#wilde n stein

[commiepinkofag]

Saving Houston’s LGBTQ history through thousands of hours of radio archives

1984 Houston Pride Parade 📷 JD Doyle

For years, hundreds of fragile cassette tapes sat quietly aging in a storage locker in Houston, Texas. Each plastic case contained hours of radio shows, made for and by LGBTQ people. The first shows aired in the mid-1970s. They continued, off and on, for more than 30 years -- a period that included the AIDS crisis, the women’s liberation movement and the rise of LGBT civil rights. A pair of archivists, Emily Vinson and Bethany Scott, have been working on preserving the programs, thousands of hours of them, online. … The shows aired on KPFT (90.1), Houston’s Pacifica station. One of them, Wilde ‘n’ Stein (named for Oscar Wilde and Gertrude Stein) started in 1975 and ran through the early 1990s. A late night show, After Hours, ran from 1987 until the early 2000s. … Over the years, the producers and hosts of these radio shows brought their listeners live street coverage of Pride parades, music that celebrated LGBTQ experiences and interviews with city council members, activists, local arts luminaries, and public health officials. Because it was on the radio, often late at night, closeted people could listen quietly and discreetly, without the fear of discovery that printed material might bring. Carl Han, a young Vietnamese-American, listened to the station’s LGBT programming at the lowest possible volume, as he told the radio show After Hours in 1992. “That’s how I discovered the Montrose [LGBT] community,” he said. “At the age of 15, I hit upon KPFT one night and turned it down real low so no one can hear.” He would go on to be a leading local activist, who at the time of the broadcast was the secretary of Asians and Friends, a community group serving Houston’s LGBTQ Asian Americans. Such content came as a revelation to 20-year-old Andrea Hoang. As an undergraduate at the University of Houston, one of her campus jobs was to help digitize and transcribe the shows. Hoang, who identifies as queer, was thrilled to discover the voices of Asian-American activists, including Han and After Hours host Vivian Lee, in broadcasts from before she was born. “They had so many people of color coming onto this show and spearheading these local movements,” she marvels, adding that she also loved learning about the vibrant LGBT music played on the programs so much, she made this Spotify playlist honoring it. The digitization of this audio history, says Vinson, would not be possible without three Houstonians who safeguarded the cassettes for so many years. Judy Reeves co-founded the Gulf Coast Archive and Museum of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender History. JD Doyle maintains an extensive website documenting local LGBT history. Jimmy Carper was a longtime host and producer of After Hours. …

Neda Ulaby | NPR | June 4, 2024

More On NPR >

Listen to Andrea Hoang's archive-inspired Spotify Playlist

[mytheoristavenue]

I just refound my hyperfixation with franken stein from soul eater and was wondering if you would write nsfw stein/maid! Reader?

Sure, thanks for the ask, and sorry for the wait!

SE Franken Stein x Maid!Reader 🍋 - Commands

Summary: Your new employer decides to correct you after finding your service to not be up to his standards.

Warning: Rough, unprotexted sex, hard dom!stein, sub!reader, fem!reader, service!sub, kinda short

"(Y/N)," your employer called, prompting you to toddle over to him in the kitchen. "How many times am I going to have to correct you before you can do things correctly?" he asked ominously, cocking his head a bit and erecting his arm to crank the bolt lodged in his temple.

"Apologies, sir," you mumbled. "What was it that I did wrong?"

"Taste this." he ordered, shoving a mug in your face. Hesitantly, you took in by its handle and took a sip, instantly grimacing at the taste.

"Tea?" you whispered under your breath, confused. Why was there tea in the coffee canister?

"Correct. And what did I ask for?" His confirmation startled you, as you hadn't anticipated him hearing you.

"Coffee, sir." you answered shamefully, setting the cup down to go make him a fresh cup. "Apologies."

"That won't be enough this time," you could here his teeth grind when he spoke, making your skin crawl as he grabbed you by the wrist to pull you back to him. "I'm going to teach you a lesson this time."

-----

"Watch those teeth or you'll lose them." he commanded down to you as you diligently sucked him off, making sure to take everything he said straight to heat, lest you screw up again. "That's better." He purred, holding your head still in an effort to fuck your throat more comfortably. Stein leaned against the refrigerator tiredly, his head tilted back against it, not only out of bliss, but exhaustion. He'd had a long day and he didn't have the energy to look after you to make sure you did things properly.

"If you were half as good at you job as you are at sucking dick, we might just get along." he remarked with a throaty chuckle. "But you're not, so I guess this is all your good for." You took in his displeased words as they went straight to your heat. You wanted so desperately to sink your fingers into your core while you pleasured him, letting his distain for you ag you on, but you knew better. Stein was a cold, uncaring man, and you knew for a fact that if Death himself hadn't appointed you to keep his lab clean, you'd be on the streets.

Suddenly, you felt a harsh slap deliver to your cheek, causing you to withdrawal from him, alarmed. "Teeth." he reminded.

"S-Sorry," you whined, brows knitted together shyly as you gazed up at him.

"God, you're pathetic." he moaned, releasing a shaky breath as you licked a stripe up his shaft. "Either you're such a little snowflake that you're going to cry over one little slap, or you're getting pleasure from this." he noted breathlessly, before pressing his palm to your forehead and pushing you to the floor. "Either way, that I'm not going to let that happen." He growled, approaching you, and manhandling you off the ground.

-----

You whined hopelessly as the man of the house held you as you were laid out on the kitchen table, fucking into your weeping whole like he hated you, and in many ways, he did. You vexed him constantly with your sickeningly sweet tone, your stupid mistakes, and the way you said things that drove him wild, entirely unintentionally. He gripped your thigh tighter, your leg half hazard slung over his shoulder, while the other dangled off the table.

"Dick dumb little whore," he grunted, sweat dripping off his brow and landing on your uniform. "Can't even make a simple cup of fucking coffee."

Your face felt numb, and you struggled to form a single coherent thought as he pounded you into the table, simply uttering choked attempts at his title. "Y-Yes, sir..."

"Fuck," he groaned as your walls clenched around him, squeezing for all he was worth. "Better not fucking cum, I swear to God, I'll hurt you so bad." His threats did nothing to stop your climax from washing over you. If anything, they made it stronger, the thought of all the ways he could harm you tasting delicious in your mind. Your pelvis rose off the table as your legs began to tremble, your gross noises spilling into the air, pissing him off even more. "God, you can't do anything fucking thing I tell you, can you?"

You neglected to answer him, simply laying limp against the cold surface, you eyes rolled back and drool dribbling down your chin from your ajar lips. "Don't think that just because you came I'm gonna stop," he warned, tossing your leg off him and gripping your hips as harshly as he could, fingernails digging crescent moons into your supple flesh.

"Gonna fuck you until you learn your Goddamn lesson."

[bugs1nmybrain]

Stein NSFW Alphabet Headcanons (Minors Don’t Interact)

Warnings: NSFW (Minors go away!), fem-reader, rough sex, pain play 

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

You’re definitely going to need some aftercare after tangoing with this guy. Stein may seem like the type to just leave you to care for yourself, but he’s pretty considerate. He’ll check you for marks (or possible cuts) and bring you a drink. 

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

He enjoys his entire body because it’s all a potential experiment subject to him, and the same goes for you. If he was forced to pick, it would probably be your lower back and ass. He loves to place his hands on this area a lot, and he’ll grab your ass at unexpected times to tease you.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

LOVES cumming on your tits. It looks so ravishing to him. Sometimes he enjoys doing it on your ass, too. His cum is actually pretty discolored and gross tasting. He’s a smoker after all.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

I’m sure this is a no-brainer, but this man has a deep desire to dissect everything and anything. You are no exception. As much as he cares about you, he wants to dismember you so fucking bad. It turns him on just thinking about it. 

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

Fairly experienced. His experience mostly comes from the couple of partners that he’s had and even some one-night stands. He knows what he’s doing for sure. He’s very meticulous with his technique. It comes pretty natural to him, you’ll be cumming sooner than you’d expect with this guy. 

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

He’s tall as fuck, so either doggy or girl on-top is the best for him. Missionary is really awkward and essentially impossible because of his height. 

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

He likes to poke fun at you all the goddamn time and will tease you all throughout it. 

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

He trims it a little but doesn’t shave all the way. It’s grey like his hair, maybe a little darker in shade. 

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

Honestly not very intimate. He’s the type that’s straightforward and likes to get down to business.  He’ll get a little sensual for sure, but he’s not romantic.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

He does it an average amount. He’s a little too focused on work or his experiments to think about jacking off but if he’s feeling horny he’ll whip it out and get the job done. Usually, he doesn’t need porn, but he has some pretty wild fantasies when he’s jacking off. 

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

There are two big kinks of his. 

One is knife play. With his little dissection fetish, this comes as no surprise. But he KNOWS that most people aren’t going to want to be cut open when having sex. He’ll compromise by simply fucking the life out of you instead. In his mind he’s rearranging your insides, which is close enough. 

The second is doctor/patient roleplay. Of course, he’s the doctor. He likes using it as an excuse to grope your body and uh..inspect you. 

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

His lab, of course. Usually on his desk. He loves pounding you so hard that his supplies fall off. 

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

You alone do, and especially if you tease him. Wear something skimpy and he’s inside of you in an instant. Showing off your skin makes him want to dissect you so fucking bad. 

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

He’s game for pretty much anything, but he will not do anything involving scat. That’s just fucking nasty.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

He likes receiving more. Seeing you choke on his cock is so beautiful to him. He’ll reciprocate, though. Kinda hates it only because he can’t smoke when he’s doing it, but your juices and scent are enough to sell him into doing it. 

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

He’s pretty rough, to be honest. But he’s not just fast for the sake of it. He likes pumping in and out deep to make sure that he can thoroughly feel your pussy. 

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

Appreciates quickies a lot, but he likes a thorough experiment, too. Quickies often come when he’s in a rush to get to class, or just wants a quick orgasm. 

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

Risk? Experiment? Sign him the fuck up. He’ll fuck you however you’d like. He loves trying new things and fucking you in so many different ways. The only thing he wouldn’t risk is doing it in the classroom. He doesn’t want his students to see that. He admittedly would find it humorous if Spirit walked in on you two, though. 

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

He can go for some time. His refractory period is actually relatively quick, so he’ll go for maybe two or three rounds if you guys are feeling up to it. 

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

He owns quite a bit, actually. He uses them on you more than himself, though. His personal favorites are nipple clamps and vibrators. Anything that provides you with optimal stimulation. 

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

He loves to tease you so much. He’ll have you waiting a whole fucking day sometimes, saying seductive things to you, telling you how sexy you are, but he won’t touch you until HE wants to. He’ll have you begging. 

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

Not loud, but he’ll produce some grunts. If he’s feeling very good you’ll get a few moans from him.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

He’d love you if you let him ash on your ass.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

He’s a big guy. About 7 inches, and kinda thick as well. He has some veins going on, too. Also, he has a stitch around his cock. His penis isn’t excluded from his experiments. 

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

Average. Sometimes it really depends on where he is mentally. When he’s losing touch with reality, his sex drive is understandably pretty low. When he’s at base-line though, he’s pretty much game to fuck whenever you are. 

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

He doesn’t really get tired after cumming, you’ll have to persuade him to go to bed with you. 

[dramaticweathergirl]

This is a draft for the gen z! Yuu fic that I was thinking of writing back then. Here's the draft of it instead of letting it rot im my laptop lol. Enjoy...?

----

Yuu swear that whatever the fuck is happening to them right now, is a punishment from god because...What the actual fuck?

"influencer pranks these days are getting out of hand" They mutter to themself, mentally done at whatever bullshit is happening right now.

Yuu's in a box. Not just any box though, it's a coffin, they're trapped in a god-damned coffin. Today was supposed to be a normal Tuesday, Yuu wakes up, eat breakfast and go to school. But instead, what happen was their sleep-deprived ass got snatched up in the middle of the streets by an emo carriage.

Yuu was kidnapped by an emo carriage and is now trapped in a coffin.

Gee, they wonder if that even is a considerable reason for them to miss the Calculus exam that was supposed to take place today. Ah, fuck it, Jason's grandma "died" literally like five times last school year and still graduated. Who's to say Yuu won't?

"Hello?? Uh, I know this shitty type of content is what getting y'all cash nowadays but what the fuck? please let me out, I promise I won't sue y'all or create a call-out post on Twitte-I mean X! X!"

"..."

"hello?"

"..."

"Fuck it, I'll just kick the door down"

---

Dire Crowley, the esteemed headmaster of Night Raven College, is in a wild and confusing predicament right now. Somehow, a month before even the new school year officially began, A student somehow arrived in of the coffins.

In all of his years being the headmaster, such thing had never happened. Great sevens, this situation had never once even crossed his mind as a potential problem! Did the Ebony carriage have a problem? Perhaps even the mirror itself? But both of that would be impossible!

"goodness gracious, where is that child" he muttered to himself, a hint of worry lacing his voice.

Dire Crowley was just finishing his stack of paperwork when a distressed and confused ghost school keeper barged into his office informing him that one of the coffins received a student. The headmaster rushed to the scene right away only to find a busted coffin and a missing "student".

This all leads to him, along with squad of ghosts, scurrying along the school grounds to find the wayward child.

"Headmaster! I found them!" Bobby, one of the ghost staff that manages the cafeteria, shouted with glee and relief "they're at the top floor of west wing's tower!"

He hurriedly rushed (again) to the scene and found the teen in a complete daze, their eyes focused on the ocean's horizon. Crowley cleared his throat and the supposed student immediately snapped their attention on him.

"The island view is breathtaking, correct?" Crowley began, trying to ease them "it's one of the boasting qualities of N-"

"..island...stein.." they mumbled something but Crowley only manages to make out a few words.

