#they aren't number one; they aren't number two; but a secret third thing

[mellosdrawings]

Oh love your losers forever number 2 group doodles. Seeing the doodles, I realized Leona and Vil are together longer than with Jamil.

Well, even on the off-chance that they weren't already dating before, they've still known each other for a while longer, while Jamil was off in his corner pretending to be mid and trying not to attract attention.

In both cases, Leona and Vil would already have their own habits/banter and Jamil, who is barely getting used to standing out and competing against "higher status" people, would take more time to feel comfortable.

(I have paragraphs of potential dynamics between those three, I could talk about them for hours haha)

[descendant-of-truth]

Well guys I did say in one of my tags that the Prime!Shadow analysis would be for another time and that time is now because I'm mentally shaking him around like a ragdoll trying to figure out his secrets

What I want to highlight is just, the sheer number of ways he's been set up as the odd one out in the first third of the season alone, and why I find that so interesting. So let's break that down for a minute:

The first thing we learn about him is that he's not Sonic's friend or enemy, but a secret third thing - his rival, as specified later

But despite having a clear label for it in episode 2, Sonic finds this particular dynamic "complicated." Shadow is the only person in his life that falls under that category, and it shows in how he describes him.

"He's a real buzzkill" (negative), "and he rollerskates!" (said with admiration). Sonic complains about Shadow and compliments him in the same breath, which is hilarious but also good for character building

In that same scene though, Shadow momentarily breaks into Sonic's narration to tell him that they're air shoes, not roller skates, which is ALSO funny but once again, he's the only character to do this. Even if it's for the sake of humor, Shadow is given a sort of... protagonist privilege, if you will. He's the only one to break the "Sonic POV," something he does not just this once, but multiple times over the course of a few episodes.

Now, there are other scenes that are from the perspectives of characters that aren't Sonic, but what makes Shadow's scenes different from theirs is that his are used specifically to show that Sonic can be an unreliable narrator.

The very first scene in the show after Sonic happily describes his status quo is the event with the Paradox Prism. A moment that Shadow was 100% there for, albeit towards the end, but who is conveniently left out until we return to the scene in later episodes.

And the framing is just. so deliberate on a rewatch that it hurts, because this is one of the very first shots we see of the show:

...and it takes place directly after Sonic knocks Shadow into a wall and runs away.

Literally the INSTANT Sonic takes his eyes off of Shadow is when the show's story begins, and it starts with Sonic narrating and completely glossing over Shadow's existence

(Is anyone else going insane over this. is it just me. does the implied mental gymnastics happening here make anyone else feel like they're vibrating)

Anyway as I was saying, removing Shadow from the scene with the Prism (even cutting out his voice when he shouts "Chaos Control") keeps us in Sonic's perspective just enough to share in his confusion when he starts to remember the incident more clearly.

(It also implies that he didn't consider Shadow to be important enough to take note of in the first moment we watch the scene, which. oof, sorry Shadow)

He's also missing in the scene where Sonic is first traveling through the void, despite showing up like two seconds after him - another instance where we're kept in Sonic's perspective just enough to miss the bigger picture that has Shadow in it.

Meanwhile, scenes from Shadow's point of view give us all sorts of information; the fact that Chaos Emeralds exist, more detailed effects of Sonic's speed-amplified explosion (it gave him a vision of some sort, which I'm convinced is implying something important about it beyond "it blew up part of a mountain"), how exactly he ended up in the void, why Sonic was late to the fight with Eggman, all that good stuff

It's a pretty consistent theme with Shadow, actually. He's always there to represent the bigger picture that Sonic isn't seeing.

...partly because Sonic keeps forgetting about him, in contrast to Shadow being the only other person to remember who Sonic is.

(I didn't know where else to fit this point in, but Shadow's lost in the void while Sonic is bouncing back and forth between worlds like it's a professional sport. Narrative foils and all that, we love to see it)

But there's another way that Shadow is made distinct from everyone else Sonic knows from the original world, that I think is going to have a big effect on his character development: Shadow doesn't care about sparing Sonic's feelings.

A lot of the conflict between Sonic and his friends is based on the fact that Sonic doesn't listen well, but another thing to consider is that his friends don't really... tell him when he's made a mistake, or what their point of view was, or what exactly he was doing wrong.

Tails? He could have explained that telling Sonic there was a trap was supposed to be a cue not to attack Eggman, and that he thought Sonic knew that, and so him attacking anyway felt like blatantly disregarding his warnings.

Instead, he brushes it off with an "it's fine."

Amy tries to explain that the palm tree gift has a lot of sentimental value to everyone, and yeah that whole situation went poorly, but it doesn't seem like she ever communicated to Sonic that him disregarding it hurt their feelings.

If he was just told that he messed up and explained how he did, you know he would have tried to make it up to them, like how earnestly he apologized to Tails. He could have been working on these problems a lot sooner, but because the others want to preserve their friendship with him and don't like getting into arguments, they don't communicate with him.

Shadow has no such hangups about their relationship. He tells Sonic exactly what his problem is.

...even if Sonic doesn't seem to hear him, and Shadow should really work on the whole "punching to get his attention" thing.

There's a lot of room for improvement here, but my point is that Sonic needs someone to be this upfront and honest with him. Straightforward communication is clearly what he understands the most - Thorn simply asking him (albeit rudely) what he knew about togetherness was all it took for him to really start thinking about that, though admittedly the circumstances around the question probably helped.

And because Shadow has been set up as the only person who still knows and remembers Sonic, the one who has a wider perspective on things than he does, and cares enough about him as a person to try to get through to him in the first place without being held back by a need to maintain a friendly stance with him... he's the perfect person to help accelerate Sonic's character arc.

And, y'know, hopefully Sonic can do the same for him - though it's hard to say what exactly Shadow needs help with (beyond Not Punching People) that Sonic could contribute to, given his little screen time so far.

Case in point: this show is setting up Shadow to be Important in a way that only Shadow can be and I for one am hyped to see it all play out

[moriaarts]

Sergeant Pax and Trooper Lash

Two for one today. With golden retriever Pax and black cat Lash, the nbs of the 343rd. Text under the cut!

Sergeant Pax

Pax is the swiss army knife of clones.

Sometimes called Bantha'ika or Sir Packs Alot for the large number of packs he wears and their gentlemanly nature. Pax is one of those clones that got all the sweeter aspects of Jango's DNA, the cavity part Kiss teases.

Part of the backfill batches that were sent out following the large number lost in the first battles, Pax was sent to Naboo as a medic when the original CMO, Tape, died when the squad he was in found a boobytrapped droid pod. Which is why Pax is also infantry. Boosted to sergeant with his medical knowledge, he spend most of his time going where he's needed, and trying to be an older vode to the younger clones under their command. Which being technically a middle sibling is easier said than done.

The running joke is that they're too sweet for the GAR but Pax is also a prime example of why clones were chosen over droids. He thinks fast on his feet, and keeps any number of tools and kits stashed on their person. And takes no prisoners when other harder nosed and overconfident clones think they can take him in a fight because they saw him crying during a sappy holovid.

bonus: Pax called Mooch Smooch, next to Kiss he is Moocher’s second favourite vode. Always stashing left over rations and treats for the massiff and buy her new toys whenever the credits become available. Mooch knows exactly who to go to when Kiss calls at ease. Any of her playthings are bound to be on his person.

Bonus2: Pax has a little star on their cheek simply because it is cute, and it is reflected on his bucket along with a mini bactapatch.

🖤Pax Playlist 💜

———

Trooper Lash

Like many clones, Lash has been through the ringer despite having only been alive 9 years before being deployed as a royal guard. CT-2170A, twin to Leki, CT-2170B, learnt quickly that things aren't fair and no one follows the rules.

When guarding Chancellor Palpatine during a diplomatic visit to his home planet, a bounty hunter made an attempt on his life. Lash doesn't remember much about the attack only that the Chancellor seemed unfazed by their second and third degree burns. (They won't admit it to anyone but for a second before Lash lost consciousness their seemed to be a golden gleeful gleam in his eye, but Lash was also in a lot of pain so what do they know)

Afterwards Lash would find out that the bounty hunter used a modified flash bang that malfunctioned and set Lash on fire. The melted plastoid of their armour saved them for the most part from death, but the areas of their armour only protected by blacks and thinner panels suffered third degree burns, the heat destroyed also went as far as to destroy nerve endings, and hair follicles. For Lash who was a standard CT, losing their hair felt personal. Like something else that they didn't know they had had been taken. But they had Leki, and Leki gets what Leki wants and that includes Lash's happiness.

Lash is protective of Leki, knowing her since they were tubies, cadets and shines, they know her best. And know that she talks a big game but is just as human as the rest of them. Despite what happened to them, the idea of abandoning the GAR and becoming a bounty hunter should anything happen to Leki is the closest Lash has ever come to a dream. They feel most like themself in armour, and is always reluctant to take off their bucket. if they could live in armour they could sleep in armour, (Which Jaig has caught them doing many times) they would.

