#this went in all sorts of random directions that are really predictable when you know me but *shrug emoji*

[svtgg]

I Saw It In A Dream

pairing(s): yun x members, yun x carats

genre: humor, slice of life

wordcount: 1.5k

Idol Room was a variety show that Seventeen had continuously been going to for their comebacks. This was their third comeback in a row, and Coni and Doni (the hosts), were asking the members for tmi’s.

Dk was the first to speak up, “Yun predicted the weather today.”

Both of the hosts were visibly shocked, and some of the members laughed at their reactions.

Coni starts waving his arms and speaks directly at the camera, “No, you guys don’t understand, all week we’ve been told that it was going to be sunny. Even today! But an hour before we started filming, it suddenly started pouring! Everyone was surprised.”

“Yun has very good intuition,” Mingyu explains. “Her gut feelings are always right.”

Doni shakes his head, “I don’t believe you.”

Yun herself is watching this entire interaction go down, smiling to herself. The members' excitement for this was greatly amusing her. Luckily, the members rush to defend her.

“This other time,” Edyth says, “I was supposed to be on a rising platform for a performance. The staff always makes sure it’s working before I get on it for rehearsal. Apparently, they had never had problems with their lifts at this venue, and it was working fine so everyone was confident that the show would run smoothly. The rehearsals went well. But right before the actual performance, Yun pulled me aside and told me that there was something wrong with the lift and to be really careful during the performance.”

Everyone was listening to Edyth’s story and anticipating what was going to happen next.

Doni gasped, “The platform didn’t work?”

“The platform didn’t work,” Edyth confirmed. “It buffered while it moved me up and then wouldn’t come down for the rest of the song. Luckily, it went back down smoothly after the song.”

Coni shook a finger in Yun’s direction, “It sounds to me like Yun tampered with your platform.”

Yun laughs at the accusation and shakes her head. “I would never,” she says.

“I have another story,” Jeonghan says. “I didn’t believe the members when they talked about this either until this happened a couple of weeks ago.” “You don’t have to tell this story!” Yun protests.

Jeonghan waves off her reluctance to share what happened, “Recently, we did a concert in Osaka. There were a couple of us in a hotel room, I think it was Hoshi, Woozi, Nix, Yun, and me. We had just ordered food and were waiting for the hotel staff to bring it up. So, a couple minutes go by, and there's a knock on the door. I assumed it was our food and got up to answer the door. But as I’m walking to the door, Yun tells me to not open it. I checked through the peephole and it was a person in uniform, with a cart of food, so I really did just think it was staff with our food. 

I really was going to open the door, but then Yun started freaking out, telling me not to open it. Hoshi and Nix believed in Yun’s ability while Woozi and I didn’t, so we didn’t open the door. We sat in silence for like 5 minutes while the person outside kept knocking on the door and saying they had our food. They finally left and I was complaining about how that was our food and I was hungry, but we got another knock on our door. It was one of our managers, and they told us that apparently some criminals had gotten into the hotel and were pretending to be staff in order to come see us. Right before I went back into our room, the staff came with our food. I asked if any other hotel staff had already come by, and they said no.”

“Random people were trying to get to you guys?” Doni asked.

Jeonghan and some of the other members nod enthusiastically..

Doni nudges Coni, “Maybe she’s some sort of a witch.”

“How do we test this?”

Yun is still shaking her head, “I’m not a witch. I just know when I should follow my gut feeling.”

The members are quick to protest this again. “No – she’s totally a witch.” Dk says.

Doni and Coni laugh. “What do you think?” Coni asks Minghao, as he hadn’t really spoken up with his own opinion.

Minghao smiles and looks over at Yun, there's a teasing glint in his eye before he looks back at Coni, “Maybe she’s not a witch, but she must have some sort of spiritual ability. She can predict the future with her dreams.”

Doni is quick to intervene, “How do you know it’s an ability though? Couldn’t it just be a coincidence?”

Minghao shakes his head, “It’s happened way too many times to be considered a coincidence.”

“Raise your hand if Yun has predicted something about you from one of her dreams?” Doni asks everyone. Him and Coni’s mouths drop open when all of the members raise their hands. “Are you guys trying to prank us?”

“One time,” Seungcheol said eagerly, his arms moving animatedly as he told his story. “Yun told me that she dreamt that a red jacket would give me a rash on my arm. I didn’t believe her but then a couple weeks later it happened! I bought a jacket but I had to get rid of it because it gave me a rash.”

“What about you?” Doni nudges Woozi, hoping that he’ll disagree with the members.

“I never give out the password of my studio to anyone. Only one of the managers, Bumzu, Hoshi, and I have access to it. One time I asked Yun to get me food while I was in the studio. I ask members all the time to do this and they always knock or just leave it outside, so I thought Yun would do the same. She had texted me that she had arrived at the building so I got up to accept the food but someone was opening the door to my studio. She just walked in and handed it to me super casually –” Everyone laughs when he makes the confused facial expression that he had as he told the story, “– I thought that maybe she had gotten the code from Hoshi or our manager but when I asked them they said that they didn’t. No one had given her the code and I was so confused. When I finally asked her, she said she dreamt coming into my studio and wondered if the code she saw in her dream would be the same one in real life.”

Coni points accusatively at Hoshi, “You gave her the code!”

He raises his hands up in defense, his voice loudly denying it, “I didn’t tell her anything! Woozi would kill me if I told anyone the code, I wouldn’t even be here!”

Everyone laughs at Hoshi’s ability to make any situation humorous and the mc’s move on from this segment into a game. Yun hadn’t thought much of this moment when they were filming it, in fact, she thought that it would get cut. But it was aired and it went viral, carats were amazed with her ability while others didn’t believe her.

Fascinated with the alleged ability, this often became a topic of discussion between the media and Yun. Interviewers would ask her what her latest dreams had been about and sometimes members would tell stories of Yun predicting things during a vlive. Of course, there were always people that were skeptical of the entire thing so Yun usually opted to not talk about this. The last time it was really a topic of discussion was when a fan went viral for telling their own Yun story:

“As a carat, I had heard the rumors of Yun’s ability of being able to see into the future through her dreams. I thought that it was a joke that all of the members were in on, but now I’m a believer. Yesterday, I went to the Seventeen fansign. I was excited to meet all of the members. I was one of the last carats to say hello to them, and Yun was the last member I would say hello to. When I finally got to sit in front of her, she was very excited and pleasant to talk to. When I told her my name, her eyes lit up with realization. She asked me if I had a boyfriend and I said yes. She then told me his name and how long we had been together (3 years). I was shocked and confused about how she knew, but she only laughed and said that she had seen our wedding in her dream. I told her that I wasn’t married, but that I wanted to marry him. Yun smiled playfully and said that my boyfriend would propose to me that upcoming Saturday. Imagine how surprised I was when it was true, yesterday my fiance proposed to me.” 

The post went viral and gained over a million likes. Yun only responded in the form of a weverse post:

[duckapus]

It's Time to Raise the Curtains, It's Time to Light the Lights...

In a random, nondescript field somewhere in the Mushroom Kingdom, a portal opens, and SMG4, Mario, Luigi, Meggy, Tari and the Bobowski twins come through it, having just finished their trip to the new SMG universe (which went predictably off-the-rails, of course). However, Tari notices something strange about this particular field...

"Um, is it just me, or is this grass actually felt?"

Sure enough, when everyone stops to look it's revealed that the ground is made of bright green felt as far as the eye can see. The group lets out a collective groan as they each come to the most likely conclusion; they must have accidentally gone to the wrong universe.

"Goddamnit, this is the fourth time today." Bob turns to glare at 4, "You have got to start practicing your portals more instead of just letting 3 do it all the time."

"But he's so much better at it..." realizing his whining isn't helping his case, he shakes off the frustration and gets back to business, "Alright, this time for sure!"

Meggy leans over to Mario, "That's what he said the last three times."

Not hearing her whispers or Mario's muffled laughter, 4 readies the Command, visualizes the Showgrounds in his mind, snaps his fingers with a flourish...and nothing happens.

"...wot"

After a few moments of shock (and enduring everyone's blank stares) SMG4 chuckles nervously, "Lemme just-just try that again." once again, he readies the Command, visualizes, snaps...and nothing.

It's at this point that Luigi, predictably, starts getting nervous, "Ooooh boy."

"C'mon, this can't be happening..." snap! snap! snap!

While 4 and Luigi quickly spiral into a panic, Marcy realizes something, "So, I'm not exactly an expert on all these Computer Person things, but don't your powers only do absolutely nothing like this when they're being blocked?"

This snaps 4 out of his...snapping, and he pulls up his command box, "Yeah, that's right! Lemme just look here and...aha! Looks like the interference is coming from over that way!"

Now with a goal in mind, the group starts walking in the direction he points, occasionally passing trees and bushes that seem to be stage props rather than actual plants. Eventually, they crest a decently sized hill and spot what seems to be a small town.

"Alright, let's ask around, see if the people here have noticed anything strange lately."

However, as they walk into town, they discover that the inhabitants are plenty strange themselves. The fact that they're all made of felt and other fabrics is of course to be expected given what they've seen so far. The real trouble is that they all seem to have the same blankly cheerful expression, made immediately obvious due to every single one of them stopping in their tracks and turning to look at the group as soon as they pass the threshold...and the fact that some of them feel eerily familiar.

One of the townsfolk approaches them, suddenly much more animate during his greeting, "Well howdy there, newcomers! What brings you around here?"

Seeing that everyone else is still to unnerved to respond (not that she can blame them), Meggy takes the initiative, "Uh, hi! We're a little lost and were hoping we could get some help?"

"Why, we'd be glad to help you folks! What kinda help do you need?"

At this point 4 manages to get past his own nerves, seeing as this is actually going surprisingly smoothly, "Would you happen to know if there's something or someone around here that messes with computers? The travel method we use isn't working because of some kind of local interference."

"Hm...can't say that I know about anything like that. The king might though."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, the king knows all sorts of things, and he absolutely loves helping people find their way! Come on, I'll take you to him!"

"Thank you so much!" as she and 4 start following the townsperson, Meggy calls back to the rest of the group, "Let's go, guys!"

Mario, who's been inching away from another blank-faced townsperson who's been leaning into his space this whole time, runs to join the now-moving party, "don't have to tell me twice!"

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

As the group continues traveling, the townsperson (who hasn't actually given them his name, interestingly) has been chatting away. It's through this that they've found out that the area they're in is called Muppetopia, and that the king is a local version of Kermit the Frog. After some travel time, they reach Kermit's castle, a vibrant, welcoming-looking building. By this point, Marcy is the only one still on-edge. Something about this place just feels off to her. She only half-listens as the townsperson assures them that they won't have to stand on ceremony with the king, seeing as he is just Kermit at his core, instead focusing on the castle staff.

Due to this, she notices something strange out the corner of her eye; a figure in red and black with wild white hair that has some dark shapes sticking out of it. As she turns to face them more directly, they're suddenly gone.

"You okay sis?"

She shakes off her confusion and focuses on Bob, "I'm fine. Just thought I saw someone I knew for a moment."

"Yeah, I've been getting that feeling on and off since we got to that town. There's something weird going on here."

So she wasn't the only one who'd noticed. Good.

The two end their brief conversation as the group approaches the throne room. And what they see when they enter is...most unusual.

The king is, in fact, Kermit. He looks exactly how they'd expect, except for the crown on his head, his strangely glowing blue eyes, and the fact that he's about 15 feet tall, "Ah, newcomers! Welcome to Muppetopia! Now, my friend here tells me you're in need of help."

4 steps forward, admittedly a bit intimidated by the massive frog "Uh, yes your majesty. You see, we're from a place called the Mushroom Kingdom and ended up here by accident while trying to get back from a trip. And now some kind of electronic interference is keeping us stranded here."

Kermit takes a moment to think this over, "The Mushroom Kingdom, huh? You know, Muppetopia's actually had a few visitors from there before."

"You have?"

"Yep. They were lost, too, just like you guys. But thankfully, I know a great way to help the lost find their way. Observe!" He dramatically gestures to the door with a flippered hand, and into the room walks...

"Kaizo!?"

Sure enough, the person who walks in is very much Kaizo Koorumaniru. He is also very much a Muppet, with the same vacantly cheerful gaze as the inhabitants of that town.

"Hey everyone! Check out my awesome new look!" he...well, he almost sounds like the Kaizo they know, but there's something fundamental missing from his tone.

Mario glares at Kermit, "what's-a going on here?"

"Like I said, I helped him find his way. The true Way. And I can help you too, Mario, SMG4."

Tari steps back from him, "Y-your our version of Kermit, aren't you? This is the Mushroom Kingdom!"

"It was the Mushroom Kingdom. A lot's changed around here in the last few days. Allow me to demonstrate," as he says this, shadowy, extremely dark green hands emerge from the ground around him, reaching out to grasp the group.

"Oh tits!" Bob makes a break for the exit knocking aside Muppet Kaizo in the process, "RUN, BITCH! RUUUUUUUN!"

Everyone else follows his lead, dodging shadow hands and guards as they go.

Unfortunately, when they exit the castle they find more Muppets who've closed in from the surrounding area, many of which are now quite clearly people they know.

"What do we do now?"

Marcy takes a ready stance, her blades flashing in the sunlight, "We fight our way through."

"Through to where?" 4 gestures around them, "For all we know the entire planet's like this!"

Meggy then realizes something, "We could get to wherever that interference was coming from! You had a trace on it before we stopped to ask for directions, remember? Maybe it has a connection to whatever happened to Kermit!"

Now with a plan in mind, the group checks which way they should be going and gets to fighting, each using their usual skills to get past the Muppet horde. Unfortunately, there's a lot of Muppets to get through, Tari and 4 aren't exactly great at fighting in the first place, and the signal is still really far away, so they quickly start to wear down, made worse by the fact that Kermit's caught up by this point so his mysterious shadow hands are back in play.

4 bats away a Muppet version of Jubjub with his keyboard, then leans on it like a cane while panting, "It...it's no use. There's too many of them." As if on cue, a shadow appears over him, and he looks up to see Kermit's massive form looming over him.

"Don't worry SMG4, everything will be better soon." On of his shadow hands appears and begins to move down towards the prone Guardian...only to pause as another massive shadow passes over him, and the sound of propellers prompts him to look up, "What on Earth..?"

He and nearly everyone else look up to see a Mario-style Airship hovering over the battle. It holds position for a moment before opening fire, sending Bullet Bills screaming down to blast away Muppets and hands, taking the pressure off the tired group. A rope ladder is dropped to dangle off the side, and a P. A. system activates, blasting Kamek's voice.

"All right youngsters, get up here if you don't want to end up as Sesame Street rejects!"

That's all the prompting everyone needs to find their second wind and book it for the ladder. Bob is the first one there, but ensures that Tari starts up the ladder before him. Then 4 and Marcy reach it, with her having saved him from the frog king while he was distracted. Finally Meggy and the Mario Bros run together, only for Luigi to stumble and fall behind a bit. As they're the last ones for the pickup and are known for how well they can jump, Kamek and whoever else is piloting the airship begin to move up and away so none of the Muppets have a chance to climb up.

After Meggy and Mario jump for the ladder, skipping a few rungs in the process, Mario reaches down to his brother, "Take my hand bro!"

Luigi nods in acknowledgement and leaps for his brother...only to suddenly stop in midair. Mario and Meggy look on in horror, seeing that the reason for this physics-defying maneuver is one of the shadow hands reaching into his back, a pained, terrified expression set on his face. Before their eyes, he begins to rapidly transform. Skin becomes pink felt, trembling lower lip becomes a Beaker-like flap, fingers become floppy and indistinct. Throughout all of this, his arm remains outstretched, still reaching for the hand it will never grip.

"LUIGI, NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"

With tears in her eyes, Meggy forces herself to look away so she can drag the hysterical plumber up the ladder and ensure they won't share their brother's fate. The two tumble onto the deck, Mario sobbing uncontrollably in a fetal position while Meggy and the now-approaching Tari doing their best to comfort him.

As this is happening, 4 and the twins are greeted by the crew of the Airship, consisting of Kamek and some of the Koopa Troop (obviously), Eggman, Cubot and a few dozen badniks, Toadsworth, Toad, Juliano, Root and Lil Coding (Coding, of course, immediately snuggles into his dad), and finally Sig.

"Okay, what the hell is going on around here? Why's Kermet some kind of massive psycho puppet master all of a sudden?"

Kamek sighs and shakes his head, "I'm afraid that Muppetopia is the least of our worries."

To show them what he means, he brings the group to the other side of the ship, which is now much, much higher up. From there it can be seen that the Mushroom Kingdom is now a massive circle bordered by a dome force field, split into seven equally sized wedges that each have their own unusual biome (with Muppetopia being just one of them), and a tower in the center as tall as the dome and very clearly made of bits of Peach's old castle and the all-too-familiar meat moss.

The sight of this madness is enough to snap Mario out of his grief, "Dear God..."

To be continued...

(also here's a picture of King Kermit and part of Muppet Kaizo. it technically has a spoiler for how he became That but if you payed attention to the end of the previous post it's pretty obvious where his powers and madness came from.)

[armandyke]

Doing the last few of these in fives because I'm sick and my brain doesn't work

51) Violent Faculties by Charlene Elsby (4⭐)

This book is a little bit hard to describe. Good if you like weird, gross, and psychological. In essence this book is written in the form of a scientific journal, detailing various gross and increasingly violent experiments the main character has been performing on random, unsuspecting members of the public. It’s very short, I’m pretty sure I read it in one evening, but well written, especially the ending. 

