#was not prepared for the timeline to accelerate like that

[wulfhalls]

getting the kitkat in three days instead at the end of the week :)))))))

[homestuckreplay]

Land of Heat, Clockwork and the Worst Puppet Imaginable

(page 1641-1644; ‘[S] Dave: Accelerate.’)

GC: 4R3 YOU R34DY TO FUCK UP TH3 T1M3L1N3??? (p.1580)

Well, mission accomplished, gallowsCalibrator. I think we can consider this timeline officially Fucked Up.

This update, where we skip forward to Dave’s fifth gate without seeing any of his in between steps, was intentionally released on April Fools’, but it’s not a joke update or something that’ll get retconned out of universe. I think it’s an effective way to introduce Dave’s land, grist types and enemies (Amber Imp, Rust Imp, Sulfur Ogre, Ruby Giclops) all at once, which are all questions people want answers to, but not exciting enough to be Big Reveals. But more than that, I LOVE the implication that Dave, Knight of Time, can not only time travel but can accelerate and rewind the narrative itself, displacing himself from a chronological story structure. Can he be trusted with this power? Probably not.

The Land of Heat and Clockwork is SICK AS HELL. I mean obviously, because all the kids’ lands have incredible designs. It’s interesting to me that while Rose’s land is visually the opposite of the aesthetics and interests she’s expressed, Dave’s matches his aesthetic, with a red palette like his shirt and a lot of gears and technology that feel like a more steampunk version of the wires and gadgets he has scattered around his room. It also perfectly matches the gear-shaped planet with a red center from WV’s drawings (p.703), leaving the volcano planet for Jade.

‘Clockwork’ in Dave’s land is to ‘time’, his domain, just as ‘wind’ is to ‘breath’ for John. It also looks like there’s a tiny record in his sword and a set of turntables he’s using to time travel, keeping time by keeping the beat. @sincerelywasserious noted that the track in this animation, ‘Atomyk Ebonpyre’ by Toby Fox, is in 6/8 time – slightly more complex than a standard 4/4. To me, this indicates that Dave is getting more proficient with his time powers and able to master a more complex beat. I'd love to see the time signatures for his tracks get even weirder when he eventually levels up further.

It makes sense for Dave’s quest to relate to his instrument, just as Rose’s involves playing the violin strings of the waterfalls (p.1626) and John’s denizen’s palace looks like an organ (p.1605 - @tenaciouschronicler originally made this link!) Their quests also link to what I’ve been calling their title cards; John’s on page 82 and Rose’s on page 307, which are the first pages for each character that delve into their mental state and hint at elemental associations. As a sidenote, Jade never got one of these pages, meaning we have NO hints to her planet or quest besides her eclectic bass’ abilities to manipulate plant life, and the likelihood that her element is earth.

‘You don't even know what's up with this sick heat. The sun threatens to set but won't step off. It's staring you down, like the big red eye of a hot needle skipping on a groove its tracing 'round the earth. While lingering in midair its heat seems to suspend time itself, stretching it like warped vinyl.’ (p.444)

Here’s Dave’s title card. My guess is that Dave’s denizen has somehow suspended his planet in time, its inhabitants no longer aging, its weather and seasons unchanging, its gears no longer turning, stuck in eternal 110 degree midday heat. (hell!!) It’ll be his job to both cool the planet down and get its timeline back on track in a way that doesn’t mess with the overall timeline of the kids’ Sburb game. I can’t help but wonder if some creatures like the Felt might be his planet’s inhabitants, or perhaps even Lord English his denizen – these guys surely have some link to Sburb, and definitely have links to time, so perhaps they always appear for the player with the Time domain.

So far, there have been six [S] pages that are also commands addressed to Dave. One is his title card (p.444), one is him preparing for a fight (p.665), and the final four are Dave directly in combat (p.836, 871, 1070, 1641). Dave’s big moments are overwhelmingly focused on violence, which isn’t true of the other kids, but does reflect the toxically masculine, constantly on edge and ready for attack way that he’s been raised. My hope is that Dave’s quest will be something he can’t solve through violence – and that Rose’s quest is something she has to be open and vulnerable to solve, and that John’s quest is one he has to be decisive and independent to solve.

Dave’s also got a cool new look – a suit and computer glasses to match John’s. Maybe a tribute to his best friend, but there’s also something here about how putting on a suit (or maybe changing outfits in general?) indicates a transitional moment for these characters, or a deeper understanding of themselves.

Calsprite is BAD. He is so much worse than regular Cal who was already extremely bad. His beam of puppets and his turning into a smuppet with his ‘bulbous bottom being like kind of jutting out and impudent’ (p.522)? REALLY BAD. Dave is right, this is true evidence of the darkest timeline. And I’m certain he could talk if he wanted to, but Dave has prototyped with a malicious entity that has no interest in helping him, so he’s just an asshole. Dave might not even know his quest if Cal won’t tell him. And Dave has suffered this for FOUR MONTHS!! I am guessing he can only rewind time within the Incipisphere otherwise he could travel back to when Bro first got Cal and unmake that entire doll.

The Dave and Rose pesterlog (p.1643) is pretty rough to read. They still feel like themselves, but there’s no jokes or affectionate ribbing between friends. They’re just tired, sad and only talking strategy. And both of their perspectives make total sense. Dave is a lonely and neglected extrovert who loves his friends more than life itself. He’s had to cope with two of them dying, and he has time travel powers that make him capable of going back and seeing them again and changing things for the better, so of course he wants to do that. Rose has always been interested in understanding Sburb so she wants to give the kids the best chance of survival when they do rewind time, and as she wouldn’t personally be the one going back, she’s scared about what will happen to her when she’s left alone in this timeline. Even though she’s having a bad time, she wants to hold onto the one friend she has left, and the last pieces of certainty.

My heart honestly breaks for both of them. I can’t imagine the pain they’ve been through over the last four months. Even after their planet was destroyed and it seemed like they had nothing left to lose, they lost even more, and they still had to keep going, keep working, keep fighting. All they’ve had for company is each other, a cat, and a horrible puppet. And for this version of Rose, it might all be for nothing, as she might stop existing when Dave rewinds.

Dave theorizes that ‘dream selves kind of operate outside the normal time continuum’ (p.1643) which is a theory, but probably a much more informed one than any of the ‘main timeline’ kids have. This pesterlog suggests that in this future timeline, Dave woke up on Derse by realizing he was ‘already awake’, and went to help Rose wake up as she’d been struggling for a while. Since then, they’ve been exploring Derse together in person. This is a clear message to us as readers: if, in the ‘main timeline’, Rose is able to wake up quickly and go help Dave, this means her ‘alternate timeline’ self was able to persist via her dream self. If she still struggles and Dave wakes first, that version of her is trapped or has ceased to exist, like she fears.

Finally, there’s a newspost from Hussie which is pretty exhausting to read due to its many layers of Dave-style irony. The main takeaway is that Homestuck will not end on 4/13, but there will likely be a big Flash animation on that date, possibly with additional Flash pages between now and then.

[maviescafe]

Thinking/suffering about Dawnbreaker (and hopping he became a Companion with a Scythe) I was rewatching the YouTube channel and remembered that in Zayne's trailer we get sooo many questions that aren't answered YET!

The first time I watched this trailer was before the Branches, so when it got announced I thought that we were going to know what the trailers shows but no...

This lore digging started because I'm searching for possible bits and pieces of Lore about MC as a powerful being and what would happen if her heart failed before she achieved her full power. I'm still not completely familiar with the whole plot of Amnesia (and in those cases MCs remember what usually happens to her) and Starcrossed Lovers so I might be missing a lot here but I'm trying to understand and get at least a glimpse of it!

Let's watch the trailer first and I'll explain my thought process!

"when you and the world wake up. I hope we do not meet again"

Why we will wake up and why Zayne doesn't want to meet us again? This makes me believe that in the time of this trailer he knows everything (In fact I don't think Zayne of the current timeline is oblivious like he seems too. The interaction at Destiny Café where he makes a Jasmine of Ice in MC/Us hands always was suspicious to me!)

What will he regret? Trying to save her? And why is Linkon is about to be frozen? Is this Astra trying to reach them or is EVERs fault? Maybe the Planet is dying?

This is where I think Dawnbreaker isn't just a Nightmare... Maybe DB's world is the real world and this timeline is MCs dream or maybe he is in a profound sleep or a frozen state? In the newest World Underneath Chapters we learn that Wanderers can create a space where it is almost an alternative reality and you can loose yourself there if you don't defeat the wanderer. But MC is an Evolver, a powerful one but she isn't a Wanderer. Well, she does have the Protocore Syndrome that transforms people in Wandered sooo I wouldn't erase this possibility. It wouldn't surprise me if she could control the transformation in some way or even suppress it!

What if she was put in this state BEFORE starting to transform? Maybe her reaching her full power just made things worse and accelerated the process, so Zayne comes in and induces this state and is preparing to exchange hearts with her to stop the transformation.

I'm thinking too much!

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

What type of TV shows are popular on Gallifrey right now?

📺 What's popular on Gallifreyan TV right now?

We may not have exact viewer ratings (because, unsurprisingly, Gallifrey does not concern itself with audience engagement metrics that often), we do know what types of shows are likely being watched.

If you missed the previous rundown of Time Lord TV, you can catch up here:

But if you're wondering what's popular right now, here are a few speculative guesses:

📡 Live Broadcasts & Government Programming

🛑 The Presidential Address – Daily updates on Capitol politics. - Thrilling (mandatory) viewing where the Lord President reassures the public that everything is fine.

🌌 The Celestial Observatory Report – Real-time updates on stellar weather and cosmic anomalies. - Essential for predicting temporal storms and vortex disruptions for your commute.

🌀 Temporal Affairs Committee: Open Session – An exclusive look at Gallifreyan policy discussions that should have ended 500 years ago but didn't. - Popular among elderly Gallifreyans and those with nothing better to do.

🎙️ The Lord President Speaks… Again – The exact same speech you heard this morning, but now with a special commentary track explaining why it's even more brilliant than you originally thought.

🎭 Popular Dramatic Programming

📜 The House That Stands – A prestige drama chronicling the rise and fall of an ancient Gallifreyan House. - Expect scheming, betrayal, and a shocking number of regenerations. - Allegedly based on true events, though every major House denies involvement.

⌛ The Untold History of Time – A long-running docudrama that contradicts itself every season. - Covers historical events such as the Pythia's Curse, the Rassilon Era, and the Eternal Schism Debates (a six-part special). - No two experts agree on anything.

🚀 The Renegade Files – A sensationalist anthology profiling Gallifrey's most infamous outcasts. - Features the Master, the Monk, the Rani, and the Doctor—with wildly exaggerated re-enactments and lousy acting.

🌀 Schism: A Time Lord Story – A coming-of-age drama following young Gallifreyans as they prepare to look into the Untempered Schism. Episode guide: - Ep 1: I Don't Want to Be a Prydonian! - Ep 2: This Is Fine. (It Is Not Fine.) - Ep 3: Is It Supposed to Whisper Back?

🎩 The Patrexian Conundrum – A detective series starring a Time Lord investigator who solves paradox-related crimes. - Every episode features puzzling inconsistencies in the timeline that must be unravelled. - Special twist: Every episode starts with the detective already knowing the solution—but needing to work backward to prove it.

🧠 Game Shows & Mental Challenges

🧩 The Prydonian Trials – A high-stakes academic showdown where Junior Time Lords must solve paradoxes, predict quantum fluctuations, and recite ancient High Gallifreyan poetry.