Bonus: Lash and Pax have a not so secret secret Mando’a club where they practise the language and talk about all things mandalorian. As you can imagine, they were delighted to find out about old Mandalorian cults that never removed their beskar'gam.

bonus2: Lash is a walking contradiction. Loving armour and weaponry, Protective and judicial. But at the same time only loyal to the republic so long as Leki lives.

💛Lash’s Playlist 🖤

Other members of the 343rd: Kiss // Jaig // Leki // Ro // Duo // Deets

[empresskadia]

I think the most powerful gifts you can give a Spartan is one that reminds them of you for when you're aren't there. Sometimes they're off doing missions, and you're separated, and they really miss you. Having that little reminder always makes it better.

Like, say, for Naomi, her partner has an Ace of Spades playing card on the pauldron of their armor like their uncle did back when the Human-Covenant War began. Luck was important to him, so it was important to you. Naomi was just as important to you, so when you couldn't always be together on the same ship, you gave her two things: A copy of the card on your shoulder and a magic eight ball to keep in her room. You may or may not have replaced the die inside with things you would say, so it was like you were there in spirit when you couldn't be there in person.

Not when you're getting scouted for some big secret project led by a guy whose name you forget but a number that reminded you of hers.

096?

First, I got chills reading this! Second, I gasped so loudly my dog came to check on me to make sure I was okay. Third, I was like ‘fuckin Musa! Naomi’s gonna murder you.’ Like I didn’t know how the Spartan IV program started. I lowkey went feral for this ask, you’re spoiling me and I adore it.

I love this so very much and this is canon in my head now. How cute is this!!! Spartans don’t have personal things but the item their partner gives them becomes their prized possession and they would break bones if someone tries to take it.

Like for Linda, she has pressed flowers that you gave her and kept on her dog tags at all times, when she’s thinking about her partner or missing you, she grasps the chain and feels a little closer to you. Or a small charm on Nornfang that you made for her that Linda never takes off. Whenever she takes down targets and sees the charm, she thinks to herself that she can’t wait to hear about the mission you’ve been sent on or just to see you in general.

There is a ring that your grandmother passed down that you always wear on your pointer finger and end up giving to Kelly because it fits on her pinkie/places it on her chain because you wouldn’t see her for a few months. When Kelly’s thinking about her partner/missing you, she subconsciously spins the ring, and later, ends up seeing her name/spartan tag engraved inside the band. Or give her one of your earrings that your father gave you, so she had half of something that was super important to you and feels very protective of the jewelry because she knows you adored your father.

For John, it’s the exchanged dog tags, one is his and the other is yours. Sometimes he takes it off and runs his finger across your name and service number, he doesn’t realize that his expression softens just a bit but Cortana and Blue team know he’s thinking about you.

Everyone on Blue team knows that Fred has a favorite combat knife that you gave him and if something happens to it, he is going to kill someone, and no, it’s not an exaggeration. Kelly witnessed him panic about losing it once and horde of brutes didn’t even have a chance to blink before they were dead. There are personalized words written on the inside of the knife from you and it will be over his dead body before someone tries to take it or use it.

But also! Luck is important to Naomi because it reminds her of John too and we see how worried she is for Chief in the books, this is very important to her! So you give her the card and tell her about it, she’s putting that on her armor in the same spot that you have it in. It makes her feel closer to her partner and her eyes soften anytime she glimpses it from the corner of her vision. Especially once she gets recruited for Kilo-Five and you get sent on a secret ‘mission’ that she can’t know about. Naomi knows there is something you’re not telling her but she won’t push because it’s classified, which kind of worries her.

When Serin tells her about the whole Halsey thing or finds out about her dad, she shakes the eight ball wishing you were there to talk with but quietly laughs to herself when she reads the message because it’s 100% something you would say. Naomi constantly starts asking BB if there were any messages sent to her, getting antsy when he tells her no every time to the point BB shares this with the captain.

Eventually, Naomi asks Serin if she could find any information about you, giving her your full name, service name, rank, and all the important things to find your file. If anyone could get into classified mission files, it would be BB and Serin.

It's BB saying, "Oh that's rather somber to find out." that has Naomi wanting to panic. Did something happen? Was her partner hurt? Were you hospitalized? Did you get killed? She knew she should've upgraded your armor with those last bits of data, what was she thinking?! Naomi's thoughts are spirling but nothing prepared her for what your file read,

'SPARTAN-IV Lieutenant - pending transfer to REDACTED'

'Augmentation Procedure - Successful'

'AI Partner - Pending Compatibility with REDACTED'

'Stationed - UNSC REDACTED'

'Notes - Expand'

"What does it mean by Spartan-IV?" Naomi had to ask, she had to know because all she recalled was her own augmentation, the pain, the recovery, the loss of her sisters and brothers in arms, something that she might've just lost her partner to.

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

The Angel Marker: Part Three

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.3k

Summary: You still feel guilty for what happened to you and Hotch even though you shouldn't. If you had seen that bomb before getting blasted back, then maybe you wouldn't have so many problems with your "abilities".

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them. If you’ve seen the show, then it’s the same level of angst unless otherwise stated

x

You and Rossi are going to talk to a woman named Shara, but the entire car ride is silent. Rossi is driving but you can feel his eyes on you the entire ride there.

"Did you lose something over here, Rossi?" you ask without looking up.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing."

You get out of the car and put on your sunglasses to counteract the brightness of the sun.

"How are you doing?"

"Why does everyone keep asking me that? My head hurts, I had stitches, but they're out now. It'll get better."

"That's not why they're asking. What happened to you wasn't your fault."

"It kind of is. I connect with energies and see things that aren't there. I went with Kate and Hotch because I felt like I needed to protect them. My abilities told me to go with them, but Kate still died and Hotch and I still got hurt. Now, I wasn't able to see that our unsub is a woman. Normally, I would have seconds after arriving."

"Knowing our unsub is a woman earlier might not have changed anything. We're still in the dark about who she is, and we have no leads. You're doing everything you can."

It's like you're not listening to what he's saying. You shake your head and walk towards Shara's work building. Rossi called her before you two left, and she is expecting you two.

"Shara Carlino visited Ryan over seventy times. She waits an average of three hours for a ten-minute visit and a mandatory strip search," you move on.

"Would you endure that for a guy?"

"For Spencer, always," you say truthfully. "Shara was a marketing VP in Cincinnati until '99, then she moved here and took an outside sales job. It was a serious pay cut from what she was making before."

"I'm guessing she came for the view."

You and Rossi walk into the building and head to her office on the third floor. She greets you with firm handshakes, and you two take a seat at her desk. You remove the logs from the prison that show how much she was visiting Cortland when he was in prison.

"According to these logs, you were the Angel Maker's number-one fan."

"His name is Cortland, and I wasn't a fan."

"How would you characterize your relationship?"

"We were lovers."

"Last time I checked, they didn't allow conjugal visits on death row," Rossi comments.

"It wasn't about physical interaction. When you take away the flesh, there's only the soul. Everything was understood. There were no secrets. Cortland made me feel alive, in a way no free man ever could."

"Where were you on the 16th of this month?" you ask.

"Why?

"We believe this copycat killing was committed by a female fan, someone who knew Cortland very well."

"I was out of town with the company. Ask anyone here," she shrugs.

"Do you know of another woman who--"

"There were no others," she cuts you off.

She's very adamant that she and Cortland were exclusive, but you know that's not true.

"Ma'am, I can show you prison logs, copies of fan letters, and items that women have sent Cortland dozens of times."

"They didn't mean anything to him."

"Whatever connection you had with Cortland was severed when he died, not the copycats. Every time she kills, it reinforces their love. That is unless you help us stop her."

The gears turn in Shara's head, but she ultimately gives in.

"He sent me a letter a few months before he was--" She can't say the words, so she quickly moves on. "I knew it wasn't meant for me, because it was addressed to 'My Dove'. He never called me that."

"Do you still have it?"

"No, I burned it."

"Did the text reveal anything about the woman?" you sigh in frustration.

"The text was a joke. Usually, his prose was seamless and beautiful, but this was pedestrian and crude."

"You never asked him who this dove was? I thought there were no secrets between you," you shrug.

"You've never been in love, have you?"

"I have and currently am, but thank you for your time."

You're not going to get anything useful out of this woman, and Rossi knows it. You two leave her office with more women to talk to. They were all a bust, and the rest of your team didn't have much luck either. Whoever this unsub is, she's not on your list.

By the time you got done talking to every woman on your list, it was nightfall. You picked things back up in the morning, but as soon as you walked into the police station, there was news of another woman dead.

Her name is Maxine Chandler, and you find it weird that this is the only female victim from this copycat. You, the sheriff, Hotch, Emily, and Derek head over to her house where Maxine is still inside her home. The crime scene is fresh, so it must have been discovered not that long ago.