If you’re into that sort of thing, check it out. If you’re not into that sort of thing, definitely avoid. Things got real gross. 

52) Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin (3.5⭐)

If you want some gross queer horror then this book is for you. It follows a group of queer teenagers sent to a conversion camp in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, where some incredibly strange things are afoot. The counsellors are behaving strangely, strange animal noises can be heard despite there being no signs of life, and kids are going missing. 

This book got a 3.5 from me for two reasons: number one was that it was pretty predictable, plot wise, and number two was that the final third portion of the book takes place after a long time skip, with the characters now grown up and returning to the camp, and that whole portion added nothing to the story for me. I would have preferred the whole book to have focused entirely on the teenage versions of the characters, because a lot of the final part of the book was then just exposition dumping everything that had happened during the time skip. 

The book is also very heavy on sexually explicit content, so if that’s not something you’re into then maybe give this book a miss. 

53) Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison (4.5⭐)

My second Rachel Harrison read of the year, and definitely my favourite of the two. This one also went in a very different direction than I expected but I loved where we ended up. 

The story is about a woman named Rory, who finds herself moving back to her hometown to take care of her pregnant twin sister whose husband has walked out on her. Shortly after arriving, however, Rory hits an animal with her car, and is attacked when she gets out to investigate. Soon after, her body starts going through some very strange changes… 

This book is an exploration of pregnancy, and the concept of our bodies changing without our control or consent. It’s also about being a werewolf. A similar premise to the movie Gingersnaps, but definitely not just a cheap rip off. I really loved it. I also really love how Rachel writes her characters, it feels similar to T. Kingfisher’s writing in that respect. Her little details and funny lines really make all the characters feel real. 

54) My Throat an Open Grave by Tori Bovalino (4⭐)

This story is like if Family Tree by Ethel Cain was a book.

A novella about religious guilt, the story follows Leah, a girl from a small town brought up to live in fear of the Lord of the Wood who steals and eats unattended babies. When her own baby brother is stolen, she is forced by the people of the town to travel into the woods to bring him back, a task from which none of the previous girls have ever returned. 

It’s a fairly straightforward story and one that you can predict the outcome of pretty easily once you get into it, but I enjoyed it all the same. A lot was packed into this novella including but not limited to religious repression, cults, creepy ghosts, gore, and murder. 

This was my second Tori Bovalino book of this year and I preferred this one over The Devil Makes Three. 

55) Bloom by Delilah S Dawson (4⭐)

A little novella about a woman named Ro who has an immediate bisexual crisis upon meeting Ash, a femme cottagecore queen, at a farmer’s market. Things escalate pretty quickly from there and get real weird. 

I won’t go much more into it because it’s hard to explain this book fully without spoiling some stuff. Just know that I loved it, and if you’re looking for some sapphic horror this is a good one to check out.

[whitherwordswither]

Logs from the Starfields, V

Captain's Log #0.05:

This mornin' I took a few contracts from the Trade Authority job board. The first one is a simple in-system delivery from New Atlantis to a small settlement over on Gagarin.

It's a quick drop. This place used to manufacture mech parts back in the day. Man, it would be pretty cool to get up close and see a fully working mech. Don't know why they went out of style. Always thought they was neat.

The shipyard here has a spiffy gal, the Murasame. I'll have to compare 'er to the Shieldbreaker back on Atlantis 'cause… well. Now I got choices and I don't know which'n I want more! I do like Mura's colors more than the Shield's. But… ultimately it's gonna come down to specs. But I still got a bit more credits to earn before I need to make that choice.

One of the other contracts I picked up, a bounty, is in-system as well so I make my way over to Curbeam, one of the moons of Bondar.

Decided to hail a random UC ship flying by as I entered orbit. Small galaxy! It's the captain I helped out on Altair II. What a nice surprise. She even gives me another gift. A nice lookin' Osmium Dagger. While I ain't one for hand-to-stabby combat, I appreciate the gesture. We part ways and I touch down at an abandoned hangar on Curbeam.

Pirate Cleanup. Not a bad gig if you've got the tools for it. And I've picked up quite a few tools finely calibrated to allow me to do the job that needs doin'. It's kinda like haulin'. Sorta. Maybe… whatever. Hah. I mop the hangar up and scav what I can. Easy peasy.

I do a quick scan of the surrounding area. There are a couple points of interest. I saw a ship land not too far off so I head in that direction. Another abandoned facility! What luck. A weapons facility, too. Only problem is it's crawlin' with bots and Ecliptic asshats. Well. I'll just consider this bonus pay!

There are quite a few Master level locks here I'll need to remember if I ever decide to come back this way. If it's behind that tight of security, there's gotta be somethin' good inside, yeah?

After scoping out another abandoned facility of no importance I hop back in the Frontier and boost off. There's one more contract to take care of in this system over near Chawas, a moon of Olivas. Spacer scum sure like their moons, don't they?

I head back to New Atlantis. Apparently too early. All my shops have yet to restock. Which, yeah I get it. I do kind of tend to waltz in with loot-for-days and have been consistently clearing them out of credits. So I grab another contract from the Trade Authority board. A simple delivery run out to Cheyenne. Taking a stock of electro-plated wafers to Waggoner Farm.

You know what are weird lookin' critters? Blummox'. That's all I'ma gonna say there.

Since I'm in the system, I jet on over to Akila to check in with Keoni. See if them modules she had me place turn up any good data. And the data she's gotten doesn't add up. She thinks someone may be tampering with it. Asks me to talk to Davis since he has blacklisted Keoni from getting any sort of info out of security personnel.

The guy is kinda brash. I don't like him much. But his goal is protecting the city so I can't really hate on him. He's noticing something seems to be agitating the Ashta as well. Doesn't care that Keoni's data is mirroring this at all. But he asks me to join him on a recon out the gate to take a looksie. Well, alright. This whole thing has my curiosity piqued so I follow him out the gate.

He's concerned about the Ashta tracks we find. They don't make no sense either. Erratic. When the Ashta can be rather… predictable. We follow them a ways and find one of security's patrol bots. Apparently someone was using it to mimic the Ashta. Well now this is getting more complex!

Davis sends me to the barracks to check the security logs. Only they have access to robot control. I have half a mind to find Keoni. She'd accessed a terminal before to set up her modules. But I don't think it was this one. The name on the last update log is from Kirklin. I don't have to look far for her, since I saw her right outside the barracks.

Turns out… she was just trying to mess up Keoni's data. Take a little slack off of Davis since she felt this had gotten him all stressed and outta sorts. Weren't no ill intent by it. But what she did could've cost some lives by rilin' up the Ashta so much. Her heart's in the right place. But. At least we know what happened now. I head back to report to Davis.

With all this new info, he's willing to cut Keoni some slack and let her gather new, clean data. I'll need another 24 hours before I can talk to her, to let her get the new data again. I'm thinking the couple system hops it took to get here might've been enough time for stock to replenish back in New Atlantis.

And by the time I'm done there, Keoni should have her data.

End Log.

[henqtic]

THEODORE NOTT AS A BOYFRIEND I . . . 

— summary: how it is watching weekly movies with him. 

— pairing: theodore nott x black!reader . word count: 825.

— masterlist . taglist form . request works .

theodore nott is the kind of person who needs some sort of tradition in a relationship, no matter what kind given. purely platonic like the friends he kept close or the romantic one he had with you. 

it doesn’t have to be anything big or overly extravagant like how it would be with every anniversary that came by or whatever random days out of the month he would deem as important enough to treat you to yet another expensive restaurant.

he actually prefers it to be a smaller thing a majority of the time. just the two of you completely relaxed and comfortable, tangled up in each other's arms without a single knowledgeable way out of the knot or interruption from the outside world.

so soon enough, weekly movie night became a thing, held nearly every friday after lessons were done and both of you felt like collapsing onto a familiar bed. 

and the thing is, he's definitely the type of boyfriend who's always into the movie way more than you are — even if you were the one who wanted to watch it and he was first whining about how it had to be one of you worst choices after. 

every single time, less than twenty minutes later, he’s paying attention to every single pixel dancing crossing the television or projection placed on the wall. and it’s not in a, he was trying his best to love it just for you and it’s actually really sweet he's put in enough effort to do so in a non-artificial way but in a really annoying, headache inducing way. 

“hey theo, can you pass me the popcorn really quick?” you asked carefully with a small smile, gesturing to the bowl filled with the snack that he had clutched close to his chest from being on the edge of his seat, your bed actually in this situation. 

amusingly enough, his actions were following along with how the background music played louder and more high pitched as the main character took painfully slow steps towards the door that had “suspicious” noises coming from it.

ones that could only be owned by the masked killer who she had literally just seen run in the direction of the small closet with a sharp knife that outmatched her lamp by a long shot. 

it was a terrible movie really, you knew that from the first time you viewed it with your mother who loved cheesy muggle horror films. everything was horribly predictable and the only entertaining parts were when you couldn’t hold in the yell at every character to not make a dumb decision which they would always end up going through with anyways. 

but he didn’t even glance at you, skimming his hand along the top of the buttered pieces and making a bad and messy attempt at stuffing them into your mouth, every single one falling right to the blanket or smearing everywhere except for your mouth.

“oh merlin — are you serious right now, it’s not even that exciting?!” you half heartedly scoffed at the boy as you wiped around your face and dust them off of your lap.

“if i’m being honest, i just wanted to push your buttons with it and you know there is a possibility i could’ve choked—”

“shhhhh, it’s about to happen!!” he hushed you, rubbing his right hand frantically on your thigh as if to calm himself down, missing the roll of your eyes and second scoff that had a little heart put into it as you hoped another jump scare would come by, watching the way his neck practically elongated an extra five inches as she finally started turning the knob. 

“fine whatever, i’ll be more... cautious with my picks next time, yeah? if i even end up coming at all.”

you scrunched your face at him as he didn't acknowledge the empty threat. 

getting the idea to quickly twist your body enough to reach over to your desk and grab the full water bottle, pretending to scream just when he did and squeeze half of it on him. 

“see now, i could have choked from that, went right up my nose—”

“oh no, well i hope it comes out soon, you're already such a terrible snorer,” you laughed as your sarcasm was met with half of the bowl of popcorn thrown at you and his body coming half on top of yours to pour the rest, not upset in the slightest that this same routine would repeat in about a week. 

“mmm, is it reaching your mouth this time or just your hair?” he squinted his eyes and looked everywhere around the room except for down where his legs trapped you under him and the yellows of popped kernels that decorated the strands that were still out at this time of night for some reason.

“oh shut up, just know i won't forget to tie up my hair next time—”

“yeah, and what if i hide everything from you?”

🔖— !! @harmqnia @eunoniaa @magicchai @ambi-doo12 @ang9lic @daltonacademia @inglourious-imagines @willowmores @arcaneslut @slutfordracoluciusmalfoy @axgelre @beforeoursunsets @selenesheart @o-rion-sta-r @alexavolturisblog @catching-the-train-to-hogwarts @myalupinblack​ @l0vely-lupin @ameliasbitvh​ @mauvea​ @cupids-crystals​ @wlfstxr​ @enchqnting​ @writeandtranslate @jemimah-b99​ @bookfrog242 @i-love-scott-mccall​ @velqvet​ @velvetcloxds​ @joyfullymulti​ @meetmyblondemuffins​​ @pinkcloxds​ @wrongilbert @alanniys​ @magicchai​ @sydneekomspacekru​ @iwannafeelallthatloveandemotion

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[darsynia]

From your WIPs, please tell me about the one with such an intriguing title: Climbing Vines on Melancholy Walls

(and if that one doesn't involve My Beloved Stephen, please throw in a title that does as well😉)

I'll start with the Stephen one, just for you-- it's the one titled 'Dreamcatcher,' and it's only a concept, nothing is written for it yet. The idea is based on the dream worldbuilding from DS2, the idea that when you dream you are actually seeing an alternate universe, not random made-up stuff in your own head.

The OC in that story can lucid dream-- direct her dreams to see what she wants to see. Stephen finds out about it, and he wants to know if she's 'universe-surfing' or actually able to influence what she's seeing, as in, can she alter a universe just by dreaming? I loved the idea that the OC and Stephen can have an odd sort of shared experience in reliving things, and I envisioned some sort of final conflict where they needed to save someone and there was a question of whether or not he would still be around when she woke back up.

I don't know if I'll pick that one up, though-- I love the idea, but I don't have a solid theming framework for it like I usually like to, before I start something.

Climbing Vines on Melancholy Walls is a Steve/Natasha angst story set during Endgame. I liked the idea that they both cherished a fondness, maybe even love for each other, but never said anything. Then, as everything fell to hell around them, they agree to a friends with benefits situation, neither realizing that the other is just as dizzy in love as they are.

I intend to address Vormir in this story, and went through a really dark place (was frighteningly close to being gone) during 2022, so I put it on hiatus until I can tackle those scenes with a clear mind.

However, I'm intensely proud of the story. It is as much a 'how did Nat never find Clint in all those intervening years' story as it is a romance between her and Steve. My answer? She found him multiple times. He kept asking her to let him go and look again. The story starts with Nat visiting the farm and finding that Clint gathered up all the dirt he could to preserve it in case he needed the dust of his family to bring them back. Each time Clint sends her away, she dutifully tracks him down again. That's how she could find him when it mattered. She knew where he was. She was just holding off, like he asked her to.

As present in the story as angst is, there's a lot of sweetness and humor, too. They're teammates, they're real with each other, and at some point they're going to realize that it's okay to be loved back.

They agree to be friends with benefits at Tony and Pepper's wedding, but afterwards, both of them are too shy to broach the subject again. Things get tense, and Natasha decides to tease Steve about what he's doing instead of coming and knocking on her door at the Avengers Compound. Here's the playful, sexy chunk of story when they make the momentous decision to do it again.

“Running off some aggression, there, Rogers?” Nat asks him, when he sits down with his food.

Steve scratches his neck, looking bashful. “Yeah, a little. My body’s been moving faster than my mind. Trying to wear it out, I guess.”

“Running seems like the least fun way to do that, if you ask me,” she remarks, offering him a challenging smile.

“Well! Not sure I wanted to move faster than you are, either, truth be told,” he says after looking at her speculatively for a while.

“Steve, we’re alone here. The point was to be comforting, to blow off steam, to make the shitty parts of existence better, wasn’t it?” Privately, Natasha’s flooded with unexpected affirmation. If she’s reading him right, Steve’s basically telling her that he wants her, but thinks he doesn’t have the right to come right out and ask. There’s no way she would have ever predicted that, but she’s not complaining.

“Those are very good points,” Steve says carefully.

“So knock on my door sometimes, god,” she teases. “It’s going to be a slow few weeks, I could go make you an engraved invitation, if that would make things easier.” Nat looks down at her plate after catching the keen interest in his eyes. She doesn’t want him to be able to correctly recognize the desperate adoration that’s probably blazing in hers. 

“Thank you, I will,” he tells her. His four words are resonant, grateful, and obviously sexually charged. Natasha’s drinking when he says it, and her sip of fruit juice goes down the wrong way.

“Turn around, this is not sexy!” she flaps her hands at him as she chokes the words out. Natasha alternately coughs and wipes her eyes, adding, “And don’t you dare take it back or I’ll never forgive you!”

“That’s exactly what I’m worried about,” he mutters, but he turns his head and uses his hand to block his view of her while she’s in the last throes of persuading her body she’s not actually in danger of drowning.

Nat doesn’t know whether she wants to address that quietly expressed concern of his now or once she can immediately follow up with something more physically resonant. She decides to choose the latter option; Steve has every right to worry that embarking on a career (whether long or short) of sexual exploits together might cause some trouble between them. Since her very real former career had involved no small number of encounters between herself and people who had trusted her only to find that she was there to do them harm, she recognizes the validity of that worry. The best way to reassure him is to be consistently generous and willing, and she’s happy to be both.

Both of them fall silent. Natasha’s fork feels wooden in her hand, the food bland and unnecessary. Part of the problem is that she’d been building up her anticipation about time with Steve, intimate time with Steve, while at the same time working on her defenses to prevent him recognizing her feelings. Nat’s been basically feeding herself a diet of calming, bland mental food, and now that dietary restriction has been lifted.

“Not hungry?” he asks her, lifting his eyebrows. It had been his turn to cook.

“Not for-- not really,” she amends, but the damage has been done.

Steve sets his fork down and looks at her, really looks. Natasha’s suddenly aware that she’s been dressing and grooming herself at the facility like it’s a reconnaissance mission, with comfortable clothes, minimal makeup. Not like she is on display, not like she has someone to impress. Sure, her outfits are tight-fitting and attractive, and sure, she knows how to make a lot out of a small amount of cosmetics, but it hasn’t been in service of anything. Still, Steve’s gaze is approving, just on the edge of captivated. For his part, he’s been sweaty and exhausted nearly every time she’s seen him lately, and that’s just been fuel for a mental image she has genuine, participatory memories she can flesh it out with.

With an expression that’s determined but otherwise neutral, Steve stands up and gathers his half-empty plate. He walks around the table and reaches out a hand. Bemused, Natasha hands him her own mostly full plate and watches him walk them into the kitchen. She hears Steve scrape the remaining food into the disposal, running the water to help grind it down and presumably rinse the plates off. The sound of the dishwasher door opening is recognizable.

She has no idea what he’s planning to do, and given her particular skill set, that fact is equal parts worrisome and novel.

Steve walks back into the dining room, coming straight over to the opposite end of the table, the one that’s closer to the exit. He leans over, resting one palm flat on the table’s surface, looking her straight in the eyes. He’s focused, with the same demeanor he uses when he’s about to lead them all into battle.

