#now we have Ash. so basically you can do whatever all the time

[peapod20001]

Ok who do you think of when you see these, and whoever you thought of. You are correct

[djevelbl]

Alright! So! Kaboodle has been haunting my head like a cool little ghost roomie for a wee bit now /pos and I just,,,, look my blog is alllll about incoherently screaming into the void that is the internet about whatever is haunting my head this time, it was inevitable that bnuuy girliepop would get her own post ok? If nothing else, then it's surprising it hasn't happened before--

(like with Branzy's post from a while back, this is a character analysis of, y'know, THE CHARACTER??? so yeah! This is about the bunny girl killing ppl on LifeSteal and not whoever the hell talks behind the mic! I don't feel like I should have to say this, but I've seen ppl be dumbasses over LS!Kab AND actual Kaboodle too. so. don't be an idiot over this — you're encouraged to scroll on if you don't care to read it! This applies to any other names I throw around, like always — happy reading!)

So to preface whatever word vomit I'm about to commit, lemme bring it all out already: my knowledge of LifeSteal Season Six (the one that features Kaboodle) is basically One (1) whole recent stream, and maybe three videos all set on the very beginning of the season — don't expect this to be accurate, but I'll do my very best based on what I've got on hand.

With that out of the way, I'll proceed to yank bnuuy girliepop by the hair and into my microscope:

It's no secret that Kaboodle has a bit of a problem with trusting people, even to the point where she called whatever happened with ash "betrayal," when most of us wouldn't consider it that — she was taken advantage of (from what I understand of her POV to the situation), sure, but they were never teammates, they were never friends in the server; she's been having a big problem with trust and how she uses it, mostly because she's very extroverted and people-oriented — less in the sense that she knows how to read people and the little signs within their voices, and more in the sense that she thrives around people. She's insecure over her own survival abilities and her PVP prowess, and as such has taken to leaning on others to cover up her blindspots — she's been leaning on those surrounding her like her life depends on it because, to a certain extent, it does: if you don't know how to fight, you find someone who does and attach yourself to them, learn their tactics, grow alongside them so you can stand on your own; Kaboodle is still not yet there, she's just now realizing she has to stop trusting people just because they were chill with her once.

But she thrives within a group, she's extroverted and is fed energy through chatter and socializing — that type of person will intrinsically have it harder to detach their feelings from being projected onto other people (reason why she considers the ashswag incident a betrayal, even though I'm pretty sure there wasn't any precedent for trust to be placed on him) and as such will simply have it harder to keep to themselves; we can see this so clearly in how she interacts with others: she doesn't move even an inch, no flinch and no instinct to run away even as Clown launches into the air and he fakes an attack on her with the Mace. She follows ManePear around as they sneak close to PrinceZam and baconnwaffles0 to eavesdrop on their conversation, and barely fights back as she gets killed a half hour or so after with no indication of why he would do that. She calls Zam her "frenemy" and while that word includes enemy in its spelling, it also includes friend.

She still hasn't quite let go of Squiddo's betrayal, and while I'm not informed on what that situation is, I can say one thing about it: Squiddo learned from last season that they shouldn't blindly trust whoever she calls a friend outside of LifeSteal, I'm sure (the temporary ban they got for helping Wemmbu with... I think it was his orbital cannon??? Plus his support of the 4Cvit and Reddoons team-up over his support of Squiddo; these things would do that to you), so she doesn't — they allow herself to be friends and have teammates, allies, so on, but they're not above taking sides if that means she gets out on top (their betrayal of 4Cvit leaves this being very clear to the audience — she's done playing around, they're here to survive and win it; as much as one wins LifeSteal, of course) and this is a lesson all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed new LifeStealers have to learn if they want to come back next season: whatever you and someone else had outside of LifeSteal stays outside of LifeSteal — once you're inside, your relationships are inherently different. There's no way about it.

Clown understands this — he's willing to partner up with friends and foes so long as it benefits him, and he's not above getting dirty if that's what it takes; he trusts people as far as he can throw them, and he fucking hates knockback on his weapons. Kaboodle is not exempt from this rule, regardless of whatever relationship they shared before LifeSteal Season Six — she can't quite wrap her head around this notion, especially obvious on her video about her first experience on the server: one of the first things she did in that thing was showing the audience a chart she made on how much she trusts people on the server, and in that chart she singled out Clown by saying that there's nothing that would make her distrust him because they're friends! They know each other! She knows him better than most do!

But he's not the guy she knows — he's most of that man, sure, but she's never experienced first hand how Clown is on the server.

What I find interesting, is that one stream I watched — technically I watched two: Kaboodle's Confrontation stream from the 5th, and Clown's POV of the same conversation; I didn't watch the whole Clown VOD, but it got pointed out to me (everyone thank clownscasino for this) that Clown was scared — to me he seemed more nervous than scared, but the point still stands on this whole thing: Clown was uneasy over meeting Kaboodle to discuss... Whatever it is she wanted to speak about; he wasn't indifferent, curious, bored — he was specifically uneasy over the concept. The conversation hung over his head like a thunderstorm cloud, never leaving and never lessening — he was affected by the idea and sure, it was because he thought she would try to kill him, but doesn't that say a lot about him?

He cares. In the absence of somebody to stay by his side, he's come to care for a familiar face.

... Did you know Branzy had been Clown's teammate consistently for three seasons in a row? (more or less — I'm new to this thing, cut me some slack) that's an incredible number, considering how polarizing and dividing LifeSteal can easily become for its players — they've all bounced around teams and allies like a twink at a fraternity party, yet Branzy had always remained by Clown's side; similarly, Clown stuck by Branzy's. They didn't help each other frequently — mostly because by the end of their runtime Branzy wasn't logging in all that much — but they sure as all hell stayed loyal to one another; there's a reason their duo is so popular, regardless of whether you wanna mash their character together like two Barbies or not: even within the massacre and bloodshed of LifeSteal, the violence and backstabbing and betrayal, the Funhouse Duo/Clownzy have always stood by each other.

Season Six is the first time that Clown doesn't have his bestie of all besties/his work bf around to lean back on — he's left on his own, and while he can certainly survive and even thrive on his own, it just isn't the same; there's no more friendly face he can pick out from the crowd, no more loving person to care for and fret over. He's always been alone, at the end of the day, but it hasn't stung half as much as it does now.

All of this is to say: Clown is an introvert telling Kaboodle to just "not trust people", while Kabs is an extrovert who can't help how she gets attached to people — they're an interesting duo to watch as they discuss, because while Kaboodle says that she's gonna start being more careful around people, not trusting others etc. etc., she still stays put as she watches Clown come down on her, Mace in hand. She still tells him that she trusts him as he's telling her "well you shouldn't!" She still follows ManePear around and gives him iron when she's asked, based on the momentary truce they held, a precarious thing entirely dictated by his hand and not hers.

I get what Clown is saying when he tells her to "not trust anyone — not even me", as he's the veteran between them and the one who has the most knowledge, he understands how the server operates and what the point of it all is, the atmosphere bred within its code and how it spreads like a disease amongst its players, yet it just circles back to being annoying — it reminds me of that conversation Woogie (I think) and Kaboodle had on her video about her first day(s?), where Woogie was undermining her experience, ideas and beliefs, and the only difference is the amount of misplaced loyalty Kaboodle has for (LS!)Clown; she trusts him without him having to do anything, and that's something that goes down wrong with him, obviously: he advises her to keep her cards to her chest, where somebody with less mercy (less love for her, less unwilling care, less desire to see her thrive on her own terms and by her own merit) would've let her get herself killed with that big heart of hers that's in need of affection and attention.

She's so excited as she recounts her last week to a listening Clown, immediately sighing with great relief as he explains he wasn't helping ManePear when he was hunting her, she says "I love Batman" as Clown exclaims he would be Batman and while I don't think cc!Kabs is quick-on-the-uptake enough to have a surface vs deeper meaning line thrown in the middle of Killerbunnies banter that's not necessarily fully in character, I reserve the right to believe whatever the fuck I wish, actually.

He humours her, lets her ramble and asks about what happened to her eye, he follows along with her DC comparisons and takes the time to explain to her what actually happened between him and ManePear.

He says he doesn't trust anyone, but doesn't love require some trust? What a hypocritical Clown, you turned out to be. I hope, if it comes down to it, you show her she matters more to you than those self imposed rules of yours, as I'm sure she'll show you you matter more to her then those rules you try to teach her

[famouscyclenerd]

Mor's reactions to Az and Elain are explained in his BC

this is my opinion btw, nothing's been confirmed.

I've seen both sides use her reactions to "prove" that their ship is endgame in whatever way. We don't have her pov in any of the scenes however.

So as of right now, we don't know why Sarah chooses to highlight Mor's reactions whenever there is an interaction between Elain and Az in her presence, but I have my theories, and ya'll already know it's not going in e/riels favor, SO BUCKLE UP MY DUDES WE'RE GOING FOR A RIDE!👹

I think it's important to note that Azriel and Mor's relationship has been slightly... turbulent throughout all of the decades they've known each other. Don't get me wrong, it hasn't been absolutely unstable, but there is a huge lack of communication on both sides that's been in dire need of resolvement in order for them to have a good and healthy friendship.

Although Sarah hasn't confirmed it, moriel was supposed to be endgame. PERIOD! I still can't believe there are moriel deniers. Reading ACOMAF, moriel was the plan and that's a !fact! (TRUST, I was there when MAF realeased and the couples were feysand, elucien, nessian and moriel) and it became evident in ACOWAR that she changed her mind on them for unknown reasons.

So what do we know about them and their feelings for each other? In MAF Feyre noticed Azriel reactions towards Mor. I honestly find that so fucking funny when "Beautiful, but near-unreadable." and "His skin was as cold as his face." is how Feyre first describes his face, yet she clocks his feelings for Mor almost immediately.

"It was almost enough to distract me from noticing Azriel as those shadows lightened, and his gaze slid over Mor's body (...) A wisp of shadow curled around Azriel's ear, and his eyes snapped to mine. I schooled my face into bland innocence."

"Mor patted Azriel on the shoulder (...) The lurking shadow vanished entirely as Azriel's head dipped a bit (...)"

This was the very first scene where Feyre observed Mor and Az together.

"Yes - Azriel, who kept a step away, whose shadows trailed him and seemed to fade in her presence."

I find this interesting since some of you can say: "GOTCHA! His shadows vanishes around Mor like they do with Elain and moriel was supposed to be endgame in MAF" but I don't think this is good for the e/riels at all, as Sarah kept this going even after she decided that they weren't going to be together. This basically established e/riel to be moriel 2.0 and it didn't work out the first time, so why would it work a second time?

I find it interesting when Feyre, Rhys, Cassian and Azriel leaves to go see Elain and Nesta for the first time - Azriel decided to leave behind his shadows.

"(...) No shadows trailed us, as if he'd left them in Velaris."

Why? Because he didn't want to unsettle the sisters as they were there to convince them to work with them.

"Then I shifted to the right, grateful those shadows were nowhere to be found (...)"

"But Azriel's attention was on my sister, a polite, bland smile on his face. Her shoulders loosened a bit. I wondered if Rhys's spymaster often got his information through stone-cold manners as much as stealth and shadows."

How sweet! First meetings :D

To speed things up a bit, we have Mor finally telling Feyre more about their relationship. How she's aware he wants her, but doesn't see himself good enough to be with her.

“He might have defied and proved those Illyrian pricks wrong at every turn, but it won’t matter if Rhys makes him Prince of Velaris—he’ll see himself as a bastard-born nobody, and not good enough for anyone. Especially me.”

This is very crucial and something I'll circle back to later!

Then we have the cauldron scene that seemed to be what would finally make a change in their so far static relationship.

"Faster than any of us could see, Jurian fired a hidden ash bolt through Azriel's chest. Mor screamed."

"Mor was shaking - trying hard not to, but shaking as she stared at the protruding end of that arrow, visible between the gap in Azriel's wings."

"Jurian's sword was already out - and he was looking at Mor as if he was going to kill her first. Azriel's blood-drained face twisted with rage as he noticed that stare."

"Azriel cried out in pain. She froze."

"Mor looked at Azriel and there was real fear there. Fear - and something else. She didn't stop moving until she kneeled beside him and pressed a hand to his wound. Azriel hissed - but covered her bloody fingers with his own."

I've said this before and I'll say it again. If you know SJM terminology, you know what the "something else" means. This was the mating bond snapping into place for Mor. We were all waiting for it to be adressed in ACOWAR, but clearly that never happened.

As of WAR and FAS, Azriel's feelings for Mor doesn't waver. He continues to stare after her with longing, hunger, sadness whatever - even with Elain in the room fyi. But Mor's feelings for him has been changed irrevocably - as Sarah decides to sink the moriel ship once and for all by telling us Mor is not romantically interested in men, something Az is not aware of, as far as we know. And she continues to sleep with men, which makes him confused and hurt. Their relationship remains the same as it always has been.

So with this out of the way, let's take a look at Mor's reactions to e/riel!

"Azriel's hazel eyes churned as he studied my sister, her too-thin body. And without a word, he winnowed away. Mor watched the space where he'd been standing long after he was gone."

This is... an interesting reaction and something that Sarah obviously wants us to notice. So why is that?

"Az said nothing. No, he just moved toward her. Mor tensed beside me."

Ah, the lovely potato scene! As I was re-reading it, there really was nothing romantic about it whatsoever. Rhys explaining why, as this was more to highlight Azriel's ptsd than show any romantic indication between him and Elain.

However, Mor's reaction is certainly something to note on. She tenses as she watches them. And in here comes my reasoning as to why Az's POV is so important to her reactions. Because previously, we see Elain and Az together through other people's eyes, and it can come across as very sweet and innocent, ♫the start of something new♪ perhaps. But the BC really just threw any sliver of a chance for e/riel out the window, imho.

There was simply nothing sweet about Azriel's inner thoughts as he was interacting with her. His self worth is at an all time low around her, meaning it has most likely always been like that whenever they've been together.

He is so aware of his own flaws, his status, his looks etc and basically comparing himself to her. She is so flawless and good and he is this ugly monster.

"Az tried not to look at his scarred fingers as they took the gift."

"His shadows skittered back at the sound. They'd always been prone to vanish when she was around." ← as they do with Mor

"Letting his scarred fingers touch her immaculate skin."

"Wrong - it was so wrong."

"She looked up at him, her face so trusting and hopeful and open that he knew she had no idea that he had done unspeakable things that sullied his hands far beyond his scars."

"Such terrible things that it was a sacrilege for his fingers to touch her skin, tainting her with his presence."

"He hadn't gotten that far with his planning, certainly not beyond the fantasies he pleasured himself to." ← this is straight up diabolical💀

Although we have never gotten Az's POV when he's around Mor, I imagine it to be very similar in terms of how he views himself and them. And I think Mor understands this. When she looks at Elain and Az, she sees herself and him. And I think her heart breaks for him as she watched history repeat itself, likely knowing that there isn't much she can do but watch as he self destructs again and again.

As I mentioned, this makes me look at e/riels interactions differently when knowing how Az views himself around her. I believe this made every interaction between them, that could carry hints of potential romance, into something much darker than what it seemed like on the surface. And I think Mor sees this, as well as Rhys.

This kinda leads into a post I was planning on writing, but couldn't be bothered. But it was about Az and Rhys and how as of SF, the character that knows Az the best is Rhys. And we see Rhys shut down any e/riel interaction known to man. Feyre: "how handsome they could be together" and Rhys: "Azriel has been preoccupied with the same female for five hundred years" etc.

With the bonus chapter in mind, I have a headcanon that, like Feyre did to Lucien, Rhys used his daemati powers on Azriel and essentially read what we read, leading to him interrupting them as he (like many of us) did not view what was happening as something romantic. If you read on a surface-level, what Rhys did could appear mean, but to me, he did this because he cares for his brother and that particular kiss would not make Azriel feel better about himself. At all!

"What of Mor, Az?" Azriel ignored the question." ← He is not completely over her, even in SF.

If my headcanon is true (which we might never even find out) I just have to point out that Feyre found no ill will when it came to Lucien's regard for Elain, only concern, sorrow, longing etc. Compared with Rhys and Az, where good intentions was not on the table, but simply lust and self-hatred on Azriel's end at least.

I'm not sure why Sarah decided to toy around with e/riel except because Azriel was suddenly available after she decided to ditch moriel, but I do believe that they've turned into nothing but a red herring for gwynriel and elucien. And it worked, a little too well maybe.

See I could pull in my girl Gwyn and her scene with Azriel to compare and show the contrast of it, but I'm not going to..

"The young priestess smiled - and he thought it might have been directed at his curious shadows."

This is already... so different to what we've seen with the other two.

"He blocked out the bloody memory that flashed, so at odds with the Gwyn he saw before him now."

He thinks about her and how far she's come compared to when they first met.

"Her breath curled in front of her mouth, and one of his shadows darted out to dance with it before twirling back to him. Like it heard some silent music."

"He blinked. It wasn't every day that people took him by surprise, but..."

This is just cute c:

"Azriel couldn't help his soft chuckle."

"(...) rubbing his hands against the cold, grateful for its bracing bite and the distraction of this impromptu lesson."

He is aware of his hands and not thinking about how "ugly" they are when she is around him. He is also happy about this surprising lesson, not at all interested in being alone to mope anymore.

"Azriel laughed."

"(...) something restless settling in him. Even his shadows had calmed. As if content to lounge on his shoulders and watch."

You already know. But Az was in a shitty mood right before this, and it did not take much of Gwyn to calm him down, leading him to feel slightly better about himself and even feeling like he could get some sleep after all.

Compared to both Mor and Elain, his shadows are present and interacting with her and she's paying attention to them as well. Which is a first. And let's not forget the ✨spark✨

Which of these three ladies is better for Azriel? Mor and Elain are basically the same for him, himself and his shadows reacts more or less the same around them. Or Gwyn, which read in a lot more positive note than the previous two?

I think Sarah knows at least🤷‍♀️

[cosmicjoke]

How Ash's Sexual Abuse Impacts His Perception of Himself Part 2:

Example eight: Ash's rape by Colonel Foxx and the aftermath of it. I've seen people try to claim that Ash's defiance of Foxx, telling him "Well, do whatever you want to me. You're never gonna dominate me. Ever. My mind and my spirit are mine. I'll fight you assholes all the way! With Everything I got!" is somehow proof that Ash wasn't deeply affected or traumatized by what Foxx did to him, that what Foxx did to him didn't have a devastating affect on Ash's self-esteem or self-perception. I think that claim is patently absurd. It completely fails to account for the direct aftermath of the rape, in which we see Ash have a literal, mental breakdown, unable to stop shaking and sick with himself, and even Ash's terrified, horrified expressions leading up to the rape. It seems clear to me that Ash's defiance of Foxx was a desperate attempt to shield himself from the horror of what he knew was about to happen. It has always read to me as the tragic attempts of a boy who's been rendered helpless, grasping pitifully for some way to cope with his own powerlessness and the pain of what he's about to suffer. It's obvious from Ash's breakdown afterward that his claim to Foxx that he'll "never be dominated" was all bluster, because Ash's reaction afterward shows he very much feels as though he has been dominated. He starts to break down because he's just been shown he can be made just as powerless and helpless now as he was when he was a little boy. This is truly one of the most tragic and heartbreaking moments in the story, because we see any belief Ash might have started to gain that he could escape his role in life being brutally snuffed out. Foxx raping Ash, after Ash has essentially become an adult and begun for the first time to develop for himself a sense of control and independence in his life, basically serves as a cruel reminder to Ash that any sense of freedom he may have felt, any sense of being able to choose anything for himself, was all just an illusion, and he'll forever and always be nothing more than an object designed to satisfy the desires of others.

