#or the day he became a human (so sometime in june)

[sirenspells]

[Amnesiac Omori AU]

Grown up Omori concepts! My idea for the final chapter of the fic for this AU is that it's an epilogue that takes place ten years in the future (so he's ~22 years old in this pic), so it's got me thinking about what Omori's like when he's older

Notes:

He dyed his hair partially white to honor his past self and to signify how he's accepted his past as part of himself

He's aroace! Never ends up settling down with anyone and is perfectly happy and content about it <3

Not depicted here but for his career I imagine he goes into computer programming!

I'm thinking he maybe becomes roommates with Andrew, no matter what though him and Andrew remain very close

The main conflict for the epilogue's story is that Omori develops a tendency to overwork himself, which is something his friends help him deal with

[staerplatinum]

Some of my favorite doodles from my headcanon/redesign concept sheets used as an excuse to list my headcanons about the main six (for an AU that I'm writing)! More under the cut!

Charlie Morningstar:

She's way more hot-headed than in canon, albeit still keeping her cheerful and gentle persona.

She loves food, and she's always hungry. I always loved the trope of protagonists (both male and female, like look at Goku himself, Usagi Tsukino or Minako Aino) and I think it could fit Charlie perfectly!

She loves planning (and this is already canon) and she has a lot of stationary gadgets. "Sure Alastor, you can borrow any pen! ... Not that one! :D" And takes good care of them.

Her birthday is February 29th. I thought that it wouldn't be strange if her birthday ended up being that day if she follows a demoniac calendar...

Vaggie:

It's canon that she likes everything to be clean and organized. I think she would help Niffty with the rooms and everything! They bond!

She and Angel Dust absolutely have BFFs vibes. Before Hazbin Hotel I remember they were meant to be a couple, but with the new canon they're still adorable as best friends and I love the dynamic more. They get into fights but it's never anything serious, they look like a big brother and a little sis, even though sometimes she definitely acts as a big sis to him. Angel sees Molly through her :(

As we know she doesn't really believe in herself, but she actually makes a very good leader!

In my fanfic, contrarily to the series, she was really fighting with burning hate towards the angels that cast her out. She holds a deep grudge and it's hard for her to come out of it. (I want Out for Love to be useful, it's my favorite song ç_ç)

Her name as a human was Agata Flores, she was born the 28th of June in 1993. If we still count 2014 as her death and if she was once a winner that then became sinner... my headcanon is that she died of a hate crime in March 25th 2014, aged 21.

Angel Dust:

He's not in drag 24/7. He really is feminine, but sometimes likes to try masculine outfits too. (which make Husk wonder "why am I staring??")

He's secretly a nerd. Or not so secretly. He owns video games, and especially likes RPGs and life sims.

He overanalyses everything. Well, almost everything but still. He actually likes reading, and this led him to analyse anything that comes into his eye. (Oh, I can't wait to write one of those scenes because I already had fun outlining it LMAOO)

He's probably Charlie's food buddy. Give them some food and they'll be happy (Valentino doesn't like this but get screwed Val, give him food too)

His name as a human was Anthony (canon) Cavallaro and had Neapolitan heritage. He's born in April 1st (and this is canon) 1912, he died of overdose (canon) in October 11th 1947, aged 35.

Alastor:

I loved his pilot persona more than the series', and most of the things are confirmed canon... but I do have some headcanons for him, too! (also yeah I don't think that will be my last radioapple drawing or doodle lol)

We know he either doesn't sleep or sleeps with his eyes open. Well, I imagine him that in the few rare occasions he actually sleeps, his radio works as a mental surveillance "camera". Also, he's a light sleeper and would definitely go "Do you fellows mind? I'm trying to sleep." like the old man he is.

I would like to explore Alastor's feelings for Charlie more, and how he sees her as a daughter. While we may not know if he was telling the truth, I think they both seeked each other as a fatherly and daughter figures in a way. Many in the fandom headcanon Alastor's father to have been shitty to him. If he truly sees Charlie as a daughter, it could be because he would like to be a better father than the one he had, and since he never had children, he grew affectionate to Charlie as such.

He knows how to handle alcohol well, but I like to think that when he's really drunk he doesn't even know what he's doing. Oh, you saw him playing with Angel's Nintendo Switch? He even brought it into his room to continue playing Animal Crossing by himself? He was totally wasted.

His name as a human was Alastor (which is apparently canon, but I wonder if it'll be retconned or not?) Boudreaux-Alexander. Boudreaux was his father's last name, Alexander was his mother's. He didn't like his mother taking her husband's last name and wanted to keep his mother's. He was born in March 7th 1901, and died in August 4th 1933, aged 32, after being shot by a hunter that confused him with a deer and was mauled by dogs afterwards. (Yikes, I'm so sorry)

Niffty:

She definitely has written lots of fanfics about her fellow hotel friends. Especially men. Yet, she loves Charlie and Vaggie too, so they're there as well.

We know both Niffty and Husk have deals with Alastor. She loves them both, I love to headcanon that when she feels lonely and can't sleep well or had nightmares, she either goes to Husk's or Alastor's room to sleep with them. They welcome her warmly ç_ç

Alastor and Husk most definitely know Niffty's story, which is why they care about her so much. She's childish for her age, but it could be tied to a past that only the two of them know very well.

Niffty knew Vox when they were alive. Now I know it could be a weird headcanon since Niffty is Japanese and Vox is American, but if Niffty's work brought her around the world it wouldn't be weird if they crossed paths. When Vox died Niffty was 19, she either saw him die in front of her eyes or something else happened.

As I mentioned in my concept sheets, she used to wear glasses when she was alive so she can't see really well without them after she died. Sometimes she borrows Alastor's monocle, and if we apply the headcanon that he's colorblind, without his monocle not only he can't see anything but can't even see colors LOL

Her name when she was alive was Sachiko Tanaka, born February 27th 1934. She died September 1st 1956, aged 22, there are popular headcanons about the way she died and yikes, if it's true she didn't have a good death either. Not at all.

Husk:

Maybe I'm overanalysing but what if the reason why he grew affectionate to Niffty was because he once had children? Or just one? Either he had a child and was with him but felt like he wasn't a good father or his ex-wife left him because of his gambling addiction and this made him feel guilty, not able to see his child ever again. (I feel bad just thinking about this but ç_ç)

Despite the fact he hates being on a leash and none other than Alastor's, he actually cares about him. If the two were friends when they were alive (including Mimzy), this could explain why he's still around Alastor even if reluctantly. (Sure he says he's forced, but in the pilot Alastor summoned him, so it's safe to assume either Alastor-Husk-Niffty were roommates before coming to the hotel and did their business without telling Alastor, or simply we need more explanations of Alastor's deals)

His name when he was alive was Ivan Goncharov, born January 29th 1900, and died in December 23rd 1967, aged 67. As I mentioned in my concept sheets, he was friends with Alastor and Mimzy when they were alive and he was the last one of them to die. He would often visit his friends' graves when he was still alive :(

[tothesoundofthefreakyclock]

Era IV - V Ghouls HCs (part 1)

Color shows who made what hc - reblogs are appreciated!

Disclaimer!! We don't call Sodo, well... Sodo. We instead call him Smoke.

Basics

Phantom and Aurora are siblings with Aurora being the older sibling. Back in the Pits since they were ghoul kits they've been inseparable. They were summoned together. Can be a bit chaotic with each other if left alone together, but the moment Swiss joins in they'll all need to be watched like a hawk.

It took a while for Mountain, Smoke, and Aether to warm up to Copia as frontman since they were used to Terzo

Ghoulettes have girls night every week. They blast white girl bangers all night

Ghouls send Copia the ant with bindle photo when he scolds them to get out of trouble (it always works)

While most ghouls like to play fight, Swiss and Aurora do it the most and it’s usually pretty intense so the others avoid with them unless feeling particularly worked up. You would think they were actually trying to kill each other but no

Cirrus, Cumulus, Smoke, and Swiss watch those shitty reality TV shows to point fun at humans and the awful things they do. This is nearly a weekly thing if any of them have time to hang out with free time.

Cumulus and Cirrus always would send messages with at least one emoticon

We know Mountain is the tallest, but the smallest current ghouls are both Cumulus and Aurora at 5’3”. However, they are not the smallest ghouls of modern day Ghost (that title goes to Mist at 4'10" aka three sauces tall.)

Smoke/Dewdrop

He/they

Summoning day is June 21st, 2015

Favorite animal is pangolins because they look like dragons

Transmasc (ftm)

Went by Dewdrop when water ghoul, but changed it to Smoke when he became a fire ghoul

Middle child energy

He still has some fin-like features on him, but not as much as before. Some water ghouls could have scales like fish, so you'd have to squint to see the patches of scales on Smoke. They were larger when he was still water. The fire features kinda override it.

Not mean (unless it's Aether /j), just easily irritated

Would never get angry at any ghoulettes. He drinks respect women juice everyday. He most definitely fears Cirrus sometimes

Sometimes joins the ghoulettes with their girls night just to get away from all the chaos, especially after a rough week

Will sell Aether's non-existent soul for a single corn chip

Ok he actually does care about Aether, but he just has limits to his shenanigans.

Has a huge crush on Aurora, but can't find any way to express it so he just runs away the moment she looks at him. Ran into walls and door frames multiple times because of this.

Since he was transformed into a fire ghoul instead of naturally born like that, the features a fire ghoul would normally have are weaker with him (ex: he doesn’t radiate much heat from his body)

Wants affection and then bites when he’s had enough like a cat

Doesn’t take criticism very well

Aether

He/him

Summoning day is June 24th, 2015

Favorite animal is tigers because of how big they are and goofy they can be at times

One of my three weed smoking girlfriends

Little sibling energy that Smoke the main victim of

One of the most kindest ghouls you'll meet

He has some knowledge in healing and health, so if any of the ghouls, or anyone who is close to him in general, are sick or injured they go straight to Aether

He does that thing where he gets his hands wet and flings his fingers out to get water on Smoke

Helped take care of and watch over ghoul kits back in the Pits

He is still around the Ministry after leaving Ghost and still hangs out with the others when they're not touring.

