#this is meant to be a ''here's a working hypothesis but we still need to actually investigate irl to see if it's right!'' kind of an answer

[a-commas-a-pause]

Just had a look and I have a theory, but I'm afraid my theory doesn't really have anything to do with a connection between spots and placentas (though you could draw a connection, if necessary - something about cell-to-cell communication, I suspect). I think it's probably more about the protein in question being a really good switch.

Let me explain what I mean by that. The protein in question is an aminopeptidase, which means that when it's expressed in the cell, what it does is it looks for other target proteins (with a specific structural motif) and then when it finds its targets, it chomps a bit off the end of them. This might result in the degradation of the target, or it might just be required for the target to do something else (like go latch onto DNA and express yet another gene, or like mediating pigment production). The point is, what this particular sort of protein actually does is nothing to do with placentas or spots. What this protein does is that in cells where it's expressed, it goes around turning off (or on) all the other proteins that have a particular motif/flag.

It's kind of like if I had a bunch of unrelated tasks I needed to do, but I gave myself a biscuit for every completed task. The biscuit isn't related to any of the tasks and it also doesn't particularly signify that the tasks have anything to do with each other, but it is still absolutely true that I will not do either task if I do not get my biscuit.

Now, as to why it doesn't affect placental function in cats (or coat colour in humans, I guess)? Well, if I had to guess, I'd say while this gene has been around for a long time, its original job was probably neither of those things. It probably did something else yet again, or several other things.

As long as genes' expression zones aren't crossing over, it's actually fine for them to have multiple roles. If A turns on both B and C, but B is only even expressed in the first place in eyes and C is only expressed in fingers, it's fine that A is crucial to two entirely separate processes, one for making fingers and one for making eyes. You're not going to end up with eyes on your fingers because for that you'd also need B (and X Y and Z probably as well). It's also fine if the zones of expression are only separated temporally - maybe B is expressed early and C late, and A gets turned on twice throughout development, once early to activate B and once later to activate C. And it's turned off in the middle to prevent it from accidentally activating D, which instead needs to be activated by B.

Lots of genes have a huge number of seemingly unrelated roles like this - it's called "moonlighting" and it's turning out to be way more common than we first thought. If you've already got a switch that works, why make another one from first principles? Now this is kind of the equivalent of "well we only have one single bed for two people, but it's fine because one of us works night shifts so we never need it at the same time", that is to say, Not Perfect. But natural selection doesn't optimise for perfect, it optimises for "good enough to not die long enough to successfully pass on your genes" (usually, ish, look this reblog is already really long and we don't need to get into this too right now), and the timeshare solution is plenty good enough, so it's what ends up happening like 90% of the time minimum. It's really really hard to make new things and really really easy to reuse old things, basically, and evolution always takes the easiest option in the same way that streams don't flow uphill.

There are some genes that shouldn't be able to moonlight because they turn on whole SUITES of other genes - genes where if you express them in the wrong place they DO put eyes where your fingers should go, and we call these master regulators. But also, this isn't like. A true dichotomy. Master regulators also do seem to moonlight sometimes. And a gene that's a master regulator of something in one clade might do something completely different in another clade. The GABA genes, which are neurotransmitters in animals, actually have a bunch of other signalling functions in plants, especially to do with establishing cell polarity (how does the cell know what direction to grow in). Turns out GABA's just a pretty handy little signalling molecule that's super versatile for cell-to-cell signalling, and multiple different branches of the eukaryotes have taken advantage of that fact!

was browsing thru papers about animal coloration and learned that a gene that helps make the placenta in humans (the thing that keeps you alive when you're a fetus in the womb) also exists in cheetahs, but in the cheetahs, it just controls the placement of their spots

How does THAT happen?!

[wandixx]

Christmas in Mount Justice

cartoon version of Young Justice, written instead of sleeping and I'll be honest, I kinda run out of steam at the end, but it'd take me until next year if I didn't push through, so here it is, and hopefully it's not quite visible where I started pushing through it, I hope you'll enjoy

words: 4633

“Since, hopefully, this is the last time we're seeing each other before Christmas–” Black Canary announced, stretching after finished training“ I wish you all merry and healthy and boring Christmas” she finished with a wide warm smile. Danny barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes. This goddamn worst time of the year. He checked once more if his mental shields were up. According to M'gann, ghosts were really loud on mind reading wavelengths so he needed to keep them up most of the time. He wasn't an asshole to drown his friend in absolute hatred of Christmas.

“You too Black Canary!” Wally yelled, running like the earth was burning to get cookies M'gann baked “By the way, what are your plans?” he asked upon his return.

Did they really have to keep talking about it? Danny was half considering just dropping through the floor to escape this conversation but chose against it because he really didn't want to answer all the questions it would cause or hear a ‘you can't deal with all unwanted conversations by escaping them’ lecture again any time soon. He could and he would, the Freakshow incident was just one way to prove it.

“B and I have to attend some stuffy rich people party” Robin said with clear displeasure “I still need to plan what mess to stir there. Chandeliers swinging are banned and so is arson so I have to get creative.”

“You actually set something on fire?! That's sick as hell!” the speedster's enthusiasm didn't waver as he threw a few cookies at Danny. It was nice that someone remembered about Danny's slightly enhanced metabolism. They (both Young Justice and Amity squad) still didn't understand it completely but the working hypothesis was that he needed to eat more to make up for ectoplasm he couldn't consume in quantities big enough for his ghost side since it was poisonous to humans and he had to dose it carefully. Being a halfa was rough like that some(most)times. 

“Well, lighter is easy to sneak inside–” Robin explained and honestly Danny never expected to hear Gotham’s feared vigilante go over logistics of arson but he guessed it was his life now, he could use this info to do something about at least one Christmas tree in Amity or share it with Sam. She mentioned some upcoming rich people party too”–and amount of alcohol there is astonishing, really you'd think that people would try to stay sober on event like that but apparently–”

“I'm having dinner with my mom and some family friends–” Artemis interrupted “Can't wait spend God knows how many hours with all of them talking over each other and asking awkward questions” she tried to sound displeased but there was no way she could hide her fondness and wasn't that a wild thing to see. Seriously, he almost choked on a cookie. In theory Danny knew some people genuinely liked Christmes but–

Just like that? Just happy to–

Yeah, he knew but couldn't quite comprehend. Sam was exactly like that, found but trying to seem annoyed to keep up with her goth persona. Tucker was way more open about his delight.

For Danny Christmas was only too loud because everyone was singing badly and too bright because of lights and too stuffy and there was this damned argument about Santa and yelling and fe–

“Oh, me too! We also planned a movie night with Central Rogues, this time it's Cold’s turn. I wish he won't pick Die Hard again…”

Well, Danny guessed movie night with Rogues, that clearly meant an off evening since they wouldn't try to stir things up while watching the movie, sounded like a really nice idea. Personally he would do without people who try to turn him into a pulp every other day but apparently things worked differently in Central.

“King Orin wanted to introduce me to some surface celebrations as well,” Kaldur said with a warm smile and halfa forcefully stopped himself from giving their leader a weird look. Even him?! Betrayal, absolute betrayal! 

“Well, I don't really celebrate so I'm staying here, maybe training a bit, I'm not sure yet,” M'gann announced shyly and it took all his willpower to not hug her for being the only sensible person in the room.

“Yeah, I'm staying too. Apparently I'm not invited to family gatherings” Conner added bitterly. 

“Honestly your not missing much,” Danny muttered “It's just perfectly prepared and measured argument breeding space, believe me”

Wally tried to protest but one pointed glare and it dissolved through power of ‘don't make Conner feel about it any worse than he already does’. Danny felt a little guilty for using it to sooth his own hatred towards Christmas but not too much. He really wanted to reassure his friend and ways he went about it were no one else's business. 

“And what are your plans, Danny?” M'gann asked gently after he didn't continue. He really wished he didn't have to answer but keeping his emotions hidden meant nobody could see that something was up and say ‘you don't have to tell if you don't want to’ or other shit like that.

“Not sure yet. I think I will crash with you here honestly. If we believe this magic book we found, there is a Christmas truce in Zone, so there shouldn't be any ghost attacks and your company is always great,” he smiled sincerely.

“Wouldn't your parents ask questions if you just skipped Christmas, though?” Wally asked a bit cautiously but Danny waved his concern off with a vague ‘eh’ sound.

“Will you show us some Christmas traditions then? As a part of ‘earthly traditions’ course?” M'gann's eyes almost shone with excitement and Conner looked hopeful and it made him feel conflicted. The whole point of crashing in Mount Justice with two aliens was to not touch anything Christmas related with thirty feet long stick but alas M'gann asked nicely and was pretty. These were two big ideals fighting inside of him then and there while he tried to keep his face and outer mind blank enough to not bring any suspicion.

Betrayal to second, no third, power! He wanted to escape this hell of an experience! 

But well, he could shape the experience in a way that's the least painful and M'gann and Conner were really great friends…

“Sure”

He couldn't quite match her enthusiastic grin or even Conner’s bit smaller one.

He was going to regret it, wouldn't he?

***

“Guys, I messed up so bad…” Danny whined,  curling on Sam's enormous bed covered in fluffy blankets and nice pillows.

“What did you do this time?” girl asked with a smirk. Halfa was sometimes mad how well his friends knew him and didn't take his dramatics as seriously as he would like to.

“I wanted to have a sleepover at Team's HQ during Christmas, you know, to escape it. Only ones who will stay are Miss Martian and Superboy, aliens, so I thought it's a good idea. And then they asked me to show them ‘earthly Christmas traditions’ and I AGREED!” he yelled, his hands flying dramatically at the confession.

His friends, little traitors they were, just laughed.

He came to get some help, advice on either doing this introduction well because Danny Fenton was known for a lot of things but half-assing projects he agreed to do wasn't one of them (homework was obligatory without his consents ergo didn't count) or gracefully getting away from mess his idiocy brought onto him, not to be laughed at! He had enough of it at other times.

Though they got to work when they calmed down, making Danny revisit the idea of not talking to them ever again and throwing it out of the window.

“Alright,” Tucker started, preparing his note and planner apps before continuing “what do you want to show them? Gingerbread house?”

“Of course” Danny huffed because as much as he hated Christmas and its traditions, gingerbread house was decent one. Making one at Tucker's place three years ago when he had been introduced to the idea was one of his best memories related to the holiday. Even though it was cut short by trip to the ER because dumbass little Danny had wanted a little gingerbread man he set aside and he had eaten him still all fresh and 350°F hot and got severe burns in his mouth and throat because apparently his instinctual response to burning in his mouth was to swallow instead of to spit.

“Gifts.” Sam raised in a way that meant she was not taking any complaints and Danny didn't really want to argue. His track record with gifts from his parents wasn't too good ever since he had a brief just-like-dad phase and they didn't realize it ended after a month but other people knew how to fix it. The Voyager Lego set he got from Sam the year before still made him smile when his eyes landed on it. 

Tucker noted it down. “What else? Christmas tree?”

Danny winced but nodded. He wasn't too fond of it but it was too big to miss it.

“Ugly sweaters?”

“Superboy would actually develop laser vision if I tried it”

“Movie marathon? I can lend you some DvDs”

“Yeah, it's probably a good idea. Kid Flash mentioned it too.”

“Santa Claus?” Sam asked with a smirk and Danny threw a pillow at her.

“Who is Santa Claus? I never heard of him, must be a Rhode Island thing” he answered with a straight face, not knowing how many times he will have to repeat it.

**

Phantom: hey guys!

Phantom: want a Crisscross Christmas

Phantom: ?

Artemis: The what?

Phantom: oh, you know

Phantom: this thing were we draw aech othres names anf have to buy a gift

Kid Flash: you mena Secret Santa

Kid Flash: ???

Phantom: never heard of that

Phantom: thats a wierd naem

Phantom: but if rules match, call it whatever yoyu wnat

Aqualad: I like this idea

Robin: GIft drop-off on 27th is okay for everyone?

7 people liked this message

Robin: i take that for yes. 50$ budget?

Kid Flash: Robin, Rob, Bob, my best pal. I have 5$ and single slice of bubblegum to my name rn

Kid Flash: No, actually no bubblegum anymore

Kid Flash: 10$ is top I could spend

Phantom: Same

Artemis: Same

Aqualad: Me too

Miss Martian: I'm not sure if me and Superboy have any money, actually

Phantom: See Rob?

Phantom: just be a good samamritanina and give them 10$ instead og flaunting batmans money

***

"Important question. How do one pick a present?"

"You know, it's good if it's something personal, either in a way that it's something they want or need, a gag gift that'd be funny for both of you, or just something that made you think of them"

"Yeah, yeah, I read the mom blogs, none of this actually helps, what am I supposed to get for Artemis?!"

***

"Alright, so. I have a list of things I think you need to learn about Christmas. We're kinda late to the party, so I cut off some stuff because there is no way we would make it in time."

"Sounds about right, what do we start with?"

"Most classic of classics, the Christmas tree, Batman already greenlit it, so it's waiting outside"

***

"So, Christmas tree is evergreen plant, conifer, sometimes only branch or synthetically made model, that, if living, is cut down from Christmas tree nursery, and then put inside the house, usually in the living room or other space that is considered repre-"

"Danny, we live in society, we have basic knowledge on American traditions that is literally everywhere. We don't need it to be spoon fed to us in a voice more robotic way than Red Tornado, literal robot"

"Conner!"

"What?! I'm not wrong"

"Sorry. Let's get to decorating then?"

"If you want to ramble, we'd be more than happy to listen. It's obvious that you took a lot of care to learn everything."

"Speak for yourself"

"Conner!"

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, with what exactly do we plan to decorate it?"

"Oh, this one is easy. I asked around people to donate some stuff, and Batman got us few things after I asked for permission for the tree. He even asked Justice League to drop us some things too."

"That's nice of them"

"Yeah, though I'm a bit worried about gifts from Arrows and Robin, y'know. They all had this type of smile that means either a gag idea, merch or exploding glitter and I'm not sure which option scares me the most"

"Glitter"

"Glitter"

"Yeah, you're right"

***

"Did… um… did Superman bring anything?"

"Yes, actually! He brought pretty big box of stuff and mentioned dropping of some food for Christmas in the morning or the afternoon of the first day. He said he was happy that you got the experience even if he isn't able to be the one to give it to you. I think he is coming around"

It was an interesting thing about Danny. He wasn't all that good with authority figures or frankly adults in general, and he never passed on the chance to tear in Superman for his treatment of Conner, if he saw the man, but in private he was surprisingly pro-Superman and tried to make them "see his perspective" with some pretty convincing arguments. Everyone else was still unimpressed but Danny never gave up.

M'gann still wasn't sure if in these circumstances she found it cute or annoying.

"Bullshit"

"If that's what you want to believe in"

***

"Oh, hello Megan! Red Tornado, would you like to join us in decorating the Christmas tree?"

"This… seems like a decent idea. What is the procedure of it?"

"We already put on the lights, so now we're placing baubles and other hanging decorations, before we finish off with paper chains and these fuzzy boas. We need them evenly spread out on all of the tree, preferably in a way, that things in similar colors aren't right next to each other, alright?"

"Yes, Phantom, instructions are clear"

"Great. Do we want some music in the background? My friends usually play some Christmas songs to get us all in 'the right mood' as he calls it?"

