#theoretically mirage would also work

[thankchaosforspellcheck]

That one post (here) where noir's like "I'm 19" and spiderpig's like "I'm 47!"

Yeah that's the 2003 turtles (look & sound like full grown adults, probably still teens by the end of the series) vs the 87 ones (DEFINITELY stuck in a time loop & semi aware of it).

[iantimony]

2023 year in review roundup

wow!! what a fucking year!!! goodbye and good riddance! happy first day of 2024!

this year i did 37 tuesdayposts! there were 53 tuesdays so that's about 70%! some of them were on fri/sat instead as shabbosposts but i think posting on tuesday or even monday does just work better for some fucking reason. maybe because friday and saturday are days that i am most likely to do New Activities for making/playing/watching/reading??? and so on monday or tuesday i can recap the just-finished weekend. shrug! we love tuesday so it's fine.

listening listened to all of twilight mirage and a little over half of partizan! shrieking shack podcast, just king things, well there's your problem, miscellaneous music (maneskin probably a notable winner in there)

reading a lot of little articles. a little tgcf. SO much fanfic. 'every heart a doorway' (bad). 'birthday of the world' le guin (good).

playing a little disco elysium. a little minecraft. a little nier automata. a little hadesgame. a LOT of pokemon go. and i got into magic the gathering this year!

watching a lot of youtube videos. so many gd youtube videos. evangelion, history of the world part ii, cunk on earth, vox machina animated series, cowboy bebop, first season of peaky blinders, the new tgcf donghua season!

making i did very little drawing/painting/illustration beyond life drawing a few times...however i was very prolific in crafting! i also theoretically made valentines gifts. i do not remember what they were tho lol.

fiber arts: i completed a big embroidery project (fermenting dregs album art hoodie), quantum shawl, mesh market bag, case for my knew laptop, finished that blue tank top even though i hate it, fixed the lining on my yellow knitted cowl, made a little knitted headphone top cover that i will probably redo differently, headband ear warmer for my roommate's mom, and FINALLY i just barely finished the scarf for my SO before the end of 2023!

print block carving: wristwatch print, gavelbocken holiday card print

misc/writing: some songxuexiao fencing au. some harrowhark abhorsen au. neocities website!

and so much pottery! this is all of it, barring the things i already gave away as presents before this photo (two pots and a little box and the little raven guy), but wow! that's so many fuckin object!

misc what a fucking year. some bad! had to file a big car insurance claim! got really sick while abroad and that persisted for a long fucking time! mini summer breakdown! some good stuff too - passed quantum mechanics FOREVER good fucking bye, did my first successful academic conference, finally started feeling better around the end of the year! learned my lesson: it's not fuckin worth stressing yourself to death over, and also i can't just Be At Home Aimlessly for months any more. it's bad for my mental health.

reviewing 2023 resolutions and goals --> I’d love to start writing again and play more horn but we’ll see i basically didn't do any creative writing at all this year barring a few lines of fanfic ideas (the abhorsen/tlt crossover one) HOWEVER i READ a lot of fanfic to marinate in and i played a LOT more french horn!! i joined the little youth orchestra which is like, uber goofy, but it means ive been playing on a regular basis again!

--> I also wanna listen to more weird music, and invest in actually owning some files, especially for some of the lesser-known bands and through bandcamp and stuff i spent all year meaning to do this and kept pushing it off so it rolls over into next year.

--> I really want to kind of dial those [unhealthy coping mechanisms] back again, focus more on existing in Reality and more in each moment, which hopefully will also help with some of the skin picking and other anxious habits that resurfaced. maybe more yoga, maybe re-establishing a meditation process lol lmao. nah. but definitely rolling it over into 2024.

--> I would love to think more about my fashion and how I present myself too, and work on making and tailoring more of my clothing in general actually not bad! basically zero tailoring but i did a pretty good job wearing some cute outfits.

--> I’ve been pretty good about being active so I’d like to keep that up, I still can’t do a pull-up but maybe this is the year! (lol) I should also start doing some minor exercises for my shitty arthritis toes to keep those okay once again: lol lmao. health issues had me really regress in some of my gains goals. plus side is toes are doin pretty normal.

--> a lot of last year was kind of a wash regarding research so I’m really looking forward to refocusing on that and really getting things moving. oh it moved! in a good way! i'm making good progress and hopefully i will keep that momentum going!

--> finally! I want to get back to tabletop! I miss doing it so much! it fell by the wayside for me because of how busy and overwhelmed I was, especially this past fall semester, but I want to start running and playing games with my pals again a little! i should have been putting these in playing as i went oops. the tabletop group i've run was a little fallow this year due to at least half of our group, including myself, not being in Tabletop Mood but we've played a lot of res arcana and other such games instead.

i had a few other resolutions in my digital planner on my ipad that didn't go in the writeup last year: namely, practice languages more (i did practice my mandarin a little but did not really learn any hebrew or korean unfortunately) and establish a non-software component of my research (nope, not in the cards, but i'm hoping to do something else this summer to let me get better with physical data/setups), and finishing the masters degree requirements (that will be the end of this upcoming spring semester), but overall i really did hit most of my resolutions and goals! even with being ill for a while! (except the finances. i am simply not looking at them <3)

2024 resolutions and goals

definitely some rollover! i will format this to hopefully be a little easier to respond to next year:

- get back on a regular workout schedule: swimming 1x a week, weights once or twice a week. would like to try and work towards my One Pullup goal again. would also be cool to try and work towards a hand/headstand. - try and be more mindful. i'm going to continue the grief therapy but also think about meditating more, doing more yoga, and so on. - there's a gallery on main street that solicits work from local artists for bimonthy themed exhibitions and i really want to submit at least one thing to it this year! the one due by end of january is themed 'florals', and the one two months after that is 'layers', so i'd really like to submit something to one of those. - more weird art! use that big canvas i bought in literally 2022! paint!!! - finally put together that travel journal from korea & japan (and also scrapbook-ify the papers i have leftover in a pile from that) - also, maybe do current scrapbook a little different? might need a new binder at the very least. - hang up that expensive quilt i bought in august - speaking of quilt: do some hand quilting, english paper piercing! i have so much fucking fabric! - find a new apartment to move into that hopefully won't suck! - try to secure some sort of summer internship or project that will let me develop some new skillsets that i might not be getting with my current research - finish the masters degree - write...a paper? for the work i just presented??? - keep tweaking neocities and make some more pages - keep track of recipes this year as well in my making section

i might start a little spreadsheet this year to keep better track of all my stuff because i really did Not want to go through all my separate listening and reading sections and extract what i liked the most, etc. this post required me to first back up a few extra early tuesdayposts from this year to dreamwidth, and then skim all of them to accumulate the above, and that was kinda a pain. and i love an excuse to start a new spreadsheet.

we did it! happy 2024! i don't think i have anything else to add to this wrapup but if i think of something i'll tack it into the upcoming Normal Tuesdaypost tomorrow! good job good night and good luck everyone!

[microraptorreactor]

Time for random SftBT lore tidbits

Because there's so many little lore notes that didn't get included. Below cut because long!

Kaine and Kai (from chapter 15) are good friends! They worked together during V1 and proto-V2's production.

The external feathers mentioned in V1's segment in chapter 21 are a whole deal. That don't get mentioned because the only V unit who has the temperament to keep them nice and is old enough to even get them is Mirage. They grow in once a Viscera unit looses the brown markings on their internal feathers. V2 would theoretically get some around the time it enters hell, but those would get damaged or pulled off fairly quickly thanks to, you know, hell (Which is also why V1 doesn't have any during the actual game). The other problem with the external feathers is that, like real birds, Viscera units will try pulling them out if board/stressed. V1 was the worst about this since it got board easily. Feather pulling probably would have also been a problem for V2 if it had lived long enough.

Caladrius still has pilot bots! Post-war they are really more of a tourist draw, and there's only four, but BA-31 (the group) is still totally a thing. Mostly they are either used for airshows or to stand around historical societies.

On the theme of BA-31, British Pilots are one of the most common repurposed bots! But only if you're in Britain. The BA series is pretty well-liked and was a common robot to be assigned to. Which is exactly why assistant bots were based off them, lol.

Julyen Ryker and Baeri/Sleet both have British accents. Nayea has a Russian accent. Saavi and Elber are both Finnish, and Kaine and Kai are American. (Kaine has a Chicago accent, specifically. Kai has a generic Southern accent.)

Not every Earthmover agreed to Hell's request. Solar-powered Earthmovers were excluded from it, and some more strong willed blood fueled Earthmovers also refused. New Requiem and Midnight Point are not some of those Earthmovers though. Neo Eclipse was, though.

Nayea has a whole-ass backstory that was never mentioned. Mostly because halfway through writing I realized that giving any more screentime to one of the characters with an incredibly horrific (although offscreen) death was maybe a little cruel. Long story short, she was not born on New Requiem, but was brought there as a freshly-orphaned small child.

Back to Nayea's death, she's super dead lol. All the Earthmover handlers are various flavors of starved if they got trapped inside the earthmover, or mauled if they managed to get out of it. Nayea was mauled a couple days into the revolution after she wiggled out an air vent and tried to get help.

Just realized I should write out Mirage's full deal here instead of referencing the lore from the AO3 comments. Mirage IS a real person in this au, and she is Proto-V2, specifically. After Proto-V2 was killed by V1, a wad of its processors were set aside for further study. That wad of processors contained her Kernel, some (incomplete) memory banks, and a simulation processor. In Kernel mode, Mirage slowly built her own reality based off what she had been told the outside world was like (mostly through TV shows the engineers showed her). That's how S-2 exists in this world, lol.

Koda has albinism. It's not really mentioned because V2 doesn't care about appearances, but she looks mildly demonic with red eyes, pronounced eye bags, and white hair. The irony lmao.

[berryblooo]

The Sumeru Akademiya, Astrology, and Mona's mysterious origins

(Originally posted on my Twitter on August 27 and 28, 2022.)

Sumeru is exciting for a multitude of reasons, but a major point for me is learning more about astrology from astrologist characters other than our beloved Mona Megistus!

One of the six Darshans of the Akademiya is Rtawahist, a department dedicated to Illuminationism, the study of the stars that includes astronomy and astrology.

The ex-Grand Sage of the Akademiya was the sage of Rtawahist, Azar. This means that an astrologist was leading the school. You would think this means astrology is a well-respected subject in not just the Akademiya, but Sumeru as a whole. However, it seems that isn't the case.

The elderly researcher (who refers to himself as an astrologist) implies that they are not being funded well, but that may be a recent thing. There's lots of talk of a secret project (that we now know was the Fatui working with the sages to make a god out of Scaramouche) diverting much attention and money away from other research projects.

Notably, Qushji mentions Hydromancy, the art of divining fate from the stars' reflection in water, which was developed by none other than Mona's master herself! In the 3.x Archon Quests thus far there's been no mention of Mona's master or Mona.

To my current in game knowledge, it's unclear how much, if at all, Mona and her master are affiliated with the Akademiya and astrologists in Rtawahist.

The newly released character, Layla, an Akademiya student from the Rtawahist Darshan and specializing in theoretical astrology, has this to say about Mona:

Mona Megistus, the Astrologist... Her astrology column in The Steambird is well-known among Rtawahist scholars. Her articles always cover super specialized topics, but can still be appreciated by non-academics. That's no easy feat... Huh? Her name seems to just roll off my tongue? Uh, that's just because... I have a lot of respect for... amazing people.

This seems to imply that Mona (and by extension her master) are independent of Rtawahist and the Akademiya.

Another researcher, Ashk, has a very interesting conversation with the Traveler. He implies that due to human ignorance and therefore error, the truth divined from the stars may be incorrect or misleading. When he asks the Traveler what they think, you receive a reward for choosing the second dialogue option, "Things might not be as they seem..."

What stuck out to me is the talk of ignorance in the nation of wisdom. Mona's cinematic from her mirage in Summer Fantasia described the crystal bird as, "born in wisdom, but trapped in ignorance".

Given that this event directly preceded Sumeru, I don't believe the choice in words is a coincidence.

The same researcher goes on to speak about research into constellation. It seems that in order to study those, one must have a Vision. It's still a bit unclear whether only Allogenes have constellations, or everyone does regardless.

Mona's line about constellations implies the former. This exchange is important because it plants the idea that destiny - the past in this instance - can be altered if someone is the one deciding it in the first place.

This is a reoccurring theme in the game - rewriting fate, challenging destiny. I'm very curious to see if Mona will make an appearance in the Sumeru storyline at some point, and if we'll finally learn more about her master and Hexenzirkel in turn. The set-up is there!

At the beginning of the Sumeru Archon Quest, Haypasia gives us our first introduction to the Rtawahist Darshan. She describes its goals as studing astrology, astronomy and the stars’ link to destiny, who then also try to connect with Irminsul to deepen their knowledge.

That sounds a lot like Hexenzirkel.

I've speculated about Mona's master and/or Hexenzirkel possibly being affiliated with the Akademiya. If her master were to have that connection, I wonder why Mona doesn't? We know next to nothing about Mona's origins or past.

We don't even know why she's studying astrology, how she met her master, and how Mona came to study under her. Mona is steeped in mystery, and that's how she's meant to be. Her character introduction on the Genshin Impact website describes her as "a mysterious astrologist".

Many people assume Mona is from Fontaine because she writes the column "All Things Astrological" for its famed newspaper, The Steambird, but we have no indication of where she came from. Is it Sumeru? Is that where she met her master and studied astrology?

Time will tell!

[randomidiocyncrazies]

N P T Y!

thanks for the ask! i kinda went ham on the AU question lol

N - Name three things you wish you saw more of in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

oof this is hard! the thing is. i'm an extremely fickle mistress, so i don't really have a 'main' fandom? also i think most of what i want from fandom is extremely generic (more gen fic, more femslash, more AUs with interesting worldbuilding, more rarepairs etc etc) and most of my specific comments are aimed more at the source material than at the fandom

(that said, if anyone writes political intrigue and/or the mundane stuff of nation building about the Kree/Skrull Alliance please please please link! there's so much story potential there..............)

