#oh to live in a world of countless city states each following a base set of rules and otherwise being free to exist how they wish

[embarressment-erradicated]

seeing the far right in the usa actively plan to end democracy completely and people saying vote blue to that is just sickening.

like no, this isn't a situation where that's an appropriate response. they aren't going to just stop all plans because they didn't have the one they claim as their god king president.

they are going to double down no matter what.

this is not a time for petty politics, this is not the time for elections, this is the time to actually get the revolution up and running, and kill a few people who if left alive will only make the world worse.

I am largely one who thinks pacifism is a neat concept, however, when it's murdering a few people or risking having everything this country stands for get defiled even further somehow, leading it to becoming a christo-fascist authoritarian regime, I'm going to pick the one which doesn't end with everyone I know and love being murdered on a cross or rotting in a jail cell.

this isn't a vote blue no matter who situation, this is a vanquish a cult from our masses and watch the crimson blood spill from the graves which we build a new society on, hoping to not fuck it up this time

I'm not saying that everyone who bought into the lies of maga should die, I am saying that the people who actively wish to make the world a worse place should not be tolerated.

some people won't fight when it comes to the choice to lay down their arms or die, most even. some people need to die, or atleast be dead in a way that matters however, such as the people rallying up the masses to upend democracy.

a cult can not last, a cult can not persist forever, and whether we let it die off naturally and bring many down with it, or make sure it ends before it can make things any worse will decide whether or not we live to see the end.

oh and one more thing, remember how every democratic president has squandered the years they've had, and how essentially nothing changes until the republicans are in office, and it gets drastically worse? yeah that's a whole thing.

maybe we should use almost any other system of governance other than that. but as it is, voting blue will only maybe postpone the horrific nonsense at play.

we don't need votes, we need to revolt, no one should take away a person's right to exist. no one should think they can get away with that. no one should get away with that.

war is a complicated term, however civil wars have happened before, and we can do it again.

but I'm not a strategist, I'm just someone who happens to be an anarchist, communist, and non-binary. and as such is at high risk of being effected in one way or another by what they do.

but like, I don't know what to do about this at this current second, again, I'm just someone who's staring at the happenings of this country, and seeing hell both on the other side, and around me.

oh and if you don't know what the fuck I'm talking about, first do some research (if your interested, I mean I'm from the usa, I understand not knowing stuff from other places, that's like, the whole us education system), second wikipedia article go!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

What drove this country crazy after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11? Was it how vulnerable we had been shown to be, that a group of 19 men armed with nothing more than box-cutters could bring the entire country to a halt? Was it that the attack was aimed primarily against innocent civilians, with nearly 3,000 killed at the Twin Towers alone? Was it that with the 19 hijackers dead in the suicidal attacks, we didn't seem to have anyone to retaliate against?  Was it that we had no grasp whatsoever on understanding why our country, the freest and most democratic ever, was hated so much that they would attack us?

I remember how disconnected things felt for days, even weeks, after the attacks. Travelers outside the country didn't have a way to get home because flights had been canceled. People stranded in cities they were visiting within the country couldn't find cars to rent, there were so many trying to get home. Everyone seemed to feel a need to gather with families and friends and hunker down, as if another attack could come at any moment.

The country's leadership was frozen, stunned. Remember the photos of George W. Bush as an aide leaned over his shoulder and whispered the news into his ear? He was the president of the United States, and he looked scared to death. In fact, he was rushed from the school he was visiting in Florida to Air Force One, and his plane took off on what amounted to a flight to nowhere as his administration tried to pull itself together and decide how they would respond. It wasn't until hours later that Air Force One landed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and Bush hurriedly addressed the press in a windowless conference room, vowing to "hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts." Three days would pass before the president was flown to New York to appear atop the rubble of the World Trade Center at what became known as Ground Zero to take a bullhorn and make the pledge that would launch the country on a trajectory that has yet to change: "I can hear you!" he shouted to the workers at the site, "The rest of the world hears you! And the people — and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!"

A collective madness ensued. A great scrambling began to protect us against … well, against what? Box-cutters first and foremost, it seemed, as a new regime of inspections began at airports everywhere. The initial panic over the hijacked flights would lead to the establishment of the Transportation Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security, a kind of domestic department of defense which proceeded to put us on what amounted to a wartime footing within our own country that persists even today. How many times have you had to throw a set of fingernail clippers into a bin at airport security because a TSA agent was defending us from terrorism? How about removing your shoes because a lone lunatic made an unsuccessful attempt to blow up an airplane with a "shoe bomb"?

The entire paranoid regimen under which we still live 20 years later grew out of a supposed "war on terror" begun after 9/11 that has never ended. It took a decade to find and kill the actual terrorist who ordered the attacks on 9/11, but in the meantime two shooting wars were launched, only one of which had even the slightest connection to the terrorists who attacked us. There was an elemental problem: The war on terror wasn't against an enemy, it was against an idea, and ideas don't die when you hit them with bombs and bullets.

And so, without a readily definable enemy who could be seen and shot and killed and defeated, which is what wars are usually for, lies were substituted. We were buried with lies, and not just any lies. They had to justify the movement of hundreds of thousands of troops and the expenditure of trillions of dollars in treasure and the loss of thousands more American lives than died on 9/11 and countless more lives — enemies, civilians and, my goodness gracious, even a few real flesh and blood terrorists.

Sept. 11, 2001, was when the Big Lie was born. Or should we say, Big Lies, because they came fast and furious. By now they are known to be so completely without any basis in reality, so wholly bogus, that they hardly bear recounting. Weapons of mass destruction? Connections between Iraq and its government and leaders and the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11? Ha!

And then came new Big Lies to support the earlier Big Lies: that we were "winning" the war on terror. How many times were we reassured that all those lives and all those dollars were not being pissed away for nothing? How many times were we reassured that we were rebuilding the countries that hadn't needed rebuilding until we attacked them? How many times were we told of the miraculous training of the Iraqi and Afghan armies? They even invented a new word that I never learned in the classes I took in military history at West Point, a word to describe the magic bullet that was going to win both wars: the surge. If only we sent 10,000 or 20,000 or 30,000 or 50,000 more troops, we could  win the mythical war on terror.

"Shock and awe" was a lie. "Taking Baghdad was a lie. The army of Iraq just went away. The "surge," each and every one of them, was a lie. "Winning" was a lie, every single time the word was used. Every. Single. Time. The Afghan army was a lie. It didn't even bother surrendering to the Taliban. It just went … poof. The Afghan "government" was a lie. It too went poof. The Iraqi government is a lie. Everything we have done to win the war on terror for two decades, 20 long years, has been a lie. We wasted trillions of dollars that could have been spent to, I don't know, feed hungry children in Arkansas? Pay for health care for poor families? Send kids to college? Reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and save our planet?

We wasted all those lives, American and Afghan and Iraqi and German and Australian and Polish and every other soldier from every other NATO country who died fighting "terror." And we killed hundreds of thousands of Afghan and Iraqi people for nothing.

For nothing.

The biggest Big Lie of them all was that it had meaning, that we accomplished something, that we somehow won the war on terror. Terror hasn't gone away. Hell, we're growing it ourselves now, right here at home.

I'll tell you another war we lost, maybe even a bigger and more important war than the war on terror. We lost the war on truth. And we were warned. Oh yes, we were warned. Take Donald Trump's first Big Lie right after 9/11 as just one example. He claimed — I hope you're sitting down for this — that he could see from his office window in Trump Tower crowds of Muslims across the Hudson River, several miles away, on the roofs of buildings in Jersey City, cheering as the World Trade Center fell.

Remember that one? It was such a patently outrageous lie that it zoomed right past without anyone noticing as the rest of the Big Lies hit one after another.

But Trump got away with it, and he learned from it. Oh, yes. He learned how the Big Lie worked. He learned from watching Bush get away with lying about WMDs, and he learned from the Big Lies that we were winning in Iraq and Afghanistan. So he started trying out other Big Lies of his own, like the one about how Barack Obama wasn't a citizen of the United States, that he had a fake birth certificate, that he was a "secret Muslim." Remember when Trump was all over the TV for days and days claiming that he had sent detectives to Hawaii? All we had to do was wait and he was going to reveal the "truth" about Obama.

He got away with his "birther" Big Lie, and he learned something that he has used ever since, something that helped him drive us into the ditch of the pandemic he lied about for a year, something that has helped him transform an entire political party, the Republican Party, from one of two normal political parties in this country into an authoritarian cult.

He learned that if he told Big Lies that were big enough, and if he repeated them enough times, that he could get away with it, just like Bush got away with lying about WMDs to get us into Iraq. And his party, the Republican Party, learned right along with him. Look at what they are doing right this minute about the insurrection he incited against the Congress of the United States in his naked attempt to overturn the election he lost. Donald Trump and the Republican Party are on a campaign to deny that it happened. They are trying to make a case that it wasn't Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol, it was somebody else, and those who were arrested are political prisoners facing false charges … and on and on and on.

The legacy 9/11 has left us is that there is no common set of facts we can agree on about anything: Not about the COVID pandemic and masks and vaccines; not about the climate change that has killed hundreds and left town after town burned to the ground or under water and destroyed by tornadoes and hurricanes. We cannot agree that votes counted amount to elections won or lost.  We cannot even agree on the common good of vaccines that will save us, that science is worth studying, that learned experts are worth listening to.

The lies that followed 9/11 have torn us apart as a nation and put our democracy in peril. That's our legacy: Lies are now considered by an entire political party to be legitimate political currency. A man who has told so many lies we have lost count of them is now a legitimate political figure supported for the highest office of the land by one of our two political parties.

Lies began tearing us apart after the attacks on 9/11, and we have not regained our footing as a nation. The question hanging over us now is whether we ever will.

Lucian Truscott

[neutral-emerald]

SILVER THE COSMIC TIME-JANITOR (or: dude, what's with all the alternate futures)

silver the hedgehog has a very simple backstory. he's a kindhearted, sorta-naive but altogether very driven psychic hedgehog here to save the world by time-traveling to the past (also known as present-day) to prevent the apocalyptic future he was born into from coming to pass!

[ID: A screenshot of Silver from Sonic 06. He’s glowing with cyan energy as he flies over a dark, post-apocalyptic city.]

...wait, if he's time traveling 200 years into the past to completely change the shape of the timeline, how do the stars manage to align such that he manages to be born at the exact same point in the new timeline with the exact same genetics? how are his parents born? does silver have parents?? and how does he do this no less than THREE SEPARATE TIMES??!

hey everyone, i'm tumblr user neutral-emerald here to make good on the idea i vaguely gestured at yesterday and point out silver's wildly inconsistent backstory(s) and then explain to you how this isn't just sega playing hopscotch with the concept of time travel, but actually TOTALLY EXPLAINABLE if you don't mind a whole lot of conjecture and "fuck dude i just think it'd be cool."

LET'S GO.

before i get started, a few things to establish.

first, this is about… half serious, tops. it’s less of a theory and more of an observation of something that’s weird and then throwing some possible explanations at it because i am a massive sucker for time-based nonsense. if you wanna take my observations and build your own conclusions, go for it. i’m not your boss.

second, i'm basing my conclusions off of both the games and the idw comics. the conclusions i draw are applicable to either continuity, but the logic does rest a decent amount on the comics, so just a heads-up in case you were expecting pure game canon from this.

and third, i'm working off like half a brain and very intermittent checks of the wiki and cutscene compilations, so there's probably many things i'm missing! if you notice something i said was wildly off-base, go ahead and correct me in the replies and i'll either edit the post or explain to you just how that detail doesn't actually matter, depending on whether it. y'know. matters.

with that out of the way, let's get into the first topic of discussion!

part 1: the future is inconsistent, y'all

now, i'm not sure if you've heard, but in the year 2006 sonic team released this little indie game creatively entitled Sonic the Hedgehog. it was a smash hit, won countless awards, and for some reason went down in history as a messy, incomplete bugfest. but that's not what matters. what matters is that it introduced Silver the Hedgehog.

silver hails from 200 years in the future. the world is a bleak, fiery place, and has been since the monster iblis was unleashed after princess elise's death. silver was born into this world, which we know since it's literally the first thing he says in his story.

[ID: A cropped line from Silver's story in Sonic 06. "This world was devastated before I was born."]

i'm not going to drag you through a beat-by-beat summary of the entire plot of sonic 06, you should know it already. silver meets mephiles, gets lied to about who caused the apocalypse, mephiles yeets him and blaze into the past, he tries to murder Sonic the Hedgehog™, and so on. eventually he helps kill god, and then sonic and elise travel further back in time to kill god even deader so that none of the game ever happened, and the bad future into which silver was born never happened, thus thoroughly scrubbing silver's existence from the timeline!

...until.

sonic rivals.

i'm not going to speak much on sonic rivals, mostly because i'm not super familiar with it. but what matters is that silver is back! he's still from the future, he's still here to change the past, and most importantly he wasn't deleted from existence by the destruction of solaris, unlike everything else from sonic 06 including everyone's memories of it. and obviously, whatever state his future is in, it's not the same as it was in sonic 06.

now, i don't have a single clue what is going on in rivals 2, so do inform me if there's some big information i'm missing from that one. all i know is he's fixing yet another possible apocalyptic future, like always. correct me if i’m wrong, i don’t have the patience to trawl through it myself.

then we've got sonic colors, in which silver is again from the future. notably, he’s definitely not from an apocalypse!

[ID: Some screenshots from the DS version of Sonic Colors, again cropped to just the text. Tails and Silver are talking to each other.

