#transitive partial dependency

[gudguy1a]

Transitive Partial Dependencies - broken down, Better

The purpose/reason for this article is for those new to this, like me. I saw this LinkedIn article What are the steps to eliminate transitive dependencies in a database schema? and about barfed up my dinner, from two nights ago… Too dense and/or not broken down in a better manner. So, I attempted to do so for the others who are not experts (as I am not yet one). It is only for better…

[aroaceleovaldez]

i already was seeing a lot of Jason with albinism stuff but there's been a significant uptick in it since the Thalia casting announcement and I wanted to say: please please PLEASE do actual research about albinism if you're gonna make headcanons about Jason being albino. I have already seen so much ignorant and ableist stuff about it because nobody is bothering to do any research and it's really annoying.

A couple of major notes:

There are different types of albinism!!!!! and no i'm not referring to vitiligo or etc. Just straight up albinism there are different types. There are two main types (oculocutaneous albinism types 1 and 2) plus ocular albinism, and then some other types as well that are even rarer. It is also possible to have only partial absence of melanin. (Vitiligo is a form of partial absence/loss of melanin, and often involves loss over time)

Albinism is a lack of melanin/pigmentation. This affects sensitivity to light and UV rays a LOT. Like a lot a lot. (This also applies to vitiligo btw! Melanin protects your skin from the sun, so a loss of melanin even in patches means those areas are more sensitive!)

Skin sensitivity to sunlight does not only apply to when it is sunny out. People with albinism have to take a lot of steps to protect their skin because they are SIGNIFICANTLY more susceptible to sun/UV damage. It doesn't matter if it's overcast, raining, snowing, whatever. They are putting on sunscreen, and they are putting on a lot of it. Sun protection can also come from just covering up. Big hats are also popular choices.

Sensitivity to light also applies in all environments. Transition glasses are common and sunglasses are common.

People with albinism do not have red irises. A lack of pigmentation in irises (referred to as ocular albinism) appears blue, usually a very light blue (less melanin/pigmentation in the eye, the lighter blue it appears). The red appearance comes from more light entering the eye than usual, causing a red eye effect like you see in flash photography except with the naked eye. This can make the iris appear slightly pink/red-tinted and will more often make the pupil look reddish instead of pure black because you are seeing into the eyeball itself and the muscles and veins within it. Not everyone with albinism has blue eyes depending on how much the pigmentation in their eyes is affected, but a lot of people do.

Albinism basically always includes the individual having vision problems, usually low vision or outright being legally blind. They are not completely blind but it is very likely they are legally blind. We're talking very thick glasses (though glasses don't always help because of what causes the low vision), requiring enlarged text, i know somebody who had a little glass block that magnified text underneath it and they used that a lot, etc etc. Depending on severity they may require other assistive devices. Albinism affects the optic nerve, so other eye conditions like strabismus and nystagmus (and more) are also extremely common if not a guarantee (nystagmus is basically always guaranteed).

Nystagmus, for those who don't want to bother googling it, is uncontrollable eye movement in the form of back and forth shaking. Strabismus is when your eyes don't align with each other. These also cause vision impairment.

If you are writing Jason as having poor vision from albinism, he would KNOW he needs glasses. Literally everybody should know he needs glasses/is blind. He would likely be legally blind and would have been pretty much his entire life. He would also almost definitely have other eye conditions as well. (Also rip Jason being raised by the wolves, poor guy is gonna have the WORST sunburn)

People with albinism have different skin tones! And different hair colors! A lack of pigmentation looks different depending on your individual genes and what type of albinism you have! Look up photo references!!!!!

There is also a lot of fetishization of albinism. PLEASE BE RESPECTFUL when you are making headcanons about it, or creating/designing characters who are albino.

Here's a couple of short tiktoks that go over some basic information and other stuff about albinism if visual-auditory learning is more your jam: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] (Kayla_lud has a lot of videos going over information about albinism)

okay now everybody take your notes and go tweak your headcanons yeah? yeah. okay good.

[mistfallengw2]

How do charr hands function? Here's my headcanon (with drawings!)

So I made this poll earlier today and I ended up making some sketches to explain how I headcanon charr hands and their supposedly retractable yet too big claws. The idea is that both the game and the books are partially right: claws can be big (not as big as the models), and they're semi-retractable (so fully-fluffy paws). [Disclaimer: I am bad at anatomical drawings and did not try to make them super accurate :')]

Basically charr fingers are made of three phalanges, but functionally they're just two, with the 2nd and 3rd being much shorter and sort of "merging" with the claw itself, which is mostly supported by the 3rd and starts very close to the knuckle between them. The palm is covered almost entirely by a skin pad/paw pad, which usually extends to the first phalanx of each finger, and the fingertips are covered by pads as well.

The claws are semi-retractile, though the exact range of motion depends on the individual's genetics (claw size and shape + hand anatomy) and preferences (how much they trim the claw). The ability to retract their claws is managed by specialized extra tendons and muscles in the hand's structure, and they can lock the claw in place or move it, even while the fingers are bent, though with some limitation at the extremes of movement. While the claw at rest will stay at a "safe" angle, the claw's bed can shift on the cartilage structure when pulled, sliding back into a "sheathed" position or be pushed outwards. [note: I was too scared to go too far with the "x-ray" sketches and probably the claws could go a bit further back in the finger lol]

Ancestrally, this system kept the claws from always digging into the ground and losing sharpness when running on all fours, while still allowing for extra grip when necessary (similar to cheetahs) and the use when fighting or taking down prey. During the evolutionary transition in which charr started walking upright most of the time and using tools, it lost some of its ancestral necessity and functionality. However, instead of turning into something vestigial, charr evolved the ability of controlling each claw's movement independently from the rest of the finger, allowing for greater precision, fine motor skills and dexterity.

The pad grants grip and softer manipulation of items, while the claw handles movements finer and more precise than the pad allows, and other races find it complex, fascinating or a bit freaky. Some say that charr are as dexterous than humans, if not more, which is quite an accomplishment for creatures with such big hands.

That said, variety is huge among charr. Some have stubby paws with big, wide claws, while others have long, slender fingers with narrow claws.

Claws are still used as a natural weapon by many soldiers, but it's totally not uncommon for charr to file their claws down or keep them blunt, as there's a huge variety of reasons for not wanting sharp knives on one's fingers (job requirements, handling of delicate materials, safer interactions with cubs or creatures with softer skin, personal preference, etc), and some even keep their claws at different lengths for specific uses.

That said, claws can't be trimmed beyond the quick without bleeding or potential damage, and since it extends out of the sheath it's not possible for a charr to fully sheath their claws. Claws grow quite fast to make up for the daily wear and tear, so upkeep must be done regularly, as trimming too much might temporarily impact coordination. Declawing can happen during combat or following injury, and those affected might wear prosthetics/fake claws to make up for it.

[strangerxperv]

Mermay Stranger Things

Mermaid Stranger Boys x Human Reader

Warnings: Smut, breeding, genderfluid Eddie, kidnapping is briefly mentioned, Eddie is soft dark, Billy is a warning, rough sex, biting until wounded, two cocks, pregnancy kink, knotting, cursing, and not safe for teen. +18 or I'll kick you out.

Eddie Munson

Eddie would be a Moray Eel mermaid

His hair is definitely pulled into a low bun at the nape of his neck using fishing pole line.

Eddie likes to collect things from humans and keeps them in his "underwater" cavern.

Since he's an eel type merman I head cannon him to be very territorial of his home.

His tail is mostly inky black that transitions into slate grey towards his torso. His skin is tan but it transitions into slate grey at his elbows. His nails are sharp like talons and inky black. Eddie's gills are on the side of his neck and because of that he has some black scales. Eddie's mouth is most fearsome behind his charming grin, full of sharp teeth (made for killing just like his hands).

Moray eels are also nocturnal so he's not awake during the day.

Which is good because he saved you after you fell out of a cruise ship at night. He was the only one who heard you fall and was able to swiftly save you.

After saving you and getting a good look at you Eddie decides to keep you. He does the hard work of taking you to his home.

Speaking of his home: it's mostly submerged.

It's pretty similar to Beutopia in Adventure Time. There is a house that is partially submerged and completely furnished. The basement is completely flooded. the living room is flood upto just half of the couches. Meaning he can sit with you on the couches and even fuck you comfortably on them.

Don't worry about being cold in the water because some Moray Eels prefer warm water. If you do end up cold you can always go to the bedroom. The bed is on a high frame that keeps the mattress dry.

Eddie loves his home and knows you will too.

He loves it even more knowing that you'll have to rely on him for just about everything. Hungry? He'll go hunt something for you.

Wanna cum? Well thats amazing cause he wants you to cum too and he wants you to have his babies, his clutch.

Moray eel mermen/maids have multiple partners but youre his only mate that Eddie will take.

Eddie is also genderfluid as most of his type of mer people are because they have a tendency to change sex/ gender.

MATING BALL!! (I here by name this canon for eel merfolks)

His insticts call for him to wrap around your waist to keep your pelvises connected. It's like Eddie is all around you withering just as much as you're.