Example nine: Ash telling Jessica that Foxx raped him, and admitting, essentially, that the only reason he hasn't allowed all the times he's been raped to cripple him mentally is because he simply couldn't afford to. He says "If I needed a year to get over every time I was raped, I'd be dead from old age". He's saying it's happened to him so many times, that's he's had to learn to bury the pain of it in order to keep living. That doesn't in any way mean Ash isn't being deeply affected, though, or that those experiences of rape haven't traumatized and devastated him or continued to impact him psychologically. He's just lived a life so on the edge, that he's never had a moment to actually contend with the disabling affects of his abuse. We see this play out in real time, going from the scenes in example eight, of Ash starting to have a breakdown over what Foxx did to him, to his seemingly detached, unaffected demeanor with Jessica. It's not that he's unaffected by what Foxx did to him, it's that he's actively pushing the negative emotions the experience has conjured in him down in order to keep on. He isn't dealing with his trauma, he's just pretending it isn't there.

Example ten: Ash brushing off Eiji's attempts at encouragement and suggestion of him becoming a model by saying how the only kind of modeling he would be good at or able to do is posing for "kiddie porn mags". He apologizes to Eiji after, seeing he's upset him, saying there's "something the matter with me", but it's obvious that this is what Ash really thinks about himself. He thinks the only thing he would be qualified to work as is a child prostitute. The only thing he thinks he's good at is being a sex object and a killer.

Example eleven: Ash talking with Blanca at the end, and saying he's "never scared (himself) or felt so ashamed of (himself) as right now." Ash thinks of Eiji's goodness and warmth, and compares himself negatively to that goodness and warmth. Being around Eiji, and the way being around him made Ash feel better about himself, ultimately only served to remind Ash of what he feels is his own, inherent rottenness. He sees himself in direct contrast to Eiji, a darkness which threatens to swallow Eiji's light up. He decides he can't be in Eiji's life because his own badness will eventually lead to Eiji's own destruction. Again, we see here exemplified the ways in which the abuse Ash has suffered, and the kind of life he's been forced to live as a result of that abuse, has severely impacted his ability to see his own goodness and light. He's fully convinced he's a bad person, and the only reason he ever might have felt less terrible or like he could be better was by virtue of being in proximity to someone as good and pure as Eiji. He isn't able to see himself as the source of his goodness. He isn't able to see that light as coming from within himself. He believes fully there's only ugliness and horror inside him.

Example twelve: I've also seen it suggested by some people that this scene, and Ash saying "I'm just glad I wasn't born a girl. They get it even worse, so then I'd be a real slut." is supposed to be indicative of him not actually seeing himself in that light, but again, I completely disagree. Ash acts nonchalant and unaffected by the abuse he's suffered because it's the only way for him to cope with it, as I established in example nine. He's doing the same thing in the above scene. He's coping. He's trying to brush off the fact he's been sexually molested and raped since the age of 7 and on as no big deal, by saying well, at least he's not a girl, because when girls are sexually abused, they get branded a "slut" and then it's even worse for them. That doesn't mean Ash doesn't think of himself as a slut, or a sex object (he clearly does, as I've spent these two, long posts establishing), it means Ash thinks he has it easier than a girl would in his position, because boys and men aren't looked at the same way as girls and women who get sexually assaulted and/or raped. It's similar to how Yashiro, in "Twittering Birds Never Fly" tries to downplay his own, sexual abuse when he makes his comment to Kagayama that it's "different" for women who are raped. It's this idea that boys and men should be able to handle being sexually abused better than women, because the societal expectation is that boys and men can't be raped and/or sexually assaulted in the same way as girls and women. They don't face the same sort of social expectations of virginal purity and, so, don't face the same sort of social stigma a girl or woman faces after being sexually assaulted/abused. Ash is saying the only reason he's not seen as a slut by society is because he's not a girl. That social stigma is exemplified by Shorter's own response here, saying if Ash was a girl, he'd never have become a prostitute to begin with. That he'd be a "a real class act who wouldn't even give somebody like me the time of day.". Shorter is basically saying he doesn't see Ash as a slut because he's a boy, and if he was a girl, he wouldn't act the way he does as a boy. All this proves is that Ash is aware of the different ways in which society treats men and women, especially in regards to their sexuality. He's saying he'd be treated as a "real slut" if he was a girl. But of course, Ash already is treated by his abusers as if he's a slut. Shorter himself treated Ash like he was some manipulative whore because of what happened with Ricardo and Frankie. So what Ash says here isn't true at all. Him being a boy doesn't change the way he gets treated and spoken to. And it's obvious, from the way Ash treats himself, that he thinks of himself the same way. That there's some part of him that believes he deserves to be treated that way, because, again, he sees himself as nothing more than a sex object.

That comes from years of horrific abuse. Of being told again and again that his feelings don't count, his thoughts don't count, what he wants doesn't matter. Ash may be able to stand outside himself at times and objectively recognize that the way he's been treated all his life is wrong, and that his abusers are the truly evil ones. But it's the way Ash talks about and treats himself that exposes the truth. He treats himself as though he's just as worthless as all his abusers have always told him he was. And that tells us, undoubtedly, that Ash, in the most tragic way possible, has always, actually believed them.

[jewish-sideblog]

"Both indigenous and colonizers" CAN PEOPLE STOP TALKING ABOUT SHIT THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND PLEASE

This wave of antisemitism and bullshit about "indigenous vs colonizer" makes me so scared as an indigenous person in the US of what will happen when Land Back movements do result in actual sovereignty restoration and then tribes do what people do and disagree over land and resources, like we were doing for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. Will we be reduced down to colonizers too??

It feels like Westerners, especially USAmericans, have such a black and white idea of what it means to be indigenous and what it means to be a colonizer/settler (because those terms are always conflated) and it makes me so angry and frustrated to see people apply those standards and lines thinking not just to complex sovereignty movements in their own countries but also to incredibly complex conflicts and wars happening on the other side of the world.

The damage I've seen done to sovereignty movements here in the US alone, people going around claiming that we want all "settlers" to go back to Europe or that we're going to start massacring people, has been horrible and the fact that it's all just to justify antisemitism makes me sick.

Genuinely. They're blocked now, but that same person said something to the effect of "Would an Iranian praying in a Mosque built on the ashes of a former synagogue be decolonization?"

And that was the point at which I was like. Ok. It seems like most people genuinely don't actually know what the terms "colonization", "colonizer" and "coloniality" mean. Obviously, that wouldn't be decolonization, because the Jews never colonized Iran. Emigration and colonization aren't the same fucking thing!

I used to have so much faith in my generation. I thought we were critical thinkers, capable of flexibility and engagement with new ideas. But I'm realizing now that we're basically just rebranded boomers. Back in the day, anybody you disagreed with was labelled as a "Communist". It didn't actually fucking matter if they were communist sympathizers, Soviet sympathizers, or even if they were remotely allied with socialist ideals. You could just call them a "Communist" and be done with it, without even understanding what that term means.

It's the same shit today. Instead of a HUAC witch hunt targeting communists, it's a social witch hunt targeting "colonizers" and "Zionists". I am terrified that the moment indigenous rights movements in the Americas and Oceania start making practical strides in Land Back, regaining rightful control over the ways your own land is used, you'll all be labelled as "colonizers" or "imperialists" or whatever the bad buzz word of the month turns out to be.

People simply can't wrap their heads around the idea that indigenous decolonization doesn't have the end goal of ethnically cleansing non-native people from the Americas. And it's because they're so absorbed in colonial thinking. They can't even fucking imagine what sovereignty could look like beyond an authoritarian structure based on control and violence. It's the same with Israel and Palestine-- they think that Jewish sovereignty must look like complete Jewish control to the detriment of Arabs, and they think Palestinian sovereignty must look like total Arab control to the detriment of Jews. The idea that a shared state or a two-state solution is "racist" stems from that false dichotomy.

Establishing an ideological binary of violence that pits "indigenous" against "colonizer", "native" against "settler", and "us" against "them" with no room for cooperation or collaboration is the core of colonialism. Because the core of colonialism is the idea that only one group can have true power at a time. And that's just not the way the world has to work.

[life-is-unreal]

Stranger Danger~ {Genshin x Reader} Teyavat Chapter 15 - Artifact farming with Klee

You groaned. "What the fuck. They seriously locked me inside my own fucking room? Paimon, you little mf."

Let's just say that Paimon and Jean decided that you should return back since your anemo energy was pretty much depleted. Were you annoyed? Yeah. You seriously wanted to cook some emergency food.

Hell, Aether was like, "Y/N, stay there ok? You'll get kidnapped or some shit." Aaaand he locked the fucking door.

"Blub Blub." Bob and Bobetta stared at you confused. 

"Hush. It's not like ya'll can help me open the-... BOBETTA?!" You screeched.

Bobetta's innocent eyes blinked. She didn't look so innocent next to what's left of the door though.

You gaped at the ashes. "YOU BURNED DOWN THE FUCKING DOOR?"

"I-I- Oh whatever, you're a fucking pyro slime. The fuck was I expecting?" You pressed your temples. 

"Bob, Bobetta, come on, I seriously need to spend some money right now."

-.-.-

(Earth)

"Yvonne. Is everything done?"

"Yeah, Lorelei's gonna pay for the food and stuff. I'm still trying to get a helicopter though. I think the rich people are getting a hang on what's happening."

Yeleris frowned. "That won't do, we need at least one helicopter, I'm not going to be stuck in a car when the Apocalypse starts."

Lorelie rolled her eyes, "Why would you even want to go out when it starts? It's sooo stupid. Like girl?"

"You don't understand, I need to record what's going to happen in the early stages. You know how the Apocalypse in this world is basically a defense system on Earth against destructive elements like humans. We don't even know what form of Apocalypse it is."

"So? It's not the first Apocalypse themed world. It's always zombies, or shitty weather, or both, or some, I don't know, random ass supernatural shit." Yvonne muttered.

"We can just throw some surveillance cameras around the city. I'd much rather lounge at home you know?"

Lorelie poked your face. "When is Y/N going to wake up? It's my first time seeing a person inside a contaminated world get picked to become a player you know? Hopefully she doesn't die in Teyvat. That wouldn't be very fun."

"It's probably a system bug. I mean, I've never seen a player that's originally from a contaminated world and their original body didn't go with them to their assigned world. That's like- eughhh." Yvonne checked your pulse. "She's still alive at least. Time passes differently in each world, she might stop breathing any second you know?"

"You're talking as if we're gonna let her die." Lorelei grumbled, closing the door behind her. 

"You guys had to choose this place? I got fucking lost trying to find it."

"What? I'm not going to pick a place near the city center. What if it's a zombie apocalyptic world? They're ugly and smelly lil shits." Yeleris hissed. 

"Eugh. You and your stupid OCD shit."

"I DON'T HAVE OCD."

"Yeaaaaaa, totallyyy."

-.-.-

(Mondstadt City)

"Blub Blub?"

Bob spewed cold air all over your face. "Blub blub blub?" You hissed holding your head. For a second, you swore that you heard the voices of your dorm mates. 

"Are you ok pretty sister?" Klee asked. Her large eyes staring into yours. 

"Yeah... Wait! What are you doing here?"

"Ehehe Klee couldn't resist fish bombing. Aaaand, big brother Kaeya saw me so Klee ran away..."

You raised a brow, "Klee, there's barely any fish left. Do you know how mad Jean is going to be?" 

Klee rubbed her little hands, "Klee...Aha! Klee will say that it's the water thingies that killed the fish!"

"...Whatever make you happy Klee. Aren't you going to find Albedo?" You asked, not noticing the male.

Klee sighed softly, "Albedo is experimenting with the sample you gave Jean. He wouldn't let me play with him. Klee is sooo boreeeddd..." She hugged your waist. "Big sister Y/N, can we please g play? Pleasssse. Klee will make you some Dodocos! We can match!" 

Rubbing her fluffy hair, you nodded. "Klee, do you want to help me with farming?"

The loli tilted her head, "Farm? Big sister farms? Like, plants?"

"No Klee. I mean artifact farming."

"Arty- facts? Hmmmm, it's those trinkets right?! Klee has quite a few! Klee can give you some!" Just like that, a bunch of five-star artifacts appeared in her arms. 

"Big sister can take everything!" Klee giggled at your dumbfounded expression.

You breathed in and out slowly, opening your mouth hesitantly. "K-Klee. Did you farm these yourself or was it one of your big sisters and brothers?"

Klee blinked. "Oh! Klee was testing out one of Klee's new prototypes and big brother Albedo told Klee to go into a- umm, doymin, ummm, domain! We were in Liyue gathering materials for his potions so Klee went to the nearest domain. I think it's called the Domain of Blessing? Yeah! There were lots of pyro slimes so Albedo had to help me out with that one. Klee has also done a lot of other domains but the arty-facts there aren't as good so Klee just gives them away as presents!"

"W-well, Klee, do you want to go with me to farm artifacts?"

"Sure!!! Will Bob and Bobetta come with us?!" 

"Yeah... Why not...". You needed Bob to help defeat the pyro slimes, Bobetta being a pyro slime could probably also help confuse the slimes.

-.-.-

(Valley of Remembrance)

"Klee, are you absolutely sure you want to try this level?" You gaped as the girl hopped to the lvl 90 door. 

"It's fine big sister! Klee has done it sooo many times with big sister Sucrose!" She laughed. "My Hydro version of Dodoco was created with the help of Sucrose after fighting the pyro slimes! Klee couldn't do anything with the pyro Dodoco!"

"Wait- you have a hydro version of Dodoco?" You raised a brow. If Klee could create different types of bombs, Klee's overall power would be increased significantly, perhaps she could become the second Alice.

"Yeah! Klee also has a cryo and geo version. Klee will create more versions if big brother Albedo and big sister Jean allows!"

You nodded, "Let's go Klee."

And with that, the two of you were sucked into the darkness. How could you describe it? It's like someone being in a vacuum, except it didn't feel uncomfortable, in contrast, it felt quite nice.

"There you are!" Klee smiled happily, handing you a blue Dodoco. "Hi Bobetta! Hi Bob! Klee would give you one too but there's not a lot. Klee will give you some next time we go arty-fact farming!"

She snickered softly at your awed gaze. "It's your first time in an arty-fact domain right! It's really beautiful! Klee was sooo surprised on her first time too! You see that big red key in the middle of the platform? Just put your hand on it! The slimes will spawn after a few seconds. Just in time for Klee to place the Dodocos!"

It didn't take too long for you to truly acknowledge just how overpowered Klee is. 

"BLUB BLUB BLUB BLUBBB!" Bob and Bobetta screeched. Their normal blub blubs were gone, the high pitched blubs that came out of their... mouths? Yeah, never heard of. From their animated expressions, you could see just how shaken they were.

What happened a few seconds before was that the moment the pyro slimes showed up, the hydro Dodocos exploded, so now, there's a bunch of slime fragments littered everywhere.

"BLUUUUB BLUUUUB." Bobetta shrieked as Klee scooped her up out of curiosity. No wonder, you would be scared to death if you saw a bunch of humans explode right in front of you and the person that caused it casually scoops you up.

"Wooowwww, Klee never knew slimes could make this expression. It's so cute!" Her eyes turned into crescent moons, squishing the orange blob.

Bob bounced behind you, his eyes gazing fearfully at Klee. "BLUB!" Bobetta's eyes welled with tears, staring into yours. If slimes could talk Bobetta would probably be cussing and screaming to get out of Klee's arms.

"Klee sweetie, let's go get the artifacts." you said sighing, plucking the teary eyed Bobetta out of her arms.

"Awwww, ok!"

"...You are fuc- Fudging kidding me. YOU GOT ALL CRITS AND I GET DEFS? KLEE I DEMAND ANOTHER ROUND. AND YOU GOT TWO FIVE- STARS? WHAT?!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 15.5 + Teyvat Chapter 16:

https://www.tumblr.com/life-is-unreal/764850059160485888/stranger-danger-genshin-x-reader-teyvat-chapter?source=share

[mysteryshoptls]

R Leona Kingscholar - Outdoor Wear Vignette

"Beside myself with worry"

To the requestor: Outdoor Wear voice lines can be found here.

[Dwarfs' Mine – Campsite]

―First Day of Vargas Camp

Epel: Woah, here come the fairies again for our campfire! Everyone, be on your guard so it doesn't blow out…!

Spelldrive Club Members: YEAH!

Leona: ….Tch. Yer all so noisy.

Epel: Oh…? Leona-san, you're out of your tent already?

Epel: It was only 20 minutes ago that you said you were gonna take a nap…

Leona: This time of day's got sun so bright it's even lighting up the inside of my tent.

Leona: And right whenever I feel like I could get to sleep, there's you lot all yappin' about them fairies every time they show up...

Leona: There's no way I can grab a few z's like this.

Epel: I'm sorry… Oh, what about heading to the mine, then?

Epel: Just a bit ago, Ruggie-san said something to that regard as he was leaving the campsite.

Epel: He said, if you were to wake up saying it was impossible to sleep here…

Epel: That a "secluded, quiet, and dark mine would be the best place for a nap."

Leona: Ugh… I'm betting Ruggie's planning on roping me into something annoying.

Epel: Huh…? Something annoying?

Leona: Whatever, I guess I'll bite.

Leona: I'm heading to the mine. Don't let those fairies run you ragged.

Epel: Yessir, we'll definitely protect our campfire!

[Dwarfs' Mine – Interior]

[clank, clank, clank!]

Jack: Whew… I can't find a single magestone… What about you, Deuce?

Deuce: I've tried picking all over the place, but… No luck here.

Deuce: Looks like the Spelldrive Club down the way is having trouble too… Guess collecting magestones is actually pretty difficult.

Leona: Can't believe you're all getting tripped up by something this easy. You're all so pathetic, huh.

Spelldrive Club Member A: Oh, Leona-senpai! Did you come to check up on your club members?

Leona: Oh, yeah, sure. I was just so beside myself with worry, 'cause it was taking you all too long to get back.

Leona: …Hey! Listen up, each and every single one of you here! I'll teach you all the trick to finding magestones.

Jack: Eh, you are…?

Deuce: Every one of us…? Does that include all us other clubs too?

Leona: It's just a waste of time if you're just randomly swinging your pickaxes at the rock wall.

Leona: Don't you guys even know how magestones are made?

Leona: Basically, gemstones absorb power from its surroundings and become magestones.

Leona: When you're mining for 'em, you want to locate the faint traces of magical output from those magestones, and start digging in that general area…

Jack: Oh, right. Now that you mention it, we learned that in class. Guess I didn't look over it enough to remember to do that.

Deuce: I see!! Then, I'll get down to it…!

Leona: …Buuut, that's just what they say in the textbooks. That's just what inflexible blockheads would do.

Leona: If you just use your brain, you can get it done faster and easier.

Deuce: Huh? Faster and easier…?

Leona: Just think about what kind of "power" turned those gems into magestones.

Leona: For the Dwarf Mine here, that's "volcanic activity." You shoulda learned that in history of magic.

Leona: So, you just gotta look for tuff in the walls that show evidence of volcanic activity.