If he could wear socks in sandals all the time he would

Very sensitive. Cries at those sad dog ads and donates the Ministry’s money

—

Mountain

He/they

Summoning day is June 19th, 2015

Favorite animal is ram since he has similar horns like them and how tough they are when butting heads with each other

Gentle giant

Has long, dark black hair that is super soft to touch and doesn’t mind the others playing with his hair

Ghoul equivalent to a golden retriever

Like a big brother to Smoke and Aether

Doesn't hunt like the other ghouls. He is able to control his urges, and plus there's already food inside so why bother

Plant dad. Even if you give him a fake plant he'll still love and cherish it. Names them all

Usually will have to stop Smoke from trying to lunge for Aether’s throat

Taller than the average earth ghoul at 7’3”. There were bruises on his face because of walking right into door frames when first summoned. Gets front passenger seat privileges

Keeper of air jail (lifting somebody up if they are causing trouble) Grabbing em by the scruff when the others are fighting

Rain

Any pronouns

Summoning day is July 18th, 2016

Favorite animal is blue marlin because of how fast it can swim and the sword-like appendage on their noses

Likes to keep fishies

Can only sleep when it’s pitch black

Has shark like features (the teeth, tail, sense of smell, etc)

Not shy at all, but just not very social. Possible social anxiety? Yes social anxiety bc projection

Eats the rainbow aquarium rocks like they're Nerds candy.

Mainly sticks around with Mountain since the two have good chemistry.

Gets mad at his own hiccups

Genderfluid

—

Cumulus

She/ey

Summoning day is April 4th, 2016

Favorite animal is mourning dove because of how they coo

Wine aunt

Anxiety. Not too terrible, but it still is awful

Would bring a dead animal inside after hunting and call it her Girl Dinner™

Literal Disney princess. She could sing and birds would fly to her to sing along

Terrified when first summoned. Glued to Cirrus’ side for the first six months

She is one of the sweetest ghoulettes, but she has quite a bit of weird and creepy pictures and items that will freak people out. Her and Swiss send each other cursed images and videos

Very motherly and protective of the others

Loves to wear fluffy, cloud-like clothing

Link to part 2 will be here soon!

[letmeliveinelfhame]

Bunny intro

Toffee

Hello, my name is Toffee and I'm a mini lop! Mama became my human on the 29th June 2023 and she named me after the colour of my fur when I was a baby. I was an only bun until 3rd December 2023. Mama loves to pick me up and have cuddles, and I'm always there for her when she needs emotional support. My favourite food is parsley, but I also like other greens. I'm a master paper chewer-I've destroyed Mama's bedroom wallpaper, and chewed the spine of her most expensive book at the time (my Grandma spent £25 on that book for Mama, but that didn't matter to me). I'm the reason Mama was bought a new bookcase, it has cupboard doors for the bottom 2 shelves so now I sadly cannot chew more books. Thank you for reading my intro!

Angel

Hello, my name was Angel and Mama thinks I could have been a holland lop! My previous owner told Mama that I was a mini lop, but I got a bit older and there were differences between me and Toffee that made Mama and Grandma think I was a holland lop. Mama became my human on the 3rd December 2023 and she named me after Angel from the Disney Stitch franchise. Mama was originally going to name me Marshmallow. My previous owner kept me as an outdoor bun, so I came to Mama a little dirty but she cleaned me up. I liked being an indoor bun when I came to Mama, but I had trust issues that made Mama believe I had been badly treated before. Whenever someone came near me, I would run away and hide. Even if Mama just walked into our bedroom, I would run away. I did, however, become fast friends with Toffee once he was neutered and we would play, sleep and eat together. Mama took me to the vet to be spayed on the 14th May 2024, but it went wrong and on the 17th May 2024 I left Mama to join the other angels in heaven. I only got to be with Mama for 5 months.

Fudge

Hello, my name is Fudge and I'm a mini lop! Mama became my human on the 19th May 2024 and she named me after the colour of my fur when I was a baby. I recently recovered from being spayed, and Mama is now trying to bond me with Toffee. I'm not fussy about my greens, I'll eat any of the greens Mama and Grandma buy for me. I can be a cheeky madam, I love to thump my back paw. I've even bit Mama a couple of times because I wasn't happy about something. Mama currently has a fading bruise on her wrist because I bit her. Mama understands I wasn't happy though, and she was quick to forgive. Mama loves to pick me up and have cuddles when she gets the opportunity-I like to run away sometimes. It depends on my mood. I love to destroy toys I am given, they only last me a couple of days. I'm eyeing Toffee's toy up, he's had it around a month now and he's only chewed a little bit off it.

[experimentkc]

Happy (belated) anniversary to Lilo & Stitch: The Series and Stitch!

Yes, I know that the twentieth anniversary of the premiere of Lilo & Stitch: The Series (on ABC Kids) was on September 20th. I was sick back then, though. So, I'm celebrating it today on the anniversary of its Disney Channel premiere instead.

Lilo & Stitch: The Series continued our beloved titular human-alien duo's adventures on their home island of Kaua'i after the first film and the show's pilot film Stitch! The Movie. Throughout the course of 65 episodes over two seasons that aired within almost three years (September 2003 to June/July 2006), they went around the island (and occasionally elsewhere) to find, capture, and rehabilitate Jumba's other genetic experiments by giving them a place where they truly belonged. They also dealt with the ex-Captain Gantu, now working for Jumba's ex-partner Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel, as they hunted down the experiments.

While Lilo & Stitch creator Chris Sanders, who reprised his voice role as Stitch in the show (as did almost all of the original film's voice cast reprising their roles), never really intended for his film to go anywhere beyond the one film he made, Lilo & Stitch: The Series has left a lasting impact with Lilo & Stitch fans everywhere that can still be seen to this day. Dr. Hämsterviel and his Python-esque Frenchman-sounding voice became recognizable while giving the franchise a proper villain. Gantu was fleshed out more as a character instead of just being a brute enforcer for someone else, especially through his interactions with the memorably lazy, wisecracking, sandwich-loving, reluctant sidekick Experiment 625, who we know today as Reuben. The second season did crossovers with other Disney properties before it was cool, with the casts of Kim Possible, American Dragon: Jake Long, The Proud Family, and Recess each joining our duo's 'ohana for an episode. Then there are the genetic experiments themselves, with their fun designs and wide and sometimes wacky abilities making a lasting impression on those who enjoyed seeing Stitch and his mischief while expanding on the (admittedly crazy and inconsistent) lore of Lilo & Stitch's universe. One of them, X-619/Splodyhead, even made a cameo in a Walt Disney Animation Studios film in Big Hero 6, while another, X-221/Sparky, who debuted in Stitch! The Movie, became a boss in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. And we can't talk about experiments without mentioning X-624/Angel, Stitch's love interest and mate who became so popular in her own right that she now gets a regular influx of merchandise and has made several video game appearances, including most recently in Disney Speedstorm.

Not to be forgotten, the Stitch! anime series also recently celebrated its fifteenth anniversary of its premiere back on October 8th. The first spin-off made after the original Western continuity, Stitch! had the little blue alien crash-land on a small fictional island in the Ryukyu Islands called Izayoi, where he meets and befriends the tomboyish Yuna. During the first two seasons, which were animated by Madhouse, Yuna and Stitch go on their own adventures around the island, befriending yokai who live in the island's Chitama Forest, and dealing with Hämsterviel, Gantu, and Reuben again. Some of the experiments even return in this show, especially Angel, who became an intergalactic pop star in the (in-universe) years since we first met her on Kaua'i. The main plot of these two seasons is about Stitch getting enough good deeds to have the magical Chitama Spiritual Stone grant him a wish, which was apparently to become "ruler of the universe". However, by the end, he decides that living with Yuna is better. After Madhouse's 56 episodes (which includes two post-season specials), Shin-Ei Animation took over for the third season, retooling it by having Yuna and Stitch move to a fictional Okinawan city called New Town, going on wackier adventures there with her new classmates, while Hämsterviel now goes after Stitch on behalf of a big-eared humanoid alien woman named Delia to gain a power cell within him, using several experiments that he "transmutated" to do his dirty work. The 30-episode (again, including another post-season special) season also had Stitch reuniting with Lilo, now all grown up with a daughter of her own, for one episode. The main series of three seasons ran from 2008 to 2011; they were followed by two more specials, Stitch and the Planet of Sand in 2012 and Stitch! Perfect Memory (or Stitch! A Perfect Memory) in 2015.

Infamously, the English dub of the anime established itself as a post-Lilo continuation from the get-go with probably the worst-chosen opening lines to any sequel show ever, when Jumba claimed (later proven false by Lilo's aforementioned third-season appearance) that Stitch left her because Lilo became more interested in a boyfriend over him; such lines, which weren't in the Japanese original, caused many fans to swear off the anime series as "not 'ohana". However, as the years passed since Stitch! ended, the anime faded to relative obscurity, which in turn caused much of the hate it received to die down. In more recent years, it's now garnered some appreciation in its own right after years of ridicule and vitriol, with those such as Saberspark enjoying the show for what it is and making videos about their more positive thoughts on it.

My friend @angoraram made the drawing at the top of this post for this special occasion featuring Stitch, Reuben, Angel, and several other experiments well-known and obscure from throughout Lilo & Stitch: The Series (plus Dorkifier from Stitch!). She already shared this picture on her DeviantArt galley last month, but she also allowed me to share some special 5K desktop wallpaper edits I made of her drawing available in 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratio versions. You can download these over here.