Eddie can breed you as both a male and a female due to his special cock. He first stuffs his slimy firm eggs into your whomb and despite the amount of times he makes you cum, it will hurt. But he makes up for it by fucking you until you see stars again. He takes another orgasm fro you and begins to fertilize your eggs. His spend fills you to the brim and slips out onto the mostly dry bed.

Billy Hargrove

Billy is a Great White Shark Merman

He's massive as most great white shark mermen are but Billy is even more massive/ muscular. Let's just say he's about seven and a half feet tall.

He's a brawler too

He also got massive sharp teeth that are not only used to rip into prey but to immobilize his mate.

Thats right! Great White mermen bite while mating!

Billy's teeth will be imbedded into your shoulder to keep your from moving too much. It's unavoidable for you to come away from this coppulation bleeding.

Seriously, do not move too much and especially dont struggle or try to get away from him. It will set off his predator insticts and Billy will only bite down harder.

The severity of the bite will depend on you being pliant and letting Billy fuck you as much as he wants.

Speaking of fucking

Billy has two dicks and one will knot to ensure a successful breeding. He'll fuck you will the top dick and lubricate your hole with his cum. Then his second dick will fuck you until he knots you to keep you tied to him.

During the process Billy will edge you closer to orgasm but you wont be allowed to until he's rooted, knotted. You'll have one major orgasm that will make you pass out because it's so overwhelming (both the sex and cuming).

Sex with Billy is rough because he is a rough guy, we know this.

Rarely is Billy outwardly soft or gentle but those moments can be found just after sex.

It's normal for the male great white merfolk to clean and patch up the wound from his teeth. Billy will first leave the softest of kisses to your mark a kiss so soft you barely feel it. These gentle kisses go from your lips to your many bite marks the entire duration being stuck together. Once free Billy will do his best to clean you up with minimal pain on your end.

Another moment of sweetness can be found when you're pregnant with his pup. He's so careful with you. Usually his touch leaves dark bruises (not because he hits you) because he is so much bigger than you and stronger. It's difficult to remember that you're not a great white.

He gets reminded of this fact once you get pregnant, you are human, and this pregnancy will be more draining on you. His pup is massive like him (smaller than the usual pup since theyre half human but bigger than an average human fetus). So you are bed bound through about 80% of the pregnancy.

Billy is so worried about you and his unborn child that he flat out refuses to have sex with you. That doesnt mean you wont get to cum! He actually spoils you with orgasms. You get to cum as much as you want whenever you want however you want. But he will not fuck you because Billy can't guarantee that his instincts will let him be soft.

Billy will jack off to your body during or after pleasing you and he'll aim for your round stomach.

[a-twistedheartslonging]

Harpies and Molting

Harpies, similar to regular birds, molt. The process involves the systematic loss of feathers, followed by the growth of new ones, typically triggered by hormonal changes, seasonal cycles, and environmental conditions.

Now, birds molt for several reasons but it all boils down to two main ones. The first reason is that they need to change plumage for different seasons or life stages. Juvenile birds and harpies initially have a downy and then juvenile plumage for a while after fledging, which provides them with warmth and enhanced camouflage.

Young non-breeding birds are often dull, brown, and streaked, as you may have noticed, to help them blend into their environment. As they grow, they transition to their adult plumage that serves other purposes.

Molting can be uncomfortable, but it is generally not considered truly painful. Your harpie will likely complain about itchiness and insist on you helping them with dislodging any loose feathers as human hands and fingers are quite nibble and excellent for such tasks.

The duration of a bird’s molting process can vary significantly depending on the species and the extent of the molt. Partial molts can take as little as 2 weeks while complete molts 4-6 weeks. Larger birds tend to replace their feathers in a staggered manner so a full molt may take months or even a year.

Larger birds, such as eagles and pelicans, handle molting differently due to the high energy cost of replacing their sizeable flight feathers. Instead of a complete annual molt, they replace their flight feathers in a staggered manner over a year or more. Adult harpies are a combination of both despite their breeds on account of their large size compared to their bird counterparts. 

Birds still molt when stressed, but high-stress levels can disrupt and negatively impact the molt, leading to abnormal feather loss, stunted re-growth, or visibly damaged feathers. As a result, it is considered important to keep your harpy as relaxed as you can during the process, give them attention, affection, food, and grooming/preening.

Vil in particular can get so pissy and insecure when it gets to the time when he starts to molt. Before when it happened, he refused to let anyone but Rook and Epel see him, but as his mate, you also are allowed to…along with the honor of fulfilling his demands to help ease the discomfort of his molting

There are special bath mixes that can be used to help soothe the discomfort and itchy skin of harpies going through the process and Vil makes his own special high-quality ones that he also insists on Rook on Epel using.

…please reassure him he’s still pretty while he’s sitting in the warm bath as you run your hands through his wings and dislodge loose feathers.

[polaroidcats]

if a werewolf goes to space do you think they transition... I like to think they go full wolf and never turn back until they come back down to earth

truly the greatest philosophical question of our time!

I'll make a poll but I will also give my opinion under the cut because I have thought about this a lot!

I think it depends on where on the moon they are. It's not the moon per se that turns them but the full moon, so by that logic there is only one spot/area on the moon where they can stand and experience the moon being fully lit up by the sun and thus turn into a werewolf, anywhere where it's only partially lit up or completely dark should be safe.

I can however also be convinced that the whole full moon thing is just accidental and actually all werewolves on earth are just synced up like it sometimes happens when ppl who have periods live together, and when they go into space maybe there are space werewolves their cycle syncs up with instead.

[the-s1lly-corner]

Attention TADC fans

Well well well! That new episode, huh? Basically this is announcement post that I'm taking TADC out of partial retirement! Hooray! I think I might even log back onto my computer to really get posts out!

Basic run down of rules for requests! You can find the full rules post here

No NSFW, active SH, abuse and similar topics! Though readers who struggle with abuse or SH may be tackled depending on circumstance, though the act will not be described if that makes sense

Max 3-4 characters per post

Dont have an idea for a request? You can find multiple lists of tropes and prompts at the bottom of my master-masterlist! Link in pinned!

Platonic and romantic is allowed

No ocs but you can add descriptors to a reader

Please no spamming!

I work with a queue system so requests may take a few days! I think though to get the word out that TADC reqs are back the first few requests sent in may be posted immediately before transitioning to the queue shrugs

Edit because I forgot! I only accept reqs through the inbox!

Characters I will write for:

Caine

Jax

Ragatha

Pomni

Gangle

Kinger

Zooble

And now! Gummi goo (he will be handled as a AU where he was allowed to stay!) And princess loolilalu!

[falmerbrook]

Snow Elf culture?

*pulls up a chair*

Perhaps...

A wee disclaimer that I'm not particularly good or creative with developing cultures or societies, but my brain has just latched on to the snow elves in a way where I can't stop myself. But anyway

I developed a lot of this because of a big ass draft for a fic I've been writing on and off about Gelebor and Vyrthur, so a lot of my headcanons are religion heavy. I'll start there:

Gelebor seems to place Auri-El and the Chantry of Auri-El as having significant importance to the Snow Elves over the other gods/temples. He's probably got a bit of bias in that regard since he's devoted his life to Auri-El, but in order to differentiate their religion from the other elven ones I like to think that their religion in general worshipped Auri-El as not even just as the figure head of their pantheon, but almost monotheistical, while the other gods (Trinimac, Syrabane, Jephre and Phynaster according to Gelebor) were like minor divine figures or just legendary heroes even more than in Altmer myth, depending on the interpretation. My idea is that if their culture had been allowed to continue on, it would've eventually become monotheistic, but by the arrival of the Nords they were in a bit of an awkward transition period with it.

I also like to lean into the sun motif with Auri-El that they established in Dawnguard and with Auriel's Bow, partially because it's another thing to make their depiction of him more unique, and in part because it makes some very juicy irony for Vyrthur. Some ideas include:

- The more religious folk tend to pray at noon when the sun is at it's highest. - The two biggest snow elf festivals happen on the summer and winter solstices. As far north as they are, the summer solstice is during a time of year where the sun barely sets and the winter one is during a time of year where it barely rises. The summer one is more jovial and celebratory, with a grand feast. With almost 24 hours of daylight, the festivities last up to three days straight, with folks commonly staying awake for over 24 hours. Most of it is spent outside, with the celebration being focused on making the most of the weather and daylight hours to spend as much time in the sun and the light of Auri-El as possible. The winter festival is as large scale but lasts longer and is lower-key. It also involves a feast but features more winter foods and meat and alcohol. It is more pensive. At this point in the year, there is no full daylight, and so this season is seen as a test of one’s faith and mental fortitude. This festival acts as a break from this trying time, taking time to relax, build community (a strong community will allow them to make it through the winter and strengthen their minds), and bond with family and friends. It is about a weeklong break, where leading up to the festival everyone works harder to prepare for it and allow themselves to have the break. There are activities and festivities, but they remain indoors for the most part and are smaller. - I've referenced this before, but with long winters with little sunlight (due to harsh weather and short days), they see that time of year as a reflective test of will and faith.

