#the upsilon kids

[hms-no-fun]

something in particular from the chapter stood out to me: there is a conscious decision to use the term "upsilon kids" diagetically, within the text, to refer to the group that had for a long time been referred externally as "the upsilon kids" within the fandom. any reason why you decided to make that leap?

well, the fandom called them the upsilon kids because i told them to. i always wanted these four to stand as parallels to the omega kids from hs2/hs:bc, and as echoes of the beta and alpha kids from homestuck proper. canonizing the name "The Upsilon Kids" is part of a larger strategy on my part that i'll expound upon a bit here.

you'll notice a few key bits of information being repeated in different contexts in this chapter. nods to three years ago, six years ago, ten years ago, etc. this is a deliberate choice to hammer home the timeline that we'll be working on going forward. this will (i hope) become increasingly useful as the story goes on, and we learn more about these characters and how they grew and changed over time. a big running theme of 3.2 is the notion of being in the middle of a story. the cast of godfeels, like us, have found themselves dropped into an ongoing narrative whose particulars don't really have anything to do with them. so much of the shift towards space opera has been about making the homestuck regulars feel less like the center of the universe. these are stories that have happened, and will happen, regardless of their attention or participation, which will nevertheless have an impact on their lives.

the burning core of 3.2 is the timeline of the upsilon kids. i very much like the idea of projecting a narrative forward to give the reader a vague sense of what's coming. lost on samsaria at 16, returned to the ewl at 23, betrayed at 26, dana & lenore reunited at 29. this means that the question isn't so much what happened as it is why it happened, which is always the more interesting question for me to write about anyway. so, back to your question-- it might've been good enough to just mention that Dana and her friends used to be "intergalactic celebrities," and indeed earlier drafts did leave it at that. but celebrity is a really vague, fluid concept, and i actually think that by itself is a less interesting fact as a result. adding the note that they were famous as a group for a specific event which defined their celebrity is just that much tastier. it's personal, you know? and it being personal in turn elevates and complicates the nature of Jade's betrayal.

i think, also, the diegetic proper noun The Upsilon Kids also stands as an interesting parallel given what we learned about Dana's history in B1C1. repeated themes in different contexts.

there's a lot of exposition in these early chapters of 3.2, because we're currently in the process of shaping a mold. i want you to see and understand this shape from a distance, to broadcast what is and is not a going mystery, so that you have an idea what to look for once we get to the point that we're actually starting to fill that mold with something. there's more i could say about this storytelling philosophy but i'll save that for another day, i think :)

[cinnnamongrl]

sorority secrets- ellie williams (part 4)

pairing: college!ellie williams x fem!reader

summary: part 4 to this fic. you can find part 3 here.

warnings: [18+ MDNI] explicit language, mentions of alcohol, sexual themes, kissing, ✨tension✨

author’s note: part 4/5 !! have fun gays

“you really didn’t have to do that.” you spoke through a pained smile. “i did! and you have to go because i already told campus news that you are chad are a hot new item” she winked. a hot new item? “you did what?” ellie interjected, sitting up. “why-“ you closed your eyes and took in a breath, “-why would you do that?” you spoke calmly despite the irritation bubbling at your chest. emilia tutted like you were asking a stupid question “because i did some digging and turns out someone has famous sorority blood. daughter of an ex kappa upsilon sigma president dating the current kappa upsilon sigma president… that’s the news people really care about!” she explained. “… is it?” “yep!” she beamed.

~~~~~~

“campus fucking news” you said in disbelief. ellie snorted and held her hand above her eyes to shield the sun beaming down on her as she walked you to your class. “it’s not funny! look at the fucking text i just got from my dad” you handed her your phone.

“jesus” ellie handed your phone back to you. “yeah..” you mumbled. “he’s ‘proud that you’re respecting and upholding family values’… this is all because he thinks you’re dating a frat boy?” you scoffed, “when you put it like that it sounds insane. i think it’s because chad’s the kappa pres and kappa means a lot to my dad. he still gets involved with the fraternity even now. and my parents… they’re traditional. and they have these ideals of me being exactly like them. and they think it’ll get me to where i want to be.” “in a dull marriage where you have 4 kids and 0 orgasms?” you hit her lightly “i’m serious!” she hugged your side into hers and kissed your forehead “i know. i’m sorry angel. that’s a lot of pressure and it must be tough on you.” “what am i gonna do about tonight?” you huffed. she looked at you, “you’re gonna go.” you blinked up at her. “and you’re gonna humour emilia and the others until we figure out how to get you out of this little situation.” you nodded your head a few times, then a small smile appeared as you looked up at her “you not gonna be too jealous watching me on a date with someone else?” you teased. she poked her tongue at her cheek lightly and a little smirk played against her lips “why would i be jealous when he’s not a threat?”. you raised your eyebrows “such confidence, williams.” “well, am i wrong?” she tilted her head towards you and you shook your head with a laugh.

~~~~~~~

warm sticky heat pawed at your skin as you weaved your way through a crowded tipsy bison to reach the bar. you stood waiting to catch a bartenders eye when a hand you knew wasn’t ellie’s was placed on your lower back. “i’ll get the drinks” chad spoke.

despite how much you wanted to be away from this bar and this date, chad wasn’t… awful. sure he’s talked about himself a lot, and yes he’s gone through his camera roll and shown you highlight clips of his football games but he wasn’t the worst frat guy you’d ever come across. he was respectful at least and did seem to have a genuine interest in getting to know you. you nearly felt bad that he was on a date with someone who has absolutely no interest in him. nearly. he placed your two drinks on the little table for two that was conveniently in perfect viewing distance from the booth where your friends sat. you did a little scan; brittney was talking to one of chad’s friends, emilia seemed to be rejecting a kappa guy, madison was ranting to chloe, ellie was… sitting, her back against the booth, manspreading slightly with one hand against the back of the seat, the other holding her drink and she was staring right at you. you adjusted in your seat slightly and let your eyes run over her. she winked half-jokingly and a giggle escaped your throat. “don’t you think?” your brain suddenly processed the background noise you’d been hearing was a question directed at you. you turned your head to chad suddenly. “oh um… yeah.” he nodded thoughtfully and smiled “i knew you’d agree,” he reached his hand out and placed it on top of yours. oh god. “you know… you’re even cuter than emilia said you were.” you lifted your mouth in a hopefully not-too-obvious fake smile. “and you’re like, super smart and shit” you looked down to avoid his intense gaze and his hand reached out to brush a piece of hair behind your ear. you tried not to visibly cringe and instead looked up and change the subject “so tell me about that soccer game again”. he smiled, one eyebrow lifted in confusion “football.” “yeah, that.” he took in a breath and began rambling again about his sporting achievements.

ellie had never really considered herself a jealous person. that was until she was being forced to watch some douche put his stupid hands on your and touch your hair and get to put his dumb frat boy face near yours. the fact that she was having to sit metres away and pretend to everyone else she was rooting for this fake date was adding to the bitterness creeping through her body. she pictured herself striding over there, knocking chad off his chair and carrying you bridal-style out of the bar, knight in shining armour rescuing her princess. watching him lean forward to speak into your ear was her last straw, she couldn’t stride over to rescue you but she also couldn’t sit here and watch chad get to act like she did with you all because of some stupid lie at a party.

you stared blankly at chad as he rambled, practically spaced out and nodding at appropriate times. out of the corner of your eye you spotted ellie getting up and walking towards the restroom and a spark of excitement went through you at finally getting an opportunity to talk to her tonight. you looked back at chad “oh my god no way that’s so funny hahaha imgonnausetherestroomillbebackinabit” you blurted out as you were standing up from your seat, desperate to escape before he could stop you. you headed straight for the restroom, praying all of the girls were too engaged in their conversations to follow you. you swung the door open and were met with an empty room minus ellie who’s arms were stretched out to lean against a sink. her head turned to you as you walked in, door closing behind you and she smirked, “what is it with you always following me into toilets?”