"What can you tell me about Maxine?" you ask one of the officers who is already there.

"Her neighbors say she's lived here her whole life, all twenty-eight years of it, anyway."

"How many kids does she have?" Hotch asks.

Inside her house is filled with children's toys, so one can only assume.

"None of her own. She runs a daycare. The guy that called 911 came here to drop off his toddler and found Maxine in her bedroom. Coroner's in there with her now."

"Did you check all entry points?" you ask, shoving your sunglasses further up your nose.

"Yeah. There was no damage and no tool marks, so the same as the first."

"Now that we have two victims, we have data we can compare. We should see what victimology can tell us."

"I'll get JJ to bring us the files on the first victim," Derek says and takes out his phone.

The coroner comes out of the bedroom and heads over to your team when he spots Hotch.

"What did you find?"

"Well, I put the time of death around two in the morning. The victim was struck multiple times with a blunt object, and there are signs of penetration with fluids."

"Does she have the same post-mortem mutilation?"

"Yes, it's the same but different."

You frown and head inside the room where Maxine is lying on her bed for everyone to see. Her abdomen is on display, so it's easy to spot the marks made by the unsub. You put on some gloves and move her clothing out of the way so you can see the pattern clearly.

"There it is again," you mutter.

"What is it?" Hotch asks.

"This looks like the Carina Constellation. Did you find paper in the wounds?" you ask the coroner.

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Our unsub needs to use a template. These marks mean something. The Angel Maker didn't need to use a template because he knew exactly where to put the markings. That's why there is paper found in the wounds."

"We need to go back and re-examine each of the patterns. Where's Reid?" Hotch asks.

"He's at the station going over the notes."

Spencer is reevaluating the notes that were addressed to "Dove". One of the letters is as follows: "Weather is good here. Out in the garden all day. Bids land on the fence. The moon is full now." It doesn't make sense because Cortland only got an hour a day in a concrete yard. There was no garden or birds. It sounds like a death row haiku and a bad one at that.

Spencer thinks Cortland did that on purpose. Cortland tries very hard to put each word and letter in the right word. It's a code. The steganographic method would allow him to write letters that don't appear enciphered. The real message would be hiding in plain sight.

Spencer can do it. He's very smart and the team doesn't realize just how amazing that is. They all tease him about his intelligence, and you kind of hate it even though you know they don't mean anything bad by it.

You gather with everyone in the living room to discuss the next steps.

"Small towns suck for victimology. There's too much overlap," Emily sighs. "I've got both women at the same church, same doctor, and same grocery store."

"She's mimicking the Angel Maker. Maybe we should look at his victims," JJ suggests.

"Yeah, but there's a disconnect. The Angel Maker chose women because they excited him sexually. The copycat's satisfaction isn't sexual. It's about perfectly re-creating the murders," Hotch says. "

"So, what she looks for in a victim is someone who's easy to kill," you explain, "which, for her, means easy access to their homes. What did Delilah do for work?"

"She made jewelry and sold it out of her home," JJ answers.

"So, they both had home-based businesses. A stranger could walk in off the street and be a prospective customer. The unsub poses as a client, uses the bathroom, and cracks the window so she can get back in later."

"Let's check their business records and see who came by on the day of the murders."

Everyone shuffled through the case file for that kind of cross-reference, but nothing pops up. You're getting really frustrated, so without another word, you get up and leave the house. The neighborhood is quiet, so the front porch seems like the perfect place to go.

Moments later, someone walks out to check up on you. You know exactly who it is based on the energy you feel.

"I'm sorry, Hotch," you sigh and sit on the porch steps.

"For what?" he asks, taking a seat next to you.

"If I had just seen the bomb earlier, then maybe Kate might still be alive and both of us wouldn't be hurt."

"I never blamed you, Y/N. You shouldn't either. What matters now is getting better. Kate would have wanted that."

"I hear you, and I'm trying, but when you have the ability to help prevent something, then it's on you to do something about it before the bad thing happens. But you don't, so you don't understand," you sigh.

"I know. I don't fully understand, but the best thing any of us can do is try, and you tried. That's all I can ever ask of you. You can't predict everything."

You look up at the night sky in thought, but you pause when you notice something about the stars in the sky.

"I knew it," you mutter and get off the step.

"What is it?"

"Both Cortland and our unsub were puncturing constellations in their victims. That's the pattern I keep seeing." Both you and Hotch head back inside the house. "The puncture wounds on the victims represent constellations."

You go through the files of every victim and prove this by using pictures from the internet of each constellation.

"Constellations? Don't tell me this guy was following the zodiac," Rossi states.

"No, these are from a family of constellations known as the Heavenly Waters. It's probably why the windows are open after each kill so their souls can be released into the sky." You take out the files from the Angel Maker's victims to show each and every constellation. "Delphinus is the dolphin and Equuleus is the little horse. There are nine constellations in the Heavenly Waters. The Angel Maker killed six. Our unsub continued where he left off. First, she did Vela and last night she did Carina. The only one left is Columba, the Dove."

"One more kill and she completes his set," Rossi says. "She knew the meaning of the stomach wounds. That's something even we didn't know."

"She must have been a lot closer to Ryan than we thought."

"They weren't just close. They were in love," Spencer says with copies of the notes in his hands.

"How did you crack it?"

"I profiled the author. Cortland Ryan was on death row with several high-ranking members of the Aryan Brotherhood. He either got the code from them or he read a lot of 16th-century literature. The Aryans liked to use a cipher based on a four-hundred-year-old code written by Sir Francis Bacon."

"So, it's a binary code?" you ask.

"Yeah. Bacon used a twenty-one-letter alphabet. This one's twenty-four. Each letter is assigned a bit string of five binary digits. This combination yields thirty-two possible encodings. Normally, you'd use a computer to run all these combinations, but it was quicker just to do it longhand until I found the right one."

Emily reaches out with a shocked expression and pokes Spencer on the cheek.

"He's so lifelike," she jokes.

Spencer rolls his eyes and moves on, but for a split second, you can feel his annoyance towards her.

"Emily," you say in a stern tone, but Spencer has moved on so she doesn't have time to respond.

"Now, we don't have a complete record of their correspondence, but I was able to make a chronology. The woman he calls 'Dove' established contact shortly after the trial."

You take the letter the unsub wrote back to him, and you read it out loud.

"My dearest Cortland, thank you for writing back to me. The day the verdict was read, we shared a silent moment. I knew then there was a force willing us together. Every time I see you, I feel warmed as if by the sun, and yet, I fear if I come too close, I'll be consumed by your fire. Already, you've entered my dreams. Each time you appear to me, I'm embraced by a feeling of trust and belief, as if I've known you all my life. As always, I am touched by your words, but I long to see you again. Days pass quietly, one into the next... If only they would let us marry... I could finally hold your hand... But I can't leave this world before seeing your face one last time. I will bring a part of you back into the world, and forever you will watch over us from the stars."

"What do you think she meant by that last line: I will bring a part of you back?" JJ asks.

"Maybe the murders? She brought him back to life."

"What if she was talking about his child?"

"Well, she did say, 'Watch over us from the stars'. She used the semen samples to plant evidence and to get pregnant. If she actually had his kid, we might be able to track her through birth records."

"Agent Hotchner?" the sheriff asks, coming into the living room. "We just got a report of a woman attacked in her house by a female assailant."

"Is she okay?" JJ asks.

"It sounds like it, but I can't say the same for the attacker, though. Neighbors heard cries for help, and pretty soon half the block was on her."

x

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[variablejabberwocky]

one of the things i found interesting (and frustrating) from that poll i made is that while i just intended for it to be a "Option A or B?" kind of thing i...actually had to include more answers

the "neither a or b but a secret third thing (that you should have thought of because its so obvious, you moron)" option

the originally intended "option a or option b" answers

the "its a mix of a AND b"/"its not really a OR b but its also not NOT a and/or b"/"its complicated" answer (yanno nuance, the thing tumblr is allergic to)

the "i dont care just show me the sweet sweet numbers"/"i like to click the button but i dont want to skew the results with a lie" option (and yes i know we've moved on from "vanilla extract" but i still like it and i thought id be funnier than the current trend of "i'm bald" or whatever. because cookies are something that could legit HAVE vanilla extract in them)

and then the "wtf are you talking about"/"we don't have that here"/"this is so painfully regional (usually usamerican) that i am cringing on your behalf" option

so for a basic two option poll i had to add SIX DIFFERENT BUTTONS to cover as many bases as i could think of

and the reason that was frustrating is that you cant? just move the buttons around to reorder them before you post? no no you have to RETYPE THEM in the order you want. oh copy/paste yeah those aren't gonna work for you either here. MANUAL TYPING ONLY

so as i thought of what other common responses i see people giving to other polls and tried to anticipate them i had to REWRITE THE FUCKING POLL OPTIONS. i did this like 3+ times. in ADDITION to the original typing up before i decided to add more

so yeah, interesting (and frustrating) learning experience

[serenanymph]

wip intro - beast, witch's book

Five long, excruciating seconds pass. Bit by bit, Icarus pulls Crys up, till they’re both collapsed and wheezing in the snow, safe on the clifftop, the Witchrisen far below them. “Well,” Icarus says, still out of breath, and he eyes the last of the rope as it goes over the side, eliciting an angry shriek a moment later when the Witchrisen finds no prey on the other end. “That was not fun. Thanks for the save, though, uh…” He turns towards the hooded figure, packing away the short length of rope they’d manage to hack off and salvage into a small satchel sitting in the snow. “Oh, don’t thank me,” they grouse, “ruined my day and my rope. What I want to know” – they whirl, finally tugging down their hood to reveal the freckled, scowling face of a young girl – “is just what the fuck did you do to piss of a Witchrisen that size?”