Due to their proximity to dragons, it was hard to miss the connection between Auri-El (/Akatosh) and dragons, and so their depiction of Auri-El is either much more influenced by the iconography of dragons, or is a dragon (although their depiction of dragon Auri-El is much more benevolent than the Nord/Atmoran one). I got the idea for this one from this Reddit post (i know I dog on Reddit a lot but this one has got some fun stuff in it, even if it's a bit out there)

^On that note, later in the timeline (post Dragon War (the timeline is very fuzzy on when this and the Night of Tear happens. They are both sometime vaguely in the late Merethic Era I believe, but it's unclear which happens first or how long each conflict is)) some Snow Elves see a sort of unreturned, unofficial comradery with dragons, seeing themselves as both on the receiving end of the Nord's/Atmoran's brutality (disregarding whether it was warranted or not in the context of the Dragon War).

Ok here's some more general cultural ones:

I mentioned my reasoning for this in this post, but I like to think their general settlements were not as permanent, with a larger focus on wood and building into the sides of hills (good for warmth), while their temples tended to be made of stone and much more permanent. This is why there are so few identifiable Snow Elf ruins across Skyrim. Their cities and towns were easy to wipe out, scavenged for resources, or were in good places for Nordic cities (perhaps Bromjunaar was originally the site of a Snow Elf city?), and their temples were either very hidden (e.g. the Chantry of Auri-El) or eventually converted to Nordic temples.

I love this journal in general for gleaning ideas for Snow Elf headcanons for, but one interesting this is the use of "Old Ones" and "Young One". They're treated like established titles. From that I like to think they place a lot of emphasis on the respect of those older than you. The social hierarchy and whose opinions are most valued is heavily influenced by age. Folks call anyone older or more revered “Old Ones” as a term of respect, and anyone younger than them “Young Ones”. Old One is almost never used in a demeaning way, but Young One can be (not always). Typically, “Old Ones” is used in the third person (e.g. you wouldn’t refer to someone directly as “old one”) whole “Young One(s)” can be used as an epithet for someone directly or in third person.

When thinking about death/"burial" customs (needed for some scenes in the fic I'm planning), you have to consider that there probably wasn't a lot of land in a place like Skyrim where someone can be buried. Nords intern their dead in crypts or burn them to get around this, and I like to think Snow Elves participated in something akin to sky burials (at least sometimes). After preparation, the departed's body is left outside on a ledge, cliff, or the temple balcony to be scavenged by birds. This is seen as a metaphorical return to Aetherius, while their soul literally returns to it. They do this even in poor weather or deep winter. If it doesn’t thaw and rot/be scavenged until months later, so be it. The length it takes to rot is considered indicative of how long it takes for the spirit to let go and move on (not in a bad way though. It’s interpreted more in the way of the soul or body grieving). It's seen as if they may wish to wait until spring to finally rot if they want to experience one more warm, sunny day.

Food (I mostly wrote this in my notes in the context of the Forgotten Vale and Chantry of Auri-El, but I think it could work elsewhere as well to an extent): Plant-based food is grown in gardens in the spring and summer, and that that is able to be stored is carefully preserved through the fall and winter. Winter foods include some nuts, dried vegetables, and dried and preserved/fermented grains (like wheat, barely). These foods must be eaten slowly throughout the winter to last, and winter diets are more meat based. Summer foods include apples, cabbage/lettuce, leeks, tomatoes etc. Snowberries can be found in the wild out of season of most other fruits, and provide fruit in very early spring. Occasionally, fungus from caves is harvested, but this is seen as a delicacy (foreshadowing).

Ok, that's it for now. I gotta go to bed. Thanks for the ask!!!! :D

[laurasimonsdaughter]

Dealing with painful transformations

With the compliments of the Lunar Foundation: community support by and for werewolves.

Transforming from human to wolf shape and back again, whether voluntary, instinctual, or under the influence of the moon, is often quite uncomfortable. If the transformation causes significant pain, however, is important to know that there are ways to relieve it. These are the most common:

High protein intake

For some werewolves who have a hard time transitioning from their human shape to their wolf shape, the cause lies particularly in the wolf lacking the strenght for a quick transition. This can sometimes be remedied by eating more protein. This does not have to be exclusively meat and contrary to popular belief the meat should not be raw if it is being eaten while in human form.

Physical therapy

Physical therapy and interventions like exercises, stretches, massages, and controlled pressure on painful joints have proven extremely effective in relieving and (partially) preventing the pain caused by transformations. Please check our website to find (health)care professionals with our paw print of approval. This includes physical therapists, chiropractors, osteopaths and masseurs that specialize in working with shapeshifters to handle the physical strain of (involuntary) transformations.

Wolfsbane-aniseed tea

A traditional remedy that by now has significant research to back it up as a safe and effective treatment to promote a faster, less painful transformation in werewolves who shift under the influence of the moon. The wolfsbane lowers the intensity of the transformation while the aniseed promotes certain aspects of the it. This tea can be bought without a prescription at most occult shops and pharmacies. It is safe to give to children, but should not be drunken daily.

Extract of wolfsbane

If the tea is not effective, there are prescription medicines that use wolfsbane in a higher concentration to slow the transformation down to reduce the strain on the body. It should be noted this does not work for individuals who experience pain when changing back to their human shape. These types of medications are generally safe to use regularly, but the dosage should always be monitored by a doctor. Stronger medicines may also contain other active ingredients.

Silver particles

In extreme cases a doctor might prescribe medication that includes (trace) amounts of silver. The intent is to temporarily weaken part of the wolfish aspect to make the transformation less violent. The use of such medication has to be closely monitored, and is ideally not for long term use.

Magical intervention

If the exact cause of the pain has been identified by a doctor or healer, it is sometimes possible to craft a magical amulet, charm or sigil that can offer a solution. The specifics will always depend on the individual. Access our website for a full registry of healthcare professionals, including magical healers, who have the appropriate specialization to treat werewolves.

Painful transformations are most common among werewolves who have just begun transforming and those who are particularly affected by the moon, but it can happen to everyone who shifts between physical shapes. It is also more common during growth spurts or hormonal changes. If you or a loved one are used to painless transformations and suddenly begin experiencing pain, please discuss this with your doctor.

[osakanone]

I love how in-depth your mech discussions dive

This isn't even my full power.jpg

I have to hold a lot back, because I don't know how to communicate well without overwhelming an audience.

Let me show you.

I'm right now figuring out how to explain a summary of over two years of investigation into mecha feet and contact-patch design, which led to me designing many MANY foot designs I came up with based on fighter landing gear, tank design, hovercraft, omniwheels, screw vehicles, and my personal favourites: marginal terrain vehicles and the Landmaster of Damnation Ally, which overcomes the shortcomings of 4+ generation Knightmare Frames [...]

(eg, their lack of omnidirectional motion, which they had to solve by transitioning to a psudoquadraped both with the Akito of Exile's 4-leg mode using its arms as walking limbs and the Queen Asura, which is not the same thing as a psudotetrapod because a quadraped has a abdomin structure closer to a jumping spider with the legs arranged inwardly for the front and outwardly for the back, and a tetrapod is radial pushing legs out at square or diamond angles relative to the abdominal centroid)

...and of Artos/Armored Trooperoids of Votoms [...]

(which had problems of a small tarus or hoof style foot with zero longitudinal arch which results in a lack of clearly defined calcaneus and thus no formal heel which would allow terrain gripping via the relative motion of the arch and phalangal body of the toes the heel like a beak -- all to encorporate the wheel in the arch-space -- which the design partially compensates through the use of a talon mechanism, and an optional structure fitted to the ankle which folds down to form an extended front foot -- which Armored Core's 5th generation later references in the folding falanges of the UCR series -- and late,r the Blue Knight variant directly addresses by extending the foot by 50% to improve the contact leverage with ground surfaces)

This is accomplished by using the stair-climber mechanism as a heel, but encorporating a scissor mechanism. Right now I'm not happy with where it is and I'm still figuring out where the hinge would go to keep it omnidirectional, which again is the common failure of leg-design in these platforms.

This is a MASSIVE amount of information to take in even in this light summary without diagrams to explain what's happening and I'd need help to really express what I actually want to accomplish.

I'm right now deeply conflicted as to how deep I should actually go because we can get very lost in the weeds and I'm not very skilled at diagramming the points I want to make and I have an entire taxonomic and anatomical language for mecha that I remove from my work when I present it to the public most of the time.

Like do I go into the development path, do I go into the evaluation of evolutionary paths I see like throughlines connecting things like how we got from knightly designs in Panzer World Galient or Dunbine (the first isekai) informs Tekkaman Blade informs Xi Gundam informs Escaflowne informs White Glint informs Unicorn Gundam and Banshee informs NWGIX/V, etc, etc?

Like there's an entire lineage and family line there being Albidimiles -- albidimiles being a portmanteau of albido (white) and miles (knight) -- not to be confused with the line Samonaut, which are essentially samurai-astronauts commonly belonging to Gundam.