[the-monkey-ruler]

Are there more stories about what demons Erlang has faced? Or more stories about him or where his character is included? I'm aware of Journey to the West, fsyy, the story with his mother and Lotus Lantern, but I was wondering if there were other stories where his character appears.

There are a lot of stories with him but they are more like legends than like narrative tales so to speak. Xiyouji, FSYY, and Lotus Lantern are novels and plays that allow full narratives that Erlang Shen features in but none really show the full extent of his character as he is more of a feature character than ever the protagonist.

Erlang's control of water is Erlang Shen's first and greatest achievement was water control and water control and made him a famous water god. With Erlang God's water control as the core, it radiates into legends such as killing dragons and slaying dragons.

Carrying mountains to catch the sun was from the Kaixi Period of the Song Dynasty, the "Inscription of the Induction of King Zhaohui Lingxian" describes the Erlang Shen as "the majesty of disturbing the mountain to take advantage of the sun, and the bravery of crossing the sea to capture the dragon.

The legend of Erlang Shen leading his divine soldiers and generals to search the mountains and succumb to demons can be found in the volume "Searching the Mountains", also known as the "Erlang Shen Searching the Mountains".

In the Five Dynasties, there is a legend about Erlang capturing an evil dragon. "Shu Shu": "The New Year's Banquet in June, "Guankou Divine Team" by Jiaofang Haiyu. The image of the two dragons fighting, the sky and the earth were dark for a moment, and there was heavy rain and hail. The Qing Dynasty's "Sichuan General Chronicle" locks the dragon: " It is said that Erlang locked the evil dragon in it. When frost falls and water falls, you may sometimes see it locked in the clouds."

In the Song Dynasty, there were a lot of themes of Erlang killing dragons. The Erlang who spent money usually rode an eagle and followed the dog. The entourage held a bow and stood a three-pointed two-edged sword beside him to subdue the dragon or the dragon transformed into a human body.

In the early days, Erlang Shen's divinity mainly came from Li Bing, who controlled floods. Guankou Erlang Shen controlled wind and rain, and Li Erlang's main deeds were also to capture dragons and control floods.

The "Stele Record of the Divine Blessing King" written by Zhou Hu of the Southern Song Dynasty (1170-1231) records that in 1206 AD, that is, the second year of Kaixi, Erlang Shen helped him fight against the Jin Dynasty and achieved a major turning point. Therefore, Emperor Ningzong of the Song Dynasty named Erlang Shen "Saint Martyr Zhaohui to protect the country".

As the belief in Erlang Shen spread widely, the priesthood of Erlang Shen also expanded as he was seen as a protector of the country's spirit. The "Nangong County Chronicle" of the Republic of China quoted Lu Zhongfu from Jin Zhangzong as saying: "In the autumn of the fifth year of Zhenglong (1160), the giant locusts covered the sky and ate all the acres. There were reports of hunger everywhere, the price of grain soared, and county people rushed to pray at the temple of Erlang Shen. The locusts dispersed and did not stay in the area. Fortunately, they were harmless at this time."

Erlang Shen is not only a god with vast supernatural powers and remarkable spiritual responses, but he was also regarded as the god of drama in the Ming Dynasty and was worshiped by Liyuan.

The Cuju industry also respects Erlang as the god of the industry and follows his character of playing games in the world.

Erlang God was revered as the "Lord of Sichuan" and became the god who protected the people of Sichuan from living and working in peace and contentment.

Song Zhang Tangying's " Sichuan Prayer " records: "(Qiande) in the second year of August, (Wang) Yan patrolled the north, and Prime Minister Wang Kai judged the guards of the six armies. The banners and flags were inexhaustible for hundreds of miles. Yan's military uniforms, Wearing golden armor, a beaded hat, and brocade sleeves, he holds a bow and carries an arrow. The people look at him and say he is like a 'guan-kou god'." Erlang Shen is equipped with a hound, an eagle, and a slingshot. It is a standard image of the hunting god, capable of restraining birds, beasts, mountain spirits, and wild monsters.

Because Erlang Shen carried a slingshot, he was attached to the function of delivering children by later generations. Because the slingshot is homophonic with "birth", it means birth. Almost every Erlang temple has people seeking children, which is the basic priesthood of Erlang Shen.

Tianqi was built in southern Fujian during the Chongzhen period of the Fengshan Ancestral Temple in the Ming Dynasty, the belief in Erlang Shen has formed a water god worship with strong local characteristics of southern Fujian in southern Fujian. There are now three statues in the Fengshan Ancestral Temple, which are called "Ambassador", "Second Ambassador" and "Third Ambassador", and "Ambassador" is the Erlang Shen in people's minds

I'm taking this all from his page so if you want a more detailed explanation I would suggest looking it into yourself because there is SO MUCH information about Erlang Shen being such a well-known figure and hero of legend that no way I can fit it all in one post but I hope this gives people an idea just how grand Erlang Shen's legend is and just how rich in both history and lore he is!

[carriehobbs]

Please tell me all about your Thicker Than MCs (no pressure!!!).

i would love to talk about my thicker than mcs!! 💕💕 i've done all the romance routes, but i don't have really solid mcs for all of them (sometimes i'm just inputting the first name that comes to my mind so i can see what a route has to offer without really getting attached to or thinking about a character, if that makes any sense). the mcs that i do have also all have some similarities (because i find thicker than (and blood moon too) has a fairly strong semi-set personality for the mc), so i'll try and focus on what makes them different from each other

isabelle

isabelle is my minimum wage schmuck (path of the master) and her whole thing is about power and control. she went from being completely powerless and exploited in her shitty job to being powerless and exploited as blackwell's thrall and now she's finally got a chance to turn the tables and make sure she's never subjugated like that again. she revels in the power that she gets from being a vampire lord. i waffle back and forth on whether or not she makes fledglings pay rent (she doesn't care that much about preserving human lives) or if she kicks them out entirely (it would give her a status boost and, arguably, more power and prestige that way). when she was human, people used to call her izzy but she always hated the name, so when she became a vampire she chose to reinvent herself a little bit and started going by isabelle (she thought it sounded more mature). her relationship with marcel is really interesting because there are major themes of power and control in his romance route. given that isabelle is all about never being exploited again, the amount of trust she places in marcel in their romance is incredibly significant. she's rather submissive to him in the bedroom, but it's this incredibly meaningful gesture that says i trust you with my body. i trust you with my safety. i trust you not to hurt me in any way that i don't ask for. when you drink my blood, i trust you not to take more than i can give. she also super gets off on the fact that marcel is nominally in control, but she knows that she really wields a lot of the power in their relationship (i think a lot about the kiss after the sword fight in chapter 4, where marcel insists on drinking from you first because you're a fledgling and he's older than you, but then gives you back more of his blood than he drank from you originally). isabelle is also incredibly jealous and possessive (the money heist scene in chapter 7 always makes me laugh because marcel brings james, one of his fledgling retainers, and isabelle gets sooooo huffy about it. like what do you mean you brought this fucking fledgling here to help you. i'm your fledgling. you're not allowed to have other fledglings. marcel kill this guy). this also means she's very attached to who she considers to be "her" people and will do just about anything for them and will go after people who try to harm them because they're hers. don't touch her stuff. she's so shacked up with marcel, they're going to spend eternity together (unless they die first lol) 💕

june

june is my gambler (path of the master). june isn't really about ideals or hard work and (prior to vampire prison) was really more interested in enjoying being a vampire. she likes the power and freedom being on the night court offers her (compared to other fledglings), but she doesn't really care a lot about amassing power for herself. she's not a big schemer (she's more than happy for tracy to handle a lot of the actual running and politicking of her domain) or a planner (she kind of reminds me of astarion in bg3 if you ask him about his plan to kill cazador and he's like "well, first we find cazador, then we kill cazador, and maybe we kill some other people too, i don't know, i'm not a details person" (paraphrased)). she also definitely still has problems with risk-taking from her gambling days: when she's presented with a gamble, she has to take it, even if it is bound to end poorly (for example, when you meet nathan in chapter 5 and he tries to kill you if you've not been a good little vampire, she made every single dumb decision that put her in danger and risked her getting shot just in case it gave her the upper hand). my rule for playing june is that, if i'm presented with a set of decisions, i have to pick the one that seems the riskiest. june is romancing iliya, so she's having a great time as of the last few updates lol. i think they both share a lot of similarities in that they really like parts of being a vampire, and a lot of what drew her to him is that she finds him fun to hang out with. she just enjoys being around him. his betrayal in chapter 8 was very rough for her, because she's kind of in love with him (whoops, she didn't mean for that to happen), and she's still really hurt by it. she's trying to forgive him, though, because in her mind, starving in vampire jail for five years with her is both a) punishment enough and b) pretty good proof that he cares about her too and is sorry. so she's trying to move past all that

lucas

lucas is one of my criminals (path of the beast) and he has a daughter named ella ("ella" was originally a placeholder kid name while i thought of something better, but then it stuck, and now if my mc has a kid they're automatically a daughter named ella. it feels weird to have the kid be named something else now, even if it's for a different mc). lucas's whole thing is that he looks like (and thus everyone expects him to be) all brawn and no brain, but he's actually one of my more strategic mcs. he's cautious and thinks things through from multiple angles and deliberately lets people assume that he's less intelligent than he is so that he can use their assumptions to his advantage (he reminds me a lot of iliya, who actually is his bff - weirdly enough, they look kind of similar, too). lucas cares a lot about making his domain a safer place for humans because he hopes (or hoped, after the last few updates, lol) to be able to one day bring ella into his domain so that he could watch over her (without being indebted to marcel) and know that she would be safe. he's romancing freya and they're really rather sweet together. he liked her instantly, mostly because when they met, she was one of the first people to really know him and still treat him like a person. most people either knew he was a vampire and treated him as one (or, worse, knew he was blackwell and treated him like a lord) and had all these expectations for him, or they didn't know he was a vampire and treated him as they would any other human. freya, however, knew he was a vampire, and treated him as if he was a person anyway. being with her was this piece of normalcy where he didn't have to pretend to be something he's not (either a lord or a human), and he could just be himself. prior to vampire jail, he also privately held hopes of introducing freya and ella to each other. on lucas's end, freya is someone he can be soft for and take care of. she gives him an outlet for his desire to care for and (to a much lesser extent) provide for someone (see the scene with freya in chapter 7 where you take her back to your place after her debacle with the ghost and get her food and insist she rests - lucas wants to be able to protect and provide for and take care of the people he cares about).

