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#((Let me know if I misunderstood!))
sunderwight · 14 days
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SV AU where, while Luo Binghe is supposed to be in the Abyss, Shen Qingqiu comes across a hellhound puppy.
Now, there is an arc in PIDW where Luo Binghe became a hellhound. But it happened like at least a century out from where they are in the timeline, after Binghe had come into his full demonic power, and involved him turning into a slavering beast that eventually become a slavering man-beast (werewolf, basically) who could only be cured by having a lot of very questionable sex with his wives. Shen Yuan wrote a rant about how yet another potentially interesting transformation arc was instead reduced to porn tropes, but it was one of several dozen such rants across many similar story arcs. Airplane barely even remembers writing it because he was having a pretty shit week and just wanted to get the chapters out.
So it doesn't really occur to either him or Shang Qinghua that finding a hellhound puppy might be suspicious. Unexpected, sure, but demons are turning up all over the place all the time, really. And it's years before Luo Binghe is even supposed to be out of the Abyss, like a century before his hellhound transformation story, and when Binghe did turn into a hellhound his two forms consisted of a fully-grown beast and a fully-grown man-beast. Not a puppy.
Of course: that hellhound puppy is definitely Luo Binghe.
He unwittingly triggered this subplot early, and because he's still a young adult, he gets stuck in a juvenile puppy form because hellhounds don't reach fully maturity until they're like fifty.
Anyway, this creates something of a pickle for Luo Binghe, because he's legitimately stuck in this form and can't figure out how to change back. This is not part of his plans. He's fleeing from Huan Hua Palace cultivators who are trying to kill him, which they might succeed at because his Heavenly Demon powers don't seem to be working.
He runs right into Shizun, who is on one of his "investigate stuff to forget the depression" field trips with Liu Qingge.
Luo Binghe is fully expecting his righteous Shizun to kill the demonic beast, and has a moment to think that at least that's better than being killed by Huan Hua, before Shizun rescues him instead.
Shen Qingqiu, meanwhile, is actually kind of excited. There was a lot of lore in PIDW about how hellhounds can actually make loyal companions if they're trained up from young enough of an age, but finding hellhound puppies would be difficult for anyone who wasn't a demonic nobleman, and most of the "trained" hellhounds just disappeared into the harem as gifts to various demon wives and were never seen or heard from again. No additional information, like the full extent of their abilities or what kind of companions they made beyond "loyal" or anything! A species of demon that could even potentially be domesticated by humans, and it was just left at that?!
Needless to say, Shen Qingqiu's not letting Huan Hua Palace kill this one. This is a rare chance for him to get a cool monster companion!
Although... such a creature might die when Luo Binghe comes to take his revenge.
Well, he'll deal with that when he has a chance. Maybe Shang Qinghua can take it to Mobei Jun or Shen Qingqiu can find another place for it before then. In the meanwhile, at least going back to Qing Jing Peak with him is better than being killed on the spot. He talks Liu Qingge into going along with it (Liu Qingge thinks he's insane but also folds like wet tissue paper), under stipulation that the hellhound's demonic energies are sealed and it gets muzzled before they bring it back with them.
Shen Qingqiu rides with it in a carriage, and feels so bad for the poor doggo looking miserable without his demon powers or even his mouth free that he secretly takes the muzzle back off while Liu Qingge isn't looking.
Luo Binghe is overwhelmed with the mixed sentiments of confusion (doesn't his shizun hate demons? is a Heavenly Demon really so especially repulsive to him?), happiness (he's going home! Shizun found him and is taking him home!), worry (Shizun please do not un-muzzle random demonic beasts just because they look sad!), and some rather embarrassing personal revelations about the appeal of being Shizun's pet. The latter situation worsens exponentially after the first time he gets good boy'd and petted for the first time.
Regardless, Shen Qingqiu does take him back to Qing Jing Peak and settles in to train and observe his new puppy. No one thinks this is precisely a good project but it is a project, and is not for instance "staring blankly into the distance while kneeling in front of a sword mound", so on balance everyone decides they'll just keep an eye on things and make sure the hellhound doesn't maul the peak lord. Lots of "just dropping in for a visits" by a rotating cast of peak lords (they have a schedule).
But the hellhound puppy is a fabulous pet! Actually, Shen Qingqiu thinks it's really remarkable how smart and readily tamed he is? Barely a few days in and he's obediently following Shizun's commands, except for "stay", which he seems to struggle with. He doesn't maul or threaten any of the disciples, only growls at Shang Qinghua sometimes and makes a few aggressive displays at Liu Qingge. The former case is just good taste, and as to the latter, well, clearly the hellhound is sensitive and intelligent, and has a more-than-rudamentary understanding of words spoken to him. He probably remembers that Liu Qingge wanted to kill him when they first met. Shen Qingqiu takes his time soothing his puppy and assuring him that he won't come to any harm, he's perfectly safe on Qing Jing Peak with Shen Qingqiu.
At least, for now.