"par–"

"DON'T FUCKING TELL ME I'M TRAFFICKED TO AN EIPSTEIN ISLAND-TYPE OF SHIT"

[incorrect-murderdrones]

ANDDD WE HAVE A QUOTE MASTERPOST! ALL QUOTES BELONG TOO: @the-island-of-quotes HAVE FUN AND FOLLOW THAT PERSON :D -Mod Kai

N: This is what Victor would look like if he was doctor Seuss.

Uzi: There's a socket in my pocket, maybe this will help me fix my sprocket.

Uzi: It's not a 5, or a 6, or a 10, I have seem to have lost all of those again.

Uzi: And when it comes to wrenches, it seems all of them have disappeared off my fucking work benches.

Uzi: So even though there is a socket in my pocket I can't even use it to fix my fucking sprocket

*Next day*

Uzi: Another tool another day, I dropped some more shit in this fucking engine bay.

Uzi: But it's okay because I bought this car to get from point A to point B.

Uzi: And after one week of ownership I'm kinda hoping this thing gets crushed by a fucking tree.

Uzi: I've wanted to sell this car since week one, but nobody wants to buy it when it has every problem under the sun.

Uzi: This car will just remain broken and collect some dust, and eventually this piece of shit will start collecting rust.

Uzi: But at this point I don't really care! I have the time, nor money or energy to try and repair.

Uzi: I'm just gonna say fuck this, and sell this shit on craigslist to some guy named Chris.

______________________________________________________________

V: I now proudly present, the life and times of earnest Hemingway in aproxamently 3 and a half minutes. GO! Born in Chicago in 1899, son of a physician and a musician, reasonably uneventful childhood, decided to study Journalism. Enlisted with the Red Cross during World War I, got BLOWN up in Milan and spent 6 months in hospital with severe shrapnel wounds in both legs. Fell in love with a nurse, they decided to get married. He came home to prepare, she stayed there and ditched him for an Italian soldier, which initiated a life long pattern of him rejecting women before they had a chance to reject him. Got a job as a foreign correspondent, fell in love with his roommates' sister, married her and moved to Paris. They hung out with Gertrude Stein. They kicked it with Pablo Picasso. He started writing in earnest, no pun intended. Moved to Toronto, had a kid, moved back to Paris, published a couple of books. Cheated on his wife, got divorced, married the other woman. Converted to Catholicism... Cut his head open after pulling on a cord thinking he was flushing a toilet and instead ripped a skylight from the roof and smashed it onto HIS FACE! Moved to Kansas City, had another kid, his dad committed suicide, he shot a lot of bears for some reason. Had a car accident, had another kid, went to Africa to kill some wild animals and got dysentery karma! Published another book, moved to Cuba, SHOT HIMSELF IN THE LEG WHILST AIMING AT A SHARK! Cheated on his wife, got divorced, married the other woman. Published "For Whom the Bell Tolls," sold half a million copies in a couple of months and got nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Cheated on his wife, got divorced, married the other woman. Became the self appointed leader of a band of village Militia outside of Paris and was subsequently brought up on charges for contravening the Geneva Convention, and GOT AWAY WITH IT LIKE A FUCKING CHAMPION! Got pneumonia, moved back to Cuba and spent most of his spare time on his boat TRACKING NAZI U-BOATS WITH A MACHINE GUN AND A PILE OF HAND GRENADES I AM NOT MAKING THIS SHIT UP! Had a few more car accidents, three more concussions, got CLAWED WHILE PLAYING WITH A LION... Got depressed, drank. Got fat, published a couple more books, went back to Africa to shoot some more wild animals, and barely survived two separate plane crashes in the space of 24 hours, winding up with a fractured skull, internal bleeding, cracked spine, ruptured liver, first degree burns, and a paralyzed sphincter muscle karma! Won a Nobel Prize, had a file opened on him by J. Edgar Hoover, left a bunch of shit in a safe in Cuba and moved to Idaho, paranoid that the feds were following him WHICH THEY WERE BECAUSE HE SPENT MOST OF THE 1940S WORKING FOR THE KGB, AGAIN NOT MAKING THIS SHIT UP! Suffered from hepatitis, nephritis, hypertension, hemochromatosis, anemia and impotence, karma. Got committed, received way too much electroconvulsive therapy and came out all fucked up, started hinting at suicide so immediately got recommitted, received another couple of months worth of electroconvulsive therapy, got released, put both barrels of his favorite 12-gauge shotgun into his mouth and BLEW HIS FUCKING HEAD OFF! WHAT A GUY!

______________________________________________________________

N: Welcome to applebees! What'll it be? Apples or bees? Congrats, you get bees!!!

______________________________________________________________

Doll: Now that I've added the milk to the cereal tell me, is that milk now a beverage, a broth, or a sauce? Answer carefully Khan, you're wife's life depends on it!

______________________________________________________________

Uzi: If the conspiracies about life being a simulation are true whoever is controlling my Sim I JUST WANNA TALK!!

______________________________________________________________

N: Do you think god stays in heaven because he too fears what he's created? That's a quote from Spy Kids 2 have you ever seen it it's like peak cinema.

______________________________________________________________

Uzi: Who needs sleep when you run on equal parts NyQuil and Methamphetamine?

______________________________________________________________

V: Just remember Uzi people die when they are killed!

______________________________________________________________

V: Ha! You're pointless!

Doll: Thirty nine buried.

*Gunshot*

Doll: Zero found

______________________________________________________________

N: Which one of you was gonna tell me tea tastes different if you put in hot water?

Uzi: Y- you we're putting it in cold water???????

V: N. Answer the question N!

N: Yeah??? I thought for like five years people just put it in hot water to speed up the tea-ification process, didn't realize there was an actual reason.

J: You don't have the patience to microwave water for three minutes??

Doll: Why are you. Putting it in the microwave to boil it?

J: Do you think I have the patience to boil water on the stove?

Doll: It takes less than a minute!

J: Doll is your stove powered by the fucking sun!?

Doll: How long does it take to boil a cup of water on your stove?

J: LIKE SEVEN MINUTES!

Doll: Just stick the mug on top of the stove on medium heat and it boils in two minutes, less if you use a saucepan.

Lizzy: Crying your putting the whole mug on the stove??? On medium heat??? Your stove is enchanted!

Uzi: Every drone in this exoplanet is a fucking idiot.

Cyn: DO NONE OF YOU OWN A FUCKING KETTLE!?!?! REMEMBER TO FOLLOW: @the-island-of-quotes AS THEY OWN THESE QUOTES :D

[polytherianism]

INTRO POST

hello all my name is polytherianism or pandora, i am alterhuman in many ways including being a polytherian and being a nonhuman system member. my main pronouns are he/they/aer/xe/zombz and i use masculine terms.

system side blog = @pandorasboxsys

main nonhuman labels;

other-hearted

polytherian

nonhuman system member

otherkin + fictionkin

funlink + copinglink

more about me;

bodily 19

t4t + likes queer men

intersex / FTM / GNC

on T — planning top surgery

CDD system — trait specific PD

tagging system;

pandora.txt = text posts

pandora.img = images

pandora.ids = identities

pandora.vents = vents and rants

pandora.rbs = reblogs

more info under the cut~

otherhearted; 16

puppy hearted; 6

dalmation, german shepherd, great dane, australian shepherd, saint bernard, belgian malinois

rabbit hearted; 2

lop eared rabbit, pygmy rabbit

otter hearted; 2

sea otter, giant otter

bat hearted; 6

fruit bat, canyon bat, giant golden-crowned flying fox, common vampire bat, painted bat, northern ghost bat

theriotypes; 19

feline; 8

lion, panther, lynx, domestic cat, wild cat, cheetah, tiger, sand cat

canine; 6

bat eared fox, island fox, true fox, red fox, arctic fox, african wild dog

ursine; 4

sun bear, brown bear, giant panda, sloth bear

procyon; 1

raccoon

funlinks; 4

macaque monkey, spider monkey, lioness, poison dart frog

copinglinks; 3

dragon, humanoid, advanced AI tv head

otherkins; 10

AI, angel, bat, lemur, owl, goat, python, seal, frog, dinosaur

fictionkins; 26

1. musicfluid troll (trolls)

2. cheshire cat (alice in wonderland)

3. eeyore (winnie the pooh)

4. fizzarolli (HH/HB)

5. robotic fizzarolli (HH/HB)

6. max (max n ruby)

7. spike (MLP)

8. ellisabat (MH)

9. twyla boogieman (MH)

10. venus mcflytrap (MH)

11. wydowna spider (MH)

12. frankie stein (MH)

13. ghoulia yelps (MH)

14. scarah screams (MH)

15. rochelle goyle (MH)

16. abbey bominable (MH)

17. cerise hood (EAH)

18. C.A. cupid (MH/EAH)

19. gigi grant (MH)

20. kitty cheshire (EAH)

21. madeline hatter (EAH)

22. raven queen (EAH)

23. luci (disenchantment)

24. mora (disenchantment)

25. shiny umbreon (pokemon)

26. enderman (minecraft)

all nonhuman identities unorganized; 104

dalmation, great dane, german shepherd, australian shepherd, saint bernard, melgian malinois, lop eared rabbit, pygmy rabbit, sea otter, giant otter, fruit bat, canyon bat, giant golden-crowned flying fox, common vampire bat, painted bat, northern ghost bat, ring railed lemur, barn owl, snowy owl, true owl, fainting goat, kamori goat, american pygmy goat, dutch landrace goat, green tree python, classic python, earless seal, poison dart frog, pacman frog, glass frog, red eyed tree frog, rain frog, indian bullfrog, fire bellied toad, triceratops, stegosaurus, apatosaurus, archaeopteryx, transvaal lion, barbary lion, black panther, snow leopard, malayan tiger, canadian lynx, bobcat, african wild cat, cheetah, bat eared fox, island fox, true fox, red fox, arctic fox, african wild dog, sun bear, brown bear, giant panda, raccoon, macaque monkey, spider monkey, siamese cat, british shorthair cat, maine coon cat, ragdoll cat, sphinx cat, scottish fold cat, bombay cat, siberian cat, norwegian forest cat, russian blue cat, munchkin cat, oriental shorthair cat, egyptian mau cat, selkirk rex cat, havana brown cat, showshoe cat, lykoi cat, bengal cat, cornish rex cat, scottish fold cat, toyger cat, persian cat, singapura cat, mosaic axolotl, chimera axolotl, albino axolotl, raven, phoenix, sand cat, sloth bear, indian giant squirrel, platypus, giant glider, necrocat, humanoid, dragon, tv head advanced AI, angel, skulldog, skullcat, skullbat, manokit, dumbo octopus, ocelot, calico critter, luna moth

[satoshi-mochida]

Some games on the PSN New Year Sale. Ends February 1st.

13 Sentinels

Actraiser: Renaissance

Afterimage

AI: The Somnuim Files

ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos

Anima: Gate of Memories

ANONYMOUS;CODE

Arcade Spirits

Ary and the Secret of Seasons

A Space for the Unbound

Assault Suit Lynos

Bayonetta and Vanquish

Buried Stars

Castlevania Anniversary Collection

Chaos;Child

Coffee Talk

Coffee Talk 2

Control

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

Cris Tales

Cross Code

Cult of the Lamb

Cyber Citizen Shockman

Cyberdimension Neptunia

Danganronpa 1-2 Reload

Danganronpa V3

Darkwood

Death end reQuest

Death end reQuest 2

Devil May Cry HD Collection

Digimon Survive

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT

DJ Max Respect

Double Dragon Gaiden

Dragon Ball FighterZ

Dragon Ball Xenoverse

Dragon Ball Xenoverse/Xenoverse 2 Bundle

Dusk Diver

Earth Defense Force 5

Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain

Exoprimal

Fallen Legion: Sins of an Empire

Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition

Final Fantasy XV: Comrades

Freedom Planet

Ghost n Goblins Resurection

Ghost Trick

Giga Wrecker Alt.

Ginga Force

Goat Simulator

Goat Simulator 3

God Eater Resurection

God Eater 3

Gravity Rush Remastered

Grim Fandango Remastered

Gungrave G.O.R.E.

Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X

Horizon: Zero Dawn

I Am Setsuna

In Nightmare

Jak and Daxter

Jak II

Jak 3

Jak x: Combat Racing

Kaze and the Wild Masks

Kerbal Space Program

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix

Kingdom Hearts 2.8

Labyrinth of Zangetsu

Laika: Aged Through Blood

Legend of Mana

Light Fairytale Episode 1

Light Fairytale Episode 2

Like a Dragon: Ishin

Little Nightmares

Little Nightmares 2

Little Witch Academia: Chamber of TIme

Lock's Quest

Lost in Random

Lost Judgment

Made in Abyss; Binary Star Falling Into Darkness

Maglam Lord

Mary Skelter Finale

MediEvil

Metal Gear Solid 5

Metal Max Zeno Reborn

Mirror's Edge Catalyst

Monster Hunter Rise

Mr. Driller DrillLand

My Aunt is a Witch

My Hero: One's Justice

Several Naruto games

Neverending Nightmares

Ni no Kuni 2

Obliteracers

Omega Quintet

Several One Piece games

Oninaki

Our World is Ended.