jackie

jackie is one of my divorcees (path of the shadow) and she was actually the first mc i made for thicker than, and in her first iteration she was a super-pathetic 40-year-old divorced dude named jack. the goal for jack was to be just an incredibly pathetic, cowardly, self-serving person, and while you can get a lot of that in the game, i found the feel of the dialogue really didn't fit the particular kind of pathetic feel i was going for with him. but then i realized i could age jack down a bit so that the dialogue would feel more natural and then her gender got swapped (mainly because i found the thought of the scene with tracy in the bathroom in chapter 5 to be really compelling when i imagined blackwell as a woman) and jackie was born. i took the "you're a loser" opening very seriously with her and imagined her as a character who went almost overnight from being a loser with no power, no friends, a bad relationship with her ex, and nothing going for her, to being a vampire lord (and, personally, i think the power's kind of gone to her head). she doesn't really care much about human life, and, prior to being in vampire jail, leaned hard into the power and prestige being a vampire lord gave her. now she mostly wants to tear lucius a new one and, if the rest of the night court goes down with him, that's fine by her. i think she and tracy share a kind of mentality where they prioritize self-preservation over other (what she would call) lofty ideals (e.g., preserving human life, etc.)

kate

kate is my doctor (path of the shadow). her entire thing is that she has a very strong code of ethics and strongly prioritizes human life. she trained for years to be a doctor to help and save people's lives, and she's not going to let some asshole decide to kill her and change all of that. she has a lot of anger towards the previous blackwell and the night court (it's not just that blackwell murdered her, but that he asked permission from gaius to do it. gaius made an executive decision about whether or not kate should live or die as if she was just some object, because her life meant so little to them, and then blackwell murdered her). she hates the night court and always felt trapped and unable to leave it (because being in the night court offered protection that fledglings normally don't have), and the second she met nathan, she jumped on his offer to help him destroy the night court. kate is romancing nathan, which works really well with their mutual hatred of the night court and desire to protect humans from vampires. he also brings out a kind of teasing, playful side of her that she doesn't normally get to indulge in anymore: she used to joke around more as a human, but being murdered and turned into a vampire and forced to become a lord all while trying to simultaneously maintain as normal a life as she can have doesn't really leave you with a lot of humour left. but she finds it so fun to pester him and get under his skin, and being with him makes her feel more human (and not just because she can mimic him). she also really admires nathan, his commitment to fighting against vampires who hurt and kill humans, andnthe way he turned the pain he experienced into a driving force that allows him to try and do good. i think she recognizes that instinct in herself.

ken

ken is my other criminal (path of the beast), also with a daughter named ella (they're attempting to romance minjo - we all know that's not going well right now). she's also my only mc who has a tag (even if there are only 2 posts in it right now, lol)! ken is nonbinary and uses they/she pronouns (even if the game defaults to they/them). ken is fun because they're genuinely kind of a mess. they're have pretty poor impulse control, have no filter, and can be really irreverent. i think they're gaius's favourite of all my mcs because they will not act deferential to him (which, after hundreds of years of posturing courtiers, entertains him). most likely to be murdered by werewolves after saying something stupid. ken's very much the kind of person to say "what could go wrong?" and then fuck everything up so extremely badly. ken, like lucas, is driven to keep her domain safe for humans out of a desire to bring ella into their domain some day and become a bigger part of her life. they appreciate pete for trying to take care of ella and keep her safe, but they also would not hesitate to kill him if given the chance because he pisses them off so badly lol. they're currently trying to work things out with the werewolves because they feel really bad about everything that's happened with minjo (bailing on them for 5 years and the other thing. if you've read the most recent chapter 11 update you know) and they want to be able to work things out with her, but they really don't expect to be able to. however, if anyone could get werewolves to accept the world's weirdest vampire in their pack, it would be ken.

abby

abby is my divorcee (path of the shadow) who has a good relationship with chris (mostly because she's romancing them). abby was only recently promoted from the amorphous ooze where all the other "mcs" who just have names and exist only to show me romance scenes from other routes live and is gradually growing a personality, so i'm kind of studying her like a bacteria culture and i don't really know what she's going to turn into yet. she is trying to get back with her ex and co-parent their child (ella!! i wasn't kidding when i said all my thicker than kids are named ella) together and, though they've hit some stumbling blocks, she remains optimistic! abby, like lucas and ken, is driven to keep her domain safe for humans because she wants her domain to be a safe place for chris and ella, but she does still care about the well-being of all humans (they're just not as important to her as chris or ella). abby is generally a pretty positive person who tries to avoid conflict (cue her disappearing on chris pre-divorce, which caused a lot of problems in their marriage) and has, over the past few years as a vampire lord, changed for the better, oddly enough. she's become more confident, more assertive, and more willing to fight for what she wants (whereas, in her pre-divorce marriage with chris, she was avoidant, petty, and argumentative, and willing to use her positive thinking to ignore problems chris tried to raise in their relationship). however, her five years in vampire prison have changed her too, and she's finding herself to be a little more brutal and cut-throat than she used to be.

[nova--spark]

(I’ve had all day at work to come up with idea so prepare for some spam. I’ll try to send them one at a time though)

Some of the bots might have to use a different name while on earth because while there’s some weird names out there Cybertronian names might draw a bit too much attention

Optimus and Elita could probably start going by Orion and Ariel again

Bumblebee could probably just go by Bee, there’s some people who just have one letter for a name

Wheeljack is already called Jackie sometimes so he’d probably just use that

I looked it up and Magnus is actually a name. An uncommon one but still. Ultra Magnus would probably just go by that. He wouldn’t want to change his name

But Arcee, Bulkhead, and Smokescreen would all probably need new names

At base they’d probably still be called by their Cybertronian names. But in public they’d have to use the new names to avoid suspicion

Oh god yeah they needed somewhat real IDs at least so there was the fiasco of finding human names for these idiots…

Optimus and Elita were fine, thank goodness, going by their old names and Elita taking Pax as a last name. It seemed very fitting to everyone.

Bee chose a rather simple name, just Ben, and once again, the last name of Pax given to the young bot. Which fit him so well, none could argue and so, Ben Pax was his new identity.

Smokescreen took his time trying to find a name, that was fitting his …rather outstanding personality and more. In the end, he was signed into being, as Soren Pax. He didn’t get to argue much on being given the Pax last name, because Elita and Optimus had been quick to sign the paperwork properly adopting him in these human forms.

He didn’t mind too much, was just baffled he now really did share a family.

Magnus sought no change to his name, and took a simple and common human last name, though surely he would stand out regardless with his first name being so…formal. Thus, Magnus Kent became his name.

Wheeljack just called it a day when he decided to use his nickname, though on Miko’s insistence, they found him a last name to go with it. Jackie Wheeler, which Miko grinned upon presenting it. But it made the Wrecker keel over laughing and it was approved immediately.

Bulk took on the name of Bruce, though he still of course was called Bulk. It seemed fitting honestly and he was amused to hear that humans often used nicknames that resembled his Cybertronian name, especially the construction workers. So, he sought little change at all to his name, and simply went by Bruce Smith.

Ratchet kept his name…for the most part that is. As a last name that is, and for a first name, was just Roman.

Arcee really didn’t want to change her name, thinking it was already human esque in a sense.

But at the insistence they needed to be safe above all else, on her legal documents, her name was Araceli, which closely resembled Arcee anyway. Jack was quick to suggest the Darby last name for her, which June agreed to, saying she could be ‘a distant auntie’ of Jack’s.

Safe to say, Fowler has a lot of paperwork to do.

[skullcandy11111198]

Leveragetober23 Day 12: pride

Parker is singing again. It's kinda creepy, but the group isn't willing to call them out on it.

Bigots can try, but they will fry.

Over and over and over again.

The taser sparks. Everyone shuffles back, just a little bit. No one makes eye contact.

Eliot goes back to hauling away the still twitching body while Hardison goes through the man's phone. Ostensibly, it's to see what he knew about them and what his mission was. Really, it's just so he can leave Parker to it. He loves his partner, really, but sometimes his person is whoo boy, as Nana would say. He leaves Parker to it. They grin and start the chorus over again, stroking the handheld lightning stick.

Really, it's not like the group was doing any crimes right now, anyway! Anyone with any sense could see that! Unless there is an apocalyptic level job that just absolutely needs to be taken care of, the founders of Leverage International never seem to work in June. So why all of these people have come out of the woodwork to try to arrest them, or capture them, or whatever it is they are trying to do, right now?? They're not having it. And of course, everyone is decked out in their colors, with all the pins and patches and paint to match, so people have made some stupid comments. But they learned.

Really, just try and stop Parker. Oh, that's right, you can't. Because they have a taser and a goal.

