#prediction got oddly accurate

[outsidereveries]

Should I tick it..

or i should wait..

[tetraharmonic]

If I had a nickle for every time I predicted something in Tokyo Debunker from a fucking ROLEPLAY SERVER---...

... I would have two nickles. And I'm very quickly starting to see more nickles thrown at me like Leon's execution in Danganronpa.

I am very scared.

WHICH ONE OF YALL WORK FOR THE FUNNY GUYS, IM ONTO YOU---

what a wonderful start!! WOW??

[mmhcs]

They've Got Chemistry!

Miguel O'Hara x Science-Lover!Reader

A/N: Big hearts and big brains.

Warnings: Long fic, Miguel is (sort of) bad/rusty at science, and, while I tried to make this as accurate as possible, I must admit that I'm not as well-versed in the sciences as I'd like to be (I'm trying, though!) and so some information may be incorrect (I apologize to any science lovers/studiers in advance!)

As a geneticist, Miguel is obviously well-versed in all branches of science. But he loves biology. He loves all branches but that's where it's at for him. There's just something so interesting about what two organisms can create and how certain things can be moved around for better or worse. He likes the foresight that comes with the study, how one can predict and prevent.

Due to his role within the Spider Society, Miguel has taken a special interest in molecular biology. His favorite part is seeing how a Spider-person's DNA structure changes after being bitten. His least favorite part is seeing the damage that can be done when a person who doesn't belong travels to another universe. From what he's concluded, DNA becomes damaged following exposure to another universe. He wishes he would have known that sooner.

When Miguel first sees you, it's at one of the many labs within the Spider Society. You're sitting at a table with Miles, helping him with his Physics homework. The first thing that comes to Miguel's mind is wow. Because you mean to tell him that you're pretty and smart? And you're a science fanatic like him? Most Spiders he works with a smart (even Peter B.), yes, but whenever he starts going into the specific details of what makes up the Arachno-Humanoid Poly-Multiverse, their eyes start to glaze over.

But you - you explain everything to Miles with evident eagerness. It makes Miguel want to go up and say something, pick your brain and have his own conversation with you.

"...Now, Miles, when you want to find the density, it's mass divided by volume—" "Could you please keep it down in here? I'm feeling the reverberation of your soundwaves in the next room," Miguel says as he casually strolls up to you and Miles. "Excuse me?" You watch as this big man saunters over to the two of you. "If we're being factual, the frequency that we're speaking at right now wouldn't even be enough to be picked up from behind the door of this room." Though almost unnoticeable, Miguel's false irritated demeanor falters at your words. It was a joke. He was joking. Nonetheless, he continues walking towards the table, stealing a chair and plopping down opposite to you. "Hey!" Miles yells, almost knocked out of his chair by Miguel's hasty actions. "Relax, kid, you're fine," he hisses before turning back to you. "Miguel O'Hara" —he extends his hand, hoping that his eagerness isn't evident—"and you are?"

He basically hijacks Miles's study session with you. And, while annoyed (because physics is way harder than it sounds), Miles finds great amusement in seeing Miguel get fact-checked back-to-back.

Following your "conversation", Miguel makes more of an effort to brush up on his knowledge of science. You made him realize that he's been neglecting so much of the scientific world in favor of work.

He totally doesn't use this as an excuse to spend more time around you, though. The reason why Miguel silently observes you as you work in the lab is because he has to make sure that you don't accidentally screw something up, not because he wants to get to know you more but he's nervous and afraid that he'll say something stupid.

Oddly enough, you also bring Miguel and Miles closer together. After noticing his behavior around you, Miles goes to him, hoping that he can offer some advice.

"Look, it's a crush—no biggie!" Miles says, lackadaisically waving a hand. "I get them all the time!" Miguel doesn't say anything, only looks down at Miles from his platform. "Hey, my Uncle Aaron always used to tell me that when you like someone, you go up to them, put your hand on their shoulder and say 'Hey' really smoothly. Gotta make your voice come out like mantequilla, y'know? Makes 'em go crazy—" "Get out." "Huh? What? But tío, I'm just trying to offer some advice man-to-man—" "Get. Out." Slightly defeated, Miles turns to head for the door, mouth scrunched into a tight knob. "And that's what you're having trouble with in Physics?" Miguel adds. "A baby could do those problems!" "Hey, you got three of them wrong!" Miles calls back.

When you two finally start dating, Miguel tries his best to be the smartest, most educated version of himself. He's constantly spitting out random scientific facts or calling you to do experiments with him. He wants to impress you.

As the leader of the Spider Society, it's very rare that Miguel asks for help. He doesn't even like calling for backup when he needs it. But whenever he's working on something or needs to be reminded of what correct term to use, he calls you. You're the only one allowed in the lab with him while he's working and you're the only one allowed to pitch and test new ideas. It's a great display of trust and vulnerability on Miguel's part, given out of his trust and love for you.

He even allows you to make jokes when he messes up.

Carefully, Miguel picks up a piece of potassium with a pair of tweezers. In front of him is a row of beakers, filled with everything from water to new, colorful concoctions that he'd mixed together. He studies the potassium and then eyes the row of beakers, deciding on which one to drop the sucker in. "Cariño, come look at this, porfa," Miguel says once he's decided. You swivel around in your chair to look back at him just as he drops the potassium into the beaker of water. Before you can say anything, sparks fizzle within the glass followed by two loud pops. Miguel remains frozen in place, both in embarrassment and disbelief. He meant to drop it in the beaker next to the water. It's only when you come up and peck him on his ear does Miguel finally snap out of his thoughts. "Was that deliberate or are you just excited to see me?" you ask with a chuckle.

While you're not a fan of Miguel staying late and overworking himself, sometimes you plan dates in the lab where you two do fun, non-work-related experiments. While it's not as good as having him home and resting, you take solace in the fact that he's taking a break from work to do something fun.

Miguel dedicates himself to learning more about your favorite branch of science. Whether it's chemistry, physics, or a subfield such as acoustics, you best believe that he's going to read every book, do every experiment with you, and make sure that he understands how to better relate to you.

Likewise, you and Miguel also do a lot of biology experiments together. Even if it's something as plain as extracting and comparing DNA from different fruits, he likes to hear you prattle off facts and make observations and hypotheses.

You also use "research experiments" such as "the effects of sleep and relaxation" in order to coax Miguel into taking care of himself.

Miguel's favorite cheesy joke to make is that you two are like protons and electrons because you're a beam of positivity in his life and he, like an electron, is insanely attracted to you.

Your late-night talks are both existential and logical as you discuss how the Web of Life and Destiny bought you two together and whether or not it's a canon event, you two were meant to be.

Overall, Miguel loves you. Not just how easy it is to get lost doing something he loves but just you in general. Your brain, knowledge, face, body, how you keep him on his toes and constantly inspire him to learn and relearn—he loves all of it. And he forever cherishes you.

A/N: Once again, so sorry about the length of this! If any science aficionados would be so kind as to share some links to videos, websites, etc. that help them to better understand science, that would be much appreciated! Hope y'all enjoyed!

[dyed-indigo]

How many wives did Luo Bingge have?

I see quite a lot of debate over this within the fandom, and this excerpt has been passed around quite a bit:

But I felt like I remembered Bingge being mentioned as having more wives within the text, so I decided to skim the books (CTRL + F on the Internet Archive PDFs worked wonders) to find as many references to Bingge's wife count as I could.

