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jlushie · 2 years

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When You’re Sick {Stardew Valley Bachelors}

Elliott:

“Oh, my love… You’re looking pale! Please, sit down…”

Oh he is so worried :((

And he notices it like… so fast. You don’t even really have a chance of hiding it. He’s always admiring every detail about you, so even a minor change will have his attention.

If you’re insisting about work, he won’t care. You will be forced to lay down and rest. And he will not hear a no.

He will rush to go get medication for you, or food. Or really anything you need or want. He’ll go get it in a heartbeat.

And he’ll pretty much always be by your side. He’ll probably get sick too.

“Here my darling… I’ve brought you some soup. I also picked up some medication for you. Here… Try to take a bite for me, okay?”

Shane:

“Hey… You should sit down… What do you mean why? You’re clearly sick.”

He is also someone who could tell pretty quickly. But not as quickly as Elliot… And here’s why I think so:

He’s gotten sick a lot, mostly after drinking too much alcohol. After he quit though, his health has gotten a lot better. He didn’t really consider being sick, almost as if he had forgotten other people can get sick too.

But he does get the signs quickly. He just… studies you for a minute. Then its like a lightbulb went off in his head when he realizes what’s wrong. Then he says something about it.

But he’s actually very insistent on you resting! He’s more than happy to take care of you. Especially since you had taken care of him so many times.

He’s not really good at farming, but he will take care of the livestock while you’re sick. He’s better with the chickens but he still treats every animal well!

He’s also taken care of Jas when she was sick. And sure, it may be different, but it still helps just a little. He has some clarification on what to do.

“Don’t worry, the animals are all taken care of… Just rest. I’ll try to cook up something.”

Sebastian:

“Woah! Hey… Darling, are you okay?”

He didn’t really notice until you almost fell over. It’s not that he wouldn’t see it if he wasn’t distracted… He was just working on breakfast as a little surprise. Luckily, he caught you just before you hand landed onto the ground.

He felt your head, and sure enough, you were burning up. He gently carried you off to bed.

He gave you the breakfast he prepared but he wasn’t sure if you’d keep it down. He’d be thankful if it did, but if it didn’t, thats fine, there’s no need to worry. He does end up calling his mom at one point for the pumpkin soup recipe.

He’ll also take care of the farm. He might not be the best at it but he’s trying his best

And actually worries about you a lot, maybe more than you know. He’ll try to hide just how worried he is but you could probably tell.

He’ll trying to get tips from his mom along with that pumpkin soup recipe. He just wants to make sure you will be okay.

“What? No, don’t worry… I took care of the farm, and I fully intend on taking care of you, okay?”

Sam:

“Mornin’ babe! I just finished some breakfast-…! Wait… You aren’t lookin’ too good… Here, lets get you to bed.”

He didn’t really put it together for a second. But, like Shane, he also has a younger family member who had gotten sick quite a few times. And for Vincent, he probably got sick more often than Jas. Sam had watched his mom take care of his brother, and he also helped out when he could. So after a second, it registered, and he sent you back to bed.

Sam still called his mom though. She gave him some recipes and some medicine recommendations for the way you were feeling. She’d probably end up dropping the medicine off since Sam didn’t want to leave your side.

Speaking of not leaving your side, Sam is literally not going anywhere. He’d probably end up getting sick too.

The farm is left alone for the day, and while Sam would love to help, he has literally no idea what to do.

He seems calm, but you know he’s worried, probably based on how clingy he was. But he’s a little less worried then everyone else. He tries to joke around with you or to cheer you up. You being cheered up really eased his worries.

He may play calming music if your head isn’t aching.

“I just want you to get better… It sucks to see you like this babe.”

Harvey:

“Dear, I wouldn’t suggest moving… It’s pretty obvious you’re sick…”

He’s a doctor, so he notices like five times faster than Elliott.

He pretty much saw it the moment you woke up, whether that be the facial expressions you make realizing you’re in pain or maybe he noticed how your forehead was hot or how you were sweating to a concerning amount.

Like everyone else, he forces you to bed. He may be a soft sweetheart, but he will be oddly more determined and insistent on this matter.

He’s so sweet though… And he doesn’t do anything wrong.

He gives you medication that makes you feel better more quickly, he gives you ice packs or heating pads, whatever you need.

He will make you food and will make sure it won’t make you sick in any kind of way.

I’m sure he forgets about the farm. He doesn’t purposely ignore it! It’s just he’s so focused on you it’s like everything else disappeared.

He’d probably ask Mary to be in charge of the clinic. Obviously she isn’t certified in any way, but he gets her to promise to give him a call if anyone comes in. But it shouldn’t be a problem, he usually isn’t busy.

100/10, probably the best bachelor to take care of you.

“Here, this should do the trick… It’s medicine to help with your headache! Say ‘Ah’ for me, okay?”

Alex:

“Hey, I noticed you aren’t getting out of bed like you usually do… What’s wrong, baby?”

He didn’t think you were sick honestly, he probably just thought you had a nightmare or you just didn’t feel like getting up. Or maybe you were just feeling sad that day.

He never really gets sick. It kinda slipped his mind people could get sick, kinda like Shane. But when you explain what’s wrong, he is quick to get on his feet.

While you’re resting, he’ll call Evelyn for some advice. He’ll also call Haley! It might seem like a bad choice but Haley has a sister, and they’re friends! She’d know more than he would honestly.

He’ll cook you a nice breakfast, and while you eat, he waters the crops for you! He waters them very quickly though… Like you just finish breakfast and he’s already done!

He’s worried, and over a call with Evelyn, expresses his worries. She, being the innocent, purest soul of the valley, eases him though. You will be perfectly fine, and you just need rest! That calms him down, and makes him a bit chipper too! If Evelyn says you will be fine, you are going to be fine. He trusts her word.

It’s a small detail, but he like… carries you everywhere. You aren’t walking. You want a shower? Here, he’ll bring you there… Want some fresh air? Only for a second! And you’re going to be stuck in his arms.

“Don’t worry angel, grandma said you’re going to be perfectly fine! Now wait here, I’ll go run you a bath.”

#stardew valley x reader #stardew valley bachelors #x reader #stardew valley

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nilesmoon · 6 months

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actually yknow what I will Not stop talking about amprule 4th anniversary art because I know Uri (the artist who designed amprule) puts so much detail into each drawing they make of them so let's break down this banger artwork together

Let's start simple! A pink rose! Pink roses signify elegance and deeper colored ones can signify appreciation! While the characters themselves are Korean, their artist is Japanese, so I also looked up what they mean in Hanakotoba (Japanese flower language) they signify trust, happiness and confidence! Considering their dynamic, these could be the meanings they were going for!!

Up next the dog & the cat. They are possibly a Maine Coon and a Pyrenean Mountain Dog!

From what I've gathered the Pyrenees are used as a livestock guardian. Because of this they are rather protective of their family, as well as loyal and loving but also do not get along well with strangers. All of which work for a rather good descriptor of Chungsung considering how he has dedicated himself to taking care of and protecting Dongha.

Maine Coons, from what I know of them, are curious cats who'll follow you around and try to get included in whatever their owners are doing. So basically, they're giant cats that are clingy. Which, again, works well with Dongha, since he clings to the people he loves! He is afraid of being left behind by Chungsung and he has always been clinging to support he had provided for him.

Now this part might be a reach but when it comes to Uri's art I'm not leaving any idea unsaid. Compared to how the dog is sleeping peacefully in Dongha's lap, the cat is looking at somewhere else, possibly showing how Dongha is desperately trying to get his father's approval?

I would also like to add that in the extra art Uri posted, it is pretty much made clear that the animals are supposed to represent each other, thus signifying the trust they have for one another.

And at last, the color swap. It is my favorite part of the whole thing ngl. Colors mean a lot of for Amprule in my opinion, green means Dongha and red means Chungsung. In their original designs Chungsung's reds are Dongha's accessories, they're eye catching and are mostly associated with hearts. Meanwhile Dongha's greens are naturally blended into Chungsung's clothes with a gorgeous pattern inside his coat. In this illustration however they covered in each other's colors! Hell, in Dongha's case he's covered head to toe in pink!! And this is a Huge Thing especially considering how their main colors contrast each other (but when two colors are contrasting they are also complementary).

But also gold means Dongha and silver means Chungsung. In an interview with Uri, they talk about how they used the gold & silver accessories to show their power imbalance. While it's not a complete swap, bronze & pearl keeps it similar to the colors of gold & silver without losing their difference in monetary value.

It's Dongha's brooch that sums it all up perfectly, green & red and bronze & pearls together in one beautiful piece of jewelry. Put a crown on top of it and that's Amprule.

In the end, I think this is the perfect illustration to showcase how Amprule has changed and will keep changing!! And here's to hoping that sometime soon they'll wear each others colors in not so muted tones.

[if you're here because you read this whole thing, thank you 💚❤️]

#shout out to my beloved twitter mutual keken for suggesting the dogs breed btw <33 #MENTAL ILLNESS WINS!!!!!#Uri I love you and I love how much thought you've put into designing them #Guys please read this I spent a lot of time writing it while also making myself seem like a coherent person #EDIT ok the brooch line added bc i saw a post on twitter dot com and typed it out in its qrts. I then decided to add it to the post #paradox live #amprule #dongha yeon #chungsung baek #nile talks

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nitefyre443 · 7 months

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Song of the Moon and Sun

Nitefyre 443

I'm a huge Castlvania fan, I can’t tell you how much I love this game and franchise. I fell in love with the whip wielding vampire slaying Belmont's, Dracula, Alucard, all of it. I have not played every Castlevania game because there are a lot of them. My first Castlevania game was Castlevania II: Simon's Quest on the NES, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night being one of my all time favorite games. Also as many Castlavania fans I’m heartbroken at the state of this important and beloved franchise. This is why the Deat’s Brother’s and Powerhouse’s Castlevania Animated Series excite me so much. They seem to be the only people who give a damn about this world, its story and its character because Konami could care less. So when Castlevania Nocturne the follow up to Castlevainia was announced, I was ready and Powerhouse Animation did not disappoint.

What I’m going to talk about today is the music video for this song “I’m Free” by Sydney James Harcourt and Lindsey Stirling. What a beautiful song that serves as the character theme for not only Annette but Richter and Marie as well. Watch the video here and let it play along while readying because damn Sydney James Harcourt and Lindsey Stirling did the thing with this one.

youtube

So the song and video starts with clips of Annette's childhood, with beautiful gentle and sorrowful lyrics

See them stand ready to die For whose sake Was life fair?

The way one could look at the start of the song is Edouard as an observer, a freed man himself seeing his people in chains, literally worked and beaten to death for the sake of those that enslaved them, that is blatant and in your face. However there is a lovely duality to this song when applied to the Belmont's in the context of Castlevania itself. Yes both meanings are valid and true to both Annette and Richter. I will go further into what this song means for Richter, his story and his legacy within the Castlevania franchise but let's say making his love interest and romantic partner, formerly enslaved Black woman, is absolutely brilliant on the writer's part. Especially for Richter post the events of Symphony of the Night. So we move to the next part of the verse

Pleasure pleased and power gained Slay I deal death, enough they seek to slay

This part is one that I love and I’m all over the place about it. It feels very much from a vampire's perspective, this could be seen as applicable to Olrox in some way even though he is not shown in the video. The way the video presents it, makes it look like Annette's struggling as a child realizing she is going to have to kill to survive. There are no ways around it. I’m going to need to stew on this more.

Sick at heart Wicked betrayal Another life escaping sight The realm of flesh were all things change That life is mine and I am there x2

Annette is now a “runaway” slave which is horrific in its own rights, a girl running for her very life in a place where people saw her as nothing more than livestock to be sold, worked, bred and traded. There was no one who she could trust, absolutely no one. She is terrified and alone at this point with no place to go on an island with a slave master's dogs at her heels Until she fatefully runs into the opera house where Edouard is performing. This is the point where the song takes a dramatic shift from a lonely melody to this amazing warmth, life and full of color when the chorus kicks in.

I’m free x2 unbound by fear that’s holding me Holding, holding, holding, holding, Holding me

Now we move into the second verse and we see clips of when Annette first met Edouard, the first person that gave her refuge and trust when she was alone. Also this first time where Lindsey Stirling violin far more clearly, it was in the background earlier much subdued. This is important because each character is tied to an instrument. For Richter it’s the violin which can express sorrow and grief but also freedom and boldness. Maria’s the French Horn, why the French horn because Maria is a lot like that horn. She is loud and you will hear what she has to say on freedom whether you like it or not. The French horn has a very distinct sound and often heroic sound, we know it when we hear it and it’s declaration, so it just fits. Annette is the drums and percussion which by the start to come on strong in this second verse.

Death am I, immortal life Touch the sky again and repent The dark alive inside of me Loving made But makes no sense

The drums being Annette's instrument is so perfect, her being the descendant of Ogun the Yoruba god of War and Iron on her fathers side, war and drums are like peanut butter and jelly. This goes even deeper because drums are some of the first musical instruments we as humans created, anything can be a drum they are as old as you can get for instruments or than our singing voices. Hold up, who is the first person she meets oh it’s Edouard an opera singer, well look at that. This is the part of the song where percussion kicks in strong as we cover Annette and Edouard time fighting in Saint-Domingue during the slave rebellion that kicked the French's sorry asses off the island that would become Haiti. This verse also has Annette realizing her rage not anger but rage. Anger is not a strong enough word. What I love about Castlevania:Nocturne is that it does not chastise Annette for her rage, it is justified and the weapon she wields, but it is not the source of her strength. “You wield rage but it is not the source of your strength” This is where “Loving made but made no sense” applies that rage is born from being subjected to brutality and injustice beyond what anyone should live through. From witnessing so many you love taken away by such senseless cruelty. The source of her strength is love and the rage born of when that love is wronged by injustice and cruelty. Where it can’t stand to witness the sight of such brutality and action must be taken. Remember love and war are often bedfellows.

The potency of evil kings None can parish trust in me None can perish trust in me

This is where we hear Richter’s violin in the background and a little of Maria’s French horn. This little section covers the first night the trio meets and its the first time you here all three of the respective instruments together in the song. Annette's drums and percussion, Richter's violin and Maria's French horn but they are not unified yet, they are all still on separate paths but not one unified song.

I’m Free x 2 Unbound by fear that’s holding me Holding, Holding me

Just like in the series when the trio meets there is tension and bumping up against each other. You have a set of wounded people fighting to survive in cruel times learning to trust each other. This moves into the second chorus where Annette's percussion becomes much more clearer, defined and vibrant, she knows who she is and like a good drummer she is setting rhythm, she is the cadence it which the trio marches. Maria French horn settles in nicely as she is already very clear on what she believes.

