#technically number two

[naffeclipse]

I saw that drabble of Mer!Eclipse and Y/N dying together and thought about some things. Vanessa is long gone, and they've been nothing but the reader and eclipse for a while, a whole generation grew up without Mer attacks and life is peaceful. Sometimes the kids go to the beach and meet this mysterious person who tells them stories of mers and how he worked hand in hand with one, and Y/N is kind of a weird being because everyone knows he has lived too long, they know why, and they can't do anything or peace will end on their island. It's a silent deal once again, Y/N makes sure the island has its fish and the boats don't sink and they can live peacefully, telling stories to the kids where the mers can be bad or good. And when he finally one day just disappears, a feeling of sadness runs through all those who heard his mers stories.

Curiously, not long after, the mers return and they are not exactly friendly, the stories are not accurate with their cute songs and gentle hands, but rather they are thunderous, terrifying symphonies that betray all belief. And a small child strolls along the beach, as that mysterious person did every morning, and hears a familiar, sweet, tentative song that makes them turn away from their yellow-haired caretaker to chase after the curious sound.

The yellow eyes are familiar, the small cove is familiar, there is a dejavu and everything is so new but it is as if it has happened before. It actually turns out that the song of a mer can bind two souls, even in more than one lifetime.

Just me rambling on how I think everyone could be reincarnated, even Vanessa, and become a tradition little by little where a child becomes attached to a mer and they both take care of the peace of the island. There being more than one story of them, sometimes dying of old age, sometimes in combat, but always coming back together. And no one realizes that it's really one reincarnation after another, only that it's better not to interfere as if it were some kind of prophecy.

I'm not into reincarnation for Deep Dreams but sort of an old tale retold? I dig that! If anything, I'd want to do a loose sequel.

The island is still superstitious, but there are a few more believers that not all mers are death and destruction, and the old fisher that disappeared out to sea (properly assumed deceased after being around for far longer than they should have been) a handful of years ago is remembered with a little fondness by some of the locals, most of those younger folk and less inclined to be afraid when there haven't been mer attacks in so long.

Y/N is a little kid who loves to swim. You're a natural in the water and know to avoid the riptides that can drown even full-grown adults. Your parents warned you to be careful going down to the beach to play like you do any other day, however, you forget to mind your surroundings just this one time. There's a riptide, and it's taking you out, far, far from shore. You're a good swimmer, but you're getting tired, and farther away from land, and you're trying to not cry—

Until you see a little face in the water, watching you struggle to keep your head above the surface. It makes you think of the sun. Then there's another little face, a little scarier with its red eyes, but just as intently watching you, and you think this one must be the moon.

You start to sink. You go under, but before the air you managed to catch in your lungs burns away, small hands, a lot of small hands, grab you and yank you up once more. The little fishes, the sun and the moon, are so small that they have to work together to get you back to shore, but they manage. When you scrap against the sand in the shallows, you gasp and turn around to look at your new friends!

But they're gone.

You frown. That's not what friends are supposed to do. You have to at least thank them for helping you!

So, when you go home that night and tell your parents that you made two new friends who are fish, they laugh and sweetly tell you "That's nice, dear." (Mers haven't been spotted in ages, save for the occasional report of a big red/orange one, but even those have ceased in recent years. The attacks have stopped. The mers are gone. There's no need for superstition anymore.)

This is just one more reason you march back down to the beach, determined to find the sun and the moon and prove that you are their friend, too.

[united-under-skyfall]