I was right that he was mentioned as having more wives (hundreds to be exact), on the back of the very first book in the series even. However, the backs of books are the domain of the publisher rather than the author, so this isn't really trustworthy info to go off of for canon purposes. Still, it made me curious to see if more wives were mentioned somewhere else within the series.

He is mentioned as theoretically marrying at least 100 women at once here, however this was purely speculation on what would have happened in Proud Immortal Demon Way if Luo Binghe truly aspired for marriage. He did marry many women in PIDW, however it's never made clear whether these marriages were out of love or were political (and for horny reasons, the stallion protagonist can never escape his libido).

613 is also mentioned as a number of wives, and seems oddly specific unless there's some Chinese number symbolism I'm missing here, however this is just an example of something that Madame Meiyin could predict with her fortune telling abilities. Her fortunes are mentioned to typically be about romance, so this could be Shen Qingqiu remembering an actual prediction she made in canon, however even if that were the case (which there doesn't seem to be evidence to support) it could simply be that Luo Binghe never got those wives within the novel, and was just implied to get them afterwards (cue Peerless Cucumber rant about Airplane's lazy writing).

There's mentioned to be dozens of women "barely glimpsed" within the harem, presumably in addition to wives like Ning Yingying and Liu Mingyan who were more significant, but that still doesn't give us an exact count. If the initial harem count is accurate, it does imply that most of the women within it were just written to fluff the numbers a bit.

Bingge is mentioned to have "never refused" any requests to join his harem. RIP Bingge's understanding of boundaries, but, again, we have no clue how many women even asked to join. Demon Emperors are powerful, but also scary, and Shen Qingqiu is... perhaps an unreliable narrator when it comes to any version of Luo Binghe's appeal factor.

Bingge is mentioned multiple times to have had sex with hundreds of women, however, not all of the bedded were wedded. Madame Meiyin, for example, is mentioned as someone that Bingge slept with but never married, and there's no evidence that i could find that she was the sole exception in a sea of wives.

In conclusion, while manwhore Bingge is real, his count of actual wives is more than likely less than 100, as originally specified. (Though I wouldn't blame you if you thought otherwise, the emphasis on the harem size being "innumerable" and "uncountable" in the narration is quite a lot, and historically many Chinese emperors had a larger harem than Bingge.)

At least, he had less than 100 wives in the novel. In the donghua, on the other hand...

Well. That's a fairly definite amount.

[no-passaran]

I was an astrologer – here's how it really works, and why I had to stop

What broke the spell for me was, oddly, people swearing by my gift. Some repeat customers claimed I’d made very specific predictions, of a kind I never made. It dawned on me that my readings were a co-creation – I would weave a story and, later, the customer’s memory would add new elements. I got to test this theory after a friend raved about a reading she’d had, full of astonishingly accurate predictions. She had a tape of the session, so I asked her to play it.

The clairvoyant had said none of the things my friend claimed. Not a single one. My friend’s imagination had done all the work.

-

The man was agitated, with red-rimmed eyes and clammy skin.

“Help me,” he said. “I’m under a curse.”

At first it was just flickering lights, he said. And then a figure, at the edge of his vision. Now something grabbed his fingers or stroked his arm. There was more – and it was happening more frequently.

“I saw a Catholic priest,” said the man. “But he couldn’t help. Can you?”

Yes, yes I could. I [who worked as a temp typist in a hospital] knew exactly what he needed to do.

...

Well, maybe I wasn’t psychic, but it didn’t matter. It was just entertainment, after all, until the cursed man came in. The one who’d seen the Catholic priest.

“Get to a doctor,” I told him. “Now.”

That very week, I’d typed letters for a neurologist who specialized in brain diseases. Some of those letters had documented strikingly similar symptoms to this man.

“Are you saying I’m crazy?” he said, his hands balled.

“No,” I reassured him. “But Catholic priests know what they’re doing. If he couldn’t help, this isn’t a curse.”

That made the man angrier.

“You’re a fraud!” he shouted, and stormed downstairs to demand his money back.

The encounter shook me, badly. Shortly afterwards, I packed my astrology books and Tarot cards away for good.

[whatdoeschronicevenmean]

I’d understood organised religion to be something between an embarrassment and an evil. Yet as AIDS did its dreadful work – this was the 1990s – I watched nuns offer compassionate care to the dying. Christian volunteers checked on derelict men with vomit down their clothes. I became uncomfortably aware that New Agers do not build hospitals or feed alcoholics – they buy self-actualisation at the cash register.

...

I also learned that intelligence and education do not protect against superstition. Many customers were stockbrokers, advertising executives or politicians, dealing with issues whose outcomes couldn’t be controlled. It’s uncertainty that drives people into woo, not stupidity, so I’m not surprised millennials are into astrology. They grew up with Harry Potter and graduated into a precarious economy, making them the ideal customers.

What broke the spell for me was, oddly, people swearing by my gift. Some repeat customers claimed I’d made very specific predictions, of a kind I never made. It dawned on me that my readings were a co-creation – I would weave a story and, later, the customer’s memory would add new elements. I got to test this theory after a friend raved about a reading she’d had, full of astonishingly accurate predictions. She had a tape of the session, so I asked her to play it.

The clairvoyant had said none of the things my friend claimed. Not a single one. My friend’s imagination had done all the work.

You could try and not be owned by @dickbong69

[talenlee]

Pillow-Stitchin' and Soul-Snitchin'

There’s a phrase I hear in labor organisation circles that is every regulation is written in blood. Typically speaking, any given rule about how things are to be done more safely are in place after a time when they weren’t in place and someone got hurt — or worse — in the process of doing their job. This is sad but also somewhat reasonable; people aren’t psychic, they don’t have perfect foresight and can’t predict necessarily every way a thing is going to be used. Even people who make something new and set in place rules for how to treat it, based on understanding its dangers, will wind up being ignored as people become more and more casual with the machinery of their everyday. Familiarity breeds contempt and we live in a world of devices that will happily remind you that you are made of meat and they do not care about what you cannot handle.

The Bible is full of regulations.

Normally when this conversation gets broached, it’s talking about some rules in the Bible that were put in place because people were doing that thing and then they needed laws to keep them from doing them. Famously, in the Pentateuch (the collective term for the five first books of the Bible), there is a restriction on boiling a young goat in its mother’s milk (Exodus 23:19, Exodus 24:26, Deuteronomy 14:21). It’s an odd thing to show up in the same context as rules about roadkill and sacrificing goods to the Lord, but it sure is there and it’s an oddly specific thing.

Now, if you see this as a commandment from God, you need some reason to work out why he thought this was important enough to do and not cover things like how to make vaccines or how slavery was bad (a fact that deeply annoys apologists when you bring it up). Let’s set aside arguments about how the Bible is a factually true document with unique divine insights because that’s fucking stupid, and instead look at the books as if they are the results of people doing things and those records being preserved because of their utility. You know, material realities (ew, gross, I know).

One of the things you find when you start looking at the Bible as this text of things people made, you get to see all sorts of fun trends like where they’d discover a ‘new’ section of ‘prophecy’ that just so happened to be claimed as very old, back-dating its origin, even though it was commenting on things that were entirely true to the right now. The best example of this is the book of Daniel, where the bulk of the book is supposedly written by Daniel, centuries in the past, where Daniel accurately predicts everything that happened right up to the point of the book’s discovery, and then his prophecy of what happens next is completely bloody wrong.