Since we're dealing with design memetics, common concepts of conventional phylogenetic development don't apply since through a genetic lens, mecha is incredibly dependant on horizontal transfer -- eg, passing of information via contact, so adaptions happen not always convergently but frequently in direct parallel, as an arms-race does.

So that's an example of what this is like when I don't filter any of it for an audience, and it very quickly goes off into the weeds.

What I really need to go to the next level is an editor who understands the concepts I'm dealing with; for example, do I talk about the inherent transness of the L-Gaim Mark II and Nagano's own history with gender expression as a mechanical designer and how he expresses those feelings of femininity in his work, or do I go full schizo and present the world with my wild "Nagano-Egg Fashion-Sapphoid-Mantis" theory which is in itself a total fever dream born of conjecture gleaned entirely from his work and photographs of him leering at Tomino instead of his wife at his own marriage?

I need someone to reign me in, but also be able to support me in this capacity -- ie, a research partner who's happy to let me toil in the weeds and then is happy to help me represent these ideas and understand what you as an audience can actually make sense of.

What has happened is I accidently over-studied the design part of mecha and understudied the illustration part which I'm actually very poor at.

I can go so much deeper than I do regularly, but making sure I don't lose people is a challenge I've never managed to solve so I mostly just write for myself and then only turn it into a post if someone has a question.

Sorry if all of this is kinda disorganized.

[kurithedweeb]

I don't know how I feel about the whole descendant/reincarnation shebang with the Divine Warriors in canon so I reworked it a la Yu-Gi-Oh to include a system for partial reincarnations.

So, after you die your life force is sent on but sometimes pieces of it fall off as they travel to the afterlife and drop back into the mortal plane. This happens to pretty much all living things, sometimes including wyverns.

Sometimes the pieces land in plants and animals and collect the experiences of those things to pull into their soul and whatever they move onto next. Sometimes they land in a living person. When that person has a kid, the stray soul piece is passed on to the kid and gets mixed into the kid's own natural soul as they grow, making them, ba ba da ba, a partial reincarnation! This also works if the soul piece drops into an infant or a kid young enough.

For very rare for a soul to be born or develop with completely new parts. The energy is recycled in the ether while the person part of the soul goes on to the afterlife, but the majority of new souls are made up of parts that fall off in transit, which can sometimes lead to strange magicks or prophetic visions depending on what got mixed in. People who get flakes of wyvern souls get the gift of prophecy 99% of the time, though most of the time it's garbled by the disparity between the minds of humanoids and the minds of wyverns.

Enki has flakes of wyvern in him, and he can't understand most of them which frustrates him to no end. Zane has what he perceives as prophetic visions for wyvern-unrelated reasons. Kul'zak ended up with a soul made mostly out of plants and goats, which makes him very in tune with nature and traveling the world and it's also why he feels like kindred souls with goats (his sacred animal).

When it comes to relics, descendency doesn't matter as much as having the core part of someone's soul reincarnate in you, though sometimes it'll turn out by sheer coincidence that your descendant IS the best partial reincarnation for the job, like with Travis and Enki. Sometimes the pieces of soul end up completely disjointed and the relic just latches onto whoever is most similar in core aspects to the previous holder of the relic, like Shad and whoever ends up with his relic.

[asterkurayami]

PSA: for doll collectors.

If you shop on Aliexpress I would 100% think about it before shopping from: Junru Toy Store ID number 1101415336. At the very least demand photos before purchasing anything. Don't make my mistake.

This experience with Moldy Mizi has been a nightmare.

1) The seller: "oh no the mold must've happened in transit." If this was the case the entire package would have been moldy. But this was 10 days in transit, only the doll and doll box were damaged, it was bone dry, and the mold had already eaten into the hands.

2) My suggestions were a $20 body that the seller can buy and send to me. Or a $30 refund so I can buy a different body available to me.

The seller: I can give you a coupon of $20 towards a future purchase.

I'm not done with the current problem and they think I'm dropping another triple digits $$$ in the near future?

:/

The platform is willing to do a full return/refund OR partial refund from an agreed upon amount dependant on verbal agreement with the seller through messages.

A return sounds great! Then there's the problem of "refund upon reciept." I've been burned too many times before to expect to get my money back after sending an object into the ether. To add to the return conundrum, this item is from maybe 6 years ago and I have not seen it listed anywhere but this store.

Judging by seller communication the wise option is to just process a return. So I'm going to choose the unwise option and keep her. (I might start calling her Blight)

I know these are first world problems. That doesn't make feeling cheated any less unpleasant.

[theoldoor]

I NEED TO DIE I LOVE KAKAVASHA/AVENTURINE SO MUCUCHUH F

Aventurine, sentenced to death after losing his Stoneheart (AGAIN - cuz it got stolen when a group of talian bandits infiltrated the radiant feldspar, this is a small event lol), now buried under the sand of the Talian’s scorned desert after his ship crashed as they were attacked by a Galaxy Ranger. He was pulled from the wreckage, collared, and prepared for sale once again. He watched as a man handed over the heavy bag again, knowing he had been sold. But to his surprise, the man who had supposedly bought him urgently nudged him to run along in a hasty manner. He had no choice but to follow. As they escaped through the clan’s market, the other man snatched a nearby blanket and dragged Aventurine out quite forcefully. Then the market caught ablaze in an explosion, his intention was revealed - he had stole all the goods of the clan’s market, including Aventurine. The two fled to the desert on a motorbike… Though it was clearly built for 1 person.

During the bike ride, Aventurine had struggled to save his life from this giant biker. Thus, they couldn’t catch up to the rest of the clan and was left stranded in the desert plains. Having nowhere else to go and night was dawning upon them, the biker stopped to set up a small camp for the both of them.

*sniepps

During their first night together they got into a big fight during dinner, which lead to the lil comic above. Fenrir was lowk freaked up cuz Aventurine matched his freak there.

This was also when they knew of each other’s name-

“So, what should I call you?”

“…”

“… I’m Fenrir.”

“…”

“Just give me a random name to call you as. Or else you’re stuck as slave-boy. Names doesn’t matter here, no one understands literature anymore so your name holds no meaning.”

“Kakavasha.”

“… I’ll just call you ‘Vasha. Remembering more than two vowels is a hassle.”

but the bickering has its time and they knew they both need to get serious of they want to survive…

Initially resistant, they realized they had to survive together. Fenrir’s partial blindness meant he relied on Aventurine as his eyes, while Aventurine depended on Fenrir for protection. Despite bickering, they formed a bond out of necessity.

“The infamous Avidity’s brute found a new companion”

No longer Aventurine, he took on his old name, Kakavasha in the desert plains of Talia as he was basically recycled here. It was the same for the other man too, once a different name, but now went by Fenrir. But the names wouldn’t matter, everything in this desert is for survival and names are luxuries.

They worked well as a team. Fenrir being the getaway driver and the dumb dog distraction while Aventurine/Kakavasha do the talking and stealing. They would build an image of being adept thieves in many Talian clans and had a notorious bounty in Nailscrap town. Over time, they transitioned from mere survival partners to a found family, developing deep respect and care for each other.

Their nights of silence turned into moments of checking in on one another. Shared dinners became hearty and enjoyable. They stole an extra bedroll and supplies, making their camp more comfortable. Fenrir, once cold, became lively and domestic, while Aventurine, once feisty and distant, now relaxed and teasing.

Months passed and they grew so close they almost forgot their original goal of finding Fenrir’s clan. When Fenrir’s clan, Avidity, finally found them, they were hesitant to accept Kakavasha. The clan had enough mouths to feed and Fenrir could survive fine without Kakavasha now. But Fenrir pleaded for his stay. Even going against his own virtues of “taking only what you need to survive” that he had always told to Aventurine. He personally recruited Aventurine as his ‘newbie’ to ensure his place in the clan.

Now part of Avidity, a new family despite the rubbish conditions they live in. Fenrir pampered him to prove to the clan that he could ‘feed the extra mouths’, and Kakavasha gained respect among the clan for his capabilities as a thief.

It took a while until Kakavasha noticed that the stoneheart was lying in Fenrir’s clan hand - it was around this same time that the Trailblazer visited the planet due to Boothill’s request and boom trailblazer quest

obligatory tannedchurin headcanon </3 + fencakes

[sissytobitch10seconds]

As It Was

Fandom: The Umbrella Academy Summary: Lila's in too much emotional distress to be any good on this mission, so Five has gone to the next best person. Who else would he take with him on a mission where he could get stranded than the man that has always kept him grounded in reality? Thankfully this time Viktor doesn't have much to loose. Warnings: Isolation, mentions of stomach-related illnesses, injuries, medical malpractice, and trans characters being forced to de-transition due to lack of healthcare Word Count: 8,088 Ship(s): Five Hargreeves/Viktor Hargreeves

Archive link!

