#other problems are mostly German

[youngroyals-stuff]

[kameyyy]

my trial shift at the gas station went suprisingly well (ft. jeans guy in the tags)

[applepixls]

Anyone else thinking about how odd the hermitcraft economy is?

in season 9 they had a minor economic recession after the diamond ore war because there were far too many diamonds in circulation making them (hypothetically) worth less than normal and ren stepped in as the king and did what has been done in the midst of a lot of irl economic depressions; he created a government so they could employ the policy of Keynesian economics (basically more gov't intervention to stabilize the economy, it mostly worked in 1930's japan!), he took control of diamonds and even introduced a new currency, royal emeralds (much like Germany after WW1! they had some hyperinflation because of the war reparations they had to pay and the gov't not understanding that printing more money makes the money worth less resulting in the mark [currency] being so worthless they started burning it because they couldn't afford wood for fires. a new gov't came into power and they replaced the mark with rentenmarks which did a lot of fixificating for the economy). Ren's gov't also introduced a lot of gov't funded projects like the quests (the irl equivalent for this would be Roosevelt's New Deal which introduced policies/projects called the Alphabet Agencies (among other things) such as the AAA, CCC, TVA (do you see why they're called the alphabet agencies?) that would adjust the value of grain so farmers could start earning money for produce again and create work that would support a growing economy, projects like building roads and bridges)

so basically, all the policies ren's government introduced were very logically sound and worked in real life to fix the economy (except that irl the Great Depression only fully ended because WW2 started-), the issue is that hermitcraft is not real life and hermits do not behave like real people, they behave like hermits.

lets start with the hermitcraft economy. unlike the real economy, hermits rarely adjust prices according to how many diamonds are "in circulation". i say this despite the fact grian in a recent-ish episode says that "everything costs more this season because diamonds are more common". that can't be true because the caves and cliffs update literally made diamonds more difficult to acquire. I will circle back to this point made by grian later

hermits not adjusting prices by server-wide abundance of diamonds (because they cant really know how much anyone has, much less the total amount of diamonds in circulation, they just know who has a lot and who is broke) means that more diamonds doesn't make them worth less like it did with German marks, it just means hermits have more expendable currency and can spend more money and less time gathering materials for projects. It is also notable that diamonds are constantly being added and taken out of circulation because they're an actual useful currency rather than real life currencies which are symbolic slips of paper. diamonds can be used for armour and tools and it can be acquired by mining. so because of how hermits spend money, taking diamonds out of the economy in s9 did nothing but make them poor and angry at the government. the hermitcraft economy is actually stronger with more diamonds in circulation and is worsened by gov't intervention.

so already the use of real life strategies is utterly useless in hermitcraft economy but there are a few other reasons as well

the hermits tendency to resist government as well as the flawed and greedy government itself are a couple but also the fact that all the hermits are self employed (in real life but also in universe). they own and stock their own shops meaning all profits are more or less direct; its not passed through hands of big corporations so the person producing the product gets mere cents. the hermits are essentially small business owners (which becomes a bit of a problem come season 10 but we're still talking about season 9). The important part is the self employment. the season 9 gov't introduces the quests which mimic and echo real life government funded projects but because they're all employed and the quests gave small amounts of diamonds back, they did very little for the hermits

I'm sure theres more to say but i think its time to move on to the very interesting season 10 economy

if you've missed it you must be living under a rock but hermits are all using permits this season meaning only one shop in the shopping district is selling any given item/material and as a result of this prices have gone sky high. at one point a single stack of mangrove logs cost 7 diamonds when in previous seasons you could get at least 1 stack of wood for 1 diamond if not more

So what is causing this economic depression and hyperinflation?

well, circling back to the point grian made about resources costing more because of abundance of diamonds, I would think it actually costs more because of the permits.

grian thinks the diamond prices are fair because he has middle of the road permits (and is one of the hermits who designed their shopping district, permit and economic system this season so he's biased), there is enough demand to keep him afloat when he's stocked but its nothing people are clamouring for and buying him out. on the other hand, joel made a lot of shops that no one shops at because his objectively weighted permits have not been selling as well as they anticipated when making the permits (also some people like etho and pearl have additional income from their not as fabulous permits because they've made a pay to play game to go with it) and finally there are hermits like mumbo whose gold, iron and item frame shops were constantly getting bought out so he was frustrated with trying to restock despite getting lots of profit

(another interesting dynamic to think about is permits like cleo's book permit which lost value as the season went on because everyone needed books early on but now that they're all playing late game Minecraft, everyone is pretty stocked up and buying from cleo less often)

Basically, grian is satisfied with the pricing because he's middle class and couldn't afford it if they were more expensive but appreciates not being constantly out of stock, joel is unsatisfied because he is lower class and never has enough expendable currency to fund his projects because materials are too expensive and his permits aren't worth enough to sell them for more, and mumbo is unsatisfied because he is higher class and is constantly out of stock because his materials sell out too often and he wants to sell them for more to stay in stock more (classic supply and demand, he doesn't want to stock them as often making the supply lower and the demand proportionally higher making them worth more and therefore more expensive)

the reason i say the permits are to blame for the high prices is because they cause the responsibility of constantly stocking something to fall on one person (in past seasons, if one persons sandstone shop was out of stock you could go check someone else's sandstone shop). the threat of taking the permit away if they arent stocked along with the difficulty of constantly stocking some of these materials raises the cost.

a great example of this is skizzleman because his mangrove and cherry wood shop was one of the first shops to be built in the shopping district, meaning he somewhat set the prices this season. now, mangrove and cherry are both difficult trees to harvest because of their unconventional shapes and the fact that they are more recent additions (and skizz's stubborn desire to design his own farms...) so because of the time required to gather them the prices already were hitched up. add that to the fact that they are trying to constantly be in stock and therefore low prices that allow hermits to completely buy out the shops are unfavourable, and you get sky rocket-ing prices. (it is also difficult because skizz had no prior experience with hermitcraft pricing)

in conclusion... hermitcraft needs a laissez-faire economy (f. a. hayek) to function and not go into economic depression. Between the nature of the diamond currency, hermits' tendency to rebel against governments, the way they use the concept of supply and demand to price their goods, and the restrictions permits put on supplying products, hermits have proven that extensive structure and government intervention have not improved economic wellbeing the way that it does in real life

thus, hermits do not behave like regular humans, they operate on fae laws of its funny so lets do it and therefore must be governed as such (aka not governed), thank you for coming to my ted talk

[cursecuelebre]

Top Recommendations for Norse Pagans that aren’t Problematic.

There is a lot of books by people who are racist and part of far right side of Heathenry and I’m going to try my best and list the books I have that helped me on my path that isn’t problematic and have questionable intentions. Books and YouTube channels.

Anglo Saxon Socerery and Magic by Alaric Albertson. He is very knowledgeable in his work and path especially on runes which includes the rune poem to make your own interpretation and witchcraft side of things. He even talks about the Elves which I appreciate because not a lot of Norse authors talk about them. It’s more Germanic than Norse but I can’t see any problem adopting certain aspects since they are very similar. I will say he does take himself a bit serious at times but his information is so good and worthwhile. I have not read his first book on Travels through middle earth but it focus on more the pagan side.

Poetic Edda and Prose Edda: it’s what every Norse pagan needs. It’s the foundation of Norse paganism not bibles but myths and tales that can help along our journey. There is tons of translations, but my favorites are Dr. Jackson Crawford Poetic Edda and Anthony Fawkes Prose Edda. But look into other sagas as well like Volsung which Dr Jackson Crawford also wrote about.

Beowulf. More of a Germanic tale but again includes it has roots of Germanic sorcery, traditions, religion like the concept of Wyrd (Fate), the runes, and values within his society like loyalty and mythical creatures. Again there is many translations even Jrr Tolkien did a incompleted version of Beowulf but I think Tom Shippey finished that version I could be wrong. Nonetheless explore more than one, the oneI have is by Seamus Heaney.

Grimm Fairy Tales this mostly German Folklore but it’s still quite important to learn about in German folk magic, creatures and entities in German folklore tends to be very real to the practitioner in their spellwork.

The Way of Fire and Ice by Ryan Smith a very progressive outlook in Norse paganism, he talks about creating communities in Norse paganism and calling out and denouncing Nazis in the community how Norse Paganism is inclusive and how to be open to all types of people. But he has a beginner approach to the deities, beliefs, values within Norse paganism.

Look into a lot of academic sources that’s where you will find a lot of information on Norse paganism and religions.

Tacitus Germania - A Roman historian talking about the Germanic tribes their culture and customs.

Saxo Grammaticus history of the Danes

The Viking Way by Neil Price it goes good in depths about magic in Scandinavia like Seidh

Dictionary of Norse Mythology a quick guide to northern myths, if you are trying to find a specific god and you don’t have time to look up in a book it’s in there with great information to each one.