There are other situations where this happens in the Bible, Daniel’s is just the most fun. Especially because Christians have since wound up working a whole fanfiction account of how it actually is about now and instead we’re in the period of the Kingdom of Show Feet.

Anyway, this underscores that when you see a weird rule in the Bible, chances are it was actually written about something current to the writing, that some people were doing and the authorities presenting holy texts or prophecy were instead trying to back-date a new law and act as if it had always been true so you should definitely knock it off right now.

With that in mind check out Ezekiel 13:18. I’m gunna show a few versions of it because it’s a bit of a weird one:

And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?

Ezekiel 13:18, King James Version

and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the women who sew magic charms on all their wrists and make veils of various lengths for their heads in order to ensnare people. Will you ensnare the lives of my people but preserve your own?

Ezekiel 13:18, New International Version

and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Woe to the women that sew pillows upon all elbows, and make kerchiefs for the head of persons of every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and save souls alive for yourselves?

Ezekiel 13:18, American Standard Version

Now you might be looking at these verses and going: What the fuck is with the pillows.

This is an example of a place where translation can struggle with specific contextual meaning. What they’re describing here is a specific practice in terms of what’s being done, without elucidating what that process is actually meant to do. This is a great example of how you can see the Bible as a book made by people with a specific agenda and context. After all, if this book is timeless and perfect, there might be some explanation for what the hell a pillow is doing in this conversation, instead of it falling to confuse translators about whether they’re being sewed to armholes or elbows.

As I understand it the practice being described here is a scam. The idea is that people, usually women, were sewing up pillows and telling people they had stolen a soul and stuck it inside the pillow, but what that meant is a lot more of the time and contextual than now. Aside from the iconic Biblical text Bart’s Soul, there’s not really a strong modern conception of a singular vision of what losing your soul means, but it meant something back then.

Anyway, they were sewing souls into pillows and then making people pay to get their souls back. Me, I love this. I find this an adorable example of a kind of scam that only works because of nonsense. It’s like convincing someone you’ve got a better class of sugar pill they can take that will scare off more bears, rather than the much more odious scam of convincing someone you’ve got a better class of sugar pills to treat their cancer. But no! No here, there were women who were making a living — a good enough one to get the attention of the authorities, I assume — by swindling people who had money through the careful process of ransoming their ghosts back to them.

And note the law doesn’t even necessarily ban the practice! It just condemns the practice being done on God’s chosen people! So you know, the King who rolls out this new holy book of definitely real prophecies, just trust me bro, he’s saying look there’s some woe going on here, definitely woe, but you can keep doing this stuff to other people, I don’t care about them. It’s not like the practice is inherently bad it’s just bad to do it to my people, because as with so many things in the Bible, God’s an arsehole who doesn’t actually have any principles.

This is a beautiful example of the illumination offered when you can dispense with the idea of infallibility and univocality. When you stop thinking the Bible is a single book made by a single mind who is the divine author of all of reality, you don’t have to concern yourself with the manifold contradictions or bad explanations, you don’t have to care about what’s missing, and you can instead approach it as a thing people made. Following that thread presents this story, the story of a time when flim-flammers and hucksters were stealing souls and jamming them in pillows.

Core to this article is the second half of the July 1, 2024 episode of the Data/Dogma podcast with Dr. Dan McClellan and Dan Beecher, available here.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[readysetjo]

If I could easily universe hop with no consequences to me whatsoever I would jump in between this one and the MCU and cause Tony as much grief as I can and join “I hate superheroes” subreddits and post vague (yet oddly specific and real) details about secret identities that no one would believe and RPF the Avengers together until I got cease and desists and then suddenly vanish and then later I’d accurately predict each Avenger’s death on my popular shitpost twitter account until the FBI got involved and then again just disappear

[mobileappdevelopmentsolution]

The ML Advantage in Digital Marketing

Digital marketing services have come a long way in the last decade. From simple banner ads to complex AI-driven campaigns, the industry continues to evolve at breakneck speed. One technology that is emerging as a true game-changer is machine learning (ML). 

Imagine you landed on a website and saw a banner displaying hiking boots. Though you love hiking, those boots don't appeal to you. But the ad seems oddly specific. You realize the site's AI has been tracking your browsing behavior and identified you as an outdoor enthusiast. The tech got it right, yet so wrong! 

This simplistic use of ML is just the tip of the iceberg. 

Through this blog, we will unpack the true capabilities of ML in digital marketing and elaborate how it helps marketing service providers to take personalization, predictive analytics, dynamic creative optimization, and more to the next level.

To get us started on the right foot, let's first understand...

What is Machine Learning and How Does it Work?

Machine learning or ML refers to algorithms that can learn from data and improve themselves over time without explicit programming. ML algorithms help marketing service providers detect patterns in vast volumes of data to make predictions or decisions. The more data an algorithm trains on, the more accurate it becomes. 

For instance, an e-commerce site can train an ML model on customer data including shopping behavior, preferences, demographics, etc. The algorithm will uncover patterns and build a customer profile to predict which products a user will likely buy. 

Unlike hard-coded software with predefined rules, machine learning models continue to learn and upgrade independently. ML with a qualified marketing service provider brings unprecedented automation, personalization, prediction, optimization, and innovation to digital marketing services. But how does it exactly work its magic? 

Let's find out...

The Basics: How ML Models Learn

ML algorithms can be supervised, unsupervised, or reinforcement learning models:

- Supervised Learning: The algorithm is trained on labeled sample data to learn the correlation between inputs and desired outputs. It predicts outcomes for new data based on historical patterns. E.g. Predicting customer lifetime value based on purchase history.

- Unsupervised Learning: The model trains on unlabeled data to identify intrinsic patterns. E.g. Segmenting customers into groups based on common attributes. 

- Reinforcement Learning: The algorithm is rewarded for right answers and corrected for wrong ones. It learns through trial-and-error interactions to achieve goals. E.g. Optimizing ad bidding strategy to maximize clicks at lowest cost.

ML brings three distinct advantages to marketing for a digital marketing company: automation, insights, and optimization. 

Let's analyze how ML delivers these benefits.

Type of Learning

How It Works

Digital Marketing Examples

Supervised

Trained on labeled sample data

Predict lifetime value, sentiment analysis

Unsupervised

Finds patterns in unlabeled data

Customer segmentation, anomaly detection

Reinforcement

Rewarded for right answers, corrected for wrong

Ad bidding optimization, dynamic pricing

Unlike rules-based software, machine learning models continue to learn and upgrade independently based on new data. 

This empowers a digital marketing company  in three key ways:

The ML Advantage #1: Intelligent Automation

ML algorithms automate complex or time-consuming tasks that are impossible with traditional rules-based software. For instance:

- Sending personalized push notifications and emails to re-engage users

- Transcribing video/audio content for subtitles

- Analyzing sentiment on social media to gauge brand perception  

- Calling out key moments in videos like product mentions

- Recommending related content onsite to increase time-on-page

- Fetching dynamic product/price data from catalogs to auto-populate ads

- Generating myriad ad creatives based on high-performing templates

These are just some examples of ML's potential to automate digital marketing services and lift efficiencies. Mundane yet critical tasks can be automated to help focus strategic thinking on high-impact activities.