🔍 Who's That Renegade? – Contestants must guess which Time Lord went rogue based on obscure historical clues.

👽 The Mind Probe! – A high-stakes game show where contestants must answer Gallifreyan history questions under extreme pressure. - Face the infamous question: "You will answer… the Mind Probe!" (There is no actual mind probe.)

🎤 Entertainment & Cultural Shows

🎭 The 4D Theatre Showcase – Broadcasts of avant-garde Gallifreyan theatre. - Features time-loop performances and non-linear tragedies.

😂 Temporal Standstill – Gallifreyan improv comedy, featuring jokes that unfold over multiple centuries. - Watch performers set up a joke in one incarnation and deliver the punchline three regenerations later.

👶 Kids' Programming

📚 Junior Academy Lectures – Children's programming on Gallifrey is just accelerated coursework. - Topics include "Basic Quantum Entanglement for Ages 6-8" and "Your First 500 Years of Political Philosophy."

🏫 So …

Of course, what's actually popular depends on who you ask. And if you can't find something to watch there are still 87,656,432 channels. You'll stumble onto something eventually.

Related:

💬|⏰🎶What is Gallifreyan music like?: Musical instruments and genres on Gallifrey.

💬|⏰🎾What sports and games are there on Gallifrey?: The (lack of) physical sports on Gallifrey and other games.

💬|⏰🎮Do Gallifreyans have video games?: Detailing the one solitary 'video game' on Gallifrey.

Hope that helped! 😃

Any orange text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →📢Announcements |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts → Features:⭐Guest Posts | 🍜Chomp Chomp with Myishu →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[andypantsx3]

does plug them into knowledge entail more data harvesting and how should people plan for this exactly

So, what the article is covering is basically how companies are going to offer specialized knowledge to AIs to help them accomplish specific tasks as well or better than a well-trained human might. What they can offer depends on their area of expertise (e.g. if they are an insurance company, they can offer up all their insurance policy docs and in-house underwriting SOPs to an AI so it can underwrite insurance policy for them at the level of a senior underwriter or something).

The article isn't really talking about how they might feed even more general scraped data into AIs, although I'm sure datascraping practices will continue, to make sure the AIs' core datasets are regularly refreshed.

(As an aside, right now, some of the most common datasets used to train AIs are, to my understanding, scraping sites like ao3 against their TOSes and so to me are like, very legally questionable. My hope is that at some point, legislation and copyright law will catch up and that kind of unlicensed data will have to be removed from these models. But until then, if your concern is that your fics or other publicly available data will be fed into and used to train AIs, the only way to keep it out of the model is to not put it online (or tightly regulate who has access to it via a discord server or something or by limiting ao3 fics to account-holders only).

I personally don't wanna do that because I am having too much fun telling my stories. But it's important to know that in this environment, everything online is a potential target for AI training!! Keep your content safe however you think best fits your own level of personal comfort and security!!)

When I say plan for how smart these AIs are going to get, I mostly mean think about the potential economic impacts and how to keep yourself prepared for that. I think predictions that we will see millions of jobs lost to AI are very realistic on a more accelerated timeline than most people think (although I would be soooo happy to be wrong). Make sure you have as many plans and precautions in place as you feasibly can if you think your job is maybe in scope for some AI funny business :/

[agentmarvel]

🖤, 🔪, Mistreated Medic

yay! thank you for sending this!🖤

nikto x reader

cw: dark content, stalker!nikto, allusion to kidnapping

mdni - 18+; minors and ageless blogs will be blocked

Nikto peers through the eyeholes of his mask, gaze shifting anxiously as he follows a pacing Private. The man has been growing progressively more and more agitated, demanding medical attention for a pain he can’t quite pinpoint or explain.

“If you’re not bleeding or dying, I’m sorry, but it’s not a priority,” you had told him, offering your best expression of sympathy. He tried to argue, but you silenced him pretty quickly. “Listen, Private, I’ve got a triage helo on the fucking field right goddamn now. Two critical and at least two more to patch. If you’re only here for a minor exam and some pain pills, you will have to come back later. I do not have time for this right now, okay?”

But he didn’t leave. No, he continues to pace while you prepare for your patients to be brought in by the MedEvac team. He bites at the skin around his thumbnail, tearing it away in miniscule slivers that he spits out with an almost imperceptible sputter.

Withdrawal, Nikto muses. He’s likely been faking a variety of issues to score narcotics from the other corpsmen. They aren’t as smart as you; they wouldn’t see through his bullshit the way you do.

Perhaps that’s why Nikto finds himself so drawn to you. You’re brilliant, you don’t take shit from anyone (him included), you demonstrate so much restraint and commitment; you are perfect. He adores you. Every fiber of your being sings to his fragmented soul like a needle mending a sleeve tear. Something about you makes him feel whole. Maybe not entirely, but in part. A large part.

“Can’t you just send a new prescription for me? It’s not that hard; all the other fuckin’ nurses do it!”

“I’m not writing you a prescription without an exam first, and your exam is not a priority right now. You can come back tomorrow. I’m not going to repeat myself.”

Nikto can see the rage boiling under the Private’s skin. He’s clenching and unclenching his fists, veins protruding in his forearms. His stance is defensive at first, but your outright refusal causes him to shift. If you turn your back, that fucking coward will attack you.

No, not while Nikto is here. He won’t be able to make it even three steps closer without getting his fuck-ugly rat face caved in. You’re safe with him around. He’ll keep you safe.

His poor, mistreated medic. You deserve so much better than the bullshit you deal with day in and day out.

Really, he has half a mind to take you away from all of this. Stow you away in his secluded little cabin, take care of you for the rest of his life, give you anything and everything you could ever hope for and then some… He knows what you like; lord knows how much time he’s spent scrubbing through your interest history or following you on your rare off days to see where you spend your time.

He decides he’s definitely going to start considering that a bit more now, but that timeline accelerates in a split second. As you look towards the window for your incoming patients, the Private advances, and Nikto has no choice but to tip his hand.

You’ll never have to deal with this sort of vile behavior ever again. Decision made.

pick your prompt here! 💌

[katsona-the-katsequel]

Background Events: Persona Experimentation

Unethical experimentation on Persona Users has been happening since the beginning. But how has it evolved until now?

Warning: Some speculation will be involved.

TW: Human Experimentation

The Beginning

We don't have an exact date for when experiments related to Personas and the Collective Unconscious began. Phil and Nyarly's bet had been going for some time by the time IF took place. However, if we had to place a true beginning to the experiments, we would have to go with Stephen and the Demon Summoning Program. Along with Kyouji Kuzunoha, he's the only SMT character who's also canon to Persona. Makes sense, considering his weird transcendent nature. The tale may vary between franchises, but the Persona version goes like this:

By unknown means, Stephen managed to create the Terminal System to travel through computer networks. Since he's in a wheelchair in IF, then this Stephen also managed to connect to the Expanse (located in the Collective Unconscious) with the Terminal System. Since he didn't have a way to communicate with the demon who crossed and no Persona to defend himself, Stephen was was attacked and subsequentaly crippled. All of this had to have happened before 1996 for the timeline to make sense (Side Note: This also tells a lot about Stephen, since the incident had the perfect conditions for an Awakening).

The incident led Stephen to create the Demon Summoning Program, probably for personal use, since there was no upcoming war to prepare to (that Stephen could have known of). For some unknown reason, Stephen chose to upload the only copies of the program in the computers of Karukozaka High School. Was he an alumni? Did Stephen realize teens had more probability of connecting with the Expanse? Were Karu High's computers just that good? Who knows. Only Hazama and Tamaki took the program serious enough to use it, even if it was against each other. But that's a story for another time.

Like St. Hermelin would in a few months, Karu High briefly made the news before the entire incident was forgotten. That is highly suspicious on itself. My assumption is that there truly were some experimentation going on before this, amd they made sure to silence the press and make sure the students didn't snitch. Since Tamaki managed to hide among the student population as another victim (probably with Stephen's help), they never questioned her on her abilities nor disappeared her.

But who are they? Well...

SEBEC

The first formal organization seeking to gain a foothold in the Collective Unconscious was the Japanese branch of SEBEC, leadered by Takahisa Kandori. Their story goes like this:

When Kandori took over as head branch of SEBEC, they began to undertake the creation of a device capable of transporting matter from one place to another. Kind of like a portal. This had the main objective of helping to lower freight costs of imports and exports. Maybe even erasing them entirely. Key contributors were Setsuko Sonomura (an engineering specialist) and Dr. Nicholai (a scientist). Kandori kept the project so under wraps that those involved basically lived in the installations. Together they created the Dimension Variable Accelerator System, or DEVA System. However, they also pulled a Backrooms and accidentally connected to the Collective Unconscious.

It is probably at this point that Kandori awoke to his Persona, which was hijacked by the real Nyarlathotep. And thus, Kandori became a puppet in The Great Bet while believing he was achieving world domination or something like that. "But, Kati," I can hear you saying, "all of that was about the Collective Unconscious. Aside from Kandori, there were no Persona Users working with SEBEC".

Oh? OH? So quickly you forget about him?

Takeda. The man, the myth, the barely remembered NPC. All we know about him is that he is Kandori's right-hand man, the head of security at SEBEC and a Persona User. We don't even know what his Persona is, only that its couldn't handle the combined forces of the St. Hermelin students. His existence does imply something deeper: SEBEC is already employing Persona Users to their cause. They probably didn't know much about the phenomena (understandable, since they had just finished the DEVA System) and didn't have a definitive way of figuring out who could be a User and who couldn't. For all they knew this could be random. And so, a not-so-stellar security guard rose to become the second-hand man of the main antagonist. Just because he had the same power as him.

As we know, Kandori and SEBEC failed. But what was the fate of the staff that worked on the DEVA System? What about the little knowledge of the Collective Unconscious they had?

New World Order

Due to Nyarly's meddling, the NWO was founded in 1979 after they found Kiyotada Sumaru's head. They might have had supernatural advice from an ancient head and the backup of one of the most powerful beings in the Persona Universe, but no real Persona Users. Not one of those people had their shit together. The closest thing they had was Chizuru Ishigami, who was a sorcerer (most probable given true power by the Rumor Curse). When the time was right, we can assume Nyarly guided them to the remnants of Kandori's fuck up. The NWO revived Kandori and began their recruitment of the now-lost scientists and inventors. The NWO gave more freedom to their researchers than SEBEC did, which eventually led to the beginning of true human experimentation.

We don't see the worst of it unless you play Tatsuya's Scenario, where the hints they leave us are enough to call for a second Doctors' Trial.

Yikes. And this was only one known experiment.

Like SEBEC before them, the NWO also fell. But they weren't the only ones running supernatural and unethical experiments in 1999.

Kirijo Group

With the creation of the Dark Hour, demons shadows weren't only a danger of the Collective Unconscious anymore, at least, as far as the Kirijo Group knew. Now those in the know had to watch themselves every night to avoid being attacked by them. They couldn't always rely on the perfected version of the Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons. That must have been the moment when they began to hear rumors of supernatural events in Sumaru City, which led them to the crumbling NWO.

As it turns out, the entire Death Incident a couple of months ago left a huge vacancy for their supernatural research division. And these guys seem like they have fresh ideas that might just solve their self-created problem! A secret scramble must have taken place where the Nanjo and Kirijo Groups tried to covet all the info and personnel that had anything to do with the NWO. Those who weren't important enough to know the truth behind Kiyotada Sumaru's head and their self-proclaimed high-class greatness could have become the precursors of the Conspiracy.