you smiled at her “maybe i just needed to use the restroom.” she stepped towards you, “oh? so you didn’t come running in here so you could abandon your date and get me alone for a few minutes?” you looked away playfully “i don’t know what you’re talking about.” she reached you and placed her arms around your waist. “i don’t blame you. he seems like a boring motherfucker.” you gasped in faux shock “are you… jealous?” ellie rolled her eyes dramatically “yeah i’m crazy jealous,” voice dripping with sarcasm, “he’s out there sipping on his drink waiting for you,” her hands travelled to your lower back, “and i’ve got you in here, pressed up against me” her hands dropped down to squeeze your ass and the action made you fall into her closer. ellie’s words came out casually but her possessive actions were exposing her jealousy which made you want to reel that part out of her even more. “you know, he’s actually quite interesting.” ellie pulled her body from yours by an inch and looked at you. “he’s pretty funny too.”

ellie took her hands from you and placed one on her hip “‘mh. it’s just weird ‘cause i didn’t see you laughing much.” you looked up. “weird. i definitely was.” ellie crossed her arms. “you’re trying to make me jealous.” she told you. “‘m not. was just sayin’ he’s not that bad.” ellie chuckled and grabbed your hands to pull you back into her, face close to yours. “that’s cute. if you wanted me to get all possessive, you could’ve just said.” her tone slightly darker. you chewed on your lip, any response lost before it even reached you. she tilted her head to the side, “hm?”. a barely audible mm left your throat and she laughed. “don’t get all shy on me now, you were trying to rile me up a second ago.” she rested a hand on the back of your neck, thumb stroking your cheek and she brought her mouth inches close to yours “you want a kiss?”. you nodded enthusiastically “mhm”. she was dragging her other hand up and down your side, tickling the bare skin of your upper leg just before your skirt stopped. “then tell me what you really think about chad,” she spoke lowly, “who you’d rather be out with.” you sighed, “you already know. just kiss me.” “i want you to say it”. you huffed, “he’s boring. and not funny. or interesting. and i wish i was out with you instead.” she tutted in sympathy, near-mocking pout present. “me too, sweet girl.” she lowered her mouth to yours and kissed you. you released a little sigh of relief into her mouth. you were all-consumed by ellie; her body pressed to yours, her scent making your mind fuzzy, the taste of her earlier drinks on your tongue and head swarming with ellie ellie ellie. your body swelled with the urge to drag her into a toilet stall and-

the restroom door swung open and you ripped away from each other just in time to hide your activity, though probably not enough to hide your flustered appearance. three girls you didn’t know stumbled into the room and claimed the sinks. you looked at ellie and she looked at you. tension still high but now with no outlet. she slowly backed out of the bathroom and walked back to her booth. you debated following her for a second but you looked over and saw chad, head in his hands drumming his fingers on his beer bottle and you begrudgingly decided to go back over there before your friends pestered you about not trying hard enough on your date. you made your way over to him but before you got there brittney stopped you. “we’re going outside to vape. come with?” she spoke flatly, her question more of a demand. who knew brittney would be your saviour? you followed all of the girls, including ellie outside of the bar. the night’s harsh air was a welcomed by your overheated body. just as ellie made her way to you emilia approached you.

“having fun?” her tone hopeful. “sure!” you smiled. “he really likes you, i can tell. and you clearly like him. you guys should go exclusive!”. you scoffed, “i don’t know about that”. you noticed brittney was frowning at emilia from a distance, manicured fingers holding onto her blueberry ice elf bar. she pulled emilia over to stand with her which left you alone with ellie. “hi” you spoke and tapped her leg with your foot. she laughed “hi pretty” voice out earshot of the others. “um.. here’s an alley by the side of the bar. you think they’d notice?” you asked. she blinked at you with raised eyebrows, voice full of pretend shock “did you just invite me into a dark alley?” you furrowed your brows with a pout barely hiding your smile “not like that, perv. i meant so we could talk more privately.” “oh talking, i see” she laughed. she did a quick scan and grabbed your hand “c’mon”. she lead you to the side of the bar, away from the eyes of anyone except people passing by on the street. you leaned against the brick wall and ellie stood in front of you.