leverage is so fucking funny. man manages to find the most mentally ill and neurodivergent group of thieves on the market + an even more mentally ill guy whose literal job description was trying to chase all of them, and forces them into a found family speed-run by trying to blow them all up. they lowkey stage a full fucking country wide coup and are like eh 🤷 just another wednesday. this might be a fun place to vacation tho i guess. sophie shows up to her own funeral twice. they're so good at convincing people of their shit that they make a guy's body start reacting to an illness he doesn't have because it isn't real. go completely out on a limb and basically hand this one guy a new password for his computer so they can get into it and he goes with it. parker and hardison have straight up just "fake it 'till you make it"d into the fbi without even attempting to cover their tracks beyond just These Two Guys. half their clients never asked to be their clients and don't know they're their clients, and the other half are random people who find them who fuckin knows how, meanwhile no government agency can track them down without selling their soul to sterling. they make a point to have a dramatic scene w a Big Bad Shadowy Government Guy who doesn't actually get caught or brought to justice or anything telling them he's going to hunt them all down, and in any other show this would probably earn at least a minor arc later on but he literally never shows up again. an entire season finale hinged on a cake and a bunch of clams. they accidentally made eliot a celebrity not once, not twice, but three times. parker blew up her foster parents' house when she was like. nine. and it's hardly a footnote. hardison is just casually an artistic prodigy but it's only ever brought up for the most background of background gags. eliot's biggest beef with parker and hardison for like two and a half seasons is that they won't stop making weird food with lasers and refuse to realize they can't make a decent beer to save their lives. sophie's immediate response to being shot is to call her shooter a wanker. there's a character who has literally killed a man with a mop and they had the audacity to only put her in one episode.

[artkaninchenbau]

You know what day it— Daisuke?! Happy 24th Anniversary Zero Two! [Redraw 2020 / Appmon] [2021 / Tamers] [2022 / Frontier] [2023 / V-Tamer]

[cozylittleartblog]

small PSA: if you shop at craft shows or artist alleys, please bring more than apple pay or a virtual card - especially if you're not comfortable entering your card number manually. not all of us have fancy card readers, so please also bring your physical card or cash, even if it's only as backup 👍

[queen0fm0nsterz]

Unanswered prayers from bygones

[xxplastic-cubexx]

reading Krakoa era out of order bc reading lists online make it confusing and my local library only has so many books

just as god intended right on my friend you're doing everything right and don't let anyone tell you otherwise

[stone-stars]

Suvi has such a small world... God, I want her to be there in time.

[ID from Alt Text: A comic of Suvi and Ame from Worlds Beyond Number. Steel is saying "The most common of their downfalls has been seeing the humility and serenity of witches, and underestimating it." Behind this, a young Ame opens a carriage door to see Suvi, curled up in her mother's cloak. Suvi replies "… Fair." Adult Suvi is standing in the center of a number of panels showing her memories of Ame as a child as she speaks. Ame is holding Suvi's hand, poking something with a stick, in the kitchen with Grandmother Ren, holding a turtle, balancing on a fence post, fast asleep, collecting sticks in the winter, holding a witch's broom. The last of these panels shows Grandmother Ren's cottage. Suvi finishes: "I am no stranger to witches." The final two panels show adult Suvi and Ame's eyes, each other reflected in them. There are tears welling up in Ame's eyes.]

Anyone else been thinking about the relationship between these two nonstop despite having a total of like, two crumbs of information? Because I sure have.

[daily-xisuma]

[025] I memorized the enochian characters for use as a cipher :-)

[bookworm-2692]

Life Tracker updated for Episode 7! This one is much quicker than Episode 6 on account of not being on holiday at the time, even though there were two thirds more deaths this time. Previous posts: Session 6, Session 5, Session 4. Also Session 8 (finale) post!

As usual, close ups and commentary below the cut. I’ve also added another graph for the average time of each team, which will also be below the cut.

There was so much carnage! 45 whole deaths in a single session! Not all deaths were awarded time during the session, but Scott’s video advised that it would be added by next session, so I have taken the liberty to add all the time as I see fit, hence why Scott is back to 7.5 hours. I haven’t seen every episode yet (in fact, other than Scott, I’ve only seen those that have perma-died), so I’m not sure if anyone else’s time is a mismatch, but if so I’m happy to explain where I’m getting my time additions and subtractions from!

Now for some close ups.

First, there was enough chaos that I decided to take a close up of Session 6 and 7 together so we can properly appreciate it:

And a close up of Session 7 by itself:

So many people lost major time, so it’s interesting to see Scott’s uptick of time at the end - he ended on only 30 minutes less than he would have been if he hadn’t died at all this session. Pearl didn’t die at all, and got the kill credit for Martyn blowing himself up in a trap, so she actually ended the session 30 minutes better than she started it. Grian also did very well for himself - he killed and died so many times, but somehow ended on the exact time he would have been on if he had experienced a peaceful deathless session.