Tails: What's the future you came from like, Silver? Silver: A lot brighter than this. Silver: The sky is blue, and everybody's got a smile.]

sonic generations doesn't add much. again, correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't think we learn anything about what kind of future silver is from, and he's definitely not here to fix it this time. that's sonic's job! he's just hanging out like everyone else.

now, up until this point the future has been reasonably consistent, setting aside my somewhat abstract understanding of the rivals games. there's nothing to say that silver's not coming back in time from the same point in a single timeline, which is the one and only version of the future ever since the destruction of sonic 06.

UNTIL.

[ID: Two panels from the comic Sonic Forces: Stress Test. In the first panel, Silver looks worried as he lands in front of Knuckles, who looks skeptical.

Silver: We've got big trouble! Eggman— Knuckles: How can you be here? I thought you returned to the future?

In the second panel, Knuckles looks away with a self-assured grin, while Silver looks more panicked.

Knuckles: Oh wait— I must be dreaming! Silver: What? No! I've come back with a dire warning from the future!]

i have a lot of issues with sonic forces, especially with how its story is written. something i do NOT take issue with is the supplemental comics, mainly because they are WONDERFUL evidence for my crackpot time travel theory.

like i said, up until this point we don't really know whether silver has been experiencing separate instances of the future, or simply traveling back in time to prevent an also-time-traveling eggman nega from messing things up in the past. but here, we get some very juicy information:

[ID: Knuckles and Silver again. Knuckles has his arms crossed and is looking at Silver, who has a nervous look on his face as he slams a fist on the palm of his other hand.

Knuckles: Come again? Silver: Something happens that brings the world to ruin! But the historical records are sparse or make no sense. I came back to hopefully head off whatever's about to happen and save the future.]

silver travels back in time to prevent a terrible apocalypse. this is not the beautiful future silver came from in sonic colors— but this is the same silver. everyone recognizes him. he recognizes everyone. and yet, the future he came from is different.

part 2: silver is a walking paradox

allow me to remind you of what i pointed out when i was talking about sonic 06. silver was born into the iblis-apocalypse. considering no elaborate timeline nonsense happened to him before the events of the game (by his reckoning) i think we can safely assume he was born like a regular person with parents.

in the first post-06 timeline, silver was probably also born. let's be charitable, acknowledge that sonic team doesn't overthink the butterfly effect like i do, and say that silver was born to the same parents, because the universe likes to keep things nice and simple and contrive itself to make this particular character exist in this time period.

so, it's entirely fair that silver comes to exist in a post-06 timeline at the equivalent point in time, aka 200 years in the future. it's also fair that he travels back in time to prevent some kind of apocalypse, because that's his narrative role! it's what he does. when it's time for him to exist in the story, that's what he's there to do.

what isn't fair is the fact that it keeps happening.

[ID: A panel from the IDW comics. Sonic is stretching his legs while looking faintly exasperated at Silver, who is nervously holding his arm.

Silver: Er… No. I came back because defeating Eggman didn't save the future. Sonic: Couldn't even play along. Had to bring the mood down. Sonic: *sigh* Okay, what happened this time?]

[ID: The following panel, cropped to just Silver's text bubbles narrating over a starry sky.

Silver: When I left, my time had been conquered by the Eggman Empire. Everyone lived in fear, choking on polluted air. Silver: When I went back, the Eggman Empire was gone— but so was everyone else. Silver: There was nothing left. No people, no animals, no machinery. Only water and sparse, metallic plant life.]

allow me to summarize my understanding of all this: silver is from the future. normally, the future is good. sometimes it isn't. when it isn't good, he goes back in time and fixes things, then returns to the future to check if that fixed things.

the least conjecture-y interpretation i can come up with is that sometimes silver will go into the past, then go back to the future but end up in a Bad Timeline and thus go into the past again to fix things. there's no weird warping directly between bad timelines, he only gets there by way of the past.

but that's boring, so here's my PREFERRED interpretation.

silver hails from a good future, but sometimes it just changes. he's unstuck from time— if something weird happens in the past, he's the only one to know that the passage of fate was changed, because he went to bed in one timeline and woke up somewhere categorically worse, and the only way he can fix it is by figuring out just what caused this and going back in time to fix it.

or, to say it in a meme:

[ID: A picture of someone lying in a hospital bed with a nurse standing next to them, edited so that Silver is in the bed.

nurse: sir… you've been asleep for 2 hours silver: oh boy i can't wait to wake up in the same timeline i went to sleep in]

part 3: how did this happen?

it's one thing to point out that silver doesn't experience time like a normal hedgehog, and another thing to explain how and why this happens.

fyi, this is the part where i go wildly off the rails and start saying whatever i want. there's a ton of explanations one could come up with, most probably stemming back to sonic 06. i'm just going to go with my own, and probably not come up with a whole lot of concrete evidence because i'm just spitballing. this is me having a fun time. going "heeheehoohoo time traveling hedgehog go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"

so. something i haven't touched upon is that in all games after sonic 06, silver can time travel. we never see him do it, it's never explained how he does it. all we know is that he's doing it under his own power.

which is kinda odd, don't you think? should he be able to do that?

in sonic 06, we see three mechanisms for time travel. first is the chaos emeralds. if two people perform Chaos Control with a chaos emerald apiece, they open up a swirling rift in the air which can send them to different points in time and space. silver can't be doing that, for obvious reasons— he's only one hedgehog, and he's not exactly running around with a chaos emerald at all times. that can't be how he does it.

second is a time machine eggman built. that obviously can't be it; the machine doesn't exist at all after the timeline gets wiped, and again, silver is doing this on his own. he's actively antagonistic towards eggman, even. absolutely not this one.

third and finally is mephiles, who can make big purple orbs to take himself and passengers to different points in time. this obviously can't be it either, for similar reasons to number 2, right? after all, mephiles is one half of solaris, who was destroyed before he could be split off. he doesn't exist to be silver's time-traveling uber driver.

...right?

well, obviously. i'm not going to try and tell you that mephiles is secretly alive and shepherding silver back and forth between timelines for no reason. that's ridiculous. no, i'm going to try and tell you that silver is mephiles.

or rather, he's solaris. or RATHER, he's the new solaris, sorta-ascended to the role of Time God after the old one got blown out like a birthday candle.

like i said, i'm going wildly off the rails and as such don't have any concrete evidence to explain why it's this instead of something else, but hear me out. after elise blew out the flame of hope, the universe was left in an interesting situation. someone needs to be in charge of the flow of time, but the previous time-god was just unceremoniously destroyed. but all the power and energy of a time-god has to go somewhere, in some form, in some time.

with nothing else to go off of, the role of time-god starts flipping through every notable being it had interacted with. they're all solidly accounted for in the timeline, except for one. silver the hedgehog was born into a timeline that cannot exist. silver the hedgehog does not, and cannot exist. silver the hedgehog interacted quite a bit with both sides of solaris— he spent a substantial amount of time fighting back iblis, and associated with mephiles, even being one of the few people to directly experience his time travel abilities. silver the hedgehog tried and failed to absorb iblis into himself.

here's my theory: after sonic 06, the universe reasserted itself such that silver was the new Solaris. silver is not consciously aware that this is what he is, but he knows that he can time travel. sometimes the timeline will rearrange itself around silver. he is unaffected by this because he is a higher being unaffected by such petty trifles as "an origin" or "paradoxes".

silver the hedgehog probably doesn't have parents. he sprang into existence one day and everyone just kind of went with it, himself included.

oh also something i thought was neat but couldn't think of where to put:

[ID: More cropped dialogue, this time from Team Sonic Racing.

Silver: I'm fine. It's just, something bad is gonna happen. I can't explain it. I just feel it. Blaze: Have your travels through time given you precognition? Silver: I don't know. Maybe they have. Or maybe I'm just thinking too much.]

silver might be becoming psychic in a future-vision kinda way. that, or he’s riddled with anxiety. possibly both.

TL;DR

silver hails from no less than three separate timelines, his existence is a tangled web of who-knows-how-many grandfather paradoxes, and i choose to believe that he's god.

if anyone who cares more about evidence wants to gather up like, little one-off clues that support or conflict with my conclusions, go right ahead. or just throw your own arbitrary headcanons for what's going on with this at me. or incorporate these ideas into an au or something! i just want more people thinking about what the Fuck is up with silver post-06, because by god there is a WHOLE lot of potential packed in there

anyway thanks for reading make sure to like comment and subscribe—

[powerosewaterpuff]

yo ,i remember a post about sort of reverse batfam , between jason and dick , can you do the headcanons about under the red hood please

yes yes yes yes yes and another yes to top it all off. i really really love the idea, and i love under the red hood in general so thank u so much for suggesting this :) like i spent all day brainstorming (probs shoulda been studying but shhhhh) diff headcanons so i’m pretty excited to write it out. also so the timeline with this is a little tight ig?? i really wanted to include tim as bruce’s new sidekick with dick in the middle of his fallout with bruce but again a lil too tight so we’re just gonna have rebellious dick for now and i also haven’t watched death in the family so i’m basing this purely off of under the red hood :) (oh and fuck dick’s hair in the movie oh my god i’m ignoring that it even exists i’m so sorry)

dick is 17 on the cusp of hitting 18 and he’s so fucking sick of batman. every conversation of theirs was leading to a screaming match where each one tries to push their opinion as fact. it was getting messy and soul crushing at this point, and dick hated it. the rising action of it all was dick getting fired from robin, a role he hadn’t even been formally granted by batman yet he felt it in his power to strip him of it. he felt like a pawn in a chess game that gambled his identity and being off of the mind numbing mantra of be better. do better. faster. punch harder. follow orders. be better be better better. and dick was sick of it, so he shed the robin uniform. swallowing it like a bitter pill because he was forced to do so. but nightwing was giving him clarity as of late. the sheer rush, brilliance and exuberance of it all reminded him of when flying was a much simpler task.

however, dick had an annoyingly unwavering loyalty to protecting bruce’s (less batman then bruce. bruce was his father. batman was not. yet nowadays the man himself was forgetting who exactly was the secret identity and who the real person was.) safety and well-being, even if it meant risking another shouting round. so, once dick catches wind of batman’s whereabouts for the night, he decides to help him with Amazo etc., and dick cant help but realize how well they still mesh together when it comes to fighting. the talking part however, did not come naturally anymore. (it used to. it used to be so much easier)

now bruce, is attempting his best to keep dick out of the loop. he knows dick will furious. and dick’s temper is something not many can tame, but bruce would take the risk. he’d rather dick spit on his memory then be dead in his arms (just like jason was, blown to bits when he should’ve been in his room. safe. sleeping after studying for some test not fighting crime with him in the underbelly of Gotham city, or getting dragged along bruce’s self induced fight with the world.)

dick, of course, does not appreciate this and can very easily tell the bruce is trying to get him off the case. dick doesn’t appreciate that in the slightest, and it only makes him want to push more. to fight bruce on every detail and demand he be apart of this because that’s the only way he can get anywhere with him. it was fair to say, that the interrogation with the joker he had to force bruce into taking him too, wasn’t exactly pleasant. he watches, leaning back against the wall as batman has joker by the neck. some part of him hates himself for not being upset about this, like he’s failing his moral code in some way. but he ignores that half, and tries not to feel angry as bruce doesn’t choke joker out like the rat he is. dick wished, in the darkest parts of his mind, that he could burn joker alive, just to watch in vengeful satisfaction that the man who stole his brothers breath wither in pain. ( and watch that fucking laugh die out)

now, the confrontation goes quite similar. except dick is noticing these little things that resemble jason too much it be a coincidence. too much. he knows how jason fights, he’s sparred with him for years and used to spend countless nights in his room trying to emulate his older brothers swift and hard hitting movements in front of his mirror. he always wished he could hit as hard as jason, as dicks strength at the time was his inhuman flexiblity and professional acrobatic skills. now, when he and batman are against the red hood, fuck it doesn’t feel right to dick. it’s all too similar. it wasn’t even the bigger moves that caught his attention but the little moves in stance that screamed at him that it was his brother. he kept shutting the idea down, because if it was possible dick would have made it happen. he would’ve.

dick gets hurt in the aftermath, but bruce must be a fucking comedian if he thinks it’s going to stop him. they get into another argument, bruce talking him down to nothing and dick frustrated that bruce couldn’t see that he’s been doing this for too long to be lectured on it, and that bruce wasn’t atlas. he wasn’t responsible for the world being held up between his two hands. it simmers down to loud silence, like it always does and dick hobbles out. leaning slightly on alfred.

bruce’s hunch is eating him alive. devouring his soul and heart with a satisfying crunch, not sparing crumb. with the revelation that his son could be alive, and the Red Hood of all people, one of the first thoughts that run through his mind is that he could not tell dick. dick could never know, and will never know. it was a hushed promise, one kept inside his chest, locked like all of his unspoken words. it would crush dick, just like it was crushing bruce now. (or maybe it was because if bruce was on the fence about breaking his moral agenda, he knows that dick would hurdle over that fence. he hates that he knows this but he does. dick wears a bleeding heart on his sleeve for his family, especially for jason. this is the same boy that was set on killing zucco all those years ago before jason and him had stopped it.)