A/N: I don't care if you didn't like Season 4. I did, I loved a lot of it and think that the people who didn't like it are being too loud and making fandom not fun anymore. If you didn't like it, you're still welcome to read this fic but I do. not. want. to. hear. about. it. I will block you. This is simply a fiktor reimagining of the Subway plotline because I have done a lot of fiktor reimaginings for other events in this show. That being said, I hope that you can enjoy this! Stay sissy and bitchy everyone <3

When Five approached Lila with the proposition, her initial reaction was to immediately agree to go with him. She knew that the world was ending, it was something that always happened when all the Hargreeves were back together. She had been partially to blame for causing it the second time, when Viktor had been kidnapped and then blown up the FBI building in a torture-and-LSD infused rage. She had pushed for it in the first timeline too, by coaching certain people to make mistakes when it came to correcting the timeline. An event that big being mishandled would have gotten her mother a promotion, and she was taught her entire life that was a good thing. She knew that with the Hargreeves, there was an apocalypse to be solved. She had been itching for one since the twins were born and she was doomed to another two agonizing years o the kids being so little that they needed her at the home all the time. She wanted to have a crisis to solve, she wanted it so badly that she could feel it in her teeth.

She also knew that she couldn’t handle it. Not only had she aged what felt like an entire lifetime in the half a decade that they had spent in the new universe, but she’d given birth to three kids. She still had the mind of a trained assassin that would be able to deduce what was going on in a scene within minutes of arriving and talking to a couple of people, but she wasn’t sure that her body would be able to keep up with that big of a fight. She also knew that her children were depending on her and she wanted to be the mother that she’d never actually gotten to experience. The twins had toddler gymnastics and Grace had ballet, like they did every single week since they were two years younger. Grace had told her that she loved spending time with her mom after they had dropped the twins off and it was just the two of them in the car, and the thought of letting her daughter down like that ate her from the inside out.

“I have to get back to my family,” Lila said.

“I thought that I was part of your family,” Five huffed, a bit indignantly.

“Why do you want to save the world so badly this time, anyway? When the end of everything was staring you in the face and we had been offered a way to fix it all you kept spouting on and on about how another version of you had told you not to save the world,” Lila retorted. It was so much easier to bring it back to Five and his issues instead of admitting that even though she was bored out of her mind being a housewife, she wouldn’t trade being a mother for a single thing in the entire world or any timeline.

“I finally know what it’s like to live a life! The rest of you got the chance to do that when you were dumped into the sixties, well, not you specifically,” he waved his hand at her dismissively. He ran a hand through his long hair, which she sincerely hoped that he was going to get cut again when he was finished snooping around in the Keepers meetings that she was infiltrating to keep herself busy. “Look, I jumped forward to an apocalyptic wasteland when I was thirteen. I had to make my own way for the next forty-five years, which meant that every moment was spent working to keep myself alive instead of having the normal human experiences. Then I spent a grueling month fighting to stop apocalypses, or let them happen in the case of the Kugelblitz. I never got the chance to know what it was like to be an adult growing up in the world or a human interacting with and meeting new humans without being a member of an Academy. I just got a taste of that these last few years and I want to experience that longer. So I need your help.”

“Why my help specifically?” she asked, raising a brow at him. While it was true that she had kind of forced him down into the time-travel railway before, but that was before she had been reminded of the things that she had to do today. She also remembered the whole ordeal that he had gone through when it came to time traveling without the Commission and briefcase backing him up. She couldn't get lost for any amount of time, not when it might cause her children to start forgetting what type of perfume she used or the way that she laughed. That was what had happened to her with her own parents, she knee the pain that someone went through when they had to face that.

“Because you know how to do missions with exceedingly high levels of efficiency. We may never have worked together, but I did see your name on the leaderboard for most missions done in a day. You were just underneath me,” Five replied.

“Is that a compliment?” Lila asked, waggling her eyebrows at him. She turned around just in time to see Diego and Luther start arguing about something they likely agreed on. She watched the way that Diego’s hands made chopping motions in the air and then how he cupped the head of the stuffed reindeer that he had under his arm. He loved their children so much, he never let them see a sour face despite how much he hated the dead-end, abusive job that he had taken so that he could support them. She loved that man, even if they needed a second apart from each other so that they could figure out the whole mess that their marriage had become.

“It’s the closest thing that you’re going to get from me. That and the admission that you appear to make Diego actually happy,” Five said as he turned in the same direction that she had.

She looked back to him and then stared at her husband. She was a bit worried that she was going to be too intense with that look and accidentally turn on the laser-eyes that she apparently had. She really needed to figure out why she was doing that and how to control it. The last thing she wanted to happen was to cut a person in half when she didn’t want to. “Do you think so?”

Five tilted his head from side to side as he contemplated what he was going to say next. “Well, you don’t really make him happy any longer.”

Lila felt that burning shame in her belly grow even stronger than it had before. She felt it creep up her cheeks and neck so that they were flushed bright red as she put her hands on her hips. “What is that supposed to mean, you little creep?”

“It means that I can see the bullshit he’s putting up with and how miserable he is. You were frustrated with your extended family and the domestic life that was forced upon you, so you decided to have ‘book club’. He doesn’t have anything like that. He goes to work at a job that he hates, that doesn’t respect him and that’s incredibly repetitive. He then comes home to a wife that doesn’t give a shit about him to take care of three kids under the age of ten to give you a break since you did mothering all day and have to get out of the house,” Five replied.

“So?” she asked as she folded her arms over her chest. She could see where he was going with this and she understood what he meant, but she wanted to push him further so that she could deny it a little bit longer. It was so much easier to pretend that she and Diego were absolutely fine that to face the reality that their marriage was falling apart.

“So, he’s bored and boxed into a life that he never wanted. Did you know that he and Viktor had a punk band before Dad sent him to Europe to go to music school? He ditched it and the band broke up because he loved missions so much. The change from being respected, to some extent, and able to help people to only ever being loved by his children has to be difficult,” Five commented. “Perhaps you should have talked to Diego about the high-adrenaline enrichment that you were doing for yourself before you decided that he wasn’t worth it.”

“I love Diego too!” Lila scoffed indignantly. Her husband was the light of her life, he had drawn out a part of her that she had never known existed and then stood steadily by her side as it flourished and flowered.

“You don’t show it. Telling him that you want to take a break because all he does is complain instead of listening to those complaints and assuring him that you don’t hate the way that his body is changing or helping him to fulfill his own needs is not love,” Five informed her.

She knew that she was right, those words struck through her faster than the bullets her mother had pumped into her body when she had turned into more trouble that she was worth. Still, it hurt just as much and she quickly became defensive of her actions. “What would you know about marriage and love?”

Five’s eyes sparked with a kind of fire that she had never seen before. He leaned forward as he spoke to her with a seething hatred. “More than you ever will, Lila. Now I’m going to go find someone else to help me stop this goddamn apocalypse while you reconcile with the husband you allegedly love.”

---

As Five turned on his heel and walked away from Lila, his heart ached. He saw himself in her more than he would ever admit and yet after all this time, she was still so hostile towards him. They both knew isolation, him through the apocalypse and her through being the only child to grow up at the Commission Headquarters. They both knew what it was to work as an assassin that had to choose the life of a couple of the lives of the many. They knew each other inside and out, and yet that similarity had only served to drive them further and further away from each other as time went on.

Five had let himself drift away from his family again. He had romanticized them in his head when he had been fighting so hard to get back to them and out of the Commission. He had forgotten how awful it was to be around Luther and Diego when all they were doing was bickering with each other, how moral-detonating Klaus’ most recent relapse for them could be, the sickening way that Allison thought she was better than all of them even though she no longer had a superpower that allowed her to get whatever she wanted simply by asking for it. Viktor was the only person that was the exact person he remembered in his mind, likely because they had spent the most amount of time together.

Over the last five years in the new universe, he had seen some changes in his brother. Viktor’s body had changed, with his voice deepening and his muscle redistributing itself with the changes in his hormonal balances. His face was more angular and beginning to grow the shadow of a beard as well, especially since they had been working too hard for either of them to find a moment where they could step aside and shave. He had changed quite a lot as a person, too. He was still sweet, caring, and shy as he had been when they were children. However, the amount of shyness that came out of him had been crumbled down into a tenth of what it had been when Five was still living with the rest of the Umbrellas. He was able to stick up for himself against their father, and was quick to defend himself when someone said something unfair.

Five liked the new version of his brother, enough so that it was reigniting feelings that he thought he had long since put away. He had Delores when he was in the apocalypse, but he also had Viktor’s voice ringing through his head in the form of the book that he carried around with him as a reminder about why he had to go home. Those things had kept him alive, and then he had been allowed to find meaning and purpose on his own. Those things were being threatened right now, and that scared the absolute shit out of him.

He hadn’t been that scared in a long time, not since he was a child that barely knew anything outside of missions and the two walls of his home. He knew that he had to do something about it, so he spotted Viktor standing near Allison and Luther and then immediately rushed towards him. He placed his hand on his brother’s shoulder to get his attention and then jerked his head in another direction to show what he wanted.

Viktor peeled away from the siblings that he had since grown closer to, walking a few feet away with Five. “What’s going on, are you okay?” Viktor asked.