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).

okay so i LOVE most AUs, but my favorite are well-done roleswaps (by which i mean the characters' core personalities are intact, it's just that their circumstances have changed). I mean... i still lowkey think about the Persona 4 adult investigation team AU a friend and I talked about almost 10 years ago lol

(oh! speaking of the Persona franchise, i've always kind of wondered what would happen if P4 protag moved to Sumaru City after P4 and gets Jun Kashihara from Persona 2 as his homeroom teacher, and one way or another accidentally triggers a way for Nyarlathotep to return (most likely with P4 protag coming into contact with Tatsuya by chance through Jun)—after all, the theme of Persona 4 is to lift the fog of deceit, but not all truths should be remembered... though I guess this isn't really AU since it could theoretically happen as long as you handwave the mechanics about how personas/Nyarly and Philemon work)

my other pet AU is the Appmon Utena AU because narratives about roles and agency fascinate me! (appmon and utena endgame spoilers in linked posts)

as for something that I'm mostly making up right now........... uhhhh Loveless AU for Oda and Aoki from 2.43 Seiin High School Men's Volleyball Team, but only about the concept of Fighter-Sacrifice pairs and not... everything else (I have not read Loveless but it's got A Reputation)—mostly because i think it'd be so interesting if their pair name is "Selfless", seeing as Oda tends to think of himself as selfish in the novel, while Aoki's speech about "no need to thank me, I'm doing this because of ulterior motives" and his utter devotion to Oda's cause makes me kiiinda feral. (and from what little i understand about the general power dynamics of Fighters and Sacrifices, i think it makes sense for Oda to be the Sacrifice and Aoki the Fighter? idk)

i haven't thought of why they're marked, since they're meant to be Just Some Guys in 2.43 (i.e. not one of the star players on the team)

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending? 

i'm not willing to die on this hill, but i have this entire elaborate headcanon about Euanthe from Counter/WEIGHT having a dead fiance and them being essentially an anti-stratus due to the programming language disconnect between the Divines and the Apostolisian mechs. both are just something i pulled completely out of my ass tho (note: Twilight Mirage is the last sci-fi season from friends at the table that i've completed)

as for something i'm slightly more willing to die defending: Yukiko and Chie from Persona 4 lived on takeout for like 4 months after they got their own place, before grudgingly learning how to cook at the Inaba community center (also Yosuke heckles them about it and sends shitty pics of his humble homemade dishes at ridiculous hours to taunt them about it—at least, that's how they interpret his gesture

and i mean. they aren't entirely wrong about that.)

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?

oh boy most popular media is like that for me... i feel like ORV is one of these even though i did read some of it? (and i mean. i do plan on reading past ch 75 of ORV one of these days.) i've heard stuff about SVSSS (about a rarepair/side character) and the Owl House seems interesting from the general impression i get from my dash

I guess i also. learned about SPN on tumblr (and know more than I want to, even though in the grand scheme of things it's not much at all)

[ask prompts here!]

[kimothyroll]

Day 1

Day Total: +1 Theoretical & +1 Practical

1:  The Magician

Of course, eager to impress, and be accepted, as always,  the first thing I did following our welcome meeting, was to attempt master a new spell. The lesson guidance was just to prepare something small to showcase what we knew prior to coming and to highlight what strengths we might have.

After diligent practice and unwavering determination, I successfully mastered the elusive and powerful "Aetherial Chronomancy." This intricate spell allows me to manipulate the threads of time and glimpse into the past or future, offering a profound understanding of the temporal tapestry.

Trust me to try something ridiculously complex as my first task of the semester! I know I've been working on this spell but it's still really advanced! This could have gone really wrong and set a tone for the rest of my time there.

+2 Theoretical

Four of cups

Attempting to master Aetherial Chronomancy got me thinking about the consequences of magic. What if I had gotten myself, or worse, someone else, lost in time. Though perhaps if Oberon got lost for a period that wouldn't have been too bad!! I'm not sure yet what I think about that boy. He was really outspoken the whole class. Kinda reminds me of me a bit, and that's not necessarily a good thing.

I know this time it was ok, but I do need to be more cautious. Whilst I was successful this time, my pondering led me to reflect on the time where I didn't quite get it right. Back in Tranmere, following the passing of beloved resident, Elowen Runescape- My grandma- I decided, in all my youthful naiveite, that, despite not being know for the same green thumb and magical touch that Grandma brought to any and all nature, I would attempt to carry on her legacy by enhancing the community garden that she so lovingly cared for right until the end.

Fuelled by youthful exuberance and a touch of magical impulsiveness, my experiments took an unexpected turn. Instead of merely enhancing the garden, the magic imbued the plants with a heightened form of sentience. The once orderly rows of flowers and herbs gained a mischievous consciousness, resulting in a garden that seemed to have a mind of its own.

I feel so bad still! But I know Grandma would have found my…results…hilarious. I certainly gave her eyes a workout whilst she was alive! At least the residents love it. The garden, now playfully mischievous, has become a local legend, with stories circulating about flowers rearranging themselves and herbs seemingly responding to whispered secrets.

+1 Theoretical

Page of Swords

Our next lesson of the day is combat training. I find it interesting that there is such a focus on combat. What is it that they are expecting to happen? I don't mind because it's all skills to add to my repertoire but, right now at least, I don't find the thought of it as interesting as learning new magic (thought I suppose, if I think about it, that probably stems from a fear of failure- I can't stand the thought of losing a duel). 

Today were are analysing combat strategies, of course my mind wanders. I think I've come up with (in my opinion) an ingenious tactic. I named it "Temporal Mirage". Leveraging my mastery of Aetherial Chronomancy,  this tactic involves utilising the threads to time to create illusory duplicates strategically placed across the battlefield. The duplicates mimic my movements with precision, disorienting and confusing opponents. I really want to try this out!

+1 Practical

Justice

The second I had a chance to explore, I did.  I came across a "hidden" chamber- honestly, I suspect that nothing happens by accident. I would not be surprised if the whole court is setup like a giant escape room with puzzle and secrets everywhere you turn. Anyway, I digress.

I the chamber I discovered a potent artifact that I suspected could greatly enhance my magical abilities. However,  further investigation revealed the artifact to also be a guardian preserving the magical balance of the school. Faced with a moral dilemma, I grappled with the choice of personal gain versus upholding the magical sanctity of The Midnight Court. I know that I will struggle to fit in, and wielding such power could give me an edge, but ultimately, I would never take any actions to upset the balance, particularly this early on in the year.

-1 Theoretical

Five of Wands

The final lesson of the day started off as an introduction to the upcoming terms learning, we were put into groups and given the task of considering what "type" of magic would best solve the problem our groups were given.

Unfortunately Oberon was assigned as one of my group members. Another girl, Celestia, was in my group along with a few others. That girl is a godsend and it feels like fate that we were put together.

We started off by considering how best to approach the task with everyone stating their specialisms. This soon descended into a debate on the merits of certain types of magic over others. Honestly, I don't think any are superior and don't really have a specialism yet, but everyone was asking me my opinion and trying to get me to answer. It was so overwhelming, I began to question whether I was wrong for not mastering one "type" over another. Am I not actually as good as I think?

Oberon was making it so much worse with his certainty. Bur Celestia, the absolute star, noticed how overwhelmed I was and diverted the group's attention away from me and back onto task, whilst simultaneously ensuring I was ok. I really hope we can be friends. I need someone like that in my corner.

-1 Theoretical

[pazodetrasalba]

Imperius

Dear Caroline:

From what you describe in this entry, it feels that you would score high in Agreeableness in any personality test, which does not come as a surprise, as in the only two remaining online videos where you appear interacting (El Momento and Unchained's episode 296 on Crypto Philanthropy), you assuredly give that impression. To a lesser extent, this is also noticeable in your blog persona, even if that one appears much more contrarian, outspoken, cocky and cheeky.

And his trait is yet another piece of the complex puzzle of your actions, inactions and moral lapses while at the helm of Alameda, about which I have already speculated in another entry (Idolatry), in which my educated guess is that the main cause was your falling for Sam's spell. Being agreeable to the ones below, one can imagine you would have been even more so with the One above, of whom you'd think 'I have a generally positive impression of the quality of your work', 'you're making a lot of claims I can't personally evaluate but trust your judgement on' and 'I think our goals are very aligned'.

So in a way, you imperioused yourself, or seeking for another magical simile, you brewed and drunk to the dregs from the cup of Amortentia. And yet you are an intelligent woman, and have confessed to being transparently aware that you were walking down the dark and illegal path from the beginning.

So this is how I would construct your fall: we start with an awfully clever girl who is very academically gifted but personally insecure, and who has a lot of theoretical and bookish knowledge about Economy since her childhood due to family background and natural curiosity (the oft-quoted anecdote of your study of stuffed animal prices at Toys 'R' Us comes to mind). After her degree she works for a couple of years at quant firm, acquiring some, but definitely not enough, practical knowledge and skills of the business - especially as related to effective managing and directing. Then along comes Mephistopheles to charm her with a Faustian bargain, only this Tempter is the complete opposite of a little devil, but rather like an idealized mirror-image of the opposite sex: a nerdy genius, a successful 20-year-old billionaire who fully shares your values, principles and world mission and generously invites you to participate in the Good Fight. And the temptation trespasses also into the hedge of the heart. This model, genius, lover, inducts you into the shady dealings of wire fraud but like all steps to hell, it is done little by little, one step at a time. And you can rationalize very easily, within a certain utilitarian framework that has led numberless clever people to their doom since at least Alcibiades in ancient Athens, that the common rules apply to the common people, that the Wise are the makers of their own norms, and that the high probability of (massively good) ends allows for some creative flexibility with the means. One can also imagine petty objections to detail, 'disagreement on specific points' which can always be overruled in the end because, you know, Sam and his aides really know what they are doing. And anyway, all successful ventures must start thusly, and from a little evil comes great good. Others in finance have managed to pull it off, and why not us, who are no less clever? (in yesterday's newsletter, Matt Levine considers it possible that you just might have: Oh boy is that not legal advice but, I mean, in crypto, and in tech generally, “fake it till you make it” seems to have a pretty high success rate. If you make it! If you don’t, people tend to think that your faking it was fraud). Floating at the end of the road for you to glimpse, almost at the reach of your fingertips, was the mirage of the best-looking dice-throw of the Outcome Space, an alternative reality in which you managed to pull off your risky games, Sam becomes the world's first trillionaire, and with you close by his side and happily ever married, you get to solve humanity's worst perils and lead us on to an era of ever increasing flourishing.

In a brief 2014 entry in your blog you had this dig about the famous Greek myth of overarching ambition:' I’ve never seen the Icarus story as a lesson about the limitations of humans. I see it as a lesson about the limitations of wax as an adhesive'. And yet right now, it feels like a good lesson that you should have kept in mind, as your intellectual adhesive seems to have melted away from the wings. Your dream was a nice dream, even if it has curdled into a nightmare. It is a good lesson too, even if in the real world, the consequences of a cautionary tale running bad imply real pain, real suffering and very reduced possibilities to make amends. And perhaps this tale I have just told contains a kernel of the truth of what has happened.  

Quote:

It was the most wonderful feeling. Harry felt a floating sensation as every thought and worry in his head was wiped gently away, leaving nothing but a vague, untraceable happiness. He stood there feeling immensely relaxed, only dimly aware of everyone watching him.

JK Rowling

[vengeancehq]

[ zion moreno, trans woman, she/her ] WATCHTOWER DATABASE LOADING… carol ferris also known as star sapphire is 28 years old and currently resides in star city. our systems tell us they work as president of ferris aircraft by day and a villain by night. their psychological evaluation determines them to be resilient, yet stubborn. when asked to describe themself, carol used the visible tenderness of an apartment carefully crafted for two but only occupied by one, the love of flight so natural that it lifts you of its own accord, compassion setting your soul alight until all you smell is smoke. PROFILE IS NOW COMPLETE— [ thea, 25, she/her, est. ]

WATCHTOWER DATABASE PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION

Why do you work against the justice league?

The smile that alights her features is amused, cheshire in appearance, as the Star Sapphire leans forward in her chair. “I don’t care about the Justice League. Surely it will be a fleeting effort put on by those who want to be heroes but can’t stand on their own.” Hands cup around her mouth like she’s going to tell a secret, yet when she speaks, it’s a stage whisper. “I only care about the Green Lantern. So if that means working against the rest of them, too–well–” A laugh filters past her lips. “Then so be it.” Raising her brows like some final punctuation, the woman settles back in her chair again, long legs crossing at the knee. A single heeled boot taps rhythmically against the hard floors.

What does vengeance mean to you?

This one, she seems to put real thought into, taptaptapping her nails against the top of her boot, expression thoughtful. There’s hints now, of the woman trapped inside of all this, of Carol, herself–but only flashes, almost more of a mirage than a true image. She plays her part well. “Vengeance is simply taking what you want–the only difference between that and a hero is the theoretical morality of the thing being done. Or perhaps that it’s asserting freedoms society has deemed one shouldn’t… exercise.” Not that society is entirely wrong every time, or that every case of vengeance is a good one. But it could also be said that not every case of vengeance is a bad one, and certainly in this case, she sides with the latter. “Are we done yet?”

  Would you consider yourself a villain?

“It’s all a matter of perspective, isn’t it?” She looks bored, almost, paying more attention to her nails than to the person occupying the room with her. There’s something about her that’s relaxed, and oddly so, given the situation. Tension should be written across every line of her body, eyes should be alert and focused–and yet she sits back in her chair all but lackadaisical. When her gaze drifts back to the questionnaire, there’s nothing but curiosity there in her eyes. “Why don’t you ask the Green Lantern what he thinks? I’m sure he’ll have a nice quip to go along with it all, and a pretty dose of memory loss for Miss Ferris when we’re done here.” A long, slow blink as she makes an almost disconcerting level of eye-contact. “I’m not the one mind-wiping an innocent woman a few times a year, now am I?”

What do you think makes people consider you a villain?

“Well men–” this second word is pointed, sharpened to a dagger-tip, “will always consider a woman the villain when she does not ask permission.” Her gaze meanders the room for a moment, allowing the statement its time to sink in, to settle, before continuing. Focusing for the briefest moment on the dark glass-paned window behind her interrogator, she allows herself to wonder if he’s back there, watching, listening. Surely he is, she thinks, what with Carol once again in “jeopardy” as a byproduct of the Star Sapphire gem. Her eyes linger there, just over the shoulder of her companion. “Both I and Miss Ferris have learned that the hard way.”

[purplesurveys]

1455

survey by -xoxo

Do you have a gay uncle? I have a feeling, but that’s it. 

Do you have braces? Not at the moment, but I used to have them as a teenager.

Do you like ice cream cake? No, I honestly don’t get the point but that’s also probably because I am not a big fan of ice cream.

Do you wash your hair everyday? I try to, but sometimes it ends up being every other day.

Do you have trouble sticking to promises? Not at all; I’d do anything to keep them.

Have you ever made out with someone of the same sex? Yep.

Do you have pothead neighbors? Uhhhhh no, at least I don’t think I do.

Do you know how to change a tire? Nah, that’s something I’d have to make calls for should it ever happen.

How big is your backyard? Big enough for the dogs to theoretically run around in. I do wish we could add things that could liven up the space a bit more, like dedicating a corner to have a table and chairs for when we’re having guests over, maybe a string of fairy lights and such; but it’s just not a financial priority.

What kind of headphones do you have? I don’t own headphones but I do have a pair of white earphones. It’s just this generic pair that I got from Mumuso but it does its job really well, so there are little to no complaints from me.

Do you ever dream of yourself dying? I have had a few nightmares where it has happened, but I typically wake up the moment I ‘die’ in the dream - usually in a heaving, heart-pounding mess.

Do you know any Simmish words? xD I mean, are Simmish words a ‘thing’ i.e. they have words that technically exist? I just thought it was a bunch of flabba gabba neener gibberish lmao.

Where is your second home!? That would be my university alma mater.