I’m Free x 2 My love, My light Will shine on thee Will shine on, shine on, shine on, shine

Richter’s violin is here but still very distant in the background. Just like in the series he’s not quite there yet. It’s not until he see’s Annette during her speech that he realizes, “Oh shit, she is the one” The shown in lovely fashion with a clip Richter awe struck during her speech. Also notice the lyrics changed. No longer is it just “unbound by fear”, its “My love, my light will shine on thee” Annette offering the same hand to Richter that Edouard offered her. See what they did there. Now we jump into a damn amazing part of the things and build up this just chefs kiss

My heart set on truth That no fire can contain Burnin the body lay life in the flame I scoured the good And I thrusted the Evil Back Sacrificed everything Watched as it burned to ash No more self pity No more will I wait I’m breaking a path That will take me away From this place

Remember when I said this was also Richter's song, well here it is because this part is all him and the Belmont's, this furious build up all this emotion the pain, fear, love, hate, having the generations fighting the shadows in the night. Him being the last descent of the family of Vampire slayers, being so terrified when faced with his own trauma and nightmare he did the only thing he remembered to do, the last words his mother said to him “Richter, run” Remember everyone starts out running. Now, though he is running no more, because he is not alone in this fight anymore, the Belmont's, who are never really alone, he has his friends, his family, his love, his deadbeat grandfather Juste, and a pain in the ass recluse mentor Alucard. This is where Lindsey Stirling comes in with the violin and his melody as clear, bright, bold and triumphant as it must be for Richter Belmont, where we see him tie his famous white bandana around his head and become the Richter we know that kicked the monster of the night asses. Even giving us a clip of him using the greatest magical technique the Belmont's used, The Grand Cross. Yes that was the burst of flame ya’ll saw when he faced off against the Hunters on the lake.

Now I’m Free Now I’m Free Unbound by fear that holding me Holding me Now I’m free Now I’m free My Love, My light Will Shine on the

The song is their song finally coming together clear, and bold. Richter violin, Annette's percussion Edouard voice, Maria French Horn, and even a choir saying cheering them on saying “Shine on” which we can say is Julia, Juste, Annette mother, Tera, and those that came before urging them forward. Also the lyrics change again, to "Now, I’m Free." It’s just no longer saying they are free, it’s now a declaration, not just a wish but a statement of fact. They are free and no longer afraid to face the denizens of the night.

What a journey this song was in the 4 minutes and 27 seconds we were with it but what a perfect song for Castlevania: Nocturne. A song that is Annette’s song but very much it’s Richter's song by the end because he is a Belmont he is the clear unifying melody where everything just comes together. Richter is so important for not just his martial prowess, but because he was one the last Belmont's to solely by himself wield the Vampire Killer. After the events of Castlevania:Symphony of the Night, realizing that it could not just be the Belmont's who wield these powers to fight the monsters of the night. He trained others and he placed an enchantment on the Vampire Killer that if one wished to wield it they would fight his shadow, if they won they would be allowed to wield it, if not, the Vampire Killer killed them. He made it so more than just the Belmont's duty to fight the night, it was not just one family's legacy anymore, The family legacy itself being a very old world concept, any and everyone could take up arms. This theme runs through the period of history in which Castlevania: Nocturne takes place the fights for independence and revolution. Richter reforms lead to the creation of the Order of Ecclesia. The theme of an animated series featuring Richter Belmont being titled “I’m Free” has so much meaning not just in the narrative of this story set within the Castlevainia world but for the franchise itself. Some Ster Werms shade Richter is everything Luke should have been and what Ben Solo could have been for Star Wars.

Now if we could just get Castlevania free from Konami and get some new games.

#castlevania #castelvania: nocturne #Meta analysis #Youtube

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vickyvicarious · 2 years

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"'Ittin' of them over the 'ead with a pole is one way; scratchin' of their hears is another, when gents as is flush wants a bit of a show-orf to their gals. I don't so much mind the fust—the 'ittin' with a pole afore I chucks in their dinner; but I waits till they've 'ad their sherry and kawffee, so to speak, afore I tries on with the ear-scratchin'. Mind you," he added philosophically, "there's a deal of the same nature in us as in them theer animiles. Here's you a-comin' and arskin' of me questions about my business, and I that grumpy-like that only for your bloomin' 'arf-quid I'd 'a' seen you blowed fust 'fore I'd answer. Not even when you arsked me sarcastic-like if I'd like you to arsk the Superintendent if you might arsk me questions. Without offence did I tell yer to go to 'ell?"

"You did."

"An' when you said you'd report me for usin' of obscene language that was 'ittin' me over the 'ead; but the 'arf-quid made that all right. I weren't a-goin' to fight, so I waited for the food, and did with my 'owl as the wolves, and lions, and tigers does. But, Lor' love yer 'art, now that the old 'ooman has stuck a chunk of her tea-cake in me, an' rinsed me out with her bloomin' old teapot, and I've lit hup, you may scratch my ears for all you're worth, and won't git even a growl out of me. Drive along with your questions."

This whole little speech is quite interesting to me. Mainly because it goes contrary to the entire narrative's treatment of wolves so far. They have been depicted as monstrous wild creatures of the night, deadly and aggressive. They're foreign, they're 'other', rather mysterious. They vanish into the woods except when they're threatening you, although the howls can still be heard from far away.

And none of that is outside a popular conception of wolves. The fairy tale wolf, the livestock-eating wolf, etc., they're usually the bad guys. But the Thomas Bilder doesn't go in for that for even a second. Whacking them on the head with a pole aside, he does seem to have a love for/decent understanding of the animals under his care and he admits that there's nothing unusual or even really surprising in their behavior. They might snarl or growl or howl, especially when hit with a stick - but so did he, and giving him what he wanted bribed his complacency as much as it does them. They're like people in that way.

It's probably pretty obvious, but I just like that the negative portrayal of wolves isn't necessarily true. Left on their own they're normal wolves, but when Dracula is around and commanding them, then they turn into tools of horror. Because they literally are like tools to him. He doesn't manipulate them with threats or cajoling, he just has this supernatural ability to make them obey. And he uses them liberally, to kill or threaten people for him, to break in somewhere he can't... and then once he's done he drops the hold on their minds and lets them wander off.

Even the wolves near his home... what if they usually behave like normal wolves? For all we know, the wolf attack on the carriage with Jonathan was even ordered by Dracula as a nice little beginning terror before arriving to the castle. Certainly, without Dracula there to command them, Jonathan somehow escaped the mountain without getting run down and eaten despite being quite vulnerable and them being known maneaters.

Even if those particular wolves are considered irredeemable monsters, the keeper's reaction to Berserker proves that doesn't always have to be the case. Outside of Dracula's influence, they're just animals like any other. Like people.

Hey, he said it first. If you go with that comparison, well. I think the obvious interpretation, especially with Berserker returning sadly with a head full of broken glass, is simple: Dracula's presence and influence twists and warps people into something monstrous. Merely being around him is dangerous. As long as he is around you at all, tragedy will follow - even without direct intent to harm you in particular. He will use you however long it interests him to do so, and then toss you aside. Even if you do end up escaping his influence, you'll be left wounded.

#dracula daily #anyways i support berserker and i'm glad he didn't get blamed for killing mrs. westenra #and obviously there's a lot to be said for the colonial overtones of the civilized and tamed british wolf kept captive in a zoo #vs the evil foreign beasts running wild in the mountains #but the zookeeper at least doesn't go there too much.#found this in my drafts from this morning

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kelpiemomma · 2 years

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You have a Harvest Moon au? 👀 I was gonna ask about FaW/Jumping The Rail but the Harvest Moon part captured my attention (and I don't want to bug you with too many questions). What characters is it centered around and do you have a basic plot/idea for it yet?

I do!! It's literally called Pokemon: Harvest Moon bc I'm basic. There's a link on my pinned post to all of my aus (I think it's all of them) but here is a separate link https://kelpiemomma.tumblr.com/tagged/pokemon%20harvest%20moon

Never feel bad about bugging me with questions. I love opening Tumblr and seeing I have messages, especially when they're from people I know. It's very exciting to talk to people (esp my friends) about the nonsense in my brain and I would love to do it more 😂 ask all the questions you want, you might stir something up that I feel the need to put down somewhere.

ANYWAY. PHM. It's centered around the young (13-ish) Akari who comes to Jubilife Village (possible a little subset-like area of Jubilife City, like. Several miles out of the city. Not easily walked to. Middle of nowhere pokemon style.) needing a place to stay. Mayor Kamado leads her to a decrepit, rundown farm that she is allowed to stay on and live on with the caveat that she is required to improve upon it. If she hasn't improved upon it in a year, she gets the boot. (She is a child who doesn't understand contracts, property law, etc, and he is desperately clinging to a greatness the village hasn't seen in a century). Akari agrees to this and lives out her life harvest moon-like. I've focused on a more pokemon-esque version of it where she gets the Hisuian starters in various ways and they help her on the farm. She's also got a ponyta named Dolly who is ✨spicy✨

Elesa moves in during Akari's first year and the become friendly. She's absolutely confused by this grubby little dirt urchin who wanders up to her clothing store (formerly run by Anthe, who sold it to Elesa so she could retire) and just offers her a massive bag of coin in exchange for new clothes. Elesa lays claim to her as a cute niece and makes her SO MUCH farmer chic clothing. (Side note- Cyllene doubles as law enforcement (of a sort, there's really no crime in Jubilife Village because... there's no one really living in Jubilife Village!) as well as Kamado's aid with the town. Elesa has a crush on Cyllene, which is required, but Cyllene is highly stressed and quite expressionless, and Elesa is often too nervous to really do much more than offer to make her custom clothes as a way of flirting, which Cyllene honestly takes as her just being nice... this is my own ridiculous little ship that I love.) Akari thinks Elesa is funny and enjoys spending time with her, though she does do a lot of teasing her about her crush.

Laventon and Rei double as livestock owners and the local vet (and vet tech). Rei is a couple years older than Akari and deeply protective of this Tiny Baby in the universal way of "oh my god this person is just barely younger than me, they're a baby I must protect". We all have those moments. I know it. You know it. Rei is always trying to give Akari free stuff that she insists on paying for. Laventon, Rei's father (adopted or otherwise, idk), also gives her free stuff but more subtly. Taking care of the animals. Giving her advice on the best food. Telling her they "just" got a certain food in and asking her to use it and give him her opinion.

There's ALSO a train that runs nearby. It used to run through the town, and actually passes by Akari's farm, but "improvements" and speed had it passing by instead. Think of how Route 66 used to be the main thoroughfare across the country until bypasses were put in- that's essentially the "station" in Jubilife. Akari always waves at the train (to which she gets a responding horn, ALWAYS to her delight) and is somewhat beset upon by Ingo and Emmet one day, who came to visit Elesa and were curious about the girl on the farm. Again, they immediately take her under their wing, and they delight in both picking on her and making her take care of herself. Akari is terrible at taking care of herself and frequently faints due to overexertion (Elesa, Passelle(?), and Cyllene hate this but are unable to convince her to take breaks, drink water, and eat better because Akari is afraid she'll be thrown out if Kamado thinks she isn't working hard enough and won't listen to them tell her thats not how it works. 13 year olds!!!) and scares the twins one day as they find her passed out in the fields after her pokemon sought their attention while the train passed by. They manage to convince enough people that adding Jubilife Village to their stop (or a different stop) would be beneficial for everyone and end up somewhat taking over that route. It means they see Elesa every day (win! Beties reunited!), get to ensure Akari is taking care of herself, and get to give their pokemon (especially the large ones) plenty of room to roam. The subway bosses AND the former gym leader being in one spot also makes the village a draw for battlers.

Akari hates her house and doesn't put any work into it. It's her own little rebellion against Kamado. She'll improve the farmland and the stable and the barn and the cool but the house? FUCK that house. (Everyone hates that she literally STILL SLEEPS IN THAT FALLING APART FUCKING HOUSE.)

It's another of my silly self indulgences that I need to revisit 😂 especially since the comic of Ingo and Emmet being dared to adopt Akari by Akari has reached 100 notes and I said I'd redraw it if that happened fksbsjs

#Tag later

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voidsumbrella · 1 year

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ough now im thinking about my/my family's pets. it seems to be a running trait of spontaneously adopting exotics and frantically having to go all out for their care and keeping. we have some. wild vet bills.

this post is. a lot longer than i thought i would be jfc im putting this under a cut.

childhood list:

lucy, ella, and snowflake were our birds- lucy was older than me by several years and hated my guts for stealing my mom's attention from her, ella was the world's sweetest conure who we adopted approximately 5 seconds after meeting her at the rescue she was at, and snowflake was supposed to be my first pet but asking a 5 year old to socialize a bird who's species is notoriously skittish was kind of a tall ask, so he was more or less my mom's.

maddie and bleu were our pygmy goats, we ostensibly got them as livestock for brush clearing purposes, but they were pretty much pets.

2 fishtanks, one of which was my mom's and one of which was mine (for realsies this time). my mom veers towards schooling fish, but i had a bigass goldfish named diamond who i loved despite him being boring as fuck.

i also had sole responsibility over two gerbils, dos and ashey. not at the same time, i got ashey a couple years after dos died. they didn't like being handled much, so aside from some affection after weekly cleaning they mostly just hung out and made scuttling noises while i was trying to sleep.

fred was a tree frog who was accidentally brought up with my grandma's orchids when she moved from florida, and like, what were we supposed to do, let him die?? so we set up a tank.

all of them have since died- bleu died of old age at a respectable 13, as did the gerbils (though those were on the lower end bc 9 year old me didn't have as much access to proper small animal care resources, and mostly just followed pet store advice which is by and large: fucking useless). snowflake lived to be quite elderly, but got cancer and i think that's what did it. fred lived a year or so after moving in, but we don't really know what happened there, he just was dead one day.

diamond im still kind of mad about- my neighbor petsat while we were on vacation, and she ignored the instructions and overfed him badly, which tanked the water quality, and we returned to a fish actively suffocating. she didn't mean to, she was incredibly upset and super sorry, but like. she still killed my fish.