Originally, it was just Sophie's vacation. Every June, she would take the month off and go swanning off somewhere that no one else knew about. Nate tried to follow her a few times, but when Sophie doesn't want to be found, she was not. After a while, though, she opened up, and it turns out the big secret is that she charts out all of the major pride parades across the world and just spends the month country hopping, joining in on every celebration of pride she can.

Once the group found out, it sort of became a family outing. Everyone learned a lot about each other that they didn't know before, all they were all closer for it.

Sophie is a raging pansexual. That woman has got it on with every gender out there at least once, and she loved it. Truly, she just loves the human body in every shape and form it comes in. People routinely get gender euphoria just from being in her presence. She honestly might be a goddess, no one is sure, and they also aren't sure they want to know.

Parker isn't so much a girl as just girl-shaped in the eyes of society. They'll answer to she, but really they'll answer to anything and people just assume she. They like they/them the most, though. And pretzels. They really like pretzels, and think Alec and Eliot would too.

Alec vaguely knows he isn't entirely straight. He loves Parker, in all their Parker-ness. But he also has feelings about their resident hitter that he is not entirely clear on. He never really crushed on people all that much when he was younger, too. He really had to know them before he ever thought of them in that way. Either way, Nana always said he had a big heart. That was usually followed by some version of "now put the money back, please, we'll donate our own time to the homeless shelter, not someone else's resources," but suffice to say, he goes all out in his love.

Eliot, likewise, isn't a heterosexual cis man, but he's known that since the beginning. He knows he got lucky, having the parents and the support system he did, and he is thankful every day. His family accepted him from the beginning, and was able to contact a close friend who was able to help them out with getting prescriptions for testosterone early enough that he never really had to go through a lot of the pains and dysphoria a lot of people in his shoes go through every day. He is aware of his privilege, and he is grateful to everyone that helped make his belief into reality. (He also hasn't realized that Parker is basically courting him and Hardison is trailing after with a smile on his face and his heart in his eyes, but he'll realize it soon enough.)

Nate, though you would never know it when first meeting him, totally had bi-wife energy. Nate met Maggie through Sterling at I.Y.S., but she was on her way out the door to go clubbing with some friends and dragged him along when she saw how miserable he looked at the office party. Soon enough they were dancing the night away, and that was that. Maggie is also one of the least problematic people you will ever meet, so of course she was still close friends with all of her exes, which meant Nate was close with them too. Let's just say some of their dinner parties could get a little…raucous.

But coming back to now.

For some reason, all the grumps and grunts have decided June is the month this year to just get in their way, and Parker is having none of it. There are plans! Charts! Parties to attend, celebrations to have, riots to honor! And No One is going to stop them.

Bigots can try, but they will fry. Tzzzt!

[milkshakeoracle]

I'm sorry I haven't been very active. We took in a couple of stray cats at the end of October and they've taken up a lot of my free time the past couple weeks. But, now that they've settled in and formed their own routines, I'll have more time to devote to writing and such.

I kinda want to gush about the cats, so I'll put all that under the cut.

This is Pippin and he's a year old! He was the first I was able to bring inside. He's super chatty and a little ornery (we call him our angsty teen). He's very curious about human food, and always investigates whatever we're eating or making, though takes "no" very well. When we take him off the counter or the table (or our laps when we're lazy and eating on the couch), and tell him no, he doesn't try it again. Though he will yell at us to share, and sometimes we'll give him a little piece if it's safe for him (he LOVES bread, eggs, and cheese).

We live on a corner lot, and he loves going from window to window to watch everything. We've put perches under all the windows for him, but his favorite is the kitchen window where we put a cubby up. He curls up in the top cubby and watches the squirrels, or the kids walking home from school.

We're trying to harness train him since he's still interested in going outside, which is going pretty well. Haven't really gotten the hang of the leash though.

This is from his first night inside. He slept for pretty much three entire days. Though when he did wake up, if our heads were in reach he'd walk back and forth, headbutting our faces (it was so sweet).

This is Honey and she's five! She came in a few days after Pippin. We moved into the house in June and she's been around since at least then, but she was very skittish and it took a while to earn her trust. Everything scared her and she wouldn't let us within ten feet of her. At first we thought she was feral, as there are a few feral cats around we also care for, but she eventually became comfortable enough with us to allow us to pet her, and that was it. She started purring so hard and so loudly, I felt it in my chest. We hoped we'd be able to bring her in as she also showed interest in the house. When we'd leave the door open, she'd investigate and explore the entryway, but bolt the moment she heard anything. People scare her, the sounds of shoes scare her, and she flinches if you try to pet her head first (though if you pet her back or side first, she'll beg for cheek and chin scritches).

She wants love so badly and it breaks my heart that someone clearly broke her trust. She's a big cat (nearly twice the size of Pippin), but she's so meek and her meows are so quiet. But she's really warmed up to us and we're happy to give her all the love she could ever want! Her favorite spot is the ottoman under the entryway window and she follows me to bed to sleep at my feet.

This from her first night. She was purring up a storm and working overtime making biscuits. It melted my heart when she shoveled her head under my hand the first time.

It's only been two weeks, but I love these two so much, and I'm so glad we were able to give them a warm, loving home.

[marinahavik]

I hope you like the Valentine's day special, in this special our protagonists are obviously our favorite snake and cherry blossom, that is Jamil viper and Yozakura Yumi

Warning: special chapters for certain dates, or even about events, will not be directly linked to the original story, these chapters can be considered extra chapters, which take place in a different timeline.

(Some details and information may be different, because here where I live, in this case in Brazil, Valentine's Day is celebrated on June 12th, and not on February 14th, for commercial reasons, well those were the only warnings, enjoy your chapter)

At the beginning of the special or extra chapters, I will be talking about when they take place in the original story

But in the case of events or commemorative dates, these chapters are not connected to the main story.

As I don't know how some characters speak to others, I will use what I know about Japanese honorifics

Jamil hated Valentine's Day, and also a large part of other commemorative dates, as because of that, he was always busy, especially if the Al-Asim family decided to have a party, so from a young age, Jamil hated these dates, because he was always full of work, while Kalim ended up doing nothing, and putting even more work in Jamil's hands, even if the white-haired boy didn't realize it.

After his exaggeration, Kalim began to become more independent, not wanting to cause even more problems for his “childhood friend”, so Jamil now no longer had as much work as he had before, something he was grateful for, since he didn't have as much work anymore. work could spend more time with a certain person.

Yumi, the human without magic, who appeared out of nowhere during the entrance ceremony, and who in a short time was already a topic at school, there was always some new rumor or rumor about the girl without magic and the cat monster who managed to become students , from a school as renowned as Night Raven.

Initially, Jamil was not interested in these rumors, until the rumor about Heartslabyul's dorm leader's overblot emerged, and that the girl had fought and defeated Riddle during her overblot.

At first, Jamil didn't believe this, after all the girl didn't have magic, how could she have defeated an overblot?, but whenever they ask a student from Heartslabyul, they will always give the same story, that Yumi fought against their leader and defeated him. , obviously the girl didn't do it alone, four other students from the dormitory helped her, but it was she who delivered the final blow, defeating Riddle.

After this incident, many students in the Queen of Hearts' dormitory considered the girl an angel, since since her overblot Riddle had stopped being a tyrant.

Jamil was curious about the girl, but never did anything to really get closer to her, until one day when Jamil was going to the school kitchen and ended up bumping into the girl, who was carrying a bunch of books, after helping her to Collecting everything, they both continued to go to their destination.

After this small encounter Jamil became even more curious, as the girl didn't seem to be very strong, in fact she had a very fragile appearance, so he doubted that she had really defeated a wizard as skilled as Riddle.

A few days after that, the two ended up meeting again, this time in the school kitchen, the two were making their recipes, sometimes helping the other with something, but after that day, the two ended up becoming quite close.

Jamil found Yumi's company pleasant, you could see that she was responsible and calm, the only problem the girl seemed to have were her problematic friends, who were always getting into trouble.

This was one of the reasons that made Jamil identify with her, after all Yumi had to take care of some idiots, in the same way that he had to take care of Kalim, speaking of him, Kalim quickly became friends with Yumi, since apparently she had joined in the club that Kalim was part of.

Jamil hated that, it was the first time that Jamil felt free with someone, for Kalim to ruin that, but to his surprise, Yumi didn't treat him any different even though she knew he was a servant, Yumi continued to treat him like a person, and not like the shadow of Kalim.

And Jamil loved it, he was finally being treated as he deserved, and not as a simple servant, as time went by Jamil ended up becoming more and more attracted to Yozakura, when the whole incident happened at the Spelldrive tournament, where Yumi seemed to be worried about he, Jamil was over the moon with that.

Then the incidents with Leona and Azul's overblots happened, and each time Yumi became more popular, and famous in those corridors, there was no student who hadn't heard about the mayor of Ramshackle.

And during winter break, where Jamil found out that Yumi would be staying at school, he found the perfect opportunity to fulfill his plan to kick Kalim out of the dorm leader position.

But not everything went as planned, Yumi managed to escape from Scarabia and when she came back she was accompanied by some idiots from Octanaville, those damn fish had ruined his whole plan, so he simply kicked them, Kalim and Grim out of the dorm, leaving only Yumi, for he could never hurt his diamond, even in its overblot state.

Obviously after his exaggeration, Jamil wanted to lock himself in his room and never come out again, for everything he did, he wasn't ashamed of what he did to others, but he was ashamed of what he did with his beloved diamond, it took a while until Jamil managed to gain the girl's trust again, but now he was committed to being the best version of himself for his beloved desert flower.

So unlike some time ago, Jamil started to enjoy Valentine's Day, and he was busy thinking about what to give to Yumi.

Jamil was walking around the room, distracted thinking about what he should give the girl, until Kalim entered his field of vision, carrying a bunch of boxes.