Ever used a swear word the wrong way and sounded completely stupid? No? I’m not sure how you could use a swear word incorrectly, either.

Do you have a webcam? Yups.

Do you know what 143 means? I do.

How often do you go to parties? Not very frequently. You’ll find me in bars every now and then though.

Do you sleep in awkward positions? I sometimes will, but for the most part I sleep on my side with my arms wrapped around a pillow which is fairly a normal position to sleep in.

Do you experience a lot with new looks on yourself? I’m not sure what this question is supposed to ask.

What are you doing right now? Taking this survey while half-watching, half-listening to a 2 Days 1 Night episode in the background. Oh and also occasionally taking a sip of coffee.

Do you wish you had more money? Yeah.

If your computer shut down for a month, would you die!? I don’t think so because I’d have my phone to do personal stuff with, and my work laptop to continue being functional at my job. I think the biggest inconvenience would be not being able to take surveys, though.

What song always makes you sad? Find Me Here, Hayley Williams.

Have you ever played a game that required removing your clothes? Hmm, I don’t think so.

Where is your favorite place to be kissed? Cheek or hair.

Do you ever quote your favorite movie in normal conversations? Never. It’s not a very quotable film to begin with.

Do people ever tell you that you look stoned when you're not? No, I literally never get that comment.

Do you suffer from anxiety or depression? I probably do with the former, but I’ve never been diagnosed.

Waffles or pancakes!? Waffles.

What kind of car do you drive? I have a Mitsubishi Mirage.

What are you wearing right now? Rainbow-striped top with a pair of gray shorts.

Have you ever seen The Happening? No.

Where were you on Valentine's Day? Oooooh I don’t actually remember...I think Valentine’s this year had been a weekday? in which case I was 100% at home working.

Do you think Hallmark holidays are pointless? I have no idea what those are.

What is the exact time that you were born? 9:11 PM.

Where did you live in 2000? Same city I live in now.

What do you do when vending machines steal your money? I’ve never experienced that but I imagine I’d just accept the situation and walk away, then find another place to get the thing I intended to get from the vending machine.

What do you do on a typical Friday night? Order in food then do a mix of taking surveys/watching BTS clips/playing Rhythm Hive on my phone. Sometimes I’ll plan a night out with friends.

Are you currently using a laptop or desktop? Laptop. I haven’t used a desktop since high school, lol.

Do hospitals freak you out? They kind of do, yeah. I honestly thought I could stomach hospitals until I had to make a hospital visit myself a couple of months ago to visit my mom post-surgery. Two main things that made me feel unsettled: 1) the fact that there could be people behind some of those ward doors in critical/bad condition, and 2) all. the damn. tubes. and. needles.

What about cemeteries at night? No, not really. I remember visiting one late at night before a few years back and the whole experience was more fascinating then eerie to me.

Do you floss your teeth every day? No, not everyday.

Do you have any nervous habits? Biting my nails is one. I also fidget in my seat a lot.

What is your favorite Nintendo 64 game? We never got to have an N64.

Can you count to 100 in Spanish? Yes, because we count the same way in Filipino. We usually use the Spanish terms (adjusted to Filipino spelling) when referring to money, so words like bente, trenta, kwarenta, etc.

Were you mean as a little kid? I definitely had an attitude but I wouldn’t say I was destructive. My mean-ness was mostly channeled toward other kids but I was well-behaved when it came to everything else.

What's bothering you right now? I’m super antsy about the election results later. I don’t plan on sleeping tonight since we’ll be leaving the house by 6 AM anyway to cast our votes, so I plan to distract myself all night.

Have you ever given your number to someone then later regretted it? Nope.

[final-servamp-banter]

White Day Event: Gear

We stan the werewolf on this blog, his route gives me all the feels.

Gear: [Your name]? It’s me.

Gear: Tomorrow’s White Day, right? I’ll come pick you up from your place, so wait for me.

Gear: ……What? You’re in Japan, so that’s difficult?

Gear: You worry about small things, don’t you? That’s not an issue, so don’t worry about it.

Gear: All right, see you tomorrow.

(He hangs up)

You: (“Small things”, huh……)

~ 3/14 – in London, with Big Ben in the background ~

Gear: It’s evening already. We walked around quite a bit. Are you tired?

You: (Gear-san took me to a lot of places he likes…)

Player Choices (Note: Causes a split until after the next choice):

1: It was fun

2: I’m a little tired

Option 1:

Gear: I see, that’s good. That means working on this plan for a week without sleep was worth it.

You: (Eh?!)

Player Choices:

1: O-One week?!

2: Without sleeping at all?!

[Both options lead to the same dialog]

Gear: That was a joke. That’s just how enthusiastic I was.

Gear: That you were so surprised means it was worth telling that joke, too. Reminds me of how Youtarou was when he was younger.

Gear: Back then, he’d take every little thing I said seriously, but he’s grown up in the blink of an eye. Now he just says “Yeah, yeah” and brushes off whatever I say. Seriously.

Gear: I don’t want to forget that honesty of Youtarou’s, either.

Gear: ……? What are you getting sullen for? It sounds like I’m looking down on him?

Gear: I didn’t say that. I’m praising him. I’m the type who fundamentally praises humans.

------------------

Option 2 – “I’m a little tired”:

Gear: … I see. Sorry for not considering that. I don’t really get tired unless something outstanding happens.

Gear: I’ll consider that for our next date.

You: (D-Date…)

Player Choices:

1: So today was… A date, too?

2: So there’ll be… A next one?

Option 1:

Gear: I didn’t say that… Was that what you think I’d say? If not a date, what did you think it was? I don’t think there’s a man who can put together a date course as perfectly as I can.

Gear: Awkward humility isn’t good. It’s lonesome to not have confidence in yourself.

Option 2:

Gear: Of course. Depending on your schedule, since humans are usually much busier than I am.

Gear: It’s not like I have nothing to do. I’m busy, too. There’s a lot of new games and books that have piled up, after all.

[Rest is the same]

Gear: There wasn’t much time for shopping today, so next time, let’s make a department store the main part of our date.

Gear: I like to go shopping, but whenever I’m looking at home appliances, Youtarou soon says “I’m tired, I’m tired”. So we take a break and eat some ice cream.

Gear: And that’s although Youtarou looks around for ages if we’re in a clothes store. He only complains that we’re taking way too long if we’re shopping for me.

------------------

[Merge for the “It was fun”/”I’m a little tired” branch]

Gear: Well then, today we had lunch at a museum, afternoon tea… And we came here after enjoying a staple full course meal.

Gear: Your White Day Present is here.

You: (……?)

Player Choices:

1: …… Here?

2: Is there something here…?

[Both Choices lead to the same dialog]

Gear: It’s different from Valentine’s Day, isn’t it?

You: (…… Eh?! If I look closely…)

Player Choices:

1: Th-That clock tower…!

2: Big Ben…?!

3: It’s not under restoration…?!

[All options lead to the same dialog]

Gear: Yeah, Big Ben is under restoration. They’re not done working on the restauration yet.

Gear: You were disappointed when you couldn’t see Big Ben on Valentine’s Day.

Gear: So I thought I’d show you… “The appearance from a little while ago”.

You: (W-Wait a second…!)

Player Choices:

1: From a little while ago…?!

2: We went back in time?!

[Both choices lead to the same dialog]

Gear: From just before you couldn’t see it because they covered it in scaffolding for the restauration work.

Gear: Who do you think I am? I can do that much.

Gear: … Asserting that like this would be bad. Today is special. It’s not like I do this all the time. It’s not like I can do it all the time.

Gear: It’d be a problem if you thought I could do it, and it’d be a problem if there were rumors I could. So what I did today will be our secret, okay?

Gear: It’s especially a secret from Youtarou. He’d get angry at me and ask what I was doing. Maybe.

Gear: It’s like a special production just for today. It would be good if you could think of it as an illusion or a mirage. As a service just for here.

Gear: Time is transient and never returns. So doing this breaks the rules.

Gear: I just thought I wanted to give you the greatest surprise I could.

Gear: Objects decay, but emotions remain. No, I suppose in the short lifespan of humans, objects are what remains.

You: (For a White Day Gift…)

Player Choices:

1: An object might have been good

2: I prefer memories

Option 1:

Gear: Is that so? In that case, I’ll do that next year. My wish is to do something that makes you happy.

Gear: It’s wonderful to cherish tangible things in the limited amount of time they have.

Gear: I like that you can also use the object as a cue to think about your partner, or look at it to remember the time you spent with them.

Gear: … Even though that idiot didn’t seem to understand that. Ash, I mean.

Gear: I think of that promise while watching the starry sky through the hole in the roof. That way, I can think of someone far away.

Gear: The time spent thinking of others is lovely.

Gear: Unfulfilled promises may someday turn into sadness and anger, but… My life is too long to make something an “unfulfilled promise”.

Gear: That means, in short, that I’m patient.

Gear: Well, what I just said about Ash doesn’t matter. The promise we made was finally fulfilled, after over 100 years.

Option 2:

Gear: I see. That’s good.

Gear: I hope I’ve left even a small impression deep within you. Even if it’s an illusion like a dream and becomes vague once you wake up.

Gear: I hope that you’ll think, this definitely, without a doubt “happened”.

Gear: I’ll keep you within me, too. Time spent with your loved ones is irreplaceable.

Gear: I could see both your surprised and your happy face today. I’m as happy as I can be.

[Rest is the same]

Gear: In the end, living beings live for themselves. For their own joy. I’m glad that I need you for my joy.

Gear: Currently, my joy in life is made by you, Youtarou, Ash, that house, this town, and old dreams.

Gear: Thanks to you, my joy increased again. How could I not thank you for that?

Gear: Joy is the companion of living. Even the sadness of parting is a companion of living. That’s not just humans… Me and vampires like Ash are no exception.

Gear: I’m proud if I can be part of the joy in your life, too.

Gear: Give me your hand. We’ll cross that bridge together.

You: (He’s… holding his hand out to me…)

Player Choices:

1: Take his hand

2: Be overwhelmed

Option 1:

Gear: The illusion will stay until we cross that bridge hand in hand. Don’t let go of my hand on the way.

Gear: Let’s cross as slowly as possible. I want to remember your temperature, too.

Option 2:

Gear: … Ah, in that case, let’s just walk next to one another.

Gear: Even if we’re not touching, that doesn’t mean we don’t understand one another. We can be by each other’s side and love one another. That’s enough.

Gear: Well… I’d like you to allow me to at least look at your face in profile. All right, let’s go.

[Rest is the same]

Gear: Thank you for today, [Your Name].

[End]

----------------------------------

T/N: When the player goes “Eh?!” after Gear says he hasn’t been sleeping for a week, there’s still Gear’s name and avatar on there. Which I know is a bug I just find it kinda funny lmao

“It reminds me of Youtarou when he was younger” is more literally “It reminds me of the old Youtarou”/”The Youtarou from long ago”, but I’m pretty sure he means Smol Youtarou.

From the “It sounds like I’m looking down on him” to “I’m praising him”, it’s not really clear whether he means Youtarou or the player - I went with Youtarou because he was the one Gear had been talking about, but the player might as well have felt that Gear was looking down on/making fun of them (by comparing them to Kid!Youtarou), or humans in general.

When he talks about the companions of life, there’s the “that’s not just humans” bit - He may also mean that it’s something beings that are not human feel while humans don’t, but then he says he and vampires are not exceptions, which is why I included humans (After all, if it meant non-humans, Gear wouldn’t have to specify again that non-humans feel it, too)

Gear is just,,,, so precious 🥺 Like “I was looking forward to seeing you so much I wanted to plan without sleeping” PLEASE SIR KNOW I LOVE YOU.

Also. Y’know, Nicco (yes I’ll do him soon-ish) already goes all-out, but Gear just goes and breaks the rules of the space-time-continuum for you. Like, that’s commitment.

I hated having to pick “I’d rather have something tangible” ;_; Dude BREAKS THE SPACE-TIME-CONTINUUM for you and you just go “Yeah nah gimme something worth money” that’s just MEAN!

Sorry for the long T/N I just have a lot of things to say and A LOT of emotions about Gear. Like, with the vampires, it’s so easy to forget how eternal they are, that they’re immortal. Theoretically, if a Servamp decides they want to keep someone around, they can make them into a vampire. Gear can’t. Gear has been around longer than the Servamps, and since he keeps making friends, choosing to make friends, he has lost so, so many people, and it’s just, you can tell that he functions on a scale vastly different from humans. But does he decide to harden his heart, to not meet new people to avoid the heartbreak? No, he sees it as a part of life, and while it’s sad, it’s worth it to him, and I just-- 🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭😭

[queer-as-used-by-tolkien]

13 right back at you! Also 15 if it doesn't get too long.

13 - explain how mesmers work!

I've actually done a lot of thinking about this and it is, of course, heavily entwined with my theory of how magic works in general, but I'll try to keep it simple.

I got this idea of magic from the Aspects of Glint - Wind, Sun, and Lightning - and so to make things simpler I went ahead and named the different types of magic, at least as far as I could see them. Mesmer magic is called the Aspect of Deception, which actually correlates to one of the schools of magic we get from Bloodstones. (That was completely accidental.)

Also, I completely agree with your idea that some mesmers are good at manipulating the physical world and some are good at manipulating your mind - I've mostly thought about the ones that are good at manipulating the physical world, so most of the following only applies to them.

But anyway, the idea is that mesmers and thieves both use the Aspect of Deception. At first I thought the difference between a mesmer and a thief was just power, but I've refined that somewhat: mesmers specialize in convincing you that you can't trust your senses. You know what you're seeing is wrong - but only half the time. You're not sure what's real and what's not. Thieves, on the other hand, specialize in convincing you that everything is perfectly normal when it isn't. The thief isn't here practicing his thievery, for example - he's invisible. Thieves do use mesmer-esque spells on occasion, which is where I got the idea they're linked - one of their elites summons three clones (which is why I thought the difference was power, because that's an everyday mesmer thing).

As for clones and illusions: well, most of this derives from what we see in-game mesmers doing - you can make a clone or illusion of another person than yourself, you can disguise a person as someone else, etc. and of course this doesn't just extend to people.

Illusions can be just visual apparitions if you want them to, with no substance, like ghosts; these of course take less power. I also believe that mesmers can manipulate the other senses, though we don't see this much in-game; a mesmer can make you hear things, smell things, etc. Each one is different, though, so it's sort of like if your field is the Aspect of Deception, there are many subschools and most mesmers specialize is visual and physical effects since those are the most useful.

By 'physical' I mean illusions that you can touch and feel, which are more common among mesmers. The idea is that you concentrate power in the illusion, more and more power until it's so concentrated it's physically there, takes up physical space and you can feel it. Clones and illusions are just highly, highly concentrated magic, given form by your mind. Then when you shatter them, this magic kind of breaks and splinters all over the place, and some of it goes into your enemies and hurts them. That is complicated and I'll leave it for another time.