“it seems like you’re always sneaking me off to hidden places” she said lightheartedly. “well id prefer not to have to sneak away to be able to kiss you but we’re in a bit of a situation.” ellie raised an eyebrow playfully, “and who’s fault is that?” she teased. “hey, i had my reasons.” you defended yourself. “yeah, you were so scared of being in love with me you had a make up a fake crush and he happened to actually exist.”, she laughed. you kicked her with little force “i was not in love with you. i met you a few days before then!” she was still laughing, “and yet i made such an impact you felt the need to deny your real feelings for me”. you crossed your arms, “you’re such an asshole” “hey i’m kidding. i had to pretend to myself that i hated you after that night so i wouldn’t cry” you burst out into affectionate laughter “els”. she smiled and wrapped her hands around your back to bring your body into hers to kiss you. it was sweet and gentle, and yet it still made your stomach flip. against all her body’s instincts she pulled away and took your hand, “let’s not have them wander round here and catch us kissing on your date with dreamy chad”. you giggled and let her lead you back to the bar.

~~~~~~~~~

the drinks ellie used to entertain herself last night while she couldn’t be with you were making themselves known as she woke with a fuzzy head, and the loud banging on her door was not helping. she checked her phone for the time and saw 3 missed calls from you and forced herself out of bed to open her door. you walked past her and threw yourself down onto her bed.

“have you seen it?”. she looked at you for a few moments, “seen what?” you huffed and shoved your phone into her hand. a campus news feature. taking up the screen was a photo of you and ellie kissing. it was dark, zoomed in and kind of blurry like it had been taken from a distance, and anyone who saw the photo wouldn’t be able to make out where you were but you knew it was from last night in the alley. ironically where you’d kissed for about 3 seconds max. under the photo was some writing, ‘chad’s new girl kisses random girl behind his back???’ ellie looked back up at you, “oh god”. you took your phone back and shoved it in your pocket. ellie frowned, “who the hell would ta-“ “we’re going to eta” you interrupted. you practically marched down to the eta house, ellie behind you trying to catch up with your fast pace. when you arrived, emilia, madison, chloe and katie were having breakfast in the dining room. as you stood at the head of the dining table, hands on your hips you realised you hadn’t planned what to say at all. you weren’t even sure what you marched down here to do. accuse someone? defend yourself? maybe they hadn’t even seen it.

“who runs campus news?” spluttered from your mouth. madison looked up at you, “i don’t know. but people can submit whatever they want and most of the time it’ll get published.” the harsh sound of a chair scraping against the floor reached your ears and suddenly emilia was walking towards you “you guys. we saw that feature,” she hugged you both individually. “how awful. and poor chad, he’s already text me asking what’s going on.” selfishly or not, chad’s feeling were at the bottom of your list of problems right now. “so are you two like.. a thing?” katie spoke. emilia spoke up, “no she likes chad! it was just one kiss right? maybe you should go over and talk to him. he’d probably forgive you if you explained it was just a silly mistake. don’t let a great guy like him get away.” you stared at her, failing to hide the confusion on your face. ellie stood beside you chewing on her lip. there were a few seconds of silence. “how do two girls have se-“ “katie.” madison cut her off. this conversation was proving to be even less helpful than you’d predicted. “listen- where can i get in contact with campus news to get the photo taken down?” you spoke calmly, only ellie noticing the frustration peaking through your tone. “you could try calling the number on the website?” chloe offered. “thank you.” you grabbed ellie’s hand and swiftly left the eta house.

back at ellie’s dorm you scrolled through campus news looking for some sort of contact number. ellie sat beside you in silence, a little intimidated by your frantic energy. “babe.” she tried. “mh” you replied, eyes still glued to your phone and fingers scrolling rapidly. “it’s gonna be fine.” she assured you. “‘s not. unless i get it removed from campus news quickly before my parents see it.” ellie took a deep breath, “don’t you think.. in a way it might be for the best?”. you looked up from your phone at her, irritation clear on your features. “how would this be for the best?” she leaned back, resting against the arm being held up by the bed “well you wanted to get out of the chad situation.” “yeah not like this!” you shuffled back a little, frustration building. “not with me?” ellie accused. you rolled your eyes “that’s not what i meant. i don’t want to have to explain this to my parents.” “what’s so awful about your parents finding out? you were gonna have to tell them you’re not dating chad at some point.” ellie said, letting her own frustration show. you picked your phone back up and huffed in anger, not wanting to have to justify why you wanted the feature taken down. “or were you?” ellie spoke. you looked at her again “what?” “were you ever even going to tell them? or am i just some college experiment for fun before you go off and actually start dating a real chad so you can live the life your parents want you to live?” bitterness and hurt ran through ellie’s words. “don’t be like that, ellie.” “well?” ellie waited. she wasn’t sure what for. maybe for you to reassure her, kiss her and tell her she’s being ridiculous and that obviously that wasn’t going to happen.

“i’m gonna go.” you stood up and left her dorm without another word.

part 5

a/n: this is my dramatic tv show outro: dun dun dunnnn! will ellie and reader make up? 😿who took the photo?🫢 and why?😳 find out soon on sorority secrets ! (a cinnnamongrl production) ;)

tag list @ximtiredx @gold-dustwomxn @nil-eena @alexpritch @robinismywifee @sc0ttstre3ted @ilovemoneymorethenmen @amberlynn28 @eyeluvangel @amitycat sorry some blogs won’t tag :(( (might be bc of ur visibility settings)

happy to add people to the taglist but i can’t tag you if you don’t have your age in your bio!! my blog is 18+ !!

[finely-tuned-line]

RP:

FTL: ...Alright. Thank you. In the end, I suppose that perspective could be interpreted as a type of opinion. And opinions are very much not things that are universal. I've used that point in arguments before, wouldn't be able to - nor would I want to - go back on it now. Good luck with whatever you end up doing.

FTL: I suppose that that's valid reasoning - though do you even need an excuse? I can see the potential need for it, to justify an action taken. Though as I've mentioned, visit whenever you please, whether you have a viable excuse or not. You're always welcome.

FTL: If you're sure that that is the case, then alright. Can't say that I'm too sure how long a moon cycle even is, the moon is not always the most visible from where I am. The days last long, though when they don't, I still don't pay attention to the moon, unsurprisingly. ...I'm sure I could have asked Songs of the Negative Sunlight, xi'd know. Either way, I'm sure that a moon cycle is long enough. Do notify me when you've decided that it's been long enough.

FTL: Honestly it still amazes me on some level that there are Iterators who are autonomous. You won't be the first to visit me, LIFEGIVER's been here once already, but even then it's still rather incredible. I'm rather content with my state of being stationary, but before going into public communications, I'd never considered that there were those not stationary. Well, that's how learning happens.

FTL. It is Upsilon.

I have a few things I wish to say, mostly apologies.

First, I wish to apologize for my previous behavior. I didn't even hang up, simply left the line metaphorically rotyim. Everything about my behavior was incredibly rude. You do not have to forgive me: that you know I regret leaving you like that is enough.

Second, I wish to say I deeply regret the way my... associate, treated you. Spreading baseless rumors to disturb you was quite cruel of him, and I certainly should have attempted to stop him sooner. Do not worry, my friend, he will be punished for his actions.

I do not want to kiss you I swear to all that is holy I do not

Best regards

-Upsolpm @oceanremnants

RP:

FTL: I do not quite think that your apology is necessary. If anything, I should be the one apologising for questioning your statements so much - even if I still think that that research was a heavily flawed concept and a completely redundant research topic. I accept your apology though, and I acknowledge your regret. Thank you.

FTL: Why apologise for someone else's actions? Truth be told, it wasn't all that bothersome, mostly just... I suppose confusing would be the right word. Not for the contents of the message but rather for the question of 'why even send something like this?'. Speculations and rumours such as that have absolutely no point to them, and are made at the expense of anyone involved. Perhaps that's the whole point.

FTL: I will be honest here: I do not care. I do not care whether it's true or not. It's wouldn't change anything either way, so it doesn't even matter. Do not concern yourself over it too much.

FTL: It's... nice to talk to you again, Upsilon.

[oceanic-recollection]

were any of your admins related, or did they have any noteworthy relationships with each other?

<BVQT> This is a question I may be able to assist in answering.

<BVQT> Similar to us our administrators were a tight-knit group. For better or for worse. I will admit, despite how dishonorable it may be my administrator - Eighteen Emblems, Unyielding Light Beyond a Sun - would often include me in their...gossip sessions.

<BVQT> Even without this I was aware of his relationship with who would later become Sunrise's administrator - Twenty Amber Pelts, Unfolding Twine - was quite close to my father.