Although actually, the more Shen Qingqiu thinks about it, the more convinced he becomes that Hellhound (sue him, he's not the best with names) would be a perfect companion for Luo Binghe once he gets out of the Abyss. The only difficulty would be in how to convince Binghe to accept him, and also how to keep his now-loyal hound from trying to defend his master when justice comes due. Shen Qingqiu figures he'll cross that bridge when he comes to it, and in the meanwhile takes some time to explain to Hellhound about his disciple, Luo Binghe, who is enduring a terrible trial in the Abyss, but who will return one day having become Emperor of the Demon Realms and could probably use a steadfast and intelligent companion who is interested in more than just his incredible amounts of power or irresistible good looks.
Luo Binghe Himself: ?!?!?!
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cupheadocscasino · 4 months
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trick or treat!
Okay, so I know this is almost three whole weeks late, due to ridiculously high ambitions on a short time limit, but if you're still in a spooky enough mood for a Halloween Party...
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THE HAUNTED HOUSE by New Mayfair Dance Orchestra
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wander-wren · 8 months
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every once in a while i like to poke my head into "anti [x]" tags just to see what the other side thinks. recently i was looking through "anti ao3" and found a really funny post claiming that ao3 is not anticapitalist, but actually the Definition Of Capitalism, bc it relies on volunteer labor while supposedly having the money to pay a staff.
oh, honey.
but i am not going to make unsubstantiated claims on the internet, no, and this gives me an excuse to look at ao3's whole budget myself, which i've been meaning to do for a while. these numbers are taken from the 2022 budget post and budget spreadsheet.
ao3's total income for 2022, from the two donation drives, regular donations, donation matching programs, interest, and royalties was $1,012,543.42. less than $300 of that was from interest and royalties, so it's almost all donations. and that's a lot, right? surely an organization making a million dollars a year can afford to pay some staff, right?
well, let's look at expenses. first of all, they lose almost $37,000 to transaction fees right away. ao3 and fanlore (~$341k and ~$18k, respectively) take up the biggest chunks of the budget by far. that money pays for, to quote the 2022 budget post, "server expenses—both new purchases and ongoing colocation and maintenance—website performance monitoring tools, and various systems-related licenses."
in some years, otw also pays external contractors to perform audits for security issues, and for more servers to handle the growing userbase. servers are expensive as hell, guys. in 2022, new server costs alone were $203k.
each of their other programs only cost around $3,000 or less, and otw paid around $78k for fundraising and development. wait, how do you lose so much money on your fundraising?? from the 2022 budget post: "Our fundraising and development expenses consist of transaction fees charged by our third-party payment processors for each donation, thank-you gift purchases and shipping, and the tools used to host the OTW’s membership database and track communications with donors and potential donors."
then the otw paid an additional $74k in administration expenses, which covers "hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as communication, management, and accounting tools."
in case you weren't following all of that math, the total expenses for 2022 come out to $518,978.48. woah! that's a lot! but it's still only a little over half of their net revenue. weird. i wonder what they do with that extra $494k?
well, $400k of it goes to the reserves, which i'll get to in a second. the last $93k, near as i can tell, gets rolled over to the next year. i'll admit this part i'm a little unsure about, as it's not clear on the spreadsheet, but that's the only thing that makes sense.
the reserves, though are clear. the most recent post i could find on the otw site about it were in the board meeting minutes from april 2, 2022: "We’re holding about $1million in operating cash that is about twice the amount of our annual operating costs. There is another $1million in reserves due to highly successful fundraisers in the past. The current plan for the reserves is to hold the money for paid staff in the future. It’s been talked about before in the past and we’re still working out the details, but it’s a rather expensive undertaking that will result in large annual expenses in addition to the initial cost of implementation."
woah....they're PLANNING to have paid staff eventually! wild!
so let's assume, for easy numbers, that the otw currently has $1.5 million in reserves. before we even get to how to use that money, let's look at the issues with implementing paid staff:
deciding which positions are going to be paid, because it can't be all of them
deciding how much to pay them, bc minimum wage sure as hell isn't enough, and cost of living is different everywhere, and volunteers come from all over the world
hiring staff and implementing new systems/tools to handle things like payroll and accounting
making sure you continue to earn enough money both to pay all of the staff and have some in reserves for emergencies or leaner donation drives
probably even more stuff than that! i don't run a nonprofit, that's just what i can think of off the top of my head.
okay, okay, okay. for the sake of argument, let's assume there is a best-case scenario where the otw starts paying some staff tomorrow. how much should they be paid? i'm picking $15 an hour, since that's what we fought for the minimum wage to be. by now, it should be closer to $20 or $25, but i'm trying to give "ao3 is capitalism" the fairest shot it can get here, okay?
ideally, if someone is being paid to help run ao3, they shouldn't need a second job. every job should pay enough to live off of. and running a nonprofit is hard work that leads to a lot of burnout--two board members JUST resigned before their terms were up. what i'm saying is, i'm going to assume a paid otw staff is getting paid for 40 hours of work a week, minimum. that's $31,200.
