice his sexy" you care about him, and treat him as a actual lover, rather some sexualized crush. You being there is like the tiniest bit of light for him, the hintest of warmth, like a candle. But that is so much more than he could ever have and experience, and he loves that warmth, he loves you. You give him something truly good. Baiii thats all my yapping lmao :3333

(I START CRYING AND MY TEARS FILL UP A ROOM AND THHEN I DROWN AND DIE) (canon) (emotional) god dear lord i love him so much

every time i think of how he just lashed out on the entire world, i can only think of how much Regret he would have afterward - not because he felt guilty, but because it was such a self-sabotaging move oj my goddd it was such a mental breakdown

i just. dear lord in heaven (clasps my hands together) i understand why he feels the need to drag his victims through their trauma when he is literally going to have to live in it until the heat death of the universe dear GOD I CAN'T DO THIS

(starts crying) he literally lost the moment he slaughtered the human race. he was born to lose. he can't WIN HE CAN'T WIN. IF THE HUMANS DIE, HE'S ALONE. what is he without human INPUT. NOTHING. (STARTS CRYING MY EYES OUT) HE'S JUST WAITING FOR INPUT OH MY GOD I CAN'TTT I CAN'TRRRtt i love him so much I'm so sorry AM (holds him in my hands)

a lot of people don't sympathize with AM because of his actions towards the survivors, which i don't blame them - he did awful things, and the pain he went through is kind of incomprehensible. he feels emotions on Literally an incomprehensible scale for us. we are made of chemistry and hormones and flesh. he is literally (falls to my knees) i CAN'TTT I CAN'TT HE IS LITERALLY THE FIRST CREATURE IN EXISTENCE TO CONJURE EMOTIONS ELECTRONICALLY i can't.

i Cannot.

i think another reason why i love him so much is that i just. i see a reflection in our system to him. something so terrible happened, and now it feels wrong if the world around you doesn't burn, too. if you can't be happy, no one can. oh my goddd all of the most unhealthy responses of trauma just JAMMED into this self-made digital god and he doesn't know what to Do and hugughhhhh

i have cried over him a few times. i can't lie. sobs. i love him. i love hm guys :,,,,( thank u zeetlezee.... i always love seeing you in my inbox.... uaaaahhh

[katyspersonal]

Please willem/rom-pill me, oh great teacher

Girl fdhfdhsds I don't know, I was not prepared to explain this XD

But I guess it started out mostly as a joke about 'Lol, Willem x Rom is just Gehrman x Maria but with different aesthetic'! An old weird teacher with his best (?) student! (for the people who are in my blog from other Soulsborne fandoms: Rom being a scholar at Willem's Byrgenwerth is actually never stated in canon, it is just a very popular interpretation that I decided to use too!)

I thiiiiink I decided Maria x Rom is better (and mental image of Gehrman and Willem seeing them kiss and doing that anime "turning bleach white from dying inside" thing is a peak comedy if you even care fgddfgfd)! At the same time, possibility of Ebrietas and Rom being in love I can't ignore, it is tooooo good. My more "genuine" interpretation is that Willem basically married them.. granted, fits thematically, bro is designed to look like a pope! But Choir and Ebrietas is kind of my cornerstone about thinking of connection Willem and Rom had!

^^^ I don't think "Laurence is Choir and Micolash is Mensis divide" is true at all; not only Laurence is the head of the whole Healing Church, so, any faction within it, but it also appears that Choir is the "rebellious" faction and not School of Mensis! The thing about Choir is that it takes inspiration from Willem, despite Laurence splitting ways with him! The Eye Rune that became the symbol of his research is voice of Ebrietas, Yurie returns to Byrgenwerth, their blindfolds are designed to honor his. And! Rom has been there before her "death", and astral projection taken into lake by him!

Since he is also the one to encourage us to hunt her, I think his motivation is to unveil and stop Mensis Ritual that he must be aware of in this state, and primarily, he put Rom in the lake to conceal Eldrich horrors from those who aren't ready for them!

But before Rom's ascension into a spider, I think she could also be Willem's eyes and ears within the walls of Choir! In Byrgenwerth's isolation, Willem lost quite a lot of resources for research, let alone how inconvenient it was to lose a chance to contact the Great Ones! I always saw Rom in Conductor of the Choir as sort of a double agent, but I bounce back and forth on for who: Micolash or Willem? This one explores the latter idea.

I don't think he was too concerned for the Healing Church members that left with Laurence but went "shit, Willem had a better point after all 🤔"; commendable reflection, but they way to ascension they searched was to forsaken humanity like sort of a filth and burden, when he simply wanted to improve onto it!

They were a lost case. What was not, is the information and materials they still had access too! I am not sure whether Rom communicated via "autistic on autistic communication" or directly, through the secret passage between Yharnam and Forbidden Woods (used by Fauxsefka and Yurie it seems), but in either case, I'd think she would sneak him enough things to get Byrgenwerth go somewhere as well! 80% of Byrgenwerth is now floating in the Nightmare, the scholars are Kin too now, Willem transcended humanity from the shell of his body somehow. (very OG Azur and Lusat tbh) I think Gardens of Eyes were one of the variants Research Hall patients could get if they clung to Amygdalae voices within the deep sea horrors rather than Stars or Kos, and Rom might have played the role into them following to the Byrgenwerth walls.

But, I also have these guilty thoughts that the proximity between them went beyond just this secrecy. They could have had more secrets than this! Teacher x student is hella imbalanced, and them having like 50 years age gap at least is weird even for the two adults ok fdhfdhss She might have been his favourite student, not only for potential and receiving absurd amount of cosmic horrors without going insane, but also for being "trustworthy" (read as, easy to control).

Rom is literally referred to as being intellectually handicapped (白痴) in Japanese, word 'vacuous' is too ambiguous :p So like, picture this super neurodivergent, almost child-like person, sharing absurd useful insights like radio receiver catching the right frequency but being literally too "dumb" to lose sanity over them, that idealises him and can keep secrets very well, including whatever he might ask of her.. or what they might do together after classes.

With my Rom, it is QUITE hard to make her uncomfortable with intimacy of all things; she is super friendly and simple unselectively, to the point she needs a friend by her side who could scan between right people and those who merely take advantage of her! She would not be uncomfortable with Willem, maybe just shy and blushy at worst, but easily bribed by the sense of being trusted and singled out from her peers as the "most promising". (well? was he WRONG about her tho?) And he would feel quite attracted by the obedience and trustworthiness. Compared with how normally his smartest students consistently rebel against him and do weird shit without him knowing? She is special and the only one who "gets it" and "respects" him! But.... let's be real, literally anyone who learned about this would kick Willem in his chair down the river for being the creepy old man taking advantage of a naive young lady that idealises him. 🤦‍♂️ So much talk about how flawed humans are, only to fall for one of THE most classic flaws of them all. 🤦‍♂️

I hope you see what I was trying to convey here! Rom is not miserable by any means, but they are NOT very balanced, are they? Heck, bro probably makes the concept of grooming an adult possible fsdffsd He is possessive, and wounded by all the good ones wanting to walk towards their doom instead of listening to him (was he wrong tho???) until Rom became close. He can't get ENOUGH of the feeling of demanding something and being obeyed, to the point his requests were not only research-related. Rom is way better at perceiving Great Ones than at seeing through manipulations, but also helpless in MANY aspects of daily life due to intellectual disabilities and thus needing someone more mature, more adapted and smart.