Children of Ask and Elm: History of Vikings by Neil Price on Scandinavian culture during the Viking age

Some YouTube Channels

The Norse Witch: Bente lives in Germany and their channel encompasses all of Norse paganism more around magic. They do interviews with other Norse witches of folk magic like Icelandic and Danish. Even gives good book recommendations and advice on general spellwork as well!.

Dr Jackson Crawford he is an author but he also has a YouTube channel. He was a professor in Colorado on Norse culture, mythology, and language and now is a full time YouTuber. He did a series of videos on the runes which are more historically accurate. Discusses the myths and the language and what do they mean. Jackson Crawford isn’t a Norse pagan nor he doesn’t care if you are one but just letting you know he isn’t coming from a pagan perspective.

The Welsh Viking also like Jackson Crawford but still has really great knowledge on Viking culture.

De Spökenkyker who is a channel that focus on German Folk magic living in Germany who is a practicing German Folk Witch.

Please feel free to add on any recommendations that are helpful and useful to the Norse pagan Community!

Update:

Just adding new sources from the comments that I really enjoy I have been notfied that some YouTubers aren’t that great after all. You may find other people’s reblogs with their names but I have edited them out. But here’s some more reminder these are good perspectives and ideas as well in the community that aren’t problematic it’s okay to listen to these folks and gain some perspective or historical insights of course let me know if I’m mistaken or they are problematic that I didn’t know about.

- Welsh Viking (YouTube) and his more historical like Jackson Crawford in that sense

- Mathias Nordvig (Author) - Notably Astaru for Beginners

- Arith Harger (YouTube)

- Call of The Runes by Walter McGrory (his teaching of the runes is really great and includes the rune poems)

- Elves, Witches, and Gods by Cat Heath - If your interested in magic especially Seidr Cat does a great job of explaining her practice again HER practice it’s following someone’s example but you can adapt into your own practice of course.

- A Practical Guide to Asatru by Patricia M Lafayllve - She has interesting points and a good read.

These some of these authors utilise their knowledge based on history and their own practice and I think it’s okay to read or listen to them.

[dvrcos]

more mic’d up andrew minyard when?? mic’d up AARON minyard when?? other mic’d up fox when??

Aaron Minyard Mic’d up

Hes reluctant to do it for a long fucking time

He thinks its kinda dumb

But he mostly doesn’t wanna get scolded for what his mic would pick up

Because my boy is a shit talker

He’s saying everything and anything he can to rile up the other team

He’s even trying to rile up the other foxes tbh

So when he finally agrees he makes coach promise he won’t get in trouble

He body slams the opposing striker (because if there’s one thing Aaron’s gonna do it’s put his all into a body check)

And the opposing striker is mad like visibly fuming

He’s all up in Aaron’s space, a moment away from starting a fight

And Aaron thinks it’s the funniest thing ever

He’s laughing his ass off while loudly crashing their raquets against each other

‘What you’re upset I hit you? I’m five foot nothing dude sounds like a you problem’

And he’s lucky the striker gets pulled away by his teammates cause he’s over 6 foot

And Aaron is all bark, no bite

*whispering into the mic as he walks away* ‘I’ll be honest guys, he would’ve kicked my ass but that was to good of an opportunity to pass up’

His best moments come from when he trips up a striker

*sends the striker sprawling onto their ass* ‘womp womp’

*body slams one into the wall* ‘maybe next time man’

*slams the ball out of their racquet* ‘that’s not yours cmon now’

He flirts with the opposing team but in German

Because he’s discovered that when they can’t understand what he’s saying it really gets to them

And he’ll slip in a word in English so they figure out he’s flirting

And they’re even more pissed and distracted that they mess up what would’ve been a solid play

‘What the fuck did you just say to me!?’

‘Hey, hey sorry just trying to have a nice conversation’ *winks and walks away to start up play again*

*Opposing striker, absolutely baffled and fuming*

His striker accidentally trips him up and gets past to Andrew

And Aaron doesn’t even have to look at Andrew to see the heavy bored expression he’s giving him

Aaron knows he’s probably plotting where to hide his body if he does it again

*Andrew, shaking his head in disappointment as he smacks the ball away*

*Aaron rolling onto his knees and pleading for mercy while laughing* ‘my bad, let’s just talk this out I promise it won’t happen again it was Nicky’s fault’

This happens a lot whenever they’re both on the court

Because making a joke out of Exy is one of the only ways they both actually enjoy it sometimes

And it’s something they can actually bond over

But oh god forbid if someone on the other team says something about Andrew

That’s when Aaron just looses it

Doesn’t matter if the player is ten times his size, he becomes all bite

‘Put your psycho pet brother on a leash already’

And Aaron’s helmets already off and he’s going for his gloves next

*Matt grabbing him and holding him back* ‘cmon Matt it’ll be good, he asked for it, it’ll be good’

‘No Aaron, no red cards’

‘But it’ll be fun’ *tries to throw his helmet at the other player*

He gets a yellow card for it but he proudly displays it by tucking it into the front of his jersey

‘I’m gonna frame this one coach’ he tells Wymack as he sits on the bench for his penalty

Kevin’s always the most annoyed by Aaron’s shit talking because it threatens the game and Aaron’s wellbeing

And he also gets the most riled up whenever Aaron’s turns it onto him

*Kevin storming over to Aaron after he almost gets ejected* ‘Stop saying shit that’ll get you kicked out of the game you idiot’

‘Oh cmon Day I know you like em a little feisty, I’m just trying to make you happy my Queen,’

And Kevin just smacks the top of his helmet and turns to walk away

‘I can get on my knees to apologize if you want, I know you like me on my knees’

And Kevin just has to tune him out cause Aaron won’t stop if he feeds into it

He gets really into the game sometimes though (because he’s competitive and he can’t help it)

Like he’s screaming and cheering so loud at certain points the mic is crackling

*Kevin and Neil scoring the goal that pulls them into the lead* ‘LETS FUCKING GO’

When he’s on the bench he’s the one banging on the plexi glass

He’s screaming at them to get their heads out of their asses or cheering them on even though they can’t hear him

And then he gets out of his competitive streak and he’s lowkey embarrassed

‘If that gets posted online I will never recover’ he mutters after he’s just jumped into Matt’s arms in celebration

When the foxes listen to his recording later they’re shocked by how creative Aaron gets with all of it

And they find it hilarious

And endearing

And they like that they’re getting to see a new part of Aaron as he gets more comfortable with the team

He is by far one of the most aggressive of the foxes when he’s on the court, both physically and verbally

And the fans absolutely eat it the fuck up

But Wymack doesn’t mic him up often because he is lowkey a liability because of what he says

[woso-lover]

Home is, whenever I'm with you | Lena Oberdorf

Lena Oberdorf x german!bayern munich!reader

Summary: Lena suprises you with her move to your childhood club. To finally be with you properly.

Warnings: a bit of angst, fluff

English is not my first language

Masterlist

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Girl, I never loved one like you

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

You grew up in Munich. Everything you know is there. Your famil. Your friends. Your bestfriend, Sydney. Your club.... Everything you loved was in one place. Exept your home, your lover, Lena Oberdorf. She plays for Wolfsburg. That wouldn't be the problem, even trought its the rival, but Wolfsburg is too far away from Munich, to see each other more then once in a month. And its slowly infecting your realationship.

It's started when you both grow out of the honeymoon phase. That doesn't mean you're stopped being smitten about each other. But the distant made it worse. A 6 hours drive or a one hour flight. It started to come to much.

It wasn't because of the lack of trust you have for each other. You trust each other very much. But you missed the closeness, the cuddles or the kisses. The things you would only get, if you play each other or in the german camp. It was rarely that one come to visit the other. To caught up with training for your clubs.

So everytime the national break started, you follow each other like lost puppies. It's mostly Lena, who follows you everywhere. Her Wolfsburg teammates will tease all the time, when the break is going to start or gets closer. But she doesn't care. She only cares about being close to you.

But you follow her everywhere too. And your teammates tease you about that too. Like obi, you don't care either. You're just happy being with her again.

-

To the problem is only one solution. One has the move clubs. But you both are too stuborn.

"I'm not moving away, liebling. (Darling) I have everything here."

"I change would look on you, baby. You can't always stay in the same place your whole life." Obi argues back on a face time call. It wasn't a fight. More like a discussion, in wich you both bring the same arguments over and over again.

"You know i can't handle change. And it would be a change for you too."

"I know you can't. And i already had a change. I moved from Essen. There wouldn't be so much change. You know half of the from national and you got friends with Lynn."

You look away, to the wall, feeling defeated. "Ha Gotcha, Schatz. (honey)" Obi said happily. "If you move to Bayern, you can play with and see Lea more often." You knew what the Lea card would do. You know that Lena misses to play in the same team as Lea, like in Essen.

"Didn't you wanted to show me your new tattoo idea?" Obi distracts from the topic.

You knew Obi wants to distracts from the topic. She was a bad loser and she knew how right you were, Obi just didn't want to admit that. So you played along.