Deuce: Tuff?

Leona: It's a type of rock that's built up from an accumulation of volcanic ash. It'll look whitish here.

Deuce: Uhh… So basically… If we can find some white bits in the wall and dig, we should find some magestones!?

Leona: Sure, that's probably the simplest way to put it. It's probably more of a reliable method to find the locations to dig, than to ask some untrained novice to try and trace magical energy.

Leona: I'll even show you how as an example. Hey, you, Spelldrive guy. Come dig where I tell you.

Spelldrive Club Member A: Yes, sir!

[clank, clank, clank…]

[…thunk!]

Leona: …See, there it is. A piece of a magestone.

Deuce: He found one in 5 minutes, even though we had been digging for 2, 3 hours and didn't find anything…!

Deuce: Hey, Jack! Your Housewarden's amazing.

Deuce: Plus, he helped all of us, not just the Spelldrive Club guys. He's a real nice guy.

Jack: Y-Yeah.

Deuce: Hm? Something wrong? You're looking grim.

Jack: No, I mean, I know that Leona-senpai is a amazing, but…

Jack: I always thought he wasn't the type to just proactively help others out, so I was just a little surprised.

Jack: But yeah, you're right. He really is someone worth looking up to!

Deuce: Yeah! Alllright, I'm gonna try looking for a magestone using the method he taught us!

Deuce: Kingscholar-senpai, I successfully found a magestone.

Deuce: THANK YOU VERY MUCH, SIR!

Leona: Well, ain't that good for you.

Deuce: Yes, sir! We're going to head out to receive our badge from Vargas-sensei now. Excuse us.

[Deuce and Jack leave]

Spelldrive Club Member A: Leona-senpai～ Why'd you help out those guys when they're not even a part of our club?

Leona: Don't be stupid. It's not like we're competing against each other or anything. Ain't worth gettin' all heated for nothing.

Leona: No one wants to see their club get abolished. Doesn't that mean we're all on the same team?

Spelldrive Club Member A: You're thinking on a completely different level, Leona-senpai! I should've been as compassionate as you!!

Leona: Hmph… If you've gotten your hand on a magestone, go and collect our badge already.

Spelldrive Club Member A: Yes, sir!

[Spelldrive Club Member leaves]

Leona: …Finally, they're all gone. Ugh, what a pain having to help out all those dunderheads.

Leona: Yaaaawn......… Now I can get some quiet shut eye, at last.

Leona: …Zzz…Zzz…

Requested by Anonymous.

[hdusa]

that was my first time watching a lifesteal stream in like 6 months i dont know what is going on in season 5 at all . the red sky was kinda awesome. guns were scary. i hope u kill more people soon ^_^ will be trying 2 tune in more - @renchant

I can try to summarize the entire season in like 3 paragraphs it’s going to be so terrible and long I’m so sorry watch me do it here we go

So basically… lifesteal season 5 begins…. There’s a group called the PMC that consists of MinuteTech LeoWook and ClownPierce and since they’re all big strong men they beat up every other team on the server. Eventually the PrinceZam + Pangi pirate team group up with Gucci Gang (Bacon Parrot Mapicc) to beat them up because they’re really strong and scary. Eventually Clown stops logging on so they feel the need to form a new team called the Phantoms with Vitalasy Jumper and Reddoons and they go around jumping people by staying logged out and then all logging in at the same time after someone’s lured to a location. It got them a PrinceZam kill but they failed against Mapicc and Bacon. Tons of fights happen that are just PMC vs Gucci Gang + Me or LaLa Legion (Spoke Ash Ro Planet) vs Us or whatever. Eventually new members get added, Squiddo Pentar Jepex Wemmbu. There’s a gay wedding between Parrot and Ashswag. Squiddo kills the entire server at a birthday party. I made 200 backup maxed out armor sets. Midmystic makes Pangi and I an awesome pirate base and lastly a chunk of the server lowkey stop logging on.

Because of the void left by the players that are now gone (Parrot, Vitalasy kinda, Reddoons, Poafa, Woogie, Vort3x etc) Mapicc and I have no choice but to find a way to make things awesome again. We build a void trap at spawn and try to lure Minute and Planet over, successfully killing Planet (this is ok because he’s a 20 heart monster this season btw!!) Bacon joins us and decides we need two extra members so we invite Pentar and JumperWho as well. Together we formed a team called The Abyss, a group of players that want to revive the server by destroying it. By making ourselves the big bads of the server every time people logged on their goal was to kill us so that we’d stop making our void hole at spawn bigger. They tried other things like filling the hole with water and obsidian but those all got fixed relatively fast. One of the things they did was find my secret base and steal all 200 of my armor sets. This made me really mad so I destroyed the entire PMC base. After months of constant fighting over this big dumb hole to the void at spawn eventually we come up with an end goal. We were going to turn the entirety of spawn island into void. While working on this insanely large project we get jumped and after like 5 battles where Planet just keeps dying but his teammates live, he bans himself in the void hole. Before doing so he asks what our goal is so I told him activity, and he says “well in that case I guess in a way I’ve beat you”. This was like cold asf so we immediately switch gears deciding we need to make our plan way awesomer and cooler so we add a puzzle for them to solve!! It’s super long and if they couldn’t finish it in 7 days the entirety of spawn would be turned to void. Our team immediately got to work running big bedrock break machine and cleaning out layer after layer. However, as this is all happening Wemmbu Squiddo and 4CVIT reveal that they have a massive canon that will blow up literally EVERYTHING on the server unless we give them 50 hearts. They blows up 4Cs entire beautiful base to show they’re not joking around. Minute and his group are able to find the canon and break it saving the server but for a moment the entire server was united against Wemmbu and his team. The Abyss goal was completed before our final project even began which sucked, but we kept moving forward. To get people interested Minute (temporarily) added Rekrap2 Back To The Server!!!! He was here to help them finish the puzzle and after a week of us racing to void everything while they solve our puzzles, it was over and they had won. The 5 of us now had to jump into the void but that’s when JumperWho revealed she had been a mole the whole time. For 3 months of constant work on the void hole, she was betraying us. Relaying everything to Minute and his team. Filled with rage Mapicc decided to bomb her base but ended up with Clown Leo Minute Jumper and potentially more on him. I came to help but I wasn’t ready to fight Jumper, somebody I’d been allies with for 3 months. I managed to escape but I couldn’t believe it. Afterwards Pentar also left our team leaving just Mapicc Bacon and I.

The next paragraph is basically everything that’s happened since so basically the last month or so. To fix the lack of order on the server players could now run for God! Mapicc, Minute, Squiddo and 4CVIT/Reddoons decided to run. Simultaneously Branzy was now working on a carnival which was really cool! During one of the games I rigged it so that Jumper would die which was silly revenge but then for serious revenge me and Mapicc tried jumping her. Unfortunately she got Minute to save her leading to us losing badly. Afterwards the presidential god stuff starts taking priority and to campaign we ask a bunch of people to vote for us. In the end we came 2nd place, and Pentar as well as Pangi voted against Mapicc. Pentar made sense since he never said he would vote Mapicc, but Pangi had quite literally betrayed all of our trusts by voting for Squiddo. Also Minute came dead last despite helping everyone on the server regear and also saving them from void and the canon which is hilarious. The winners were 4C and Reddoons who instead of actually running themselves chose to give their presidency to CaptainSparklez! It takes him a while to join and during that time period to fill the lack of things going on Mapicc and I start an all out war against Jumper. It started with a silly spar against MinuteTech that ended up turning into a 2v2 against Jumper as well. We got them to run the first time around but the 2nd time we just lost badly. The next day Jumper said she’d deliver stone from Vitalasys old base to Midmystic so we hid in Vitalasys base all day long. It was taking a while so I changed my discord pfp and name to match Mids and got her to log on 😭😭. Once she showed up we killed her. Minute logged on and she ended up coming back but we escaped with me on the brink of death. Because of this they were angry angry at us but we didn’t care we wanted to make them more mad. We started base hunting and found Minutes somewhat old base for the anti abyss people. While searching the base Minute showed up so Mapicc got there and we 2v1d him. During the fight we spawned a wither in the base bombing the area and revealing a third of the 200 armor sets I had stolen from me during the void arc!!! Eventually Jumper showed up so we decided to run away taking our win. But after this we had another fight where they jumped us at my base and we ended up losing after an extremely long and hard fought battle. Before this I forgot to mention but Bacon Mapicc and I brainstormed a team name as well as an end goal, SPOILERS NO LIFESTEAL MEMEBRS READ BEYOND THIS!!!!

STOP IT! DO NOT READ AHEAD LIFESTEAL MEMBERS!!!

Essentially we wanted to reset the server to how it was on day one, breaking apart every team and then resetting every area back to how it looked on day one. With this goal in mind I realized we’d need to actually be able to kill people so I needed to get past being on 9 hearts. 4C/Red made hearts literally uncraftable so I had to kill. This segment is really cool there’s a 10 or 20 minute clip of everything that happens and if I tried to explain it I wouldn’t do it any justice but I’m sure somebody will link it below. Anyway after the awesome clip moment I’m evil now so I try to kill Pangi. I lead him to our old day one base and get him to help me repair it but he is wayyy too sus of me. I eventually muster up the courage to block off the bases exits and ask him over and over why he voted Squiddo, as this was supposed to be revenge for that. However, MinuteTech logs on and arrives at the base leading to them 2v1ing me but I end up escaping. We scream at each other before I leave to set up a new base. Later that night Pentar calls with Mapicc and I to join our team. Thanks to him I’m basically able to fully regear myself after losing almost everything to all the fights we had with Minute and Jumper. I end up on 12 hearts by this point and I think that’s most the shenanigans wrapped up, all that’s left is the captain sparklez stuff which this specific asker has already seen I think. For anyone else I personally believe this should be vod watched!! Up to you of course but I’m sure someone else on here would be willing to summarize that specific event sometime.

I spent an hour writing this on my phone before bed and I can’t believe it took this long. I thought it’d be shorter. Sorry!

[domxmarvel]

Just us

Masterlist

Pairing: Kazuki x Female!Reader x Rei

Request: FINALLY SOMEONE THAT WROTES FOR BUDDY DADDIES can I request kazuki and rei in a poly relationship with fem reader? Basically reader now considers miri as her own baby and raising a kid + having her partners be an assassin and a spy has left them no time for intimacy so finally one day both guys have the day off and miri is off to school so reader goes wild? (Preferably Dom reader)

Ever since you first met Miri you knew that you'd love her like your own,eventually Rei warmed up to her too and you quickly became a family,an unusual one but still a family. Although dating two assassins and having a child left you with little to no time to spend with each other. They were getting mission after mission,you took up taking care of Miri since they were busy that week. 

It was Sunday night and you were getting Miri ready for bed,she looked a bit sad but before you could ask she said.

"Are you fighting?"

"What?" 

"You,Papa Kazuki and papa Rei, are you mad at each other?" Now she was on the verge of crying,judging by how her voice was shaking. You knelt down to her height.

"No,I still love them. They're just really busy with work,sometimes it's just like that but we're not fighting" She moved to sit in your lap,you held her. 

"I miss them"

"Me too. Come on you should get to bed,it's late" You put Miri to bed and a few minutes later Kazuki and Rei came back. Immediately Rei had draped himself all over you,you could feel him resting most of his weight on you. The smell of his cologne only slightly covers the smell of smoke and ash,which in a way was comforting. Kazuki quickly followed behind him. 

"I missed you" You heard Rei whisper so only you could hear. You kissed his cheek in response.

"Hey what about my kisses?" Kazuki whined,you laughed, turning to kiss him. You could feel how much he didn't want to let you go just from that kiss,suddenly you felt Rei kiss your neck. You knew exactly where this was going,you knew what they wanted,what you wanted but couldn't have at least not right now. 

"Stop" They both stopped and looked at you.

"What's wrong?" Kazuki asked.

"We can't do this now,she's here" Both of them groaned and let go of you,Rei went out to the balcony to smoke, leaving you and Kazuki in the kitchen. 

"You know we don't have any work tomorrow"

"Neither do I,so we're all home tomorrow" Immediately he smirked,thinking about what you could do. 

"Anyway I'm gonna go shower" Rei walked back in "Hey Rei wanna join me?" He winked,Rei immediately turned to face you instead. 

"I'll shower later" Kazuki left and immediately Rei moved closer to you. "Will you join me?"

"Of course"

***

You had dropped Miri off and were on your way back home,Rei had already called you twice to tell you to hurry up. He always got clingy whenever he had the day off. The second you walked in,you found him standing there,waiting. 

"Finally"

"If you're gonna be a brat you'll be punished. Do I already have to get the collar or is that what you want?" He avoided your eyes,which let you know that you were right. You grabbed his jacket and pulled him down. "Go get my things" He ran off and was back with everything in the blink of an eye. In seconds he was bouncing on your strap on,you held onto him tightly. The bell around his neck rang out with every thrust. "You forgot the ears" You teased,biting down on his neck. 

"Sorry,please don't stop" You grabbed his hips tightly,pushing him onto the couch as you fucked him. He tried to hide his face with his hands,which you immediately pinned above his head. He was stronger than you,there was no debate about that but he still let you do whatever you want and never fought back. He was willing to do whatever you wanted. 

"Y/N,faster please" Leaning down you kissed him as you moved faster. His moans were getting louder and louder,you weren't gonna be able to look your neighbors in the eye for quite a while. His neck and hips were covered in bruises and his mouth open,and drooling down to his neck. He looked absolutely beautiful,withering under you and still begging for more.

"You started without me?" You turned around to see Kazuki standing there with his arms crossed. 

"Then hurry up and join us" He was quickly behind you,completely naked and with his hands on your chest. He was kissing and biting on your neck. Rei tried to wrap his legs around you,but ended up wrapping them around both you and Kazuki. 

"I think our kitten wants more attention"

"Don't call me that" He groaned. You started moving your hips again,grinding your ass against Kazuki with every movement. Kazuki turned your head to face him and kissed you,the second he let go Rei grabbed your arm and pulled you down to kiss him instead. You pulled out and he immediately whined,you backed away. 

"Get on your stomach" He immediately did as you asked. You turned to Kazuki and whispered "You want his mouth or do you wanna fuck him"

"We both know you're the only one he allows to do that" He was right,Rei loved both of you but he only let you fuck him. You pushed the strap back in,pulling his hair back. Kazuki was in front of him,fucking his mouth. The sounds he was making were delightful. Rei was great with his mouth and Kazuki was easy to break,it didn't take long before Kazuki came down his throat. You felt him cum at the same time as Kazuki. You leaned closer to his ear.

"Good boy" 

[pascallatte]

Mando's Lover?

Pairing: Pedro Pascal x Actress!reader

Summary: The Mandalorian interview but why are you included? (read to find out 😉)

Date: August 2019

Taglist: @benonlinear, @t-stark35, @heyitsme-2, @elleeeee21, @holmesstrange, @tagakalat, @flyestvenustrap, @oldermenaremyreligion, @cherryred444, @avengersheart, @guacala, @pukka-latte, @hobiismyhopeu, @lilvampirina, @ilovehotdadsandshit

A/N: AAAAA we're almost entering my favourite part of the series, but, I might post some throwbacks before we head to that though so stay tuned and like always, enjoy!! also kind of a late post but you know. hehe

Series Masterlist

The pair are seen on the red carpet during this year’s D23 Expo on The Mandalorian, which was to be released three months from now.

“Ok I'm gonna recreate your reaction to-being-casted celebration,” the interviewer, Ash, said as she shook hands with Pedro. She recreated his celebratory reaction making Pedro watch as she continued.

“That’s right. It was- it was a three-act event react play. Yeah, it was like “Oh thank you thank you”.. pass out,” He said also reenacting with an exaggerated crying look on his face, clearly having fun at what was happening.

She brings the mic closer to her to ask him her second question, “But can you walk me through actually finding out you were cast as The Mandalorian.” Pedro who was once looking at her intently, turned to look downwards remembering how that day went. 

“Well I got a call and the actual words were “Jon Favreau wants to talk to you about something Star Wars” and so I said absolutely and I went out to meet him at his offices in Playa Vista and he invited me into a room where he introduced me to Dave Filoni and in this room, it was wall-to-wall, immaculate illustrations of this series which is everything Star Wars-”

He continues to share his precious moments before the final revelation, “-And so being a Star Wars fan myself I was like, “oh what’s this” and “oh I remember that” and “what are you gonna do here” and “what do you want me to do?”” Pedro rambles on about asking them what creature, robot, or whatever role they wanted him to audition for before taking a deep breath.

“-and they looked confused and basically pointed to the- this incredible like silhouette of The Mandalorian. He said you’re the, you’re The Mandalorian. So yeah that’s why I- that’s why I sort of died inside of joy.”

Nodding at his response Ash looks at him,” Who was the first person you ever told when you got the job? Since the role became like a very important one for you.”

Scratching the back of his neck, “Well, y/n was picking me up from Jon’s place, so naturally, I told her fir-actually, I freaked out on her. I kept blabbering on things I can’t even remember you know, it must be the adrenaline I felt at that moment. And then- just then did I call my sister, who is a big Star Wars fan, saying how I’m a part of the huge franchise that she loves and now we’ve done and are about to release the first season, it makes me really happy.” Ending his response with a content smile.

“How could you not? I mean, you mentioned you were a Star Wars fan, so what’s your earliest Star Wars memory? Do you remember like-“ Ash inquired once again, wanting to know more about him and his experience as an interviewer.

Pedro enthusiastically blurted out,” I saw Star Wars- I saw episode four in the movie theatre. I was very young so I don’t remember the experience of being in the theatre for it as well as I do the empire strikes back which is burned into my childhood imagination and  I remember like three attempts to get tickets for return of the Jedi and getting my heart broken every time because it was sold out, and then finally getting the tickets and literally you know like staring at the poster being like I’m finally seeing this movie so it was highly present in my childhood. All the toys you know and all the stories yeah.”

“And now you’re in it,” Ash said, seemingly into his history with Star Wars.

Agreeing with her, “And now I’m in it. it’s weird, leading the series”

“Now, back to being an avid Star Wars watcher. What was your reaction when you were first introduced to your now-girlfriend, Y/n L/n, who played the character Sabe in the phantom menace?"

Pedro looks at her with a look that he knows what she was up to and decides to keep it short, "Yeah well like I knew it was her when we first met but I didn’t like barging into her space telling her that I’ve watched her in Star Wars and loved it because that would be weird coming from this guy you’ve never met before. But now, I can say that we’re now also together in another galaxy."

"Did you ever think you would ever meet her in person or like be with her all those years ago?"

Crossing his arms, thinking for a moment, "I didn’t really well- but to start it off I didn’t even think I would be able to meet her in any way, since she was like in the spotlight already at such a young age so I didn’t really think about it. That was until we got introduced that is and it was one of the best moments in my life," finishing it off with a shy smile.

“That’s sweet, do you think we’ll ever see Y/n as part of your series, The Mandalorian?”

“Good question but we haven’t thought about it really. But with the number of times she’s been on set they should’ve made a character just for her don’t you think?” Pedro said laughing. “Last question, what role from The Mandalorian would you think y/n would fit in if she were to be cast?” she quickly stated as their time's almost up.

Pedro gave her a teasing knowing look, “Ummm Mando’s lover, no I'm joking. But maybe someone in the ranks, probably not a Mandalorian cause she'll look-" he makes a tiny sign from his hands, laughing at himself, "-wearing the armour. Maybe a Jedi, we don’t know really, she can play herself actually. She’ll take whatever they give her.”