And so, the Kirijo Group now had better scientists, inventors and researchers than before, and more willing to dab on unethical territory. With the need for defense, the former NWO scientists must have suggested they try to create their own Persona Users, like the ones who kept barging into their labs back in Sumaru. Thing is, no one there knew how a Persona User came to be. They did seem to have the power to control a shadow to do their bidding... maybe all they had to do was link (whatever that meant) a human with a shadow. The survivors of these experiments would become bodyguards for the Kirijo Group's excursions to Tartarus. No one would last long, though.

Skip a couple of years and the unexpected happened:

A natural Persona Awakening.

Note was taken of the factors that had to do with the event: the User was a child and she had been in a highly stressful situation. This is how the Kirijo Group rounded up the 100 children they would experiment on to create Artificial Persona Users. All of them dying except for three: Takaya Sakaki, Jin Shirato and Chidori Yoshino (and Sho Minazuki). This violation to the Nuremberg Code probably fell to the side when Mitsuru found and recruited two natural Persona Users on her own. Nothing like flushing dozens of children's lives down the toilet.

We must remember that the Kirijo Group didn't know everything about Personas, and so believed that the stressful situation with a dash of fear of death was necessary every time the User wanted fo summon their Persona. And so Evokers were created. Better not think of the trial and error that led to those inventions. Nor the one that helped create Persona Suppressants.

Who cares if three failed lab rats ran away? Now the Kirijo Group had true Persona Users with them.

A lot happened after that, but that is a story for another day. What about the hypothetical precursors to the Conspiracy formed from the high-profile members of the NWO? The ones that fell through the cracks during the power vacuum?

The Antisocial Force

For once, this wasn't Nyarly's fault. The basic rich bitches would have remained basic rich bitches if it wasn't for Yaldabaoth. The creation of the Shadow Operatives and the less restrictive hold on Kirijo Group employees probably made all that Persona and Collective Unconscious experimentation more of an open secret in the science community. And like hypnosis, this is one secret that most didn't believe until they witnessed it themselves. Not all were skepticals, and those interested were recruited by Masayoshi Shido for the creation of the Antisocial Force.

They would be the new oppressive entity in this area, suppressing information and giving stitches to snitches. This wouldn't stop "Cognitice Psience" from becoming an increasingly popular field. Who knows what kind of experiments happened in and out of the Antisocial Force. They couldn't have been the only ones.

If there is one thing the new Kirijo Group managed to contain, was the knowledge of the creation of Persona Users. The Antisocial Force didn't even have the research from the original NWO scientists that would help them create Artificial Users. Yaldy had to put an already-Awakened Goro Akechi in Shido's path for them to have a User. And even with an actual User, they couldn't replicate the circumstances that could have helped create more. I doubt Akechi was very helpful with that, though. Can't have any potential substitutes for his job.

Nah, the Antisocial Force's forte would never be Persona Users, but rather humanity's cognition.

So, what was the order of events?

Stephen created the Terminal System and began working on the Demon Summoning Program.

SEBEC began working on the DEVA System.

Stephen completed the Demon Summoning Program.

SEBEC finished the DEVA System and, after Kandori's Awakening, began to recruit Persona Users (at least one other than Kandori).

After SEBEC's fall, the New World Order recruited the staff that worked in the DEVA System.

The NWO began to experiment with demons and humans.

The Kirijo Group hired all the scientists and inventors from the NWO.

The Kirijo Group began to create Artificial Persona Users.

After Mitsuru's Awakening, the Kirijo Group focused on children experimentation.

The Antisocial Force began to recruit experts in cognitive psience for personal experiments.

[unhinged-summer-fun]

common grounds (oshamir) - chapter 10

Pairing: Osha Aniseya x Qimir "The Stranger"

A/N: dividers by @cafekitsune also YAY happy ten chapters everybody~

series masterlist

chapter 10: a.f.l.d.

“Where’s Jecki?” Osha asked Yord fifteen minutes into her shift.

Yord didn’t look up from reorganizing one of the fridges. “She was pulled off shifts with the others going to Theed for the Regional Open.”

“What? But the Open isn’t—”

She was interrupted by the beginning of the lunch rush, which incited a minor stock emergency that left Osha by herself for fifteen minutes while Yord went to buy milk.

“Where did you go? Downtown?” she asked around the screech of the milk frother.

“I have a cousin with a grocery store. It’s important to support small businesses, Osha.”

She could have thrown all 85 pounds of Huyang at him.

The implications of Yord’s answer bled into a tight knot of anxiety that wouldn’t settle. When things calmed down after the rush, Osha grabbed her stool and asked Yord to tell her more about the Open.

“We’ve been trying to coordinate this since last night—wait, you’re not in any of those group chats.”

Yord Fandar was a complicated creature. While his words were sharp and candid, Osha knew he didn’t mean it maliciously. At least, she hoped he didn’t. The decade and a half she had known him made her more than used to his priorities: fact and truth over tact and friendship. It sucked whenever he turned his brutally honest eye on Osha.

She was fine not being in the group chats, really. She didn’t want people hesitating to make plans because she couldn’t handle a hike or something. It was fine; she valued individual connection anyway. Totally fine.

“What happened?” she asked. For whatever reason, glazing past the dig at her took a little more effort today.

“Apparently, after… whatever happened with you,” Yord gestured to the stairs leading to Vernestra’s office, “Jecki was told she needed to focus on the Regional Open, which then led to the other competitors needing to focus on the Open, and then everything after that.”

“But the Open’s like two months away,” Osha said, busying her hands by cleaning a portafilter. She may have banged the puck out into the trash a little violently. 

“You should check your email.”

“I’ll check it right now, good suggestion, Yord.” she said, knowing Yord hated workplace misconduct more than anything. That he didn’t scowl or tell her to do it on her break spoke to the importance of whatever message awaited her.

The email was distressingly professional and spelled her doom at once: to accommodate the coming competition season, operating hours in the cafe would be shortened, competition members’ shifts would be adjusted with priority, elite classes would be invite-only, and the typical pre-season timeline would be accelerated, meaning the Temple would go dark much earlier than it did in past years.

The terms and timing were more than just coincidental—they were outright suspicious. However, for someone like Yord (who, the email announced, had been promoted to shift supervisor), the changes were inconsequential to his gains. Osha was confident his promotion was to distract him from everything else.

Yet Osha, Tasi, and many other employees’ hours had been slashed, all to accommodate the coming competition season.

Osha felt a well of righteous anger rising inside of her. It took some serious effort to snuff her emotions out to the point where she could ignore them entirely, but she was used to hiding how she felt. It felt doubly necessary to do so now, considering her new supervisor watched her reaction to the news like a hawk.

“Did you see Vernestra set a date for employee evaluations?” Yord said, practically vibrating with the need to prove himself.

“Sure did,” Osha mumbled, tucking her phone away. Yord would leap at every opportunity to write her up now that he had a taste of authority. Great.

“So, Mae is shadowing Sol as junior trainer for the foreseeable future. Jecki’s working with Sol to prepare for the season, but the cafe crew will return. Hopefully, with some title trophies for the Temple!” He seemed to consider giving a friendly pat on her shoulder, but he stopped before he could touch her.

She gave him a watery smile and went back to work.

It got harder and harder to keep her anger and emotions at bay as she turned the news over in her mind. Yord was the one who cost the Temple countless dollars just by fucking up Huyang as often as he did. She was the one who constantly cleaned up after his messes. Promoting him over her and cutting hours across the board and going dark three weeks early and employee evaluations? These were all clear strategic moves that spelled an unavoidable future: she was going to get super fucking fired.

Maybe… hm. That could be an option. It couldn’t be too dissimilar from being a barista. Luckily, she knew just who to ask. She texted her stranger when Yord stepped into the walk-in.

O: Is Unknown Planet hiring

?: You’ll have to be more specific. There are two Unknown Planets.

O: Whatever’s available

O: Bartender preferably

O: I don’t think cage fighting will pay my rent lol

?: Fight money isn’t THAT good.

?: Did something happen at the cafe?

O: A lot of something

O: lol

?: When’s your next break? Call me.

O: I’ll take it in ten minutes

Osha’s temper had risen to a fever pitch by the time she headed for the Starbucks. The moment she walked out the door, she called him. I hope he won’t hear my teeth grinding across the—

“Hey,” he answered after the first ring. Just hearing a single syllable from him replaced the tension in her chest with relief. She sighed, feeling the anxiety go slack around her chest.

“Hi.”

“What’s going on?” In the background, she could hear the chatter of men’s voices. “You sound upset.”

“I’m not upset, I’m just…” She quickly relayed what the email had said. “So I guess I’m job hunting.”

“I’m sorry, Osha—hold on.” Something jostled on the other end, and his voice went sharp. “If you’re talking this much, you’re not focusing on your form! Start from zero!” The chatter ceased, and she heard him close a door.

Her face went almost radioactive from the sudden heat in her cheeks. His voice had an undeniable authority that she hadn’t heard before. She’d seen hints of his personality here and there, cutting sarcasm and dry sass. It gave her whiplash to hear the change in tone when he spoke to her next.

“Sorry about that,” he sighed. 

Mae had felt the need to warn her about him, calling him a butthead—about as scathing a remark as she could make. He’d been so patient and open with her at the gym the other night… Sheesh, how many sides to him were there?

“Osha? Still there?”

Shit. “Yeah! Yeah, I’m still here. Just trying not to slip like forty feet from the door.”

“Take your time.”

“Are you… working?”

He chuckled. “I’m filling in for the swimming and diving team trainer today. They can survive fifteen minutes without me.”

“What do you have them doing?”

“Innumerable V-ups.” He returned to their original topic. “So you want to work at the bar instead?”

“There are some transferable skills,” she said while opening the door to Starbucks. Talking to him like this felt so domestic, she realized. She blamed her rosy cheeks on the weather as she got in line.

“How long have you worked at the cafe?”

“Something like eight years? Nine, if you don’t count the time I took off after the injury. Was that what you were asking?”

“Close enough. Have you had any other job?”

She frowned, toying with her sleeve. “Not really. There was some prize money from the junior championship, but it was mostly scholarship money so I haven’t seen any of it.”

“Did you never want to go to college?”

“Sol practically had a meltdown when Mae enrolled at the community college a few years ago. It wasn’t a matter of wanting to go to college, it was a matter of not wanting to disappoint Sol.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a parent being disappointed in their child getting an education.”

“Yeah, well. Sol’s got strange priorities.”

“He sure does.”

“You said you worked in food service before, right?”

She caught the barest beat of hesitation before he spoke. “I worked at the Temple cafe when they were open 24 hours a day. A few years of graveyard shift put me off of coffeehouses pretty much forever.” No wonder he knew where to find the cleaning supplies and the first aid kit—not to mention his comfort dealing with Huyang. “Throughout college, I worked in a few restaurants and retail stores, typical stuff. I bartended at Unplan through my Master’s before I was hired to the rehab staff at the college. The manager still asks me to take a shift here and there, typically on the slow nights or when he misses me.”

She caught herself smiling at his story and realized she was being incredibly stupid. He’d literally read his resume to her over the phone, and she was giggling like a schoolgirl. “Well, now that I’ve seen you fight, I want to see you make drinks. You’ll have to tell me when you’re doing that next.” Yeah. Cool girl response. Great job.

He gave a light chuckle. “You can’t get enough of me, is that it?”

“Can you blame me?”

She was pretty sure she could hear a quiet, sharp inhale from his end. She didn’t know what it meant.

“I’ll, uh, definitely have an easier time seeing you at work if you—”

“Hold on a second, sorry.”