GENRE: YA high fantasy

POV: third person, multiple, present tense

STATUS: ongoing (first draft)

FEATURES:

flashbacks. tragedy. tragedy flashbacks

we got snow. we got mountains. we got more snow

secrets!!!

more magic, shapeshifting, undead creatures

the Journey continues

mine tunnels, mysterious underground labs, auctions

basically ten thousand different things because I'm overambitious but it's going to look cool. promise

(synopsis, characters and other stuff under cut. it's a lil long)

SYNOPSIS:

The Khujsa Mountains. Cold, unforgiving, and housing one of the Anti-Magic Army's biggest strongholds, it might also just be the most dangerous place anywhere in the country, especially for Beasts.

After a week of travelling, Crys and Icarus have finally reached the Elai Pass. From there, they're supposed to pass through to Riel, and then it's (mostly) smooth sailing all the way to Tel, where Icarus's contact resides.

But upon arrival, they find that things may not be as easy as they seem.

A Beast rebellion group. A Halfling in the AMA. And a young, brash girl who seems to hate the AMA just as much as she hates Beasts, and who certainly has something of her own to hide. Throw that onto the fact that Elai is an AMA stronghold, add in a Knight Captain from the Order of Klysmos, plus sprinkle in the hint of a conspiracy…well, they've certainly got their work cut out for them.

On the other end, after an equally stressful two weeks, Beatriz Das-Reille has finally reached Crys's village… just to find out Icarus is already long gone. However, she soon gets her own set of problems to worry about - joining up with Dahlia Reistveil brings to light that a certain poacher group has come back to town, and that this entire operation may run deeper than she's ever imagined. Does she go after Ink, now that she knows where he is? Or does she pursue this deeper and unearth what's going on, despite the risk it brings and the fact that she'll have to abandon her original goal?

Crys had picked to save someone in the face of an impossible choice. Icarus just wants to get home. Beatriz had never asked for any of this, and Dahlia only wants to do the right thing, but  one thing is true for all of them.

No matter their intentions at first, they've just been pulled into something that might be far bigger than them - and if they aren't careful, that something will swallow them whole. No country is without its secrets, after all, and Kosei has quite the number of skeletons in her closet…

POV CHARACTERS

Crys Averwell - 16, human, archer. sharp tongue and even sharper wit. walking personification of "I'm fine", needs sleep and therapy but is getting neither because I keep putting him in Situations

Icarus "Ink" Kal-Nira - 17, Beast (Crow), dual-wielder. ray of sunshine and genuinely the nicest person to ever exist. giant golden retriever energy. Trying His Best

Dahlia Reistveil - 17, human, daughter of a tavern-owner. Crys's childhood friend. often seen as the Mature One, but underneath all that she has a boatload of her own Issues

Beatriz Das-Reille - 16, Beast (Crow), Icarus's sort-of-but-not-really-little-sister. fast flier, wields a rapier, and is made up of only anxiety and more anxiety.

+

Rhyme - 14, human (???), apothecary from the mountains with a lot to hide. picks all her herbs and medicines directly from the wild so she knows her way around. extremely angry. will make your ears bleed

Carrick "Sol" Solder - 15, Halfling (Wolf), soldier in the AMA. commonly known as the Witchhunter's Mutt. often addressed as either "Sol" or "soldier". anger issues 2.0, never stops arguing with Rhyme the instant he meets her

taglist: @sapphos-scientist, @allianaavelinjackson

gen tag, wip tag

okay so my wip intros are kind of a mess right now, and I still haven't made a page for beast, but since I'm working on book 2 right now and there are a lot more new characters, I figured I should at least attempt to clear up some of the future confusion.

anyway, this is the wip intro for book 2, and there's another one here that's more a mashup intro between the overall series and book 1...? yeah I'm gonna remake that. just bear with me here I don't really know what I'm doing. also!!! there is a taglist now!!! let me know if you want to be added, not like I'm really sure how it should work.

[metalwarrior22]

dialogue (those beginning-of-relationship jitters)

Read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/nmjNDWk by geliebtemangos "It's just – having the Avatar saying 'Lay with me' was not something I thought would happen today." A furious blush rose up into Korra's face, yet again, and she looked up into Asami's knowing smirk. "No, that's not – you're teasing me, aren't you." -- Asami and Korra learn, after finally getting together, that they can flirt with each other. (There's also some important discussions that take place in between the kissing.) Words: 22767, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Avatar: Legend of Korra Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/F Characters: Asami Sato, Korra (Avatar), duh, Pema (Avatar), she's always wildin in my fics btw, not my fault. it was the writers who originated the homewrecking mastermind, don't blame her. she's a good mom she can say whatever she wants, speaking of good moms., mentions of Yasuko Sato being one of the greatest women to grace the earth, Jinora (Avatar), Ikki (Avatar), also the airbending sisters wandered into this fic and were here to stay for a bit, hope that's okay with y'all, i just love them both so much AND they're so fun to write, jinora: oldest sister of all time, Rohan (Avatar), i guess he appears for two seconds, mako is also in here but only as a topic of conversation, this fic does NOT pass the reverse-bechdel test, men are only in here to be talked about, and only briefly so Relationships: Korra/Asami Sato Additional Tags: this is the fic where they turn from established relationship (patent pending) to, Established Relationship, (tm), so like 10k words in i realized that they were learning how to flirt, thus: the number of blushes and kisses in this fic: near catastrophic, Domestic Fluff, Fluff Bomb, yes i coined that term, also there is, Kissing, Cuddling & Snuggling, Spooning, and spooning confusion (you'll see), Making Out, and asami l____ _____'_ ___, i know. i was also surprised when the demon made me write it, Air Temple Island (Avatar), i haven't read the comics so all republic-city-related details are headcanons i guess, i did read the wikipedia plot synopsis of turf wars though before deciding i didn't really care, (giggles) lol, update since the first time i wrote these tags: i bought turf wars & read it, let's imagine that this fic happens like a week after that or something, Anyway this fic is, Canon Compliant, Post-The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars, did i steal asami's reaction to korra asking about her day from my other fic? yes. and what?, goodness forbid a woman self-plagiarize, did i make them talk about Dikes. yes, yes i did, and i don't even know how dikes work skdkskdwkrnen, also utensils. you'll see, oh yeah there’s also, Teasing, Crying, Reminiscing, that one tag i once saw on a fic:, (bill hader voice) this fic has everything, Pet Names, smh only children and their absolute lack of survival skills (re: tickling), secret sharing, mentions of delicious food (mouth watering emoji), intimate waterbending, intimate conversations in comfy clothes, playful swatting (aplenty bc i love it), OMG SUAVO, y'all are not ready for suavo. it's the funniest thing i've originated in DAYSSS, do i feel like they're ooc at times. yes. On One Cot, do i know what the pov is? hm. maybe shifting third person or something. NO i do not., hopefully the length of these tags is proportionally consistent with, the length of this massive fic (in regards to my other fics). who knows, hey it’s a 20k word one-shot leave me alone!! gotta broadcast to all the audiences, anyway here's 22k words of me literally just imagining my two favorite animated women. Read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/nmjNDWk

[tobiasdrake]

Ace Attorney 4-4 - Turnabout Succession, Investigation 1

The grand finale to Apollo Justice begins with a surprisingly scrutable case.

Turnabout Serenade did a lot of hinting at Phoenix's secret mission. With the start of Turnabout Succession, it's finally time to find out what he's been doing all this time.

Phoenix has been away working on revamping the entire court system of Ace Attorney. Moving away from the methodology that the franchise has always operated under and reinventing the mechanism by which innocence or guilt is judged.

Stretches credibility that he, a disgraced former attorney who was disbarred for forging evidence, would have the political capital to accomplish something like this. This would make more sense at the height of his career. But with friends like Edgeworth in his corner, it's at least somewhat believable that he might be able to do this.

For the purpose of his demonstration, Phoenix has picked out a nice open-shut murder case for us to lose in court tomorrow. THANKS. But, to make sure we aren't resting on our laurels, our Obviously Guilty client will be receiving a real sentence based on the verdict of this test.

