#The ones that don’t require too much context at least (I hope)

[nomsfaultau]

[an excerpt from Fault, from the Cessation epoch. This is a SBI SCP AU. The SCP Foundation found a clever method of simultaneously training MTF units and sufficiently terrorizing a Thaumiel into summoning an escaped Keter.]

The game was called Target Practice and it went like this:

Tommy was being hunted. 

The maze was dark and twisting and decidedly urban, the floor littered with debris and gravel that cut into his bare feet, the twisting industry pipes and concrete walls riddled with holes and offering very meager protection as he raced through, slamming into walls and battering himself and not carrying because he needed to run before he was found. To be cautious was to be caught. Whatever nooks and crannies he shoved himself into were hardly cover, though they caught the bullets racing towards him. Well. Most of them, anyways; they didn’t play target practice anymore for a reason. 

(They’d always liked to use the Instigator for training.)

To be fair, not everyone had guns for target practice. Some had crackling tasers, and many had nets. The goal was to train up Mobile Task Forces, teach them how to go about capturing a SCP. How to herd its movement, how to corner it, how to pin it down until it stopped resisting. Learn how it thinks. Does it race down the dark corridors, frantically dashing in wild directions praying it runs into nothing, or does it hide like a cockroach? If so, where? Into the subterranean tunnels, where every footstep echoes thunderously and betrays every whimper? Into the towers, knowing it’ll take longer to be found but that there’s no way down as the fleet sweeps the rooms in well trained searches? Ah, there we are, pinned, shaking, in the corner of a back room. Very good, ensign, now you’re thinking like a monster. Quick, use the right radio channel, that’s it. Teamwork is the one advantage we have over them. Remember that in the field. 

It was not possible to win Target Practice, only prolong it. This was done by jolting still at every gun shot, waiting to realize if he was dead. This was done by clamping his hand over his mouth, refusing to breathe as footsteps raced past. This was done by learning how to not scream and betray his position when a bullet exploded mere centimeters away from his face, caught by half a cannibalized refrigerator, freezing because to run was to be caught. By doing anything and everything so he wouldn’t cry, because he could already see so little. By not caring about the gravel and slivers of glass that sliced into his feet, sprinting at full speed even if he knew the bloodied footprints marked his trail. By tucking his hands to his chest and not touching a single thing, though he was always so easy to find given the pooling Red that only grew worse the longer the game went on. The groups were always different, sometimes sneaking shadows that peeled out of nowhere, sometimes whooping and shouting with glee as they peppered bullets into the space mere seconds behind him, sometimes coordinated, sometimes not, sometimes fighting amongst themselves for the honor of who caught the game. Tommy taught each one exactly how to ruin someone else’s life, but it’s not like he could do anything but flee deep into the dark maze, heart hammering, Red racing. 

It never worked for long. The ending was different every time. Maybe he’d find himself suddenly plucked out of hiding, struggling in a head lock until the dark went even darker. Maybe he’d be at the top of a tower, listening to every hiding spot below being cleared, the approaching team only growing nearer because there was nowhere else to go. Maybe it was a sprinter who overcame his slight head start, the pair crashing to the ground, debris digging into his skin. Maybe it was being cornered by a large group, countless guns trained on him. Maybe a trap laid, him crashing into a net and becoming hopelessly tangled. Maybe it was a bullet that failed to miss. 

Game over! Better luck next time!

Tommy was recaptured and he always would be. And then target practice was played again, and again, either until there were no more trainee units left to be tested…or until there were no more trainee units left. Usually this was after a few rounds of the cat and mouse game. Maybe it ended in mortal terror, crimson spilling out runes on the manufactured floor, a beacon of ruby illuminating the dark maze. Maybe it ended with the brutal finality of The Blood God’s vengeance. The roles jarringly swapped, the hunters now forced to survive. If they did…well. They graduated from training with a promotion as bonus. Clearly they were worthy. 

He wondered how they were tested now, because the Foundation no longer played Target Practice. 

The cover, poor as it was, had always saved him before. Tommy had very little luck in his life, and most of it was used surviving Target Practice. (It was bad luck, in a way. Someone forgot the rules, got over zealous. They’d earned Keter duty for that mistake.) He’d been in the sprawling underground tunnels, tucked into a tangle of pipes. When the bullet had slammed into his shoulder, exploding everything in dark garnet, his scream had rattled through the faux sewer. Tommy had immediately run blindly, adrenaline numbing it all. The tone shift had been terrifying, too, since the trainees before hand had been the type to treat it like a game, making wolf howls and laughing. The moment Tommy was shot they’d become serious, voices clipped over radios and tactics stone as they efficiently tracked down the wounded animal, corralling it and cutting off escape routes, having it knocked out within minutes. It wasn’t the first summoning session where he’d woken up in a hospital bed, brain fuzzy with pain meds and fear. 

They never played Target Practice again.

(It wasn’t hard to convince the Instigator it’d made it out having only been grazed. Then again, it was easy to lie to, given it thought them real bullets in the first place.)

#Thought it would be fun to start posting some of my favorite parts #The ones that don’t require too much context at least (I hope) #Love me a man stupid enough to get life long trauma to what’s tantamount to a paintball arena rip #Certainly my Foundation is particularly harsh but still antilethal #tommyinnit #sbi au #scp tommyinnit #technoblade #scp technoblade #scp oc #bedrock bros #bedrock bros fic #scp fictive #idk I don’t usually put this in the scp tag since that parts usually more setting but this is blatant soo #scp foundation #scp #dark sbi #sbi #sbi fanfic #sleepy bois inc #fault au #sbi scp au #something to nom on #dehumanisation tw #violence mention tw #tw gun #Mm the horror of being hunted down like an animal my beloved

[selfindulgentpixies]

Frenzied

Satoru Gojo x Gn!reader (afab)

MDNI And here it is! This has been in a my drafts for a bit. I love feral Gojo but I'm just so slow at smut. I hope it turned out well though and that you all enjoy it. Cw:GN!reader,Afab!reader,only they them pronouns used for reader, Gojo isn't the best at communication, might be a little dub conish but reader is enthusiastic, unprotected sex, slightly dom Gojo, ijichi gets the short end of the stick i'm so sorry Ijichi you put up with so much. Oh and Gojo is very bitey. I like his teeth okay?

He was never supposed to notice. He was supposed to be too focused when he got like this during a mission. Eyes wild with the adrenaline and blood lust, that’s what it was after all, you couldn’t call it anything else. Rarely were you put on missions with him unless your technique was specifically needed, you were more of a utility sort of sorcerer and while yes, technically you were a first grade, combat wasn’t where you excelled. So for dangerous missions where your cursed technique was required you were often put with Gojo. Which was fine! You enjoyed his company honestly. You thought he was funny and he’d seemed absolutely gleeful when he realized you found his antics entertaining.

It’s how you started ending up on more missions with him you’re pretty sure. Because if the strongest wanted something he’d get it. And you’re almost certain he decided at some point he wanted your company because you’re suddenly being put on missions with him where you don’t actually have to be there.

This increased frequency in you accompanying him though is how you begin to witness the frenzy he goes into during battle. The first time it happens you get a little thrill of fear as well as… well you don’t know how to place the feeling exactly. Not in this context anyway, not immediately because you don’t want to admit it to yourself. But after a second and third time you can’t deny what it is, the frenzy he goes into, his show of power, you’re turned on by it. What does that say about you that him laughing sadistically, each titter of sound bleeding out a bit more of his sanity, makes desire spark in your veins. What does it say that when he easily tears opponents apart but still draws it out that you press your thighs together as you feel that familiar coil of heat forming.

He was never supposed to notice though. 

Of course he notices.

It happens on a mission where in your mind you were glad that you were needed at least. It was getting hard to get other work done with how often you’d been getting sent on missions with him lately. Which you knew from rumors other people were starting to take notice of the frequency with which you were going on missions with the strongest who normally preferred to work alone. At this rate you were going to need to have a talk with him. 

But you had more pressing issues right now.

Gojo releases a long breath as he tosses the head of a curse he’d just torn to pieces like it was nothing, passing fingers through his hair, pushing it from his face for but a moment before it flops back over his forehead. His eyes shift to you then and you realize that the frenzy is still there as he turns to walk toward you. It feels different than every other time before that he’s gone to meet back up with you at the end of one of these missions. The air about him hasn’t calmed at all like it normally does as he approaches you. 

A shiver runs through you and you smile a bit nervously. “Guess that about wraps up the mission then. We just need to go get the.. artifact.. from the shrine…” Your voice trails off as he gets further and further into your personal space, backing you against the stone wall surrounding the shrine in question. “U-uh, Gojo, you’re getting awful clo-” You choke a little when the man in question is suddenly fully in your space, nearly pressing you against the wall with his forearms resting against the wall on either side of your head. Oh oh the frenzy is definitely still in his eyes. “Gojo?” 

He closes his eyes and takes a steadying breath, seeming to try and rein himself in. Then those electric blue eyes are focused on you again and he lowers his face closer to you. You’re so close in fact that his warm breath fans over your face. “You like this, don’t you?” 

You stutter, feeling heat rush to your face and well… “L-like what? What are you talking about?” Play dumb, play dumb because there’s no way he’d picked up on how you react to him fighting, right? You’re just coworkers, perhaps friends even. 

“Don’t be coy, you don't think you can trick these eyes do you? I see how you watch me fight, the way your pupils dilate, the rush of blood in your veins-” He smirks seeing how you seem to get more and more flustered as he speaks. “You don’t need me to continue, do you?” 

You shake your head in a jerky movement. 

“Good,” he husks. “Now I’m going to give you a chance to say ‘no’ if you want me to stop. Because if I start I don’t think I’ll stop.” A shiver runs through you at his words.

You think you must look pretty silly right now, with how wide your eyes must be as you stare up at him. A deer caught in headlights. It occurs to you as his words sink in that he hasn’t actually touched you at all yet. Caged you against a wall sure but he seems to have very deliberately kept himself from actually touching you. 

You give a jerky lil nod and he tuts at you. 

“No, I need you to say very clearly what you want. Whatever it is, I'll respect it but you need to say it clearly.” You could swear you see the muscles in his neck strain and his fists against the wall next to your head ball up tightly. 

You stare into his wild eyes, thinking of all the times you’d watched him lose himself to the thrill of battle. Watching the power he displays and wondering what it would be like to be on the receiving end of a different kind of frenzy from him. “Okay.” You swallow thickly. He looks like he’s about to say something but you continue knowing that wasn’t enough. “I want this- I want you,” your voice shakes ever so slightly, but you still hold his intense gaze. 

He grins and it’s all teeth. “You have no idea how much i’ve wanted to hear you say that.” and like his grin his kiss is all teeth too as he presses you against the wall.  Nipping at your lips until you part them for him with a gasp. You feel the fabric of your shirt pull taut before it gives, the buttons flying off to be lost on the forest floor. With the way he devours your mouth you can’t find a moment to protest, though you let out a yelp that he swallows when suddenly he lifts you by your hips and guides you to wrap your legs around his waist. In this position sandwiched firmly between him and the wall you can now feel his bulge grinding against your backside. You whine into the kiss, your arms going around his broad shoulders and one of your hands scratching through his undercut. It elicits a shiver and groan from him and he parts his mouth from yours finally, a string of saliva shining in the moonlight connecting the two of you as you gasp for breath. 

He surprises you by nipping at the fat or your cheek before licking over it and moving to repeat the motion more harshly against your neck. The mark was definitely going to be visible later. “Ah- Gojo wait” you yelp when he delivers a particularly harsh bite along with bucking his hips against you before he speaks.

“Satoru.” 

“E-eh?”

“Call me Satoru,” he says while kissing up your neck, the sudden gentleness a contrast to seconds before. At the same time as he kisses up your neck one of his hands smoothes over the softness of your belly and up to your chest where he gropes at you. “Fuck you have no idea how long i’ve wanted you.” It’s a statement not a question as he catches your kiss swollen lips in another kiss. 

You realize then that you no longer feel the cool stone of the wall pressed against your back but you’re still suspended in air without the burden being placed on your thighs wrapped around Gojo’s slim waist. He’s holding you up with his technique. Something about that makes you throb, clenching around nothing. He chuckles into the kiss and you feel his arm brush against your thigh and realize he’s reached below you followed by the sound of his belt coming undone and then the shifting about of fabric. “Now what should I do about yours? I could just rip them off.” You shiver and he grins into the kiss. 

“Go-.. Satoru w-we still have to get the artifact after and I am not stumbling back to have Ijichi drive us home with my clothes in tatters,” You protest your voice unsteady when  suddenly for different reasons than the rest of the night your stomach swoops. You blink up at Gojo dazedly as you suddenly find yourself laying amongst soft blankets. He’s untangling your legs from his waist so he can step back and pull off your shoes. Once your shoes are discarded he kisses your ankle before letting your foot drop the comforter. 

“No need for you to stumble back anywhere now,” He says smoothly as he steps back from the bed, kicking off his shoes and beginning to discard his clothes without care. You swallow thickly as you prop yourself up on your elbows, unable to tear your eyes away from him. In the dim light of the room, illuminated by the moon and city lights outside the window he practically glows. Each divested piece of clothing revealing plains of hard muscle that had previously been hidden by his loose uniform. All thoughts of your mission have seemingly been wiped from your mind as your eyes slide over him, down to the line of his hips just as he pulls down his slacks and underwear in a smooth motion, his pretty cock springing free. You finally tear your eyes away, your shyness suddenly heating your blood almost a much as your arousal. 