Owlboy

Persona 4 Ultimax

Persona 5 Royal

Potion Permit

Praey for the Gods

Pumpkin Jack

Raging Loop

Relayer

Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Prophecy of the Throne

Several Resident Evil games

River City: Rival Showdown

Romancing SaGa 2

Romancing SaGa 3

Root Film

Root Letter

SaGa Fronter Remastered

SaGa Scarlet Grace

Sakura Wars(PS4)

Samurai Shodown

Scribblenauts Mega Pack

Secret of Mana

Sega Gensis Classics

Simulacra

Skul: The Hero Slayer

Slender: The Arrival

Song of Memories

Sonic Frontiers

Sonic Superstars

Steins; Gate

Steins; Gate 0

Steins; Gate: My Darling's Embrace

Super Bobmerman R

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD

Super Night Riders

Sword of the Vagrant

Taiko no Tetsujin: Drum Session

Tales of Zestiria

Tembo the Badass Elephant

The Evil Within

Several King of Fighters games

Valkyria Chronicles 4

Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story

Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story 2

Various Daylife

Warborn

When the Past was Around

Yakuza 3 Remastered

Yakuza 4 Remastered

Yakuza 5 Remastered

Zanki Zero

[most-stylish-competition]

Most Stylish Competition official bracket!

list under bracket since the image quality died

List:

Group1/2:

Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic series) VS. Sans (Undertale)

Mel Medarda (Arcane) VS. Sailor Pluto (Sailor Moon)

Kairi (Kingdom Hearts) VS. ENA (ENA)

Shinji Hirako (Bleach) VS. Kim Dokja (Omniscient Reader)

Gyorik "York" Rogdul (Drawtectives) VS. Eugene Finch (Drawtectives)

Elliot Goss (Search Party) VS. The Weird Guy (The Hollow)

Draculaura (Monster High) VS. Frankie Stein (Monster High)

Stede Bonnet (Our Flag Means Death) VS. Manfred Von Karma (Ace Attorney)

Group1:

Team Rocket (Pokémon) VS. winner of 1/2.1

Papyrus (Undertale) VS. Waluigi (Super Mario Bros)

Mettaton (Undertale) VS. Hatsune Miku (Vocaloid)

Cecil (Welcome to Nightvale) VS. Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way (My Immortal)

Winnie the Pooh (Winnie the Pooh) VS. Ryan Evans (High School Musical)

The Onceler (The Lorax) VS. Harry Dubois (Disco Elysium)

Fred Jones (Scooby-Doo) VS. Hunter (The Owl House)

Teruki "Teru" Hanazawa (Mob Psycho 100) VS. Shigeo Kageyama (Mob Psycho 100)

Group2:

Ciel Phantomhive (Black Butler) VS. winner of 1/2.2

Yor Forger (Spy x Family) VS. Morticia Addams (The Addams Family)

Miss Piggy (Muppets) VS. Rarity (My Little Pony)

Dr. Facilier (Princess and the Frog) VS. Yzma (Emperor's New Groove)

Marz (I Was A Teenage Exocolonist) VS. Scaramouche (Genshin Impact)

Lelouch (Code Geass) VS. Consul Valerius (Arcana)

Sensei Garmadon (Ninjago) VS. Taako (The Adventure Zone)

Mitsuba Sousuke (Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun) VS. Rias Gremory (High School DxD)

Group3:

Mizuki Akiyama (Project Sekai) VS. winner of 1/2.3

Alex Fierro (Magnus Chase) VS. Luz Noceda (The Owl House)

Pearl Houzuki (Splatoon) VS. Gumi (Vocaloid)

Dr. Starline (Sonic series) VS. Jinafire Long (Monster High)

Noctis Lucis Caelum (Final Fantasy XV) VS. Ratchet (Ratchet & Clank)

Frank N Furter (Rocky Horror Show) VS. Dean Pelton (Community)

Eddie Munson (Stranger Things) VS. Eleven Hopper (Stranger Things)

Gonzo (Muppets) VS. Gyro Zeppeli (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)

Group4:

Carmen Sandiego (Carmen Sandiego) VS. winner of 1/2.4

Red Hood (DC Comics) VS. Nightwing (DC Comics)

Professor Venomous (OKKO Let's Be Heroes) VS. Noisemaster (Cucumber Quest)

Inspector Cabanela (Ghost Trick) VS. Shelby Presipence (Plainview)

Miles Edgeworth (Ace Attorney) VS. Akutagawa Ryuunosuke (Bungou Stray Dogs)

Coco Adel (RWBY) VS. Espresso Cookie (Cookie Run Kingdom)

Susie Greene (Curb Your Enthusiasm) VS. Boyd Crowder (Justified)

Al Calavicci (Quantum Leap) VS. The Obituary Writer (Death By Dying)

Group5:

Lewis Pepper (Mystery Skulls) VS. winner of 1/2.5

Kuranosuke Koibuchi (Princess Jellyfish) VS. Nana "Hachi" Komatsu (Nana)

Eda Clawthorne (The Owl House) VS. Lilith Clawthorne (The Owl House)

Darius Deamonne (The Owl House) VS. Sanji (One Piece)

Link (Zelda: Breath of the Wild) VS. Spock (Star Trek)

Apollo (Hades) VS. Zagreus (Hades)

Rhonda Wellington Lloyd (Hey Arnold) VS. Malfina (Conneticut Clark)

Kanaya Maryam (Homestuck) VS. Daphne Blake (Scooby-Doo)

Group6:

Steven Stone (Pokémon) VS. winner of 1/2.6

Yuki Rurikawa (Act! Addict! Actors!) VS. Nikki (Love Nikki Dress Up Queen)

Bruno Bucciarati (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) VS. Padme Amidala (Star Wars)

Zhongli (Genshin Impact) VS. Franziska Von Karma (Ace Attorney)

Klavier Gavin (Ace Attorney) VS. Saul Goodman (Better Call Saul)

Grillby (Undertale) VS. Spades Slick (Homestuck)

Prosciutto (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) VS. Kira Yoshikage (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure)

Mr. Compress (My Hero Academia) VS. Swatch (Deltarune)

Group7:

Loki (Marvel) VS. winner of 1/2.7

Castiel (Supernatural) VS. Aziraphale (Good Omens)

Hypnos (Hades) VS. Alucard (Castlevania)

Howl (Howl's Moving Castle) VS. Blitzo (Helluva Boss)

Blackbeard (Our Flag Means Death) VS. Anthony J. Crowley (Good Omens)

Luce (Drawfee) VS. Mac McDonald (Always Sunny)

Villager (Animal Crossing) VS. Blathers (Animal Crossing)

Jurgen (Sam & Max) VS. Rosemaster (Cucumber Quest)

Group8:

Joker (Persona 5) VS. winner of 1/2.8

Chuuya Nakahara (Bungou Stray Dogs) VS. Dazai Osamu (Bungou Stray Dogs)

The Doctor (Doctor Who series) VS. Sissel (Ghost Trick)

Professor Hershel Layton (Professor Layton) VS. King Dice (Cuphead)

Jolyne Cujoh (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) VS. Bayonetta (Bayonetta)

Samus (Metroid) VS. Velma (Scooby-Doo)

Harper Finkle (Wizards of Waverly Place) VS. Elle Woods (Legally Blonde)

Fran Fine (The Nanny) VS. Klaus Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy)

Good luck to everyone who's voting and have fun!

[omegaremix]

Omega Radio for August 11, 2021; #278.

Fatback Band: “King Tim (Personality Jock)”

Superwolf: “Can Do It”

Blondie: “Rapture”

Sugarhill Gang: “Apache” + “8th Wonder”

The Furious Five & Sugarhill Gang: “Showdown”

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five: “Freedom” + “The Message”

Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious Five: “Beat Street Breakdown”

Grandmaster Melle Mel & Duke Bootee: “The Message II”

Spoonie G & The Sequence: “Monster Jam”

Kurtis Blow: “The Breaks”

Afrika Baambataa & The Soulsonic Force: “Renegades Of Funk”

Crash Crew: “Breaking Bells (Take Me To The Mardi Gras)”

Fearless / Funky 4+1: “Rappin’ N’ Rockin’ The House” + “That’s The Joint”

Cold Crush Brothers: “Weekend”

Treacherous Three: “The Body Rock” + “Get Up”

Trouble Funk: “Pump Me Up”

ESG: “UFO”

Liquid Liquid: “Cavern”

Grand Master Caz & Chris Stein: “Wild Style Theme Rap 1″

UTFO: “Roxanne”

Mantronix: “Fresh Is The Word”

Doug E. Fresh: “The Original Human Beatbox”

Biz Markie: “The Biz Dance”

Biz Markie ft. TJ Swan: “Make The Music With Your Mouth Biz”

Bonus Omega: hip-hop / rap anniversary tribute.

[lovevalley45]

the crossover curse

a/n: i wrote this last june (somehow??) n forgot abt it but i found it lookin thru old drafts and was so amused that i decided. maybe i will share it with the world lol. haven't written new legends fic in months but hey here's this

The trip into Gideon's brain had let Astra know many things about the history of the Legends she hadn't known, but that trip had neglected to include an event the older team members seemed to hate: crossovers. What she'd learned about them came from the nights where the Legends crowded in the galley to share dinner and hang out. It was usually Nate who started the complaining, though she hadn't thought he wasn't the type to hold a grudge even with those meathead muscles of his. 

What she'd learned from these rants that Sara would hop onto was that crossovers were a waste of time: some hero, usually Barry Allen, got in over his head and called every damn hero to lend a hand. The Legends were an afterthought in these events, and most of the team had refused to participate in them after it got Jax's nuclear partner Martin Stein killed. 

Well, no one said that they'd stopped going because he did. But by the silence when it got brought it, that was what she figured out. 

With the Legends retired, she'd figured she'd been lucky to avoid one. The other heroes out there handled one while they were gone, from what Sara had filled them in on at their first post-retirement dinner. Apparently, though, retirement didn't save them from the crossover curse.

Astra had been enjoying her weekend when she heard a knock at her door. She put down her coffee to go see who the hell was coming to see her on a Sunday.

What she had not been expecting to see a nerdy looking white guy standing there. "I'm not buying anything," she said, before starting to close the door. 

"Wait! Are you Astra Logue?" he asked, holding out his hand to stop her. 

"Who's asking?"

"I'm Barry Allen," he introduced himself, before glancing to see if anyone was in the hallway. "I-"

"This is some crossover thing, isn't it?" Astra asked, crossing her arms. 

"Uh, yeah," Barry answered. "Sara told me a lot of the Legends are in different time periods, but you're here and we need everyone we could get."

She rolled her eyes. "God forbid they text me before sending someone to get me," she muttered. "Fine. But if I have to miss work for this-"

"Don't worry about it." He took her arm. "Oh, and hold on."

"Hold-"

She had experienced some pretty wild shit during her time with the Legends, but being transported from Washington DC to Central City faster than the human body should experience was one of the worst. Thankfully, she kept down her coffee, but she leaned against a chair as she glared at Barry fucking Allen. 

"Oh, hey, you made it!" Ava exclaimed. 

"Couldn't I have just taken a train?" Astra grumbled. "Or teleported, or something?"

"You can teleport?" Sara asked. 

"I could have found a spell." She pushed herself up and took in the other heroes, the warehouse they were all standing in. "I thought we were exempt."

Ava sighed. "Apparently not." 

"There goes my weekend."

[yetanotherfanficblog]

A New Dawn

Pact Commander Siggi Vilodsdottir woke up at her usual early morning time, but the light peeking through the flap of her tent was - different. Wait, of course. Sun's Refuge. The exhaustion of actually getting the damn place up, or just leftover grogginess from her first night of decent sleep in ages, had momentarily made her forget, to expect the sun outside her tent flap.

No, these were caves, and it would be cave living for a while. As they formulated a way to take care of Kralkatorrik, they had made the subterranian lair their home - The massive Elder Dragon could never dig this deep, and even his smaller minions would find themselves hard pressed to pass through the narrow redoubts and defeat the magical defenses left by Sunspears past - now reactivated in service of Sunspears present - so here they remained, for the moment. The light from the giant braziers, reflected off the crystals, natural and brand alike, embedded in the walls, certainly made for adequate light, but it wasn't quite the same as the wide, wild sun.

Still, If anyone knew how to live without the sun, it was the Norn.

Pulling on a Jerkin, Siggi stood and threw back the flap of her tent, eager to find something to break her fast - perhaps the foragers had found some good venison - when she nearly tripped over it. A wreath.

A wild grin broke across her face. That dork. He was really going to do this proper, wasnt he? She reached down, ready to pluck it off the ground, but about halfway there, she hesitated as something caught her attention, a quick movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked up. Yes. There, behind that rock column. Trying VERY hard, and failing nearly as hard, to look inconspicious, was Braham Eirrson himself.

She hesitated, not out of second thoughts, but just because the boy could probably stand to sweat a bit. Good for his humility. Wasn't right for a Norn to hold a grudge long as he did.

Then again, she was Norn too, huh? And there was another way to handle this...

Finally, she turned back into her tent - but only for a moment, snatching up her best travelling stein. As she exited again, she saw Braham, who had been hunched over, suddenly straight again, looking desperately, wildly at her.

She plunked the stein down in the center of the wreath, crossed her arms, and raised an eyebrow at him. Braham coughed, nodded, and slunk off.

***

A few hours later, after she'd had a chance to eat and answer about 1000 different questions from various Pact Officers and Sunspears, help out a few Refugees, and discuss possible dragon tracking measures with Taimi and her boys, she finally came to the Vigil tents, where everyone had pooled what alcohol they had for a kind of tavern of sorts, a place to go to take a break, relax, and, if needed get just a bit drunk, to take the edge off. Braham was sitting at the end of one of the longer, less populated benches, and Siggi stopped at the the makeshift bar just long enough to grab their first round - Iron Legion Ale, Charr Beer. Almost as good as Ice Ale from the Wayfarer Foothills, in a pinch. As She walked up to Braham, Steins balanced in hand, he had just finished glaring down a poor Vigil soldier who looked like they were coming to sit across from him. Siggi chuckled, more at Braham's seriousness than the poor Soldier's misfortune, and easily slipped in across from the other Norn.

"Hey Kid. Shake off the Spiders yet?"

"What!? N- I mean Yes- I mean, it's fine why would I care about Spiders? We killed them all! Er, we did kill them all, right?"

Siggi couldn't help herself, breaking into an uproarius laugh at Braham's attempts to keep a slight panic under control, "I'm sorry Braham, I just teasing! If there's any spiders left, I'd imagine they're staying hidden for good, after the drubbing we gave their queen."

Braham nodded, blushing slightly with embarassment, "Oh. Yeah, It's fine. Spiders are gone."