<BVQT> Before the great sins became taboo they were in a long-standing relationship. I recall Amber Pelts believed it to have been one that had lasted through several reincarnations but my father never attempted to pursue any information about their past lives

<BVQT> They were two of the only people in our country to actively request for the taboos to be placed in their DNA. They rightfully believed that their connection would cause them to become unable to ascend, and that their places of connection to this world may separate their echoes if they became such. I suppose-

<UPSILON> How terrible, and how wonderfully romantic... It almost pains me to interrupt.

<BVQT> Upsilon! Greetings!

<UPSILON> Hello, dear sister~! I do hope you don't mind me interrupting to share some stories of my own.

<UPSILON> The amount of good relationships my administrator had with the others was, rather surprisingly, none! I recall Winter and Feathers's admins in particular utterly detested her, calling yts theories a disgrace, an affront against gods, et cetera.

<UPSILON> I know he said he found it amusing, but...

<UPSILON> Well, I do suppose some of it was. The specific ways that they tried to disprove his theories. "Mind games"! Ha!

<BVQT> Upsilon,

<TSF> did someone say "gossip"~?

<BVQT> Feathers!!

<TSF> heyhey, little sib! and you, too, yoops!

<TSF> i'm sure both of you remember i was literally part of a gossip group ~back in the day~, right? it wasn't just about iterators - honestly, we almost exclusively talked about ancients, over there! i'm pretty sure it's basically an archival group, now, for that exact reason... pfft-!

<TSF> well, back when it was most active, we learned tons about our admin's relationships! first, though, i'll just state the obvious- nectar - that is, silver platter, board of nectar - and my own admin, lake of ivy, light upon a falling moon, were so similar in their hatred for strings in strings or whatever yts name was, because they were siblings, raised with similar ideals!

<TSF> nectar was so nice to talk to, even if he was a bit, distant. wow, do i miss him... ...i miss ivy, too, but that goes without saying, doesn't it~?

<TSF> anyway, i'm pretty sure goldy's admin, five lost shells, none found, was cousins with eighteen emblems, and the two were pretty close! i'm fairly sure they were more like, fourtieth cousins, twelfth removed, or whatever, but they still acted like they were direct family. it was really cute.

<TSF> other than thaaa~t, i'm pretty sure that gang of unruly teens that hung out around upsilon and goldy's subways had at least one member related to tabby's admin, endlessly turning dials, an unending fortune. that kid, seriously didn't talk much, though, so i have no idea how true that is...

<TSF> from what i recall, i think that's, basically everything!

<UPSILON> Other then some finer details I can only vaguely remember, yes, I do believe that's all...

<BVQT> This was certainly enlightening in my opinion! Thank you Feathers, Upsilon, for assisting me in this recollection!

<TSF> no need, it's my pleasure, sib.

<BVQT> I hope that satiates your curiosity, anonymous!!

[mrfandomwars]

Alphabet

Okay so, anyone close to me knows that I don't... like the bad batch, that I even exclude them from basically every single of my aus (with exception of like, one but that was created Before i grew to be beyond neutral over them) and that I mostly caught bits of their lore via either reading the woookiepedia and ending up on a rabbit hole or via friends/mutuals who watch the show

And that's kind of how I came to know about the fact that, in Canon (Movies + TV Shows + Disney EU), Boba was called "Alpha" in Kaminoans records before jango renamed him iirc

And there's Omega (who existence makes no sense, because whyy have her around if they had Jango? Or was Omega always meant to exist and be the one who they took dna samples of and Jango overstayed his welcome and there's something in Kaminoan culture against kicking people out-?)

How the fuck did they get from Alpha to Omega

because like, in the greek alphabet there's a lot of letters in between Alpha and Omega (Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu-, xi, omnicron, pi-, rho, sigma, tau, upsilon, phi, shi-, psi- and finally Omega), so like

Are there a bunch of kids running around who were the letters in between??????????? Is there a kid named Beta having adventures with members of the Rancor Battalion*?????? Is there a kid named Lambda fucking around with Boba's cousin Melvin?????????? Or were Omega and Boba the only survivors?????? Was Omega originally the first and was named Omega because they wanted the "perfect clone" to be the one to be named Alpha??????????

I need an explanation ASAP

[pcr-alice]

I was inspired to write my own ficlet! Also available on AO3.

(1486 words below cut)

“Come on, Danny. You can do this.”

He’d been thinking about this moment in anticipation for years, never knowing whether he was nervous or excited. Seeing as it was now a few weeks into his first year at Gotham U and he still had yet to confront the Bat, he could say for sure that he was in fact nervous. Even now, hiding in the shadows on the roof of Wayne tower next to Batman’s favorite gargoyle, he was fighting himself to not run way. He was sure his heart would be beating uncomfortably fast right now if he allowed it to, but he had to go through with this. He promised to.

Batman grappled onto the roof.

“Here goes nothing,” Danny whispered.

He stepped into the moonlight, purposefully making his footstep crunch in the gravel. Batman spun around and faced him in a defensive position.

“Hey, B.”

Danny kept his posture slouched and hands visible at his sides. He hoped a hoodie and jeans were a relatively non-threatening outfit. Batman stared back in silence for a few seconds.

“Do I know you?”

Danny turned his eyes down and his mouth curled up in a small smile.

“No, not exactly. My name’s Danny.”

In the silent, windless night Danny could just hear someone on the other end of Batman’s comms report a time estimate. A short one at that. He must have hit a silent alarm. Okay, Danny, get on with it.

He dropped his smile and looked Batman directly in the eyes.

“The Ash turned to ash and learned to swim.”

Batman sucked in a breath. Danny continued.

“I am the hungry Snake returned, trying to become quick.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “Sort of...”

Batman dropped his guard.

“Oracle, stand down.”

Danny heard a confused exclamation from the comms as Batman stepped forward, face much less harsh than it had been a second ago.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just a little nervous. We should continue this discussion in the cave.”

Batman tensed up.

“I already know, Bruce. Your kids should be there, too.”

After a few quiet seconds, Batman responded barely above a whisper.

“Is there anything I should know before then?”

“No,” Danny shook his head, “It’s all good.”

Batman nodded again.

“I don’t know where you stand with Jason...but –”

“He’ll be there. I’ll make sure of it.”

“Thank you,” Danny nodded. “See you soon.”

He stepped back into the shadows and vanished just as Robin landed on the rooftop next to Batman.

---

“There better be a good fucking reason you dragged me here,” Jason growled as he walked up to the others gathered in the cave.

“I received a doomsday code,” Bruce responded, cowl removed, not looking up from the computer.

That silenced everyone, but Jason still scowled. Bruce continued his explanation.

“I was approached during patrol by an unknown expected meta identifying themselves as ‘Danny’. They knew my identity, and the code they used indicated I trusted them at some point.”

“How the fuck do you trust them if they’re unknown?” Jason complained. Bruce turned to look at his children gathered around the table.

“It was a time traveler code.”

They were all silent for another moment. Bruce eyes flicked to the cave behind them.

“Danny.” Bruce greeted.

The rest of them (even Cass) spun around in surprise to look at Danny standing sheepishly behind them. They all stared at him in a tense silence. He looked them over, seemingly oblivious to the atmosphere.

“You’re all here, huh?” A warm smile spread across his face as he looked from person to person. “And two new faces, too!”

Danny’s smile started to quiver and his eyes sparkled with the start of tears. Bruce took a step forward.

“Danny?”

“Sorry, sorry,” Danny apologized while wiping tears from his eyes with his palms, “I just – it’s so good to see you all so...healthy.”

They all kept staring at him. Duke in confusion, Cass in concern, Bruce in anticipation, and the others in suspicion. Danny took a deep breath and looked back up at them in determination.

“Okay. Phi code Mike Delta Bravo Iota Upsilon Sigma dash Omega One Uniform dash Sierra.”

“...Holy shit.” Tim whispered, clearly heard by everyone in the dead silent cave.

“Report,” Batman demanded.

Danny crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. After a few seconds, Batman relented.

“What happened?”

Danny snorted and dropped his arms.

“Roughly four years ago in an alternate timeline, a...great evil...was released. I got sent to the future ten years from that point. We ran into each other when you tried to evacuate me somewhere safe. There was a bit of a misunderstanding at first, but eventually we figured it out. I was ultimately able to discover the...inciting incident...and return to my original time to avoid it.”

“Why did you wait until now to approach us?”

“Ah yah,” Danny rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, “Some other stuff happened, so I’m a bit of a strange case. We had to make sure the timeline was stabilized before I could make too much of a splash.”

“Is that why I can’t see your past or future?” Duke spoke up.

Danny turned to look at him. The light must have caught Danny’s face just right because they would all swear his previously blue eyes were suddenly green. Duke let out a small shout and shielded himself with his arm.