"What do you think of something like that?" You showed her a page from your sketchbook.

Since then none of you dared to bring up the topic again. In the meanwhile Obi has gotten an offer from bayern munich. She didn't know what to do with it. Should she tell you? Should she ignore it? These question were toturing her mind.

-

Her solution: She's going to ask on national break what you would say if she got an offer from your beloved club.

But unfortunately the right time wouldn't come to Lena. Everytime she was close of telling you something happened. So she finally decide to say it to you no matter what.

She walked into the chill room, wich she knew you mostly are. You were there but you talked with Sydney. She didn't mean to overhear, but she stayed as she heard her own name out if your mouth.

"I love Lena, but i don't know how long it's going to work" Obis face fell. She doesn't want you to think like that. She wants to be with you forever. With sad face she walks away. She talks to you after your conversation with Sydney. But she stopped as she heard Sydney speaking.

"Don't say stupid shit like that. It's going to work out. You both are so smitten and follow each other like lost puppies. It makes me love sick. It's getting to the point to become disgusting."

"Yeah because your Single" you chuckle and on Obis face a smile grows.

"But i'm serious. If you leave, then there would be nothing much different. You still have me and Klara. We still be friends and pull pranks on camp or annoy Laura. Okay? You still got us and the team. We're a big family." Sydney hugs you.

'That's why' Obi realized. You're scared that if you move, your friends will turn their back on you. Obi walked away with smile. Knowing what she's about to do, calling her agent.

-

You were more then suprised as Lena said she will be visiting for a few days, but gadly take it. With Lena being in Munich you were happier. Sydney and Klara took notice of it and asked themselves why. But they got the answer, when Lena picks you up from training.

"Hope it wasn't too boring, being alone." You kissed Obi. After you two broke apart, you hugged her. Behind your back Sydney, Klara and Georgia made gagging faces. Lena rolled her eyes at them.

"No it wasn't, Liebling" It really wasn't. It was exhausting. She was talking with the club, her agent and the Bayern coach. All to negotiate her move to Bayern Munich.

-

The day she signed the contract she had mixed feelings. The tought of leaving Jule behind haunted her. But the blonde told her to go, to get her girl. It made Obi feel a bit better about it, but not fully. The other side was excitment. To be near you. To kiss you everyday. To cuddle with you. To cook with you. To do everything with you.

-

Before the national camp in february the romurs of Lenas move spread over. You saw it too, of course. You didn't know how to feel. There was hope, but you knew to not trust rumors. And Obi wasn't a help either. She only said that she didn't know how or why there are rumors. It broke her heart to see your face fell, just to cover it up quickly with a smile.

-

On the 14th february her move to Bayern will be officinal. She came to munich for the day, because of valentines. She knew you had a came on the evening, so she took you on a date for lunch. The whole day you weren't allowed to look on your phone. You wondered why and asked her. She only told you it would ruin her suprise.

After lunch in your favourite restaurant she took you to your favourite park, in wich you finally were allowed to look on your phone. You looked confussed at her but did anyway.

"Now go on insta"

"Obi what have you done?"

"Nothing" she smiles at you.

You looked on your phone your confussed look turned into shock. You looked up at Obi, who smiled slyly at you. "Suprise?"

"You fucking idiot. I love you" You run to Lena and hug her. "But why would you do that? You didn't had to"

"I know. But i love you. And Bayern didn't Sound that bad." With that she kisses you. Happy play with you next season and to in with you

[incorrectfatui]

ok only one person asked for this, but I'm really bored, so: memes about our government collapsing, here you go. feel free to ignore it otherwise, next post will be about more harbingers xD

But politics talk beyond this point- dw, I get it if you dont wanna see that

Context will be below the pictures- please keep in mind that german humor is...well, german. Also, I can't figure out how to post multiple pictures at once, so uh...this is gonna be a long one. ALSO look at the ALT text I tried my best to translate & give more context

So of course, everyone immediately started memeing about Lindner. Why? Because most of the country fucking hates the guy. I don't think I specified enough how awful he is. The current government is incredibly inneficient, and he's a major reason why. He's an ultra-capitalist, in love with a free market economy, frequently has temper tantrums in parliament, and is INCREDIBLY anti social. He wants higher pension ages, less subsidies for unemployed people, the works. What people are also making fun off is Scholz, our chancellor, who was practically nonexistent for the last 3 years, only to deliver a VICIOUS speech about how awful Lindner is. So yeah! Government collapse is fun if you have the right memes. Hope at least some of those were funny to you guys as well

thaaats most of the ones I could fit. Which brings me to: the context. oh my god where do i begin.

Okay, so, the german parliament is made out of multiple parties, right? When we have elections, the chancellor is from the party with the most votes, but they don't rule alone, because they need a majority (<50%), and we have so many parties that they don't get there. So, they have to form coalitions with the other parties. When they do that, the leaders of the other parties get to be in high positions as well. Every party that isn't in the coalition is the opposition.

More often than not, we have what is called a Grand Coalition- the two biggest parties, CDU and SPD. However, in our last elections (which was also the first time in 16 years that our chancellor changed), this did not happen. We instead got the so called traffic light coalition, made up of the SPD (winner, got the Chancellor), FDP (our other main protagonist in this story) and the Greens.

So, they've ruled for about 3 years now, and it's been an utter shitshow- because of multiple factors, of course, but one of the major ones was the FDP. See, the Greens and the SPD are (or, well, were, but thats for another story) more left leaning, ESPECIALLY on stuff like climate change, while the FDP are mostly focused on the economy. So, there's been lots of conflicts, and all the parties in the coalition, but especially the FDP, have lost immense support. The FDP to a point where they might not get ANY seats in parliament for the next election.

Now, some of our current biggest issues are inflation, climate change, and the war in Ukraine. I'm simplifying this to hell and back, but essentially, we have a so called debt-brake in our constitution, which means that the country cannot go over a certain amount of money. Sounds good, right? Well, not entirely. Right now, we are trying to go over this limit. See, the debt-brake has an intentional loophole, which says that in emergencies, you CAN go over it, like natural catastrophes (e.g. COVID).

Germany, right now, wants to fund our infrastrcuture, our military, Ukraine, and social subsidies. For this purpose, the SPD and Greens agreed to go over the limit. Except they can't, without the approval of their coalition partner, the FDP, and their finance minister, Lindner, who RUNS the FDP. They've been fighting about this for A WHILE, and yesterday, Scholz (the chancellor), gave Lindner an ultimatum: allow them to go over the limit, or get fired. Lindner asked for snap-elections instead, did not accept the proposal (which was already heavily in his favour) and got fired.

Which wouldn't be a problem is he was any common minister- but he's a coalition partner, so the coalition broke apart- and without the FDP, the SPD and the Greens alone do not hold a majority in parliament.

What this boils down to, is that we will likely have a minority-government (who will have BIG difficulties passing any laws) until January, and at the start of January, the Chancellor will call for a vote of confidence (yes, like in star wars), which he will lose. Meaning: Snap Elections in March (at the latest), less time for the parties to prepare their candidates, and MASSIVE profts for the right wing parties, which are currently leading in the polls.

[artist-issues]

okay SO

If I were to pitch a sequel for Rise of the Guardians I’d have the Pied Piper be the villain.

And he is introduced because Sophie (Jamie’s little sister, she’s about 11 now) has had a falling out with her parents.

Sophie Bennett is excited to finally join the super secret “Belief Club” that her big brother Jamie started when he was her age at their local school. The Belief Club, as you can imagine, are a gang of middle-schoolers who still believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the other Guardians. They collect library books about folklore figures, make up fun stories about the Guardians, look for evidence of their work in their own town, and just generally try to keep belief alive. They’re mostly the younger siblings of Jaimie and his friends who got to watch pitch be banished from the first film.

Jamie went off to college, and Sophie misses him, which is part of why she’s so determined to get elected President of the Club, like he was. Aside from the club itself, Sophie hates school and all things learning. Her grades start slipping immediately. This is a big issue, because Sophie’s mom has recently been hired to be a teacher in her daughter’s school.

When stress levels boil over, Sophie’s mom declares that Sophie is too old to spend all her time daydreaming about fairies and rabbits. She signs Sophie up for after-school tutoring, which is devastating to the pre-teen, because that’s right when the Belief Club usually meets.

Sophie decides to run away and live as an explorer, together with as many of her “supporters” as she can from the Club.

All of this is what’s going on in the human world. But of course, it’s influenced by…

the Pied Piper!

The reason Sophie’s mom turns so cynical and even short-tempered with Sophie is, in part, because Piper has stolen her baby teeth (and therefore, childhood memories) from the Tooth Palace. While there, he also kidnapped the Tooth Fairy, herself. Because of this, tensions are rising between adults and kids around the world—they’re no longer able to relate to one another.