(jason’s tasting bitter green as he mulls over why the fuck dick was there. that little idiot was supposed to be at home. safe. not carrying out bruce’s destructive agenda of self proclaimed justice. he didn’t know whether to be mad at bruce or dick. because of course bruce encouraged this shit, eager to force another child soldier into the suit and send him out to die. but God, did it hurt that dick had taken bruce’s side over his even if he didn’t know it was jason. and that stung like a motherfucker. his little brother, whose fond memories were becoming hazed in a cloud of viridecent smoke, had picked bruce’s side. a little part of himself though, shy and hesitant, whispered that he had hurt dick. he had hurt his little brother and he couldn’t justify it no matter how vengeful he was. but he shoved that part aside, trying to ignore its desperate murmurs as they told him that every time he looked at nightwing or whatever the fuck his new name was, he saw his eight year old little brother smiling up at him).

dick knows that bruce thinks he’s covering his tracks well. he is but dick knows bruce, better then bruce thinks he does. so dick is slowly beginning to formulate a hunch of his own, as he spends countless nights rubbing his formerly injured leg and wondering if he really did everything he could’ve to save jason. if there was something he missed. it’s starting to gnaw away at him, until realization settles into his chest after snooping through bruce’s files. then, he’s dashing to get into uniform, giving a breathless and hasty apology to alfred. itsjasonitsjasonitsjasongogogorunrunrun

batman. red hood. bruce. jason. father. son. bruce cannot stomach the vigor in jason’s words and jason’s heart is giving out at the fact that his father won’t do this for him. to end that pathetic excuse of a fucking life, one that’s stolen from so many people, but it still wasn’t up to his moral standards limit. was jason not enough to warrant a sacrifice for the greater good. (was jason’s desperate need to feel safe of that walking nightmare not worthy to overtake any mission)

it happens in a rush. dick is swinging up to the building, the blood pumping through his ears drowning out the screams of his chest. the joker tackles batman as the timer tick tick tick’s away numbingly. suddenly, dick has kicked the joker off and has one hand over his neck while the other smothers itself over his mouth and nose. why didn’t he do this before? why didn’t he kill the thing before? it didn’t even deserve to be called human, so why would any moral standards apply to a human based code. if batman wanted to be the whole representer of pure justice, fine. he could do that. dick wasn’t though. he was going this kill piece of shit then never let go of jason as long as he lived.

suddenly, there’s a pull at the back of dick’s uniform and at the corner of his eye he catches sight of jason being pulled by bruce as well and he’s just about to call out for him when the next thing he knows a blast rockets through his ears and the world goes black.

jason was no where to be found. and bruce ends up having to shove dick into the batmobile before he lunged after the joker, after realizing jason was missing and that the joker was still alive and kicking. the argument that insues? isn’t pretty. in fact it’s their worst. dick had spun around and asked bruce, ‘who are you? batman or bruce? because im not talking to batman, i want to hear why bruce couldn’t do the one thing his son needed! i want to know why bruce thought it was going to be beneficial not to fucking tell me that my brother-Bruce, he’s my brother! that he was alive, because you thought I was gonna pull shit like this? look at that! the exact thing you tried to avoid happened, you know why? because you cannot trust me, and it blew up in your face!’

it goes on. and on. and on. there’s no resolution, or admittance to what happened. bruce simply shuts himself down, stating this wasn’t changing anything. there was a then and a now, one in which bruce harbours enough guilt to crush his shoulders.

there’s a stony resolution in dick’s voice after bruce tells him to get out with more finality to it then he’s ever said it before, when he says, “fine. batman.”

(jason replays it over and over again in his head. the batarang. bruce turning his back to him. the jokers screechy laugh eating at his mind. eruptions of pain from the crowbar. again. again. again. and dick. smothering the joker. a steely resolve in his brothers eyes he never wanted to see but was secretly glad for. it replays like a broken film in his head, cutting and chopping but creaking out the same tune.)

AHHH OK SO i def wanted to do so much more with this ugh but i really wanted it done td so excuse just how unpolished it is, i might go back with some new ideas in it, but i like where i ended it off. this is more or less the ‘detachment’ phase in dick’s relationship with bruce, as hes nearing the end of high school and cannot do this with bruce anymore (oh college is a whooole other ordeal hehe) but i think dick would be better to tim then what he canonically was to jason. (also because dick is totally not on a mission to get his brother back at all costs and fix this family, nope. not at all.), and i think dick just has a lot more anger in this too? and bitterness here ig? just because he had lost his parents, then his brother essentially, and had to deal with being the emotional support to bruce who was falling apart. it’s a heavy load, and dick is absolutely still himself, just when it comes to jason and the joker as well as his family in general, i think he has a lot more anger as well as less control yk? (oh also i have him less in blüdhaven in this lil thing just bc like he’s still in highschool and is in this weird phase with bruce that hes fired etc., but is now yk fully going into the, ‘i’m not speaking to you anymore’ part. SOO THATS IT FOR THAT THANK YALL SO SOOOO MUCH FOR READING UR KINDA ALL THE BEST TBH AND TYSM FOR THE SUGGESTION AGAIN THIS WAS HELLA FUN :)!!

[black-streak]

Saturday night's alright for fighting (but Sundays are meant for rest) - His Shadow

Part 6

I'm already on part?! 6?!?! How did I get here?!

Also! Tag list??? I am a person who has one now? How even? @poshplumcot @emjrabbitwolf @mystery-5-5 @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @fandomkitty8 @dast218 @silvergold-swirl and I know you didn't ask to be, but @littleblue5mcdork your comments give me life, so I'm tagging you.

~---~

At approximately 12:34 am, Monday morning, a phone rang, abruptly waking the two occupants of the room.

"That better be important, or someone is going to pay."

"Stay quiet, it's Nightwing."

The use of vigilante names queued her in and she fell silent as Tim answered.

"What happened," he demanded, voice dipping in tone. 

Marinette couldn't hear everything, but she caught the jist of it.

Riddler had missed a few too many therapy appointments and was currently sending them all on a scavenger hunt, multiple hostages involved. She couldn't pick out who the hostages were or the locations, but that was fine. Tim knew, so as long as she followed him, it wouldn't matter.

Ending the call, he made his way past her and into the bathroom, talking as he went to change.

"Three bats are out of town, so they need me out there."

"Not the brightest, all traveling at the same time. Oracle and A still there?"

Shaking his head at the reminder that she knew all their identities and exactly which three had gone, he called back, "A is on it, but Oracle was unavailable."

"Good. Easier that way," was said as a flash of light poured in below the door, disappearing almost as immediately.

Coming out of the bathroom, he found his room empty.

"You plan to follow me," he stated.

"Of course," whispered back from the shadows, in a husky alto, neither feminine nor masculine in persuasion.

"There's no convincing you to stay put either, is there," still a statement.

A hum was his only answer, so he led the way towards the upstairs roof access, not wanting to take a chance with his own apartment window. Not a random safe house, after all.

"Suppose I don't have to tell you to stay hidden, but try not to give yourself away completely."

He was met by a chuckle and took that for the not promise it was, taking off across the rooftops, no sound other than his own near silent boots hitting pavement to indicate his little stalker.

…

He ended up in the one location that had Riddler actually present inside. Of course. Just his luck. Normally, Red would be thrilled at the chance to end this as quickly as possible, but for once, he had hoped against hope that one of the others would take care of this while he just solved a few puzzles, set someone free, and received a brief com relay that Bats had this one from there. 

Now he had to ensure not only that he solved everything and took Riddler down personally, but also had to watch the back of a shadow that he couldn't even keep track of. Sure, Red had seen her handiwork countless times, how clean and efficient the crime scene was. But mostly when she aimed to make the villains fool themselves into failing, leaving nothing of herself. The one time she did take matters fully into hand, he'd only seen the aftermath. And none of that accounted for never having worked with her. 

Needless to say, Red was stressed. Which led to a lack of focus that made finding his way to the underground archives of the library (yes, library) that riddler set up in take twice as long. Having made his way around 12 different traps, a few of which were already cleared up and solved before he arrived, he couldn't claim surprise that Hood and Nightwing were in his ear, having already cleaned up their own parts. 

"Where you at, babybird?"

"Entering the inner archives now."

"Not finished yet? Thought you were quicker than this," Hood teased.

"You were already on the scene when N called."

"Excuses excuses."

"We're entering the library now. Be down to back you up in a moment," Nightwing responded, cheerfully ignoring their antics.

"It's just Riddler, you don't need to help," He rushed to reassure, wanting to keep them and Mari separate in such an enclosed space. 

"Never underestimate a villain off their meds, Red. Almost there."

And that's how he found himself in this situation. Every time an attack came either towards Hood or Wing, they'd have to deflect or defend themselves, but every henchman that even looked in his direction became immediately distracted by something else. Honestly, at this rate, he could probably waltz right up to Riddler and finish this now, but he couldn't help but sit back and observe. 

One goon turned towards him, only to jump to the right, seemingly trip on his own two feet, and end up at the receiving end of an escrima stick.

Another freaked out and ran away from something only to slam directly into another fighting Hood. Both only took a moment to go down in the distraction. Two others ran from the room without any prompting. Soon enough they had Riddler in captivity, called in to Batman and Agent A, and left after handing the situation to the police. 

"What the hell, you barely even helped!" Hood yelled the second they landed on Red's apartment rooftop, Wing having already returned to finish his patrol for the night.

"Yeah, and I'm supposed to have Sunday nights off."

"It's Monday morning and that's never held you back before."

"... We weren't alone," he let on, knowing he needed to offer up some explanation for his lacking response down there.

"... They were in there?"

"Yeah. I was observing for more information."

"That would explain the idiots tripping over themselves more than usual, I guess. What'd you find out?"

"Nothing more than we already knew. Evasive, lets the opponent take themself out. Some seemed to be running from something. Whoever it is seems intelligent as well. Took out a few traps before I even reached them. Went around others completely if they were already in that room when we arrived."

"That doesn't help us though," Hood stated, arms crossed where he leaned against a wall. 

Blue/silver eyes appeared beside him, serious looking and tilted, giving the impression she was mimicking Hood's stance from less than two feet away. It took a monumental effort not to laugh.

"Not even slightly."

Heaving a sigh, Hood pulled off the wall and walked over to the edge, the eyes following him, rolling in mock exasperation.

"I'll have A look over the footage of the library, see if we can pick anything up," he called back, muttering about subpar cameras and lack of funding to inner city libraries before taking off towards the Manor. 

For a second, the eyes disappeared, only for a figure to appear in the corner, shaded by two walls of the roof where the access door was.

Glancing around to ensure the others were long out of sight or range, he turned off his comm and took it out. Walking over to the edge of the shadow, he paused.

"No backlash for giving away your existence?"

"None at all. If I didn't want them finding out, I wouldn't have helped. As you implied, you had it under control."

"You're introducing yourself."

"Mhm! In a way where no one can deny I'm good or mistake me for a bad guy. I've seen how quick some of you are to attack first and interrogate later. Figure I'll allow interrogation later when I'm a more established presence."

He raised an eyebrow and stared her down a minute before she broke.

"Aaand I might enjoy messing with them a little. It's fun to see the 'World's Greatest Detectives' fumble all over themselves to figure out who's hiding right underneath their noses."

"Speaking of which, you plan on actually letting me see you, or just stand in the corner all night" he snarked.

"Hmm… not in the open. I'll meet you in your room."

With that, she disappeared once more.

…

Upon entering his room, Tim thought one of Ra's assassins had come for him once more. 'Hadn't that freak old man taken up a new obsession?!' Only to pause at seeing the same gray to blue eyes from the roof peering out from under the hood. 

Flicking on a lamp much closer to her, he took in the full extent of the costume. Noticing a tail only barely peeking out around her calf and the sharp claws on her fingertips, Tim heaved a sigh.

"Tell me you're not cat themed. Dick will never let me live it down after all the shit we gave Bruce about Selina."

"More foxed themed if anything, though the eyes are more cat related," she giggled, voice still altered to her form.

"Pure black foxes are pretty rare. Sure it's not a fluffy black cat," he eyed her suspiciously.

"Not pure!" The tail lifted up to in front of her, the gray tip fully displayed.

"... It moved."

"Yes?"

"Why'd it move? I know for a fact you don't have a real fox tail outside of costume, so how?"

"Oh you know, do you? For your information, I have fox ears too."

Looking bewildered, he strode over to her, reaching for the hood. Squeaking, she disappeared once more. Coming back to himself, Tim took a step back, apologized, and requested she come out again. Reappearing before him, she watches him wearily, instincts on high alert and unable to reconcile the still masked Red Robin with Tim, despite them being one in the same.

"Could… you take off the mask first?"

"What?"

"I've kept out of Red's sight for too long, I can't get my instincts to calm down about it," she ducked her head down, almost squirming, reminding him who exactly was under that outfit.

Removing the mask slowly so as not to rip at the skin, he placed it down on the nightstand. He reached once more for the hood, watching for any reaction. When no resistance came forth, he slipped it down around her shoulders, the lower face cover not even twitching, as though held in place by other means. 

There they were. Two big, fluffy black fox ears with gray tips and insides surrounded by loose silky gray locks. He couldn't resist. Tim gently grabbed an ear, rubbing his thumb across baby down textured insides. It twitched across his palm. Tilting the ear each way, he finally let go, only to run his fingers across the base as though looking for how it attached, pulling a low purr from the woman he had absentmindedly been fondling the ear of. Abruptly yanking his hand back, he stared down at Mari.

"They're real."

"Very."

"You're a furry."

"I'm a what?"

"Holy smokes, you're an honest to goodness Furry."

"... Says the man who regularly calls himself Red Robin, eh, babybird?"

Flushing bright red, Tim could only sputter, not realizing she had heard Jason call him that.

"Still not the one with an actual tail and ears!"

"Yeah, at least I didn't chicken out like some animal named heroes."

"And I suppose your name is as blatant as your costume?"

"Hmm?"

"Your name, you still haven't given it."

"Oh! Um, it's Teumessian."

"Teu-whata?"

"You know, like in greek mythology?"

"That's more Jason's line of expertise."

"Tuemessian was a fox that was destined to never be caught. Another name for it is Cadmean Vixen. Suppose you could call me Vixen for short," she purred up to him, eyes turning into slits, but cut short as a huge yawn overcame her.

"Alright, whatever you say Vixen. You get back into bed and I'll join you in a moment." 

….

By the time Tim exited the bathroom for the last time that night, Mari was already passed out across his sheets.

"Can't believe I'm dating a furry."