"Good idea, I'll play something."

"Thanks Meg"

"Just hear the sleigh bell jingling…"

"Is this… yeah, it's Carpenters, it's Jazz's favo- oh shit"

"Got it!"

"Nice catch Conner! Red Tornado, sorry I didn't clarify before, we're not decorating the side by the wall."

"Understood"

***

"We have only one last thing left then"

"Yeah?"

"The star at the top. The youngest child of the family usually get the honor. Conner, it's you time to shine~"

"Shut up already"

"How is he supposed to reach the top though? He can't fly"

"Step stool or someone has to hold him up lion king style"

"Lion king- Don't you dare! Keep those hands to yourself! Danny!

***

"So, what's next on your magical list?"

"Gingerbread house. It's a moment for you to shine Meg, because I'm absolute mess in the kitchen and I don't think Conner is much better"

"Actually-"

"blah, blah, blah, absolutely perfect, could be hired at Michelin star restaurant right this instant blah, blah, blah"

"Oh, you little-"

"I believe the arguments are supposed to start at the Christmas table and not before. It seemed to be consensus in my sources. Was I mistaken?"

Conner stopped dead in his tracks, as confused as M'gann at the question.

Danny laughed so hard he fell on the ground.

"Red Tornado, what does that mean?"

"There is no need to spread misinformation until we can get confirmation whether my sources were correct or not"

"Danny? Danny?! What does he mean?! Why are you laughing?!"

Danny just stayed curled on the floor, almost wheezing.

***

"So, we have all of the ingredients, right? Flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves-"

"I think it's still in the cabinet, let me grab it real quick"

"Alright, other than cloves, do we have salt, vegetable shortening, granulated sugar, molasses, an egg- I mean, applesauce? Yeah? Let's hope it'll work. Okay, I think were ready"

"Ginger?"

"What?"

"Do we have ginger ready?"

"I don't think so, I'm pretty sure we've run out about a week ago? Why- oh wait"

"Did we seriously forgot to get ginger to make The Gingerbread House?! It's literally in the name!"

They all just stood in silence for a long moment.

"We're idiots"

"Well said, well said"

"I believe there are better names to describe you in this situation. Unfortunately, I cannot recall them"

"Thanks Red Tornado, that was helpful"

"Maybe we can still buy it?"

"It's 10:34 PM, December 23rd, M'gann, what shop would even be open?"

"Shut up Conner, it's actually not a bad idea. I think I've seen- yes, there is something open until eleven, about five minutes out if I fly"

***

"There was no ginger at the shop, but I got cranberry for later, if needed, and some chips to snack on"

"It's fine, we found unopened pack of powdered ginger in the back of the cabinet"

"That's great! Give me a minute to return this packet I liberated on my way home?"

"Danny!"

***

"Hey, M'gann!"

"Yeah?"

"Would you like to invite your uncle to our dinner?"

"That's a great idea Conner, thank you!"

***

"Okay, wait, wait, wait, before you two get weirdly aggressive about it again-"

"We're not that aggressive and it's a serious matter"

"I don't have any ghosts to get of my misplaced aggression out on so I'm funneling it into cake decorating instead"

"M'gann, you literally are trying to choke him right now, Danny, even I know it's concerning and I have less than half a year of learning what is considered normal under my belt. Anyway, before you escalate it again, how about each one of us gets one side of the house and then we work in pairs on the roof?"

"I like that"

"But what about aesthetic integrity!"

"It's quite literally against the point of gingerbread house"

***

"Before we go to sleep, I believe it's a widespread tradition to leave milk and cookies for the Santa Claus on the Christmas Eve evening"

"Huh"

"What is it this time?"

"Nothing really, chill out Conner, I just never heard of that"

It was so clearly a lie it probably couldn't even be called that, but at this point everyone realized, that for some reason bearded man in red was a sore subject, and they stopped trying to learn why. Maybe some day he'd tell them.

***

"Sorry. This person is currently unavailable. Please leave a message after the tone."

"Hey Dani, it's Danny. Merry Christmas, please let me know when you get that. I'm celebrating outside of home, safe, with some friends, so if you want, I can give you an address and you can drop by. They're all more than okay with ghost stuff and have a history of accepting someone similar to you without any questions. I'm sure they'd love you. Let me know you're alright and if you want to join us. Sorry I keep calling, I'm at the worrywart stage. Love you, please stay safe."

Danny was doing pretty well with this whole "organizing Christmas". Really. M'gann did kick him out to breathe a bit of fresh air (and wait for the Superman and food he was supposed to bring in) because his hands were shaking too much, but other than that he was fine. Really. He was getting a bit panicky because he didn't hear a word from his sister in the past week and usually she let them know if she knew she would go somewhere where that could happen but she just as often didn't because she spontaneously decided to do something else. Trackers they made her wear showed she was fine.

It didn't really help, he wasn't sure if there was anything less than actually hearing or preferably seeing her that could reassure him.

It wasn't even talking about all of the trouble that was a bit closer to home, because Christmas never meant anything good for him, with or without his parents stirring up the Santa-fight. They weren't there and yet, he still couldn't make himself believe it could be any better this time. For Ancients sake, he made sure there was no Santa Claus in whole Mountain, nothing to remind him of how it always was and his brain still decided to be stupid about it.

So now he was standing in thin hoodie out in Rhode Island winter, in hopes that cold would shock him out of spiraling, trying to keep his breaths even and not fly away because it felt all like a little too much at the moment. he was standing in thin hoodie out in Rhode Island winter, waiting for a man who would awkwardly try to do the whole 'I'm an adult you can trust' routine and then treat him like messenger pigeon to contact the child that actually wanted and needed him. He couldn't entirely blame him but-

"Are you quite alright?"

"I'm fine"

"Are you sure? It's quite cold to be dressed like this and your heartbeat is quite erratic."

"I'm fine as old wine Superman, please say your piece before someone comes to see what took me so long"

"Danny-"

"I'm serious. Leave it alone and just give me the food"

Superman looked a bit conflicted, clearly considering all of the potential pros and cons of digging in further and choose wrong.

"You're worried about Dani"

"You're the last person I want to talk to about her," Danny spat out, anxiety quickly turning into anger.

"Of course, but-"

"Have two civil conversations with your clone before trying to tell me how I should handle mine" As soon as these words left his mouth, Danny regretted them, if only a little, but he kept pushing "I told you about her to explain why I'm willing to vouch for you. It doesn't make you someone I'll confide in. It doesn't make you someone I trust. It doesn't make me approve of the way your handling it. It just means I understand. But you're an adult man and experienced hero with stable job and adult shit figured out and I'm a teenager with home just safe enough for me to stay and family that'd question how third child just showed up. We are not the same."

Superman flinched away at some point during the rant, looking properly humbled. He avoided eye contact and just reached forward to pass him hard plastic case filled with food containers and smaller boxes wrapped up in nice Christmas themed paper.

"Alright kiddo. Get it inside before you turn into a icicle. And tell Conner I wish him Merry Christmas, alright? I mean, I wish it to everyone but…"

Damn, if the "never meet your heroes" person wasn't right.

"You're a coward Superman. Come in and tell him that yourself"

***

Conner lashed out, as expected, but it was far more subdued than it would be just few month before. To his credit, Superman stayed the whole time it went down and only left when boy mostly calmed down and wouldn't feel like he was being ignored. Man even tried to respond to some allegations, though he wasn't really heard. Conner ranted some more after hero left, but overall it went better than Danny thought it would.

Then they had dinner, which went… surprisingly well. Apparently, not having to worry about being attacked by the main dish did wonders to Danny's overall jitters (and didn't everyone get super weird when he mentioned it). Not having people start nonsensical fights also helped. He knew better than to mention that.

Also, turns out that Superman or whoever he got to make them food was freaking amazing cook, thank you very much. Danny wasn't necessarily fasting, not in a way he knew some people did in the period preceding Christmas or at least on Christmas Eve, but the tension of past few days made it hard to eat a lot. It definitely lessened now that the thing was happening and seemingly going well, so he was absolutely ravenous. To be completely honest, as far as he could tell, everyone else matched his enthusiasm.

There was a bit off moment at the beginning, when Martian Manhunter asked him if he shouldn't be with his family during holidays, but Danny quickly and subtly brushed it off and nobody mentioned that afterwards.

He may have overeaten, actually, for once in his live, which he may regret in the morning, but at the moment, it made him quite content.

Then came the gifts, which also went better than he expected. For once there was no need to act like he enjoyed the gift despite already planning on how to get rid of it. Even better, focus was almost fully removed from him, obviously, because it wasn't his first rodeo.

Conner looked so lost and confused with the gift he got from Superman's mom, it was almost heartbreaking. It was beautiful crocheted scarf, black and red, with his symbol on each end, and an apology note explaining that Mrs Martha Kent would give him something more note worthy but she learned about him way to late to make something better. There was also promise of more worthy gift in near future. Danny knew all that because Conner read it out loud, asking everyone to help him make sense of that. There was only so much they could do.

Other than that, he got some nice flannel shirts from M'gann, quite a few sweets. He also got a book from Danny (it was a sin he didn't read "The Martian" before) and concepts of new hero suits for him, that Sam somehow sneaked between the pages. It was certainly a lot to explain without making anyone angry.

M'gann got two different cook books, that unfortunately didn't include Fenton fudge recipe (Dad was really protective over it), some surprisingly obscure merch from "Hello Megan" and more sweets.

Red Tornado got an apron and few tokens of appreciation, that robot quite liked, as far as Danny could tell.

Martian Manhuter, due to how rarely he visited, was the hardest to pick presents for, which resulted in some general little trinkets.

Danny got night sky projector, which was really cool, and potted plant, for some reason, which, while also cool, because plants are cool (Sam would rekill him if he thought otherwise), he knew far too well, would not survive until July. It wasn't only because he could barely take care of himself, let alone whole ass plant (see also, that one time he either drowned or dried three cacti), but also because of the times ghosts (or home security) attacked him in his room. He was thankful anyway. Maybe it could push him into finally getting some contingencies against that, that’d actually work. After all, it was quite a pretty plant.

By the time they moved to the couch to watch “Die Hard” of all things (it was only DVD that Tucker provided that didn’t have Santa Claus as a prominent character, because of course that little traitor would do that), Danny had to admit that this Christmas was… nice. Enjoyable. Pretty amazing actually. Good enough that he could understand people waiting for it the whole year. He couldn’t tell that he joined their ranks, but he certainly could understand them.

It was also downright exhausting and at some point even dynamic fights of John McClane couldn’t keep his eyes open. It was fine though. He was safe, he was warm, almost squeezed against his friends. It was good place to just relax.

It’s been first time in a long time since he felt that on Christmas.

********

I'm not sure if I managed to properly Conner's... whole thing, if he turned out too hostile, let's just say he was still pissed about the whole "wasn't invited to Clark's family gathering" thing and it made him a bit more antsy.

I'm not sure how well I managed to handle it, but I don't want to bash neither Clark nor Conner. They're both victims in this situation and while the way Clark handled it was far from ideal, it's also far from worst he could do and I believe he deserves a bit more grace. In the end, on psychological level he is just human and humans don't always handle being baby trapped perfectly. Maybe I have more understanding towards him because my prefered way of handling conflicts is walking out and locking myself in my room, but idk. Maybe I'm capable of more coherent explanation when it's not 3:44 AM

Ginger shenanigans were inspired by my own Christmas preparation adventures, when I was making bread dough for the Christmas Eve and decided to add rosemary to make it more ✨festive✨ and got really attached to the idea. My mom agreed, then it turned out we didn't have any, then I went to the shop like twenty minutes before it closed at 11PM so at least one guy was there to replenish his alcohol suplies. My mom called to tell me to also buy some powdered garlic and beetroot. Turned out we had rosemary at home. At shop I only found garlic. I also brought energy drink, because I was tired but had more stuff to do and some snacks just because.

Bread turned out pretty good.

I sincerely believe if I was solely responsible of making gingerbread, I would forget to get ginger (or like, to fit with "it's in the name" thing, pepper, because in Polish it's "piernik")

I'm really sorry if the drop in quality by the end is noticable, if this thing stayed unfinished whole another year i'd do something I'd regret later.

[keitorin3]

Picture this~

The Marvel Multiverse thing about your dreams but with Merlin.

So I rewatched the "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" and had this thought about what if Merlin had constant dreams of his alternate future-self before he came to Camelot.

And I don't mean his future-self in S5 but himself in the 21st century.

Like, this would confuse young Merlin who lives in medieval times and has these fantastical dreams where there are moving metal contraptions and steel birds and towering crystal-like buildings.

But most of all, I think that he'd dream of himself as an old professor or doctor. Like, we know Merlin knows how to read and write in S1 and that it was most definitely thanks to his mother, but what if he was more advanced then that?

What if seeing these dreams of another version of himself as a professor or doctor made Merlin truly want to be a physician with Gaius?

But what's more, he brings with him his 21st century mindset into his life like...

*Merlin hearing Kilgharrah*

Kilgharrah: Merlin~

Merlin: Yeah God? I'm kinda in the middle of a midlife crisis you know. Got tossed into prison by a gorgeous blond bimbo who will most likely be my crap boss in the future, so can't be insane right now sorry.

Kilgharrah: ...

Gaius comes in looking cross: Merlin you idiot!

Merlin: Nevermind, god take me now please.

*Merlin meeting Kilgharrah*

Kilgharrah: How small you are for such a great destiny.

Merlin: Holy shit, is this like Braveheart? Wait, no, sorry wrong movie I mean Dragonheart?

Kilgharrah: What?

Merlin: Are you gonna tell me we have to ban together to stop the King from doing something terrible because some dumbass stupidly gave him a gift or something to do with Life or Death and now the king is out of control and must be stopped?

Kilgharrah: ... *after a moment of self doubt and contemplation* Yes... After freeing me, yes. It is your destiny.

Merlin: Hmm, your kinda sus. How do I know you aren't lying to me? And if I have to kill some king can it be someone like Cenred? Total dick king, honestly.

Kilgharrah: *Ignores that for now and will debate destiny later* Your gift, Merlin, was given to you for a reason.

Merlin: So there is a reason for my dreams.

Kilgharrah: Yes-What? No, I meant your magic.

Merlin: But that's forbidden in Camelot, and besides, I need my head for when I become a physician!

Kilgharrah: You were made for a greater purpose Merlin. Arthur is the Once and Future King who will unite the land of Albion. But he faces many threats from friend and foe alike. Without you, Arthur will never succeed. Without you, there will be no Albion.

Merlin: Riiight... And then he and I marry, have brilliant blond children and live happily ever after, while working as a Physician.

Kilgharrah: ... No

Merlin: Then nah, blondy can fight his own battles. Been training to kill since birth I hear.

Kilgharrah: There is no right or wrong, only what is and what isn't.

Merlin: *mutters* What are you, a fortune cookie?

Kilgharrah: None of us can choose our destiny, Merlin, and none of us can escape it.

Merlin: OK, fine. I'll bite into the forbidden apple, but I'm most likely not bringing an Adam down with me. Arthur is a idiot but I don't see him changing within this century.

Kilgharrah: Perhaps it's your destiny to change that. *Then proceeds to fly off*

Merlin: Wait-! Ugh, thanks for nothing you useless reptile.