It seems inconceivable to the other guardians that she could’ve been kidnapped—after all, there are an army of baby-tooth-fairies that should be between their queen and any harm. Bunnymund smells rats—but the magical kind of rats that appear to have infiltrated the Tooth Palace can’t be controlled. They’re forces of chaos, and they never should’ve been able to organize themselves well enough to overcome the tooth army.

Unless. Only one person could control rats like this (it’s the best line in the script)

North calls a meeting of all the remaining Guardians together, and Sandman explains. Long ago, just after the Dark Ages, the Man in the Moon chose a new Guardian. Apparently, the children of the world were still having a hard time believing that it was okay to relax and stop jumping at shadows—Pitch was gone, but plenty of other monsters lurked in the shadows, trying to take his place. For example, the wicked Mouse King, a monstrous creature of chaos who appeared in the form of a sea of rats, was stifling the wonder and hope of the poorest villages.

The Man in the Moon selected Pit D. Piper, (a gifted young German musician who tried to educate the poorest children with his rhymes until the plague ended his life) to become the Pied Piper and help solve this problem.

He would become the Guardian of Fun.

The Man in the Moon, as well as the other Guardians, advised their newest member to fight the Mouse King by working together, the way they had done with Pitch. But Piper, who wanted very badly to be believed in, had another idea. He didn’t think the other Guardians’ setup of hiding in secret palaces and doing their work in secret was a good idea. He wanted to live among the people, and have them see him.

He played a couple of clever tricks, got the children of a nearby village to believe in and see him, and even convinced their mayor to let him stay and make their village his home if he could end their rat problem. Piper did this, but the suspicious leader of the town declared that there was nothing “blessed” or “magical” about Piper—he was a charlatan, who had brought trained rats into the town to extort them.

The lonely Piper tried to prove he could be trusted, but to his surprise, the next day, several of the children could no longer see him. They believed the mayor’s story; he wasn’t a fairy or a hero come to save them, he was a trickster. Desperate to keep the few who still believed, Piper told them they should come with him. He would set up shop in a secret place, like the other Guardians, after all. And these kids could be like his elves—or his fairies, or whatever. He wouldn’t have to be alone.

But the children chose to stay with their parents—they didn’t want to leave, even if they did believe he was magical. Desperate not to lose them too, the Piper played his flute, trying to enchant them to follow him. When he turned his magic against them, the Man in the Moon summoned the other Guardians, and the Piper was cast out.

Now he’s back, and, plot twist, he’s working with the Mouse King. They plan to drive a wedge between all the children of the world and their parents. For the Piper, this is revenge; he wants to teach children never to trust in anybody, not their teachers or their mayors or their parents. Just trust themselves. But for the Mouse King, any chaos is a chance for him to grow more powerful and feast on the world again.

The Guardians have to rescue Tooth and lead Sophie’s mom to he, despite the fact that she can’t see them, and they wind up going to college to get Jamie to do it with them.

And I don’t know, I slapped all this together roughly. But I just think it’d be cool to end it with a redemption arc. Then the Pied Piper can be the Guardian of Trust, which I think is greatly under attack these days, especially between kids and their parents.

Get it, because the Pied Piper trusted the villagers to do what they’d promised, and when they didn’t, he gained the kids’ unconditional, twisted “trust” with his music in revenge. Anyway. I know it’s messy, but I don’t believe Rise of the Guardians could ever sustain a sequel, anyway.

. I started out making him look way more willowy and triangular, but then I realized both Tooth and Pitch and Bunnymund are triangle-shaped, so I tried to do squares…

And then James Dean happened by accident. I don’t know, somebody better at this stuff try to do this.

[xjulixred45x]

Y'know I see a lot of yanplatonic, what about... Just yan? 😩👀

Mephisto, Lucifer, and Amaimon?

:0

(if you have to choose a species, half demon, but it'd be cool if you don't specify either 🩵.)

Okay!(I'll do for separete bc You didn't specify so)

Yandere Mephisto Pheles/ Lucifer/Amaimon x Reader: general Headcanons

Genre: Headcanons

Reader: neutral

Warnings: YANDERE BEHAVIOR, OBSESIVE BEHAVIOR, OVERPROTECTION, UNHEALTY MINDSET, WILLING READER IN SOME CASES, CONTROL FREAK LUCIFER, KIND OF DELUSIONAL AMAIMON, MEPHISTO IS A WARNING BY HIMSELF. i think it's all.

Mephisto Pheles

This is going to sound like an unpopular opinion, but Mephisto seems WORSE to me than Lucifer AND Amaimon.

simply because he does not take his partner seriously even if it is voluntary. Be it demon, human, half demon, etc.

Let me explain myself better.

Mephisto gives me vibes of a flamboyant, possessive and quite jealous yandere.

As much as he finds humans interesting, it is not the same as being on their side or wanting to protect them. They are all the same to him.

so his darling would have to stand out in some way, and it can be in any way, whether it be being a pure soul among the other exorcists (like Yuri in a way) or even being someone very dedicated to exorcism, who is not afraid to say how much they hates demons, how much they HATES them, and above all they are not afraid of him despite the great difference in power between the two.

THAT interests Mephisto, it is something fresh, something GENUINELY interesting that he would like to investigate, SOMETHING NEW.

SOMETHING HE CAN KEEP AND HAVE FOR HIMSELF.

I think he is one of those who generate an obsession the fastest (first there is Amaimon) but he acts quite quickly when they capture his interest.

He tries to be a gentleman and thus learn more about his victim i mean Darling , and thus he realizes that they are better than he thought, his tendencies worsening considerably.

quite a few gifts, which become more personal regardless of whether the darling accepts or rejects them.

He also shamelessly makes Darling spend time with him even during work hours, be it bringing him something to his office (when his servant can do it), making him take their breaks in HIS office drinking tea (having awkward conversations , What fun).

or watching from afar their missions to 1- make sure Darling is okay 2- watch his sweetheart work and 3- kill in a "subtle" way anyone who sees too close or has already tried to hurt Darling.

He definitely stalks darlings in dog form, or even rubs against them so they can pamper him that way (it works sometimes because they don't realize it's him).

When it comes to the escorting (kidnapping) part to his house, Mephisto acts as if he is dealing with a terrified pet and not a living being that wants to leave.

He is quite condescending and although he is somewhat patient at first, his patience runs out quite quickly.

His punishments are more on the psychological side, mostly using his manipulation of time.

for example, trapping darling in a loop until they apologize, making them relive a particularly traumatic moment, etc.

Mephisto doesn't harm them physically, but he has no problem destroying their minds.

If Darling were a volunteer, things would be slightly better, no punishments and more freedom to go out, but he would really still be a jealous clingy.

Mephisto would continue giving many gifts, especially clothes that he would like to see Darling in (German clothes, with a theme similar to his, anime, etc.)

If Darling behaves enough, he takes them out for a walk around the academy or to his amusement park! after all he likes it when they have fun with him.

He's a piece of shit, he demands physical contact, he won't take NO for an answer (although sometimes he tricks you with the dog form to get it).

There is no way Darling can get out or ask for help, since they would have to ask for help from Lucifer or several of his brothers to have ONE CHANCE to escape (aside from the fact that they can't even leave the palace without MEPHISTO HIMSELF with them).

Just have to say...good luck with it.

Lucifer

Ah, our favorite control freak.

He seems like a better option than Mephisto to me for the simple fact that at the very least he DOES CARE that darling wants him, he cares about what THEY want even if he is a selfish piece of shit who is willing to keep them away from the world JUST so that HE can be happy.

At least he's honest with that.

He is an obsessive yandere, somewhat delusional, overprotective, etc.

I think it would take him longer than Amaimon and Mephisto to fall in love with someone.

and I honestly like the scenario that he becomes obsessed with someone and constantly watches over them.

At first he tries to rationalize that it is for the good of the infiltration mission.

but inconveniently he ends up noticing things about darling's everyday life that resonate.

ends up accumulating all possible information about them, what they like, what they don't, allergies, past, friends, enemies (people to kill), etc.

For Lucifer, watching Darling live their life is like an escape from his own life with constant pain, living his days through theirs.

and that ends up generating a certain feeling of affection, appreciation, love.

which quickly becomes obsessive when he realizes that they could be attacked or DIE at any moment if they remain vulnerable.

and imagine EVERY possible way for this to happen.

So he decides that the best way to keep Darling safe is to have them with the Illuminati.

The kidnapping is probably carried out by either Shima or Homare and in the quickest/gentlest way possible. If Darling ended up with unnecessary lacerations I can assure you that Lucifer would take care of the "problem" without thinking :)

As for the "adjustment period" after that, Lucifer is quite patient, more than one would expect.

As delulu as he is, he knows that "changing the environment" is a stressful situation and he justifies Darling's initial actions in that way, the shouting, attacking the staff, trying to leave his room, everything is justifiable to him.

(They already say that love makes you blind... In Lucifer Case, Blind AND deaf af)

Lucifer gives Darling a rank in the Illuminati, just below his own, and all possible privileges within the ship. but it still has the clear restriction of, well, not running away.