“Not really, but I’m surprised that you were able to tell that,” Five huffed. He bit the insides of his cheeks as he realized just how sour and bitter it sounded while coming out of his mouth. He had meant to be saying something that would subtly manipulate Viktor into coming with him because he was the only other person in all of the universes and timelines that Five could imagine going on a dangerous trip with. If he hadn’t gotten antsy all those years ago and blurted it out during breakfast only to have to make a point for his thirteen-year-old pride, he would have taken Viktor with him the first time too.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Viktor asked, reeling back with an indignant expression on his face. Five didn’t fault him, what he had said was objectively rude.

“You’ve been spending an awful lot of time with Allison since this entire endeavor went down. I’m just surprised that you were able to notice a change in my behavior due to that,” he replied as he tried to get the topic back to where he had wanted it to be originally. “I’m glad that you noticed, Viktor, I really am.”

“I’ve been spending a lot of time with Allison because I think that she feels guilty for the way that she treated me in the other timeline. She’s been hanging around me like a bad smell and I’m kind of okay with it. It’s nice to be the person that has to do no work in the relationship, you know?” Viktor shrugged.

As Five looked at him, he saw the twelve-year-old that had sat beside him one day after a mission, bawling his eyes out. He had baked a cake with their mother that day as a special surprise for them, a desperate plea for his family to pay any attention to him so that he didn’t have to be so alone. When the siblings had found out that he was the one that had done the baking, they had all eaten a lot slower and more cautiously, like they were expecting him to somehow have poisoned them. Of course it would be more appealing to Viktor for his siblings to reach out to him when it had been the other way around for his entire life. It was simply another piece of the confidence that he had gained post-medication and coming out.

“I’m glad that she’s the one reaching out. What she did to you was borderline feral and not okay on several levels. I wouldn’t give her as much slack if I didn’t know how hard it was to be a person out of time when you belong to a minority,” Five said. “That being said, I would like to ask you to do just that with me.”

“What do you mean?” Viktor immediately responded. His head snapped towards Five and his dark eyes bore into the other man’s mind, as if trying to read his thoughts from a simple glance. 

It was a startling thing that Five had asked, he knew that for certain. It was frightening enough to be a queer woman back in the sixties, but it was another thing entirely to be a transgender man in any other time (and sometimes including) their own present. “I want to fix the apocalypse. I want to go back and stop the one thing that got us all into this mess so that we can come out the other side alright,” he said.

“Do we even know what’s causing the end of the world this time? Other than Ben and Jennifer, I mean,” Viktor said. The whole explanation that they had gotten from Abigail and Reginald concerning the end of the world had made very little sense to them this time around. Five was sure that they would end up figuring it out, but it wasn’t much to go off of for what he was asking.

“I was thinking that if we go back in time and either reset the universe, if we can find that place again, or stop Ben and Jennifer from touching each other in the van, then we can figure out how to stop The Cleanse from coming,” Five said. 

“I don’t know, Five, it sounds kind of weak. The last time that we went back in time it also didn’t end well,” Viktor shuffled awkwardly. “Are you sure that this is worth all the hassle?”

“Like I just explained to Lila, I want to fight for this life I have. It’s not everything that I had dreamed it was going to be, but it’s still something. I want to be able to have the chance to grow up in a world with other people, where I can have a job to sustain myself instead of having to dig through cans of exploded food and prey that my next meal doesn’t give me botulism,” Five said. He hadn’t realized how desperate he was for all of those things until they were spilling from him with no stop in sight. By the time that he had finished, his chest was having and his mind felt feral.

Viktor reached out and placed his hands on Five’s shoulders, enough to snap his brain out of the haze of memories that were pouring back in. It was so hard to be sick on his own, to be vomiting and not knowing if he was going to be able to find clean water in time to replace the water he had lost, or aching from an infection and hoping against all hope that the penicillin he had made himself would cure him. He had so much terror inside of him, for so long, that it was addicting to live in a world where he could finally be calm and sheltered from the horrors.

“Five, I don’t know if this is going to work. I don’t want you messing around with time and us getting sent somewhere worse. Dad has an idea for how we can get Jennifer and Ben back to him. Maybe Abigail will come up with an idea to extract the durango and shoot it into space or something,” Viktor said.

“What if we could save Ben in another timeline? Stop him from dying?” Five asked. It was kind of stupid, but he had seen the way that their choices butterflied into the future for their family. Clearly, Ben and Jennifer were linked. Viktor had informed him of the memories that Allison and Luther had recovered from that last meeting. If their father had killed Ben before he had even touched Jennifer, then there was a chance that something more was going on that the old man was leading them to believe.

“Wha-what?” Viktor asked. “I thought that Dad just killed him because he was an asshole.”

“Dad was a total dickhead, but that was because he had no regard for other people’s emotions and thoughts outside of his plan. He used our feelings to manipulate us, which was why he brainwashed our siblings on what happened on that mission. He wouldn’t have killed one of us when he needed seven to reset the universe. Even if he knew about Lila or the Sparrows or Phoenixes or whatever, there was very little chance that he would have been able to get them,” Five explained.

He could see the cogs whirring in Viktor’s head as he considered the proposition that Five was laying out for him. The three of them had bee thick as thieves, the people at the end of Reginald’s ranking and the ones that were most prone to studying. Five was certain that after he left, Ben had picked up the slack and chosen to continue to stick by Viktor’s side until Klaus became the one that needed deliberate and constant saving.

Viktor’s lips pursed as he sunk his hands down into his pocket. He turned out towards the fake little town that Reginald had made to hide Jennifer. They had thought that returning there may have helped them find some more clues, but it seemed as though the rest of the agents that they hadn’t managed to kill had come and cleaned everything up in their wake. The town was nothing but peeling paint signs and boarded up windows, waiting for the next purpose that the owner would happen to bestow upon it.

“Okay. Let’s do it,” Viktor nodded. He spoke with his hands despite the fact that they were in his pockets, which was one of the cutest things that Five had ever seen in his entire life. “Ben saved me, when we were in Dallas. He was able to come into my mind and get me to remember my memories so that my powers stopped freaking out and trying to kill everything that they saw as a threat. I think that he deserves a chance to live too, it’s the least that I can do to repay him.”

“If I didn’t know any better I’d say that you were in love with him,” Five joked. It hurt to think about, that the person he had longed after for years, so much that his heart hurt with the effort of it all, had fallen in love with the friend that he had cherished second most in the entire world. He knew that he had left Viktor and Ben behind, but part of him had always hoped that there was a chance Viktor would wait for him. He knew that was stupid, no one would be able to love their thirteen-year-old bodied adopted brother. Still, the idea hit him in the back of the head like a sledgehammer every time it popped back into his mind.

“There was a time where we kind of were. I mean, I’m pretty sure that there’s no a duo in the entire family that hasn’t been tried out once or twice. Well, maybe Luther and anyone who isn’t Allison,” Viktor shrugged. “The only person that he kissed other than her before you came back was Klaus and that was supposed to be for ‘practice,’ but I think that Klaus was just pitting us all against each other to see who was best.”

“Man, this family is so fucking weird,” Five shook his head. He took a deep breath and then rolled his shoulders before he stuck his hand out to his brother. “Are you ready for this?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Viktor replied. He grasped Five’s hand as tightly as he could, squeezing his eyes shut as he prepared for the feeling of the teleportation. Five’s body was made to be dragged through time and space, he had never had to deal with the spins that way that Lila and Allison had. He also didn’t get nauseous or dizzy when he jumped unless someone had done something that caused him to correct while mid-jump. He knew that Viktor didn’t have the same protections on his body, which was why he was bracing himself so hard.

Five reached deep down into his body, to where the marigold was now nestled within his heart. He took a deep breath as he summoned it up so that it was pooling around them in purple energy. They appeared in the subway a moment later, the marigold settling back down where it belonged inside of him.

Viktor dropped his hand and began to look around the same way that Five had when he first appeared. The subway station looked exactly as it had the last several times that he had visited. The tile was white on the floors and the walls, the ceiling was concrete except for the pipes and electrical wires that lined it, fueling the hanging fluorescent lights and vending machines that dotted the terminal. The entire place was clean, despite the lack of people or perhaps because of it. None of the signs were in English or any other language that Five had seen during his time traveling the earth, but they fit the theme of the place well.

“Woah… Do you think that this is the same kind of thing that the Commission was made out of?” Viktor asked. He started forward, toward the massive map that wrapped around one of the wall pillars in the middle of the room.

“What do you mean?” Five asked as he walked after his brother. He had picked Viktor for a reason and this was exactly that, Viktor was already picking up on things that he had dismissed or not even considered. A second set of eyes were better than none, which was another reason that he had decided not to go it alone like he had many times before.

“Well, you kept saying that the Commission was a place out of time and that was how they managed to preserve the timeline,” Viktor said. “If this place can travel between multiple timelines and points in time, then it has to be something like the Commission. Did time move when you were here? Like for the rest of us.”