Lol, I can just image all the possibilities where Merlin makes a reference to something and everyone around him are just completely confused and just writes him off as a fool with a wide but intelligent imagination.

This was also greatly inspired by @theroundbartable post (here) of 21st century Arthur as King.

So much fun, like I think because of Merlin able to kinda see into his alternate self's life he has the modern perspective but still have the medieval stomach to survive. And, he goes about figuring out his magic using the scientific method of Question , Research, Hypothesis, Experiment, Data Analysis, Conclusion, and Communication. Like why does he not need to speak words? Is magic spells like coding? Or is it a force? Is he a Jedi or a Sith?

Considering flowers bloom when he's happy but rain and storms pour when sad or angry, he is likely neither a force of good or evil.

Merlin has all these internal thoughts and with Gaius, finally has someone to bounce theories off of (that's not Will of Hunith) and share knowledge with.

At some point Gaius would just suggest Merlin write them down (because Gaius is too old and can't keep up as fast). Taking his advise and spends his next pay check on a brand new journal.

And I can see Merlin and Arthur being the same old same old, but Merlin is more concerned for Arthur and Morgana's well being seeing as their only role model is emotionally abusing (and confusing) Uther.

So he'd team up with Gwen and set about trying to make both Pendragon Siblings happy.

And I better end here or else I'll go on and on.

Til next we meet fellow dreamers~! ✨

[enniewritesathing]

memory management (parallel 1)

⏮️Previous || (📚Previous Stories) || ▶️Beginning

Charles: "Please. Surely, you'll reconsider your course of action after what I have to say."

(The Werewolf growls. He can easily snap Charles' neck and be done with it... but that's far too kind of a punishment.) "I really doubt that, but you can try anyway."

(Charles watches as The Werewolf paces back and forth, never taking his eyes off of him. Another growl. He's on a timer of indeterminate length. He has to choose his words carefully... perhaps there could be a chance he can get out of here alive.)

"You don't want to do this. You're scared and you've... lashed out."

(Charles braces himself for a fraction of a second as The Werewolf shifts his weight too fast for his liking. He's safe, for now.) "This is all a cry for help, you know--"

The Werewolf: "Shut the hell up! You don't smell like the others."

(Charles blinks at the blunt question. It didn't work. He can't possibly have-- ah, yes, an oversight that he didn't account for. Lycans were known for their remarkable senses and Johnathan is no exception... there is very little that he can hide from him.)

(The Werewolf curls his lip.) "Your blood smells old and rotten. And your voice. Why do you have two tones in your words? I don't like your eyes, either. Everything about you is wrong."

(Charles laughs despite himself. Just like that, his plan is dead.)

"It seems that I won't be able to get anything past you; I am the proverbial and alleged mad scientist. Of course, I won't be normal; I've been unwell for years."

(The Werewolf points a clawed finger at Charles.) "That is not what I meant!"

(Charles sighs and looks at his hand.) "You're right. We've both been unwell for years and I've figured out something in the last ten minutes. Despite my efforts, everything I've done to get rid of you... stubborn beast. I thought I could break you to the point where the mere thought of escaping would never cross your mind again."

"Ha! Clever dog. Waiting for us to flush the toxins out of your body. Just enough for you overcome it. You were all but dead. You were dead. Or he is dead and your sheer hatred is what revived you? I'm not sure. Your heart stopped for a very long time and your healing abilities were pushed to the brink. Nothing short of a miracle, as much as I loathe the word.

Perhaps it is true that death works differently for occults..."

(The Werewolf narrows his eyes. ) "What are you saying?"

Charles: "I have a hypothesis, but I will need you to listen before you do anything else."

(The Werewolf huffs.) "Fine."

Charles: "Thank you. I told you, I've been unwell. I've lost count for how many years. Sickness... has always been a part of me since I was a child. Plagued me. There were times I wished for Death, but it never came. I reached adulthood; I was still fragile but I made what time I had count. In the meantime, I read arcane and obscure books and combined it with my accrued medical knowledge."

"Fortune smiled upon me one day as I was introduced to a rather charming... individual. Hm."

(Charles pauses. He can't remember their face. Has it really been that long? What would they think of him now?) "They entertained my proposals to cure myself. There were substantial risks involved, and honestly, had it been anyone else, I would've been committed. We found a way."

"I used their blood in very small dosages over the course of months."

"My sickness worsened as well. One night, I saw the Grim Reaper standing over me. I closed my eyes and waited for that cold hand to take me. It never came but morning did. The light in my room was brighter than I remembered; my eyes ached... but my body felt different. It was different. I didn't have that haze over me. I was light.

"I was cured; naturally, there's consequences the way I went about it."

"In that elation, I discovered that my skin and eyes became sensitive to the sun. Not like I liked it in any fashion. My poor appetite was nonexistent. I required little sleep now. To some, that is a loss, but for me?"

(He laughs.) "I got what I wanted. Those losses were very acceptable; I was alive for the first time; I cheated Death."

The Werewolf: "You call me a monster and yet you do that?"

(Charles looks up at The Werewolf with a smug grin.) "Oh, that's very rich coming from you, Johnathan. What you said made me realize something that I'm sure you'll appreciate -- the lengths someone will go through for some semblance of normalcy. Surely, that is a reasonable thought process?"

"The only thing they asked of me was to consider my new found path. How will I use my gift? Well, I became one of the top doctors of this region. I've worked on, that some might say, miracles. I researched on any and all occults, pouring over centuries of data -- whole, incomplete, and even proven myths and falsehoods. Why, I even found new, better treatments for ailments that have plagued mankind for centuries!

"Then there were the curious matters of werewolves. What I had was very insufficient -- elusive lot. It bothered me that there were hardly any medical knowledge on them. I became obsessive. Surely, they cannot be extinct!"

"One night, I got a call about a boy suspected of being a werewolf. His mother was terrified, on the brink of tears; she had lost one son exhibiting the same symptoms -- unexplained sickness, severe mood changes, an impossibly high fever without any clear cause yet it clears in a few days time... on this particular night, the moon was full."

"My initial tests confirmed it -- the boy's a werewolf. I worked backwards; his mother was latent. His deceased father was latent as well... but his twin brother was active right before he died. My theory told me that he was too young to handle the transformation."

"The stress of the beast awakening almost killed the boy, but why did it awaken early, I wondered? When he regained consciousness, I told him what happened. He was old enough to understand what was at stake but he was young enough to still have that certain innocence. One I didn't have."

"I told the boy that he had a monster inside of him, that it will eventually get stronger and take over when he gets older. That he will want to cause death and destruction like the werewolves before him. Why, he could even harmed his loved ones. Or worse. I realized that this little boy was in a similar position I was all those years ago. Just as I vowed to myself, I vowed to find a cure, by any means.

"But I had to bide my time as my intended methods were... harsh. It would've been frowned upon if I started too early. My plans were contingent on the boy following my simple order: resist. Resist until he couldn't bear it anymore. He was around seventeen when this started to happen; that's when we allowed you to take his place."

The Werewolf: "Is that supposed to make me feel better? You manipulated him and everyone else to get what you wanted! You couldn't bear to fail!"

(Charles laughs low.) "Oh, Johnathan. You poor, wretched child. I did no such thing."

"You're so naïve."

// Next ⏭️

[serasfanfiction]

Part 1 | Part 2| Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

The attacks did not stop at the one.

After the third attack, Lucifer decided it was time to take a more proactive approach. Knowing that Alastor, the infamous Radio Demon, was at the Hotel and more than willing to literally eat their attackers alive wasn't serving as enough of a deterrent.

It looked like they were going to need a bigger reminder about who all resided in the hotel.

Unfortunately, they didn't know who was behind the attacks. Lucifer had snagged someone during each of the attacks, and each time, the story was the same: the group had received a call to go roughen up the residents of the hotel, but no names were ever given.

It was smart. Annoying, but smart.

Frustrated, Lucifer tossed the last of this round of goons to Alastor (and if the action mimicked tossing a dog a treat, well, no one had called him on it, yet). The redhead hummed in pleasure at his work, the sound somehow soothing rather than grating through his radio filter.

The King of Hell watched him, considering. Their opponent knew Alastor was here. Was wary enough of him not to give them any names. The skill levels of the goons were getting better, but they were still no match, really, for either of them.

The only one he truly knew to any capacity was Alastor, and he doubted the redhead was behind this. Alastor wasn't about to undermine the hotel he was so very obviously invested in, even if it was only for his own 'entertainment.'

It was most likely it was another one of those Overlords. Lucifer had only met a couple of them. Hadn't really paid attention to the politics since the system was just starting to get off the ground. He knew Carmilla Carmine for all that he hadn't seen her in nearly two decades. Their connection had been deliberately buried until only Carmilla, Lilith, and himself knew about it anymore.

He had met Zestial, only the once, but that had been back when the spider Overlord was young and new to his position. That must have been... three or four hundred years ago?

Which meant that enlisting Alastor's help was his best bet, something he absolutely did not want to do. Lucifer had managed to avoid anything more than a gentleman's agreement the last time they'd done anything transactional because Alastor had wanted his chance at a pound of flesh more than he wanted to escalate the tensions between them.

Asking for his help with an investigation, something that was going to take potentially a large amount of time and energy, was going to be costly.

Lucifer grimaced. At this stage, he was going to have to try it keep any transactions as one-off as possible. One time deals with a clear give and take. No loop holes or vague details.

Alastor, who had returned back to his usual form, watched him, having picked up on the change in mood. He appeared to be in a good mood, having just had a rather large meal and all.

Well, no better time to do this.

Lucifer lightly touched down in front him, just out of arm's reach. The distance seemed to amuse the deer demon, further adding to the hypothesis that he was closer to an agreeable mood than usual.

"May I speak with you. In private?" Lucifer grit his teeth, but forced out a polite, "Please?"

Alastor considered him. "I assume it's about this latest round of nonsense?"

"Yes, but." Lucifer glanced behind him. Charlie and the rest of the residents were watching them from the doorway, always ready to step in if needed. He turned back to the redhead. "I would prefer to have this discussion in private. If you feel better with it, we can discuss it in your room."

It was probably a little telling, giving up the familiar ground again, but he felt it was still the most likely place to keep Alastor agreeable.

Alastor hummed, placing his hands behind his back as he began the short walk back to the hotel. Lucifer came up to walk beside him, keeping his distance but forced to stay a little closer for the sake of privacy.

The redhead's smile was knowing, aware of what he was doing. "Very well, your Magesty. Perhaps after we send everyone back on their way?"

It was a subtle way of asking how public Lucifer wanted anyone to know about their meeting. "Later tonight, after everyone has gone to bed."

People were likely going to see them working together at some point, but he'd rather postpone that mess as long as possible.

Alastor's smile took on a hint of teeth, eyes half lidded with the promise of seeing something amusing. "I look forward to our chat, then."

Oh, Lucifer bet he did.

Lucifer put it out of his mind, surrendering himself to Charlie's inspection. The wound to his hand was long gone and not even a concern any more, but it seemed his daughter was still shaken by the fact that her father was just as vulnerable to Angelic Steel as her girlfriend was.

He spent the majority of the rest of the day in her company, something that had brought her comfort after the last fight, only escaping her clutches when she and Vaggie decided to call it a night.

"Night, Dad! Remember to take it easy tonight," she called over to him as she headed out.

Lucifer and Vaggie shared a look. The latter, taking pity on the former, took hold of Charlie's arms and began leading her away. "Yes, yes, he got the message. You're smothering him."

Lucifer heard his daughter gasp and he caught a glimpse of a fretting expression on her face before she was led around the corner. "He needs fretting!" he thought he heard her exclaim before she was too far out of earshot.

The blond knew he had a dopey smile on his face, but he was just so happy to get to spend as much time with her as he had been getting lately. He just wanted to soak it all up before she got tired of him and no longer needed him anymore.

"You need anything else, sir?"

Lucifer twisted around to face the bar, remembering the drink in his hand. He'd felt like something non-alcoholic tonight (he needed all of his wits to survive tonight), and since a wider variety of drinks had been added to the menu, he'd thought he'd indulge. "Nah, but thanks, Husk. Don't stay up on my account. I'll clean my glass before I leave."

The winged cat grunted. He finished up the final glass he'd been cleaning, placing it with the others. "Don't have to tell me twice. Night, sir."

Lucifer waved him off. They really did need to work on the 'sir' part, but Husk was as stubborn as the rest of them.

The hotel began to settle as one hour passed, then the next. When he could no longer hear and movement, he downed the rest of his drink. It didn't taste as good at room temperature, but there was no need to waste it. A little twirl of his finger and a touch of magic, the glass was as good as new.

He placed the glass in its designated spot behind the counter. He took a deep, steading breathe, resisting the urge to put this off. Better to get it over with.

Red smoke swirled around him as he transported him straight out of the lobby and up to Alastor's room. He didn't want to take any chances that someone would see him coming and going. He reappeared as close to the entrance of the room as he could, as to not impolite intrude more than he already was. Normally, he wouldn't care, but, again. Playing nice.

He looked around until he spotted his quarry over by the fireplace, still fully dressed as normal and sipping who knew what.

"Ah, sire, I was beginning to wonder if you'd keep me waiting." Alastor gestured to the small table set out between his chair and a second chair to entertain guests. "You'll have to forgive me. Your tea has likely gone cold, but I expected you an hour ago." His smile wasn't sorry in the least.

Well, so much for being in an agreeable mood.

Lucifer crossed the room to the vacant chair. He dropped into it, ignoring the drink. He wouldn't have accepted anything from the cannibal at this stage in their acquaintance anyway. "I'd like some information on the current Overlords."

Alastor placed his cup on the saucer resting on his lap. "Ah! Straight to business. Good, man." The redhead looked his guest up and down. "And what have you to offer in exchange for this information?"

Lucifer settled into his seat, crossing one leg over the other, as he lounged to the side. His elbow came to rest on the arm rest. "You tell me what you want and I'll tell you if I'm willing to pay it."

Alastor's eyes took on a golden glow, pupils morphing into dials. "You'll uphold the bargain, even if I don't have all the information you want?"

He hated to do it, but, "Yes."

The deer demon leaned forward. "This will be a binding deal, not an agreement."

Just as he thought. The blond responded, again, "Yes."

Alastor's body language shifted. Something sinister, never quite buried and never hidden well rising to the surface. Lucifer could almost see him considering his options, weighing each one in turn.

Finally, he settled on, "Your blood, taken at a time of my choosing."

Lucifer didn't wince, although he wanted to. He sighed, nodding. "One time. No ongoing feedings. We don't do it in public. If I need anything else from you after this, we can negotiate any terms at that time."

Alastor placed his cup and saucer on the table. "Also, you take on that delightful deer form of yours, and I get to feed until I'm full. No retaliation."

Lucifer narrowed his eyes at him, noting the word 'full.' "Can you actually get full? I know you're not a real windigo, but I can see the influences."

A red tipped claw waved the concern off. "Despite all appearances to the contrary, I am not a 'bottomless pit.'" Alastor did not actually use finger quotes around the phrase, which he seemed to find distasteful, but Lucifer heard them anyway. Someone had used this phrase against him in the past. "It simply takes a rather large meal to sate my appetite."

His grin widened with anticipation and a touch of excitement. "Whatever you seraphim are made of, your blood was exceptionally potent! I was very nearly full off of it all by itself."