Phoenix is seemingly setting Apollo up to fail, and the cost of that failure will be someone's life. Great. Appreciate that. THANKS.

This is, however, the same man who orchestrated for the killer in 4-1 to be his defense attorney. Papa Beanie Phoenix knows exactly what he's doing, every step of the way. In 4-1, a critical piece of evidence relied on how the court interpreted the amount of poker chips Phoenix had in play. But this time, he really is going all in. This one's for every chip on the table.

So. Let's talk about the facts of the case Phoenix seemingly set us up to lose.

...I mean. Two out of three poisoners in this franchise were men, Ema. And the third also used a knife and a live wire to kill people too. So. Maybe cool it with the Women Be Poisoning.

I don't have any numbers on what the most common methods of murder in Japan are. Ema might be right here. But the idea that women favor poison above all other methods is common in pop culture, as it plays into the idea that women are weaker and need more insidious advantages to have a chance against powerful men.

I can say that in the U.S., according to the FBI's homicide reports, women are statistically far more likely to shoot someone with a gun or stab them with a knife than to poison. Though the number of male killers outnumbers female killers by an order of magnitude, the proportions for what weapons women use maps pretty closely onto the proportions for men.

Getting stabbed still sucks even if it was a woman who stabbed you. A knife is no less sharp in a woman's hands. But maybe it's different in Japan, IDK. Different cultural values and gender norms.

Ema's unnecessary sexism aside, she provides us with our initial understanding of the case at hand.

Drew Misham was a reclusive hermit. He lived here in this studio and didn't leave the house for anything - Communicating with the outside world solely by paper mail as he carried out his... um... particular line of work.

No, not that one.

There it is. Harkening back to our brief stint as a mob lawyer, Drew Misham was is another victim whose dangerous line of work seems to have caught up with him. Drew's been running a successful and lucrative business doing forgeries for a long time now.

So the obvious conclusion to draw would be that his line of work finally caught up to him. The same thing that happened to Dr. Malpractice. At least, that's one explanation, but the facts of the case paint a much simpler picture.

This is what Phoenix was talking about when he said this was an open-shut case with an obviously guilty defendant. Drew lived in this enclosed space with his daughter Vera. No one else in the entire world had access to him, except by mail. One day he dropped dead. Not a wide list of suspects for that, is there?

So, obviously, she poisoned his coffee. Open-shut case. If two people are in a situation together and then one dies of a gunshot and the other owns a gun then it's not hard to piece together what happened there. Who else in the entire universe could have killed him?

Well, except for the lack of poison in the coffee. That's a bit glaring.

It's kind of hard to poison someone's drink without leaving any poison in the drink. This is, of course, such a gigantic oversight for the prosecution to make that it can't possibly be that simple, right?

Yeah. No. Vera's not getting off that easy. Though the coffee is inexplicably clean, there's still clear traces of poison on that cup all the same. There is no doubt that this is the murder weapon.

Well, that or whatever was in this teeny tiny little frame.

It's surprising how on-the-nose this little frame is. It's called out with a bright neon glow. There's deadly atroquinine in that there picture frame. As clues go, this is obviously meaningful in an obvious way - Well, if you can figure out what was in the frame, anyway. My first time through, my dumb ass was sitting here like, "...a very small photo? Why?"

Nonetheless, what's interesting here is that this mystery is... surprisingly straightforward, in a sense. But the pieces are there. Eagle-eyed mystery solvers may already have pieced together what happened to Drew Misham.

There's enough evidence here at the scene of the crime to make a deduction for how Drew ended up poisoned in an enclosed space with only his daughter for company. There isn't enough to prove it or who did it or why, but the puzzle pieces for what happened are here and can be assembled.

It's a stark difference from 4-2 and 4-3, which take a lot of effort to assemble a basic picture of what the case looks like. As is often the case with grand finales, there are going to be a lot of moving parts here. But for the question of what killed Drew Misham, the answer is right here in plain sight for players to find.

Drew's art studio is the only physical location to inspect for this investigation. Again: Fairly open-shut. One location, clear evidence, obvious culprit, Guilty. As long as we're resigned to lose, Vera can be in and out of the courtroom in five minutes.

Moving on ahead, let's talk about the participants in this case's events.

[lasi-nariyoyoreads]

hellooo 🫶 can i request a reading for EXO's soulmates / twin flames? maybe details and their journey together <3 just curious cause they're my favs 🖤

Xiumin, Lay, Chen's soulmate reading

Hi fellow eri!!! They are one of my fave groups too, so this reading was super interesting but also a bit hard. I need to say that soulmates/twin flames aren't always romantic partners, they can be a friend, a relative, anyone who allows us to grow as humans. There can also be several soulmates, so this reading really felt like looking for a needle in a haystack for some members. Since there's 9 of them, I decided to divide the reading into groups of three members, hopefully it won't take me too long to post all of them.

I wanted to divide by age groups, but then I decided to begin with these three because I feel that they already have this soulmate in their life and I could get more clear info and I wanted to post Chen's reading asap because it's so cute, so sorry to the third oldest who got his place stolen lmao.

I also wanted to use only tarots, but while for some members (these three btw) the reading was pretty clear, I really needed more info for the others, so I picked some oracle cards. I still decided to pick some oracle cards even for XiuLayChen simply because I like to give everyone a similar number of cards lmao

Disclaimer:

My readings are made for fun and you should read them for fun too. So don't take them seriously.

Xiumin

Cards: rev high priestess, rev 8 of pentacles, rev 8 of wands, equilibrium, cheerfulness, bridge

They seem a very different person from him, their personality might be opposite of each other. Minseok is generally a calm person while his soulmate might be more chaotic or out there.

I feel this might be an actual love relationship because I can sense a lot of sexual attraction that they want to keep under control.

They probably have to keep their relationship a secret, not weird since Minseok is an idol.

I’m getting a lot of chaotic energy from this, so I’m sorry if what I’m saying doesn’t make much sense.

8 of pentacles is generally tied to work and effort so this might have two meanings: 1) this person works closely to him, they might be a fellow idol or a celebrity 2) it’s a relationship that will need a lot of “spiritual work”, if they’re keeping it a secret then they might be putting a lot of effort into that, they are careful when they meet, they try to choose places that aren’t crowded or that would attract the attention. 

It’s possible that the “spiritual work” I talk about is actually caused by the two of them being celebrities, he has direct experience of what idols go through when they date, even with non-celebs, so imagine the scandal if he’s dating with a fellow idol. You need a lot of mental strength to go through that and it’s possible Xiumin doesn’t feel like dealing with it atp

8 of wands indicates that it might’ve been love at first sight, or at least an attraction that began pretty early on. They instantly clicked, despite the different personalities. They might have similar interests, similar values, they might have fun together or they simply thought they’re hot and just decided to hit on the other.

I have this feeling that everything is a bit out of control, like they were overwhelmed by their own feelings and they’re kinda working on putting everything under control.

Maybe it’s also because all the cards are reversed, but I sense a lot of “let’s do things properly, let’s fix this”.

It’s possible that the imbalance I felt at the beginning also derives from this: Minseok might truly want to be careful, but the other person is careless.

It's funny that the first oracle card I picked was equilibrium while the other is cheerfulness.

I think this might point to these opposite forces, Minseok being the one who wants to be careful and balance properly all the aspects of his life, while the other person is cheerful, a burst of positive emotions that could be dangerous if they're leaked to the public.

Bridge is probably what they both need to aspire to, being more open with each other, Xiumin expressing his worries and the other person should listen to them, but also Xiumin shouldn't get so anxious and probably he should trust more his partner.

Lay

Cards: rev ace of swords, rev page of swords, rev death, self care, courtship, fight

They might be someone related to their past like a relative or a classmate.

I don’t think it’s a love relationship in this case.

This person is someone he can talk to. If he has any worry, if he has ideas or dreams.

Ace of swords makes me think of someone who is generally ready to have good theoretical conversations, but being reversed I think they’re better off just listening rather than giving advice (lmao).

I tend to lean toward someone either younger than him (so they lack a lot of experience), someone totally unrelated to his job (so unable to give good advice because they don’t know how it works) or someone who is just naive and with their head in the clouds.

I feel a very tender energy, like Lay probably doesn’t reach out for this person because they’ll offer him valuable help, but he probably just really cares about them and he just likes talking to them.

It might be something like a younger brother, or a nephew or a grandparent. There’s this very nice familial love. Even if they don’t understand him, they still love each other.

I don’t really know anything about his family so I can’t really say how close I am to the truth.

With the oracles I picked self-care. As I said above, he doesn't hang out with this person because he gain anything from them, but only out of love for them. I think he might just feel relaxed whenever they're together, like receiving healing.

There's a lot of love, probably they often exchange small gifts with each other (if this person is a grandmother, which is the main energy I'm feeling now, she might cook a lot for him for example), they might be the type of person who tells him to find a girlfriend asap and get married because he's an adult or something similar.