“No, it didn’t,” Five replied. He felt his brows furrow as his mind began to whirl with thoughts. “I never got the chance to ask the other version of myself why he had created the Commission or how. It’s something drilled into you from the minute that you start working there, that some things just don’t make sense and never will. I suppose that there was a chance that the other version of myself found a way to enhance his powers so much that he created a pocket of the timeline that was removed from it. Maybe he just saved up enough of his power that he was able to travel here. There were doors that we weren’t allowed to access in the main building where all the briefcases and the safe room were kept, it’s likely that there was an entrance to a place like this or this very subway system.”

Viktor began to run the tip of his finger over one of the lines as his eyes followed it. Someone else may have quickly gotten lost, but Viktor was a musician. His mind had been trained to follow a single line of notes even if the piece that he was reading was covered in other information. It was exciting for Five to watch him trail around the board until he tapped a circle and turned to his brother, “What is this?”

“I believe that those are the stations. If you look over here, there’s a sign pointing to this one in the same language as all of the street signs,” Five said as he tapped the glass on the other side of the pillar from Viktor. 

“Do you know how to read that language?” Viktor asked.

“I do not, but I was able to fine this,” he peaked around so that they were on the same side as he brandished the directional pamphlet like it was the mos important thing that had ever existed in any of the timelines.

Viktor took it from his hands and then opened it so that his eyes could scan over the layouts and the rails. “Wow, I never realized how often the timelines intersected with each other,” he commented.

“I suppose that they have to, since every minor decision that the catalyst for this grouping makes splits it into two or more,” Five shrugged. He stepped behind Viktor so that their bodies were almost entirely pressed together.

Somehow that felt more natural than anything he had done in a good long while, so he let himself remain there despite the fluttering anxiety in his stomach. Viktor leaned back into him with as minute movements as he could manage while they tried to decipher the timeline that they could arrive in.

“I think that we need to take this as carefully as we can. We shouldn’t go to any of the other timelines unless we absolutely have to. I don’t want to fuck anything else up, and I’m pretty good at that,” Viktor commented as he flipped the pamphlet over to look at the other side.

“I don’t think that us simply being in another timeline is going to cause issues,” Five shrugged.

“Five,” Viktor replied, giving him a disbelieving and disappointed look.

“What?” Five asked, raising a brow at him. The urge to kiss his cheek overwhelmed him all at once. He almost took a half step back to resist it, but he didn’t know if it would actually work or if raising his foot from where it was planted would send him forward and directly into Viktor’s perfect arms.

“You should know better than anyone that messing with one thing can cause the rest of the timeline tumbling down around it,” he replied. He placed his hands on his hips and looked cross, making a pretty good imitation of what Grace, their robot nanny not their niece, had looked like when she was reprimanding them for breaking something.

“Since when have you become the expert on time travel and apocalypses? Last I checked, I was the only one in this subway station that has actually worked for the Commission,” Five said as he glanced around. If he had brought Lila then she wouldn’t have fought him on this idea so much, but he knew that Viktor was the better option. Out of all their siblings, he was the one that could fight the longest and the hardest while keeping Five grounded properly.

“I’ve started enough end of times to know their insides and outsides,” Viktor joked with a lopsided smile.

Five felt like his breath had been stolen from his lungs and he just nodded his head mutely. “What do you think we should do, then?”

“I think that we should try to work out how this map works, get a good idea of where each of the subways might go, and then try that out,” Viktor said. A studious look overcame his face as he leaned closer to the map so that he could keep track of each of the tiny glowing lines that spanned the surface of the map.

---

Year 1

Time travel had always been taught to them as something that was unattainable. None of them had been allowed to read any sci-fi books that contained the subject, and now Viktor understood why. It was fine and good for people that could never attain that ability to dream about what it might be like and the adventures that could occur, but it was dangerous in the hands of someone that could actually do that.

Despite all the studying that they had done and the pamphlet that they carried around with them, they had still gotten lost. The subways had a mind of their own and they traveled where they wished, not where the voice over the subway or the signs said that they were going. They kept track of the stations that they ended up at, but Viktor still refused to have them go above ground.

They began to make food out of the subway rats so that they could sustain themselves without hunger gnawing at their guts. Viktor was able to get them oranges and chips and candy out of the vending machines when they landed in a station that had enough quality food for them to actually get. It wasn’t the life that he had wanted to lead after all his fighting to make something soft for himself, but he had his best friend with him so it was alright.

They changed in minute ways, for the most part. There was no way that Viktor was going to be able to get the testosterone that he had been taking while they were traveling. Time felt basically meaningless, but he knew that they had been down there for quite some time when he saw that his body was changing its muscle and fat deposit back to what it had been when he could barely even look at his own body. His face and abs softened, his hips widened again. He hated the way he looked but he was glad it was only Five with him, so that they could share complaints about shaggy hair and grimy bodies. Viktor had gotten top surgery during the time that they had spent without their powers in the new universe and so he didn’t notice the beginning of his cycle returning until he woke up with his shorts entirely drenched in blood.

It was the first time that he had let Five upstairs, out of the subway and into the world longer than just to check to see if it was the right one. 

Year 2

Viktor had no idea how things had lasted as long as they did. They began to go up onto the surface for longer stretches of time, to begin to make sure that every single option was crossed off. They would explore the town until they happened across either an alternate version of themselves or an entirely different version of the Academy compared to what they were used to.

Some of the timelines had been very different to the ones that they were used to, which meant that they tried to correct by moving back to one of the timelines that was closer to what they believed was the timeline that they had come from. They still had the pamphlet that they had arrived with, but at this point all the lines and characters didn’t make any more sense than they had when they had first arrived.

They carried backpacks with them now, supplies that they had gotten from the surface when they had ventured up there for the second longest time since they had first arrived. They went up to get things for their survival now, like bottled water and more food than the rats and vending machine food that they had been subsisting off of for the year previous.

As they chugged down another one of the seemingly infinite tunnels, Viktor felt his body sagging and soon found his head resting on Five’s shoulder. It felt just as natural as it had back when they were children and caused the tension and nerves in his shoulders to relax entirely. He let his hand drop down in between them and then felt another palm meet his own. He tilted his head up just enough to see the serene expression that had taken over Five’s face. Was this what it would have been like if Five had taken him with the first time that he had time traveled?

Year 3

It was bound to happen eventually, but when one of them finally got sick it was the most terrifying thing that had happened in a long time. They had been camped out at the edge of the surface of a timeline that they hadn’t explored that much when Five woke up with a sweaty body and a blotchy red face. Viktor had seen that happen enough when they were children to know that Five had picked something up.

Viktor strayed out into the timeline to find that it was one where something had happened, not one where they were waiting for that thing to happen. All of the people seemed to have just gotten up and left the town that they had lived in, leaving behind literally everything that wasn’t attached to them. The cash was all still in the till, the electricity and water worked as well as it could when the maintenance team for the city had gone as well. Viktor was able to pick up medicine and supplies from the local hospital before he returned to the house that he and Five were staying at.

It was a nice enough place, even if it was extremely disconcerting that there was literally no one around them. He enjoyed the silence, finally able to shake the rattling of the subway cars moving around them or next to them out of his head. He kept Five’s fever down by dosing him with a fever reducer and soaking his neck and feet in cold water whenever his temperature got a little too high.

By the time it was over, Viktor felt like he had seen a piece of Five that was the closest to his soul that he was ever going to get. They had their backpacks loaded with the supplies that they would need for the next stretch of journey that they took as they tried to find their original timeline.

Year 4

Injuries had become commonplace, but that didn’t mean that Viktor liked what was happening very much. He had his hands down on the ground, gripping the wall behind him so that he didn’t reach out and attack Five for simply trying to help. His boots were off his feet and next to him on the ground, which was the only thing that he was able to look at and yet still reminded him of the thing he was trying to put out of his mind in the first place. Five had a pair of pliers carefully gripped in his fingers, his eyes hardened by the seriousness of the situation and how dedicated he was to the task at hand.

“Ow! That fucking hurts, you asshole,” he growled. He let go of the pillar with one hand and then covered his mouth with his sleeve. Despite how grimy and gross he was from the stretch of nasty subway stations that they had traveled through, he let the fabric fall into his mouth and bit down onto it as hard as he could.

“Well I told you to be careful when you were walking through that glass and you chose not to listen to me,” Five replied, his voice distant and unsteady because of how dedicated he was to the task at hand.

“Not all of us can just pop over it, Five, I had to get there somehow,” Viktor replied. His own voice was tense with the pain and discomfort as he felt the shard of glass being pulled out of the bottom of his foot. Once it was finally over, when he heard the tinkling sound of it hitting the subway floor, he slumped down onto the ground and groaned. “Next time one of us gets hurt, I think that we should just try and find a doctor.”

“Or we could just not get hurt,” Five offered as he began to wrap up the wound with the antiseptic that they had stolen two timelines ago. He laughed when he saw the unamused look that Viktor gave him.

Year 5

Sleeping had never felt like it was something that they had to risk while they were traveling. It was something that came naturally to them, despite the strange place that they had found themselves in. They were only ever in trouble when they went up to the surface because the gates leading down into the subway never let anyone down. They had encountered a handful of people that had chased them to the subway but hadn’t been able to follow after them, or had landed in their own version of the terminal. It was impossible to know for sure, but they did know that they were safe with each other.