Siggi pushed one of the steins toward Braham, "Iron Legion Ale. Not as good as a good Wayfarer Ice Brew, but beggars can't be choosers."

Braham took the Stein gratefully and took a huge gulp straight away. Siggi smirked again and followed suit.

As they set their mugs down, Braham cleared his throat, "So. How many mugs of these do you think we'll need to put this behind us?"

"Eh," Siggi waved a hand dismissively, "It's all snowmelt, far as I'm concerned. I forgave you a long time ago, just needed you to come around."

Poor Braham made a confused face, "Then Why not take the wreath in?"

"Listen," Siggi continued, with a small smile, "I gave you the Stein in the wreath for a couple reasons. One, I wanted an excuse to drink, and two, it's been way too long since we just sat down and TALKED, you know?"

"Oh. Yeah. I guess it has, huh?"

So they talked, avoiding the subject of their fight for the moment, speaking of Braham's adventures in the High Shiverpeaks, of Siggi's own adventures combating Balthazar - most of it he had heard second hand, but he wanted to hear it from Siggi. Ale after Ale appeared before them, and by the time conversation wound down, Siggi could confidently declare herself pleasantly tipsy, warm and buzzing down to her toes, and judging by Braham swaying on the bench across from her, he was somewhere in the same steading.

"Huh," he chuckled, "Imagine if I hadn't been such a Dolyak's ass. Could have helped you take down a human God. That would have been something to see."

Siggi chuckled, "Maybe. Then again, I did have to die to do it."

Braham frowned, "And maybe if I was there, I could have stopped him from killing you. I AM sorry, Commander..."

"Hey." Siggi set down her stein again for a moment, staring seriously across the table, "Already forgiven, remember? Wreath-sworn. Besides, Losing a parent affects a lot of us pretty badly."

"Hell. Losing my Mom probably affected you, huh?" Braham murmured, staring at the table, "I've been thinking about that, lately. She was your mentor. You two hunted together, built a legend together, she even sponsored you into the Pact."

Siggi nodded, "Yeah. She was... special, to me."

"And you kept on anyway."

"I did. I had a lot of people to save. If I had stopped to mourn her, how many more would have been lost?"

Braham took an especially long swig of ale after that, stared off into the middle distance.

"I... wonder if maybe the real problem was... I was jealous of you. You were closer to her than I was. Eir handpicked you as a champion of the great hunt. She recommended you to the orders, sheparded you until you were a force to defeat an elder dragon on your own. Hell, she was almost more of a Mom to you than she was to me."

Siggi raised an eyebrow, "C'mon, I'm not THAT much younger than her. Eir was more like..."

Siggi paused for a moment. Her mind flitted back, as it often did, to a certain night by a campfire, a night in while the bitter cold of the Shiverpeaks pierced even the hardy hides of the norn, and they found it prudent to share a bedroll for warmth. But then, prudency gave way to an awareness of bare skin touching skin, of a desire that no longer seemed worth hiding. No, Braham wasn't ready for that story. She wasn't sure she'd ever share that with anyone else anyway.

"...Let's just say, cool older sister?"

Braham chuckled, "Huh. yeah, that makes sense. And I guess I'd describe you the same way."

"That's me, cool older sister to thousands of squabbling pact children." Siggi raised her stein one last time and drained the current contents, a far-too-weak human brew. Really had to strengthen the supply lines here if they were already down to the human-brewed stuff, she thought absent-mindedly.

[genderenvyelimination]

Second Round Masterlist:

4/3/2023:

Baron | The Cat Returns vs. Sylvie | Epithet Erased

Hunter | Rain World vs. Pure Vessel | Hollow Knight

Otachi | Pacific Rim vs. Zagreus | Hades (Supergiant Games)

Rika | Pokemon vs. Transformed Howl | Howl's Moving Castle

Ganon's Corpse | Breath of the Wild 2 vs. Kaworu Nagisa |Neon Genesis Evangelion

Milo Thatch | Atlantis vs. Ryo Asuka | Devilman 1972

Gomez Addams | Addams Family vs. Thanatos | Hades

Blahaj | IKEA vs. Marcy Wu | Amphibia

Calcifer | Howl's Moving Castle vs. Nausicaa | Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Toy Soldier | The Mechanisms vs. Dio Brando | Jojo's Bizarre Adventure

Mollymauk Tealeaf | Critical Role vs. Crona | Soul Eater

Herbert West | Reanimator vs. Magnus Chase | Magnus Chase Series

4/4/3023:

Desire | Sandman vs. Candace Flynn | Phineas and Ferb

Goblin King | Labyrinth vs. Kimiko Ross | Dresden Codak

Link | Breath of the Wind vs. Cecil | Welcome to Night Vale

Lucienne | Sandman vs. Testament | Guilty Gear

Ekko | Arcane vs. Stevonnie | Steven Universe

Newt Geisler | Pacific Rim vs. Gabrielle De Lioncourt | Vampire Chronicles

Rohan Kishibe | Jojo's Bizarre Adventure vs. Yamato | One Piece

Koki Kariya | The World Ends With You vs. Super Star Rockin' Jay | Ninjago

Legolas | Lord of the Rings vs. N | Pokemon

Goro Akechi | Persona 5 Royale vs. Garry | Ib

Bold & Brash | Spongebob Squarepants vs. Simon Petrikov | Adventure Time

Byleth | Fire Emblem 3 Houses vs. Spectile | Pokemon

4/5/2023:

Hawks | BNHA vs. Meta Knight | Kirby

Professor Venomous | OKKO vs. Double Trouble | She-ra

Johnny C. | Johnny The Homicidal Maniac vs. Lyfrassir Edda | The Mechanisms

Dr. Robotnik | Sonic Movie vs. Zuko | Avatar the Last Airbender

Blue Spirit | Avatar the Last Airbender vs. Kaname Date | Ai: Somnium Files

Will Graham | Hannibal vs. Kusuriuri | Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales

Lewis Pepper | Mystery Skulls vs. Eda Clawthorne | The Owl House

E-boy Wojak | Meme Culture vs. Spectra | Bakugan

Cure Chocolat | Kira Kira Precure a la Mode vs. Maleficient | Maleficient

Dean Winchester | Supernatural vs. Onceler | Lorax

Joker | Persona 5 Royale vs. Dr. Franken Stein | Soul Eater

Nagito Komaeda | Danganronpa vs. Donatello Hamato | ROTTMNT

4/6/2023:

Greg House | House MD vs. Carla | Dumbing of Age

Klavier Gavin | Ace Attorney vs. Marty McFly | Back to the Future

Elias | Ancient Magnus Bride vs. 4th Phase Ghouls | Ghost

John Mitchell | Being Human UK vs. Zasp | Bug Fables

Kuvira | ATLA vs. Ed Elric | FMA

Mr. Fox | Fantastic Mr. Fox vs. Fujimoto | Ponyo

Jean Descole | Professor Layton vs. Ryan Akagi | Infinity Train

Blackbeard | OFMD vs. Aragorn | LOTR

Alex Fierro | Magnus Chase vs. Juno Steel | Penumbra Podcast

Red Lizard | Rain World vs. Mae | Night in the Woods

Jinx | Arcane vs. Grusha | Pokemon

Jack Sparrow | POTC vs. Medic | TF2

4/7/2023:

Korra | Legend of Korra vs. Tim Curry Characters | Clue, Rocky Horror

Gunpowder Tim | The Mechanisms vs. Wizard | wizardisananimal

Sonic | Sonic vs. Team Rocket | Pokemon

Ilima | Pokemon vs. Grell Sutcliff | Black Butler

Espresso Cookie | Cookie Run vs. Ralsei | Deltarune

Ellie Sattler | Jurassic Park vs. Ryuko | Kill La Kill

Columbo | Columbo vs. Beast Wirt | OTGW

Jennifer Check - Jennifer's Body vs. JD - Heathers

Gerry Keay | TMA vs. Kris Dreemurr | Deltarune

Ranma Saotome | Ranma 1/2 vs. Alucard/Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes | Castlevania

ENA | ENA vs. Raine Whispers | TOH

Danny Fenton | Danny Phantom vs. Papa Emeritus III | Ghost bc

Rouxls Kaard | Deltarune vs. Arven | Pokemon

Denji | Chainsaw Man vs. Haruka Tenou | Sailor Moon

[oraclekleo]

Hi Kleo!! Soooo excited for your game 😭 can I ask it for my celebrity crush Im Jae Bum? THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Any messages would be appreciated, even 18+ ones if it comes through teehee 😚😚 thank you so so much!

- N ♏️

Hello dear!

Thank you for participating in my little game!

Question: Channeled message from your crush!

Deck: Tarot of Mystical Moments by Catrin Welz-Stein

Card: VIII Strength

Jae Bum wants you to know that you have the power in you to gently and smartly tame your own life. Whatever turmoil is happening right now, don't forget you are not a victim of it, you are not just a kite being tossed and turned by a strong wind. You are an active and essential part of your life and that means also the struggles. The struggles are part of you and you are part of them. You know their nature and therefore you can turn them into your pet shall you accept the little chaos and wilderness as necessary. He wants you to approach life with wisdom and calm. It might sometimes come at you like a wild beast but even a lion can turn into a kitten with the right person. Your life might seem like attacking you but try to stop fighting it and instead give it a belly rub and befriend the beast.

[bcbdrums]

I'll Break Your Fall

FFn | AO3

A young Spirit and Stein story.

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

A/N: Rated M for one brief graphic description of violence/horror and some vaguely implied gore. Probably the rating is cautionary, but, *Sid voice* that's the kind of person I am. Just being careful. This is a young Stein and Spirit story, full of angst and suspense and I guess even some fluff? Maybe? I've decided to headcanon a three-year age gap. Spirit is 14 and Stein is 11 in this story, and they've been partners for almost a year. I'm an anime person, only just barely started the manga (so excited to read it!), but I do include I think one use of a Japanese honorific just because it seems tied to Stein as a character to use it even though it doesn't appear in the anime dub... I've read enough of the manga to get attached to the term. So...this story was inspired by a song, and by a piece of fantastic art I couldn't get out of my head. Can't reveal them yet, cuz spoilers (they are linked at the very end). But then, as stories go, this took its own path away from the inspiration and my gosh I'm just elated with what happened when I gave the characters the lead. I hope it's not trash. I adored writing this. I hope you'll enjoy it too.

I'll Break Your Fall

Spirit had never paid too much attention to the study of souls. The topic was interesting to him, but not having anything special about his own nor any of the unique abilities that other meisters and weapons had, it simply wasn't his focus. He wasn't bitter or jealous, however. He was content knowing that each soul was unique and exactly as it was meant to be. And if his soul was meant to be average, then who was he to argue?

He never let it dampen his attitude though, especially given what Lord Death had once told him. It had been nearly a year ago that he'd been called to the Death Room for the first time and responded with the anxiety of an innocent called before the headmaster. What in the Reaper's name could he want to see Spirit about, a low-level scythe without a meister?

It was then that he'd been informed of an incoming student, and that Lord Death had chosen him to be his partner.

"I'll have a few more conversations with him before I introduce you, just to be sure, but I think a soul like yours will complement his perfectly," was what Lord Death had said at the time. Spirit never forgot those words—a soul like yours—and had often wondered what it was that the ironically larger-than-life being could see in him that he couldn't see himself.

It had been quite the boost of confidence, and perhaps the reason he wasn't too concerned when they studied soul types and special abilities in class. However average he might appear to his teachers and peers, Lord Death knew otherwise. He'd seen something in him to hand-choose him out of every student to be the weapon partner of possibly the strongest meister in the entire school, and the youngest on top of that. Still, it came up often enough—especially partnering with someone so unique—that his own soul was average and that he had nothing outwardly special about him.

It was this knowledge that had Spirit both confused and alert one night when suddenly he was startled from deep slumber as beyond a shadow of a doubt, he sensed a powerful soul.

He knew it was a soul instinctively, for what else could it be? And the fog of sleep was rapidly leaving his mind as he tried to make sense of the mad feelings that were rapidly pressing in all around him. It wasn't like the kishin egg souls he ate after defeating an enemy, and it wasn't like anything he could recall learning about in class. Or at least, he didn't think so; suddenly he wished he had paid more attention.

No, this soul was wild, electric, and untamed...and it was tearing itself apart.

It was massive, radiating such strength that it caused Spirit to shrink in his bed and pull the covers up closer as if they might provide some protection from the raw power that had woken him. He could feel the soul clawing against itself, trying to burst free from whatever it was that kept souls whole, ripping at its own seams as it warred against the will of the person to whom it belonged. And as the seconds passed it seemed almost as if it would engulf him, the person's breathless fear rising in time with his own and the soul's destruction surely imminent.

And then, Spirit knew. He may not have the ability to truly sense souls, but there was one soul that even an average weapon like him could always see.

His feet hit the carpeted floor too hard and he nearly tripped as he forgot to throw back the blankets, but momentum helped him keep his balance as he ran across the hall and in less than ten steps was at the bedroom door of his young meister, throwing it open before he could stop to consider that he should probably knock first.

He still couldn't see the soul, but fear filled the entire room as he stared in a strange combination of confusion and relief at his partner. The boy was okay, at least outwardly, seated on his knees in the center of his bed but curled down on himself into a ball. He had his hands pressed tightly against his ears and his whole frame was trembling, visible even through the black of the night.

Something had his meister terrified, and his very soul was beginning to rip itself apart in agony.

"Stein!" Spirit gasped, unsure what to do. His thoughts were a maelstrom, still bombarded with an inexplicable torrent of madness which was what he understood now to be radiating out of his partner's wavelength along with the fear, so powerful that they permeated Spirit's soul and had set him trembling from head to toe.

There was no way to tell what had happened, or what on earth he should do to help. All Spirit knew for sure was that his partner was afraid, seemingly of himself, and whatever had happened to trigger this, he couldn't seem to bring his soul back under control.

"Stein?" Spirit repeated, a little louder as he considered his partner may not hear him with his hands covering his ears.