But as I said, these two live in two completely different universes. It's possible in the past they used to fight or they had moments where they were apart from each other. If the grandmother theory is true, she probably didn't want him to leave his country to train in Korea or he didn't want him to become an idol at all.

Courtship and fight are essentially two opposite forces and I get a lot of these opposite dynamics going on between these two. They lack mutual understanding, but love and respect won over any possible disagreement.

Chen

Cards: rev 3 of wands, 10 of cups, 4 of wands, attempt, cheerfulness, harmony

I love that these tarot cards appeared for him lmao This is seriously so perfect, I'm shocked lmao

Ten of cups is represented as a couple with two children.

4 of wands symbolizes weddings and families, so yeah I think we might have a vague idea what this is referring to, I don't think you need me to say anything more (btw congrats on his recent wedding ceremony!)

Reverse 3 of wands might imply that the path to reach their current happiness was very complex. They probably felt there were too many obstacles between them, it was probably hard to visualize an actual future together, there might have been some communication issue and it was probably hard to get a good balance between Chen’s job and his wife needs.

The oracle cards just fit very well with what I could see in the tarots, they probably had to work hard in order to be together as a couple and resist all the pressure they felt these past few years.

Cheerfulness is back (maybe a good omen for Minseok too? he might've found a stable partner too) paired with harmony (again reminds me of what Minseok wants to achieve with his relationship).

For Chen this means that he found his own balance. It's not easy for sure, but he made a choice, he knew the consequences and today he can probably say that he did the right thing, that he's happy in his private life and still holding on in Exo.

[rowanmgrey-author]

works in progress

I decided to put up all my wips for writing. I have quite a few, but only some that are very serious and I am focusing on right now. This gets kind of long and rambling so take care to read the bold text, that's where you can find the most important bits.

The Witch in the Ruins

STATUS: Third Draft is 100% complete in the story, however it's being beta read now and will likely have a final revision or two.

GENRE/S: Dark Fantasy

MICRO SYNOPSIS: A nomadic mersinos new to town is hired to kill a ruthless witch terrorizing the town of Atavis.

This is a Sapphic dark fantasy story featuring some horror elements, action, gore and violence. It also has sexual content, though minor and is heavily inspired by things like Dark Souls and The Witcher.

A Night at the Brass Sword (Book 1 of Creatures of the Night)

STATUS: Not complete, I am about 70% through the first draft.

GENRE/S: Paranormal/Supernatural Fantasy

MICRO SYNOPSIS: Kaz, his sister Ziva, and her girlfriend Kat head out for a winter break road-trip to Pike, Massachusetts. When Kat convinces them to stay at the old family resort, they find that the rumors about The Brass Sword being a hotbed for paranormal activity aren't rumors at all.

This one features several queer characters, bipoc and disability rep and is filled with both horror elements and comedy. It will also have a subplot for two romantic relationships. Found family dynamics abound and platonic friendships too. Oh, and these hills and definitely haunted so expect spooky elements and terrifying scenes with ghosts/possession etc. Also this is NOT A SERIES, or rather it's a companion series. I have the first four kind of figured out, generally, and none of them have recurring characters between them.

The Wilds Ones: Bloodlines (Book 1)

STATUS: Draft number 84657 (seriously I don't know, but I have been writing this for like 7 years), this is practically finished, however it needs some serious fucking revision. It is not suitable for beta eyes yet.

GENRE/S: Urban fantasy

THE ACTUAL SYNOPSIS: Ariane and Eron Ward are shapeshifters who work for an age-old Order of Hunters sworn to protect innocents from the supernatural. They work in a modern day New York earning a paycheck to be the most efficient killers they can be, and keep their family’s legacy going, until what they thought was a simple job ends up nearly killing them both. A demon of all things saves their hides and offers them a deal. In exchange for protection against his greatest foe, he will help them find Eron’s father; a man they thought long dead. In their desperate struggle to save him, they collect a pack of wayward allies and get caught up in a war against a coven of blood mages.

This one will have loads of queer characters, the MC is asexual/homoromantic with sex repulsion but does like to date. There is a lot of tragedy, some mystery, loads of action, it's urban fantasy but there is not "Secret World" aspect, so the humans know about the supernatural, also the demons are not based on any religion specifically so they don't come from the devil or anything like that. There is some religious aspects, but I personally am not religious so I don't have an emphasis on that. There are a lot of bipoc characters, and I also have some disability and neurodivergent rep. Also lots of mental illness/health rep and metaphors, specifically most of the supernatural creatures represent a mental illness or feeling I have had. (I am mentally ill myself and this series is therapeutic for me) Found family everywhere! Morally grey characters too, literally everybody in this series.

The Shroud (Book 1 of the Edge Series)

STATUS: In progress. I have a lot planned and figured out, but I only have a few chapters done and I have not looked at it in a year or two. Low-priority.

GENRE/S: Science Fiction

Tilurus is the fifth world humanity has claimed in their quest for colonization. Though it’s been anything but smooth. In the last thirty years a recurring, and seemingly random set of environmental hazards have ravaged the planet. These occurrences, most notably the multi-cyclone tornadoes, have been named: The Shroud.

Meanwhile, in the city of Rival, a bounty hunter and his partner are asked to search for the son of a legendary soldier. General Heller’s son is missing, and soon after they start their hunt, Logan Wilder and Darren Gunn quickly realize the ex-Militia soldier they are after has a target on his back, hitched to him by a gang of cannibals.

I don't want to spoil too much since it's still so vague but I will chat more about it later.

Godslayer (not sure if it will be standalone or not)

STATUS: Not even an outline yet, this one will be very complex so I plan on taking my time. This is low-priority.

GENRE/S: Science Fiction Fantasy (SFF)

MICRO SYNOPSIS: Not sure yet still, but let's just say it has godlike creatures in space with dragons and an MC who is half-dragon and hundreds of years old.

taglist: @anonymousfoz​ @schepper-wubs-wips​ @dyrewrites

[manyminded]

the parallels between king dice and ms chalice in the cuphead show (+ a bonus mini theory)

okay. this is me drawing a line of similarity between my two faves... but like. im not the only one who noticed this right.

also SPOILERS FOR ALL SEASONS!! Proceed with caution!

-

FIRST!

The most obvious - the charm, the razzle dazzle. They're dancers, performers at heart. They sing to get what they want.

And, okay, secret theory here - I think they have inherent magic? Like even with the deal with the devil, Chalice probably had magic before then. Think of them as sirens, if you will.

The way the cup bros struggle to get past security but Chalice so easily slips by... and, okay, we haven't seen MUCH of how King Dice uses this power, if it even exists in the first place, but in "down & out" the way Dice sings and attracts everyone nearby, definitely has me thinking that if this theory is correct - dice has magic too.

The difference between them is that Chalice knows. Even if she doesn't think its actual magic, she uses it well and manipulates it to her benefit. King Dice probably doesn't - he thinks he's just a good performer.

that leads me too...

-

SECOND!

the hard times they've had.

Listen. For all we know, Chalice is homeless. We never see her house, and when we see her escape the orphanage, she isn't shown to get one. Let alone an apartment.

Sure, she makes the best of it. Doing a darn good job at it, I'd say. But she's still homeless.

Just like Dice!

If my theory is true, Dice probably would've been very good at charming people like Chalice does - but he didn't know.

Thats besides the point - they both have lows. Chalice was the orphanage, and Dice was being dropped by Devil.

now, every character has lows. So let me expand!

-

THIRD!

They both narrate an episode.

In "Down & Out" and "Dance with Danger", KD and Chalice narrate at least some of the episode respectively.

I'm pretty sure this is unique just to them? While I haven't rewatched the entire series recently, just a few choice episodes, it seems these are the only episodes with any narration at all. (Besides the intro, of course.)

What's important - these characters aren't cup and mugs. Sure, they're recurring, but the only 'main' characters are the cup bros! To have an episode narrated at all, especially by a supporting main cast, is really interesting to me.

-

FOURTH!

This is two points combined into one really, because they're so minor - They are both associated with the devil somewhat, & They are both called "Number One".

Chalice and her deal, of course, and King Dice being - well - King Dice. You've seen the fandom.

This is where they diverge, Chalice dreading The Devil, and King Dice... well, it's weird, but it's generally positive.

(And, side note, the only time the Devil is truly 'scary' to me is in "Roll the Dice" where Devil threatens King Dice, and "Dance with Danger" where he makes the deal with Chalice. If he were that terrifying all the time, the show would be MUCH shorter.)

And the "number one" thing - They both call themselves Number One. Chalice in "Dance with Danger", where during her narration calls her that a good few times, and Dice in... almost every ep he's in.

The thing is, Dice is the only one others call "Number One." Devil often refers to him that way in response to Dice himself saying it, but in "Down & Out" cuphead and mugman call him something like "the number one star in showbiz?" or something like that. While it isnt just Number One, I think it counts.