She held her phone to her shoulder to order, but another barista spoke up at the other end of the counter. “I have an order for Osha at the bar!”

Osha looked blankly at the worker behind the register for a second before tentatively approaching the pickup counter without ordering. To her surprise, her usual waited—in a festive cardboard cup with a festive cardboard sleeve. She did a double-take at the name on the order tag.

:) OSHA :)

Just like she’d put in his stupid fucking flip phone.

She brought her phone back to her ear. “Did you buy me coffee?”

“Hmm, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, a grin in his voice that she wished she could see. He must have ordered it the moment she took her break. “You deserved something nice. You seemed stressed when you texted me.”

A sudden swell of emotion bloomed in her chest, warm as summertime. “Thank you, uh. Well. Thank you.” She grabbed a seat, hoping she didn’t sound too awkward.

“What’s up?”

“You know, I don’t really know what to call you. Mae told me your name is Qimir, and I saw it in the article I gave you last night, but…”

“…but what?”

“It doesn’t—I mean, you didn’t introduce yourself as—” She groaned at her fumbled explanations. “Do you want me to call you… that?”

He was quiet for a few moments. “I try not to go by that name anymore. Casually, at least. But I also never gave that name to Mae while I trained her.”

She tucked away that piece of information for later. “Okay. What name do you go by? Casually, that is.”

“So things are casual between us?” he teased.

She felt her eyes bugging slightly. This guy must have been made in a lab with the express purpose of tormenting her. “Casual in the way someone talks about casualties.”

“What have you been calling me in your head?”

“Bold of you to assume you’re on my mind that much.”

“Sure, but are those assumptions correct?”

Damn him.

“I’ve just been calling you the stranger—whenever I have to bear the thought of you at all.”

“You wound me, Osha.” She was hooked on the laughter in his voice. For whatever reason, this coffee warmed her up much faster than she remembered it doing the other day. “You were going to say that the name doesn’t suit me, weren’t you?”

“Yeah, actually. Sorry.”

“No, no. I agree. The FDO named me Qimir Loharne, anyway.” No wonder he had such a complicated relationship to it. “What name do you think suits me better, then?”

She hummed in thought, looking out at the rest of the Starbucks and resting her left foot onto the seat across from her. “I dunno. Not Smiley.”

A laugh, half-sarcastic and half-amused. “That’s another name that was given to me.”

“All names are given to us. It’s the one thing that belongs to you but is used freely by everybody else. They’re paradoxically important.”

“You have me there.”

Osha traced her finger along the edge of the cup. “I think it was something my mother once said to me.”

A pause. “Do you remember much of her?”

She sighed. “Yes and no. Some memories stand out—” Fire, twisted steel, broken glass, screams— “But other times, my memories seem more like wishes and guesses.”

“Is Mae the same?”

“If she talks about them, it’s not with me. I’m not sure.”

“Forgetting, remembering… they’re different pains that make you wish you’d done the other.”

“Are you normally this eloquent, or am I just special?”

He gave an indecipherable hum that flustered her enough to make her switch topics.

“I don’t know, then. Qimir, Smiley, stranger, doctor, do your athletes call you coach?”

“Anybody in authority is ‘coach’ on a sports team. To them, I’m Coach Lo, or Dr. Lo when they’re trying to annoy me.”

“More aliases!” She took another sip of her coffee. “I think the more important question than my opinion is: what name would you choose for yourself?”

He went quiet abruptly. She’d been only chatting, saying whatever nonsense came to mind as she enjoyed her break. Had she struck a nerve?

“I like… yours.”

“Then I shall continue to call you stranger.”

He cleared his throat. “I hope not forever.”

“I… hope so, too.” She traced her thumb over the sticker on her cup, right over her name. He was elsewhere in the city—the college—but it felt like he was there with her just the same, like he could hold some part of him in her hands.  

“I think you know more of me than anybody else, Osha,” he said softly. “I didn’t expect it, but I’m glad you do.”

Her heart raced, and she pressed her hand against it, urging her sudden emotions to dissipate so she didn’t make a complete fool of herself. “I’m glad I know you, too.”

A soft, shared silence connected both ends of the call. She occasionally heard him speaking to the swim team, and he probably heard the din of the Starbucks on her end. He broke the silence after nearly five minutes of neither speaking at all. “When do you get off?”

“Six tonight.”

“I’ll pick you up.”

“You don’t have to do that,” she said, bashful.

“It’s way icier today than it was yesterday. Please let me pick you up.”

It was the please let me that did it. “Okay. I’ll see you at six, then.”

“Enjoy your coffee, Osha.” 

“I will, stranger.”

When she got in his car after clocking out, her mind was transported back to the night before—that witching hour moment they shared where he whispered her name so softly and he almost—they almost—

She was getting ahead of herself.

“Hey, stranger.”

He rolled his eyes. “Oh, I’m never getting rid of that, am I?”

“You said it’s your favorite name. Deal with it!”

“I said no such thing.”

He pulled into traffic, and they trudged along the short commute as it was bogged down by rush hour and shitty weather. She didn’t mind the inconvenience—she was warm and in good company.

She told him, “I packed my swim gear if you wanted to go straight to the pool.”

“I thought you might have—that’s what we’ll do. How was it not having class before your shift?”

“It was really good. The tape is still on, doing its job and shit. I put my leg up whenever I could, too.”

“Attagirl,” he said, smiling but not looking away from the road. She was grateful he didn’t witness the embarrassing face she made upon hearing his praise.

“How did the swimming and diving team fare?”

He stopped at a red light and only then did he look over, raising an eyebrow. “Why do you ask?”

“You certainly don’t train me with death by V-ups.”

“Yet.”

She groaned, but recognized his playful tone.

He rubbed his thumb over the steering wheel, pulling her focus there while he answered her. “Everybody learns differently. Good teachers listen and adapt to what their students need. The same goes for training. I prefer personal training because I can focus on my student’s needs. If I trained the swimmers like I trained you, they wouldn’t get anything done. And if I trained you like I trained them, I don’t think you’d enjoy spending time with me anymore.”

“I doubt that,” she protested.

“You never know,” he shrugged, keeping his eyes resolutely off of her.

Osha was a little worried about her swimsuit—it had been years since she last wore it, and it felt precariously small. Still, the seams held, and it did its best to squish her chest down into as unflattering a figure as possible, but she was proud of her body—squished or otherwise.

Her stranger was already out near the end of the pool, stretching his arms over his head. He was angled away from her, which put her face to face with the scars on his back. Now that she knew they were there, she could make out two pale, pink, and perfectly healed surgery scars along his spine. She would never have seen them if he hadn’t told her about his procedures as a child. Even so, they were hard to see beneath the gray and purple tragedy carving from one shoulder blade to the opposite hip.

T6, T7, T12, L1. A couple broken ribs. Likely much more.

She set her things on the chair beside hers and said: “How’d you know my coffee order anyways?”

He sat on the edge of his chair, pulling an arm across his chest as he stretched his shoulders. He had a half-formed word on his tongue, but it went unsaid when he looked at her.

He started at her feet and dragged his way, molasses-slow, up her body until he met her gaze. Behind his glasses, his eyes were as dark and desirous—he liked what he saw, plain as day. Perhaps she shouldn’t have worried about her swimsuit being too small.

“It was a highly educated guess.” Only the barest burr of emotion came through in his tone. Knowing she’d affected him just by standing before him lit up her blood in neon lights.

“Oh? Did you get a doctorate in coffee predictions, too?” She began running through her warmup stretch routine from last night. “Or is that a certification?”

He rolled his eyes, but his gaze returned to drag hotly over her body as she demonstrated her flexibility, preening just a little.

“Long story short, I couldn’t imagine pumpkin-spiced Osha.”

“And the espresso shots?”

“Power of two,” he shrugged. “I’ll get you to join my caffeine habits eventually.”

“You think I’d succumb because you bought me one coffee?”

“How many coffees would it take?” he grinned.

“Don’t push it. You’re lucky you were right about my order,” she said, shooting him a look. His teasing smile made her insides flip around.

“I often am when it comes to you.”

She scoffed. What a man. “What, right?”

“Lucky.”

Motherfucking stupid emotions—

“You’re ridiculous.”

“And you’re stalling. Finish up and get in.”

Finally. Something she could do.

He didn’t join her in the pool, standing at the edge to watch her instead. She nearly panicked when securing a cap over her hair—the swimsuit was definitely protesting her range of motion. She silently begged her assets not to make an escape attempt. It was her second day training with him, and nothing good could come from flashing him by accident.

Or perhaps—

Fuck. Not the time to think about that.

“Each length is twenty-five meters. Give me one hundred.”

He watched her swim, walking apace with her on the deck. He hadn’t been wrong about swimming being a full-body workout. She was out of practice, breathing hard when she came to a stop at the end of her lane.

“How did that feel?” he asked, squatting down by the edge.

“I’m a bit rusty, but—feels good.”

“Good,” he said. “Give me your hand.”

She stood up and offered her hand, curious. He slipped a small device around her wrist. His thumb traced idly over her knuckles as he turned her hand over, showing off a small screen. A few seconds passed, then it beeped once and showed 143 bpm. “I want you to focus your breathing to get your heart rate below 100. Get used to it. These first few weeks, we’ll do this every time there’s a pause or circuit shift.”

“Why?”

“Do it, and I’ll tell you.”

She wasn’t sure how successful she’d be, seeing as he didn’t let go of her hand and didn’t let her look away from him. But she tried anyway. While she breathed as slowly as her galloping heart would allow, he quietly explained. 

“We were taught to leave emotion out of the fight. To cut off any strings of passion or chaos tied to us.”

“Fights shouldn’t be personal,” she said. It felt strange to parrot Temple doctrine at him—especially an aspect that Osha struggled with all her life.

Everything was personal to Osha. Every defeat proved her to be a failure; each victory proved her worthy or deserving of happiness. She could not let go of her grief following the accident that left her an orphan, nor could she shake the repeated losses and despair following her injury. She could only seek to hide her feelings from the Temple and from Sol, who always reprimanded her for her outbursts. If she ever got close to revealing the passion that fueled her every moment, he would stop her entirely until she calmed herself.

“We are never without emotion, Osha. As much as we’d like to forget it, or as much as others want to convince us otherwise.” The stranger was talking about Vernestra. “Perhaps for the time-honored art of boxing,” he snarked, “where there are rules and limitations and even a person standing between you and your opponent, it’s possible to convince yourself that when you fight, there is no danger. If you do that, eventually, your body will suppress its natural response to a real threat.

“But when you are in the cage, two things must be true if you want to walk out of there alive. The first: your body must believe you’re in danger. And don’t get it wrong; when that door closes, you are in danger, Osha. The second imperative: you must accept what happens when you’re in danger. Do you know what the natural, biological response to danger is?”

She knew—twisted steel, broken glass, fire, screaming. Osha knew the answer well. “To feel scared.”

He nodded slowly. “That’s right. Fear is the natural response to danger, and that’s not our fault. That’s how it should be. Any emotion can grow beyond our control. A lot of times, an elevated heart rate is at fault for inciting fight-flight-freeze responses. Fear can become panic, and if you allow panic into the cage, you’ll get dragged out by your feet no matter how hard you trained. So, instead of lying to ourselves about some inner harmony of martial combat, we must accept that there is no peace in danger and no danger without even a small measure of fear.”

“Wouldn’t fighting instead of fleeing or freezing be useful?”