(this did result in a moment that i think defines my dad- he constantly protested how many pets we had and how much of a hassle it was to take care of them all, but while my mom and i were frantically changing the water and cleaning the tank, he got a tupperware of fresh water and gently moved diamond back and forth in it to force clean water into his gills. he gave cpr to a fish he didn't really like because my mom and i cared about it. i love my dad a lot.)

maddie actually died after only a couple months- we had followed the advice we had gotten for putting them on a runner, like, attached to a cable so they could wander around a set area but wouldn't run off into the street or anything, bc it wasn't viable at the time to fence a large area in, and we didn't want to use like shock collars or anything. her a bleu got into a scuffle, which is super normal goat behavior, and the cable got wrapped around her neck. we did not use the runner again. bleu got kind of doted on after that.

lucy died of tuberculosis. fun fact: birds can get tuberculosis. we spent months driving her back and forth to the only decent avian vet in the area getting her treatment or at least shit to make her more comfortable. in the middle of all that, ella choked on a piece of food and died extremely suddenly. then lucy died like a week later. im still kind of upset about it.

we did say we were Not getting any more pets after that, especially no more parrots- we had mom's fishtank, bleu was still alive at the time, and that was it we were done. this lasted about 8 months.

second group:

ike, the rose breasted cockatoo, who is the darling of the household and the reason why none of us are allowed to hold any birds at any pet stores unless we are actively shopping for a bird.

quincy, bibi, and kiwi, three budgies who were ostensibly my sister's but my mom was fully aware going in that these were not going to be the 7 year old's responsibility.

angel, who was given to us by a neighbor- she had belonged to her mother in law, who could no longer take care of her, but she was not Remotely socialized bc her father in law thought it was funny to wave his hands at the cage to scare her, so she was terrified of hands, which made her a bit hard to train. my mom is very good with birds, tho, so she wound up coaxing angel into liking her. only her, tho, the rest of us got bit.

we got a flock of guinea hens somewhere in here, but those were genuinely livestock instead of pets.

karma and nermal, our first cats! karma was from a litter of kittens a local feral cat had under one of the outbuildings, and got left behind when the mom noticed us monitoring her and ditched. nermal (young but an adult) showed up a year or so later, and my dad (who is allergic to cats, doesn't want cats, loudly protested the adoption of karma,) was like I Must Tame The Feral Cat. so then we had two cats.

theo, george, and tessa were our second go around for goats, because we do have a lot of brush to clear out, and used goat bedding makes really good compost. they were netherland dwarfs this time, not pygmies.

this ran through late high school, which means that some of this shit can probably be fact checked in my tumblr archive if you look really hard lmao. the pet lifespan timeline is going to blur a bit when i was at college, but:

we still have ike and he is still the household beloved!

kiwi died shortly after we got her and i don't actually know what happened there. bibi and quincy lived through old age, and only died a couple years ago. angel died due to egg laying complications, after yet another round of "hour long drives back and forth to the bird vet for several weeks."

karma was the runt of her litter and had some problems with her organ functions, and we had to put her to sleep a fewyears ago when her kidneys failed- i think she was 9 or 10. nermal died a couple years after we got him, we don't know why. he wasn't injured or visibly sick, but he was an outdoor cat please do not outdoor cat discourse at me, trust me, i know so like. it could have been anything tbh.

theo george and tessa got killed by a bear. we do not usually have bears in the area, and thought the fencing we had was sufficient. apparently not. we have also stopped keeping guineas after losing the bulk of the flock to what we suspect was a tag team of a weasel and a fox- we couldn't manage to get their house secure enough to keep them out, so birds are on hold until we get a new setup entirely.

modern group:

achilles and patroclus, adopted barn cats bc karma spent 90% of her time lounging in the sun and didn't do any hunting, which meant the mouse problem came back after nermal died. also my sister is weak to the charms of kittens and makes very good puppy eyes at my parents.

camille (cami), the first bird i got after moving out of my parent's house for college. she was fucking perfect.

the button quail- this was a mistake, we unanimously fell for the trap of cute videos on the internet because the babies are tiny and the adults are also very small and cute. we incubated 26 eggs with an estimated 25% hatch rate, and got 24 birds out of it. we managed to adopt out 17 of them, i kept four in my apartment, and my parents kept 3 at home.

latte and sybil!! latte was the first pet i adopted with my wife, after they went "i would love to have a holland lop" and i went ok we can do that. get in the car there's one at a shelter 3 hours away. lets go. sybil was adopted from the same shelter after i got an urgent call for fosters because they had something like 30 rabbits dumped on them and the larger shelter they partnered with fucked them over. we had been looking into getting a companion for latte anyway so we fostered her until she was old enough to get fixed and then adopted her fully.

dionysus, who was a betta fish and hallmark of a fun lack of impulse control on my part. i got gripped with the need to rescue him from the stack of shit-tier cups at petco because he still looked healthy enough to recover. wonderful dude tho, i hand fed him bloodworms with tweezers :)

rupert, my sister's corn snake, who is a flawless specimen. 10/10, no notes.

latte and sybil are, of course, still around, as are rupert and patroclus. we think achilles got electrocuted somehow, we literally don't know how. dionysus had chronic fin rot- don't buy fish from petco- which i religiously treated and he died of old age a few years back. my four button quail died after a year and a half, partly because i had all girls and their life expectancy is only like 2 years, partly because i was too depressed to be taking care of that many pets and also handle college. lessons on knowing your limits. my parent's three- hamilton, burr (parent's choice- the musical had just come out), and hinata (sister's choice, she really likes sports anime)- all lived past the standard maximum lifespan, and hamilton is still alive and kicking. today!

cami flew out the window and i never found her. im still upset about this.

which brings us to contemporary era:

cleopatra, a cat we adopted from a shelter after achilles died because patroclus was being concerningly listless. we were told she was too unfriendly to be an indoor pet and could really only ever be a barn cat, and that is not remotely the case. im trying to convince my dad to let my sister take her when she moves out, she would be miles happier indoors.

buster, baby, and buddy, 3 whites tree frogs we got for my sister that mostly belong to my mom. baby and buddy got a fungal infection and after another run around of frantically trying to get to an exotics vet who would treat frogs and learning how to give medication to amphibians via injection, both died. we still got buster tho, and we're trying to find a frog roughly his size as a companion.

percy and mary shelley, two african giant millipedes my wife got! they're neat, they're also nocturnal and i almost never see them.

fishtank that was planned to have cherry shrimp, neon tetras, and kuhli loaches, but presently only has kuhlis and a fuckload of snails, because all my shrimp died for unknown reasons, and i stalled long enough on getting the tetras that my loaches started breeding, and i will Not be fucking up my chances of seeing baby noodles on the regular.

my mom still has her fishtank as well! she's setting up a quarantine tank so she can add angelfish.

robespierre/robi/bastard of my life, my green cheek conure who my mom got me after cami left because she was worried about my mental health. he spent half the time i was writing this trying to burrow under the laptop, and then pulled the esc key off and i had to put him back on his cage. he stayed there for like 15 minutes and then walked across the floor back to the bed and i am actively having to shoo him away from the keyboard as we speak. i love him so much.

#real life mango #home full of creatures home full of plants home full of people i love #is the key to having any sort of mental health at all for me #pet death discussion/////

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dintheanxious · 2 years

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Din rambles about rp [Licorice Cookie] (Really long post)

Like I said in my Vampire Cookie post: Cookie Run does the thing I like where they give you a character, a basic personality and an idea of a backstory and then let you run with it. Though, when I rp Cookie Run I usually make them humans to be

yknow, less weird when they bang bc idk how that would work.

So I give them names, places of origin, (even doing a bit of extra world building myself), and families.

Licorice is more complex than Alchemist and Vampire so I'll try to be coherent for once in my life

Name and hcs below!

Name:

Latin Fawn Edwards. I honestly cannot give you a legitimate reason for his name, but I can give a reason for the name he introduces himself as: Lich

Which isn't even as in depth as my last post. It's just in reference of a necromancer specifically the Lich from Adventure Time because I think that Licorice would think it's a cool sounding name.

Basic Hcs:

I love Licorice Cookie so I got a damn list of these.

Bisexual Demiboy with he/they pronouns

Lich is about 23 years old, not a huge hc but just starting off small

He also claims to be a Scorpio because it sounds cooler, but that unravels when you find out his birthday is in early September (Virgo)

Story Hcs:

Lich wasn't intended to pursue magic since the Licorice tribe wasn't as magically educated as the Coffee one, so not only did he not receive the recognition he deserved most people didn't know how to give him that recognition or just didn't care. His parents were in the latter group.

It's hard to get him to even ADMIT that he was from such an "embarrassing" place and will claim he's from Magic City.

What actually happened was: one day to show off how powerful he was, Lich brought a dead cotton candy lamb back to life.

At first, it was finally enough to get him some recognition, with a little more work the tribe would be able to bring all their late livestock back to life and benefit from it!

That was until that lamb began to cannibalize the other sheep and had to be put down.

That was what ran Lich out of the tribe by pretty much everyone who could.

Cold and alone, Lich tried to find his way to the Coffee tribe or Milk tribe but got lost. The blizzard was getting stronger and Lich began to give up. However, Dark Enchantress saw the previous events and appeared from the snowy winds with a grin. She offered Lich a home, but more importantly... recognition. She praised Lich for his efforts and for being able to reverse the seemingly permanent.

Lich ate this up and quickly joined Dark Enchantress in her cause.

Other Hcs:

Lich is absurdly attracted to things/people that could kill him. Meaning he's most definitely attracted to Dark Choco, Red Velvet, and Black Raisin.

Though, he says it's because he finds power arousing he also wants a significant other who can protect him when he's weak. This he doesn't even admit to himself.

Wears light clothes under his robes, imagine walking around in black robes in the middle of summer. Especially robes that thick.

Lich sews, there is nothing else to mention. Just that he sews.

His necklace of skulls isn't real. This would be obvious to most, but not to Poison Mushroom (who I hc as someone who likes to collect random ass things) when they bring Lich the skull of a still decomposing animal they found. They said that maybe he could make a ring or something out of it since he makes jewelry out of bones and Lich just awkwardly disposed of it once they left.

Lich fucking LOVES horror movies but is prone to nightmares if he finds one that actually scares him good. One of the first movies that could make him that bad was when he was a kid and watched the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre on DVD.

At his current age, the only movies that freak him out are the kinda movies you'd find on Tier 3 and lower on the Disturbing Movie Iceberg. Don't ask him about it, he's still traumatized and it still makes him nauseous.

He also loves true crime, but can't stand torture cases. Even a necromancer like him wouldn't keep a living being alive just to cause it pain... the dead don't count, they can't really feel anymore.

His kind of magic needs to get living energy from somewhere to give to the dead. While most necromancers would sacrifice animals, Lich can't make himself do that so he uses his own living energy... that and if he finds an animal in pain and feels like he should put it out of its misery. The energy is then sucked into his scythe and can be used to reanimate the dead.

Meaning the more Lich does this, the more it slowly kills him.

The dead don't need much, just a drop of life (hell you can even recycle their own living energy as long as the body is still fresh). So it's not like it will kill him in one shot, however, he doesn't expect to see his 30th birthday considering that he's coughing up blood.

Bugs can count, but it's just a pain in the ass and if the dead need just a drop bugs provide like less than even a tenth of that energy

the amount of life energy a being has varies depending on many factors, just know that a healthy adult human can supply enough energy for THOUSANDS of reanimated corpses.

I couldn't find anywhere else to put this but bondage and knifeplay are *chefs kiss* to him

#cookie run rp #cookie run #cookie run kingdom #cookie run ovenbreak #licorice cookie #licorice crk #crk #rambles about rp #rambles #rambling

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rat-loves · 1 year

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the brain train has left the station boys, on my shit AGAIN woth third round of hcs 😤

--—--—--—--

Nico

i honestly love the idea of nico growing up on a little farm- it's a perfect, quiet escape for the family, and gabe can feed off of large livestock when he isn't working- its not sus to buy 4 cows when you have a farm, right?

was probably homeschooled after a few interactions with other kids went south- his vibe seems to freak alot of kids out, even when he's not trying to. got a little upset at first, since he doesn't really have friends, but got used to it. all he needs in his life are his parents now

gets flustered super easily when he realizes hes being approached/hit on- extremely suspicious of them and will openly question their motives

can sleep just about anywhere, but has nightmares and doesn't rest well anywhere but in his own bed, with his nest of blankets

he honestly let his parents design his room, he doesnt really care much about how it looks as long as its comfortable, but he does keep little trinkets on his shelves and desk, like a skull mug he got to match with gabe, or a crystal chunk thats supposed to bring luck to the family

if you get chickens for the farm, he is enthralled- tiny, stupid dinosaurs? yes please

--—--—--—--

Snowfall

snow had actually never seen the ocean up close before, so the first time hes taken to the beach he is SHOOK- it makes noise?! you can smell the water from how far?! warm sand!!!

i think he would have grown up on a mountain range, living in a nice but isolated cabin with his dad. he doesn't really see other people but he's very comfortable otherwise— knows the mountains like the back of his hand 🥰

utterly fascinated by peoples attempts to climb the mountain and camp out during the winter- humans are fragile, why would they subject themselves to such conditions?

his room is very neat, and cozy- lots of plush/fur, thick fabrics and dark woods

--—--—--—--

Trick

goes for really really long walks after an argument, especially with gabe- has found himself a town or two over before he realizes it

love the aesthetic of him growing up in an old stone castle in a sprawling pumpkin patch/corn field combo, with really fancy window work and intricate doors, but then scuffed up wooden floors and clawed up stone brickwork 🥺

his room looks surprisingly cozy but a little medieval, like he's larping or something lmao

very fond of candles and smelly things, has gotten so bad he can pinpoint someones perfume notes from across the room

--—--—--—--

Paint

paint is a little bit spoiled, hes an LA baby and you KNOW gabe's place is nice, but very heavily secured 😮‍💨 cameras and gates galore- luxury but little privacy even from his family (he doesnt really mind as much as he used to, he knows its for his and mamas protection)

pastel leds and fairy lights all over his room, has a four poster bed with sheer curtains and lights that look like stars- will NOT sleep without his star lights turned on 😤

has a MASSIVE stuffed animal gabe won for him at some fair, refuses to get rid of it even though its kind of low quality and old

sat down with gabe and his abuela to start building a family recipe book to keep around 🥺

#rats hcs #nico

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the-institute-rpg · 2 years

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➤ MEET LESLIE: 154, PROFESSOR, CAMBION

Full Name: Leslie Stedeman Nickname(s): Les Pronouns: He/Him Birthday: September 4, 1868 Age: 154 Status: Professor Subject: Folklore Species: Cambion Special Powers: None Sexuality: Bisexual I am a: Submissive I want a: Any Turn-Ons: Roleplay, outdoor sex, praise Turn-Offs: Blood play, humiliation, pain

➤ BIOGRAPHY

In the New Zealand region of Otago in 1868 along the Tairei River, Leslie Everett Stedeman was born to Ginette Stedeman, a Catholic nun of Scottish/English descent, who settled along the river with missionaries from further up the South Island. Ginette and Leslie were granted a house nearby after Ginette's pregnancy was discover and she confessed that a demon had fathered her child, after a trip into the nearby town. Ginette's pregnancy had been kept a secret with plans to raise the child and combat his hellish origins, but it became clear that could not be the case as Leslie took deathly ill after his birth. Ginette moved into the nearby farm to stay and Leslie recovered once away from the nunnery. The nuns provided the Stedemans with everything they needed, taking careful consideration to dress plainly and considered Ginette saintly in her love for her child, despite his origin and her decision to excommunicate. The Order decided to renounce religious iconography outside of the church, declaring their devotion by actions and words alone. Their more secret mission was to protect the boy from his bloodline for as long as possible and Leslie grew up to be kind, curious, gentle and good natured. He was especially good at caring for the sheep and chickens of the nearby farm and did for his adult life. Leslie was devoted the the livestock, his mother, the Order, and God, praying nightly for the redemption of his soul, his mother's... and his father's. There must have be a reason his mother never spoke of Camden Fletcher, the demon who had charmed her into diverting from her chaste path, and the nuns always dismissed his asking about him. Leslie never even knew his father's name much less his true origin.

