#embezzlement or something similar | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

recurring-polynya · 8 months

Note

I like how your lieutenants math headcanons post implies Yumichika does tax evasion. How else does squad 11 afford repairs for all the times it has presumably been trashed by enthusiastic brawling.

This is not the first time I have accused Yumichika of doing a little light embezzling, you know, as a hobby.

One of my favorite ironies of the Gotei-13 setup is that you become captain by merit of being good at beating people up, but then the job itself is like 49% paperwork and 49% management, with ass-kicking taking up the other 2%, if you're lucky. I think the actual most important function of a captain, and the one thing that cannot really be delegated to a lieutenant, is asking for money.

It's always very vague what all of the non-specialist squads do with their time and resources. I imagine though, that in addition to whatever Bullshit-of-the-Day Yamamoto makes his captains do, they have general standing duties. I imagine there's something similar to a bid process that goes into this. When there is new work that needs to be done, any captain that's interested in taking it on would have to provide a proposal for why their squad is suited for that task and what resources they would require to get it done. (Or sometimes Yamamoto might make everyone submit a proposal, whether anyone wants that job or not). At the end of the year, they have to provide accounting of their costs and summaries of their accomplishments. A savvy captain is good at figuring out which tasks are going to bring in cash and acclaim to their squad, which, in turn, is going to allow them to recruit better people, reward their high performers, and provide their officers with interesting and rewarding work. A proven track record is going to go a long way in winning future work, but so is knowing how to work the system. Here's where the system is pretty broken (I say, with utmost affection), because if you look at say, Squad 6, Byakuya a) knows all of the secrets of writing Proposals Central 46 Loves to Get because his grandfather was making him write these things for his allowance when he was 10 years old, b) people love to do favors for him because he's rich, and c) he can use his own money/money the clan approves as a discretionary fund for planting cherry trees and buying everyone dress uniforms, so that stuff never has to show up as a line item so his expenses always look super-clean. Other captains have their own techniques for getting cashola--no one understands what Mayuri does, so when he asks for 12 million kan to develop illuminated shadow-defeating inflatable armor (with color-changing LEDs), they're like "sure, sounds legit." Unohana just asks very politely and drops some vague hints about her very precise knowledge of anatomy. This is also the reason that Squad 10 is constantly doing all of the worst jobs-- Hitsugaya bids on everything and is extremely honest and ethical. Even Ukitake plays the game better than he does.

But you know who does not? Zaraki. Zaraki could not give two shits about this. He does not want to read the monthly RFP roundup newsletter. He does not want to write memos. He just wants to fight things. Give him something to fight. I think Squad 11 officers already get paid below standard rates because most of them did not graduate Shin'ou, which bumps them way down on the Gotei-equivalent of the GS scale. As you say, they break their own shit, constantly. And on top of that, I think Zaraki also has almost no concept of what money is worth. He's a simple guy with pretty simple desires. He lives on base, has, like, three outfits, and goes drinking sometimes. You can't even buy a really sweet truck in Soul Society. He comes from the literal worst part of the Rukon, which probably didn't even use money-- everything is luxurious to him.

I think a lot of the Squad 11 guys buy into the Zaraki lifestyle. They're also from the Rukon, they're just happy to have a sword and their weekly booze. But on the other hand, they are vastly under-compensated relative to their work. I think everyone has a roommate, whereas most seated officers in other squads get personal quarters. There are strong fighters elsewhere in the Gotei, people with experience and fighting knowledge, that would consider joining Squad 11, but they're not taking the pay cut. They can't keep seated officers. Every so often, they get an insane person (Renji, Iba) who joins for some limited period of time. It ups their vibe enormously, and then that person leaves after they've worked through whatever personal shit that led them to join Squad 11 in the first place.