“You’d think,” he said, chuckling. “The only issue is that you don’t get to choose. That’s all back here.” He tapped the back of his head, indicating the medulla oblongata—the lizard brain. “Your body wants one thing when you’re threatened. It wants to survive. Tipping past the threshold of a powerful emotion puts that specific emotion at the helm, and as much as the Temple tried teaching us, emotions cannot be controlled or erased. Luckily, you can acclimate to your feelings enough to control your reactions. Denying your fear exists doesn’t erase the danger. It only makes the danger harder to survive and dulls the edge of instinct.”

“Are you afraid when you’re in the cage?” she asked. He seemed so controlled when he fought—except… he’d frozen upon hearing her voice. He’d dropped his focus on the fight to seek her out through the chain-link fence. Had he been afraid of her seeing him?

He shook his head. “Not exactly. I’ve been in true danger enough times in my life that it’s hard to scare me anymore. But that doesn’t exempt me from those stress responses, either. Any emotion can wrest control from you anytime if you consistently ignore your body’s natural responses to them. We reclaim power over our emotions by accepting and moving alongside them, not against or away from them. The more often you feel your emotions, the less likely you will become lost to them.”

“I don’t understand,” she said. As usual, his point of view countered everything she’d been told—perhaps that was the point. The Temple demanded her strength, demanded she endure—but it did not want strength borne from her anger nor endurance borne from her grief. The Temple wanted her blood but not the heart that moved it. Perhaps she spoke too soon; she did understand.

A muscle feathered in his jaw, as if he had to prepare himself for what he was about to say. “Below the surface of consciousness are powerful emotions. Anger. Fear. Loss… Desire.”

Heat coiled in her gut, contrasting with the relatively cool swimming pool. “What does—what do those… other ones have to do with fighting?”

He held her gaze for another moment before looking away. It felt like stepping into the shade on a hot day, but the relief felt hollow. “The short answer is that if you keep your cool, you’ll make better decisions when it matters. I’m not telling you to suppress your emotions in a fight—you should never do that. What I said about a high heart rate is what’s important right now. If you can get your breathing under control and avoid hyperventilating, your emotions will help you fight.”

“And what if the stress response kicks in anyway?” she asked.

He chewed on the answer before giving it to her. “That’s where mental strength comes in—finding focus in chaos, precision in anger. But we’re far off from getting you into that territory. For now, you’re in a controlled environment where you will most likely not have a strong emotional response. Today, practice lowering your heart rate. Can you do that?”

Over the next half hour, he ran her through drills that supported his point. Getting her heart rate below the threshold felt more exhausting than the physical effort that raised her above that same threshold. It was the strangest cardio session she’d ever done.

In the last section before cooldown, he joined her in the pool. It excited her to have him so close, but she could feel her body reaching the limits of her once-indomitable stamina. Finding the place where exhaustion took over was a novel feeling. She had never left classes at the Temple feeling this way.

“Last push. Fifteen minutes, and whatever you do, don’t stop,” he instructed.

“And then breath control?”

He set his glasses at the end of his lane. “You know it.”

He started the same time she did. She was crawling by the end, almost laughably slow. When her time was up, she rested her back on the pool’s edge to focus her breathing—but he didn’t stop with her. He must have been holding back while swimming beside her. When she started her controlled breathing, something shifted in the water—a primal feeling, like a live shark had just been tossed into the pool. He opened up the throttle, carving through the water at nearly twice the speed he’d done before.

Watching him do swim sprints completely fucked up whatever methodology she was using to calm down.

Eventually, the tiny machine beeped to indicate she’d gotten below the threshold, and he cruised to a stop beside her. When he stood up, they were close enough that their shoulders almost touched.

“Good job,” the stranger said, chest heaving with exertion. He turned, leaning his hand on the edge of the pool and pushing his hair out of his eyes.

“That was—you’re a good swimmer.”

He smiled, eyebrows lifting. “It takes practice to make progress.”

“I don’t think I’ve gotten any better at controlling my heart,” she said, biting her tongue when she realized how mushy that sounded.

“While the heart is a muscle, just like the ones in your leg and my back, it’s never something that can be controlled,” he panted. “The heart’s one of the few places in your body running on emotions, too.” He took her hand and slipped the pulse reader from her wrist to his. The reader beeped to display his heart rate, still fast, strong, and firmly in the cardio zone. “What we’re doing with our hearts isn’t controlling. It’s… persuading. Hearts need a gentler treatment than knees and ankles and backs.”

He brought her hand to rest flat over his heart.

“They need different treatments than we’re used to.”

Osha’s mind went a little fuzzy. He looked a little wild in the dark depths of his eyes, hidden behind tendrils of dripping wet hair. This wasn’t a reaction that a controlled environment would give.

The device gave a long, annoyed beep. It showed his heart rate had gone up.

“I don’t think you’re—”

“This is what the stress response feels like,” he rasped, hand lightly squeezing hers. “This is when a mind is run on instinct—nothing but impulse and emotion.” He gave a breathy laugh, sounding a little manic. But she didn’t pull away. “It’s taking a lot of self-control not to—” he cut himself off, biting his lower lip, shutting his eyes, and tilting his head back. It exposed the long column of his throat, and Osha suddenly wanted nothing more than to lean in and—

He squeezed her hand again, disrupting her thoughts. “You asked,” he panted. “What if you hit this point anyway? What if your emotions drive you?”

Her mouth went dry at the look he was given her, eyes half-lidded and lips slightly parted. This was his stress response? He didn’t look scared… which emotion was driving him now?

He tilted his head back down for a clearer view of her. He hardly blinked as he started his own procedure for calming himself down. She could feel the moment things changed in him. He lost the tension limning his features, his breathing slowed into a circular pattern of in-hold-out-hold-again, and his shoulders slumped somewhat. She worried initially that he’d pass out from the quick drop in his heart rate, but he didn’t look unsteady, and his eyes remained focused on her.

In about thirty seconds, he’d persuaded his heart to a sedate 100 beats per minute. He tugged the pulsometer off his wrist using his teeth, then tossed it onto the pool deck without looking. Now Osha was the one at risk of passing out. He had so much control over his body, and that body was strong and lethal by his design.

“How did you do that?” she asked, just louder than the lapping water against the sides of the pool. She hadn’t moved her hand from his chest, and he hadn’t let her go. 

“Lots and lots of discipline.”

Now that she knew what it looked like, she remembered him doing something similar when he told her about his childhood at the Temple. He’d needed a minute to calm himself before continuing—that had been a stress response as well, something she was sure was the fear he said he was used to.

“I can show you.”

“Yes, please.”

His eyes flashed with something hot, and she felt his heart rate pick up again beneath her palm.

“Then I will. Next time.”

He waited for her in the lobby after they’d finished showering off. It reminded her of their third meeting, when the automatic lights had shut off because they were talking too long. But this time, they were quiet as they stood at the door. She didn’t want to let this moment go.

“Can I k—”

“How often ar—”

They both stopped when they realized the other was speaking, too. “You first,” he said before she could.

“Oh, I was just going to ask how many times a week we’re swimming.” It sounded so lame.

“It might be three times a week until you’re ready for interval training and more. Are you opposed to every other day?”

“No, I just need to go shopping. My tits almost fell out of my swimsuit today.”

Even the silence seemed to suck in a gasp.

FUCK. Osha. RUN.

“Okay, see you tomorrow, stranger!” she said quickly, dashing out the door and leaving him gobsmacked in the lobby.

She wondered what he was going to ask her.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

[talonabraxas]

The Galactic High Council 🛸 To The Ascension LightWorker Collective:

As you navigate through transitions activating change, endings, and new beginnings, know that you are now equipped with healing and insights that empower you to move through this phase effortlessly. Prepare to witness the unveiling of mysteries and illusions, representing a major global awakening drawing us much closer into the frequency of divine light.

Embrace the newly activated energies pulsating through you, igniting a profound connection to your soul's purpose and beckoning you to honour your true essence. A deep-seated urge to align with your authentic self will guide you towards significant lifestyle shifts and healthier ways to express and release emotions, transcending impulsive reactions.

During this transformative new earth stage karmic cycles and patterns are undergoing drastic shifts or completions. Past life, family, and childhood karmic wounds may also resurface, presenting you with many opportunities to fully release and heal. the profound healing energies that surround you now are supporting ascending individuals to navigate through this phase of intense personal and spiritual development .

Eclipses are a profound cosmic phenomena, That hold immense significance in astrological and spiritual realms. Reminding all ascending that everything is occuring for the highest good of self and all . These celestial occurrences stand as the pinnacle of annual transits, acting as portals to higher dimensions.

Their divine purpose is to create a higher vibrational energetic space that accelerates cosmic recalibration and destined metamorphosis. In their essence, eclipses also catalyse the unfolding of fateful events, bringing in a surge of higher energy that brings in profound shifts in the fabric of our existence.

This next Eclipse on the 25th of March represents a significant juncture in time, where the universe will orchestrate many unexpected events and opportunities, compelling swift decision-making and serving as a catalyst for profound change. Within their cosmic realms this next eclipse will serve to clear and intertwine timelines, harmonising past, present, and future to propel ascending individuals and the collective towards a new paradigm of authentic being.

Through their disruptive yet enlightening influence, the next 2 eclipses will guide many Ascending towards a much higher state of Conscious awareness and being, beckoning all of us to embrace the transformational power of these celestial forces now at play .

In this new ascension season and chapter the focus shifts towards connecting with genuine souls on a path of true healing and authenticity. Whether in business partnerships, friendships, or relationships, the emphasis is on aligning with individuals dedicated to their inner growth work emotional maturity, and pursuing their divine purpose.

This next stage of the journey transcends mere surface-level connections, it is about finding others who aspire to authentically Ascend and are committed to their personal evolution.

Gone are the days of seeking external validation or striving to embody an idealised image of how success should look like , Instead, the focus now lays in developing genuine connections based in vibrational alignment, authenticity, commitment, and loyalty. Recognising your inherent worth and value and the depth of your reflected inner work, Many ascending are now raising their standards and surrounding the self with those who resonate with the soul's journey.

Commonly reported Starseed Ascension Symptoms have included flu-like symptoms, waves of nausea, third eye pressure, headaches, body aches, dizziness, digestive issues difficulty balancing, extreme fatigue, sleep disturbances, heightened emotions, dull headaches, accelerated dehydration, and back/kidney pains, as well as continued third eye pressure and sinus issues. It is advised to prioritise self-care during this process.

Embracing this transformative shift means stepping into a space where mediocrity has no place, and the pursuit of exceptional connections becomes non-negotiable. By upholding these higher standards in self , you are able to create a fertile ground for enhanced consciousness , mutual support, and a collective shared purpose, connecting with those that nourish the elevating spirit to elevate the collective consciousness.

Starseed activations are now unfolding at a rapid and an unprecedented pace, catalysing a new era unlike anything witnessed in our solar system. The Love Revolution of New Earth is taking shape as we collectively embrace living from the heart space with increasing ease and grace. Within our Family of Light, a shared consciousness is emerging, paving the way for a collective shift towards multidimensional existence.

As Starseeds awaken to their true essence and purpose, they are aligning with the energies they were destined to embody. It is a moment in time where each ascending individual is called to come online to fully embrace their unique gifts and purpose . The threads of connection among Starseeds are weaving a tapestry of unity and higher awareness, propelling us towards a reality where multidimensional living is not only possible but absolutely inevitable.

This cosmic awakening marks a pivotal juncture in our evolution, as we stand on the threshold of a brand new earth paradigm one characterised by unity, unconditional love, and expanded consciousness. Embrace this moment, for it is your time to shine Starseed , to contribute your expanding light to the collective experience of planetary and cosmic evolution.