But here's the thing: illusions of people are ridiculously complex, and either you need to have a very focused mind that is also capable of multitasking, or that's not exactly how it works. I think your idea of how people are shaped is a generally subconscious assumption, so if you tell your magic 'hey look like a person,' it'll know what a person is and form into the shape of a person based on your subconscious pattern. Illusions of yourself are quite clearly easier, because you have a much better idea of what you are physically than someone else, and it does take active concentration to remember that this clone is supposed to look like that guy instead.

But the cool part is that since the clones are based on your subconscious understanding of how people are shaped, these clones are perfectly viable people on their own, except that they're made of magic and have no will but yours. This means that they get sensory input, which really feeds into your brain and it takes a lot of training to separate out these various inputs. But this is how, for example, you could have a clone go spy out a place and convey that information to you; you could also control the illusion through a conversation or really any other task that most people would expect from a person. You can of course also channel magic through a clone, because this is what clones exist for in the mechanics of the game - another source of damage.

I've heard theories that mesmer illusions are more or less programmable; for example, this illusion is pacing back and forth, but it would of course take the same exact steps every time and if someone watched long enough they might notice. I haven't really thought about it, but I feel that if you were distracted enough to have to give a set of commands to an illusion that it then carries out to the best of its ability, or pre-program it - if that's necessary, you're probably not focusing enough to keep the illusion there in the first place, and also it doesn't have a mind of its own to be able to 'follow commands to the best of its ability.'

Now, on to the cool part: teleportation. I've explained clones because those are relevant to how thieves shadowstep, which is basically that they make a clone of themselves at another location, and then take the sensory input and use that to focus their whole mind through to the clone until that's where their mind is - and if you put enough magic into a clone, of course, it's no longer just made of magic but it manifests as flesh and blood (not just the illusion of feeling like flesh and blood), and since your magical core carries that kind of magic that happens naturally when you transfer your consciousness there. Of course, any given thief will have done this countless times before, so most thieves are walking around in these magically-constructed bodies, and when you switch to a new one the magic dissipates or shatters or something. That's how I imagine it, and I haven't actually thought about what happened to their original body. It probably just died from lack of a mind. On the other hand, you could totally headcanon that thieves always have to go back for their 'real' bodies, but that's less fun...

But the really cool part about the shadowstepping system of teleportation is that mesmers can't do it. Or, they can - that's what blinks are - but it's super dangerous. Thieves don't use clones all that much - summoning them is an elite skill (unless they're shadowstepping) - but mesmers use clones all the time, and since the sensory input can be used to transfer your consciousness into a clone, it can actually be very easy for a mesmer to mix up and forget which of the four identical people on the battlefield is their own self. So mesmers need to have a very concrete idea about which one is their own self, and if they make a habit of shadowstepping their minds into other clones, that's nearly impossible. Some mesmers can do it, of course, and that's why you have the blink skill, but the risk vs reward is relatively low.

What's the problem with getting who you are confused? Well, that's because it has to be very intentional when you shadowstep - you have to know where you are and where you're going. If you're just mistakenly looking through the eyes of the wrong person, and haven't actually transferred your magical core there, the real you might be in danger and die, and then you're gone. So most mesmers don't do it at all even if they theoretically have the mental capacity or skill to do it without much danger.

Mesmers just use portals instead, which bend space and time sort of like a Tesseract (if you've read A Wrinkle in Time), which brings two points in space together momentarily. I have thought that I need to think about portals just a little bit more - to figure out what exactly the process of moving from Point A to Point B is - more like an asura gate, where theoretically you could stick an arm through but not your whole self, or is more like elevators in cities that just take your whole self if you enter the field. I don't know yet, but I'm slightly leaning toward the second one.

Also: chronomancy! I have thought about this a little. (Sorry Mirages, I haven't thought about you at all...) You can't actually rewind time, of course - even some of the skill descriptions say that time 'snaps back' when you're done with the spell, causing additional effects. I've seen an ask response on this topic that says it's all in your mind, but I don't think so, at least not for the physical, world-manipulating mesmers.

Chronomancy requires a load of power, because, inside the spell radius, you've said 'turn time back to X state' or else 'rewind time until I say stop' and, like making illusions, the details of this are mostly subconscious. But what it does is it takes all physical entities and moves them backwards in order to simulate time rewinding. Chronomancy does have a mental component, of course, and that is that it makes everyone but the caster forget about the intervening time, creating the illusion (hehe) that no time has passed. Advanced chronomancers, of course, can specify this and prevent their allies from forgetting - or, if they're being particularly confusing, prevent their enemies from forgetting, or prevent one enemy from forgetting so he starts sounding like a lunatic. This can also heal! If you're moving things backwards through time, that includes healing wounds back to their former state.

Also, and I just remembered this, but you can make a non-person illusion convey sensory input. I have one character who shot a bullet (he's a thief) and, upon impact, granted him one second of vision of what was going on over there. You can also silence things like guns, you can block out all noisy distracting. Also, this thief actually set up a recording of some epic soundtrack played at inaudible volume inside his rifle and used the Aspect of Deception to make a sort of sound-proof bubble around himself, and then used magic to magnify the epic soundtrack so he could feel like a hero on the battlefield. (He has a very strong sense of drama XD... his friends roll their eyes at him.)

I also have my main mesmer character use this 'sound proof bubble' concept to have private conversations in busy places, and a sort of variant of it - catching the sound out of a person's mouth and carrying it to her ears, and throwing her own voice into their ears - to silently communicate across greater distances while trying to be sneaky. Sort of like magical ventriloquism, I guess.

So, that's all for mesmerism! I know I focused on thieves a bit, but it was significantly within the scope of the question and I fell like the spirit of the question includes them, given my headcanons.

Thanks for asking! I've been carrying these theories around in my head for quite some time and weaving them into my stories, it was nice to be able to try to express them eloquently all in one place!

Now, you said '15 if it doesn't get too long,' and the prompt mentions quaggan (...and dredge?) but I'll just tag you on a separate post. (It'll be shorter, I promise!)

[random-thought-depository]

So, in my last post I wrote this:

“Like … right now I’m planning out a story I intend to write in January; it’s supposed to be a kind of deconstruction of the Fremen mirage, and very much one of the thoughts going into it is “yo, a Proud Warrior Race would be a horrible society to live in or have as neighbors, we shouldn’t romanticize them!” and yet … I feel that the “bad guy” culture in it is much better, from a literary viewpoint, for me having given some thought to the material base of their society and how that would shape their culture. I could have just written them as flat edgelordy-grimdark barbarians, but thinking about their culture in materialist terms gave me a more complex and nuanced picture that I think will make for a more interesting and nuanced story and a fictional society that feels more interesting and human and alive.”

So, I want to infodump a little about this fictional culture I’ve thought up! I’m splitting this up into two posts because otherwise it’d be long in a way my Tumblr’s format is not kind to; in the first post I’m going to talk about the material base that defines this fictional society I’ve thought up, and in the second post I’m going to talk about more historically contingent features of their culture.

Note: for a lot of what’s in this post, I tried to make something hard SF-ish, but much of what I’ve written was the result of kind of “working backwards” from the sort of culture I was imagining to a material base that might create such a culture. So this is more playing with an idea than an attempt at anything particularly realistic.

Material base:

The basic political and economic unit of this society is the semi-self-sufficient space habitat community. These communities are about the size of a small town, I’m thinking thousands to tens of thousands of people (though I haven’t quite fixed it firmly, and anyway there’s wide variation; more successful communities are bigger). This town-size community lives in a semi-mobile space habitat, which I’m thinking is more-or-less a hollow cylinder spun for centrifugal gravity attached to a central spindle which is spacecraft construction facilities, engines, etc.. This space habitat contains enough hydroponic gardens, industrial machinery, etc. that the habitat can sustain itself completely independently for at least a few years. The space habitat has a rocket engine and a hyperspace engine, so it’s mobile, and these people are at least semi-nomadic, often moving their habitats when faced with opportunity or danger. The space habitat carries smaller spacecraft that can be detached and sent out to mine asteroids and KBO-type bodies, scoop helium 3 up from gas giant atmospheres, etc. and return these resources to the main habitat. Along with a closed life support system and efficient recycling, this makes such a community almost self-sufficient (though the almost qualifier is important, as I’ll discuss later).

People who are remembering Brett Devereaux’s last essay here may have noted a certain parallel with steppe nomads, with the main habitat being kind of analogous to the mobile but vulnerable main nomad camp where the non-combatants, livestock, and valuables are kept while the smaller resource-gatherer etc. craft are kinda analogous to the highly mobile horse-mounted war parties.

The reason these communities are so small is that their economies are not resource-limited but machinery-limited, labor-limited, and skilled specialized labor limited. Most raw materials these people may need are super-abundant to them, the bottleneck is transforming those raw materials into air, food, machinery, furniture, useful energy, etc. and maintaining efficient almost-closed loops of recycling. Sustaining a space community requires lots of complex machinery and lots of specialized skilled labor, and maintaining and replacing the machinery often requires more complex machinery (tools to make the tools) and more specialized skilled labor. Keeping humans alive in space is hard, so the return on investment from this is low. Therefore, these communities generally try to make efficient use of labor and maintain more-or-less the smallest viable population.

This implies reproduction within communities like this will probably be carefully controlled. A community like this must stay within a delicate balance; they must have enough people to do all the necessary labor with a comfortable safety margin to avoid situations like the only person with some important skill dying unexpectedly before they could train their replacement, but they must not have so many people that they strain the life support capacity of their habitat. That suggests reproduction usually tightly and deliberately controlled to stay at more-or-less replacement rate and no more.

It also implies a community like this will probably be quite communitarian and disciplined. Consumption will have to be tightly controlled. The means of production will probably be directly controlled by the political leadership. Its economy would probably look communist-ish to us, or maybe like a Bronze Age palace economy, with most necessities and luxuries being distributed basically as rations. Commercial transactions will be marginal to the internal economies of these communities; they’ll probably exist, but only in the form of informal mostly small-scale barter (think something similar to the cigarette economy that may exist in a prison), and they will not be anyone’s primary occupation or source of subsistence or power. Internal economic inequality within a community like this will be mostly a matter of status, not wealth; if somebody eats better it’s because they receive more and better food as an entitlement associated with their political office and/or social status, not because they own a big pile of gold that they use to buy food or something. Probably a community like this will be fairly economically egalitarian even if it is socio-politically unequal; if there’s a king he might have a somewhat bigger apartment, somewhat more and better food, a nice wardrobe of good-quality clothes with lots of bling, etc., but the difference in access to resources between him and one of his servants would be trivial compared to the difference in access to resources between me and a billionaire.

OK, but these people are supposed to be “bad guys” and a “Proud Warrior Race,” so where does that come in? Well, now let’s look at the economy of a community like this and ask: what might they need to get from other communities, and by extension what might they want to violently steal from outsiders?

Certainly not raw resources! If they want water, nitrogen, deuterium, iron, copper, platinum, etc. they can just send out a mining ship to an asteroid or KBO-like body to get some and bring it to them. If they want helium 3 they can just send out a scoop-ship to go down into the atmosphere of the nearest gas giant, gather some up, and bring it to them. And so on. Raw resources are mostly super-abundant to a culture like this and it would make no sense to risk injury or death stealing them from armed outsiders (there are a few exceptions to this that prove the rule, more on that later). So, if not raw resources, what?

Remember that their economy is machinery-limited. They need lots of complex machinery to survive, and then they need more complex machinery to repair and replace that complex machinery (tools to make the tools), and then sometimes they need tools to make the tools to make the tools, and so on. If each community had to be completely self-sufficient this might spiral out unmanageably. But it becomes much more manageable if they are just mostly self-sufficient and tap into larger commercial/industrial networks, e.g. a mostly planet-dwelling society with some orbital infrastructure and asteroid mining that has millions of people. Then if there’s the occasional hard to make spare part they can’t make themselves, it’s not a big deal, they can just send a trading expedition to get some of those parts from outsiders every ten years or so. Or if there’s some hard to make anti-viral drug they can’t make themselves, again, no big deal, they can just send a trading expedition to get some of it from outsiders every few years. A trading expedition ... or a raiding expedition.

Probably they would usually prefer to trade, humans usually prefer sharing or trading to violent theft because it’s less risky, violent theft means the possibility of injury or death (plus in this case complex machinery would be likely to get smashed up in a violent heist). A mutually beneficial trading relationship between a culture like this and a planet-dweller culture would be quite natural; to these people a planet-dweller society is rich in labor but poor in mineral resources such as platinum, while to planet-dwellers this space-dweller culture is rich in mineral resources but poor in labor and certain kinds of machinery and high value added finished goods. But here we have a potential basis for a culture that follows a Viking-style strategy of “if they outgun us, trade, if we outgun them, raid,” with the consequence of this culture’s relationship to other societies being a mix of trade and war.

Some raw resources may be worth stealing here; exceptions that prove the rule that for a space-dwelling culture like this raw resources aren’t worth stealing but value-added finished goods may be. For example, it’s theoretically possible to sift small quantities of naturally occurring antimatter from gas giant magnetic fields, and that stuff might be valuable for catalyzing fusion reactions. That might be worth stealing, because in a sense it’s a raw resource that’s kind of like a finished good; the difficulty is concentrating the very diffuse stuff; an antimatter capture facility with its Penning traps almost full might be worth raiding in the same way a big hoard of gathered acorns might be worth raiding for hunter-gatherers (this resource is abundant but diffuse, somebody else has taken the trouble to gather a lot of it into one spot, you can effectively appropriate their hard work by stealing the hoard). Similarly I could see this culture opportunistically intercepting freighters carrying helium 3, mined semi-refined asteroid material, etc., not so much stealing the resources as functionally stealing the labor of gathering and refining the resources.

There’s another thing a community like this might want to take from outsiders: people.

The economy of a community like this is also skilled specialized labor limited. In fact, that’s probably the more fundamental bottleneck: they can’t build and operate all the machinery they need to be truly self-sufficient because they don’t have the skilled specialist labor, and this is an equilibrium trap because trying to create more skilled specialist labor has a low return on investment for them; keeping a human alive in space is resource-intensive, and a new human probably won’t begin to give them a return on the investment for at least 15 years or so, likely longer (skilled specialized labor, so think e.g. doctors and engineers and literal rocket scientists; training them will take time). One way a community like this can adjust the equation to be more in its favor is to acquire skilled specialized laborers who have already been raised and trained by a different community; then they can skip all the investment in the child and go straight to benefiting from the labor of the fully trained adult.

There’s another reason a community like this might want to take people: genetic diversity. We’re talking about a small community, maybe a few tens of thousands of people, that is somewhat isolated. Inbreeding and lack of genetic diversity can kill small and isolated communities. As I said earlier, reproduction in a community like this will probably be extensively controlled, and I think one aspect of that might be controlling marriages to eliminate or minimize the risks associated with inbreeding. But it would be helpful if a community like this could assimilate some outsiders every generation, to increase its genetic diversity. So the community may want to assimilate even outsiders who don’t have any particularly in-demand specialist skills, to boost its genetic diversity.