As his powers came to the forefront, the Order grew more protective and cautious of him. He never seemed to have the demeanor for controlling others with emotion, at least not realizing those emotional abilities were ones he could wield. However there had been several instances where 'being firm and straight forward' with people, especially trespassers, was a little more than just a commanding presence. Empathic Abilities were obvious from an early stage, perhaps the very reason why the Order took to him so earnestly as he grew older. With such ability from his Animus father, thieves and trespassers never darkened their door after an encounter with Leslie. Overall he was a good care taker, able to tell when any animal was poorly and could help quickly. His Teleportation skills took a fair amount of practice, though he scarcely even tried for long distances, too many animals around to frighten, but it came in handy on occasion. The powers that solidified he was 'something different' were things he used rarely, if at all.

Ginette lived to be a very old woman and only on her deathbed did she fully explain to her son that he was the result of an affair with a demon. His "gifts from God" were still just that, and that was the true reason he was always forbidden from entering the nunnery, or venturing too near the chapel. After his mother died Leslie continued to live on the farm, raising and tending to the sheep he and the Order would sheer and spin wool from. They received little news from the outside world, the nuns keeping him secluded from the arising issues of war, but with new nuns came newer ideas. Pretty soon Leslie found himself wanting to explore more of the world and despite the elder nuns discouragement, Leslie began taking mail correspondence courses to earn his general education, then finally venturing into the greater cities of Otago for degrees in veterinary practice and culinary arts, after many more years of setting aside money from 'inheritance' via previous identities the nuns had created for him. Forever curious about a world he knew he could never truly be a part of, he depended on the nuns, as he always did, to bring him books and musical records, when they were available. Over the years he collected a number of hobbies: drawing, painting, carpentry, fishing, cooking, sewing, knitting and crochet, several musical instruments that were affordable for a secluded farmer.

Closer to the turn of the 21st century, Leslie went for another degree, this time with his love of reading fictional work and mythology, learning of other cultures around the world through their earliest stories, knowing the danger of attempting to travel outside of New Zealand. The Order's lands being protected by a historical society, and his own home as well, they were hardly disturbed, which was lucky for Leslie, identities being much harder to fake once computers had come around decades before. He only ever allowed himself a brief bit of socializing, maintaining shallow friendships at arm's length, his closest relationships were with the women and few men of the Order. After a trip to the city with a few nuns into town, his dogs needing their yearly check up, Leslie returned to find his beloved home, fields, and precious sheep and chickens burned to nothing. The nunnery was in ruins. Upon closer inspection, the remaining nuns determined it was a demon's work. Possibly Leslie's own father. Less than a week later a pamphlet was left in his rented room in town describing The Institute and more importantly a place where people like him were welcomed.

➤ PERSONALITY

✚ Generous, empathetic, practical ▬ Gullible, solitary, uncommunicative

➤ ESTABLISHED CONNECTIONS

Camden Fletcher

➤ FACE CLAIM & OOC INFO

Leslie's faceclaim is Rhys Darby. // Lara, 36, She/Her, EST

#bio #leslie stedeman #rhys darby #lara #archived bio

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the-mostdiabolik-of-lovers · 2 years

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Matchup please?~

I'm a very short girl, average weight (and more on the flat side lol), very pale skin and dark hair and eyes, with partial heterocromia in one of them. I tend to feel cold easily.

I'm very shy and introverted, suffering from anxiety especially when it comes to social interactions. People often say I'm smart, and I've always been very good at school but little do they know, I actually never study much and what saves me is my good memory and my absolute fear of failing and not meeting either my own or others' expectations. Sadly though, this trick doesn't work with Math because my brain can't understand anything past the four operations, no matter how hard I try 💔

I'm very harsh on myself and I'm often a perfectionist. I love animals a lot, especially cats and birds. I'm typically quiet and I don't talk much, I especially hate small talk BUT if the conversation is about something I actually care about, then I easily get carried away with it, raising my voice and putting so much passion and emotions into what I say.

I have a good sense of humor and, despite my anxiety and shyness, I laugh easily. I love drawing and I quite enjoy baking, plus I like playing videogames and watching movies (but I can't help but commenting the movie as I'm watching it, which often bothers the people around me lol).

I like discussing philosophical matters and I'm quite a melancholic person, often feeling stuck in the past as I struggle to let go of it. Speaking of which, I've been bullied a lot and I haven't really recovered from those traumas yet (I have severe trust issues).

I adore things that are commonly viewed as childish such as plushies, and I collect mugs/cups. I love hot tea and I drink a bit too much of it ... I also have a sweet tooth in general and I can't stand spicy flavors.

I may seem all proud and mighty during a verbal fight, but if you hit the wrong nerve I'll start crying a lot and feel very helpless and vulnerable.

Despite not being a blatantly rebellious person, I'm definitely not the submissive type either and I'll probably try to rebel by outsmarting the other person without being noticed. I hate it when things aren't at least partially under my control so I guess you could say I'm lowkey a dominant person although I don't seem like it on the outside. I'm pretty cuddly especially when I feel down, but I'm not clingy and I absolutely need my my alone time.

Huh I don't know what else to say// I hope that's enough, haha~

I wish you a great day 💗

YOU’RE MATCHED WITH RUKI MUKAMI!

“You’re slacking behind again, come now. You know you must study to avoid overwhelming yourself and buying into your perfectionism, Livestock. Here, let me get you started.”

Appearance:

　　❈ Layers, layers, layers. Ruki will not let you leave the house without a decent amount of layers on since you tend to feel cold easily. He won’t have you catching a cold on his watch.

　　❈ Short is fine by him. You’re shorter than him, even in heeled-shoes (hopefully) so he’s perfectly content with how that makes him feel.

　　❈ He doesn’t really care about chest-size. Sure, one or two comments may be made for his own amusement, but he’s no Ayato so you’e not going to find him complaining.

　　❈ He finds your eyes stunning. Kou technically is in the same boat as you, but Ruki finds your heterocromia particularly nice to look at.

Personality:

　　❈ Ruki isn’t opposed at all to the fact that you’re more quiet and shy than some others. He likes the peace and quiet, and enjoys spending time with you in the quiet when he can. Of course, though, he does enjoy when you both have something nice to talk about or reminisce on.

　　❈ He probably notices you don’t study often and, instead, use your memory and fears to achieve good grades. So, prepare for a shift in your schedule; He is going to ensure you don’t overwhelm yourself and feed into any of these fears. You will be studying.

　　❈ From time to time, Ruki also seems to be nothing but harsh on you too, but he only wants the best for you. He is also one hell of a perfectionist, so trust him to be just as worked up as you about grades and the like. Together, you’ll need to work on taking a chill pill and relaxing.

　　❈ He actually loves when you get worked up about something you’re interested in. The passion and emotion you display really reminds him why he finds such a deep interest in you.

　　❈ You’re also both deep thinkers, so you work perfectly together when discussing ideas and reflecting on life. Both of you can be stuck in the past too, but in certain ways, you ease each other out into the here and now.

　　❈ Ruki acknowledges your more sensitive sides and takes care most of the time to avoid striking any nerves (unless that’s his aim). He has a way with words, so these verbal fights ma easily get out of hand, after all.

　　❈ You needn’t be totally submissive to him, no. Your lowkey dominance is something he finds thrilling; Something he enjoys both subduing and re-enforcing depending on his own mood.

Your Interests:

　　❈ You for sure bake together. It’s Ruki after all. He notes your sweet tooth especially to make sweeter things (much to Azusa’s distaste).

　　❈ Video games and moves are something he usually just takes a back seat with. He’ll watch you play or watch the movie, but doesn’t ever seem overly interested/invested so your commentary is actually engaging for him.

　　❈ Drawing though? He loves that hobby, as it’s more quiet. He can read whilst you draw, it’s perfect.

　　❈ He may or may not be financially invested in our plushies (if you beg him, he’ll be spending a eye-watering amount on it).

Other Possible Matches: Kou Mukami, Carla Tsukinami.

#anon #match up #ruki mukami #Diabolik Lovers #dialovers collection #the-most-diabolik-of-lovers

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robininthelabyrinth · 3 years

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Delight in Misery (ao3) - part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8 (interlude)

The Lotus Pier was a free and unrestrained place in comparison with the Cloud Recesses, and there was no similar prohibition on raising pets. This was a good thing, largely because Lan Wangji had recently started to think of his little found family primarily in animal metaphors.

It was, he concluded, because of the way Mo Xuanyu followed Jiang Cheng around like an imprinted duckling, with stars in his eyes and an unfortunate tendency to try to emulate his actions while possessing exactly none of the temperament required to pull any of it off.

Indeed, watching him wheezing his way through a threat to break Jin Ling’s legs was a sight worth seeing, especially with Lan Sizhui patting him on the back and encouraging him when he temporarily got stuck stuttering on the word ‘legs’.

Jiang Cheng, for all his faults and imperfections, could be terrifying when he wished to be, the blood of the battlefields of the Sunshot Campaign forever impressed upon his bones; with Zidian to hand, he could look commanding and fearsome, decisive and harsh, and with his sharp looks and sharper scowl, he cut a fine picture - even if Lan Wangji knew the truth, that behind all that sharpness was the soul of a grumpy marshmallow.

Mo Xuanyu, with his wild thatch-like hair that couldn’t be controlled no matter their joint efforts and even wilder and far more questionable taste in appearance, couldn’t hope to match him, and really ought to stop trying.

Naturally, Jin Ling looked about as convinced about the threats as he ever was when Jiang Cheng said it, meaning of course that he didn’t care one whit, but despite their initial concerns, he took to Mo Xuanyu quite well. Lan Wangji was initially puzzled by it, given their conflicting personalities, but Jiang Cheng insightfully (for once) pointed out that it was most likely that Jin Ling was willing to forgive quite a lot in exchange for having another person dressed in Lanling Jin gold around to make him feel less awkward about it.

The two of them together were two little goldfinches strutting around in a sea of purple – or, perhaps more accurately, two golden roly-poly puppies bounding around, tails wagging, trying to befriend the Jiang sect’s army of sleek haughty purple cats. They were accompanied, of course, by a small, gentle crane with a most un-Lan-like taste for spicy fish with radishes and absolutely no head for water travel.

(They were working with Lan Sizhui on that. He lived in the Jiang sect now; he couldn’t spend his whole life being seasick!)

“What does that make you, then?” Jiang Cheng asked when Lan Wangji – after incessant prodding – mentioned his thoughts on the subject of their growing nest. “Master Rabbit?”

Lan Wangji glared, but didn’t object to the characterization; regardless of his personality, there was good reason to make the association. This was largely because Lan Xichen had recently embarked on a mission to capture the rabbits Lan Wangji had been – not raising, precisely, because pets were forbidden in the Cloud Recesses, but feeding on occasion when he had the time. He had brought them to Lan Wangji’s new “residence” at the Lotus Pier as a housewarming gift.

(Lan Wangji had no intention of moving out of Wei Wuxian’s bedroom, of course, but Jiang Cheng had long ago exercised his authority as sect leader to clear out the rooms just beyond it to create a small additional courtyard for him, in which he could exercise and meditate without being too far from the main quarters of the Jiang sect leader. As a result, the only change involved in his new, public, and above-board decision to reside in the Louts Pier was adding a new entranceway to make it appear as though they lived in separate albeit adjoining houses rather than living together in just one. Of course, it being the Lotus Pier, the new entranceway involved constructing not only a gate but a new bridge…)

“What exactly are we supposed to do with a bunch of rabbits?” Jiang Cheng had demanded at the time, staring down at them - there were rather more than Lan Wangji had remembered there being, but he supposed that was the nature of rabbits.

“I have no idea,” Lan Xichen had replied, smiling broadly. “But Wangji likes them.”

Lan Wangji had pretended that neither of them existed, and also that he was urgently needed elsewhere.

Later, Jiang Cheng had cornered him, demanding an explanation or else the rabbits would be sent down to the kitchens to be repurposed, and Lan Wangji had reluctantly confessed that they were from the burrow first established by the two wild rabbits Wei Wuxian had caught for him all those years ago.

Naturally there was no more talk of repurposing after that, and three sets of rabbit coops – far more than the rabbits Lan Wangji actually possessed required – mysteriously appeared in his small courtyard the next day.

“Wouldn’t want the stupid things to drown,” Jiang Cheng had grumbled when confronted with the evidence of his sentimentality. “If they attacked your garden and tried to burrow down they’d only hit water, and then where would we be? Awash in bunny corpses, that’s where, and that’s just unsanitary. I have a duty as sect leader to preserve the public health, you know.”

Lan Wangji had initially had some difficulty determining what type of animal Jiang Cheng was. He was as prickly as a porcupine, as standoffish as a hedgehog, as fickle as a cat, as graceful and vicious as an angry goose…

Recently, however, Lan Wangji had met a merchant from the south who had been selling a type of bird he called zishuiji, or purple swamphens – the merchant claimed that they were descended from the famous zhanniao, the poisonfeather zhen bird noted for their purple bellies, scarlet beaks, and deadly venom. Although Lan Wangji was moderately certain that the man was exaggerating for the sake of a sale, he had found himself compelled to purchase several sets to house in one of the empty rabbit coops, now moved to be placed in the main courtyard, nominally to be nearer to the waterways but mostly so that they’d be easily accessible to everyone - and, of course, to subtly harass Jiang Cheng.