Then he stretches his fisted other hand out and knocks on the table, with the same cadence he always uses to request entry.

“Yes,” she says, her breath caught in her throat for a second, more pleasant time that day.

“Where?” he asks. It’s-- it’s still his command voice, and she never ever would have guessed he’d do this, blur the lines like this, and it’s the worst and best idea ever.

Thank you so much for asking! I really did hold off on writing Stephen in favor of writing oh my god like 500k words of Tony Stark fic, so you've caught me at the very start of my Stephen journey! It's a blessing and a curse ;)

[meichenxi]

Ooh anything about linguistics and/or Chinese linguistics that interests you- what do you find most interesting?

Ooooo thank you! First let me apologise for the lack of rigour i.e. sources - I am ILL.

HMMMMM ok...let me talk a little bit about one thing I find fascinating - the idea of 'linguistic complexity'. It's an interesting topic that a) demonstrates the failures of linguistics that only takes Indo-European languages into account; b) demonstrates how a conflation of linguistic and moral judgements leads to absolute chaos; and c) proves that sometimes the purpose of all models and hypotheses is to be a useful aid in description, and not to be 100% accurate. Which means that multiple models can exist at the same time. Also, it shows just how cool Classical Chinese is.

I'm going to make this into two posts because I have been asked to wax lyrical on this stuff twice...this one will be a general overview of what linguistic complexity is and some of the issues around it, and the other post (@karolincki 's ask) will be an overview of these issues as pertaining to Modern and Classical Chinese.

Linguistic complexity: an introduction

What is linguistic complexity? Basically what it says on the tin: how 'simple' or 'complex' is one language in relation to another. If you automatically think that sounds dodgy - aren't all languages equally complex? what is a simple language? etc - just hold on. We'll get there.

A very important starting point: complexity here only refers to linguistic complexity. There are many ways to measure this, but broadly speaking it refers to the amount of stuff in a language a learner has to deal with. Are there genders? Well, that's more complex than not having any, because it's an extra thing to remember. Do you have to express whether the information you're conveying is something you personally experienced or hearsay? Again, more complex than not. Different tenses? Essentially, you can look at complexity like this: if you were describing this language or putting it into a computer program, what is the minimum length of description you would need? The longer the description, the more complex the language. In a standard understanding of complexity, a language like English is more complex than a language like Vietnamese (English has more tenses, moods, conjugations, irregularity...), and a language like Georgian is more complex than a language like English (Google a single verb table of Georgian and you will see what I mean).

(this will be long)

What complexity does not mean is anything to do with the cognitive abilities of the people who speak it. It doesn't mean that people who speak English are unable to conceive of the difference between a dual and a plural (2 apples and 3 apples), just because the language doesn't mark it. It doesn't mean people who speak Chinese are unable to conceive of the past conditional ('I should have gone...') just because they don't have a separate tense for it. It doesn't mean Italian speakers don't know whether they experienced the thing themselves, or heard about it from someone else, just because they don't have a set verb ending for it. All linguistic complexity means is what the language requires you to express.

I'm putting this out there very clearly because this sort of thinking is bound up in a lot of racist ideas and ideology. You'll have heard of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis? Unfortunately named, since they never really worked together, and Edward Sapir was actually a relatively cool dude for the time who argued against linguistic relativity - i.e. the language you speak determines how you think. Yes, in the 19th (and much of the 20th) century, when certain linguists referred to 'simple' and 'complex' languages that is what many of them meant: speakers of a simple language are 'simple', and a complex one are 'complex'. But there was a huge backlash against these racist ideas, and that backlash was hugely influential is shaping the direction of typology (the branch of linguistics which is broadly concerned with these sorts of questions). More on that later, but for now: please understand that when I say linguistic complexity, I am not implying a single thing about the people that speak it.

Back to complexity. Of course language, like any system, is made up of moving parts: you don't just need to consider how many parts it has, but also how interdependent they are, whether they interact with each other in a predictable way, how likely they are to change. You might also want to consider how easy the system is to learn for somebody who has never used it before. And then, of course, languages are more complex still because they are not machines, but ever-changing things: do you count a rule like the conditional inversion in English, which only applies to a total of three verbs? Is that less complex because fewer verbs use it - and therefore you need to think about it less - or does that make the system more complex because you need another, meta-rule to say when you need to use it and when not? What about irregularity? Is a language like English that doesn't have many rules but has a sizeable amount of 'irregular' verbs more or less complicated than a language like Swahili which has a lot more rules, but follows them assiduously? And what happens when some people use one rule and others don't - do you count those as the same language (lumping), which may render the grand overview less accurate, or do you count them as totally separate languages (splitting), in which case when do you stop?

Hmm. Complexity. Is. Complex.

Those are a lot of factors that need to be considered here. Even saying something is 'irregular' doesn't mean very much without further quantification. For example, if I say that the 'irregular' verb ring goes to ring, rang, rung in English, you can very easily find other verbs which conjugate similarly: sing, sang, sung etc. So is that really irregular? Or is it just another, less productive rule? But then if it's a rule, why do we say fling, flung, flung and not yesterday I flang the ball? What's going on???

And what about 'total' irregularity, so called 'suppletion', where (and this is a very scientific explanation) a random non-related word just seems to appear in a paradigm, like it's got lost on the way home? Like I go, I went; like to be, I am, he is, I were; like good, better, best. Ok, so is the irregularity in I go and I went somehow....more irregular than irregularity in I sing and I sang? Uhh. Ok. And then is the irregularity in bad, worse, worst somehow more irregular than better and best, because at least for better and best you can see the -er and -st endings?? Finally, what about a 'spoken' but very predictable irregularity, such as the way we have a reduced vowel in 'says'? Where do we count that? Is that more irregular, or less irregular? Is it maybe 33% irregular?

I think you get the point. And of course all of this becomes more complex when you start to consider the interaction of lots of different systems at once. What about tone? If you have regular tone like Chinese, most people would agree that it's more complex because it's an added thing. But tone probably only developed in part as a response to losing some really important sound contrasts that other languages have kept...and also there is no possibilities of 'irregularities' in tone the way there are in something like verb conjugation...you can't just have a random sixth tone. And then what about syntax? If you have lots of very complex word ordering rules, is that more or less complex than a language where you have to rely on the human being to use pragmatics to infer what the ever loving fuck is going on?

Yeah. This is sort of just one of those things where every year a new linguist comes up with a spicy new matrix to 'measure' complexity and then everyone shits on them in journals and then comes up with their own idea which is promptly shat on. I don't know either.

Ok, so how is this relevant to Chinese?

To answer that question we need to circle round a bit to the history of typology that I vaguely alluded to earlier. At various points - depending on how racist the linguist in question was - people in the 20th century were starting to realise that all of this stuff about 'complex language = complex civilisation / complex thought' wasn't quite as water-tight as they'd hoped. Perhaps it was their better judgement, but it's also likely to have been influenced by a lot of contact suddenly with Native American languages - many of which are vastly complex by literally any metric you could possibly imagine, but the people speaking them were not colonising other countries and building amphitheatres and all of those necessarily, comfortingly European ideas of 'civilisation'. This movement away from such racist ideology, even if it was fuelled in part by a different type of racism, meant that suddenly everyone was very wary about making statements about linguistic complexity at all. It smacked of all the things they were trying not to be associated with.

I'm going to quote some Edward Sapir here for no other reason than I think it's really unfortunate that he's most famous for something that has the potential for incredibly racist ideology that he literally never said:

'Intermingled with this scientific prejudice and largely anticipating it was another, a more human one. The vast majority of linguistic theorists themselves spoke languages of a certain type, of which the most fully developed varieties were the Latin and Greek that they had learned in their childhood. It was not difficult for them to be persuaded that these familiar languages represented the “highest” development that speech had yet attained and that all other types were but steps on the way to this beloved “inflective” type. Whatever conformed to the pattern of Sanskrit and Greek and Latin and German was accepted as expressive of the “highest,” whatever departed from it was frowned upon as a shortcoming or was at best an interesting aberration. Now any classification that starts with preconceived values or that works up to sentimental satisfactions is self-condemned as unscientific. A linguist that insists on talking about the Latin type of morphology as though it were necessarily the high-water mark of linguistic development is like the zoölogist that sees in the organic world a huge conspiracy to evolve the race-horse or the Jersey cow.'

People generally began to get the hang of it after this, and stepped away from linguistic classification at all. There was a broad consensus that that sort of thing was done with, a thing of the past. It's kind of funny, because of course people's unwillingness to look at the complexity of language because 'all people are the same' shows that they still think language and culture/cognition are intimately linked! It was done out of a desire to not be racist, but you can't even reach that conclusion unless you have a sneaky secret bit of bioessentialism going on in your sneaky little brain. Because if the complexity of language doesn't reflect the complexity of your thought, why would it matter whether some systems are bigger than others? That they had more parts?

It literally wouldn't matter at all..

So what happened next? Linguists started to revisit these old linguistic classifications and ideas of complexity, but in the hope of proving, instead, that actually all languages were equal. You can definitely see the theoretical aims here: not only is a good from an ideological point of view (again, if you still equate linguistic complexity to complexity of thought), but it's also quite handy if you believe that all human babies approach language learning with the same biological apparatus ('Universal Grammar', if you believe in that, and other cognitive principles). If all babies have the same built-in gear, you sort of want the task they are given to be of roughly the same magnitude. That's one of those things linguists like to call theoretically desirable - which just means it would be neat if it did.

We're getting to Chinese. I promise.

So how you could make systems so vastly different as English and Georgian and Chinese roughly the 'same' level of complexity? One answer is irregularity: languages with huuuuuge verb and noun declensions like Georgian tend to have very little irregularity, where languages with less extensive systems like English tend to keep it around for longer. There are lots of reasons for this I won't go into, but it's a general trend. Irregular systems are more work for the brain to remember, which, predictably, is more 'complex' for a learner to acquire. Compare a language like English and German: German may have more cases and declensions and rules, but once you learn them...that's it. Compare that to English, where you'll be learning phrasal verbs and prepositions as a second language learner until the day you die (and possibly beyond). It's a different type of 'complex', but it's still deserving of the title.

That obviously doesn't work for a language like Chinese. Chinese has no conjugations, and so can't possibly have any irregularity in the same way. But fear not: there are lots and lots and lots of ways in which languages often exhibit what might be called 'complexity tradeoffs': languages with complex tone, for example, almost always have simpler sound systems elsewhere, and many languages with complex case arrangements tend to have free word order. One thing is complex, another...simplex (a word unfortunately genuinely in use).

This seems nice. We like this. It means that the different parts of the same system may be differently sized, but the whole system in total is about the same as any of other language. There’s just one problem: this isn’t how languages seem to work.

For every example of a complexity trade-off you can find, there are other languages which don’t have any such ‘trade off’ at all. There are plenty of languages where grammar is complex and the sound system is complex; or languages like Icelandic and German where there are cases but fairly rigid and fixed word order; or other cases where there is a huge amount of irregularity but also crazy verb systems, and so on. A language like Abkhaz has supposedly 58 consonants in the literary dialect: but it also has insanely complicated grammar. No trade-off there. Finally, it has long been presumed that whilst verb morphology etc is simpler in languages like Chinese, syntax would be more complicated: recently, a number of studies have proved exactly the opposite. Both, in fact, are simpler.

In conclusion, where does this leave us? Whilst the idea behind complexity trade-offs is well-motivated but not totally sound, and whilst these do not always seem to be present in the way you might hope, what this does do is force us as linguists to question whether we have spent enough time considering the types of complexity that are present in languages like Chinese, and how we reconcile that with more ‘familiar’ complexity. It’s interesting to think about because it shows what happens when you fail to consider these things.

That’s all for the overview on linguistic complexity today!! I’ll talk specifically about complexity in Chinese in the next ask, because this is already very long. Be aware, I’m not going to give you any answers necessarily - these questions are way above my pay grade - but boy can I give you some thoughts.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 09 first part

(Masterpost) (More Canary Funsies)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

This episode features so many eternal minutes of zombie shambling that I thought I could fit everything into a single post. HA HA HA HA nope. 

Zombie Temple

The trio do their best to fend off the not-zombies in the temple. Lan Wangji tells Wei Wuxian that he can’t go carving them up because they’re not actually dead, and drops a callback to their very first meeting at the gate of Cloud Recesses, when Wei Wuxian caught his attention with his pillowy lips comment on the not-dead cultivator. 

Lan Wangji: You said it in that golden moment that will be seared into my memory for eternity, where I heard your voice and laid eyes on your angelic face and lost my heart forever, remember? Come on, babe, it was our very first zombie! How baked were you?

Wei Wuxian: I jerk off to the sword-fighting memory, not the zombie memory, you weirdo.

Nie Huaisang’s fear of the definitely not undead has apparently gotten him the rest of the way over his fear of Lan Wangji, because he’s now yelling “Lan-Xiong!” right along with “Wei-Xiong!” as he struggles. Note that although he later mentions that his fan is made of some fancy metal, we don’t see any evidence that he wants to fight with a fan any more than he does with a blade. I don’t hate anyone’s fan-fighting NHS headcanon, but my take is that he just isn’t a physical fighter, and that’s ok. 

This is a good time to remember that our entire experience of the Nie clan so far in this story is 1. Clever but hopelessly combat-unready tiny artiste Nie Huaisang 2. Quietly helpful, absurdly pretty sidekick Meng Yao. 

We don’t know yet that Nie Huasang’s gege and Meng Yao’s sugar daddy is literally the toughest motherfucker in the entire cultivation world. But his friends do! Which makes me love these dynamics even more, because not one of them criticizes Nie Huaisang for being the person he is. 

(more after the cut!)

Never Let Me Go

This scene is where Wei Wuxian gives his tacit consent to being used as the eventual agent of Nie Huaisang’s vengeance....ok not really.

But he does make it clear what Nie Huaisang should do when he’s in a pickle. And NHS doesn’t forget things.

Priorities 

Meanwhile, Lan Wangji isn’t nearly as patient as Wei Wuxian, and he drops a silence spell on Nie Huaisang basically out of annoyance. It’s not like they’re trying to be sneaky. 

Lan Wangji: How about you have an exquisitely crafted ceramic cup of shut the fuck up?

Flute Girl

Wen Qing comes to the rescue by summoning all of the not-zombies, who happen to be her extended family, to come toast some marshmallows. 

She’s another person who unwisely demonstrates, where Wei Wuxian can hear her, the power of flutes over zombies. 

This move doesn’t seem to do anything important but it looks cool. 

Brother Dynamic: Bad. Really Bad. 

Jiang Cheng shows up in the temple and trolls everyone, because this is a great time for childish antics. Wei Wuxian is super happy to see him and runs over to hug him, which earns him a shoulder slam. 

This is a regular part of their body language with each other. Wei Wuxian covers his hurt reaction very, very quickly, with a smile that doesn’t involve very much of his face. 

Ow

Wei Wuxian is so good at pretending his feelings aren’t hurt, he probably convinces himself. 

Then he gives a too-honest answer when Jiang Cheng accuses him of...daring to enjoy himself, basically.

That’s more truth than Jiang Cheng was looking for, and he raises a hand to Wei Wuxian, who hides behind Nie Huaisang. This move is interesting because on one level it’s just clowning; obviously Nie Huaisang can’t protect WWX from anything, and WWX doesn’t need protection from Jiang Cheng. 

WWX can easily beat JC in a fight, as he’s let us know before. On another level, this retreat signals WWX’s harmlessness, his childlike-ness, in a semiotic dance that has been playing out for over a decade between the brothers.  NHS is taking on Jiang Yanli’s role in the choreography, this time.   

All of this troubling hostility doesn’t make Jiang Cheng a bad person. He’s young and he’s still under his parents’ control and subject to their abuse at home. It takes time to develop mindfulness about this stuff and learn to treat people beneath you differently than the way you are treated. 

Jiang Cheng isn’t ready for that yet, any more than he is ready to say out loud that he cares about his brother. 

Leave My Boyfriend Out of It

This interaction is noteworthy for Wei Wuxian defending Lan Wangji to his brother, before Jiang Cheng even has a chance to blame Lan Wangji. 

Wei Wuxian says that following Lan Wangji was his own idea, and then gives LWJ the sweetest, warmest smile.

Lan Wangji also gets a pair of totally unearned, delighted smiles of thanks from his two besties when he lifts the silence spell on Nie Huaisang. 

Being mildly dickish all the time works out fine, I guess, if you only make friends with people whose brothers are legendary grouches.

Grilling Wen Qing

Wei Wuxian finally decides he’s had enough of Wen Qing’s crap, and gets slightly aggressive in questioning her.

He’s not actually roughing her up but he is approaching her as a near-enemy for the first time, rather than as someone who wants to be her friend. Once Wen Qing tells him what’s up and agrees to a sort of temporary alliance, he goes back to being his normal slightly awkward self with her. 

I don’t romance-ship WQ and WWX, except maybe as corpse-mountain era FWB, but I do like their chemistry. And their friendship is really refreshing and interesting, based on sharing goals and working together, not on emotional intimacy. It’s nice to see people with a lot of barriers around their hearts, building a strong, trusting bond without having to actually open up very much.

The idea of perfect sharing between people is a nice one, but it’s pretty alien to many of us who are recovering from trauma, or people who just aren’t wired that way, and it’s good to see other models of friendship and love. 

Wei Wuxian, at Lan Wangji’s direction, parts the Red Sea drops a cage on the other 3 cultivators before going to hunt the dire birdy.  