His punishments fall more into the realm of removing privileges and isolation, it does not reach the level of Mephisto, but isolation definitely leaves its consequences and removing privileges leaves Darling even worse than before.

Lucifer demands to spend time with darling, things like them accompanying him on his stretcher when he can't move, taking walks around the base, reading together, "going out" to private places just the two of them.

I can definitely see him as touch-starved, but with how sick he is he can only do that when he's stable enough to stand, so rest assured that when that happens, he'll be attached to darling like a bug.

If Darling behaves, they will be pampered as if it were their birthday, Lucifer will meet certain demands such as books, materials for hobbies (art, writing, crafts, etc.), perhaps a pet, periodic departures from the ship with him or Homare, etc. .

His darling is more likely to have Stockholm syndrome, he treats them very lovingly and at the same time rebukes any hint of seeking their freedom, so it is understandable.

Just follow the rules, don't go outside the lines, and your new life will be minimal, manageable, and at best. easy. Just don push your luck and let Lucifer "love" You as it's do.

Amaimon

my favorite of the demon brothers. So sorry if i extend myself on this one

Amaimon is interesting, because he is the one who would become interested in someone the fastest. but it does not mean that it would be something positive from the beginning.

We already know that he only looks at people strong enough to give him a good fight, so it would be quite normal to expect that from his Darling.

someone who can kick his butt, hurt his pride, etc. or even a member of the Shiemihaza family tree.

DARLING HAS TO BE SOMEONE STRONG. OTHERWISE, THEY DOESN'T HAVE MANY CHANCES OF EVEN SURVIVING AMAIMON.

not because he has the possibility of intentionally killing darling, but rather unintentionally 😅

Either way, this person catches Amaimon's interest and at first he HATES THEM.

not only because of his wounded pride, but because he generally can't stand being interested in someone he considers inferior.

and even worse, HE WANTS TO SEE THEM AGAIN.

It's like love hate at first 😅

Amaimon will demand a fight with darling and will not leave until he is satisfied, which could lead to an interesting series of draws.

and little by little Amaimon can decipher what he really FEELS about Darling.

either by himself asking Mephisto about it.

Either way, he realizes that he doesn't really hate Darling, on the contrary.

partly he wants them close.

He wants to be the only one they fight with.

with whom they make jokes, with whom they talk.

HE WANTS TO BE THE ONLY ONE.

But at the same time he thinks it would be boring to just lock them in one place and never change, or worse, have them hate him now that he finally has something like a "friend"/"love interest."

so Amaimon resigns himself to isolating Darling from the others. He is surprisingly calculating at that.

He has no problem killing and getting rid of Darling's friends, family, and companions if it means spending time with him.

If Darling somehow realized that Amaimon is the one who is disappearing his loved ones, maybe they can manipulate him so that he doesn't do it and they simply stop seeing his family.

Amaimon in general is the ONLY one of the three that can be manipulated by darling, precisely because he only thinks about fighting, sweets and darling, in that order.

Also darling can bribe him with candy to leave them alone for a while, it works 9 times out of 10, the 10th time he will want to eat the candy WITH darling.

He's terrible with words unlike his brothers, and even his attempts to cheer up Darling seem like threats🤣 but he tries.

is the most likely to have a willing darling, because let's be honest, anyone else wouldn't want to fight Amaimon twice, so if someone fights Amaimon SEVERAL times it's because either 1- he's Rin or 2- he likes fighting him. to some extent.

Besides, like I said, he don't have to kidnap his darling because the charm of your relationship is that only HE can plague their time and fight with them whenever HE wants.

Amaimon simply has neither the patience nor the emotional intelligence to deal with an unwitting darling.

When they are both tired of fighting, they just talk nonsense about humans, life, eat sweets, etc. It's surprisingly nice.

God forbid someone tries to keep Darling away from Amaimon, he will make a blue night 2.0.

And he also doesn't tolerate being lied to, he can be very scary when he's angry.

It is the easiest way to "escape" from being kidnapped as is, rather under his constant threat of killing all your family and friends...

Darling's safest bet is to go with Mephisto, yes, as ironic as it may sound, but Amaimon is still afraid of his brother after all. so it would be useful to have him as an ally.

I would say that it is the easiest to handle and can even be pleasant, but that does not make it any less stressful and terrifying.

Don't let anyone see you, touch you, hit you, NOTHING... and everything will be fine.

not great, but good.

Shares, reblogs and comments are very welcome!

[parasolladyansy]

hello! i've liked ansy's adventure for a while, and i noticed how you play on japanese names for the pokemon, especially for mizumi's and sasmu's. what do you think of the languages in the pokemon world? i can guess hisuian equals japanese, but does sinnohan/kantonese also translate into japanese? or the four japanese-based regions are adapted into english ( or unovan?) i don't know if i'm explaining myself, but how do you view the pkmn languages and their equivalents in our world?

こんばんは! Good evening! Thank you for following along ^o^/

Class is in session lol! Professor Laventon seems to be most comfortable writing in his native Galarian, though he also has various notes in traditional “Japanese”, written vertically & read right to left.

So, language is a very interesting thing in fiction, & the Pokeverse is no exception! Through the games (& especially the latest ones, Scarlet / Violet) we’ve had a number of characters who spoke in different languages. I remember a couple of NPC’s in BW Unova, there’s Fantina in Sinnoh who peppers her speech with Kalosian (French), & a Hiker on Galar’s Route 6 who spoke what I’m guessing was Paldean (Spanish) rather than Galarian (English). Then in SV, we have Mr. Salvatore who teaches (& uses) many languages (off the top of my head, I remember him teaching how to say “thank you” in Spanish, French, Chinese, & German).

It does get tricky when it comes to the “Japanese” regions of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh / Hisui, & Kitakami, as those regions otherwise make up one country in our world, but this has yet to have been canonically established (which is why I always put “Japan” / “Japanese” in quotes, as there currently isn’t a name for that one country, same with “America”). I do believe they share the same language - at the very least Hisui & Kitakami have the same written script, & I feel pretty confident that if they were to retcon it, they would have the other “Japanese” regions use it, too (before Legends Arceus, they just used random shapes that didn’t seem to spell anything, which I interpreted to just be placeholder characters).

If there is a common language in their world (& I think is, from characters from different regions being able to talk to each other no problem), I personally would guess it to be “Japanese” - as we look at the other regions, we can see a sort of Japanese flavor that would otherwise not be there (though they clearly did their homework on the various parts of the world these regions reflect!). Of course, Pokémon is from Japan, so it would make sense that they would add some of their own culture to this world they created. For a possible in-universe explanation, the Pokeverse seemed to have started in Japan (specifically in Sinnoh as we learned in Legends Arceus, so I guess their universe actually is geocentric like old astronomers used to think ours was?).

I think that’s about it. In DxP REWRITE, while my own language is American-English (& beginner-level Japanese lol) so I read the characters to be speaking American-English, they are actually speaking “Japanese” while in Sinnoh (which is why I haven’t really been peppering Ansy’s dialogue with Japanese). I have tried to write in the “Japanese” or Galarian scripts for signs & things a couple times:

The sign just says “Gear Station”

Here I (tried to lol) translate Mizumi’s letter to Japanese then wrote it out in in-game characters (in the modern horizontal, as Mizumi is from the modern era writing to someone in the modern era).

Thanks for reading yet another post of me geeking out lol. Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments! じゃあ、またね! Until next time! ^o^/

—

PS: For funsies, here’s the (non-canonical, as these were made by fans) references I’ve been using when writing in either Galarian or “Japanese” in DxP REWRITE:

I personally was confused by the “Japanese” script also being alphabetical rather than phonetic like hiragana / katakana (two common scripts in Japan, the first being mostly used to spell Japanese words while katakana is used to spell foreign words - the third script, kanji, is used to write whole words). If that is the case (which is how I wrote it in Mizumi’s letter), “Japanese” is written in what’s called “romanji”, where they write out words in the Latin (aka Roman) alphabet rather than phonetically: “ありがとうございます” becomes “arigatō-gozaimasu” (“thank you very much”).

Whether it is actually written out that way in game though…? At a glance of the signs I saw in Hisui & Kitakami, it does look like it’s more like hiragana & kanji instead, but this chart is all I got for now. Any Japanese folks or fluent Japanese-readers who can tell me if there’s anything out there in the Japanese fandom about this, please lemme know so I can do right by it into future - as of writing this, I haven’t seen much else among the English-speaking fandom 8u8;

As for the Galarian script, it’s clearly based on the Latin alphabet that much of the Western world uses for our various languages - we see it in Paldea as well as Galar, & according to the trailer in Pokemon ZA, they retconned it to be used in Kalos as well. In universe, I wonder if they were at all influenced by the Unown, being based on the Latin alphabet themselves. Again, who knows? (though I question the accuracy of this particular font / chart: if it is, the first thing Laventon’s chalkboard says “REXBOQ” lol XD)

[montmorillionite]

I went to give public comment at my county's library board meeting this week. The library board was considering requests to ban books presented by a local far right group. They included Flamer, Genderqueer, All Boys Aren't Blue, Zenobia July, Looking for Alaska, and a couple others I don't remember.