Eclipses have the power to unveil what is out of alignment and in need of change, revealing truths through revelations. While they may introduce chaotic energy and unexpected events, eclipses will always offer significant opportunities for deeper healing, clearing old energies, clearing stagnation to start afresh and anew. Physical changes during and after eclipses will accelerate personal transformation, marking the end of one cycle and the beginning of a new one.

In loving and dedicated Ascension service

[kingsonne-zedecks]

Elder Whisper Cradlepost

I want to talk about Elder Whisper, because out of almost anything in Cradle I feel like Whisper had the most potential that wasn't met.

Will has talked a bit about his writing process, how he'll leave himself threads that he might not know exactly what he's going to do with, but gives himself the option to pick up later.

(Which, as an aside is a pretty great piece of writing advice. Not all foreshadowing has to be planned out like a massive scheme. Calling back to something you prepared earlier without knowing where it was going to go will read like well thought out foreshadowing all the same)

Now, we know that sometimes this doesn't pan out at all. Like Lindon grabbing those scripted stones from the Transcendent Ruins that Will had a rough idea for but later scrapped because the story went a different direction on. I really feel like Elder Whisper falls into this category, because pretty much everything about Whisper prior to Reaper hints at him being so much more than he ends up being.

In Unsouled he is getting glimpses of fate that reflect the actions of literal Judges of the Abidan. Like, Whisper can see that the Wandering Titan will destroy Sacred Valley, and he can tell that it might happen in a few years or it might happen in 30. The accelerated timeline was a direct result of the interference in fate of both Suriel and Ozriel, and the resulting machinations of Makiel to try to restore fate.

And Whisper could see it.

Now. The Doylist explanation is that Will hadn't nailed down Fate Reading and it's implications yet. But that opens things up to so much more when it comes to the Watsonian explanation. Why was Whisper able to see so much? When we get to the end of Bloodline, Why does Whisper know so much about the Dreadgods? At the beginning of Unsouled Markuth talks about the sins of the founder of the Wei, is he referring to the human's that Whisper taught? Or Whisper himself? How did Whisper keep open the soul space of a Sage for years after his death?

It gets me fired up. One of the popular theories is that Whisper is actually a retired Judge living under a powerful veil, potentially even The Fox. Which is a great theory and explains a lot of his abilities.

My other favorite is drawn from DaoistMystery's Wei Shi Lindon Arelius Sue on ao3, which is fantastic fic and worth reading even though it's unfinished. I've reread it many times and you should too

But DaoistMystery's Whisper is amazing. So much is hinted at and partially revealed. The idea of some consequence of the fight with Li Markuth that resulted in his ascendance. The idea of a soul oath that limited and bound him. Whisper as this former Sage or even Monarch bound down in his power to that of a Gold and then limited further by the suppression field down to Jade.

And then the idea of White Fox Madra having qualities similar to that of Blackflame, in that it has consequences on the mind. Whisper, who had achieved such heights in the Sacred Arts that his illusions could trick reality itself. To the point where even he can't tell the difference between his illusions and himself.

I love it, and I headcanon it hardcore, and I think that canon justifies it more than what canon actually states. Like, Whisper is fully aware of just how far the Sacred Arts go, he's even aware of ascension and some of what goes on in the Heavens, and you mean to tell me that he's just a Gold? No. He's a liar and Will just didn't have time and space to dedicate to the truth about Whisper, as the main plot moved away from him.

[dragonagewritingchallenge]

DAV and DAO: Day 12: Meet the Parents

I'll finish the backstory for Day 11 soon. This idea came to me and I had to use it.

Lucanis x Rook (Hui'ne) &

The Warden (Vilisse) x Zevran

A creeping sort of dread and foreboding was starting to overtake Hui'ne. Lucanis had appeared, slipping out of the shadows as he was want to do, at the tail end of Hui'ne's exercises, telling him that he had prepared a light brunch if Hui'ne would be so inclined to bless him with his companionship.

Hui'ne, in a good mood from his productive morning, sketches a light bow and amused smile pasted on his face. "You are too kind, darling. To grant me the honor of joining you in your midday feast."

He drew out the vowels in the pet name delighting, as always, at the hint of pink that graces Lucanis' ears as the assassin spun around and hurried back inside, a quick, "Don't take too long the coffee will get cold.", thrown over his shoulder, before the door shut behind him.

Hui'ne was delighted by the invitation. Lucanis was a wonderful cook, and knew all the best gossip and news so any meal was accompanied with entertainment of some form, and Hui'ne just enjoyed the man's presence. He soothed something in the elf, something that had gone unnoticed for a very long time.

Well soothed until Lucanis decided to drop a meteor shower level bomb while refilling Hui'ne's hot chocolate.

"Hui'ne you've met my grandmother, and all the relatives I care to claim, and even the ones that are pushing that statement." Hui'ne grimaced at the reminder of Illario. Lucanis placed a strawberry down on his plate in sympathy before continuing, "With Wintersend fast approaching. I was wondering whose family you'd like to spend the holiday with? Or potentially if you think your parents could stomach it they would be more than welcome to spend it at Villa Dellamorte, all travel expenses paid, of course."

After a few moments of silence where Hui'ne didn't give his customary noise of acknowledgment to show he'd heard the question but was thinking, Lucanis hesitantly looked up from where he methodically rearranging the fruit tray.

Distantly Hui'ne could tell that his beloved was nervous, and probably had been hesitant to bring up the request to meet his parents, and this brunch had been an elaborate scheme to pop the question, and probably a calming ritual for Lucanis.

He knew his face must have shown something concerning as Lucanis rose from the table and started the processing of brewing another cup of coffee. A carefully flat and faux up beat tone came from the next statement. "Of course there is no rush. If they have other plans you need only tell me, I understand." Lucanis trailed off slightly but Hui'ne heard the faint twinge of hurt echoing in his words and the tightness of Lucanis' shoulders as he mechanically kept brewing coffee.

Hui'ne tilted back in his chair using his arm to block out the room as a whole. How did he explain this? How does one explain they don't have parents? How does one explain they were in a mild hostage situation with the ones claiming legal guardianship over him?

Hui'ne had just successfully reached his twentieth summer when he had encountered the Hero of Ferelden and his ex-assassin husband. The two had been on a mission that had overlapped with Hui'ne's. Both parties had the same target, and Hui'ne had succeeded in assassinating them, just a step ahead of the duo, but had gotten caught in the act.

He had noticed that the duo had the same target and had accelerated his timeline to claim the bounty first. He admits he was a bit cheeky during the subsequent confrontation. It's not everyday you get to pull the rug out from such powerful figures.

So Hui'ne may have broken into their room at the tavern they were staying at to look at their documents and get an idea of any other bounties they were hunting, and he MIGHT have gone after those individuals just to see if he could make a crack in their perfectly polite and charming facades.

Though the results were nothing like he expected. Zevran was DELIGHTED to say the least. Vilisse told Hui'ne at a later date that Zevran thought the mild antagonations were adorable and well carried out. Hui'ne will deny that during that conversations he pouted at being called adorable by the older man.

He continued being a mild nuisance to the duo. As expected though, of hastily thrown together plans, is that Hui'ne's luck eventually ran out, and an encounter with a target went south. The pair never being that far behind Hui'ne swooped in and succeeded at rescuing him.

Though Hui'ne had not escaped the debacle unscathed. His injury was bad enough that even with Vilisse's spirit healing the couple had to care for the younger elf for multiple weeks as he battled infection from a poisoned wound.

This is the turning point Hui'ne would blame for his current situation. At the end of his recovery when he was discussing his debt to them they told him he was a very talented individual and if he'd sign some forms to work with them on a more permanent basis.

Hui'ne didn't quite catch the pause after the word permanent. He'd like to attribute that failure to the fact he was still recovering and he'd built up a healthy repertoire with the husbands during his recovery.

Hui'ne felt obligated to sign the forms and started to do so as he skimmed the content. He felt confident the couple wouldn't make an unfair contract, and what was outlined in the paperwork definitely wasn't unfair, just absolutely insane.

It was adoption paperwork?!

Hui'ne's hand was frozen on the signature line as he tried to get a better read of the contract when Zevran snatched it off the desk laughing. "What do you think you should called me? Dad? Papa? Padre." The chesire grin as he stated this could have cracked his face in half.

Hui'ne's head snapped so violently towards Vilisse that a wave of nausea crashed through him making him about, fall out of his seat. Vilisse's rushed over hands glowing softly with healing light, as Hui'ne put his head on the table listening to the older adults cluck frettfully above him.

What was happening?

Since then Hui'ne had been in this odd gaslighting competition with the duo as they staunchly insisted he was now their legal child. Hui'ne had even heard Zevran spinning rumors and tall tales on how he could possibly have been their biological child.

It was not helped considering he worked for Leliana who was the couple's old party member. She took to the news that her favorite spy had been adopted by her old friends with aplomb. Joining their crusade to convince Hui'ne to give in and accept the inevitable that he was now their child.

She even spun some rumors of her own of when The Hero of Ferelden could have disappeared from the public eye to have a child. The fact wardens are sterile after joining seemingly leaving everyone's combined consciousness. There might even be some "unofficial stories" floating around by Leliana's friend and Hui'ne's mentor Varric.

Hui'ne knew he was doomed when during one of enforced "family bonding" sessions he would get hunted down for, every couple of months. He without thinking called Vilisse, Père, asking if he'd pass the pestle as they made potions together.

The moment would have gone unnoticed by Hui'ne if Zevran hasn't almost crashed through the window in his joy, pretty much bouncing off the walls and he joined the two singsonging, "It wasn't fair that Vilisse got called father first! He had carried you in his womb for nine months and you prefer your Père over him?!"

Hui'ne wondered if he could throw himself out the same window Zevran had entered through, as the other elf continued to bemoan dramatically. A light squeeze of his thigh stopped him. Hui'ne looked over to see Vilisse's hand on his thigh and a smiling face so full of warmth and joy that made what felt like warm bubbles rise up in Hui'ne's chest before forcing them down to snap at Zevran, "If I was in your womb doesn't that make you my Madre, not Padre!?"

Zevran not missing a beat. "Don't you take that time with your Madre, young elf!"

The fallout from this news left a tavern burnt to the ground, three new conspiracy theories about nugs, and the Orlesian Court gossiping for a month.

The situation only grew worse because The Hero of Ferelden had more political sway and connections than you could shake a stick at. That half signed paperwork became legally binding and by court standards Hui'ne was legally the child of Vilisse and Zevran.

Hui'ne had an almost friendly game of tag between himself and Zevran trying to remove and destroy that paperwork.

Hui'ne drained his hot chocolate in one large swig. How does one explain that functionally they were an orphan, but legally they were the child of The Hero of Ferelden and an ex assassin from your lover's assassination guild that was STILL occasionally sending out people to try and kill them?

And they had never mentioned any of this in the almost year they had been trying to fix The Veil.

But Hui'ne saw Lucanis' shoulders start to cave in on themselves obviously dejected thinking Hui'ne was rejecting their request to meet his parents. Hui'ne stood up and walked over to the other man. He looped his arms around Lucanis' waist and rested his head on Lucanis' shoulder.

"It's not that I don't want you to meet them." Hui'ne trailed off trying to figure out how to word his next sentence. "It's just my relationship with them is complicated, and I don't know if you want me to bring that drama into your home."

Hui'ne drew back as well to lightly laugh before pressing close to press a chaste kiss to Lucanis' check and murmured,"I'd be glad to invite them. I can't promise they'll attend, but I'm sure if I tell them it's to meet my partner... They'll have to attend."