Jiang Chang is, predictably, pissed off about it, in spite of Wei Wuxian’s “you’re good at this” parting words, and says, according to the subtitles, “you bastard!”

“Bastard” is a pretty specific epithet, in English. In the current century, it’s generally used to mean “asshole,” more or less. But it still does carry the meaning “of illegitimate birth,” and since The Untamed is often concerned with legitimacy it seems pretty strong for JC to use with someone who is rumored to be his own Dad’s by-blow. 

Let’s have a look and see what he really is calling him... 你混蛋 =  Nǐ húndàn = “you bastard” per Google translate. Wow, Jiang Cheng, you really went there, huh. 

Wen Granny

Wen Qing and the others in the golden cage watch as the not-zombies try half-heartedly to get to them. Wen Qing is super sad about it, as opposed to the two guys who are just annoyed (Jiang Cheng) or scared (Nie Huaisang).

The first time I saw this, it was just - oh, Wen Qing sympathizes with this poor random woman, she feels bad about what's happening, this is to show us she has a heart.

Now though --  that's HER granny. Maybe not her bio-grandma but clearly a granny of her clan, who she knows well, who later cares for A-Yuan when he's a child, so may very well have cared for A-Qing and A-Ning when they were small, too. Owie.

Dire Bird Hunting

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian run off to hunt the smoke bird together. They are quickly trapped in cool-looking fog. Kudos to the Director of Photography.

They spend some time being confused and also being peak Wangxian 1.0 as they help each other out. 

Lost in the fog and unable to summon talismans, Wei Wuxian is mainly about checking on Lan Wangji, making sure he’s ok, making sure he’s near.  He doesn’t spare any worry for himself.

(We get a rare instance of seeing an actually glowing sword here, instead of just having a character say “I saw the beams of swords!” to save money on VFX.)

Lan Wangji, meanwhile, understands the mental attack they are under, explains it to Wei Wuxian with only a little snark about Wei Wuxian’s overly busy mind, and teaches him how to handle it.

Lan Wangji is super disciplined in mind, body, and sword - his fight moves don’t change, really, throughout his life, but he gets better and better at execution. Wei Wuxian isn’t exactly undisciplined, but he’s super creative and busts out a new skill in nearly every encounter. Lan Wangji sees this and is learning to make use of it.

After Lan Wangji helps Wei Wuxian overcome the confusion that is blocking his talisman use, he tells him which talisman to use. 

This isn’t a talisman that LWJ uses himself, it’s just that he’s paying very close attention to WWX’s battle moves, and has a great memory, so he knows which ones will work. In a pretty short timespan he’s moved from thinking like a solo swordsman to thinking as part of a team with a broad range of battle skills. Very soon, he’ll be starting to use Wei Wuxian’s talismans himself. 

WWX takes a hit from the flying death chain, but uses it to his advantage, as in so many encounters. He’s not just self-sacrificing--he is definitely that--but he’s also a chess player, knowing how to use a sacrifice or an injury to his advantage. Cue Lan Wangji being worried for the entire rest of his life.

Part Two is here!

[mugichaaaa]

Bad Batch Analysis prt2

Welcome back everyone to part 2 to my Bad Batch analysis trailers. The trailer just happened to be posted around midnight and my wifi went out in the morning so I couldn’t really do much until now. Since we got another AMAZING trailer for the Bad Batch series I believe it’s time to do another analysis. If you haven’t read my first analysis from the first trailer you can read it here 

Without further ado let's get started. 

The first scene we get from the trailer is a shot after that one shot we got from the first trailer. This could probably be around the time they landed on Kamino because if you look in the top right corner there is the Havoc Marauder. 

Training Sequence

Next we see one of the many training grounds on Kamino. It’s strange seeing only one training ground and not multiple. It seems like this specific training ground might be underwater, as there is this long pole in the center with surrounding lights around it. Now that might be a reach, but honestly where could you see that training ground on the round houses above the ocean. 

Along with that in the Legends there was a Kaminoan Jedi who lived under the sea to try to prevent the vision she had. (the vision was the clone army betraying the Jedi) So it could be possible when the Kamioan’s were building the floating city they builded the bottom levels to be used as training grounds or something. 

In this scene we can see that Echo is using a vibroblade. Now is this Echo’s own vibroblade or does this belong to Hunter and Echo just picked it up to destroy one of the droids?

I feel like this shot can tell us a lot about the bad batch and how they interact with each other. Hunter and Crosshair are looking at the camera to which I can probably assume where Tarkin speaks to them. Echo lightly turns towards the direction of Tech, Hunter, and Crosshair. Tarkin probably said something that would make Echo turn to look at the three of them. 

Also Tech although very subtle looks at the ground. Now this could be two things, if Tarkin said something then it might be tech looking at the ground like a Child does when their parents scolds them. Or it might be Tech is exhausted and is looking at the destroyed droids all around him. 

Hunter is seen talking to someone (probably Omega) telling them that their squad (aka the Bad Batch) is nothing but trouble. We can see Crosshair and Tech walk to a door which I can assume to be their barracks for the time being (before they escape). 

I really like this scene from Crosshair. This seemed to show how well the Bad Batch worked together. Hunter throws his knife in the air and Crosshair goes and shoots it in place. Which might make it even more sad if Crosshair betrays the Bad Batch. Imagine this, The bad batch is in this certain situation where a duo between Crosshair and Hunter would work. Hunter turns to where Crosshair would normally be. 

“Cross lets-” 

All he sees no one, and the feeling of betrayal and pain seeps through him. 

“Right…” 

Hunter Civilian Clothing

So we see Hunter in Civilian clothes which is like. UGH please let me hold your hand Hunter. The first time we see them is at 0:31 where Hunter steals a speeder, probably to catch up to Fennec as we can see in 1:39 who has a kid. 

We get a better look at Hunter’s Civilian clothes, it really reminds me of Cut lawquane’s outfit from The Clone Wars Season 2 “The Deserters”. Maybe we might see Cut lawquane in the Bad Batch, if so I think that would be really great to see. Cut’s children with Omega might be the cutest thing we might get from Bad Batch, that’s if it happens.  

Now in this scene we see Tech piloting the ship, but if you look at the corner there is Hunter on a control panel with bandages wrapped around him. So this might be either Hunter getting injured from a mission (maybe from Fennec Shand??)

This kid (not Omega) is dangling onto a cylindrical object. The Following scene with Hunter and the kid following a speeder that belongs to Fennec Shand. 

The Final Part of the Clone Wars 

At 0:37 we see the Batchers coming down from what seems to be like a hill destroying B1 battle droids. While the next shot is Tech and Echo shooting down said droids. 

So in my previous analysis I mentioned how for one the explosions I was wondering if it was the Batchers or the Empire. Now with this new Trailer it seems to be leaning more towards the Batchers doing this. 

We see Hunter putting away his knife with Wrecker carrying what seems like to be a destroyed droid. 

Now I mentioned in my previous analysis that the snowy planet might be a Crosshair arc. But now with these new scenes with the snowy planet it might be a set up to Crosshair being something that most Bad Batch Stans don’t want. 

Crosshair as the traitor

So I know I talked about this in my last trailer analysis and I said this was very unlikely. But uhhhh now with this trailer I'm 70% sure Crosshair will betray the Bad Batch. Now the reason why I said Crosshair wouldn’t betray the Bad Batch was because the Purge trooper and Crosshair just didn’t have things that lined up. But now with this new trailer I am pretty worried for our boy Crosshair. 

This is the ONLY scene we get of Omega and Crosshair together. Any other scenes with Omega and the Bad Batch Crosshair is nowhere in sight. 

I literally called this when I wrote about my predictions about the Bad Batch series. Where I wrote two paths. One where Crosshair was not the traitor and stays with the bad batch and one if Crosshair was the traitor (I censor the right since it had my actual name since I did the bad batch analysis during school)

And 1:19 seems to likely prove my Crosshair is the traitor snippet I did. All the batchers + omega are running through what seems to be like the late night halls of Kamino. Who knew Echo would be following his brother’s footsteps. 

Again Crosshair isn’t here 

… or maybe he might be hiding him behind Hunter to give us anxiety about what happened to Crosshair. But if Crosshair is gone then they need a new sniper to fill in his role...

Omega

We are first introduced to a new character who is called “omega”.  Now who is Omega? Well we don’t know this is the first we EVER got to see them anywhere. Now when I first saw Omega I immediately thought of Satine’s Mandalore. We are not talking about the houses and clans (like house Wren). We’re talking about Satine’s Mandalorians (the pacifist) in which when we see her people in the clone wars they are normally pale with light colored eyes. Omega almost fits that but without the bright blue eyes. Another thing is that Omega kinda sounds like they have a Satine Mandalorian accent. As I was listening to Omega speak I was comparing it to Korkie and his friends and Omega lowkey sounds like Korkie’s friends but that’s probably a really big reach.

This is where I think if Crosshair betrays the Bad Batch this is where Omega would come in and take Crosshair’s role as sniper. We don’t know how good Omega is but with Hunter’s heightened sense his sight might be just as good to teach Omega to work with a bow and arrow

The Explosion

Now we have an explanation for the explosion we saw in the last trailer. It was definitely the bad batch and now we know it was part of the thrusters from a broken Venator Star Destroyer. Since now we got more context to that explosion, I believe that this will be on Bracca where maybe MAYBE we might see a young ginger Cal Kestis. 

Rex

*breaths in* 

REX I MISSED YOU SO MUCH 

I’m so happy Rex and Echo are going to a reunion. I really hope Rex and Echo have a moment where Rex completely vents to Echo about everything that happened. Like Umbara, how much Five’s death took a toll on him, and when he left Jesse and his brothers during order 66. It would be really interesting to see if Rex has some sort of survivor's guilt. I know we see a little bit in Season 7 when he’s talking to Cody about the Domino squad but after order 66 I think it would be nice to dwell onto a little more. 

Another thing I really hope we get to see how Rex meets up with Wolffe and Gregor. 

AT-ET Walker

We get a couple of scenes here of the AT-ET but here look at this. The republic symbol and the red paint is completely removed, it’s completely bare (which is so boring). Another thing is that the AT-ET are completely cutting across a group of people, these could be protestors of something that we yet not know of. 

It seems like Hunter and Tech snuck into and AT-ET, now the next scene we get is an AT-ET blowing up another AT-ET. There are two possibilities on who shot at the AT-ET, one could be the Bad Batch themselves shooting at the other AT-ET or two it could be the Empire shooting at the Bad Batch stolen AT-ET 

Saw Gerra

It’s really nice to see Saw Gerra, we have seen him in 5 star wars projects (Clone wars, Rogue one, Rebels, Jedi Fallen Order, and now Bad Batch). Since this is the beginning of the Empire we get that small time between Clone wars and Jedi: Fallen Order to see what Saw was up to. 

Fennec Shand

My wifey, I love her so much. But I did get something wrong and right with Fennec Shand in my last analysis. 

First of all the explosion we see with Fennec Shand is NOT connected to the factory arc but instead connected to Hunter saving the kid. 

But the thing I did get right was that one scene where Fennec was holding a gun out. That fog is from a fight and Fennec and her opponent are at a standstill. 

One thing new about Fennec is that she had a Kid dangling off her speeder. First of all that’s not safe at all and 2 why does Fennec have a Kid with her and then why does Hunter have the child in the next scene?

Small theory but this kid might be just like Omega that escaped. Fennec is sent out to retrieve the kid but Hunter is like “not on my watch” and takes the kid. Fennec looks shocked that Hunter interferes with her job and looks ANGY. 

Or this kid might be just some random kid that Fennec took. 

Now a recurring segment called Cool things I saw on the Trailer 

Just any scenes from the training scene with Wrecker is just cool and I’m like yes sir go off. 

I swear every scene with Wrecker is a joy to see. He just brightens my day all the time

Bad Batch are taking notes from Waxer and Boil about adopting kids during war times. 

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

This segment was short due to most of the trailer being analyzed and not much random spread out scenes. 

And that’s that! Thank you all who read this far, I hope I was able to make this clear enough for you all to understand. If there’s anything else you saw in the Trailer that I miss I would love for you to comment about it! I think i’m going to do a countdown for Bad Batch, idk let’s see how I keep this up. 

[createandconstruct]

I have many thoughts about the new developments from chapter 306. And usually I never share my thoughts but here we go.

Vigilante Storyline

Izuku is very obviously going to be a vigilante. He puts his hood up in that last and seems to be going after that villain. While I’m sorting out my feelings on this twist I think it’s safe to say the majority of people did not expect. It’s a new direction and makes sense from a narrative perspective since the kids are entering their second year. Rather than have izuku and the students repeat the same school activities from their first year (which could get repeatitive) we’re moving into a vigalente/crimefighting hero story that puts izuku in direct conflict with current society. Good potential stuff.

UA students/teachers/All Might the next potential damsel in distress

The down side to Izuku’s plan however is that - as is typical in superhero stories (spider-man cough cough) - he leaves to protect his friends and family but I mean... come on kiddo. Shigaraki and AFO know what school you went to. They know your classmates. And they know your connection to All Might. I doubt we have to worry about Izuku being gone from UA and the other kids/teachers for long as they are in the hot seat for being AFO’s method for luring Izuku into his hands. There’s also a part in this that makes me nervous for All Might and Nighteye’s prediction. All Might’s horrific fate could very well be a result of Izuku’s actions in 306 if this is the catalyst that causes AFO-shigaraki to target UA and its students/teachers to get to Izuku. Having said that though, I still don’t think All Might will die. However, Izuku saving him (maybe with some classmates by his side) could be a very appropriate “I am here” moment. Also All Might can’t die cause I don’t want him to

Shinsou has the perfect open seat

Not a single classmate was removed from 1-A and Shinsou gets added in. Impecapble problem solving there. Izuku leaving so Shinsou can take his place is really a perfect move. Everyone in 1-A (soon to be 2-A) will still be center stage and now Shinsou will join them. Not to mention this could put all them at odds with Izuku who is know illegally using his provisional license without supervision. It will also be interesting to see Shinsou react if he learns that Izuku received his quirk from All Might. It depends on if he got a letter though. The bigger issue though is the fate of 1-A and the teachers in reaction to Izuku’s actions

Chapter 307 and the future

I feel like there’s a couple possibilities for chapter 307. We’ve entered a new arc with people living in the secured establishments like UA, citizens acting as vigilantes, villains going wild through Japan, AFO plotting to get OFA, and Izuku in need of a rescue from the track he’s on. So Chapter 307 here’s the possibilities from least likely to most likely: (1) We get another time skip? Really don’t think we’re doing this since 306 ends with a skip to April (2) We get a society chapter with a look at multiple perspectives like the villains, hero commission, etc. (3) We continue with Izuku’s point of view and his vigilantism (4) We get a flashback of Izuku visiting Gran Torino, getting the cape, and telling both All Might and Torino his future plans and intentions (5) We continue with reactions to Izuku leaving -the 1-A kids discuss and react to izuku. We see the fallout of Izuku dropping out and going AWOL on everyone but specifically on Inko, All Might,  Todoroki, Aizawa, and Bakugou.

I listed them in order of who’s reaction I think will have the biggest impact on the chapter and story. Inko because uhhh we need to see her reacting to this and having some conflict with All Might who obviously can’t keep his promise of watching over Izuku if Izuku isn’t, ya know, a student at UA??? Also we don’t know if Izuku even confided in All Might about leaving UA. It’s possible All Might was given a letter too but it feels 50/50 since if All Might is in the loop we can devote a chapter to the other characters’ reactions. Now Todoroki obviously received a letter. He’s probably going to deal with the validation of knowing something was up with Izuku’s quirk and maybe feeling conflicted on dealing with Touya vs going after Izuku or even following in his footsteps. I can see Todoroki confronting Bakugou about this as well. As for Aizawa, I feel like his reaction will set the direction for the new arc. Aizawa’s sentiment in the last arc was that he has to live to watch over his students and see them graduate. Obviously Izuku dropping out opposes that so I can see Aizawa leading the squad to bring Izuku back or work towards opposing AFO and his plans so that Izuku can return. The main part of this squad? Probably Bakugou. Bakugou expressed the idea that Izuku needs to stop winning alone. He’s likely to be pissed and hopefully charging forward with class 1-A to bring Izuku back whether that’s by going after him or fighting the societal issues so Izuku can return. I feel like Ochako and Todoroki will also be in the spotlight with Bakugou. 

Some Random Thoughts

Izuku dropping off and putting everything on his shoulders alone ties in well with Ochako’s character arc of wanting to be a hero to help other heroes.

There’s still the issue of the traitor. A part of me wonders if Shinsou may be used to figure out who the traitor is - whether they’re a student or teacher.

We also had the international heroes mentioned which feels very much like a setup. I still feel like a study/training abroad arc is coming (maybe even right now?? if we randomly find out Izuku isn’t in Japan but in America? I kinda doubt it though)

This really feels like a major shift in the story and essentially the start of the second act. Apparently Horikoshi made a comment that the story may be “ending sooner rather than later” in which I really up sooner is still much later. Things feel so promising right now I would hate to see the series end soon but then again as long as AFO-shigaraki has Ragdoll’s search quirk and a clear path to Izuku it really feels like we have nowhere to go except the end.

Though maybe the next main goal will be to take back Ragdoll’s quirk from AFO-shigaraki so that Izuku will be out of the hot seat

My final thought is when thinking about to Izuku’s words at the start of the series he says this is the story of how he became the greatest hero not the #1 hero. It could be Izuku reached that status as a teenager before even graduating by defeating AFO, stopping/saving shigaraki, and ridding the world of both the quirks of AFO and OFA. Thus Izuku’s career as a hero ends after the moment he became the greatest hero. Or he keeps OFA but only the strength and loses the other quirks and connection to the other users (which could include All Might if he becomes a causality). 