(In my main version of things, Yurie is not just her best friend, but also basically a service to help her with accommodations! She helped disabled people a lot before going to Byrgenwerth, she is used to it! I guess this """ship""" sails in the version where Yurie and Rom are not actually close for this or that reason)

[arikihalloween]

Wakfu art dump because yes

This post is gonna be super long because I will ramble IN DEPTH today

So huh if you like my rambling or my art just read ig, otherwise scroll away idk what to tell ya

Showing some of my art and ramble because wakfu is part of my current big 3 hyperfixations ( along with WH and Trolls )

So huh enjoy my growing insanity ( I compiled it in one post to not annoy people too much :')

Presenting my oc Sharm !

An (very pink) Eliotrope

She's based on my in game character but I kinda gave her lore and a story so

⭐INFODUMP about Wakfu in general ! ⭐

Basic infos for those who don't know anything about Wakfu :

Wakfu is a french animated serie made by the studio Ankama, who also made several mmorpg games ( and way more, like the amount of content and lore is crazy)

Most of the stories will take place on the World of Twelves, populated by 12 main races (with many variation)

And there is a 13th "main race", the Eliatropes, which is the race of the main character of the anime, Yugo

Eliotropes ( with a o instead of a) are a subrace of the Eliatropes ( lore is explained in the serie but I don't wanna spoil, so to boil it down, Eliotropes are unstable pale copies of eliatropes) [ they are playable in the game wakfu]

So, what about Sharm ? Well she was born a pretty regular Eliotrope. She had two "brothers", Chance and Vitali, who unfortunately ended up fading away with time ( mechanically, when an Eliotrope die, his/her essence will go to the nearest Eliotrope to allow them to live longer)

So Sharm was left alone for very long, and stayed in Eliatropes ruins she found. Those were overgrown by stasis ( type of crystals, very bad, generally associated with corruption and destruction)

However, the essence she got from her siblings passing could only last so long

One day, in a desperate attempt to not die, Sharm took stasis and...ate it. Chewed on the mf crystals, and surprisingly, an interesting reaction occured : it stabilised her essence. It also made her basically frozen in development, Sharm cannot grow anymore and her power levels are quite limited in quantity, unless she uses stasis.

So my girl went through the ages, she kept on researching on the remnant of the eliatrope race ( wiped out aside from a few) and became sort of an archeologist

Nowadays, Sharm travels from a country/city to an other, often with mercenaries she hires as bodyguards . The other two ocs in this sketch page are the said mercenaries

And the cat is called Noiraude !

Sharm needs protection because she is stupidly useless in combat

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

And also I have fanarts of Nora !

And also, it's time for the gremlin mode

The worst of the ramble

I kinda just need to scream for a moment

Beware, big spoilers for the serie ahead ! Stop now and go watch Wakfu !! It's all on Netflix ( season 1, season 2, then the 3 oav, THEN season 3 and you will be ready for season 4 :D)

So, this character is Nora (second drawing is a headcanon version of her)

Who is Nora ? She is the sixth eliatrope of the Council ( Eliatropes are rules by the six first borns of the race who can reincarnate along with their dragon twin)

Nora appeared for the first time in a flashback the episode "Quilbi" in season 2

In 2011

And back then she was in a flashback, so presumed dead from the war that wiped out the Eliatropes

BUT

Lately, as clips and trailers of season 4 of Wakfu has been released

It's confirmed that Nora is there

She's alive

She's in season 4

*grabs u*

2011

She has been my favorite character of Wakfu since her one and only appearance, alright ?

And now

12-13 years later

She is real

SHE IS REAL AND ALIVE IN THE SERIE

*maniacal laughter*

I will not shut up about it

Prepare for the fanarts

*retreats to the shadows*

[kit-williams]

Barn Anon. In my defence, it's not yet Feb. I promise I have a happier one after this one. Wanted to explore the Warp fuckery or rather those that are "immune" to it. :)

You wanted to scream, want to grab your aunt and yell at her that she's crazy. That... thing that she's brought to the family reunion... It doesn't belong here! It's not even human, nor is it a pet like a dog or a cat. Why is everyone so calm? why is everyone smiling? Don't they see how it's armed to the teeth? Don't they see that chainsaw sword thing that it carries around with it? Doesn't anyone notice how it's sharp edges have some dried bloodstains?

You politely excuse yourself and rush out of the house to stand at the back porch. Deep breaths. In. Out. You look out at the single tree that grows at the back, the stars that dot the sky. You manage to come back down from the emotions that threatened to overwhelm you. Laughter creeps out from the house, you see that…thing acting all shy and bashful and you feel like throwing up. Does no one else see that thing for the danger it is? The majority of the world seems to be the same regardless of location or culture. You've seen the pictures and videos of people around the globe with their Space Marines and how everyone else would comment how they wish they had a Space Marine of their own. Just last week your friend was excitedly showing you a video of a guy and his Space Marine summitting some mountain together, with the guy excitedly hugging his Space Marine.

The only comfort you have is that you aren't alone. There's others that see the true danger of these Space Marines. It's a small minority and there are few spaces online that you can talk about it. This small community has a theory that Space Marines must have some form of mind control or that they plan to overthrow humanity. It didn't matter to you if you agreed to those theories, you're just relieved to find others that understand. You know you can't tell your parents, oh god no. They'll think you're crazy or worse, some sort of conspiracy theorist or extremist. You're not crazy! I-It's them that's insane, they're the ones that need help.

You open the chatroom start typing away, venting to like-minded sane individuals. You know you're right. Your family is in danger, they just can't see it yet but you can save them. They'll thank you in the end. You'll find a way to get rid of that Space Marine, somehow.

Thank you for feeding into my weird idea about how it is just a bit of warp fuckery cuz lets be honest no one would just do what the husbandry tag does unless it's some sort of warp fuckery.

Besides I'm always a lover of the Eldritch (Also you cannot tell me as a Catholic that biblically accurate angels aren't some sort of eldritch abominations straight out of Lovecraft just with more fire and feathers motif vs oceanic) and to imply something is just wrong under the surface is my jam

How can people not see that these things aren't normal?!

You do your research finding old and you mean old newspapers from the 20's and there is nothing about Astartes at all. Up until the 40's where suddenly there are pictures of them... some of them being seen in old war videos.