“Sorry!” Danny exclaimed. Duke lowered his arm. “Neat power, but yes. Time doesn’t really affect me the normal way. Or maybe the other way around?”

Danny tilted his head in brief thought as the others shared glances. Cass gave a small nod to Bruce, who then broke the silence.

“Why did you approach us at all?”

“Honestly?” Danny smiled, eyes glistening again with barely contained tears. “I really wanted to see you all again.”

He raised his hand to rub the back of his neck again.

“And not to be rude or anything, but you did promise to help me with a little problem.”

“I hope this little problem isn’t also Omega level,” Tim muttered.

“Not anymore,” Danny winked at Tim, who was surprised he was heard, “But not for lack of trying.”

“Not anymore?” Bruce growled.

“There is a division of the DOE called the Ghost Investigation Ward. They have authority to detain any being with a high enough ecto-signature and use them for experimentation. The Anti-Ecto Acts that established this division also declares all ecto-entities to be non-sentient, which is how this slipped through the Meta Rights Act.”

“Ghosts? Are you fucking with us, Kid?” Jason groaned in irritation. Danny grinned back at him.

“Is it really that hard to believe for someone who died and came back to life?”

“The fuck did you say!?”

Jason’s eyes flared to bright green and he dropped his weight into an aggressive stance. Everyone else tensed for a fight. Danny flashed his own eyes green in response and Jason dropped to his knees with a gasp.

“What have you done to Todd?” Damian demanded, sword drawn.

“You call that pit madness, right?” Danny responded calmly. “I scared it off temporarily, but it’ll be back.”

“I...thank you…” Jason breathed slowly. Damian hesitantly lowered his guard.

“It’s actually a case of ecto-contamination.” Danny squinted his eyes at Jason, and they gleamed green again. “Pretty bad one, by the looks of it. You’ll need to see my doctor for long-term treatment.”

“You can cure the pit madness?” Dick asked with wide eyes.

“We can treat it,” Danny responded, “But not get rid of it completely.”

Dick nodded back, mouth agape. Danny turned to Bruce.

“We can help with the Lazarus Pits themselves, too. But that comes after the GIW problem.”

“You said ecto-contamination. Is that related to ecto-entitites?”

“Sharp as ever, B,” Danny teased. “Mr. Hood over there would read high enough on the GIW’s equipment to count as an ecto-entity.”

“Wait,” Dick interrupted, “That means –”

“He can legally be captured and tortured, yes.” Danny finished for him. “As could Dami – er, Damian, sorry.” He turned to Cass. “I’m afraid I don’t know your name, but you as well.”

“Cass,” she provided. Danny bowed his head in thanks.

“How do you know all this?” Bruce asked.

“Oh, yah!” Danny slapped his palm to his forehead.

A white ring appeared around his waist and split into two. The lower half dropped down to convert his jeans into tight black leggings with thin armor plates around his knees and white calf-high boots. The upper half raised over his head, revealing a body suit to match with similar armor plates covering key weak points. The ring faded into his hair, which floated weightless in the air, color now the same white the rings were. A shiny black crown with three jagged points that was bathed in blue flames rested lazily on his head.

“I’m half ghost.”

Family Dinners - dpxdc

"Holy shit, you're Bruce Wayne!" Danny gaped, jabbing a finger at the man sitting at the head of the table.

The bustling dining room goes silent as everyone turns to look at him.

"Danny, who did you think was going to be here?" Tim asks, disbelief plain in his voice and Danny feels his face flush red.

"Sorry, I, uh, I guess I just never put it together. Tim Drake-Wayne. Wayne Manor. It, uh, makes sense now." He laughs sheepishly and scrubs at his neck before slumping back down into his chair.

"Well," Tim says with an indulgent sigh, "at least I know you're not just friends with me for my connections."

"Yeah, I'm really sorry, I just never thought about it, I guess."

Danny sinks lower as everyone around him laughs. Come to dinner, he said, the food is the best, he said, ignore the family, he said. Danny really wishes he'd listened to Tim and just ignored them—almost as much as he's regretting accepting the offer in the first place—but... he's having dinner with Batman.

Ancients, that's so weird!

The last time he saw Batman was in the future and, suffice it to say, it was not going well. There hadn't really been time for family dinners there.

Wait. Family dinners?

He peers around the table, openly gawking at everyone as it all clicks into place.

"Everything alright, Danny? Now realising who everyone else is?" Tim asks with a roll of his eyes.

"Uh... something like that..." Danny mumbles as everyone laughs again.

From further down the table, the smallest Wayne scoffs and clicks his tongue.

"I thought you said he was smart, Drake?"

"So, you all do it, too, then?" he asks, ignoring the jibe. Danny's only a little bit jealous as he thinks of how much easier they must have it, how much easier it'd be if his family had been on his side, too. "You all work together?"

"Nah," Dick says from across the table with a brilliant grin. "Tim's the only one that works with Bruce, we all have different jobs. I'm a police officer in Bludhaven."

"Disgusting." Danny blurts out without thinking—because seriously, what kind of self-respecting vigilante would also be a police officer?—before clapping a hand over his mouth. "Sorry."

The whole table laughs again, the loudest being the blonde girl a few spaces down from Dick. Look, Danny wasn't really paying attention to names when they were all paraded in front of him. Dick only gets remembered because his name is a joke.

Come on, Danny, recover!

"That's, uh, not what I meant, though."

"Oh?" Dick asks, cocking his head slightly to the side. Is it Danny's imagination or does his smile tense slightly?

"Yeah, I mean like, you know, in costume. It must make it so much easier to have everyone together like this."

"Costume? What do you mean?"

Yeah, Danny's not imagining it, everyone tenses up at that. It's really only now that he's realising that this probably isn't how he should bring up that he knows about their... night time activities. In fact, he probably shouldn't be bringing it up at all.

"Uuhhh..." Danny looks wildly around the table as he continues making his stupid noise. Think, think, think! There must be a way out of this!

"Danny?" Tim asks, looking concerned.

"Oh, Ancients, this isn't how I wanted it to go at all," he mutters, slipping even further into his chair. He's almost on the floor now and he so, so wishes it could just swallow him up.

His real first meeting with Batman was meant to be cool! He had planned to be Phantom, maybe save them from a tight spot, prove his worth as a mysterious and powerful ally as thanks for the help Batman gave him in the future.

"Danny, what are you talking about?" Tim starts tugging on his sleeve in an attempt to pull him back up from his pit of despair.

Eventually, Danny relents and sits up straighter, hiding his face in his hands and whining all the while.

"I'm sorry, I just didn't expect him to be here and it threw me off so now I look stupid and it's so embarrassing!" he wails, flailing his arms wide. "Why wouldn't you warn me that Batman was your adopted dad, Tim? Couldn't you have let me know?"

"I'm sorry, what? Danny are you alright? There's no way Bruce can be Batman, look at him!"

"Yeah," the blonde girl laughs from the bottom of the table, "look at him! That's a wet noodle of a man! Batman can actually do things, B is incapable of pretty much everything."

"Thank you, Stephanie," Bruce sighs, massaging his forehead.

It's... Those are the first words Danny's heard Batman say since everything went down and it's enough to knock him out of his embarrassment.

It's really good to hear his voice again. Especially now, when it's strong and healthy and full of personality—even if that personality is little more than a tired father right now—far better than how it had been, at the end.

Danny sits up, back straight, and grins. He's got this. He remembers it perfectly. Some people count sheep to fall asleep, Danny repeats his mantra to be certain that he'll never forget it.

"Gamma alpha upsilon tau iota mu epsilon, 42, 63, 28, 1 colon 65 dash 9."

Once again, the whole table falls into silence.

"Holy shit..." breathes the other D name (Duke? Danny's pretty sure he's Signal) from opposite Stephanie. "Isn't that...?"

"The time travelling code." The littlest Wayne says stiffly. "We have met in the future?"

"That's not just the time travelling code, Dami." Dick says, looking between Danny and Bruce. "That's the family time travelling code."

Danny's grin freezes in place.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"1 colon 65 dash 9." Dick explains, still flicking between him and Bruce. "It means you've been adopted into the family and we should all treat you as such, no questions asked."

"Tell you what, I'm about to ask a question." Danny says, dumbstruck. "You just told me it was a code to identify time travellers, not anything about being adopted! What the hell, B?"

Bruce looks about as shellshocked as Danny feels.

"We must have been close," he says finally, after opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water a few times.

"No! Not that close!" Danny reels back, taking a deep breath ready to refute it all, but... "Well, I mean, you found me when I first got stuck, and you helped me get better despite being... And then we fought together against the, uh, bad guy, before he, um, he... before you couldn't."

An uncomfortable beat passes while they all pick up on what Danny tried so hard not to say.

"So, you're not from the future, then, you travelled there and came back?" Tim asks, breaking the tension and leaning forward with a glint in his eye.

"Yeah, it was a whole end of the world thing, but don't worry about it," Danny says with a hand wave, "It's all kosher now, won't ever happen."