The collections manager for the library system gave an excellent presentation on the laws and policies that govern collection management and also brought a copy of a Holocaust history book (I think it was Why The Germans, Why The Jews) in to show that it had been defaced with swastikas and antisemitic phrases and talk about the quiet censorship problem in our libraries.

The actual meeting itself lasted 5 hours, and the board chair refused to eject members of the far right faction who were disrupting the meeting and trying to pick fights. One of them even said "let's take this outside" to someone asking them to be quiet and let the meeting continue.

I'm pretty used to seeing and receiving hateful rhetoric and messages online. Comes with the territory of being an out trans woman online. But it felt different spending 5 hours in a room with people who are openly calling you a groomer and saying you're sexualizing kids. Who are trying to claim that the exclusion of queer people from public life is just "common sense" and "having community standards".

They also claimed that the director of the American Library Association wanted to turn all libraries in the country into transgender Marxist recruiting centers and because of the the local library system should cut ties with the ALA.

I guess I'm probably mostly writing this down to process it. It was a lot, and also a powerful reminder that the fascists are here. They're in our communities, they're trying (and at least here, partially succeeding) to control local politics. For me at least it's one thing to see it online. That feels at least a little removed. Seeing it in person was scary, but it feels good to have been part of resisting it and successfully opposing book bans locally.

[saphronethaleph]

Chronological Contemporaries

“Gabe,” Steve called, his voice hushed. “Move up to the ridge. Check if this is the right place.”

“I can assure you it is, Captain,” the Duke said, calmly – and in very good English. “But it’s perfectly fine for you to check.”

“Right,” Steve said. “Gabe?”

“On it,” Gabe nodded, and began crawling up the slope – slowly and carefully, trying not to make much noise.

This was the fifth HYDRA camp they’d gone after, and it was one of those ones which was going to be… tricky. The placement of it meant that it was all kinds of likely that HYDRA would be moving anything they wanted to keep safe out of other bases and to this one, and that meant they could be facing almost anything here… anything from enhanced guards to a regular German army regiment to some kind of super-science trick.

But that wasn’t the thing that was making Steve Rogers most worried about this.

It was their hosts.

They’d been based out of a fine old chateau in the French countryside for the last few days, which wasn’t much of an issue by itself, but…

Steve shook his head, and shifted over a little under the moonlight until he was right by Bucky.

“Did I miss somethin’ in history class?” he asked. “I thought there was some kind of French Revolution? How is there a duke here?”

“You got me,” Bucky shrugged, whispering as well. “It’s like a time capsule, the whole place feels like it’s out of a storybook or something. Like we walked into Snow White or one of those stories.”

Steve stifled a chuckle.

“Or Oz,” he suggested. “But, seriously – any ideas, Monty?”

‘Monty’ Falsworth checked on his Sten gun, and raised an eyebrow.

“I’m sure I wouldn’t know,” he replied. “I’m British, not French. And we all know who here is French, don’t we?”

“Okay, okay, I’m sure this is a question you are dying to ask,” ‘Frenchie’ Dernier said. “So, what is it that is the problem?”

“How come there are still Dukes in France?” Steve asked. “I don’t know much about this.”

“Well, there are some possibilities, but what you must recognize is that it is not so simple as to say that there was one revolution,” Frenchie answered. “There was, let me see… the Revolution, then some various confusing nonsense, then Napoleon, then the Bourbons, then Napoleon again which was stopped by Monty’s Duke of Wellington, then the Bourbons again, and after this there was the Second Republic… then another Napoleon, a different one, who was then in turn replaced. And after that it has been Republics, but only for the last seventy years or so.”

Steve blinked.

“Okay, so I missed a lot in history class,” he admitted. “But still, how can you still have a Duke here?”

“I’m not from around here, you may have noticed,” Frenchie pointed out. “But, in France a Duke does not have to be royal, and one of the servants I noticed also called him a prince – which I believe makes him the ruler of a principality. Some of these things are… mostly just old money, however, and it is more like that he was a governor or senator over an area… hmm… roughly speaking it would be this valley, so no more than thirty or so square kilometres, if that.”

Steve blinked.

“You used to have those?” he asked.

Frenchie shrugged.

“It’s a bloody good thing that we’ve got you around to make sense of this stuff,” Monty said.

“So… he’s basically just old money?” Bucky asked.

“Exactly,” Frenchie said. “Or, that is my guess, at any rate… it is a fine old house, after all.”

“Do you think there’s a risk that they’re some kind of… collaborators?” Steve said, his voice even lower, and he glanced back at the elderly French lady and gentleman who’d accompanied them on the trip to the HYDRA camp. “If the Nazis didn’t get to them in several years…”

“It is… not impossible,” Frenchie mused. “But what is?”

Then there was a shout, a gunshot, and Gabe came slithering back down the slope.

“What’s wrong?” Steve asked, picking up his shield.

“I don’t know how, but they made me,” Gabe replied. “Only saw a faint glimpse, someone was looking through some sort of scope, but I swear I didn’t skyline myself and they just picked me out straight away!”

“Maybe they knew we were coming,” Bucky said.

“What a bother,” the Duchess sighed, but there was a mysterious smile on her lips. “My dear old gentleman, I don’t suppose you’d be willing to take care of this for us?”

“For you, always,” the Duke replied, pressing his forehead to hers. “My beautiful rose.”

Then he rose to his full height… and kept rising. There was a kind of bursting motion, as a hard-wearing tweed jacket strained and exploded and was replaced by huge, furred muscles, and he winked at his wife before loping off up the slope.

“Halt!” a voice shouted in German, then shouted a strangled curse, and Steve heard the flash and crackle of gunfire.

A lot of it.

“...what the fuck,” Bucky whispered, which Steve had to agree with.

“Ah,” the Duchess said, her hand to her heart. “My dear Adam is still as hale as ever, don’t you think?”

“While I recognize we’re all rather shocked,” Monty began. “Shouldn’t we be helping the giant beast who’s tearing apart an entire company of Nazis?”

That reminded Steve of his actual job, and he rolled onto his front before beginning a sprint up the slope.

(Citation and inspiration via @raeynbowboi posting about when the film is set...)

[markscherz]

so I was on the gecko tag this evening and found your blog. and. ackfiyckfykf, my faith in humanity is Restored and I aspire to your immaculate Vibes and absolute happy snazziness. now then,,,, please describe the college tuition fees ( or lack thereof ) in Demark, pleeeeease please I am full of hope because of something I saw on Pinterest but I trust you to tell me the truth :3 ( stares at you )

If you are from within the EU/EEA or a Nordic country, you do not have to pay tuition fees at the University of Copenhagen (I cannot say anything about other unis in Denmark). People from outside Europe have to pay €10,000–17,000 per year. Note that Bachelor's degrees at UCPH at least are all mostly in Danish, so accessibility is a bit limited. Denmark is an expensive city, and Copenhagen especially so, so cost of living can also be a problem.

But all-told, no matter what you do, the costs of uni+life in Denmark are nothing compared with many colleges in the US, or even unis in the UK.

To be honest though, the German fee situation is far better: German universities are free, or close to it. Some states have tuition fees that are moderate, but most have an administrative fee of about €250 per semester. There is also a much lower cost of living basically everywhere. So, seriously consider Germany if you are from outside Europe and want to come here to escape come to Europe to study and potentially settle.

[melanieph321]

Kenan Yildiz x Reader - Thick Part 2/8

Part 1

Kenan and Reader share the same high school friend group. As graduation is near, Reader sets out to pass her drivers license test but ultimately struggles to. Thankfully Readers friends agree to help her with driving lessons and take turns doing so. It is during one of Rader's lessons that it becomes clear that Kenan likes her. A chock to Reader, who has a crush on someone else in their friend group.

Enjoy!

Kenan wasn't in class today so you had to wait for him to pick you up at the end of yours. Unfortunately he pulled up an hour too late.

"You're late." 

"I know, I'm sorry." He sighed. "Did you have to wait for long?"

"Yes, an hour."

You got into the passenger's seat of his BMW, the last car to leave the school parking lot.

"I'm really sorry Y/N, my training session ran late. If I had a chance to text you I would've."

"Can we just get on with the lesson, please? My parents want me home before dinner." This was actually a lie, your parents were diplomats and often didn't make it home in time to dine with you. Nevertheless, you were starving, craving anything that the family chef was throwing together for dinner tonight.

"How about we switch?" Kenan suggested, referring to your seats.

"Fine."

He pulled over the car and you threw your bag into the backseat. The two of you made the switch that left you behind the wheel of his car.

"So, where should we go?"

"Well, I've had some problems with big roundabouts." You admitted. "Like the one in town."