So, Yumichika does what he has to do. He reads the the monthly RFP roundup newsletter, and if anything sounds like it involves a lot of violence, he uses his graphic design skills and his rock-bottom budget to put together a nice little proposal, and sends it off with Yachiru to Squad 1. Zaraki is not even really cognizant of this process, he just knows that sometimes they get good jobs that he likes. For as low as his budgets are, Yumichika still knows how to pad them out extensively, and how to file for project year extensions.

He's also the one who controls intra-squad expenditures. Yes, we would all to spend our entire budget on "swords", but unfortunately, we have to pay for the mess hall you buffoons exploded last week if you ever want to eat again. Yumichika may give off the appearance of extravagance, but he is very much the "pulls into the drivethru and orders (1) small black coffee" to the rest of Squad 11's "McDonalds! McDonalds! McDonalds!"

Also, for the record, he very much does do some straight-up embezzling. Eye feathers don't pay for themselves, you know.

#bleach headcanons #squad 11 #yumichika ayasegawa

63 notes · View notes

kurimiaki · 2 years

Note

could you write something about lilia and a reincarnated darling? <3

tw: yandere, female reader, implied bodily torture and mutilation (not of you)

World histories hasn’t been an enjoyable class for you. Mozus Trein is a very particular professor, critical of even your best responses, vivisecting you in front of all your peers at the slightest discrepancy or marginal error. Your professor is well-trained in the art of intimidation and the persecution of all slackers that may lurk in his room. Class time drones on, endlessly, and you’ve scarcely even a single acquaintance to help bide the time.

This topic is interesting, though. The collapse of a small, insignificant kingdom, the battle of Briar Valley and a king and queen of old, a cyclically one-sided event that rather plays out as fiction. A lost princess, accusations and long-winded court trials, diplomatic ruin, the embers of war quickly snuffed out by the larger nation. The textbook reads like a novel. You turn ahead, forward a page or two, because really, it wasn’t a long section to begin with. Trein was going to omit it from the test entirely, finding it unnecessary material, but something somehow crucial to learn all the same.

You come across a copy of a letter, dated back a century or two; the paper itself seems singed and wrinkled in the photo, ink smudged and writing scrawled messily about the page. It speaks of an individual’s captivity, of months spent secured in a dungeon cell, of the creature that endlessly tormented them, claimed to love them, who they feared would strip them of their life.

A small clarification is printed on the margin, a historian’s assumption that the letter was written by the princess herself. A final goodbye. Her corpse, singed and decomposing, fetid and nearly unidentifiable, was found within her castle’s dungeon not months after that insignificant royal family fell to ruin.

They were decapitated, in the end, the king having been charged with the murder of his own child. Embezzlement and countless other crimes were identified, as well, but it was the princesses death that shook the nation. He was presumed to have obsessed over the girl to a point of no return, placing the blame of her “kidnapping” on an allied kingdom instead, acting as a distraught father to obtain plausible deniability.

Mangled, tainted, scorched, and disembodied, she lived her last months in misery and torment, enduring and just taking the brunt of her father’s sickening obsession. The text describes it, too, vividly and without filter. It makes you nauseous.

Too insane to be fit to rule, it was an act of heroism from Briar Valley that ended his reign. A portrait illustrates the very hero who found the princess’ corpse, who caught the king in an act of human atrocity, who exposed his every repugnant scheme. He rather looks like Lilia Vanrouge.

Bewildered by the staggering similarity, you turn around to peak at Diasomnia’s vice house warden, who lazily doodles on scrap paper, casual and reclined. This hero’s hair is much longer, sure, his bangs without Lilia’s messily chopped style— you look from the print and back to him, and wonder if you’ve lost your head. Slitted dark eyes snap up to meet your own, startling you in your seat, bordering on a small yelp. But Vanrouge only beams at you benevolently, sending off a little wave with a nod of his head.

Yours is a little more uneasy, a wary little grin, and you’re eager to return to your studies with a quick turn of the head.