[salems-hq]

in-game dates included in this drop: july 23rd-july 25th  town hall meeting: morning of 23rd, 12pm-?? ongoing thread on dash moon effects active: evening of 23rd-night of july 25th ooc dates effective: july 24th-july 31st trigger warnings: blood, death, gore

setting: the council conference chambers, july 23rd. a meeting has just ended.

mayor austere has called for a city hall meeting, allowing the local public an explanation, and a forum for their thoughts. non-residents and other suspected individuals are kept away from the meeting by magical warding and the illusions of the council’s cambion. to them, there is no meeting in salem. the mayor has explained the most recent happenings to the town, which can be found in THIS self-para written by his mun. 

setting: across state borders in connecticut woods, the night of july 23rd.

god bless these united states for having at least been conscientious enough to preserve expanses of earth’s natural beauty. it’s a large reason azrael has chosen salem as his destination. of fall the creations humans have put forth, their respect for pointless establishments has to be, by far, his favorite one. the woods and mountain regions of the country provide the perfect location to have a meeting with all of his...disciples. creatures from all over the globe stand in union around a single figure: a concoction of the most morally corrupt individuals his soldiers could find. outsiders are warded away by hexes, but one might stumble upon the scene if they were to follow someone directly there. 

azrael himself is not present, but in his stead stands a crown of hell many might know as abel. this meeting will be written in one of two group threads in the player discord, and will be posted on the dash as soon as it is complete. 

setting: salem, the night of july 23rd to the night of july 25th.

unknown to the residents of salem, the arrival of azrael has affected the month’s full moon. the former buck moon, expected to range in color across the united states, now shines a bright red in the sky. the color emits the same feverish aura of starvation that a vampire’s eyes of the same color would. werewolves all across salem, many already struggling with the monthly change without the addition of the super moon, have lost control of their shift. the earlier cases are easiest to control thanks to the aid of pack mates, but all wolves will have lost control by the morning of the 24th, forcing city security measures to be enforced. 

vampires, celestials, sirens, and all other species that are in control of themselves are sent out on the afternoon of the 24th by city hall, stationed all over the city as damage control. these agents also patrol the city borders to ensure no wolves escape salem borders, and no dangers get too close. 

setting: salem and the surrounding areas within 30 miles, twilight on the 25th. 

the wolves have now regained control of their powers, though rumors spread that many were lost to their stasis forms due to the super moon. salem is reeling in the aftermath, bathed in destruction. many visiting vampires have been forced to leave in order to retain some sense of peace: they were too much of a threat around so much blood. they were asked by the mayor to return to the city in a few days time, when things could be better discussed. many of them agreed. 

as the vampires make their leave, already at the edge of the town’s borders, the static tension in the city’s aura is sliced through like a knife through paper: the scream of countless banshees carries over the entirety of the city and it’s surrounding mountains and valleys. it lasts longer than the average banshee scream should, and various fragile objects near the banshees shatter. nearly all the non-reinforced windows in salem have blown to pieces. all supernaturals and hunters that hear the cries can sense that something is more dangerous in these screams. 

at the edge of eastrath woods stands a hooded figure, towering over a fallen person. the angel smiles, taking a deep inhale of the crisp, unnaturally frigid air. the stranger before him reeks of FEAR. “oh, don’t you smell absolutely divine?” his voice melts into a growl, and a scream fills the night air, heard by none.

PLAYER NOTES: players may now write interactions based between the dates included in this drop. our in-game event will last from today, saturday july 24th, to saturday july 31st. if need be, we will extend it further for players to fully experience the story. event threads may be continued to their conclusion after the end of the event, but they must be complete by the beginning of the next event. (this will be a good amount of time, i promise. if you still can’t finish before the next event, just POSTDATE each reply in the thread.) players may now write interactions based between the dates included in this drop.

*all players are welcome to join either of the two GROUP THREADS, which will be written in our discord group for the sake of organization and time. the threads will focus on the responses immediately following the mayor’s speech, and azrael’s meeting. details on how to participate in these will be available in the discord. 

**the weather in salem is no longer representative of the typical summer climate. storms are expected but these are much stronger than the city has ever experienced. 

all posts may be tagged as salem.event001

contrasting the loss of magic in town on the first week of july, the banshees are now overwhelmed by the amount of spirits appearing in town. due to the veil being closed by azrael, spirits are no longer able to cross between the living and void planes. many of them are not benevolent. every single banshee within a thirty mile radius of salem’s borders heard and felt the scream. 

due to the magical barrier around salem still being down, salem is now visible to the outside world for the first time in it’s existence. mortals and dangerous strangers alike are being drawn to the town by azrael’s doing, a spell of attraction on the entire area. in order to keep residents and the supernatural world safe, the council has mandated a new marshal law on the 23rd: supernatural beings are NOT to reveal themselves in public for the duration of the event, or they risk incarceration. this is quickly proven ineffective due to the werewolf situation.

ALL werewolves in salem are affected by the moon, though the effects may start earlier for some and may delay for others. all wolves will have transformed by 10:30pm on the night of the 23rd. their tempers are exacerbated and many of the younger wolves have lost control of their bloodlust. 

there are many new individuals in town, including old and powerful lich covens that have just reemerged out of hiding. 

[hartsgold]

𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨. 𝐕𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐨. 𝐎𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫.

𝚖𝚢 𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚌𝚕𝚊𝚞𝚍𝚎 𝚟𝚘𝚗 𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗. 𝚒 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚔 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚒𝚛𝚘𝚜 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚝𝚞𝚝𝚎, 𝚏𝚘𝚍𝚕𝚊𝚗, 𝚊𝚗 𝚘𝚛𝚐𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚣𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚍𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚊𝚌𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚖𝚒𝚌 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚌𝚑 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚜𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚌 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚕. 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚝𝚞𝚝𝚎, 𝚛𝚑𝚎𝚊, 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚎𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚘𝚢𝚎𝚍 𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚊𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚝, 𝚠𝚑𝚘 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚕𝚢 𝚙𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚠𝚊𝚢.

i’ve been working as a researcher at the institute for four years now, and am familiar with most of our significant contracts and projects. most reach dead ends, predictably enough, as incidents of the supernatural, such as they are - and i always emphasize there are very few genuine cases - tend to resist easy conclusions. when an investigation has gone as far as it can, it is transferred to the archives.

now, the institute was founded in 1818, which means that the archive contains almost 200 years of case files at this point. combine that with the fact that most of the institute prefers the ivory tower of pure academia to the complicated work of dealing with statements or recent experiences and you have the recipe for an impeccably organized library and an absolute mess of an archive. this isn’t necessarily a problem - modern filing and indexing systems are a real wonder, and all it would need is a half-decent archivist to keep it in order. my predecessor was apparently not that archivist.

from where I am sitting, i can see thousands of files. many spread loosely around the place, others crushed into unmarked boxes. a few have dates on them or helpful labels such as 86-91 G/H. not only that, but most of these appear to be handwritten or produced on a typewriter with no accompanying digital or audio versions of any sort. in fact, i believe the first computer to ever enter this room is the laptop that i brought in today. more importantly, it seems as though little of the actual investigations have been stored in the archives, so the only thing in most of the files are the statements themselves.

it is going to take me a long, long time to organize this mess. i’ve managed to secure the services of several researchers to assist me. I plan to digitize the files as much as possible and record audio versions, though some will have to be on tape recorder, as my attempts to get them on my laptop have met with… significant audio distortions.

that’s probably enough time spent making my excuses for the state of this place, and i suppose we have to begin somewhere.

𝚊𝚞𝚍𝚒𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚋𝚢 𝚌𝚕𝚊𝚞𝚍𝚎 𝚟𝚘𝚗 𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚐𝚊𝚗, 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚊𝚛𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚒𝚛𝚘𝚜 𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚝𝚞𝚝𝚎, 𝚏𝚘𝚍𝚕𝚊𝚗.

𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙨: photography / texture art / tma s01e01 blurb & transcription. 

Hello! If you’re reading this, welcome to the hell that is The Seiros Archives. I’m hoping to make this as comprehensive a series translation as possible without integrating too many spoilers/telling the stories of characters that aren’t mine (save Sothis and Rhea, who seemed lore-mandatory additions). For example, I don’t have a character to fulfill [Gertrude/the past Archivist’s] position, simply because I can’t think of one and would prefer not to kill anyone off that might want to use this as an AU base. (Feel free to, btw! Just let me know/tag me in your verse thoughts, I’m so excited to read ‘em!) 

Spoilers below. Additionally: please peruse the Wiki pages with caution. There’s a trigger list for TMA episodes/general content warnings located here. 

Essentially: 

The Seiros Archives is an institution that’s existed for two centuries, currently under the jurisdiction of one Rhea, who claims to have come into control of it within the last decade or so. Obviously, this is not true. Rhea’s been alive since the founding of this institute, as she had it built order to resurrect Sothis/The Beginning/The Beholding, [her mother]. 

Sothis is both a God and not. In TMA, Gods are also known as ‘The Entities’, or The Fears. They are described, on the wiki, as such: 

The Entities are various aspects of an amorphous force of fear that exists next to reality. Their influence upon reality manifests as supernatural happenings - all supernatural phenomena in the world are simply extensions of them. These phenomena can take various forms such as people, animals, monsters, books, objects, or places.These entities do not simply feed off of our fear, rather they are our fears made manifest. “These things... these forces, they are our fear. Deep fears. Primordial. Always looking for ways to grow and spread.” Not all their actions inspire fear, they are simply a part of the process, a means to an end. (cont. This link includes a list of the Fears and should be read with caution, as there is some horror imagery, etc.)

In this verse, I’m going to conflate Sothis with The Eye, or The Ceaseless Watcher. She is an Entity of Fear manifested specifically as “being watched, exposed, followed, of having secrets known, but also the drive to know and understand, even if your discoveries might destroy you. Fear that you’re suffering for the sake of something watching.” I think her relationship with being able to control the flow of time and know results of the past and future translate well here. It’s terrifying to consider someone who Knows what might happen in the far future can directly alter it as well. 

Let’s say that Sothis’ “death” in this verse was a failed “Ritual” of The Eye. Centuries ago, Rhea attempted to bring her mother’s Entity to full power above all the others. 

Rituals are ceremonies held in order to empower The Entities. “Most entities have their own ‘ritual’, a symbolic act that, if completed, will allow the entity to merge with reality, changing the fabric of the world as it exert its will and nature upon reality. These rituals have the potential to bring other closely-tied entities along with it. It requires centuries for each Entity to build up the power needed for its ritual, and if it is stopped, it cannot try again until it rebuilds that power base. No ritual has ever succeeded” (x). 

When Rhea’s Ritual for The Eye was thwarted, the Entity lost a great sum of its garnered power. I imagine she was an Avatar of the fear, and her connection with her mother was severed to an extent. As a result, she began to construct the Seiros Institute as a means of rebuilding power for the sake of The Eye. 

Avatars are essentially vessels for spreading the influence of The Entities. “Some humans can become attached to an Entity and become empowered by it, gaining supernatural abilities related to their patron, but losing some or all of their humanity in the process. Most people fall to the powers through love or fear, though it can happen for other reasons such as debt. Avatars and agents of a power retain their agency but can become physically dependent on it, suffering withdrawal effects, including death, if they go too long without feeding the entity that empowers them” (x). 

People influenced by, or who encounter Avatars are often Marked by them, and other Entities alongside their Avatars can sense this fact.

In building The Seiros Institute, Rhea hopes to give Sothis enough power through a ritual to “merge with reality”/live again/to be able to communicate with her once more. 

The former hired Archivist stopped countless Rituals of The Entities, and was eventually killed as a result of attempting to quell Rhea’s efforts.

There are tunnels underneath the institute in canon, which I’m going to say is the equivalent of the Holy Tomb. 

Characters, once employed by The Institute, are unable to quit/be fired. Literally. This is a canon mechanic, where they can’t even say the words. 

TL;DR: This is set in a modern Fódlan. I imagine it as something of a large city interconnected with several other neighboring states, such as Almyra, Brigid, Dagda, etc. 

Are there tense relations between these places? Of course! Is The Empire probably allied with a different Entity and is aggravated that Rhea is doing what she’s doing? Very likely! Are Those Who Slither In The Dark likely allied with one as well, or are experimenting on people in the attempt to complete a Ritual? Why Not! 

The Entities create very viciously real manifestations of their respective fears, so people have supernatural encounters of all kinds. Vampires––weird lore, but yes. People being replaced by doppelgängers––Oh, Yeah. Circus people who steal voice boxes and dance around with mannequin limbs? Uh huh. Worms? Don’t forget the worms. As weird as you can think of it! 

So this modern Fódlan is rife with the eccentric and the supernatural. At the moment, The Seiros Institute is simply an academic place set on recording and understanding those supernatural occurrences! 

I’m setting Khalid as the current archivist because he seems the appropriate “linchpin” figure that Jon is in the main series, having been marked by several Entities. As the most knowledge and balance-hungry of the Three Lords, he fits the part. Obviously there’s something to be said of Byleth’s potential role as an Archivist, but the Archivist does a lot of talking, much like Khalid. He also interacts with everyone giving statements to the Archive, and I think Khalid’s canonical tendency to disarm others in exchange for secrets and stories is par for this course. 

Nonetheless, if you do want to use this AU as a base for your Byleth or any other character, please don’t feel restricted by anything! 

Whether your characters are employed by the Archive, is an Avatar for a Fear, or is simply terrified by whatever the fuck is going on here, please feel free to get in on this! Write it with me! Ask me any questions you might have and I’ll do my best to spoil myself on this wonderful podcast further so I can answer you to the best of my ability! [I’m about 75 episodes in right now, but am content to spoil myself, truly...] So please hit me up anytime. I’m really excited about this and would love to plot things out with you! 