The worst that they had ever faced when they were down in the subway and trying to sleep was a surprise train showing up, or the rats that skittered everywhere. They always woke when the rats arrived to make sure that they didn’t get bitten, when Five had during their second year it had almost turned gangrenous, and so that they they could hunt the animals. They were abel to get a decent amount of food from the surface, but nothing enough to fill their bellies with enough energy that they could continue on steadily.

Viktor liked the way that they were sleeping with each other, it felt like it had when they were children. Five had used to pop into Viktor’s room and then cuddle under the fluffy comforter and thick quilts that Grace had placed over their beds. When they had gotten caught like that and Viktor lost the privilege of sleeping with his door shut, they had begun to do it a little differently.

Five would teleport down to Viktor’s room and then bring him upstairs before someone could even notice that he was absent from his bed. They would set up some of the thick quilts down on the ground and then lay next to each other underneath the sheets and comforter, cuddled together for warmth on the floor of their drafty house. That’s what it felt like they were doing now, with several woolen blankets underneath them to support their aging bodies and Five’s arms wrapped around Viktor’s waist to keep them both warm.

Nothing felt more natural than loving Five and taking care of him, he was sure that nothing ever would again.

Year 6

“I’m tired,” Viktor sighed as he let his head hit the pillar behind him. “I’m not sure that I want to do this anymore.”

“What do you mean by that?” Five asked. He gently set down the stick that he had been using to move around the rat that they were eating for dinner that night. “The rats may not be very palatable after all this time, but they taste better than hunger.”

“They taste like hunger,” Viktor said. The two of them smiled at each other, laughing silently in their eyes at the inside joke. “You don’t have to worry about me offing myself, I would never leave you here alone. At least, not if I could help it.”

“I don’t like to think about you dying,” Five shook his head. “You gave me enough of a scare when you slipped underneath the train car while we were trying to get dinner three months ago.”

Viktor sighed again, “I still don’t know how you manage to keep track of time while we’re down here. I thought I was going to be able to feel the differences in the timelines based on the amount of marigold there, but we’re too close to the rest of them. When we’re on the main track like this,” he pulled out the pamphlet and then pointed towards the massive jumbled line of color in the middle. He took another deep breath, “When we’re here it’s all so loud. I feel like they’re rattling around in my chest and they’ve been doing it for so long that I can’t hear any difference.”

Five was quiet for a while before he asked, “Do you remember where we went when I was sick? The timeline where everyone had vanished but there was no destruction or havoc?”

“Of course I do. You being that sick was one of the scariest things to happen while we were down here,” Viktor replied with a nod.

“I think that we should go back there. We should try to backtrack as far out of the main set of timelines as we can, to give you a break. I want to have one too, but I can’t imagine how loud all this has to be for you to deal with,” Five said. He was speaking pragmatically, but his tone was still softer than it usually was.

“Why are you so concerned about me?” Viktor asked, folding the pamphlet back up and setting it down next to them.

“You know why,” Five mumbled.

“I think that I would prefer to hear you say it out loud,” Viktor said. He could feel his heart hammering in his chest and he knew that this time it was from anticipation and excitement instead of another panic attack that was trying to murder him before the surface did.

Five turned to him properly, dropping the stick down to the ground. He brought his soot-coated hand up to Viktor’s face and brushed his thumb over the other man’s cheekbone. Slowly, they both leaned closer together until their lips had touched. Their mouths moved in perfect synchronicity, open and closed, back and forth. It was the most love and care that either of them had ever received in their entire lives and it was exactly the thing that had kept them alive all this time.

Year 7

“Viktor?” Five called through the greenhouse that they had made into their home. 

They had stayed there longer than the couple of days that they had promised each other. It didn’t feel wrong anymore, not when they had suffered through so much to get there. They made things out of the items that they scavenged from the subway and the houses around them. Viktor had been able to get new clothing, jeans and a comfortable t-shirt that had a band he had never heard of it on the front. Five was in a Henley and a pair of slacks, something that he said made him very happy. They had matching golden bands that they had taken from a jewelry shop across time too, the one that had the alarm going off even to that day despite the fact that there was no owner and no cops to come and investigate.

“Yes, love?” he asked as he set the watering can down. He didn’t have a lot of things to do in the new place since there were no other people, but he had picked up the violin and gardening. The music helped the plants grow, or at least that was his theory since everything was so much more lush and green since he had arrived.

“I found something that I think may be of interest to you,” he replied as he pulled a notebook out of the back of his pocket. “This is what I was using to keep track of the timelines that we crossed while we were searching for the one that might have brought us back to the original.

“I don’t think that one exists, but this could help us get back to our siblings. We wouldn’t have to be alone anymore,” Viktor beamed.

“Are you feeling up for it?” Five asked. The worry that creased his brow was cute, so Viktor stepped off the stool he had been on to reach the strawberries in the back and then kissed the lines away. He was met with another pair of lips on his, which filled his heart with so much love that he felt like it might burst.

“I am. I want to go back to where we belong, with people and answers and our siblings,” Viktor smiled.

“Hopefully they haven’t managed to fuck anything up in the time that we’ve been gone. However long that is for them,” Five said. He caught another kiss before the two of them delved into conversation about what they would need to take with them when they began the second part of their two-person odyssey. 

[thesanctuarysys]

intro post ^_^

hi !! we r the sanctuary sys !!

this is a blog for those in our system who wanna participate!! we areee radqueer, pro transIDs, pro consent, pro-endo, partially willowgenic, traumaendo,

member of Alexios Divine Order <3

dm for discord server !!

we will coin terms and such !! we kinda just do whatever on here

#!.our ids - our trans/cis/other IDs

#!.our coins - terms we made (will be used on @alters4all and @thesanctuarysys )

more info under cut!!

we wanna be programmed! programmers please reach out :)

꩜ .ᐟ MUDS

puppeteer dependency disorder , glitching mind disorder , neurotypitism , joints-fucked

꩜ .ᐟ TRANSIDS

transpuppy, transautistic, TransHarmed, transSch00lsh00ter, speciesFuck, transSlut, transProgrammed, transKidnapped, transTrafficked, transHarmed, transWildernessSurvivor , transPolyfragmented (transitioned!!) ,

꩜ .ᐟ CISIDS

CisDID, CisFibromyalgia, CisAnxiety, CisCOCSA (victim), CisGroomed, CisHarmed, cisHPD, cisCDH, CisOCD

꩜ .ᐟ OTHER IDS

permaGroomed, permaAbused, permaVictim

꩜ .ᐟ PARAS

misiaphilia , loserphilia , 🧸

꩜ .ᐟ ALTER INTROS

Caramel

18, she/it, willowgenic alter wowie!! runner of this blog usually :3 tag : #!.caramel yaps

Kenna

15, he/she/it/they/paw/pup, traumagenic alter, other primary runner of blog, tag : #!.kenna yaps

Sebastian

YOOOO im 17-19, he/they/it, willowgenic FREAK, lotsa paras lotsa transIDs, tag: .seb the freak

Lacey

hiii ꒰ᐢ. .ᐢ꒱ im Lacey ! from laceys flash games !! 16-25, she/love/slut/bimbo/heart/ adore/cute/cherry/pie/sweet/pink/ bubblegum/bubble/bun/fluff/paw/kit/cute/squish, willowgenic ,, tag: #!.laceys world

Nina

she/sea/it,, willogenic alter ! mermaid ! transHarmed and transProgrammed, transSpecies ! big fan of music and the ocean,,, tag - #!.ninas sea

Lacey 01

i exist thats all you get to know my tag is !.lacey 01

Angie

13-16 permaKid, LambKid ! she/they, traumagenic, tag: #!.angie

[lttleghost]

I'm thinking about the many times I've heard transandrophobia truthers bring up transmascs being excluded from women's social spaces, and first of all - while this depends on in what way ur transmasc; sometimes that exclusion is just completely fair, but even if it isn't fair and a group is being transphobic the idea of like girl/womanhood being withheld from transmascs in a unique way in addition to just transphobia falls extremely flat espec with my experiences as a bigender transmasc, and with the experiences of other bigender transmascs I've seen as well

like, I am partially a girl, it is part of who I am!! the amount fluctuates but it is always there, and yet I distance myself from that part of my identity because it is both an identity that has always been given to me and is one that is also FORCED upon me because I was cafab and directly acknowledging it feels like forfeiting my transmasculinity, and this may be exacerbated by the fact that I'm non medically transitioning, but it's not the cause of it because I've seen such similar things being expressed by bigender transmascs who do medically transition about distancing themselves from girlhood because of the force that is put upon them because of casab

and I'm guessing it's another aspect of transandro truthers trying to deny that casab has any social effect on trans people that makes cafab and camab trans people's experiences different from eachother (and therefore they can ignore fundamental aspects of transmisogyny and who it's directed towards) but it just... it's infuriating to see so much of my community refuse to grasp things that are so easy to observe