“Ah ah, come on eyes on me.” The bed dips and you feel him run his hands up your clothed legs. He stops and waits for you to look at him once he reaches your waistband and once your gaze meets his he rips off your pants, shreds them like tissue paper as the feral look seems to flare back to life in his eyes. You only manage a squeak as form of protest before he drags you by the hips up toward him. He sits up on his knees leaving you curved with only your shoulders and head still on the bed as he presses his face to the wetness soaking your underwear. When you feel him take a deep breath followed by a groan rumbling out of his chest you cover your face, overwhelmed with how debauched this all is. It finally sinks in that whatever he decides to do you’re along for the ride now.

He bites your thigh, making you jolt. “I said eyes on me,” his voice comes out in a low growl spoken against your skin.  When you uncover your face you're met with his wild gaze. It makes arousal pool in your belly even as it makes your hair stand on end. Seemingly satisfied he moves back to your clothed cunt. Without you meaning to a whimper passes your lips when he takes the fabric between his teeth and he rips it. The fabric dangles from your hips as he leans in to immediately lick up your slit, collecting the slick there before pulling your clit into his mouth. He sucks at the sensitive bundle of nerves, his nose pressed into the hair above it all while you twitch and jerk in his steel hold. “S-satoruuu,” you moan out his name brokenly. You can’t do more than jerk and twitch in his grip since he’s left you with absolutely no leverage with only your shoulders barely resting on the bed. Your hands uselessly scrabble at the comfortner beneath you and you twist the fabric between your fingers as he devours your sweet cunt, his own moans rumbling into your most sensitive flesh. 

He pulls his mouth off of you just as you near your peak drawing a broken whine out of you. “ ‘m so close, Satoru, please-” You watch though as he keeps your folds parted with his fingers and then  gathers spit in his mouth before letting it drool over your entrance. Then he lowers your lower half to the bed so he can slot himself between your thighs. He runs his cock through your folds, wetting it with a mix of your slick and his own saliva before he lets it rest heavy between your folds just seeming to admire the view. You can feel your pulse throb in your cunt, your walls clenching around nothing as his wild eyes take in the most intimate parts of you both. He rocks his hips against you teasingly before he finally, finally begins to push into you, drawing moans from both of you. The stretch something you’ve been craving and you urge him forward by pulling on him with the heel of your foot at his lower back. 

“Just can’t wait for me can you?” He smirks teeth bared slightly when he suddenly fully sheaths himself in you, eliciting a cry from your pretty lips. And oh how pretty they are, all kiss bitten and swollen from him already, they’re so pretty in fact he has to lean down, covering you with his larger frame with his arms bracketed on either side of you so he can capture your lips in a kiss that felt as if he was starved for you.  His cock drags through your walls, languid at first before he sets a merciless pace. Your arms find their way around his neck, holding tight to him like a lifeline as he rocks the two of you back and forth. Your fingers scratch through his undercut and he breaks the kiss, the two of you panting and moaning into eachothers mouths. His wild gaze holding your own until suddenly you’re arching your back up toward him, pressing your chests together as cry out as your orgasm crashes through you. He doesn’t stop, fucking you through it as you clench and spasm, creaming around his cock. 

You begin to scratch at his shoulders. “Satoruuu please i-it’s too much I-” you gasp. 

“Not yet,” he says while nipping at your ear. “I haven’t had enough of you yet.” And indeed he hasn’t come yet. He was so close though as he suddenly wraps his arms around you before dragging you up with him as he changes to a sitting position so he can quite literally bounce you on his cock. The movements eliciting little cries and gasps from you as he sets to further marking up your neck. Soon though he’s simply panting against the column or your throat with the threat of his teeth pressed against your pulse as you feel him spill into you. He presses you down against him, seemingly trying to bury himself as deeply into you as he possibly can.

 He eases the pair of you down to your sides then, his softening cock still nestled inside of you. Some of the frenzy has calmed now and intimately, more tenderly than you would have expected he kisses over your face, lips gentle as they move over your features before resting his forehead against your own. “You okay? I didn’t hurt you did I?” There’s a clarity in his eyes suddenly.

The questions and concern in his voice startles you a little and with your arm not trapped between his neck and pillow you bring your hand to caress his cheek. “No you didn’t hurt me, Satoru,” you say with a euphoric giggle bubbling in your chest.

It’s his turn to look surprised, your laugh seeming to make him shy. Which how novel, The Gojo Satoru looking shy, and after he’d just fucked you within an inch of your life no less. You dart forward the short distance and kiss the tip of his slightly upturned nose. 

The two of you relax into momentary easy silence when suddenly it occurs to you. “Ah! The mission! We were in the middle of a mission and we just left Ijichi-”

Gojo holds you in place as he eases himself up and slips from you, making you wince as you feel his cum begin to slide out of you. You watch as he seems to very unbotheredly crawl to the end of the bed, all while giving you a very nice view of his backside, before he stretches out and you hear the shuffle of fabric before his face is lit up by the light of his phone. He stays like that half hanging off the bed as he taps away with his thumb. You’re admittedly very tempted to smack his butt but refrain for the moment. “Okay, I told him to go home and that I was just going to warp us back because you were so tired from the mission.” You make a small sound of protest to which he glances back at you with a smirk. “Oh would you rather I be honest?” 

You gasp. “Of course not!”  

His phone pings, he glances at it and then crawls back up the bed to place the phone on his bedside table. 

“And the artifact.” 

“What artifact?” Then his eyes widen when he realizes his slip. 

“What do you mean what artifact? You know the whole reason I was needed for the mission.” You narrow your eyes at him suspiciously. 

“Okay what if hypothetically there wasn’t an artifact… and I just wanted to spend time with you?”

You blink at him unimpressed before grabbing a pillow and smacking him over the head. “Just ask me out on a date like a normal person next time!” 

He catches the pillow and lifts it to peek at you. “So I still get a next time?” He’s grinning at you boyishly. 

Your cheeks heat up somewhat and then you clear your throat. “Yes but only if you replace my clothes though.” You motion toward yourself and the tattered bits of clothes that still clung to you. Honestly you looked a bit like a wild animal had mauled you between the destroyed clothes and the bites littering your body. 

He laughs and the sound makes your chest swell. “Deal. I’ll buy you whatever you’d like.” He suddenly moves into your space, leaning his head down so he can tuck his face into your neck.

You spend the night with him then, he helps you get cleaned up and dresses you in one of his shirts before the two of you curl back up in his bed. He falls asleep with his head on your chest as you comb your fingers through his hair. The calm state he’s been lulled into by you a stark contrast to the frenzy that had set the night in motion.

____

Whew! Smut is so nerve wracking for me to write but you don't get good at anything by not doing it. I hope this reads well you all enjoy it. 💕 Comments and interaction are always appreciated.

@strawberrystepmom @missmugiwara @4sat0ruu @icy-spicy @hauntedhearthowl @biscuitsngravie @pastelle-rabbit @missphanosaur18 @crysugu @whispers-of-lilith @nanamikentoseyebags @margumis @demonwoman (thought i'd add you on since you asked for recs tonight so i hope that's okay)

#satoru gojo x reader #gn!reader #gojo x reader #gojo satoru x reader #gojo x you #jjk x reader #jjk x gn!reader #rossi writes

[strugglingatart]

Jr Year ep4

This is me live blogging bc I need to get thoughts out also would love fandom friends full spoilers bellow the cut just so no one accidentally reads anything they don’t want to this will be long

I have wanted most if not all of Zac's and Murph's shirts this season

I still have issues with the multiclass system but also no school thing has made the most sense in universe

I believe you and that's why I'm not saying anything is SUCH a trouble friend mood

"what's the drinking age?" "you have murdered SO many people"

BRENANS FACE WHEN KALINA SAYS I'M NOT BAD ANYMORE OH LORDS

the whole Kalina/Cassandra/Kristen scene is so nerve wrecking and interesting and once again I can talk so much about this topic and I know I have critized Kristen's approach but that's bc honestly I do have issue w it despite understanding it but it does make for an interesting arc and with this conversation it does seem like she believes in this domain of faith on the unknown. I will at some point talk more about from the point of someone who also left a culty religious thing but was still expected to perform similarly once out of it but my thoughts are still not the most organized

that being said I do not trust kalina and i do love cassandra

when you're in the dark I'm there holding your hand why am i crying

not kvx still being a thing lmao so Brennan

oh I just love how complicated but absolutely Bill Seacaster is the whole trust thing, the money going to the nemesees, there being a whole department, honestly that's a department I'd work for it's basically spy and gossip stuff

but also poor Fabian having to go through all this head ache stuff alone

watch Caperslolly Cattlekrush not be a direct nemesis but someone from her party be yes Fabian get that service!

I too keep thinking it is rat ccrushers no t grinders and will absolutely get it wrong

the gorthlax art is PERFECT

my school nurse did not have sweat pants but ok murph(i also absolutely am not from the us idk why i keep pointing out diferences)

they each will have a foil in my head so why just one owlbear contender? also is riz in the bloodrush team?

grinding for xp is so much weirder and terrible imo in this context also should be less effective bc like lbr experience is important like thinking on your feet etc like yes they are probably equal level and Brenan will play them well but they should absolutely not be as good as the bad kids at actual adventuring

I love how they all are so agro tho bc I get it and love the energy and I would absolutely be that mad

YES SOMEONE CALLED OUT THE HIPOCRISY

xp isn't bad if you at least still DO INTERESTING STUFF TO GET IT

if brenan makes them like grinding i will become as agro as the bad kids so far lol

gorthlax gave great advice, that being said i do hope they get a lil bit petty and end annoying grinders

nooo Gorgug (cries) I really want him to do well

listen I am so emo about gorgu's storyline like it's just no thoughts just feels and all of them

listen i don't do character builds but it does not sound to me like artificer and barbarian are THAT ill fitted, like yes the require different focus levels and types but they are also USED in different moments, nothing is stopping Gorgug from using his down time to come up with gadgets that work WITH his strenght and dex and rage and then use reckless abandon in battles. I think even th solar lasso is very much an example of that because it uses his strenghts, he's realing it in with atheltics checks iirc or how his shoes have jump like yes absolutely a challenge and not the most obvious but people are acting like it's impossible when it absolutely isn't

we love Corsica Jones

Riz helping Kristen <3

Brenan is absolutely having so much fun with Ayada's messages

Listen Fig does not need to go to warlock classes, no one in the school knows she is a warlock just do bard and barbarian and help your friend

also i get that procrastination girl

Please I want Fig and Gorgug to work on a song together and for us to get that scene so bad

Aelwynn is a whole entire mood

well that answers me: riz is not on bloodrush

I KNEW BRENNAN MADE THEM STUPID RATS TOO GOOD I HATE IT BUT I LOVE IT

wouldn't detect magic tell riz what enhancements she has? cause otherwise it's nnot THAT useful for spies (which is reason #1 the gadget exists)

oh brennan REALLY made people we will all hate

Yes Bucky I adore him

someone please go home with Fabian

ohhh Brennan put extra stakes at Fig just quitting/failling auegfort since she technically doesn't need it

oh warlock classes are night classes, kinda love that for Fig and also good for her being good at it

also looove the talk about exchanges and that

FIg could make an album out of pressure and expextations that woul be rad as hell

RAGH we love him

LISTEN Ragh should be like party guy, he was absolutely popular and is older and it takes stuff away from the bad kids to do

oh Fabian goes into it immediately we stan

Listen Ally is MASTER of weird ass energies and I love them for it

they truly are such dorks and somehow cool at the same time

I cannot tell if they don't know milkyriver's name or if they are benedict cumberbunching it and I love that

literally everything kalina says is so threatening

also the bad kids should count as followers of cassandra like they are not clerics sure but they ablsolutely belive in her... do only clerics/paladins count?

LISTEN BRENNAN WE DON'T NEED MORE PROBLEMS

oh the shard and red thing that was in one of the arts

oh I REALLY thought they were gonna split party this

I do hope the party still goes well

#fantasy high #dimension 20 #fhjy #adaine o'shaughnessey #fabian aramais seacaster #fig faeth #gorgug thistlespring #kristen applebees #riz gukgak

[whump-card]

Sunless Lives Part 23: I Will Get You Out

~1820 words

CW: offscreen suicide attempt by main character (SEE THIS NOTE for spoilery context if you need it!), forced institutionalization, abuse of power, conservatorship

First, Previous, Next, Masterlist

~~~

[Record transcript start]

DR MANDAL: [Sic] introduced ourselves, there are some questions I’m required to ask by the VIU.

M BECK: Okay.

DR MANDAL: What prompted you to voluntarily seek out the cure?

[0:46]

DR MANDAL: Is this a difficult question for you?

M BECK: Yeah.

DR MANDAL: In what way?

M BECK: Um.

[0:32]

DR MANDAL: Have you ever done talk therapy before?

M BECK: Yeah, there was a, a victim that we lost before EMTs could arrive. It was bad. I went to a couple counseling sessions after that.

DR MANDAL: This was during your job as a VIU field agent?

M BECK: Yes.

DR MANDAL: Was the counseling helpful?

M BECK: I think so.

DR MANDAL: How was it helpful?

M BECK: She told me a bunch of stuff to do. Like breathing exercises and stuff. I didn’t have to talk much.

DR MANDAL: I see. When you try to answer my question, what trouble are you running into?

M BECK: There’s just so much. I don’t know where to start. I don’t know how to explain it all.

DR MANDAL: Would you like to try letting go of the need to be organized?

M BECK: What would that mean?

DR MANDAL: Say what you’re thinking, without worrying whether it will make sense to me.

M BECK: Okay. What was the question again?

DR MANDAL: What prompted you to voluntarily seek out the cure?

M BECK: Simon. He told me to. He made me scared that I would kill him.

DR MANDAL: Scared?

M BECK: I know, right? Vampires aren’t supposed to get scared, ever. But I don’t know what else to call it.

DR MANDAL: I’ve observed something with my other patients, and this might not ring true for you, but let’s see what you think. Often people conceptualize vampires as having no emotion, but the reality seems to be that they instead have a different emotional spectrum. You, as a human now, are trying to put labels from your emotional spectrum onto the experiences you had as a vampire, because they are the only labels you have. What do you think?

M BECK: That, that makes sense. Yeah. Because I definitely felt things. Did your other patients feel things?

DR MANDAL: Yes.

M BECK: Okay. Yeah, that’s. I thought I might be different, for a while, that there was something wrong with me.

DR MANDAL: When did you think that?

M BECK: When I was a vampire. Just every once in a while. I would feel something close to guilt, but not guilt, sometimes, when Simon was hurting. And it felt weird.

DR MANDAL: Can you tell me more about the feelings you had about Simon when you were a vampire?

M BECK: Oh. I don’t know. I don’t know.