— Kalim, what are all these boxes? - the viper asked, approaching, seeing that Kalim seemed to be having some difficulty carrying all the things in his hands.

— oh, hi Jamil - Kalim said happily to his friend

— these are the gifts I received for Valentine's Day, some my family sent

— you didn't eat anything, right?

— don't worry, I didn't eat anything - Kalim replied happily, placing all the gifts on the table, a wide variety of sweets, flowers and stuffed animals, was already on the table, creating a large pile.

Jamil simply looked at it all, letting out a tired sigh, another reason Jamil wasn't the biggest fan of this date was that it could be easier for the heir Al-Asim to be poisoned.

— you better not eat anything until I do the poison test first.

— don't worry Jamil, that won't be necessary - Kalim replied, while looking for something in his bag, taking out an object, a small digital screen, similar to the floating screens that the ignihyde dorm leader uses

— Yu-chan asked Idia-senpai to create something that was capable of tracking poison, and so she gave me a copy, cool right?, so you don't need to try my food to see if it doesn't contain poison.

— Kalim, this is my job- Jamil interrupted Kalim, but before he continued speaking, Kalim interrupted him

— and I said that I would become more independent, so as not to cause you any more problems, it's not right for you to risk your life for mine, that's why Yu-chan gave me this poison detector, I don't want to see you run the risk of If you get hurt because of me, I don't want that to happen again.

— Kalim, this is my job, what will our families think if they see that I am neglecting my task of protecting you?

— our families are not here Jamil, I said I would learn to be independent, that I would learn how to take care of myself, but even though I said that, you insist on doing things even when I say I can do them.

— that's my job, that's what I've always been trained for.

— YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT?, YOU YOURSELF SAID I ONLY CAUSED YOU PROBLEMS AND HEADACHES, you say I'm just a stupid and spoiled master, but you also don't let me try to solve things alone.- Kalin he said looking at his old friend, the relationship between them changed a lot after Jamil's overblot, Kalim had realized how much he was making his “friend” suffer and wanted to change that, but even if Kalim tried to change things, Jamil was still someone who was stubborn.

The white-haired boy let out a sigh before continuing to speak.

— sorry about that, I just want you to be able to trust me, even if a little, I know I'm not perfect, and it will take a while before I can do things right, but I wanted you to realize that I'm trying make you not have to work so much anymore.

Jamil didn't respond, he was grateful that Kalim was trying to be independent, but certain habits were difficult to change, especially when Jamil had been doing it for years.

— Have you ever thought about what to give Yu-chan as a gift? - said Kalim while using the screen to analyze the gifts and separating them into two piles.

— not yet, why the question?

Kalim thought a little before speaking

— While I was coming here, a lot of students were giving her Valentine's Day gifts, Yumi didn't accept any gifts, but I heard Marina saying something that Yu-chan was already getting in a bad mood with this insistence.

— I still have no idea.

— good chocolates are always a good gift, how about chocolates in the shape of a cherry blossom?, that's the symbol of her family, right? Or maybe some stuffed animals, she likes cute things.- Kalin continued talking while moving the boxes.

— until you came up with a good idea - said Jamil, turning around, seeing that Kalim had just separated all the chocolates or gifts

— In this pile here there are those that have poison or some suspicious substance, what should I do with them? - Kalin asked looking at Jamil.

— better put it somewhere the rest of the dorm members won't get it, then I'll get rid of it.

— okay, I'll leave this in some trunk so no one eats it by mistake.

Jamil left the room and headed towards the kitchen to start preparing chocolates for Yumi.

— monitor- a voice said in an excited tone, Yumi just rolled her eyes before turning to Ace

— What's wrong Ace? - Yumi asked looking at her friend

— I saw you have a lot of chocolates, how about giving some to your dear friend- Ace said as he tried to grab some chocolates, only for Deuce to hit his hand

—Oh, Juice, don't do that.

— It's Deuce and you can't just ask for someone's chocolates, that's rude.- Deuce replied, and he and Ace started a small argument.

Yumi ignored that as she continued to use her screen to analyze the sweets.

— you can get it after I analyze all these sweets.

— Why are you doing this in the first place? - Ace asked confused, not understanding why Yumi was doing what she was doing.

— very simple, you never know when some chocolate could be poisoned - said Marina, who also had a pile of chocolates on her table, but she hadn't eaten any, she seemed to be looking for something specific in that pile.

— I think it's absurd that you guys got so much chocolate, and not even to share some of it - complained the redhead

— yes!, the henchman didn't let me take any, and even with all this pile, she's still in a bad mood - Grim complained, trying to take one of the bombs only for Yumi to slap his paw.

— it's not to be touched, I don't even know if you can eat that kind of thing - Yumi said, trying to stop Grim from putting his paws on the sweets

— And the reason for Yu-chan's bad mood is very obvious, she didn't get any chocolate - said Marina after she finally found what she was looking for

— Look at the size of this pile, how come she didn't get any chocolate? - said Ace, pointing to everything that was on the table.

— What my sister meant was that Yumi didn't get chocolate from the person she wants, that's why she's upset, Dione said without touching her pile of sweets.

— I bet he probably didn't know what to give her, and now he's making a gift from scratch, instead of buying one - Marina said, throwing a chocolate in her mouth.

— handmade gifts end up being more special, he probably wants to give her a great gift.- Dione completed the Sister's speech, while penetrating her hair.

— okay, you can take some of that pile over there - Yumi said pointing to a pile, Ace and Grim quickly jumped up, grabbing as many sweets as they could, and started arguing among themselves, and Deuce had to get in the middle of the fight to try to separate it both.

— and this other smaller pile? - Deuce asked confused

— I'm going to throw them away, they're unfit for consumption - Yumi replied.

— inappropriate why? - Ace asked with a mouth full of chocolate.

— the sweets have been altered, you'll know what's in them, so I'll throw them away, and swallow the chocolate before speaking.

The five continued talking until they decided to leave the room, and walked down the corridor.

A scarabia student stopped Yumi, saying he wanted to talk to her, Yumi told him to be quick, and told her friends that they could continue walking to the cafeteria, which she was already on her way to.

The first years continued on their way, but they didn't go to the cafeteria and stayed hidden and watching.

—So what did you want?- Yumi asked without much patience.

— after that whole incident in winter I couldn't get you out of my head, so please go on a date with me - the student said handing over a box of chocolates

— I apologize but I won't accept it - Yumi said, moving away but the boy grabbed her wrist.

— You're an ingrate, you should thank me, that someone like me asked you out - the boy said angrily

— Thankful?, for you asking me out?, the only thing I see is an inconvenience - the girl said, freeing herself from the grip and was going to walk away

— you damn bitch - the boy ended up pulling Yumi by the hair, but before the first years could do anything.

Yumi gave a strong elbow to the boy's chin, which caused him to lose her hair due to the pain. Yumi took advantage of the fact that he had freed himself and punched him very hard in the face, causing the scarabia student to fall to the ground.

But before the student could fight back, someone grabbed him by the back of his uniform, the student turned to see who was holding him only to meet the angry look of his vice dorm leader.

— what's your damn problem? - Jamil spoke calmly, but you could tell from his tone of voice and look that he was irritated

— Yu-chan, are you okay? - Kalim quickly went to Yumi looking for any injuries.

— I'm fine, I wasn't hurt - Yumi said, look at Kalim.

— how dare you try to hurt a single girl, because she didn't agree to go out with you - Marina arrived at the scene furious, giving a strong kick to the student, who grunted because of the pain, both from the punch that Yumi had given, and for the strong kick he had just received.

—Don't hit him so much, Juice and I also have a score to settle with this guy- Ace said irritated, and Deuce was snapping his fingers, already in her delinquent personality.

— Yumi, are you okay? - Jamil asked, releasing the student and approaching the girl.

— as I already told Kalin, I'm fine, don't worry, I just have a ruined hairstyle, but I'm not hurt.

— As your dorm leader, I'm sending you to detention, this will also go on your school record, and if you dare lay a finger on Yu-chan or any girl again you will be expelled - Kalin said, we left it aside your usual smile.

— wow, I never thought I would see Kalin so angry - Marina said in surprise.

— but…- the student tried to justify himself but Kalin interrupted.

— I don't want to know, detention, now! - Kalin said in a serious tone, which the student had never seen before, and he ran away.

— Monitor, would you give us permission to do a certain thing? - asked Ace.

— granted, do what you want - Yumi said irritated, Ace and Deuce exchanged a cruel smile, and the two of them together with Grim went after the student.

— is it okay to let them go after that student? - asked Jamil

— Don't worry, the least that will happen to that student is some broken bones. - Marina said, not caring much about what would happen to that student.

Marina then noticed that in Kalim's arms was a small basket with chocolates, and a bunny plush, as well as a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Marina smiled, ready to do a little mischief.

— And these gifts, Kalin? - Marina asked, and Yumi looked at where the gifts were.

Jamil turned red, and wanted to hide in his hoodie, but he took a deep breath and took the gifts from Kalim's hands, and handed them to Yumi.

— it wasn't the ideal time, but... Yumi, I wanted to know if you wanted to go on a date with me.

The girl took the gifts, giving a small smile, which was hidden by the plush.

— I would love to go on a date with you Jamil.- the girl replied with her cheeks a little red.

— FINALLY - Marina shouted, ruining the mood

— Marina, you ruined the moment - Dione said, scolding her sister.

— sorry, I couldn't help it, they're finally going on a date - Marina replied, a little embarrassed for having ruined the mood.

— I would have asked Yumi on a date sooner, if you two hadn't been ruining everything on purpose - said Jamil, looking irritated at the younger Havik.

— after the incident during winter break, you had to prove that you deserve Yu-chan - the girl responded by sticking her tongue out at the viper

— Come on guys, leave the couple alone for a while - Marina said, taking Dione and Kalim by the hand and leaving them alone in the hallway.