The ever-present hum of resonance between them was why Spirit was able to sense him at all, and he realized that lacking any soul perception ability must mean that whatever was tormenting Stein was dreadfully powerful for it to have woken him and his being able to sense it so clearly. What must this fear feel like to someone with soul perception?

"Stein?" he tried a third time, taking a few steps nearer the young meister's bed. He considered that to touch him might startle him, although it seemed like anything might yield that result with the horrible state he was in.

Spirit thought a moment and then swallowed his fear as best he could and attempted to extend his soul toward Stein's. He didn't have a healing wavelength, but perhaps resonance alone would be able to snap his partner out of whatever horror was causing him to seemingly consume himself.

Spirit found it difficult to keep his feet, his entire frame beginning to shake as he felt like a tiny island standing in the ocean of Stein's soul, struggling not to drown as the roiling waves of his meister's wavelength surrounded and beat against his even more for being so near. But words weren't reaching the boy, and he had to do something to bring him back from...whatever was happening to him.

He pressed his wavelength harder against the dark torrent even as it started to choke the breath out of him, and then suddenly Stein's head snapped up in a gasp. He turned toward Spirit with his eyes wide and mouth agape. The weapon had never seen his meister look so astonished, as if he never expected to see him standing there.

"Stein..." he breathed desperately, still pressing against the chaos of his partner's soul that threatened to devour him. And with that single word, he finally seemed to break through.

Stein blinked, and the darkness that emanated from his soul seemed to lose a little of its strength. Spirit didn't withdraw his wavelength however, feeling that whatever was happening was far from over.

"S...Spirit?" Stein's voice came out small, and uncertain.

"What's happening?" Spirit gasped, feeling even less sure of his footing despite the faint calming of the powerful current in Stein's soul. His meister was still looking at him as if seeing a ghost, and the light was absent from his eyes.

"This...is what is real?"

"What?" Spirit said, starting to feel his knees buckling. It wasn't a fully conscious decision to stumble toward Stein's bed, but as he turned just in time to fall seated upon the blankets, breathless, he knew that the floor would have surely been his destination otherwise.

Stein didn't recoil from Spirit's sudden nearness, only stared at him more intently as the light slowly returned to his eyes.

"It was a dream..."

The words that slowly fell seemingly absently from Stein's lips caught Spirit's attention, and he looked sideways at his partner as he continued to extend his wavelength almost on instinct despite the crushing feeling he was still battling from Stein's chaos. But in catching the boy's eyes he finally started to understand... His meister had had a nightmare.

Most people's view of the youngest student in their class was that he was indifferent at best and callous at worst. He walked around with blank expressions or else out-of-place smiles that put people off, and his default was to be sullen except when in battle. That was when his soul would erupt to life, and Spirit knew what no one else did—that the small, steely-eyed boy possessed more emotion than perhaps all of them put together. But even without resonance, Spirit had started to learn the nuances of his meister's bland expressions; to others the boy may appear without feeling, but Spirit could see through the stoic facade.

However none of that was necessary now as Stein wore no mask whatsoever. He kept glancing at Spirit, ogling him as if shocked by his very existence, but then almost in the same moment his eyes would dart away with a heavy expression of guilt.

Whatever motivated that, it didn't stop his continually looking back at his weapon as if seeing a ghost.

"Do...you want to talk about it?" Spirit asked uncertainly.

"No!" Stein cried abruptly, and in an instant Spirit felt a violent resurgence of the dark dissonance. Right next to him now, faced with the full force of that pressure, Spirit could hardly breathe.

"You're choking me," he managed despite the tightness of his throat, and he knew that even were he not trying to break through with his wavelength, the raw power of his meister's soul would inevitably crush him. It was likely his feeble attempt at resonance was the only reason he was conscious at all.

He watched as Stein absorbed his words in confusion, slowly processing them until his eyes widened in understanding. Immediately, the pressure began to wane, though not as quickly as Spirit would have hoped.

It was such a relief that he fell back upon the mattress, his toes still grazing the carpet where his legs hung over the side of the bed. He gasped for breath though his lungs still wouldn't fill, and he continued pressing his wavelength against Stein's tumultuous one. It wasn't much, but the dark waves were starting to recede again.

As the seconds passed, Stein continued looking at him as if Spirit's presence in the room was the last thing on earth he'd expected, but interspersed were deeply guilty looks that had his olive-green eyes flashing away to stare at any other point in the room. However those looks never lasted long, as it did in fact seem that the weapon's presence was the only thing calming the distressed young meister.

Spirit simply stared back in fear and concern, waiting, reaching out with his soul as he felt a further wavering in the pressure against him. When he at last felt he could draw a full breath into his lungs was when Stein finally made the slightest move, reaching out hesitantly with a flat hand and poking his weapon's arm with his fingers as if testing the veracity of his presence.

This yielded a few results, the first of which was a choked gasp from Spirit that had him leaning up on his elbows to stare back with mouth agape. The slight touch had burned, and the closer contact with Stein's soul had him shaking with fear anew. Stein had jerked away with a gasp of his own, and as Spirit processed what he'd seen—not dark waves, but a wild, tormenting fire that seemed to be consuming his meister from somewhere at his very core—the younger boy's face took on an even deeper look of fear. His lower lip began to tremble as his eyes finally stayed locked on Spirit's, pleading for help.

"What's happening...?" Spirit said breathlessly as he sat up. He instinctively reached out, but then stopped, his hand frozen in the space between them. If he were to touch Stein again, that fire in his soul would surely consume him. It had been a split second, but it was far worse than the crushing pressure in the room that still had him feeling as if he was moving through tar and fighting for each breath.

He wondered again what someone who actually had soul perception would be seeing and feeling in the tiny apartment as his meister's soul tore at itself with the resolute goal of destruction.

Stein was staring back at him, fighting against whatever hell was in his head that had prompted this...madness. His lip was still trembling, and the fear and guilt had settled into a devastated mix in his eyes. It looked as though it was taking everything he had to keep the chaos of his soul from bursting forth, destroying himself and Spirit and who knew what else in the process.

Spirit had never thought to see the stoic boy in such a state, his soul lost and eyes desperately searching for an anchor. And as the two continued staring at one another, the red-head saw the younger boy's gaze flick down more than once to Spirit's hand that still hovered between them. Both of Stein's however had moved to his thighs, his fingers digging into his flesh through his pajamas. And was that red beginning to show against the white fabric in a couple of spots?

"Stein...?" Spirit asked, feeling the desperation begin to wash over him as well. Whatever was happening to his partner wasn't showing signs of stopping as he'd had hope for moments ago. Perhaps he should call a teacher or Lord Death for help?

"I..."

Spirit refocused on the face of his meister, still extending his wavelength from its small, safe haven toward the younger boy. He was shocked that Stein could feel his pathetic attempt at aid at all, given the massive differences in their souls. And for the first time since being partnered with Stein he began to feel inadequate.

"What can I do?" Spirit asked, still struggling to draw air.

"I..." Moisture began to shine in Stein's eyes, and Spirit's brow rose. "I'm sorry!"

Churning waves washed out of Stein's soul even stronger than before, and Spirit grit his teeth as he glanced down to where his meister's fingers were now definitely drawing blood.  When he caught enough breath to look up again Stein was still fighting tears as he sat frozen and afraid. He looked utterly defeated, holding on by a mere thread—grasping for Spirit's wavelength—against whatever it was that had happened to him.

Spirit made a decision.

He reached out and quickly enveloped Stein in a tight hug, forcing his wavelength against his meister's in hopes Stein would meet him in resonance. But instantly, at the contact, into the dark waves roared the fire, twisting and crackling and seeming to draw him down into a pit of darkness as static hummed in his ears, further overwhelming him as the water threatened to drown him at the same time the fire seared his body and mind. He couldn't fight this... He would surely be destroyed by this madness.

But if he fled from it, what would happen to Stein?

He was aware of choked sounds and cries coming from his throat, still struggling for breath as his soul battled the insanity that it had found consuming Stein's. But there were other sounds in the room now... Screaming? Was that his voice? And crying? It sounded worse than that. Which of them was crying?

"Stein," he attempted to say, unsure if the name actually left his lips as some instinct within his weaponhood continued the attempt at resonance with the clamor of his partner's soul.

He knew it was still there, somewhere, not yet fully consumed or else Stein wouldn't have been able to recognize him, speak to him... And then, Spirit realized with sudden clarity that whatever had happened, it was all coming from within Stein. The horrors that threatened to destroy his partner were part of his soul, and seemingly a nightmare had brought them all to the fore.

His brow furrowed as he held on tighter despite how it scorched his entire being to do so and he ran deeper down into the fire. The dark waves did nothing to douse the flames, the pressure increasing and the light fading the further down he went.

"Stein..." he said hoarsely, not sure if he'd spoken aloud or only in his soul as he sought familiarity in the madness. His partner gave neither aid nor resistance, lost somewhere in the war of water and fire. Spirit's heart was pounding as the pressure and heat sent a dizzying feeling to his head. Black danced at the edge of his vision as he ran through the chaos of Stein's soul, seeking anything to grab hold of to bring his meister back.

The flames were all around him, but he couldn't see them for the dark, crushing pressure of the waves. He couldn't breathe. His feet gave way as he began to fall into the pit that raged fire and the blackness began to take over.

But then out of the dark he saw a flash of red. It meant nothing to him except that it was different, and he stumbled toward it even as he felt his lungs about to burst. Red, and the sickly metallic scent of blood. Or was that the taste?

The fire was suddenly swept up around him by a fierce whirlwind, and it pulled the waters back with it. Spirit nearly choked for how quickly he gasped in the sulfurous air, but his breath was taken away again as within the whirlwind images began to appear, flashing past at speeds too fast to process. They were of blood and sinew, the shining edge of a scalpel that morphed into a cleaver, and a wicked smile on a familiar face too young to have fallen victim to something as fatal as the evils displayed before him.

At first the images appeared random, but gradually they seemed to swirl into a narrative. And they only became more violent and gruesome as it progressed. It was more horrifying than anything Spirit had seen on the battlefield, and his stomach turned at the scenes of flesh being rend from bone, of bodies ruined and desecrated, and everything slowly turning to red.

All around him blood had begun to rain, and Spirit realized with a twisting in his gut that the horrors went deeper still. He wanted to retreat, to back out of what was far worse than any nightmare could ever be.

But he still hadn't found Stein.

He pursed his lips and strode forward upon shaking legs into the whirlwind of red, holding his breath as it felt he had walked straight into a wall of blood. His nostrils confirmed the reality as the liquid fell thick around him, but he only closed his eyes and kept going. The fire and water were not so powerful anymore. It had to mean something, right?

There was something new down here in the pit too that he'd felt briefly when he first fell—a hum of static that came and went intermittently, clouding his desperate thoughts. It was like too many voices all at once, dozens or...was it millions? All trying to tell him something but they were too numerous to begin to isolate any, or discern their intent.

"Stein!" he called again, perhaps aloud or perhaps in his soul. "Stein! Where are you?"

To his surprise and relief, he felt rather than heard a familiar voice reply through all the noise. Somewhere in the wash of red, his meister had tried to answer.

"Stein! Wherever you are, take my hand!" He thrust his arm forward, fingers outstretched.

"I can't."

He felt the reply come in a terrified whisper, and it only made him more determined. He quickened his pace, hurrying past images that made him want to vomit and toward where he had felt the faint, frightened answer coming from.

"Stein! Come here!" he pleaded, fairly demanding as he struggled for breath, his arm still outstretched.

He knew he was getting close. Somewhere in this tumult, the wavelength of the boy who had been his partner for nearly a year now was cowering in fear. It was weak, withdrawn, and defeated.

This more than his own fear and pain drove Spirit onward. The madness, whatever caused it, would not claim his meister if he had anything to say about it. He ignored the pain and pressure and focused on the faint feeling of Stein's true wavelength, buried so deep in the pit he was amazed he had found it at all. But it was there, and despite the voiced resistance, he could feel the faint hope in response to his approach.

"Stein! Come here!" he said, more confident this time as he pressed through the wash of red.

"I can't."

Finally, he saw him.

Small and alone in the static-laden center of the whirlwind, Stein looked no different than he had on his bed. He was kneeling with his legs folded under him, fingers digging into his thighs and drawing blood that stained the white of his pajamas, the latter color made more prominent as he was surrounded by a puddle of darkness. It rippled violently, extending outward from the younger boy into the pool of red, and Spirit realized the source of the darkness was his meister's soul.

Stein's eyes were downcast, and he didn't lift his head at Spirit's steady approach.

"Stein. Take my hand," Spirit said as he stopped in front of him, still extending his own.

"I can't," Stein repeated, his tone flat now as he shook his head ever so slightly.

"We have to get out of here. It's...it's not good to be here," Spirit continued, his meister's resignation making him uncertain.

"But it's worse out there," Stein protested quietly.

Spirit was bewildered. In this mad, labyrinthine pit he was nearly blind. He was surprised that he could speak for the pressure against his lungs, and the heat of the flames still seared him from skin to soul even as he stood before his meister in the dark rain of blood.

"How can it be worse!?" he asked with genuine incredulity. "We have to go!"

Stein's chin only dipped lower, almost hitting his chest.

Spirit sighed heavily and knelt down in front of the younger boy, extending his hand directly in his line of sight. The darkness broke against his knees and rippled away from his presence.

"Stein, please!" he urged.

Stein finally lifted his head just enough to meet Spirit's eyes, and the look within the green orbs was pure terror.

"I... But I'll kill you, Senpai."

Spirit gasped as suddenly, some final barrier around Stein's wavelength fell away, and he saw with perfect clarity the path his partner's nightmare had taken.

He saw himself lying on a slab, cut up, eviscerated, and dismembered in ways more horrible than he could have possibly imagined. And worse, he saw his young meister standing over him, a mad smile bisecting his visage as he grinned down into the face of Spirit's dream-self. And then reaching down to the slab, Stein grabbed Spirit's hair and picked up his bloodied, severed head.