Lucanis put the coffee mug down before slowly spinning imin Hui'ne's arms. Lucanis' hands reached out to gently grasp Hui'ne's face before pressing his forehead lightly against his. "I want to know EVERYTHING about you. I want to share this Wintersend with you and your family, and share memorable moments together as a whole. Plus," He paused to draw back and smirk. "I'm sure your family can't be more dramatic than The Crows. Villa Dellamorte has seen familial drama you couldn't even imagine."

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

His grin grew larger very reminiscent of another mischievous elf as he drew back to stare at his lightly blushing partner. Hui'ne grabbed Lucanis' hands to delicately kiss the back while unable to smother his chesire grin. He wondered if his parents would be willing to stay anonymous till they walked into Villa Dellamorte during Wintersend and when they left... Would it still be standing?

Completely separate DAO playthrough note. Did I see a hint that Cullen had a crush on the warden? When we go to the circle to resolve the issues there and find Cullen, with my mage origin warden, he denied we're real and that the blood mages would try to use the warden to let his guard down. And why good sir would they use a concerned warden image to get you to lower your guard? Hmmmm?

[canipetthatdeaddove]

I wish I could understand why it's been so difficult for me to update either blog. Probably just because there's so much going on.

I'm in my 5th week of my first semester of courses - accelerated semesters. At 3 credit hours, I'm considered full-time, and jeezy creezy, it feels like it. Comms and Eco Literacy are the classes, and I feel like I've learned so much in such a short amount of time. The most intimidating thing is learning how to engage research material in an ethical and effective way. Imposter syndrome is going to be very difficult to manage, as is maintaining a high level of personal and academic integrity. I already know I have a tendency to confirm biases, so I need to be prepared to check that regularly. I cheated several times through a college-level course in high school and one of my last-semester course finals in my first go-around in college. Since then, I've learned about how to prevent myself from being in a situation where I might be tempted to cheat in the first place, etc. But I worry about myself. I always will, probably. Probably because I judge myself on a core level about being someone capable of that. That's a whole 'nother discussion.

Aside from the most intimidating thing, the most CHALLENGING thing is maintaining my schedule. Wait, back up, it's actually creating a functional schedule in the first place. A couple of weeks ago, I was 3 days late turning in an assignment because I didn't fully comprehend the timeline or number of submissions an assignment required. 50% deduction. I have precious little room for bullshit mistakes like that on accelerated courses. I'm anxious about this because I was declined funding from the Choctaw nation because in my very last semester at KU (the semester I was spiraling, and, ya know, cheating on exams) I fell below 2.0 gpa (big surprising yeah?). I know I'll manage well above that by the end of this term, but... WORRIES. ALL THE WORRIES.

Aside from school, I'm running my own SMART Recovery meeting finally, still helping out with Wellbriety (that situation has changed SO much and it's very... sobriety testing), volunteering for the PTO, volunteering my time with a native plant nursery, doing the part-time job, making and selling jewelry, still grooming and dog sitting, still gardening and landscaping...

It's so much. It's too much.

I have ended my participation in a leadership program where my "mentor" ghosted my for nearly a month. I just left the voicemail today, so I'll likely be dealing with the fallout of that tomorrow. Maybe I'll blog about it lol.

Today was also my final session with my rehab therapist, and I didn't realize it. So two mentors down in one day. And I'm kind of crushed. The one that ghosted me promised me all this help with getting my finances together, and it was, like, possibly the most valuable carrot you could have dangled in front of me. In a Long List of Things, it's The One Thing that must be tackled before I can start making my dreams come true. It's also the one problem I can't find a single source of help for. Today I went to the library to check out the library databases and just spend time in between appointments NOT BUYING BEADS AT MICHAELS CRAFT STORE and perused the finances section. Not a single book on basic budgeting. It was all how-to-get-rich stuff.

And while yeah I'm definitely taking note for, like, the FIFTH non-profit I need to create to address this educational shortcoming for adults in recovery, I would like to not have to do something entirely from the ground up. A mentor would be so, SO nice. It seems demanding or needy, but I need someone to sit with me once a week, twice a month maybe, and help me create and go over my books with me until I've gained the skill and accountability to do it myself. The credit counselor said, "You need to start with a budget."

Sir. SIR. There is a big ol' gap between where I'm at and competently creating and following a budget. There's like... many steps. And maybe most people learned those steps from a parent, or in some way had access to that education in a way that impacted their behavior patterns, but many many people did not. And from what I can tell, those folks and myself are utterly left behind by almost every program. State aid, DCF, EBT, TANF, Bridges Over Poverty, none of these government or non-profit private sector agencies provides financial literacy/competency training. I asked my regular therapist where I could start from a behavioral stand point, and while we did come to a solution-based answer by the end of the session, there were crickets for several minutes while I challenged my therapist to tell me something other than "start with a budget". I'm seeking and trying and still not gaining any ground on this. It's depressing because it's interconnected to so many other things, but just living in poverty in general. It inhibits my ability to do so much.

Anyway, there's been a lot of isolation despite being busy. I'm lonely to the max, and trying to stand up for myself lately has been draining. I'm not good at it, I never know if the timing is correct or if its justified, if I'm doing it the right way or did I just ruin a connection/friendship, etc. I can't tell if I'm being negative laying out my challenges or just being real.

I do know that I'm in full relapse-mode, and I've been mindful of the substance cravings. I have 7 days to go before I reach 1 year sobriety.

There have been good and wonderful things lately, too - took my daughter to a Bee Fest, all the lovely time spent out at Lake Cheney working with native plants, my beadwork, a glorious morning walk the other day, fall and my garden, and all the growth I've experienced.

I miss being here, though. It's such a regular part of my processing and emotional health to have my blogs, and it's largely absent right now and I feel it pretty hard. In all of this "becoming", it's hard to spend any time just "being".

The olive oil store (part time job) got robbed while I was in it. (A widow's mite. It's a xtian owned shop so of course there were widow's mites.) I'm really tired of xtian music but could dedicate a whole blog post to it XD The robbing thing was weird. Ren fest this coming weekend. Hope I get to go!

I miss you folks. I appreciate knowing that anyone is still keeping an eye out for me at all. The holidays are on the horizon and like all good bi-polars, it's time to get crazy. But I gotta try and not this year and stay stable and sober, and I should try and learn on this space for some grounding. Okay I gotta stick to that sleep schedule - sometimes its the only thing between me and oblivion lol.

[land-of-troves-and-rabbit-holes]

Powerset for a Seer of Rage

one who shares knowledge of ferocity, madness, and spite

.

Basic Rage powers: High resistance to Grimdarkness, mind control, and direct corrupting influences. They have a power multiplier that scales with their fury - their class powers, weapon durability, and all forms of attack damage grow stronger with their anger and ferocious determination.

Seer special: You can remember moments of calamity, terror, and bloodlust from alternate timelines, even though a different "you" experienced these memories. Context is up to you to interpret; there's very little you can remember beyond these scenes.

.

List of Spells

Pick 3 spells. In addition to your Rage power multiplier, their duration and potency scale with your practice, experience, and personal development.

Dread Archives: Conjure an illusory scroll with obsidian-black paper and glowing violet ink that appears as if written by an invisible pen. The scroll's writing always describes the nature of anger, fear, passion, pain, trauma, and their effects on the body and thought process. If you ask it verbal questions, or write prompts on it like an unfinished sentence, it will write in an answer in your desired detail level.

Horrific Transfiguration: Enchant an everyday object or accessory to a devilish transformation. It grows to a menacing size; levitates while chained to your hands or wrists; and grows sharp edges, jagged spikes, gnarled thorns, or another feature appropriate to your image of Rage. Your new weapon flies around as you direct it with your hands. It stays transformed for 1 minute before it reverts, harmless and brittle. As you grow, you can increase the spell's duration, lengthen the chains, and enhance the weapon's specs.

Malefic Reflexes: Draw a simple majyyk circle beneath you, speak a wicked incantation, and enter a tempered state of focus. For 6 seconds, you get highly accelerated reflexes, resistance to pain and fear, and any amount of epiphanies about how to survive this situation or fell a hated enemy. This spell has the hardest duration to extend, but a fully realized Seer of Rage could use it past the 1-minute mark.

Molten Mortar: Draw an intricate majyyk circle beneath you, and conjure six javelins dripping molten lava, each as tall as you. Each javelin flies after and homes in on a target you're angry at. They fly in a tangled yet determined path, whipping and weaving around other targets as you concentrate. The greater your battle-fervor, the faster they fly. They explode on contact.

Premonition Pyre: Set something on fire, concentrate on two people (players, Carapacians, quest monsters, etc), and gaze into the flames. Within the flickering, you can see how a fight between them is most likely to play out. You can see their relative levels of strength, how they would fight based on their usual tactics, and any abilities they normally use. The result of the fight is not absolute truth- it may change based on either person's preparations and improvement, or the circumstances of the battle.

Nightmare Walking: Sprinkle some petals or root powder - perhaps passionflower or devil's claw - around someone's shoulders, to enter their dreams. If you enter their dreams, you can create terrifying illusions and phantasms to cause a nightmare, or simply observe their dream and interpret any signs of hidden pains or fears.

Sigil of Horror: Draw a sigil on an object (like a door or a crown), smoldering black and smelling of ash. Anyone who sees this object will feel an overwhelming sense of dread, and an urgent pull towards their stress response (fight/flight/freeze/fawn). People especially susceptible to fear may see something they're afraid of instead of the object. Courageous people may resist the stress response. The effect lasts until the sigil rubs off, the object is destroyed, or 1 hour passes.

Sigil of Vehemence: Draw a sigil on your skin or an ally's skin, smoldering purple and giving off heat. The recipient will be able to think clearly in times of terror or extreme stress; get 50% resistance to heat and pressure damage; and be protected from (and aware of) intimidation magic and other powers that hijack their stress response. It lasts for 1 hour, or until the sigil rubs off.

.

Intrigue Skills

In addition to your spells, pick 1 intrigue skill.

Baleful Sixth Sense: You have a natural insight into what makes people tick, as in ticking time bomb. By observing a person, you can sense what makes them lash out, what motivates them, their hidden doubts and fears, and how they normally handle their anger. You can also tap into your power to ask more specific questions about the nature of their Rage. When you do, violet sparks trickle over the skin near your eyes and ears, and you can hear the answers in your head or see them as private visions.

Seismograph Clairvoyancy: You can sense where Rage is brewing - when people fight, hate, hold a grudge, or let their temper explode - and observe wherever it erupts via clairvoyance. When you use your clairvoyance, your five senses work as if you were there, and you quickly get insight into who's really in control, who the most dangerous threats are, and what people are truly fighting about. You can also quickly intuit the combat abilities and weapons of people you observe, even the things they don't normally use (trump cards deliberately kept hidden, taboo/kamikaze attacks, and similar).

.

"They love the mayhem more than the love."

[megamattzx]

New Frontier Character profile examples

First one: 

Name: Son Gohan Jr (or Son Gohan the third if we want to include grandpa Gohan)

Nickname (if any): Hano (distinction from the different versions of Gohan) Age: 4 Faction: Red Ribbon Army (Creation), Time Patrol  (Adopted) Alignment: Neutral Good

Race/Species: Saiyan-human hybrid Species Variant (If applicable): Universe 7 half Saiyan, half human Gender: male

Sexuality: TBD

Rank/Title (if any): none

Height: 3'9 Weight: 75 lbs

Hair Color: Black Eye Color: Black

Abilities/Skills/Transformations (if any): Ki manipulation, Latent transformations, latent power. Strengths and Weaknesses: latent potential but not currently a fight. Intelligent for his age, though naive.