BigB, Cleo, and Martyn all ended the session 1 hour poorer than they started, and Bdubs and Scar ended 1.5 hours below where they would have been. Nosy Neighbours are thus doing super well, with Mean Gills and Clockers not too far behind, in terms of maintaining position from the start of the session.

TIES had an awful time this session, with Impulse and Tango both losing a net 2 hours, and Etho and Skizz losing a net 2.5 hours - and obviously Skizz entirely died.

Joel possibly had the worst time, losing a net 3.5 hours this session - though it didn’t help that 5 of his 7 deaths were all caused by the one person. Technically Jimmy didn’t do too badly, given he only lost a net 1.5 hours... but given that he was out of the series only an hour into the session, and also the first out entirely... it really didn’t go well for him either

I also find it interesting the sheer number of vertical lines this graph, the ones representing a death immediately followed by a kill or vice versa. I would love to figure out a way to show only one line at a time on the graph, so we can more easily see someone’s journey, but I haven’t had time to look into it yet.

Now onto the graph of the average times per team.

This one is super interesting to me, especially TIES’s line - they had the lowest average life right from the start, but somehow by Session 4, through Session 5, and for most of Session 6, they were the team with the highest average time, and then it quite literally went downhill from there. The only thing saving them from being last now is the fact that the Bad Boys are down to only a single living player, and even then Grian is doing far better than most of TIES.

It’s also interesting to me how Mean Gills had a significant time uptick at the end of both Session 6 and Session 7 (the first due to Martyn and the second due to Scott). Scott’s time was so high that it kept Mean Gills’ average time as yellow for all of Session 6 despite Martyn being red for most of it... and Martyn then got enough kills to keep it there. Mean Gills is also the only team in the entire graph to anywhere gain such consistent significant time.

These averages also coincide with the comments I made above about the time offset difference for each player from the start to end of the session. Mean Gills are doing well, but they’ve been doing well for so long that I’m sure most players are aware that they need to be a target. Nosy Neighbours are also doing well but I feel like they’ve flown under the radar, and are not a significant target right now.

Here is a close up of this graph with Sessions 1-4:

And the close up for Session 5-7:

And the Session 7 only close up:

I kept the dead players in the teams’ averages, since I think it is a better reflection of the teams’ strength as a whole, but I also created a version that excluded dead players. In those screenshots you can really see Bad Boys’ and TIES’ time jumping up at a death, instead of falling as it did here.

Here are the alternate averages graph:

And close ups:

This makes Bad Boys look a lot better, because Grian does have a lot of time... but he is also alone. And there is definitely strength in numbers. Two players at an hour and a half each can fend off an attacker more easily than a single player at three hours can... unless nerves and panic get to them, as we definitely saw this session.

Wow and I almost forgot to include the raw data for this session!

The first hour of the session:

The second hour of the session:

There is just so much death! Look at all the box outlines!! I could barely fit this data on two screens on the zoom I was on, and I did not want to zoom out further.

I also obviously have data for the averages, but it was too far away from the column with the times on it that I wasn’t sure if it would still be useful on its own? Let me know if you want to see it!

This has once again been fascinating to see, and I cannot wait to see how Session 8 will go. Will it be the last session? Will they go until everyone is dead? Will they somehow have enough people with enough time to get to Session 9? Will Mean Gills be the final two and get to play fun relaxing games like Scott was suggesting? 

Only time will tell.

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

Episodes Final Frame.

Kiseki: Dear to Me (2023)

[crossbackpoke-check]

it’s all the rest of what i want with you

connor dewar/brandon duhaime :: 8k

Summary:

“Brandon,” Connor says with a sigh. “There’s no baby in there.”

“Not yet,” Brandon says. Connor feels his stomach twist, almost like what he would imagine a baby kicking to feel like.

in these trying times of dewvorce, may i offer you 8k of pwp inspired by @stillfertile’s wonderful art which i had. several breakdowns about 🫶 anyway please enjoy!!!