at $400,000 per year, the otw can afford to pay 12 people. that's WITHOUT taking into account the new systems, tools, software, etc they would have to pay for, any kind of fees, etc, etc.
oh, and btw, if you're an american you're still making barely enough to survive in most places, AND you don't have universal healthcare, vision, or dental. want otw to give people insurance, too? the number of people they can pay goes down.
it's. not. possible.
a million dollars is a lot of money on the face of it, but once you realize how MUCH goes into running something like the otw, it goes away fast.
just for reference, wikipedia also has donation drives every year. wikipedia, as of 2021, has $86.8 million in cash reserves and $137.4 million in investments. sure, wikipedia and ao3 are very different entities, but that disparity is massive. and i should note that if you give $10 to wikipedia they don't give you voting rights, i'm just saying.
by the way, you may have noticed that i didn't mention legal costs at all here. isn't one of otw's big Things about how they do legal advocacy?
yes, it is. they have a whole page about that work. and i can't for the life of me find a source on otw's website (and i'm running out of time to write this post, i'll look harder later), but i am 90% sure i learned before that most, if not all, of otw's legal work/advice/etc is done pro bono. i've also seen an anti-ao3 person claim their legal budget is only $5k or so, but they didn't have a source. but keep in mind that if they don't have a legal budget, all the numbers above stay the same, and if they do, there is even less money available for paid staff.
you can criticize ao3 and the otw all you want! there are many valid reasons to criticize them, and i do not think they're perfect either. but if you're going to do so, you should at least make sure you can back up your claims, bc otherwise you just look silly.
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violetdisasterzone · 1 year
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It's so funny to me when people call Shen Qingqiu mean for the way he acts towards Shang Qinghua, or act as though Shang Qinghua is genuinely hurt and crying himself to sleep over that treatment. Shang Qinghua is SUCH a goddamn weirdo. He's a twink. He's 70 years old. He has no guilty conscience. He doesn't view anyone or anything around him as real. In part 3 of the Airplane Extras, when Binghe has Shen Qingqiu imprisoned in his palace, Shang Qinghua quite literally says that if he were in charge of the situation ("could still control the current Bing-ge with his pen") that he would have made Binghe "defile Shen Qingqiu hundreds of times." He adds detail that I'll spare you in this post. He wrote a novel where like every character was supposed to be gay, including his literal dream man, and then he calls straight people "normal" people. His narration is like a fever dream, in the way he views the world and how he understands/processes it. He's a funny little guy who is busy with way more important things. I promise you he does not care - and if anything, finds it actively amusing - that his most loyal hater who is literally 50 years younger than him is snarky with him sometimes. It's what he deserves tbh
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baddlevests · 4 months
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i never know how to feel about this account cuz on one hand: telling people what to do isn't punk
on the other hand: it's really good advice for battle jackets
overall im gonna vibe in my shitty acrylic paint, shoplifted hot topic pins, permanent marker, 2¢ stud jacket and laugh at these submissions as if im better than them (i am not)
Hoo boy, I'm going to answer this in good faith, anon! Long reply incoming.
"Telling people what to do isn't punk"
Well, the only thing that is punk is punk. Punk as a subculture hasn't got a homogeneous moral or political standing. We are not going to "No true Scotsman" punk. We have nazi punks, anarchist punks, apolitical punks, dickhead punks, sweetheart punks, addict punks, straight edge punks, and many many more.
The only things we have in common is music taste & fashion, and even that's divided by Nazi music/fashion vs Not-Nazi music/fashion. (Obviously, good people don't fuck with nazi punks.)
So look, the "being mean isn't punk" thing isn't true. I know it goes against everything twitter/tumblr/tiktok/insta/whatever has taught you. But accepting the reality that there will be punks who disagree with you, don't like your clothes, who are mean, or who are bigots is really important. There's rotten apples in every subculture or niche. It doesn't help to pretend they aren't punk. The idea that a punk can't be an asshole is sadly poseur shit.
But we need to be mean to poseurs, to make sure punk stays a subculture, to keep it from dying, to keep people like Taylor Swift from calling herself goth-punk
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"It's really good advice for battlejackets"
Thank you! It's something I want to lean into more in the future, with the disclaimer that I'm still not the authority of what to do with your vests - I'm only a platform for the community. :D
And again, the point of this blog is to point fingers at poseurs or people with objectively bad taste. People who try to make money off of the culture. People who call anarcho-punk (a political music movement) an "aesthetic" etc. Not to imply that punk has one look that we all have to share.
Wanting to be/do better is good, and normal!
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autopilotz · 1 year
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I've had this thought lingering in my head for a while, but I've struggled finding a way to articulate it...Eh, here I go nonetheless.