~~~

Matthew never got his phone call.

Fontaine Fields was decorated for Easter when he got out.

The winter clothes that he’d worn into the clinic hung a little baggy on him; he’d lost a lot of muscle mass after four months of limited access to Fontaine’s under-equipped gym. He clutched his heavy winter coat in his arms as Bev led him through the building. His heart thrummed with anxiety. Two weeks ago, when he received his release date, he’d given the office a list of people to notify. They should know. Someone should be waiting for him. Someone would be there.

If not, there was always the bus.

He and Dr Mandal had talked about this - how he was expecting everyone to hate him, for what he’d done.  He was expecting to be shunned by all his former loved ones, and that just wasn’t realistic. People cared about him. They did.

He at least hoped his dad was there.

Bev opened the front doors for him and the painfully bright sunlight forced him to shut his eyes. He took a tentative step out, feeling the stone step with his feet.

“I’ll wait right here until you get into a car or the bus, alright?” came Bev’s deep comforting tones next to him.

“A car? There’s a car?”

“Yup. People too.”

Matthew pried his eyes open and blinked frantically. He made out three figures standing at the edge of the gravel parking lot, next to two cars.

“Matthew!” A familiar shout, from a voice with years of experience calling that name.

“DAD!” Matthew nearly fell down the steps as Scott Beck, bad knee and all, raced over and caught him up in the tightest hug he’d felt in months. Matthew clutched him, weeping openly, his coat dropped and forgotten on the ground.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, I’ve got you now,” Scot soothed him.

“I’m so sorry, dad, I’m so sorry!” Matthew cried.

Scott stroked his son’s hair and murmured gentle words to him. They stayed like that for a good long while as Matthew cried it out. When he was finally convinced this was real and not some wonderful dream he was having back in his tiny room, Matthew took a step back, still holding his dad by the shoulders.

“Dad, I want to explain -”

“Gina told me everything.” Scott pressed a hand to Matthew’s chest. “You were trying to save someone’s life. I know it didn’t work out the way you wanted, but I’m proud of you for trying so hard.”

Matthew sobbed and just looked at his dad, flooded with relief. Scott was tall, and had been of a similar build to Matthew once upon a time, but age had moved much of his mass from his muscles to his gut. He had a few new gray hairs on his thinning head since the last time Matthew saw him, and some new worry lines as well. But he looked back at Matthew with nothing but love and relief at seeing his son safe and healthy.

“C’mon.” He picked up Matthew’s coat in one hand and wrapped the other arm around Matthew’s shoulders. “Let’s go say hi to her and your other friend.”

As they walked over Matthew refocused on the other two people standing by the cars, wiping a sleeve across his face. One was Gina, naturally, but the other was Devon Barre, which struck Matthew as a little odd. He’d never been close with Devon. He had casual friends outside of work that he would think were more likely to show up to his release than Devon, and he hadn’t even notified them.

Simon wasn't there, of course. Matthew could understand that.

“Hey, man.” Gina gave him a quick smile and hug, but something was wrong. Sure, Gina was a reserved person, but not this reserved. Not with Matthew.

“Matthew.” Devon shook his hand. “Glad to have you back.”

Matthew knew asking Why are you here? would be rude, so he turned his attention to Gina’s lackluster greeting.

“Everything okay?”

“No,” was her immediate response, her eyes dark and serious, “I really hate to do this right as you get out, but… Can we talk to you about Simon?”

“What about him?” Matthew kept his expression schooled, even as he felt a spike of dread pierce his gut.

“He’s stuck, at Summerwhite. Isles won’t let him leave.”

“Isles? How-?”

“It’s a long story. After you took Simon, we started tracking you. We were trying to figure out how to get Simon away from you and keep him away. We put a plant at Simon’s job, to try and befriend him, but it just spooked him, and proved to us that he wouldn’t leave you willingly.”

Matthew remembered the man at Simon’s job that he would always complain about. The nosey guy. The chivalrous guy. Matthew had been planning on killing him if he didn’t stop bothering Simon. He shivered.

“What did Isles do?”

Gina took a breath, her face bitter.

“He didn’t believe a 72 hour psych hold would be enough to decondition Simon. So he compiled all the evidence we’d collected and filed to have Simon declared incompetent and placed in a conservatorship. Under his custody.”

“... Incompetent?” Matthew breathed.

“He claimed Simon was suicidal, that he’d talked to Simon before he left with you and he said he wanted you to kill him.”

“No,” Matthew shook his head emphatically, “Simon wasn’t suicidal, or incompetent.”

“I didn’t think so either. I argued against the idea.” Her mouth twisted. “He fired me and did it anyway.” She glanced at Devon. “I thought I could rely on Amber to keep me posted, but… Devon was the one who actually stepped up.”

“Our plan at that point was extraction,” Devon picked up the story, “But then the cure came out, and you two walked right into a clinic. Amber and I thought that was it, that Isles would release the conservatorship, but on the way to the airport we were talking and he said he wouldn’t. He wanted to make sure Simon stayed away from you, that’s what he said. I challenged him on it, and he fired me too. Amber’s the only one he has left.”

“So Simon can’t…” Gears were spinning wildly in Matthew’s head, desperate to keep up.

“Simon can’t do anything,” Gina snapped, “He can’t make his own medical decisions, he can’t pick who gets to visit him, he can’t check himself out of Summerwhite even if the doctors clear him. All his decisions get made by Isles.”

“What do we do?” Matthew demanded.

“We have a plan,” Devon said slowly, “But you’re not going to like it.”

“Just tell me.”

“Isles got him into this, and we think Isles is the only one who can get him back out.”

“Why would he change his mind?”

“Because Simon tried to…” Gina hesitated, watching Matthew carefully, “Take his own life. A couple weeks ago.”

The sun was too hot. The parking lot felt like it was spinning.

Your fault. Your fault.

Matthew felt his dad grab his hand and shoulder again.

“Easy there, Matty. Take a deep breath.”

Matthew forced air in and out of his lungs.

“What happened?” he rasped.

“We don’t know,” Gina said, “I only found out because Isles actually called me for advice. The fucking nerve! But he’s scared now, scared that he made the wrong decision. I think he might help us get Simon back, with a little convincing.”

“But is Simon okay?” Matthew didn’t care about Isles at the moment.

“We don’t know,” Gina repeated, “Isles won’t tell us, or let us visit him. So we just don’t know.”

All this information left Matthew reeling. Simon had been alone, with no one but Isles to visit him, for four months. Locked up, imprisoned, for four months - and not even allowed the hope of leaving. Matthew had barely been able to handle the same situation, and he had known he would be released eventually. How could Simon cope with that?

Matthew knew the answer already. Simon hadn’t coped.