Little else is written of this hero, much less a name, and you frown in irritation at the lack of explanation the text provides. What happens next, what of the kingdom’s people, what of the hero and how he lived and died, if he bore such significance to the past. By time the bell tolls and your peers become jittery for lunch hour, you’ve reread this section at least three times, scouring paragraph after paragraph for an inkling of a name or information, dissecting and staring at this hero’s portrait in avid curiosity.

Sat in the library without even a snack to tide you over, you absorb yourself in the textbook once more, now crazed by confusion and a lust for discovery. Professor Trein hadn’t any more information on the matter, merely recommending the obvious, to search Night Raven’s vast archives. You hardly took time to watch where you stepped as you rushed out of the classroom, not noticing a faint call of your name.

It would be smart to just comment on his resemblance, and perhaps you’d hear that Lilia gets it all the time, that it’s a bizarre doppelgänger, or perhaps a great-great-great-grandpa who’s stories he’s inherited and treasured. You consider every outcome and interaction, as you trace your fingertips along book-spines in search of a clue, flipping through old tombs and random novellas dated centuries ago. Nothing crops up, but you’re so oddly determined…

Lilia Vanrouge wasn’t a boy you had ever thought to interact with. He’s intimidating, with how he eerily sneaks up on others and seems so much more mature than any of his peers. Perhaps you’re just overthinking, but nonetheless, he scares you. It feels as if he’s always watching. You’ve never taken the chance to greet Lilia, and don’t plan to, but you turn your heel to march back to your table and come face to face with him.

You gape for a moment, but snap your mouth shut and lean back. He laughs. “You’re jumpy, aren’t you? I can’t remember the last time someone leapt so high at the sight of me.” Nearing a chortling now, Lilia’s jeers prompt you to frown in deep embarrassment, still in shock at his presence.

“I yelled after you, you know. You’re quite fast, like a little rabid rabbit.” Stomaching the derogatory insinuation that you were a viciously contagious animal, you ask him what do you want, snippy and short, and Vanrouge grins. All teeth and malice.

He takes a pen from his pocket, your favorite, the one with bunny ears for a thrust device, with carrot printed on its barrel. At your blatant staring, the way your whole body goes rigid, Lilia barks an impossibly harsher laugh. “I found it a few weeks ago— matches perfectly with that darling carrot folder you use in class. It’s yours, is it not?”

“Yes,” You grit, moving to snatch it back, but Lilia edges away, tutting condescendingly. Tantalizingly waving it before you, the vice house warden chides, “Yes….?”, and lord, are you grateful to have never pursued his friendship. You relent, muttering please without meeting his eye, and soon the pen is back in your waiting hands.

“Well, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Lilia beams, crossing his arms behind his back and squinting his red, slitted eyes giddily, as if you were some toy to poke and prod. Huffing in annoyance, you turn away, then swell in relief to hear him saunter away. You’re relieved, sure, but without an answer. Left with your textbook and the endlessly looming bookshelves chock full of information, but nothing that you’re looking for. He’s the only means you have at stomping out this curiosity that gnaws at you. He’s still here, distantly lurking in your peripheral, but not for long.

You swallow, hesitating to speak, but muster the gumption to call after him.

It’s odd just how quickly he appears again, situating himself right before you in some chair that wasn’t there before. Through thick lashes he gazes up at you, expectant and silent, and you stamp out the urge to fidget before him.

“You… You look like the man from our textbook,” You fire away, surprised at your own bluntness. So eager. He smiles, quirks his brow, and leans back in amusement. “What man?” Lilia locks onto your every movement, inspecting and what feels like dissecting as you flutter about your work station, flipping to the familiar page. You point, and he leans in, inching closely to your side, much more than what is necessary to see. But you allow it, curiosity be damned.

He’s silent, and you’re sweating, hoping not to have offended him. “I’m not trying to be rude,” You can hardly withstand his ‘mildly’ teasing asides as is, “but there is a resemblance, isn’t there…? Are you… related or something?” He laughs again, of course he does, but this time Lilia shakes with it, enduring the tremors of his glee while nearly buckling over in his seat. It goes on, and you’re forced to apologize to surrounding students in his stead.