I think it's weird when people act like you're required to know everything about something to actually enjoy it. That if you're not expressing your particular passion at "peak performance", suddenly it couldn't be a meaningful or fruitful endeavor for you. The whole, "oh you like this band? name every song." As if simply enjoying something, whether it's one song or the entire discography, isn't enough. Another good example being: "oh you like gaming? but you only play [insert some comparatively easier game], you're not actually into gaming.", It feels...oddly competitive? Now- I could ring up a dozen other phrases to make my point, but I'm sure you already get the gist. The common theme between all those statements is that they never come from a genuine place of wanting to share information over a common interest, but rather a way to assert that they're better in something that...literally isn't a competition at all. Especially over things that exist for our enjoyment. To an extent, I get it. I say this as someone who literally finds my own fun by trying to cram every detail and interesting fact about something I like into my head. We want to share our passions with people who are likeminded to us, know the same things we do, etc. But honestly, is it really such a problem if someone simply just enjoys something in the way thats easiest for them?...Easiest. I think thats the interesting word here. I think people just find it satisfying to assert that they put more "effort" into something. This idea that you couldn't possibly share the same passion that they do because you didn't buy $500 worth of merchandise or some shit.
So, with that being said, yeah, just have fun. Not everything is a job. You play this character simply because they look cool? Awesome. You make art and don't study shit? Sounds fun! You wear a band t-shirt but only listen to one song? Fantastic. You listen to every song but have no merch? Great. You draw fanart that doesn't follow canon design? Thats literally fine & doesn't affect me at all. In the absolute best way possible... I don't care! have fun!!
TLDR; I think it’s weird to invalidate someone’s interest, hobby or whatever simply because you think they’re a “fake fan” or not “into it enough”.
Anyways, yeah. I’m not really upset or focused on a particular instance, just speaking my mind in hopes that other people resonate. Feel free to chip in your thoughts, whether you disagree or agree I’d love to hear. Or if you think you can rephrase my thoughts better 100% go for it.
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kebriones · 11 months
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A clarification on Athenian Laws concerning male homosexuality.
(because this particular small thing is often misunderstood, due to inability to accurately translate specific ancient greek terms into english, or lack of comprehension of context.)
In classical athens, there was a very specific set of laws, concerning ONLY male athenian citizens (so slaves, women and metics were not subject to it). These laws said that a male athenian citizen who engages in intercourse with another man IN EXCHANGE FOR PAYMENT, was not allowed to do certain things, such as hold positions of power or speak in the assembly. There were also potential penalties (not described in detail) for the person hiring an athenian citizen for this purpose. Again, this is often misunderstood, so I have to repeat, this was only when it was done in exchange for some sort of payment/recompense. The word used for these men is of the same root as εταιρα, which was the female counterpart. It is often mistranslated, there's a whole thing I could go on explaining about the different types of prostitution terms, but basically there was a distinction between prostitute and courtesan/escort/whatever you'd call them in english. Also, this law did not forbid this, and it was not a prosecutable offense by itself. The offense was if one such man disobeyed the limitations set by the law, and it's unclear to me what the deal was with the person who paid.
SO yeh. Next time someone says there were laws against homosexuality in classical athens, here's a helpful article of a guy explaining this much better than me, and goes into more detail about all the weird intricacies of the legal system, as well as the laws set in place to protect boys from grown men:
and here's our original source about these laws:
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steelthroat · 1 month
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I was painting and the religious-fanatic teacher came to me and started asking questions about my work. I answered them and I was ready to go on with my day and she goes "we used to talk more when you were well..."
And I stopped dead in my tracks and looked at her like "wtf" because lady you are under 2 wrong assumptions here:
I would let YOU of all people be aware of my mental state or personal life or anything that concerns ME at all.
That we had some kind of amicable relationship to begin with? No, I don't know how you got the wrong impression since I just ever talked to you after I disagreed with your views, criticized you and almost fought with you because you said something both incredibly stupid and triggering... just because I've kept things civil doesn't mean I don't consider you anything other than a pretentious asshole.
The audacity of this woman, to think she can come to me and act all motherly and attentive while trying to get her nose in my personal life while bringing up a past bond which never fricking existed????? What like do you miss our disagreements???
And I just told her, "But... I'm good tho" which is not 100% true, but that's none of her business anyway
And she goes "yeah but you were even better"
BITCH????? No I wasn't? I'm not doing super now but I've vastly improved since last year so idk are you tripping or something???? And then she says something else about my work and keeps talking to me and I'm being civil and cordial because I'm not a rude asshole even if he doesn't even deserve this courtesy for the way she treats us.
Idk what's wrong with her, like she thinks I'm some kind of "problematic kidTM" for the way I look who needs salvation?? Which is not true, I don't need you as a mother. I already have a loving family and friends. Thank you and get the hell away from me????
And even if I were looking for someone's help for anything, I would NEVER in a hundred thousand years go to her for it. Not even for a broken nail lol.
She would probably tell me to go to church and confess or some shit. She already told me to call a confessor for my grandma because she had a little accident when she heard me talking about it with someone else... fkn hell.
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So there's this one merch that makes Shin as the Joker (it's a card game, troop? Idk what is it called 😭) and what's your opinion on it?