Chalice on the other hand doesn't get called by it from anyone but herself.

-

Finally, we're done ... sorry for referencing the same few episodes over and over again, lol. take a shot every time i reference down & out lol! I just really love them. I hope you liked this!

[linagram]

I cant wait for yurika's vd to be like trial 1 Mikoto where she just goes apeshit on the guards (i know she cant, but the thought is funny nonetheless.) Also, could we get a general map of your prison? Is it exactly like canongram, or a bit different?

well, uh. well about that. um. a-anyway, her vd is gonna be fun <3

okay, so i suck at drawing maps, soooo instead i just wrote down some things about how the prison looks!

this prison doesn't have eleven cells and only has ten. so yeah, it doesn't have a secret eleventh prisoner or anything like that. it doesn't mean that eiji and miki were always supposed to be the guards though. all cells have the same numbers as the prisoners.

the way the cells are located is a bit different though: on the map it looks like they aren't that far from each other, but to get to each cell, you will need at least five minutes. in fact, sometimes it feels like those cells are actually pretty far and eiji and miki may need more than ten minutes. and considering that one of the guards is very physically weak for understandable reasons, walking there can be really painful for eiji. why would they even need to make these cells so far apart from each other and why would they try to make it look like you will need less than two minutes to get to each cell? it feels like they're making fun of the guards, honestly.. or do they just want to see how loyal they really are? it probably doesn't make a lot of sense because the cells are most likely supposed to be exactly next to each other, BUT THIS IS MY VISION.

the wiki says that the canongram cells are supposed to look like these white rooms with everyone's height charts, but in my head the linagram cells look much darker and overall have a more scary atmosphere. it's not really related to the map, just something i wanted to share jdkslsls.

BOY THIS PRISON HAS SO MANY HIDDEN THINGS. first of all, lots of cameras. it's really hard to find them and they're basically not visible, but it is possible that someone will notice them one day. the cameras are there to keep an eye on eiji, miki and the prisoners, but they're also there so that the third guard can watch them without having to leave his room. of course, he's not the only one who uses them.

in the corridor, you can also see a small screen hanging on the wall and there's also one in the dining room. eiji and miki's rooms have screens as well, but they're only used to talk about everyone's verdicts. eiji and miki have never found the fact that even the dining room has a screen weird and just thought that it's supposed to be like that. some prisoners thought they could watch tv here and were disappointed when they found out this is not the case.

the dining room, the storage room and the shower rooms are also there and eiji and miki have their own rooms as well. their rooms actually don't look much like es' room and both of them are unique, show their personalities and have everything those guards might need. it looks like whoever is in charge of everything really wanted these two to feel at home. well, they already do.

this prison has a lot of hidden rooms though and they're made to look like all of them are actually a part of the wall. basically, they have the same color and texture as the wall, they don't have any doorknobs, they don't stand out in any way. so naturally, no one notices them. one of those rooms is the third guard' room, jackalope's room is also there. most of those rooms are locked, but not all of them.

[captain-kit-adventuress]

To be absolutely fair, I don't think anyone is saying it's just the numbers. The fetishisation of m/m fanfiction is an enormous problem, but it's fed by the fact that when readers and writers lack for diversity they will latch onto and work with what's already there. So while numbers are an undeniable part of what's happening here, there is a larger diversity problem in media which is then reflected in the fics that do include women and MOC, as well as when they are excluded all together. I think fanfiction sites have well-proved that most people aren't going to stop being institutionally biased or outright bigoted even if they also acknowledge that American media in particular isn't diverse and it isn't getting better.

The fetishisation issue is not being talked about enough, nor is the sexism and racism and various other bigotries found in fanfiction–the blowback on AO3's diversity policies alone prove that pretty well. But neither can we exclude the fact that a lot of critics do love to put the prioritisation of male relationships at female fans' door, when they would never do the same for men who only depict male relationships, even homoerotic male relationships, because that is seen as the 'normal' state of things. I also don't think suggesting that media dominated by male characters has more m/m ships is all that surprising, much less trying to hide behind anything. In fact, those disproportionate ratios may explain all the better why fetishisation is such a problem, especially when we start thinking of ways to remedy the issue.

I have the feeling that if the reverse was true and women were primarily and in huge numbers writing mostly femslash, the critics (especially male critics, but I have no doubt plenty of others would jump on this as well) would take great joy in pointing that out, probably saying something rather snide along the lines of how these women are being sexist by only portraying female relationships; or, you'd get these splits where some would say how women are sexist and others would say we are all secretly self-hating gays, and probably a secret third thing that is equally designed to put women in their place.

It can be true at the same time that there is a great deal of sexism aimed at women for portraying relationships in general a certain way, whilst also saying that much of the work itself is highly problematic. Those are two separate, but coexisting, issues made all the murkier by overlap. It's just a really toxic situation all around because unfortunately, they feed one another.

It just kills me when writers create franchises where like 95% of the speaking roles are male, then get morally offended that all of the popular ships are gay. It’s like, what did they expect?

[neomechanicaldoll]

I've been thinking a lot about beast yeast lately and it's been consuming me so I've decided to take it upon myself to post these thoughts instead of just going insane

Since I'm talking theorys, big spoilers for pretty much the entire game

Additionally I don't purposely go looking for leaks so if something in this is contradicts a leak then uh

I want to start off with theorising about possible future updates so if you only care for the lore stuff you might just want to skip this

Most of the updates since beast yeast release have each been fairly lore filled, the only one I can really consider filler is the town square update, which to me feels moreso like setup for the mycookie update. I'm not sure that this constant flow of story will continue but I'd like to hope it will. Obviously it's inevitable that there will be more filler but the current rate of major story updates makes me hope that it won't take as long as before.

The amount of time between the release of beast yeast ep 1 and 2 and beast yeast ep 3 and 4 has only been about 4 months which is way less time than the gap between the dark cacao update and the golden cheese update, of course there was story updates between them and I'm not trying to say that the updates that don't feature any of the ancients/beasts aren't important but for this I'm focusing more on the updates that centre around the release of the ancients/beasts as that is when the story progresses the most.

Either way this is my probably wrong prediction for possible major updates (this is specifically predicting what could be between the beasts releases, also don't take any of this as fact or expect it to happen it probably won't, just think of it as a bingo sheet or something (colour coded for convenience))

wind archer(what we're on right now)>filler (either Halloween or winter update)>filler>burning spice and new golden cheese>filler>something about the dragons>filler (maybe summer update)>guild update>eternal sugar and new hollyberry>filler>legendary release (either fire spirit or something new entirely)>filler>something about creme republic>filler (maybe winter update)>silent salt and new white lilly>something important>filler (possibly collab)>something about either legendarys or dragons>buildup> shadow milk and new pure vanilla>maybe a few filler, break updates>dark enchantress>...(I have no idea where the plot will go from there (maybe something about the "ultimate cookie"))

Wow, that sure was a lot!

Well I did say that I had a lot of thoughts. Now it's time for the actual lore theory stuff

Let us start at the end

I've had a sort of outline for what I imagine all of the relevant characters character arks to be like for a while now and I feel the easiest thing to talk about first is the end, so for this bit I want to talk about how I think these character arks might end.

Starting with the beasts I can only see 2 (3 really but I hate the third option) viable options for their end. First of all my favourite one, the beasts die, don't get me wrong I love the beasts but I feel like the best end for their character arks is for them to die, by death I mean moreso taking them out of the narrative than strictly literal death (but also actual literal death) like for example: the ancients end up taking (absorbing?) the other half of the soul jam that the beasts have and like the beasts consciousness remains in the soul jam so it's like Uzi at the end of murder drones (I'm not sure how to describe it but you get the point) anyway.

Option number two that I like substantially less but is more likely to happen it that the beasts revert back to how they were before and they become nice, there's not much else to this one l, it's way less climactic and not as interesting so I'm not as fond of it but i wouldn't mind it happening.

Secret option three (that the worst and I hate it but since it's a possibility I must consider it) is the beasts get reformed but stay as is (which is stupid and bad and I hate it) I don't like this option as I feel like there's no way this could happen without ruining the beasts characters and an atrocious amount of plot convenience, I don't feel the need to explain this one any longer

Next talking about the ancients, for them my predictions are more "this thing will happen or it won't". Starting off ,mentioned previously, I think it's a great idea for the ancients to each get the rest of their respective soul jam to conclude their arks, I think that would be cool. I'd really like a kind of mini episode where they just hang out and it's silly and nothing bad happens they just chill out. It's pretty clear that all the ancients will at some point each get their own super cool awesome special new version, uh that one's not really a theory it's just me saying something.

Uh, legendarys! I'm really unsure of how they're going to interact with the plot as they're kind of doing their own thing entirely separate from what the "main" characters are doing, I can imagine a bit in the big epic difficult final battle where all the (elemental) legendarys appear to help like a deus ex machina but actually hinted towards so it's not a deux ex machina. Or maybe they decide to contact the ancients and form a cool plan together.