Lucifer shuddered, even as he matched Alastor's grin with near manic one of his own. He certainly hoped it would be. Fallen or not, he was still one of his father's most powerful creations. "Your terms are acceptable."

Alastor held out his hand, the shadows that made up his magic unnaturally darkening the room. The stitches along his coat and smile cast a sickly green glow across his person. "I take it we have a deal?"

Lucifer felt his true form come over him. He didn't allow himself to hesitate. He reached out and took the Radio Demon's hand.

"Deal."

Shadows lit by green symbols spread out across the room and down into the hotel. The foundation creeked with the power of the binding being cast around the deal makers. If this had been the original building, it would have crumbled.

(Down in their rooms, the other residents shifted uneasily in their sleep. Husk, the only one still awake, stared at the ceiling in grim trepidation as evidence of his master's newest deal lit up his room.)

The magic faded away as they drew their hands away. Lucifer could feel the weight of the chain settle around his neck. Could see the other end of it wrapping around Alastor's hands, laying in wait for him to call in it.

It was not the most pleased he'd ever seen the Radio Demon, but it was close.

Alastor, sometimes capable of pretending to be meciful, let the chain disappear. He picked back up his drink, prompting, "You had some questions, your Majesty?"

Lucifer pressed his lips together briefly. He hated the way Alastor said his title on a good day. Knew he did it just to annoy him. Usually, he let it slide. Perhaps it was the new weight around his throat and the delight in every line of Alastor's body that made it grate this time.

He forced himself to relax.

"Tell me about the current Overlords. The territories they hold. What alliances they have."

Alastor leaned back in his own seat, making himself comfortable. "Well, if we're going to talk about anyone, we must start the esteemed, Zestial..." The radio host indeed proved to be knowledgeable in this area, providing concise and easy to follow information whenever Lucifer asked for clarification.

For instance: "Carmilla Carmine?" Lucifer had had ample practice with pretending he had never the Overlord. There was nothing in his tone to give it away. "She was the one that provided the weapons Angel and the others used, yes?"

"Yes." Alastor tilted his head to the side. "I must admit, I'm a little surprised you're not more concerned about how much Angel Steel there is laying around. It might be expensive, but it's certainly everywhere. Isn't it a danger to you and your daughter?"

It was only the fact that there wasn't any audible malice to the question, just the sense that the redhead was poking to see if Lucifer would be willing to share the information, that held his knee jerk response in check. This was, indeed, a Q&A for Lucifer to question and Alastor to answer. There was little reason to give anything away in this instance.

Ultimately, the blond settled on letting him have this, as the redhead had already seen him bleed.

Lucifer held up the hand that had been impaled. Alastor's eyes followed the movement, focusing in on the line of slightly lighter grey that was all that remained of the wound. It was darker than it had been just yesterday and would be darker still tomorrow. "Angelic Steel holds little threat to me or to Charlie." It might have, had she been a Nephilim born of the union between an ordinary angel and human, but as one born of a seraphim and the first woman? Not a chance. "It can hurt us, but it's little more of an inconvenience."

Now, if someone where to get their hands on Charlie's trident and attack her with it? Well. No one needed to know that.

Alastor made that humming noise he made when he was digesting a new tidbit of information. He picked up his narrative, going on to explain the alliance between himself and various other Overlords. From the way he spoke of her, Lucifer got the impression that Alastor actually liked this 'Rosie' character, while he just as clearly did not like the Vees, which was apparently the handle for a group of three separate Overlords.

He didn't realize he knew more Overlord names than he thought he did, until he recognized another name. "Valentino. He's the one that Angel has a contract with?"

Alastor nodded. "Yes. To my understanding, Valentino owns Angel's soul, but can only exert any control over him while in the studio. Seems a silly little loop hole, if you ask me."

The nonchalance, the so little care for Angel's clear suffering was a stark reminder that Alastor himself was an Overlord with his own souls. Lucifer frowned at him, a little of his contempt bleeding into his tone, as he accused, "A loop hole I'm sure you'd never allow your own souls, hm?"

Alastor laughed. "Ha ha! Oh no! Not at all. Any soul I own, it's total and complete." He smirked back in the face of Lucifer's disgust. "But I mostly deal with favors, more so than souls. I like to do little things for others, and later, at a time of my choosing, they do something for me." His expression grew thoughtful. "Why, cashing in a few of my favors is how I got that silly little advertisement for the hotel on the air. I'm sure you've gotten around to seeing it by now, yes?"

Lucifer felt his irritation simmering below the surface. Only allowed the sharpening of the claws he wanted to use to wipe that smug little grin off Alastor's face be the only indication of it. He pushed the conversation on, instead of letting the sinner have the point. "And do you hold territory?"

The Radio Demon held up his hands to bring attention the room as a whole. "Oh, nothing like that. My tower is more than enough, although I do get a bit possessive with the hotel itself, since I've invested so much time and energy into it." He pointed to the radio on the shelf behind him. "I don't really need more when I can reach anywhere with a radio on hand. My favors owed do a great deal of the work of covering any gaps in my coverage."

Lucifer remembered him mentioning he had a talk show. Now that it was brought up, he recalled seeing several of the old fashioned radios around the hotel. Charlie had one in her room and there was one in the main foyer. He had been thinking of adding one into his room, but hadn't gotten around to it.

Suddenly, he wasn't so sure that was a great idea. Perhaps he could sneak out the one in Charlie's room the next time he was in there?

He gestured for the other to continue. When Alastor finished, Lucifer took a moment to chew on the information he had been given. It was a good start, better than where he was at the beginning of the day. But it didn't really narrow anything down.

"Do you know of anyone in particular who might feel threatened by what the hotel is trying to accomplish?"

Alastor laughed, finding the question a bit absurd. "Any of us might find it threatening, my dear king. Our deals and our reputations are our most powerful tools. The possibility that souls can be redeemed means that those deals might be broken which threatens our power."

Lucifer supposed it was too easy, if there had been an simple response to that question. Alastor surprised him, though, when he added, "Really, I don't know why anyone is worried about the hotel, when supposedly you're a bigger threat yourself."

The blond frowned, attention sharpening. "What? Me? What do I have to do with any of that?"

Alastor's posture was as languid as it had been since he had settled in. Nothing on the surface seemed to have changed, but Lucifer could feel the weight of his gaze as he explained, "Oh, you know. That silly legend that's been hanging around."

Lucifer blinked at him, baffled. "What legend?"

"The one that says you can break deals."

Unbidden, a memory rose to the surface. Of himself standing above a sinner kneeling at the base of his throne. The sound of the shattering of their chain and the tinkling sound as the links hit the floor - once, twice - and then vanished. It had been the last time he'd ever interfered in the drama between sinners. Lucifer blinked, the memory vanishing like smoke.

He almost dismissed it. Almost let the truth die and remain a myth. Something about the way Alastor was watching him held him back. Whispered: this is important.

Telegraphing the movement, the Devil raised his free hand. Seeing he had the Radio Demon's full attention, he flicked the chain that represented their Deal, putting a little power into it to force the chain to materialize.

Alastor jolted, spine straightening and ears standing on end, half looking like he had received an electric shock.

Lucifer lowered his hand, letting the chain disappear. "I can't break deals I've made, if that's what you're worried about."

The redhead rolled the wrist his end of the chain was wrapped around, trying to work some feeling back into the suddenly numb limb. He still looked amused, but only by the skin of his teeth. "Come now, it's like you think I was accusing you of being dishonorable!" He visibly pulled his undaunted mask back into place. "I was merely asking if you could break other people's deals!"

Uh huh. Sure he was.

Still. With the same level of casualness, Lucifer straightened from his slouch. Dominant hand freed, he used it to reach out and pluck a different chain right out of thin air.

Alastor's eyes widened fully from the normal half-lidded state. One side of the chain was wrapped around the redhead's wrist, showing him the owner of the Deal. The other side trailed off under the door and out of the room.

If one were to follow it to its other end, they would have found themselves standing outside of Husk's door.

Lucifer watched Alastor, the latter's eyes glued to the former's grip on the chain. Anticipation was evident in Alastor's expression, but it was a little harder to parse out the other emotion in there.

Hope.

But hope of what?

Lucifer tightened his grip, testing the strength (Alastor's strength) of the Deal. The links creaked and groaned under his own power and he found that it would be easy to break them.

Instead of breaking them, however, he released the chain instead.

Alastor's left ear twitched, expression growing rigid, as if he had forgotten he was being watched. Something related to disappointment, but not quite, crossed it before curiosity took it's place. "You didn't break it?"

"Husk is an adult and he made his own choices. Contrary to popular belief, I do appreciate consequences." Perhaps Lucifer would be willing to change his stance on the subject in the future - he was growing attached to the members of the hotel, besides Charlie and Vaggie, by default. He certainly would if Charlie ever asked him to. "Besides, I'm not in the market to make anymore of an enemy out of you tonight than you already are."

There was that familiar amusement again. "Oh? Does that mean I'm growing on you, sire?"

Lucifer shuddered, waving the idea away like the smell of it was something foul and putrid, which only seemed to amuse Alastor some more. "Er, no. Absolutely not. Father, you're so lucky Charlie likes you."

"Indeed." Alastor looked to the clock on top of his fireplace, which drew Lucifer's attention to it.

Egad, Lucifer thought to himself as he saw the time, when did it get so late?

"Did you have any other questions for me, sire?"

Lucifer was both closer to his goal and yet further away from it than when they started. It did indeed seem like an Overlord was responsible for the attacks, but it was unlikely that this line of inquiry would bear any more fruit.

He sighed. He didn't like what he was about to do, but it had to be done anyway. "No, I don't have any future questions at this time."

Both sides felt the redhead's side of the Deal closing, Alastor's end fulfilled. His hands flexed around the feel of the chain and then settled. Perfectly polite, he said, "Splendid! Fancy doing business with you. You don't mind if we call this a night, then?"

Lucifer didn't want to poke that bear, but he couldn't help but ask: "You're not going to cash in your deal tonight?"

The Radio Demon looked at him, knowing he was really asking it so that they could get it over with as soon as possible. "Nonsense! I've already eaten a hardy meal today." Alastor grinned from ear to ear, looking for all the world like he was talking about a 5 Star restaurant's menu and not about drinking someone's blood straight from the source. "I'd much rather reserve this meal to a time I could enjoy it to the fullest."

Lucifer grimaced. Cannibals. Either way, the desire to not have those teeth in this neck tonight won over the need to get this over with and he decided that he was not, in fact, going to look that gift horse in the mouth that night. "Whelp, good talk!" The little king sprung to his feet. To avoid turning his back on the creature that literally had license to take a bite out of him, he decided he was just going to portal out. "Uh, let me know when you want to, uh, do the thing."

As he portalled out, he heard Alastor drawl, tone heavy with dark promise, "I most certainly will."

tbc

Part 6

[sangaverage]

Vampyres & Affinity with Halloween, A Hypothesis

To many vampyres, Halloween is a special time of year and yes that may be on a similar vein (no pun intended) to some witches celebrating it as Thier new year I would like to touch on some theory as to other reasons as to why Vampyres may enjoy Halloween so much, this may get a little long so theory is under the cut

Divider credit: here!

Affinity With Death & The Dead

It is written in various sources that Vampyres have a unique affinity with death. And, as Halloween for some is the time best suited for spirit contact, communicating with ghosts and honouring ancestors, this 'death energy' is lingering around generally, and, due to our affinity with and understanding of 'death energy' we can tune into it for Spiritual workings or shadow workings fairly easily, but so can anyone if they try hard enough! This energy for many of us comes off more soothing than Unsettling.

Unique Understanding Of 'The Veil'

Witchcraft practitioners will probably know what is meant by 'the veil' here but a brief explanation for those unfamiliar, The Veil is said to the border between the physical realm we inhabit and the spiritual realms, more specifically the spiritual realms that deal with the dead and the various spirits and creatures that roam the astral and shadow realms, October is said to be when the veil thins the most, Halloween being the peak time where this veil is thinnest, Imagine it as a net curtain that gets more worn over time if it helps here!

Now as us 'Living Vampyres' are technically branch of of the supernatural vampire (by name only, no wacky powers or immortality here) We are A creature that shouldn't really exist but does, okay well not exactly, we're still human but there is a condition we have that makes us need blood or energy to keep ourselves healthy, we dont die without it but life is significantly harder/ more annoying!

My theory here is that's it's our condition that gives us affinity with the spiritual, and from that affinity we connect with and understand the veil, it's entities and energies on a unique level, and, rather than being immediately critical, we embrace this feeling, it's an oddly calming and somewhat festive energy, it feels, Correct or normal for us for lack of a better word.

(Im not saying some regular people can't have this experience of they try/ feel it hard enough!)

Self Expression/ Affirming

For some of us in more critical households/ Faiths/ Situations, we cannot express our vampirism as openly as we would like without harassment/ bullying/ misunderstandings, so we take this time to 'take off our masks' if you will and openly express who and what we are, Halloween lets us express our true selves more openly without having to think too much about discretion and others judgements.

Halloween is when the costumes come off in a sense, some of us still like to wear capes, cloaks, fangs and other such things that affirm what we are, get us in the mood/ spirit, or just for fun after all!

Acknowledging The Darkness

Ah Halloween, a time where some of the general populace throw out Thier outdated ideas of dark = evil and whatever other negatives the darkness means to them and embrace it instead in a fun and festive way!

Us vampyres have always had affinity with darkness, we are creatures of the night after all! (not to say some of us don't like the sun as well!) being able to stay up late, go out at night without too much worry about if its safe and generally enjoy the darkness for what it is can be a nice change of pace for some of us who don't get much choice about having to stay indoors at night!

Plus, it's a great time for, scrying, Sciomancy or generally tapping into 'the current"!

(stay safe anyway!)

That's it from me, but feel free to add a few things if you feel I've missed anything!

[theweeklydiscourse]

Aaron Warner: A Defanged Romantic Lead

Don’t get me wrong, I actually love Aaron Warner’s characterization in Shatter Me. I like his unhinged attitude and how at times he comes off as a little delusional with his fantasies of a fucked up future together with Juliette. He’s like an obsessed scientist who caught a mermaid and is both in love with her while also being fascinated with her supernatural qualities and wanting to exploit her for them…BUT.

There’s this trope I’ve noticed that I’ve thought about for a while, but I’ve never actually written about it. Have you ever noticed that in certain stories involving fantasy or dystopian elements, the story will begin with a dangerous and edgy male lead with dubious morals but as soon as the author considers them as a romantic interest for the female lead they are completely and utterly defanged?

What I’m referring to is the tendency to characterize a male lead as an unhinged individual who engages in violent and dangerous behaviours in the first book only to completely backtrack on that characteristic in the second book. These male leads are often extremely well-liked by readers and are involved in equally well-liked romantic sub plots in their respective series. However, there is a certain dissonance to these types of characters that I believe cannot be ignored and I have an unconfirmed hypothesis on why this trope has become so popular. Aaron Warner is a perfect example of this trope (among many) and to illustrate my point, I’ll use examples from Shatter Me and Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi.

To make things clear, I do enjoy romances with darker themes, But, I absolutely cannot stand the lack of nerve in both of these narratives and their refusal to truly lean into the subjects they raise and how they cower at the implications of what they’ve written.