Jamil let out a sigh before starting to speak.

— That's not how I was imagining asking you out, I had made a whole plan for that.

— a very complex one, I imagine, right? - the girl laughed looking at Jamil's red face

— Yes, the boy agreed embarrassedly.

— What time should I pick you up? - Jamil asked, but ended up feeling embarrassed seeing Yumi approaching him.

Yumi approached him, leaving a kiss on Jamil's cheek, before pulling away with a small smile, twirling a strand of hair between her fingers.

— pick me up at four in the afternoon, after the club, I'll be waiting for you. - the girl winked and left, where the twins were waiting.

— I have a date with Jamil -Yumi said with the greatest joy, jumping excitedly.

And the three began to celebrate, with the twins congratulating Yumi.

—Come on, let's go to the cafeteria, the others should be waiting for us.- said Dione

— wonderful, now Ace owes me 50 madols - said Marina.

Yumi was going to scold her friend for betting on her love life, but she was so happy that she decided to ignore it.

Yumi hugged the plush tightly, while she had a silly and passionate smile on her lips.

Kalim approached Jamil, jumping happily.

— I'm glad she accepted, you two make a great couple.

— Yes!- Jamil agreed without paying attention to what Kalin said, with an idiotic smile on his face while holding the hand where Yumi had kissed.

— I'll help you with your date - Kalin said happily and this made Jamil pay attention to his surroundings again.

— No, you won't- Jamil immediately replied

- Why ? I just want to help

— But you won't, I know you, you're going to do something very extravagant, so I don't need your help - Jamil said, walking away

— But, Jamil! - Kalin said in a tearful tone of voice, leaving behind his friend.

Jamil had a small smile on his face, happy because now he had a date with his diamond.

I hope you liked the chapter, I apologize for possible mistakes, and also if the characters, especially Jamil, didn't end up acting the way they should, or in a strange way, well that was it, I hope you liked it and see you next time. reblogs and likes are appreciated.

[mars-and-the-theoi]

Day 8 of Deity Devotion Challenge: ⚡️Zeus⚡️

Question- What’s the most valuable lesson your deity has taught you? That it’s okay to be human. Sounds silly, I know, but hear me out. In case y’all don’t know I’m disabled and I’m also no stranger to struggling with my mental health. This makes a consist worship schedule/habit not feasible for me. And I used to beat myself up about that so much (and honestly I still do sometimes). Because I would feel so bad about my inconsistency. Like I would go months w/o doing anything religion related sometimes like I wouldn’t even do altar cleanings for a long time sometimes. And I would try for consistency, and I could keep it up for a bit, but it usually never lasted more than a month at a time.

And it all kind of came to a head last year where my guilt about it was at its worst. Early 2022 had been hellish I mean truly I became super sick, needed surgery, had to take care of a family member after they’d had surgery, had a mental breakdown and ended up hospitalized, and had covid all within the first few months of 2022. So obviously worship and all that very much fell to the side and while I felt bad about that there wasn’t much else I could do. And finally, come June I was able to finally get back into it after not doing anything since January. And I felt horrible. I remember crying as I cleaned his altar and just apologizing cause I felt like I’d neglected Him in a way and I prayed to him and gave him an offering and that was that.

Then that night I had a dream with Him and I’m not going to go into all the mushy details but He was just like ‘it’s okay. I’m not mad at you about this. Like it’s been a rough few months for you and it’s okay that you prioritized yourself and it’s okay that you were in circumstances where worship just wasn’t a priority. It’s okay. I get it. We all get it. We know things come up that make worshiping hard. We do. It’s okay’ and I just felt so much better. Because They do. They all get it.

And I share this story knowing that this is something a lot of people struggle with but rest assured that they’re much more familiar with us than we tend to give them credit for. Shit happens. Life can get chaotic. Life gets busy, stressful, tiring. We get sick. Get hurt. Have to move unexpectedly. We have exams. Work overtime. Work weird hours. Have people to take care of. So on and so forth. But these things aren’t new. These have been traits of humanity since the dawn of time. The Gods have been around for a very long time too. So they get it, they know, and they aren’t mad.

[wreywrites]

Kyber-Hearted

Jedi June Week 4

Prompt: Non-attachment/letting go

A/N: When I saw the prompt list for this back in mid-May-ish, I thought no way would I pick "letting go" over "cross lineage mentorship," which is one of my favorite dynamics. Yet here we are. I may still bust something out for the other prompt, but I stand by this little story. Warnings: Off-screen and pre-events-of-story deaths. Not graphic, just mentioned, and the driving force of this work. Dealing with loss and grief. AO3

Le’Kal watched the two young Jedi, pressed shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the pyre. The war had taken much, and now this.

Le’Kal was nearly a hundred years old, and her old master was still alive and thriving and causing unimaginable mischief as a semi-retired teacher of younglings.

Ky was thirty-six, and her old master was one with the Force.

The master she had worked so hard to connect with. The master who had taught her so much, shaped her into the Jedi she had become, raised her from a sometimes overly passionate crecheling to a strong, capable, and self-possessed Jedi Master.

Now he was gone. The war had taken him, like it had taken so many others.

*****

Not many humans could make Ky look short, but the one standing next to her nearly managed it. His dark hair had grayed a great deal since he had known her, and she had grown a surprising number of inches since she had known him.

Le’Kal glanced across the room. Obi-Wan stared blankly through the floor near Master Yoda’s feet. Twenty-five, and his master was one with the Force.

Sith.

Said like a dirty word, whispered the way younglings sometimes said kriff for the first time when they weren’t sure what it meant but they knew it was serious.

*****

Jedi were not meant to be alone, but how often was it that they stood at a funeral pyre, surrounded and yet adrift like a raft on the surface of Dac?

Let go, they were told, as soon as they could form attachments.

There is no death, there is the Force, they were taught, as soon as they could understand the concepts.

Le’Kal understood this, and she knew the two Jedi across from her understood this as well. She had raised them, taught them, helped them on their way to making the Order and the galaxy a better place.

But as Ky finally broke and let out a silent sob before turning to bury her head in Obi-Wan’s shoulder and his eyes filled with an eleven-year-old grief as he wrapped his arms around her in quiet comfort, Le’Kal was reminded that knowledge and practice were two very different things.

It was hard for her to let go of the little ones in each creche clan when they moved to the apartments and became padawans. How impossibly hard was it for young knights to stand at the funeral pyre of the Jedi who had taught them, raised them, shared jokes and snacks and the occasional speeding ticket with them?

*****

Ky shared a quick hug with the man next to her, then at his nod hurried to Obi-Wan and hugged him as well. His forehead leaned heavy on her shoulder and her arms wrapped tight around his torso.

Obi-Wan might be stoic for everyone else, but for Ky he had always been different. He laughed more easily, bent the rules a little more smoothly, let down his guard with less shame.

They were good for each other, just as Le’Kal had hoped they would be, when Ky joined Wolf Clan all those years ago. She wished they didn’t have to be. She wished very much that he didn’t need her support, that she didn’t need to be his anchor, that Qui-Gon was still alive.

But he was not, and now, somehow, Obi-Wan would have to let go, to accept the maxim that there is no death, there is the Force. It was something not everyone could do. More than one Jedi in recent memory—and not just young ones—had left the Order after finding themselves unable to do so.

She had to admire them. It was the height of self-awareness and showed a great deal of maturity. She hoped every day that none of her once-crechelings would become one of them, but she was not in a position to help them work through the grief of losing a master—hers was still alive. In fact, barring some freak accident, her master would outlive her by several decades. Most Jedi were not that lucky.

Obi-Wan was perhaps the unluckiest of all.

*****

As the fire burned itself to ash, Le’Kal approached Ky and Obi-Wan. She was almost within earshot when Obi-Wan turned his head a little and whispered something to Ky. She let out a choked laugh and finally looked at him.

Though there were tears in Ky’s eyes, Le’Kal felt none of the overwhelming undertows of uncontrolled and uncontrollable grief, just a cool current of sad acceptance. It was a shocking change from Ky’s usual presence in the Force—what more than one Jedi had compared to a frolicking and perhaps over-energetic gualaar colt.

Ky noticed her then and detached herself from Obi-Wan to approach her old creche mom. Le’Kal stood on her tiptoes as Ky leaned down and the two embraced.

It was customary to say something about how the deceased was now one with the Force, and how the Force was all around everything, but Le’Kal always thought those words must sound hollow to the ones closest to the deceased, so she said nothing.

Ky, though, whispered, “He’s one with the Force now, which means he can always see the bad decisions I’m making, and I’m not sure if that makes me want to make more or less of them.”

Le’Kal squeezed her tighter. “Never stop sneaking pretzels into the Archives, and his memory will live on through that alone.”

Ky chuckled. “That’s what Obi-Wan said too. We must not have been very good at smuggling snacks if everyone knew about it.”

*****

Jedi were not meant to be alone. They were not to have attachments, but that was different. They were part of a community. They had each other’s backs, in everything from team board games to—these days—armed combat.

Death was a part of life. A part they were coming to know with increasing frequency, but there was balance in all things.

There was still light in the galaxy, and there always would be.

*****

“I’m one with the Force, and the Force is with me.”

Le’Kal whispered the words to herself over and over that night, meditating in her bedroom, torn between wanting to remember all the friends who were now one with the Force and trying to forget the pain that came with their deaths.

There would always be pain and loss, she would have to be a fool to believe any of them could become immune to such feelings. But there was also joy in the knowledge that death was not the end, but merely a new step, a journey into greater communion with the Force.