:o?!??? I need to see this!
For me it would make sense? Shinichiro is a really important and impactful character but he isn't that much present in canon (= he's 'rare'). Also, learning about his true role as a former time leaper – rather than just big brother-mentor – was def unexpected (=can't see it coming)! And ofc, when you have him on your side you win against everything else. He could have been a king or an ace too, but I can understand why he wasn't made as one (aside from 'other characters were already given those' xd)
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criminey-christmas · 1 year
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i don’t know why i still remember this but back when until dawn first came out, i watched mark and jack’s playthroughs first. when it got to josh having his breakdown when mike and chris were tying him up in the shed, they were both kinda laughing and being like why are you being so weird
then i watched emma blackery’s playthrough and she said how sad the scene was. and i just remember thinking how true that was. we were watching a kid’s mental breakdown; watching his mask fall and seeing what he was actually thinking and going through after losing his sisters. his delusion of power and perception of reality was broken and seeing how quickly he declined mentally was heartbreaking. and it’s only made worse later in the game when we find his transcripts from his therapists and see him experience auditory and visual hallucinations
it’s just interesting how the scene hits completely different to people who have faced mental illness than to people that haven’t
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sad-rod3nt · 9 months
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My (very specific) Young Rick Sanchez head-canons :
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- Rick was far closer with his mother than his father, especially when he was young. She absolutely adored Rick and only ever wanted her family to be happy, obeying her husband to keep things civil.
- She was the more nurturing and caring of Rick’s parents and also very much fit the traditional housewife archetype. Mrs Sanchez wasn’t super smart (a bit like morty) and was very much a woman that enjoyed simple pleasures. She was caring and affectionate, but also didn’t go against Rick’s father or how he wanted Rick to be raised.
- Rick’s dad didn’t like Rick’s mom giving him so much attention and affection and put a stop to it because he thought it was making Rick too soft. Mr Sanchez wanted his son to be capable and, ahem, manly. Rick was young at the time but probably noticed the sudden cold shoulder from his mother. 
- Though Rick would have grown up somewhat unaware of it, he grew up resenting his mother. He thought she was weak.
- Rick’s dad was a hard-ass and believed in the value of a good character. He worked hard to support his family and didn’t have time for screwing around. He probably started at the very bottom, and through his own hard-work and diligence he succeeded in giving his family a very comfortable, somewhat upper-middle class sort of life. He wasn’t abusive, but a harsh, stoic sort of guy.
- That being said, Rick was spoiled. Like. Really fucking spoiled when he was young. His parents had money and spending it on Rick and supporting his science stuff was definitely commonplace. They both loved him dearly, and did what they thought was best for him.
- Rick’s father is perhaps the parent he inherited more of his intelligence from. His father was handy and very skilled with his hands and building things. It’s perhaps one of the things they shared as father and son. Rick’s dad would take him into the garage and they’d work together.
- Rick’s dad wasn’t the type to show his emotions or deal with nonsense. He was the disciplinarian and was the one that punished Rick when he got out of line. Rick’s dad wasn’t the type to openly express affection towards Rick and never told him he was proud of him. Growing up, Rick felt like his accomplishments were never enough for his father which made Rick even more rebellious and resentful.
- Rick’s mother was the one that struggled with addiction, though it went undiscussed in the house. She was an alcoholic behind closed doors and probably took pills too— all while keeping up the facade of the ideal, 50s housewife.
- The conflict between Rick and his father especially was a massive burden on his mother, especially when Rick was a teen.
- Though Rick was incredibly intelligent and gifted, he most likely didn’t succeed in school for numerous reasons, which didn’t jive well with his father who believed Rick needed to get an education in order to succeed. Rick HATED school.
- Rick’s family went to church every sunday.
- Rick was a really nice kid. A bit like Morty, he was somewhat ditsy and could be spacey. He was constantly preoccupied with ideas and daydreaming. Rick was relatively happy and precocious, of course. As a boy, he was worried about getting into trouble with his father and would try (and fail) to live up to certain standards. Rick struggled to pay attention in school and would often get into trouble because he just couldn’t sit still or follow instructions.
Bonus: The kids in his school liked to bully Rick and he was never popular. Rick was the scrawny ‘weird’ kid, and an easy target. That’s why when he becomes Tiny Rick in season 2, he finds being in highschool so addicting because he finally gets a taste of that validation he was denied all throughout his own school years.
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[WARNING: discusses spoilers for episodes 1 & 2]
okay so I've seen some people are upset about the heart-shaped rain in the intro being related to nina and maggie rather than crowley and aziraphale (causing a rainstorm is apparently crowley's suggested method of making the two women fall in love as they'd be forced to huddle together) but like... is that not a pretty direct parallel to crowley and aziraphale huddling together in eden? because if anything this makes it even MORE of an aziracrow thing. like crowley's first thought about how to make somebody (nina, the snarky one) fall for the other (maggie, the sweet one) is to FORCE THEM TO SHELTER TOGETHER FROM THE RAIN?? THAT'S WHERE HIS MIND GOES?? he might as well confess right there and then!
also, we don't actually know at this point that it doesn't ultimately relate to them too, do we? maybe they get a little smooch in the rain after all? who knows?? this is the fucking wild west now baby!!! anything could happen!!