[not-poignant]

Hi Pia!

I've been reading a bunch of your works over the last couple of months and I hope it's okay if I throw some thoughts/questions at you!

This feels really forward, but have you ever written anything with voyerism as a kink? And if not, do you have any interest in it? TIP is the most recent thing of yours that I've finished and that scene where Augus watched Mosk & Eran... hot. Twas very hot. I think about it a lot lol.

As for the Underline universe, how far into Blue and Gold are we? Like percentage/fraction-wise? Or is it still up in the air? I know we have an end in sight for Black now and it makes me wonder.

I'm so nervous about the next couple of chapters of Black. Gosh I love the fluff rn, but I am so scared for the whole Henton/Crielle mess to come back. I genuinely forgot that Henton was gonna be relevant and I looked at the tags recently and audibly went 'oh shit.' This is not a question, I just want you to know that I am Scared.

I have so many questions about Silver but I am trying to restrain myself bc I know you must keep your secrets. Just please know I think about them. Could I ask what Augus and Corbyn's ages are? I'm fairly certain they're not gonna be 80 but I work as a CNA and I've started thinking about their dynamic as a cute old couple at a facility and it makes me giggle a little.

If you're still doing the OC asks thing, would you do #10 for Arden? I know you've gotten multiple asks about him in Underline (which makes sense why you wouldn't want to put him there), but I'm curious if there's any other scenarios you'd want to put him in?

I'm the anon that asked for more about Caleb and I just. Am fighting demons not to literally put 1-25 for him (I love mean tops)(And he is still in his mean to faber stage)(will he ever not be? that's not a actual question) I just...his and fabers dynamic is my kind of hurt lol (i wonder how he'd feel about having a tiny fanclub?)(i can support his buisness pursuits or something)

Now that I look all of this over I am sorry but also not sorry this is probably overwhelming. Feel free to skip over whatever or answer some and come back to it. Just know I am thinking about your characters like... too many hours in the day. I need to get back to laundry lol

Whoa holy fucking questions batman!

I shall do my best anon I am intrigued

This feels really forward, but have you ever written anything with voyerism as a kink? And if not, do you have any interest in it? TIP is the most recent thing of yours that I've finished and that scene where Augus watched Mosk & Eran... hot. Twas very hot. I think about it a lot lol.

Voyeurism, yes! Particularly in one of the later chapters of The Beast that Chose Its Own Bridle where Felix and Murtagh watch a kink scene live, and Murtagh edges Felix during it, while quietly talking to him, until Felix is basically begging to come.

Otherwise I'm not writing it often mostly because many of the bottoms I write are either a) too insecure to perform for others or b) it's just not a direction the story is going in.

I don't really write exhibitionism at all, but there are elements of voyeurism around, Falling Falling Stars had some non-sexual and hints of voyeurism overall re: Efnisien, Kadek, and Arden.

I'm fairly certain the Strange Sights universe has elements of both (exhibitionism from Augus, voyeurism from Ash and Augus towards each other). Especially the follow-up sequel, where Ash asks Augus to masturbate for him.

Eversion probably has the most in terms of people watching Connor. In fact the very first time we ever see him in a sex scene, it's at a BDSM club where literally someone is just there to watch him get off, and he meets his dom while both of them watch someone else endure a flogging, and Connor is - similarly to Felix - played with while watching the scene. There's also the threesome between Luuk, Hank and Connor later, where it's clear that Hank and Luuk are both enjoying watching each other as well as Connor. So I would say Eversion probably has the most!

It's not something I write often, but it's around! (two of these fics are over at my thespectaclesofthor AO3 account!)

As for the Underline universe, how far into Blue and Gold are we? Like percentage/fraction-wise? Or is it still up in the air? I know we have an end in sight for Black now and it makes me wonder.

No idea re: Blue and Gold, though I know neither of them will be anywhere near as long as Black. To the point where I'm hoping to wrap up Blue and Gold around the chapter 35-45 mark. But hope is a fickle thing, and it could be earlier, could be later. They were never designed to be stories that had huge development arcs or anything, they're pretty much done once the characters have bonded successfully / shared a successful heat. Both stories end before Underline the Black starts in terms of in-world timeline!

I'm so nervous about the next couple of chapters of Black. Gosh I love the fluff rn, but I am so scared for the whole Henton/Crielle mess to come back. I genuinely forgot that Henton was gonna be relevant and I looked at the tags recently and audibly went 'oh shit.' This is not a question, I just want you to know that I am Scared.

You should be : )

I mean, it'll be fine!

Well, both of those things can be true, lol.

I have so many questions about Silver but I am trying to restrain myself bc I know you must keep your secrets. Just please know I think about them. Could I ask what Augus and Corbyn's ages are?

They're in their fifties! I haven't gotten exact ages on them yet, but I know that if Alois complains about being old around Corbyn, Corbyn is just going to smile tiredly at him.

If you're still doing the OC asks thing, would you do #10 for Arden?

10. What's an AU that would be interesting to explore with your OC?

Honestly, I feel like his story is "closed." I don't really know how to explain this, but with some of the characters I write, I hit a point where I just don't need to write them again. Eran is the same.

I think it's telling (to me) that in all the stories I'm writing after Falling Falling Stars, each one of them is literally revolving around *another* character that isn't Arden (whether it's Gwyn, or Kadek, or Dr Gary). That doesn't mean Arden isn't around, I just have no drive to tell a version of his story again.

Some characters stay open mentally, and others sort of mentally go into the 'I'm done' space. Gwyn and Augus took forever to kind of walk into the 'I'm done' space (and they're still not fully there)! - Arden was there immediately after Falling Falling Stars was over.

Also they kind of choose that space? I stay open generally because I like writing AUs a lot, so it's like a weird sense of like a character walking away from me, vs. me being like 'I'm tired of you.' Arden walked away! He was happy, lol. So I literally have zero other story ideas for Arden and I think he'd be mad at me for trying to think up any.

I'm the anon that asked for more about Caleb and I just. Am fighting demons not to literally put 1-25 for him (I love mean tops)(And he is still in his mean to faber stage)(will he ever not be? that's not a actual question) I just...his and fabers dynamic is my kind of hurt lol (i wonder how he'd feel about having a tiny fanclub?)(i can support his buisness pursuits or something)

Anon I promise you that you're not the only one who cares about Caleb!! Also I love this douche guy, can't wait to show more of him!

If you limit yourself to like 3 questions from the meme each time, you can send more asks! I still have a few to get to in general. :D

[phxntomhives]

About the reaction of Gregory in the latest Kuro ep

Here are some theories about his scream and his reaction at the fire. I love that they don't have much background info so we can just say whatever we want. It's not like anyone can tell me I'm wrong ✨ so here is some angst xoxo

I genuinely hope not one of these is true

1) His house burned down

I mean it still happens today, accident happens. So yeah, his house could have burned down. It doesn't matter your age, that would be traumatizing. On top of that, if a fire suddenly spread out, it is possible that some people may have not survived, adding more fear of fire. Anyone, from the servants to his family could have died in a similar accident, maybe he himself barely survived. Of course he wouldn't want anyone to get close to that hell, and will react badly if they try to do it. And you won't really stop to elaborate, especially if you see possibly seeing flashbacks of the scenes you already saw once.

He feels hopeless while staring at the fire and I wouldn't be surprised to see a tiny Gregory looking at the same scene and just be normally scared, a fear that will remain with him for life. It's the other prefects that somehow snap him back to reality, hopefully freeing him from the bad memories.

2) alternative: a friend's house burned down

Basically the same as before, but his house is lucky enough to not be the victim here. Just like Lizzie saw the Phantomhive manor burning down, he could have seen the house of a friend being devoured by the flames. And unlike the previous version... There is no guarantee there was a survivor. In the worst case scenario, he may have seen the people inside being able to run out of the building, but with high degree burns so extended and dangerous that they weren't able to survive. Maybe he had to see his friend/relative/fiancé come out screaming in pain, burned to the point of being unrecognizable, and later watch them die before his eyes without being able to help. And he just doesn't want to go through all of that again. He isn't letting anyone of them go any closer to the fire and put their life at risk.

3) Lost works

He is an artist. He made 4 different sketches (ok one was the labyrinth game BUT STILL) completely different one from each other, in something like 10 minutes? If that's is his average time to create a piece of art, just how many has he made in the years he has been living there? Thousands probably? Some may be silly or stuff that he doesn't like and he was just waiting to throw away, but others may be drawings he cared about, in which he put all of himself. Hell, maybe there are paintings that took him MONTHS or YEARS to make. And they are all vanishing in a single night. All the effort he puts in them, all the memories he saved as a picture, gone. Turned into ashes without him being able to do anything. Everything he has ever worked on burning in front of his eyes. He can't retrieve anything of those and is likely mourning them already. When the other students want to enter he wonders if they will put themselves in danger to maybe retrieve them. I think Edward trying to enter in particular triggered him, maybe the other students don't know him a lot but Edward has been with him for a while now, since he was Herman's fag/drudge. He can't NOT have noticed that Violet spend his time drawing and maybe he even saw some pieces that Violet was proud of. So he knows that the moment Edward steps in the building, he is likely to try to save anything that he can carry out, because it is important to someone out there. But getting any of those works may put him in danger. And therefore, Violet is scared. He is scared there can be other knightly heroes among the students, that will put themselves in danger to retrieve anything they can still save. "I can remake a drawing, but I can't bring you all back to life." and so he tries to stop them. He tries to do it as an introvert that is having a very bad internal crisis and mourning. But he tries, because while he cares of his art, he can't put it above other's people lives.

4) There are nudes

Hopefully I made you laugh with the title. What I mean is: it's their dorm, they have likely decorated it in the best way to suit their taste and expose themselves in the most true way they can. It's their place and they can be themselves in there. But they are aware they are considered the "weirdos" of the school. Some probably don't care but some may have decided to be truly themselves only inside the comfort of the house. This could also be true for Violet himself. So not only you are watching your home burning down, but now the same strangers that made fun of you, made you feel badly about themselves, want to enter? And potentially learn more secrets about the poeple that lived there? What they cherished and didn't want to share because they didn't feel comfortable to show? It would all be there in plain sight for anyone to see. And so Violet screams at them to not enter. The house can burn down for all he care, but he will let the precious secrets burn down with it so that none of them will have to risk their reputation at school (and later outside) because of him.

[bladekindeyewear]

HS^2 bloggin’ mainline 2024-08-15 continued

(Previous post - current page 610)

Rested up some and back into this now! Rosebot is sounding quite a bit like the Horrorterror-advised Aradia Megido back in Act 5.1 isn't she. Let's get this ball rolling and actually see what sorts of civlization(s) they've brought about. Are we going to meet actual new characters from these races, or will they be played off as unimportant, or given semi-important roles whose actions still emphasize their theoretical hero titles like the carapaces (WV, PM, etc)?

==>

Whoaaa, look at this lanky motherfucker. I don't see hooves, so this has got to be one of Rose's... tentacle hair is more likely than dreadlocks, I'm guessing, but why do those feet look like elf shoes?

DIRK: Do you feel the part? ROSEBOT: It doesn't really matter what I feel. ROSEBOT: We have a job to do, and I'm trying to enjoy myself to the best of my ability while we do it. DIRK: Trying, huh. ROSEBOT: Speaking frankly, I've grown tired of... Rose gestures about the lab, the vats of our ectobiological triumphs and failures, blasé and almost weary in a way I haven't seen from her in a while. It calls to mind the exhaustion she felt before ascending, what must feel like a lifetime for her ago, and rings faintly of mortality in a way that concerns me.

There has to be some part of Rose that knows that what they're doing -- all of this, the abuse of power, doing whatever they want even if it leads to closing the great loop of Paradox Space -- isn't going to end well for her. I think part of her has known things couldn't end well for her as soon as she left Kanaya, so she's just... having what "fun" she can with the time she has left, and the only thing that's kept her diving deep into her work with glee instead of stopping is the REPEATED narrative interventions by Dirk to keep her brainwashed into moving forward without succumbing to her moral doubts. But it can all only continue so long until the weight of her sins is crawling on her back, and that comes with the sense a good Seer of Light would have that she's not going to get away with what she's done lightly, even if she believes she's too far along and too far gone to stop it, too close to their goal.

ROSEBOT: This. ROSEBOT: Fussing over all the tedious minutiae of getting the baby's room ready. ROSEBOT: The prospect of this Contest was entertaining to me for a time, but the longer it drags on, the closer we draw to the due date, the more it... repulses me. ROSEBOT: I'm glad you've agreed that we're basically done tinkering here. I don't think I have much more patience for it. DIRK: I can tell.

Dirk had to smooth over and make her dismiss how repulsed she was at the awful actions they'd proposed to do, OVER AND OVER AND OVER early on until she was practically sadistically gleeful in creating fucked-up monsters, but... now, he really doesn't have to do that much anymore. Rose feels she CHOSE all that she's already done, and the weight of that sin is sufficient that she can't stop anymore because if they DON'T FINISH DOING THIS, then all the immorality of what she's already done would be wasted, would all just be meaningless CRUELTY instead of the meaning that would even partially justify it in the end.

As appropriate when they're basically creating the concept of Sburb from the ground up, and the incredibly harsh cost of an entire civilization that comes with the opportunity to birth new universes from their ashes.

ROSEBOT: I'm also glad you've elected to hear Terezi out vis-a-vis the timeskip and save us the hassle of guiding the Deltritans manually. ROSEBOT: I know it must be hard for you. It'll actually be incredibly easy for me. Just time traveling forward is a no-go; at the frantic rate our pursuers are hurtling towards us, they'd catch up to Deltritus far before it had a chance to birth any sort of civilization at all, and that'd be a mess, especially with us only due to pop in millennia after the fact. We'd probably return to a planet totally unfit for Game candidacy.

I was wondering about that-- if they let their pursuers arrive early into the civilization's existence, the pursuers would have a chance to interfere with those civilizations' development before the game even starts. Heck, as long as Dave Strider is with them and willing, there's a risk they could interfere with the civilization's development even if they somehow wound forward the entire PLANET, which it sounds like he's implying they need to do somehow... what's the solution to make it inevitable in a way so that everything's "already happened" by the time the pursuers arrive and they can't interfere with the session's start?

Localized time travel, while technically possible, tends to get pretty fucked even in the most ideal of circumstances, to say nothing of the fact that it's way outside my wheelhouse as a Heart player. The concept works pretty well for my purposes, though, and as a burgeoning omnipotent narrative god, I can mimic it in a way that's functionally identical. The move here is that I'm going to envelop the local galaxy group in a pocket of my influence and narratively accelerate it via Bullshit so that whatever's going on in here goes on faster, so we can get to the good shit faster, so we can get on with our jobs, and so you gawking voyeurs have more of our lives to guzzle greedily down.

Christ, that's some Lord English sounding levels of temporal control over part of the universe, there! His narrative powers are fucking bonkers.

Why the galaxy group? Why not just the solar system, or even just the planet? My answer to that question is twofold. Firstly, I want the Deltritan societies to have a convincing view of their place in the cosmos, at least locally. What kind of civilization worth its soul-searching salt doesn't look to the night sky with wonder and curiosity in their hearts? It wouldn't do for them to exist in a world where the sun never sank below the horizon, or where the stars didn't dance tellingly across the sky, revealing the kind of hard-hitting secrets only astronomy can. Secondly, I'm showing off. I've been really coming into my own, powers-wise, and it's not just my Heart abilities that have shot up a few exponentially longer echeladders.

He's acting like Andrew Hussie or an equivalent author in the ability to make up an action needed and justify it via whatever excuse needed, like some strange Meteor machinery or the like for creating First Guardians or warping items between post-and-pre-Scratch timelines, or the like. Author powers can be truly terrifying; and author powers also explain how he can ensure that because the entire civilization existed within his narrative influence before the pursuers got there, he can narratively assure that no Dave-based time travel backward interfered, I'm betting.

He still would want his pursuers to arrive in time FOR the session that had already started, because I'm sure that session will in part be the battleground he uses to confront AL (alt!Calliope) and the others and deliver them the defeat his ego demands they face.

ROSEBOT: Dirk? Of course, Rose isn't talking about the mechanics of the timeskip. She's talking about the reasoning behind it, and the lack of precise control over Deltritus' development that will result as a consequence of it. I just figured I'd take the time to address the "how" factor to you all before the fucking pedants among you started making a fuss, acting like I haven't thought all this shit out. Yeah, you. You know who you are. Also, I'm stalling. Uncharacteristic of me, I know. ROSEBOT: Dirk. DIRK: Sorry. DIRK: Got caught up with something.

So Dirk either HAS successfully kept fooling Rose that he doesn't have narrative powers, or Rose is successfully bluffing that she hasn't at LEAST figured out that he's doing some sort of narration or has some influence without knowing the full extent of how it may have affected her... unless part of her STILL deems the final result more important even if she has an inkling that she may have been manipulated.

Why is he stalling, though?

ROSEBOT: Far be it from me to stand between you and your enigmatic somethings. DIRK: You're welcome to stand wherever you like. DIRK: Anyway, no, it isn't that hard for me. DIRK: It'd be fun, but as I keep having to explain to people, I'm willing to compromise on certain points. DIRK: Though I will say it's unfortunate to hear you making them, instead of our complainer on retainer. ROSEBOT: What can I say? ROSEBOT: I don't feel particularly inclined to play house right now. DIRK: Not even with me, huh? ROSEBOT: Not even with you.

You can only keep someone brainwashed into tolerating your company completely for so long when you're so obviously a piece of shit. And as Rose's Seer of Light senses bring her closer to understanding the personal consequences to HER of her actions, potentially -- the ones that were far off in the future when she made her "decision" to help with this operation -- the less she's going to be thrilled about owning it all. And she has VERY complicated Mom-related feelings about playing Mother most likely, even to an entire race. She would rather dodge the responsibility than fuck it up, just like she did with Yiffy. That's part of her existing trauma, most likely.

Also "play house" is a good intentional pun on playing Sburb.

==>

Cool-ass panels of them walking up out of the cave, followed by this gorgeous sunset shot where Rose looks absolutely melancholy:

For a while, neither of us says anything at all. Then, still silent, Rose turns and leaves the lab, a billowing stream of orange. I follow after her, at a respectable distance, and together we leave the mouth of the cave, making our way up the steps carved into the cliffside it now burrows into until finally cresting the plateau, and wordlessly taking a seat together at the edge of the cliff to look out over one of Deltritus' vast and alien oceans. "Wait, what's with the ocean?" you might ask. A while back, it became apparent that while my Deltritan offspring were to be terrestrial, Rose's were going to be aquatic.

That's actually an excellent way to keep the civilizations relatively separate and avoid their intermixing their cultures too much before The Game begins. Also, the Ocean and deep water's unfathomability is deeply tied with the Void, so if this race ends up being the ancestor race of the Horrorterrors, it makes sense that their monstrous progeny could live in the unlimited black strangeness between universes.

Back when I figured we'd have a more active role in their development, it felt appropriate to me that our base of operations should straddle land and sea, existing impartially at the precipice between the two competing worlds.

Yep, as I just said/thought-- keeps the civilizations separate.

I elected to transport (via Bullshit, of course) our humble grotto and the wreck of the Theseus to these cliffs overlooking the sea, that we might watch over our children from a locale more suitably dramatic and liminal than some fucking plain in the middle of nowhere.