But on that note - so technically my final final thought - we got the predecessors all laid out for us in those chairs. Maybe AFO-shigaraki will have multiple encounters with Izuku, but rather than Izuku losing all of OFA he loses one predecessor and their quirk? I don’t really think this will happen though. Just a random idea.

Okay this post has gone on long enough. I just needed to explode about this chapter cause wow.

[trials-by-blood]

Male with Gender Neutral S/O. S/O is protective over their Yautja. One day, on the mothership, a female gets interested in the male. S/O firmly shows the male is theirs. Male is very impressed by their antics. (If possible, make it naughty ish. Like pulling on Yautja tresses. I apologize if that makes you uncomfortable. I don’t know what you’re rules are.)

Okay so, It’s done! Like another prompt, I decided I should consciously try to be concise and cap it off before going over 2500 words or else it could go on and on. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be naughty because I’ve made the decision to keep this blog at a PG-13 rating. I wound up RBing my original post (The one announcing open asks) with a loose outline of my rules after receiving this very ask. Yeah, I kinda had that “Uh-oh, I forgot the most important step” moment. 

This one sort of ran in a few unexpected and at times turbulent directions. I hope you enjoy this reply although it veered a little off course.

-Ghardeh-

The ooman was always a pain. Ghardeh called them H’ko. It was literally the word for no. Why did Ghardeh call the ooman this? Because it was the first word in Ghardeh’s language that they had learned and one they loved to use. No, no, no. “No” to proper clothing in the current yaut fashions, “No” to any food item they found suspicious, “No” to bathwater heated too hot, “No” to sleeping in the kehrite as unblooded should, “No” to observing Ghardeh’s hunts via a live stream transmitted from the eye lenses of his helm because they did not like the idea of possibly witnessing their companion’s death in real-time. A definite “NO” to learning to hunt as well. They didn’t have any interest in hunting to prove themselves. 

H’ko, H’ko, H’ko. Ghardeh had heard the word in that terrible accent so many times he’d begun mockingly repeating it back to the ooman out of frustration, eventually, it became their pet-name, and later it became a term of endearment. Ghardeh had long given up on the notion that H’ko would ever become a warrior, but that was fine, the ooman was proficient in mechanics and electrical work and it was a respectable profession for an ooman.

Bound for the Clan ship, Ghardeh did not worry much about the ooman’s safety. His clan worked with oomans regularly and in H’ko’s case, as they weren’t a warrior and wore typical ooman dressings, the people would regard them with the same scrutiny as the unblooded: well beneath the gaze of warriors. And yautja women? Well, they ignored their male counterparts ninety percent of the time too, doubtful they’d even register H’ko’s presence at all. Other yautja should simply pretend H’ko didn’t exist as they tagged along safe and sound under Ghardeh’s left arm, and if anyone spared them a second glance it would likely be assumed that H’ko’s role was that of a hired repairer and no more.

Ghardeh had prepped H’ko very sternly and more than once for this visit. Speak to no one above their rank. Do not make prolonged eye contact as it is seen as a challenge. The breeding season is near so if a female propositions, allow Ghardeh to decline and do not intercede. That last instruction was very important. 

Ghardeh had known that humans were often monogamous, and when asked H’ko confirmed that they would prefer not to share Ghardeh’s romantic attention with others. This was one of the many compromises in their unusual partnership. Ghardeh would sleep and engage in sex acts with H’ko and only H’ko, but they had agreed to allow Ghardeh to donate reproductive material non-sexually to females if it was asked of him. Ghardeh had to explain to the ooman: if you are a strong warrior and a fine hunter, it is your duty to contribute your traits to the next generation. They had accepted that aspect of yautja culture begrudgingly, taking a long time to think through and voice all concerns about it just as Ghardeh had done as well when it became apparent that his ooman companion did not enjoy the notion of their mate being dragged to a stranger’s bed chambers if a proposition was accepted. The ordeal of Yaut mating practices also seemed to upset them. A female will usually test a warrior to be absolutely certain that she’d chosen a sire well. This often involves dangerous feats or enduring a physical altercation. H’ko had been unhappy with the very common occurrence of males limping their way home after a failed encounter with a choosy woman.

Ghardeh was merely reviewing all of this information in his head whilst he lied on his back and massaged at the stress crease in his forehead with his knuckles. Tucked against his left side and in the crook of his arm was H’ko, snoring and blissfully unaware of Ghardeh’s anxiety. H’ko would be relatively safe for sure, but something always went wrong when he tried to bring them aboard the Clan Ship. Last time, H’ko accidentally got dragged off with another group of oomans after being mistaken for a member of an ambassadorial tour group. None of the actual ambassadors had the gall to inform their extraordinarily intimidating guide that H’ko was just some random person who was grabbed, scolded for wandering off -which they had, but not from that group-, and herded along with the rest of the soft little aliens. Ghardeh was tempted to tether H’ko to his own body this time, so they couldn’t move more than ten feet from him.

Ghardeh sat up and scrubbed a knuckle against his closed eyes as he prepared to leave the bed, then let a hand fall on H’ko’s shoulder to gently shake them awake. It was time to dress, eat, and prepare. 

Docking went smoothly, and disembarking was uneventful as well. They were greeted by Chulonte, a friend and hunt brother who knew H’ko well and even dipped his head slightly to acknowledge their presence.

“The meeting place has been reserved, we should go now, the others have already gathered,” Chulonte told them briskly before turning away and leading them on.

Ghardeh leaned toward H’ko and dropped a hand on their shoulder. “We’ll acquire a midday meal after the meeting, just the two of us.”

Ghardeh was pleased when H’ko gave him an earnest closed-mouth grin. H’ko liked when they ate alone yet in public. Called them “dates”. 

-Taylor-

Ghardeh was in the meeting with his equals, a loose coalition of hunters each with their own private hunting vessels who always coordinated with one another so that their time hunting on various worlds did not overlap. Apparently, there were laws in place to prevent over-hunting on some planets and to avoid over-exposure on others. Taylor was told to wait outside with Chulonte’s hounds. They were big ugly scaly beasts. One had a face like a cross between an English Bulldog and a cod, the other was nothing but a fangy maw of teeth and horny protuberances growing from its back but they were rather friendly, at least toward Taylor. Taylor wasn’t completely fluent in the Yautja dialects but it had seemed that, as a favor to Ghardeh, Chulonte had given his hunting hounds a command to guard the tiny human among them. The animals hovered close to where the human sat and would stand from their seated positions if any passerby veered too close. Taylor chanced a hand at petting them, Bulldog Face kept dropping his enormous head into the human’s lap for more attention, Spikey Back wasn’t into it and lied down just out of reach.

A group of women began to form nearby, but not too close, as Spikey Back had stood and shown the lot of them his teeth when they tried to form a cluster too near to where Taylor sat waiting for Ghardeh. Taylor could hear this and that which was said among the women. Some of the discussion was pretty damn raunchy. They were here to find action and had planned to greet the hunters when they conclude their meeting and disperse. They said things about what they wanted to do to the hunters they had chosen, sometimes what tests of strength and resilience they were expected to endure, but more often the discussions leaned heavily into overtly explicit themes. The woman who wanted Chulonte wanted to see if he could track by scent as accurately as his hounds could and if he succeeded in this test she would, and Taylor could only partially decipher the phrase, “??? him so ??? that his spine comes undone from his pelvis”. It made Taylor’s skin crawl, especially when all of the women laughed approvingly at what the other had said. Taylor hoped it was a lesser evil in being just a filthy joke but given how tall and strong they appeared, and how dangerous Ghardeh had told Talyor they were, they wondered if they really could injure their partners in such a way. It certainly seemed possible.

Taylor felt tension building in their chest. They heard them name off nearly all the hunters they’d seen enter the meeting room and every brutal ordeal they wished to subject them to, and it was only a matter of time before Taylor heard Ghardeh’s name. It happened, and when it did, the human’s pet name was mentioned as well. 

“Ghardeh is a difficult one to persuade, too difficult to bother with up until now. He now has rank advancements, clearly enough to afford him a live trophy. That’s worth some regard, but how to get rid of H’ko long enough to have adequate time with the man?”

“Seems like Chulonte’s dogs make fine enough guardians for it. Let us coordinate our liaisons then-”

Taylor couldn’t keep their mouth shut. They’d been infuriated by three ugly words. Live Trophy and, It.

“I am NOT a Live Trophy! And Ghardeh is NOT available for your abuse!” They shouted, causing both of the hounds to jerk to attention and search for a threat to their charge.

-Ghardeh-

Ghardeh had correctly predicted that the meeting would go very much as it had in all of the previous seasons, a few smooth agreements, a few disputes, a fight or two, and then they’d leave and continue about their personal business. He left that meeting room with lunch on his mind and the expectation that H’ko would be clamoring for a meal as well, he had not anticipated being met with the sight of them dangling from the grip of Dar-bak’di, the most fearsome of the local young women who roved in a pack during the breeding season. H’ko was kicking and gasping for air as they flailed in her grip, Chul’s hounds were being bribed into complicity by the other women offering them whatever morsels they had in their bags, and Dar-bak’di was making a show of how easily she could destroy a mere ooman. Now it was Ghardeh shouting H’ko! H’ko!

It took a great deal of convincing to get Dar-bak’di to release H’ko, and the limit of her mercy was to drop the gasping ooman on top of Ghardeh and call them both abominable, in addition to accusing Ghardeh of something akin to bestiality. Dar’bak-di had smelt Ghardeh’s amorous n'dui'se all over his ooman companion and she refused to believe it when she was told that H’ko was a legally hired mechanic. To perform mating practices with species classified as prey was frowned upon, but not against any written law. The truth of the matter was, H’ko was unbelievably lucky to survive the encounter and had, hopefully, learned something from it. 

-

The ooman did not argue or make a fuss on the way home, and whether they liked it or not they were carried. The bruising around their neck was already blooming into hot red blotches. Ghardeh said nothing of it but make no mistake, he was furious. He’d told H’ko in no ambiguous words not to engage in conversation much less an altercation with yautja women! And what did they do, start a fight they could never under any circumstances survive on their own.

Upon his Vessel, Ghardeh placed H’ko in bed and with the intention of letting them sleep the ordeal off. After leaving the room, he went to the galley to serve himself a drink before grabbing the kit to treat severe bruising, but heard the soft soles of H’ko’s feet padding behind him.

“Go back to the bed and rest,” Ghardeh told the ooman flatly without turning to look at them as he poured a glass of c’ntlip.

“They were saying terrible things,”

Ghardeh sighed and set aside the decanter before taking the first sip and responding.

“They’re lonely and horny, of course they were speaking in lewdisms. I warned you that they would speak this way about whatever they set their longing eyes upon.”

“But it was about you and-”

“I don’t care what was said about me! You disobeyed the most important instruction I have ever given you! You could have been rent to pieces! You directly challenged an individual no less than twice your height and perhaps four times your weight! Worse still, she was legally in the right to throw you through a wall if she wanted to!”

“She called me a Live Trophy!” H’ko shouted through a snarl.

The tone immediately triggered Ghardeh’s expression to twist and eyes to darken as he postured for a fight -albiet only a verbal one- but the words gave him a reason to pause as he processed what was said. Live Trophy, it was nothing else but a slur, and H’ko’s anger was justified. H’ko tended to show a fear response with tears and soft whines when they were angered, though, which Ghardeh was always bewildered by. A show of anger more familiar to Ghardeh had come first this time, perhaps because his own mannerisms had begun to rub off on the ooman, so a second pause was taken to scrutinize H’ko’s face. Ah, the grimace and tears were building behind the facade. Ghardeh deflated.

“She called you a Live Trophy?” he asked, softly this time as not to elevate H’ko’s anger further.

It was too late to abate the ooman’s upset. Fat droplets ran down their rounded face and they stopped making their oh-so-important eye contact as they nodded to confirm that, yes, they’d been called a live trophy.

Ghardeh moved in to close the distance between them in two strides before dropping both hands on his ooman mate’s shoulders with a great sigh. 

“We will treat the bruising on your neck, then we will prepare a meal on our ship, then we should talk about what happened.” 

H’ko did that typical human thing by saying nothing and gripping the yautja around the waist in an embrace. Ghardeh tried the rumble affectionately, but frankly, he was now furious beyond belief for all new reasons. Live Trophy. Had he known such a term had been thrown at his companion, he’d have been inclined to challenge her too.

“You were brave Tay-Lar, for defending your honor.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Ghardeh said with a genuine growl of approval this time, stroking the back of his companion’s round head.

[dumbfinntales]

Recently I decided to try a very interesting game with quite the reputation. Postal 2! It’s a satirical first person shooter from 2003, so its got to be great, right? Yeah, but I did have my gripes here and there so let’s get into that. Also, Felipe.

Playing Postal 2 is like playing an interactive version of a very good adult animated TV show. Not all jokes land, but I think the game has a fantastic sense of humor and it makes fun of the gaming industry, and various other things, masterfully. The Dude is also a hilarious protagonist and I loved hearing his comments on various things like the violence or my frequent saves. His voice actor also nailed the character, I genuinely think that the Dude could be awful if he didn’t have a good voice actor to compliment him, but thankfully he did get a good one. I also think I’ve become a bit desensitized to the more outrageous elements of this game, because practically nothing phased me. Yes I know, I am a badass.

Postal 2′s gameplay isn’t really anything out of the ordinary, just an outdated FPS from ages long past. But the things you can do in this game make up for it. The very first thing I ever did in this game was break into some random guys home and beat his dog to death with a shovel. I swear I’m not a psychopath, but this game does things to a man. In the Paradise Lost DLC I saw some lady playing a guitar on her porch, so I took out a sledgehammer and smashed her head into pieces. Also the best gameplay mechanic of all: you can whip your dick out at any point and start pissing. Only in Postal 2 can you beat Osama Bin Laden to death with your bare hands and then piss on his corpse.

I found Postal 2′s DLC, Paradise Lost, to be a lot more interesting than the main game. It had more varied and interesting scenarios like milking cows, revolutionary gameplay. But being able to sell cats and interact with weapon/health vendors was a much needed update to the overall gameplay loop. Despite playing the main game and DLC back to back, returning to Paradise felt somewhat nostalgic. The game also featured some boss fights that were pretty fun, except for the final final final boss. It was tedious. Really tedious. I also loved the running “gag” that Postal 3 was just a nightmare the Dude had, and the Postal 3 Dude was some kind of a mental fabrication. An imaginary friend? You get the deal.

But while Postal 2 was a really fun game, it did have some things that bothered me throughout my playthrough. Especially the main game. For one Postal 2 didn’t turn out to be the game I thought it would be. I thought you had more choice and freedom, and that you could avoid violence. Technically you sort of can, but at the same time you don’t. No matter what your choices are you are railroaded into violent confrontations. Throughout my playthrough I chose violence on purpose and doing things the “hard” way, but when I decided to just be a good citizen I still had to fight. Like in the post office. I went to the back and stole my package which pissed off the workers and I had to fight them. I died and was booted back to before the huge gun fight and decided “fuck it, I’m not doing that again” and I just paid for my package. But my choice didn’t mean shit because the package comically exploded and I was pushed into a gun fight anyway, but this time I lost money. This isn’t a flaw of the game per se, but just an expectation that wasn’t met.

I’d say the first two days were the most fun in Postal 2. Everything was new and fresh and you enjoyed the shenanigans! But then the game starts going downhill and the mission structure becomes both boring and predictable. This is how a mission in Postal 2 goes: get mundane objective. Go to mundane objective. Oh no something goes wrong. Get into a drawn out gun fight. Consume 50 donuts, 25 slices of pizza and 100 bags of fast food while bullets rain on you from all directions. Sometimes the game does do something new like when you have to get some chemicals at a factory and it turns into this half platforming escape sequence. That was cool, but main game Postal 2 doesn’t dare to do anything more creative. The creativity comes in with the DLC’s. Despite the gun fighting, I found the scenarios in both DLC’s to be a lot more interesting and fun. Like the hospital segment in the weekend or going into a robotics factory where you can defeat the robots by pissing on them in Paradise Lost.

The game was also sometimes hilariously unbalanced. The scythe for example trivialized most combat encounters because it kills everything instantly. Why waste your bullets on a bulletsponge enemy when you can just slice his head off? There are some smart enemies that stay behind cover so you have to use your guns on them, but most enemies could be chopped down.

There’s one thing about the open world exploration however that I really fucking hated. And those were the enemies. As the game progresses you piss off more and more of certain enemy groups and they start attacking you on sight in the streets. If you try to defend yourself you get the cops after you, so fuck me I guess? The worst thing of all however were those goddamn heat seeking missiles. They put an enemy somewhere in the map who aggroes from ridiculous distance and just pelts you with a shower of those rockets that kill you nearly immediately. I fucking hated those guys so much, and killing them even after finding them was a pain. Literally the worst and most annoying enemy in the game.

On the technical side of things, holy fuck the game crashed A LOT. Every play session I was guaranteed to crash at least once and that was generous. I had to be quick saving at all opportunities in order not to lose any progress. I was scolded a few times by the Dude, but fuck you. I’m not losing progress because you decide to crash on a loading screen for the fifth fucking time this play session.