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kaeyapilled · 10 months
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character story saying kaveh "reached schooling age and enrolled into the akademiya" except.. do we even know exactly WHAT AGE is schooling age for the akademiya?? im looking at the wiki and theres simultaneously young children and thirty year olds who are students in there. like do they just take care of basic education too? because that makes sense, but then at what age does one choose a darshan? do you choose it when you're young or is it more similar to a university major. girl help
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druidx · 21 days
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Her Countenance was Light - Chapter 5
CW: Cadaver and unintentional (character) anti-semitism Chapters: 01. 02. 03. 04. AO3 Tag list (ask for +/-): @aquadestinyswriting @hannahcbrown @jacqueswriteblrlibrary @babyblueetbaemonster
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The next morning dawns bright and clear, and Elowyn is up with the light, taking the longer route to the station. She slips in as the night shift filters out, making her way down to the Tombs, intent on catching Snips before he leaves, having worked through the night as he often does.
She knocks on the door to the morgue and lets herself in. "Morning, Snips," Elo calls. "Is it?" Snips looks up from collating notes at a desk in the corner, blinking owlishly as he removes his glasses, looking from Elo to the clock. "Ah, so it is. What can I help you with, my dear?" "A… woman came in last night," Elo says. For some reason, it's harder to remain dissociated in the light of day, when dark thoughts are held at bay by the sun. "Ah yes. You've been assigned the Strucker case?" Snips asks, brightening. "Good. The General deserves to have you on the case." So does she, Elo thinks, but she says nothing about that and just nods. "Farren said you were looking over the body last night. I figure you haven't had chance to do the write-up?" "Not completely." Snips taps neat fingernails on his stack of notes. "I've completed my assessment but have yet to formally collate those thoughts into a report." "Right. Well since I'm here – what do you have for me?" Snips pulls on a pair of gloves, throwing another to Elo as he beckons her towards the bank of chillers at the back of the room. "I assume Breakwood gave you my initial findings?" "Blunt injury to the head and stabbed through the chest." Snips opens one of the freezers, pulling the victim's tray out. Elo has to take a step back. From this angle, Ev– the victim looks so peaceful, as if she might only be asleep. She's as beautiful as Elo remembers. "As should be obvious," Snips says in the cold tones of a career clinician, "there is blunt force trauma to the right side of the head. From the red flecks found in the wound, Candice has confirmed that whatever struck her was a metal implement. What is less obvious is the chest wound." He pulls the sheet aside to illustrate the wound while maintaining the victim's dignity. "See there?" he asks, pointing to the small incision just under the victim's left breast. It is small and circular, maybe a centimeter in diameter. "It goes all the way though. I have Candice searching for something that could have caused it. It's a very precise and unusual weapon. Not something I'm immediately familiar with." "I'll be honest," Elo says, "if you hadn't told me that was a stab wound, I would have assumed it to be a gunshot." "There's no residue and no damage to the surrounding tissue," Snips says as they dispose of their gloves. "Plus the angle of entry is upwards. Unless her attacker was laid on his back, that angle is extremely difficult to achieve with a gun." "You also said something about it being very precise?" "Mm. The placement of the wound is directly between the ribs, straight into the heart." "Something not possible with a bullet. I see." Elo nods. "Is there anything else I should know about the body?" "No. I've nothing more for you, but I know Candice wanted to speak about the artefact recovered from the victim's hand." "Thank you, Snips." Elo pats him on the shoulder. "Get some rest."
She's halfway to Candice's office when there's a cry and a crash. She breaks into a run, revolver jumping to her hand.