“Where is Isles?”

~~~

First, Previous, Next, Masterlist

Taglist: @flowersarefreetherapy, @pigeonwhumps, @sunshiline-writes, @seasaltandcopper

#whump #whump fic #whump writing #sunless lives #sunless lives arc 3 #cw forced institutionalization #cw abuse of power #cw suicide #cw conservetorship #my writing

[quetzalpapalotl]

I wish to love and appreciate idw optimus more too. But I also don’t want to read through the entirety of IDW 1.0. Can you please recommend me any specific issues/parts?

Hi!! I see that you have already reblogged my IDW1 Optimus-focused reading guide, so I assume that you read that and still felt like it was too much. I'd do anything to spread the OP love, so I will try! But before that, please forgive me for rambling a bit.

That guide is not the entirety of IDW1, I tried to cut as much as possible, and I want to reiterate that I consider Barber's Optimus the definitive take on IDW1 Optimus. To the point that I like all other stuff with him only in because I read them through Barber's characterization which serves to give them depth in retrospective. And it does this because Barber's writes Optimus with the intention of consolidating all the other writer's takes on him (which were uh... a mess). It's a very contextual reading, a conversation, there's more to get from it if you know the background. So I would ask you to reconsider giving it a try, skip the crossovers if you want. I'll redo the reading guide with links to download/read online if you want.

That being said, I understand that sounds like "read these bad comics in the hopes you will like this one other comic" and the point is to have fun, not to do homework. So in that case I'll say to just read exrid/Optimus Prime and the JRo stuff (but we'll come back to teh later)

See, the exrid/OP is a whole story, so recommeding individual issues doesn't make much sense to me, it would be like recommending one episode of an anime or one chapter of a book, it would entirely lack context and lost much of it's meaning, especially because Optimus is a main character whose actions cannot be taken out from the rest of the plot. My favorite moments require build up, like when Optimus annexes the Earth to the council of worlds, that doesn't hit the same if you didn't read all the previous issues where Optimus was trying to remove all Cybertronian influence from Earth and the series of events that led to him changing his mind and think such a fucking move was a good idea.

And I've talked about this before, but while Mtmt/LL has its biggest strenght in character dynamics and out-of-screen build up, exRID/OP has it in thematic consistensy and narrative cohesion. All parts of it and there to make a point that feeds the whole, character's perspectives feed each other and the biggest pay-off comes at the very end. Also, Optimus Prime is a story about him as a character as much as it is about him as a symbol, so seeing the effects he has on other people is important.

I suppose you could read exRID starting from post Dark Cybertron as it basically becomes a different story and the first part doesn't feature Optimus (except in issues 6, 10, 19) I would not recommend this as there are still a lot of links between the two and you would miss a chunk of Arcee's story (who is the one other character on which the whole thing falls upon). But you could. Don't skip Combiner Wars tho.

Other than that here are some hightlights:

The Death of Optimus Prime: This is the one that works best as a single issue, as it is a one-shot. It sets up phase 2 so definitively read it.

JRo's stuff: That is Chaos Theory, Mtmte #9-11, Mtmte #36 and Spotlight: Orion Pax. Now, JRo's OP is certainly the one that is more likeable, but I don't necessarily think that it's good. JRo kinda wants to have Optimus be more morally grey but always reels back and portrays him as the ultimate good seemingly without considering the implications of a lot of the stuff he does. But still, Chaos Theory is the backbone of phase 2, they are fun reads and it introduces a lot of backstory and aspects of his personality that will be important.

Punishment: As this is a mini series, it's good to read on its own. It's still set in the broader context of exRID, but at least it's a complete story and a compelling one! Lots of Optimus brooding, but not in an annoying way.

Optimus Prime #1-6: Okay, so if you don't want to read all of exrid/OP or are testing the waters before commiting to it. This arc deals with Optimus trying to get people to accept Earth as part of the Council of Worlds and risking war for it, contrasted with events of his past. This may be the easiest arc to read on its own, but I also think it does a great job of building Optimus character. It's also a great example of the narrative not shying away from Optimus doing bad things, stupid things and having anger issues (and also the cop thing), while also retaining the core of his character as someone who genuinely wants to do good and getting into his head to make sense of his actions (not justify them). This is something that I feel only Barber gets right. Also Zeta Prime is there and he's the most important character that barely shows up.

Autocracy: Ok, ok, listen... this may or may not be the most disliked series in IDW1 and while I think it has a worse reputation than it deserves, I still wouldn't call it good. While its more honest abotu what being a cop entails than Chaos Theory and is willing to have OP be unsavory, that aspect doesn't really go anywhere and it fails to make OP an enganging character whose actions make sense. But it still has the backstory of how Orion became Optimus and a friend likes it, so hey, maybe you will too. Also the aforementioned flashbacks of OP 1-6 feel to me that they are written in direct response to Autocracy and try to explain how that is the same character than the one in Chaos Theory. I'm actually working on meta about that (anon, if you're reading this, I haven't forgotten). So for all that Barber is trying to recontextualize and reconciliate all the other takes on Optimus, this is the most obvious one and Autocracy is not that long. So it may be worth checking out.

Sorry for rambling again, I hope you find this useful!! Feel free to ask for links or any other questions!

#quetzal rambles tf

[miamaymarry]

I edited my headline to be clear that this blog is a fan blog. I never claimed to be an official translator or anything like that. OX did never answer the request for permission to translate their work, so this is all for fun and without any connection to the artist but if you want to put it so negatively “messing” with their work. (I guess/hope Old Xian is probably really busy and doesn’t have time for concerns over small creators interacting with their works. Of course I would take the translations/edits down immediately if they personally ever happen to contact me about it and disliking it for whatever reason or if they make a statement online that they are uncomfortable with people playing around with their creation) Please remember fanfiction, fanart, edits, … are the same category as fan translations and technically require permission from the creator to be anything near legal as well. If nothing is commercialized it’s basically not a crime that’s traced I guess? I’m doing this in my free time and without ever charging anyone anything. The art work doesn’t belong to me and I hope that’s clear since I put OXs name and where to find the original whenever I post a translation.

I barely interact with most of the followers who came here but I’m happy many people seem to enjoy it ❤️ Again: I’m not claiming to be accurate and I just do fun stuff with editing, and what I feel like. I’ve done it many times before and people minded their business if it wasn’t their cup of tea. So I’d rather keep a small community around to gosh over the same things and not have loads of people on this blog with expectations I don’t want to live up to. I’m not here for anything but joy for myself and friends. There are sooo many cool fan translations you can follow instead if you’re upset about what I’m doing. I chose peace and fun over everything since this is my blog. It’s the internet not real life, please just pass by and ignore/block it if you don’t like it, since it’s not my responsibility to make anyone feel better at my space. And respectfully anyone please unfollow me if there is an expectation of me to serve you in any kind of way or make you feel comfortable at my own fan bubble here. We disagree and I’m not going to put up with negativity. I’m here for positive interactions and to have fun with a fandom I enjoy, which is mostly 19 days at the moment. I literally have a crack ship/cursed ship or whatever you call it in my header so where do those expectations come from? Typesetting is fun, not a job or duty to me and I’ll keep doing my own fanservice 😊 I also don’t want to justify stopping what I’m doing right now if I don’t feel like it anymore one day.

If you are really bored and want to play detective, start comparing OXs originals with the posts :D I made a few small edits here and there that didn’t change the context, and that I didn’t mention. Nobody noticed before or only a few wondering about hearts or (for me) funny additions. Yesterday I wanted to clarify I was making fun to keep a distance from the original because it changed the subtext with the small smile on Cheng’s face. (Look at least closely if you’re here to roast me. The second panel of him had a change of the corner of his mouth too and none who complained did even see it…)

I also apologize to anyone who’s disappointed because this wasn’t communicated clearly enough from my end. I will keep addressing actual changes like before! Now there are so many followers already and I had to block a few being rude, I felt pressured to make a statement, but actually we’re strangers and I don’t owe you anything guys.

Last but not least: I am so happy about all the positive comments and funny tags (yes I read them whenever I can hehe) in the reblogs. Thank you so much for sticking around 🥰 and thank you for liking too!

Summery: We switch between accurate translations and a more direct communication sometimes (but most of the time we stick to the original as close as possible). I edit small stuff sometimes because I would like to have “more” in there (or what I personally think is fun). So I will keep addressing changes to be clear in the future.

If you want to talk about it feel free to do so nicely :)

#19 days #personal

[lowlylux]

I am a Sinner (You are a Saint)

Chapter Two | Scaramouche

Ship: HeiKazuScara

Rating: E

Status: In Progress

Word Count: 3.3k

Description:

“You shall be cast out of the heavenly realm indefinitely.”

Kunikuzushi feels arms grab his own as he is forced to his feet. He struggles, keeping his eyes on his mother only. “Mother! Don’t let them do this!” The guards continue to drag him away, even if it is a struggle. “Mother!” He knows the gate to the human realm is growing closer to him. The more time passes, the less chance he has to escape. But the divine never back out of their decisions…never. He looks to his mother one last time, hoping that she at least looks at him. But her gaze refuses to meet his own.

When he is finally cast out, the air rushing past his entire body, he could only visualize his mother’s pained expression.

He has never felt so alone…

Ao3 Link

Heizou can barely keep his eyes open as he continues to stare at the unknown…whatever it is that is currently sleeping on his couch.  Kazuha has since dozed off, head resting in Heizou’s lap in a way that he initially smiled at.  However, it has been about an hour, and his legs are falling asleep.  So, unfortunately, not as cute anymore.

Shame.

He glances at the clock, confirming that it is far past midnight, a fact that he didn’t want to be true.  He had hoped that their guest would have awoken by now, but alas, the…male has been asleep this entire time.  Heizou groans internally, foreseeing the sheer amount of coffee he is going to be required to consume just to function at work.  It is never a good idea to go to work exhausted, but with his career?  It could get him killed if he’s not careful.

However, he is not about to fall asleep with a stranger in his house, especially when Kazuha is here.  He has seen far too many cases in his lifetime where being trusting can get you murdered, so he refuses to even take the chance.  

When he senses movement, the first thing Heizou does is wake up his boyfriend.  Kazuha grumbles in response, rubbing his eyes as he slowly wakes from whatever dream he was in the middle of, thus showing Heizou yet another adorable action that Kazuha does unintentionally.  However, Heizou shakes his head in an attempt to clear those thoughts from his mind.  Their guest is waking up, that is what is important.

Their guest stirs a little before his eyes shoot open.  Heizou observes how the person sits up quickly before immediately hissing in pain.  The stranger attempts to stand next, predictably falling in a rather ungraceful manner.  Heizou would have laughed if it wasn’t for the situation at hand.  “Who are you?” Heizou asks, carefully keeping a hand wrapped around Kazuha’s arm just in case he needs to push the man to safety.

“Where am I?” The person asks, their voice cracking.  They reach toward their throat, wincing in pain.

“You’re in Inazuma city…well the outskirts of it at least,” Kazuha says, sitting up.  Heizou assumes Kazuha did such an action to view the person easier, as it is something Heizou would do.  

The stranger widens their eyes, looking at both men in a way that Heizou could only describe as a mix of panic and dismay.  “I’m on earth?”

Heizou immediately has to push the idea away that the person in front of him is an alien.  He doubts they are…but that doesn’t stop him from thinking about it at first.  “What is your name?” Heizou rephrases his previous question, yet receives no response once more.

“I didn’t…why.  Why did this happen?” The stranger rambles on, much to the confusion of both Kazuha and Heizou as neither party understands the context.  “I wanted to help…”

“Help with what?” Kazuha asks gently, reaching out to the stranger in an attempt to hold their hand, only as a means of comfort, but is greeted with the stranger jerking away from him.  “What happened to you?”

The stranger looks to Kazuha as if he forgot that either of them were there.  “Why didn’t mother help?  She always does…why?”

Kazuha, even though he was just met with an action that proves the stranger doesn’t want to be interacted with, ignores any previous signs and takes a seat right next to them.  He avoids touching them, instead placing a hand near them.  “I would love to help you…but we need you to answer a few questions first.  Is that okay?”  The stranger stares at him with wide eyes before slowly nodding, not dropping his gaze.  “Alright,” Kazuha says while smiling.  “First off, can you tell us where you came from?”

The stranger points upwards.  

Heizou can only scream at the stranger internally at that moment.  No shit.  However, he knows that it is not a good idea to provoke this person, especially when Kazuha is sitting right next to it.  

“Up there?” Kazuha asks, mimicking the movement.  “Does that mean you’re what…an angel?” He laughs, only stopping when the stranger doesn’t smile or show any sign of joking.  “Holy shit.”  Kazuha runs a hand through his hair, looking away from the…angel… for a moment, glancing at Heizou.  Neither of them know how to react to something like this.  “Are you hurt?  Well…obviously you’re hurt, but do you need anything?  Painkillers?  An ice pack?  A fall like that must have hurt.”

The stranger shakes his head.

“Okay,” Kazuha says while nodding his head, glancing at Heizou once more before going back to the stranger.  “Can you tell me your name?”

“It was Kunikuzushi.”

“Was?” Heizou pipes in, raising a brow at such a statement.  Honestly, this entire situation still feels ridiculous but he has to keep his cool for now.  

The stranger looks at him and for that moment, the world stops around Heizou as he stares at this person.  For this singular moment, it is like he believes everything this person says.  The stranger looks away nervously just as quickly as his attention focusing on Heizou in the first place.  

“When we are created, our creators grant us a name.  If we are cast out, we are stripped of that name.”

Heizou can quite literally see Kazuha’s expression softened due to such a statement.  “Can I call you Kunikuzushi?”

“For now I believe it is fine…at least until I find a new name.”

Kazuha smiles widely at Kunikuzushi, attempting to soothe him.  “Great, well, it’s nice to meet you Kunikuzushi.  My name is Kazuha.”  Kazuha then raises his hand, only to be greeted with a confused look from the angel.  “This is a handshake…it’s meant to represent a hello.”

“Oh…” Kunikuzushi says quietly, hesitantly reaching out and grasping Kazuha’s hand with his own.  Kazuha smiles encouragingly, even after both of them let go of the other’s hand.

Heizou cannot help but attempt to get Kazuha’s attention, which he is successful in doing.  Kazuha looks back toward Kunikuzushi for a moment, smiling softly.  “I’m going to go grab some ice for you okay?  You had quite the fall.” Kazuha says.  And with that, Kazuha stands up and beckons Heizou into the kitchen with him.  Once the door is closed, Heizou’s boyfriend immediately looks at him in confusion.  “What’s wrong?”

“Kazuha…” Heizou breathes out in disbelief.  “What are you doing?”

Once again, Heizou is greeted with a look of confusion.  “What do you mean?”

Heizou immediately points at the closed door, intending to be gesturing toward their newest guest.  “Why are you being so nice to him?  We should be trying to get information so we can send him on his way.”