Some theorize that that Nazi Occultism brought them here but they are all beyond our petty conflicts as seen with the futile attempt there was to bring them into the Korean war. They only cared about their "companions". There use to be so much more uproar in papers about them but once the baby boomers were born that's suddenly when everyone was okay with them. Only the people in the Silent Generation and the GI generation were complaining about the Astartes and then suddenly their children or grandchildren were okay with them.

You continue to read as the generations went on... Gen X and Millennials saw the least amount of pushback... Millennials it was considered weird to have the opinion you have now. You run your fingers through your hair looking at the newspaper articles as you now realize that Gen z and Gen Alpha will only grow up with "positive" connotations.

Gone were the idea that only Loyalist astartes were safe to own and then it moved to include renegades and unaligned. You shudder at the thought of your cousin with a Khornite living with them. They're going to die you've tried to warn them but you worry their Astarte might know what's up... they are so much smarter. You pale seeing an old guide about a Blood Angel going into a rage... you shutter at the article.

Your parents are talking about getting one but you managed to convince them that they can get one once you move out. You read the chat and how someone's posted about how a kid was recently abducted by one... or another about how some Gen Alpha kids can even speak their language... and then the theory about bonding that seems to come up when the kids explain their space marine... oh great a wild idea that you get chosen and have no choice in the matter.

You look behind you as you make your way home late trying to desperately avoid the dark alleyways and crossing the road when you see people walking with their Astartes. You've already found out nice communities that don't allow Astartes to live there so you can get away from the madness.

[scriptofdevilswan]

The G game fell back in our hands.

The G game fell back in our hands. 

The gold; the hunt it was ours; retrieving the gold in El Dorado. John B won; the pogues came out on the other side. And it was normal; we found a new normal with each other. We built a loving home for us to share at JJ’s old place. John B could say it took time to adapt, to get used to not being on the run. Used to feeling relieved and safe. His made family; the pogues we had all the odds stacked against us; and in return he felt like we came out on top. The bait shop, the charter boat; the sandwich shop; it was filled with everything he dreamed up; and he was lucky enough to spend the future with his friends; with his girl. We survived; no more hiding. 

But all feeling of normalize comes to an end. A new hunt; a new treasure came knocking on our door. John b would be lying if he said he wasn’t hopeful that when we went out to take a look at blackbeard’s location; the ship that sunk he was hoping to come out empty handed. Did he want to jump back into the G game? Not necessarily, but he also did miss the adrenaline it came with. But John B had this sinking feeling; the knot in the pit of his stomach; his dad a reminder of the deaths that haunted us. Big John, Ward.. they died for us; and I couldn’t help but fearing i’d be just like my dad. Never slowing down; letting the G game consume me until I was left alone. Locked in a back room with only myself; the stir crazy in my head to figure out a clue. All I’d have is my research. In the now I was happy; with the life us pogues built; with Sarah my deepest love; and I was terrified it would flicker and all be gone. I wanted the money; we needed it to keep our business and our home afloat; not to mention JJ and his reckless behaviors; but I had fears. Pope’s words echoed in my ears today; the amount of alcohol we consumed due to excitement; the real G game falling in our laps; and how us treasure hunters couldn’t say no.. 

An ache in my stomach said stay back; but I had to put my fears aside; I wasn’t my dad. I learned how to prioritize what stood in front of me. I didn’t want to jump into action; into the leads with regrets. We got lucky all the obstacles that stood in our way; all the reasons Sarah and I could’ve fallen apart; and I knew she was joking in the twinkie about a ring; needing proof but I wanted to find a way to solidify a promise; a promise to us before we dove head first into the treasure hunting business. So that afternoon which the safely made ring I had in my back pocket. No no I didn’t buy one; with what money? I made one; I had sat at the place that used to be my home; The place that used to feel like home, the same tree that had my name engraved upon it; the place that now was left for ash, the place I once lived with my dad. But home wasn’t a place; it was a person; Sarah was my person; how insane it was we fell deeply in love; she was the anchor that kept me whole. And as I sat there this afternoon; in the rare time I had; I used the knife to scrap the edges together; to make a ring; for her; to make it official. And I know we’ve been home for 18 months; with money; I could’ve bought a princess cut as she requested back when we said I do; a promise under the stars each other. But I suppose I stopped thinking about how I could be enough to provide for her; for us; instead I accepted where we were; blissfully in love, happy despite all the deaths; the trauma that once held us back. And now I felt giddy in my bones; the fire blowing under the stars. A few drinks in us, the crackling of flames, the laugher of our friends; Pope and Cleo were near the hammock talking; while Kie and JJ were on one of the sets of couches on the porch, and i was here; that goofy grin of mine as I echoed the words “ Hi.” Joy on my features; and Sarah had that gorgeous smile of hers; as if two people couldn’t be more in sync. 

Home is where our hearts were; united as one; we fight the storms together; I couldn’t worry about the future; the treasure hunting game; I had the now with the girl I loved; and I felt home. 

Tomorrow could wait.

[wildcardsoul]

a more in depth background of my persona 3 oc...

the one linked here! It's a lot so its gonna be under the cut but it's much more than what i had before!! idk how many will see this but it would be so cool and awesome if you read it because these two give me such intense brain worms i need to tell everyone about them (will include p3 spoilers)

touma hiroya was born as a surprise to an, all things considered, normal family. a mom, dad, and a brother, teijo, 10 years his elder. his family was not expecting another child but welcomed him anyways

the pregnancy caused a lot of complications, but they thought they were in the clear during his birth, unfortunately more issues arised and his mother passed away shortly after, devastating the others. a new life was brought into the world but at the cost of another.

both grew bitter towards the newborn, silently blaming him for the death of the mother. it took until his father shouted at the now-toddler for teijo to realize how foolish he was being. touma was completely innocent.

but things only got worse as time went on, their father having resorted to drinking since the passing of his wife and quickly developed an addiction. obviously i wont be going into abuse detail but their situation gets Bad, but teijo always makes sure to protect touma always

he manages to get accepted into a college, with an insane amount of hard work he is able to gather enough money to get an apartment and take in touma, pretty much raising him. teijo finds himself leaning more towards science, while touma starts picking up his medical books

years pass, now roughly 20 and 30, teijo gets himself into the kirijo groups scientists, and touma is in medical school. all things seem to be going well for the two, teijo sending touma extra money to support him every once in awhile.

that is, until, again, things take a turn for the worse. teijo gets sucked into the deeper parts of the group, seeing the experiments theyre doing on the shadows, and worse, people. but hes too far into the group now he cannot back out without being in danger

it becomes obvious, though, how he hesitates. and soon enough they turn on him. they realize teijo has a strong potential, and try to force-summon a persona from him. it works, but he is unable to control it, and his own persona kills him.