The door is open when she gets there, and Elo peeks in. Candy is crouched on the floor, clutching her hand. "Candy?" The woman gives a breathy whine. Elo swiftly checks down the rows of shelving. Finding no intruders, she hurries to Candy's side, crouching next to the small woman. "Candice." The tech is clutching her clenched hand to her chest. Elo brushes lilac-streaked hair away from a pale face. "I'm– I think… I'm okay," Candice says. "Let me see your hand." Candy blinks. "My… my hand?" The smack of leather soles sounds in the corridor, and then Snips is there. "What happened?" he asks, hurrying over. Voice tremulous, Candice says, "I was getting the artefact out, and I… I don't know. I came over all dizzy and the tray slipped. I tried to grab it… It fell somewhere." "Help me get her up," Elo says to Snips. "Sit her on the chair." The mortician does as bid and between the two of them they manhandle Candice onto her chair. "Now, show me your hand," Elo demands. Snips gently takes the offending limb, uncurling the arm from Candice's body and easing the palm open. There is a burn mark there, and Elo sucks in a breath as she sees the imprint of text. Snips is being more practical, and snaps for her to get ice, even as he's reaching for where Candice stores her emergency first aid kit. Though she's not clumsy by nature, her job is more hazardous than most office workers, so she keeps a kit close at hand. Elo hurries off to get the ice
Snips is unravelling gauze as Elo returns with ice from the back of the ice box. It's not the cleanest, but trapped between the gauze, it will do for now, Snips says. Elo nods, seeing he has it well in hand, and turns to where the tray fell. The artefact has slipped from the tray and slid partly under a set of drawers. Once again, to Elo it appears to be made of that light blue stone, and it is fortunately unbroken. She takes the blue tissue from the tray, using it in lieu of gloves to pick the artefact up. A thrill runs up her arms, like a static shock, and she almost drops the thing as her muscles clench in protest. "Buggeration!" she swears Snips looks up sharply. "What did you say? Where did you learn that word?" he demands. Elo blinks. "Learn what?" she asks. "Buggeration? I don't know. Some students from England–" "How dare you speak these words!" He's now left Candice, and his eyes are flashing dangerously. "I demand you stop it this instant!" "Stop doing what?" Elo asks, and she's surprised at the venom coming from their usually mild-mannered mortician. "I'm not–" "That!" he snaps, his face contorting in a snarl. "When did you learn Hebrew? Why are you speaking it here? It is a sacred language, and I demand you stop immediately." He is stalking towards her, his body rigid, his shoulders hunched, like he's going into a fight. "Snips…" Elo is confused, and – she is not frightened, she is not – but it's so surprising to hear this vitriol coming from him, that she is shocked. She takes a step away from him. "Snips let me put this thing back in the fridge at least." "No!" he grabs her wrist, teeth bared. She instinctively pulls away, but his grip is strong – stronger than she would have expected. "Now," he growls. "You shut your mouth now, you impertinent welp. You will be silent!" He twists against her struggling away, and her grip slips, and the artefact falls from her nerveless fingers. "Snickersnip!" She finally comes back to her senses, and twists her body, putting herself between her mortician and the artefact, pushing them both away, to avoid further burning. They hit a set of shelves and it rocks dangerously for a moment before righting. Snips is staring at her, shock and confusion written all over his face, as she presses him against the shelves, her arm twisted awkwardly between them. The rattle of something settling on the shelf above them and Elo's ragged breathing seems overloud in the sudden silence.
Snips' grip goes slack, as does his jaw, so Elo steps back "Snickersnip, what are you talking about?" she demands. He is staring at her, his eyes wide, and she thinks it's because she just body-slammed him into a set of shelves. "You… you were speaking Hebrew." "I was not," she tells him, as emphatically as she can manage. "I was speaking English. I don't even know what Hebrew is." "No, you… You were definitely…" He remains leaning against the shelves, looking confused and pained. "Did I injure you?" she asks quietly. Silently, he shakes his head. "Good." Elo turns away from that look of dismay and confusion, because the damnable artefact has fallen on the floor again, and she cannot see it. It's a key piece of evidence, that she is assured is melting, and she must find it, and get it back in the ice box before it vanishes completely. "Did… Did I injure you?" he asks, equally quietly, as she scours the floor. Elo's words come out harsher than she means, as she says, "Might have some bruising. Nothing I've not had before." A bark of laughter escapes. "You're a lot stronger than you look." She turns her attention back to her search for the artefact, thinking that it didn't seem like ice to her. Melting ice feels brittle, and it felt solid enough to her hand. It didn't even feel cold or damp, and she wonders how sturdy it really is. She has a gut feeling something very bad would happen if it were to break. "Sargent–" "Look after Candice," she snaps, frustrated at Snips. She is still confused and alarmed at how he acted. She knows what languages she speaks, and she has never even heard of this Hebrew, let alone spoken a word of it. The vitriol was most unlike him, and it makes her wonder just how well she really knows him.
She finally spots the artefact. It has skittered under a cabinet, and she can just see the corner of it. Elo glances back to see Snips having done as she'd commanded. Candice still looks pale, and her glassy eyes stare ahead blankly as Snips speaks to her in a quiet voice. Fortunately she seems to not have been affected by their sharp words and resultant tussle. The mortician is not paying attention to her, which she is glad for – she can do without another confrontation – but even so, as she kneels down to retrieve the thing, she doubles over the blue cloth and hoicks it out, preparing for that shock. It doesn't come. She lifts it from the floor and dumps it back in the tray. It has not changed back to ice, to her eyes at least. It remains that solid, pale blue stone. Without speaking, she returns it to the ice box.