It turned out that zishuiji could apparently be treated in much the same way as chickens. They were highly adaptable, but thrived best near water; they were generally shy around humans, but vicious in defending their territory, capable of biting and mobbing when provoked; and they preferred to raise their eggs with company –

Truly, he had found the right bird for Jiang Cheng.

(Not to mention the euphonious imagery of a purple hen strutting around with its purple lighting, zishuiji with zidian...truly, a picture meant for the ages. Lan Wangji determined at once to make a painting of it and insist Jiang Cheng hang it on some wall. Maybe even one of the ones in the main hall, where strangers could see.)

“Some of these are getting used for food,” Jiang Cheng insisted with a glare. “Some of the rabbits, too. There are no rules against the killing of livestock here, you hear me?”

Mo Xuanyu fell in love with them immediately – Jiang Cheng’s theory was that he was entranced by their iridescent feathers, while Lan Wangji’s view was that he recognized the innate Jiang Cheng-ness of them – and quickly took charge of their care, although Lan Sizhui and Jin Ling routinely assisted in collecting eggs.

Jiang Cheng reluctantly admitted, after some time, that the purchase had been a good one, if only because it served to settle their little awkward duckling into place, finally allowing Mo Xuanyu some sense of stability, as if having some type of small duty for which he was responsible was all he needed to believe that he wouldn’t be forced back to Lanling or to Mo village, his original place of origin, which he somehow feared even more than the backstabbing snakepit of Koi Tower.

(“You need to stop calling him a duckling,” Jiang Cheng said, quivering with laughter. “Do you know that could also mean…no, I’m not saying it. Anyway, he’s such an impressionable brat. Did you see what he did with that make-up he bought? He really does look a bit...”

From this, Lan Wangji inferred that the nickname was both extremely apt, extremely unfortunate, and had permanently stuck.)

In fact, despite initial concerns, it had been surprisingly comfortable to bring Mo Xuanyu into their lives at the Lotus Pier.

He was grateful and happy to be there, which helped; Lan Sizhui was welcoming, and Jin Ling somewhat reluctantly accepting, each for their own reasons, which helped more.

Best of all, he was at just the right age to be a regular disciple, and the current Jiang sect was especially welcoming to outsiders, having been cobbled together from a wide range of previously rogue cultivators and the small handful of survivors of the previous sect’s massacres. It improved Mo Xuanyu’s mood tremendously to be around boys and girls his own age, doing the same thing as them, without the weight of Lanling Jin’s expectations on his shoulders even if he sometimes wore their colors.

“He’s never going to be the most martially inclined,” Jiang Cheng opined after a small period of observation. “But he might make a decent administrator.”

Lan Wangji glanced at him sidelong in silent question, since Mo Xuanyu had not displayed any especially notable scholastic talents either. He had started cultivating fairly late, although obviously not as late as Jin Guangyao, but he lacked the other man’s genius for organization and management. Moreover, while his studies did admittedly exceeded the low bar set in Lan Wangji’s mind by Nie Huaisang’s miserable performance, that was a very low bar indeed.

(Nie Huaisang wasn’t stupid, he reminded himself once again. He was in fact extremely clever. And yet, even knowing what he knew, it was so easy to forget…)

“He’s kind and thoughtful of the well-being of others,” Jiang Cheng said, averting his gaze and pretending his cheeks weren’t tinting red. “Calligraphy and math, people skills, that can all be learned, but at least he has the important part down…I told you to stop doing that.”

Lan Wangji ignored him and continued to smile.

“Freak,” Jiang Cheng muttered, then shook his head. “I can’t believe anyone actually listens to you. Least of all me!”

Lan Wangji rolled his eyes. That part was Jiang Cheng’s own fault – he’d been using Lan Wangji as a sounding board more or less from the beginning, and started making him do some of his paperwork as soon as he’d been regularly awake for more than a shichen at a time under the barely plausible claim that it was good for him to exercise his hands. Now that Lan Wangji was officially out of seclusion, Jiang Cheng had promptly shoveled even more work at him – despite the fact that they were supposedly at each other’s throats.

The Jiang disciples that had not been in the loop – most of them, to Lan Wangji’s mild surprise – adjusted quickly, especially after they noticed the long-suffering expressions on the faces of Jiang Cheng’s immediate deputies. They had remained wary for a while, possibly expecting Lan Wangji to seek to implement the Lan sect rules at any moment, but after a time he had managed to win their confidence through his efficient administration and respect for their customs.

He did…rather a lot, actually. He reviewed the sect’s accounts along with Jiang Cheng, managed certain negotiations, oversaw the continuing reconstruction efforts, reviewed submitted proposals –

All things that the Lan sect did as well, but which had never come to him before. Lan Wangji suspected that in many cases, they did not even come to his brother or his uncle, who were nominally in charge of such things; the Lan sect disdained such worldly affairs, while the Jiang sect embraced them.

Although while he was on the subject of being above worldly affairs, it occured to him that he had not had an opportunity to take Bichen out recently, and it would be good to do so. He would need to come up with some excuse to insist on Jiang Cheng accompanying him for a night hunt sometime soon, some reason that would stand up to scrutiny from the outside.

As for convincing Jiang Cheng himself, however, that would be no problem.

“We are going night-hunting soon,” he informed Jiang Cheng, who looked appalled by the very thought.

“You’re joking, right?” he demanded. “Do you know how much work we have to do? The yearly update with the dyer’s guild is –”

“Not for another two months, and preparation typically takes only two weeks.”

“Reconstruction –”

“Does not require constant supervision at this stage.”

“The – there’s training –”

Lan Wangji attempted to convey his feelings on the validity of that excuse entirely through his facial expression, and it must have worked because Jiang Cheng crumbled at once, grumbling to himself.

“Who’ll we leave the children with?” he tried. “Especially with Xuanyu being so new – oh, all right. It’s weak and I know it, you don’t have to give me that judgmental look of yours.”

“If Jiang Wanyin believes that his skills have gotten so rusty that he would be unable to keep up…”

“I’m going to break your legs,” Jiang Cheng hissed at him. “I’m going to – to – oh, wait, actually, there is a reason we can’t go just yet. We’re expecting honored guests!”

Lan Wangji arched his eyebrows.

“You wouldn’t have seen the report yet, it’s still on our desk,” Jiang Cheng said. “You know of the Baixue Temple, right?”

Lan Wangji looked askance, indicating that he had of course heard of the temple, a renowned place of learning, but that he presumed that that was not what Jiang Cheng meant and also that perhaps Jiang Cheng would like to get to the point at some time before their deaths from old age.

“Fuck you too,” Jiang Cheng said conversationally, having learned the nuances of Lan Wangji’s expressions by now. “It was attacked recently, and rumor has it that it was Xue Yang that did it. Yes, the same Xue Yang who did the Chang clan massacre, the one the Jin sect was protecting before they washed their hands of him.”

Lan Wangji frowned.

“They made it through with relatively minimal casualties,” Jiang Cheng assured him. “Out of luck, mostly – when Xue Yang disappeared before his trial, the Nie sect made sure word got out everywhere, and Lianfeng-zun, who might’ve quashed it, even helped spread them, instead. From what I understand, Xiao Xingchen and Song Zichen returned to Baixue Temple to make sure it wouldn’t be attacked over their part in Xue Yang’s initial arrest, as it later turned out to be - truly, evil is mundane and predictable. They led the defensive efforts and saved many lives.”

Xiao Xingchen and Song Zichen –

Lan Wangji had heard Jiang Cheng speak of them before, of course. Rogue cultivators of considerable fame, who had refused all offers to join any of the sects, major or minor, but instead professed a desire to start a cultivation school of the old-fashioned sort, valuing affinity and merit over blood relation.

Not that that was what had caught the attention of Lan Wangj, or of Jiang Cheng for that matter.

Rather, it was said that Xiao Xingchen was a disciple of Baoshan Sanren, the famous immortal that lived secluded on the mountain. That made him Wei Wuxian’s martial uncle, and both of them were shamelessly interested in all things relating even tangentially to Wei Wuxian, however indirectly.

Jiang Cheng had sent several invitations for a visit back when the Chang clan disaster had happened. None had been accepted, which was probably all for the best – he had had to stop inviting them on account of how they’d angered the Jin sect over the matter.

(It had caused Jiang Cheng no end of nightmares, the feeling of complicity in a massacre just like the one that had destroyed his own sect sending him into a spiral of self-hatred, questioning his own morality and righteousness, wondering if his ancestors were judging him and finding him wanting, wondering if Wei Wuxian was –

It had not been a good time, a thankfully temporary reversion back to the bad days closer to the start. But Jiang Cheng was better now.)

“Why accept an invitation now?” Lan Wangji asked.

“They’re planning on hunting him down, I think, and having learned a little bit from last time, they want to get as many allies on board as possible in advance,” Jiang Cheng said, and shook his head at the depressing need to account for worldly politics when seeking to live a righteous life. A lesson hard-learned, for both of them. “They wrote to me first, this time. In return, I plan to indicate that they are welcome to come to the Lotus Pier to try to convince me – we’ll agree to help them, of course, but it’ll be nice to share a meal with them. Maybe some stories.”

“Mm,” Lan Wangji said. “And entertainment, of course.”

Jiang Cheng looked at him.

“We should take them night-hunting,” Lan Wangji elaborated, and Jiang Cheng scowled at him.

“There are oxen less stubborn than you! Donkeys! Geese!”

Lan Wangji was not a goose. A crane, perhaps, like Lan Sizhui – gentle and graceful and well-educated, with a sharp beak that most people overlooked.

He suspected Jiang Cheng would argue instead for the goose.

“I will write to my brother,” he said, opting to change the subject. “Xue Yang is a sensitive subject for his sworn brothers, as you know. It would be best to prepare him should they resume their fight with each other.”

“Oh, that’s just what we need,” Jiang Cheng grumbled. “Lianfeng-zun and Chifeng-zun at each other’s throats again…did I tell you about the series of small but extremely irritating disasters that happened that time I was at Koi Tower? The room flooding, the too-thick incense, the – the thing with the cat –”

“I also recall you coming back from a night-hunt with Chifeng-zun with an expression suggesting that someone had put the fear of death into you, yes,” Lan Wangji said.

“It’s Chifeng-zun. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you avoiding any circumstances where he could have the same talk with you!”

Lan Wangji did not deny it. As he was not a sect leader, he could avoid such things with much greater ease than poor Jiang Cheng – who was glaring again.

“You should try harder to get along with him,” he remarked, and Jiang Cheng’s eyes narrowed even further. “You have many things in common –”

“Lan Wangji. You are, as A-Yuan’s father, permitted to set up as many playdates for him as you’d like. You are not permitted to do the same for me.”

Lan Wangji nodded, indicating that would give that all the consideration it deserved, namely none.

Jiang Cheng made a sound not unlike the whistling of a boiling pot.

Lan Wangji decided that a triumphant but timely retreat was appropriate.

#mdzs #lan wangji #jiang cheng #mo xuanyu #my fic #my fics #delight in misery

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willgrahambf · 3 years

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Shiizakana is one of my favorite episodes ever, and somewhat underrated I think. To me, Shiizakana really establishes the fact that Will wants -- and longs for -- Hannibal’s approval. The beginning of the episode is the god tier dream sequence of Hannibal tied to the tree, waxing eloquent about love and the potential he sees in Will. Will directs his animal, the black stag, to kill Hannibal, but this is only a dream. In real life, he begins to feel like the animal that is on Hannibal’s leash -- and I don’t think he resents it entirely. In fact, I think that he likes it right up until he realizes that he isn’t the only one Hannibal is doing this to. Let me explain. During Will and Hannibal’s first therapy session of the episode, Will tells Hannibal that regrets not killing Clark Ingram. He says the infamous lines:

Later, when Will and Hannibal view the crime scene, the same set of words comes up

This exchange holds so much double meaning for Hannibal and Will. Like Randall and his monster, Hannibal is holding the leash on Will, directing him and training him for now. Will’s “livestock mutilation” may as well have been his threats towards Clark Ingram in the barn an episode earlier. Now, Hannibal is adapting him to bigger prey, that bigger prey being Randall himself. In a later scene, Hannibal even encourages Will to embrace his instincts, to not learn his limitations too soon.

I think Will’s acceptance of this dynamic is especially apparent when he visits Peter Bernadone. Peter tells him, “Enough time, there’s a great deal I could train even you to do, Will” to which Will replies, “That kind of friendship can keep you on your toes.” Peter adds, “Animals have friendships just like we do. We’re the same.” Put this way, I think Will is not entirely hateful of the concept. He loves his own dogs after all, training them and gaining their trust. Animal relationships are what he understands, whether they be pets or predators.

His tone shifts only when Margot shows up at his house and tells him that Hannibal encourages her to try to kill her brother. Once Randall Tier’s identity is discovered, Will is even more annoyed. “I’m curious what would happen if your patients started comparing notes, Dr. Lecter,” Will says caustically as paces around Hannibal’s office, clearly unhappy. It’s like he’s asking Hannibal, “So what’s the real truth? Do you care about me as much as you say you do or am I just another patient to you?” I don’t think he likes playing second fiddle to these other people that he didn’t know existed up until this episode. His desire for Hannibal’s attention is singular, as his attention to Hannibal is singular as well. It’s not special unless it’s something shared only between them.

Will’s murder of Randall then becomes more significant. For Will, it proves that he is the bigger, better predator, more evolved and worthy of Hannibal’s love and attention. He shows up at Hannibal’s house with Randall’s body and says, “I send someone to kill you, you send someone to kill me. Even steven.” In a way, he’s saying, “I am not just another pet. I am a predator like you. I can hunt just like you, and I won’t be reduced to another animal on a leash.” To Hannibal, it solidifies his his trust in Will. His efforts have not been misplaced. The potential that he sees in Will becomes real, under his own direction of course. Killing Clark Ingram wouldn’t have been for Hannibal. Although Hannibal tells Will he needs to kill for himself, what he really wants is for Will to kill because of him and his influence.

#i just have a lot of thoughts about this episode #every time i watch it it gets better #shiizakana #hannibal #nbc hannibal #hannibal lecter #will graham #hannibal meta

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bonecorn · 3 years

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I love your anatomy/references posts & I love skulls and skeletons & I would love to know how you convince people to give you their animal heads to clean. Also any bone cleaning tips for suburban areas?? When I was living on a farm it was easy to leave stuff out and let the bugs take care of it but my parents said hard no to dead things bleaching on the porch

Oh this is very easy!