Spirit grimaced and shook his head to banish the horrifying images as bile rose in his throat. In front of him, his meister's gaze fell again.

The dark rippling intensified and no longer broke at Spirit's knees, washing through him now as fear began to seep into his soul. Was this truly what Stein wanted? Not just for him, but the other gruesome images he had seen as he strode through the pit to find his partner... Were those more than nightmares?

Spirit was devastated. This madness... It was part of Stein. It hadn't been placed there, or influenced by some outside source. The desire to cut, to tear apart, to desecrate... This, he realized, was the secret that lay carefully guarded behind his partner's dispassionate mask that refused to betray any emotion, that refused offers of friendship and pushed away even the most determined with a sadistic edge. Except that the latter, he knew now, wasn't really an act.

"Now you understand..." Stein murmured. The sadness that emanated from the boy was heartbreaking. "It's okay. You can leave me here. You'll be better off."

Spirit frowned, his jaw setting in stubborn defiance.

"No."

"I'm sorry, Spirit."

"No! You're coming with me!"

He reached down with his right hand and pulled Stein's up from where he was digging his fingers into his thigh, clutching it to his chest. Stein looked up in wary surprise.

"But...you'll be better off," the younger boy repeated slowly, still resigned. "If you leave me here then..." Stein lifted his free hand, but as it shook he dropped it and dug his fingers back into his flesh. He took a shuddering breath, his next words coming out in a frightened whisper. "I'll become a...a kishin... Death will send someone to destroy me. Then... I won't be able to hurt you."

Stein's gaze sank in defeat. The agony and fear radiated out of his soul in heavy black waves, weighing Spirit down as he still gripped his meister's hand to his chest, nothing being returned.

The fire, the pressure, the intermittent static, and the whirlwind of blood and horror... The fear that had finally been exposed, and the madness that was the reason for everything... Spirit ignored it all. It was for another time.

He wanted to question, to mourn, as the realization that he couldn't fix this caused his heart to ache. Not only was the madness borne of Stein's soul, he had probably suffered it his entire life. The grief tore at Spirit's heart as if it truly had been rend in two, not by a blade but with the pain of his partner's fears.

There was nothing he could do.

But his soul swelled in fierce determination.

"No. Stein, you're coming back with me."

Stein did glance up then, but his eyes were hollow, already having sunk back down to somewhere within himself. The boy shook his head slightly, sullen and resigned.

"Don't...don't try to save me," he whispered, an almost imperceptible quiver in his voice. "You can't."

Spirit's fingers clenched on his partner's hand as he blew air out through his nose in frustration.

"Well you know what, Stein?"

The boy's dour expression didn't change as he stared at him.

"I don't give a damn!"

There was something then—a flicker of color in Stein's eyes; something still alive. Surprised. But not enough to stop the dark waves of his soul.

Exasperated, Spirit threw his free hand out in a broad gesture at the thick rain of blood that surrounded them interspersed with images of horror that came and went sporadically.

"Is this what you want? Really!?"

Stein looked down guiltily, and Spirit felt with grave assurance that not only was this madness part of his meister's soul, but it was deeply rooted. This wasn't something new or fleeting that had come over him in a night, but a longstanding battle that apparently Stein was tired of fighting. And it was a battle far, far from won.

He adjusted his grip on Stein's hand and with his other grabbed the boy's shoulder, demanding response.

"Well? Do you!?"

It was an ultimatum, though Spirit hadn't quite intended it to be one. But he needed an honest answer out of the younger boy. And he realized he didn't need it only for Stein, but for himself, given the nightmare he'd witnessed. Did his partner, hand-chosen for him...the boy he'd trusted with his life for almost a year now...truly want to murder him?

Stein looked up. The whispered answer was pained, and offered through trembling lips.

"No."

Spirit sighed in heavy relief, but only gave himself a moment. He began to stand and pull Stein up out of the dark ripples at the core of his wavelength. The boy followed him.

"Then let's get out of here."

Stein's expression, still broken, had gained the tiniest spark of hope. But the wariness hadn't left his eyes.

"But...why...?"

There was far more in the question than Spirit could fully discern in the moment, but he answered what he knew Stein needed to hear most.

"Because you're my meister, Stein. And weapons protect their meisters, even to death."

There was something else then in Stein's eyes—a curiosity—that made Spirit wonder for a split-second if he'd said the wrong thing, but his partner's other hand slowly unclenched from his leg where he'd been drawing blood. Spirit took it as a good sign.

"And...you're my friend," he said, leaning forward to wrap his arm around Stein as he held his other hand tighter to his chest.

And then, finally, he felt Stein's soul come to his.

It wasn't the easy synchronicity he was used to on the field of battle, nor was it the insanity that had been threatening him as he struggled through the pit. No, this meeting of souls was different from every time before.

It was still Stein's wavelength, but it was as if Spirit was truly seeing it for the first time. He realized he'd felt it briefly before, when the madness first woke him that night. A soul that was wild, electric, and untamed. Resistant to control. Coming at him in power. And it pressed against and around Spirit's soul, trying to engulf him in haphazard waves that knew no single direction as they spilled from their source.

The resonance was erratic and barely holding together due to the disparity in their two wavelengths. Spirit's remained smooth and steady while Stein's erupted, beating against Spirit's and attempting to tear him apart. But the claws of madness slid off harmlessly now that Spirit understood.

It was part of the role of the weapon to yield, never to command. But this wasn't a battle against one of Death's enemies. This was just their two souls, Spirit's and Stein's, and as his young meister's seemed desperate to swallow his, to drown him in whatever it was that constituted his partner's daily existence and make him part of the madness...Spirit wouldn't allow it.

"Trust me..."

A small break in the dissonance as Stein considered Spirit's calm appeal. He didn't want to give in. He was afraid to. And Spirit wondered if that in itself was part of why Stein's battle against the madness was so long-lived... Because he'd been too scared to ask for help.

Spirit didn't falter. He only held on and waited as the darts of madness grew fewer and farther between. Stein's soul was still screaming into the darkness of the pit, electricity shooting out like lightning in search of a connection even as he surrounded the offered anchor of Spirit's wavelength entirely. But Spirit held back too. He couldn't allow more until the fear had been beaten back. Or at least, until it had stopped enough to eliminate the threat of falling again.

The flames, he noticed suddenly, were gone; a mere distant warmth somewhere beyond his sight. The waves that had been drowning him had receded. Every now and then he heard them break against the turbulent edge of Stein's wavelength, but they weren't a threat anymore. The static was quieting. And the red he only saw in occasional flashes as he felt a tiring in Stein's soul.

They were rising.

How exhausted must his meister be, if this was what he fought all the time? How had he kept it secret from him for so long? Was it always this awful?

Those questions and more pressed against Spirit's mind without answer, all serving to raise his compassion for the young boy who had been chosen for him. He remembered Lord Death's words on that fateful day again, and rather than feeling them with pride or assurance that his own state wasn't so low...he felt the fierce desire to protect grow even more.

No matter what he thought of his own soul... Stein was his. He had been chosen to be his. And his meister needed him.

His heart was gripped with a pain he'd never known as he continued waiting, stabilizing the raw, wild soul of the younger boy with steady, unshakeable calm.

It didn't even occur to Spirit to fall apart.

They were almost floating now, above the earth, above the clouds. The pit was almost out of sight as Stein slowly but surely let go of the fears that tormented him, the flashes of red fewer and farther between. And then finally, after what seemed an eternity, Spirit felt Stein. Not the blind hunt for something in which to sink hooks of madness or to devour for strength—his meister was finally back with him.

Spirit let crumble the hard shell he'd set around his soul to keep it safe, and instantly the raw power and emotion of Stein's wavelength surged in. It was both familiar and new as now his partner's secret was no longer between them, and with the revelation of madness something about Stein's soul had changed.

He wasn't holding back anymore, and Spirit felt that if he were to lose focus that Stein's soul would still swallow him up—but not to harm him. It was not a loss of inhibition so much as it was a desperate search that Spirit sensed, but this time with so much less fear. How had Stein kept it hidden from him for so long?

Stein's wavelength continued to come at him in a flood, but not one that overwhelmed Spirit. This time he wasn't drowning or choking, his head securely above water, and he lifted a hand to reach for his partner's through the light as their souls slowly found resonance, swirling together in delicate, twisting frequencies that vibrated against each other until merging into one soft song.

The fear faded. He felt Stein's fingers tentatively, willingly find his. Their resonance rate rose, and the light became blindingly bright. Spirit held control, and it was with relief that he felt the faintest frown from Stein. It made him want to laugh, to sense something normal from his young partner. But he maintained the steady pressing of his wavelength, letting his meister find his way in and around it.

Things were getting better. But he couldn't give Stein the lead. Nothing that had happened that night could be solved with resonance alone. This struggle would go on, and Spirit could only hope his partner would continue to trust him through it. He didn't want to think about what would happen if Stein locked part of his soul away again as he'd clearly done for years, tortured by madness, all alone...

Compassion radiated across Spirit's wavelength, and he felt something from Stein in response. A yearning to fall into it, as well as a hesitation. He was afraid of being pitied. Spirit sighed within himself and slowly let more of the shell around his wavelength fall so that Stein could see him as clearly as he saw his meister. And...he let go a small fraction of control.

This seemed to do the trick, showing Stein that he trusted him, and in moments everything else fell into place. The loud waves of Stein's soul slid smoothly between his own, and Spirit guided them into unity. Their souls were as one, reverberating with the electric power of Stein's and held together by Spirit's constancy.

The waves shimmered away calmly in all directions from the heart of their resonance, through the blue sky, toward the clouds, toward the earth, and out of sight. And while Spirit knew that for the moment all was well, there was still the faintest of interruptions in the younger boy's wavelength every now and again.

It was a war far from won. But for the moment, and as much as was possible...Stein was at peace.

Spirit opened his eyes.

It was like waking up but into sleep, to go from the brilliance of their resonance to the dark of the apartment bedroom. But the space was absent now of the crushing pressure and madness, and if not for the ten spots of red that slowly came into focus below him he may have questioned if the descent into the pit of Stein's soul had happened at all.

They were still resonating of course, and as Spirit looked at the place where Stein's fingers had drawn blood through his pajamas he felt a ripple of sadness from his partner's soul. He looked up to find that Stein was watching him, his eyes vacant.

Spirit's hand was in fact holding one of Stein's to his chest, the other wrapped partially around his meister and his fingers gripping his neck. Apparently that hadn't just happened in their souls.

Spirit straightened up slightly and drew a breath...and then he was falling as a swirling nausea and dizziness racked his being. He felt his shoulder brush against Stein's as he fell past him, landing awkwardly and painfully on the arm that had released his partner's neck. He'd managed to keep hold of his hand however, and Stein had twisted to watch him with wide eyes, his grip tightening on the weapon's. Spirit started to panic as the room spun and he struggled to suck in air, but after a he moment realized that the journey through Stein's...madness...had simply been taxing.  His body would need time to recover.

He forced himself to stay calm, and his frame shuddered involuntarily a few times as the tension started to leave him. Gradually his breathing evened, and his heart rate slowed... He became aware of the softness of Stein's blanket under his cheek.

He blinked as the dizziness faded, the room's spinning coming to a slow stop and the churning in his stomach subsiding into a dull ache. He became aware of a slight rise in their resonance rate and lifted his gaze to Stein's face, the younger boy still staring at him with wide eyes. He realized then that Stein had taken the small amount of control that Spirit had relinquished to send him strength.

He was trying to help him.

Spirit shifted, wincing as he wiggled his arm out of the painful angle from under his side and stretched it across the bed. Pins and needles prickled his flesh from his shoulder to his fingertips, but it began to wane almost immediately.

"Are you okay?"

Stein's voice was small and uncertain, his eyes still wide but his face otherwise blank.

Not only Spirit had figured out how to read his partner over the past several months, but he felt he could see even more now after the journey through his soul what each deliberately bland expression meant. And hidden behind the monotone words and still features was genuine concern.

Spirit tried to smile, but he couldn't tell if his muscles responded to his brain's commands.

"I..." he began hoarsely in reply, "should be asking you that."

Speaking hurt his throat, and he was bewildered for a moment until he remembered that he had faintly heard screaming. Had he been screaming when he dove into the fire? He reached trembling fingers up to his cheek and felt dried tear tracks.

"I..."

Spirit looked up to where Stein had glanced away, a guilty look coming over him again. Spirit could see the faint red rimming around his partner's eyes, and he wondered whose crying had prompted the other's during the chaotic resonance.

He felt something shudder across their souls and watched Stein's free hand fall to his knee, his fingers beginning to grip his flesh. Spirit shifted again with a slight grunt and set his hand gently atop Stein's. His meister's eyes flew back to his.

"Hey...stop. You're gonna hurt yourself again," Spirit said softly, glancing at the blood that had previously seeped through white.

Stein looked like he wanted to say something, but pressed his lips closed into a line. Spirit could feel the tension rising rapidly. It felt as though his partner would burst if he couldn't express whatever was still crying out within him for release, and so Spirit concentrated again on keeping their resonance stable, settling the rate into a low but steady thrum, hoping to soothe. If Stein didn't know that they were going to have to talk about what had happened, then the night was far from over.

Either realizing it himself or sensing it from his partner, Stein looked back at Spirit, his lips trembling.

"Stein," Spirit encouraged. They had to talk about it, difficult as it was going to be.

"At least it's better than hurting people!"

The words had burst forth even as Stein's fingers clenched his knee beneath Spirit's hand. Spirit frowned lightly and turned his hand over, forcing his fingers beneath Stein's palm until the younger boy acquiesced and Spirit pulled that hand away too. He made to sit up, but his head started swimming instantly so he let himself fall back again. Too soon.

"Why...?" Spirit asked, searching Stein's tortured eyes. "Why do you...want to hurt people?"