The Bullshit he's referring to, the author's ability to handwave, simply means exploiting the fact that things could plausibly have happened offscreen in order to not have to write out the detailed mechanics of (say) the machine that they alchemized/built and used to transportalize their base smoothly to a new location, and can be used to employ all sorts of tactics offscreen... including, potentially dangerously, retroactively set-up countermeasures for whatever someone is about to do to you by simply narratively declaring that you prepared something for it beforehand, sort of like Joseph Joestar in Jojo Part 2. To Rose Lalonde, it'd theoretically be seamless, where she'd have the mechanical justifications that were created offscreen even if Dirk didn't even have to "write" the specifics.

Now, however, the effort (insofar as it was one, which it wasn't) seems to have been mostly in vain. No seagulls cry here, anyway. Rose and I made a lot of other filler-fauna to help our species integrate into the local biosphere while working through our respective game-plans, but I never got around to replicating or approximating seagulls. I guess I'm not gonna bother. It doesn't particularly feel like much of a home, anymore. As we sit side by side, watching the horizon, Rose is even harder to read than usual. I begin to feel the twinge of a vexation that I've been all too aware of over untold trillions of iterations of myself, a dread that's reared its head again recently. The fear that my plan isn't understood, my efforts aren't appreciated. That I'm alone, again.

You were always alone-- you FORCED Rose to understand and fully empathize with your plan, even if parts of her Ultimate Self were callous enough to have that dark capacity within her. And part of you knows that but wants to deny it so you DON'T feel like you're alone again.

I worry that she's slipping away. Growing disinterested in our time together. And I'm not willing to lose her, so as much as it feels like admitting a kind of defeat, I prepare to make her- ROSE: Thank you for taking me with you, Dirk. ...... DIRK: Yeah?

Whoa, holy shit.

So Rose feels like even the sinful meaningful acts she's doing here are worth it, now? But is still depressed? Possibly because she's been led to believe THERE WAS NEVER A PLACE for her back home, or that she'd have led things to ruin there instead of committing their crimes of creation/destruction way out here?

And again, it's showing us that-- whether due to Rose's genuinely built-up feelings, or if she's guessed the truth and is successfully bluffing about not knowing about the narrative abilities-- Dirk doesn't need to brainwash Rosebot anymore to keep her on board with the plan, unfortunately. She's too invested, committed too much of a Great Evil to not want to ensure the results that would make that evil even partially worthwhile. :C

==>

I hate that he "won" like this-- we ALL hate that he "won" like this. Even if it eventually turns out Rose is bluffing or figured it out. But Rose has to get her companionship somewhere, and as the abusive uncle-like figure that he is, he's made himself the only possible source of validation, the only company that could possibly "understand" her anymore. She has no one else left to cling to. :CCC

ROSE: I may be less than enchanted with this stage of the work, but I know it's important. ROSE: It's just straying dangerously close to a lot of things I'm trying not to fixate on right now. ROSE: Wounds that are still fresh, for me as a sum and for the myriad legions of my parts. ROSE: Home. ROSE: Family. ROSE: Petty, little things. ROSE: Personal things. DIRK: Those are important, too. ROSE: Not as important as this is.

Yup, as I guessed earlier, the fact that she's necessarily playing the absent mother figure feels like committing her Mom's sin and her inability to raise Roxy as Alpha Rose all at the same time. Those versions of her are all part of her now, and this is tapping into parts of all those traumas.

ROSE: For all my temporary discomfort with the prospect of settling down on Deltritus and starting what could very loosely be considered a family with you, I want you to know that my heart is in what we're working towards- DIRK: Technically, you don't have a heart. ROSE: Shut up. ROSE: - and that I'm happy to be here with you. ROSE: Not drifting around in a constrictive, small pond, getting caught up in trivialities like politics and celebrity and romance, ROSE: But saving the fucking universe. DIRK: ...

Technically, this all might be "necessary" to save Paradox Space or create it in the first place, rather; but it didn't have to be done this way, done by THEM, and Dirk Strider is the one who demanded arrogantly that HE wished to be responsible for it all, for writing it onscreen, for the trauma it'd cause to be the one who did it and his ambition to be the writer of all Paradox Space as a result, instead of an unknown civilization of frogs offscreen or something as it may have otherwise been. But Rose as an overembracing Ultimate Light Player here ultimately craves importance, and finds it more comfortable than the terrible fears of messing up relationships or even just being looked at as a goddess by Earth C's population, somewhat like Candy Jade expressed she felt earlier. Being a "Hero" and doing something "Important" (Light) is the only way her terrible self-esteem and negative judgment of herself, especially the negative self-judgment Dirk forced her to embrace by brainwashing her down this path, can consider her EXISTENCE worth anything at all. :CCCC

(Also, the Ultimate Rosebot "not having a Heart" is only true in the technical pun sense, since her soul as an Ultimate Self is present at full power within the robot and not fully digitized, with only a tenuous link to her body on life support, so she doesn't necessarily suffer the Auto Responder's disconnectedness with Dirk's broader "Heart"/Soul that allowed it to be malleably transformed into Lil Hal, Arquiusprite, and then Doc Scratch. Meaning that whatever happens to Rosebot, for now, Rosebot is still essentially Rose Lalonde. But if the connection between her main body on life support were ever broken, and Rosebot were LEFT with only the malleable AI algorithms designed to SIMULATE Rose, then... she WOULD be without a Heart, without a specific soul locking her unique personality down, and then would be vulnerable to being molded into something else like the Cueballs or Skaia or the like, possibly...)

Relief pulses through me in an immense wave. Relief and unfathomable, indescribable pride. It's almost paralyzing; I just sit here for a while, grateful for my shades and their ability to protect me from making eye contact with my daughter, who is in this moment as brilliant as the aspect that adorns her hood. I should tell her. DIRK: Well. DIRK: You're welcome. She scoffs at my barebones response, and I'm forced to marvel at her ability to communicate so weightily, conveying such a minutely specific blend of emotion as understanding, affection, acknowledgement, encouragement, admonishment, and so many more, all with the hardware of a literal machine. She's an incredible person.

Dirk DOES care about Rose, quite a lot, but that only makes his abuse of her even MORE fucked up. That's often the case with abusive relationships, especially parental ones.

To my credit, I am also an incredible engineer.

And he takes credit for the molding he's forcibly DONE to her to bring her to this point, to bring out these awful sides of her Ultimate Self willing to actually do this with him, the utter fucking asshole. >:( Which is again, characteristic of an abusive paternal relationship.

At any rate, Rose might be beating my ass on the emotive front, but I'm still capable of articulating myself well enough, and I'd better start soon or I'm going to begin to look like a real fucking dork. DIRK: I don't think there's anyone I'd rather be doing this with than you.

Thanks for at least opening up your feelings a BIT to respond to hers properly, at least, you asshole prick who still deserves to die.

DIRK: The rest of them just don't have it in them right now to understand what it is we're fighting for, here. DIRK: They can't grasp the stakes. DIRK: Even now, they're on their way here, actively trying to stop us from saving them all. DIRK: They'll probably catch us right before our entrance into the Game, actually.

Technically, AL and Dirk share almost the EXACT SAME GOAL here, a desire to close the loop of all Creation in a way that makes sense as a story. The main place they disagree is who should be in charge of it all... AL clearly believes that Dirk SHOULDN'T be in charge and it should be left to propagate on its own once set up, needs to deny him his ambition of becoming the tyrannical forever-author of almost all Paradox Space. But AL has a hard time letting go of control, and as much as she believes Dirk must be stopped, her actions tell the story of someone who may be just as willing to become the Forever Author of Paradox Space HERSELF too.

DIRK: I won't insult you by asking if you're going to be okay when the time comes to face them, demanding answers they won't accept to questions they aren't even asking, because I know that you will. DIRK: So I'm glad to have you with me. DIRK: I'm glad you understand.

Yeah, we always knew this was going to be the play. No appeal or objection their pursuers make isn't going to be met with a "this is more important than you understand" from Rosebot and direct opposition that stops and traps and stalls them (though short of killing them), and any appeals that Dirk has just been "brainwashing" her are going to ring hollow to her ears after all she's truly, herself, invested in this course of action even outside the brainwashing.

This isn't going to be easy to fix.

==>

DIRK: I'm doing this for all of us. I'm doing this for all of us.

The same false justification his iterations like Bro have used to abuse people all of his myriad lives. He cares much more about him (and his) being the one to have DONE it than the fact that it gets done.

Wait, what's this next link? Candy? Who's Big Kahuna-- oh right, Meenah (or one of her codenames she mentioned last time for one of the others)?

(Big Kahuna: Check the door.)

Ah, Karkat's home!

(BIGGEST KAHUNA: Return to base.)

KARKAT: KEPT YOU WAITING, HUH?

Why'd they have to make Solid Karkat here look as sexy as fucking possible in adult form. Oh who are we kidding, of course they fucking had to, and we love it. :D

(Rebellion Commanders: Confer.)

MEENAH: took you long enough bossman

KARKAT: I THOUGHT I ASKED YOU TO STOP CALLING ME THAT WHEN WE'RE ALONE. MEENAH: big bossman KARKAT: NOT BETTER. MEENAH: sweetie-pirate KARKAT: BOSSMAN IT IS. MEENAH: you got it bitch KARKAT: I CAN WORK WITH BITCH.

Hahahahah! These two have a great dynamic. (They're a couple in this timeline right, instead of him and Dave?)

KARKAT: ANYWAY, THINGS ARE RAMPING UP OUT THERE. KARKAT: ARE YOU JUST ABOUT WRAPPED UP? MEENAH: yep MEENAH: its a good thing youre back i just got off a real shipshow of a call with mrs fencesitter and agent short shorts a lil while ago MEENAH: looks like serious shit is about to pop off KARKAT: YEAH, I WAS LISTENING IN.

Fun conversations here, also calling out Roxy for only halfheartedly aiding the rebellion so as not to do much damage to Jane, which Jane in her current state couldn't possibly appreciate as still being any less than betrayal and which likely put even more of a wedge between Roxy and Meenah.

KARKAT: ALSO I'VE ALREADY HAD KIND OF A GAUNTLET OF A FUCKING DAY ALREADY AND I DIDN'T NEED THE PAN-ACHE. KARKAT: I KNEW YOU HAD IT UNDER CONTROL. MEENAH: youre lucky youre breamy as hell when youre out there doin tacticalypso or id have mutinied and kraken over this whole operation for myshellf

Breamy = "Dreamy", right, they're together romantically like I remembered.

(==>)

KARKAT: CONSIDERING NONE OF THE MAJOR PLAYERS HERE HAVE ANY SENSE OF TACT OR SUBTLETY WE'RE GONNA NEED TO MOVE OUT PRONTO. KARKAT: HOPE YOU'RE FIELD-READY, BECAUSE WE'RE GONNA NEED TO B- MEENAH: oh fuck yes MEENAH: dude let me say it KARKAT: YEAH, GO AHEAD.

Let's make this shi(p) happen?

(==>)

MEENAH: bring in the mothafuckin LOBsT-ERs

Excuse me??

(Also, having random war flashbacks of Sniper Lobsters in Elden Ring.)

(LOBsTERs: Assemble.)

*Sigh*

(An hour later...)

Okay THAT shot's pretty cool.

Karkat doing tons of tactical talking and shit...

MEENAH: KARKAT KARKAT: WHAT. MEENAH: krillax KARKAT: NOT REALLY AN IDEAL TIME FOR THAT, ON ACCOUNT OF THE FACT THAT WE'RE PROBABLY HOURS AWAY FROM THE MOST CRITICAL ARMED ENGAGEMENT THE REBELLION IS LIKELY TO SEE. MEENAH: it hasnt been an ideel time for like 6 sweeps MEENAH: you need to take a breatht-stroke KARKAT: ... HAHAHA, WHAT? MEENAH: you know what i mean MEENAH: youve been runnin yourshellf into the fuckin dirt for ages MEENAH: take a you moment KARKAT: MEENAH, THIS IS THE WORST POSSIBLE TIME TO TAKE A ME MOMENT. MEENAH: actually in like a day or so were either gonna be tridentumphant and busy as fuck or dead in the water so its like the best possible time all fins considered MEENAH: youve been out on field ops for like a week

Yeah, as a Knight of Blood, Karkat is EXTREMELY unhealthy about not using almost all of his time too diligently on his responsibilities.

MEENAH: maybe i wanna chat with my buoy toy for a lil bit KARKAT: YEAH, ALRIGHT. KARKAT: I DUNNO, FUCK. UH... HOW ARE YOU DOING? MEENAH: how are *you* doin KARKAT: PRETTY FUCKING STRESSED!

Pfffffff

KARKAT: ALSO THIS COVERT-OPS SUIT IS TIGHT AS ALL FUCK. MEENAH: well if its any consolation that may be rough for you but its a pretty great time to be your rear admire-all 38) KARKAT: MUCH OBLIGED. KARKAT: ... KARKAT: SERIOUSLY, MEENAH, I APPRECIATE IT. KARKAT: IT'S BEEN KIND OF A ROUGH... KARKAT: DECADE AND A HALF? KARKAT: BUT THROUGH ALL THE SLOG AND THE SHITTY TIMES AND THE UNCERTAINTY YOU'VE REMAINED REMARKABLY COMMITTED TO THIS. KARKAT: HELPED ME TURN THIS ABSTRACT, FRUSTRATED DREAM INTO A FUNCTIONING FUCKING REALITY. KARKAT: YOU NEVER WAVERED. KARKAT: YOU NEVER FLAKED. KARKAT: YOU STUCK BY ME.

Yeah. Dedication means a whole fucking lot to Karkat, both as a person and as a Blood player. And the fact that Meenah, who flaked out in some ways just to BE here instead of with her (Vriska) girlfrond in the dream bubbles, did a pretty good job of NOT flaking it seems like, especially since this sort of Rebellion effort is exactly her jam. The main risk she might start flaking is if shit ever starts to get peaceful again.

(==>)

She continues to look VERY good. :#|

MEENAH: not like dave huh KARKAT: WOW, STRAIGHT TO THE POINT.

Ah damn, yeah.

MEENAH: i mean hey i figured youd wanna glub about it MEENAH: conchsiderin KARKAT: SO YOU HEARD THE NEWS? MEENAH: yeah i mighta been listenin in on your converseation myshellf MEENAH: along with like half the comms team MEENAH: you left your mic on KARKAT: UN KARKAT: FUCKING KARKAT: BELIEVABLE. MEENAH: its all good MEENAH: actually pretty much everyone ate it up there was like gasps and cheers and occasional applause and shit MEENAH: not shore if youre aware of this but it turns out people fuckin love you KARKAT: WELL COLOR ME GLAD MY OPERATIVES FOUND IT INSPIRING THAT I TOOK CRITICAL TIME OUT OF MY MISSION TO PREVENT THE ENTIRE PLANET FROM BACKSLIDING INTO STAGNANT CONFECTIONARY FASCISM TO YELL AT A HAPLESS DIVORCEE.

Everyone's always cheered for you, my self-depricating dude. You're a rock star.

KARKAT: ANYWAY. KARKAT: YES. KARKAT: NOT LIKE DAVE. MEENAH: how you feelin about that KARKAT: I DON'T KNOW. KARKAT: I THINK MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE, JUST FUCKING... KARKAT: DISAPPOINTED. KARKAT: EXHAUSTINGLY, FRUITLESSLY DISAPPOINTED. KARKAT: WE USED TO SPEND SO MUCH TIME TOGETHER TALKING ABOUT HOW TO FIX SHIT, YOU KNOW? KARKAT: SPITBALLING ALL THIS FRIVOLOUS AND/OR GRAVELY SERIOUS CONJECTURE ABOUT WHAT TO FUCKING *DO* WITH OURSELVES AND THE WORLD. KARKAT: AND THEN AS SOON AS IT STARTS REALLY MATTERING, AS SOON AS IT BECOMES CLEAR IT'S TIME TO DO *SOMETHING*, HE JUST WILTS. KARKAT: THEN HE SPENDS YEARS MILLING FECKLESSLY AROUND IN THAT DOMESTIC TORTURE LABYRINTH OF A RELATIONSHIP KARKAT: *MARRIES INTO IT*

Lots to gripe about there, yeah.

KARKAT: AND SUBSEQUENTLY DECIDES THAT NOW'S THE BEST TIME TO PLAY SPIES, PRESUMABLY SO HE CAN CONTINUE TO AVOID HAVING MISERABLE MATRIMONIAL PROCREATIVE SEX. KARKAT: ONLY FOR JADE TO FOLLOW HIM INTO THE CAUSE!

What the fuck??? Not just him not being into sex with Jade, but-- PROCREATIVE sex with Jade? Wouldn't that be impossible for him and her with her dog-ascension-replaced equipment downstairs-- unless we're talking about conceiving with surrogates, which Dave would DEFINITELY FIND any excuse to avoid doing himself, or unless he's trans-masculine, which is a damned popular headcanon for good reason?

KARKAT: WHICH, YOU KNOW, WAS OBJECTIVELY A PRETTY BIG BOON TO THE REBELLION. KARKAT: GOOD FOR MORALE, AND OBVIOUSLY THEY WERE INCREDIBLE FIELD AGENTS. KARKAT: BUT FUCK WAS IT A SAVAGE PAIN IN THE CHUTE. KARKAT: DO YOU REMEMBER THE PERIOD EARLY ON WHERE I HAD TO ASSIGN ANOTHER CLERK TO MISSION CONTROL WHOSE SOLE PURPOSE WAS TO MANAGE THE TWO OF THEM SO THEY KEPT THE FUCK OUT OF MY WAY UNTIL THEY FIGURED OUT HOW TO BE EVEN THE SCANTEST APPROXIMATION OF NORMAL AROUND ME? KARKAT: THE FACT THAT IT WAS NECESSARY AT ALL IS STILL FUCKING APPALLING.

Ugh, yeah, I was already pretty much imagining it would have sucked hard in exactly this manner back in those days.

KARKAT: AND THEN FINALLY, *FINALLY*, WE GET HIM SITUATED, HE'S ACTUALLY MANAGING TO CONTRIBUTE TO SOMETHING MEANINGFUL AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN WHO EVEN KNOWS HOW LONG.

KARKAT: AND HE JUST FUCKS OFF AND KARKAT: AND DIES. KARKAT: HE JUST CALLS IT THERE. KARKAT: SO KARKAT: DISAPPOINTED. KARKAT: DISAPPOINTED IS HOW I'M FEELING ABOUT THAT.

:'C

KARKAT: BUT- KARKAT: FUCKING- HOLD ON, I NEED TO TAKE THIS.

So what new developments are we discussing now?

(Karkat: Answer urgent comms.)

KARKAT: *WHAT*. SOLLUX: finally he picks up. SOLLUX: hey man. KARKAT: DON'T FUCKING "HEY MAN" ME.

BAHAAHAHAH! His old annoying-ass best bud! Who may or may not be contributing to the war effort with some sick hacking between video games.

SOLLUX: there's like a bazillion m0oks swarming ar0und my crib and none 0f the grubereats dudes are accepting orders right n0w. SOLLUX: probably 0n account 0f your inc0nvenient ass war. SOLLUX: could y0u pick me something up?