“And where do you suppose he should go?”

“Not here!”

“Listen Heizou,” Kazuha says while rubbing his temples, “we can’t just let him go.  He’d be in danger.”

“How do you even know that?”

“Have you seen what he is?” Kazuha says, his voice a bit more raised.  “He’s hurt Heizou.”

And Heizou knows that Kazuha is right.  Honestly, at any other time he would be completely on board with what his boyfriend is saying.  They’ve never really disagreed on much before.  However, with the recent rise in crimes…he can’t help but feel nervous, even if the guest on his couch is a literal angel.  He leans on Kazuha, resting his forehead on his boyfriend’s shoulder as he lets out a sigh.  “What’s your read on him?”

“Excuse me?”

Heizou doesn’t raise his head as he speaks, continuing to rest on Kazuha.  He’s exhausted, simple as that.  “I trust your judgment.  So what do you think of him?  Is he going to murder us in our sleep?”

Heizou feels Kazuha sigh, shifting his weight distribution so that Heizou can still comfortably lean on him.  “I think he’s scared.  Maybe he will kill us in our sleep, but I doubt it will be tonight.”

Heizou lets out a chuckle at such a statement, appreciating the fact that Kazuha without fail always keeps his spirits up.  “Then he can stay.”

“Well I wasn’t going to take a no for an answer anyways, but I appreciate your consent.”

Heizou lifts his head, staring into Kazuha’s eyes for a moment with a small smile.  “How am I to trust you to be safe when you do things that I wouldn’t approve of?”

“When did I need your approval in the first place?” Kazuha retorts.

“I absolutely hate you sometimes, you know that?” Heizou says, pulling Kazuha into a small kiss that causes both parties to smile softly.  When they part, Kazuha leans forward, following Heizou for a moment before realizing.  “I’m sorry for fighting with you earlier.”

“Oh that?” Kazuha asks, grabbing Heizou’s face lightly and kissing him again.  “That was nothing, trust me.”

But Heizou still doesn’t like such an answer.  “I don’t like fighting with you Kazu…I’m just tired right now.  But I promise, I’ll make it up to you.”  Heizou doesn’t even know where the nickname came from.  When they started dating, he would just start using it once in a while, and it just stuck.  Kazuha never showed a dislike for the nickname, so Heizou never stopped using it.

”And I don’t doubt that one bit,” Kazuha says as he pulls Heizou closer to him.  The man absentmindedly fiddles with Heizou’s belt loops, an action that Heizou internally gushes about how adorable it is.  “I need to get our new friend some ice.”

“Then why aren’t you?”

“I’m a bit distracted right now,” Kazuha says before pressing his lips to Heizou’s once more.  Heizou has always loved his time with Kazuha, especially these moments.  He loves the softer moments, where they can just be in each other’s company without worry.  Whenever these moments are available, it always ends in hours being dedicated to just the two of them.  In those moments, it is just them, and nothing else matters.  

But alas, moments always have to end at one point, and when Kazuha intentionally steps away as if Heizou was this drug that Kazuha must avoid, Heizou’s thoughts clear.  He watches as Kazuha goes into the freezer and pulls out the large bag of ice.  Heizou stands there when his boyfriend picks up some ice cubes and wraps them in a cloth.  He even moves out of the doorway so that Kazuha can bring the ice to the new guest.

Heizou shakes his head in an attempt to gather his thoughts.  After all of this, it is already time for him to get ready for work, which he truly dislikes.  He wants to stay here, get more information, and get some sleep.  However, he cannot just skip work, especially when it is this close to the holidays.  

So, he goes upstairs without a word and changes into some fresh clothes.  Kazuha must have washed them, as they smell distinctly of Kazuha’s laundry detergent.  He then brushed his hair, pulling it into a loose ponytail that he definitely will need to tighten if he needs to investigate a crime scene.  He then ventures back downstairs, observing how Kazuha is hesitantly pressing the makeshift ice pack onto Kunikuzushi’s wings, removing it the moment the angel winces in pain.  

“I have to go,” Heizou says loud enough to get Kazuha’s attention.  

“Did you make yourself coffee?”

“I’ll buy some on the way,” Heizou says with a fake smile, genuinely feeling exhausted.  “I’ll be safe, don’t worry.”

“If you get too tired, come home immediately, understand?” Kazuha says, handing the ice pack to Kunikuzushi so that he can go back to his boyfriend.  “I don’t want to watch the news and find out you’re dead, Heizou.”

“You won’t,” Heizou says, glancing over to their guest.  “I’m trusting you to stay here.  Tell me Angel, do you plan on being difficult when staying here?”

Kunikuzushi stares at him for a moment, blinking slowly in reaction to simply being called ‘Angel’.  “I don’t plan to, no.”

Heizou merely nods, finding that to be sufficient.  “Okay then.”  And just like that, Heizou leaves to go to work

●•·•●

Kunikuzushi keeps a firm hand on the ice pack, currently helping with the pain in his wings.  It doesn’t help too much, but it’s something.  His mind is a jumbled mess, attempting to make sense of everything.  He didn’t expect to be cast out, especially not when attempting to warn others about a potential plot from the demonic realm.  He also didn’t expect to be welcomed into a human home.

He shouldn’t have said what he did when he woke up, that much is something he knows.  These two humans, even if they both seem genuinely kind, shouldn’t be brought into all of this.  They shouldn’t have knowledge of what Kunikuzushi expects is coming.

In the corner of his eye, he sees Kazuha approach him with a strange device.  Kazuha reminds Kunikuzushi of some people in the angelic realm.  Blond hair is common enough up there, with lighter hair actually being favored by most angels.  The human’s blond hair that is twisted into a messy side braid makes the man look kind, a strange opposite of the messy hair of Heizou that makes him look intimidating.  

“Hi,” Kazuha says softly, keeping Kunikuzushi from getting lost in his thoughts for too long.  “I have my laptop right here…do you know what a laptop is?”  Kunikuzushi shakes his head, not giving a verbal response.  Kazuha lets out a breath, which Kunikuzushi identifies as a good reaction, which eases his nerves slightly.  “Well, move over a bit.”

Kunikuzushi shifts further to the side of the sofa, wincing in pain but overall fully able to make room.  Kazuha offers a smile to him before placing down the laptop on the table in front of them both.  He opens the item, this laptop lighting up immediately.  The human proceeds to do something, and whatever Kunikuzushi was staring at changes instantly.

Kazuha clears his voice, causing Kunikuzushi to jump slightly at the noise but he quickly brushes it off.  “This is a laptop.  It’s an item that can let you go on the internet.”  Kazuha glances at Kunikuzushi for a moment before seemingly realizing that the angel doesn’t know what he’s talking about.  “The internet can allow you to research things.” Kunikuzushi looks at him in confusion, because he truly is confused.  “You wanted to figure out a new name, right?

Kunikuzushi stares at Kazuha for a moment, a look of surprise adorning his features.  “This is to help me find a new name?”

“Yeah!” Kazuha says, his features brightening immediately.  Honestly, with how he is acting, Kunikuzushi can’t help but smile as well, although it is a small one.  “Do you want to know how to work it?”  Kunikuzushi cannot help but nod.  He would love to show more appreciation, he really would, but he really doesn’t know how at the moment, especially with all that has happened.  “Okay, so you are going to want to type what you want to look up…you can read right?  I don’t know if angels have a different way of writing.”

“As angels, we are tasked to know practically every actively used human language.”

“Great,” Kazuha says at once, getting the laptop ready for Kunikuzushi to use.  Based on what Kunikuzushi notices, Kazuha is intentionally showing him everything he needs to do to actually work the thing.  When he notices this, his smile widens a bit more.  “Look up what you need to, okay?”

Kunikuzushi nods, turning toward the strange device.  He is still not completely sure how to work this thing, but he has always been a fast learner.  However, he feels a hand going through his hair for a moment before the sofa shifts once Kazuha jerks away.  “I’m sorry!” He says, looking shocked that he would do such a thing.

“It’s fine…”

“It’s just that your hair is so tangled…I shouldn’t have touched it, I apologize.”

“I said it is fine.”

“Your hair is really nice by the way!  I’ve never seen hair so long before-“

“Kazuha!” Kunikuzushi snaps, sending the human a look to just make him stop talking.  “It’s fine…it's all fine.”

Kazuha just nods, looking a bit dejected, causing Kunikuzushi’s stomach to plummet slightly.  He didn’t want to upset the human.  He never wanted to upset anyone.  But, Kazuha doesn’t know that.  And when Kazuha tells him that he will simply leave Kunikuzushi alone, Kunikuzushi feels guilty.

The angel holds his head in his hands for a while once the human leaves, wondering where he went wrong.  He doesn’t mean to be abrasive, but it seems as if he cannot help but fall upon his old ways.  However, he hesitantly grabs the laptop.

If Kazuha was kind enough to bring this to him, he might as well use it.

●•·•●

Kazuha didn’t hold any hard feelings toward Kunikuzushi for how the angel spoke to him.  He acknowledges that Kunikuzushi is most likely overwhelmed.  That’s why Kazuha decided to leave the room.  He also had other ulterior motives and he didn’t want Kunikuzushi to have any knowledge of them.

Heizou has a study, a room Kazuha intentionally avoids most of the time.  It’s the place where Heizou can craft notes and keep details regarding ongoing investigations.  So, Kazuha tends to let Heizou do whatever he wants up here.  However, Kazuha can be nosy at times.

Heizou rarely avoids telling Kazuha information, and while Kazuha acknowledges that legally his boyfriend is not supposed to, he still finds it odd.  This is why he is currently searching Heizou’s study for any information on the newest case.  

He carefully moves papers, searching for anything that will point him toward answers.  There is something about the case that Heizou is investigating, and Kazuha is determined to figure out what.

A crash makes him jump, quickly putting everything back in its original place.  Kazuha rushes toward the living room, almost tripping on one of the stairs.  And when he gets back in the room, he sees Kunikuzushi on the floor that is littered with long strands of the angel’s hair.  

“What…” Kazuha trails off, looking at the scissors in Kunikuzushi’s hands.  “What happened?”

“Your laptop told me how to cut my hair.”

“And you did it with blunt craft scissors?”

“They were the only ones you had.”

Kunikuzushi’s hair…doesn’t look great.  It’s choppy, clearly done by someone who lacks experience.  Glancing at his laptop’s screen, Kazuha sees the YouTube video Kunikuzushi was looking at, with a haircut that is nothing close to what he actually did.

“Angels put importance into our hair so I thought…” Kunikuzushi looks at Kazuha in a panicked manner.  “Does it look that bad?”

“No,” Kazuha says quickly, cringing at how much he doesn’t sound genuine.  Kunikuzushi sends him a look, and Kazuha feels the need to continue talking.  “Kunikuzushi-“

“Scaramouche.”

Kazuha’s brain just stops at that moment as he stares at the angel in shock.  He opens his mouth before closing it, similarly to a fish.  When he finally is able to talk, all he can do is say, “what?”

The angel shifts uncomfortably, causing one of his wings to accidentally knock over a plastic cup that was on the end table.  “I found a name I like…Scaramouche.”

“Any particular reason why?”

He shakes his head quickly, causing Kazuha to smile at the action.  Honestly, he finds it cute…just a little bit.  “I found it on a name generator…I was drawn to it.”

“Well then,” Kazuha says, standing up straight and walking toward Scaramouche.  He extends out his hand, waiting for Scaramouche to grasp it so he can help the angel up.  “It’s nice to meet you, Scaramouche.”

The angel smiles back, jerking his hand back after a moment which causes Kazuha to look at him in confusion.  However, since Scaramouche is seemingly moving on from that moment, Kazuha decides to as well.  “It’s nice to meet you too, Kazuha,” Scaramouche says.

The angel is still pretty rough around the edges but Kazuha truly doesn’t mind.  At least he’s being helped for now.

01 << >> 03

Master list

#genshin #genshin impact #genshin impact fanfiction #heizou #kaedehara kazuha #kazuha #scaramouche #eventual smut #fallen angel au #modern au #heikazuscara #lowlylux

[akitamafumis]

trying to go through life thoughts

I wrote some thoughts on the l/n starira AU that i am putting here for posterity . mainly .

I don’t really know where to start or how to go into this. I made a comment to frog about how i thought that thematically l/n weren’t too far off, at least with some things. There’s the difference between revue’s focus on selfishness, but i think in a way you can see those as the difference between theatre and music (non-theatre) as art forms. Does that make sense? It’s an interesting part of a band, that the thematic idea of selfishness literally can only go so far—anyone can hope to be the lead in theatre, but a drumset player can’t hope to play the melody (you’re about to pitch your idea for a set of chromatically tuned toms. There’s nothing i can say to you that would stick in your brain).

So that was kind of my general vibe. I felt like there were enough similarities to justify the differences to make it make sense. I was only doing it as a writing exercise and it kind of spiraled. Ppl have talked about how it’s rly hard to revue something else because besides just fun aesthetics for art, it requires upward work to try and justify the occurrences in the AU to make it actually work. So i thought, maybe, it’d be fun to try and work through those thoughts a bit and see what I could come up with.

The most major change of note is that Shiho’s parents work in theatre in some way—it’s super vague and I didn’t want to come up with any concrete answers just because it felt pointless to. One of her parents might be a rinmeikan graduate or a family member was a teacher there or something, hence how they ended up with an old Rinmeiki vhs, and a result of her parents being in theatre means her desire to be a professional musician is switched to a desire to be a professional actor. A lot of what ripples out from there in terms of their childhood is pretty self explanatory: they watch Rinmeiki, put on little plays together just the four of them, and then things fall apart as they grow older.

I wanted to get them relatively close to pjsk canon at the start moreso than starira’s, so the perf department is already closed while they’re in their first year. I think in the context of this story they had more members at the start of the year, but people (upperclassmen) dropped into general education just because they knew the department was going to close down, until it was just Shiho and Ichika. Upperclassmen are only 2nd years, bc the part of my brain that cares too much ab logistics thinks the school would let any third years graduate in their department before shutting it at the end of the year but ANYWAY.

Kanade and Shizuku showing up is just because i needed two people connected to two of our people. I don’t know what school kanade/25ji go to. MMJ are frontier they’re. Idols. I have no idea who frau platin is. Actual answer probably Iori. But instead. Haruhi Minamoto. Fuck you.

There’s a lot about what I did with honami that ends up feeling like favorite character favoritism. And it IS. But it was also tied to the fact she did brass band in middle school, so she’s converted to being the most theatre oriented behind Shiho. Rather than Honami being ostracized for what she is in canon, it’s for acting, which was mainly because i needed a reason for her to quit acting specifically. Centering acting does shift the fact that for both honami and shiho acting becomes the center of their straining relationship with ichika/each other, rather than their interpersonal problems. But revue generally ties personal problems and the stage up together, so i think it’s not an unfair thing to change, and it’s not so much a change for Shiho, anyway.

Also honami’s weapon IS NOT A SCYTHE. It is just a lance. They have pretty boring revue weapons. The scythe joke is ABOUT HER NAME ONLY. IT IS UNFORTUNATE, BUT MERELY COINCIDENCE. WE SHOULD KILL KOCHO SHIZUHA.

The. Story is meant to conceptually cover what would be the school story (partially)+opening arc… a hypothetical main story (which you will never see from me because SCOPE) would large scale consist of them trying to form an official association and performance festival, etc etc etc, alongside their individual character arcs.

As far as the characters, shiho’s follow up would cover um. Obviously. Saki and Ichika have both taken Shiho helping/joining the association to mean that she’s not planning on transferring but that is still very much on the table for her. Only Honami is aware that the . Fights within their group aren’t over yet which is meant to compound with a certain lack of confrontation.