[magus-of-the-color-pizza]

Beyond the Summary

So here’s the thing. The Story Summary came out and everyone on Twitter is roasting it for not being a real story. However, aside from one or two plot points (which I will identify in a second), a lot of people seem to be missing just how... rushed and plothole dense the story is? So, in order to properly address this, I’ve compiled this little list of grievances regarding the story in and of itself, regardless of the way it’s been “told”.

 There were a few additional plot points that I personally felt didn’t make much sense, but which, ironically, could if they were developed well, which of course they will not be. I’m going to go in order with the Summary. Let’s get this over with, shall we?

-me after reading the Story Summary, 2019

Before the gods of Theros rose to power, the titans—horrific primal urges made flesh—roamed the mortal realm, sowing death and destruction in their wake.

Let’s get this out of the way immediately: yes, the titans make sense from a Plot perspective, but hey, did you know? Despite being represented on the cards, in the story they actually DO NOT BREAK FREE and are irrelevant! They are simply a plot device to introduce Klothys! The conflict of THB is unrelated to them! (Also, there are only 2 of them, which I find kind of weird but whatever)

Klothys, the god of fate, volunteered to act as jailer and sequestered herself in the Underworld for eternity.

Ok, clever way to introduce the new god, except for the fact that we’ve been told in the past that the Gods of Theros require constant devotion/followers or they will lose power/cease to exist. How did Klothys avoid this fate?

Ashiok's visions are more real than most, and in one of them, Elspeth seized Heliod's spear Khrusor. When the vision had passed, a twisted version of the spear remained, dripping with darkness and power.

For this to happen, it would have to be intentional on Ashiok’s part. It might be, but it’s weird to omit that. What were their intentions in granting Elspeth that spear? 

Secondly, Ashiok learned of the Phyrexians' existence and promptly planeswalked away to learn more of these true living nightmares.

Ashiok is the type of person that plans miles ahead. If they gave Elspeth the spear intentionally to wreak chaos, do they not care to see what happens next? And what happened to all their plans regarding Theros and the nature of the gods and belief? I can understand they’d be very interested in Phyrexia, but it seems weird to just drop everything and go.

And when gods clash, mortals suffer the consequences. One such consequence took the form of rifts to the Underworld from which countless monsters poured forth. Erebos, the god of the Underworld, was consumed by this conflict. He hated Heliod most of all, and in his rage, he neglected to keep a tight grip on the souls under his purview. News travels fast, even in the afterlife, and Elspeth heard talk of rifts to the mortal realm. Realizing her work in the Multiverse was not yet done, Elspeth gripped her shadow spear and headed toward a hidden exit in Erebos's palace—but she wasn't the only one seeking escape.

This whole paragraph is... oof. The rifts are a super convenient plot device, not to mention Erebos’s slight mischaracterization. The whole image of Elspeth just up-and-leaving the realm of death is pretty funny, I have to say.

Klothys was furious. When Xenagos attempted to take her place in the pantheon, she was understandably upset.

I’m sorry, her place in the pantheon? Yes they both fall under Gruul colors but not only does the pantheon not have a finite number of spots, Xenagos became the God of Revels, that has nothing to do with Destiny. Also, Klothys made the decision to remain to seal the Titans, remember? She had no followers.

As Elspeth headed toward freedom, she gathered allies. Along her journey, she faced many battles and powerful foes, and she fought them all off. After each victory, she raised her spear high and proclaimed: "Behold, the true Khrusor! Heliod wields a fake!"

Aside from being salty at the fact that we’re just going to leave Elspeth’s struggles at the generic “many battles and powerful foes” (Who? Why? Where? How? When?), keep in mind that we are still in the Underworld for this part of the story. So the faith she is supposedly gathering for herself/the weapon by proclaiming its true nature to, I guess, random people that were hanging around while she beat up her foes (unless you’re telling me she gathered an army, which raises way more questions) (which will be relevant in a second) comes from Returned, not living denizens. That raises so many questions I think I’m just going to move on to the next part.

She also clashed repeatedly with Calix, emerging victorious every time. After all, she was a seasoned warrior, and he was freshly made. But with each battle, Calix did a little better—he was learning his foe as he learned himself.

This part might be the one that irks me the most, to be honest. As previously stated, Elspeth has defeated many powerful foes. This Calix guy, who is a masterwork of sentient mana-construct created by Klothys, wants to return her to her place in the underworld. So first of all, he finds her, ok, that I can accept. And then...? They fight. So Elspeth beats him up and leaves him alive? Or does he make a daring escape? Because they “clash repeatedly”. Did they just agree to meet every day at the same hour? Why does Calix not play it smart and ambush her if he can track her so well? Why does Elspeth not kill this severe threat to her mission? Wh- you know what, let’s just move onward.

Heliod stood in Elspeth's way, refusing her passage out of the Underworld. She could not be allowed to escape. She would be the end of him. She was the cause of all this. Ranting under his breath, he charged Elspeth with his spear Khrusor . . . which promptly shattered in his hands. For each time Elspeth repeated that her shadowspear was the true Khrusor, the onlooker souls believed her. And it was the power of that belief, that devotion, that caused her lie to simply become truth. Staring down the point of a spear that was no longer his, Heliod yielded.

Heliod’s descent into paranoia is actually something I really regret not being able to see in full (must’ve been some powerful paranoia indeed since it made him wage a solo war against ALL the other gods). What I’m going to point out is that Elspeth’s plan... works. Really? You managed to gather so much faith (again, from dead Therosians) that you managed to surpass the unofficial Main God of this world and his very much official Khrushor to become fake? I mean I know Ajani and the leonin did their fair share of spreading doubts regarding Heliod (speaking of, where the hell is Ajani for the events of this set?), but I really have a hard time seeing how Heliod loses this battle even though he is the one that started the conflict, yes Therosians may begin to turn against him but to lose their faith completely... I’m not sold. Also, Heliod just gives up? Damn, this dude started an entire war based on the fear he might be replaced and then when a mortal challenges him, he yields. This is a god that has erased entire cities from existence!

Erebos simply took the defeated sun god and placed him beneath a giant boulder, where he would suffer for all eternity, or until he was forgotten by his worshippers above. As for Elspeth, Erebos gifted her his eternal gratitude—and safe passage back to the mortal realm.

Like a random boulder? A boulder big enough to be a nuisance to a god? And why can’t Heliod just move? It’s not like he has the responsibility to hold up the heaves/surface/underworld, it’s literally just a boulder. Also, reminder that Heliod is the most venerated/important god on Theros. The fact that he is so nonchalantly removed from his duties and placed under punishment is downright absurd! Especially since the whole Xenagos thing was a huge controversy among the gods, who are, in a wonderful metaphor of the capitalist status quo by the way, way more interested in preserving their collective status as deities than actually going after the other gods, despite being rivals (it is canon that they have technically agreed not only not to harm each other but also to not interfere directly with each other’s affairs on the surface). Also, he’s alive! Who will take his place as God of the sun/day/light/whatever? Sure generations would forget him eventually but for the meantime, Therosians will just live on with no deity of so many important things? What? WHAT

After a brief reunion with Daxos, Elspeth planeswalked away.

Oh ok. So Elspeth is finally free, meets up with her lover, who has been transformed into a demi-god (is it reversible? Is he sentient? What happens to him now that Heliod has been defeated?), chats, and then leaves. How was their reunion? What did they say? Can Daxos be saved? Is he gonna be a regular Therosian now? Do they care about each other anymore? Does Elspeth get the catharsis/absolution she craves for being manipulated into killing him? Guess we don’t care, huh.

Calix looked on, his very being in agony. It was his purpose to return Elspeth to where she belonged, and now he could no longer reach her. But in his darkest hour, a strange idea sparked within him—and he simply planeswalked after her.

And finally, the line most people have been nitpicking on (for good reason). Calix is a freaking “created being”, which according to MtG rules, should NOT be able to innately possess a spark! What’s going on, huh? We’ve been bending “spark rules” for a while now (Jiang Yanggu and Mowu, the Royal Scions, Kaya’s ABSURD ability to transport non-planeswalkers to other planes) but this is a straight-up break. Also I love the “Rip to your mana construct but I would simply planeswalk” memes people have made about this, but one more thing. Did Calix miss the part where Erebos says Elspeth is free to go? What would happen if he brought her back, huh? “Oh no man don’t worry, she’s good”. Even if Calix believes Klothys’s will is more important than Erebos’s (if Klothys even still wants Elspeth back in the underworld after Erebos pardones her), how does he think he’s going to get her to stay there if Erebos doesn’t want her? Just gonna straight-up kill her? And again I ask, WHY didn’t Elspeth kill this guy? ARGH

-a visual metaphor of being a Vorthos right now

That concludes... whatever the heck this was. Thank you for listening and if you have any comments or additions, please let me know. I will say one thing: it is terribly ironic that the world that first sparked my interest for both writing and the magic story by kicking off the “golden age of mtg story” is also the one where the story is reduced to random blurbs on cards and whatever this garbage fire was. Truly a sad day for all of us. 

[honeymoonjin]

A/N: It’s here!!! Like I said before, this fic will be a lot lighter and more humor-based than DOPE, so that you have some variety! 3k words.

LOST IN TRANSLATION ↳What do you do when you have no qualifications but want to see the world? You help teach English in a Korean primary school, apparently. ↳Principal!Jin, math teacher!Yoongi, PE teacher!Hoseok, English teacher!Namjoon, school nurse!Jimin, art teacher!Taehyung, and science teacher!Jungkook.

CHAPTER ONE ↳You arrive in Seoul and begin to meet the teachers you’ll be spending your whole year with.

You hover awkwardly in the arrivals foyer, consulting your phone again, reading the email you had been sent a week ago. According to the information given, there should’ve been someone there for you already, waiting to drive you to the school.

But no matter how often you glanced around, up on your tiptoes as you tried to scan the massive area of Incheon International Airport, you couldn’t see any signs with your name on them.

Oh shit, you thought, what if they’ve written my name in Hangeul? You sigh and begin another dutiful look-over, deeply focused on the countless signs with Korean characters on them, trying to recognise ones that would make up your first or last name.

You just about jump out of your skin when someone taps you on the shoulder out of nowhere.

“Are you Y/n, here for teaching?” He’s younger than you were expecting for a schoolteacher, although you remember the email stating he was in charge of physical education and the rec sports teams, so maybe it was better to have someone still pretty fit. And he definitely was fit. Although he was in a grass-stained polo shirt and basketball shorts, he had a contagious smile and kind eyes, and his dark, wavy hair was endearingly a little bit messy.

Clearly you were looking over him for a little too long, because he smiles sheepishly and pats down his shirt. “Sorry about the messy clothes. I came straight from practice.”

You frown, hoping your Korean will be at least coherent if not entirely correct. “But it is 8am.”

He gives you a wide beam and laughs a little as you get through the sentence one syllable at a time. “Yes, soccer practice is from 6am to 7:30 on a Monday morning.”

“Oh. The kids still play soccer when it is very early?”

He shrugs, beginning to lead you towards the carpark area. “Actually, we have 6am sport every day of the week. Soccer on Monday, basketball on Tuesday, swimming on Wednesday. You get the idea.”

“And you teach all sport teams?”

“Your Korean is fantastic, you know?” He chimes the final part in a cutely accented English, and you blush at the praise, shaking your head modestly. “I teach almost all of the sport teams. Technically the mathematics competition team is classified as a sports team, but Teacher Min does that. You’ll meet him later.”

You nod slowly as he talks, a little overwhelmed by how fast he’s speaking. You had studied the language for five years, but all of the other teacher’s assistants you had spoken to had said a thousand times how when you were finally confronted by a native speaker in that country, your mind went blank and you forgot every single word.

It was what you had been obsessively worrying about on the whole red-eye flight over, and you were lucky that some last minute studying had made you feel a little more confident in your abilities.

He comes to a stop beside a shabby Nissan, unlocking it and gesturing for you to get into the passenger side. It smells like sweat in there, and you can see a random assortment of various balls and other equipment stashed into the backseat and boot. “Sorry about the mess in the back,” he apologises, starting the car up and pulling away towards the exits.

“You don’t need to apologise, I’m very thankful you drive me from airport to school.” The matter is forgotten completely as the car breaches the exit and your eyes are filled with light. Several skyscrapers dot the horizon line in the near distance, and everything looks so advanced and modern. There’s a large amount of people milling around outside, and the traffic just around the airport is rather congested, but the man navigates it with ease. You sit in a comfortable silence for a good half an hour before directing your gaze back inside the car with a sudden thought. “Sorry, I don’t know your name now.”

“Oh, you forgot?”

“Ah, yes, I forgot.”

He glances over at you intermittingly, hands relaxed on the wheel as he winds through the streets of Seoul. “My name’s Hoseok. Well, Teacher Jung.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Y/n.” You purse your lips in the awkward silence that falls, trying to work out something grammatically correct to say. “Uh, the school is good? You like it?”

He hums his affirmation, and with a surprised blink you realize the car is already pulling up to a relatively small primary school, heading towards the staff parking. “You’ll love it here. The kids are great, and the staff are more like family.” He slides into a park in one clean swoop and stops the car. “Alright, out we go.”

You can’t see much of the school before you’re taken straight to the reception building, but it looks like there are only five or six classroom blocks out back, all lined up around a slightly bumpy and overgrown sports field. When you had applied to three different schools in South Korean, they were all smaller schools. You had decided you’d feel more comfortable with a rural primary school rather than a large one in the city. But you hadn’t connected the dots that a school away from the hustle and bustle of the city meant that funding wasn’t so high.

It probably worked out quite well for a school like this to get a teacher’s assistant. You had paid for your own flights, and they basically just provided you with a homestay for accommodation and a small weekly allowance for your work. Coming fresh out of a half-completed university degree, it was a nice break from student life for you, and a good opportunity for them to save a little money on staff.