Note: while this is a setting where aliens exist, it’s one that’s demographically dominated by humans, so most of the foreigners these people interact with will be other humans. This is significant here.

These two motivations synergize with each other. Most obviously, assimilating a skilled specialist outsider increases the community’s skilled specialist labor pool and also the community’s genetic diversity. But also, because of dynamics adjacent to Baumol’s cost disease, even relatively “unskilled” labor would be valuable in a community like this. Somebody who cleans toilets frees up somebody else to be e.g. a doctor or a nuclear engineer, in a much more reliable and direct way than is the case in a high-population capitalist society like ours. So even assimilating a relatively “unskilled” outsider could both increase the community’s genetic diversity and give it a real economic boost (as with a skilled specialist, compared to creating a new worker through natural reproduction and education, it’s a significant savings to the community if the new worker has been raised to adulthood by a different community).

I’m putting “unskilled” in quotes here cause I think when people say “unskilled” when talking about labor often what they are really talking about is “skills that are taught outside formal school institutions” or “skills that are transmitted but not taught.” I think “unskilled” in this sense is often a political term used to devalue people’s labor and justify people being paid little, worked hard, exposed to unpleasant working conditions, etc., so I don’t like using it ... but I can’t think of a better word to quickly communicate the concept I want to communicate here; I must work with the language my culture has given me. But I’ll put it in quotes here, to indicate I’m not using the concept uncritically.

Aside: you might think that a labor-limited community would make lots of use of robots and other automation, but I’m not sure that’d be true of these people. You’d think a futuristic super-Roomba would be a labor savings compared to a person with a simpler hand-pushed vacuum cleaner, but what about all the labor and machinery needed to make the Roomba? A Roomba represents a strategy of investing secondary sector labor to save tertiary sector labor, and that makes sense if you’ve got a big population and can build big factories so you can benefit from economies of scale, but it might not work as well for almost-self-sufficient small communities. A Roomba factory may be worth it if it saves the labor of a million human cleaners, but what about if it saves the labor of 100 human cleaners? A human is a very useful general-purpose gadget that can replace many specialized gadgets. So I think, counterintuitively, in a community like this you might actually see a lot of theoretically relatively easily automated manual labor being done by humans. This would synergize with a strategy of assimilating some relatively “unskilled” outsiders to increase genetic diversity; these people must be fed, given air to breathe, etc. like everyone else, so it would make sense to try to take advantage of their “as a human, they are a very useful general-purpose gadget that can replace many specialized gadgets” feature. Remember, this is a community that would want to make efficient use of labor and that would want to maintain approximately replacement rate reproduction.

As I said, humans generally prefer sharing or trading to violent theft, because violent theft is risky, and I think that would probably apply here too. Space communities like this would likely have traditions of peacefully “trading” people with each other. One relatively nice way this might happen is e.g. every ten years communities exchange groups of young volunteer emigrants. A less nice way is something like a political leader selling another community’s political leader a doctor and receiving as payment two relatively “unskilled” but young, pretty, and fertile women to be brides for his sons. But again, where trade is a possibility, violent theft is also a possibility. So along with stealing machinery and value-added finished goods, a primary goal of raiding may be capturing people; especially skilled specialists such as doctors, nuclear engineers, etc., but anyone who looks like they might make a good slave might be opportunistically abducted.

If this is starting to sound like nightmare fuel, you’re not wrong, but there is one significant mitigating factor. Remember that the most high-value and sought-after captives would be skilled specialists such as doctors, nuclear engineers, etc.. This is the kind of work where trying to extract labor from people by simple brutality doesn’t work well. You can’t just whip a computer programmer to make them code faster, and you really don’t want to anger the person who fixes the machine that makes the air you breathe, one of the people who tend the nuclear reactor that creates energy for your community, or the person who might do surgery on you. So the experience of being captured and enslaved by these people will often be less chain gang or Gor novel stuff and more “You are given a small but comfortable apartment, decent food, and moderate work assignments. It is made clear to you that bad things will happen to you if you make trouble or don’t work. If you obey your captors and do the work they tell you to do, they will be nice to you and treat you well. Their ultimate plan is to get you to become accustomed to your new life, make friends, get a boyfriend or girlfriend and make a child or three with them, and in this way become sufficiently invested in your new community that you wouldn’t want to go home even if you could.”

Of course, let’s not be too charitable to people who are basically enslavers; that’s how relatively high-value captives are treated, less valued captives are at much more risk of physical and sexual abuse, reproductive coercion, and unsafe and unpleasant working and living conditions.

If you’ve read James C. Scott’s The Art of Not Being Governed and Against The Grain, this may remind you a little of Mr. Scott’s thesis that for much of the history of civilization states were labor-limited, not land-limited. Mr. Scott’s work was a big inspiration to me when I was imagining this culture. Someday I might make a post talking about how I think “the purpose of war isn’t to acquire resources, it’s to acquire people, infrastructure, and machinery” is one of the more plausible paradigms for war in space, but this is long enough so I’ll leave that for another day.

Earlier I drew an analogy between the resource gatherer ships of these people and the war parties of steppe nomads. The context I’ve described here makes the analogy much better. Communities like this won’t just carry resource gatherer ships, but also raiding ships, built for raiding and heavily armed. This also implies violence will be a substantial factor in the life of a community like this; either they will have a significant class of professional warriors, or raiding and preparing for raiding will be a significant part of the average person’s life. I’m going with the first option, which is how you get a Proud Warrior Race instead of weekend-warrior types; as is usual in cases like this, the “Proud Warrior Race” is actually a specific privileged class within this society, and when you read that they are proud you should think of it in that context. I’ll talk about that a lot more in my next post, in which I’ll talk about these people as a culture instead of just as an economy.

[puppyandrade]

SORAYA BARBOSA-NAZARI

GENERAL INFORMATION

Born in Malta, on Psamathe, Soraya is a 27 year-old make-up artist who has been working on the Apex Games since their creation. She was raised among the rich elite of her planet and has always managed to get what she wanted thanks to her parents' connections — though both of them were extremely disappointed to see her choose to work in the hair and make-up department of the Games. She started low in the food chain but has risen to the top and recently become the Head of the Hair and Make-up Department. Soraya is also known to get involved in the designing of costumes for certain Legends, like Loba and Rampart.

PERSONALITY

"An enthusiastic and stubborn sweetheart who doesn't let anyone step on her feet". This how many of Soraya's colleagues perceive her, and it's extremely close to be exactly what she is. For most things in life, Soraya tries her best to be optimistic and to spread positivity around her, even if it can he complicated when you work at the Games, where people chase each other, guns in hands.

Soraya is known around most of the cosmetic departments of the Games as a very kind and generous person who can appreciate a good joke — good jokes, as well as the bad puns Wattson can come up with. Her smile and laughter are contagious. But the hair and make-up department also knows her as someone who can be strict and demanding when it comes to respecting schedules; Soraya is a kind boss, but she is a boss who wants things to be perfect. She can be a friend to co-workers, but she remains the Head of the department, something that she refuses to let others forget just because she is understanding and nice.

APPEARANCE

In spite of a personality that can appear imposing to many while Soraya is at work, she is far from having an imposing physique. She is a petite woman, not even visibly taller than Wraith, but she wears heels so often that she can fool people into thinking she's taller than she actually is. Soraya is a put together person who makes sure to look nothing short of perfect whenever she gets out of her apartment. She takes great care of her appearance, as her job relies solely on looks. Her go-to make-up is a natural look, but she will never be spotted outside without it.

Soraya has an unexpectedly toned body. Most people don't realize how much effort she puts in her looks and health. She has had to work out a lot to be able to put up with her crazy schedule and her late fiancé, and she has created a workout routine for herself that she enjoys. Soraya doesn't have the rippling muscles of a Legend, but she still manages to impress some people with her biceps.

In spite of an attractive and toned physique, her defining features remain her high cheekbones and strong jawline — many say that her light green eyes are what caught their attention the most. Soraya takes great care of her naturally tan skin and keeps her wavy black hair shoulder length, as it is easier to maintain it on a tight schedule.

FAME & GLORY

Soraya doesn't need to be a Legend and participate in the Games to be famous among fans (as well as the general population). With her father, Barbosa, being the CEO of a company responsible for the creation and production of weapons of all sorts, and her mother being a renown journalist, it is no surprise that she would have gathered attention. But while her parents' fame is partly to blame, the main reason why Soraya's name can be seen on TV and in magazines, is her former relationship with a man more famous than her parents. The fame has allowed Soraya to become Head of her department faster than she would have, had she been a nobody, but she often catches herself thinking that she would rather nobody knows her name. She is tired of being "the draughter of" and "the ex-fiancée of". Fame is nice, but Soraya would rather be her own person.

JAMES "THE FORGE" MCCORMICK

Rocky would be the perfect word to describe a large part of Soraya's relationship with Forge, but nonetheless, she loved the man, in spite of his many faults. Their meeting was far from romantic, as she was introduced to him by her father, a fan of his combat skills and a firm believed that he could offer "The Forge" a great sponsorship. Soraya thought that he was an arrogant jerk (she wasn't wrong), and he thought she was a spoiled brat (he wasn't exactly right). But Soraya was surprised to find that Forge was a man who could treat her like an equal, and not a rich little girl whose feelings needed to be spared — it led them go on several dates together, dates that were, of course, made known to the public. When Forge didn't deny being the source of the rumors, Soraya decided to break things off with Forge.

They found their way back together several months later, after it was revealed that her father was the one who had revealed to several news outlets that she was seeing Forge. They had many arguments about Forge covering Soraya's father being a shitty person to spare her feelings, something that Forge had never done, something that had made Soraya enjoy his company in the first place. They got engaged two years laters. Not too long after, another event almost broke up their relationship: the revelation of Forge's treatment of Bangalore. Soraya thought that his macho attitude was just an act for the public, as Forge had assured her so often throughout their relationship, and the reveal felt an absolute betrayal. It was the fact that The Forge himself swallowed his pride to apologize to her and promise that he would apologize to Bangalore that convinced her to stay.

Sadly, Forge's life was ended brutally, under her eyes, before they could even plan their wedding.

[ RELATIONS WITH LEGENDS UNDER ]

BANGALORE

Because of their link to Forge, Soraya and Bangalore had very tense moments. Until Forge was announced as a future Legend and Bangalore revealed how he treated her, they weren't particularly close or distant, but they later had arguments. Bangalore believed that Soraya was just a naive kid and a jealous girlfriend who couldn't handle the truth, while Soraya thought that Bangalore was unnecessarily rude to her over what her fiancé had done. They have found ways to communicate with each other, and Bangalore is impressed with how much Soraya wants to believe in redemption and see good in people. They have grown close to each other and have built a mutual trust and admiration.

BLOODHOUND

Because of Bloodhound's mask, those two don't really have reasons to spend time together. Bloodhound remains one of Soraya's favorite Legends in the Games, and they are someone that Soraya respects. They have brief but amicable conversations when Soraya helps the costume department.

CAUSTIC

Soraya has only worked with Caustic once. Since then, she has refused to take care of him. Being optimistic by nature, Soraya can't handle Caustic's scientific views on humans — she admires his brains, but she would rather be as far away from him as possible.

CRYPTO

They don't get along, and they don't not get along. Soraya doesn't often work with Crypto, but when she does, they know how to enjoy each other company in silence. Crypto doesn't care much for her, but he likes that she can do his hair and make-up without desperately trying to initiate a conversation like some of the other make-up artists do.

GIBRALTAR

Because he's a giant, sweet teddy bear, Gibby reminds Soraya of both her father and her maternal grandfather — both being two men that she loves with her whole heart. She rarely gets to work with him, but she really likes him, and she always makes time to talk to him, even if for just a minute, and wish him good luck before games. Gibby appreciates Soraya for her optimism and kindness, as well as their common need to see the good in people (even those that might not deserve it).

HORIZON

Horizon hasn't been around long enough for Soraya to have a proper opinion of her, but she is definitely intimidated by her intelligence. Soraya struggles to understand Horizon's accent a lot of the time and spends too much time asking her to repeat herself (until she gives up and pretends to have understood Horizon). From what she knows, Horizon is a good person and she can't wait to get to know her better.

LIFELINE

The first Legend Soraya worked with. Lifeline will always have a special place in her heart — she made her feel comfortable and at ease from the start. Soraya loves working with Lifeline more than anything else because it just feels easy, no matter how complex things can get when it comes to makeup. Her favorite thing is to compliment Lifeline on how pretty she is and to thank her for taking such good care of her skin, unlike some other Legends. They can enjoy chill conversations pre-games and sometimes even hang out outside the Games for a restaurant "date".

LOBA

Refusing to let anyone do her make-up because she couldn’t trust them, Loba originally avoided the hair and make-up department staff, but Soraya’s (very expensive) engagement ring caught her attention. While she only wanted to steal said ring and started to act friendly towards Soraya for that reason, Loba grew attached fairly quickly. The two of them now love their (not so) playful flirting and are unnecessarily touchy with each other all the time. No matter how much they appreciate each other, neither of them thinks that they can, or should, allow things between them to grow any further — though for the most part, it is Loba being worried for Soraya’s safety and believing that a thief isn’t good enough for ray-of-sunshine Soraya.

MIRAGE

Theoretically, Mirage and Soraya should get along well. Things aren’t bad between them, and Soraya loves that Mirage can be eccentric and enjoy crazy costumes and styling, but their personalities aren’t as compatible as some would expect. Mirage’s self-confidence can easily get on Soraya’s nerves, and Soraya’s strict work policies are far from being something that Mirage likes. 

OCTANE

As a Legend, Soraya absolutely loves Octane and his constant excitement and his daredevil attitude. As someone to work with, Soraya absolutely hates Octane. He can't sit still for more than three seconds and it makes it really hard for her to do her job — but she has figured out ways to keep him still enough, by telling him about all the new explosives and crazy weapons her father has been working on.

PATHFINDER

For obvious reasons, Pathfinder doesn’t require hair and make-up time, so they don’t get many opportunities to hang out. Pathfinder calls Soraya his friend, and she calls him her friend in return because she knows that it makes him happy. They have brief conversations in the corridors of the ships 

RAMPART

They have been on a first name basis since the day they met, even if they aren't the closest of friends. Soraya respects how strong Rampart is and her modder brains, being constantly impressed by her. Rampart isn't a big fan of the make-up team because they all can be fussy, but at least Soraya knows weapons and they can talk before matches. Just like with Horizon, though, Rampart's accent often leaves Soraya confused.

REVENANT

It's safe to say that everyone at the Games tries hard to make sure that Soraya won't end up in the same room as Revenant, or even see him in a corridor.

WATTSON

Nothing can ever stop Soraya from thinking that Wattson is an absolute sweetheart and an angel. They don't have deep and long conversations or anything of the like. Whenever Soraya works on Wattson's make-up, she just listens to her ramble about all her inventions. It's quiet and relaxed for the both of them. Soraya occasionally flirts with Wattson because she thinks that she's adorable when she gets flustered. They love to share jokes and puns together.