Hushing him, bending down to lay a weary hand upon his quaking shoulder, you whisper, “I’m really not trying to make jokes, vice-housewarden.” So formal.

At your words (or touch, from how quickly he stills at the sensation of your hand— you remove it immediately), Vanrouge sobers, though still giggling to himself quietly. “Lilia will do just fine. And no, this man is not my relative,” he breathes a small, incredulous huff at that, “though I’ve been reminded of our uncanny resemblance more than once.”

A disappointing answer, really, but he continues. “But that isn’t the only thing you’re eager to know, is it?” he inquires, prompting you to frown at his sly tone, the near perverse way in which he looks at you. You shake your head, still hesitant and cautious, but marveled at his I-know-more-than-I’m-letting-on attitude all the same. He rises, winks, takes your hand and ventures deeper into the library’s labyrinth of shelves. Too nervous to pull away, you allow yourself to be handled and dragged along, and you try not to speak to how faintly his thumb rubs over your pulse.

Before you is the restricted section. Thick chains bar off a small row of bookshelves, and you question why the staff would place such a tantalizing venture in public eye, amongst these unsavory students, but Lilia bypasses their meager warnings with a flick of a wrist. The chain unravels, powdery dust flies from it, and you don’t think you even saw Lilia use his wand.

He lets go of you. After a moment in festering silence, onlooking quietly as he deftly rakes his eyes over varying titles and genres, Lilia lets out an ‘aha’. He provides you with yet another grin before suddenly, a scroll is opened and placed in your hands.

“I’ve heard rumors as to the truth of that little story,” your eyes flicker to him and to the aged paper laid delicately in your palms, feeling quite burdened to hold an obvious artifact, “and I can tell it to you, if you can bear to listen.” Nodding, you don’t think for a moment as you touch the ancient article, untying silky ribbon and undoing a small seal with shaky precision. He joins you, looking on eagerly.

“She truly was taken, the girl, but that corpse they found was more likely a maid than any royal princess.” He speaks in confidence, spinning his words without an inkling of hesitation. “Briar Valley has quite a few towers, you see. Our palace is remarkably large, looming above it all, the Valley of Thorns and its people.” His finger taps the scroll, which you have yet to unfurl, and as you do, your stomach begins to curl. Your throat begins to close. “And within the tallest one, I found a lovely painting, a portrait, not dissimilar to the one you hold now.”

It’s you, sketched on this paper, your face captured so acutely and with such precision, facial structure and countenance vividly mirrored. Every freckle and groove and scar and unnoticeable little quirk. It’s you, adorned in jewels and an old gown, so aged and ancient and unlike anything you’ve ever worn before. Your knees buckle beneath you, for a moment, but you don’t fall. A cheek rests upon your shoulder, and Lilia’s pointed nail raises to trace your illustrated likeness.

“You don’t remember, I’m sure, but I can recall how positively petrified you were to hear of your father’s demise. It’s truly a shame that you don’t, but I suppose I should be grateful to have a fresh start.”

Beside you, drawn exactly as he appeared in that textbook-rendition, is Lilia, without an inkling of doubt— you feel your throat tighten more, suffocating you, your whole body taking pause before trembling. It’s a mix of shock and awe and long-suppressed trauma that prompts you to cry, weep, but on you, tears looks so pretty, and Lilia can not restrain himself from wrapping his arms around your quivering form.

#yandere tw #yandere #yandere x reader #x reader #yandere twisted wonderland #yandere twisted wonderland x reader #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #lilia vanrouge #lilia vanrouge x reader #yandere lilia vanrouge #yandere lilia vanrouge x reader #twst #yandere twst #my writing #requested

617 notes · View notes

inventors-fair · 25 days

Text

The Verdict is In: Crime Commentary

Tropes, tropes, tropes. I do love me a good trope except when I hate them. Is that helpful? Probably not, but there are some amusing parts to how everyone depicted their various crimes this week. Some of them were quite creative, and some of them had creative takes on commonly shared crimes that I found overall amusing.