I think I said a lot more bad things than good things, but don’t think I hated Postal 2. It was a fun and unique experience and I loved the sense of humor! The game has both good and bad and I just wanted to write down these thoughts that have been jumping around in my head for days. Y’know, when Postal 4 comes out of early access I think I’ll give that one a go. So this game gets a generous this shit can’t be good for me, but I feel great OUT OF mission accomplished, with extreme prejudice!

[sugarcomatosed]

i love your stories so much!! and was wondering if you can give some writing tips perhaps? 🥺👉🏻👈🏻

Breaking this up into sections for you + putting it under a cut cause I went overboard. 😅

General Writing Tips

These work for both academic and creative writing.

Make an outline.

It doesn't have to be a formal one, but having at least a general idea of the scenes you want to include is helpful. If I know my fic is going to be a longer one (like Don't Hesitate was and my current WIP is), I break down the larger story beats i want to hit on a piece of paper or my iPad.

It's good to know what you're planning to do, in a any piece I usually have a single specific scene I want to do and depending on what it is, I might either just do the scene I want to or turn into something longer.

Draft, draft, draft.

I cannot stress the importance of going through and reviewing your work. This is a big part of any sort of writing.

Your first idea isn't always your best idea. As you work on a piece you might find your original idea is holding you back, focus shifts! Don't be afraid to let your work change as you go. It's not always easy to let go of your original idea but if you find it's not working, you have to let it change. Sections will need to be rewritten, things have to be readjusted to fit with later sections. Reread for clarity while you're drafting and look to see if this makes sense to you, or reads well to you. If you can't follow it and you wrote it, chances are your reader can't either. Did you use the same phrase again and again? Find and search it on your doc to double check.

Sometimes you have to cut things you really like because they just don't contribute to the fic anymore. Save those bits and use them somewhere else!In a lot of my longer pieces I will write a paragraph, realize that's not where it should go and cut/paste it into another part of the doc because the pacing/scene doesn't make sense where I had it originally, but it works somewhere else.

If you're stuck, skip around, come back and then stitch the bits you have written together.

Don't Focus on a Word Count

This might be controversial, but I'm of the opinion just because something is longer does not make it better. Some works are short, and that's okay! I very rarely try to aim for a specific count of words unless it's for a prompt exchange or a personal challenge. I write till I feel the piece is done. Some stories require more words, some require less.

Don't Hesitate is a great example of this again, because all I wanted to do was a bittersweet first kiss fic, but jumping write into the kiss wouldn't get the full effect I wanted. Meanwhile, with Old Habits all I wanted to do was write dumb comedic kisses, we didn't need a 2k preamble.

Get Someone You Trust to Edit

My go to editor for the past six years or so is one of my good friends. She has edited everything from college papers to my fics for me before I post them to read for clarity, find any funky phrases or misspelled words I missed, and I do the same for her when she asks! A fresh set of eyes makes a world of a difference. Find someone to trade fics with or ask a friend! They might have good suggestions you never thought of, or be able to tell what you were going for when you don't even know yourself.

I also rely on my friends a lot to brainstorm and talk my ideas out before I start because it helps me think and figure out what I need. It's super common for me to text someone and say "im gonna spitball at you, that okay?" and then spend twenty minutes chatting through my ideas.

Have Reference Material

For my 13sar fics, I regularly go back and review/screenshot videos of the dialogue to make sure I am staying consistent with story events, character nuance and small details. You don't have to go crazy, but it is really helpful to have your source material to go back to and check yourself against. In non creative writing I always had a pile of papers highlighted with my own notes on the margins.

Take Breaks/Pace Yourself

Know your own limits, and if you are working and working on something and it's not coming out leave it alone and come back to it. I'm really bad at this personally because when I get an idea in my head I want to see it through but sometimes you gotta step back! It's not healthy to keep working on things and overwork yourself. Stretch, get up go for a walk.

Write What You Want to Write

Don't focus on what people want to read. Focus on what you like. Find a topic, a scene, anything that you are passionate about and the rest will follow. The only time I write fic for other people is when I am writing for a friend. Even prompt requests I only take open ended ones, if I am not interested in writing it it's not gonna happen. I know it's super hard and I get really anxious sometimes about letting people down now, or worrying people won't like something but then I step back and remind myself this is a hobby and I'm doing it for fun.

Play to Your Strengths

You shouldn't try to write like me, you should try to write like yourself. Find what skills you have and use them to your advantage!

I can't give you a step by step list to write like me, because nobody in the world has my background! We're all unique. Everything I've listed so far I know because I'm not a beginner anymore! I'm in my twenties and have come from a strong academic writing background.

I took on an intensive course load in high school, and then went onto college for a sociology degree. I very rarely had test based finals and at the end of each semester would have five 10-15 page papers to submit. Straight up some of my skills come from having read and studied the works of anthropologist Clifford Geertz. I am not saying you should read anthropology/sociology texts. Unless you like that sort of thing lol

I also have 6+ years of theater experience (acting & directing), I use this all the time for my writing. When I think about a scene, I think about how I would work through it as an actor, how the character would move, and how would things read to an audience. The GOTE ("Goal, Obstacle, Tactics, and Expectation") method of acting by Robert Cohen is really useful hear if you want a more technical breakdown of what I mean by that.

This leads to a lot of what we called "business" in acting, doing small tiny things while you talk or move around on stage to give the sense you're a real human. I don't have to think or try on these sort of things because they're in my skill set already!

Things I do Personally

As in, these are not transferable skills this is just the stuff I do while working on projects.

Find a Vibe™️

I come into any fic with usually a goal I want to hit, a line of dialogue or something I want to capture. Just like, the general idea of a feeling a song even if the lyrics don't match up. Make a mood-board, a playlist, just find something you wanna do. It's less about the actual words on the page and what you're aiming to do.

Look to things that inspire you

Don't Hesitate got written because I wanted to write a fic that captured the same vibe as a scene in Macross Frontier, where two characters have a bittersweet kiss before the final battle and that scene still has me fucked up six years after watching it.

My current WIP is doing the same thing but with the song All I've Ever Known from Hadestown. Two characters working through loneliness, the sudden feeling of falling in love and the frustration that feeling can bring on sometime.

I don't plagiarize them word for word, but these are scenes that inspire me! I also patchwork quilt ideas together. Using Don't Hesitate again, I also ended up pulling from a bunch of shoujo anime, Toradora, Sailor Moon, Yona of the Dawn, Princess Tutu...specific scenes I enjoy to blend and create something new.

Goof Off While You Write

I name my documents stupid things, I write dumb placeholder dialogue or vague sentiments like "insert better word here", I make memes when I'm struggling and roast myself and my predictable tastes.

I spent twenty minutes texting a friend Juro's name with different letters spelt out and then the "fuck your chickenstrips" vine saying it was Juro during destruction. Just have fun with it!

Listen to J-POP On Loop for Hours at a Time

i am not kidding I do this all the time. Perfume, AKB48, anime idol osts, Sailor Moon's OPs/ED, vocaloid songs. I like technopop and Japanese is good because it usually doesn't distract my brain since I only know random phrases, but still know what the meaning og the song is.

I love music, it helps me vibe out.

Thank you so much for enjoying my work ;o;

I hope this is useful to you in some way! I'm so sorry it's so long winded but I am overly thorough and love to teach people ;w;

[darkistheday]

Dark is the Day

Chapter 2

Read on Ao3

The ashen water that flowed deep in the crevices of the Darklands had a way of making you feel like you were wading through sludge, and it soon began to take its toll on them. Jim was clearly exhausted. Hisirdoux wasn't sure if the power of the Amulet had faded from Jim's lack of energy, or if he had drained it with his magic. Either way, he didn't think Jim had much strength left in him.

"It's just a little further," Hisirdoux said, hoping his encouragement could have some impact on the boy.

"I... I can't," Jim said as he fell to his knees. Hisirdoux quickly reached out to grab his shoulders and stop him from falling further into the water. "I'm sorry..." Jim leaned against Hisirdoux, his full weight suddenly against him.

"Jim?"

No response. He must have passed out.

Hisirdoux shifted his weight around to get a better grip. He sat there in the water holding Jim for a moment to catch his breath. He'd have to carry the boy the rest of the way now, which he wasn't really looking forward to. But while he crouched there contemplating this, his attention shifted to the physical sensations of the moment. Aside from the wet and the cold of the water seeping into his clothes, he could feel the warmth radiating off of Jim's body. It was such a foreign feeling, seeing as how the creatures of the Darklands were either hard, cold, or slimy. Jim's skin gave where he held it, soft and thin, it almost seemed as if he could feel the blood rushing underneath. Hisirdoux felt almost transfixed, the push and pull of Jim's breathing against his chest, the almost burning warmth of the boy's face against his neck. He was really warm, almost too warm.