WRAITH

It took a while for Soraya to be able to approach Wraith, as there was no trust between the two of them. It took months of trying for Soraya to be able to approach Wraith, but they are finally going somewhere. They spend most of their time together simply quiet and enjoying silence. They have a mutual understanding: no personal questions, no long conversations.

[mc-lukanette]

Any chance we can get something wholesome and good and Lukanette flavored to wash the taste of that bad ep away, because they absolutely did Luka dirty for his hero debut.

Honestly, let’s be completely real here: every hero has gotten a terrible debut in some way.

Alya only makes a good fox in the fact that she’s color-coded for it. Mirage doesn’t fit Alya as a superpower. Also, a chunk of this episode involves kids being obnoxious and no one wants that.

Nino was not built up properly for a protective miraculous and “Anansi” was centered more around Alya and Nora than himself.

Chloe… yeah.

Roi Singe got completely overshadowed, ignored, and was only brought in when there were, like, four minutes left in the episode.

Ryuko revealed herself right away and negated any chance at seeing her in the future unless they find a way around it.

And here, we had to endure all of that other stuff in order to get to Viperion. The reality is that no hero got a good debut (maybe Max will though, we don’t know).

Also… confession time, not even going to lie: I’m not as mad at this episode as everyone else is.

When Aspik was revealed alongside Viperion, this is basically exactly how I thought it would go and also exactly how I wanted it to go (hear me out).

Looking at this episode at face value is that “Marinette is just being dumb.” The deeper, more specific value is that which ships are working, which aren’t, and why.

Like, firstly, this is pre-”Silencer.” That has nothing to do with what the ideal situation is; it’s just a fact (I don’t care what Astruc said). Luka confessed in “Silencer” and Alya mentioned at the end of the episode that “Luka and Adrien haven’t chosen anyone either.” That statement would not be true if Marinette believed that Luka already confessed to her.

When Marinette is around Luka, she can process reality, and her friends even point this out. When she’s around Adrien, she does not think, and that’s what this episode is pointing out. “Silencer” further confirms this by showing how Marinette acts around Luka without Adrien present.

And just talking about the “guitar scene” in general, let’s look at this from Marinette’s standpoint.

Marinette does not offer up Adrien immediately. It’s Alya who jabs a thumb in Adrien’s direction. Yes, she’s actually gesturing to Luka, but let me ask this:

What is Alya’s defining trait when Marinette is around Adrien? Pushing Marinette to interact with him. When Alya isn’t direct enough to actually point out Luka specifically, I’m not even remotely surprised that Marinette thought that Alya was directing her towards Adrien because that’s usually all that Alya does, and what better way to get close to Adrien than to offer him up to Jagged Stone, who Adrien is a fan of (since he got Marinette to sign his CD case)? Adrien was even closer to Marinette than Luka was distance-wise, so yeah, of course she’d notice Adrien first.

Also, note Luka’s face when Marinette asks him about offering up his guitar (which I’m not mad about because Luka gave her his guitar at the start of the episode and she’s not a musician like Adrien is); he’s calm and he goes along with it with a smile. He’s not mad or even upset that Marinette isn’t seeing him because he recognizes that all Marinette is seeing right now is Adrien.

So, no, I don’t blame Marinette. I blame her friends for talking about her being with other people behind her back, mocking her, and then not trying to bring it up with her. Alya does in a way, but she fails to do literally all of the things that she’s supposed to as Marinette’s best friend, the worst of which is reigning in Marinette’s worst instincts.

This is what I always mean when I talk about Marinette’s friends. They make faces and complain about Marinette’s worst behaviors, but they don’t take steps to fix them. No one stepped in when Marinette clearly got the wrong idea from Alya, and Marinette continued riding that idea because no one is telling her that she’s wrong (when Jagged points out Luka–saying that he was better EQUIPPED (i.e: the fact that he has a guitar)–Marinette registers what Adrien said about being a pianist, meaning he wouldn’t have a guitar, which is why she focused on the fact that Luka had a guitar and not Luka himself).

Alya, at best, implies early on that Kagami might be right, but Kagami called Luka Marinette’s boyfriend. Thus, Marinette thinks that Alya is teasing her, because Luka being a friend to her is just a fact. Luka was the only one to make a proper attempt at calming Marinette down by talking positively about Adrien having Kagami (without touching explicitly on the romantic aspect; a sweet, gentle move on his part).

And, heck, just going back to the guitar scene, Marinette even laments her decision immediately afterward when she’s away from everyone else. Once she got away from Adrien, she instantly acknowledged that she made a mistake and that she didn’t know what she was doing.

Marinette doesn’t process information around Adrien. She needs direction to do so, and that’s exactly what Adrien gives her when he tells Ladybug that Luka would be good for the snake. If Adrien hadn’t shown up that day, she would’ve picked Luka right away.

This episode is a case study of why the love square doesn’t work and why Lukanette and Adrimi do (at least at this point in time). Marinette can’t function around Adrien (especially when he shows up out of nowhere) and Adrien has a hard time focusing on anything but Ladybug when he had a chance to woo her as Adrien. This episode basically dealt with Ladrien and Adrienette in one shot while “Silencer” dealt with LadyNoir.

I knew that Luka wasn’t going to get a lot of screentime in his debut, because Luka is the type to be an active player (and, again, the fact that both Adrien and Luka had the snake at some point due to the leaks, so I figured Adrien would play a role here), and I’m okay with that because Luka shines when he does get to play an active role.

So, me personally? I’ll be honest, I really liked this one. It’s not perfect, no, but I had fun. It touches on a lot of stuff I was wondering about and, even if some of that was painful, it felt inevitable.

Like, this episode did so many things that I wanted/enjoyed:

- LUKANETTE INTERACTIONS AHHHHHHH THEY PLAYED GUITAR TOGETHER. (and the fact that it was so casual was basically the Instagram movie picture times ten; also, Luka tried to make Marinette feel better about Adrimi and that’s sweet)

- ARIMIIIIIII; THAT SCENE WAS ADORABLE AND I NEED MORE OF IT.

- Marinette freaking out because she couldn’t wave back to Adrien due to holding Luka’s guitar was a nice touch.

- ANARKA AND JAGGED OMG I CAN’T BELIEVE ONE OF MY AUS CAN BE  THEORETICALLY COMPLIANT WITH CANON NOW.

- With half of the girl squad talking about Lukanette VS Adrienette, this makes it a fantastic sequel to “Frozer” in a narrative sense. Likewise, we get more insight on how far Luka is willing to go to support Marinette’s crush on Adrien. “Frozer” was bittersweet for him but this episode was him being fully accepting with whatever came into her head. He just enjoys time with her and that’s all he needs.

- Jagged thinks that Luka is cooler than Adrien and he would totally be on board with Lukanette; I don’t make the rules, I just point out the facts.

- LUKA WAS SO DETERMINED TO HELP LADYBUG BY DISTRACTING DESPERADA, BLESS.

- SAAAAASS. (oh, sorry; I mean SASSSSSSSSSSSSSS)

- I know I talk a lot of salt about Adrien, but the fact that he kept trying to save Ladybug and then gave up the snake himself after realizing that it was pointless was a nice moment. I think this fits well with “Reflekdoll” and Adrien acknowledging that there are some roles he’s just not meant for. He felt bad and it hurt him to constantly see Ladybug get zapped because he couldn’t focus and that was a good character note for him. Also, everything he does in this episode feels very in-character for him and not technically in a bad way.

- Ladybug’s face when Adrien (as Aspik) tells her that he’s Chat Noir; it was like her world was crumbling down and it was a beautiful moment even if she got immediately zapped before replying.

- omg luka is so determined to help because Desperada attacked his family and friends i cry (also, the little Miracle Box looks heckin’ SMALL in his hand)

- LUKA IS SO EXTRA AND I ADORE IT KJSFGNFDJNGFDG. HIS VIPERION TRANSFORMATION IS BEAUTIFUL AND HE’S SO FLASHY AND FABULOUS. THE FACT THAT HE’S SO CHILL YET SO EXTRA IS AMAZING.

- Viperion. Just–Viperion in general. Luka OWNED that miraculous and he had a PLAN, oh my god.

- Luka’s soft look as Ladybug leaves. hkngjfngdfg

So, yeah. Ultimately, I think Marinette’s friends are the low point of the episode (because, oh, when Marinette wants to move on from Adrien in “Frozer,” it was a problem, but when they see Luka and Marinette interact here, they’re totally okay with her moving on? What kind of friends–) and I obviously didn’t like the fact that some things were oversold and others were underplayed, but everything else? I either understood it or outright liked it.

[docfuture]

Princess, part 8

     [This story is a prequel, set several years before The Fall of Doc Future, when Flicker is 16.  Links to some of my other work are here.  Updates are theoretically biweekly–going to try to get the next one out by mid-March.]