Mechanically this week, there was a wide range of crimes that I found really streamlined, and that's pleasantly surprising! People took the bare bones of their depictions and made them quite easy to read and grok on the whole. Of course, some of the rules had their little twists, and there were a couple parts where I think folks were confused about interactions, but we all are sometimes, aren't we? It don't matter when we have the cool cards together. Look through these cards and look at the planes depicted, by the way, the worlds in which they purport to take place. Notice any similarities?

JUDGE PICKS have been selected for some specific aspects pointed out in the commentary, so take a look at them and see what's what. Read on!

@bergdg — Put Out a Hit

So, it's been mentioned, but "target creature loses hexproof" is something that, in retrospect, is one of those things that probably should've been caught earlier rather than later. That said, how would one word this properly? The problem is that you have to have the permanent in question lose hexproof before targets can be selected. Something like Soul Sear can get rid of indestructible, but targets are chosen as the spell is cast. Long story short, you have to have a way to get rid of the ability before you play the destruction—like via forecast or something like that.

The flavor concept is sound, if a little gruesome. I think the flavor text definitely leans into the more macabre aspects of this scene, and that's fine for the flavor in question. I'm going to put a Capenna spin on this card and imagine the guns as some other kind of weapon, if that's amenable, but whatever, that's one of those no-guns-allowed things that I'm going to arbitrarily enforce. The card itself is good and direct and I get where you're going with the direction. Getting the exact mechanical specs is important so we don't end up with non-functional sentences.

@dimestoretajic — Embezzlement

I'm wondering why this couldn't have been a Curse, honestly. While the notion of another player gaining control of this is fun, I think a Curse could've been just as well mechanically. Right? But I think I understand the general feeling—like the espionage aspect. There's one small issue where if you gain control of it back via Homeward Path effects, you get recursive triggers that put the game into an immediate draw. I suppose that there's something to be said for the card on its own merits, but I'll be honest, this doesn't scream embezzlement to me. Am I missing something specific about the definition here?

I really like the life-loss-to-Blood mechanic. It's clear and flavorful and I think that there's some part of me that wishes it was the main aspect of this card. Creating Treasures on top of that is also pretty cool; it's still a bit stymied by the questions of what this card's actually trying to portray. Now, this might be just me misunderstanding, but I just feel that it could've been clearer or just had less baggage.

@feyd-rautha-apologist — Foolhardy Graverobber

There are a couple small things that could make this card a little bit cleaner. Firstly, I'll assume this is a rare, so that's all fine. Secondly, I think that the Treasure creation (capital-T) could happen upon contact and then the exile could happen. I think? Or the Treasure can happen first, and the "Then, exile up to one target" could happen after without rules baggage. But I'm not positive on that. The wording of the second sentence should probably be "You may cast that card for as long as it remains exiled." With the second clause, "and/or" would probably read better, and it should end in "Foolhardy Graverobber can't be blocked."

So I suppose this card is exploring some pretty usual space, but I think that it world quite well for a limited tempo card, and I would personally love to play with it! Rogues need a lot more love. I'm not entirely sure what makes this card "Foolhardy" but maybe there would be some art direction that would help with that. All the same, with a little more polish we could have a neat card on our hands. It's doing everything that rogues are supposed to do.

@hanavesinauttija — Revenue Inspector

I get the angle. This isn't what the contest was looking for. Redefining what a crime is within the game is grokable to a degree, but we're looking for the in-game notions of crime as it stands. Beyond that, what crime is being depicted by the card's actions itself? The scenario (unless the IRS is itself a criminal organization) looks to be investigating the aftermath of a supposed crime. I'm not going to dismiss the creativity, but the subversion of the prompt's implications lead us to a place that feels burdened with intention and doesn't actually fit the contest needs.