The ML Advantage #2: Actionable Insights 

ML powers big data analytics to uncover rich consumer and competitive insights that would be humanly impossible to deduce. For example:

- Micro-segmenting audiences based on attributes like demographics, interests, values, and behaviors

- Predicting individual customer lifetime value to prioritize high-value accounts

- Uncovering channel preferences of user cohorts 

- Forecasting demand for products before launch

- Detecting fraud in advertising

- Parsing competitor strategies by analyzing their digital footprint

The ability to gather granular consumer and industry intelligence allows brands to devise hyper-targeted strategies that resonate with niches. AI reveals insights that set leading marketers apart.

The ML Advantage #3: Dynamic Optimization

The self-learning capabilities of ML algorithms allow them to continuously optimize tactics and campaigns. 

For instance: 

- Programmatic Advertising: ML bids on each ad impression based on likelihood of it driving conversions. The model gets smarter at bidding optimally to lower cost per acquisition.

- Dynamic Pricing: ML tweaks product pricing based on demand signals like page views and add-to-carts to maximize revenue.

- Content Recommendations: ML suggests onsite content that will engage users based on individual user affinity.

- Creative Optimization: ML generates high-performing ad variants tailored to different segments for improved results. 

ML essentially creates a feedback loop for continuous optimization by learning from ongoing data inputs. Any Digital Marketing Company tactics can be dynamically refined to boost KPIs.

Conclusion-

The possibilities with ML are truly infinite. The technology will continue to revolutionize marketing for years to come. Marketing service providers who embrace ML early will have a first-mover advantage in driving impact.

So what's your ML game plan?

In summary, Consagous Technologies, a premier digital marketing company, leverages ML capabilities like sentiment analysis and predictive analytics to understand customer pain points and evolving needs. This allows delivering personalized app experiences that customers love. 

To explore how Consagous can build future-ready mobile apps enhanced by ML, get in touch with us today. 

[kiarazuri]