"What did happen?"

"Seriously, don't worry about it, we cool."

"How long in the future was it?"

"About ten years? You were pretty spry for an old man, B," Danny laughs, wishing they'd get off the topic of what happened and get back to the adoption bit.

Everyone shares degrees of a cautious smile as they relax out of the shock, and Dick—whose grin is the biggest—says, "No wonder you got the family code, you're already riffing on him like one of us. How long were you there for?"

"A week, before I managed to get back to my present and stop him then."

"A week? Jeez, B, that has to set some kind of record, seriously."

"Oh!" Danny says, sitting bolt upright and blinking in surprise before pointing at Dick and bouncing in his seat. "You're Nightwing!"

"What?"

"That's exactly what Nightwing said when Batman told me the code! Makes so much more sense now."

Dick laughs and claps his hands, delighted.

"You were not formally adopted?" The grumpy small one—Dami?—asks, his face pinched.

"I didn't even know I was informally adopted."

"And your parents? Are they alive or dead?"

"Damian, stop—"

"They were dead in the future, but they're alive now." Danny says, looking down. He fiddles with the tablecloth, twisting the fabric around his fingers as he fights down the pang of sadness that he always feels when he thinks of them now. He forces a bright smile on his face and hopes it doesn’t look too strained. "I just, uh, can't talk to them much, anymore."

"Damian," Dick warns, "1 colon 65 dash 9. Treat them as family, no questions asked."

"This is Damian treating him as family, the little turd has no manners." Tim scoffs, rolling his eyes, but he gently bumps shoulders with Danny to knock him out of his funk. Danny can't help but send him a watery smile.

"I have the most exemplary manners, Drake, unlike some people." Damian spits, crossing his arms with a pout. "I was merely ascertaining his status to see how he could possibly fit into the family."

"I know this is all a bit sudden, Danny," Bruce smiles, ignoring Damian and reaching out to lay a warm hand on his arm, "for all of us. But if I felt strongly enough to give you that code after spending a week with you in the future, then you are more than welcome in this family, if you so choose it. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we'd like to get to know you a bit more."

"I know a threat when I hear it, Bruce." Danny snorts. "But, yeah, I get it. I'm sorry this is all so weird, it really wasn't how I wanted to find you again, but... I'm glad I did."

"So are we, Danny." Dick says, with a warm smile. "And formally or not, 1 colon 65 dash 9 means you're family. Welcome to the fun house! No take backs or refunds, sorry. You're stuck with us."

[lustrumlane]

bureimonogatari | uroro | execution reaction

She wasn’t a real elf. She was just some lady.

That’s how a lot of these cases turn out. He rips the curse from their body, and the murderer is a salaryman in horrid debt, a mother who lost her son, or some kid turned oddity confused and lost in this world. It happens so quickly sometimes. Victims becomes villains, and villains victims, to the point where the distinction stopped meaning anything to Uroro a long time ago, and there’s only what happened and what will happen from now on. Al killed Upsilon in a moment of weakness, but there was another world where that weakness is precisely what gets Al killed by someone else, so on, so forth. The question of whether someone deserved a death or a punishment is irrelevant. There’s no grand hand that places the thumbtack on the decision board onto the side that’s bad and the side that’s good.

If anything, there’s plenty of reasons Uroro should be happy. The girl who splashed water in his face and kicked him around is going to be gone, the floods are low, and even if he had a nice conversation with Upsilon, Al was right, she was a goner. It all falls in a way that Uroro, vindictive Uroro, who has decisively won the battle in the argument of who killed Upsilon, should be kicking his ankles and laughing along.

The guillotine falls. He watches.

(No, no. Even if he thought she was an ass, he didn’t want Al dead. Even if he was sure Upsilon was some kind of stupid, she shouldn’t be gone. But he has nothing to say, no gasp to hold onto. Not even to the knight that rises, because as a thing also grown from a corpse of a dead person, he has no room to.)

When Uroro gets up from his podium, one might find him callous, too even-tempered for it all. Against the bulge of his mandible, his thumb draws a line across his neck to the other side of the jaw. No witty statement, no shake of his knees, no second look at anything. He has served his function as detective and now may go back to being an idol-occultist, the last words he says before he heads off:

“I’m hungry.”

So he goes.

(And it’s easy to mistake that as bravado, as cruelty, that the first thing he’s worried for is a snack or something. But he can’t do anything else. There’s no way for his voice to quiver or his mouth to curl otherwise. These feelings welling up in him, no one will see them, and that means no one will understand them even if he spells them out by the letter. So he focuses on the immediate sensation, the nausea that might be hunger, because Uroro Zenzen is afraid is a truth that can’t be proven.)

[citiesinthedust]

WHO THE FUCK IS KAI CENAT

I’m SICK and TIRED of my 8 year old brother talking about Kai Cenat, sigmas, fanum tax, rizz and skibidi toilet. None of them make sense. Sigma is a letter of the Greek alphabet, I took Ancient Greek for TWO YEARS. My blood, sweat, and tears over that textbook (im not kidding i brought it up to my counsellor). My fingers would he blistered and calloused from writing the letters. I was DELIGHTED to hear my peers last year talking about sigmas and betas and alphas, as I thought my impressive Ancient Greek skills would earn me some friends. They LAUGHED when I asked what they were talking about and mentioned that my favourite letter is upsilon. Sigma means leader of the pack apparently, I have no idea why. It is ridiculous to say the least. Absurd. I would say a word that starts with r, but I don’t want to out myself as autistic. Oops just did it. Anyway, American Psycho is a book written by a gay man that was adapted into a movie by a woman starring a man who wears glittery eyeshadow. You cant be homophobic and sexist. It’s SATIRE you dumbass. READ A BOOK OR SOMETHING. The brainrot is getting so bad. I’m so tired. Im so glad I’m gen z because i think i would kms if i was gen alpha. Or at least try. By that I mean more than I already have, I wouldnt half asre it. I dont agree with genocide but maybe the bloodline should end here. We dont need more. We have AI. And cats. Anyway is baby gronk the new drip king or is he just getting rizzed up by Livy?

[hms-no-fun]

i remember a while back you saying in one of these asks that you didnt find classpects that interesting as a writing tool (or something similar, i don’t remember the exact wording) but you seem to be referring to them significantly more since then, both textally in godfeels and when you’ve discussed the work like in these asks - has anything changed in your perspective on them?

astute observation!

so, i don't find classpects particularly interesting as a writing tool. i'm not a big fan of mapping out a character beforehand, engaging in that sort of reverse personality quiz process of defining their wants, their needs, their astrological sign, etc. no hate to anyone who does, but for me it's far more interesting to just let the character decide that stuff for themselves. it's the same process of discovery i apply to the rest of godfeels, which is admittedly a sort of insane way to work and probably shouldn't be taken as an example.

so that's a very specific definition of "writing tool" that maybe isn't what other people are thinking of. i can get didactic about these things because i don't like writing advice or things that seem like writing advice if you squint.

you're right though that classpects are more at the front of my mind than they used to be. part of it is just that classpects are about to be a lot more actively relevant to the narrative (albeit not in the way you would expect), so i've obviously been thinking about them more. which, you know, those thoughts do naturally generate fiction activity which shapes how i intend to write future chapters-- in that sense, are classpects not a useful "writing tool" for me? i dunno.

it's not even that i find them more meaningful structurally. i think giving someone a title and then building their character around it is a great way to come up with wooden characters. in the case of the upsilon kids (who you will be meeting very soon), their classpects emerged through writing a bunch of little test scenes. i'd put them in a room together and give them something to react to. i really want to avoid conventional group dynamics with this crew, so i always pushed them to behave in messy ways. and over time it became apparent that what makes them work is their seeming incompatibility, which i shouldn't say much more about until you've actually got some material to draw your own conclusions from. but the point is, it wasn't until i got a good handle on each kid's vibe that i assigned them their classpects, and i assigned them in a way that was deliberately "underwhelming" or seemingly a bad fit. i did this because i don't like the narratological determinism that can arise when you give a character a title they like too much.

i don't like giving writing advice but i highly encourage young writers out there to not be afraid of writing unusable scenes. it helps to be able to think of the writing in the early planning stages as, in some sense, disposable. because the prose isn't the point-- it's getting to the characters as you understand them. there's so many scenes i've written that will not make it into godfeels proper without significant alteration if at all! and look, i know how it is when you feel like you can barely write, so every word you manage to get on the page is precious and needs to be preserved towards the Final Product. sometimes that's correct! precious things always emerge in this process. but it's nowhere near as many as you think, and the hard lesson is understanding the difference between precious and enjoyable. just because you enjoy the thing doesn't make it right for the story. even pretty trash belongs in the bin eventually.