SOLLUX READ THE ROOM

KARKAT: MAYBE YOU'D GIVE MORE OF A FUCK ABOUT THE REPRODUCTIVE FUTURE OF OUR SPECIES IF ARADIA WAS EVER ACTUALLY THERE LONG ENOUGH FOR YOU TO GET SOME. MEENAH: ohhh snapper

Wait, so Aradia actually might possibly time travel back in her personal past over to the Black Hole trapped timeline to hang out with Sollux on rare occasions?! Is she capable of crossing back and forth when nobody else can? I highly doubt that-- but Davebot insisted she WAS still seeing someone... is it possible that she's asking to borrow alt!Calliope's powers whenever it strikes her on the rare occasion to go back for a date? No, it doesn't feel like AL would do her that favor... who the fuck is Aradia still dating? A DIFFERENT Sollux? Someone else??? Or does she have a free travel ticket that breaks the rules so hard that the whole Plot Point thing shouldn't even be necessary to break through!?

KARKAT: BETTER GET BACK TO IT, THEN, DON'T LET ME KEEP YOU. KARKAT: I'LL JUST BE OUT HERE FREEDOM FIGHTING AND DEPLETING JANE'S GROUND FORCES SO SHE WON'T HAVE ENOUGH MANPOWER TO STORM THE METEOR AND PUT A SPOON THROUGH YOUR SPINE, OH AND ALSO FERRYING YOU YOUR FUCKING FAST FOOD, I GUESS! KARKAT: GOOD LUCK! KARKAT: HOPE YOU GET A HIGH SCORE! SOLLUX: yeah im kinda in the z0ne right now. KARKAT: AWESOME. SOLLUX: hey kk KARKAT: WHAT. SOLLUX: are we still friends? KARKAT: OBVIOUSLY, DIPSHIT! KARKAT: STAY SAFE, ALRIGHT? KARKAT: ... KARKAT: ... KARKAT: DUDE! SOLLUX: s0rry im still gaming. KARKAT: BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SOLLUX: alrighty bro g0od talk.

D'awwww. Same as it ever was between them. :'D

(Rebellion Commanders: Finish up here.)

Oh, the top of the Meteor (memorial) is still buried above ground, to eventually eons in the future become Calliope and Caliborn's home (EDIT: or would have if this wasn't the Candy timeline, I forgot, but the Meat timeline has it as a similar memorial there most likely). Makes sense; it just extends deep ENOUGH underground for Roxy to have described the lab as such after going through the transportalizer.

KARKAT: YEAH, I'M DISAPPOINTED ABOUT HOW EVERYTHING WITH DAVE WENT DOWN. KARKAT: BUT TODAY NEEDS TO BE BIGGER THAN THAT. KARKAT: IT'S NOT PRODUCTIVE FOR ME TO SIT HERE AND WALLOW ABOUT WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN AND WHAT MORE I COULD HAVE DONE FOR ONE PERSON WHEN NOW, MORE THAN EVER, I NEED TO FOCUS ON WHAT COULD BE AND WHO'S WITH ME NOW. KARKAT: WHO I'M DOING ALL OF THIS FOR. KARKAT: WE'VE BUILT SOMETHING AMAZING TOGETHER, AND IF WE CAN HOLD ON JUST A LITTLE BIT LONGER IT'LL HAVE BEEN INCALCULABLY WORTH EVERY OUNCE OF STRUGGLE.

Yeah, said like a true Blood player and great leader.

...Lol at the crew's reactions subsequently.

KARKAT: COMMANDERS HARLEY, MARYAM, AND LALONDE ARE INBOUND, AND NOT LONG AFTER THEY GET HERE THINGS ARE GOING TO GET BATSHIT STUPID! KARKAT: BUT THINGS HAVE BEEN BATSHIT STUPID FOR A LONG, LONG FUCKING TIME, KARKAT: SO LET'S DRAG THAT IMPERIOUS CORPORATE BITCH DOWN FROM HER AIRSHIP AND REINTRODUCE A LITTLE NORMALCY!

Almost time to try and stabilize this whole damn timeline yeah, which may indeed incidentally give them the avenue to win against a more grounded-in-reality Jane Crocker.

(==>)

Quite the intimidating lineup of enemy ships.

MEENAH: target fuckin acquired

(Jane: Educate these fools on the art of war.)

You are in no position to educate anybody, Mrs. Mistress Executive. Dehydrated, grieving, and coming off of a particularly nasty sugar high, Sun Tzu wouldn't even let you substitute at this rate. What would your curriculum even be? Furious Fudge Flinging 101? Because you are completely losing your shit right now.

Hahahahahhaha.

Luckily we have already seen the beginning of these histrionics here.

Yeah, when Jane was yelling for her poison-tasting water boy because her throat's dry and she's ballistic. Jane doesn't exactly have the ROLE as a Maid of Life nor the personal experience to be a master war tactician-- all she's good at is enforcing order and anxiety (due to her Bard of Doom synergy theoretically) and, as a Maid of Life, having tons and tons of power, money and influence to throw at the problem and hope to overwhelm it with sheer might alone. Not much tactical about it.

(==>)

Oh, we're back to the tail end of that conversation! Is Jake going to decide on something he can actually do to *help* stop her here? And of course we're getting further Brain Ghost Dirk perspective.

JAKE: Oh flip. JAKE: Sorry janey i was handling an urgent matter. JAKE: Had to pop down the little boys office to shred some important papers. JANE: What? JAKE: Im spending a penny at the local water closet. JANE: Jake. JAKE: Im in the bathroom. JANE: Oh.

Hahahahah. Classic Jake-anachronisms.

JANE: UGH! JANE: You are always in the bathroom these days!

Doing spy shit, yes.

JAKE: Well my job is to taste test all your water for poison, JAKE: dear. JAKE: Forgive my impertinence but perhaps if you trusted the troops more, we could avoid all of this folderol and i could be promoted to standing by your side? JAKE: Thatd help my besieged bladder, for sure. JANE: Not happening. JAKE: Oh! Of course! JAKE: Silly me.

Jane really never trusted Jake for anything important, even when she WANTED him for a relationship. It's like there was hardly ever a potential timeline where their relationship might actually go well, it seems, unless they both got some seriously miraculous psychotherapy.

JAKE: May i ask... why? JAKE: Not to make a tit of myself here. JAKE: But wouldnt an enemy spy be childs play to spot, seeing as our troops share such similar faces? JAKE: Pretty much the exact same face? JANE: I once thought it an asset too! JANE: How clever I saw myself... JANE: "Hoo hoo! We'll avoid instating a draft by cloning an army!" JANE: "Unprecedented genius!" JANE: "Brand consistency!"

Oh wow, they've been CLONING TROOPS. That makes some degree of sense as a sort of counter for her "concerns" about the rate of troll reproduction, too. Also, she's MAKING LIFE, which seems a good hero title pun.

JANE: Of course, I realize now that if any serviceman developed mutinous, deviant intentions, he could simply slink back into the safety of the crowd.

JANE: The perfect cover for a tiger amongst zebras. JAKE: Grrr... JAKE: Friggin double agents, man. DIRK: (Amazing. Can I get a cherry on top of that?) JAKE: Why i oughta... the very thought! DIRK: (Fuck yes. Marlon Brando in the motherfucking building.) JANE: Exactly. It's horrifying.

Lol.

JANE: Thankfully I have practiced instinct where assassination is concerned. JANE: An instinct that has only sharpened in the wake of... recent tragedies. JANE: I won't be lulled into any such false sense of security this time, that's for sure! JAKE: Is that why the old henhouse has been feeling a bit spacious recently? JANE: I may have a handful or so of men in the brig. JANE: For safekeeping. JANE: They have snacks! A water trough. JANE: All unpoisoned, might I add. JANE: Who gives a toot anyways, we'll be depositing them out onto the battlefield soon enough.

Jane Crocker HAS technically been dealing with assassination attempts since childhood, too.

JAKE: Speaking of the battle... JAKE: What was the pre-established plan, again? JAKE: Just trying to refresh my simple mind on the details. JAKE: Especially the ones that situate our son near The Point. JAKE: I take it we have protocols in place a tad more delicate than simply "bombs away!" JAKE: Right? JANE: Sigh. JANE: Jake, do you remember when I went to the moon?

OH FUCKING HELL YES THAT INSTAGRAM STUFF WAS (at least Candy) CANON SHE'S SENDING IN ROBOT JACK NOIR AND HIS FELT CREW YESSSSSSS I WAS HOPING THEY'D COME BACK!!! It's the only way to make this fight interesting!!

Looks like she's about to recap anyone who missed that instagram compilation of the assassination attempt that teleported her to the moon before it was about to be shot into a crescent shape by the Carapacians as a ridiculous act of godly devotion and then she captured and rounded up the whole New Midnight Crew in collars. Jack Noir is a fearsome and fun adversary to be up against, especially when the presumed Prince of Blood is running with a destructive crew.

(Jane: Start monologuing.)

That's right, I remember, Jack brought a bunch of them back to life to work for him using Die's doll or something. Seems she has enough of a handle of them to not use prison collars on them now.

JAKE: Uuuuuuuuuuuuh. JANE: No? It was a huge deal. JAKE: Was this around the time all those carapacians took a big chunk out of it? JANE: Yes! JANE: You see, prior to that expedition, I'd been cooking up a contingency plan, of sorts. JANE: I put some serious man-hours into it. JANE: If things were to go tines up, our last line of defense is a machine that will emit a guided beam to a location of my choosing.

MOON LASER!!!! I'm getting Dr. McNinja flashbacks (which I'm a fan of if you couldn't tell by the avatar, sorry the site is down.)

DIRK: (A laser?) JAKE: So were destroying The Point now? JANE: No! JANE: No, no, no, no. JANE: Definitely not. JANE: We are *capturing* The Point. JANE: But if we don't... JAKE: Ah. JAKE: Contingency plan. JANE: Contingency plan indeed.

Jane doesn't care what the Rebellion thinks about this being important to the safety/integrity of the entire timeline or whatever, or saving the universe. She wants to win. If she can't have it, nobody can.

JANE: A surgical, precise, and most importantly *unexpected* means of victory, with virtually no crossfire. JAKE: Does that seem... JAKE: Sound? JANE: You know, Jake, you've been giving me the 3rd degree all day. JAKE: Hm? JANE: You're typically content stumbling through life as a soft-headed bimbo, and it's only now of all times you start showing stark, pointed interest in happenings outside of yourself? JANE: I find that odd. JANE: Suspicious even. JAKE: Erm...

He's definitely become more active in trying to figure out how to stop things and gather information as the critical moment approaches, yeah. And Brain Ghost Dirk's resurgence (if he ever left) is likely pushing him too.

JANE: You're thinking, "She's a bad mother," aren't you? DIRK: (Here we go.) JANE: Don't you try to deny it.

Oh pfff, not suspicion but marital fucking discourse. Heheheh.

JANE: I see you, up there on your high horse. JANE: Interrogating me! JANE: As if you have the right! JANE: Just what did *you* do, besides whimper like a kicked dog, as they took our boy away!? JANE: "TAVVY!" JANE: You can fly, you idiot! JANE: You're such a harmless, dunderheaded fucking nonentity that those seditious connivers would have *let* you tail them! DIRK: (Ouch.) JANE: Everything he has, *I've* provided. JANE: Everything he is, *I've* nurtured!

Jake probably trusts "Tavvy" in their hands more than yours, but that's neither something you know nor can accept. And the thing about Jake is that yes, he's a doormat, but Pages in Homestuck often seem to need to be given a long time in flourishing, non-traumatic environments to bloom into anything resembling their true role and power, and Jane has never had the confidence in him to try to build him up instead of spitefully knocking him down.

JAKE: (Criminy, bro, she has a death laser.) JAKE: (Like goldfinger.) JANE: Remember how I willed him out of my body, 3 months premature, because I was so excited to see him? JAKE: (The rebellion isnt prepared for that.) JAKE: (What are they going to do?) DIRK: (Fuck if I know, refract it off Commander Vantas' massive tits?) JAKE: (Were going to lose.)

HOLY SHIT AT THE PART I BOLDED JANE IS ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NUTS, she could have stunted her child's growth just for that selfishness! "Arrested Development" indeed!

Jake looks like he might be gearing to do something actually heroic for once. Like, say... to fly HIMSELF up to the moon and destroy a fucking moon laser.

JANE: You might be a primo actor, English, with that perfect smile and that stupid, sexy fake accent. JANE: But you are not a caring individual. JANE: My Dad... JANE: He had so much love in him that you could feel it when he entered the room. JANE: Across all the iterations of yourself, do you think your children ever felt even a MODICUM of that?

FUCKING OUCH SHE'S GOING FOR THE JUGULAR

JANE: Jade? Terrifying, JANE: I hate even thinking about it. JANE: And I don't doubt for a second that there were more. JANE: How do you imagine they turned out?

That's right, I've only played part 1 but Hiveswap indicates there were other children, with him even using Roxy as babysitter for his frequent absences. The Page of Hope, er... with Hope's phallic and white-blast reproductive symbolic connotations, er... might spread his seed a little wide.

JAKE: (I finally grew the gumption to get off the back foot, and were all going to meet the reaper regardless.) JANE: Let's face it. I held you accountable. JANE: Without me, you'd have left Tavros behind in a peanut factory. JANE: Asphyxiating on the floor, crying "Daddy, where are you! Daddy!" DIRK: (Dude.) JAKE: (JOLLY JESUS FUCKING CHRISTMAS!!!) JANE: What the fresh hell are you mumbling to yourself? JANE: Y- JAKE: WILL YOU SHUT YOUR GODDAMN CAKE HOLE!!!!!!! JANE: !!!!!!

YEAH THAT'S TOO MUCH INSULT FOR EVEN HIM TO TAKE. Even Brain Ghost Dirk is shocked at how low she's going. CHEW HER OUT, ENGLISH!

(==>)

JAKE: Listen to you, lecturing me about parenting and flagellating me with fucking... infanticidal peanut snuff fantasies! JAKE: Tavros isnt even allergic to peanuts anymore! JANE: What?

What?

How...?

(==>)

HOLY FUCKING SHIT WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED JAKE HOPED HIM BACK TO LIFE OR SOME SHIT?!?! GAMZEE???

JAKE: Hes been cured since he was thirteen! JANE: How???? JAKE: Gamzee. JAKE: Via some vile cosmic caper or another it is *always* gamzee! JAKE: He found out! JAKE: Started rambling on and on about "how motherfuckin' malicious" it was to see "A dIfFeReNtLy AbLeD bRoThEr MiSsIn' OuT oN tHe NiRvAnA oF tHaT nUtTy MoThErFuCkIn' NeCtAr."

Yeah, Jane being in ANY sort of relationship with Gamzee was a war crime towards her whole family and reality itself.

DIRK: (Why are you doing the voice?) JAKE: "ThErE's WhOlEsOmE, hOlIsTiC hEaLiNg PrOpErTiEs AlL uP aNd StUfFeD iNtO tHe HaRmOnIoUs UnIoN oF pB aNd J." DIRK: (You don't need to do the voice.) JAKE: "WhAt EvEn Is ThIs SuLtRy BiTcH oF a LiFe WiThOuT a LiTtLe PeAnUt BuTtEr JeLlY tImE?" DIRK: (It'd be so sick if you stopped doing the voice.) JAKE: Then he pulled the "OuR dUtY aS sTrOnG mAlE mOtHeRfUcKiN' mOdElS iS tO nUrTuRe AnD gUiDe ThAt LoSt LiTtLe LeGuMe-InToLeRaNt LaMb," card. JAKE: "We StRaIgHt Up GoT tO bE tHe ChAnGe WhAt AlL nObOdY eLsE eVeR gOt DoWn To BeInG iN tHe WoRlD, fOr ThE lItTlE nEgLeCtEd NuGgEtS *wE* aLl WaS." DIRK: (Fuck me, then.)

Jake is invoking Gamzee's spirit Hopeways here, he HAS to do the voice, BG-Dirk. No getting around it.

And yeah, Gamzee would find insane fucking ways to abuse their son and Jane would turn a blind eye to it because of her pointless clown lust, it seems. NO WONDER TAVROS KICKED HIS CORPSE!!!!

JANE: He always felt you two had a common tragic upbringing. JAKE: I know... JAKE: After that, the insane clown started stowing peanuts around the mansion, tricking little tavvy into eating them! JAKE: Poor squirt was thrashing throat-first into anaphylactic shock bi-weekly. JAKE: I epipenned him so many times, i learned needlekind! JAKE: Worried myself as sick as our boy was, just wishing that nutty nightmare would nix. JAKE: Then, wham. JAKE: It did! JAKE: Thank god! JANE: I- JANE: I had no idea. JAKE: Of course you didnt! JAKE: You werent there!

Preach, Jake English!!!!! Preach all over this neglectful asshole bad excuse for a mother who gave Tavros privilege and little else!

JAKE: You might have expelled him into existence with your easy-bake tuna canoe.

SDFJ:DSKLJ EASY BAKE TUNA CANOE ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS JAKE XD

FUCK THAT'S HILARIOUS

JAKE: But i kept him alive! JAKE: I raised him! JAKE: Nelsons knickers, half the time it feels like "uncle" fucking gamzee had more hand in his upbringing than you did! JANE: Oh... my... JANE: I never... took a second to stop and think... JANE: I don't remember when he took his first steps. JANE: Or what his favorite food is. JANE: I didn't even fucking breast feed him! DIRK: (Which is fucking crazy, all things considered.) JANE: I don't... even know what his first word was. JAKE: It was "honk." JANE: Jesus Christ.

Oh my God. She's actually fucking seeing it. Maybe only for a moment, but... she's actually fucking SEEING IT. This is a radical breakthrough.

Ever since the talk between Jade, Rose, and Kanaya back there got SO FUCKING REAL, I should have been suspecting... is the stabilization they're attempting at the Plot Point working RETROACTIVELY to make the entire Candy timeline make more sense, and bringing even people as far out of character as Jane Crocker back closer to reality, radiating its effects somewhat backwards in time and not just forwards? To help people like Jane and Jake and John and such finally BREAK OUT of their respective head fogs and truly see what's been going on around them all this time???

(Canon Roxy over on the pursuit ship might even be helping Callie WRITE HER STORY BETTER than Callie started off doing! That would explain a lot, while possibly even providing a Void pocket to keep the plans they're writing to have it influence the main timeline back invisible to the dueling Authors!)

((ALSO also, if you wanted Candy to be closer to Canon, Gamzee's chucklevoodoo influence and Bard of Rage role would have gone a long way to keeping Jane in a relationship with him and unaware of the abuse of her son.))

Jane looks like she's about to come to terms with something serious, but I'm pretty sure we can't have her reverse herself just yet. Which means something is going to make her even madder-- something is going to blow her up and waste some of what she's finally realizing.

Jake might successfully chew her out, say he's leaving her, hang up and fly out from the ship (not telling her he's off to destroy the Orbital Laser), while Jane contends seriously with her sins as she approaches her climactic battle and provides an opportunity for Roxy to possibly save this version of her later...... but something gives me the feeling that this version of Jane is going to be kept irredeemable, which means that the most efficient way narratively to accomplish that... is for Jake to fuck up here by accidentally revealing he's been working for the enemy. By, for example, yelling at her for threatening to destroy the Plot Point when it's their best hope to save the universe/timeline when she knows HE SHOULDN'T KNOW THAT unless he'd known about The Point before all this. At which point he would HAVE to vamoose in a jiffy to avoid capture, and Jane would be too enraged to fully dwell on her failings in motherhood and relationships just yet. I think in the next couple pages we'll see which happens.