I'm a huge fan of Innistrad's vibes. This feels like a parody to me. I'm trying not to be too harsh here, because I can imagine a world where, if things had gone differently, there could be a series of "gotcha"-style mechanics that care about crimes being committed by defining different types of crimes. That said, "gotcha" was a universally disliked mechanic, and this card could be implemented quite easily without an AU version of crime definition. Having taxing effects is totally fine from the other side, for another contest, when we're looking for parts of a world that are focused on order or what have you. This vampire just isn't what we needed.

@helloijustreadyourpost — Decision at Knifepoint (JUDGE PICK)

I think that this card might be really powerful—ooh, big shocker, a forced edict that also functions as a discard spell is powerful, who'da thunk. I mean that genuinely, though! I'm not sure how to fully judge this card on power level. As a sorcery, it's less powerful than something like a direct killspell, and if the opponent has cards to spare, then sure, it's fine, but it can also function as a sorcery-speed Murder for two mana. Hm. Maybe that's not so bad. Looking at comparable sorceries, they all have some kind of downside, and I guess the downside here is that if your opponent has cards that are worse than a creature, thppt, discard away.

I like that the more I think about it, actually. I suppose my one revision with the flavor text is that the second half of the sentence could be shorter? As in: "I'd prefer to take your money, but I'm open to other options." Either way: great implication, great focus with the art, and I like how the character with the knife isn't pictures. Kinda persona-y. I wonder if "Knifepoint Decision" is better than "Decision at Knifepoint" but I think it's fifty-fifty. I dunno, I'm warming up to this card a lot! I've chosen it as a judge pick because it's a card that really made me think, with a definitive focus that I found specific in the best way.

@iamthesassking — Three Casino Heist

Welcome to the wonderful world of sagas. There's a lot of thought that you put into this card with the references, and I do appreciate that, but I'm going to ask a rhetorical question: did you assume that chapter I would apply to the rest of the time you had the saga? Unfortunately, that's not the case. The ability resolves, and then that's that for the turn; it'd be like casting an Exhaustion. So then your opponents would get tapped Treasures, and they'd be able to use/sacrifice them because chapter I resolved a turn ago. You'd have to word that first ability like Urza's Saga.

And even then, what would be the point of waiting three turns to get this massive amount of mana on turn...nine? By that point in the game if you're not already on an amazing board state (in limited), then you're in a rough spot to say the least. What would you need it for? In short: what is the mechanical purpose of this card? Gaining control of artifacts and whatnot would've made for a cool design, and I know that you were going for something story-accurate to a heist movie, but the card feels like it's essentially doing nothing for a while and then giving you an advantage that doesn't necessarily progress the game state. Consider, not in a vacuum, but in the context of a difficult game state: what could this card do to be faithful to your vision while also being impactful in the wider battlefield of potential?

@nine-effing-hells — Drive-By Shooting (JUDGE PICK)

Yeah, this is definitely a limited build-around. Here's the thing: the name and flavor are decidedly gritty to the point of being... Well, I won't call them "derivative," but in terms of tropes, this is about as on-the-nose as you can possibly get. And yet, the part that you're going for works so good on the battlefield: you play the equipment, you play the vehicle, and you've got good stuff. If you're behind on board, chances are you'll still have the pieces laying around because equipment and vehicles are pretty hard to remove.

Hm. That power level is actually still pretty high if you have one of those pieces. But you'd still have to play them first, draw them, etc. Hm. Yet again, I'm thinking about this card as if I'm evaluating it for final touches and playtesting, and frankly that's already a good sign. I want to see more about the vehicle+equipment signpost combo that we have for this limited format. I'm imagining it kind of like the artifact+enchantment combo requirement from NEO's BW signpost, but it's a little more focused than that. I think. Man, this is a rough one. I think I chose this as a judge pick because no matter what, it makes me want to lean into its possibilities, and I believe in the archetype it's going for in a way that checks out even with a slightly higher power level.