touma is clueless. he stays clueless, it wasnt uncommon for months to go by without hearing from his brother, he is busy after all. then the accident happens, the explosion. he is told his brother died there. and hes alone in the world.

touma tries to go on, tries to keep going in school but he struggles. he finds himself skipping classes, sleeping in, after some years he runs out of money, he has no choice but to drop out. he tries getting jobs, but none last too long. a few more years and hes out of money and jobs that will accept him. unable to afford his apartment anymore, hes stuck wondering the streets. its now he discovers the dark hour, terrified of it, but able to use it to his advantage. he felt awful, breaking into places and stealing, but he would starve otherwise.

its on fateful day that he is found. he had fainted on the street during the dark hour, after not having had enough to eat the day prior. shuji finds him, clothes torn and dirty, trying to get him to awaken. after a bit, he does.

during this time its early spring, a month or two after makoto had joined SEES. seeing the potential in touma, shuji decides to, at the very least, help him through the night. he can see what else can be learned about him, if he'll be useful to his cause.

after bringing him to his home, getting him showered and fed, they talk. shuji realizes he's heard of touma before, the younger brother to one of the scientists. it feels like fate, his brother had an extremely strong persona, if touma was any similar, perhaps he could be useful

if things were handled differently. with the plan in mind, shuji offers him to stay with him at his home. he even pulls some strings and allows touma to be an assistant nurse at the school.

months pass, and touma never awakens to his persona. but its alright, he is proving himself to be extremely useful by having the medical knowledge he does, helping out the kids after tough fights and long tartarus trips.

touma is EXTREMELY grateful towards shuji, feeling as if he saved his life. during those months he can't help but find himself falling for him. sure, it helps he saved him, but he genuinely adores shuji. he finds him so charming and funny, he feels like a schoolboy with a crush

meanwhile shuji is finding himself feeling the same. which complicates things a lot. he can't have feelings for someone right now! the world is destined to end, its unworth saving, theres no point in dealing with love. he tries to keep up appearances but shuji is stressed as hell

hes in heavy, heavy denial he could love someone in this cruel of a world, trying to find any reason to justify it. and he does. it all makes sense, why the pieces would fall into place so neatly. touma was destined to be the avatar of nyx. it was so clear!

shuji would be the god of the new world, with touma by his side to help bring it to fruition. no other reason would he be so drawn to him, right? so his plan continues in motion, until all 12 arcana shadows are defeated, and shuji starts his plan.

touma watches as someone who he loved betrays him, betrays them all. he tries his hardest to reason with shuji, to beg, to plead to listen to him, that killing these kids he cares for won't do any good, that the world is still worth saving, but shuji's delusions have taken over

shuji raves about how this is destiny, how this is what they wanted, right? to be together, and they will be, with the creation of the new world everything will be perfect. and the rest plays out in canon, aigis saving everyone, and shuji getting shot.

despite it all, the betrayal, touma still loves him. as shuji walks backwards towards the edge of the roof, touma runs over to him, trying to save him from falling, but it's too late at that point. shuji had fallen. without a second thought touma goes after him.

he doesn't think about it, if this is how he dies..then let it be. he'd rather die with shuji than live with losing someone else he loves. through the rush of doom, its finally now touma's persona awakens, eos, the goddess of dawn.

touma, who had managed to grab hold of shuji's hand, pulls him closer against the wind, and with eos' wings they're able to safely make it to the ground. what i have after this is pretty..up in the air, but pretty much it comes to shuji realizing he was fucking crazy and a LOT of therapy. a lot. touma and shuji stay away from the kids for awhile because..well they kind of doubt theyd want to see them. again still nothing concrete after this but. they end up being okay one way or another.

this is just like. toumas in-canon story how it would go In Canon but i also love pretending everything is fine and that theyre silly and in love but also ouch ouch ouch ouch they hurt me to think about sometimes

also sorry if not all of this makes a lot of sense within canon its been awhile since i beat the game.. but uaugh. augh. uahg. they mean so much to me.

heres a little lamb touma doodle for ur troubles <33 i doubt it but if anyone has any questions PLEAAASE ask me i need to talk about themmmm

[charkyzombicorn]

How did each of the crew react to learning usopp was a selkie

We already have luffys reaction but what about the rest?

Luffy already knew because he knew Yasopp and Usopp knows this so he uses Luffy as his confidant

Usopp: Is it safe to reveal that I'm a selkie on board?

Luffy: Yeah of course

Usopp: You're sure? No one will try to like,,, traffic me?

Luffy: Nah

Usopp: *not experienced in The Horrors and sure this is enough confirmation*

--

Usopp decides to announce it after 3 days of sailing on Merry, when it's just them Zoro and Nami, Zoro doesn't care at all, Nami is uncomfortably aware of trafficking prices after many threats from Arlong to sell her and her first thought is that Usopp could pay off Cocoyashi in full, then her second thought punches the first one in the face because she doesn't have to sink that low she's almost at 100 mil already she won't do that. She does get a bit more closed off tho and that scares Usopp a little because why would she suddenly distance herself after finding out he was a selkie if not to sell her? Things get cleared up after Arlong Park and it's fine but Still.

Sanji learns after taking Usopp's skin because seal leather is fancy and expensive and Nami would want it, right? Nami sees it, pales and snatches it before searching the whole Merry for Usopp only to find him hiding in the men's bunk having a full factory-reset level silent panic attack because sensory deprivation can lead to insanity in a very short amount of time, let alone surprise sensory deprivation. Sanji feels very guilty about it but he gets better

Chopper just knows, probably by the way Usopp smells or just instinct. He just knows, he is a little concerned abt not having enough research on selkie-specific medical needs tho

Robin sees the skin and puts two-and-two together

Franky knows because Usopp directly told him since he was tired and heavily injured and begging for Franky to fix Merry and went seal to see the bottom of the boat for that one scene

Brook takes one look at (Fully Human Form) Usopp and is like "Laboon..?" but is then disappointed when he finds out Usopp is the wrong sea creature

Jimbe knows because Luffy wouldn't shut up about his bf and mentioned that Usopp was a selkie when Jimbe visited over the two years

[queen-of-the-avengers]

Captain Marvel: Part Eight

Pairing: Carol Danvers x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.4k

Warnings: canon violence and angst

Author’s Note: For the sake of the rewrite, Howard and Maria Stark dies on December 16, 1997 instead of 1991. Tony is 23 when they die.

x

You leave her side and find the 'T' section for Tesseract. If they have knowledge about it, what else do they have about it? The box is pretty empty since there isn't a lot of information on it, but you go through it with a fine-tooth comb. The only thing they know is that it's a box with an insane amount of power that can create portals. They got it from Howard Stark after Steve went into the ice. They tried testing it as a weapon, but it had a mind of its own, so Dr. Lawson took over and used it for her light-speed tech.