Find a friend or acquaintance with land and leave your stuff there. Bug cleaning and tub maceration don't need a lot of hands-on attendance so you can check in however often you like.

There's also "hot water maceration" where you simmer (dont boil!) fresh heads in hot water and remove the cooked meat by hand. Make sure you scramble the brains first and then cook away inside or with a camping stove on the porch. And "bleaching" which is done with hydrogen peroxide can be done inside since the skulls are already clean by then anyway.

I don't actually convince people to give me their pets. For livestock, I ask because most people aren't emotionally attached to their livestock.

For pets, I wait to be offered the remains. More on that under the cut.

TLDR: Know the pet owner, wait to be offered bodies rather than asking. Make sure they are always in control. Ask for livestock no problem. Don't let scavengers eat euthanized meat.

holy crap lol

I don't ask for pet bodies. The trick is to be very open and excited about what you do so that people who know you know about bones and know that you are respectful of animal remains. Then, when a beloved pet dies, they might think about you.

Open up the conversation on death before it's relevant

You can also plant the seed ahead of time during a conversation about bones while the pet in question is alive and healthy. "Sometimes I do pets if their owner is ok with it, though most want to bury. Have you ever thought about that for Baxter?" It's in SUPER poor taste to do this while an animal is dying, when you'll need to be way more tactful.

Know your friend well enough to guess their feelings on it

It SUPER depends on the person and how they view bodies and death. My ex's dog passed away and he was always queasy about corpses. I comforted him and cried with him while his beloved 15 year old dog declined and passed. I didn't ask or even mention it because I knew him enough to know that he would say no, and that asking would be painful and upsetting for him to think about. Same with my dear friend and her 20 year old cat. She had a beautiful pet graveyard with headstones and everything. You just know not to ask some people because traditionally laying bodies to rest is important to them.

Other pet owners are chill about it, ESPECIALLY if they come from a livestock background. Livestock people are used to sending their animals to be recycled into glue and wax when they die, because it's generally not feasible to bury or cremate a horse. If someone does plan to take that on, you know they are absolutely dedicated to traditional burial and won't give you anything.

Make it their choice to offer, rather than it being your request

Anyway. If you know the person, and you know they might be ok with giving up their pet's body due to how they view bodies and death, then you work on making them think about you. First, you comfort and do everything you can to help the person through their grief. If you weren't already planning on doing that, then you have no business asking for their pet. Do not comfort someone in order to get something out of them. That's disgusting. Just straight up ask them for their pet and know that they will view you as tactless and rude, but its better than manipulating them.

What I do is not manipulation, it's reminding people what you do and then letting them make their own decisions. When your friend is feeling a little better and is not crying, you can ask about logistics. I ask "What do you plan to do for burial/with the body?" and that usually makes them think about me and what I do with bodies. If they already have a meaningful spot picked out to bury or scatter/keep ashes, then that means the body is important to them and I shouldn't ask further.

At this point, they should realize what you could use the body for and think about how they feel about that. This is when my sister (who has a livestock background) offered her dog to me. We talked about how she thought of bodies, and she thought that the soul is the only thing that matters and once her dog passes there's nothing important left. I did not say anything to convince her, these were all her own thoughts.

It's very VERY important to respect and love the pet owner because they're extremely vulnerable and emotionally raw. That's why I don't straight up ask, because when you're losing a pet, you don't want to feel like someone is trying to gain something from you.

If your friend says they don't know or haven't decided what to do for the body, you can gently say "Let me know if you want me to help bury it, to take it with me, or to just be there for you." This is a close-ended statement and not a question. A question means that your friend has to come up with an answer right there and then, while an offer is actionable. This puts the power and autonomy in your friend's hands, so that when they make a decision it comes fully from their wants and needs and is not about you and what you want.

Be there for them even if you get nothing out of it

If they don't offer at this point, they're not going to. Now hold up your end of the bargain and continue to comfort and help through the grieving process. Again, if you aren't already invested in this person enough to want to soothe and comfort and be there for the human person in the equation, then you have no business asking for their pet. When a pet dies, your first concern should be to the person. If it's not, then you aren't close enough to ask for goodies.

Helping someone grieve is not payment for their pet's body. If you realize they aren't going to give you something in return for your comfort and so you abandon them, you're a terrible person using their grief to manipulate them for your own gain. Comfort is not payment. Closeness in grief is a metric by which you measure "Do I have any business to ask?"

The pet owner runs the show, not you

Throughout this process, stress that the owner can change their mind at any time. You don't want the owner to think "I hate this but I can't back out now because I promised..." Even when they animal is all wrapped up an in your vehicle and ready to go, quietly tell the owner that they can still choose what happens and if they have second thoughts, that's ok and you won't be mad.

My sister let me be there for putting her dog down and it was all about her and her love for her dog. She carried him out and laid him in my trunk and we stood in the rain and talked and hugged. She then told me she was happy that he could bring happiness to someone in life and now still in death, but that she didn't want to know anything. I agreed not to tell her or post anything about processing her dog, so for her it would be like burial. The same thing happened with my other friend's horse. She spent some time with him and then as soon as he passed she drove away and let me do what I wanted. She didn't want to hear Any of it. Again, I didn't ask or even offer, she came up with the idea of giving me the body all on her own even before I knew he was dying.

Horse people are much closer to pet owners than livestock owners, but they are used to sending their friend's bodies off to a different kind of processing (at Tallow factories, livestock remains are ground up, cut apart, cooked, and spun around to extract various substances that become soap, glue, candles, etc) so they know not to think about what happens after death. It still depends on how well you know the owner and know how they think about death, but if you offer to handle logistics like dealing with the tallow guy, they can actually save money by letting you have it.

You're actually doing livestock a favor

Livestock people are generally chill and have a much more utility/asset view of their animals. If the animal doesn't even have a name they probably don't care what happens when it's dead. In fact, most farmers will jump at the chance to give you their animal for free because calling the tallow company to haul it away costs them money. This is also why in areas with lots of livestock, you sometimes find bodies dumped in ditches or left on the side of the road, because the farmer didn't want to pay to get rid of it so they made it everyone else's problem. Even pet animals like dogs and cats are more Utility than pure companions on a farm, so you might have a better chance of getting remains from a farmer than a neighbor.

One more thing about pets and livestock.

When I find a dead deer, I flay it open and let the vultures eat it. For domestic animals, they are often put to sleep via chemical/drug.

THIS IS POISONOUS TO SCAVENGERS.

DO NOT LET SCAVENGERS EAT EUTHANIZED ANIMALS

Seriously. If you like nature, you need to protect it. Deflesh it yourself, throw all the meat/blood/offal away or bury it 6 feet down. Idk what it does to the environment so I always freeze it and then throw it away on garbage day.

Rot bacteria and beetle larvae dermestids don't mind. In fact, dermestid droppings and pupa shells can be analyzed for toxins by forensic scientists to determine cause of death. Neat! Just make sure that if you process outdoors, the remains are EXTREMELY SECURE and cannot be opened by vultures, coyotes, or wild pigs.

Remember the living, human person

I know I look very clinical by picking apart human emotions, but I respond, feel, love, and grieve just like everyone else. I didn't plan how to get any of the animals in the above stories, I just acted on instinct and these are the ones where that paid off well.

Most of the time if I go "huh. I feel that may not go over well" I can then take that feeling apart and figure out why. So hopefully explaining how my feelings work it can help you listen to your most useful and most compassionate ones.

The living person is always more important than a dead pet. Sometimes you can get the dead pet without distressing your friend, sometimes you shouldn't even try.

Respecting the dead

A final note on working with pets vs wild animals. This is someone's family member, so don't play puppet with it like you might with a skunk skin. Don't take pictures of any part of the process until they are rendered to bones. Pictures of dead pet species are even more distressing to the general public than wild animals, and sick freaks might take your photos and send them to people for kicks or attention. Better to just not have photos than for that to happen.

What processing a pet feels like

Working on a pet is always going to be different for you, the vulture, than a wild animal. Everything you see is touched by human hands. My sister's dog was... beautiful. You don't really realize how moved you're going to be by seeing the perfect amount of healthy fat covering, or beautiful muscles that speak of exercise and attention. She rescued this starving pup and turned him into the healthiest animal I have ever seen. She's a vet assistant and the care and love she put into this dog had me sitting there crying while I held his paws; with their perfectly maintained clipped and sanded nails. I'd only met the dog once for a few minutes when he was alive, but his body was a canvas and every inch was painted with layers and layers of love. It made me so, so sad that his neurological issues couldn't be helped because his body was proof of someone who would stop at nothing to cure what could be cured, and that the last months of his life were happier than he ever imagined.

On the flip side, pets whose bodies show signs of neglect and abuse are going to hit you harder than any deer could. The dog I found discarded in a garbage bag on the side of the road had rotten teeth and nails so long they curled over themselves into hoops. An overgrown and suffering deer is just the sign of nature taking its course. An overgrown and suffering dog is the sign of human cruelty, of shirked responsibility.

Most pets you get will between these two dogs. No owner is perfect. Most old dogs have lost teeth to rot, sick cats too weak to scratch properly may have overgrown nails.

Death as beauty

A pet's body usually a beautiful story full of ups and downs; of owners doing things wrong and then doing things right. A vulture or an artist can read a body like rings on a tree and feel the heart beat in their chest that tells them how strong and full of love this life had been. You need to be ready for this part. Every detail is a message from your fellow human and even though we are all animals and we decompose into the same dirt, we're meant to connect to each other here and now.

Keep your emotions open when working with remains.

Listen to what they have to teach you.

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definitely-not-a-wasp · 3 years

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I'm okay with a bunch of disorganized rambling honestly 😂. But if I had to narrow it down then I guess I want to know about main and side characters and how they compare to the original?

I know that tumblr is the Prime Site for disorganized rambling, but I have perfectionism issues. But that is a great question, nonnie, and I will be happy to ramble is a slightly less disorganized fashion.

When reading Maximum Ride as a somewhat-formed adult who discovered they enjoy English classes about 3.5 years ago, I noticed that JP, when writing, doesn't understand consistency. At all. Which means, in many ways, I have a free sandbox to work with.

Spoilers for my rewrite WIP, because I strongly believe that if a story would no longer be good if one had spoilers, then it wasn’t a good story in the first place.

I'm trying to keep the backstories the same, plus or minus the scientific method and a few characters (RIP my OCs. I want to bring you back so bad but it wouldn't fit with the thematic narrative). I've mostly kept their (starting) abilities the same, too. Without further ado, I'm going to introduce some WorldBuilding. (If I'm good at nothing else, I'm good at world building)

First off. Logically.

How are they getting Cable?

How are they getting internet?

How are they getting money to eat and stuff?

JP's answer: handwave it off. Sometimes you need to ignore logistics for the sake of plot. This is an answer I'd accept from an author that I like, such as Julie Kagawa, that makes amazing worlds, characters, and narratives that I will happily handwave a few things that wouldn't work in the real world. James Patterson, on the other hand, did not make any of that; he made a cool concept, some good rough-draft characters, and nothing else, and therefore this is an unforgivable sin.

Wasp's answer: They are not getting any of that.

Introducing Cottagecore.

The house is off the grid. Solar Panels and a wind turbine create electricity. They have their own well. They grow their own food, raise livestock for eggs, milk, and wool, and trap fish for meat. They get money through dumpster diving and pawning. They still have to steal half of the necessities they can’t make themselves. They do have a TV, but it can access about three channels on a clear day. Internet is only a thing when they go to the public library.

Giving the flock a background that’s heavy in farming and livestock rearing shores up the plot holes mentioned above, but in my opinion, ties the flock more tightly to the environment, thus giving them something tangible to lose when they have to leave the E-shaped house. Because they’re not just leaving a house and a safety net— they’re leaving their entire way of life with no promise of getting it back. It also gives them a tangible connection to the earth in case I want to actually pursue the global warming themes.

Main Characters

Maximum “Max” Ride (Birthname: nonexistent)

First off, I'm letting her be Latina, James Patterson.

In the original, Max was very much the headstrong, independent, action girl. Leaning into Strong Female Character (TM), but overall she had a strong, solid foundation and enough character consistency through the first three books for me to not have to just make an entire new character. However, I felt that she was, in some ways, a bit too Action-Girl and Strong and Capable. Yes, Max is incredible and competent, but she’s also fourteen. She’s a child.

In the rewrite, Max’s character is still headstrong, independent, capable, and sometimes not the best at listening to others. All of that’s the same. But she’s that way not because of girlboss energy, but because there’s no one else to do it. She doesn’t want to lead, necessarily. She wants to get some rest and let someone else handle the problems life keeps throwing at her. But she knows if she did that, the responsibility of leader would fall to Fang and Iggy, and she can’t ask that of them. She doesn’t want to place that burden on anyone else (Look, there’s a reason I chose Ayano’s Theory of Happiness as one of her signifier songs, okay?). Her narrative is very much centered around burden, and also around loss. She lost her cultural heritage when she was taken away from her birth family, she lost her childhood to being a leader, she lost a good deal of her friends to the school (RIP my OCs), she lost Jeb, and then she lost her stability. And she’s going to lose a lot more before the end of the story. So a lot of her character arc deals with learning that there are some things she can’t fix, some things that can’t be recovered. She can’t get the E-shaped house back. She can’t get her Little Baby Angel back, even after they rescue her. She can’t get her friends back from the school. And instead of working so hard to recover those or find something to replace them, she has to learn to live with that sense of loss and move on with her life without feeling guilty for leaving things behind. And she has to learn that asking for help and sharing her burden is selfish or weak.

Other changes I made that don’t necessarily fit into her narrative arc, but you asked for rambling so rambling you shall get:

Max hallucinates, because mental illness is also a prominent theme in the rewrite. She doesn’t have a psychotic disorder, but her C-PTSD causes visual/audio hallucinations, especially when she’s stressed or sleep deprived.

Max ends up having a Gender Discovery throughout the story and goes by He/She pronouns eventually. I don’t know when, but it will happen.

As far as genetic modifications/special quirks go, she can fly faster than the rest of the flock, but not 300 miles per hour. She averages about sixty mph with diving speeds of 240. She cannot breathe underwater or shut down her organs on command. She also has the Super Special Power to predict the weather, but that’s not because of genetics, it’s because she has chronic pain in her right arm that gets worse when weather fronts change.

Her favored weapon is her trusty rebar that she picked up from a condemned building. I think she’s going to name it eventually but I don’t know what yet.