(AND, as I've pointed out repeatedly in the Epilogues and my earlier HS^2 liveblog-- (NO WONDER Jane never resurrected Gamzee even though she FULLY had the power to do so, and held an entire public funeral to appease his followers without revealing that she could have snapped her Lifey fingers and revived him this whole fucking time! She kicked him off the ship in the first place before Vriska killed him after all.)

Please tell me I haven't hit the image limit yet I HAVE to keep reading...

(==>)

JANE: He must hate me. JAKE: Oh, janey... JANE: It's true. JANE: Look at the way he acted during the hostage negotiations. JANE: His life was threatened, and Tavros didn't call out to me once! JANE: Like he... he knew I had other concerns. JAKE: Well, JAKE: You do.

Yeah, Jane never prioritized her family. She debated saving Tavvy mainly for the cameras.

JANE: Do you think I want to? JANE: I wanted this family! JANE: I can't help how much goddamn pressure I'm under! JAKE: Nobody asked you to shoulder any of that. JAKE: ...Dear. JANE: I had to! JANE: The rest of you couldn't be trusted! JANE: None of you even bothered to graduate high school! JANE: While you were all being shut-ins, and self-destructing, and fucking... cavorting!!! I was making public appearances. JANE: Somebody had to represent us, so people wouldn't assume the worst! JANE: They waited 5000 years for us, and for what? To see there was no plan, no reason, that none of their gods were really on their side. JANE: I had to become an adult before ANY of you decided to catch up. JANE: Sigh. JANE: If Tavros never felt any love from me, it's because I barely had anything left to give.

Holy shit, Jane feels the same way as Jade. Trying frantically to live up to the title of Goddess for the planet because she feels OBLIGATED to by her self-esteem, except she took a different route and threw herself into the role permanently at the expense of her family.

JANE: No wonder you both left. JAKE: !!!!!!! JAKE: Er... im not following. JANE: Come on, now, Jakey. When you went to go stay with John. JAKE: Zooks, you knew id skittered away this whole time? JAKE: And you arent mad? JAKE: Why? JANE: Because I love you, you bobo. JANE: I have loved you since I was 13. JANE: Sure, going off the map right after my father died was not the kindest timing. JANE: But you were always going to come back. JANE: And I mastered forgiving you a long time ago.

Whoaaa.

JANE: I even forgave you for Dirk. JAKE: Forgave me for... for being with him? JANE: What? JANE: No, I was always an ally first when it came to that. JANE: What's a... a dalliance between bros, really? DIRK: (Word.)

What is she talking about now? Is she blaming JAKE for Dirk unaliving himself in the Candy timeline???

Okay I'm paranoid about hitting the image limit soon and I'm willing to defer this revelation for JUST a moment, so let me post this now and start immediately writing my third liveblog post of the day. :)

[intertexts]

OK HI. HELLO ROS <3 standing in ur doorway like this 🧍 listen i will read worm eventually i just have so much HAPPENING. ALL THE TIME RIGHT NOW. AND DONT HAVE THE TIME. and also jrwi has me in a chokehold u know how it b. ANYWAY. i need u 2 tell me as much about new haven wards as u can without like major insane spoilers for worm. little spoilers r ok. i watch/read everything with a few lil spoilers 2 look forward to anyway <3 i know nothing abt the universe of worm (<<has barely made a sizeable dent in it but god i will i prommy) but i wanna know what exactly nhw is about. how does the universe work. how do the powers work. what is the situation with the nhw how and why are they working together where did they all come from!! gimme the nhw lore!!! as much as u can!!!!! looking at u with the biggest saddest wettest eyes rn pls pls pls infodump abt nhw 2 me!!!!!!!! ros pls 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

HIII HI HI WHISKEY <333 UR INSANE FOR ASKING THIS. BTW. literally insane. grabbing u so hard by the shoulders there is a crazed look in my eye. anyway. FIRST i am tagging @stuck-in-the-ghost-zone here also!!!!!! bc it is his au as much as mine & i am NOT qualified 2 talk abt nhw mark n such. augh.

ok. ok. ok. new haven wards. putting the cut here.

so the basic movement of worm is that powers are from trauma. ridiculously simplified, but that's the base of it-- if you have superpowers, you have them because you went through traumatic events so severe to you specifically that it broke ur brain a little bit. the powers manifest in some way as a reaction to the traumatic scenario. (it is also more complicated than this. playing the spoiler card.) OR secret second option u put urself into indefinite debt to an extremely shadowy and ominous.... organization? person? shadow government branch? conspiracy? and get superpowers in a can, with like, a 10% chance they'll backfire and mutate u into some fucking terrible inhuman shit and then they'll completely memory wipe you and brand you and dump you off somewhere. not really relevant here. because the main way of getting superpowers is to be violently traumatized, cape society in worm tends to be grittier, more violent. there's more villains, the heroes are less shiny marvel or dc and more making whatever moral compromises they need to get the best outcome possible. at one point one of the main heroes in the city worm takes place in tells the sixteen-year-old protagonist "i don't care, there's a kill order out on them, just put a bullet in her brain if you see her, it's fine" and then a while later goes "yeah i'd vote for a kill order out on you guys too," directly to her face. worm is always going "hey, wouldn't it fucking suck if superheroes were real?". there are many horrifying and inhuman and violent threats. sexual and racial and physical violence aren't swept under the rug. these seventeen year olds are sent to crime scenes where flayed and gutted corpses are suspended from the ceilings because they're heroes! ^_^ but this aint about worm this is about the new haven wards!!!!! [wards are the child soldiers junior hero branch of the main syndicated/unionized hero organization, w/ placement in every major city alongside regional protectorate headquarters]

>key things for this au:

--william wisp changed his last name to bell when he moved to new haven (where his brother david lives :) and joined the wards, for another layer of anonymity ^_^ (he is. severely paranoid about his identity & privacy. <- also a Big and Heavy thing in worm/parahumans world. it's a Big Fucking Deal to unmask a cape regardless of their alignment)

-dakota never got the mechanical heart & biomedical augumentation so didn't meet mato cole at that time! he's still dakota damascus :]

-virion... idk why he's still virion & not vyncent actually. probably just because that was the name his parents gave him? we can't change it now though nhw virion & canon vyncent r two different guys to me...

-ashe is the unluckiest fucking guy in the world!!!

their powers are a little different from canon both bc of the ways powers work just being different frm how they do in pd & also because of the "they're always a reflection of the worst moment of ur life that you're just dragging around with you reminding you of it" thing. <333

wibby / whisperer is a breaker/shaker (<- power classifications meaning he has another form he shifts into, and also an area of effect] in his breaker form (crackling white-blue energy) he 1) can control how corporeal he is, or *how* corporeal he is, from "walks into the brick wall" to "doesnt notice there's a brick wall and goes straight through it", to "goes incorporeal to stick his hand in a guy's chest then resolidifies to instakill him" w/ some tradeoffs. & 2) shape/control energy manifestations in a fairly wide radius around him, where the power of the shaped energy is in proportion to the amount of recent death in the area-- if there's a ton of casualties in the area, he can do a lot more than he could in a peaceful small town in the middle of nowhere. the situation with his trigger event was him. growing up socially isolated and half convinced he was going crazy and everyone else Also thought he was fucking insane (deadwood is still haunted!! more haunted :]) for years & years + the loneliness + frustration + unsureness if he's actually the one just. losing it or if it's all really real + the constant feeling of being in danger, that the town is bad and malicious and out to Get you. anyway. he fell, take that as ambiguously as u do for that in canon, didn't die, but was severely injured & couldn't move. just laid there for maybe a day or so in the woods that wanted to kill him. anyway he triggered when he was found! the catalyst was not "the place that's been out to get me my entire life finally succeeded" but the helpless incandescent frustration of "actually nothing i ever do is going to make you understand. i've been trying for so fucking long to make you See It but you won't!!! you never will and you just think i'm crazy or stupid or making it up for attention even though it has such obvious fucking consequences and is manifestly Real!!" he was recruited to the wards by miss g herself, who was like hahahhahaa this kid could be a Really Fucking Big Problem if he doesn't have an eye on him!! ^_^ he never wanted to be a hero, and still doesn't, really, but he's terrified of accidentally hurting people & deadwood is like a weight around his neck and maybe things will be better if he just gets out of here. for a while they're not, of course. he just feels like. y'know. he's another sick thing that crawled out of deadwood, and his powers make that obvious. the way they interact with recently dead shit makes him sick!! living with david is awful-- a big, lovely, lonely high rise apartment, an older brother who barely bothers to speak to him, calls to their mom through the walls going "why is he here? why would you send him here? can he like, go anywhere else?"

virion sol / imprint is a trump (meaning his powers interact With other capes powers.) he can copy powers by touching other parahumans-- the copied power is just as strong as the original, whatever the original is, but he doesn't have an innate sense of how to use it; he can easily be overwhelmed or overstimulated by powers that involve a ton of sensory input, or accidentally loose cannon something he wasn't expecting and can't easily control. regardless, this is a fucking insane power to have. it's so cracked. like within the parahumans-- world, this is something so rare, especially being able to copy the full strength of the power. the very few examples in canon of something similar, the copied power is always inferior. his situation was similar to canon-- the greats were a team of independent heroes, & were like, extended family to virion. he grew up unpowered, but in the cape world-- so many aunts and uncles teaching him security, standard protocols, how to fight capes, how to run cape business and independent team business, how to handle guns and tasers and safely run background checks. y'know. a family's worth of professional knowledge. he never really wanted to be a cape, anyway, he was more than happy to do all the unpowered stuff at home that needed to be done. occasionally he came with them on patrol n stuff or snuck out to watch them. the greats' long term goal was prying out the lich, an extremely heavyweight warlord who had control over most of the city. virion's father struck a deal with the lich-- virion knows as little what the deal was For as he does in canon, but he double crossed the entire team. virion snuck along to the confrontation with the lich (setup) & watched his father turn & murder all of them. still not sure if he did it all himself or just watched as the lich's minions did it, but the way they knew all their weaknesses, how efficient and brutal and unexpected it was-- it was his dad feeding the information. virion stays frozen in shock and horror & hidden during all of this. can't do anything to help. is fucking useless, despite all he knows and has done. for the first time in his life, he wished he had powers, that ram and min and everyone could have taught him how to have and use their powers like they taught him everything else. he triggered watching it all happen. after this, he went on the run, terrified that someone would Know that he saw, that they'd be coming for the loose ends, that his dad would come back for him. all he has of his family is a couple piecemeal things he could grab before he ran-- ram's favorite revolvers, a holy medal of alphonz's, some of his mom's sturdy jewelry. anyway, he ran, moved to a different city, new haven. started figuring out his powers, started targeting specifically other capes who were up to bad shit-- minor to mid league villains, the occasional local hero who would Look squeaky clean, but after their sudden death dirty secrets would come out, etc. all very low-key, very subtle. none of the disappearances or deaths looked related. during this period he is SO fucked up. he is so fucked in the head. he's incredibly hypervigilant and paranoid and jumpy (good at looking unbothered and still clocking every single sound and movement and always facing doors and windows), mired in the grief and guilt and horror at. watching his entire family slaughtered and life shattered in a night. sleeps for no more than two hours or so at a time. even on top of the lich and his dad... what he's been doing puts an even bigger target on his back. doesn't have time or heart for anything but the dirty work. is dissociating through the periods of time where he's not actively hunting someone down or on the job. silhouette is the one who puts the pieces together-- of course he's on the protectorate (hero organization) radar. sure he's only been targeting bad guys, but how clean each one was? how well covered they all are? how whoever this is has allegedly killed at least almost two hands' worth of capes in cold blood by now? sets off alarms, if you're looking!!

anyway, silhouette tracks him down, says hey, i know who you are, i know what happened. you're just a kid. you join us, and you'll gain the resources and skill to be able to get revenge. aren't you tired of running? now... virion took to this fast and well when he did, but. before it all, he was just a teenager. despite the family business, he was just some guy! he helped his mom cook and got help with schoolwork at the kitchen table and his cool aunts took him out for lunch. he never wanted this or expected it. and of course he doesn't trust the heroes farther than he can spit, but... it's something. it's better than this. anything has to be better than the way he's driving himself into the ground. & also, of course. if silhouette can find him. anyone else who's looking for him can too. (i don't think he's even registered on the radar of anyone. his dad didn't actually survive the lich, obviously, & he was the only other one who really knew abt virion + nobody knew he triggered. he's just. so fucking paranoid.)

dakota damascus / failsafe is a thinker/mover. he 1) has a precognitive sense of any pain that anyone in a radius around him will feel in the next short amount of time. this is-- varyingly difficult to block. he can't just Choose not to feel it, although the intensity of the feeling, again, varies. mostly proportionally to how severe the pain actually is, or how many people are hurt, but, with time, he can dull or sharpen it + follow the threads of it to discern Who exactly is in pain, rather than just an ambient sensation. 2) is VERY fast & has matching enhanced cognitive speed. these two abilities work SO good together, both in combat situations & also just day to day patrolling. man. i love dakota. anyway, he triggered young-- he was out with his parents (maybe 7/8) and they got caught in an attack by siberian-- a genuinely indestructible, incredibly powerful villain who can just,,, run her hand through a concrete foundation like it's butter & collapse buildings, or scoop out peoples insides in a heartbeat. and also likes to eat people, like, raw and bloody after dismembering them. whatever level of ultraviolent shocking horror u are imagining. double it. anyway. they got caught in the scene of this attack, dakota got separated from his parents in the panic and stampede and rush to get out-- he's seven! it's terrifying levels of panic and claustrophobia and people shoving and trampling and he's not gonna leave without his parents!! of course not!! he triggers from the fear and the disorientation and the panic & he can't find them & he's trying to fight the crowd but he barely comes up past their knees & there's awful sounds of fighting & he's close enough to see her... things are doubly disorienting with the echo of the agony from everyone who gets Fucking Siberianed. he sees most of the fight. um. a while after she's driven away and it's finally finished he finds what's left of his parents. there's a beat in worm, during an encounter with siberian and the Big Heroes, the prime force equivalent, where they just.. give her a victim to chew on because it makes her happier and less of a nightmare to fight. which is something i think about frequently. anyway, after this things are kind of loose, similar to canon. he does the same shit. it's also quieter and you can feel less people hurting the higher up u are. yk? OH GOD. YEAH. at some point after this we still have not hammered it out. he confronts the slaughterhouse 9 (the supervillain group that attacked/siberian is part of) about it & gets his face slit open (half chelsea smile style) & makes a deal to either kill a guy in [n years] or that guy will kill him & several hundred other people!!!!!!!!!!!! dakota damascus killing a man baked into the bones of nhw!!!

anyway he & cat still fell. he underwent a second trigger event when this happened, actually-- the panic and desperation of that situation + the way it echoed his first trigger, etc. this is also super fucking rare, btw. there are very few second triggers & it is almost Never good. (u cannot trigger more than twice + a second trigger is always a refining or an improving of the intent of the original trigger) so that's where the speed etc. came from. tide found him, gave him. a better support system (low bar!!) + a real purpose in joining the wards. i have a lot of feelings abt this.

ashe / auxiliary / muse is also a shaker/breaker!!!!! his backstory i cannot talk too much about because it is Big Spoilers. but he is a fucking powerful telekinetic (around when he joins the wards, having not really used his power in years, he has an upper weight limit of a couple times his body weight & a fairly large radius of effect). he also has a breaker form that only triggers in certain situations & if he really really pushes himself to breaking w/ his powers-- when he enters it, he loses lucidity, for the most part, & starts warping and stretching and breaking space-time in strange, dreamlike ways-- the pavement melts, or everything gets bouncy, or cars and concrete chunks and things with no business moving float slowly around like balloons, or he pulls and crumples reality to move without really moving.... it gets Real fucking bad, real fast. ANYWAY. he eventually sneaks out one night, walks to a gas station to get. snacks. it-- okay, i'm fucking linking mac's post, i CANNOT summarize all of this concisely. go read that. so. that's ashe's deal!!!!!!!!!

THERE'S ALSO. MARK. ASK MAC ABOUT MARK i have typed this entire thing out on myfucking phone keyboard i literally Cannot keep going. help. and also their mark stuff is so fucking good its so. auuuhhgh. AND ALSO DAVID BELL. WHO WORKS FOR THE ORGANIZATION THAT SELLS U SUPERPOWERS IN A CAN W A CHANCE OF GETTING TURNED INTO AN UNRECOGNIZABLE MONSTER AND DOES HUMAN ABDUCTION AND EXPERIMENTATION. AND JADE AND X AND ALLEN ARE THE FREEDOM CITY WARDS AND GRAYSCALE SHAKES OUT EVEN FUCKING WORSE THAN IT DID IN CANON. YEAH.

SO. YEAHG. THATS. THATS THE MOST OF IT. um. yeah. theyre a dreadful little polycule they are. So fucking clingy they r traumabonded. like little trembling chihuahua puppies. separation anxiety and all. virion and dakota share a comfy old victorian house in a suburban neighborhood maybe a fifteen minute walk from the protectorate hq. wibby starts out living w/ david and eventually just... all his stuff moves over to their place. their clothes r all mixed up they know each others blood types they're all sleeping together on the couch. eventually their house gets blown up. they all get various flavors of nightmare & are 1 million shades of debilitatingly mentally ill but like-- it works. they r good for each other. theyre good together. do not separate them. etc. i'm not even gonna fucking START talking abt their dynamics other than that but like. i mean. if you want a repeat of THIS u can always ask!!!!!!!