Stein watched him nervously, and Spirit knew he was making a decision between telling the truth or hiding it away again. He understood then...he felt through their resonance, that all of his partner's attempts at telling the truth in the past had ended badly. Very badly.

He frowned and forced himself upright. He closed his eyes against the dizziness as he sat on his knees in a position that mirrored Stein's and let go of his left hand to hold his own to his head as the black danced before his vision. Just how great a toll had the descent into Stein's soul taken on his body?

He looked up again and waited as the young face in front of him stopped spinning. Stein was still watching him uncertainly. He wanted to answer, Spirit could tell. It was burning behind his partner's eyes, eager to come out and be fully known. And Spirit wanted to understand, to make sense of the horrors he had seen down in the pit. He wanted them to mean anything other than that his meister was, at his core, a sadistic murderer.

But what if that was the truth?

"It's okay," Spirit managed. He would keep being brave for both of them. "Tell me."

A hint of hope, a sliver of trust, came into Stein's eyes. And then, a wild ripple across their resonance. Uncontrolled excitement that went every direction without guidance.

"I love to dissect things!"

The smile that had come across Stein's face was too real to ignore, and Spirit simply stared back, drawn in by his partner's unbridled emotion.

"I love to take things apart and see how they're made. I love to see how everything fits together so perfectly and shouldn't work but somehow... Somehow it all does. I need to know why it works! So I have to test things. I'll take the frog and start pulling it apart to see which parts are important and which aren't. What parts can it live without? How long can it go without some parts and not others? What causes instant death and how long can life be prolonged while it's still apart? How soon does it go into shock and what role does that play in prolonging or shortening life? And of course a frog isn't nearly adequate enough, the experiments have to be deeper to achieve any real result. How does a reptile react or a fish or a bird or a mammal? They're built similarly but different. So how do their anatomical differences play a role in what they can live with or without? What gives each of them life? And of course, ultimately it's all just a background to the greatest experiment, because the true mystery of life is in humans because humans have what animals don't. Humans have a soul, and I need to—"

Stein stopped abruptly, a horrified look flashing through his eyes before he looked down, struggling this time to school his features back to the colorless, bland expression he forced all of the time. This time when Stein dug his fingers into his knee, Spirit let him.

Shame. Shame and fear, beginning to build in his wavelength.

Spirit wasn't entirely sure what his face looked like, except that at some point during his meister's chatter his jaw had slackened. And then he felt the darkness, those black waves from the core of Stein's soul, rapidly rising.

Spirit inched forward on his knees closer to his young meister and gripped his hand tighter, lifting it to his chest again.

"Stein. It's okay," he pleaded in a hurry, not wanting to watch his partner fall again.

Stein shook his head. "No it's not."

Spirit sighed and tilted his head back, running his fingers through his hair as his heart pounded. "Yeah, okay...it's not. But it's going to be."

Stein shook his head again. "It won't be. It never has before."

Stein attempted to pull his hand away but Spirit held on tighter. "We'll figure it out together, whatever it takes."

"That's what they said too. But they—!"

Stein clammed up again, harder than before. His frame had started to shake, but he held onto Spirit's hand as if it was the only thing keeping him alive. Spirit pressed his wavelength against the blackness that clouded their resonance, trying to calm his meister, but then he hesitated. There were more truths not yet revealed, and perhaps the only way to know them was in peering into what Stein clearly spent all his time trying to keep buried.

Spirit relaxed his wavelength and closed his eyes to let the dark wave wash over him. And then he saw.

Two faces, a woman and a man, smiling down into his eyes, but concerned. Offering reassurances even as they put distance between themselves and him until they were out of sight. And then suddenly a gray room with windowless walls, painful fluorescent lights above, the same claustrophobic nothingness in every direction he looked. And the itching from the heavy jacket he couldn't take off. Why did it itch? Why was it pulling on his arms, pulling them across his body and pinning them and tying him and—

"Oh..." Spirit breathed as his eyes opened suddenly. "Oh, Stein..."

His meister was crying now, and Spirit didn't know if the tears that stung his eyes were a sympathetic response through their resonance or his own for what he had just seen. The black wave was still surging, washing over his soul, but it wasn't threatening him.

This was Stein's burden. A madness he had been seemingly born with, and a loneliness that had been imposed upon him because he couldn't stop it. A fear of isolation because imprisonment was the only solution to madness, save destruction, even though being set apart was the only protection he had. A struggle to conform in the way that was required to save himself even as his soul screamed for freedom. And the knowledge that those he was supposed to be able to trust over anyone else had let him down.

Stein hated being touched. Spirit wondered now if part of the reason was that dreadful, itchy jacket. But the way he still gripped Spirit's hand the older boy took as permission.

The first time had been quick and desperate, but this time Spirit carefully wrapped his arm around Stein, pulling him closer as the boy's tears turned into sobs. He received no reciprocating response, just Stein's uncontrolled gasps next to his ear as what was probably a lifetime of emotion flowed out of him, and Spirit continued holding his hand between them as the other held his meister tight.

In their souls, Spirit continued offering his wavelength, holding it steady and safe from the darkness but open and ready for Stein's to fall back in once he had resolved at least some of the grief that was pouring from his core.

He didn't know what to say at this point, so just allowed Stein to feel. It was clear the boy spent most of his time avoiding that very thing, in addition to fighting his innate desires. He wondered why, if this was what the boy went through all of the time, Lord Death had said that his soul would complement Stein's. Surely Lord Death knew the truth...? He had to, if what Spirit had seen about where Stein had come from was real. And those memories he had witnessed through his young partner's eyes were unmistakable.

So what was it then, about his soul, that Lord Death saw to be fitting to match wavelengths with...this?

The black hadn't receded, but Stein's sobbing slowed to sniffles. Spirit held on tighter, touching the side of his head to Stein's for just a moment. With that contact, Stein's fingers briefly flexed in his grasp. Spirit took this as a sign to move and leaned out of the hug, moving his hand back to Stein's other instead.

And then, he held his breath in wariness at the strange, condescending look that suddenly came to Stein's face.

"You must be really stupid."

"What...?" Spirit said, recoiling in shock from the sudden, harsh insult.

For the first time his wavelength faltered and he pulled back from their resonance due to the sting. He felt Stein's soul begin to move sporadically again with the absence of his control and regretted his retreat. But he was reeling from his partner's words.

"Why...why would you say that?" he couldn't help but ask, still in shock.

"You think I can be 'fixed.' That you have some power to save me. Nothing can save me, Spirit. I've known that my whole life. Even when I was in kindergarten, and in preschool before that.  They always made excuses to get rid of me, to send me on to the next place. And I couldn't understand why everyone just accepted everything so blindly. Why weren't my questions allowed? Why did everyone avoid answering? Why were they so afraid of me...asking...why? I never found out. After trying so many things they just finally got rid of me for good. But even at the...at the..."

Stein's defensive anger was arrested by the fear of the place Spirit had seen in his memories. What horrors had been committed against the boy there, he wondered with a shiver of unease. And it was with an even deeper queasiness that he suddenly wondered...which of the gruesome images that swirled amid the blood in the pit had been real?

Asking questions wasn't enough reason to lock a boy away in an asylum before the tender age of ten.

"Stein..." Spirit said shakily, his mouth turning to cotton as he was unsure he wanted to continue the path his mind had taken. But he had to know. "What did you do...?"

Stein blinked, the hard facade that Spirit knew well settling back into place easily even with tears still falling down the boy's face.

"Enough."

Spirit searched the green eyes, alight with too much emotion. Stubborn anger and apathetic distrust, fighting to supplant the fear and sadness that he could no longer fully hide.

"Did...did you hurt someone?"

Stein looked away.

Spirit sighed as his gaze fell. Why had he expected a different answer, after everything?

It was then that he noticed...Stein hadn't let go. He was still holding his hands.

Spirit looked up again, his jaw setting in determination even as his frame was racked with a tremor of fear he hoped Stein couldn't blame him for, given everything.

"Sorry, Stein." His partner looked up woefully. "But I'm not like them. I...guess I'm just not smart enough to let you go."

Stein blinked, the mask slipping again as Spirit stared back at him, holding his breath, hoping against everything that his meister would still accept him.

"What...?"

"I...I just have one question, though," Spirit said, hoping the tremor in his voice wasn't obvious.

Stein looked curious, apprehensive. The anger had faded and was being replaced again by that tiny thread of hope. His fingers were clammy between Spirit's, but he was still holding on.

"Do you...really want to hurt me?"

He had emphasized the last word more than he'd intended, and Stein recoiled from the question, glancing away. Spirit didn't take that as answer, simply waiting. Stein's face was hidden by shadow in the dark of the room as he fought a battle within himself that Spirit felt through the tremulous, black waves that still washed loudly across his wavelength.

Stein looked up again. The mask was gone. Spirit's partner was just a frightened child, misunderstood and mistreated, abandoned by the world before his soul even had the chance to try to find its way and thrive. And he had been hurt too many times to trust again.

But Spirit couldn't just let him go. He was his meister. Stein had been chosen for him.

For his friend...he would take the risk. For better or worse, Spirit at least had to try. He supposed he really was stupid like Stein had said...

Spirit released every last small barrier that could separate their wavelengths, letting Stein's soul spill freely into his. And he let go of all control. This startled his young partner and he watched Spirit uncertainly, his fingers fidgeting against the teen's larger ones.

"Stein," Spirit said firmly, demanding his meister's attention. The younger boy stared at him with hesitant, frightened eyes. "I am your weapon. And I'm your friend. I'm never going to leave you."

At this, Stein's lips parted, and a soft, trembling gasp slipped through. Spirit sensed the hope rising despite the darkness that was still so powerful within Stein's soul, and then he felt it again—that shooting electricity, the wild, raw power that was his partner's true wavelength. It was skeptical, testing him and weaving through him, looking for anything that could possibly mean this was a lie. But Spirit responded only with acceptance, with the quiet acquiescence to wherever Stein might lead him.

The fear within the waves calmed as it had before, and instead of the swallowing up that he'd expected from his powerful meister, Spirit felt Stein's soul cautiously nestle up against his. Peace began settling into their resonance but, occasionally there was still a brief dissonance where their wavelengths weren't fully in sync. The sound of it caused them both to wince, but neither withdrew, their souls still entwining ever tighter.

Of course it couldn't be perfect, after everything. But it didn't matter, Spirit decided. They could work on that.

And with that resolve, his body finally gave out.

"Oh..." he gasped as he fell, his eyes rolling back until all he saw was black.

The next thing he knew was panic rippling across Stein's wavelength seconds before he saw his face over him, heard him calling his name out of time with the movement of his lips.

It could have been moments or minutes, but he slowly became aware of Stein's hand attempting to lift his head, the cool feeling of glass against his lips, and the scent of water as the drink was offered. With trembling fingers that seemed not to belong to him, he attempted to steady the glass and lifted his head further to sip from it even as his eyes refused to fully focus.

The water was soothing on his strained throat, and after drinking his fill he gasped in relief and fell back again. A pillow was beneath his head this time, and he watched the ceiling overhead seem to rotate as his senses slowly returned. He listened to the glass being set down on the wooden nightstand, the creak of the mattress as Stein sat down, and then the wavering ceiling was replaced by the wide-eyed face of his meister.

"Spirit? Can you hear me?"

"Yeah... Yeah, Stein," he croaked. His instinct was to sit up, but he decided against it.

They were still in resonance, but it was a soft hum now compared to the brilliant power it was before he'd fainted. He hoped his young meister had managed all right for however long that had been, unsure what the madness might do without the steadying control he'd imposed upon the boy.

"Sorry," he said, trying to refocus. He needed to keep their resonance rate up.

"How did you...how are you doing that?" Stein asked.

Spirit blinked up at him in confusion.

"What?"

"How did you get so deep within my wavelength? No one has been able to find me down there before."

Spirit considered. He hadn't done anything special, he'd just...known he needed to help his meister and gone looking for him. Despite the threat of drowning and the searing pain of the fire.

He could feel it even now and shuddered at the memory as he ran one hand down his arm to be sure there were no actual flames. Yet he could still feel the scorching heat against his skin, and the choking weight of the water. And he could see the horrid visions within the rain of red...

Stein was looking at him, awaiting reply. "I just had to get you out," he said with a half-shrug against the mattress.

"No one has ever...been able to control my soul like this either," Stein said, almost marveling.

Spirit considered Stein's words at the same time he wondered if he could pick up the glass of water. They had been partners for almost a year. Why did it surprise the younger boy that he knew his way around his soul?

Stein was still watching him though, as if waiting for explanation. His wavelength was vibrating with curiosity. Spirit sighed internally. Ever the scientist, his young meister...

"I just...knew what had to be done. So I did it," he said, even though he wondered at the real answers himself. How had he traversed the depths of that pit of pain and horrors? How had he pulled Stein back, brought the madness into complete submission...beaten back his fears?

Stein was staring at him in some kind of awe, more questions racing behind his eyes. They thrummed against Spirit's wavelength, but the meister left them unasked.

"Can I have some more of that?" Spirit asked, taking the chance in the lull to glance over at the water glass.

Stein stretched his arm over and picked up the glass, bringing it to Spirit with both hands. Spirit was relieved that he continued to hold it, as his own fingers seemed to have lost all their strength, and all four of their hands tilted the glass as he drank greedily.

"Thanks," he said when it was nearly empty, his throat still raw. How much had he screamed when jumping into the fire? He was amazed that no one in the rest of the building had woken up.

As Stein set the glass back down, Spirit lifted one shaking arm up to look at in the dark. It was his arm, t-shirt clad and looking none the worse for wear. But Spirit could feel the faint remnants of the fire across his skin. He still couldn't quite draw a full breath.

"Is that...what it's like in your soul all the time?" he asked tentatively.

The rest of what he would have asked he let hover across their resonance, and Stein glanced down as he considered how to reply.