Fang (Birth name: Gabriel Xue)

In canon, Fang is characterized in early books by being the “dark, strong, silent type”. He’s probably the most reserved member of the flock, to the point of falling into the Brooding Mystery Man trope in parts of the book. They care a lot, but they’re not the best at conveying that, especially with the younger members of the flock, and at times their high empathy leads them to making mistakes. Despite the high empathy, he’s often compared to a robot due to his lack of expression and external emotions.

Well, first change is that they’re not a man, so jot that down—

If Max’s narrative is centered around burden and loss, I would probably say that Fang’s is centered around humanity and moving on. None of the flock was treated as human while in the school, but Fang was more often than not treated like a wild animal due to “behavioral issues”, and therefore had and continues to have a difficult time considering themselves real and alive, let alone human. This manifests through a several different ways— where in canon Fang definitely had a ‘fight’ reaction, in the re-write they have a ‘freeze’ or ‘shut down’ instinct. They’re selectively mute for multiple reasons (including derealization, jaw pain, the fact that they didn’t learn how to speak until they were 10, and genuinely forgetting it’s something they’re capable of), a period of Cotard’s syndrome, and a tendancy towards self-loathing and self-sacrifice. In short, Fang is still halfway stuck in the mindset that most of the flock grew out of when they escaped in the school, and doesn’t know how to move past it.

Much of their character arc revolves around not necessarily seeing themselves as human, but learning to treat themselves as human even when they don’t feel like one (or even feel real), and knowing that just because they don’t feel human all the time doesn’t mean anyone else can treat them the same. They never start easily expressing their emotions, and they’re always going to be selectively mute, but they learn to accept that those aspects of themself aren’t character flaws or signs that they’re sub-human.

Other additions to Fang’s character include:

They don’t get their hair cut in New York. It stays long through the entire series. They have the longest hair in the flock by the end of the series, and they can wear it in so many styles.

Fang uses they/it pronouns because themes of reclaiming the weapons used against it and, more importantly, Gender.

They’re actually really good at spelling compared to the rest of the flock, because they and Iggy communicate with Print-On-Palm when they’re nonverbal, and they’re nonverbal for some pretty long stretches of time.

They and Max have... zero romantic tension. At all. There is none. The number of times Max calls them her sibling/little sibling in the first arc alone is staggering, and that will not change.

Igneous “Iggy” (Birthname: Jamsetta “Jamie” Griffiths)

I’ve talked about Iggy before. Canon doesn’t give us much to go off of, but from what’s shown, he’s smart, sarcastic, has sharper edges than Fang and Max, and also has a sizable ruthless streak. So that’s what I have to go off of.

The big difference between Iggy and Fang&Max is that Iggy has a much better memory of the School. Most of the flock have areas (months or years) that they don’t remember, or people that they’ve blocked from their mind, but Iggy... doesn’t. So he’s the one that remembers all of the other AVIAN test subjects that were old enough to have names and identities but died due to complications. Max might have the burden of leadership, but he has the burden of memory. And that has lead to both a massive fucking guilt complex, because why did he survive when they didn’t, and, as mentioned above, a ruthless streak that he doesn’t shy away from.

Which is to say, by the end of the story, Iggy has the highest kill count.

I love, love writing Iggy next to Max and Fang. I love writing Iggy next to Gazzy and Nudge. Because, I say this with all of the love of the world, but Iggy is not a good person. He is loyalty and love incarnate, and the world can burn down if he and his siblings are safe. Max and Fang will always try to save as many people as they can. They will wonder what’s wrong with them the first time they kill and don’t have a mental breakdown about it. They are good in a way that Iggy is not. He’s okay with killing Erasers. He’s okay with killing humans. He’s okay with killing people who might not necessarily deserve it, if they show themselves as a threat or are simply in the blast radius. He knows perfectly well that most of those Erasers he’s murdering are four and five and he is okay with that, because a lot of the AVIANs were that age when they died. (Yeah, in the rewrite it’s not Fang who has an issue with Ari; it’s Iggy who wants the 7-year-old wolf-boy dead.)

And this is, of course, juxtaposed with Iggy being really, really good with Nudge and Gazzy (especially in the beginning). Because, again, he actually remembers being a child. He remembers a lot of kids that died and is therefore fiercely protective of the kids that didn’t, as well as fiercely protective of the innocence that he never got. So he’s the one that cooks their favorite foods when they’re having a bad day, always makes time when they want to talk about something, and convinces Max to let them go to that toy store in New York because, yeah, he Max and Fang aren’t kids. They never were. But Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel can be. (And if he has to be a murderer to preserve that, then he’s perfectly okay with that.)

He and Angel don’t get along very well, though. The telepath doesn’t like hanging out with the person with the most clear memories of the school.

Other additions:

Iggy is trans and says trans rights

He also has paranoid episodes, because C-PTSD. Sometimes they’re very helpful. Sometimes they are not.

I actually decided that he’s one of the flock that doesn’t meet their parents. I know in canon he did, but I always found that very clunky because it didn’t add to his character. He was one of the characters who, until it was convenient for the plot, seemed to care the least about his family. I’d much rather give that to a character whose arc would benefit from it.

Iggy! Gets! Older Sibling Rights! Seriously, he’s two months younger than Fang, he is just as capable.

Iggy does not know braille because Jeb decided it wasn’t necessary for him to know. Iggy is also the best speller in the flock, because Print-on-Palm was the only way to talk to Fang for a solid year. Yes he mocks everyone over this.

Iggy is the only member of the flock that enjoys swimming and can take into the air from water. Everyone else in the flock is incredibly jealous.

Nudge (Birthname: Monique Robinson)

If Iggy is defined by his memories, Nudge is his polar opposite. She was seven when she left the School, but she has next to no memories of it. She is missing a lot of time in the first year she escaped. And that causes... a lot of things. It makes her feel disconnected from her older siblings, it gives her the ability to function in society in a way the other’s can’t, it lets her feel less grief over the ones that didn’t make it and she doesn’t remember, it makes her feel guilty that she doesn’t remember what she’s old enough to know.

Basically, in order for me to keep the character of Nudge as I saw her (more extroverted, not afraid of the world, fascinated with humans like her siblings aren’t, desiring to fit in instead of isolate), I had to put a little bit of distance between her and the flock. Of course, she loves them— that will in no way change— but she’s old enough that she should remember the school (and her dead friends) unlike Gazzy and Angel, but she can’t, and she very much fears forgetting the flock if anything happens to them. So she’s trying desperately to keep the flock close and wants desperately to experience the world at the same time, and doesn’t know what to do when she can’t have both. That’s her biggest character conflict throughout the series, along with that in-between area where she’s not quite where her older siblings are but understands so much more than Gazzy and Angel, and where she stands in that.

So yeah. Nudge’s journey is that in looking for belonging in the world, in her family, and in herself.

This is why she’s one of the ones that gets to find her parent, James Patterson.

Other additions include:

She never straightens her hair. Never. Her resources at the E-shaped house aren’t perfect, but she still has learned how to take care of her hair and has a few styles she cycles through.

She becomes the default person Max sics on people when the flock is trying to befriend them. Also their de-facto diplomat around strangers.

As in canon, she does take some time away from the flock to expirience ‘normal life’. This does not last long due to the stress of being separated from her siblings/not being able to help them and [REDACTED]

Nudge is... not the only person in her head. I’m not focusing on it much because she doesn’t actually know and neither does the flock (I don’t know if they ever figure it out during the series, either), but she has dissociative identity disorder. She’s not aware of her alter(s?). Her alter isn’t super aware of her, either.

The alter that I’ve developed is named Oxy and is not super aware of the outside world. In her eyes, she’s still seven and they’re still at the School. She would not recognize the body as her own if she looked in a mirror.

Nudge actually leaves the flock for a while to pursue her dream of living a normal life. She deserves it. She learns how to make muffins and the basics of software development. These things are unrelated.

Gasman (Birthname: No first name, surname “Falk”)

Honestly, writing Gazzy is kind of hard for me. Partially because I’m not great at writing kids, and partially because I feel like he’s a pretty surface-level character in-series that... isn’t super compelling in canon. But even if that’s the case, I try to treat all of my characters with respect, so here we go. In my rewrite, he escaped when he was four, which was half a lifetime ago for him, so his memories are ill-defined. Therefore, he managed to circumvent a lot of the trauma that the rest of the kids have, and not in the way Nudge did, which is by creating an elaborate blockage in her memories.

Which means Gazzy... really doesn’t know how to deal with all of this traumatic stuff happening. So much of his development turns out to be a coming-of-age narrative. Learning how to deal with the horrors of what his siblings grew up with. Learning the fears that they had the entire time. Losing his innocence when everyone around him never had it in the first place, and being so terribly alone because of it. Because, really, how can you explain such a deep loss to people who never had what he had? How can they help in a way that matters?

Also, relationship-wise, I’m slowly deteriorating the relationship between him and Iggy. Slowly. Or, changing it, at least. Gazzy hero-worships Iggy in-series, and for good reason, because Iggy is super cool, especially in the eyes of an eight-year-old, and especially when Iggy has taken care to cultivate parts of his behaviors to be child-friendly. Part of growing up is seeing the flaws in your heroes, and Gazzy has to learn how to deal with it. End of the series Gazzy is much less closer to Iggy than beginning of the series Gazzy, and neither of them are really okay with that, but they learn to live with it, because that’s really all they can do.

Notes:

I’m keeping the mimickry! It plays a bit of a bigger role because that’s how Gazzy learned to talk. I’m debating whether or not he has his own voice or if he just borrows the flock’s as he sees fit. He also uses it to scream really loudly and occaisonally burst the eardrums of Erasers.

At one point he cosplays as Jessica Jones. No you don’t get any more context than this.

He has a horrible sense of fashion.

I’m changing his name eventually because it sucks. He’s either going to change it to Gannet, Garrison, or Ivy Mike temporarily, and permanently to Zephyr. (I never said I was going to make his name GOOD, because he’s eight, but it’s changing. You’re welcome.)

Angel (Birthname: No first name, surname “Falk”)

It’s just... a completely different character, at this point. I’ve changed so many things about her in an attempt to make her consistent and act like a six-year-old and work in the whole “telepath before she has a solid sense of identity”, so it’s a different character. Also, I’m tired of writing coherently or in paragraphs, so have some interesting facts.

She has epilepsy! Super severe epilepsy! I think she might also develop juvenile MS in the future because her brain has so many scars from being a fucking six-year-old telepath. There’s no way she could get out of that unscathed.

She has more memories of the school than Gazzy, but only because she keeps accidentally reading the minds of Max, Fang, and Iggy. On a related note, she interacts with Iggy as little as possible.

The mind reading means that she has a hard time developing as a normal child with a normal sense of identity or reality. She can’t tell how much people are individual people and how much they’re just extensions of her. Conversely, she can’t tell how much of herself is actually her instead of the thoughts/opinions/identities of someone else. It’s... kinda fucked? But also super not-her-fault.

She’s albino because white wings. Also, because I thought it was cool. This also means that her vision sucks, though. Also she has the biggest straw sunhat and the most stylish sunglasses a six-year-old can have.

She’s responsible for Max shaving her hair off.

She has the highest swear count because I think it’s funny. She’s the only person allowed to say the fuck word in writing. Everyone else can only say ‘hell’ and the occasionally ‘damn’ but she can say whatever she wants for dramatic and comedic value.

She is NOT THE FUCKING VOICE, J*MES P*TTERSON.

Honorable Mentions

Jeb

I’m skipping Jeb because of how little I care about him. He’s a little bitch, next character.

Ari

STILL HASN’T BEEN REVEALED AS AN ERASER. I’ve been writing for 50,000 words and he’s over here saying ‘nope nope not yet, not dramatic enough’. He’s had speaking lines but has refused to make himself known to Max. I am so frustrated with this seven-year-old wolf-child that I’ve already considered how I would kill him, if I decide I want to kill yet another child in my writing.

So, my main thoughts for Ari is that he... really just drew the short end of the stick in every possible way. While Jeb didn’t sign him up for Eraser expirimentation, he didn’t do anything to stop it, and pretty much cut his losses when he realized this expiriment made a wreck of his ‘perfect, unflawed’ son, because Jeb doesn’t consider children of any species to actually be humans. So, Ari really hates his dad, which makes things complicated, because he also really loves his dad and really wants his approval.

Which means that he also really hates Max, because she’s the child that always got Jeb’s time and attention, even when Ari was human. I think, on some level, he knows that trying to tear Max down to a less-favored level isn’t actually going to help his situation— infighting for the love of an abusive parent won’t make them any less abusive— but he’s also seven, and his development is already severely stunted due to becoming an Eraser, and he doesn’t see ‘leaving ITEX’ as an option like the Flock does. ITEX is his everything. It’s all he’s ever known, and they tell him he’s doing the right thing, and he wants them to love him. He wants his father to love him. He knows that if he ever questions ITEX, his father will never love him. So it must be his older sister that’s ruining his life and being a horrible child, and once Ari drags her back down to his level, Jeb will realize who the best child is and love him properly again.

Ari, on an even deeper level, does care for Max quite a bit, because she’s his older sister and he wants that to mean something in a way that ‘Jeb being his father’ obviously doesn’t. He wants what she made for herself, and he hates the Flock because she loves them and obviously doesn’t love him.

Ari, if anything, is the product of neglect, and both loves and hates everyone who shows a chance of caring about him. And he’s seven, so he can’t notice these patterns, let alone break them.

So. Notes!

He doesn’t look like an adult. I thought that was gross and unnecessary. He’s seven, but he looks closer to thirteen or fourteen. Still young enough that he looks like every Eraser’s little brother, and the Erasers high-key treat him like it.

On a related note, he’s the only Eraser who can talk. The others don’t have the mental capacity or vocal structure to replicate human speech, but they can understand language (at about the level of a two or three year old) and are very good at nonverbal communication. This is why Ari managed to climb the ranks despite only having three years of “service” and also looking like a tween.

He doesn’t have an expiration date because that is SUCH a stupid plot point.

I’m giving him a chainsaw! I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but he deserves to have a chainsaw and GODDAMN I will give it to him.

Emergency and Gene

The OCs that I love and also killed pre-series. They don’t have any scenes, because they’re dead, but their deaths greatly effected Max, Fang, and Iggy, and they are very commonly referenced. Their voices are probably Max’s most common hallucination, to the point where she sometimes pretends they’re ghosts that she can talk to. They’re not ghosts. They’re dead.