@real-aspen-hours — Grave Trespass

The slight wording change I'd have is based on...what was it, Curse of Hospitality? I think. It's not so bad: "Exile target card from a graveyard. Until end of turn, you may play that card and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast that spell." It's weird but that's how the rules work in the end. I think. You know what, I'm honestly shocked that this isn't a specific kind of card already. Psychic Intrusion and the ilk do it from the hand, too, but just from the graveyard? I dunno, I'm honestly surprised. I think I want you to hold onto this one, and/or I might ask to steal it sometimes if I ever jump into custom cube nonsense.

That said: I'm not following the flavor text or art direction exactly. I get what you're going for in the general sense but the pronouns in the art direction are slightly confusing to me. Who's casting what? What are the robbers running from? What are the stakes? And what do the stakes have to do with the card? I think the name and the mechanical basis are excellent. I would've chosen perhaps a different plane or angle of storyline for this card. There's this sense of frenetic peril that I don't think I sense from the card as it stands. Maybe a little more of a criminal lean would do you good.

@reaperfromtheabyss — Bash and Dash

I believe you'd have to word this with a little parenthetical like Siegehorn Ceratops? Like, they fight, and have: "Then, if your creature survived the damage," etc. Maybe no parenthetical but it could use a note so that people wouldn't be confused by the potential for fighting and bouncing scot-free if both creatures would otherwise trade. I know that fighting is in-pie for red, but red and white? I dunno, it's reasonable in the right world. I think I would've liked a little more of that to solidify the action you're trying to depict.

Still, a hit-and-run is pretty funny with the fighting aspect, and I think this card could play quite well in a combat shell. Extra ETBs are always useful. The ability to save a creature during a boardwipe while also smashing something as insult to injury is pretty funny too. I think that this card's overall fine, if a little less toothsome with the flavor/world that I could ask for. You've got a good vibe going for you and I think this would be something I'd like to play in the limited shell.

@sparkyyoungupstart — Pirate Radio (JUDGE PICK)

I've chosen this card as a judge pick because you've tied the abilities together in such a way that the first is already excellent and the second one just helps you build around it. It's so frustrating to have cards where they're supposedly build-around but the things you have to have to build with them aren't related to the card itself. Pirate Radio solves all your problems. You can see Grave Trespass above for wording on the casting-and-mana problems, but regardless. What I also love about this card is that you can target yourself OR your opponents, but it rewards you more for targeting your opponents, and man, this card kicks ass.

I wish it was flavored basically any other way besides being radio-oriented. Am I old and out of touch? Yes, but that has nothing to do with this card. I think. ... No, let me be serious. Technologies like radio and DJing and what have you aren't exactly in the immersive side of MTG's worlds, and that's a personal opinion, and I had to look up what kind of technology Capenna had and I'm honestly still not sure. What's Wiretapping depicting? I don't really know. Personally, I would lean away from the radio aspect and go for a general communications theme, but that's also a taste thing. I like the punk angle, really. I just want it shifted a little less 21st-century-y, I guess?

@stupidstupidratcreatures — Dropped Piano

This is quite silly. It's also very funny. It's also dark. It also isn't quite gripping me as a card in itself. Why does a piano make mana, exactly? Where's the resource? Instruments are a little weird to depict in MTG, and you can't exactly have a piano as an equipment in the same way that you would a trumpet or what have you. Still, one dropped piano later, it's still a funny concept. I like the aspect of how it survived in the flavor text, too, regardless of the run-on sentence that's a little iffy.