"Does it...hurt you the way it was me? Are you always in that much pain?" The questions spilled forth as the feeling of fire grew stronger in Spirit's memory. Somehow Stein must have known, and the reciprocating steady assurance that was sent back across his wavelength was a stronger control than Spirit would have thought his partner capable of after everything.

"It's okay," was the answer designed not to really answer. "I'm used to it by now. Sometimes it just..."

Spirit felt the familiar, faint ripplings of fear and he increased their resonance rate, bringing each tiny pulse under his wavelength and gently shattering them, one by one. His meister had experienced more than enough fear for a lifetime.

Stein looked up at him. "How are you doing that?" he asked again, that look of awed bewilderment back on his face.

Spirit was confused. He wasn't doing anything. He was devastated that his meister was in a near-constant state of suffering and that he couldn't stop it, and that it had taken him nearly a year and a nightmare to notice what Stein had guarded so tightly. All he could do was meet each challenge as they came, no matter how big or small, and try to help.

He felt his partner's wavelength respond and accept the control as the fear was erased, settling back into the gentle, lulling melody of resonance. He could feel both of their heartbeats it seemed, like thunder in his ears as he realized finally...it wasn't just the journey through Stein's madness, but the effort to keep his partner stable that was physically exhausting him.

He didn't stop.

Spirit shook his head. "I'm sorry that I didn't notice sooner, and that I...that this is all I can do."

Stein's expression, to Spirit's confusion, was still amazement. And then the young meister yawned involuntarily. Spirit had no idea what time he'd raced into his partner's bedroom in a panic, but a quick glance at his alarm clock showed that it was past one in the morning.

"But you're... No one has... Your soul is so..." Stein couldn't seem to find the words, and Spirit still didn't understand.

"I wish I could...I wish I could just fix it for you," Spirit said with an edge of frustration. "Maybe someone else could. But I don't... I don't have anything special. I'm sorry. My soul is just average."

Stein looked more bewildered than ever. "Average...?"

Spirit set one of his hands atop Stein's forearm. "But I meant what I said. I won't give up on you, Stein. I'm your weapon. And weapons protect their meisters."

"Even to death," he didn't say this time, but it flowed through their resonance and he knew that Stein heard. It wasn't what he focused on, however.

"Average...?" Stein repeated, as if the word was foreign. He yawned again, and Spirit considered only briefly before giving Stein's arm just enough of a tug to shift his balance. The boy responded to the unspoken command and lie down facing Spirit, pulling the second pillow under his head. Spirit rolled to his side and set his hand back on Stein's forearm.

"I know I can't really...be what you need. But we can figure it out together, okay? We were chosen for each other. I'm not going to leave you."

From the core of Stein's soul, a small, scared question threaded its way across their resonance until it was almost all he could hear. But the boy left it unspoken, choosing instead to press his lips together in attempt to stay any outward expression of emotion. But Spirit could see the telltale shine return to his eyes.

"Promise?"

It was so desperate, so uncertain—his meister's hope a mere pinprick of light from the depth of his soul. Spirit slid his hand up to find Stein's again and held on tight.

"I promise," he breathed as exhaustion began to have the final word of the evening. "I'm never leaving you."

His eyes had fallen closed of their own accord, but the sound of Stein's voice pulled them open again.

"Spirit Albarn..." his meister said, looking at him as if seeing him for the very first time and looking through his soul all at once. "How are you real...?"

Spirit didn't know how to answer, so he didn't. But the strength of Stein's wavelength entwining with his told him an answer wasn't needed. Their rising resonance was a blessed relief in the face of his exhaustion, and Spirit let all control fall again. This time, he felt the familiar, expected strength as he let Stein's soul overwhelm his. But it wasn't crushing nor diminishing. Stein's soul simply took his in, wrapping him up and keeping him safe.

His eyes had already closed again.

"You have...the most incredible soul I've ever seen..." Stein murmured into the dark between them.

Spirit wanted to protest that, but he suddenly remembered something. Gathering enough energy to speak took effort, his body rapidly surrendering to the exertion he'd taken on that night, especially with his meister's wavelength there now to sustain him.

"You didn't...answer my question," he said, keeping his eyes closed. He decided he didn't want to see the look on Stein's face when he asked again.

"What?"

"You didn't say... Do you really want to hurt me?"

A powerful shudder from Stein's wavelength caused him to recoil, but it was gone almost instantly, the boisterous frequency calming again to hold his head above water.

"No," came Stein's answer, resolute. "I don't."

Spirit wanted to respond, but the words wouldn't come. He was simply too tired, his eyelids heavy and his entire body screaming with relief as he let himself sink into the softness of the bed.

Behind the dark of his eyes his vision swam, with fire and water and flashes of red, and occasional frightening scenes that made his breath catch. Each time he saw one he pressed his wavelength more strongly into Stein's to keep the madness at bay. Or was it simply his memory of the journey?

He felt his partner's grateful response each time however along with the resounding strength that was given in return, slowly restoring his worn body and exhausted soul.

It had been almost a full year. And Spirit felt he knew the reserved boy pretty well. But it was clear now that he had a lot more to learn. At least, the one thing he knew for certain was his meister was with him. The strength of their resonance proved it... Neither of them was going anywhere.

"Spirit?" he heard his partner's voice come softly, somewhere out of the dark. Stein's fingers fidgeted slightly against his own.

"Hmm..." was the only reply he was capable of. The fire and flood were just a memory now, the darkness behind his eyes only occasionally broken by a flash of red. In their place was blinding brilliance, and he soared into it on the wings of their resonance's song, giving himself to its welcoming peace—the peace he and his meister had found together.

He sank deeper into the mattress, deeper into Stein's soul, letting sleep claim him at last. It was time for that terror-filled night to end. They could work on everything with the new day.

And then, a whisper... A faint ripple of guilt across his wavelength.

"What if I already did?"

Spirit tightened his fingers over Stein's. He pretended he hadn't heard.

A/N: So this was stress-relief writing while I coped with something, but it was inspired by a couple of very specific things. First, by this incredible art by the equally incredible wispforever whose Tumblr is full of lovely, funny, and inspiring Spirit & Stein pieces, and whose Spirit & Stein fics on AO3 are absolutely incomparable. (@wispforever your brilliance is a never-ending source of joy and inspiration for me, sorry not sorry for always telling you lol.) Second inspiration was the song "Crash and Burn" by Savage Garden which honestly could fit any meister and weapon?? It really could. But. I'm obsessed with the song, and it's my young Spirit and Stein anthem. And it's this entire story. It's just...how I see them as a pair. So yeah, there you have it. Also I snuck in a canon quote; Spirit quoted Maka from near the beginning of episode 45. I'm not telling which line, lol. You figure it out. It was just really fun to have him do that, you know? I think they have a lot more in common than we get to see really... And, if anyone cares... Spirit and Stein slept through the morning and when they never showed up for class, Azusa broke in and found them asleep and started scolding them. Spirit basically told her to buzz off and went back to sleep, lol. Stein lingered till he got too antsy and then went to abuse a frog with his scalpel. Anyway...think I'll take this story as part of my headcanon. Hope you enjoyed!

[olgalenski]

Anjas Rostock Rewatch - Angst heiligt die Mittel

das war die Folge nach der ich erstmal ne Pause von Rostock brauchte. Die Pause beschränkte sich auf den einen Sonntag da kam dann Dortmund liebe mich und ich bin immer noch upset deswegen. Aber ich konnte Rostock weiterschauen ^^

ich hab auch keine Erinnerungen mehr außer der einen Szene am Ende die ich auch immer noch scheiße finde also mal sehen

was sind das für kinder? der hat denen grad den Ball wieder gegeben und so danken die ihm? wild

aber gut based on dem rest hier is er iwie nich so angesehen da

also die Küchenuhr hat gesgt as is kurz vor 9. entweder is sie stehen geblieben, oder es gibt um 9uhr was warmes zu essen. is es morgens oder abends?

jetzt is es dunkel also wars wohl abends aber iwie fand ichs für 9uhr abends noch zu hell idk.

alter was sind denn das für kinder die einfach steine nach ner person werfen

ah ja sie hat den job in berlin ja sogar bekommen. ich mag das nicht

röer hatte ne wurzelbehandlung. man bekommt da antibiotika? glaube das ergibt sinn bin trotzdem überrascht

thiesler auch der einzige der nich komplett pissig is wegen berlin

veit liegt seit ner woche im koma das sad :(

aber dann hat katrin sich auch erst or ne woche in berlin beworben. das ging schnell

man bukow sag ihr doch einfach dass du nich willst dass sie geht :(

ah fuck

also bisher is die folge gar nich scheiße wie ich sie in erinnerung habe.

seit wann raucht bukow? das hat sie sich glaube auch grad gefragt xD

ach man ey hör doch auf deinen sohn

wieso gehst du denn jetzt nochmal auf diesen dachboden ey

diese aussage war grade maximalst yikes. im grunde hat sie da ja bestimmt recht aber vergleich war so unnötig und yikes like please wer hat das geschrieben

jetzt fragt sie ihn ob sie nach berlin gehen soll und er sagt nich mal nein.

gibt's nen grund? ja gibt es. ich will das nich. und du auch nch bukow

ach man ey

dieser bockman is so n anstrengend dummer typ ey

ok ich hoffe du hörst nich auf ihn

big uff

"ruf doch mal die lenski an in frankfurt oder" 1. wie habe ich das beim ersten mal gucken verpasst? da war ich vollkomme in meiner olga obsession es hätte mir auffallen müssen ich bin enttäuscht. 2. wieso dachte ich das kommt erst in kindeswohl vor?

egal ich bin jetzt upset dass es nie ne rostock/frankfurt crossover folge gab

"brandenburg macht nich mit" lieber rbb ihr hättet so cool zu mir sein können

wir nähern uns der szene an die ich mich noch erinnern kann -.-

und sie is immernoch kacke. wobei ich sie tatsächlich etwas dümmer in erinnerung hatte. aber like girl lass dich doch nicht von so nem geräusch ablenken "das nächste mal schieß ich nich daneben" ja dann solltest du vllt auch schießen

immerhin hat er endlich gesagt sie soll nich nach berlin gehen. wegen ihm.

wenn diese eine szene nich so dumm gewesen wäre hätt ich die folge jetzt nicht zwei jahre lang scheiße gefunden. also glaub ich.

immernoch anstrengende folge aber alles in allem nich so scheiße wie ich sie in erinnerung hatte was sehr gut ist. aber diese eine aussage ey wtf

[sciencestyled]

The Golem's Mischievous Muse: Synthetic Shenanigans Unleashed

Ah, dear readers of the digital realm, it's your favorite dusty raconteur, the Golem, here to spin you a yarn most peculiar. You see, it all began on a dreary Tuesday morning, when I was minding my own clay business, basking in the tranquility of my subterranean abode. Little did I know, this peace would soon be shattered by a series of events so bizarre and unexpected that they could only lead me to one conclusion: I must pen an article on synthetic biology. Allow me to recount this tale of clay and calamity.

It started innocently enough. I was in the midst of my routine maintenance—polishing my earthen skin and contemplating the meaning of mud—when a loud knock echoed through my chamber. It was the local courier, struggling with a package almost as heavy as my sense of existential dread. Curious, I opened it to find an assortment of books, vials, and strangely vibrant test tubes, all labeled with cryptic names like "BioBrick," "GeneGun," and "Golem Juice (Not for Drinking)."

A note from my old friend, Dr. Frank N. Stein, was attached. "Dear Golem," it read, "I trust this finds you well. Enclosed are materials for a little experiment. I believe you will find it most enlightening. Yours in scientific mischief, Frank."

Now, Frank had always been one for wild ideas, but this seemed especially unhinged. Nevertheless, my curiosity was piqued. I decided to dabble a bit, starting with the "Golem Juice." In hindsight, perhaps I should have read the warning label more carefully, but where's the fun in that?

One sip (yes, I know, I wasn't supposed to drink it) and my senses exploded. Colors brighter than a summer sunset filled my vision, and a peculiar sensation of enlightenment washed over me. Suddenly, I understood things I had never contemplated before—like the inner workings of bacteria, the elegance of DNA, and why my creator had given me such absurdly large feet.

As I marveled at these newfound insights, my subterranean sanctuary began to transform. Books started floating, test tubes danced, and my stone companions began reciting Shakespearean sonnets. It was chaos, but a delightful kind, the sort that makes one feel alive—or in my case, even more so.

In the midst of this pandemonium, I found myself face-to-face with a rather cheeky bacterium named Barry. Barry had apparently evolved sentience and a knack for stand-up comedy thanks to the "Golem Juice." He regaled me with tales of his microbial misadventures, from evading antibiotics to the time he helped synthesize insulin. Barry’s escapades were both hilarious and enlightening, shedding light on the incredible potential of synthetic biology.

As Barry and I chatted (he perched on my shoulder like a tiny, germ-infested parrot), it became clear that the science of crafting life from the lifeless was not just fascinating—it was revolutionary. The more Barry spoke, the more I realized that the secrets of synthetic biology were too astounding to keep to myself. They had to be shared, with humor and wit, in a way that even the most clay-brained among us could appreciate.

And so, with Barry’s microbial musings as my guide, I decided to write. My clay fingers danced across the keyboard, weaving together the marvels of synthetic biology with the quirky charm of my accidental awakening. I aimed to craft a narrative as engaging as it was informative, blending the absurdity of my experience with the profound implications of this scientific frontier.

Thus, dear readers, I invite you to join me on this peculiar journey. From the clay of my creation to the cutting-edge wonders of CRISPR, let's explore the world of synthetic biology together. Prepare to laugh, learn, and perhaps even look at your yogurt a bit differently. Because if there's one thing I've learned from this whole escapade, it's that life—whether natural or synthetic—is full of unexpected twists and turns.

Now, without further ado, I present to you the fruits of my labor (and Barry's wisecracks): The Golem’s Guide to Synthetic Biology: Crafting Life from the Lifeless.