Honami’s would center around that whole revue weapon business, and the sense of regaining her brilliance. There are certain elements that tie into pjsk canon in terms of her (re)finding the confidence to speak her mind and put her foot down more, slowly. I think also as a secondary thing she gets into directing, over time.

Saki’s the most vague in my mind. I think she’s got passion and conviction but a sort of lack of direction, even though those two usually lead to the third. It’s the least developed in my brain so far. There’s also maybe something about her illness, both in terms of recognizing her own limits and acknowledging them, but also in not sidelining herself from going for lead roles, or something.

Ichika sort of lacks a lot as a stage girl initially. In her idea that she has parts of the rest of the group in herself i thought about including some implication that she doesn’t know what she would pass on to the three of them in return, but i couldn’t fit a line in about it without drawing a lot of attention to it, and it would fly under the radar after that revue and not come up again for a while. She’s also still carrying baggage for assuming the fault of the department shutting down.

Point is, when saki and ichika agree about not fighting each other and only facing other schools from now on, they are entirely off base. Things aren’t really fully aligned.

Okay. Now for my least favorite part. I thought revue intros would be fun and now i have to talk about them a little bit briefly. All of them contain an element of their name, alongside. Okay.

Saki’s is a mess well okay that’s not fair they’re all a mess to me . The “Bright skies” in the opening references the her last name, and the reference to blossoms her first name. Hers also overtly. References Rinmeiki.

Shiho’s isn’t tied to rinmeiki at all and the name references are the most vague, but her is very. Situationally accurate and i think remains so. She does the hard carrying for the revue conversion and i think up until the transferring confrontation comes to a head she’s often sort of . Antagonistic in trying to push the rest to either rise to the challenge or give up. “Brilliance pierces through the artificial shades” is the reference to her name. Brilliance standing in for sun and um. Sun piercing through the treetops. Also the final line the use of the word rises.

Ichika’s guided by the light of stars is her name reference, alongside the “melody of our song” thing. Rinmeiki are referenced as well, “against the flow of history” and the thing about her being a hero.

Honami’s is so heavy handed it hurts me and that’s what she gets for being last. She references all four of their names, and doesn’t have a specific Rinmeiki reference.

They also all specifically reference themselves differently. Ichika and Saki as students of rinmeikan, shiho as merely a stage girl, and honami as part of the performance association (which technically doesn’t exist officially when she says that).

I think…that’s kind of everything I’ve got…at least for now. That’s the bulk of it, really, i think. I hope. I don’t know :)

#text

[missmrah]

what did u think of greywaren

I don’t normally get this kind of ask so this is actually exciting for me! Even though I’m still working through a lot of my feelings (and will probably require a re-read at some point to fully process), I’ll try to summarize my current thoughts without direct spoilers… warning: some of my takeaway is not exactly positive. 

I think, for me at least, the plot of The Dreamer Trilogy, and especially Greywaren, often required too much willing suspension of disbelief. 

It suffers from existing within the established universe of The Raven Cycle while attempting to vastly expand upon it. New and then subsequent revelations regarding Dreamers/Dreams, the Mods/Visionaries, and *spoilers* about Ronan himself that were meant to advance the plot and up the stakes, often felt cheaply contrived. Worse, sometimes these contrivances actually felt like Stiefvater was coming just shy of retconning the events of her previous works, retroactively adding to the narrative to the point of making it nearly unrecognizable. 

This meant that as I found myself constantly having to reevaluate my understanding of how this universe operates it wasn’t generally in a way that I felt the storytelling had earned; there weren’t enough satisfying moments of, “OMG, I should have/didn’t see that coming (that’s so cool)?!” Instead, my response was more often, “Oh… yeah okay. I guess I can accept that.” To be clear, this didn’t ruin my enjoyment, but the fact is, I might have genuinely loved the events and twists in Greywaren if there had been a little more groundwork to make them feel less unprecedented (an example would be the nature/origin of the Visionaries, which introduced about a million questions and the only explanations we were given were the ones convenient for the immediate story, which unfortunately I remain unconvinced made much sense within the context of the universe?) For me, a little extra thoughtful foreshadowing would have gone a long way. (To be honest, I felt this way sometimes while reading Blue Lily, Lily Blue and also The Raven King). Ultimately, if TDT had existed independent of TRC, the extended scope of the world and the magic that exists in it wouldn’t have introduced so many glaring gaps in consistency… but therein lies another problem: if it hadn’t been about the Lynch brothers I might not have read it in the first place.

All of that said, I actually did really enjoy Greywaren, and I came around to some of the story choices that at first I had found hard to swallow. Stiefvater’s dedication to character exploration and development in both TRC and TDT is what really makes her writing shine and both these series bring to life a compelling cast of characters that practically spill off the page with their raw and messy emotions, at once loveable and agonizingly human and so very deeply and beautifully flawed. In the end, I find that the heart she brings to these characters and their feelings and relationships with one another is more than enough to make up for the confounding plot twists that occasionally lead to somewhat bewildering or unsatisfying payoffs. But really, so what if I’m not overly attached to the world building? Let’s not pretend my investment in these novels was ever for anything other than the emotional journey of Ronan Lynch et all—and later Hennessy and co as I came to love them too—and in that department I think Greywaren absolutely delivered. (I might have liked to see more Adam Parrish, and more mentions of his dreamt motorcycle too… but this is why we have fanfic!)

I hope this wasn't too long, sometimes I get carried away xx

#greywaren #the dreamer trilogy #the raven cycle #ronan lynch #sort of a review #sort of me just rambling #thanks for the ask!

[superlocktvd]

KinnPorsche | Relationship | An Analysis

After 8 episodes we have come a long way in the relationship between Kinn and Porsche, from the first words ever spoken, the journey of “Help Me” to “Cheers”. A lot has happened in these episodes between them, words have been exchanged, a lot of action, a lot of emotions, romance and everything in between. 

Kinn and Porsche in episode 8 went on a date and if that isn’t the most cutest thing ever. However, we didn’t just have sweet cute times, we have had fights, cruel word exchange, bit of separation, tied up together, fought together, fought each other and yes sexy scenes, because how can we forget sexy scenes. GAWD those scenes.  To begin from the beginning Porsche fought for Kinn, became his Bodyguard albeit unwillingly, got transferred to Tankhun, got a scratch from a shot, got drugged, got drugged again, fought with Kinn, got chased by Kinn, stuck beside Kinn, made up, almost lost Kinn, and now they are in a relationship. Please this is scratch, I insist you guys read those beautiful metas out there who analyze not just Kinn and Porsche but the settings, colors, situation, circumstances.

Let’s go to the trailer now, we have a moment were they both lock guns at each other. To reach the stage where Kinn looks with what I can see is disdain towards Porsche, mad enough to point a gun at him we have to understand how did they reach that point. Granted he took a bullet for him and gave him a way out, but now that he knows that Porsche is sticking around things have changed drastically and for someone who has trust issues, boy even the smallest spark is enough to cause a blast. 

Porsche in the trailer has to explain that it isn’t about the families for him, it’s just about Him that is Kinn, and no one else. 

Episode 6 and 8 along with the Side story have given us an insight as to how Kinn and Porsche are whenever they are out of prying eyes. For them that’s what matters the most, being together.  Also, episode 7 was a way to balance the mushy stuff because Kinn and Porsche cannot go without drama for too long, cannot hide, cannot escape where they truly are. The mafia pulls them back. In episode 7 when Vegas’s Dad is talking to Kinn through the laptop, (God I wish I could punch him) so condescending. It was so sarcastic in a manner that, you’re stuck in the hospital and I have a chance at calling the shots and then Vegas of course will have your precious bodyguard. 

The belongingness that they feel towards each other, the reciprocity that they have begun of sharing stuff with each other, if we do not see it and everything that they share, the weight of what led to losing the said trust, partnership, connection will not matter because it would be like one day you were together and now you’re not, which isn’t what happened. We require context, back story, the lovely moments because the heaviness of the angst needs to be balanced with the lightness of moments they had together. If you don’t see them relishing moments and time with each other the then seeing them apart will not really matter.  Hence episode 8 - to understand that they are working things out, more physically than ever but they are. 

Also, can you blame them, for Porsche who has been raising brother but practically his kid or Kinn the weight of the biggest, scariest and influential family on his shoulders. Is it so hard to imagine that they want to hide and have fun and we get to see it. I am in no position to dictate what one would like to see in the show but sometimes we can compromise right. 

I hope you enjoyed this little bit I wrote, because I have always tried to write something and Kinn Porsche made me mad enough to write an analysis even if it’s like beginner level. There are so many beautiful metas out there and I know mine is no comparison, but it feels good to put it down.  I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions. I haven’t written much like this before, not about Kinn Porsche at least so let me know. 

#kinnporsche #kinnporche the series #kinn x porsche #kinnxporsche #kinn #porsche #kinn theerapanyakul #porsche kittisawasd #mile phakphum #apo nattawin

[tesspieceface]

so im at day 44 of this dumpster fire of a lobocorp run. if you remember my last post you might notice that the "suppress 3 different aleph abnormalities" mission is gone. and that would be because i, stubborn as i am, insisted on clearing it during this run despite its circumstances being less than ideal for the task. im going to describe for you all what i went through so you can maybe come at least a little bit close to feeling my pain.

the context, if you're unfamiliar with the game:

aleph is the highest grade of abnormality. you need your strongest best-geared employees to work with them and you need your strongest best-geared employees to fight them.

"suppressing" an abnormality means defeating it after it's breached containment. most of the time, this happens by accident, but to clear the mission you'd most likely need to convince them to escape on purpose.

breaching abnormalities generally have something called a qliphoth counter, which can be raised or lowered (usually lowered) when specific things happen. they'll breach when their counter hits 0, or in certain other circumstances if they're feeling a bit spicy.

mission requirements need to be completed within a single day in order to clear. i could not spread my three kills over several days to make things easier.

i started the day with 19 employees, notably fewer than what i ended up with here. please pour one out for each of my six fallen nuggets. they were all level 5 and kitted out in waw and aleph gear so, if you're thinking of trying something stupid like this, you can do it with 19. but ideally you’d probably have more

okay. now lets look at the alephs i was dealing with.

the silent orchestra is a nuisance to work with in normal circumstances. anything other than a neutral work result lowers the counter, and if it reaches a certain phase after it breaches it sucks away all the energy you've gathered for the day. however, it is also content to stay in one place the whole time and if you group your employees up for each of its phases before letting it out it's not too much of a hassle to actually defeat. i hope you have a good source of pale damage though.

censored fucking loves to make your little guys panic and die. its counter lowers on getting a bad work result or if your employee panics, and even looking at it drains a huge chunk of sanity. when it gets out, anyone it kills gets turned into a minion and deals mass sanity damage to everyone in the room, which means the clerks running around become a huge fucking hazard.

the mountain of smiling bodies is the only one of my four alephs who is not content to just stay in its fucking box when you're not actively working with it. its counter lowers every time 10 people die, which will likely happen multiple times with a maxed out facility. also you really need to catch it before it eats up too many corpses and becomes way more difficult to deal with. be prepared if you see it jogging in place in its box.

blue star got to stay put this time around. i don't really know how much of a hassle it is to fight, but i would have needed to sacrifice multiple people to get it to breach and frankly it didn't seem worth it. possibly it’s easier to deal with than censored though, so, i dunno

but that's not the end of my problems, because i also have a bunch of other troublemakers in my facility, including:

the queen of hatred throws a tantrum if you go too long without a few people dying. usually this requires you to cull some clerks every so often. you can calm her down if this happens but if it doesn't work she will get out and laser beam through your hallways.

clouded monk gets upset if too many people die. if you're intentionally letting abnormalities out of their boxes he'll come out to join them sooner or later.

big bird also doesn't like people dying, but you can at least raise its counter again. still, if there's a lot going on and you have other things to worry about it'll probably get out.

meat lantern will break out if you work with it too quickly. if you don't keep a low level employee in reserve specifically to deal with it, it'll take up residence in a hallway and you have to painstakingly search for it before it eats whoever walks by.

little red riding hooded mercenary sees other abnormalities breaking out and decides she wants to join the party, which is especially painful here as i'm trying to fight some fucking alephs. she will run around and tear up half the facility if you're unlucky. slow bullets are probably really helpful here, huh. i should have used those.

nameless fetus is not a particular nuisance in this challenge unless you're just really unlucky. if its counter drops it starts crying and dropping the counters of everything else in the facility until you sacrifice a randomly chosen employee and watch them walk painstakingly slowly over to the containment unit. it's just kind of notorious. i still groan whenever i have to work with this thing.

express train to hell requires constant micromanagement, and if you forget it for too long while you're trying to deal with the menaces wreaking havoc in your facility you'll get a train zooming past. if you're lucky it will just miss everyone. if you're unlucky it will plow right through all your employees while they're bundled up fighting something else. i had this happen near the end of one of my attempts and i almost cried.

so you can probably see that this is not a very convenient setup and i'm basically waiting for mass mayhem to occur whenever i attempt these missions. if i were smarter i would have waited for a different run to do this. but i love making things difficult for myself. here's the approach that eventually got me through this mission, though not without casualties:

deal with silent orchestra at the start of the day, since it needs a bit of prep and that way you don't lose too much progress if something goes wrong and you don't kill it fast enough. this part generally went by with no issues.

don't forget the fucking train!!!!! keep someone hanging out over in its department at all times ready to reset it if needed. i don't worry too much about the hp/sp boosts from this thing, i generally just work with it whenever i have a free moment to get it out of my hair for a couple of minutes.

start gradually picking off clerks in censored's department to set up for later and to keep queen happy. the department should be entirely free of clerks by the time the thing gets out of its box.