Hisirdoux reached a hand up to feel Jim's face. Putting aside his curiosity of the experience of touching another human this way, his limited knowledge was telling him this wasn't normal. It was likely Jim was more than just exhausted. Hisirdoux pushed aside his selfishness to explore the moment further, and lifted Jim up out of the water. He'd get Jim to the safety of his little hovel, where he could get him dry and comfortable. There was no way he was going to let the only human he'd seen in nearly a millennium die like this.

~~~

Throughout the years there had been times Hisirdoux would leave the trolls for days, weeks, or months at a time. The last 100 years or so had been the longest stretch he'd ever spent away from them. It had been rough. In-between hunting, cooking, and anything else he had to do to survive, he had slept a lot just to avoid dealing with anything else; his feelings, his loneliness, his boredom. He started the years off excited, he would often make things for himself; jewelry made mostly out of bones and crystals, paper for drawing and making notes, leathers for clothes and bedding. He'd even managed to carve a lot of intricate tools and weapons out of horns. Despite all he had managed, in the end he had to admit to himself he needed the company of the Gumm-Gumm's. As dull and obnoxious as they often were. He'd even missed talking to Dictatious about his half-baked theories.

He had found an incredible spot for all of these activities not long after he and Gunmar's army had settled where they were now. There must have been a long dead tree of some sort, who's roots had twisted around a softly glowing, champagne colored crystal. The middle of the root had hollowed out, possibly by a steady stream of water that once flowed through it. It was great protection from the creatures of the Darklands, as well as a warm place thanks to the energy of the crystal. He'd filled it full of everything he had managed to make over the years, as well as keeping it stocked with clean water and rations. If there was ever a time he had thought the whole excursion was pointless, it was replaced now by his overwhelming gratitude for its existence.

How he'd managed to get Jim inside, along the rest of the dark ravine, up the craggy cliff that led to the opening in the root, was a blur to Hisirdoux. He had been entirely too focused on the task at hand; get the boy warm and safe. He removed Jim's shoes, socks, jeans, and blue jacket, bundled him with his softest leathers and laid him down next to the crystal. Hisirdoux usually slept in the deepest part of the root, where the crystal's light barely reached, but this seemed like a better idea since it would be warmer. Once he had Jim settled, he changed out of his own wet clothes.

Then he tore into the place he kept his rations, suddenly realizing how incredibly hungry he was. There wasn't much left of his stock, but there was at least enough to tide him over for now.

Turns out, it was a thousand times easier, and faster, falling down into the ravine to his home away from the trolls , than it had been to climb up to where they lived. It might have been at least a day and a half since he'd eaten anything. Starvation would usually have his mind focused solely on food; kill, gather, prepare, cook, ration. He figured the excitement of finding another human temporarily distracted him. He looked over at Jim sleeping as he nibbled on what was left of his rations.

It wasn't a dream.

The only reason he knew for certain it wasn't, is because he spent a long time dreaming of something like this. At first his fantasies were about escaping the Darklands, but that idea faded from him a long time ago. Now, if he found himself daydreaming about anything like that, it was about some faceless figure, maybe hunting, or exploring with him together. These daydreams were always comforting, predictable, perfect. The reality felt strange and terrifying.

Once he finished eating, he got closer to Jim to check on him. He knelt down beside the boy, who seemed to be struggling to fight the effects of his fever. Hisirdoux wished he had something more to help him, but he himself rarely got sick, so trying to figure out if there were any remedies that existed in the Darklands was never a priority. He could only hope Jim was strong enough to fight this.

He felt the boy's forehead again, it was damp from sweat and still warmer than he thought was normal. He let his fingers trail up to push aside the boy's bangs. Wandering further, his fingers trailed through the boy's hair, pushing more of it off to one side, and resting them around Jim's temple. The boy stirred slightly, only enough to move his head in the direction of Hisirdoux's hand where it then cradled his face.

Then Jim muttered something about his mother.

Hisirdoux didn't quite understand the feelings that suddenly stirred up inside him, other than the fact that they seemed unpleasant. He backed away from Jim, and shifted his attention to the rest of his dwelling. He'd have to find more food for them both to eat once Jim woke up, so he decided to prepare for a gathering mission.

He put some supplies in a small pack. There were some things he had in mind to get, such as some herb-like plants that grew nearby. He didn’t know if they had any medicinal properties, but at least they were edible. Their location was a short hike away from the top of the cliff where his tree stump was rooted. There was also some edible fruit around the same location, so he would gather the herbs along with some of the fruit. If he managed to pass an animal along the way he could try and hunt for it, but he was mostly focused on the easy stuff.

After giving Jim one more look over he headed out.

It didn’t take him long to reach the area where the herbs grew. He started to collect them in a habitual manner, as they were easy to gather. His thoughts went back to Jim, and the feelings he had after hearing the boy mumbling in his sleep.

It wasn’t surprising that the boy had a mother, so why the negative sort of feelings?

The fruit he was looking for grew just above the area where he gathered the herbs. It was a bit of a climb to reach them and it wasn’t much effort, but he would have to be careful. His mind however, was still on Jim. It wasn’t long into his climb that his foot slipped on a loose portion of rock. Hastily, he managed to regain his footing. Then he felt a pang of anger with himself for allowing his absentmindedness to make him reckless.

<i>Also fear.</i>

It wasn’t the first time he’d made a blunder like this, there had been much worse things happen while living on his own. There was something different about it this time though. The anger wasn’t new, but the fear was. Fear, because now he had someone else who was relying on him to return.

That’s when it suddenly hit him, why he had felt the way he did about Jim mentioning his mother. Jim had people who were waiting for him. Hisirdoux stopped climbing, clinged to the cliff side, and leaned his forehead against the rocks. He wanted that thought to sink in.

Ever since coming into the Darklands, Hisirdoux felt alone. The company of Dictatious or the Gumm-Gumm’s was just something to fill that void, but it never felt like enough. They didn’t care about him, not truly. If he had never returned to them today, they wouldn’t care if he’d ever came back.

There was no one out there waiting for him.

He wanted what Jim had, people who would look for him when he went missing, people who would care if he was hurt or lost or alone. But he had no one.

<i>Well, maybe now…</i>

But Jim would surely go back to the people who missed him. What was Hisirdoux to Jim but a random stranger in the Darklands, who fumbled their escape plans and almost got them killed? Why would Jim give a second thought to him? He would probably leave once he got better and go back to his family, maybe even forget Hisirdoux ever existed…

It was hard to pull his mind out of that spiraling dark hole, but it also felt really stupid to be hanging on the side of a cliff. So he pulled himself the rest of the way up, collected the fruit, and scaled back down. He’d gotten pretty good at suppressing dark thoughts in favor of doing what needed to be done.

His mind was still hazy after he returned to his dwelling. Jim was still where he’d left him. At least he wasn’t alone for now, even if Jim was still unconscious. That small, but pleasant thought pushed Hisirdoux to unpack his cargo and begin making something that would be easy for Jim to get down even while in his condition.

So he set to cooking.

There was a small runoff of water that he’d redirected along one wall. The top of the redirect was full of rocks and some other materials to create a filter. He gathered the water from this makeshift tap into a large wooden bowl and set it next to a small pit where he then started a fire. The smoke of the fire escaped through a hole further up the root, possibly a branch of root that had long since crumbled away. Since Hisirdoux had no metal containers to boil water, the method he used to do so was a bit complicated, but it worked. Instead he heated an iron bar, which he’d insulated by fashioning a handle of wood. Once it was hot he would then dip it into the water, which had to be done several times to get it boiling. While the fire heated the metal, he got out a makeshift mortar and pestle, using it to turn the herbs into a paste. The fruit which he collected had a similar consistency as potatoes but had a mild lemony flavor. The herbs had a harsh and bitter sort of spice, but if he boiled it with the fruit, their flavors tended to blend together into something pleasant. He skinned the fruit and cut it into small pieces and put them in the water, then scooped out the herb paste into the water as well. He finished boiling the water, the heat softened the fruit, and he mashed it as he stirred everything together. It was a lot of work for a simple soup but it didn’t bother Hisirdoux if it helped Jim.

The taste of it in the end was pretty much what he had planned, so he poured some into a smaller bowl and brought it over to Jim’s side. He took a moment to study the boy’s face as he slept. He’d never had someone else to care for before, the idea made him feel both elated and afraid. Swallowing that fear he reached out to Jim’s face again.

“Hey,” Hisirdoux said to the boy softly. There was very little response to the gentle prodding, so Hisirdoux tried to lift him into a sitting position to make it easier to feed him the soup. This caused Jim to stir a bit more, he made soft noises in response to being moved. That was a good sign, Hisirdoux told himself.

Jim’s eyes fluttered open a bit, though he still seemed on the edge of passing out.. Hisirdoux used his own body as a prop to keep him sitting upright as he brought the bowl to Jim’s lips.

“Can you drink?”

“Mmmm..” Was the response Hisirdoux got, but Jim parted his lips when he felt the bowl against them.

Hisirdoux tipped some of the contents of the bowl slowly into Jim’s mouth, waiting till he swallowed. Which he did, and then Jim moved his hand up to hold onto Hisirdoux’s wrist, pushing the hand that held the bowl against his lips again to swallow the rest. Hisirdoux was about to get some more but Jim slid himself out of his grasp and laid back down. However, he didn’t let go of his wrist. Hisirdoux transferred the bowl to his other hand and set it aside, then he laid down next to Jim. It was a weird position, but this way Jim could keep holding his arm. Hisirdoux wasn’t sure why that seemed so important, but he didn’t mind the slight discomfort for it.

The moment felt oddly calming. He watched his arm resting over Jim’s chest as it moved up and down with his breathing. Hisirdoux’s mind seemed devoid of worry, which was unusual, since normally his mind being empty meant he was trying to ignore something painful. It was nice.

Hisirdoux closed his eyes for a moment, letting himself relax. Not wanting to fall asleep just yet, he shifted his thoughts over to hunting. He wasn’t sure if his presence in this part of the Darklands was the reason for the lack of game he’d been experiencing lately, it had just seemed difficult the past few months. Maybe he had over-hunted? If that was the case, they would have to move on from this spot if they wanted to survive. But he wasn’t sure what Jim would say when he woke up. He seemed grateful for Hisirdoux’s help, but maybe he had to move on as soon as possible.

The need to get up and begin a hunting trip was plagued by the desire to lay here as long as Jim would hold onto him. He was finally able to pull himself away, but only with a large pang of guilt. Hopefully hunting would be easier than that had been. After taking a swig of his now cold soup, he switched his gear from gathering to hunting. There wasn’t any way to know what he would or wouldn’t find out there now, big or small, he hadn’t seen anything on his way to the gathering spot. He might have to travel further down the ravine, which would make for a much harder hunting trip, but he hadn’t been down there in a while. If it was his presence here, then going somewhere that he hadn’t been much made the most sense. He decided to leave the larger hunting weapons behind, climbing through the ravine would be easier without them.

Hisirdoux knelt down beside Jim just before he was ready to head out, his mind was a tangle of thoughts. They hadn’t said much to each other, or even known each other for more than a day, but it seemed to make a world of difference for Hisirdoux, even as Jim slept. Having someone near, a human someone, who needed care and attention. Someone more like Hisirdoux, someone who could be vulnerable. There was a strange code among troll soldiers to always be afraid, but they never seemed afraid to him. They were stoic and unrelenting, they weren’t vulnerable like this.

He couldn’t help himself from reaching out and touching Jim’s face again. Jim seemed to have relaxed a little since being brought here, but he was obviously still recovering. He didn’t stir this time from being touched, though his eyes were moving visibly under his eyelids, possibly dreaming about something. Caressing his cheek lightly, he vaguely wondered what the boy would think if he were aware of what Hisirdoux was doing. The guilt of that thought made him stop. He longed for the touch, but wouldn’t want to disrespect Jim in the process.

He made sure Jim could easily access water or the soup if he woke up, and put the leathers back over him. Hisirdoux didn’t want to be away for too long in case the boy woke up, but he had a feeling the hunt for game would be a challenge. With one last look over everything, he headed out again, his feelings dancing a thin line between uncertainty and elation.

[twilightprince101]

The Train, Purple Lightning and “Fate”: An Infinity Train Theory

NOTE: This contains HEAVY SPOILERS for all of Infinity Train! Putting this under a read more, but tl;dr, I think the train has a way of predicting when things will happen-but not entirely be correct.

I was going back and rewatching Infinity Train Book 1 (Mainly bc I love the show and wanted to relive it) when I noticed something interesting. At the end of episode 9, when Tulip decides to fight and is racing to the Engine, we get a glimpse of the sky and see hints of purple lightning

Which was pretty cool as an effect, but then I remembered something: I’ve seen this lightning before. And if you’ve just watched the Book 3 finale, I’m sure you know what I’m referring to.

But it wasn’t just here either, it was also in another scene with Simon earlier. The one where he shifts from “okay he’s a shit but kinda ok” to “motherfucker unlimited.”

After thinking about it for a little bit, I went to Book 2 to look around, and sure enough, the lightning was there too

I’m going to reiterate: I’m rewatching all of Infinity Train, and the purple lightning throughout the entire series only appears this prominently during these scenes.  (May I reiterate: this prominently. I am aware that it can be seen in a brief flash in the very first episode when that random passenger gets sucked into the vortex, but it’s barely as noticeable as these three instances)

At first I thought the lightning was just a cool effect to reiterate the tension and weight of these dramatic scenes, and to be honest it very well could be. However all of these scenes where the lightning appears have something in common.

They all take place during times of great change not just for these characters, but for the entire train and its system as a whole.

Let me break it down and explain it one at a time.

Season 1: The lightning appears as Tulip is taking a stand against Amelia and her reign as Conductor, resolving to overthrow her and save Atticus.

This one is relatively simple, all things considered. Amelia has reigned as Conductor for 33 years (as noted by OneOne in the documentary shorts), and now that Tulip is going to fight back and bring OneOne back to the engine, her reign is soon going to end and things are going to go back to normal

Season 3: Simon, after committing so many atrocities, gets his number up so high that it has nowhere left to go on his body, giving him the highest number in existence.

(I’m doing season 3 before season 2 bc it’s shorter and relatively simpler than its big brother, you’ll understand soon)

As twisted as the train may be, we all know that its base premise is that it helps those it deems as needing help, teleporting them onto the train so they can sort out their problems. But as we’ve seen with Amelia and The Apex, they don’t technically have to. Aside from the threat of being stuck on the train forever, there’s nothing stopping them from fucking about and ignoring their problems.

Throughout Season 3, the Apex assumes that because they are destroying the cars, OneOne is trying to fight against them and put them back on track. However, as Amelia clarifies, he doesn’t even know that they exist.

Despite the fact that their numbers have been climbing in the complete opposite direction, the train hasn’t logged them down as anomalies or glitches in the system, they’re still considered normal passengers. It could be assumed that, like Grace and Amelia, they’ll all eventually come around and get the numbers to zero.

But then of course... Simon happens.

Considering our limited view of the train and its history, we don’t know if the numbers really can go higher or if other passengers have done the same thing in the past. However if he is the first, the fact that Simon’s number literally had nowhere else to go, reaching the highest possible limit, this goes against the train’s whole philosophy of “helping people.” There is now a clear flaw in the system that can no longer be ignored.

(As for the other instance with Simon, we’ll get back to that)

Season 2: Mirror Tulip (AKA M.T. (AKA Lake)) and Alan Dracula are waiting for one of the passenger pods so they can hijack one and get a number to get off the train

From what we’ve seen of the train and how it works, it seems clear that everything is made to revolve around the passengers. The cars are made to help people realize stuff about themselves, the numbers are made to represent their own personal growth and the denizens are made to assist them throughout their journey.

But that’s the thing: These denizens are made by the train. Every car that is created, the denizens are created alongside it. They are literally made to be the NPCs of the whole system and are made to assist passengers. OneOne even says so in the final episode of Book 2.

“Your passenger.” Not “Your friend” or “That one guy,” he specifically says “Your passenger.” Somehow, despite already helping Tulip with her problems, MT was assigned to Jesse.

And we’ve even seen this in other circumstances too! Tulip had Atticus to help her with a bunch of her stuff, and Grace had Hazel to make her realize that “Nulls” were people too. If they weren’t there, they wouldn’t have gone through their whole character arcs and back!

(As for how MT got assigned to Jesse despite already having “served her purpose” for Tulip, we’ll get back on that later).

But back to the point: The Denizens are created for the passengers by the train itself. So its whole deal with helping people grow and giving them an exit? That’s a luxury only reserved for passengers. It doesn’t see the denizens as “real people.” 

So Jesse refusing to leave MT behind, returning to the train so he can get his friend back? The train literally cannot fathom this turn of events and literally begins to break down.

It’s only through MT outsmarting the entire system and resolving OneOne’s broken logic loop that she’s able to escape, leaving the train for good.

But the fact that she’s even able to get off is crazy in of itself! We may not know how long the train has been around for, but the fact that the train began to broke down at MT wanting to leave means that this has to have been the first time this happened. And now that it’s shown that it can be possible for one denizen to leave the train, that opens the door for every single other denizen on the train! If they can “get a number,” they can leave the train.

Not to mention, Lake’s presence in the human world now gives people concrete proof that the train exists. If the train has existed for as long as humans have been alive, then that means there has to have been some rumors about it. And now, with a living girl made of chrome walking around (and a girl without a reflection), it is impossible to blow off those rumors anymore. The train is real.

So what does all this mean then?

The purple lightning (bet you already forgot about it now, eh?), throughout the series, has only showed up during these moments.  Tulip brought back OneOne, MT proved that denizens can leave the train, Simon proved that some passengers cannot be redeemed.  All three of these instances were points of great change in the train’s system, that will drastically alter things to come.

But why does the lightning only show up here? Is it that the train’s world can somehow sense when big things are going to happen? Or is it something deeper, like it can tell the future, and that’s how the passengers get “assigned” denizens? Well... I think it’s kind of a more complex system than that.

It’s painstakingly clear by now that the train is extremely flawed with the way it does things. Nothing is stopping passengers from staying on the train forever, it can whisk away people that are probably no more than 7 who are still developing as people, it’s possible for passengers to never change and make their numbers reach infinity, it doesn’t account for all the trauma that the train itself can leave on the passengers after they leave, it cannot fathom denizens wanting to get off the train and passengers wanting to help those denizens getting off the train and, in the case with Amelia, it’s possible for anyone to overthrow OneOne and take over as Conductor of the train.

However, I think these flaws show something very important. The train itself isn’t some sort of balevolent god that wants to help people become better, nor is it a malevolent one that wants to wreak havoc. It’s a giant machine.

Each car is made from different orbs, programmed by the Conductor (whoever that may be) to be whatever they like. The train’s helpers are all machines. The entire system itself runs on code. Very outdated code.

This is how I think different denizens are “assigned” to the passengers. I don’t think the train itself can see the future, but it can make predictions based on pre-existing data. Whatever passenger gets whisked to the train, they have their entire history and internal angst calculated and carefully analyzed. After running through their problems, the train can figure out exactly what that person needs in order to grow.

In the case of MT being Jesse’s “assigned Denizen,” while also technically being Tulip’s, here’s how I think it went down: After MT left to go her own path, the train kept her in mind as she went about her business, reassigning her to be someone that can help passengers grow. When Jesse got onto the train, it assigned MT to him and sent him in her general direction in his pod.

As for why exactly he didn’t get dropped off in the same car as MT, Jesse needed a bit of time to adjust and had to befriend Alan Dracula while MT wasn’t there. So when MT was asleep, the train moved the car Jesse was in right before the “Family Tree” car and let the rest of its predictions run its course. We do know its possible for the train to move around cars after all, with passengers on it.

But just because the train is good at predictions, it doesn’t mean they’ll always be 100% accurate. Remember: the train runs on very flawed logic. It isn’t always correct with how the passengers will act (Again, see Amelia and the Apex). So bringing this back around to the purple lightning, I think we found our answer.

The purple lightning represents moments when different aspects of the train completely fly off from their “intended course.” 

The train likely wasn’t thinking that Tulip could be its savior, especially with Amelia as the conductor. It likely thought that, as soon as her exit appeared she’d leave for good. But instead, she stuck around and went to save her friend. Tulip stuck around longer than predicted.

The train doesn’t see its denizens as actual people, thinking that as soon as passengers resolve their problems they’ll leave without a second thought. So MT going off on her own to get a number, along with Jesse coming back for her, both of them defied what the train thought was possible.

Then Simon. Simon, Simon, Simon. Out of everything the train could have predicted, it couldn’t have predicted him. 

The first time he broke from the train’s “intended course” was when he killed Tuba. We already know that Hazel was likely Grace’s denizen, since she was the reason that her whole view on the denizens had changed. But I think Tuba was meant to be Simon’s denizen (at least, his second one since The Cat abandoned him). With how helpful she was in The Colored Clock car, helping him escape and being the key to leaving the car, she was likely going to be Simon’s ticket to learning to trust “nulls” again. 

But then... yeah.