For gingerbrave's funny little gang, I'm not sure what will happen but I want something bad to happen to one of those kids, see I know that sounds bad but right now I'm just not super compelled by them. They just don't have enough interesting things going on currently especially since I imagine most things in the beast yeast ark are going to be focusing on the beasts and the ancients and out "main" characters are going to have nothing to do so having something happen to one of them would solve that problem, I remember something about gingerbrave knowing about the witches and the oven and such I think exploring that could be interesting. Like I don't necessarily need one of them to die but if something interesting can happen that would be great.

The cookies of darkness are finally being super relevant to the plot again and I couldn't be happier, I missed those sillys and it feels great to see them again, I'm still holding out hope that the choco chess twins, earl grey and lobster cookie will show up eventually, the cookies of darkness's role in the beast yeast story is very interesting with the whole creating life and ultimate cookie stuff. Speaking of, I have a bit of an out there theory (if you can even call it a theory), I don't necessarily think it's any true but I do think it's quite fun, so the mycookie from the mycookie update was made in the funny laboratory right, so imagine... mycookie plot relevance, it'll probably never happen because they need to have the sprites and there's no way they'll be able to make enough unless they force mycookie to look a certain way (or they could just not have mycookie have a sprite but I didn't think about that so uh), I'd like to clarify I'm not the kind of person who likes self insert characters in any way (especially if they have plot convenience) mostly because they never act how I would actually act so I feel completely disconnected and just view the character as another character but in this instance I wouldn't mind purely because of the inherent connection to the plot mycookie has, idk I just think it would be cool. Uh back to the cookies of darkness in general, something interesting that could happen there could be more members leaving, which members you ask, uh any really although realistically none of the current members have any real reasons to leave. It definitely won't be pomegranate, affogato and butter roll are probably the least loyal but benefit from staying, red velvet is also very dedicated, liquorice would leave if he found a get rich quick scheme but for power (maybe a cursed relic or something), poison mushroom probably doesn't know that they're joined in anything to begin with so would it even count if they left (this is a joke, I think they would leave and I think they wouldn't leave). Also I'm really waiting for that payoff with the whole tower of sweat chaos thing and a follow up to the stuff alluded to with the liquorice sea and more stuff with affogato and revisiting pomegranate village and

Wow the cookies of darkness bit was a lot more than I thought It would be, I really rambled on there, I hope you enjoy it because we're not done yet

Moving on!

Now I theorise about the in-between bit heeheeheehee mwahaahaahaa

Pure vanilla will become the avatar of destiny devsis told me (lie), I just want to go on a little tangent but when the beasts were first revealed I saw more people than I'd like to of say that the avatar of destiny would be mystic flour and it infuriated me soo much (like that's so stupid) and the only basis for the theory was that they both have closed eyes (hey guess who else keeps their eyes closed), I'm very concerned for the amount of braincells those people have.

Anyways I am a firm believer of the avatar of destiny and pure vanilla are connected or the same person theory, it just makes so much sense, also if someone asks I will make a post listing all the reasons why I think it's true but why I think it's true isn't what I'm thinking about right now, what I'm thinking is how this happens. My original theory was it'll be something similar to what happened to dark cacao but that was before the beasts were announced and now we have another angle to look at, I'm imagining something like in beast yeast ep 11 and 12 (?) pure vanilla just progressively looses his composure from having to deal with everyones (metaphorical)shit and goes crazy monkey mode, admittedly there's not really enough known about what could happen to make any proper theories, I just hope that they give avatar of destiny a slight redesign to make it more terrifying

Imagine sherbet cookie melts and dies for realsies, wouldn't that be fun?

I'm curious to what millennial tree's role in this is going to be because to be honest I don't think he'll because playable within the beasts ark, will he offer vague and obscure advice that might be helpful and might be entirely useless, millennial tree is such an interesting character, like I love characters that are deitys and are just constantly super chill and indifferent. Anyways I hope devsis's least favourite character gets to do something for once, it would be cool.

I have no idea what could happen to the other ancients, the only reason I had any idea for pure vanilla is because of the avatar of destiny and knowing what shadow milk's is like, all we know about the other beasts is the things they represent (there's probably a better word to describe that) and kind of what they look like.

For golden cheese I can imagine somthing about her kingdom, maybe she's trying to rebuild it and spice guy does the destruction thing and goldie has to confront the destruction of her kingdom, idk something about destruction.

For hollyberry maybe something happens to pitaya dragon or idk I can't think of an internal conflict for hollyberry that involves sloth, she's like the anti-sloth her problem is that she can't stay still, maybe it'll be something to do with her alcohol uh sorry "berry juice" problem

I have no idea for white lilly I need more white lilly lore to really know

Uuuhhuhhhghdhxhsesjj

My brailln is turning to musch and the brainrot is setting in but its not over yet

The map of beast yeast is pretty interesting there's certain spots on the map that are pretty clearly where the beasts will be found but there's some other places that seem pretty interesting too. Like what's "the first nest"? the first nest of what? can I go to curry bog (it sounds delicious)? spicy spider valley? why are the spiders spicy?

More things to talk about, I wonder where the plot will go after this whole thing, I've been imagining it going in a similar direction as ovenbreak as longan dragon makes for a pretty good antagonist but there's nothing that says that kingdom has to follow what ovenbreak does, maybe one of the non elemental legendarys appear, maybe the st.pastry order plotline will finally be continued, maybe we have to stop the witches from building a nuke and nuking earthbread

I don't know and I'm so tired now and my thoughts have subsided so I will leave it here

I'm eepy

E

[inkfire-scribe]

Thoughts On Housing

This post will be very political, so if you don't want to engage with that content, please scroll on by. It's not worth the impact on your mental health/mood to read something that will make you angry.

Okay, is everyone that doesn't want to read this gone? You in the back, everything is good? Alright. Grab some snacks and settle in, folks, because I've been thinking about this a lot.

It's not a secret that there's been a "housing crisis" in the US for a hot minute, and anyone who's seriously gone house hunting in the last decade has felt the pinch of fear when finding a house they really love: "can I even afford this?" And renting isn't any better! The number of companies buying up properties to flip and rent or to use as short-term rentals with companies like Airbnb is impacting consumers' ability to find a place to live that won't lead them directly into bankruptcy. Home affordability is not great here in the US, to put it lightly.

Now that I've dumped all that information and all those links on you, let's get to the interesting part of this.

It doesn't have to be this way

A few months back, a friend of mine and I were talking about housing, and they threw out a suggestion with a "wouldn't it be nice, but it'll never happen" kind of tone. But that suggestion has stuck with me, because even if it would be a PITA to pass legislation for, I think it has the potential to actually improve life for a lot of people without forcing anyone to give up or struggle for basic necessities of life (you know, like... having a place to live).

It went like this:

First: eliminate property tax on Primary Residences. If you live in that house or on that property full-time (that is, more than 6 months out of the year) then you don't have to pay taxes on it. You already pay income tax, sales tax, and all sorts of other things, so the state of which you are a resident is already getting what you can afford to give them (and probably a little more) and property tax at that point isn't necessary.

Second: adjust property tax law to disincentivize owning multiple properties. This sounds odd, but bear with me. You don't pay property tax on your Primary Residence, but if you're rich enough to own multiple properties, you still can. There's no reason to criminalize owning more than one house. But charge property tax on each additional property owned by the same person. Anything that's not your Primary Residence will get dinged for taxes each year, and the higher the number of properties you own, the higher the percentage of taxes you're paying on those properties that aren't your Primary Residence. So someone that owns two houses (one for herself and one for her disabled father-in-law) would pay moderate property tax (in addition to mortgage payments on both houses) but it would be manageable, where a person or business that owns 20 houses and rents them out would be saddled with a much higher property tax on all properties not qualified as a Primary Residence.

Third: incentivize the obscenely rich to distribute wealth rather than hoarding it for themselves. What if, just as an example, we were to create a governmental agency in charge of affordable housing? Oh look at that, we already have one. How handy. Now let's say that HUD were to perhaps offer a program, through which the wealthy could (either independently or through a company) get tax credit or some other motivating reward for purchasing housing and donating it to the agency. Let's pretend for a minute that the rich are told "look, if you give housing to the poor, we'll reward you in a meaningful way" and that they like the reward enough that they do the thing we want them to - and what we want is for them to release the housing that's locked up behind unsustainable price tags to the people that need it most.

Despite how simple this sounds (and it does sound almost absurdly straightforward) it would be almost impossible to get past Congress for one really important reason:

Congress is full of the rich fucks that benefit most from the way real estate currently works.

We deserve decent, affordable places to live.

We deserve jobs that don't overwork us into illness and depression.

We deserve drinkable water and the infrastructure to maintain that.

We deserve reliable access to healthcare through informed consent.

Housing is not a luxury. It's a basic human right.