Anyways, here’s a page from my physical copy of Ignite Me from a few years ago.

I hate how Aaron’s explanation for his actions in Ignite Me amount to him getting huffy with Juliette for expressing her grievances with the way he handled things in Shatter Me. It’s just one justification after the other in rapid succession. Some of it it plausible, like his efforts to establish Juliette as an intimidating force in the Sector by making a public display of her abilities (albeit against her will) as well as belief that he was lifting her out of a poor situation. But, this is all marred by the final line: "I had no idea you hated me so much. That everything I tried to do to help you had come under such harsh scrutiny.” Because…really? You had no idea that Juliette harboured any negative feelings towards you after what you did? That your actions would come under “harsh scrutiny”?

Let’s go back to Shatter Me, shall we?

“We will always be enemies.” My voice is cracked into chips of ice. The words melt on my tongue. “I will never be what you want me to be.” (Shatter Me, Chapter 13)

I push him hard, slamming his back up against the door. “You disgust me.” I stare hard into his crystal-cold eyes. “You disgust me—” (Shatter Me, Chapter 18)

I meet Warner’s gaze. “If you ever put me in a position like that again, I will kill you. And I will enjoy it.” (Shatter Me, Chapter 25)

“You’re insane.” My hands are shaking but I hold the gun up to his face again. I need to get him out of my head. I need to remember what he’s done to me. “You want me to be a monster for you—” (Shatter Me, Chapter 27)

All of these lines are preceded or followed by Aaron insisting that he is helping Juliette or that she should appreciate the work he’s done to make her flourish. So it seems ridiculous that Aaron suddenly shocked and appalled that Juliette thinks of him as a bad person. While I do think that some of Aaron’s actions were justified given the circumstances, it is still laughable that the narrative expects me to buy into Aaron’s argument here. I imagine that this conversation is meant to recontextualise his actions and give him a chance to explain things from his side, but all it does is give him full permission to go on a self-righteous tangent.

This scene encapsulates my point about Aaron being defanged. It exists to portray him as a well-meaning but unaware benefactor to Juliette (unbeknownst to her) and seems to let him avoid taking responsibility for his actions. His claims that he was unaware of Juliette’s initial disgust and hatred towards him even though evidence suggests the complete opposite. How could you “have no idea” that Juliette felt that way about you when she was throwing it in your face in all of your interactions? The answer is that Mafi wanted to do the whole “I was hurting you to protect you” deal but muddles her continuity due to her need to make Aaron a “good” person at all costs. It’s an especially baffling character decision especially when Aaron claims to have an intimate knowledge of Juliette’s true feelings several times.

But that’s not the only thing. Aaron’s shock about Juliette thinking he was an unhinged creep suddenly frames Juliette in a negative light. Suddenly, she is at fault for being too judgmental and jumping to conclusions about his motives when he had deliberately misled her.

“Was that all a part of your plan, too? No wait, don’t tell me”—I hold up a hand—“that was just a simulation, right?”

Warner goes rigid.

He sits back; his jaw twitches. He looks at me with a mixture of sadness and rage in his eyes. “No,” he finally says, deathly soft. “That was not a simulation.”

“So you have no problem with that?” I ask him. “You have no regrets over killing a man for stealing a little extra food? For trying to survive, just like you?”

Warner bites down on his bottom lip for half a second. Clasps his hands in his lap. “Wow,” he says. “How quickly you jump to his defense.”

“He was an innocent man,” I tell him. “He didn’t deserve to die. Not for that. Not like that.”

“Seamus Fletcher,” Warner says calmly, staring into his open palms, “was a drunken bastard who was beating his wife and children. He hadn’t fed them in two weeks. He’d punched his nine-year-old daughter in the mouth, breaking her two front teeth and fracturing her jaw. He beat his pregnant wife so hard she lost the child. He had two other children, too,” he says. “A seven-year-old boy and a five- year-old girl.” A pause. “He broke both their arms.”

Judge me,” he says, “all you like. But I have no tolerance,” he says sharply, “for a man who beats his wife. No tolerance,” he says, “for a man who beats his children.” He’s breathing hard now. “Seamus Fletcher was murdering his family,” he says to me. “And you can call it whatever the hell you want to call it, but I will never regret killing a man who would bash his wife’s face into a wall. I will never regret killing a man who would punch his nine-year-old daughter in the mouth. I am not sorry,” he says. “And I will not apologize.” (Ignite Me, Chapter 7)

What a sick joke.

“GOD Juliette! I can’t believe that you’d view me as the kind of person who would kill an innocent man in cold blood! It’s not like I deliberately misled you and lied about my motives for killing him. It’s not as if I manufactured a scenario where I came off as a dangerous and cold-blooded psychopath and did nothing to make you think otherwise. Wow can’t believe that you’d be so judgmental.”

You know? It’s not lost on me that Aaron doesn’t even address the fact that Juliette was fed false information about Fletcher and gets so indignant about her assessments of him. I hate this part even more than the last. Take a look at the scene from Shatter Me they’re referring to and you’ll see what I mean.

I’m sorry but this is just stupid beyond words. It irritates me to my core that the narrative cannot commit to Aaron’s previous characterization and follow-through on it. It cheapens his development later on and it almost borders on gaslighting with how it tries to cast judgment on Juliette for questioning Aaron’s morality in the first place. And for what? All to make Aaron into a technical good guy who has all the aesthetics of a dark romantic lead, but none of the edge to match. He is dulled by this contradictory scene and made into this schlub who was just doing his best to help while implicitly accusing Juliette of jumping to conclusions and being too “harsh”.

Because this passage from Shatter Me proves that Juliette isn’t just pulling these accusations out of thin air, she has a legitimate reason to believe that Aaron is morally bankrupt, but the narrative doesn’t let her dwell in those conflicting emotions. Instead, it goes out of its way to make Aaron as noble and misunderstood as possible while shaming Juliette for buying into the LIES THAT HE HIMSELF TOLD HER!! The cherry on top of this scene is that she apologizes to him as he storms off in a huff.

It’s such an emotional cop out and it tries way too hard to soften Aaron’s actions to make him more digestible as a romantic lead.

[fandomfaeofveryfewf4cks]

ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52424179/chapters/132621133

Part 2: https://www.tumblr.com/fandomfaeofveryfewf4cks/735068803984228352/part-1?source=share

Part 3 below:

. . . . .

"Loki?," Mobius called out again. God, he hopes this will work. After a lot of planning at the TVA, the gang decided the first step was to get Mobius back out there. The hypothesis being that Mobius being on a timeline somehow allowed Loki to contact him.

Whether it was because Loki couldn't reach the TVA or couldn't find it at all was an unknown among millions. But living in uncertainty comes with the job when dealing with time and alternate dimensions.

Either way, if Loki could hear Mobius right now, he better be trying to say something back. Mobius thinks this to himself, trying not to let the concern-disguised-as-annoyance show through too much.

Just as he took another breath to call out again, he felt an odd hum in his ears. It started off as just a vibration. He couldn't tell if it was meant to be a sound or not. He couldn't tell what it was meant to be at all, frankly. But soon the sound evened out into a whisper of his name in a voice so familiar, it made his eyebrows shoot up and his head shoot around to look for his friend.

"Loki! I heard you! Where are you?"

Faintly, Loki whispered back, "I'm still...with...the branches." There was no physical strain in his voice, but rather, it sounded like he had to concentrate very hard on saying the words he needed to say. "It's difficult...to focus on anything...but...the branches. It's getting better. Though, it will...it will take time for me to better control it."

"Yeah, that makes sense. Casey thought something like that was going on. Was that why you hadn't contacted us earlier? You couldn't divert your attention from the branches yet? Or could you just not see us in the TVA."

"No, I can't see the TVA from here... It doesn't exist on a branch, so... It doesn't exist in the realm I-"

"The realm you're in, yeah, I got it," Mobius finished the sentence for him. He sighed. He wasn't sure asking his next question was a good idea. It's a vague question that usually doesn't get you more than simple and vague answers in return, at least with most people. Not to mention, distracting Loki with unnecessary questions that would likely just lead to more questions that would also distract him, was basically putting the multiverse in jeopardy. But, fuck it. Mobius needs to ask him this. It's been weeks of nothing from or about Loki. He needs to ask this.

"Are you okay?"

Predictably, Loki pauses. "Am I okay?," he asks.

Mobius doesn't roll his eyes. He may look up for a second, but he lowers his eyelids over them, so he's obviously not upset or frustrated. He's not.

"Yes, are you okay!?" he asks again as he starts throwing his hands around to make his words seem more pointed and planned than they are. "I asked if you are okay. You've been basically missing for weeks and we figured you were at least alive since the branches are all still alive and nothing was turning into spaghetti. But we still didn't have any idea what was happening to you. We had no way to reach you, check on you, just fucking talk to you." He huffs out a breath. He lets his hands rest on his hips and his head hang over his chest. He lets another breath out, slower this time. He evens them out and pinches the space between his eyes. Okay.

Maybe he was a little upset and frustrated.

Loki gave him the moment to breathe before speaking. "I am alright. It's oddly...calm here." That pause sounded more like one he would put in normally. "When I first pulled the branches together, I... purposefully sent my magic through them... to bring them back to life.... Not long afterwards, once they were all more or less settled around me,... I could feel them start to pull my magic from me on their own, like a root takes water from the ground.... I was worried it would take what I had and I'd run out of magic and even my own life force to give it. I was worried I wouldn't be enough."

. . . . .

'Why am I telling him all this?' Loki thought to himself. 'I was supposed to explain that the branches are safe, and that I wouldn't be able to contact anyone very often because the whole bloody multiverse needed basically all of my attention or else it'll throw a hissy fit and die again. Then they'd only see one another when absolutely necessary.'

Which was likely never, and Loki knew this. That's why it would be a good plan. Keep Mobius safe and away from all this as much as possible. Away from Loki as much as possible.

...Ah, that would explain why he's spilling his guts out to Mobius. He doesn't want to let go. No one listens to him so attentively as Mobius does. Most people stop really listening to him much after an interaction or two. Even more-so once they got to know him. But that hadn't been the case with Mobius.

"I soon realized that it wasn't just taking energy from me; it was giving energy back. It comes from me, cycles throughout the tree and comes back to get sent out again. It's terribly fascinating. Like sharing blood."

He looks at Mobius. Even though Mobius can't actually see him, he feels safer sharing his innermost thoughts and feelings with Mobius than with anyone else. And he takes no greater happiness than when Mobius shows his own to Loki.

Can Loki really expect to be able to stay away?

Can Loki really expect Mobius to stay safe while the God of Mischief and Stories holds him so close?

There's nothing for it. He has to stick to the plan.

Or at least try to.

"Mobius-"

. . . . .

Mobius picks his head up again at the gentle call of his name and immediately feels like an idiot for thinking Loki was right there for him to see. He really needs to pull himself together.

"...Mobius, I am okay. Truly. I am safe and well. The multiverse is safe and well. There is no more need to worry."

"Ha," Mobius scoffs. "Yeah, I know you're okay. I just wish you could be better than okay. I think you more than deserve it at this point. You deserve more than this, Loki."

"That's very kind of you," Loki replies after a moment. Mobius can almost feel his smile from here. The smile that tells Mobius just how much it means to Loki when someone shows they care about him. How much it surprises him. He does appreciate when someone is able to surprise him.

"But how are you," Loki continues. "Have you been 'better than okay,' as you put it?"

Mobius fights another scoff. Loki is trapped in a magical tree for the rest of eternity and he wants to know whether Mobius is okay. Of course he's okay. Except, he realized he had a whole other life that he can't really go back to because he can't remember it, had a disappointing first go on a jet ski, got pruned, got nearly spaghettied, and just generally, has been running around like it's the end of all time and space (which it was) almost non-stop. Not to mention he lost the best friend he's had since Ravonna, and no longer has any idea what he's supposed to do with the rest of the life that suddenly feels like it has a huge empty space in it.

Now, how does he explain all this to Loki without sounding like he's complaining?

"I'm alright. Things got a lot more boring after you were gone, though."

Loki laughs softly, "Most people would call such circumstances 'safe' before calling them 'boring.' However, I must admit, I understand the sort of dismay one can experience when there's nothing interesting going on."

"'Interesting' is one heck of a word to use to describe total annihilation of all existence. But we actually have had plenty to do, tracking the He-Who-Remains variants and making sure they don't cause a catastrophic war or anything."

"Ah."

"Yeah... I was actually mainly talking about you."

"Me?"

"Yeah, I got used to having more mischief in my life. You got me hooked on it." He may want to pull it back a bit. That's probably a bit much to say right now. "Cubicles and war rooms are pretty scarce on chaos and mayhem."

There was a longer moment where Loki didn't talk. Mobius had a feeling it wasn't because of the difficulty to manage the timelines this time, at least not entirely. He's actually had fewer breaks in his sentences since the start of their conversation, now that Mobius thinks about it.

"Have you thought about where you want to go? What you want to do, if not staying at the TVA?"

"How did you know I was leaving the TVA?"

"Oh, right. Sorry, I caught some of your conversation with Silvie when you were... on your old timeline. I was trying to reach you."

"Okay, so can you see pretty much...everything on the timelines."

"Basically, yes."

"Huh," Mobius is just going to pretend it's not unsettling at all to know it is perfectly possible for powerful beings to know what you're doing without you ever knowing they're there. That sort of thing has already been established as believable as far as a large portion of humanity is concerned, anyway.

"Well, I actually don't know what to do next. I just know the TVA is not the place for me anymore. I tried jet-skiing, but it felt like going for a nice walk with a hole in your sock. It was nice, but there's just something that keeps poking at me like there's something else I need to be doing. The more I think about it, the more I realize I've felt like that for a long time; it was just more subtle."

"The hole in your sock wasn't as prominent."

"Exactly. That and the scenery on the walk was busy enough to keep me distracted more, even if it wasn't as nice to look at."

Loki hummed in consideration.

"Do you still feel that hole in your sock?"

Mobius thought about that. He was still wildly uncertain about what he wanted. He has no plan. Yet, he doesn't feel quite so adrift as he has been.

"I feel like I got new shoes," Mobius replies.

"...new shoes?"

"Yes, new shoes. Ones that are more comfortable than my old ones. It doesn't fix the socks, but something has still improved the situation."

"Ah, I see." He sounded like he did.

How they turned this into a conversation about shoes, Mobius will never know. But it feels nice to talk with someone about things that don't have to make sense again. It's nice to be able to talk to Loki again.

"Mobius, you still have access to a tempad, yes?"

"Yeah...?"

"Is there anywhere you've always wanted to see, in all of time and space?"

His job for the longest time, has been reading about and "protecting" a timeline full of phenomenal places, astounding people, and extraordinary events that he never got to fully experience for himself in a way he could appreciate because it would affect the "sacred" timeline. Of course he has places he's always wanted to see. He's got an endless list. There is literally a library full of the places he wanted to be a part of.

An entire timeline had been tucked away into countless words onto an endless sea of pages, and Mobius has been an avid reader.

"Maybe a few," he answers. "Why?"

Again, the smile comes through Loki's voice. "How'd you like to go for a walk?

. . . . .