[vaguely-concerned]

the scene where you talk to davrin in his room while he whittles tiny models of monsters (while assan watches with rapt attention <3 there is nothing about this whole setup, man or griffon, that isn't adorable) when your rook IS one of the dainty little academic mage types he so besmirches and you consistently pick the purple options through the conversation -- I am SCREECHING the covert jock/nerd war rages on between clenched teeth and forced jollity, they are doing this on purpose, bioware really have given me this gift all nicely wrapped and lovingly crafted! rook is so fucking bitchy and passive aggressive in these purple options (and once or twice davrin doesn't seem to realize it/takes what they say at face value); it's not very nice of them but it is hilarious. also I must say that hearing these two just relentlessly neg each other with palpable tension of. SOME kind thick in the air* for five minutes straight and then walking away and seeing the 'davrin approves' pop up at the end gets close to the otherwise unapproachable gaming high that is having a tense standoff with sten in origins and seeing +7 affection as you leave. davrin clearly is going 'good talk man nice to see you stand up for yourself more, I respect the roast game' while my rook walks away with a forced smile and clenched fists like 'okay so that wasn't very mature of me I'll admit it but god why is this guy such an asshole'

I cannot imagine how this conversation must play out with a character more on davrin's wavelength because for my setup here this was *chef's kiss* perfect. ideal. I'm so glad this dynamic exists it's one of the funniest and most characterization-enriching things that could have happened to me

*there's some insanity going on here where like... I don't think either of them like want to fuck, they're not actually attracted to each other, but they both would fuck each other in a 'go fuck yourself'/'fuck me yourself you coward'/'fine I will see if I don't!!!!'/'oh yeah??? do it then!!!!!' kind of way. the vibes are indescribable and unhinged on both of their parts.

[myladyofmercy]

got tagged by @tessabennet to do another one of these but since I've changed my url since the last time i did it i might as well...

rules: pick a song for each letter of your URL and tag that many people.

(as a challenge i tried to only pick songs from my spotify wrapped but sadly that didn't work out 100%)

my lady of mercy by the last dinner party

you're not getting out of here by john paesano

look at us now (honeycomb) by daisy jones & the six

a.m. radio by the lumineers

dinner & diatribes by hozier

youth by troye sivan

on your side by the last dinner party

francesca by hozier

mermaids by florence and the machine

exist for love by aurora

runner's high by muna

cherry wine (live) by hozier

you're a germ by wolf alice

(i did not have enough y songs in my wrapped so i substituted those with songs that honestly deserved to be there and i am confused why they weren't)

tagging (without pressure) @scrapsofinspiration @newtness532 @go-catch-a-chickn @cantputitintowords @youweremyversaillesatnight @bellzsad @lazybug16 @carladuquette @tooindecisivetopickaurl @i-love-semicolons @acdiazterbi @likemonstersinlove @tmrsunset

[aviiarie]

Avie, just saw your latest post and I came running. I suppose this is your first Bungo Stray Dogs request, huh? Kunikida Doppo + 🦪 + romantic

a gift from kunikida is a shiny necklace with a gleaming pearl strung along it. he isn’t one for jewellery himself, but he saw you eyeing it in the window and couldn’t help himself. you fit every ideal he has for a partner, its only fair that he treats you to something that is ideal for you! he’ll help you clasp it, gently fastening the chain behind your neck. when he steps back and looks at you, a smile settles over his face. he finds you beautiful on a regular day, but in the necklace you’re nothing short of breathtaking.

(ask game!)

[lightthepathwithalantern]

[Page Two :3]

Just a little stroll through the village, what could go wrong? :)

[Sun belongs to @theoneandonlysun or @invaderxeya]

[Objects belong to @askobjects or Battle For Dream Island (BFDI/BFB)]

[kinglazrus]

When you’re so queer that you don’t even realize your cousin very blatantly asked if that Male Person you mentioned is your boyfriend because A) assuming any connection between people is romantic is not your default setting and B) you are happily in love with your partner and the idea of anyone assuming you could have a boyfriend does not even register in your mind (despite knowing that your entire family assumes you’re straight) and you didn’t even realize that’s what your cousin meant when they said “is that your guy” until your mom pointed it out two hours later