One thing that immediately stuck out to you was the lack of receptionist in the reception office. Technically, it looked more like a waiting room with a few offices branching off. Hoseok bounced up to the door right across from the main entrance and rapped three times.

Principal Kim Seokjin, the plaque read, and the amount of time it took you to work that out by reading the characters, the door was falling inwards, and a warm voice called out, “Ah, Y/n, come in!”

You look up from the silver engraving and your mouth falls open. In the correspondence that had occurred between you and the principal, you had always imagined a grouchy but softhearted, slightly older gentleman. Okay, if you were honest with yourself, you just imagined Ji Seokjin from Running Man. If the shoe fits; but in this case it most certainly didn’t.

It felt like you had stumbled straight onto a cheesy k-drama set. He had honey blonde hair that swept over his much darker eyebrows, perfect bone structure and full, pouty lips that made you want to pass out just so he could perform mouth-to-mouth. “Uh…Yes, I’m Y/n. Nicetomeetyousir.”

He grins at your rushed introduction and invites you in to sit. His office is warmer than outside, and you automatically tune in to the principal’s brief conversation with Hoseok as you take off your coat and scarf.

“…those clothes. Didn’t you have time for a shower?”

“Why am I not hearing ‘Thank you, Hoseok, I’m so grateful, Hoseok’? I could’ve easily gotten Yoongi to go. She would’ve turned right back around and hopped on the next plane out of here.”

“Go back to class, Jung. Year 3 PE starts in eight minutes.”

“You’re most welcome for picking her up, sir. I appreciate the thanks.”

Principal Kim huffs and shuts the door gently behind him, making his way back to sit behind the large desk you were sitting across from. As your gaze follows him around the room, you notice a few frames nailed to the wall; a teaching certificate, a local management award, a photo of the school itself, and, larger than the rest, a professionally-shot picture of himself, with a white blouse and some round-framed glasses, lips slightly parted and staring dead-on into the camera.

You cough lightly as he turns to you with the exact same posture and expression. “How was your flight?”

“Good. I slept the flight.” Every time you say a sentence, you cringe internally when you know you’ve messed up, but he doesn’t really seem to react.

He breaks the gaze, reaches into a drawer and pulls out a stapled pile of pages, tossing it over to you to flick through. “There’s a map of the premises, though I imagine you’ll be able to find your way around soon enough, a copy of the official contract, and some general advice for living in Korea. Don’t worry too much about all that, since you’ll be living with a member of staff. He’ll take you to and from work each day and we’ve given him some extra funding for meals for you.”

You nod gratefully. “Thank you, sir. It is very helpful.”

A grin lights up his face as he leans back in his chair. “Now, that’s the boring stuff out of the way, are you ready for a tour?”

You blink, not understanding one of the words he used. “Tour?”

He gestures vaguely around himself. “I’ll show you the school, introduce you to our other teachers, that’s what tour means.”

“Oh, I see. Yes, let’s do it!”

One of the first things you learn about Kim Seokjin is that he walks pretty fast with those long legs of his, and you spent so much energy on half-jogging to keep up with him, that as he explained the history of the school, you couldn’t really focus on that too. You tried your best to make general sounds of surprise or agreement so that he thought you were listening, and hoped you weren’t missing anything too important.

It wasn’t until you finished following him around the school field that he comes to a halt outside the first classroom and you can finally zone in on what he’s saying. “…is the physical education classroom since it’s the closest to our equipment shed. Jung is teaching in there now, but you’ve already met him, so we won’t go in. You won’t really have to go over here much, but I thought I should mention that if you ever get here early, this is the only classroom that’s unlocked since it’s where the kids meet for early morning sport. There’s a bathroom in there too, so it’s a good place to stay warm until we officially open at 8am.”

You barely have to walk fifteen meters to be standing in front of the second building. Instead of staying outside on the concrete quad, he leads you up a short wooden ramp and into a small locker room. When he continues speaking, he’s dropped his voice to a stage whisper. “To the left, Class 2, that’s a basic room, we have most classes like Korean, English and Math in there.” He pops up to the small window on the door. “Ah, Min’s doing Year 5 math. Let’s go in.”

“Oh, we don’t have to…”

Your protests go unheard as he barges right in without knocking. “Can they do Pythagoras yet, Teacher Min?”

A low voice from inside the classroom calmly replies, “You can’t do Pythagoras yet, Seokjin.”

Principal Kim turns to you from half-in, half-out of the doorway, and tips his head over to get you to follow him inside.

The voice belongs to a man with dark hair and perfect skin. Like Principal Kim, he’s pretty young, and you’re beginning to regret not listening better to Kim’s speech, wondering if he had explained why all the teachers looked well under thirty so far. He’s lounging at the desk, one leg crossed leisurely over the other, eyebrows raised from behind his glossy bangs. His students, kids around 9 years old staring blankly at the three division questions written on the blackboard.

“You haven’t placed first in a regional beauty pageant, but you don’t see me complaining,” Kim bites back.

The teacher quirks his lips up a little in bemusement. “I wonder how long it’ll take you to realize that’s not a relevant achievement in the line of education.” His dark eyes flick over to you, and he raises his eyebrows further. “The new kid arrived?”

You bow to him. “Hello, my name is Y/n, nice to meet you.”

Principal Kim smiles benevolently and turns to the kids, who have long since given up on the math questions and are watching the interaction with wide eyes. “Children, Y/n will be helping you with your English. Take good care of her.” He leans over to you. “Say a little something about yourself.”

If there’s one thing worse than being put on the spot for an icebreaker, it’s being put on the spot for an icebreaker in a foreign language. Your mind whirs on double-time as you desperately try to find something interesting to say. “I have not been to Korea before, it is very kind here but more winter than my home country.”

An unreadable smile plays on Teacher Min’s lips. “What a relief that it’s English you’ll be teaching.”

You blush violently as Kim scolds the Teacher and quickly hustles you out of the classroom, shutting the door behind him with a little more vigor than usual. “Sorry about Min. He’s the only math teacher we could find. You’ll get used to him.”

“It’s fine,” you breath out with an awkward laugh, “I know my Korean is not good. I want to learn better here.”

He pats you on the shoulder, then points behind you. “That there is our art classroom, I’ll introduce you to Teacher Kim.” You frown. “Different Kim. Actually, there are three Kims at the school including me, so we call the other two Art Kim and English Kim. Anyway, let’s go in.”

You’ve always been a little biased towards the arts; you would’ve gone to university to study art history and painting were it not for your parents insistence that education was a much better field, and so it gave you a certain kind of wonder to see the people that had pursued their dreams in the field, and the kind of life they led where their job was their passion.

Your first impression of the classroom was how chaotic it was compared to the one across the hall. Instead of four lines of chairs and tables, students were bunched into small groups dotted around the room. The room itself was lined with benches; some had sinks where old streaks of paint led down the drain, some had boxes of charcoal sticks and pastels, others held cardboard sculptures and mock-ups. A fond smile played on your face at the scene you were met with. Principal Kim had chosen not to noisily announce his presence, and you could see the teacher looking like a giant on the extra small and short children’s chairs, talking quietly but passionately to a student attempting to draw an old green bottle that sat in the middle of the table.

His voice was surprisingly deep, and his hair was much longer than most men you had seen, flopping over in the front and reaching near his shirt collar in the back. Like every art teacher you had ever met, he had an endearingly quirky fashion sense, wearing a patchy pink woolen robe over a dress shirt and pants. The other students at the table bunched up as best they could, listening intensely and looking at him like he was explaining all the secrets of the universe. You remembered that feeling of awe well.

He glanced up when the principal called out his name, and let a boxy smile overtake his face. He quickly excused himself from the table and stood up to his full height, approaching you two as the kids called out in disappointment behind him.

You notice that when Principal Kim introduces the two of you, Art Kim never once takes his eyes off of you, staring at your face with some intent curiosity. You smile at him awkwardly and give a short bow. “Nice to meet you, Teacher Kim. Art is my favorite school subject.”

His lips drop open slightly. “Oh, really? Why do you like art?”

You weren’t prepared for the extremely open-ended and opinionated question, and it takes you a moment of stumbling over your words to get any coherent thought out. “Well, I see…no, I think art is, uh, beautiful, because it is…um, it is like a conversation from artist to person looking. I’m sorry, that doesn’t make sen-”

“It makes perfect sense,” he cuts you off quickly. His chestnut hair glows under the harsh lights in the room and his eyes stare deeply into yours. “You’re completely right. Art isn’t just a picture, it’s meant to be given and experienced. The artist is sending a message to the viewer, of course, but art is nothing if the viewer doesn’t see it and give something back, even if it’s just an emotion or an analysis.”

You don’t understand most of the words he just said. “Yes, exactly.”

He smiles at you again, shyly this time. “It is very nice to meet you, Y/n. I look forward to seeing you around.”

Principal Kim looks back and forth between the two of you, blinking like he’s just as lost in the conversation as you are. “Thank you for your time, Teacher Kim, we will be moving on with the tour now.”

Art Kim bows quickly and gives you a cute little wave, then goes back to his students, pulling up a chair at a different table and immediately entering into a conversation about whether the young boy should make the sky orange and the sun blue instead of doing it the normal way.

Once you’ve left the building and stand outside in front of classroom 4, Principal Kim turns to you and tuts. “Ah, this tour is so boring! Math and drawing pictures. But don’t worry, next is the science blo-”

He’s cut off by a loud bang coming from inside, which is paired with a flash of white and kids squealing in excitement and delight. A thin wisp of smoke trails out of one of the half-open windows.

Principal Kim lets out an exhausted sigh. “Dammit, Jeon Jungkook.”

TAGLIST  Send me a message or an ask if you wish to be added, and you’ll be notified every time I post a new chapter of LiT.

[jpat82]

Bad Plan

A/n: this fic that I’m adding into rotation is one I started well over a year ago. The original first chapter was over 5k words long so I’m going to have to break it up. It’s also Karl Urban, cause I mean, hello he’s gorgeous as well.

Summary: Renee had a fail proof plan to get rid of her nervousness for sending in her writing manuscripts. Audition for a movie, surely she'll get rejected.

The plan backfired and now she has to act, joining a crew of seasoned actors from Star Trek. Her quick friendship leads her down the rabbit hole with Karl Urban.

CHAPTER 1:part 1

Some of the dumbest things in my life I have done because of the phase 'meh, why not'. This however was more based on trying to get used to being rejected. You see, I'm a writer, I write fiction and screen plays. I have yet to send one to get publish or sent to be read by a director, mainly for the fear of being told 'hey, this sucks, so do your self a favor and stop wasting your time writing.' My bright idea was 'hey, let's audition for some movie roles, you'll surely be turned down multiple times and get used to it'.

So when I got a call back for a second audition my anxiety sored  through the roof and I felt like relocating to Mexico. This is not how this was supposed to go, I'm not an actor. I was supposed to be laughed at and told to bugger off.

When I received the call after the second audition and was told I got the female co lead in this movie I about choked and died. I have massive anxiety problems when in new place, new situations, and around people I don't know. This was not the plan, and just like life has always done in the past it decided to slap me face and pull the rug out beneath my feet.

“So, Renee," my sister, Rosalyn inquired with a hint of amusement in her voice as I was breathing into a paper bag, "whatchya going to do now? Can't exactly back out."

“Says who?" I sneered into the bag, sitting on the couch.

“The fact you went through both auditions," she giggled, " how's your bright idea now?"

“Bite me, rainbow bright." I leaned back into the couch, pulling the paper away from my face. I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to think clearly. There was a couple saving graces about this movie set. A.) it was local, it was being filmed in and around the Oregon city area and B.) I was a no-body. I could blend in a lot easier.

“What's the name of movie? Who's going to be in it?" She pounced on to the couch next to me, I turned my head ever so slightly and just stared her. This month her hair was pale blue with hot pink roots, her ghostly colored skin was pinkened from just get done working out.

“I don't know, to either of those questions."

“How do you not know? What's was the script you read?"

“I wasn't paying attention and I can't remember. I was trying to get through the ordeal."

“Your going to make a horrible actress if you can't remember any of that." She stated, pushing up off the couch. "What about your normal job? Since it takes a couple of months to film."

“I already talked to my manager, I'm taking a leave of absence. And thanks for the ego boost."

“Your welcome!"

*****

The next few weeks after that were spent getting my rear end handed to me by a personal trainer. Who by the way, was adamant about a very strict eating schedule, which I was severely punished for daily by drinking Starbucks. I also had a trainer for learning how to fight, all of it choreographed of course but still. Most nights I came home very late and couldn't remember how I made it my bed. Just to wake up to my phone going off by Satan calling me two hours before I was supposed to work out.

My sister being the loving and caring individual she was would poke my sore muscles. Drink some wine and have her Starbucks all while telling me I couldn't have some. Yes, I knew it was revenge for the countless times I did things to pester her but still.

The first evening on set was a cast and crew get together. I learned that I was joining in on an established movie sequence. So everyone knew each other, except for me. Wonderful. Just my luck, I showed up in my ratty jeans and a nice top. I was told it was a casual occasion, no need to dress up. My short cropped hair was sporting a recent sun burn, first time I have ever had one but then again I didn't start buzzing my head till a couple months ago.

I was wandering around trying to find where we were all supposed to meet up. I found no security guards to help me out, which I thought was odd. I turned down a corridor and bumped into a gentleman.

“Oh, I'm sorry." His accent was heavy, he seemed hesitant on whether to say sir of miss.

“No, it's my fault. I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking. I'm really lost so i keep checking my phone and I'm rattling on, sorry."

“It's okay," he chuckled, my brain was trying to get my attention but I ignored it. "I'm lost myself. Where are you headed to?"

“Some hall, I'm supposed to meet up with a bunch of people I don't know. So it’s not like I can text anybody for help." I showed him the details on my phone.