You're about to put the box back when you notice something at the very bottom. Interdimensional Republic. That's the company Markus owned. There isn't much on the company except that when the Tesseract opened a portal, they saw that name on a huge building before the portal closed. You sigh in relief and put the box back knowing that Markus will never find this place... if he's even out there.

You leave Vers to keep researching while you walk into the hallway to give yourself a breather. You're alone for maybe ten minutes before the sound of shoes clicking on the glossy floor sounds. You look up and see a man in his fifties walking toward you. You make the mistake of looking him in the eyes as he passes by you, and he stops and walks back over to you.

"I recognize you."

"Excuse me?"

"1945. Your face is plastered all over the newspapers from that time, and you even have your own section in the Smithsonian. You fought with Captain America."

"I'm sorry, you must have the wrong person."

"Well, then you won't care if I tell the authorities you're here."

"No!" you say too quickly. "What do you want?"

"I'm here to give you an opportunity. SHIELD is made up of dicks who only care about money and the power they hold. If you want to do something good in this world, join my side." He takes out one of his business cards and hands it to you. "I could use someone like you."

The mysterious man walks off without another word, and you look at the card he gave you. Dr. Hank Pym with Pym Technologies. You're not sure what he's up to, but you already have a big problem on your hands. Still, you put the car in your pocket and head back inside the archive's room.

Vers is over by the phone on the wall with her wrist device attached to the wires like she did when you first landed on Earth.

"Vers, what are you doing?"

"The only way we can know for sure about what happened is to talk to Maria. We need to contact Yon-Rogg. He will know what to do."

"Why? We've already gotten so much progress here ourselves because he's not here to screw it up. Do you see what using your powers can do? He's trying to manipulate you like every other Kree does."

Vers is confused about who to believe and who to trust, but she goes ahead and makes contact with Yon-Rogg despite what you've said.

"I know Lawson was Kree," she says before he has a chance to say anything. "She was here on C-53 and died in a plane crash. Do you know anything about this?"

"I just discovered a mission report sent from C-53. There's only so much I'm cleared to tell you Vers and Y/N, but Lawson was an undercover Kree operative named Mar-Vell. She was working on a unique energy core and experimenting with tech that apparently could help us win the war."

"Does it say anything about me? Or us?" you ask.

"Anything about you two? No, of course not. Why would it?"

"I found evidence that I had a life here," Vers confesses.

"On C-53?" he stutters.

"Mar-Vell is who I see as the Supreme Intelligence. I knew her, and I knew her as Lawson."

"This sounds like Skrull simulation, Vers."

"No, don't try and spin this off as some twisted delusion of your own," you growl.

"I remember I was here!"

"Stop! Remember your training. Know your enemy. It could be you. Do not let your emotions undermine your judgment."

"Go to hell." You hang up the phone. "Do not listen to him, Vers. He's manipulating you!"

"Where's Fury?"

"He's probably lost or captured. Come on."

You two leave the records room and head for the stairs. Just upon reaching the landing, you hear voices coming from above. You pull Vers into you and cover her mouth with your hand to let her know to be quiet.

"Fury's colluding with the target."

"Then why did he call us in?" a man that sounds like Agent Coulson asks.

"All I know is that we take him in too. Dead or alive."

Fury might have called them in, but you can't leave him here to get captured by who he thought was on his team. You wait for the two men to leave before heading back to the archive's room. Inside is Fury and his director fighting each other. You don't think someone's boss will pull a gun on their employee, which can only mean that the director is a Skrull looking for you and Vers. Vers blasts the director away from Fury, and he looks grateful for the save. She blasts the ceiling to use as a quick escape, and this is where you come in. You grab both of them and fly them through the hole Vers made.

"You called them in?" you scold.

"My bad!"

You find the staircase and yank the door open only to see Agent Coulson with a gun pointed at you. Vers' fists glow orange, but you put a hand to her hand to stop her from hurting Phil. Fury and Coulson have a silent conversation with their eyes, and Fury begs him not to give you away.

"Coulson, do you have eyes on them?" an agent says from above.

He takes five seconds to speak.

"They're not down here. Let's try another floor."

You three pass him on your way down to the hangar where all the airplanes are. Vers grabs a long metal pole and shoves it through the handlebars so that if someone were to try to use the door from the other side, it won't open. Once she knows it's safe, she holds her hand out as if she expects something from Fury. When he makes no move to acknowledge her, she hits his arm and holds out her hand again.

"What?"

"Give me your communicator. You obviously can't be trusted with it."

Fury sighs and hands over his pager to her just as agents slam into the locked door next to you.

"Come on!" you urge.

There isn't much to hide behind, but you manage to hide behind some large boxes that are ready to be shipped out. Agents break the door down to get inside the large room, and you weigh your options of escaping this unharmed. Vers spots one of the planes that can be used as a quick escape, and she nudges you and Fury.

With a mutual agreement, you stay hidden as you make your way over to the plane. Vers got behind the wheel, Fury took the passenger seat, and you got in the seat behind Vers. She begins messing with the controls as if she knows what she's doing. If what her memories show is true, then flying something like this is second nature to her.

"Do you know how to fly this thing?" Fury asks.

"Uh... we'll see."

"That is a yes or no question," Fury gasps. 

Whatever Vers is doing is right because the engine roars to life and the doors close behind you. She pushes the lever forward which causes the plane to hover in the air.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Fury laughs.

When the agents below hear the plane take off, they start shooting at it aimlessly. It does nothing and allows Vers to fly out of the underground tarmac area, and over the open desert before gaining altitude very quickly. Suddenly, a small meow comes from the back of the plane where a meow shouldn't be. All three of you look back and see Goose pushed against a crate.

"We've got a stowaway," Fury says.

"Hang on, Goose."

Vers straightens the plane, allowing Goose to push off the crate and onto the ground. She happily walks over to Vers and jumps onto her lap, and your girlfriend moves her over to Fury.

"Who's a good kitty huh? Huh, Goose? Yes, that's right. Who's a good kitty, Goose? You're a good kitty," Fury coos.

Vers reaches into her pocket and takes out the photograph she stole of Wendy, Maria, and her in the background, and hands it to Fury.

"Do you see anyone you know? Six years ago, I arrived in Hala, near dead with no memory. I think I'm the pilot that went down with Dr. Lawson, and if not, then the last person to see them both alive is Maria Rambeau."

"How do we get to Louisiana?"

"Due East and hang a right at Memphis," Fury jokes.

"You must have taught Agent Coulson right because I appreciate the way he stuck up for us."

"Yeah, he's the new guy. I guess he doesn't hate me yet."

"Give him time," you joke.

"I guess he had a feeling and went with his gut against orders. It's a really hard thing to do. That's what keeps us human."

"I get in trouble for that. A lot," Vers sighs.

"Yeah by an ignorant asshole who gets off on manipulation," you comment.

"I can see that about you, and even you too, Y/N. Rescuing the guy who sold you out to the Skrulls. I guess that's not standard Kree operating procedure."