Chapter 3: JJ

Crescent City is supposed to be the Crawfish Capital of the World but as Jordan James “JJ” Buchanan-Cristales (28M, he/him) walks down Bonbon Street for the hundredth time since arriving, he becomes more and more certain it’s actually the Candy Capital instead.     Every time he walks down the beautiful yellow-brick, pedestrian boulevarde, JJ sees something new in the ever-changing window displays: a new flavor in the elaborate, ceiling-high chocolate bar towers, or a new, architecturally marvellous pastry statue (one day a pirate ship and the next a helicopter or an accurately phallic recreation of Dizzey’s Atlantica,) or a new, seven-foot-tall, self-sitting gummy bear that was not there the day before.          JJ stopped and stared at that one a solid ten minutes before moving on.     And he’s found himself stopping more and more often as the days go by, sometimes even pressing his face against the glass to get a better look.     None of them have gone inside the stores yet though.     AJ doesn’t trust the DuCiels not to poison their customers—he thinks the CC Hunters are right to suspect them.     Eya hasn’t really left the hotel room.     And JJ . . . well JJ knows if he did, his mouth would be watering uncontrollably and he’d buy everything in sight—he can’t really be trusted around food. Watching customers exit the shops munching on their gains without being able to eat any has been pure, unmitigating torture.     Maybe JJ could go inside just this once and buy Eya a snack.     Maybe one of the new mango and chili dark chocolate bars stacked in the shape of the Leaning Tower.     JJ takes a step towards the shop-door.     “Don’t even think about it,” AJ warns, snapping a photo.     JJ turns away from the leaning chocolate tower to follow the lens of AJ’s camera. It’s pointed north, towards the perfect blue sky, with a focus on the Patisserie’s signage and the factory’s smoke stacks in the background. The afternoon sun directly overhead beautifully illuminates both the street and the writing on the stacks’ sides.     DuCiel Confectionarie is . . . oddly shaped, to say the least.     Their first few days in Crescent City they got lost multiple times while trying to scope it out—not because the layout is convoluted, but because it doesn’t make sense. It should be nothing more than a simple square, with Bonbon Street running through the center to make it a sharp U shape, but . . .     JJ swore the structures were moving.     Neither Eya nor AJ believed him when he said it the first time. But thanks to AJ’s stake-out photos it soon became clear that JJ was right and the others should listen to him more.     Those smoke stacks? Two days ago they were behind the Gum…merie (is that what the Gummy Shop is called? JJ wonders) three store-fronts down.     And now here they are.     Adding to the mystery of what the hell kind of supe the DuCiel family could be. None of them have any idea what kind of supernatural creatures . . . move buildings? How do you even research for that?     Since confirming JJ’s theory, they’ve been taking daily photos of the factory, hoping against hope to find some sort of pattern so they can predict the next day’s layout.     So far, no luck.     AJ brandishes the picture at JJ, zooming in on the text on the smoke stacks.     It’s not a language JJ recognizes.     He can’t even tell if it’s alphabetic or logographic.     Neither brother says what they’re thinking, too aware of the risks of speaking their theories in enemy (especially supernatural) territory.     Instead, AJ nods towards the fountain at the center of the street. “I’m gonna take some photos from there.”     The fountain is about 20 feet from where they stand and the path between them and it is devoid of people. JJ rubs his temple, and nods. This case has been exhausting and he’s ready to sit and rest for a moment.     The world, however, has other plans.     Bonbon Street has archways situated every few feet over the boulevarde, each one made of beautiful wrought iron and twisted into alphabetic words JJ doesn’t know. The brothers are just about to pass under one when a caw above their heads has them glancing up.     Eya’s familiar is perched along the arch, the raven camouflaged amongst a murder of crows. Chora flicks their head to the side, to a small alley JJ’s never noticed before, set snugly between the Boulangerie and Confiserie just on the other side of the archway.     The alley has a small, wrought-iron gate set just a few feet back from the shop walls. A gate that’s being shoved open by a—     Sludge monster?     “Ew,” JJ announces without even meaning to, gagging at the disgustingly viscous fluid—plasma?—something covering the person from head to toe.     “Hold up,” AJ says, glancing past the sludge monster. “Where does that alley lead?” The words are barely out of AJ’s mouth before the answer is screaming in both of their heads.     The Factorie.     They glance furtively at each other.     Until now, they’d yet to find a way inside: the only on-record entrances are a small dock on the river and the Main Entrance at the end of Bonbon Street (which is, technically, a cul de sac).     And suddenly the two brothers are moving again, in perfect sync, stepping closer to the DuCiel—because, if the sludge monster came out of the factory than they have to be a DuCiel—with the intent to get past and through the gate before it closes.     JJ’s so focused on the closing gate, it’s iron hinges moving almost in slow-motion as he watches, that he doesn’t see the betrayal coming.     One second he’s side-stepping the sludge-covered DuCiel and the next AJ’s hand is shoving at his shoulder and he’s slamming straight into them.     The DuCiel’s scream squelches against JJ’s chest.     AJ’s laughter is soft and diabolical.     Oh, you piece of—this was my favorite shirt!     Before JJ can react, he glances over the DuCiel’s head to where the gate has undoubtedly closed by now—and does a double-take.     The gate’s gone.     The entire alleyway is gone.     Godfuckingdamnit.     JJ glances at AJ with the intention of passing him a look but his brother’s expression is dark and brooding—contemplative. He shakes his head almost imperceptibly and JJ takes the hint, returning his attention to the situation at hand, er, chest. He takes a deep, calming breath before gently placing his hands on what he thinks are the DuCiel’s sludge-covered shoulders and peeling them off him. It’s like peeling a soggy towel off a locker-room floor.     The scent of the sludge finally registers in JJ’s nose. He gags.     What the fuck?!     “Oh holy fudgeballs! I’m so fudging sorry—” With half the sludge now on JJ, it’s easier to see the DuCiel’s face. It’s contorted in horror and staring at JJ’s chest like it’s a portent of doom. Their words are self-chastizing and apologetic and JJ tries to hear them, he does, but he’s also kinda… enthralled by the DuCiel’s eyes. They’re a deep, deep brown, almost black, and even panicked and frenzied as they are now, those dark depths gleam like moonlight on water. Their eyelashes are long and thick and coated with sludgy dew-drops but underneath the hair is pure black to match the only part of the DuCiel still miraculously undefiled—the gorgeous, thick black dreads twirled high into a beehive-like bun. The yellow sludge stops just short of their hairline to reveal a patch of the DuCiel family’s signature dark brown skin (which JJ is sure is perfectly smooth, as all the other DuCiels they’ve seen have been) but covers what JJ is pretty sure is a handsome face, judging by the lines and what he’s seen of the rest of the family.     If only the sludge weren’t in the way.     As if on cue, the DuCiel moves their arm in time with another hasty apology and a glob of the nasty stuff detaches from their arm.     It lands with a splat! on the yellow-brick road.     What is this, anyway? The smell is disgusting. Poison? Ingredient in a magic potion?     “I will obviously—“ as the DuCiel talks, a glob of the sludge gets in their mouth. They gag, but keep going, resolutely continuing their sentence. “—compensate you.”     Not poison.     Curiosity finally getting the better of him, JJ dips a finger into the mess on his chest and brings it to his lips.     AJ and the DuCiel realize at the same time. Their faces fall and they lunge for him, screaming “NOOOOOOOOOO!” in slow-motion like they’re in an Action flick and he’s about to get shot.     Too late.     The taste is so unexpected that at first JJ doesn’t even gag. The first emotion to wrack his body is confusion. It’s only after that initial reaction that he gags, sticking his tongue out like getting it out of his mouth will save him.     “Wha tha helth ith thith?” What the hell is this? JJ asks, trying not to bite his tongue.     The DuCiel’s face is twisted in disgust. “Mustard custard.”     JJ gags. Again.     AJ bursts into laughter, no longer trying to keep his amusement to himself.     “Whyyyy~?“ JJ whines.     “A cousin made it. For the rhyme but also for a new vol au vent flavor.”     JJ pulls back his tongue and starts smacking his lips to try to diffuse the taste. “Those ‘80s things they made on Great Bake-Off? With the pastry containers?”     The DuCiel blinks owlishly at him for a moment before their mouth turns up in a smile. They nods. “If you like GBO you’ve definitely come to the right place.”     They spread their arms as if showing off the world around them.     JJ can’t help but agree. “This place is a sugar-coated dream,” JJ’s mouth turns down as he looks the custard over. “But this, is not.”     The DuCiel grimaces. “The name’s Lottie DuCiel, son of Sucre. Pronouns are he/him. I’d shake your hand but I think I’ve gotten enough mess on you for one day,” Lottie says, eyeing the custard on JJ’s shirt like it personally offended him.     “Jordan James, but everyone calls me JJ. This’s my brother AJ. Pronouns both he/him.”     AJ waves, eyeing Lottie’s custard covered hands wearily. “Pleasure to meet you.”     “Pleasure to meet you,” Lottie replies. “Listen, I’ve got to get this nastiness off me ASAP but you’ve gotta let me pay you back for your shirt. I’m in charge of The Cakerie. As an ‘I’m sorry,’ I’m giving you a week of free samples—I promise my flavors aren’t as disastrous as this.     “A week? Of free samples?” JJ asks, wide-eyed.     AJ’s mouth flops like a gold-fish.     “Yep! Just make sure you come in before noon cuz that’s when I go home for the day.”     “Dope,” JJ grins.     “Offer starts tomorrow, hope to see you then.”     Cake and a cute man? “Oh, I’ll definitely be there.”     Lottie smiles, white teeth gleaming along with his eyes. “It’s a date.”     JJ waits till Lottie DuCiel has crossed the street and entered a new alleyway—an alleyway that hadn’t been there before!—opened the gate, and disappeared inside before turning to his brother.     AJ’s side-eyeing him warily.     “You are so dead.”     AJ smirks, and glances back at the alleyway. His smirk falls.     When JJ looks back, the alleyway is gone. Again.     “Shit,” JJ snarls, grinding his teeth. It takes all his willpower not to say what he’s thinking out loud. If the DuCiels can so effortlessly move entire pieces of their factory, make things appear and disappear at will without anyone being the wiser… then it’d be easy for them to hide evidence     They may very well be the murderers.     Chora caws above them and flies off before the brothers even have a chance to look up.     “Welp, guess that’s our cue to leave.”     A weird combination of anxiety (over possibly having a date with a murderer) and anticipation (over certainly having a date with a cute man) swirl inside JJ’s gut. “Until tomorrow.”

To Be Continued in Chapter 4 💗

[lifenconcepts]

HII your prediction was absolutely right! But here’s a more detailed explanation of how it smells like in my eyes.

Smells oddly like wet moss, what you would probably find while on a forest walk after a summer rain.

Has a distinct unrecognisable flavour of something like a mouldy fruit or perhaps more along the lines of a decomposing shrub.

Tainted with an earthy smell, like how your hand smells if you dig a random hole in soil.

I’d say the nettles added a pungent smell that makes it more overpowering than the others and if you haven’t smelt it, I presume the best way to describe it probably would be a mixture of horrible lettuce and dill, add a drop of pickle juice into the mix and that’s what it resembles.

If I didn’t know any better would say it smells like cat piss, but at the same time, I have never sniffed actual cat piss in my entire life so I wouldn’t know.

Has a soothing quality to it although is a bit strong in my opinion, like a single drop got me smelling like I just crawled out the bushes while being chased by a pack of English talking antelopes and also hid in a tree. That sort of scenario is quite accurate to what the smell invokes.

honestly, in a way, it has the resemblance of a slightly off and faint gingerbread cookie but idfk anymore I may have accidentally sniffed my hand although that definetely doesn’t smell like a cookie.

Tldr: it did not smell like cherry, raspberry, or blackberry.

Y’all I really wanted some natural little perfume thing that some make where you just take some local plants and squish them up and mix them with water to make a natural scent but like.. I litteraly don’t know any plants. I only recognise a small variety and so I just grabbed some leaves and am planning on just combining them into a magic potionTM from the early internet to turn me into a werewolf /silly

the combination is uhm oak leaves, blackberry leaves, raspberry leaves (yes I found some wild ones), cherry leaves (what, as long as I know the berry I know the leaf too!), and stinging nettles …

if anyone knows any secret bad thing about them pls do tell me because from what I know it’s entirely fine. Yiipeeeee

[outsidereveries]

that wasn't the thing i expected but i am glad it's not that worrying

(ricky wearing a makeup that's usually seen in his country, i believe so?)