it's a bit touch-and-go from here since things will snowball very quickly. little red and smiling bodies in particular need constant vigilance and it's not a matter of if so much as when they breach, probably at the same time. smiling bodies was higher priority for me, i'd gather everyone down in its department to wait for it if it was close to breaching and beat it up asap. clouded monk and big bird will probably be hanging around by now as well but they're slow as balls and can generally be ignored in favour of little red. chasing red can be a hassle so i’d usually group everyone in central command to wait for her and hope she doesn’t spend too much time tearing up the upper facility.

there will (hopefully) be a point where the chaos has passed and the facility is littered with corpses but is at least quiet. at this point just work as normal until hitting the energy quota, but obviously don't end the day yet as there's one more menace to deal with.

clear out any remaining clerks hanging around near censored and prepare to beat its ass. pick the most dispensable employee to work with it - ideally the work should make them panic but not die, if they die you risk having to send a second employee in. execute the unlucky sucker as soon as censored gets out, and hope it comes into the main room so you can fight it with the health regen on. (if it doesn't you can follow it into the hallway but this is obviously more dangerous.) do your best to keep everyone alive, because if even half your squad gets hit with the mass panic it's probably over. if you can bring it down, get the fuck out of there and eat whatever penalty you've gotten for dead employees.

thank fucking god that shit's over. i'm gonna try and clear those bottom two missions with what little time i have left in this run but the ordeals are a job for Later. i'm running out of abnormalities left to observe so hopefully my next run will be kinder to me. (i still need to meet whitenight and max out melting love though so it definitely won't be)

[hrokkall]

what were the ex kittypets lives like before joining the clans? and what was going on with the hex cats?

IFor your first question it varies a tiny bit, but for the most part, their lives were pretty damn good (before being in proximity of the clans Supernaturally Rancid Energy actively made them go to shit).

Luke’s life is/was pretty self-explanatory. At the beginning of the story, he’s still a kittypet (and fully intends to stay that way!) He’s not the most spoiled cat in the world, but he’s DEFINITELY got like a cat tree and shit. The AU is kickstarted by Sparkstar getting TNRed and given to Luke’s twoleg to foster while he recovers from being spayed due to the shelter being HUGELY oversaturated with cats. The only reason Luke follows Sparkstar out to the territories in the first place is because he doesn’t want it to pop a stitch and/or have his twoleg freak out because “holy shit the cat I was supposed to watch is fucking GONE”—Luke has no interest in becoming a clan cat, but… due to the way the clan territories operate in this AU he doesn’t have much of a choice unless he really fights for it.

Kaycee’s life wasn’t too bad either. She had a bit more of an adventurous streak than Luke and actively went to the clans out of curiosity rather than concern followed by curiosity, but that doesn’t mean she wanted to leave. Eventually though, she didn’t have much of a choice. Her twoleg went to work one day and just… never came back. Kaycee doesn’t think she was purposefully left there—her twoleg was kind of a shut-in and definitely wouldn’t leave her on purpose—but that didn’t stop her from biding her time regardless. Hoping it was just a long shift. So she waited. And waited. One week turned into two. Two turned into someone else coming home: swabbing for fingerprints and taking pictures with no regards to the cat hiding under the bed. She had to be actively dragged out to the territories by Poppystar. They both knew that she wouldn’t be able to leave afterwards but… she didn’t really have any other option.

Bryce’s kittypet life was really good! He lived with an old woman who, unfortunately, wasn’t allowed to keep him when she was moved into a retirement home. He was originally passed along to her daughter, but was subsequently made an outdoor cat for “”displaying signs of aggression”” (which was Obviously not the case. He was EXTREMELY stressed out due to the sudden Massive Change in environment/people—he was used to being the only cat in a relatively small house with very little noise/stimuli and now he’s suddenly in a completely different space with loud noises and small children that don’t know that pulling a cat’s tail is not a sign of affection. He’s got the patience of a saint, but all of that at once puts a real toll on a guy). He misses his old twoleg a lot, but is glad he met the rest of the gang at least.

Rebecha may have been a kittypet at one point too (at least judging by her name) but I don’t think that will be super explored. Again though, rule of funny is #1 here, so she may very well have been a show cat at one point who just Got Sick Of It and Left. But seeing how in real life if a show cat got lost their owner would probably freak the fuck out and Beca doesn’t actively have a twoleg looking to bring her back home... I’ll leave it open to interpretation.

The Hex Cats are a whole other can of worms, and describing their role requires me to go a little more in-depth about the universe of the AU itself. Don’t know how long this will end up being, but I’ll put it under the cut regardless:

Cw implied/referenced animal death (in a warrior cats context)/maybe unreality below the cut

As mentioned in the previous post, in parallel to the OLD_DATA in canon, the clans are basically living right on top of hell, or, as they call it, “What Lies Beneath” (or just the Beneath for anyone who isn’t extremely pretentious). Most cats aren’t aware of its existence, but they are aware of its effects, though they assume it’s normal because... well... they don’t know differently. It starts off small: just a nagging persistence that they have to get back to the territories if they leave, followed by physical sickness if they don’t return, that eventually leads to death (unless they get really far really fast/find some way to effectively “lock it out”, which no one has managed as they are a bunch of feral cats with few resources at their disposal). This is part of the reason why Sparkstar is so desperate to get back to the territories the fact that it just had a major operation. Not only would it make Rustclan look incompetent without their proper leader, he’s so tied to the Beneath due to making tangible efforts to give to it, he experiences these effects tenfold. ...You know how in Omen of the Stars how cats that trained in the Dark Forest would wake up with battle scars and shit? It’s that but Worse (and also less cut-and-dry). Best non-WACA comparison I can give are the TMA entities.

So where do the Hex Cats come in with this? Not all of them are clan cats, after all, and they tended to stick to the outskirts of the territories, so wouldn’t they be able to just kind of... break away?

Short answer: no. That would be too easy.

Years prior to the beginning of the story, they try to leave the clans together as a group under Stormblaze’s suggestion. She doesn’t give a ton of details: just that life will be better for them without having to deal with a bunch of fuzzy megalomaniacs gallivanting around the woods playing god and they agree. It goes well for a surprisingly long time. Stormblaze pointedly ignores the fact that she feels compelled to return “home” and Weaselkit dismisses the feelings for nostalgia. That quickly changes when the others start to feel the overwhelming desire to return too. Stormblaze insists they push onwards, that the feeling will fade when they’re far enough away from its influence. They aren’t fast enough and (being not nearly as emotionally constipated and cagey/generally better at hiding symptoms as Stormblaze) Weaselkit falls very visibly ill.

Obviously Stormblaze’s plan isn’t working, and--consequences be damned--they have to return to the territories. Their symptoms all mysteriously alleviate, of course: they’re back, after all. But... seeing as Stormblaze is Chandrelle’s equivalent, they have a very similar temperament: that is to say, she didn’t explain jack shit about “the curse” tying them to the territories, even those that have only interacted with it accidentally. And boy. She did not anticipate how easy it would be to interact with accidentally.

A little bit of exposition later and... admittedly, the Hex crew is a little bit on shaky terms with each other due to lack of communication. But they’re determined, if nothing else. Their own symptoms are getting worse as well, even when they stick to the outskirts, and damn it, as rash as she is, they know on some level that the sentiment of “we need to get the fuck out of here” is right.

Their solution: go down and confront the thing itself. The clan territories are littered with places where the ground slopes sharply down and cats can find themselves not in sprawling caves but in something below reality. They can’t kill or subdue something that’s hardly tangible, they know that. The Thing tethering them is a force, not a creature. They just have to show that they aren’t worth it. Throw salt in its eyes for long enough to let it find a target more willing to give.

So they devise a plan. On the night of the meeting, Rebecha will stand guard on the central island and give a signal when everyone is there and the talking has begun for the gang to sneak onto the territories proper. The easiest “entrance” is technically the Bone Lord’s den, but as none of them are able to pay the fee, they settle for the closest one instead: the sinkhole on Sageclan territory known as the Mire’s Maw

...To their merit, for a bunch of cats rearing up to fight a borderline eldritch entity to save their hides, they get pretty damn close. They make a lot of correct assumptions: it is mostly oblivious to its effects, and is uncaring who or what carries out its goals so long as they get completed. Hypothetically, so long as they don’t do what the leaders did and basically tether their lifelines to it, there should be a way out.

They miss the part that, by willingly going onto clan territory and climbing down into the very thing they sought to avoid without any real tether to the surface... they basically just gave themselves to it directly.

They do not return after moonhigh. Not after the moonhighs after that, and Rebecha is left to tend to the Talkingstones alone.

#Re: Inbox #Re: Anon #Battle Cats AU

[blackbat05]

Barely a month into work:

You don’t have to read it if you want but I do welcome opinions. Beware. It is a long post.

So as some of my mutuals may know, I recently just started out as a social worker in the disability sector. To be more specific, I’m working at a 24/7 Residential Home. This means that even after my working hours the night shift nurses still take care of the residents staying there long term.

I was already aware of all this during the interview where the Head of Services - a very nice lady actually, was very forthcoming that disability services is very different from my experience that I gave in my resume (I’ve worked with youths and families previously).

Now that I think about it, I don’t think I particularly did well in the interview (the Head called it a “casual chat”) and at certain points in the conversation I found myself making things up on the spot based on common sense.

So it came as a surprise when barely less than a day later, as I’m lying on my bed, the call comes in to say they want to offer me the job.

Being the fresh graduate that I am and having applied for almost 15 different jobs (I know people have applied for way more) in different sectors (e.g. education, research, social services), I was eager to grab that chance before someone else took it and I have to go through the cycle of finding a suitable job.

For context, this is only one of the two jobs that offered me an interview and the only job to offer me work. The other job was not technically a full time job but it was an opportunity to do a stint as a teacher and study a postgraduate diploma in education.

But by the time the interview for the so called teacher job came back to me, I already accepted the offer as a social worker.

Now some people might say, “hey if you knew this social work job wasn’t cut out for you, you could just simply told them you found something better.”

That’s true. But take note that the teacher job requires me to go through an interview and actual test before they offer me a stint in a school. Plus I forgot to mention how back in March 2023 when I was trying to apply for jobs and didn’t get any responses back I felt absolutely miserable and was in an identity crisis regarding what I studied (for 7 years). So when one job offering me to become a social worker came along I felt that I finally succeeded.

Anyways.

To sum it up. 2.5 weeks in and I’m seeing a serious misalignment in my expectations and reality. Maybe that’s on me.

But what’s not on me is the lack of guidance that I’ve been receiving (or not). For instance-

I get that learning on the job is an actual thing. People can’t spoon feed me all the way. I’ve got to learn it as fast as I can and then execute it.

But how can I when I don’t even know the basics such as financial aids that caregivers applied for or what is the standard protocol in doing certain tasks?

And if I tell them that or I did ask the other social worker to teach me. I get the answer - “oh you will learn it organically.”

Sure I accepted that answer like for the first week but as the weeks went by, I feel like a fraud where I have to keep checking with people constantly. Isn’t it better if you teach me properly once and I don’t have to approach you continuously? Best part is that not that I’m trying to be sensitive but when I approach the social worker I feel like he’s hoping I just magically learn things on my own and his patience is running thin.

Ok so I told my mom this and she did have a point where like some people may not want to help you as much because they were also in this position where they were forced to learn. I get it. But don’t you think it’s basic decency to at least give me the basics before I go and find out other things myself? Right now like I’m hit with something that I don’t even have the answer too because like I said, I don’t know the standard protocol.

Don’t even get me started on other things because from being stressed out and thinking that it’s my fault, I’m starting to be angry with the way I’m treated. Like feel free to ask me why I think this way, but basically I felt that the organization was rushing to find a social worker to fill in the empty gaps.

And now I’m completely alone and I’m raging. I’m half a foot out of the door. I’m disappointed at my rashness but at the same time I know I can’t go back in time. What I do know is that I can take action and figure out what I actually want to do.

Really want to get past at least one month to get that pay I rightfully deserve despite being thrown into the deep sea without a fucking flotation device.

#blackbat rambles #oh my god #really fucking disillusioned right now #trust me when I say I’m looking for an action plan I can work with

[thewriting-corner]

Book Tropes I Want To Experience IRL

So I was talking to @/kimberlysquill about fake dating and it hit me that there are so many book tropes I want to be able to experience in real life. This is so random, I’m sorry, but I had to. Also, I’m joking about the power hungry thing. I think.

I hope.

I’m honestly not sure lol ANYWAY enjoy

FAKE DATING

I mean, this needs no explanation. I just think it would be so fun to do. The lies, excitement and just simply getting to have the idea of a relationship without the “strings” that get you hurt would be really fun to experience.

FRIENDS-TO-LOVERS

I am an adult, okay, and as an adult I have tried dating apps. So far my conclusion is they don’t work for me. Not only am I too much of a romantic, but when I think back to the guys I’ve truly liked they have one thing in common: we were good friends before I developed feelings. Physical attraction is great, but I need that extra spark and safety that comes with being friends first.

THE CHOSEN ONE

Need I say more? I’m an academic validation girlie, and if there is one thing that motivates me in uni is to be better than everybody else. I want to be so good, that all my professors have me as the designated “chosen” for extracurriculars and opportunities.

Obviously if I could, I’d much rather be the Chosen One in the context of fighting dragons, but that is unfortunately not always possible😔

FOUND FAMILY

I mean technically I consider my pets to all be my found family (yk, because we found them on the street lol badum tss) but having that group of friends you have adventures with and save the world and create core memories with sounds amazing. I have my friends that I love and definitely consider to be my family, but we’ve yet to fight crime together and that really seems to me like one of the requirements of a true found family.

RAIN KISS OR DANCE

Like, I know realistically this would be super icky, and as someone from a very humid country, I’m used to rain being way too warm to be comfortable, but we have to romanticize life somehow. The slow dancing at least would not be disgusting lol

SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE

bye

GRUMPY X SUNSHINE

Except, plot twist, I’m both HAHAHA

no but fr, I want someone to be the golden retriever energy to my “life sucks, I will amount to anything and will die alone surrounded by my insane amount of pets” moods

SECRET/LOST HEIR