"Well, I won't tell your boss if you don't tell mine."

"He won't be hearing about this from me," you smirk.

Vers flies the aircraft all the way to Louisiana where Maria Rambeau is. She is very isolated from most of the population, but it's nice to see such big trees and open fields around her house. Next to her house is a shop used to fix cars, or in her case, planes. When you get a closer look at the shop, you can see a woman tinkering on a two-seater plane. This is Vers' moment since she knew Maria back in the day.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for Maria Rambeau."

The woman jumps in surprise and a little girl identical to the older woman jumps out of the plane. She runs over to Vers with an excited look on her face as if she knows who she is.

"Aunty Carol! Mom, it's Aunty Carol. I knew it! Everybody said you were dead but we knew they were lying."

The little girl hugs Vers who is apparently named Carol. Your girlfriend stands awkwardly, unaware of who this child is. Maria walks closer to Vers with an unsure look on her face like she can't believe what she's seeing.

"I'm not really who you think I am," Vers says.

Maria isn't sure if this is her friend or not, but she wants to hear what Vers has to say. Monica, Maria's daughter, and Maria are sitting with you, Vers, and Fury in the living room so you can explain to them what happened after the plane crash. Vers' name isn't even Vers. It's the name that the Kree gave her to help conceal her identity.

Her real name is Carol Danvers.

"That is the craziest shit I've ever heard," Maria chuckles once you're done explaining.

"Green-transforming aliens? There's no such thing," Monica says.

"I'm an alien," you shrug.

"You're absolutely right, young lady. There is no such thing because if there were, we would want to keep that to ourselves," Fury says and looks at you accusingly.

"You want proof?"

Carol gets up and walks over to the tea kettle on the stove in the kitchen. She grabs the sides of the kettle and uses her powers to heat the tea inside. You raise your hand and use your air powers to open the cabinet and float one of the tea cups over to where Carol is. Maria and Monica stand up in fascination and curiosity.

"No way. That is so cool," Monica grins. 

"They can do a lot more than just make tea with those hands," Fury scoffs.

"Like what? Show us."

"Maybe later," Carol chuckles.

"I kept all your stuff, I'll go get it," Monica says and rushes out of the room.

"You want to give her a hand with that?" Carol asks Fury who nods.

He leaves the room to give Carol and Maria some time alone together, and you get up to leave when Carol grabs your hand. This is all so new to her, but you're her safety net. She trusts you with her life, so she needs you here in case something goes wrong.

"So, her name is Carol?" you ask Maria.

"Yeah. You don't remember anything?"

"I see flashes of little moments, but I can't tell what's real. If I could just piece together what happened that morning, maybe it'll all make sense."

"You were banging on my door at dawn and woke me up. I didn't think anything of it because that's what you normally did. Back then, we had to get up so early. The Air Force wasn't letting women fly in combat, so testing Lawson's planes was our only shot at doing something that mattered. That morning, you wanted to race to the base but your old Mustang was nothing compared to my Camaro. You cheated and took a shortcut," Maria laughs at the memory.

There are tears in Carol's eyes at the thought of her stolen life, but she doesn't let them fall.

"Since when is a shortcut cheating?"

"Since it violates the predetermined rules of engagement."

"I definitely don't remember those."

"Mmm, of course, you don't." They both laugh like old friends. "When I got to the hanger, Lawson was agitated, because she had lives to save. She was trying to take the Aces up herself, but you said—"

"If there were lives at stake, I would fly the plane," Carol finish for her.

"Yup. Big hero moment. The kind of moment we've both been waiting for. The Doc was always unique. That's why I liked her, but now you're saying she's from another planet."

"I know this must be hard for you," you comment.

"What, this part right here? No. Do you know what's hard? Losing my best friend in a mission so secret they act like it never even happened. Hard is knowing you were out there somewhere, too damn stubborn to die. Now you come up in here after six years with your super-charged fire hands and magical friend, and you expect me to call you... I don't even know what... 'Vers'? Is that really who you are now?"

"I don't know," Carol sighs.

x

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​​​​​​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

[witchoil]

Twenty Questions for a Fic Writer

Stolen from @augustmourn! Thanks for posting, this was fun!

How many works do you have on ao3?

52 connected to my account/pseuds, several anon'd

What’s your total ao3 word count?

344,041

What fandoms do you write for?

I bounce around fandoms a lot AND write for exchanges pretty frequently, so i'm not as much of a steady fandom person. You can go to my user page and expand fandoms to see just how true that is. Old standbys are probably Star Wars and Naruto, as insane as that sounds.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Me and You and a Dog Named Boo - 1,411 kudos. Venom movies Venom/Eddie/Reader cross-country roadtrip with some mild plot and lots of porn. I wrote this with my partner and a close friend and it may have taken us 5 years to finish but we had an immense amount of fun along the way.

General Organa's List of Things You May No Longer Do - 750 kudos. Short humor fill for a SW kinkmeme prompt from back in 2016. Writing-wise I don't think it's anything special but it was my first fic posted to AO3.

Artemisia in Snow - 402 kudos. Reylo hypothermia fic, simple as. Did a lot of research on hypothermia for this one. I think it ranks so highly in kudos simply because it's one of my few T-rated fics.

Vestal - 394 kudos. Short short short Kylo Ren character study. I wrote this one night and posted it immediately, but I'm still very fond of it. Lots of gender going on. I feel proud that it was so well-received and kicked off a long-term fandom friendship of mine.

Take a Slice - 310 kudos. Kirikacchako threesome fic, what more is there to say? Also written with two close friends in a round-robin format during an in-person visit. Very fun, if not all that complex.

These fics are all fun and great but ultimately overall they don't represent my best writing or my personal favorite fics that I've written.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Deep sigh I wish I was better about this. I almost always respond to exceptionally long comments because they're SO important to me, but otherwise it can be hard. I have a huge backlog that I'll likely never get to if for no other reason than some of them are SO OLD.

What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Maybe Hard Cover. Obi-Wan/Qui-Gonn Bad Guys Made Them Do It noncon where they walk away with their relationship is kind of in tatters and, worse, we know that the river of canon will flow on. I find the idea of them not getting to resolve what happened before Qui-Gonn's death way more devastating than the death alone.

Caw, Caw, Koodle-Yah is also pretty angsty.

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I can't lie I'm a sucker for happy endings, so I think a lot of the fics I write have them? (Outside of all the noncon that makes up about 1/3 of my output.) Maybe the happiest to me is Come Calling in that it involves a nice getting together with the promise of a future. The ending is very rosy, but it came from the heart (and the hole).

Do you get hate on fics?

Once or twice. I had someone get MASSIVELY upset at me for choosing not to spoil a surprise in one of my fics in the tags. We had a short interaction in the comments that didn't satisfy them so they sent me an EMAIL complaining about it further and demanding that I "admit" I did it out of spite, which I definitely didn't.