Dr. Valencia Martinez

I’m actually keeping her pretty close to canon— loving, supportive, the type of person to take in a gsw victim with minimal questions. The difference is that rather than kindness fueling her actions, it’s incredible guilt. She has three goals surrounding Max: Give her as much support in any way she can, teach her as much about chicane culture as possible, and never let Max know that she’s her birth parent.

(She’s probably going to fail at AT LEAST two of those, but it’s the thought that counts.)

Notes:

She has a pet fox named Robin Hood that she rescued from an exotic animal salesman that got arrested.

I think I’m going to kill her. I don’t know yet, but it’s on the table.

Anne Walker

Y��know, the fake FBI Agent. Who’s not actually a fake in my story because I hated that plot point. She’s genuinely an FBI agent who put the Flock into pseudo-witness-protection in order to build a case against the Institute of Higher Living, accidentally got attached to her prime witnesses, raised them for a few months, realized a [SPOILER] and promptly had to let them get the hell out dodge.

I really like the Anne Walker that lives in my head. She is a VITAL part of the Flock’s development, their mental/emotional recovery, and adding to their safety net to fall back on. She serves them as their first adult role model, and is the first adult to show them what parent/child are supposed to look like from a healthy perspective. Though she has several fuck ups, she becomes someone that the Flock genuinely trusts and loves, which makes it all the more difficult for them to leave when [REDACTED].

Notes:

She and Max do butt heads initially, because Max is paranoid and also afraid of becoming uneeded. This ends up being incredibly important because Max needs to learn how to live and find meaning in life without being the designated Leader/Parent/Big Sister

Anne, at one point, sits the entire flock down to teach them about consent, which was something no one ever talked about with them before. She goes in talking specifically about consent in a romantic/sexual sense (because they’re fourteen and that’s something they need to know), but quickly turns into a full-fledged no, people are NOT allowed to do that to you, what the FUCK.

She’s responsible for giving the flock a laptop. It’s because Angel is online schooled (bc telepathy makes actually learning difficult) and was therefore provided with a computer.

Anne is also allowed to swear, but only when it’s funny.

Michael “Grey” Rivers

Aka Grey from the Sewers Aka GR3Y H47 Aka Mike from the Bronx Aka Gifted Child Syndrome Incarnate Aka Would-be-in-MIT-if-his-parents-weren’t-horrible. He’s my son, your honour.

Basically, his backstory boils down to him being a genius, getting into MIT at 14, his (horrible) parents wanting a perfect child who could “make it out” of the Bronx and represent his family/neighborhood/borough to the world. When he inevitably failed their expectations due to stress, a schizophrenic-spectrum disorder that completely alienated him from the rest of his support network, and refusing to take his psych meds because the side effects were horrible and they made it harder to think (and therefore pass his classes), they kicked him out. He fully intends to go back to MIT when he turns 18 and has control of his finances/scholarships/medication/therapy.

So that’s how the flock meets him.

Mike ends up in a very prominent support role for the flock both in technological persuits (helping them track their parents, helping them get information from ITEX, trying to disable Max’s chip and failing multiple times until it becomes a matter of personal honour—), in helping the older members of the flock figure out how to deal with hallucinations/delusions (because he’s actually been to therapy, unlike them), and in being one of the only people who talks to them and helps them without any ulterior motive. He’s not trying to build a case against ITEX/The Institute of Higher Learning, he’s not double crossing them, he’s not plagued with guilt. He just genuinely wants to help them, and they genuinely want to help him, and that’s their first introduction to a healthy, non-codependent relationship.

My many disorganized notes on Michael Rivers:

He’s from specifically Morris Heights, Bronx, NYC.

He would say that his last name is actually Rivera, but his grandparents changed it to Rivers so it would sound more English, and his family has been in America for so long that he doesn’t know much about any Latino heritage he may or may not have. He identifies as African American, not Afro-Latino. He’s just bitter that his family felt the need to change their surname to have better opportunities in New York.

Nudge aggressively befriends him pretty much the moment she meets him, bullies him into teaching her how to code, and he very quickly adopts her as his pseudo-little-sister.

His delusions in the book seemed to involve government conspiracies, but as that’s the one delusion that is proved correct in the book, I’ve decided it would be best if his delusions and reality intersected a bit less if I don’t want to write him having a manic/paranoid episode in the second scene he has screen time. So his delusions are more based on “none of this is real”, “someone is recording everything I do and setting me up to fail” and “my ill-wishes on people can and will come true if I dwell on them too long.”. Government conspiracies are one of things he is skeptical about because he thinks most conspiracies are either “CIA admitted to this twenty years ago” or “antisemitism”.

He’s taking online free college classes that don’t actually give him any college credit, but they have good information and help him feel like he’s working towards something. He plans to double major in computer sciences and electrical engineering, minor in marine biology. He’s wanted to join NOAA since he was twelve and he is nothing if not stubborn.

There you go. These are my characters, now. I have custody.

#maximum ride on main #Maximum Ride rewrite

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nightingaelic · 3 years

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POODLES IN THE WASTELAND

i jest I jest

But 👀

What about pets? Either ones companions would have or a very uncommon one that someone wouldn’t think was a good pet, BUT IS. Deathclaws you can ride like a pony, mole rats that want belly rubs, cazadore’s as cattier pigeons! What are your thoughts?

Or like, Danse or Piper or Fawkes with something hilarious Idek ignore me

Oooookay, here’s my comprehensive list of companions - ALL companions, across Fallouts 3, 4, New Vegas and 76 - and their (headcanon) choices in wasteland pets. I’ll give a little explanation for each - particularly as many of these companions are transients and don’t have the luxury of owning a home to keep pets at. Also, I feel like most of the companions, while they might not necessarily like pets, would be somewhat fond or at least respectful of the pets of the Lone Wanderer/Courier/Sole Survivor/Vault Dweller, like Dogmeat and Rex.

Bighorners

Lily Bowen: Everyone’s favorite super mutant grandma is already an experienced shepherdess in Jacobstown, and she’s more than willing to tear some night stalkers apart to keep her herd safe. If that’s not love beyond the norm for wasteland livestock, I don’t know what is. She’s probably given all of her bighorners names after the characters in the television reruns she used to watch on holotape in Vault 17, like Grace and Audrey and Lucille.

Brahmin

Raul Tejada: Actually spent a decent part of his pre-war life living on a ranch, so he knows that most brahmin don’t deserve being labeled “irritable” just because people don’t know how to read their body language. I think he’d follow wild brahmin herds around a bit on a whim and keep them from coming to any harm, especially the little ones. He gives them names like the cattle he grew up with, Corazon and Gordo and Blanca.

Rose of Sharon Cassidy: Doesn’t truck with the wild herds, but she knows that part of the success of a caravan lies with how well they treat their pack animals. All of her caravan’s brahmin have names - Penny, Magic and Sprinkles - and she’s careful to pair them up with drivers who are patient and work well with their various personalities.

Cats

Butch DeLoria: While Butch ultimately decided to leave Vault 101 behind, I don’t think he would ever truly lose his fear of radroaches after what they did to his mom. Having a little friend to warm his bunk in Rivet City and pounce on intruders would probably set his mind at ease, maybe a black tomcat with one ear named Pepper. He might even gift his mom a kitten when he next comes to visit.

Star Paladin Cross: I don’t think Cross much sees the use of an animal that doesn’t contribute to the community it lives in, like most of the Brotherhood of Steel. Cats, however, are excellent at pest control, even if the rats are bigger nowadays. I think she’d give the resident cats at the Citadel some pets in passing, and she’d smile when she has to extract playful kittens from inside her power armor frame. She’s especially fond of the cat colony’s matriarch, a scarred old tabby named Gemma.

Curie: Upon her transition into a synth body, Curie is overjoyed with most animals and their new willingness to approach her for attention. She especially loves cats because she can pick them up and better feel their fur and purring. Her favorite cat is an orange stray in Diamond City that she calls Claude.

Piper Wright: A companion for Nat when she’s out adventuring, an unbiased friend to bounce the latest opinion piece off of before going to print, and a lap-warmer for when you’re typing up the latest article about the exploits of the Minutemen - what’s not to like? The Wright family cat is a slippery, elegant calico named Sugar Bomb.

Preston Garvey: While the Minutemen forts and settlements definitely lean more toward keeping dogs around for security purposes, I think Preston likes his pets quieter and less likely to bowl you over in excitement. The one most likely to sleep with him in his bunk at Sanctuary is a grumpy gray gentleman named Anchovy.

Deathclaws

Veronica Santangelo: If anyone is crazy enough to swipe a deathclaw egg from a nest and try to hatch, rear and train a personal killing machine named Izzy, it’s Veronica. This will probably just alienate her from her Brotherhood chapter even more, but I’m sure she would take special care to make sure that her usual Mojave Wasteland haunts take a peek through a scope to see if the approaching deathclaw has a human on its back before taking a shot.

Dogs

Clover: I don’t think Clover gets out beyond Paradise Falls much, so the only animals she’s used to are the dogs the raiders bring around when passing through. She probably has favorites among the usual visitors and enjoys tossing them bits of meat when she’s allowed to get away from Eulogy and Crimson. If liberated, she’d probably get at least three of her own dogs to watch over her while she sleeps: One small dog to carry with her, a Pekingese or Pomeranian descendant named Coco, and two large dogs to follow through on intimidation and protection, a mastiff named Rock and a Doberman descendant named Roll.

Jericho: Jericho doesn’t deserve a dog but he’d probably have one around anyway to sniff out caps caches and hidden loot after he’s shot everyone in the vicinity. Some slinky beagle mix named Dewey, probably.

Fawkes: I don’t think Fawkes would be picky at all about what kind of dog he’d have. He strikes me as the type who would adopt any half-friendly mutt he ran across. I do think he would have a bit of a soft spot for friendlier mutant hounds, though, and maybe view their mutated circumstances as similar to his own. He’d also be absolutely amazing at playing fetch. Just imagine how far he could lob a stick or ball. All of his dogs would have literary names too, like Byron and Agatha and Edgar.

Craig Boone: Though he’s a bit of a prodigy at sniping, Boone knows his limitations when it comes to spotting hidden enemies on the horizon. I can see him having a hound dog at his side to find the more elusive ones and help him get rid of them faster. Maybe a bloodhound mutt named Bravo.

Cait: Doesn’t like people, but she adores dogs. Having had the life where she’s been abused, exploited and forced into slavery, she’s keenly aware that those like the ones who took advantage of her treat dogs much the same. She’s very protective of any dog she encounters and is very likely to punch you in the face if you so much as look at one wrong. She’d probably name any pup she adopted Lucky.

Hancock: Honestly, he’s just a fan of any animal that is happy to hang out with you whether you’re drunk, high, fighting raiders or patrolling downtown Boston. The Goodneighbor strays know him as the guy who always has mirelurk jerky in his pockets. His favorite is a rough-and-tumble, black-and-white spotted cattle dog descendant that he cheekily calls King George.

Robert MacCready: He’s not quick to trust dogs, but once he’s sure they’re not a threat, they’re one of the few critters around which he’ll relax completely. He’s still a little wary of them around Duncan, but any dog that’s a part of his family is more or less his son’s permanent babysitter.

Nick Valentine: Dogmeat is also basically his dog. The two have a history of working cases together, with Dogmeat just turning up whenever a trail goes cold and leading Nick to the evidence he needs to reopen his investigation. Nick doesn’t know how or why Dogmeat does it, but he’s not about to ruin a good thing.

Strong: I don’t think he would turn down a ferocious mutant hound as a friend. He’d probably feed it mole rats and call it something like Killer.

Foxes

Beckett: This former raider has a love-hate relationship with a fox that keeps going through his trash. He affectionately calls him Lil’ Bastard.

Sofia Daguerre: Having crashed back to an earth she doesn’t recognize, I think Sofia would be tickled that the foxes of Appalachia have basically stayed the same despite the bombs. I can see her leaving dinner scraps out on her porch for one that she sometimes spots in the foliage, and slowly coaxing the critter to come into the light. She names her Scarlett once she finally convinces her to eat out of her hand.

Mega sloths

Settler forager: I would not be at all surprised if this man ran into a mega sloth in the Mire and decided to try befriending it. The creature, probably surprised at this old guy’s nerve, decided to accept the handful of leaves he offered and grew slowly more fond of the guy’s persistence. It doesn’t know its name is Fergus but it does know that if a human is wearing overalls, it’s probably not a threat.

Mole rats

Deacon: Alright, hear me out. Deacon has a fondness for underdogs, and mole rats are about as underdog as they come. I think Deacon thinks these little guys are cute despite their wrinkles and buck teeth, and I think he sees the value in having a tunneling pet that likes to collect shiny things. One of his deep cover hideouts is in an old tunnel system in the northern Commonwealth, where he hangs out with a young mole rat named Henry.

Owls

Raider punk: This radio operator got wind of an abandoned nest of owlets in Appalachia early on in his career and, being the nearest to the report, decided to rescue the little guys. Now he has three owls that occasionally drop in at his camp to hoot and accept handouts: Nona, Decima and Morta. While he’s still fond of them, he’s usually disappointed that they aren’t the Mothman coming to visit.

Rad chickens

Yasmin Chowdhury: Ever the opportunistic cook, she picked up the practice of raising chickens from the settlers at Foundation and has four hens of her own: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. The “ladies,” as she refers to them, give her a constant stream of eggs for omelets.

Ravens

Settler wanderer: This gal has an affinity with birds, who are always on the move like her. She admires their ability to be untethered and let the wind take them far and wide. Nevertheless, she likes to scatter corn when they come close to her on the road, and formed a sort of friendship with a particularly handsome specimen that she calls Tornado.

Wolves

Old Longfellow: This guy is the epitome of the meme about dads not wanting pets and then instantly falling in love with whatever animal enters their life. He probably found an injured wolf pup in his travels around the island and took pity on it, nursing it back to health in his cabin. It’s still got a bit of a twisted paw, but follows him around and listens like any other dog and answers to the name Lamoine.

Yao guai

Porter Gage: I bet this guy adopted an orphaned bear cub and raised it by hand. Now it’s so big that even if Gage thinks he’s an easy target for other raiders due to his age, he’s much less likely to get singled out than he thinks because he has a yao guai following him around like a puppy. The bear’s name is Fuzzy Wuzzy. It has no hair.

No pets, thanks

Charon: Too likely to accidentally wind up in the line of fire.

Sergeant RL-3: Too easily corrupted by Communist influences.

Arcade Gannon: Too much time spent getting in your way.

Codsworth: Too likely to make messes.

Paladin Danse: Too many wasted resources.

X6-88: Too much of a liability.

Ada: Too easy to lose when on the move.

Solomon Hardy: Too unsanitary.

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