[lyranova]

💫 New game: associate your mutuals and/or anons with something that fits their vibe! 💫

Ooo this looks fun! I apologize if I didn’t list all of my mutuals or if I forgot anyone 😭! But just know that I still love y’all the same 🥺💕! Also I tried to think of things that weren’t anime/blorbo related, so I apologize if they’re kinda weird 😅!

@eme-eleff - I associate you with roses, maybe it’s because your favorite is Charlotte, but I think the main reason I associate them with you is because they’re so lovely, so beautiful, and so resilient and that describes you very very much to me 🥰!

@thoughtfullyrainynightmare - I associate you with a pen or quill for some reason 🤔! Maybe it’s because of how amazing you write and how you string words together, or maybe it’s because words written with pens can heal/help someone and I know you’ve helped me lots! So I associate you with a pen 🥰!

@simpingforthisonedeer - I associate you with mythology oddly enough 😂! It’s probably because you’re so knowledge about things and you’ve been able to predict BC lore so accurately but that’s what I associate you with 😁!

@crazyclownthanos - I associate you with Clowns, and it’s probably because of your username, but i think it’s also because you’re a bright and joyful and you try to make those around you happy!

@delirious-donna - I associate you with Mexican Hot Chocolate! I tried it for the first time recently and it’s sweet but has this bit of spice to it that makes it extra amazing 😁! So you remind me of that because you and your writing is very sweet but is also pretty spicy (in a good way!) 👀💕!

@darkcloakedinfinitevoid - I associate you with the Aurora Borealis! Because it’s beautiful, full of bright and beautiful colors, and makes everyone who see’s it smile in awe! It’s also, imo, very special and amazing just like you 🥰!

@loosesodamarble - I associate you with Marbles XD! Mainly Because marbles are very beautiful, very rare, and very unique, just like you 🥰! If I had to choose a specific kind of marble, I would say you’re a Galaxy marble! Those are absolutely beautiful 😱!

@flow3rbudz - I associate you with butterflies! They’re so amazing and so beautiful, and in some Native American tribes butterflies represent Hope, Comfort, Transformation, and Positivity 🥰! So to me you’re a butterfly!

@toutorii - I associate you with Blue Poppy’s! Now in the West their meanings aren’t the best, but in the East they meant “Wealth” and “Luxury”, and I wish you all the wealth and luxury in the world 🥰! Also imo Blue Poppies are very beautiful and I actually like them more then the regular poppy’s, they almost look like little blue Umbrella’s hehe!

@talpup - I associate you with puppies 🤣! Maybe it’s because you just got a new puppy, but i think it’s mostly because you’re very sweet and you make everyone around you smile and you try your best to support and cheer everyone on 💕!

@bowandcurtsey - I associate you with Paper Lanterns! They’re so beautiful and I love seeing the paper festivals, it’s like watching a bunch of people releasing stars into the sky 😁! I also love how they mean Joy, Celebration, and Good fortune. So to me Paper Lanterns fit your vibe very much 🥰!

@hybridanafrost - I associate you with Snowflakes 🤣! Mostly because of Bianca having Ice magic, but also because snowflakes are so beautiful and each one is so unique, so to me you’re a beautiful giant snowflake 🥰!

@prince-of-peacocks - I associate you with Cherry Blossoms, mainly because of Kirsch, but also because they’re so pretty and so amazing, they’re actually some of my favorite flowers! I also love that they mean renewal and optimisim 😁!

@acacia-may - I associate you with the Acacia flower actually! They mean friendship, rebirth, support, and eternal life, which I think describes you perfectly because you’re very supportive and are an amazing friend 🥺💕!

@nozells - I associate you with old Black and White films! Like Charlie Chaplin or Alfred Hitchcock movies 🥰! They’re so unique and you can see how much work and creativity went into them, so I think old black and white movies fit your vibe 😁!

I had fun doing this anon, and I’m sorry to the mutuals I may’ve missed! I still love every single one of you 🥺💕💕 and if you want me to associate you with something you can always send me an ask!

[casualmaraudering]

just fyi: i don’t know sign language, and so everything was googled so it may not be entirely accurate - i have tried my best tho

*

It was one of the first things Sirius had learned to sign.

He and Remus had been dating for around six months when Sirius decided that it was right about time he started learning sign language. His friends insisted it was a little early, but Sirius already knew - hoped - they were something long term. It was only logical he knew how to talk to the love of his life when he happened to switch his hearing aids off, right?

Whenever he brought it up, Remus insisted there’s no need (predictable, really). He’d say it’s too much trouble, and that, as long as his aids are working, there’s no reason for Sirius to go out of his way to learn a whole another language like this. Sirius couldn’t disagree more.

He wanted to be able to talk to Remus at all times, hearing aids or not. And he knew that Remus only puts them on after breakfast, and takes them out to read, and often turns them off in public when there's too much overall noise, and that he hates speaking out loud if he can’t hear himself so he simply doesn’t. Sirius didn’t see himself not learning it with how much Remus uses it on a daily basis. It was partially a way to help Remus, yes (not that Remus needs help - Sirius would just feel useful if he could tell him what the barista at Starbucks says without having to type it in his phone’s notes). But also there’s things he wants to say to Remus that he needs to be able to say any time of day.

You look beautiful.

I like your sweater today.

Your smile is gorgeous.

Can I kiss you?

I love you.

He learned the basics first. Spelling his name and learning the sign Remus came up with for his name (sign for ‘dog’ and ‘star’, Remus shyly explained - Sirius may have kissed him breathless, then) and Remus’s name as well. Counting to ten. Hello, good morning, goodbye, goodnight. Breakfast, coffee, tea nap, book - which were all important when it came to Remus’s vocabulary.

He googled it purely out of curiosity first. It was just three simple signs - four, if you wanted to add please at the end - that Sirius would go over in his head sometimes.

Oddly enough, he only practised it when Remus was around.

It was usually evenings or nights, rarely mornings, when Remus slept. He’d take his aids out, lay his head on Sirius’s chest ("I enjoy feeling your heartbeat" he told him once - funnily enough, it was around that time Sirius realised he was in love with him for the first time), whisper the tiniest ‘love you’. Sirius would kiss his forehead - his personal favourite way to say ‘sleep well’ - and, once Remus’s breath got even and he was fully relaxed in his arms, Sirius would sign to himself.

Point to his own chest. His left hand palm up, a circular motion with his right hand and then bringing it down to his left hand. Point at Remus.

Me. Marry. You.

*

He does it a lot across four years.

A lot changes during that. They both graduate (Remus with a degree in English Lit, and Sirius in Mechanical Engineering) and they get steady, adult jobs. They buy a little house, fix it up together and move in. Remus still doesn’t put his aids in until way after breakfast, except now they can talk without a problem in the slightest - Sirius happily signing each morning that Remus looks gorgeous (and Remus telling him to fuck off in return) and that he made pancakes just the way Remus likes them most, with chocolate chips and a little on the crispier side. They kiss on the front porch sometimes, dance in the kitchen other times. Sirius signs when he speaks to Remus all the time now, and finds himself accidentally doing it with other people too - it makes him look smart, apparently, even if it’s not on purpose. Remus, in return, learns French -  which is Sirius’s first language. His pronunciation is a bit off, and he can’t figure out spelling quite right, but when they take a holiday to Paris, he’s able to read menus without that much of a problem and even make small talk with the waiter, Sirius beams with pride.