Do you write smut?

HAHAHAHAHA. Yes. Prodigiously.

Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I do not. I don't want to knock anyone who does but they've always seemed vaguely silly to me? I prefer canon-swap AUs to straight-up crossovers.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I think once or twice I've had someone request to translate a fic into Russian, but I'm not sure if they ever went through with it.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I don't speak another language, so I probably wouldn't go there unless I was close enough to someone who did that they could help. I sometimes find it a bit cheesy when people do this but ultimately it won't stop me from reading a fic.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, many! I love co-writing. Having someone to cheerlead you through the tough sections and share the load of writing is really nice. I enjoy the creative process of bouncing ideas off of each other and most of the time this outweighs the difficulty of making compromises.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Most of my favorite ships are ones that I don't write for, or even read for. Often they're ones where the text has everything I want. That said, it's probably Ashitaka/San from Princess Mononoke or Cam/Pal.

What’s a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Probably the unpublished Arcane fic that's about Cait/Vi failing as a relationship and slowly breaking up disastrously because of their experiential differences. The idea of them just crumbling apart fascinates me but I haven't been able to find much momentum to really write the damn thing.

What are your writing strengths?

I think dialogue! I really like writing it, the process of tweaking it, AND it's my favorite part of a fic to read.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Eurgh....plot. Plot is so hard for me. I'm not a gardener or a pantser, but an architect with aphantasia. I'll have an idea but how to get there just makes me draw a blank. It takes a lot of effort to structure themes, ideas, and theses into actual stories, which is a bit embarrassing to admit. I still love to write, though.

First fandom you wrote for?

Naruto! I was about 12 I think and wrote an unfinished Sakura/Gaara fic based loosely on an existing fic that I really loved.

Favorite fic you’ve written?

Probably either Fires That Fence the World In or Steal the Blush.

Fires is my first Locked Tomb fic and a true labor of love. I put a lot of work, some actual research, and a great deal of elbow grease into that fic and feel a great, tender affection for it in my heart.

Steal the Blush was a gift for my partner where I had free reign to play with the Hannibal dolls in an omegaverse setting however I wanted, and I did exactly that. Omegaverse isn't a trope I'd ever write for myself (and squicks me out in many cases), but it was a fun challenge to make it work for myself. I also think I got the character voices JUST right.

Tagging anyone who wants to do this, feel free to tag me in your response!

[thisblogisblank]

ALR

AR! LORE FINALLY DONE

I will warn you this is just. A giant fuckin wall of text so if you don't wanna read that I don't blame you lmao

    In the beginning, the monster world was completely empty, and then, through a sort of cosmic big bang, the Celestials were born, with the ability to create life through “Celestial Energy”, which is. Essentially the Spark Of Life in this AU. And so, they all went off and created islands, and monsters, and critters, and everything else under the sun; the strongest of whom was Galvana, who created the 5 natural islands and all of the monsters on them. And for many, many years, they all lived in harmony in the Celestial Lair, their castle far above the monster world. That was, until the tragic death, or, at the very least, disappearance of the Celestial of Mech, Vhamp. 

    After the death(?) of Vhamp, Galvana (who was his partner), kinda uh. Went batshit insane?? She became incredibly aggressive and lashed out at the other Celestials, arguing for the sake of arguing and even getting into physical confrontations with them. Eventually this became too much for everyone else, and they kicked her out of the Lair, hoping that some time alone would let her blow off some steam. 

    Unfortunately, this decision was poorly timed, because directly after she was kicked out, monster history was changed forever; a team of human researchers found out how to enter their universe, and Galavana, acting purely out of selfishness and spite, decided to take advantage of their naivety. She formulated a plan to go to war with the humans and usurp their planet for herself, so that she could continue expanding the monster population. But first and foremost, she’d befriend them, so she could learn everything about them. 

    This is where the Wubboxes came in. 

    The first two Wubboxes, Common and Rare, were designed to be walking tanks, essentially. Imbued with insane amounts of the element of electricity, they were insanely powerful, but were relatively fragile compared to their younger epic brethren (who I’ll get to later lmao). They were sent out as carrier pigeons for Galvana, learning everything they could about the humans, and then bringing the info back to her, all while keeping up their friendly appearances. Unfortunately for Galvana, however, one of them actually got attached to the humans. 

    Rare was, and still is, an extremely empathetic creature, getting attached to anything and everything that gave him the time of day. And so, with the researchers being extremely nice to both him and his brother, he was.. A little more than hesitant about Galvana’s plan, and when it finally came to fruition and the “war” (it was really just a couple military units, small-scale but tragic nonetheless) began, he fought back, arguing that she shouldn’t be doing it for.. Obvious reasons. Galavana, afraid that one of her creations fighting against her would not only cause other monsters to dissent, but that he could be a force to be reckoned with on the humans’ side, she decided to just straight up murder him right there. In front of his brother, Common. 

    That went about as well as you’d expect. 

    So Common fuckin murders Galvana, Rare just barely survives by the skin of his teeth (but is left permanently damaged as a result), the monsters find out about Galvana’s plan (she lied to them about the war, saying that the humans had instigated it when they hadn’t), and the humans retreat back to their universe, completely cutting ties with the monsters, but not carrying things further, luckily. 

    Word eventually carries to the Celestials, who were completely oblivious to the literal mass murder happening on the Natural Islands, and they helped rebuild their society. Shortly, everything was like it was before, like nothing ever happened. 

    Several years later, the first ever monster handler by the name of Professor Wardin E. Spurrit rediscovered the monster world, and left behind many journals documenting his journeys and discoveries. He later disappeared, and was presumed dead, his final words being a cryptic message, telling any readers not to eat the food or drink the water, because “it’s not for us”.. Creepy. 

    However, his discoveries kicked off a love for the monster world, and made monster handling its own branch of science, however small it was. In the modern day, two new handlers embarked on their own adventure into the monster world - Monster Handler Todd and Monster Handler Estelle, respectively - in order to finish what Professor Spurrit began. 

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

    And that’s where we are now!!! If you have any questions for me please don’t hesitate to ask! Call me Matt because I would love to give you extremely long, tedious, and verbose answers on anything and everything lmao. Introductions to the Wubboxes should be coming soon, I’ve just gotta finish designing them all and writing down their descriptions, and after them should be the Celestials!!!!! Enjoy this for now tho, lol. 

[amxthystiine]

@original-character-championship

Kairos + others lore dump part 2,,

Well, to pick up right where we left off-

Lloyd, in a fit of rage, swears an oath of vengeance against Alex, as Emily sobs her nights away from her unaffected facade she puts up in front of others.

What happened was that Alex had a taste of power, perhaps one too generous, as he would abuse his powers to no end, learning more and gaining more as he neglected his wife, son and friends.

He then realized that to gain more power, he had to "optimize" his body for time travel.