"With two files?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"Alright, it shouldn't be too crowded at this hour. Let's head there and see how you do."

You nodded, pushing Kenan's car to a start. It was a nice car and you bet he took pride in how expensive it was. Of all the people in your friend group, Kenan was the person you spent the least amount of time with, alone that is. You and Luca weren't really the closest either, but that was because you were too shy to ask him to hang out, Kenan on the other hand, you avoided if not on purpose. He was a jock. The worst kind, a football jock. With a newly signed contract to Juventus FC, the best football team in Turin.

"Alright, just take it slow." Kenan said, as you arrived at the roundabout. He was right that it wouldn't be crowded at this hour, which made it easier for you to slip into the right lane.

"Good job, Y/N." He said, praising your driving skills. "I don't see why you wouldn't be able to do that at any given hour?"

"Because..." You muttered, steering the car in the direction towards town. "Traffic makes me nervous."

"Yeah, I guess the Italians can be a bit ruthless here in Turin."

"Ruthless." You snorted. "You mean lethal. A man once honked his horn and shouted for me to get off the road, saying that his disabled cousin could drive better than me."

Kenan laughed, a rich laugh that showed off his dimples.

"I don't see how that's funny?"

"It's not." He wiped away his grin. "I'm sorry."

"You've said that like five times already."

"What? I'm sorry?"

"Yeah. It's annoying."

"Right, sorry." He smiled.

You rolled your eyes. 

Silence fell in the car, highlighting the tunes of Kenan's Spotify playlist. It consisted mostly of German trap and some other songs in what you assumed to be Turkish. Rebecca once told you that Kenan's father used to be in the Turkish mob and that's where Kenan got the cut on his eyebrows. However you called bullshit on that fact. The cut on Kenan's eyebrow was clearly a display of what he thought to be fashion amongst the cool kids.

"Do you miss England?"

"Pardon?" You snapped out of your thoughts, feeling Kenan's eyes on you. However, you were too nervous of a driver for your eyes to leave the road.

"Home." He said. "Do you miss your home in England?"

"Well, it's not really my home since I wasn't born there."

"No?" Where were you born then?"

"The Netherlands. But I spent most of my childhood in London."

"Because of your parents' job?"

"Yeah." You were surprised that Kenan knew about your parents' job as diplomats. Come to think about it, perhaps it was the one thing the two of you had in common. 

"Do you miss Germany?" The car stopped at a red light, allowing you to turn your head and look at him. Kenan's eyes stared blankly into yours, a faint but seductive smile on his lips.

"Italy is not so bad." He shrugged. "Here I get to play football with one of the best teams in Europe."

You nodded. "If it wasn't for the traffic I would've agreed with you, Italy is quite the place to live."

"Don't worry Y/N." You flinched as Kenan's hand was brought to your thigh, patting it lightly. "You'll get a hang of the traffic in no time."

Heat rose to your face and you weren't sure whether to be offended or flattered by his actions. Nevertheless, his hand slipped away as quickly as it appeared.

"I'm starving, how about some McDonald's?" He suggested.

"Oh, God yes."

You drove the car to the nearest McDonald's, although Kenan had unbuckled his belt you pulled the car into the drive through, not the parking lot.

"Welcome to McDonald's, what can I get you?" Said a lady through the drive-through monitor.

"Yeah, Hi. Erm...can I get a Big Mac menu with large fries and a large coke."

"Yes, anything else?"

"Yes, can I also get a double cheeseburger on the side and one of those ice cream sundaes with caramel topping."

"Sure thing, is that all?"

You looked at Kenan, who sat back in the passenger's seat with blushing red cheeks and wide eyes.

"Kenan?" You frowned.

"Huh?" 

"Make your order."

"Oh, right." He snapped out of his daze and leaned forward. "I'll have a chicken burger and a cup of water, please."

"Is that all?" You whispered.

"Erm...yeah."

The lady in the monitor told you to drive around the building and wait for your order to be delivered through the nearest window. Thankfully it only took a minute. Although Kenan began to unwrap his order in the car, you waited to eat your food at home.

"You know, I like a girl with an appetite." Kenan said, through the half chewed food in his mouth.

"You mean a fat girl?" 

He frowned.

"Skinny girls don't have big appetites, so I'm only assuming."

"Yes they do." He protested. "The Italian ones."

"Well, I'm not Italian."

"Yeah and you're not skinny either."

Your mouth fell open. "I can't believe you just said that?"

"What?"

"You just called me fat Kenan." It was hard for you to concentrate on the road, your hands gripping the steering wheel with a fear of losing control.

"Not fat." Kenan said, shifting in his seat. He placed a hand next to yours on the steering wheel, seeing as you struggle to keep it steady. "You're not fat Y/N, you're more like....like...."

"Yes?"

"I don't know, fluffy. Yeah. You're a fluffy girl, not fat."

"You fucking asshole." 

You pulled over the car, grabbing your things from the backseat.

"Y/N, wait! I didn't mean it like that." Kenan got out of the car with you, chasing you down the street. 

"Leave me alone Kenan."

"Come on Y/N, I just couldn't find a better word for it."

You paused and turned back to look at him. He seemed genuinely misunderstood. That is, until he opened his mouth again.

"You're not fat or fluffy Y/N."

"No? What am I then, because I've heard it all from you football guys."

"You're thick." He nodded. "Guys like thick girls, that's why I like you."

"Right, so now I'm fat and dumb."

"What, no? That's not what I..." 

You turned your back on him, continuing down the road towards your house, tossing the McDonald's bag into the nearest bushes.

Part 1

[mcdonaldsnumberone]

BETCHA!

noa had expected that giving advice to kaiser on his love life would be no easy feat, but when kaiser realizes that you have next-to-no interest in him, the german prodigy works up a storm in his master’s office. noa can only pray that he has the patience to whip kaiser into the true romantic gentleman you deserve. (+insp.)

gender neutral reader

content warning(s): kaiser x reader except it’s mostly noa teaching kaiser how to not be a shitty lover

Noa knew that becoming the mentor and master of any team would be far from an easy job. 

He had braced himself for the worst when he agreed to teach Bastard Munchen everything in his own arsenal, to lead the new youth team to become soccer’s future for when he would one day inevitably retire. He was more than aware of the nasty personalities the sport seemed to bring out from everyone (himself included, he had to admit), and he had readied himself to see sparks fly in all the worst ways possible as the teenage boys butted heads with each other.

Growing pains, he chalked it up to. Even he was once like that. Hungry, desperate, ready to prove himself to the world as the true diamond-in-the-rough amongst the common pebbles all around him.

He had braced himself for physical fights, with the youths squabbling with each other over who should have scored. And he got plenty of that. He also got plenty of haranguing them into getting up early in the mornings for practice and fighting to keep them motivated into the unforgiving hours of the night. He had braced himself for dealing with all of their managerial issues, from the boys transferring teams to needing travel visas and whatnot. 

All of the little things he had grown used to and faced during his own career, Noa was more than equipped to deal with. And he believed he solved each and every one of these problems with the same level head and grace that secured him his spot as the world’s number one striker.

What Noa wasn’t prepared for, however, were the issues involved with the budding relationships the Bastard Munchen players would face. His advice for their romantic lives were usually the same: make smart choices, stay out of paparazzi’s sight, and be respectful. That typically did the job for most of his mentees, and Noa could put his busy mind at rest.

Except for one specific boy who seemed to make it his life’s reason to break every rule that Noa had set in place for them.

Noa was sick and tired of cleaning up after every mess Kaiser made. He was used to Kaiser dragging in all sorts of celebrities and famous people he had hit it off with in a club or some other place, bragging about how he had finally found the one, to which Noa was always patient (and quick to remind the young boy that he had still yet to turn 20 and most definitely had not found “the one” quite yet). Like clockwork, a week would pass, and Kaiser would be on the quest to find the next person to entertain his fickle heart.

So frankly, when you rolled around, Noa had thought Kaiser’s obsession with you would only last about the same as his previous flings. Noa quietly waited out a week. Then another. And another. Then a few more. And to his surprise, you stuck to Kaiser’s mind. Kaiser still pursued you as relentlessly as he did the first day he brought you up to Noa, and Noa realized how difficult it would be to actually wrangle in a full-blown delusional, lovestruck Kaiser.

“NOAAAAAAAAAA!”

Noa rubbed at his temples, closing his eyes and sucking in a deep breath through his nose. He held it for a few seconds, like how his therapist had recommended, before breathing out through his mouth for a few more seconds. Noa was fully aware that he threw a life of peace away the moment he chose to become a professional athlete, but asking for more than fifteen minutes of uninterrupted silence seemed less plausible than winning the World Cup fifteen times in a row.

The door to his office flew open with such force that the Frenchman was surprised it hadn’t flown clean off of its hinges. “Shitty master! There you are! I need your advice!”

“No need to be so violent or loud, Kaiser.” Noa turned on the swivel chair the Blue Lock facility had given him, tearing his eyes away from the statistics and team strategies he had been working on. “They’ll be able to hear even from across the compound.”