And every other night, once every couple weeks, Sirius will wait until Remus is asleep, and repeat the same hand movements.

Me. Marry. You.

He buys a ring, of course, and hides it in a shoe in the closet that sat untouched for a good year now. He makes plans to take Remus to dinner, visit their favourite milkshake spot, walk home under the starlight, sit on the porch and then finally ask.

He wakes up that day to Remus still asleep, the Autumn sun shining through the curtains, hitting Remus’s hair and just the tip of his nose. Sirius can’t help but kiss it.

Remus stirs, buries his face into the pillow for a minute, exhales. Opens his eyes gently, and smiles at Sirius looking at him.

‘Good morning.’ Sirius signs. ‘Ready for breakfast?’

‘Not yet.’ Remus replies with sleepy motions. ‘Stay in bed.’

‘How long?’

‘All day.’

Sirius laughs then, and he can see the corners of Remus’s lips curl up in a smile. Remus shimmies closer, and kisses Sirius so gently he can barely feel it. Sirius relishes the touch, closing his eyes for a moment, letting himself breathe in the morning air, Remus’s shampoo, feeling Remus’s finger tapping on his chest three times, something they’ve made up a long time ago before Sirius learned how to sign. One tap for yes. Two taps for no. 

Three for I love you.

Three taps, a break. Three taps, a break. Three taps, a break.

I love you. I love you. I love you.

It’s then Sirius pulls away from him just slightly. Just enough so Remus knows to glance down at his hands. He doesn’t even think about it, honestly. The motion is so familiar by now. Me. Marry. You.

‘Will you marry me?’

Remus just blinks down at his hands first, and then his own quickly tell him: ‘Repeat.’

And so he does. And when Remus asks him to do it again, he does so. He adds please this time, though.

‘You know what that one means?’ Remus signs to him, though Sirius suspects he already knows the answer to his own question, seeing as his eyes have glossed over now.

‘It means I want to wake up like this all the time.’

Remus breathes out with possibly the biggest smile Sirius had seen on him yet, and he tackles Sirius into a hug, smashing their lips together in a mess of laughter, tears, and kisses. Three pecks under his left eye. Three pecks under his right eye. Three on his nose. Three on his forehead. And three on his lips.

‘Is that a yes?’ Sirius asks finally, brows raised in a question.

Remus laughs, wiping the tears pooling down from his face.

“Yes,” he says, out loud this time, barely a whisper before he sniffles and laughs one more, before signing it too, just for good measure. Sirius pulls him down into another kiss, letting it linger for as long as he can.

Good thing he’d practised.

[shadyteacup]

If you’re still doing requestsssssss how about a hcs of Dazai x fem! Reader who is like Midari from Kakegurui 😌

Ooh thats a nice one! Yes love, I'm still doing requestss

And I'm so sorry, this is so late... also it's very long n I'm not exaggerating. It's not even funny I'm so sorry

I'm Crazy, But I'm Free

Dazai x Fem!reader who is like Midari

• You and Dazai probably met during his days at the port mafia.

• I can imagine the mafia capturing you because of how much trouble you were causing in a casino.

• UK, when big businesses pay gangsters for security?? Yeah, similarly the casino you were playing at, has paid the mafia.

• You were already banned from many other casinos, as your games either end with you gaining a lot of money, or begin with a dangerous condition.

• Many people were quite afraid of you, and wanted to avoid even being in the same room as you, as they couldn't handle the severity of the danger you pose with every game.

• Anyways, so you were warned by a few members of the mafia twice, but you, being the fearless adventurer you are, flipped them off and continued to seek a life threatening game.

• So then the mafia decided to use violence, and cornered you in a dark alley. You pulled out your beloved gun.

"Well, well, well! Do you boys want a fight!?", you excitedly point the gun at them.

"Put your weapon down, Ms. L/N. We are here to warn you for the final time. Stay away from this casino. Further misbehavior will lead to dangerous consequences."

You hum, thinking up a plan.

"How about this. My revolver has 5 bullets. And there are five of us. How about we all take turns to shoot blindfolded!"

You excitedly shove them in a circular arrangement.

"I'll go first! The rules are that every person gets a chance to shoot from the center of the circle. If the bullet misses, everyone takes a step ahead, closer to the center."

You explain, grinning at the men clad in all black.

"If a bullet hits me, I'll agree to your terms. If it hits one of you lot, then you can't stop me anymore. What do you say?!"

The mafiosi were weirded out by this. What if you had a good aim, or an ability that allowed you to shoot them with your eyes closed? They didn't have much intel on you, and only knew you to be a girl from a rich background, who had come to Yokohama for higher studies.

"That's enough. Grab her-"

• Thats when our boy showed up. Dazai was curious when he overheard some of the men talk about some 'fearless girl that had flipped them off even after two rather threatening warnings.'

• So he had decided to tag along, staying in the shadows, until now.

• "I think it will be a wonderful idea. Play along, gentlemen. I want to see where this goes."

• You shot, and missed. So did the other guy. Then the other one. Now, the circle had shrunk really small. You were almost in the line of fire at this point. There was an 80% chance of getting shot.

• "That's enough." ,Dazai said, as he walked to stand in front of you.

• "You are daring, aren't you. You're not afraid of death."

• Staring into his eyes, you saw a reflection of yourself. A dark, lost soul stared back at you.

• "In fact, you arranged this little game to ensure that you got hurt. You perfectly planned it out, and ensured that as the circle gets smaller, you would be in the direct line of fire."

• "You missed the first shot on purpose, didn't you?"

• He had seen right through your game.

'What's this guy's deal?', you thought.

"Why would you stop the game when it was at its peak? Hah? Whats wrong with you, man?!", you angrily grab his collar. "I was just beginning to have fun, and here you are, ruinjng it!"

• Taken aback by your bravery, he just blinked at you.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Yes, obviously, idiot. But that doesn't give you any right to interrupt our game."

"Oh? So who do you think I am."

You give him a 'baka janiono?' look.

"You are their leader. Probably an executive of the mafia, judging by your expensive suit. Why?"

The thoughts running through Dazai's head were along the lines of :

'Just who is this girl? How does she know about the mafia? Surely my men weren't dumb enough to tell her who they work for. How does she know about my position? She surely didn't just guess that, right?? And why the fuck does a student have a gun? Does her family have connections within the underworld? She obviously doesn't fear death. Will she be a good addition to the mafia?'

• "What are you thinking about, baka? Answer me."

• He smiled sweetly at you, and firmly gripped your wrist, pushing it off his collar.

"There's someone who would like to meet you"

Before you can retort back, he continues,"You seek adventure, do you not? You want to feel something worthwhile. Something akin to facing death, something that will give you an adrenaline rush. I can give you all of that. If you come with me, that is."

• Mori was shocked when he heard about what had happened. He agreed with Dazai's decision to make you join the ranks. He needed such fearless crackheads in his organization.

• He paired you up with the double black, making you an executive too. You hadn't quite agreed to his terms, but he had offered you to just accompany the ginger and the brunette on a mission. And had let you make the final decision .