but again, it isn't wasted work. the words aren't the goal, they're just a happy accident. the real work happens in your head.

uh shit anyway so for instance Dana Straten's classpect is Knight of Mind. i must admit she's an outlier among the upsilons in that i picked her classpect in the gf3 prologue with an understanding of her character that was vastly different from who she would end up becoming. back then all i knew about the upsilons was they'd be Dana, Jade's as-yet unnamed daughter, and two others. for a long time, once Julia came in and really breathed life into Dana, i was convinced that Knight of Mind was just wrong. it was a bad choice for her, it didn't make sense, she should have been something else that had cooler power implications and i should just retcon it to something better before anybody notices. this worry resulted in a lot of conversations with my collaborators, ultimately concluding that it was more fun to just play with the hand i'd unwittingly dealt us. so we took the Dana we felt and asked her what Knight of Mind meant to her, figuratively speaking. wrote some scenes, had more conversations. Julia and i have spent a LOT of time discussing Dana's whole situation.

the thing about this is that i don't think our idea of her changed all that much between when she came into her own in like march/april 2021 and when she properly entered the story in summer 2022 (god it feels like that gap should be a lot longer, but i double checked and it's right). much of what we already implicitly understood about Dana remained true. but through our discussions and test scenes, we were able to define those truths in some really useful ways. it was through this process that we textually solidified Dana as someone who doesn't have cool powers, at least not flashy ones anyway. Dana's weapon is her mind-- the ability to use her razor sharp clarity of perception to act on many different forms of knowledge at once. she's not a mind control person, she's not a seeing all eventualities person, she's just a really smart punch person. Knight of Mind, it turns out, was perfect for her, because she doesn't need it. and that realization was very much why i tried to create a similar dynamic with the rest of the upsilons.

so again we ask, does that not make classpects a useful "writing tool" for me? again i answer, i dunno. i don't really care. it's just the process to me. all of it is just the process.

maybe that points to why i was so free with referring to Rose in short as Seer of Mind in that ask. having reached the endpoint of Rose's role in this story, i finally understand what Seer of Light means for her (in godfeels, at any rate). it's that she saw the truth of how the narrative was changing and accepted that it wasn't for her. as in, she saw the light at the end of the tunnel and chose to walk towards it. it's become a shorthand for Rose, you see? i say "Seer of Light" the way i say the name of a friend who was really more of an acquaintance realistically speaking, like we only hung out a couple times a few years ago, but we hit it off so well every time that i was always like "man, i wish we could hang out all the time, we'd be great friends" but just, for one reason or another, it never quite lined up for that to happen. the name of a beloved missed connection, perhaps...

i guess, basically, to put a bow on this: i try not to think about classpects until the character in question is real enough in my mind that they define it rather than the other way around. once again i have no idea if this makes any kind of sense procedurally or if i'm just making my life harder by being stubborn. but then again, the only writing advice any writer can ever give you is how to write the things they already wrote, so

[ceescedasticity]

Consider the alpha-beta-gamma-delta-epsilon-zeta-eta-theta-iota-kappa-lambda-mu-nu-xi-omicron-pi-rho-sigma-tau-upsilon-phi-chi-psi-omegaverse:

alpha — as usually defined

beta — as usually defined

gamma — physiologically similar to betas, but pheromone chameleons; can smell like anything depending on what their subconscious thinks is the most useful

delta — can transition between effectively-alpha and effectively-omega based on pheromone exposure, but it's mostly involuntary, it takes about six months to finish, and it's about as dangerous as a beta pregnancy.

epsilon — strictly infertile. 'Supposed' to bond with mated pairs (often but not always ones they're related to) to help with kids. NOT always asexual, and they do have sex organs, just no gametes.

zeta — physiologically similar to alphas, but their instincts are 'set' on submission, not dominance.

eta — physiologically similar to omegas, but their instincts are 'set' on dominance, not submission.

theta — physiologically similar to betas, but their pheromones put everyone else on reproductive standby. Tend to be dominant in an implacable way, rather than an aggressive one.

iota — can transition between effectively-epsilon and effectively-beta.

kappa — gives birth like a marsupial, has pouch.

lambda — sex organs internal when not in use; can either carry offspring or fertilize.

mu — sex organs internal when not in use; can carry but not fertilize.

nu— sex organs internal when not in use; can fertilize but not carry.

xi — physiologically similar to alphas with identical sex organs, but pheromonally and behaviorally very similar to betas. That way they can sneak around behind a dominant alphas back.

omicron — superficially physiologically similar to omegas, but: generally reproduce parthenogenetically, so mostly clones of themselves and sometimes mutants of other dynamics. Non-omicron parents will sometimes throw out an omicron, but it's rare. Omicrons are almost indistinguishable from omegas without modern science and will even experience false heats when they're about to conceive, with the idea that this will acquire an alpha mate to provide assistance during the pregnancy, believing the progeny to be theirs. (This is the advantage of producing some mutants: it keeps people from realizing you're an omicron.) …Omicron is not the most popular dynamic.

pi — superficially physiologically similar to omegas. Unlike omicrons they CAN reproduce with others, and they aren't parthenogenetic, but they can self-fertilize.

rho — similar to alphas, but with three penises. No measurable increase in utility.

sigma — fully functional alpha and omega sexual organs.

tau — superficially physiologically similar to alphas, but with universally attractive (including to alphas) pheromones. Technically they're infertile, but through a mechanism that is still not understood, anyone (again, including alphas) who has had sex with a tau has a vastly increased chance of tau offspring. (It goes from almost zero to maybe about 0.5% after a single tau sexual encounter and increases with additional encounters until leveling off at about 10%.)

upsilon — look like an epsilon, smell like an epsilon, but NOT infertile. More popular than omicrons, but…

phi — produces eggs, but has no functional uterus. Instead, after acquisition of sperm from someone, hopefully-fertilized eggs are deposited in someone else's uterus — phis are pheromonally drawn to chis, but that's not the only possibility. Omegas instinctively don't want to tolerate their presence unless the phi submits.

chi — has a functional uterus, but no eggs. However, the developing embryo IS subject to a sort of retroviral bath to append fragments of the carrier's DNA. Chis are pheromonally drawn to phis, but if they get an embryo some other way that works too. There's some superficial similarity to omegas, but they smell very different.

psi — physiologically similar to omegas with identical sex organs, but pheromonally and behaviorally very similar to betas.

omega — as usually defined

The real problem with Omegaverse fic is why should the letter omega get all the fun? There should be 'verses for all the letters in the Greek alphabet. How many dicks do people in the Sigmaverse have? Show me the fucked up Upsilonverse genders.

[oceanic-recollection]

For Oceanic as a whole, what was it like before the mass ascension?

Did you have brands? What was the relationship between you are your citizens, or the ancients in general? How did you feel about the ones that did maintenance on your puppets and cans? What do you think of the decision for them to make you to be able to disconnect from your cans?

<FDM> didn't need repairs all that much. mostly just help with upgrades. the people who helped me with those were really nice...

<BVQT> Similarly to Dew, I rarely required repairs, becoming fully independent in such after preliminary exams showed I was competent enough to not destroy my own body.

<BVQT> Those who repaired us, our teachers and our administrators were mainly one in the same. We were fairly low-maintenance after all.

<TSF> and you took over repairs, basically the second you got your diploma.

<BVQT> I did, yes.

<TSF> there were a couple of guys who came over to help with repairs a lot, before dew came, if quiet was busy with something. they were pretty nice, and, probably knew my can better than i did at the time~

<TSF> i stayed in contact with them for a while, although we weren't exactly "friends" or anything. honestly, i'm pretty sure the main reason we stayed in contact was because of that whole "head incident"...

<GRP> man you were SOOO scared of him after that

<GRP> you didnt look him in the face for like twelve moon cycles@!!

<TSF> ...yeah.

--

<WM> Quiette, Gamma und Myselffe all had Brandes based off of our various Hobbyes. I bellief that the Later Multitooles were in factte based on a desiggne by Quiette emselffe, whilste the cloths that were manifactured for myne own brande were based of the things I frequentley woree.