Kaiser stood in his doorway, looking disheveled and near tears. He had sprinted here, evident from the thin layer of sweat on the German boy’s forehead and how heavily he was breathing. Noa doubted that Kaiser was coming to him needing advice on training or improvising his skills. 

No, Noa knew what Kaiser was here for already.

“Alright, how did you mess up this time, Kaiser?” The Frenchman asked exhaustedly. He had gotten used to this song-and-dance with his pupil a long time ago, ever since you had wormed your way into Kaiser’s heart. “Did you call (Y/n) a rude name? Or say something mean?”

Kaiser scrunched his pretty face up, stomping closer to Noa and sticking his bottom lip out. “No! I didn’t do anything like that. Noa, it’s so much more severe! I’d rather that they hate me and wish me dead than this! You don’t understand—they don’t care about me at all!!”

Noa bit back a snort. “Oh. And I thought you had done so much worse.”

Kaiser began frantically pacing around Noa’s office, agitatedly wringing his hands. “I knew you wouldn’t understand, you shitty master! Ugh, this is what I get, going to someone as stoic as you for advice with my love life! I don’t get it. Why doesn’t (Y/n) want me? I’m the whole package! I have people crawling, and I mean, fucking crawling all over me. That super hot actress everyone’s been talking about? She was begging me for a date last week! I’m popular and handsome and rich, and (Y/n) acts like I’m just some guy from across the street! I’m not some guy from across the street!”

“No, you aren’t-”

Kaiser shook his hands in the air. “I’m the Michael Kaiser! 300 million yen annual salary, master of Kaiser Impact, golden ace of Bastard Munchen, and God’s chosen emperor! How dare they not want me as much as I want them? Can’t they see how madly in love I am? That I’ve practically made a fool of myself at this point? Trying this hard to make them fall for me?”

Kaiser breathed heavily after having dumped all of that onto Noa, and the older man stared at Kaiser with singlehandedly the most unimpressed look on his face. The German athlete let out a strangled groan, the reality of his dejection sinking in properly, and Noa watched as Kaiser buried his face into his hands.

“First and foremost, Kaiser, you have to understand that people have different tastes. What might be appealing to actresses and celebrities and whoever else you attract might not be (Y/n)’s type,” Noa sighed, leaning back in his chair and massaging his head. “Some people avoid famous and popular people on purpose, because it’s an awful lot of work to be with someone under that much public scrutiny. It’s a big thing to ask of someone, regardless of their interest in you.”

“But I have the money! The body! The looks! Anyone would be flattered to have my interest! C’mon, Noa- Fame aside, I’m sexy as fuck!” Kaiser motioned vaguely at his body. “I’m sexy, right? Tell me I’m sexy, Noa!”

“Kaiser, I am not doing that.”

“You get what I’m trying to say!”

“Secondly,” Noa continued sternly. He didn’t particularly have the energy to flatter Kaiser that much more. “Have you actually tried wooing them in a… more appropriate way?”

Kaiser frowned deeply, and he crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you mean in a more appropriate way? Shouldn’t they fall to my feet in utter worship of how wonderful I am? Shouldn’t they be sobbing over how grateful they are to me that I would give them even a crumb of my attention?”

Oh god. Noa wondered where he had gone wrong with Kaiser. The headache that had been ebbing in and out ever since the youth had barged into his office was only amplifying. “No, Kaiser. I mean the kind of courtship that most other people would try. Like compliments, gifts, maybe grabbing a coffee together. You have to earn someone’s love. It isn’t something that’s guaranteed nor is it something that’s owed.”

The German boy’s frown faded slightly, morphing into a small look of confusion. He repeated, “Earn? You mean… I have to try to get (Y/n)’s favor? They aren’t smitten with me already?”

“Probably not. If they haven’t already started a relationship with you yet, that usually means you haven’t won their heart.” The older athlete explained calmly. “Try the things I told you. Tell them that you like seeing them around. Maybe get them a small thing of flowers. Being kind to someone never hurts. Especially if they aren’t exactly… used to dealing with your bold personality. You have to start with baby steps before you can get to all the big passionate things you’re thinking of.”

Noa wondered for a split second if Kaiser would fume and brush his advice off as he usually did, but for once, the boy nodded along and silently mulled over his mentor’s words. Noa continued to watch him quietly, hoping inwardly that he had gotten through to the boy and that maybe he’d quit harassing you with what he could only imagine to be the most audacious courtship in the universe. You were truly a trooper to somehow keep up with all of Kaiser’s ridiculous antics. 

“For once you’re of help, shitty master,” Kaiser hummed, and the German nodded to himself.. “I know a place I could order a few blue roses from… And there’s a really nice café not too far from the facility once we get down the mountain… Yeah, I can see it all coming together! Okay, I have a plan!”

“Ah, by the way,” Noa interrupted. Kaiser looked at the Frenchman, as if to silently ask him if there was anything else he needed to be lectured about. Noa cleared his throat, looking firmly at the young man. “Remember what I told you, no matter what (Y/n) does in response to your efforts. Love is earned, not owed. Even if you try to be kind to them and flirt with them differently, you aren’t entitled to their love. If they make it very clear that you aren’t interested, the right thing to do is back off and give them space. Do you understand?”

“Of course I do,” Kaiser scoffed. “If they decide that they don’t want me… Then that’s their loss! I’ll use my indescribable charm to find someone better… Even though I don’t really think there’s anyone better than them.”

“Well, no matter what you do, I’m sure I’ll hear of it.” Noa chuckled softly as the young blond’s cheeks turned red as he started thinking about you, and Kaiser hid his pink face behind his hands. Kaiser turned on his heel, straightening his back and puffing his chest out, clearly determined to enact Noa’s heartfelt advice and to undoubtedly unleash upon you another wave of unrestrained romance.

Noa knew that Kaiser’s wails and screeches in his desperate attempts for your favor would be far from over, but if he could bit-by-bit place the boy on the correct path at wooing you over, then maybe all of Kaiser’s temper tantrums and 3 AM rants about how he is 100% confident that he’s going marry you someday would be worth it. If there was one thing that Kaiser was, it was incredibly stubborn about not letting things that he deemed as “his” slip away.

“Ah, one more thing, Kaiser-”

Kaiser stopped dead in his tracks, already halfway out of the room. “Yeah? What is it, shitty master?”

“Don’t fantasize about marriage just yet. I think it’s still way too early for you to be planning out a wedding with (Y/n) already…”

x

[virgil-630]

How do I live with myself now

I am seeping through the ground

Shame pulls and I sink like a stone

I am nowhere, I am home

I decided this year to get my shit together and start dumping all my lore posts on the internet, so below are some rambling notes on Gabriel's childhood and his friendship with Laura

I have a couple more texts in my stash, which I will try to edit and post in the near future

Tip Commission info

So, Gabriel is 16 and it is the moment when he, together with his brother and mother, have to move from their hometown because of the aggravation of the situation on the border, near which they live at that time, and the divorce of his parents very "timely", actually partly provoked by the situation in the world

And they move to the other side of the border, to the north, because their mother's relatives live there.

The father of the family stays in the south and for obvious reasons the connection with him is cut off for a long time for the brothers. They will re-establish contact much later during the freezing of the conflict, but it will be mostly relevant for Michael than for Gabriel

I haven't written about this anywhere before, but a small note on how to understand the protagonist's homeland

All characters in the so-called north, the setting of the main events of the story, have Hungarian and sometimes German names. Gabriel and his brother have double names and, as you can see, quite an English surname. This is because, despite their mother's roots, she never planned to return to her homeland before the divorce with her husband, and her relationships with the family were always strained.

As I have already written religion played for her much more importance than the past life, which she sincerely hated, so she named the children in honor of the archangels, the father in turn chose the usual names for the area where they lived

All this led to the fact that when the brothers moved, they did not even know the local language, because no one taught them. Because of this, Gabriel still has an accent, but also due to the fact that he doesn't see much of it, and that he doesn't care to correct this issue.

Laura, Gabe's childhood friend. They met when they were both 12. Before the incident.

It's important to know that they were both odd kids, unspokenly excluded from the community. The Gabe's family's roots and religiosity, foreign to the South, also weighed in on the issue, as did Laura's transgender identity. Even though in the world of impressions it was treated much easier, but the girl's bad character scared away those few who wanted to socialize with her.

In this they are really similar. The only difference is that Laura perfectly solves the problems created by her sharp temperament and in principle likes to stay away from society, while Gab loves to create and increase these problems exponentially with her stubbornness. And this cocktail is perfectly combined with an incredible attraction to society and people, especially in his childhood years.

But in spite of this seemingly strange state of affairs the friendship was strong and a certain romantic element even began to flare up in it, but around that time everything went to the same place and the incident, the long recovery after it, and then the world situation together with the family situation became a strong obstacle to any development of these feelings.