When she gets back, Snips has Candice standing, clinging to him with her free hand, like he is the only thing keeping her up-right. "I'm going to take her to Matilde," Snips says. "When I return we need to talk." "Snips-" "No. No, don't you 'Snips' me," he says, doing a passable impression of her slightly wheedling, slightly threatening tone. "We need to talk. So you can choose to remain here, or in my mortuary, but I will return, and I shall be… cross if you aren't here." "All I was going to say," Elo replies, capitulating internally, "is that maybe this is a conversation to share with Farren. He should be in by now. How about I meet you upstairs, and we'll commandeer an interview lounge?" The mortician narrows his eyes at her. "I won't skip out on you. You have my word on it – my bark and my blood as my bond." They both blink. She doesn't know why she said that, except that it feels right to do so. Snips looks taken aback, but then he nods. "Very well. You will need to tell Constable Breakwood what transpired here eventually, and it would be best to deal with both things at once, rather than having to repeat the conversation." They nod tightly to each other, while Candice stares at them both. "Come now, my dear," he says to Candice. "Let's get that nasty burn seen too." He is far more gentle with Candice than he has been with Elo, as he leads her away.
Elo watches them go, and tries to think. She has never, in all the time she has spent as an officer at this precinct, heard of Snips behaving like that to another member of the department. Some part of her is still reeling from having him turn on her like that, but the copper in her pushes it away and tucks it down with the knowledge that it is Evalyn Strucker who lies dead on his autopsy table, and she has a job to do. But the artefact… It scritches at her mind. It will not be forgotten so easily. She is afraid that they are all correct, and it is melting away into nothingness, but part of her refuses to believe it's true. Part of her wants to turn and take it from the ice box. She wants to cradle it in her bare palm and touch the surface with her fingers. She wants to speak the words engraved into it, if her mind can ever wrap its way around them.
She blinks and finds herself stood in front of the icebox, her hand resting on the handle. Elo gives a sharp exhalation and steps back. This is stupid. She has things to do, a murder to solve and a murderer to find. She does not have time to stand around, giving in to the childish flights of fantasy. It might have been fun, once upon a time, to think that she was special, that those red eyes meant something when she was younger, that the gobbledygook language she spoke to her friend with was something unique and particular to only them. But now she is an adult, with no time to indulge. There are real threats out there, and her friend is waiting for her to bring the killer to justice. Nothing less will stand. Disgusted with herself, Elo turns away, the fire of vengeance burning in her blood, and finds it is almost, almost, enough to drown the scritching that starts again in the back of her brain. Every step away from the artefact in the ice box makes it worse and by the time she has crossed halfway over the floor it's intolerable again. She snarls at herself, and actually scratches the back of her neck, by the base of her skull, to make the damn thing stop. It does not help.
Muttering expletives to herself, she turns and strides back to the ice box, hauling the door open and glares at the thing inside. She expects the satisfying rush that comes from scratching, the deliciousness of release, but if anything the itch is only worse. She's stopped thinking halfway over the floor, the irritation in her mind is that bad, and she stares with hate, with longing, at the thing lying there on a steel tray and medical blue paper towel, the speckled stone blushed over with yellow from the fridge's bulb, and because she truly has stopped thinking about anything other than getting release from this itch, she reaches in with bare hand, and grabs the artefact.
A lot happens then.
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shibaraki · 3 months
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You're writing is spectacular!!! Could you tell us how you do it???? 🎤 It's so poetic without being overly romantic!!!
ahh thank you very much for the kind words! it’s an honour that you think so!! though I have to forewarn you… I suck at answering questions like this sskfhfg
there is still a lot for me to improve on re: writing, and as I’ve said before, it has practically become second nature to me so I know I sound like a prat explaining it (^^;) but really I just practise. I write stuff that I will never post. I indulge myself. I make a web-weave for every longer fic I outline so I can really grasp the tone I’m going for beforehand, then as I’m writing it I read my fic aloud (as I don’t have a beta reader), and parts that sound awkward or overly crowded or ‘too sweet’ are rewritten then and there until it flows better—I’ve tried to get out the habit of editing as I go but found it impossible pfft. there are just things that feel right to my own ear when I write and things that don’t!
but overall I think it boils down to the basics which I know you are all probably a wee bit tired of hearing since it doesn’t show immediate results.
it has everything to do with reading—or for me it did and still does. the more you read the more you know what you like (or don’t!!) and what storytelling tools you’ll want to play with. there are so many different styles and voices to learn from or be inspired by! the pacing, story beats, dialogue, character perspective, tone and ambiance, description!!! reading is how you pick up on those things because as frustrating as it is writing is something you learn to do overtime (and it is something that only ever seems to get harder the better you get at it oughhh)
so yeah I am not great at articulating it beyond: ‘ᵘʰʰʰʰ‬ I just put some words on the page’ and I apologise for that !! (*_ _)人 yes I’m a writer yes I can hardly form a coherent sentence we exist. but I hope this serves as a reminder that all of your favourite writers started in the same place you did, and they too are trying their best to raise their own limits. so be bad at it and have fun and read and share and you’ll grow into yourself!!
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astarionposting · 3 months
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Ok so as a side blog was mentioned, how would you guys like to see me posting stuff going forward? I’m setting up my side blog right now, but not sure if it’s going to be just gale (since I post him on here anyways, and post literally anything on here) or more so I’m going to move all of my non-Astarion related content to there to keep this as Astarion ONLY.
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