Le’Kal felt all this, as she knew Ky did, as she knew Obi-Wan had eleven years ago, and she simply kept breathing. There was nothing else to do. No power—no emotion—in the galaxy, no matter how strong, could bring back the dead. Memories could be honored, stories told, kyber crystals given to the Keeper of the Arch, but those lives were gone.

So they did what they could.

They remembered, and they let go.

[petervintonjr]

"Juneteenth is much larger than me; I'm just a small part of it, and I appreciate people's thanking me about designing the flag, which represents something much larger than itself. It's a flag about humanity. It's a flag about people who accomplished a lot, even though they went through a lot. It means an awakening."

Meet "Boston Ben" Haith, artist, activist, community organizer, and original designer of the Juneteenth flag. Born in 1942 Connecticut, Haith graduated from Stamford and travelled first to Ohio and then to Los Angeles. A short stint in the U.S. Army led him to Europe and then to New York, but he ultimately settled in Boston, where he not only married and raised a family, but also opened an advertising agency and became a community activist.

Naming the Blizzard of '78 as his starting point, Haith was incensed by the city's unannounced dumping of snow in a park in his neighborhood, and organized neighbors and other locals to raise formal objections. From there his talents found their way into community anti-crime initiatives and he became an outspoken critic of overreaching law enforcement. He ran for office in 1983 and again in 1985 for a seat on the City Council (District 7, a primarily Black constituency); and also as an advocate for the elderly, and also as a case manager at the New England Center for Homeless Veterans.

As a thought-provoking contrast --and perhaps doubly important to note in that Juneteenth also takes place during Pride Month-- Haith is also on record as having (at least, at one time) been staunchly opposed to any form of legalized same-sex relationships. In 1983 he published several editorials criticizing a gay couple who were operating a foster home in Roxbury; drawing sufficient attention in the press that then-governor Michael Dukakis intervened and removed two children from the home. Such was the intensity of Haith's op-ed pieces that the Roxbury Highlands Neighborhood Association took steps to distance themselves from him. In more recent years Haith's position on same-sex marriage would appear to have shifted somewhat; in a 2022 interview he opined that "Sometimes you've got to get out of the way of it, so that's what I've done. I'm not in the way of any group of people trying to improve their lives. I'm trying to improve the lives of people impacted by violence, that's primarily what my interest is right now. When you move on in life, things change, so maybe I've become more philosophical than I used to be."

In 1997, while still living in Boston, Haith came up with the original design of the Juneteenth flag --which would later be tweaked and adjusted by illustrator Lisa Jeanne Graf. Featuring a Lone Star at its center (representing Texas, the very last state to formally end slavery), the flag's color scheme favors the familiar red, white, and blue, but also incorporates an added "nova" effect, symbolizing a new day of freedom. Haith was present when the flag was first flown in 2000, at Boston's Roxbury Heritage State Park --in a ceremony featuring performers dressed in period costume as Harriet Tubman and the Colored Ladies of the 54th Regiment (Massachusetts Glory Brigade). In 2007 Graf added the significant date of June 19, 1865 to the flag's design. Both Haith and Graf are founding members of the National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation.

[thesaleswhisperer]

B.S.ers Are SOL in Copywriter Jeff Putnam's World

Professional Sales Tips you'll learn today on The Sales Podcast ...

Listen to Jeff Putnam’s first interview on The Sales Podcast, episode 510, back on June 23, 2021, and see the change he’s made

Deep down, he always wanted to be a writer

He did a project as a kid on Ernest Hemingway and saw a picture of him smoking a cigar and hunting a shark with a machine gun that lit a fire

In December 2018, he got the idea for Rugged Legacy and launched it in early 2019

He didn’t want to work for anyone else

He had to learn copywriting so his business wouldn’t die

Then, he started teaching people how to do it

Wrote two books, and he reads all the time

Related episodes and posts

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Working on a novel and is about 1/3rd complete

Most people suck at writing so they pay him to write

Now 99% of his income comes from writing for others

He focused on Twitter rather than building a “personal brand”

He got so busy with work that he didn’t have the time or interest in building a brand

He no longer promotes himself online

People know who he is

He has a great network now

He has some coaching clients

He wakes up at five am, takes his huskie for a walk, gets some coffee, reads for four hours, then starts his day writing for clients

Vince Flynn/Mitch Rapp series

Jack Reacher series by Lee Child

Loves Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa

Will reference a business book but doesn’t sit and read them

Does not like the appeal of the “digital nomad” lifestyle

He doesn’t want to live out of seven suitcases

He spent nearly five years hustling and grinding and perfecting his writing craft

A customer of his asked him if he’d help with their website, and that became his first paying copywriting client, but he was visible and active online and on Twitter, so they knew him

He Googled typical prices for copywriting and added 20% to that

Then he raised his prices until people balked, and then he dropped his prices 5%

He’ll include three revisions, but the fourth is 50% of the original invoice

He doesn’t design websites, but he writes the copy

He loves writing long-form content like 80-page white papers

He’ll write 16k-20k words every ten days or so

Many people confuse niche and industry

He can research any industry and write about it

A Web 3 startup paid him $60k upfront ($5k/mo) to do all of their content, and he had no experience in that space

The Web 3 client saw an article Jeff wrote on marriage and reached out to him

If clients are jerks, he cuts them loose

He charges 6-7 cents per word

He just does words

He uses AI as a style guide by uploading something like a five-paragraph description the client provides

“Additionally…in a fast-paced world…”

He loves 3-piece suits

Anchoring…

He’ll sometimes wear his suit to write to anchor himself

“Okay”

Zuby

“I’m a serious Catholic”

Adoration and Holy Hours and Mass

He carries his rosary always

He has Catholic cigars, Incensum Cigars

He converted to Catholicism last year

There are only 450 TLM churches in the U.S.

His wife is Hispanic who grew up in New England and is Catholic

He spent 18 months writing a book on Catholic masculinity

He decided to go to Mass May 7, 2023, which was two months after he launched the book

His wife was a lapsed Catholic, but now they go weekly

He’s in RCIA and entering the Catholic Church fully this Easter

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[myhauntedsalem]

Bloomingdale Asylum

New York

Bloomingdale Asylum was built on land now occupied by Columbia University.

Originally it housed and treated anyone deemed ‘insane’ or ‘lunatic’, but later only took on those who could afford to pay… unfortunately money did not equate to good or humane treatment.

In June, 1771, the Society of the Hospital in the city of New York, in America was incorporated and by 1818 had purchased 26 acres of land in upper Manhattan in order to build an insane asylum. Bloomingdale Asylum began construction and was ready for patients in 1821. At the time it was the only hospital for the care of the mentally ill in the state until another asylum specifically for those mentally ill and ‘poor’ was built on what is now Roosevelt Island.

Bloomingdale then became an asylum for those whose families could afford to pay for the treatment and as such it was regarded as being a place for the best treatment with top of the line staff and facilities… or at least that is what was believed by those on the outside looking in.

The land itself amongst the buildings was beautiful with carefully manicured lawns and gardens. There were orchards, small parcels of farming land and even a few stables and pens as it was considered therapeutic for the patients to work outside in the fresh air.

However on the inside things were quite different. When the asylum was first built and took in patients to treat it probably had everyone’s best interests at heart and the treatment was said to be good but sometime between 1821 and 1872 things had changed and this change was only revealed when journalist Julius Chambers went undercover to investigate the goings on in this now very large institution.

Chambers with the help of some friends and work colleagues had himself committed to the asylum and spent ten days on the inside living as a patient before being released (American Horror Story: Asylum anyone?). In those ten days he uncovered many cases of patient abuse, sadistic nurses and handlers, poor conditions, overcrowding and poor nutrition.

He saw first hand many cases of patients being abused including one man who should be considered a hero. This patient would interfere any time a member of staff abused a patient, this happened so regularly that the staff ended up just tying this hero to a chair and eventually one of the ‘keepers’ took it upon themselves to break this heroes skull…

Patients were often strangled, kicked and punched and it was such abuses that Chambers believed led to many patient suicides.

Another violation saw him witness a woman being committed because she discovered her husband had had an affair. He only allowed her to be released when she promised not to ever bring it up again.

Chambers articles saw many changes come about in Bloomingdale and other asylums including the release of 12 patients who were not insane and a complete reorganization of the administration and staff.

Less than a decade later parts of the asylums land were being sold off as the surrounding city continued to expand and in the end it was Columbia University (then Columbia College) who purchased the majority and soon set to building their new campus. Over time buildings were converted to be later demolished until now there really is only one last building from the asylum days still standing – Macy Villa – now known as Buell Hall.

Macy Villa was the last building built for the asylum and its purpose was to house the richest of their male patients. It was designed so that they could live and be treated in ‘home-like’ surroundings. Although today the wooden verandah is now gone the outside of this building has changed very little.

Other parts of the asylum that still exist are located underground. Many of Columbia Universities buildings are connected by underground tunnels which carry pipes, cables and access ways. Some of these tunnels go right back to the asylum days and the tunnels would have been used for a similar purpose but there are some legends that state patients would be locked down there, chained up underground for misbehaving repeatedly.

It was in fact another legend that had me first start looking into this location a rather creepy legend at that!

In the late 1800s a young girl named Jane Bielawski received a doll as a gift which she named ‘Missy’. Jane lived in a New York Tenement and when some of her friends started die under suspicious circumstances and investigation was carried out. All leads led back to the young Jane Bielawski who seemed to be present at the times of the murders.

When the police attempted to interview the young girl she flew into a fit of terror, blaming the deaths on her doll Missy and even one time throwing it out of her fifth floor window. All questionings went the same way and the with the police certain of who the real culprit was, had Jane locked up in Bloomingdale Asylum.

Jane remained in the asylum system until her death in 1968. Even as an old lady she still maintained that Missy was the culprit of the murders and that she herself was innocent.