The second time he broke was after his fight with Grace. Despite abandoning her, betraying her, trying to kill her several times, Grace still saved him when he was about to fall. The train likely predicted here that Simon would see the err of his ways, pull an Amelia and go on the path of redemption.

But then...... yeah.

The third-and final time-was when he got what he wanted and got the number to end all numbers, likely bigger than the entire train expected. He had gone so far down the rabbit hole that there was nowhere else to go. Every chance he got to become a better person, he rejected. Simon himself is definitive proof that the train’s prediction system is flawed.

Each of these big moments reflects a gigantic flaw in the train’s system. It doesn’t expect these passengers to do the things they do, go off course from their intended destination. Like I said, the system relies on very outdated code. But now, having each of these situations be resolved, it knows how to deal with these issues going forward. A passenger can leave however they want, anyone can leave if they have a number, and most importantly, its prediction system needs fixing if it wants to keep helping passengers.

The train itself is a very, very strange beast. It’s kind and cruel all at once. But at the end of the day, it’s just a big computer doing its purpose. But this computer is old, outdated, extremely touchy. Each time these offshoots happen, it gives the chance for that code to be rewritten. And it’s very likely that it’s going to commit to these changes. For if it doesn’t... well... 

Let’s just say a lot more sand is gonna be added to this desert.

[themonotonysyndrome]

The Holy Quintet in Twisted Wonderland! (all 7 dorms - Part 2)

Now we have Kyouko’s reaction to the other dorms! Sorry that it took a whole weekend to edit this.  

Hope you guys enjoyed it!

-

Sakura Kyouko & the other dorms (except Savanaclaw)

HEARTSLABYUL!

Bless Sayaka for warning Kyouko in advance about the many, many rules of the Heartslabyul dorm. Riddle’s collar would probably latch on her if the redhead girl walk into the dorm lounge, screaming for Sayaka. 

Now, before she was introduced to the seniors of Heartslabyul, Kyouko got to know Ace and Deuce. She easily got along with the two boys since they’re always around Sayaka. It didn’t take long before their trio to become a four member group and they can often be seen goofing off around campus and trouble usually follow after them. 

Kyouko loves going along Ace’s crazy plans. After they accidentally destroy a shelf full of potions in the Alchemy lab, Ace immediately suggest they burn down the lab so Divus won’t find out that it was them. Kyouko was ready to use her Soul Gem as a flamethrower if it weren’t for Deuce and Sayaka.

(Expect Kyouko and Ace to be detention buddies, often)

Deuce treats Kyouko just how his Mama raised him to treat any other girls! Though once in a while, he couldn’t help but drop a cauldron on her whenever she and Ace are up to no good. Luckily he and Sayaka are the ‘chiller’ of the duo.

Trey and Cater got to know Kyouko properly only after Riddle’s overblot episode (she wasn’t with them when Sayaka went all out trying to ‘save’ their Dorm Leader). After the ordeal, the two of them were very grateful that Kyouko was no where near Heartslabyul when it happened). Trey is relief that Kyouko took Riddle’s light chatises over how she eats and etc without a fuss, sometimes she would even tease him back. A good thing that Riddle is now more acceptable to friendly affections and interactions from others. Sometimes if Trey is working in the kitchen and Kyouko swings by at Heartslabyul, she’s his food tester and helps out with the more heavy labour when it comes to cooking. Kyouko loves it!

Now, she’s not very big on the whole social media thing so by right, she shouldn’t have anything in common with Cater. But I can see that she loves music apart from food. So learning that Cater is the guitarist and vocalist for the Light Music club got her really interested. She wonders if she can learn to play musical instruments too. As for Cater, well, he’s more than happy to teach her how to play the guitar (even encouraging her to join his club) and they tend to take selfies together.  

Seeing that Kyouko is genuine and serious about the Light Music club hurried him to introduce her to Kalim and Lilia. Kalim is more than happy to teach Kyouko what he knows too and Lilia always wanted to know more about Madoka’s friends. 

The result? Apparently joining the Light Music club is the first step for Kyouko to actually enjoy being a student for once in her life.  

OCTAVINELLE!

Listen, no one could’ve predicted how Kyouko would got herself entangled with the mermafias and the whole Octavinelle dorm, alright? 

See, while Kyouko just got out from the cafeteria - her arm holding a paper bag filled with food for herself, Ruggie and Jack back at their dorm - she caught a flash of pink walking by. Oh look, there’s Madoka! Alone and walking to meet up with Silver or Sebek, maybe. It’s so odd to see Madoka alone ever since they came to TW. 

Anyway, poor girl was completely oblivious to a 191CM tall boy rushing towards her with a maniacal girl, arms wide open.  

Kyouko is a more of ‘beat’em-now-and-think-later’ sort of girl. So please forgive her that the moment she intercepted the eel boy, her spear was already drawn out and proceeded to smacked him away - violently - like a baseball bat. Poor Floyd got the wind absolutely knocked out of him as he crashed to the Main Street. 

“What were you planning to do to Madoka, hah!?” 

Floyd could only whistle despite the pain flaring on his torso. So one of these pretty girls is super feisty, eh? He’s gonna have so much fun squeezing her!

Let’s just say the two got into a brawl that nearly destroyed the Main Street if it weren’t for Azul and Leona actually coming over and putting a stop to it. 

(Leona doesn’t appreciate having to interfere in someone’s else fight, not when their Brawler could give Floyd a run for his madols, but he really had to pulled Kyouko away before Savanaclaw gets in trouble with the headmaster)

(Azul actually can’t believe there’s someone that could beat his tanker. He thought that the other girls would be like Homura and Madoka; cautious yet gentle. Clearly these girls are an odd bunch! He would need to carefully reevaluate his plans involving them now)  

From that fight onwards, the two are constantly trying to beat the other once and for all. Floyd is living the life; finally a fun prey! For once, he needed to get creative. Squeezing doesn’t do much, not when Kyouko is just as strong and she could easily stab him with a turn of her large spear. She could dish out whatever attack his ‘Bind the Heart’ retaliate and quick on her feet against his elemental spells. 

Kyouko finds Floyd a crazy yet seriously strong student. She has no idea what his problem is, but no way in hell will she back down or show that he unnerved her. Seriously, there’s something wrong with that guy and it’s not just his mood swings. The whole mermafia trio is creepy. 

Jade wonders if his twin’s obsession with the Savanaclaw Brawler will end badly. Oh well, since the outcome is still murky, he’s fully planning to enjoy the show.

Jade will smirk whenever Kyouko scrutinised him. Clearly expecting him to behave like Floyd since they’re twins and all. It’s cute how he knew she wants to prod and poke him just to see if he’ll lose his composure and Jade appreciates that she holds herself back every time. 

While Floyd went on a very direct approach to ‘befriending’ Kyouko, Jade is a subtle and nothing but polite. Enticing her with the menus of Mostro Lounge, the colourful drinks they served and sweeten his offers with a promise that Floyd won’t try to pick a fight with her if she dines at their café. 

(Kyouko eventually caves in on the offer. Won’t you be too if Jade promise to cook you something?) 

Azul wishes there’s some way he could properly learn about these girls apart from observing them in classes or their interactions with their dorm mates. After that fight at the Main Street, he underestimates just how much of a threat these girls can be. Especially Kyouko. Fortunately, Jade told him all about his offers and practically everyone in college knows about her love of food so Azul just had to wait. 

The third Magical Girl to visit Monstro Lounge after Homura and Madoka’s tense dining experience is Kyouko. Azul is surprise to find her alone. He expects at least one of her friend to accompanied her. 

Nevertheless, Azul is quick to muster up his gentleman-like behaviour and silver tongue to try and charm the redhead girl. Or at least get her to trust him a little. Throughout her visit in the café, Kyouko hardly complain about his treatment. 

It’s only after she paid that she gets down to it. In a complete 180 turn, she asks Azul why he’s taking her for an idiot. That stumped the Dorm Leader of Octavinelle. 

Kyouko didn’t bother to minced words; she told him that prior coming to TW, she lives on the street; never having a home. So she sees a lot of... unsavoury people who try to take advantage of a young girl like her. How the conmen with their honeyed words and parental-like sympathy would want to ‘help’ her. Kyouko knows very well what would happen to naive girls living on the streets. They won’t last a night. 

And Azul? Azul is no different from those men the moment he smiled at her. Her words sting the octo-mer more than he would ever admit once Kyouko storms out of Mostro Lounge. 

The Leech Twins are even more fascinated by Kyouko now while Azul and Kyouko barely acknowledged each other’s existence. 

Kyouko has not step into the cafe ever since. 

SCARABIA!

As a favour that she was willing to do for Homura, Kyouko in the end decide to cash it in when it comes to school work. Those History and Summoning classes are tough! 

Since the aloof Magical Girl never invite any of the girls to her dorm, Kyouko decided to invite herself, unanounced. She always wanted to know what a dorm in a desert would look like. The sand soon irritates her after a while. 

The students all directed Kyouko to a spot in the lounge that they all unofficially dub as Homura’s comfort space. Underneath a tapestry of a beautiful queen famous for her thousand stories, there’s Homura in her little nest. 

Kyouko really doesn’t like Homura’s know-it-all attitude but for the sake of her homework, she grits her teeth as Homura explains again for certain subjects. The other students of Scarabia know not to disturb the girls. (words about Kyouko and Floyd’s fight quickly spread throughout college. So seeing her frustrated expression over her books were enough to drive away the Scarabia students).  

Except for Kalim, of course. 

The moment he and Jalim returned to Scarabia and a passing student mentioned that Homura has a guest, Kalim scurries off to meet up with them. Jamil follows after him in an exasperated pace. 

Having gotten used to Kalim’s random, cheerful outbursts, Homura went with the flow as the Dorm Leader introduce himself and let Kyouko talk with him. Seeing that the two were studying, Jamil suggest rather than throwing a feast for Kyouko, why not they study together and Jamil can cook something quick for them to snacked on. That got Kalim and Kyouko on board. 

With Kalim and Jamil between them, Kyouko and Homura kept their snark to a minimum level, to the point that Homura would actually smirk when Kyouko regale them of her misadventure with Ace, Deuce and Sayaka. Not long after, Kyouko begrudgingly throw a compliment about Homura, telling the two boys that although she might be stuck-up, Homura does know her stuff.  

(Perhaps there’s hope for these two girls)

Kalim totally vibes with Kyouko. He loves how spunky, confident and funny she is! He loves her quick hugs whenever they meet up and always accepts an apple from her. If Kyouko loves to eat, then Kalim can’t wait to cook for her. The next time he throws a party, Kyouko would be one of his guest of honour for sure!

The first time Jamil saw Kyouko sparring with her dorm mates, she instantly reminds him of a scorpion. How she would thrust her spears from behind and he watched as the weapon retracted and pull back so smoothly. Fast and brutal, it fits her. 

Compare to Homura, Jamil is internally grateful that Kyouko is such an open book. There’s no hidden meaning underneath her words, no need to feel like he’s squeezing blood out of a stone just to know something about her. As long as she’s not a threat to Kalim, Jamil honestly doesn’t care all that much about Kyouko.

Jamil is so used to cooking for a bunch of people at a drop of a hat because of Kalim and so he’s not too annoyed having to cook for Kyouko whenever she visits Scarabia. 

Jamil is also aware that Kyouko and their Scarabia Raven doesn’t have a good relationship but that’s none of his business.  

POMEFIORE!

If Heartslabyul was the first dorm that Kyouko is hesitant to visit, Pomefiore is the second. 

Unfortunately, Mami wasn’t feeling well that day and it’s up to Kyouko to send over her school notes since they shared most of their classes together. 

The moment she steps through the mirror and standing in front of the entrance of Pomefiore, she felt like a prey getting ready to be ambushed. 

The pretty boys of Pomefiore whispers how glossy her red hair is; what product does she use? Do you think she’ll share the brand with them? Look at how powerful and confident her posture is, yet you can still see her feminine curves hold nothing back! Some wonders what her beauty and skincare routine are to be able to look so beautiful despite being a student from that roughhousing Savanaclaw. 

Kyouko couldn’t help but shiver, her skin crawls when she heard the whispers. The boys are very eager to show her around their dorm but Kyouko awkwardly interrupted them. She’s just here to see Mami to pass her notes! Their insistent to help her out in every little thing creeps her out!

Her saviour came in the form of Epel Felmier. He remembers how awkward he felt after the sorting ceremony when the other Pomefiore students all crowd around him, praising him for his looks. So without hesitation, he slide in and loudly explain that Mami send him to pick her up. Kyouko is grateful for his intervention. 

You can bet Kyouko feel something like a bull in a fine china shop the moment they head to Mami’s bedroom. Everything look so shiny... and expensive!

Kyouko help recap what she could remember in class to Mami when she pass along her notes before telling that she doesn’t believe Mami could get sick. Since they became Magical Girls, they rarely became ill. Mami assured her that she overworked herself a little, trying to keep up with classes and training Madoka and Sayaka. 

(Yes, Vil had fussed over her when Mami told him this. He gave her a list that she must follow so she could resume her classes soon.)

In a rare gesture of thoughtfulness, Kyouko offer to take over their trainning while Mami rest up. This makes Mami very happy and when she express it, Kyouko scratch her head and look away, muttering that it’s only right. 

When she left Mami’s bedroom, Kyouko throws an apple to Epel as thanks for helping her out earlier. This startles the boy and it sparks their friendship. He promises to teach Kyouko how to carved apples when they hang out next time. 

Now, Kyouko likes to playfully tease Epel when he told her that he wanted to be sorted into Savanaclaw and that he wanted to grow some muscle. For all her teasings, she does invite him to her and Jack’s work out sessions. It makes him happy so why not? Just don’t tell Vil.  

Since Kyouko very rarely visit Pomefiore, Vil and Rook heard of her through Epel and Mami. Vil and her doesn’t see eye-to-eye due to their personalities being on the opposite end of the spectrum. Kyouko absolutely have no patience to be groomed or lecture by Vil and whenever he sees her arm-wrestling with the other boys, Vil just shook his head at the lost of such beauty.

It’s a shame, Vil thinks. Kyouko is beautiful in a way that a ruby with a powerful fire inside is, but she’s just too... all over the place to even listen on how to put on a concealer properly. 

Rooks finds her fiery spirit and compassion to her friends beautiful. Like a female warrior from Afterglow Savanna. It doesn’t let him down when Kyouko couldn’t appreciate him reciting a poetry that he wrote for her. At least the girl was kind enough to wait until he was finish before running off. 

(Rook heard of the infamous brawl at the Main Street, too. Despite not being a beastmen, perhaps Kyouko is worthy of a hunt!)  

IGNIHYDE!

Honestly, Kyouko actually forgot there’s seven dorms instead of six here at NRC. It’s not her fault that it totally slips her mind that Ignihyde exist! She hardly sees any students from that dorm around campus!

According to Ruggie, they’re the odd, shut-in types that rather spend their time with their techs than people. So a dorm full of shut-in nerds in Kyouko’s opinion. 

Her opinion on Ignihyde changes when she spotted this tiny, blue robotic thing flitting around the college. The moment she spotted Ortho, her interest and attention is immediately on him. 

At first, Kyouko doesn’t know what to make of him as he follows Ortho around curiously. Is he a toy? Some high-tech butler? Who made it? 

(Kyouko is no Rook. So Ortho is actually aware that there’s someone been tailing him for a while now, but he lets Kyouko do what she wants, thinking they’re playing some sort of game) 

In the end, Kyouko just laugh sheepishly when Ortho confront her, asking what game are they playing? She admits that she has never seen anything like him before back home. 

Ortho, off course, wasted no time telling the Magical Girl that his big brother made him, how cool he is, maybe they could all play together and etc. The more Kyouko got to know Ortho, the longer she sense that this boy actually has a soul! This is not a robot, it’s a living person!

Utterly fascinate now (plus Ortho thoroughly charm her with how much he talks about his older brother. Heh, her little sister used to bragged about Kyouko to her little friends too...)

Kyouko and Ortho become friends and despite how rough she can be, she always make sure to treat the boy gently. She won’t admit it, but she loves babysitting him and Cheka, bringing them around campus to play. Sometimes, when she sits on the bench and watch them pick flowers near the garden of Pomefiore, she could see her little sister playing amongst them too. 

Idia doesn’t really know all that much about Kyouko other than what he could find from his cameras and the bare-bone information from Homura. She’s strong. She often hangs out with those two boys from Heartslabyul and their Knight. She also possess one hell of an appetite. 

So the moment Ortho burst into his bedroom, shouting about befriending the redhead girl, Idia has somewhat mixed feeling about their friendship. 1 - he worries that she would accidentally hurt him (Ortho doesn’t exactly have sturdy frames to withstand the strength of a Savanaclaw student). 2 - he doesn’t think he could handle having another pretty girl hanging around their dorm without wanting to crawl under his bedsheets forever. 

He actually let out a relief sigh when Ortho told him that Kyouko won’t barged into Ignihyde if it makes him uncomfortable, but he hopes that Idia could play with them sometimes. 

Idia promises that he will try to spend some time with them after Ortho told him how gentle Kyouko treats him and Cheka. How attentive she is to their presence despite looking bored. 

In the end, Kyouko finds the Shroud brothers alright in her books. Idia might be the nerdiest of the bunch with a sweetheart of a little brother but she can respect a dude rocking out flames for hair. 

(Idia probably self-combut if he knows that Kyouko thinks he’s cool for a nerd)     

DIASOMNIA!

After she became a Savanaclaw student, Jack had onced told her that there’s beef between their dorm against Diasomnia. Something about how Diasomnia always beat them during the college’s inter-dorm tournament, yada yada yada. If those students from Diasomnia wanna spar sometime then she’s more than happy to kick their asses. 

While walking back to her bedroom, she overheard a tense argument between Sebek and Jack that it suddenly became a point of the two challenging on another. 

So an impromptu fight between the first year Savanaclaw and Diasomnia students are scheduled at the stadium on a Saturday night. No one really knows how the first year students kept the event hush-hush from the seniors or teachers but they managed to. 

When the day arrive, most of the first year students from every dorm came to watch the fight. 

Kyouko & Jack VS Sebek (& some random Diasomnia NPC). Madoka came as well but she doesn’t want to fight unless she absolutely has too and no one in Diasomnia has the heart to push their gentle Fairy. 

The fight was brutal as the rounds went on into the night. Heartslabyul students cheer for their friends while having picnics on the bleachers, Scarabia students are trying to use Astrology to predict the winners while working along with the Octavinelle students who are running the bets, some Pomefiore students complain at how barbaric and unnecessary violent these fights are but stick around to take selfies with their friends and a couple of extrovert Ignihyde students are livestreaming the entire thing and doing commentary. 

Homura, Sayaka and Mami are seated around Madoka. Sayaka cheer for Kyouko, of course. 

When it comes to her fight against Sebek with Jack beside her, she just told him that she’ll handle the nameless Diasomnia NPC and detached her spear to attack. 

It was amazing! Kyouko live for the rush and adrenaline of the fight! Looks like they were right - those Diasomnia folks are really strong! But other than strengths, can they keep up with her? 

Kyouko knocked the nameless Diasomnia NPC out of the ring just in time to see Sebek raised his Magic Pen to call forth his lightnings. She cast a ward-like dome on Jack. When the smoke cleared, her ward remain standing. 

“Sakura-san...”

“I get it, I get it. Beat his ass, Jack. I’ll cover for ya”

It’s almost easy, really. Jack and Sebek are evenly match and Kyouko kept her promise, only lingering away from the fight. 

Funny enough, in the end, neither dorm wins when the collision of Jack’s fireball and Sebek’s lightning ray knock them both out of the ring. Even still, the audience cheer and instead of going back to their respective dorms, they actually gathered around and have a mini-party. Even the Pomefiore students were having fun.   

With good food and drinks, the tension between Diasomnia and Savanaclaw disappear eventually. At least for tonight. 

(the headmaster blows it when it was reported that the stadium is totally trashed. After that, news about that fight spread because of the livestreams. As punishment, the Savanaclaw and Diasomnia are tasked to fix the stadium. Much to the surprise of Leona and Malleus who were supervising the whole thing, their dorm mates are laughing and playfully shoving each other on the shoulders as they fix around the field.)

Malleus caught Sebek furiously practising with his sword and magic in the training hall of their dorm one day, his knight flustered and explain how masterful Kyouko wields her spear. He caught her deftly strike away every clash of the sword from the nameless NPC without breaking a sweat. It also infuriates Sebek that after knocking her opponent out of the battle, she easily snap her fingers and cast multiple powerful spells to shield Jack from his more deadly attacks. 

The way how Kyouko wield her magic and weapon simultaneously without exerting herself had Sebek begrudgingly respect her. 

When Madoka invited Malleus to her and Kyouko’s ice-cream trip, Malleus learn a little more about the Savanaclaw Brawler. She’s blunt, brash and doesn’t seem to be put off by him which is good. Though she completely steam-rolled his brooding murmurs. She admits that she doesn’t understand his fascination with gargoyles, but assures him that if they make him happy, then by all means, talk away! 

Lilia find the fire of youths’ as well as their bout of recklessness refreshing. They make him feel younger. When he spotted how Kyouko’s charisma boost Madoka’s courage and confidence little by little, Lilia likens Kyouko to a fire that not only burn enemies to ash but is also a hearth that warms one’s home. At least for these young girls. 

Like the rest of the students in NRC, Lilia has heard and seen the fight online. Kyouko’s battle was certainly impressive! In fact, it’s a good idea to have Sebek and Silver expand their sparring opponents so they could learn a thing or two. Especially from these girls. 

Silver finds the whole secret fight pointless, but since Sebek felt so passionate at the time and it’s be done with, there’s nothing else he could add. He agrees with Lilia; it’d be nice if he could clash his sword against Kyouko’s spear. He finds the weapon’s ability to attached and detached at will fascinating. How does it work? What is its range? How big can Kyouko make them? How many can she summon them at once?  

Kyouko agreed to spar with them sometimes if they paid her in food. Silver and Sebek hurried to stop Lilia from rushing to the kitchen when they heard her offer. Although Lilia pouts, the Vice Dorm Leader can easily fulfil their end of the bargain. So whenever they finish sparring, they would all sit down and munch on snacks and drinks.

After sparring for a couple of times, Kyouko finds that Sebek is actually alright. He’s just so loud and can be so passionate when it comes to Malleus. Cue teasing from Kyouko and trying to make Sebek blush whenever they hang out together. As for Silver, well, Kyouko wishes she has his ability to nap whenever and wherever without a care. Lilia is hard for Kyouko to figured out (just like Jade), but she does know that Lilia is genuine with his friendliness so she appreciates that. 

All in all, the Diasomnia boys are the morbid sort of weirdness in Kyouko’s opnion, but pretty chill for the most powerful dorm of NRC.

And beside, it’s pretty funny to see them running around their dorm trying to figure out how to do their laundries or where their Dorm Leader is.         

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Alright, that’s a wrap for Kyouko’s part! Sorry again for the delay. This was supposed to be out in the weekend.