Next up part 4/?. Time eludes me. No knowing when it'll be up. I'd be either a terrible time traveler or a great one with how little the passing of time makes itself known to me. If you've been reading this, thank you and I'm sorry. Hope you enjoy :)

[maeattemptsateverything]

Sedatives

Tw: medical setting, non-consensual drugging, clinical death, non-acurate medical procedures

Hans was already tired, but it was nothing out of the usual for him. He saw how the doctors were hurrying up to strap the angel down before it could rise up again. Everybody was doing their part, talking between them, measuring dosages, leaving him to do his own thing. It didn't matter to him

“Captain! Your weapon is loaded?” asked Dr Kline; an old man who knew him since childhood.

“Always” He responded while showing off the rifle.

“Good, we need you on standby” the only reason he was there was to stand in silence ready to aim and blow some heads off with a bullet. The only thing that proved to be effective against the thing was a .30-06 Springfield.

From what he knew, the doctors wanted to search for something that would subdue their novel specimen without having to destroy it more than necessary. Aside from being easier to work with, it would be useful for detaching themselves from their reluctant expert. Hans thought that the first problem was stupid; if you can kill the danger of bullets then it is a technique as good as any other. The second; he could see their point even if he was doubtful.

TS_27 efforts were weird and dumb in his opinion but also amusing and kind of endearing. Always telling them what to do, how to do it, protesting every step of the way; the kind of man who can set things right with his voice alone.

“Where is TS_27?” Asked Dr Kline, no idea of how he could say it, it was a mouthful.

“On his bunk, I knocked him out” the moment felt kind of special even if it is something he does often; slam a prisoner by the collar against a wall. Maybe the impression was too strong on him because he passed out as soon as he was let go.

“...Good” Said the doctor “He would throw a fit if he saw all of this”

“Guess so”

Tough luck for them, TS_27 was not entirely useless. One of the few humans that saw an angel so close, and actually got to document it. He had made some really interesting diagrams from up close. Detailed to the joints of the creature's fingers, studied and corrected. All complemented by multiple hypothesis and behavioral notes on several documents.

The man could have been more organized but thanks to him, these bastards had an encyclopedia to prove truth or to correct; instead of moving their asses and starting from scratch.

So their first thing they wanted to get off the way was if the creature responded to any kind of sedative. A step on working safely was if the creature was subdued enough to work without a claw ripping your eyeballs and your nose in the process; they could use the restraints and have their little guards to contain the damage, but not really prevent it.

The technician looked at Hans, smiling widely while holding the syringe. "Captain, we're going to try a benzodiazepine. It's used in general surgeries. Should be tame enough to use here."

All the time, the creature had been looking around the room, screeching at the top of its lungs like its throat didn't go sore; absolutely frantically looking around the room. It was strapped to the table, its body pinning down its wings. The eyes wide open, filled with tears and pupils constricted. It probably saw the syringe, or all the tools. Probably did not understand words, but it clearly knew their intentions. Hans was fascinated by it, the same way one is fascinated by a fallen bear.

He still remained stoic, his voice calm while firmly grabbing his rifle. "Whatever you say, kid. Just make sure you don't let it kill you all”

The technician's mood deflated as the doctor rolled his eyes; Not his job to put up with the captain's mood. He hurried up to the table and injected the angel in what he presumed was an artery, their arms looked human enough and they also had the weight of an average human. With the animal parts they had, it meant they would probably need more anesthesia.

The screeching was dying down since the creature was slowly falling asleep, Dr Kline seemed pleasantly surprised that the dosage was enough to quiet it down; It was looking straight at the blinding lights but not entirely focused.

“Is that normal?” Asked Hans

The monitor started to beep like crazy, the cardiac rhythm seemed to be to fast. The creature also seemed to have stains all over. Little clumps of color all over its arms and chest. the creature seemed to have his throat constricted by something, its breathing whistling and short.

“What's going on?” Shouted Dr Kline “Did You inject all the dose at once!?” He was hurrying near the table.

“Only a quarter!'' Said the technician while frantically checking the syringe.

The creature was not breathing, the monitor flatlined and panic surged through the team. The murmurs were hurried and their movements frantic. The sample size was of one individual, so they could not lose the creature. At least not now.

"The Defibrillator now!" Shouted Dr.Kline. His voice has the same tone as TS_27, except that Hans didn't find it so endearing.

The same technician grabbed the defibrillator, he was trembling and fumbling as he adjusted the device. In his defense, the shouting in the room got to a point that even Hans thought it was unbearable. He gripped his rifle, not trusting the environment.

They had to use the electricity to revive it, the monitor gave signs of a heartbeat but it was fickle. They were meant to kill the angels and claim the garden; but they needed to know what they were fighting against. The same technician letting the device fall over the angels chest with all his strengt, making it convulse against the restraints.

“Clear!” Shouted Dr Kline. As the beeping was growing more regular, it still was weakened but at least stable. Hans let out a breath hedidnt knew he was holding,and went back to a rest position.

“Captain” Said the doctor “We need to monitor this thing vitals for the day, could you please make guard?”

“Course doc, not like I did´t had plans for the day” Said Hans in his usual sarcastic tone. Trying to not appear disturbed by the scene. The doctor sighted

“Then send me your best soldier. You are dismissed for today”

“Hurring up!” said Hans in a more lighthearted tone.

So he went back to his office while singing a tune, letting his liutenant deal with the doctor and his job. He always found their whole strategy a bit stupid, they wanted to claim the garden as territory and they knew a gun was enough to subdue the angels. If one bullet is not enough, shoot again, and again, until it is down. If you want something more effective use a rifle but they had a way to win against those things, no need to keep wasting resources or lifes to destroy this creatures.

Oh well, his job is not to understand; it is to make sure these bastards don't die.

Please tell me if I should add to the tags

[dadjokeslady]

I'm having a bit of a back and forth with @bowserwife about gender and radical feminism, some of the points I'll e repeating here, so hopefully in future discussions I can use this as a reference and this might spark the discussion with other people.

Preamble

About this discussion, I'll just point out some notions for the debate.

I'm going to engage in good faith and I'll assume you're engaging in good faith too, but I'll match your energy, if you wanna go blood sports let's dance.

I'll assume you disagree with me because you might have heard some argument that I did not or because you haven't heard one I did.

English is not my first language, I'd something sounds uncanny it might be that.

Hypothesis

Let's start with a brief list if things I will not debate, if you disagree with any of those this post ain't for you.

We live in a patriarchal society

Sex is a biological category that follows a binormal distribution (most of us are either male or female)

Gender is a biopsychosocial category informed by gender but not defined by gender

Sex and gender are different things

The whole debate space between trans folk and radfem can have some nasty people saying mean things to each other, those things do not make anyone right nor wrong

Any definition of woman that includes Buck Angels failed

Any definition of woman that excludes cis woman failed

Any definition of woman that includes cis man failed

The arguments

Part 1 - rigorous definitions

I do have some background in math and I used to have a professor who said that there are three important things in math:

Rigour; rigour; and rigour. Some say you need a forth one, rigour, but I find it unnecessary.

I'll agree that rigorous definitions are valuable tools to understand the world, so let's express clearly what is meant by a rigorous definition. Some criteria one can use to identify if some object belongs to some class of objects such that the criteria includes in the category all the things that it should (no object is missed) and that the criteria do not introduce anything that it should not (no object is miss classified).

I'll provide one example, the natural numbers as defined by Peano:

1 (one) is a natural number.

For every two natural numbers a it's successor, a+1 is a natural number.

OBS: Peano did not include zero as a natural number, this is by design.

You'll notice that the definition is separated into two parts a base case and a recursive case. The definition leaves nothing to be interpreted, either something is a natural number or it is not, there is no context influence, no conditionals.

Or does it? It is pretty easy to overlook, but the Peano definition of natural numbers depends on the definition of the + (plus) operator. It might seem trivial but it is not. Peano natural numbers only work under the hypothesis that any numbers plus one is different then the original number, i.e. a+1 /= a.

Then, we can point that we need to define what equality means, so we can define what difference means... This'll run down until we need to define axioms, statements that can't be proven and we assume as true.

If math cannot rigorously define natural numbers without axioms, what hope do we have of defining anything as rigorously in the real world? We'll see.

Before we continue and leave this dreaded land of math, let me raise some other properties of definitions.

If two categories have the same definition, e.g. the non null absolute values of the integers is another definition of the natural number (a pretty round about way to define them but still). Those two categories can be viewed as being the same.

If two different categories of objects, with different definitions, can have their objects translated from the first category to the second one without losing any structural properties, it is a homomorphism. A pair of homomorphisms such that the translation can be undone is an isomorphism. Two categories between which there is an isomorphism are said to be equal up to isomorphism, or in plain English, equivalent.

The equivalence itself is contextual to what we mean by lost structural properties, and it can be distilled further, but we can specify those as we find it necessary later.

Part 2 - definitions in the real world

In the real world definitions are much more loose than in math, just as an example to hammer this home, we cannot define if things are equal without some leniency and good faith. Is two blank A4 sheets of paper equal? In that sense? They for sure are not maid by the same atoms. They for sure do not have the same thickness down to a piconometer scale... Whenever, this point forward, I say something is equal or equivalent to something else, I mean equal or equivalent up to a good faith interpretation.

In other words, let's not occupy ourselves with petty word games, please.

The, "what is a woman?" discourse have the this trope of degrading into "what is a chair?" Questioning. For everyone who ever tried to respond to this kind of questioning, you misunderstood the argument. There are no objective answers to what is a chair that do not rely on a sea of unlisted axioms, and with the axioms being, by definition of axiom, unproven but assumed as true, any two definitions, as unequivalent as possible, have the same validity.

There will be a more lengthy discussion about what I'd argue should be the criteria of choice for differentiation between definitions, but for now let's assume that given two different valid definitions we'd all agree on what'd be better.

Other than chosing between two valid definitions, we can take a step back and attack the axioms on which that definition rests, if we try and define a car as having four wheels, that depends on wheels being round and we need to ask if that holds for every case...

Than again, we can still attack a definition by pointing out edge cases, and this is where we need to have good faith, there are cars that have any number of wheels, defining it as having four is "good enough" of a definition if we agree that those outlier are too much work to deal with as a whole and that we can go on a case by case basis.

That means we lost some of our rigour on our definitions, they all now have to have an asterisk pointing that there are edge cases. This is a toll most of us are willing to pay, and only concern ourselves with for petty word games, if some wants to use only definitions without it, I'd refer that someone to the endless chair defining threads.

Then how much of the general population constitutes and edge case is another discussion, deeply linked with the discussion of which of two equally valid definitions we should use.

Furthermore, in the real world we communicate using fallible language, and words have definitions themselves. As such we should at the very least differentiate nouns and the objects they refer to. There is the word "woman" and there is the category "woman". Words have meaning but we do have word play, sarcasm, double meaning... In the definitions I'll provide, I'll try to limit how much this can influence our understanding by aiming to define woman as a category, not the word woman.

Part 3 - defining gender and sex

The three categories: female, intersex and male, are sex based. But sex, as a metacategory needs a definition to itself. We can define it in terms of genotypically male or female, hormonally male or female, anatomically male or female. All those are interlocked so someone who is in the male category on the genetic level will most probably also have hormone levels that'd classify them as male, and the anatomy of a male. The genetic aspect informs the anatomy and the endocrine aspect, they both inform each other, but they can be pretty cleanly distinguished. In the real world, we look at the anatomy.

Do a newborn have the superficial anatomy of a male? they'll be classified as a male. This early classification is the origin of the terms AGAB (assigned gender at birth), AMAB (assigned male at birth) and AFAB (assigned female at birth). Please, let's point out that those terms are not rigorous, the AGAB is not a gender, it is a sex. The Female maker on anyone's birth certificate do not refer to the biopsychosocial construction of gender. Edge cases for this will include intersex cases where a sex is not assigned, those I'll argue we should see in a case by case basis if we classify them as AFAB or AMAB. The same, I'll argue, we should do to cases where there are no birth certificate, and most other edge cases.

So male or female can be defined better by doing so by observing the anatomy of a person. To do so we need a non exhaustive list of sex markers, be they discrete or continuous. The short version of this list is: body hair; genitalia; breasts; bone structure; fat distribution; height; muscle mass; etc. Each marker indicate one or other sex, having enough markers of one sex classify one as this sex, having enough markers of both classify someone as intersex. This definition is context free in relation to social aspects, we can with this definitions, classify people into male or female regardless of the society in which they exist.

In other words, I'm defining sex purely in terms of what can be determined in a physical examination. And foreshadowing the discussion I want to have about utilitarianism later, sometimes we might need or want to classify someone with incomplete information. Mostly, you don't look at someone's genitalia before clocking then as male or female, even if you ignore gender markers, most people with hairy chests are male, and that is a safe assumption to make.

Now that we have sex, what is gender? A shallow definition could be made as "psychosocial sex". That's the idea that originates the "pink brain/blue brain" simplification. It is not an invalid definition, but it do not make as clear as desirable what is meant.

As much as sex can be broke into multiple levels, gender has multiple aspects. We can speak about gender identity, expression and roles.

Gender roles are the society archetypes in terms of expected behavior and responsibilities. Those are not written into stone, gender roles change over time, change over geography, social economic status etc...

Gender expression is the individual instances os adherence to gender roles, mostly focused into aesthetics, but not exclusively.

Lastly, gender identity is the internal alignment with the external gender division. It is how someone feels, how someone see themselves, and how someone would wish to be seen.

Differently than the sex, gender can be perceived in all levels simultaneously. Unless there is some lie involved, if someone say they identity with a gender, you can for sure know their gender identity.

Gender expression, because of its presentation quality, can be queried by looking at someone's non biological appearance markers. Make-up; clothes; posture; voice tone; etc... And gender roles you can just as easily determine by watching what do the person do, what are the roles they assume.

Now, gender roles and gender presentation, as the set of markers, are not immutable. If you tell me that woman should not wear pants I'll tell you to fuck off, this is a marker that is waaay outdated. If you tell me man can't wear makeup I'll probe you to understand what makes you think like that... This are trivial examples, but the point is we're talking about dynamic markers that are context dependent and vary in function of the person whose perception we're considering... This is complicated.

Of course some gender marks are also sex marks. Meaning, some parts of what makes someone male or female also makes someone man or woman. Okay, that should not be that shocking, sex and gender are deeply related. It is not coincidence that most people are cis.

And now, for the fun part, let me introduce some definitions of what is a woman, in terms of the criteria one could use to classify something as a woman or not. For the sake of brevity I'll assume we're excluding everything that is nor a human and not an adult. Lastly, up to isomorphism, those definitions are equal.

Female

Someone who bears the anatomy markers that identity them as being of the female sex, is safely a woman. There will be edge cases but those ones we can treat on a case by case basis.

Someone perceived to be female

For all intents and purposes, someone whose only visible markers are ones of a female, is most certainly, a woman. There will be edge cases but those we can treat on a case by case basis.

Some who is perceived to be a woman

Now, detaching finally from the biological criteria, if someone is perceived to be a woman, they are a woman. There will be edge cases...

Someone who wants and is perceived as a woman

Well, for all intents and purposes, if someone wants to be perceived as a woman and succeed in doing so, they are a woman, and now, most of the previous edge cases are no longer an edge case.

Someone who identifies as a woman and is perceived as one

Remember that part of the gender identity having a relationship with wanting to be perceived in an specific gender? Of course there will be edge cases, but then again, in here they'll be fewer.