“Looks like we are headed to same place, but I know everybody. And none of them are answering their phones anyway." He smiled, something about this guy. I recognized his smile, but not his voice. Which is odd for me, normally I recognized voiced first.

“Well, isn't that nice of them." I chuckled, he was a damn good looking man.

“I guess it would be better to be lost with someone then be lost alone." He stuck his elbow out inviting me to take it.

“Sounds like a wonderful plan, People look at ya weird when you talk to yourself." Open mouth insert foot. He let out a deep chuckle.

“That's for sure." We continued to wandered the abandoned building.

“Karl!" Someone yelled from behind us, he turned his head looking over shoulder. It was dark and couldn't make out the mans voice but I knew who it was right off the bat. He jogged over. "Where the hell have you been?"

“Lost." We followed Chris as he walked back the room where everyone was. It didn't take long to figure out who I was walking with or what movie this was now. "who's your new friend?"

“Actually I never got her name."

“My name is Renee Winter."

“Ah, your going to play the new ensing." Pine flashed his pearly whites. We walked into the large hall. Easily over a hundred people, slightly loud, and I felt like a panic attack was about to hit. I must of instinctively gripped Karl's arm a bit tighter. He looked over at me with a bit of concern on his face.

“Hey, your fine. Just breathe." He whispered into my ear. "Let's go get a drink and then I'll introduce to everyone."

He ordered two drinks, I was trying to gather myself back up. He handed me something, I took a sip, it was sweet and warm despite the ice.  He made eye contact with me, and smiled.

“So what's your anxiety from? The amount of people or because of who all is in the room?" He asked, I turned my head to survey the room. Karl gently brought his knuckle up and turned my head back to face him. "Breathe, and keep looking at me."

“There's a lot of people here, and it's the complete uncertainty of the situation." I breathed out, breaking eye contact and looked down at the ground.

“You'll be fine, we can go and let you meet people one on one. Take a break and step out into the hall, get a breather in." I just nodded, slowly looking back up at him. "I have a couple close friends and family members who have anxiety. So don't worry about judgement."

He slowly lead me around the room, I faked being fine. Joking around while getting to know the cast. It was an hour into the shindig before we stepped out in the hall. I sped to the opposite wall and started to gulp down air like fish.

“No wonder they picked you. If it weren't for the death grip, I wouldn't have suspected that you any anxiety." He jested.

“Sorry, bout that." Turning, pressing my back against the cool wall. I stared at ceiling, wondering how big of an ass I was making myself out to be.

“So, tell me about yourself, Renee." He asked leaning up against the wall with me.

“Like what?"

“What other acting gigs have you done?"

“None, literally the first time auditioned."

“Seriously? Lucky break, most get turned down hundreds of times."

“I know, I was banking on that."

“Huh?" I could see the perplexed look out of the corner of my eye.

“I'm not an actor, I'm a writer. I was doing this to get used to rejection before I sent my stuff to get published. But seeing how I'm cursed, I ended up getting the part." I chuckled to myself.

“Wow, how's that going for ya?" He chuckled with me.

“You know, my sister asked me the same thing."

“Sounds like a smart lady, come on. Time to go back in there." I took a deep breath and walked back in.

“Sorry, I'm terribly late, I got lost in the building." I heard a very unmistakable British accent. Well, my sister is going to flip when I tell her this.

“No big deal, Tom. So did we." Karl replied, giving the man a hug.

“Glad to hear I wasn't the one." Tom chuckled back.

“Tom, this is Renee. She's also new to the Star Trek world." Tom took my hand a gently shook it.

“Pleasure to meet you." He smiled, yeah, my sister was going to murder me in my sleep.

“Nice to meet you too." The rest of the night was just greeting and making small chat. The end of the night Karl walked me back to my car. "Seriously though, thank you. I don't think I would of made it. I would of stood awkwardly in the corner the whole time, looking at my phone every two minutes."

“No big deal. So what hotel do they have you staying at?" We finally reached my car, I grin back at him.

“The beauty of this, I get to go home every night. I live local."

“Lucky duck." He laughed, "kinda jealous."

“Yeah, but I don't get room service. I mean I could try yelling at my sister to make me food but she's a chef and hates coming home to cook. So she would probably poison my food."

“Yeah, don't do that." I opened my car and sat in the seat. "See you tomorrow?"

“Yeah, I'm supposed to be at the make up trailer at 5am. So I'll probably be up earlier, knowing satan." He gave me a weird look. "The personal trainer they gave me."

“Ah." He laughed. I started my car and waved before I left.

*****

“So, tell me." I had just barely cracked the door open.

“Not even going to let me walk in." She was waiting on the couch like black panther.

“Nope, what movie? Who's it in? And no spoilers."

“The new Star Trek, the usual suspects. And I can't tell you all the crew with out giving you any spoilers." I smirked.

“Hang on, what do you mean you can't tell me all the crew without giving me spoilers?!"

“Because someone is in it that normally isn't. And you said no spoilers." I smirk walking into my room.

“Renee Abigail Winter! I'm not done talking to you!" She yelled following me.

“Rosalyn Amy Winter, you told me not to tell you." I flopped onto my bed, repressing my urge to laugh.

“Come on, Renee. Tell me." She pleaded, I shook my head.

“Oh, look at the time, it's midnight and I have to be at work at 5am. I really do need to get some rest now." I feigned a yawn, I was tired but this was far more entertaining.

“Please?!" She was hopeless, if I didn't tell I would get no sleep. If I did tell, well, I probably get no sleep.

“How about how this, I'll text you tomorrow when I get a chance. Because I really do have to get some sleep."

“Fine." Her voice was full of rejection as she slid off the bed. "You better remember."

@kitkatkl

[sillytails-blog]

Marvel’s Spider-man Ps4

You swing me right round baby

This will be my longest review yet broken up into three sections. Spider-man sections, MJ, miles, and peter sections. and the open world exploration sections. Sorry in advance for how long this review will be!

Jumping into Marvel’s Spider-man my expectations could not have been higher. I wanted this game with every fiber of my being. Let me tell you boy oh boy did it live up to and far exceed my expectations. Taking control of a seasoned 24 year old spider man is a pure joy. No rehashing of a backstory, no uncle Ben death scene, no learning your powers. You start this game having fought and beaten most of all your iconic enemies and having formed many alliances already. Most all of your enemies are in the Raft prison and a few haven't even been realized yet such as Doc Oc and Green Goblin. You are still a poor man trying to scrape by and eek out a living, all the while saving New York from constant threats. Aunt may is in charge of the F.E.A.S.T organization which feeds and shelters the homeless around New York. You volunteer your spare time with her there and work for Dr Otto Octavius trying to find a way to help people with crippling disabilities.

Open world sections

This game has a bevy of side quests and objectives to tackle. Ranging from the repetitive to the ultra unique. At first you will only have access to finding backpacks hidden around the city, filled with objects from your past with brief little snippets of amazing dialogue attached to them. Finding radio towers to open up the map is the other activity you have from the get go. As the story progresses you will tend to research stations for Harry Osborn that will see you collection smog samples out of the air, curing fish in the ocean, busting open pipes with to much pressure. There are various bases to take on much in vain of Batman Arkham challenge rooms. Waves and waves of enemies will come at you and there is countless ways to dispatch of them. Random car chases, and criminal beat em ups are littered around the city. Unique side quests such as capturing pigeons, or bringing down the notorious gang leader Tombstone are a rare treat. The hardest challenges by a mile are the Taskmaster challenges and they made me insanely mad at times. You are expected to chase a drone in the air and hit his air waves, disarm three bombs in time, stealthily take down a number of guards. All these are on a heavy time constraint and seemed unfair each and every time. I did them but man was i raging when i was.

New York city itself is absolutely stunning. This could be called the best character in the game. From the top of real locations such as the empire state building, to the peak of fictional sections such as the avengers tower. Literally around every single corner there was something to marvel (ha get it) at. Swinging thru the concrete jungle was my favorite part of the game bar none. I could get lost hopping from roof top to roof top and taking in the sights for hours. The landmarks scattered around the city were numerous and wonderful.

Spider-man sections (story)

The game starts off very light hearted as you fill spider-mans tights for the first time. Wilson Fisk is your first target and you bring him down spectacularly. As you lock him up and send him off to the raft he warns that with him behind bars the city will turn to chaos and disorder. Does it ever. A brief fight with shocker follows inside a bank and the city seems at peace for a small while. Then the demons invade led by a mysterious leader you come to find out is Mr. Negative A.K.A Martin Li. The game becomes so dark and morbid so fast. I was blown away at a section of the game where a hero cop is awarded the medal of honor in a beautiful ceremony and Mr. Negative orders suicide bombers to blow up the affair, ruble and screams permeate the environment and my jaw was on the ground. Even at this games darkest the writing is unbelievable. I do not think this is a game for kids but as a fan of comics since i was little i could not help but love the more mature direction. The game eventually sees you at the Raft prison which is in total chaos and sees the Sinister Six escape. On full display is Scorpion, the Vulture, Electro, Rhino, Mr Negative, and Doc Oc. Each of their fights is astonishingly well done and i wish they lasted longer.

Scorpion’s section reminds me of Scarecrow sections from Batman. Rhino was a horrifying mass of super human barreling towards you with devastation in his eyes. Mr. Negative had one of the best boss batles ever, only toppled by the final fight with Doc Oc. The most interesting thing about all of these fights is the past that is shared between Spider-man and the villains. 

The game tugged on my heart strings way more than any other game since The Last of Us. You deeply care about Peter Parker and his friends and family. The game has two end credit scenes that i will not spoil for anyone as this is a must play game and you must see them for yourself! Insomniac did and amazing job of setting up the sequel though!

Human character sections

Playing as Peter, Mj, and Miles were for me the low point of the game. I say low point but a low point in a mountain of gold is still very much so gold. It was a lot of sneaking around as Mj and Miles waiting for the right time to make a move. The story aspect of the sections added a lot to the game itself but the game play sections of them were bland. At the end Mj gets a taser and that offers some fun tasering the crap out of silver sables guards (by the way silver sable is in the game she alright). Miles has the best story elements in his sections really adding depth to his character. There is one section with Mj also where you direct spider-man to attack enemies and that was pretty amazing. Playing as peter was the most fun of the three because of the side objectives in Doc Oc’s lab. Piecing together DNA fragments to find a chemical was so much fun as was the re-circuting mini-game. Also Peter’s relationship with Mj was full and enriching to see play out, As was his heartbreak at watching his mentor and idol Doctor Octavius become evil.

Verdict

Marvel’s Spider-man is as of this writing my Game of the year (Which i believe Smash bros ultimate will beat but only time will tell). It is everything i wanted in a video game and so much more. I cannot say anything else about it other than go and play this yourself!

Platinumed

I did platinum this game and it only took me 30 hours to do so. Decent amount of time i think and i cannot wait for the DLC.

Final Score 10/10

Positives

Graphics

New York

Story

Combat

[pkmnjesus]

P J’s PokéAni Trivia Tuesday #13 (Global Tour edition)

This is part 3 of 5 PTTs digging into some really cool PokéAni facts from all over the world! This week’s global research was MASSIVE! I really wanted to cover as much EU as I can, since I know a lot of people in this fandom coming from Europe, but tried to make my post as minimal as I can! Due to a lot of info I’ve read, I will only mention 1 or 2 facts for each country (except U.K.). Good thing I had 2 weeks to prepare for this, otherwise this thing would have been more stressful to put together. Shoutout to all my European PokéAni peeps reading this! Let’s see if you may or may not know the trivia behind these countries 👀

Pokémon anime in EUROPE

In the UNITED KINGDOM DID YOU KNOW? The Pokémon anime famously aired on ITV, a public service network station that broadcasts in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

SM:TV Live was a live Saturday morning entertainment show that replace the Who's That Pokémon? segment with small sketches that featured the famous English comedic duo, Ant & Dec as hosts, having their own "PokéFight" and even performed their own Pokérap.

ITV has skipped episodes or canceled airings mid-series. These are planned as the TV guides published over a week before date of transmission reflect this. It commonly happens other animated shows in the line-up such as ReBoot, Cardcaptors, Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh!.

Pokémon has been cancelled prematurely TWICE on different TV channels! Once during the Orange Islands arc, and another just after Pokémon: Advanced started. Neither series has been seen on ITV since.

CN (Cartoon Network) TOO was the channel location for the world premiere of Pokémon Chronicles. The U.K. got their English dubbed The Legend of Thunder! specials first than the U.S. by a year early.

In other EU COUNTRIES DID YOU KNOW?

In the Netherlands (Ik wil ze allemaal!), Fox Kids announced that it would stop broadcasting Pokémon on March 2001. Around 32,000 complaining children called to Fox Kids in outrage because of this, but it turned out to be an early April Fool’s joke. On April 1st, the channel announced that the 3rd season of the anime would begin airing the same day. GOT’EEM!!!

In Iceland (Þarf að fanga þá!), only the first 54 episodes of the 1st season aired. The first five movies were also dubbed. They pulled the plug on the Icelandic dub due to the lack of popularity it received in the country.

In Finland (Omakseni saan!), it was the first Nordic country to air the Pokémon anime, with Denmark, Norway and Sweden followed shortly in the spring of 2000. While it may have been the first, many episodes of the first couple of seasons in the Finnish dub were not shown (or skipped?) for unknown reasons. In fact, Advanced Challenge was the first ever season to be shown completely in the country, and moving forward after that, every season have been broadcasted entirety as well.

In Sweden (Måste fånga fler!), the Battle Frontier season broadcasted exclusively online via TV4+ and TV4′s site, as it got skipped and did not air after Advanced Battle, going directly to the Diamond & Pearl series.