• You three had to go to an abandoned warehouse, where some people were tampering with the mafia goods. There, you saw how sadistic Dazai was. How manipulative and bad he was. It made you fall for him. Hard. Plus, you realized the risk of being a mafiosi. It was quite thrilling.

• When you got back, you had screamed at mori to let you join. Quite literally begged. And he, ofcourse, agreed. You hadn't even given him a chance to threaten your life, which was the usual norm, when a valuable asset wasn't willing to join the ranks of the feared organization.

• You trained with dazai. And purposely got hit. It turned you on. But you never mentioned anything, in fear of being rejected.

• Dazai, ofcourse, noticed this, and one fine day, confronted you about it. You told him just how much you love him. He was always intrigued by your sadistic side. He saw a part of himself in you. The daring, brave, smart side of yours was something so similar to himself, yet unique. You were seeking the same thing that he was, that is to feel something. He felt sadness, and loneliness, and he never had a purpose in life. You, someone who had it all, a good family, a great marksheet, and a pre set goal in life, were willing to give it away, just to feel something. He, someone who was stripped off of a normal childhood, was never given the opportunity to choose. He used to think that maybe he was to blame. Maybe if he had had better luck, he would have gotten a good childhood, a purpose. But now that he knows you, a genius, smart person, who had it all, but threw it away, he realized that maybe life really is worthless. Maybe, he wasn't to be blamed. And that, oddly enough, made him feel better. To know that no matter how much lady luck favors him, life would still be fucked up, and that it wasn't his fault, made him hate himself less.

• And so, you two became a thing.

• Let's just say, that both of you are equally freaky.

• You want him to dom u, and he gladly accepts

• You guys try it all... I mean, especially with guns.

• I can imagine you both sitting at a boring meeting, when you decide to edge him on, and you're not even touching him. Your gun is.

• You both claim atleast one spare room on every floor of the building, for your.... activities.

• You are like his praise queen.

• He loves that.

• Always rough. Always. And you guys are into spicing it up.

• Anyways, you both never decide to commit double suicide.

• Thats because dazai wants a beautiful way out, while you want to feel the thrill of facing death. You don't really want to die, you just want to know the feeling of almost dying. You want to feel something exhilarating.

• When Dazai decides to leave the mafia, you are all for it. As long as you get to stay by his side, you were ok with it.

• Like Midari, you are a very perceptive person, and can easily guess what's going on in someone's mind. Dazai was easy to read for you, as his thoughts were pretty similar to your own.

• You were smart, cunning, and could read peoples mind with ease. So it was pretty easy for you to guess what's going on in Dazai's mind, sometimes even predicting his next moves.

• You really fit in with the ada, coz that place is filled with crackheads, and you and dazai are no exception lol

• Also, you get along with Yosano really well.

• Like, if you weren't so loyal to dazai, you would have become Yosanos slave. So would i ngl

• Anyways, you and dazai always mess with kunikida. You two prank him till the breaking point. You two are such a menace in the office. Always skipping work, slacking off, but really shining when it comes to actual detective work, like solving mysteries.

• You are a valuable asset to the ada, coz 1. You are smart and 2. You can intimidate the enemy into giving in, thanks to your sadistic games.

• You are also a very good companion. You can easily understand what the other is feeling, and end up comforting the gang.

• I can imagine you roasting Kunikida for being such a nerd, but at the same time giving him accurate and well needed advice .

• You do the same for your bf, and the two of you have many late night convos about topic that Dazai had never discussed with anyone before. Because no one had quite understood him the way you did.

• Midari is actually a pretty deep character, and just like her, you have many layers. There's the sadistic side, the goofy side, the careless side, the intelligent side and the insightful nature.

• You would be his perfect partner, as you'd support his crazy, reckless ideas, but at the same time keep him afloat, and prevent him from drowning in his own thoughts.

[vitrailcoeur]

And justified picking what feel like extremely ostentatious and maudlin names, replete with high-flown in-world allusions, pointed barbs at rivals, or hints at scandalous secrets regarding the new baby’s parentage... because Orlesian noble parents would. It’s also fun to work out etymological replacement names.

(NAME THOUGHTS)

So, Thedas has no exact France named “France”, but of course there could be characters names Francois or Francine, and you could explain it away where the word France is a place name, but a village somewhere. Or rely on cutting out the place of France idea, and stick with what France itself is derived from - Franks, which you could treat a name like Francine as meaning free/freeman or as being from the javelin/lance reference... and just map it on to whatever Thedas language you think matches up if that even needs to be discussed in your story.

Reference: https://www.etymonline.com/word/Frank?ref=etymonline_crossreference

But what about the spiritual successor to a name like Francine for Thedas? An Orlesian equivalent could be “Orlesine” “Orlecine” or other spellings ... and you can go on from there trying out your chosen language (like French and near-French) name parts (particularly suffixes) on any proper noun names from Thedas. You might replace Germaine with Anderaine or Andraine sometimes. Amaranthine is pretty all by itself, but you can go for Amaranti or Amarantos, Amaranta, for an Antivan (Italian/Spanish) sound. Fracture a given proper noun on the map into all possible “Thedas” language groups. Can even try to meaning-for-meaning swap things in and out of Elvhen or Dwarven or Qunlat or if we had Alamarri or something. And have it be that they’re actually borrowing a different culture’s name idea in, on purpose, to better or sillier effects.

This process is the next step past what they did naming Anders as they did. Which already is the kind of detail that adds verisimilitude to a story’s place names, linking them up to the cultures they arose from and feed back into. Or other names, like fictional plants, metals, concepts, and so on. Someone should be named Emberius or Emberia, right along with Sage, Lily, Rose, or Floret!

Also to be Catholicky, these Andrastians really need to have adopted every last related central Chant concept word or name variation of their central cast of “good figures” as names for their kids. And I want Andraste to be a perfectly normal name for a baby in some places and times, and rare, weird or heretical in others.

Taboos on what can be a name being different different places is interesting to add to a culture. I’ve considered both naming a dwarven character Isana, or hiding the word isana somewhere in the name (ex: Garisana) and having it be a high-status first name ... but then you could alternatively throw in the detail that most Orzammari drwarves currently find it against the Stone or super conceited or garish or bizarre to name themselves after lyrium in any way. Like if you named a kid Money or Oil. Then it could mark a person as an outsider whose parents were clearly separated from the culture, but remembered that word. Or a suspicious surfacer somebody faking a dwarfy name poorly.

This fits in with all the unfortunate ‘too cool’ or ‘awkwardly pious’ names we know have got to be out there, too, knowing the good people of Thedas. Ser Wyvern Vimmarkus Elder IV of Ostwick, the newly minted Templar in squeaky armor, arrests Our-Lady’s-Pyre (”Pyre”) the town’s best brewer on suspicion of apostasy. She resists arrest, setting her vats alight.

Last name thought, magic means accurate portents and prophesies available for some mages (or maybe even kind of sensitive non-mages?) to pick up on, maybe in dreams before the brith. And this provides an excellent excuse for oddly-fitting, and seeming to reference aspects of the named child’s future in a way parents could not predict in any normal way.

I still kind of try to avoid this urge, or at least hide it in the middle names, unless I am going to make it an “uncanny!” plot point that gets noticed by characters. But also, sometimes you got to just go for it without a plan.

not me remembering that the Marquis of Serault is a noble and then going to look at lists of old French given names bc I now feel justified in adding some more parts to their name