Now, what if the perception includes the gender identity?

Someone whose gender identity is woman

Now look of what I've done, I'm suppressing two aspects of gender to use only one as a criteria, just as we did with sex. This one is relevant because of the edge cases, in previous definitions, a butch woman whose gender expression and gender roles do not align with woman's was an edge case, now it is not.

Before we continue, you might have a problem with me saying that some of those are equivalent to the others. In specific it might seem that a pulled a fast one by going from perceived femaleness to perceived womanhood, I didn't. In the same way we defined sex in terms of its markers there I'm defining gender in terms of markers here. To be perceived as a woman is to have enough gender markers that indicate that one is a woman for the given context of this one. In a circle of trans positive friends all the necessary markers are the ones associated with the gender identity, so those definitions, in terms of gender perception, are clearly context dependent.

Part 4 - utility of definitions and inclusive language

Now, if we have all those definitions being equivalent to each other, why spend all this time if the first one is good enough? Because some are more useful then others.

Let's start by pointing out that language is mutable, and what we mean by woman changed through the last couple centuries, both in terms of what the word means and what the category women includes and excludes. Any definition of woman that'd include some trans man in a first moment but then we go and say that this buff guy with a harry chest is not actually a woman, he's female but look, he's an edge case...

Let's be honest, this type of ad hoc exclusions and inclusions is what make the definition seem less rigorous. We should choose a definition that minimizes the confusion.

Moreover, definitions can be prescriptive statements, saying "trans woman are woman" is both a description of someones beliefs and a prescription that trans woman should be seen as woman. The definition that we choose to use reflect the world we wish to create.

I, personally, want to create a world where no one has a label forcefully put on them, if a young female do not want to be seen as a woman, let them identify themselves out of womanhood. Let's not invalidate the fact that for this person, their gender identity is other than the one prescribed by the general "adult human female".

Using language so that people don't feel uncomfortable unnecessarily is preferable.

Part 5 - Lying men in dresses

Now, we have one last topic to sort, I'll be brief, if you agreed with all that I have laid until here, there is one last thing I imaging you can argue, what about a man who identify as a woman just to gain access to woman only spaces. That is, of course, the case of, if we're working with the gender identity model, the case of someone lying.

I'll be honest, I cannot see why would a man do this, but I am not one so I can't really tell. All the discomfort of being treat as some gender different of the one you identify as seems a bit too much when there exists alternatives. I won't say it never happens but those are the edge cases.

Then again, why would a man willingly identify himself into receiving misogyny? Well, this seems to me that this should be treated in a case by case basis.

Conclusions

Someone is of the woman gender if their gender identity is woman.

[deltaruminations]

ok in the spirit of Posting Crackpot Speculation Because It's Fun, here's a breakdown of my “wingdings deltarune future player character” thing, which is to say here are a lot of words rationalizing a line of speculation that is silly on its face and is based on no evidence except 1) vague sense among the fanbase that we may play someone other than kris at some point and 2) i think it would be cool lol

my specific hypothesis here is going to hinge a little bit on the claim that part of, if not most of, an upcoming chapter (i'm going to say 6, unless it's some kind of completely alternate set of events that's hidden behind some combination of killing berdly and finding glowshards or some shit. im just. going to keep it simple here. ok.) might be a sequence set earlier in the timeline and largely meant to provide some insight into what happened to set everything in motion — ENTRY NUMBER SEVENTEEN, the dessappearance, and the ruined cliffs area, specifically; as well as, possibly, insight into the two missing characters (dess and gaster) as the people they were before shit went completely sideways

the evidence for this claim is that there is none and i pulled it out of my ass. however my reasoning is largely utilitarian: how the hell does a lot of this information get conveyed in a way that's as complete as it needs to be for basic story comprehension, while still being engaging for a player? probably in a lot of much better ways actually but an interactive flashback is, you know, also an option that could be chosen. if you wanted to.

i’m positing chapter 6 because Gaster Number Lol but also because it’s an interesting point for a radical shakeup in gameplay & lore revelation — right after chapter 5, which is likely to be quite heavy and end on a cliffhanger, and just before the narrative resolution in chapter 7, when the information from this sequence will be most useful to the audience.

playing as kris during this kind of Past Sequence doesn’t make much sense to me since they were presumably not playing an active role in most of it (same for the Vessel, who, uh, probably did not exist then). noelle is already well-established as a NPC with a distinct and defined personality, and i expect dess will be as well, which means either of them a silent PC creates a distance between the player and the PC that feels tonally confusing as well as like an unnecessary muddying of thematic waters.

Past Alive Guy Wingdings Deltarune however 1) is probably The Guy responsible for a lot of this, meaning it makes sense for such a sequence to follow him as a POV character, and 2) is fundamentally mysterious as far as concrete personality and motivations, given that we have yet to experience him actually interacting with another character beyond WHAT DO YOU TWO THINK, Give Egg, and Wave Happily, which means he’s a good fit for a role that necessitates some amount of player immersion. thematically there’s also a degree of cosmic justice at play, making the puppeteer the puppet, gaster having to directly confront and acknowledge his mistakes in order to right them, “and cetera.” this could even open opportunities for growth both for him and the Player — gaster possibly agreeing to let us in so we can help, and we as Player being able to do so in a way that isn’t coercive. but also maybe not lol (see notes below)

there are also some purely practical reasons why i think this works, which brings me to a bunch of haphazard and probably redundant notes that i wrote like a week ago and don’t care enough to edit right now:

Chadley Deltaruminations’s Top 10 Reasons Why Pre-Shatter Gaster Deltarune Future Player Character Makes A Certain Amount Of Sense To Me Even Though It Sounds Stupid As Hell On Paper And I Don’t Actually Believe That It’s A Real Thing That Will Happen

averts the unintelligible font issue (dude can’t talk)

maintains a lot of the mystery around him (dude can’t talk AND isn’t in full control of decisions he makes, meaning personality and other character traits remain subtextual and open to interpretation)

allows conveyance of potentially complicated plot-crucial information about gaster’s role in deltarune’s narrative in a way that’s active and interesting for players and probably less corny than A Backstory Monologue and also less obtuse and inaccessible than vague allusions and/or metadata that’s unavailable to console-only players

the specific position of “player character” in the context of deltarune is tonally appropriate for a character whose storyline seems to be fairly serious and nuanced and lacks room for Funny Little Guy antics but also demands relatability and emotional investment. our experience with kris certainly has moments of levity but there’s also a deep underlying sense of gravitas to kris as PC (for obvious reasons) that’s really only rivaled by Noelle in Side B (who is, of course, taking on a similar role to Kris)

potential thematic function as a type of cosmic justice for either puppeting others or at least contributing to their being puppeted as martyrs for his ends, however altruistic they seem. like hey doc maybe if you want this so badly you should be the one to do it

in tandem with previous point(s): instantly bypasses the emotional walls of UTDR’s Most Elusive Animal by forcing him into the most vulnerable position of any RPG character. to explain this further i feel like it would be OOC (at the very least corny) for UI Gaster to just volunteer potentially compromising information about himself/the various plot-crucial ways he may have fucked up in his past given how determined he seems to be to hide himself and deflect from his possible responsibility for Anything. i feel like a lot of character development would need to happen before that and given that his only active role as of chapter 2 seems to be Send Tweet, Give Egg, Wave From Car, and Be Sad About Dead Youth, it doesn’t seem reasonable to expect him to have changed that much by the time that information is going to warrant conveyance. maybe the man needs an intervention

subverts player/villain relationship and shit…… we expect to defeat the lich, maybe later learning his tragic backstory in a bit of exposition and/or vague lore that we don’t have a ton of reasons to actually care about. we don’t expect to live out his backstory alongside him. see also magus chronotrigger

within toby fox’s own oeuvre we have existing precedent (andonuts halloweenhack. lol) for presenting a villain’s POV via Literally Entering Their Mind in order to provoke emotional investment in and sympathy for that character

u know how gaster gets weird about us putting his name in during the vessel creation sequence. im just saying.

tenth reason. uh. I Like Him,

ok. thats it. bye

[raptorsaurusmelain]

Let me show you... Youtube - chapter 14

Had a day off today so I am posting early ^^

Warning : no proof reading, English is not my mother tongue.

If you are interested in reading this fic, the tag "#twst lmsyy" will give you all the chapters.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: .☽ . :☆ﾟ. ───

Flying on a broom was something she would never forget. It still was dangerous, but she was surrounded by a pair of muscular arms that glued her to the broom. They didn’t fly high, just 1 or 2m high so the woman could giggle in security.

She spoke first when they went back on the floor. “That was so cool !! like we weighed nothing! It is so impressive to live it.”

Vargas puffed his chest. “See what I meant ? It is freeing.”

Victoria had a wide smile on her face. “Thank you for showing me ! I will often think about it.”

He just said. “Well, if you want to redo it, don’t hesitate, come see me and we will fly again !”

Victoria laughed stupidly. She didn’t know why but she was popular those days. All that was missing was a raven and her bingo card would be full.

At the end of her shift, she went to the school shop to buy a new TV.

Sam greeted her. “Dr Devi ! I have everything you ordered yesterday.”

[Damn he is more efficient than Amazon Prime…] Thought the woman.

She grabbed the big bag. [Since I don’t know Yuu gender, I took everything in double, better be prepared for the fight].

She remembered why she was here. “I would like to buy a TV, if possible, a flat screen and a long warranty. If the screen is around 45”, it would be perfect !”

Sam was amused “You know exactly what you want, but you are lucky… it is IN STOCK !”

[Wow he really says it out loud.] She just laughed. “Show me the beast.”

He grabbed a catalog and showed her the goods. It wasn’t the fancier design but it seemed sturdy. You never know with teenagers what could happen. The price wasn’t cheap of course, but she could spare some change.

The woman nodded. “I’ll take it ! When can it be delivered ? And are you by any chance open on the weekend ?”

Sam was surprised by the second question. “You will get your TV tomorrow. And I am open on Saturday, why ?”

She explained her plan for the renovation of Ramshackle. She would need a LOT of materials to repair everything. Nails, hammers, paints, fabrics,... You name it you get it.

She did an exhaustive list because she had an intuition that everything available at Ramshackle would be old and busted.

Once the long list of materials was given, she came back to the dorm. She looked at Giktok tutorials when she heard a vague “We are home…” coming from the entrance.

[Ouch, everything must have been chaotic today…]

Victoria asked, even if she knew the answer. “How did it go ?”

Both Yuu and Grim sighed before Grim entered a long rant. Victoria could only listen while massaging the Almighty Grim’s shoulders. “That idiot Riddle didn’t accept the tart because of a stupid rule !! The tart we work so hard to make is in ruin ! And…”

Victoria could blame them, Riddle was really a stickler for rules to a point it was like an unhealthy obsession. She knew why but how could a mother treat her son like that ? From what she could imagine, the mother just wanted her son to be the perfect mage, but she just created a teenager, processing his emotions like a freaking baby. Victoria just hoped for one thing : to never meet this woman, else there would be blood on the floor sprinkled with hair.

Seeing that Yuu wasn’t speaking, Victoria tried to interact with them. “Hey Baby, are you alright ?”

Yuu was dejected. “Not really, it just feels unfair. We work a lot for nothing… How can he be like that ?”

Victoria was in front of a dilemma, revealing a bit of info under the case of an hypothesis or not ? 

A few seconds passed and the woman decided that if it could help to ease Yuu’s and Grim’s conscience , it was preferable to say something. “Well… You never know, maybe they were raised in a strict environment… He could have been severely punished if he broke those rules, with physical punishment maybe ? We don’t know. We can only be understanding with them.”

A voice interrupted them. “But being too understandable is bad, no ?”

Victoria turned her head “You again ? Ace, it is not a free motel here… But yes, you are right, being too lenient is also bad because it creates egotistical children. And sometimes they even become narcissists. It’s horrible. Having to deal with egotistical children is a delicate task because they think everything is theirs and no one can have better stuff than them. It is often the case of a family with a single child that was born with complications. Or with a helicopter mom.”

Yuu and Ace looked at her, surprised. Yuu was the one who spoke first “Victoria, were you working with children ? Or were you a big sister ?”

Victoria smiled for a few seconds before answering. “No, I am just used to being an older, understandable character, that’s all.”

Due to her mood disorder, she had to be able to dissect human behaviors and relationships, to know when it was time to say ‘help me’ to the psychiatrist.

Victoria sighed before adding “You know, there is no manual on how to raise children and how to be a human. But sometimes, a punch in the face is not a bad idea to get your point across.”

Oh boi did she forget that it was how to stop overblots.

After a good night of sleep, Victoria was not feeling good at all. It was D-day. It was not the debarkation, but the 1st overblot day. She remembered that due to her empathy, she cried a lot when they explained Riddle’s past and even more when reading the manga.

She needed to be the adult. She would wait for Yuu and Grim in the dorm, with a brand new TV, ice creams and a warm comforter. And tomorrow she would yelled at Crowley for not doing his job properly (he was still doing the best he can).

She was ready.

Tag : @boba-tea-fish @hipsterteller

[just-sp-in-inginthevoid]

(@raizelswitch (I hope I don't bother you))

Well would you look at that, yet another thing I forgot about Yuzuha's flashback (AND I DEFINITELY SHOULDN’T HAVE I should've reread the entire chapter the first time):

Wakui... doesn't give us informations on things we don't need to know (where is Mitsuya's dad ? How did Baji's mother handled Baji’s death (definitely badly but how)?...) and some people disagree with me on my interpretation of the Shiba family. And. Yeah. We can also find other reasons why Taiju is Taiju and all, my reading can be wrong and flawed and there might be other plausible reasonings because nothing I’ve written has been said by Wakui himself

Thing is, if their father was only neglectful while not wanting to be but still having to work – then.. why didn't the Shiba siblings end up like the Mitsuya ? Mitsuya mother is neglectful of her children against her will. She has to work.