In the Czech Republic (Všechny chytit máš!), Ash Ketchum’s voice actor was Radek Škvor, who was 10 years old at the time when the series first reached the country. He was same age as his assigned character! Eventually he got replaced by his older brother, Jan Škvor some time during the XY series. Ash may be 10 forever, but not the VAs.

In Belgium, the Pokémon anime is distributed in two dubbed languages: Flanders (Belgian Dutch) and Wallonia (Belgian French).

In France (Attrapez-les tous!), they had an unprecedented 2-hour special for the first four episodes of the XY series on May 1st 2015 along with a bonus special airing Mega Evolution Special I afterwards. They did ANOTHER 2-hour special on April 13th 2016 with the premier of the first four episodes of the XY&Z season. The French sure do love the Kalos region...I mean isn’t Kalos based on the country of France?

In Greece (Τα θέλω τώρα εδώ! Ta thélo̱ tóra edó̱!), the anime first aired on Star Channel until it moved to Disney XD when they acquired the rights during Diamond & Pearl. Despite this, irregular broadcasts of specials and movies still show on Star Channel, especially during holiday seasons, but the regular series airs exclusively on Disney XD.

In Italy (Acchiappali tutti!), Brock's first Italian VA was Nicola Bartolini Carrassi. Who is Nicola you ask? He is a journalist, anchor, scriptwriter, anime expert, and the man who brought the Pokémon franchise to Italy in the first place. He has been chosen by Warner Bros, 4Kids, Pokémon INC., Nintendo Games Freak and Buena Vista to become the Italian dubbed voice of Brock and he has been praised for his work, even if it was only for 2 seasons. He left the show after the Orange Islands arc.

In Poland (Czy już wszystkie masz?), when the tenth season was dubbed by a new studio, Sun Studio Polska, they decided to ignore the previous cast of the series and choose all new actors for every character. There were a lot of mixed reactions among fans to the sudden recast, but in February 2009 when DP: Battle Dimension started, most of the original cast of the Polish dub were restored.

In Portugal (Vou apanhá-los todos!), the show aired in an irregular pattern, shifting from 6am to 10am, but it always in the same programing block, named LOL@SIC. On a side note, Ash Ketchum had no less than ten different Portuguese VAs over the years. Y I K E S

In Spain (¡Hazte con todos!), Adolfo Moreno has provided the voice of Ash Ketchum in the entire anime. This is quite rare as a lot of foreign dubs, constantly change VAs for their cast, and even the English dub had to recast Ash’s voice after Battle Frontier. One exception is the 3rd Pokémon movie and the Mewtwo Returns special since it had a different VA cast. On another interesting note, there were 2 different dubs for the Pokémon anime in Spain: an Iberian Spanish dub, and a Catalan dub.

In Norway (Fanger alle nå!), the setting of the Pokémon movie Giratina and the Sky Warrior is based on Norway's nature. Three places were used as inspiration; Sognefjorden, Jostedalsbreen, and Bergen. The scene with the Glacier threatening to destroy the town was based on a little town of Geiranger, which is threatened by a collapsing mountainside in real life! Speaking of other movie trivia, the single Don't Say You Love Me, promoting the official soundtrack worldwide for Pokémon the First Movie, was performed by the Norwegian group M2M.

In Denmark (Jeg ska' fange dem!), the anime took a 3-season break from Danish TV after the episode Charizard Chiils. The series would not return until Address Unown! (with a new cast of voice actors) leaving no explanation as to why the episodes in between were never aired.

In Ireland, there is no Irish dub in the country since over 90% of people there speaks English as their primary language, and what they got was the English dub from the United States. For some reason though, two episodes from the Hoenn saga didn’t air. Specifically speaking the episodes: The Bicker the Better and Who, What, When, Where, Wynaut?.

In Slovakia, only the first four seasons of the anime have been dubbed into Slovak, nothing else after. All the English theme songs were left in their original form, untranslated, however the Pokémon movies had both their opening and ending themes Slovak dubbed.

In Albania (Duhet ti kap!), Pokémon movies were dubbed in Albanian by "Jess" Discographic. This company is recognized for providing "illegal" dubbings of other shows they have done.

In Lithuania, the Pokémon anime debuted the Lithuanian dub at Christmas Eve of 2005 on BTV. The first seven Pokémon movies, on the other hand, aired at different channels, though the dates of their original airings cannot be traced and have gone lost.

In Germany (Komm und schnapp sie dir!), one of Ash’s German VAs is named Veronika Neugebauer. She shares the same name (sort of) with Verinoca Taylor who is famous for being the original English dub voice actress for Ash. Unfortunately, Neugebauer died during the production of dubbing Diamond & Pearl, and they had to bring back the original German VA for Ash, Caroline Combrinck, who previously quit the show to study in New York City. Ash is currently voiced by, Felix Mayer, Sun & Moon. *Also I want to briefly mention one of the largest German Pokéfan sites: Filb.de. because I have been to that site a lot looking at screen-caps, and even using some of them for my posts (specifically PokéAni Highlights/Rewind). Basically the German Serebii.net!

In Croatia (Fes-te'ls tots teus!), they have dubbed a few Pokémon movies in their language, however the theme music remained in English.

In Romania (Să îi prind pe toți!), the Romanian dub has aired the first 5 seasons in the country, but everything else after that was skipped EXCEPT Diamond & Pearl (Sinnoh League Victors was SKIPPED though), and Sun & Moon which just recently debuted last month (as of this post).

In Serbia (Треба да скупиш све Treba da skupiš sve!), the only seasons to be fully dubbed in Serbian dubbed is the original series and Black & White. Advanced Challenge, and some of Pokémon Chronicles were dubbed as well. In the very few Pokémon movies they have dubbed, the opening and ending themes remained in English.

In Bulgaria (Да ги уловим! Da gi ulovim!), the anime was originally broadcasted on Nova Television, but eventually made the jump to Disney Channel Bulgaria. Some other countries air the series on Disney as well, so I guess America wasn’t the first country to make the jump, huh?

In Russia (Всех их соберём! Vsekh ikh soberyom!), after the first 104 episodes of the original series were shown, the Pokémon anime was not broadcasted in Russia for SEVEN years. Many Russian fans wrote to TV channels asking them to bring back the anime. Countless rumors of why the ORT channel pulled the anime off air included: newspapers and the yellow press pressuring the station to cancel the show for showing “offensive” content, while some say that Pokémon was “brainwashing children with subliminal stimuli”. ORT was worried about its reputation, so they stopped airing Pokémon, and that they couldn’t make an agreement on the price of licensing the anime with the Japanese creators. On September 20th 2008, the Pokémon anime made its miraculous return to Russian television via the TNT channel, where they premiered the first episode of the Diamond & Pearl series.

Source: Bulbapedia

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Chapter 31. Move II. Part II. Home

Alright, where’d we leave off with the last post?

Part I was Japan, our first week after leaving the UK. Part III will conclude with our arrival in Sydney. That means Part II will be the time in between. The awkward middle brother, or Jeff, of this three-part moving post. Included in Part II: Christmas in Dallas, New Year’s in Woodinville, and reunions in Seattle.

Over the past two years, most of my posts have been about our travels around Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and soon-to-add, Australia. That said, I still like to add our trips back home, specifically because I want them to be included when Chelsay converts this blog into a book. I’ve done all the writing and uploading, so she can handle eventually turning this into a NYT’s best seller.

That was a joke (except not, she definitely needs to make this a book). The real reason I want to write about our trips home is the same reason I write about any of our travels: I don’t want to forget.

As I wrote in my wedding post, this blog should be a time machine. 20 years from now, I’ll open the book that Chelsay publishes and place myself back in what will likely be our most adventurous years. Young D’Derek (or whatever weird name Chelsay decides on for our first) will be learning to drive, and Diana (the classic, sensible name I choose for our second) will be taking piano lessons, while Papa Mike heads back to Iceland or Morocco or Jordan or Japan via these posts.

That said, as exciting as our travels to new places have been, some of our favorite memories will undoubtedly come from our returns to the familiar. I’ve written about our first trip home in March 2016 (Chapter 7) and our second trip home that Christmas (Chapter 15), so now, without further ado, here is our third trip home: Christmas 2017.

Oh, one more note first: because there are so many moments I want to remember from this third rendition (and because I’m three months behind in writing about this long move), I’ll structure this post in bullet form.  Okay, now: Christmas 2017.

Highlights from Texas:

Our trip began in Dallas, and as all trips to Dallas begin, we started with Chick-fil-a. It might just be fried chicken and a pickle, but I’d take it over a 18 oz steak any day.

While Chelsay, Liv, and my mom got mani/pedis, my dad, brothers, and I headed to Top Golf. Not even the dumping rain could stop Matt & I’s pin-seeking in our 2-on-2 match up.

The Kerns play a lot of games. Pictionary is always a family favorite, while the meme game seemed slightly inappropriate for this crowd. A few new additions to the game arsenal were Matt’s e-games, where we all come up with funny responses to various prompts, then vote on the best (my mom’s “Shmule” response was an all-timer). One surprise favorite was also one of the simplest: Uno. The unexpected enjoyment actually had nothing to do with the game, but more to do with someone inevitably making a fart joke. (You can tell it was a fart joke in the picture below because my mom is not amused).

Bocce, and braving the frigid temperatures to complete undoubtedly the worst matches those courts had seen.

Another Kern family tradition: back-and-forth putt-putt battles between the kids and parents (+ Chelsay).

It doesn’t even matter who won.

It was definitely the kids.

Christmas cookie making, with some highlights being Matt’s Grinch, Chelsay’s wreath, and Liv’s stocking. Definitely the worst cookie goes to Jeff (”Someone’s in here”).

Pasta on Christmas Eve. Continuing our tradition of informal Christmas Eve meals (grilled cheese, Italian beef sandwiches, tortilla soup, sloppy joes), the family decided on homemade pasta this year. Chelsay made a phenomenally hearty Bolognese sauce, while the family spun out rolls of al dente linguine.

The Christmas Day photoshoot.

After a delicious Christmas beef tenderloin, my mom shared the basics of piano playing with Chelsay, while Matt, my dad, and I took a long, cold, sunset walk down the Trophy Club fairways.

THREE successful Escape Rooms, including a near record-setting win with 24 minutes remaining. Based on our experience, we now get free Escape Rooms for life!

Countless gut-busting meals, including Feedstore ribs, Anamia’s taco salad, Christina’s queso, Mi Cocina sunset fajitas, and i Fratelli thin crust pizza.

On a sad note, Abby’s memorial, where we followed my dad’s heartfelt but humorous eulogy by saying goodbye to the cutest, strangest, best dog any family could hope for.  

Highlights from Seattle:

Playing with Miles. His favorite games: Monster Auntie Chelsay (he got so excited that he pooped), Bucket Flights through the house, and Uncle Mike Express, where I delivered my little passenger to Grandma Helen Station or Papa Sum Pass.

Din Tai Fung & Lucky Strike with Chelsay’s whole family, which included shot-caller Chris destroying the record high score in pop-a-shot.

Runs around Crystal Lake. Dan & June have been in this house for years, but the setting blows me away every time I see it. I loved going for chilly runs around the lake, quietly taking in the massive trees, charming homes, calm waters, and beautiful surroundings.

Ringing in New Year’s 2018 with Chelsay’s family, Dev, Babs, Auz, Kels, and our new friend Harvey.

The second annual virtual golf showdown with Danny. Similar to Chris at Lucky Strike, we set some high scores (high scores are good in golf, right?)

Saturday nights with Auz, Dev, Hanan, Tiin, ALoh, Trav, Ben P, Rob Sooz, and Andy Lit at the 5715 House (aka STZ Pad 3). That house has to be one of my favorite places in the entire world. You can visit the Eiffel Tower or Sahara Desert, but it’s hard to beat watching the NFL playoffs on that shitty couch, bumping all the hits from 2011, embarrassing ourselves with throwback beer pong, or epic 3 AM battles in Hockey.

Catch up drinks with Chelsay’s friends, including Officer Nicole, El Gringo (Will), and the Doctors (Matt & Shiva).

Busy season JC meetings w/ Mark Fitz, and the occasional bucket with him & Dev at Bellevue Muni.

Dan and June’s first Escape Room, overcoming some of the hardest puzzles we’d ever faced to escape on their first attempt.

Chelsay and I’s triumphant one-day return to the city. This was my favorite day in Seattle. Although I had a few trips to the city for nights at the 5715 House, Chelsay and I mostly stayed around her parents’ place  in Woodinville. On the weekend before her flight to Sydney though, we went with her parents on a reunion tour through the city. We ate breakfast at Portage Bay, walked through South Lake Union, took in the Space Needle views from Kerry Park, visited Pike Place Market, returned to Green Lake for cookie cakes, and enjoyed a nightcap tasting to top it all off from Woodinville Whisky. Our January in Seattle was largely about reconnecting with friends and family, but this day was Chelsay and I’s reunion with the city.

Countless gut-busting meals, including Firenze Amatriciana (possibly my new favorite dish in Seattle), Pink Door Bolognese, La Carta tacos, Great State burgers & crispy crinkle fries, more Chick-fil-a, and of course, Juju’s home cookin’.

Chibi just trying to sleep through all of this.

Alas, our six week return to the States was just a tease, a brief glimpse into our former lives.

Like this blog, life is a collection of different chapters, and each chapter has its setting. Most of Chelsay and I’s story has taken place in the US, though our past two years were set in London and our next two will be in Australia.

Throughout our story, we understand the importance of remaining present in each chapter. Sometimes it’s fun to reminisce or look ahead, but Chelsay and I always come back to the present and appreciate our current setting while we can.

As I write this, it’s been three weeks since I left the US, so Chelsay and I are well into our new lives in Sydney. The next & final post in this trilogy will show how much we’ve already enjoyed our latest life chapter, but this post is a reminder that nothing can ever replace the love I feel for our story’s first setting: Home.