Just imagine after obsessively saving money for years it turns out you have an entire royal wherever-riches-are-stored thing at your disposal. Iconic. Not to mention - POWER. Let me lose in a fantasy novel and I’d become the villain. I have 0 self control and I want to be a secret heir. Honestly, there are no bad sides to this (other than the lying, gaslighting and likely manipulation it took to keep that secret for so many years lol but who cares if you’re Queen).

[maxverstepponme]

It was Seb but he zayned, as well as Daniel 😭 //

Steppy I can't believe you. How DARE you forget our baby boy Mick here 😭 😉 It still bothers me very much that he is not racing anymore 😑 I hope Toto will find him a seat for next year like he did with Esteban 🥲

I have not been reading the blog for few days and BOY I HAVE MISSED A LOT OF BS. Like why are the KP army is so freaking triggered? All that shit talking that went down is only further proof of my theory that the end is near for Special K and she knows it so she is doing everything in her power to shit-talk as much as she can to make sure to look like she is the innocent one in all of this.

As another dear nonnie have mentioned, I can't believe too that Redbull PR or Marketing teams are not doing anything. As a grad student that is specializing in marketing, I can tell you that they are not doing a good job. As we all know Redbull is very dominant in the sports field and right now our dear Maxy is their golden boy. They should be doing everything in their power to protect Max's image. He is very racing oriented person and it is basically perfect theme to work around for any PR team and yet there is all this distraction caused by his girlfriend and her family😒 Any sensible, efficient and smart team would have solved this situation by now. Of course there are things that aren't important or significant enough to require a response but when an close-circle person causes this much controversy online and sadly in real life, this has to be stopped. At least Redbull itself should refuse to provide paddock passes to her and her family members at this point. But then again Redbull still sells their products to Russia so maybe we should lower our expectations 🤷🏻‍♀️

And I noticed that everytime I send an ask to you Steppy it turns to a rant session. By the way, I am the same anon that send that long ass rant about Carmen being sick -that I have experience with epilepsy-, being sad for Special K having not so caring boyfriend (Do not come for me nonnies okay I tried to look from an unbiased point of view in the context her not creating any drama😂), the one that pointed out the whole Special K going for Daniel and sleeping with Carlos and Special K always in some weird cheating scandal, Helly a.k.a Helmut Marko not having a good reationship with the higher management of Redbull and the one that enjoys Mclaren's current misery 😎 (and this is the part that everyone understands that I am a DR3 fan) Maybe I should have my own emoji to let people that it is the same person 😄

-👩🏻‍💻 ( I have chosen this weird emoji Steppy because this is me in real life always writing something in my computer raging from an essay to article to my thesis 😅 And when I am not doing them I like to come here and bore strangers on tumblr with my long rants 🙃)

Nonnie we love rants so don’t apologize 😭 I think the reason why RB isn’t doing anything yet -besides the fact she’s Max’s girlfriend ofc- is because they’re waiting for it to actually blow up and if it does, she has no chance to say the team didn’t help her or whatever her psycho mind comes up with. I mean, she’s already going for the Verstappens 💀

[tokiro07]

Cipher Academy ch. 8 thoughts

[Just Dance, It’ll be Okay]

So somehow I missed the last page during last week’s review. It’s not a big deal, all I really missed out on was that, beyond just standing out for being a weirdo, Iroha is now in the sights of the entire class because he’s proven that he’s capable and a viable threat, and that Kogoe has issued a summons to Iroha

I’ve also realized that I’ve been getting really bogged down in the details of the puzzles, so going forward, I’m going to make an active effort to not dwell too much on them unless there’s something I think is really fun and clever I want to discuss or if it’s directly relevant to the story

So Iroha solves Q.10, another puzzle meant to convey a class number, and finds Kogoe in class 3-D, another uninhabited class. There, Kogoe is once again chowing down on corndogs, which are clearly her favorite food, or at least I hope so considering that she’s literally got four of them in her hands. I think I’d be sick halfway down the second one, especially with how much mayo she’s putting on them

Kogoe points out that Iroha figured this one out a lot quicker than before, and Iroha notes that he was inspired by “those two speed queens,” referring to Toshusai and Kasuri’s quick thinking and movement. He says it as if Kogoe would know what he’s talking about, but context clues suggest that he shouldn’t know that Kogoe is watching him through his glasses, so maybe he was just saying it offhand or figures that Kogoe is already familiar with the other members of his class?

Kogoe points out in a One-Point Lesson that despite being a 2-star question, Umitsubame probably would have a harder time figuring out the answer to Q.10 because she wouldn’t have the background information that she’d be looking for a specific classroom like Iroha had done previously. Because Iroha already knew the gist of the solution, Iroha only had to look for the logic that would be needed to draw that conclusion rather than needing to look for the answer wholesale. Not to say Umitsubame couldn’t have done it, just that Iroha was predisposed to do so. I wonder if that would have made this a 3-star question then?

To prove a point about Iroha’s growing skill, Kogoe gives the sticks from her corn dogs to Iroha with Q.11, prompting him to create five squares with four sticks. This is a take on a classic puzzle where one would take a set of squares made up of matchsticks and change the number of squares only by rearranging, not removing any of the sticks. As pointed out in the One-Point Lesson, the solution that Iroha presents isn’t the only solution, but rather one that points out Iroha’s sensibilities. That said, I don’t personally like the logic of this puzzle because it requires that one mentally fill in the blanks for the squares rather than literally making them. I’m not saying it’s wrong, but someone pedantic enough could definitely make the argument that it doesn’t work with the materials present

Now that 2-stars are so simple for Iroha, Kogoe decides that Iroha is ready for “actual combat,” which is to say solving real-world ciphers rather than simulated ones, not that Iroha is going to fight anyone. Iroha is grateful that Kogoe hasn’t given up on him, despite the fact that she had moved on to Oboro. This is actually a misunderstanding on Iroha’s part, though, as Kogoe didn’t jump to Oboro after being rejected by Iroha, but rather went to Iroha after Oboro and all of the other girls because she’s spreading her tech to as many students as possible to presumably hedge her bets. No wonder Toshusai called her a flirt. Iroha does realize he wasn’t the first, at least, but I wonder how he’ll respond when he learns Kogoe’s motivations. I doubt he’ll be as hurt as Toshusai, but I can definitely see a rift forming between them

Kogoe pulls out her handmade smartphone, revealing to us that the students of Cipher Academy aren’t allowed to have electronics. Ostensibly Kogoe is allowed to as long as she makes them herself as a stipulation of Class M, but they’re staying pretty vague. Nisio Isin is keeping a tight lid on Class M so far, just like he did with Class 13 in Medaka Box, so I’m waiting for the drop. For now I’m expecting it around chapter 20 like last time, but I also won’t claim to be able to predict Nisio’s mind. If I’m right though, you heard it here first

Kogoe shows Iroha what is clearly a tiktok of a soldier dancing, which she explains is a perfectly harmless video in and of itself save for the fact that the video itself is very heavily protected, implying that it carries information that would be dangerous to whatever nation it pertains to

To illustrate that the dance itself is the cipher, Kogoe compares it to the Sherlock Holmes story, The Dancing Men, to which Iroha replies the only work of Doyle’s he’s read is The Lost World, a non-Sherlock story. Kogoe notes that Doyle would be happy to hear that, which I immediately clocked as a clever nod to Doyle’s disdain for Sherlock Holmes. I was honestly disappointed to find that the One-Point Lesson explains that joke, as it meant it was less impressive for me to have known it on my own. Harumph. Funny that Kogoe calls Doyle a tsundere for Sherlock, though

Iroha decides that the best way to understand the code in the dance is to do the dance himself, comparing it to the methods of Kathryn Dance (not a dancer, but I’m willing to bet Nisio referenced her on purpose), which surprises Kogoe because it means that Iroha does in fact read mystery novels, just for some reason going with the much more obscure Jeffrey Deaver than the quintessential Arthur Conan Doyle. I am absolutely sure that Nisio Isin has read both and this whole thing is just a flex, but I love that he’s teasing his own characters for his tastes

We cut to Toshusai and her girls, and Toshusai has deduced that Kogoe is introducing Iroha to actual combat, a curriculum reserved for third-years. Interesting that she’d say that, considering that Kogoe brought Iroha to a third-year class, which implies that this is a deliberate choice on Kogoe’s part. I wonder if that was meant to be a hint in and of itself? It certainly would have made solving the puzzle easier for someone who didn’t have experience from a previous puzzle

Toshusai respects Iroha’s decision on the basis that she lost her code battle with Iroha and Omomuro only managed to tie against him. Omomuro objects, claiming that Iroha had cheated in their encounters, to which Toshusai replies “it would be nice if disqualification happened in real wars.” This is...a surprisingly chilling take. We have the concept of war crimes for a reason, to help limit the effects of war on civilians, but one country’s soldiers committing war crimes doesn’t make them “lose the war.” The ability to hold a country accountable for war crimes can only really be achieved once that country has lost a war and their ability to resist depleted. It’s a cruel and uncomfortable truth, and complaining that one side cheated won’t change the outcome of a real war, so Toshusai won’t waste time doing so here. Instead, she decides to sit back and see how it helps Iroha develop, confident that if things go poorly, she’ll be able to employ Yugata, who has thus far been built up as something of a secret weapon

Like I said before, the drop is coming, and I’m absolutely certain that Yugata is going to be involved. Whether she’ll be an inciting incident like Unzen, a major enemy like Kumagawa or something else entirely, I have no idea, but I’m staying wary of her

Also very cute that Toshusai calls her Tayu-tan. That’s gap moe, kind of like her saying butt instead of ass when referring to Iroha

We cut back to Iroha doing the various dances, dressing himself up for the appropriate sections, one of the moves apparently being a reference to the Indian film RRR, which is apparently about a revolution, so I’m willing to bet that’s going to be a relevant detail. Maybe I should try to watch it sometime...I think it’s on Netflix?

Apparently it’s surprising that Iroha saw it since, as a boarding school, students aren’t able to leave Cipher Academy without permission. Kogoe points out that this sort of thing, limitations on entertainment, is a strong reason to want to stop wars. It may seem childish, but honestly in terms of symbolism it makes sense: war robs people of their humanity, and what’s more human than being able to enjoy the arts? Removing one’s ability to have fun is a way to dehumanize them, so embracing and regaining that ability is the true mark that a war is over, or at least will likely be used as such in this story

Iroha asks Kogoe why she specifically says “stop” instead of “end” when referring to war, to which Kogoe responds that “ending” a war means causing someone to lose the war, resulting in countless deaths. Stopping a war, meanwhile, means bringing the combat to a halt where it stands, preventing further deaths. This distinction sounds very noble, but the exact wording is suspicious; if a war has been stopped and the soldiers are halted, then that means the war can be resumed as well and pick up right where it left off. This is almost definitely what Kogoe would want as a warmonger, since it would be more profitable to resume a stopped war than to end one war and start another one later

That said, Kogoe’s goal is ostensibly to be able to stop wars without fighting at all, having everything resolved through codes, so I wonder, is Kogoe’s methodology really that bad? If all wars are reduced to being fought with pen and paper rather than guns and bombs, won’t that mean that all war is inherently bloodless? Sure, the idea of one country losing and being subdued by another is just as tragic as it ever is, but it would definitely be preferable for a loss to be purely political rather than in terms of casualties. At the same time, though, that thinking of “less bad wars” is probably faulty, and likely an issue that will be presented later on

Kogoe suggests that Iroha use the glasses to solve the cipher, as while Iroha’s morality is an endearing trait, this is a real combat situation and people could die, so there’s no sense in worrying about winning shamefully. This surprisingly ties back to Toshusai’s statement about disqualification; if there’s nothing that can disqualify someone from a war, then in a literal sense there’s no such thing as cheating, but if there’s no such thing as cheating, then what’s stopping someone from justifying any underhanded method in battle? In this scenario, is the use of the glasses tantamount to a war crime, at least metaphorically speaking? While we the reader may be meant to think that Iroha is being silly not using his advantages, it’s entirely possible that this is a subtle hint that certain things shouldn’t be acceptable just because they’ll make things quicker or easier

Fortunately, Iroha realizes what he’s looking at quite quickly; the dance moves represent the subsections of the Japanese syllabary based on their Roman alphabet equivalents, as hinted by the international dance moves including two Japanese dances (being Para Para and Noh). Iroha realizes that, much like in previous puzzles, there is a connection between this and the one immediately preceding it, leading him to think that Kogoe already knows the answer. He looks pretty miffed about it, but Kogoe insists it was just a coincidence

While Kogoe had already noted earlier that Iroha had grown a lot so quickly, she’s actually taken aback by how much more he’s grown than she had initially realized. Still, she would like him to use her glasses, I imagine because there will be certain puzzles that just won’t be able to be solved without them, but also possibly because the glasses need to be used to improve as well, though that’s just a guess for now

Iroha says he’ll be happy to be able to stop a violent conflict, even if he can’t stop an entire war, and flashes just the cutest little smile, clearly charming Kogoe. I still haven’t decided whether I think they’d be a cute ship or anything, but I always enjoy watching someone pine, so I’m all in for Kogoe falling head over heels for Iroha

Iroha then reveals that the reason why he was able to recreate the dance moves is because he was a cheerleader in middle school with a knack for copying movements, which oddly reminds me of Akune from Medaka Box who could also copy techniques he witnessed. It seems like an odd detail to drop, I’m going to keep an eye out for how this kind of ability will aid him in the future

My favorite detail here, though, is that Kogoe notes that she picked this puzzle specifically for the fact that it might prompt Iroha to dance, in reference to the fact that she missed him dancing during the code battle with Omomuro because she could only see from his perspective

Finally, the chapter ends with the revelation that the dancer isn’t communicating some kind of military strategy, but instead is sending out an SOS. How Iroha came to that conclusion we won’t know until next chapter (tomorrow...sorry I took so long to do this one...), but man, what a cliffhanger! Who is this person? What country are they in? What do they need saving from? Undoubtedly this will prompt Iroha to stop another conflict, but how will Iroha be able to help?

More importantly, whatever this conflict is, could it perhaps introduce a major recurring faction who will be a key player going forward? Considering what we know so far, I’m willing to predict that Kick Attack Planning is heavily involved, whether they’re going to be overarching villains or a one-time obstacle

I recently stated in one of my Undead Unluck posts that Cipher Academy isn’t grabbing me in the same way as other series that I love, but honestly that’s why I’m doing these reviews: they’re giving me the opportunity to really dig deep into this series on the ground floor so that when things do develop further, I’ll be able to appreciate it that much better than I would if I was just passively absorbing it week to week, and it’s ideas like this that really get me excited between chapters

I guess that’s the advantage to not having time to do the review until the last minute: not only is there more space between me reading and rereading, now I don’t have to wait as long for the resolution! See y’all tomorrow (hopefully)!!!

#cipher academy #fouryearsandananime #4y1a reviews