Previous: Part 7

      Journeyman ran his fingers through his hair and sighed as he looked at the picture Flicker sent to his handcomp.       "Yep, that's her," he said.  "Dr. Reinhart has a rep of knowing a lot about how minds are put together--and how to take them apart.  She seems to be effectively immune to mental influence and hostile probability manipulation--no, I don't know how she manages that--and I've heard enough complaints to believe that she can mess up Diviners and Seers just by being near what they're trying to see.  Not sure about Oracles.  Also, she's hard to kill.  If she's willing to help you, I doubt she'd be a weak point."       "That sounds good.  Except that the Database says her specialty is mind control.  But I guess she concentrates on defense?  That part wasn't clear."       "A lot about her isn't clear," said Journeyman.  "She is very good at using fear, though.  General opinions I hear about her are mixed.  I have connections, and while I keep them private, the general idea isn't a secret--I swap gossip, assistance, and so forth, move things around, and link people with what they need, all fairly quietly.  Dr. Reinhart clearly has connections, but nobody knows how they work.  She can show up somewhere, have coffee with a few folks, and sometimes everything stays quiet, and sometimes all hell breaks loose.  Odd accidents, fits of madness, sudden unexplained deaths from no obvious cause, and occasionally 'Blood--blood everywhere!'  And afterwards the details of what happened don't always add up.  Except usually some grim entrenched problem has disappeared.  That part is acknowledged, but she still really puts people on edge.  Oh, and there are rumors that she's seriously annoyed several intelligence agencies, but they're still trying to hire or co-opt her.  Jumping Spider would know more about that than me."       "Well, I needed to talk to Jumping Spider anyway."  Flicker frowned.  "Anything else?"       "I don't doubt Dr Reinhart's competence to advise you about social interaction."  Journeyman looked down.  "Motivation, methods, side effects?  That's over my head, but I would expect some warnings from your AI."       "Why?  Just her reputation?"       "Well... I know Doc is twitchy about mind control, and Dr. Reinhart apparently has issues with his methods.  And the spy stuff."       "She has a negative threat index--that means she's helping.  Doc is pragmatic about that."       "Up to a point."  Journeyman spread his hands.  "Anyway, that's what I can tell you.  Hope it helps."       "Yes."  Flicker sped up to virtual type a response to Dr. Reinhart, then slowed back down again.  "There.  She's traveling, and pretty inflexible about privacy, so it will be at least a few days before I can meet her, regardless."       She stood up from the high speed interface station and glided over to stop in front of Journeyman where he sat on the couch.  He watched her warily.       "Thank you," she said, and paused.  "I'm willing to at least consider rescheduling Speedtest, but I don't want to argue about it right now.   You don't feel safe here and you probably need sleep.  How much did you get last night?"       He shrugged.  "A few hours before you woke me up.  None since."       "Then get sleep, consult your Diviners or whatever, and we can talk more tomorrow."       "Might take a while to find anybody.  If I even can.  Tracking down Diviners is rarely easy."  He looked away.  "And Flicker?  I don't want to argue about it at all.  I'll send what I find to the Database.  Argue with Doc, or Jumping Spider, or Jetgirl, or whoever you need to.  Not me."       "I don't..."  Flicker stopped and swallowed.  "Argue isn't the right word.  It's just the one that sounded human to me.  And my anger isn't really at you, that's just where I attach it.  I think there's something wrong with my human emulation."       Journeyman shook his head.  "No.  Humans make mistakes, and they get angry, and no one should expect anything different.  Least of all me.  This isn't something we can solve.  Sometimes you can't get from where you are to where you want to be."       "And what I want is the problem."       He waved his arms.  "No!  I'm the problem.  I thought I could still finesse a way through, despite everything stacked against it, and I. Was. Wrong.  And that's why I have to go."       "Partner..."  She stopped again.  "Damn.  Having an emotional reaction to that word."       "...Yeah."  He blinked then raised his hand.  "I'm sorry I don't have any magic words for you.  Primum non nocere is all I've got left."       Flicker pulled off her glove and reached out to complete their fingertip touch.       "Take care," he said.       She couldn't find anything to say.  So she just nodded.  Journeyman took a deep breath and teleported out.       A faint whirl of disturbed air, then nothing.       Flicker looked around the room.  It felt far emptier than was reasonable.       *****       Evening back home, pre-dawn in Kenya.  Flicker didn't want to wake up Jonathan or his family, but Chaser was awake and running to greet her as soon as she slowed down.  Flying tackle and friend bites and his ridiculously tiny meow, and they played chase dance and dangle the fuzzy toy the way he liked.  Then he flopped down on her feet and purred as she held him.       Chaser wasn't her cat.  He wasn't anyone's cat.  He was his own cheetah.  But Flicker had rescued him as a kitten, taken him far away from the lions that had killed his siblings.  It wasn't clear what had killed their mother, but life was full of perils for cheetahs, especially when they had to share shrinking habitat with lions.  He stayed with the family of a park ranger, on land Flicker had purchased next to a wildlife reserve.  Extravagant?  Maybe, but it wasn't hard to figure out why she'd identified so hard with an orphan who had social problems with other cheetahs.       Time zones made visits awkward, and they still hoped to reintroduce him back to the wild someday, but in the meantime she could hold him close, and whisper that he was a good cat.  He purred and didn't mind her tears from trying to accept a present that had crumbled unexpectedly, and a hoped for future that had been a mirage.  He didn't judge, didn't care whether she was human or not; she was just his fast friend.       An hour under a slowly brightening sky made the world a slightly better place.  Still not good, but better.       *****       Later evening.  Ghosting through the darkness at 500 kilometers per second.  Flicker was moving fast enough to be effectively invisible, but slow enough to leave no traces behind her.  It fit her mood--she didn't particularly want to be anywhere.  But there was someone she needed to talk to at Doc's.       Superhuman speed implied a superhuman ability to interrupt.  So Flicker and Doc had worked out a protocol that allowed for degrees of urgency and desire to avoid disruption.  'Open door' had a particular implication because of Flicker's dislike of them.  It was a way for Doc to indicate that she could join a meeting in progress, but it would be polite to wait and listen quietly until an appropriate pause, absent an emergency.       At Doc's.  Flicker entered the recovery room next to one of the med labs, sat in one of the chairs, and slowed down.  She didn't say anything.       Jumping Spider was sitting up with her left leg extended.  Something complicated covered the knee--it looked like one of Doc's support and monitoring minibots.  Doc was frowning at a large display showing... Not her leg.  Her left jump boot.  Which wasn't in the room, though her spare pair was.  A quick Database check showed her main boots were down in one of the big fabbers in Doc's workshop being repaired.       "...crash cushioning cells seem to have handled the landing fine," Doc was saying, "and at least blunted the impact. Still..."       "They did the job," said Jumping Spider.  "Sometimes a gust of wind hits you at just the wrong time, and one did, right after I'd hopped off the roof."       "The fourth story roof.  Over icy concrete.  In a blizzard."       "Yeah, it was Tuesday.  Wednesdays are overpasses.  Hi Flicker."       "Hello.  What happened?"       "Nothing major.  I banged up my knee a little yesterday and used the crash guards on my left boot.  Doc's going to give the boots a checkup, recalibrate the jump jets, and--" She turned her head to look at Doc. "Not stay up all night making minor improvements.  Right?"       Doc raised an eyebrow.  "I am most definitely going to run unit tests after the tuneup and the data updates."       "That will only take an hour or two.  And Flicker wants to talk to me anyway."       Flicker didn't understand how Doc's relationship with Jumping Spider worked, except that it did.  It was close, but they usually saw each other only a few times a month.  Jetgirl described it as 'co-conspirators with benefits.'  There had to be more than that after almost two decades, but Flicker didn't get how most more typical relationships functioned either.       "All right," said Doc.  He nodded to Flicker.  "I'll give the two of you privacy, then."       "Thank you," said Flicker.       Doc must have read her expression--or more likely her 'No personal small talk currently welcome' Database flag--and left the room without further comment.  Jumping Spider pulled the swivel arm table with a Database interface over so she could use it.       "We're secure--privacy locked," she said.  "Yes, from Doc too.  Check."       DASI was insistent on leaving up the warning flag on Flicker's visor about limiting Doc's access in his own HQ, but she confirmed the privacy lock.       "Verified," said Flicker.       "Now we can talk," said Jumping Spider.  "My knee isn't much worse than usual.  But I heard you are.  Doc says you seem determined to push a hazardous test series on short notice and you don't look happy.  Did Journeyman just turn you down or did you manage something stupider?"       Jumping Spider could be tactful.  She usually chose to be blunt with Flicker.  They weren't friends, but Flicker tried to listen to her advice, because she was right far too often to ignore.       "Both," said Flicker.  "I don't think I have a partner anymore."       "You don't think?  Want to tell me what happened?"       "No.  But I should.  I'd been pushing patrols for a while and was off duty yesterday when I got an alert that Hermes was back..."       Flicker summarized the mess of the last two days, with a pause while Jumping Spider watched the vid of the handover of Hermes at the Box.  It was even less pleasant to explain than she'd expected.  She had to bounce up to speed mind several times to maintain her composure while staying on track.  Jumping Spider said she would save any questions for later, which was just as well.       "...and after he ported out," Flicker finished, "I did memory assimilation work, then visited with Chaser until the Database told me you were available.  It's been a long day."       "It sure has," said Jumping Spider.  "The Database security AI called me for help.  It needed a human other than Doc with the right clearance level bad.  You ignored warnings, bypassed the blocks, and managed to set off a cross-domain priority conflict and a legacy conflict this afternoon.  Why settle for one crisis at a time when you can have more?"       "Um.  Those were for something that actually helped."       "A book that flaunts that it's full of traps in the dedication and you're sure it helped?"       "Well... I'm running sims."       "Yeah.  You do that."  Jumping Spider smiled sardonically.       "Why was the cross-domain priority conflict so bad, anyway?"       "Because the AI was forbidden from telling Doc about something in one domain, and required to tell him in another--and he's normally the one that resolves those conflicts.  And you were no help, because you were causing it.  So it had to call me, because I was the next person in line with clearance.  I figured I'd better drop what I was doing to deal with what you stirred up.  Doc was already on the way to get me when you sent your message about Dr. Reinhart--his flying car does come in handy sometimes.  And I have heard of her.  But I need to do some Database poking before I'm willing to make a judgement, so are you up for doing some tedious but necessary work to help me fill in a few holes?  It would make up for what I had to drop, and let me test something."       "Depends.  What kind of work?"       "Spying.  Under the direction of someone who knows what she's doing.  That's why most of it will be boring.  But it will also involve a lot of purposeful running around, which I'm guessing you could use.  You've amply demonstrated how fast you go stir-crazy.  I want to double check some clues to whatever was wrong at the Box that they didn't want you to see, and have you take a quick look in some other places.  I expect a lot of verification of negatives, or whatever is in the Database, but I have a nasty suspicious mind and suspiciously nasty things have been happening."       "...Yeah.  Okay.  It'll be slower in the dark, though."       "Oh, some parts will be in daylight."       Flicker waited a moment, and the Database projected the outline of a list that was far too long to fit on her visor display.  It started with a survey of just who was staking out the home of the magician she'd talked to at the Box, and included whole sets of vehicles and buildings associated with spy agencies and less identifiable groups.       "All right," she said, and headed out.       *****       Flicker settled into a rhythm.  Slow down, take action, verify, speed up, move on.  And consider her life, while she moved.       Human--for some value of human that was possible for her--was part of what she wanted to be.  Speed and motion were a much bigger part of who and what she already was.  Human was an illusion, an emulation.  A load bearing one.  Maybe even a necessary one, in the long term.  But she wasn't good enough yet.  If the last few days had proved anything, it was this.       She'd read various versions of a joke about how many people stopped growing up and just started faking it after about age fourteen.  Even humans sometimes had to fake being adult humans.  And that went to the essence of what she thought Journeyman had been trying to say.  For her to connect, to feel, to be the person she wanted to be, meant being socially human.  But to relate as an equal, as a full partner, as... well there weren't proper words, but to connect fully with him meant being a responsible adult.       And Flicker couldn't manage both at the same time.  Not yet.  She could fake it for a while, but push too hard?  Add the stress that came with being who she was in the world she lived in?  Her emulation broke down.  Humans used age as a proxy for responsibility, and she'd been fixated on the unfairness of that.  But all the advice, the common wisdom, assumed you were human.  And social support was centered on 'normal' human, for an extensive and arbitrary set of dimensions of normal.       But if she gave up on human, if she fully accepted that there was no one like her, that she was alien to this world of odd bipeds, she risked finding the breaking point of the fragile thread of empathy that connected her to that world.  Because they could be so foolish, so cruel to one another, so ignorant, so blind.  Doc had always been very clear about the danger in that.  And the Volunteer had spent a whole day talking her down from the edge, after her big fight with Doc, when she'd wanted to act, to treat the world like a dysfunctional terrarium that cried out for intervention to stop the evil, the oppression, the war, the starvation and brutality and shortsightedness and indifference, all the so very unnecessary pain, outside the narrow range of actions allowed for a superhero.       The most frightening part of that day had been seeing the edges of some of the Volunteer's load-bearing illusions.  The ideals that let him help the things he could, as an alien in a world of humans.  But those illusions couldn't be hers.  Because she was more alien?  She didn't know.  She did know they'd broken others who had tried.       She needed to find her own way.  While she could still care.  Because if she stopped caring, it would be way too easy for her to go over any one of several edges.       Maybe Dr. Reinhart could help Flicker find better ways to connect to humans.  But she also needed to learn more about who, and what, she already was.  The limits and idiosyncrasies of her power and being.  Doc hadn't stopped her experiments because they'd reached any firm conclusions.  He'd stopped them because they'd become too dangerous to continue on Earth.       How fast was she, really?  What new realms of sense and ability were beyond the limits she needed to maintain on Earth?  The aim of Speedtest was to find out.  It was the only thing she looked forward to now that was truly hers.  It was past time.       *****       More than an hour and numerous additions to the list later, Flicker was finally done.  She'd spent a lot of the extra time following up discrepancies in Italy.  There was a messy but still relatively quiet political crisis going on there, triggered by some combination of Hermes' rampage in Rome, the identity and contacts of the now dead magician who had summoned him, recriminations over the botched response that had resulted in his death, and a long-simmering conflict over the reasons that Italy didn't currently have any resident superheroes.       She'd taken a brief moment to ghost over to the shop in Florence where she'd gotten takeout gelato with Journeyman to celebrate first becoming partners.  It was still closed in the first hint of dawn light.       Sentimental human indulgence.  Was there a point?  Maybe there would be again, someday, a time when it would mean more than something she'd thought she'd lost, but never really had.  But for now, it was closure.  Acceptance.       She headed back to Doc's HQ and decided against speeding up.  Speedtest would be soon enough, and there was no point in leaving a bright plasma trail that could set off alarms for satellite watchers who might wonder why she was hurrying across the Atlantic at night.       *****       "I recommend that you agree to Dr. Reinhart's conditions," said Jumping Spider.  She sipped from her coffee cup and eyed the Database display in front of her with mild disapproval.  "She's right about the amount of inconvenience adjusting her work around advising you will be."       "You think she's safe?" asked Flicker.       "Heh.  No.  I think she's followed consistent goals, and she's functional, competent, as expert as you're going to get, skilled at error recovery, and very smart.  Smart enough to understand just how vital and risky giving you psych advice will be.  But don't try spying on her.  She didn't think much of your failure to consider the consequences of stalking Journeyman."       Flicker frowned.  "How do you know that?"       "I talked to her while you were gone."       Jumping Spider paused, waiting to see if Flicker would ask a question.  She sped up.  Her human emotion emulator indicated her nominal reaction would be anger or irritation.  Human emotions weren't serving her very well lately, so she ignored it.  It would be a drop in the bucket compared to everything else, anyway.       DASI?  Anything security relevant that I need to know about Jumping Spider contacting Dr. Reinhart?       No.       Well, that was unambiguous.  She'd asked Jumping Spider for her professional assessment as an intelligence expert, and it was clear she was testing Flicker's self-control, too.  She slowed back down.       "Go on."       "It was an illuminating conversation.  She referenced some of my more subtle tradecraft tricks like an academic being careful about citation footnotes.  If you focus on her advice rather than trying to emulate her, respect boundaries, and maintain a healthy level of skepticism about untested theory, I think her aid will help you.  Once she's ready to meet--it will be at least a week."       "Good to know.  Thank you.  Was the information I verified for you helpful?"       "I don't know yet for most of it.  But your performance was technically adequate while under direct supervision."       Jumping Spider had no qualms about hammering at a point or reminder until she was sure it got through--in this case that Flicker was still bad at the judgement part of spying, however technically skilled she might be.       Flicker nodded.  "Any other suggestions or comments?"       "Do you want my assessment of what happened to Journeyman?  It's speculative, and you may find it upsetting."       "I don't ask for your opinions because I think I'll like them."       A snorted laugh.  "Okay.  I think Hermes' arrival was part of an op, and was deliberately timed to coincide with whatever Journeyman did just before exfiltrating.  I also think we're unlikely to ever get enough evidence to prove that.  From an operations viewpoint, I think Journeyman got entangled and dragooned into something far more dangerous than he'd ever voluntarily agree to, but all sides--and I definitely think there were more than two--in the conflict that might have wanted him dead knew he had your backup, and that's why he lived.  Tell me.  If demons had killed him in some dimension you could get to, what would have been your first impulse?"       "Burn it to the ground, then burn the ground," said Flicker.       "That's the sort of thing Oracles and Seers pick up on.  But since he came back alive, you're much less inclined to do anything disproportionate, right?  Because attribution is much tougher, even if an attack is aimed at you or Doc.  And there will be probably be completely uninvolved people living in the same place even if you do know who is responsible."       "...Yes."       "That's also the sort of thing Oracles and Seers pick up on.  I also think that whoever Journeyman believes is your mother is part of one of the sides, and that an opposition tactic that he fears is a framing attempt to deflect any retaliation onto her.  And he got dragged deep into the wilderness of mirrors, no longer fully trusts his own judgement, and didn't want to drag you there, too.  I'll give him credit for that."       Flicker sped up to consult the Database.  'Wilderness of mirrors' was an intelligence term for living in a state of perpetual uncertainty about a messy mix of hard to attribute hostile action and coincidence.  Just the sort of thing she hated.       "Great.  So, was he being deceptive about--No. There's no point it getting angry about any of it again until I can talk to Dr. Reinhart."       "You're learning.  And you stopped Hermes without killing him or anyone else, Journeyman got back alive, you didn't lose it when he disengaged--which was inevitable--and it's much harder to attack someone who's in a different dimension.  And you know who is at home in the wilderness of mirrors?"       "You?"       "Dr. Reinhart.  I do all right, but I suspect you'll get along better with her."       "Okay.  Thank you for your assessment.  Do you think I should delay Speedtest because of Journeyman's warning?"       "Because of his warning?  Are willing to put it off indefinitely?"       "No."       "Then no, because he didn't tell you anything actionable.  But whether it's a good idea at all is not my call.  Talk to Doc."       "I will," said Flicker.  "Jumping Spider?"       "Yes?"       "This was... less unpleasant than talking to you usually is."       She smiled.  "Don't worry.  I'll make it up to you next time."       Flicker shook her head, but felt her mouth want to twitch in response.  Human wasn't something you could just turn on and off...       She headed out to find Doc.

Next: Part 9

[waltzofthewifi]

Kota Chapter 31: Team Building

Table of Contents | Beginning

The details were the hardest part to work out, but somehow Marinette managed it.

Figuring out where to hold the meeting was the biggest obstacle. They ended up in a super-fancy dining room at the hotel. Ladybug asked Martok to do a security sweep of the room (from a distance, of course, since most of the heroes would recognize the robot), and then had Chat Noir do another one on his baton just in case. Chloe ordered complete privacy, and she and Ladybug worked to find discreet entrances so no one would know the heroes were there.

The final issue was figuring out how to get Fu into the room without anyone seeing him. In the end, Marinette convinced him to use the tiger miraculous and turn invisible.

"I don't think the miraculous should be used for such trivial matters," Fu had argued.

"This is important," Marinette countered.

Ladybug and Chat Noir were the first to arrive in the back dining room, as planned.

"I'm surprised Fu agreed to this," Chat Noir said. "He isn't very forthcoming with information. I haven't even seen him since he gave me the transformation potions."

That was news to Ladybug. She was aware Chat Noir didn't know where Fu lived - it was too dangerous if he did, since they might run into each other unstransformed. But since Chat Noir had received the potions, she had assumed they figured some other way of meeting up.

She didn't get a chance to respond, because Fu arrived.

He had already detransformed, and the tiger kwami, Roarr, immediately ducked behind the two heroes.

"Ladybug, Chat Noir," Fu greeted.

"Master Fu," Ladybug replied. "Glad you could make it."

The heroes started trickling in and sitting around the table. Actually, "sitting" might be a strong word - Chat Noir balanced on the top of his seat, Kota kneeled on hers, and Roi Singe sat backwards with his back on the seat and legs on the back. Queen Bee put her feet up on the table, Ryuko sat rim-rod straight, Rena Rouge pulled one leg up on the chair with her, Viperion sat criss-cross, and Pegasus sat with his hands crossed like an old lady. Carapace remained the only normal-sitting person besides Ladybug and Fu.