Family: Son "Kakarot" Goku Jr (adopted father) Son Gohan, Goten, Beat, Basaku, and Erito (Adopted uncles), Videl and Viola (adopted Aunts), Pan (adopted Cousin), Son "Kakarot" Goku (Adopted Grandfather), Son Chi-Chi (Adopted Grandmother), Ox King (adopted maternal great-grandfather), Bardock (adopted paternal great-Grandfather), Gine (adopted paternal great-grandmother)

Mate/Spouse (if any): no, he's too young

Personality: In development, but he is a very shy and timid boy from the start.

Backstory: Gohan Jr, or Hano, was created in response to Gohan defeating Cell, Bojack, Broly the second time around, Cell Max, and Garlic Jr. After the Red Ribbon Army acquired Gohan's DNA after years of experimentation. They managed to create a perfect clone of Gohan, only for the accelerated aging not to take effect.  For four years, he was forced into grueling training exercises to be turned into a weapon against the Dragon team and team patrol. Fortunately for the boy, fate has other plans for him.

Overall Appearance:  Hano looked exactly like Gohan when he was his age, but his clothes are different from the start. He wears a dark crimson and gray version of the orange gi Gohan wore training with Piccolo. He is currently in the red ribbon army base, unaware of his true fate.

Second one: 

Name: Crimson Scarlet Red Ribbon

Nickname (if any): Commander Crimson Age: 172 (physically 24) Faction: New Red Ribbon Army, Red Ribbon pharmaceuticals, Capsule Corp (mutually beneficial partnership), Time Patrol (secret Ally) Alignment: lawful neutral leaning towards good

Race/Species:Human turned cybernetic Android Species Variant (If applicable):advanced human Gender: Male

Sexuality: Aromantic Asexual

Rank/Title (if any):  Commander of the new Red Ribbon Army. CEO of Red Ribbon Pharmaceuticals

Height: 5'9 Weight:270

Hair Color:Black Eye Color: Silver

Abilities/Skills/Transformations (if any):  superhuman strength, speed, agility and senses, ki manipulation, upgraded cybernetics.  Unreadable energy, able to use barriers. Able to command cybernetics and robotics. Immune to any and all poisons and toxins. An extremely proficient expert at weapons of various kinds.

Strengths and Weaknesses: strengths:  cunning, organized, cautious, prepared, intelligent, strategic, resourceful, has everything planned out.

Weaknesses: Can come off as egotistical and narcissistic at times even when that's not the case, overly cautious to the point where one could mistake pessimism. Cybernetics also can be a hindrance should they be disabled or damaged. Cynical. Sensitive eyes from enhancements

Family: Commander Red (Father) Magenta (Elder Brother), Violet (mother)

Mate/Spouse (if any): none.

Personality: Determined, Persistent, cynical, albeit optimistic, a visionary, always set in the future for the long term.

Backstory: Commander Crimson was born shortly before the events of the original Dragon Ball in an alternate timeline and saw the issues with the Red Ribbon Army to begin with from the very beginning at a young age. By the time Goku destroyed the Red Ribbon Army the first time, Crimson had already considered leaving the Army by making himself into an Android and gathering as much resources from the original Red Ribbon as he could as Goku was destroying the Army. Observing the other events of Dragon Ball ever since, Crimson decided to not only rebuild the Red Ribbon Army but also completely reform it from its original goal from conquering the world to simply changing the world for the better. Crimson spent the last century bidding his time building the resources across the timelines, and building the Red Ribbon Army and creating the strongest version of The Red Ribbon Army to exist in the Omniverse. This has caused him to be in turmoil with all other versions of the Army. Secretly fighting a war on multiple fronts without the Time Patrol's knowledge. Crimson is an ally operating in the shadows biting his time for the necessary moment to strike and emerge from the shadows for good working on an Android project of his own to be the Time Patrol's best assistance. What he is calling this project is currently unknown. As are the details of another project called project Mobius.

Overall Appearance: significantly older than he looks, courtesy of his enhancements, Crimson looks like a young man around the age of 24, with peach skin, medium black hair, silver eyes, a crimson suit with a black dress shirt, Scarlet tie, Crimson dressed long coat, black vest, polish black shoes and adaptive lens style sunglasses for his eyes. He also wears a dark brown Indiana Jones style Fedora

[globalnest]

Launch Your Career in Germany with VJC Overseas Resume Marketing

Are you an international professional aiming to land a job in Germany but unsure how to tailor your resume? VJC Overseas offers a comprehensive Germany Resume Marketing service designed to help you match German hiring norms, stand out to recruiters, and accelerate your job search.

Why Resumes for Germany Need a Special Approach

German employers and ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) have distinct expectations:

Clean, reverse‑chronological formats with no elaborate designs or graphics

Standard fonts (Arial, Calibri, Times New Roman) and clear section headings like "Berufserfahrung" and "Bildungsweg"

Inclusion of measurable achievements with dates and details to avoid job‑gap concerns

A professional photo is often expected, especially for traditional employers

Reverse‑chronological experience listings with detailed entry dates

No headers or footers, as ATS software might ignore them

How VJC Overseas Prepares Your Germany-Ready Resume

Custom Formatting We reformat your resume to ensure ATS compatibility and alignment with German expectations.

Keyword Optimization Relevant German-language keywords like "Projektmanagement" or "SAP-Kenntnisse" are integrated naturally.

Quantified Achievements Your resume highlights measurable results—percentages, figures, and time frames to show impact.

Language and Photo Guidance We advise on when to include a professional photo or a German-language version based on your role and sector.

Complete Application Dossier German applications may require references, certificates, or job confirmations. We help you prepare a polished bundle.

How Our Germany Resume Marketing Service Works

Profile Review & Market Fit We evaluate which industries and regions in Germany best suit your skills.

Resume & Cover Letter Build Your documents are crafted to meet German hiring standards and maximize recruiter interest.

Targeted Applications We submit strategic, tailored applications to relevant job portals and companies.

Ongoing Support Our team follows up with recruiters, tracks responses, and provides guidance throughout the process.

Choose the Right Package

1‑Month Package – Ideal for quick outreach and early interviews

2‑Month Package – Structured job search campaign with multiple submissions

3‑Month Package – A thorough, extended marketing effort with wider reach

Who Should Use This Service?

Professionals unfamiliar with German hiring norms

Candidates needing help navigating German ATS systems

Job seekers aiming for precision-targeted applications

Those who want support with photo usage, formatting, and application follow-ups

Benefits You’ll Gain

A resume that ATS systems can read and recruiters can understand

Improved visibility through optimized keywords and layout

Reduced workload with full job portal support and application tracking

Expert insight into German language preferences and document formatting

Get Started Today

Book a free profile evaluation

Select your resume marketing timeline

Receive expert-crafted documents

Let our team manage your outreach while you prepare for interviews

[ims-unison-university]

Top Benefits of Choosing an LLM One-Year Course After Your LLB

If you're a law graduate wondering what’s next after your LLB, you're not alone. With the legal landscape becoming more competitive and specialized, many students are now opting for a one-year LLM course. It's fast, focused, and incredibly valuable, especially for those eager to advance their careers without spending an additional two years in school.

Let’s explore why the LLM one-year course is emerging as a smart and strategic choice for recent LLB graduates.

Understanding the One-Year LLM Format

The LLM one-year course is a postgraduate degree designed for law graduates who want to deepen their expertise in a particular area of law. Unlike the traditional two-year format, this version is intensive but more time-efficient, allowing students to complete their postgraduation in just 12 months.

It is recognized by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in India and is offered by several reputed law schools across the country.

Saves Time Without Compromising on Quality

The most obvious advantage is time.

In today’s fast-moving legal industry, losing two years to higher education might not feel practical for everyone. The LLM one-year course is structured to deliver a full curriculum in a compact timeline. This means you graduate faster and enter the workforce sooner without compromising on academic depth or professional growth.

You cover intensive modules, participate in case studies, conduct research, and even intern within the span of a year. That’s time well spent.

Enhances Career Opportunities in Law and Beyond

With an LLM in hand, you become eligible for a wider array of roles both in India and abroad. Specialised legal knowledge allows you to move beyond the generalist roles often offered to fresh LLB graduates.

Whether it’s corporate law, intellectual property rights, constitutional law, or international law, the one-year format allows you to focus on your area of interest and gain mastery over it.

This opens doors to:

Legal advisory roles in MNCs

Legal consulting firms

Judicial services preparation

Academic and research positions

NGOs and policy think tanks

Offers Specialisation in a Chosen Legal Field

Most one year LLM courses come with multiple specialisations such as Business Law, Human Rights Law, Criminal Law, and Environmental Law. This flexibility allows students to align their education with their career goals.

Specialising helps set you apart in a crowded job market. Recruiters are more likely to prefer a candidate with clear expertise in a domain rather than someone with broad but shallow legal exposure.

Builds Research and Analytical Skills

Unlike the LLB, which is more about understanding the fundamentals of law, an LLM especially the one year program, has a significant emphasis on research. You’ll work on dissertations, write papers, and participate in debates, seminars, and legal workshops.

This deep academic engagement sharpens your analytical thinking, argumentation, and writing skills. These are assets that are indispensable in any legal career.

Better ROI with Lower Cost and Higher Career Payoff

Compared to a two-year program, a one-year LLM often comes with lower tuition fees and living costs. You save on an entire year's worth of expenses while accelerating your earning potential.

It’s a win-win with less cost and more career value. In a time where students and families are increasingly weighing the return on education, the LLM one-year course stands out as a cost-effective choice.

Boosts Your Global and Cross-Border Career Aspirations

Planning to work with international firms or study abroad? A one-year LLM can enhance your profile significantly. Many global law firms and academic institutions value postgraduates who’ve specialized and demonstrated commitment to legal scholarship.

Some LLM one-year programs even offer global exposure, joint research projects, or guest lectures by international faculty.

Flexibility and Career Switching Options

Already working in a law firm or corporate house? The LLM one-year course gives you a chance to either switch legal domains or even transition into academic, policy, or research-based careers.

This flexibility is particularly useful if you started your career in litigation but want to shift to corporate law. A short, targeted program helps bridge that gap efficiently.

A Perfect Fit for Competitive Exams and Judicial Services

An LLM degree not only strengthens your legal knowledge but also boosts your preparation for judicial services exams or NET for lectureship. Several aspirants pursue a one-year LLM to gain the academic edge required to clear these exams.

If you’re planning a future in academics or public legal services, this course offers the right foundation.

Why IMS Unison University Stands Out

If you're looking for a one-year LLM course in Dehradun, IMS Unison University (IUU) offers one of the most reputable programs in the region. The School of Law at IUU is known for its:

Specialisation-rich curriculum

Experienced faculty with academic and industry backgrounds

Focus on practical exposure through internships, moot courts, and research workshops

Excellent infrastructure, including modern legal research labs and digital libraries

Strong placement support and career mentoring

The university ensures that students graduate not just with a degree but with confidence, clarity, and direction.

Conclusion

Choosing an LLM one-year course after your LLB is a strategic decision that can redefine your career path. From saving time and money to gaining specialised skills and enhancing employability, the benefits are hard to ignore.

And if you want to make this journey truly rewarding, a reputed institution like IMS Unison University in Dehradun offers the environment, curriculum, and mentorship you need to thrive in the legal world.

Ready to step into the next chapter of your legal career? The right time might just be now.