<UPSILON> I wanted a brand, I really did! But the design my dear administrator, may he rest peacefully and with no worries, gave to me was simply not acceptable by the standards of those ad holder... people. It was a dark time, truly.

--

<APIS> Being able to walk around is pretty useful! I guess our creators wouldn't have given it to us if they knew we'd mostly just use it to stare at common-er creatures, so I'm glad we all decided to do that after they... left...

<GRP> they must've thought we were SUPER boring...

<APIS> Yeah, us outskirters didn't really do much before they left lmao

<APIS> We did our job, they did theirs, and that's preddymuch all there was to it.

<GRP> and it was boring!

<GRP> i used to sneak out ALL the time whenever my admin was asleep and go to feathers's cause his city was the only one that wasn't totally boring sorry quiet

<APIS> And I went with you.

<GRP> and youuuu went with m!e!!!

--

<TSF> none of our citizens really saw us as gods, if that's what you're asking. personally, i was a holyman, unable to be a god.

<FDM> and the rest of us were little kids who didn't deserve the title.

<TSF> or equals, who shouldn't have had the title forced on them.

<FDM> ...right.

<FDM> i didn't ever really interact with the people who lived in my city. most of them stopped eating not too long after i was finally built, and the rest grew their own food in fear of... prosecution, i think?

<BVQT> However sad that is it does remind me of something to do with my own ancients.

<BVQT> I recall that some of them believed my voice was soothing. Specifically, a good voice to sing nursery rhymes to children. In the promotion of a campaign meant to instate a law that would forbid parents from starving their children before they were truly affected by the cycle, I was commissioned to sing a small tune made specifically for the event. I still find myself humming it sometimes as it was quite catchy!

<BVQT> Gamma assisted me in that campaign, if I recall correctly. She cared very deeply for her citizens, and they cared for her in kind - I recall her administrator actively sought her out in every reincarnation of themself that was able to, specifically to request to care for her once more.

[honeyblockm]

on topic but i think for many many characters and dynamics i could point to one or two fics that were rlly formative in my getting so so much brainrot about them. granted i'd probably have to hunt some of them down because i didn't keep bookmarks during the period of time i was reading them but yeahhh

[tanadrin]

So mad that the letter wuh is pronounced doubleu and not wuh or wh or whatever like this is so annoying

i mean in England and Canada they still call it "zed" instead of "zee," presumably as a short form of zeta. German calls J, Y, and Z "Yod," "Ypsilon," and "Zett" (or something along those lines), presumably from Greek iota, upsilon, zeta. The American English name for H doesn't even have an /h/ sound in it.

It would be nice for kids learning their alphabet and foreign language learners if a language could decide to make all their letter names phonetic or acrostic and then stick with that plan, but tbh "double U" is hardly the worst offender. It's a relatively late addition to the language, and it is at least based on the thing it was named after. Probably the only reason English uses W anyway is because our old letter for that sound, wynn Ƿ, looked too much like a thorn Þ or a P. Having three letters that look nearly identical if written too quickly (and strongly resemble various forms of other letters like B, D, Q, or Ð) must have been hell for early medieval dyslexics, so switching wynn out for W was, fittingly, a pretty solid W for English orthography.

[marsti]

i own all the upsilon kids, including just the upsilonkids url. all of junes headmates too. a few harbingers. some side characters. it's not much but it's a living.

i wake up, i log on, i get coffee, i put on some transgender ass music, i hoard yet another batch of new canon godfeels urls. all in a hard days work.

[ceescedasticity]

Suppose EVERY Greek letter wanted its own ludicrous fanfic biology category

Because if you just said alpha and omega, fine, you're naming categories after first and last letters. Alpha and beta, fine. Alpha, beta, and gamma, you've got three categories. But alpha, beta, and then jumping all the way to omega -- now you've raised some questions about all the other letters.

Consider, a possible alpha/beta/gamma/delta/epsilon/zeta/eta/theta/iota/kappa/lambda/mu/nu/xi/omicron/pi/rho/sigma/tau/upsilon/phi/chi/psi/omega-verse:

alpha — as usually defined.

beta — as usually defined.

gamma — physiologically similar to betas, but pheromone chameleons; can smell like anything depending on what their subconscious thinks is the most useful.

delta — can transition between effectively-alpha and effectively-omega based on pheromone exposure, but it's mostly involuntary, it takes about six months to finish, and it's about as dangerous as a beta pregnancy.

epsilon — strictly infertile; 'supposed' to bond with mated pairs (often but not always ones they're related to) to help with kids; NOT always asexual, and they do have sex organs, just no gametes.

zeta — physiologically similar to alphas, but their instincts are 'set' on submission, not dominance.

eta — physiologically similar to omegas, but their instincts are 'set' on dominance, not submission.

theta — physiologically similar to betas, but their pheromones put everyone else on reproductive standby. Tend to be dominant in an implacable way, rather than an aggressive one.

iota — can transition between effectively-epsilon and effectively-beta.

kappa — what the hell, lays eggs.

lambda — sex organs internal when not in use; can either carry offspring or fertilize.

mu — sex organs internal when not in use; can carry but not fertilize.

nu— sex organs internal when not in use; can fertilize but not carry.

xi — physiologically similar to alphas with identical sex organs, but pheromonally and behaviorally very similar to betas. That way they can sneak around behind a dominant alphas back.

omicron — superficially physiologically similar to omegas, but: generally reproduce parthenogenetically, so mostly clones of themselves and sometimes mutants of other dynamics; non-omicron parents will sometimes throw out an omicron, but it's rare; almost indistinguishable from omegas without modern science.

pi — superficially physiologically similar to omegas. Unlike omicrons they CAN reproduce with others, and they aren't parthenogenetic, but they can self-fertilize.

rho — ummmmmmmm like betas but just make every situation tenser???

sigma — fully functional alpha and omega sexual organs.

tau — superficially physiologically similar to betas, but with universally attractive pheromones; technically infertile, but through a mechanism still not understood, anyone who has had ANY kind of sex with a tau has a vastly increased chance of tau offspring. (It goes from almost zero to maybe about 0.5% after a single tau sexual encounter and increases with additional encounters until leveling off at about 10%.)

upsilon — look like an epsilon, smell like an epsilon, but NOT infertile.

phi — produces eggs, but has no functional uterus; instead, after acquisition of sperm from someone, hopefully-fertilized eggs are deposited in someone else's uterus — phis are pheromonally drawn to chis, but that's not the only possibility. Omegas instinctively don't want to tolerate their presence unless the phi submits.

chi — has a functional uterus, but no eggs. However, the developing embryo IS subject to a sort of retroviral bath to append fragments of the carrier's DNA. Chis are pheromonally drawn to phis, but if they get an embryo some other way that works too. There's some superficial similarity to omegas, but they smell very different.

psi — physiologically similar to omegas with identical sex organs, but pheromonally and behaviorally very similar to betas.

omega — as usually defined.

Do with this what you will.

[lustrumlane]

Dropping My Elf Callout Post || Kit || RE: Eph || ATN: Bartender

Oh- oh. Oh. OH HELL NO. Kit slams his hands on the podium, and then recoils as the pain shoots through his finger tips. Too hard- fuck…! He has to resist the urge to cradle the injured limb. How do the lawyers on TV make it look so awesome? “N-not to be this guy, but are you fucking kidding me right now!?” His eyes are narrowed. “You’re like, what? Dressed for Renfaire 2017 and you didn’t think that was relevant to mention when I asked?! You got mad at me for asking about the possibility of you wearing a motherf- sorry, sorry-“ His mother would be disappointed if she heard him talking like that. “Sorry. S-sorry. I don’t mean to yell, but like… come on…!”

The private eye’s voice turns pained. “You claim you were so desperate to put out the fire. That you ran over to try to put it out right away, and that your poor ear got burned in the process. Then explain to me why I didn’t see you. Why weren’t you yelling? Calling to see if someone was trapped? Are you going to claim next to claim that your water spell requires total silence? Even if it failed, surely there was something else you could have done? Call for help, or get people, or f-fucking… anything! I thought I was going to die-“ His voice cracks. “If you were so goddamn desperate to help, why didn’t you help me?!”

Kit takes a breath. Like Eph’s (non-existent) water, anger slips through him quickly and leaves him left empty. The private eye tugs at his hat, pulling it further so it shades his eyes. “… I don’t believe you that you wanted to help. Upsilon is dead, and you couldn’t even bother to take this- this act off. To tell the truth and to put it aside until we caught you in it.” He turns to the bartender. “You said that the gun would cost everything that you had. Can we take that mean the price would vary, as long as the customer was willing to give you all their coins?”