"This is so cool!" Rena Rouge started. "I have so many questions." She unfurled herself and leaned forward, holding up her notebook.

"She's been talking my ear off all night," Carapace contributed. "Hope you're prepared, dude."

Queen Bee scoffed. "You can't call Ladybug 'dude'."

"She said I could!"

"It's okay," Ladybug confirmed. "I know you all are used to me and Chat being held up as celebrities or idols, but even though we are the leaders here, this is a team and we're your teammates. And the point of this is to grow as a team."

"Where's Souris Rose?" Pegasus questioned.

"She decided she didn't want to come," Ladybug answered.

"That's a shame," Pegasus answered. "Her powers were useful, and she was talented at using them."

"How do you decide who to use?" Kota asked.

"It depends," Ladybug said. "Since I began studying the miraculouses, I had started to connect certain people to certain miraculous. Rena was - and still is - my first choice, and when the time came to call on you, I knew the exact miraculous for you.

"Carapace was a little different. I picked the right miraculous for that akuma, and I knew you would be the right choice as well for that akuma, but I didn't necessarily pick that miraculous for you. And then for Queen Bee - I had actually intended to give the bee miraculous to Rena."

"And I stole it," Queen Bee finished. "That was selfish of me, and I'm sorry. I won't do that again."

Ladybug smiled. "I'm glad to hear it. But don't be too hard on yourself - you could only steal it because I lost it to begin with."

"Wait, you lost a miraculous?" Rena Rouge asked.

She didn't mean it maliciously, but Ladybug still shifted in her seat nervously.

"Uh, kinda?"

"Ladybug was under a lot of pressure from Style Queen," Chat Noir intervened. "And, in a way, that only happened because I also made a mistake, and wasn't able to help."

"Ryuko, when I picked the dragon Miraculous for that akuma, I realized you would be a perfect fit," Ladybug continued.

"Yet I also messed up my first time," Ryuko added.

"You learned, and that's what makes a good hero," Ladybug responded. "Pegasus, your situation was unique. I only had the one extra miraculous. As for you, Kota - I knew we needed the rooster miraculous to fight that akuma, and when I thought about it, I realized you were the best fit."

"What about Roi Singe and Viperion?" Rena Rouge questioned.

"Ladybug didn't choose me, actually." Viperion glanced at Ladybug for permission to tell the whole story, and Ladybug gave him a nod. "She originally gave the miraculous to someone else, but it wasn't a good fit for him. He decided to give it to me."

"Ooh, interesting," Rena Rouge replied.

"I didn't choose Roi Singe either," Ladybug added.

"I was wondering about that," Roi Singe said, still upside down. "Both you and Chat Noir had been disco-balled by the time I got mine, so who gave it to me?"

"That would be me," Fu said.

Rena Rouge did a double take. "Wait - who are you?"

"I'm the guardian of the miraculous," Fu answered. "I keep them safe when not in use."

"How many miraculouses are there?" Alya asked.

"Many," Fu said. "But most have been lost. I only have the one miracle box, which when full contains nineteen miraculouses."

"When full?" Rena Rouge repeated.

"The butterfly and peacock miraculous were lost," Fu said. "Only now they have reappeared. And the ladybug and black cat miraculous are no longer in the box as well."

"So what are the other animals in the box?" Rena Rouge asked. "I have a few theories myself. Some people believe it's the Chinese zodiac, but I've also seen some historical proof of a lion miraculous, and foxes aren't part of the zodiac, are they?"

"Our miracle box, like most, is divided into three groups," Fu explained. "The top circle is the two most powerful miraculouses - the ladybug and black cat - which balance each other out and have safeguards for the other miraculous. Then there's the inner circle - the turtle, fox, bee, butterfly, and peacock. Then there's the outer circle, which contains the animals in the Chinese zodiac. The lion is actually part of the outer circle of another box."

"What powers do the other animals have?" Rena Rouge asked.

"The ox miraculous can give it's wielder super strength," Ladybug said.

"I thought all the miraculouses did," Pegasus said.

"Extra super strength," Ladybug explained. "The tiger's power is invisibility. The goat creates a surface to climb on, the dog can track, and the pig calms down a person."

"If the dog can track, why don't we track the butterfly miraculous?" Ryuko questioned.

"The dog is an outer circle miraculous," Fu said. "It can track almost everything except the inner circle miraculous."

"So everything but what we need it to?" Carapace questioned.

"Sounds like our luck," Chat Noir commented.

"Is that why the ladybug miraculous is the only one that can purify akumas?" Rena Rouge questioned.

"Yes," Ladybug replied. "The ladybug and black cat miraculous split the ability to undo the powers of the inner circle. Chat Noir's powers are the only thing that can destroy a shelter or mirage, once the wielders have reached a certain point. Likewise, the ladybug miraculous is the only thing that can purify an amok or akuma once they've reached their targets - a cataclysm only works before they've affected a person. And the bee's venom is only undoable by the miraculous cure, which draws on the powers of both mine and Chat's miraculous, even if I'm the one that casts it. That's why I couldn't cast it the first time we fought Stoneheart - well, that and I didn't know I could. When Chat and I solidified our partnership while facing the Stoneheart clones, the ability just... appeared."

"Cool," Carapace said.

"What about your lucky charm and his cataclysm?" Rena Rouge said.

"Once we've reached a certain level of power and experience, my lucky charms will only be able to be destroyed by a cataclysm, and his cataclysms only fixable by the cure - though to fix damage like that, I could theoretically call the cure myself."

"I have a question," Viperion said. "Am I the only one getting animal side effects?"

"I am," Rena Rouge replied. "My hearing's improved."

"So has mine," Chat Noir said. "And my vision. I even think I'm getting night vision."

"Shame your jokes aren't improving," Ladybug commented.

"Hey," Chat Noir whined.

"I keep having the instinct to climb things," Roi Singe commented. "But I had that before I became a hero."

"What side effects might the rest of us have?" Ryuko asked.

"According to my research," Pegasus interjected. "I suspect that Queen Bee, Ladybug, Carapace, and Viperion night become more susceptible to the cold."

"Yep," Ladybug confirmed.

"There's also diet changes," Fu added. "When I was a child, I hated fish, but when I actively used the turtle miraculous, I couldn't have enough."

"This is the first I've heard of this," Ladybug noted.

"Ladybugs are predators," Rena Rouge offered. "They eat bugs."

"I have been eating a lot of meat recently," Ladybug said. "I thought I just needed the extra protein from all the superheroing."

"What about dragons?" Ryuko asked.

"Shrimp," Fu answered. "Like a seahorse."

"Longg does call me seahorse," Ryuko said.

"Trixx keeps calling me pup," Rena Rouge added.

"My kwami just calls me kid," Chat Noir said. "I'm pretty sure that's not a cat thing."

"I'm really glad Tikki never calls me larva," Ladybug added. "That would be weird."

"What is it like, living with Trixx?" Fu questioned. "I've heard they're one of the more difficult kwamis."

"It's interesting," Rena Rouge said. "They don't like answering questions directly, but they're great for brainstorming ideas, like - wait, secret identity. But they're like anyone else, upsides and downsides."

"Wait, you have your miraculous permanently?" Roi Singe asked.

"That's one of the things I wanted to talk to you about tonight," Ladybug said. "I think it would be beneficial if each of you spent some time with your kwamis - for the past couple of days, Carapace and Rena have kept their miraculous. After this meeting, we'll trade off and Roi Singe and Viperion can keep theirs."

"Really?" Roi Singe asked, perking up. "Sweet!"

"Don't get too excited," Fu warned. "Xuppu can be tiring."

"I assume that you won't let me keep my miraculous," Queen Bee said.

"At the moment, no," Ladybug answered. "But your transformation has given me a few ideas. I'll talk to you about it later."

"Out of curiosity," Rena Rouge said, as if she did anything for any other reason. "How would you rate the kwamis as far as livable-ness?"

"Wayzz and Tikki are definitely the easiest to handle," Fu answered. "I would say Plagg, Orikko, and Xuppu are the most annoying."

"Plagg stole a pair of socks, once," Chat Noir commented. "He did return them, though."

"Why Orikko?" Kota questioned.

"What do roosters like to do at sunrise?" Fu replied.

Kota's face fell. "Oh. That would be annoying."

"I have another question," Rena Rouge said. "Can you combine miraculous?"

"Yes," Ladybug said cautiously. "Combined, you gain both the powers of the miraculous and more powers."

"Is that why Hawkmoth is after both the ladybug and black cat miraculous?" Pegasus inquired.

"Yes," Ladybug confirmed. "Combined, the two are very powerful. It's why we must keep them out of his hands at all costs."

"I also have a question," Kota said. "How does the miraculous magic interact with other forms of magic?"

Ladybug had no idea how to answer that. Until her conversation with Lacy and Orikko about the love potions, it had never occurred to her that there were other types of magic - though if she had thought about, she would have probably came to that conclusion.

"It depends," Fu answered. "There's a lot of different types of magic. Each miraculous interacts with each type of magic differently. For instance, if an akuma or amok were to enter a magical object, it could increase the toughness of that object or the danger of that akuma. Is there a type of magic you were wondering about?"

Kota hesitated. "Uh, kinda?"

"Is this about you not being affected by the love potion?" Ladybug asked.

"Sorta?" Kota answered. "I - my - it's hard to explain."

"I would ask your kwami, then," Fu suggested. "If you get a chance."

Kota nodded. "Okay."

It took over an hour for the questions to run out - most of which came from Rena Rouge. After that, Ladybug brought up the idea of some training exercises she and Tikki had brainstormed.

.

Honestly, a race was inevitable.

It was one of the first things that Ladybug and Chat Noir had done together, outside of fighting an akuma. Rena Rouge and Carapace had raced each other earlier that week. It seemed to be an instinctual need to see who was faster.

Of course, it didn't help that both Ryuko and Roi Singe were severely competitive. And, apparently, so was Queen Bee.

Ladybug declined to race, as did Viperion. Viperion was not a naturally competitive person, and he already knew he was one of the slower heroes. Ladybug was a competitive person, under the right circumstances, but thought watching would be more interesting.

"Everyone clear on the rules?" Ladybug asked.

The track was simple - a loop around the city. Ladybug would be tracking them to make sure there was no cheating. First person to touch back on the rooftop won. No powers but all weapons were allowed.

"Three, two, one, go!"

.

Chat Noir and Rena Rouge practically arrived at the same time, both out of breath.

"Hah!" Chat Noir said. "I won!"

"Uh, no," Rena Rouge replied. "I definitely got here first."

"No you didn't!"

"Yes I did!"

"Ladybug," The two heroes whined, turning the Ladybug.

"I think it's a tie," Ladybug decided.

Queen Bee was next, followed by mere inches by Carapace. Ryuko and Roi Singe arrived together, followed by Kota. Pegasus arrived last.

"All of you made good time," Ladybug said.

"But I made the best," Rena Rouge bragged.

"I beat you!" Chat Noir argued.

"No you didn't!"

Ladybug sighed, deciding it pointless to get involved this time.

They're going to be arguing about this for a long time.

.

They were almost finished for the night. Ladybug had already collected Pegasus's and Kota's miraculous, and Alya and Nino were saying (a temporary) goodbye to their kwamis. Now all she needed were the bee and dragon miraculouses - but she had something she needed to talk to them about first.

She found Queen Bee on the roof of the hotel, talking to Chat Noir.

"- I guess what I'm trying to say is," Queen Bee was saying. "I'm sorry. There's no excuse for treating someone like that."

"I didn't mind it," Chat Noir replied. "At least, not that much. But I'm glad to hear that you're turning over a new leaf."

"It's not the first time I've tried," Queen Bee said.

"Hey, I bee-lieve in you."

"And here we were having a moment."

Ladybug cleared her throat, alerting them to her presence.

"Queen Bee," Ladybug called. "I need to talk to you."

"Of course, Ladybug."

Queen Bee followed her to the rooftop where Ryuko was waiting.

"What did you wish to speak about?" Ryuko questioned.

"I've been talking with Fu," Ladybug said. "And I think there's a way to make the miraculous's magic conceal your identity again."

"You mean, so I can be Queen Bee and no one will know it's me?" Queen Bee asked.

"Yep," Ladybug confirmed. "We've almost figured it out. Once that happens, I'll tell you two as soon as possible. Until then, you'll only be called on when I have no choice."

"This is great!" Queen Bee said. "Thank you, Ladybug!"

"I appreciate it as well," Ryuko said. "Though my m- my family already as safety measures, as I've said before."

"I know," Ladybug said. "But this could allow you to keep your miraculous on you, if there's ever a reason to."

"Yes!" Queen Bee squealed. "Please? I love Pollen so much!"

"I know," Ladybug replied. "I rely on my kwami a lot, too."

"I would like to talk at length with Longg someday," Ryuko said. "He seems very knowledgeable."

"The kwamis have seen a lot," Ladybug said. "But they're not always the most forthcoming with information."

"I'll keep that in mind," Ryuko said. "Thank you, Ladybug."

.

"So, how's Sass doing?" Marinette asked.

She and Luka were curled up together in his living room. It had only been a day since Luka had been given his miraculous, but she was sure Sass had already had an impact.

"He made me buy a sun lamp," Luka replied. "Fortunately, no one pays attention to what I buy. It's difficult keeping him hidden from Jules though."

"That's right, you two share a room."

Luka nodded. "But Juleka isn't nosy. And Sass is really cool to talk to music about - he says he knew musicians going as far back as Ancient Greece and Egypt!"

"Mhm," Marinette confirmed. "Our miracle box got around quite a bit - part of being the one with the transportation miraculous in it. Tikki's mentioned a few ladybugs from all over the world."

"Sass also said he hasn't been out in more than a century," Luka said. "He had never seen or heard an electric guitar before he met me."

"Same with Tikki," Marinette replied.

"He also knew about my synesthesia - that's when I associate colors and sounds and things like that," Luka said. "And my ability to 'hear' other people's songs. Says I might even have magical lineage."

"I didn't know you had synesthesia," Marinette noted. "That's cool."

Luka shrugged. "It's minor, compared to some people. Sass said he once knew a hero that could paint entire pictures based on what they heard in music, and vice versa."

"Wow!"

"I know, right?" Luka said. "He won't talk about any of his previous heroes fighting, or how they used their second chances though. I think - I think a lot of them died from it."

Marinette nodded. "Yeah. Tikki can get the same way, sometimes. But don't worry - miraculouses like Hawkmoth's have fail safes that keep them from being fatal. It's why my miraculous cure is so thorough with the damage from akumas - that's just as much the butterfly miraculous as it is mine and Chat's."

"I didn't know that," Luka said. "That's nice to know."

"Makes you wonder what happened to cause them to put those fail safes in though," Marinette admitted. "Tikki gets too sad when I bring it up, I just can't."

"It doesn't matter now," Luka said. "Whoever it was learned from the past, so we aren't doomed to repeat it."

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