And about them having the possibility to live normally despite that - with the Takemichi and the Tachibana I agree. We don't know where Takemichy's parents are but he seems fine about it, like many other Japanese teenagers he lives alone, he probably has a good relationship with his parents even if we never see them and he doesn't think about them before dying as he says himself before getting run over by a train. Naoto doesn't like his father. He works a lot, he's not here often, but Naoto and Hinata have a good relationship, and, they have their mother and their father comes home everyday (i think). The Shiba father doesn't. Takemichi and the Tachibana siblings’ parents were here during their childhood (at least one of them for the Tachibana)

The Mitsuya and the Shiba family are meant to parallel each others (Mitsuya (+Luna and Mana) knows his mother loves him. Yuzuha doesn't think anything of her father (I use this argument quite a lot don't i)) — Mitsuya and Taiju are meant to parallel each others. However while being in almost the exact same position they handled things differently; 1. Both are big brothers of 2 younger siblings BUT the age gap is different 2. Had to take care of those said siblings BUT at different age (I assume Mitsuya started to have to raise Luna and Mana some weeks/months after Mana's birth so he'd have been 9 or 10 whereas Taiju seems to have been 7-8 when his mother died) 3. They both have a parent who's working and who's not home often and the other is nowhere to be seen BUT Mitsuya mother has to, she has three children, four mouths to feed alone and their family is poor, the Shiba family is rich, I doubt their father can't just stop working if he wants (maybe not, but you get the point)

Yuzuha's father didn't ever hire someone to take care of his children (who must have been like 5, 6 and 7 when their mother died). Mitsuya's mother didn't too, but the Mitsuya are poor. Mitsuya started to sew because Luna and Mana didn't have stuffed toys. The Shiba are wealthy, this man has no excuse for 1. not come home often 2. letting his children to live by themselves when they were children. Because if he was only not there when they were teenagers, that could have been okay (like with Takemichi), I probably wouldn’t have made the hypothesis of him being as awful as Kazutora’s father but this man wasn’t even living with his children when his wife was at the hospital

And (coming back to the manga page) there you have Yuzuha saying she'll protect Hakkai right after Taiju beat him up, protect him the same way their mother did

Then again, there's still the problem of when does their father finds the time to be physically abusive if he's so absent Yuzuha doesn't have an opinion about him

I need to reread the whole arc and make a post that regroups all of my ideas because I've forgotten a lot of things the first time damn

Edit: Here's the post

[hospitalterrorizer]

diary185

3/18-19/2024

monday - tuesday

annoyed about work tomorrow.

but what can i do... nothing, and i need to stay up to let my gf into the apartment as she returns home, which is exciting.

she is home now, i think i'll go early now, i am really tired, and stuff, i need to wkae up at 6 am-ish.

i had some thoughts today, some of them about formulating a better kind of critique of ai, a lot of what i see does end up either oddly focusing on valuing 'humanity' in a way i disagree with, given what its origins and goals are, as a construction. i feel that re: the monologic nature of it that i talk abt and how it seeks to develop meaning/what it repeats and weighs and so on, sep. in language generation and stuff, or even i guess what its 'imaginary' would constitute or whatever, whether it has that capacity 'actually' or not, but it is really just reinforcing what human is/could/should be, and so even if we are mechanized further by being asked to behave more like these processes which, we are still only at the point where automation is a maybe in many fields, we see that this might really only correspond to an increase in our aptitude/force in labor, and also, given the transparency of these functions, it would be a greater limit and increase dominance. beyond those functions, as well, it de-limits surveillance, in certain respects.

another set of thoughts i had were about precarity, being so baked into every level of society, everyone presenting a risk and presented with risks, sacrifices for efficiency, that kind of thing, but it's blurry now. hopefully what i put there gets something across, i guess maybe more of an image of a critique of the stuff i see is coming to light for me, it feels necessary, as a lot of the negativity towards ai does not satisfy me, i think i am touching on at least why i dislike it, and why i dislike its presence / the way techno-optimists try to phrase it, as it seems like it might really only be a technology derived from specific assumptions, to service a particular standard of humanism, it is maybe not even an automating function as much as people would like to think, and more of a custodian, in this sense it is going to order thoughts/potentialities in subtler ways, which would perhaps make it more powerful than if it truly and solely were meant to replace.

the other level of critique that frustrates me is stuff that does amount to quibbling over copyright, i don't think people should really steal work and claim it is theirs, at the same rate, thievery and laws/arguments against it typically just attack people who are perceived as 'criminal' in some strange way. i don't know if people generating ai art are really anything other than fairly dim and annoying. it has to be a critique of a futurism, when taking them to task, of their methods and what they mean, the methods as the work is utterly meaningless, intentionally, most of the time.

but it is the first critique i outline here that is more interesting. i think the points re precarity are returning a bit, it is primarily though derived from the cybernetic hypothesis' notion of risky dividuals and capital asking them to take on that risk, still hard to find the words to link it in full to these thoughts but it is maybe more about labor forces broadly, that kind of thing, i dunno.

i am tired, i recorded 3 songs today, i kind of knocked a bunch out, it feels like. so anyway

byebye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[paupermodern]

Tournament Report 1/14/24

Pauper Modern Event at Jared’s

(my prize, a $14 foil commander card)

  By Todd Murdock

  INTRODUCTION

Our meta for the past year has been all about the RW Synthesizer decks that have for the most part, dominated the top spots in our monthly-ish tournaments. For much of that time I had been grinding away doing my best to get my mono Green Self-Assembler Tron deck to work, but I just could not keep up with all of the cantrip artifacts and newly downshifted Swiftspears. The format had just become too fast. I tried a quick stint playing my own Swiftspears with the mono red Hot Dog deck, but I just didn’t like the “if you can’t beat it, join it” feeling. I knew I could beat it. And that is when I heard people were having success with Delver of Secrets again (one of my favorites). 

The printing of Tolarian Terror in Dominaria United meant that if you played UB Delver, then you could match the Terrors with Gurmag Anglers. They both wanted a mass of spells in the graveyard, but then there was a catch. Angler wanted to delve away the spells, whereas Terror needed to keep them for cost reduction purposes. So playing them out of order was BADBADBAD and there were times when I was forced to do such things in a game. So, I had some success with that deck and felt more overall in control, but it still wasn’t quite enough to bring home the wins.

The big game changer was the printing of Lorean Revealed (a LOTR card) that lets you island cycle for one mana can’t be underestimated. You can get away with playing a 17 land card because the four copies of Lorean Revealed are lands 18-21 early game or draws three more cards in the late game.This pushed me closer to wanting to play mono blue.

The downshifting of Cryptic Serpent was also big. It is costed virtually the same as Terror, both being seven manna creatures which are cheaper for every sorcery and instant in the graveyard, but now you weren’t chopping yourself off at the knee with the delving Angler. The question was: Is giving up the black removal cards worth the consistency of playing no tap lands and just counterspells for removal? The thought of playing all basic islands with no tap lands interested me. Last month I tried that mono blue strategy and it felt much, much better. I was doing great for the day, and then I ran smack dab into Jared’s mono blue Faerie Ninjas and he literally out tempo-ed me. He just ninja’ed and spellstuttered and danced circles around me and my Delver crew. My Spell Pierces, Negates and Dispels did nothing against a well placed Spell Stutter Sprite because those were ETB triggers, I wasn’t prepared for those. I went home wounded but even more determined than ever. I knew exactly what I had to do and part of it was to think outside of my mono blue box.

And so now we have arrived here on the fourteenth of January at Jared’s on a very sunny Sunday noon. It had been cold and raining for the previous few days and it felt good to see the sun, to feel its warmth.  I surprisingly arrived first, but others started spilling in the door even before I could get all of my gear and riding armor off. Chris walked in with the pizza and we were ready to go!

HYPOTHESIS

I needed a more robust counterspell suite and to take on more of a Control role, especially in games two and three because negate was not cutting it, so I came up with Psychic Barrier and Mana Leak instead.

I also needed a way to stop things like Ninjitsu and to take out essential, one-toughness creatures to neuter a spellstutter sprite counter, so I came up with Gutshot.

MATERIALS

My Decklist  (U Delver/Serpents)

17 basic islands (very pretty ones from Streets of New Capenna)

4 Delver of Secrets

4 Tolarian Terror

2 Cryptic Serpent

2 Murmuring Mystic

4 Preordain

4 Lorien Revealed

3 Gutshot (yes, a red spell in my mono blue deck)

4 Thought Scour

3 Otherworldly Gaze

3 Consider

3 Spell Pierce

2 Vapor Snag

4 Counter Spell

1 Lose Focus

(Sideboard)

2 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Annul

2 Steel Sabotage

1 Dispel

2 Psychic Barrier

2 Mana Leak

2 Echoing Truth

  Contestants and their Decks:

 Me (Todd)-  U Serpent/Delver

Jesse- W Glitter Squad

Chris- UR Electromancer Storm

Ben- UB Proliferate Infect

Jared- U Ninja/Faeries

Rob- U Ninja/Faeries (*same build)

Brian- WB Tithing Blade

Jordan- WB Tithing Blade (*different build)

There were two other players that also began the tournament, but for personal reasons were forced to drop out in the early rounds.

PROCEDURE

Eat pizza, drink, smoke and do whatcha gotta do to get ready. Each wizard had their own unique pre-game warm-up rituals to prepare for battle.

Jesse inputs the names in the box and it gives us the match pairings.

We agree to play three fifty minute rounds, the best of 3 games wins the round.

DATARESULTS

Match 1

Me vs. Chris

U Delver/Serpent vs. UR Electromancer Storm

Game 1 - The first game went pretty fast. Chris got in some early damage, getting me down to fifteen, but I was able to fill my graveyard quickly with instants and sorceries and came out with a Tolarian Terror. I hit them for five and followed up with a Cryptic Serpent, hitting for eleven the turn after that. Chris was at four and I was holding counterspells. I had the game. 

Game 2 - The second game was a much longer and grindy-er game. They boarded in counter spells and I foolishly walked into several of them. With several delvers and serpents countered in the graveyard I finally landed a Tolarian Terror and was able to protect it. But that meant I couldn't counter Chris storming off and playing Galvanic Relay, drawing massive amounts of cards. In the end they left me at three life when I passed the turn back to them. I had a five-five serpent and was completely out of counterspells. They had no creatures and I believe no cards in hand, so if they drew a lightning bolt or any other three damage spell, then they had the game before I could finish them off with the final serpent attack. Chris drew his card…        and the serpent got to attack.

Results : I win 2-0

  Match 2

Me vs. Ben

U Delver/Serpent vs. UB Proliferate Infect

Game 1 - I play UG Infect in modern, and I had thought about building this UB Proliferate version when Phyrexia: All Will Be One came out. So I was interested in what Ben was going to do. The first game went off without a ton of interaction. He only did two damage to me, but was able to get me up to six infect before I was able to take him out with a mix of serpents and delvers.

Game 2 - This was ALL Ben’s game from beginning to end. He boarded in some counter magic and kept control. Now it didn’t help that I only had two lands for pretty much the whole game, but any time I tried to get back into the match, he just shut me down. He had 27 life and I got him to 24. I died at ten infect. Sad face. 

Game 3 - The good news was that the previous game let me see Ben’s deck running on all of its cylinders and so in this game, I knew exactly where to attack. I stuck and protected my threats while countering early infect spells. At first I was attacking with a one-one Delver. He already gained life and was up to twenty two within a few turns. Then my delver flipped. I attacked for three and I dropped a second Delver. I then hit for four damage for a few turns. When the second delver flipped, Ben was able to destroy one of them. However, I was able to replace the destroyed Delver with a Tolarian Terror, which I saw as an upgrade. I finished the game with only three infect to my name. 

Results : I won 2-1

Match 3

Me vs. Jared

U Delver/Serpents vs. U Faerie/Ninjas

So this is it, the rematch that I had been preparing for. This is the deck that caused me to build my deck this way.  Jared and I were both 2-0 so far and whoever won this match took the whole day. I took a deep breath and waited to see how things would play out. 

Game 1 - Both decks came roaring off of the starting line. Jared went first and opened with a Faerie Seer, scrying two, so I knew I was safe for a turn one Delver. On my next turn, the Delver gods were smiling and I got a first turn Delver flip! I hit Jared for three on each of the next four turns. By the time I had him at eight, he had gotten me down to twelve. It was a race.  He was hitting me for four damage each turn and with my recently flipped second Delver, I was now hitting for six. 

I like that math and I took the win.

Game 2- This game, I mull to six and am worried but end up with a good hand. I let the first several turns go by, not trying to play an early threat that I couldn't protect. I knew I had inevitability if I played my cards right. I finally had some mana and counter magic so I stuck my first Delver. I was able to attack with it twice before Jared found a way to get rid of that Delver. By then, it was too late. I was able to easily cast Tolarian Terror and keep it alive to hit for five, getting Jared down to nine life. I finished the game by landing a Cryptic Serpent and with two or three different counterspells in hand as backup, there was nothing that Jared could do to get out of the situation. Serpents for the win!

Results : I won 2-0

CONCLUSION

I came in first with U Delver/Serpent 3-0-0

Brian came in second with BW Tithing Blade 2-0-1

Jared came in third with U Faerie/Ninjas 2-1-0

Chris 1-1-1

Ben 1-1-1

Rob 1-1-1

Jordan 1-2-0

Jesse 0-3-0

REFERENCES

I chose three LOTR magic boosters as my prize. I pulled a $14 foil Last March of the Ents (pictured at the beginning of the report). It is a green card that draws cards equal to the greatest toughness of one creature, so it immediately went into my BG Shelob, Child of Ungoliant spider kindred (tribal) deck where creatures with big toughnesses are the norm. 

Which brings us to the next gathering, and I chose it to be a Command Fest. So I will bring that Spider deck along with a dozen others to play and to share and I will see you all next time. This Command Fest is a PROXY FRIENDLY EVENT. So I will be sending out an email soon with websites where you can easily (and for free)  print out your own proxies on your own color printer so people can play whatever decks and cards they want (within the commander ban list of course). I am hoping to have both casual and competitive decks and pods, so everyone is welcome! See you there! Cheers!    -Todd

[skruffie]

I just keep thinking about how it can actually be incredibly fucking hard to try to do research on your Indigenous family if you're trying to reconnect. When it came to my Métis side, because there's no recognition in any formal sense down here in the states, I didn't really know what anything meant at the beginning. I could see the names of Red River families and then find a map of St Vital where my family lived but then also made some rookie mistakes in thinking everyone on that side was Métis. A lot of the names on there are just French. When I found that out, I stopped saying my Métis names were Larance AND Nadeau because my specific Nadeau ancestor--despite being buried in Teton County Metis Cemetery--is just French. Not hard. There's a wealth of research still available but a lot of documents are in French and I don't understand.

I could go onto groups and be like "Hey this is my family" and they go "Yes, those are Métis people and you are Métis" and is that what it is to be claimed? Do I have to send my research to ST. Boniface to confirm? Do I have to get a card from MMF? Where does reclamation begin and end?

On my Yurok side it has been extremely challenging. There's no paper documentation prior to 1848/1849. The first state census was in 1852. I can go to the Index to the Census of California Indians and see my relatives listed as "Gold Bluff" tribe and then, after a few years of painstaking searching, infer from that knowledge that we are likely from Espeu. I can constantly comb through the 70+ DNA matches and whatever family trees are available to try to string together a hypothesis of how we're related because the genes do not lie, but I cannot actually prove any of them. Maybe if I travel there and talk to people face to face I can come closer but I lost hope years ago that I can solidly prove what village(s) my family is from. I know who some of my relatives are but I cannot explain in detail how we are related because our families were slaughtered. I could hypothesize that we are also probably Karuk because some of those DNA matches have largely Karuk relatives but the only information I know is that we are Yurok.

It has taken me years to even feel comfortable saying I'm Métis or Yurok because of the lack of knowledge. I have more now, and I still struggle. The best research I could do would be in person but that means money, travel, time off from work, and in the case of going north I need an updated passport. I can pull up Youtube to learn how to bead or listen to Yurok in 20 on Spotify. I can try to reframe my access to the internet and the ability to pay for an Ancestry subscription as a privilege even though it is a fucking shadow of what it actually means to learn the culture. All of this could crumble because maybe someday I might form a grudge with someone online who'll do the deep dive and point out the times my Indigenous ancestors were misrepresented on census or whatever.

There is a lot of art and a lot of stories in me that I am aching to create every day that intimately explore my relationship with my race vs my ethnicity vs generational trauma. I'm not sure if I ever will. Every time I try to put it out there I'm terrified because I don't know enough and I never will.