[bizlybebo]

haha i wonder what silly adventure i write out this time!!

bizly: okay so you guys all fuckin, get in marks car, and-

grizzly: what songs he got playing?

charlie: (quick giggle) yeah, is it taylor swift this time?

bizly: HE IS NOT PLAYING TAYLOR SWIFT

condi: thank god

will: hey mark i didnt know you liked bad blood!

bizly: NO, IM NOT DOING THIS BIT, YOU GUYS DRIVE THERE IN SILENCE

yakko: ashe is playing his playlist

bizly: yeah, ashe you have the headphones on, its like…

yakko: car seat headrest

bizly: sure, whatever

("hey, space cadet" from car seat headrest starts playing faintly in the background)

bizly: as you guys get in, and your driving there, probably staring out the window

grizzly: dakota is just criss cross apple sauce in the middle, just meddling with his thumbs in his lap

bizly: and as you're staring down at your lap dakota, and out the windows vyncent and william, you cant help but reminise on your first visit here. being led into that lab, fighting what seemed like a hopeless battle, and winning with a cost. the o-

grizzly: dako- oh sorry

bizly: no, no, go ahead

grizzly: dakota is thinking about all those heroes who were waiting outside, the ones who di- couldnt help them, and how he failed to help with the trickster, and he looks up, over to ashe.

bizly: do you say anything to him?

grizzly: no, he just looks at him, the back of his head, not trying to get his attention or anything.

charlie: will glances over at dakota, kinda trying to see what hes thinking.

grizzly: hes thinking about that first time, obviously-

will: dakota? you good buddy?

dakota: uh, yeah. yeah.

will: it couldnt have gone differently, you know.

dakota: yeah.

bizly: you two are having this little talk- condi is vyncent-

condi: vyncents just letting himself think these thoughts

bizly: alright, ashe, you remember, what to you, was the last time you felt really, awake, and like your brain wasnt really malfunctioning or something. and you remember that familiar feeling, that one of losing touch, losing control, of your body, of yourself. you knew in the end, there wasnt a way to fight back against this, this force, and yet you tried, and the reasons you tried your sitting next to in this car.

yakko: can i look over at mark?

bizly: mark is focusing on the road, pretty focused on where hes going. you can tell he has some mixed feelings about this all.

yakko: and the guys in the back?

charlie: will has his arm around dakota, leaning and whispering to him.

grizzly: dakota has this like, pretty serious look on his face. hes quieter then normal as he and wiwi are talking.

condi: vyncents still looking out the window, maybe fiddling with a dagger absent-mindedly.

bizly: as you turn back around, you catch a glimpse of your hand, and in this moment does it truly register that the runes on them are no longer glowing, go-

yakko: to ashe, theyre not gone. he can see the faint lines on his hand of where they were.

bizly: and as your looking at these lines, you feel the car stop.

mark: we're here.

bizly: im assuming you all get out the car?

ashe: what? oh, okay, thanks dad.

mark: im gonna keep an eye on the car, you guys go in there, find what you can

will: we'll try our best

mark: be safe kid.

bizly: he looks at you ashe

ashe: its not easy with this group, but ill try

bizly: and you all head inside, and you get down there- it hasnt been changed from when you guys fought the overlord from what you can tell, nobodys bothered to fix the place up. theres no heroes set up here, no guards or anything, this place has been basically abandoned. its almost-

will: this place feels eerie like this.

bizly: yeah, exactly, as though your walking through the ghosts of the heroes here at this battle, the one that seemed to change everything. and you remember, just how big it felt, how giant the overlord was, how giant it all was. what do you all want to do first?

will: remember when our worst enemy was a crocodile- alligator man?

dakota: if we met him now, i could beat his ass, one hit

will: im sure you could dakota.

condi: vyncent is gonna look at the tubes, like the ones he and dakota got trapped in

bizly: they are completely destroyed, like theres bits of glass everywhere

vyncent: cant believe we were in one of these before, huh kota?

grizzly: yeah i was gonna say, dakota would look over with vyncent.

dakota: i could have broken out of it if i was stronger then.

vyncent: yeah. i dont think the greats appreciated being tubed.

bizly: so you two are gonna look through this area?

condi: yeah, well vyncent will

grizzly: ill help- dakota will look through with vyncent

bizly: alright, we'll get back to that. lets see whats going on with will, will! what we doing?

will (charlie forgot to turn off the will voice): will is gonna just get a general lay of the room for right now

bizly: alright, is that gonna be-

charlie: just what he can see right now

bizly: okay, so looking around, it looks very beat up, its a strange sort of deja vu, and you cant place your finger on it, but the situation makes you feel a bit like your back, in your brothers office-

condi: oh thats sick

bizly: -with alan and xavier and cantrip.

charlie: god….yeah. will just wipes a tear from his eye.

bizly: you do also catch onto a piece of something purple- and dakota youd see this too, its purple, what looks like cloth, stuck onto the glass of one of the tubes.

dakota: hey will, i found something!

will: yeah dakota?

charlie: ill go get a closer look at it.

bizly: so will, you would recognize it to be a piece of a purps suit.

charlie: of course, of fucking course it is-

bizly: and dakota, you would remember this to be a piece of your purp suit, one that got ripped off during your escape.

will: a pur- i thought we got rid of these before-

dakota: it- its mine.

grizzly: hes gonna pick it up and put it in his pocket.

charlie: yeah ill go to looking on the other side of the room then

bizly: alright, and yakko, whats going on with ashe?

yakko: ashe is gonna go for where the trickster first got summoned

bizly: as your walking up to it, that spot in the floor is charred to ashes.

grizzly: hah, like ashe!

yakko: ashe is gonna just, stare at it. remembering it all.

bizly: well, you find something too. as your looking at this burnt tile on the ground, you see a page, which you know is one from your book.

ashe: didnt know one fell out.

yakko: i pick up the page

bizly: you look at it, reading it, and its the page about that demon arm you summoned quite a bit, how you'd try to use it in combat even if it didn't always hit, i think it was pretty safe to say one of your strongest moves

yakko: and it just got left here. i pick it up.

ashe: maybe this time around i can do something a bit better with you.

yakko: and i put it into my pocket

bizly: and as you put it in there, everyone gets this sort of feeling, and you all look up at the crater in the wall. its the one where the overlord was. and as your all looking, a thought crosses your mind: when, did it get so small. when did the issue of the overlord, of even the planet that one time, become such an insignificant thing? what set the change up, to where you stopped being heroes in kid costumes, and became kids in hero costumes.

charlie: can we all like walk closer to it, like meet up over-

bizly: i say you can meet over by it, yeah, sure

grizzly: yeah, lets-

condi: vyncent would probably go closer, why not

vyncent: yknow, the whole reason the trickster came out and everything was because we thought this was where it was gonna end. how silly is that.

ashe: im glad it didnt.

dakota: it made us stronger, yknow, we grew from it! became like, actual heroes and stuff!

will: maybe we shouldnt have. for what its worth, im glad that i got to fight in the ends with you guys.

me, who broke into the studio because im a little rat: and THAT is where we're gonna end the scene

the whole council: kys

DUDUDEEEEE. WHEN I JOKED ABOUT US GHOSTWRITING SEASON 3 I DIDNT EXPECT THISSSSSS /INSANELY POS

the smaller mannerisms and stuff have me half-giggling and half-punching the wall. grizzly saying stuff like “the heroes that di- that couldn’t help them” and charlie being “stuck” in the william voice and the small comment about the greats and like. even the way ashe speaks/yakko talks ooc and bizly shutting down stupid bits. i think we both listen to this shitty podcast too much and are both fucking deranged i’m grabbjng you by the fucking shoulders and shaking you so violently for this

[heyheydidjaknow]

You know when you disappear for months and then do something that has nothing to do with what you usually do? Because I do. This was inspired by a piece of fanart made by @kittennature, which I'm linking here. I also don't know if this is too niche, but who cares? Death comes to us all.

Imminent DOA

“Mike?”

Nicole exhaled slowly, blunt held loosely between her fingers. “He fucked that sophmore, so.”

Jecka typed the name down. “I’ll mark him as a maybe. Tod?”

Nicole took another drag. “He’s too much of a loser to have done anything bad unfortunately. Would it be too fucked up to make him shitty?”

“Well,” Jecka sighed, “I guess it depends. Does his death matter?”

“Fair enough.” She tapped the ashes out of the window of their apartment, morning light an unwelcome sight. “Whatever; he’ll get there eventually.”

“What about the guys from school?”

Nicole sat up, looking back at Jecka at their desk. “Didn’t we get them already?”

“I don’t think so.” Jecka grabbed the book, thumbing through the pages. “Winestein, Hefner, R. Kelly– yeah, no Jeffrey and co.”

“What the fuck– they’re at the top of the list!” She turned around. “Do you have a yearbook?”

“Do I look like a bitch who’d keep a yearbook?”

She groaned, face falling into her hands. “For fuck’s sake– if I knew I’d be able to kill them I would’ve remembered last names!”

“We know some!” Jecka began typing on her computer. “The staff are listed on the school’s webpage; we can get the teachers.”

“I guess.” She crossed her arms. “I don’t think I know the teachers’ names now that I think about it; what was the counselor’s name even?”

“Mr. Oliver.”

Nicole rolled her eyes. “What’s his first name? Charles?”

“Jerry.”

“Even worse.” She smiled sleepily. “At that point we're doing the guy a mercy. Maybe that’s why he fucks kids; no woman with a developed brain stem hates herself enough to hit that.”

Jecka nodded in agreement. “You can’t even moan Jerry.”

“Imagine being at a low in your life where you’re moaning Jerry.”

Jecka took a sip of her coffee. “Do you think we can make him change his name before he dies?”

“No point.” She crossed her legs. “You can’t come back from a name that bad; the damage is done by the time you’re out of highschool. Plus, he deserves it.”

“Fair.” Jecka leaned back in her chair. “Should we get Coach too or is prison good enough?”

Nicole considered it. “How many years is he serving again?”

She pursed her lips. “I think fifteen.”

“Fifteen?” She licked her teeth. “How is that not life? How is fucking a kid basically a misdemeanor?” She gestured with her blunt. “Imagine if we didn’t get that book; that bitch would get out in fifteen years– less if he got parole– and probably get hired back by the school and end up assaulting the next generation. This is basically charity.” She punctuated the sentence with another drag.

Jecka stretched her arms above her head. “So he’s on the list?”

“If prison justice hasn't gotten him yet, yeah.” She tapped the ashes out the window again. “It’s the least he deserves. We should make it so someone in there chops off his dick and feeds it to him first.”

Jecka spun her chair to face her roommate. She pushed her bangs out of her face, swallowed, glanced back at the notebook. “Do you think anyone will notice?” She crisscrossed her legs on the chair. “That this is happening, I mean; do you think anyone will care?”

Nicole checked her watch, putting the cigarette out in an ashtray by the window. “Who cares?” She stuck her hands in her sweatpant pockets. “Like, let’s say someone notices, right? Someone puts together that shitty people are killing themselves, they think there’s a trend of pedophiles and rapists killing themselves, and then what?” She turned away, leaning her head out of the window and watching cars drive by to work, to school. Her voice softened. “I mean, they deserve to die, right? We were suicidal in highschool and our only crimes were being teenage girls in fuckin’ Virginia; dying is the least they can do.”

Jecka watched her for a moment, sighed, stood up. “I’m going to shower before my class. There’s coffee still in the pot if you want some.”

Nicole nodded in acknowledgement as Jecka walked off. At the sound of the bathroom door clicking closed, she collapsed onto her bed, rolling over to stare at the ceiling. She closed her eyes, the faint sound of “Mr. Carter” coming from the CD player in the corner of the room. It had been a long night, an even longer morning. The notebook itself was the easiest part of the whole thing; it was discerning the rules that took the most time. The book contained five– all of which she found could be tested and confirmed pretty easily– but the implications of the rules were hard to decipher. It was the closest she had ever had to read a book– the only time she had felt tempted to take notes for a book– because the scope of the Death Note– a title the girls mutually agreed was objectively shitty– was seemingly nearly endless. Torn out pages were effective, meaning that using the pages as printer paper was valid. Burning or shredding the pages did nothing for the names written down, meaning that every single scrap of evidence– apart from the original book– could be entirely disposed of. The actions of people could be controlled before death, meaning that with the flick of a pen they could enact legislative change that would otherwise take decades of lobbying and debate in a week so long as they sentenced the politicians– none of whom, as Jecka had eagerly pointed out, were anything close to innocent– to death. The Death Note was more than an execution method; rather, it was the most effective political tool in the world. In the hands of those with loftier ambitions, there was no doubt in either of their minds that the book could change the world– and the time would come for that, Nicole supposed– but that time was still on the horizon. Wrongs needed to be righted first, wrongs against them and the other women and their lives. Housekeeping was in order. They would be the one to do it.

Behind her closed eyelids, Nicole watched as the sunlit room fall into shadow. 

Perched on their windowsill was a creature, a jaundiced demon– seven or eight feet tall– with cyanotic skin and large, feathery wings sticking out of its back. Staples attached it to its leathery black clothes, its feathered collar taking up a good portion of the window’s frame. Long black claws clutched the sill between its legs, and its gaze– sinister, curious, amused– was fixed on Nicole, still laid in her bed.

Nicole opened her eyes slowly, her eyes meeting the creature’s. She blinked, squinting her eyes at the thing before sitting up. She rubbed her eyes, looking again at the unmoving figure’s before letting out a long sigh. “I cannot believe her,” she muttered, standing up and staggering to the bathroom door. “Jecka!” She pounded on the door. “Your plug fucking sucks! He laced my shit with PCP!”

She felt a laugh next to her ear. “Humans really are interesting.”

Nicole spun around to face the creature now looming over her. “Jecka!” Her voice broke as she cried out.

“The other human who took my notebook,” he continued, leaning down to meet her eyes, “is nothing like you. A straight A student, an honors student, top of his class.” His lips stretched wider over rows of yellow fangs. “Do you think I’m a hallucination?”

“Bitch, get the fuck out here!” She lowered down to the floor, trapped between the demon and the bathroom door. Her heart pounded against her ribcage as she stared up at death itself. “I am tripping serious fucking balls and it is your fault–!”

The water shut off behind the door. “For fuck’s sake Nicole,” she groaned, pulling the door open with a towel wrapped around her, “you are such a– what the fuck is that?” Jecka screamed and quickly backed away from the door, slipping on a discarded t-shirt and falling flat on her back. She scrambled back, towel held in place with one hand. “Get the fuck away from me!”

Nicole’s heart plummeted in her chest. “You can see it too?”

“You can see me too?” The thing laughed. “Most humans take the secret of the Death Note to the grave; I can’t think of another human who’s shared its power so soon.”

Nicole stood up, backing away and grabbing the first potential weapon she could see: a hair straightener. She brandished it at the creature, stumbling backwards in front of Jecka. “Get the fuck away from us!” Her voice shook. “So help me God I’ll fucking kill you if you–!”

She was cut off by the demon’s voice: low, gravely, horrifying. “I am a shinigami,” it explained simply. “You can’t kill me.”

“A what?” Nicole raised the iron in front of her head, ready to throw it. “So help me if this some weeb shit I will knock your fucking block off!”

It made a sound of understanding. “I guess that must not be a well known term in the human world.” It pointed at itself, its rings shining in the bathroom light. “I am a god of death.”

Nicole blinked. “Gods are real?”

Jecka stayed behind Nicole, fist gently clutching that back of her tanktop. “We’re not supposed to die yet!” Tears welled up in her eyes. “We’re young and hot; we have a good fifteen years in us before we have nothing to live for!”

Its grin widened. “I’m not here for either of you.” It glanced behind it in the direction of the desk. “I am here because that notebook–” it pointed lazily, “-- belongs to me.”

“Finders keepers, fuckface.” The words were out of her mouth before she registered their meaning. “It’s ours now.”

“Nicole!”

“I’m not here to take it back.” Its eyes moved between the two girls: Nicole, dressed in a ratty shirt and gym shorts, staring defiantly up at the thing; Jecka, cowering behind her with one hand holding her towel in place. “Even if I wanted it back, it’s yours now; unless you forfeit ownership of the Death Note, it’s yours until the day you die.”

Nicole slowly lowered the hair straightener, her hand falling to her side. “Why are you here, then?” She pushed her shoulders back. “What’re you doing in our apartment?”

Its smile widened again. “I’m bound to the human world so long as one of my notebooks is here,” it explained. “Since I dropped two, I’m bound to two humans, but I am still bound to both of you and the holder of my other Death Note stops being entertaining after ten o’clock.”

“Ten o’clock?” Nicole rolled her eyes. “Is he twelve or seventy-five?”

“Seventeen.”

She smirked. “What, does he have a bedtime?”

Jecka leaned her weight on one hip. “Imagine being a murderer and still being a fucking loser.”

“It takes a lot to get the tumblr bitches to not want to fuck you.”

“Bet he has to use the Death Note to get MySpace whores to hate themselves enough to fuck him.”

“Bet he cries when he jacks it.”

“Bet he doesn’t know how to jack it.”

The shinigami leaned down towards them. “You should meet him,” it purred. “I can tell you where he is, what his name is.”

Jecka rolled her eyes. “Can’t you just give us his MySpace or something? Why do we have to go out and meet some guy we don’t know?”

“Is that a computer thing?” It hummed. “I’ve never seen him use his computer for anything other than school work and reading news articles. I don’t think I’ve seen him have fun since I’ve known him; he’s been far too preoccupied with killing criminals.”

“Any particular criminals or is he just a nark?” Nicole stuck a hand in her pocket. “What’s his name?”

“Light Yagami.” There was no hesitation in the creature’s answer. “He is a Japanese high school student.”

“What kind of stupid name is Light?”

“Don’t be racist, Nicole.”

“Light’s not a Japanese word, dipshit.” She looked back at Jecka. “Light’s English. Who names their kid fucking Light?”

“His name is written as Suki,” it added. 

“That’s worse.” Nicole gestured with the straightener. “That's almost as bad as Jerry.”

“You can totally moan ‘Light,’” Jecka protested. “Like it’s not ideal but you absolutely can.”

“Why are you defending him and his stupid name?”

“He could be hot!” She huffed, looking between Nicole and the shinigami. “Why are you two still here?”

“Since when do you– oh, right.” Nicole stepped around the shinigami, grabbing it by its oddly thin wrist and dragging it behind her as Jecka shut and locked the door after them. She placed the hair straightener onto their desk, letting it follow her into their kitchen. She opened their refrigerator, pulling a bottle out of the back and setting it on a counter. “You called yourself a god of death.” She kept her back turned, ignoring its overwhelming shadow and grabbing a glass from the cabinet above her. “Do you have a name?”

“I do.” He lowered his head to avoid a ceiling light. “It’s Ryuk.”

“Ryuk,” she repeated. She tipped the bottle’s contents into the glass. “You said that you were bound to the owner of your book, right? Which one of us are you bound to?”

He smiled. “Whoever touches the notebook first after it falls into the human world is its rightful owner. In this case, that would be you.” 

She turned towards Ryuk, sitting on the counter.  “You wrote the rules in the front?”

“I did.”

She took a sip from the glass, sighing as she exhaled. She swirled the glass in one hand. “Do you know what happens when we die?”

He looked back towards the desk, towards the book. “There is nothing,” he said simply. “Users of the Death Note do not get to enjoy an afterlife; that is the cost of its power.”

She set the glass on the counter. “Figures.” She followed his gaze, eyes struggling to focus on the desk through the haze of shock, weed and alcohol. “No such thing as a free meal.” Dark hair fell in her face; she did not bother to move it. “You mentioned that the other guy– Light– has a notebook. Does he know there’s two?”

“Doubt it.” He chuckled lowly. “He says he wants to eradicate all evil and become some sort of god among men; godhood in his eyes seems like a one man job.”

She sighed. “Sounds about right for a guy.” She crossed her legs, taking another look around the apartment. “I can’t think of someone less deserving of this power than some virgin loser with a god complex.” A faint smile crossed her lips. “What a waste…”

Jecka came out of the bathroom dressed in a white baby tee and a pair of oversized jeans. She looked between the two, at Nicole’s glass. “What’d I miss?”

Nicole downed the rest of her drink, shuddering at the sensation. “You said your school has a foreign exchange program, right?” She hopped off the counter. “Does it go to Japan?”

She shrugged. “Dunno; I’d have to check.”

Nicole pushed the hair out of her face, lacing her fingers together behind her head. “I have money. If you get the head guys’ name and face, we can head out tonight.”

Jecka gawked at her. “Tonight tonight?”

“Do you want this Light guy to change the world before we do?” She rubbed her eyes, stumbling back into the living space, taking the book off the desk. “If you’re not coming, I’m leaving without you.”

She swallowed, stealing herself. “I’ll get a name and face before three.” she promised.

“If you can do that, I’ll pack.” Nicole looked around the room, a scowl settling on her features. “Jesus, I have a lot of stuff to flush.”

Ryuk watched the two girls from the kitchen, weight leaned against a counter. This had been the right decision, he decided; no other pair would disgust Light more than these two. The shinigami turned to the front door, phasing through the wood and concrete to soar over Las Angeles, heart full of mirth and skin crawling in anticipation.