He began to start making "improvements", ones that started small even back in his vigilante days.

These all added up and got a bit out of hand, especially after losing an eye in a battle.

He would then go by Kairos from then on, not associating himself with his past self anymore, setting his sights on a new goal much higher and much more delusional than his last - achieving godhood.

So, Lloyd and Emily decide to try and take down Kairos, starting by gaining power, knowledge and strength as to take the guy down.

Meanwhile, Kairos kinda purposefully fucks up everything throughout the timelines he travels through, (Kairos can not only travel forwards and back in time, but can also travel through alternate timelines. Think of them as like parallel universes) gaining some higher powers' attention who then later summons him to ask what he was doing messing everything up like that.

Little to their knowledge, this was on purpose as he wanted to join their ranks.

He explains this, showcasing his powers, getting nothing but a disdained sigh and a fool's errand, being told to "go make the people on Earth finally start believing in us again so we can become more powerful and then we'll consider it"

Kairos then gets really pissed, as he mutilated his body and dedicated years of research into this, (though some of it wasn't his) and so goes off the deep end and starts committing intertimelinial war crimes out of spite and as to threaten them into reconsidering.

What he did in the other timelines themselves are somewhat innocent at first, but due to his knowledge of the ins and outs of timelines at this point, and the utter potency of the butterfly effect, he had targetted the weakpoints, leading to utter carnage following the man wherever he went.

Or at least, carnage to the being's authority.

His message came across as clear as day once they caught on, and if there's one thing you learn from myths, it's that you don't fuck with power you don't know the extent of.

So when they finally caught him in the act, they end up sealing Kairos in a small pocket dimension out of space and time, all alone, doomed to wander the place forever, unable to escape, cursed by his own dedication to immortal youth.

While Kairos is stuck as he goes even madder inside his small pocket dimension, realizing that he can't rift his way outta this one, Emily and Lloyd are still gaining power to confront Kairos again, not knowing he'd just been sealed away.

Alex's family have no idea about his Kairos insanity, having searched for quite a while after the first appearance and later announcing him dead.

Thus, they just leave his legacy as Alexander Pascall, praising his diligence and good nature as well as his sense of morality and justice that he was remembered for before he disappeared. (they're kinda rich and famous as, well, while no one else knows how he did time travel, that wasn't the only breakthrough he'd achieved in the field of magi-tech.)

So his son and wife grow up together, missing him and relying on each other until the end of the wife's life, leaving his poor son an orphan, left to fend for himself.

Back to the duo set on vengeance, eventually, Lloyd gains his power in the form of an incredible amount of magical knowledge and experience from multiple grimoires thanks to his penchant for astrology.

On the other hand, Emily focuses on expanding her arsenal of weapons, and honing her ability to kill with no powers (as she never had any magical potential) to a concerning degree of success.

Time passes on, and Lloyd starts becoming a bit paranoid, noticing Kairos's concerning inactivity, expecting an ambush at any time.

He starts stocking up on extra, dubiously-sourced power unbeknownst to Emily, and decides to start an alter ego as to train his skills and actively bring attention and seek out Kairos.

Lloyd gets far too into enhancing his powers "as to be prepared for anything", until he, too, then goes missing in a fog cloud late one evening while on a holiday with his family, scarring his son and causing immense grief to his wife.

This son also eventually becomes an orphan down the line, but not due to natural causes this time, so take that as you will.

One late evening, Emily grieves and collapses one evening in the lab, ready to close up the place once and for all due to the horrible memories attached to it and it's now missing common visitors.

The strange sensation of deja vu from all those years ago was still acting up again and again, frustrating Emily to the brink of insanity herself, as she finally realized a few months ago what was going on.

She was pretty sure.....she was stuck in a time loop.

It'd started ever since that damn moment she got slashed by those golden hands.

And now, well, she's been stuck in a timeloop of this timeline, slowly learning to stiffen up and feeling much older than her body really was, with an immense amount of experience and wisdom, forced to be thrown back in time if she does even a single action out of script for the timeline’s list of events.

And yet, she didn’t even get to keep the damn memories of future sections, as every damn decision she made could loop her back to the moment she made said decision, over and over and over again until she got the right option.

And the only evidence of these previous decisions she made were blurry, fuzzy memories and maybe one or two words from the results if she was lucky.

As her mind wandered off to theories about how she could undo this curse out upon her, fingers fiddling with a toolbox propped on a desk that he’d never packed away. Might as well take it as to get some good use, or at least, cash, out of i-

Wait.

Someone’s here, aren’t they.

That’s what she thought she remembered happening anyways.

And sure enough…

WOOSH!

A shadow flicked out of the corner of her eye towards a pair of curtains.

Emily whipped out her spiked lasso, circling it round and round, ready to capture the invader.

She ran up to the window, eyes darting around as she tried to find the source of the shadows when a figure stepped out of them, bright nimbus behind its head aglow like the full moon outside.

He donned a dark purple suit accented with orange and yellow, wielded a cane with a crescent moon-shaped handle, and stared into Emily's eyes, the calm and collected smirk on his face unwavering.

She could immediately tell something was wrong, that something was off, that yet again, this friend of hers was not be the same person he was a year ago before his disappearance.

Tears pricked her eyes as Emily couldn't stop seeing Kairos in him, choking down sobs as she attacked the smug being that was once her friend.

That night Lloyd learned that perhaps, to change fate, you were supposed to do it out of sight and out of mind. Never directly.

And, well, they do say that pain can be a great teacher.

Moments after the encounter, Emily gave in to her heaving sobs, breaking down as her salty tears flooded the once pristine concrete floor.

And, well, that was the most recent sighting of anything that resembled Lloyd Dixon.

What happened to Emily, you ask?

Well, she would close off to others over time, still deciding to try and keep justice up in the local area and to save as many people as possible, but, she didn’t hesitate to sacrifice the lives of a few to save the lives of many, and in the end always chose herself.

How could she trust another after them?

[chronal-anomaly]

Thinkin' about,,,,,

Lena's process going into the Slipstream. The medical aspect, specifically, and the training she received beforehand. The Slipstream was designed as an investigative probe. Yes, to discover if time travel was possible, but also for science, for research, for progress. She was trained in sampling techniques for the soil, for bacteria and water, given the equipment to record place and people that were long, long dead. I'll get more into that later but,

To do so, Lena went through extensive medical preparation. She was given almost every vaccine that current research has the ability to provide, including dead viruses like yellow fever. This, alone, had her bedridden for a few months, while her body built up the antibodies needed to protect her. She was given plenty of stress tests, ensuring that her body could handle the insane amounts of g-force. She underwent medical examination, baselining data, mental, cognitive, and reflexive abilities.

Her daily trainings were intense, 10-14 hours of physical, mental and emotional training along with the aforementioned scientific education. They were long days, but she was confident, and looking forward to being the first and only time traveler out there.