The general thoughts are still on the on-the-fence side for me. Mana doesn't make sense, the world's still a little confusing, and in general, I'm left wondering whose piano this is and what's supposed to be shown, exactly. Is someone playing the piano in the picture, are we seeing it about to land on a body, is someone going to be splattered underneath? Can it even be played, honestly? What's the context of the card as a whole that's not being shown by its parts here? I'm having a hard time saying precisely what I mean but I hope it makes some sense.

@wildcardgamez — Faithless Robbery

I'm 80% sure that you need an "each" after "player," and that (if this wasn't a crime contest) it could play better to have each player discard a card, but I think I see what you were going for with the idea that you would have to target yourself if nobody else was available. With that, though, this is fairly derivative from Faithless Looting, and even riffs with the flavor text on the Commander Masters version without delving into the context.

I think this card could've been more centered for sure. Where is the robbery that you want to depict? What's exactly being robbed here? Who are "they?" Why repeat the "rob" in the name and twice in the flavor text? This card currently feels like a draft, and I would want a lot more polish for what's being shown. Without that, the card in a vacuum is pretty alright, but I want to look at the whole of it.

@yourrightfulking — Citation Needed (JUDGE PICK)

Sins of the Past, that's the card I was thinking of! But that one only does your graveyard, and the benefit is that you know what you're getting vs. this card which can be more sideboardable. I think the name is quite interesting and kinda memetic. Who am I kidding, this whole contest was somewhat memetic. I don't fault you for it and I think that there's some fun to be had there. The placement of this card on Strixhaven (in an allied discipline? For shame!) does what I think a lot of cards should do and centers its reference in a place where we understand it making sense.

And the want to steal something else is pretty funny too! I hope that it doesn't happen in limited, but if it did, there could probably be only two cards in the set that allowed for it, this one included, so as not to overpower the limited format with permanent-stealing. Act of Treason effects would be fine, though, and that would be super funny if you managed to pull that off. I picked this card as a judge pick because it's doing a known effect in a solid manner with a cheeky twist, and pulls it all off in a humorous and world-contained logic. Citation: I like it.

That's all! Tune in tomorrow and be safe this week during the crime of sun-stealing, by the notorious thief: the Man in the Moon.

@abelzumi

#mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #inventor's fair #commentary #entries #crime contest

10 notes · View notes

rayshippouuchiha · 1 year

Note

So, so, so, I stumbled upon the CREAM AU and I thought, you know what?

Can I apply something similar in a context to Bleach and Aizen?

And my brain went YES, YES IT CAN, DO IT YOU BITCH.

So now I'm neck deep in the potential AU that is Aizen getting fucked over because he pissed off a fifth division accountant, and Shinji, in the middle of the Vizored Fiasco, as his last act as acting Captain 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒓𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒚.

And then they get it, somehow, and yank up the ninth seat to Lieutenant so that they don't have to fuck with Aizen's... EVERYTHING.

[The argument is that Aizen hasn't achieved Bankai, and new captain Nakano wants to be assured in her lieutenants strength, and she worked directly under Aoyagi Ren, the ninth seat in question, for a good chunk of her time in the Fifth before this whole mess.]

And then they frame him for embezzlement once they stumble in on his conspiracy because it's the only surefire way to get him the fuck out before he can kill them and not tip him off that they're in the know.

That Thing with Aizen pissing off an accountant.

I should clarify.

Shinji definitely blackmailed two other people into giving the other recommendations.

~~~

I honestly love this

#RayRambles #Bleach

79 notes · View notes

invisibleraven · 6 months

Note

AU Prompt cults + willie/anyone because *frantic waving and pointing at whatever caleb has going on in canon*

Willie always knew he end up tangled up with the cops-he just figured he would be cuffed and in the back of their car, not working with them to bring his boss down.

But that's the end of the story.

In the beginning, Willie was a poor street kid who ran from his last foster home after they tried to take his board. He filled his backpack with food from their pantry and cash from their safe, and took off.

He did okay for a bit, but all his plunder ran out faster than not, and he wasn't great at panhandling. So he ended up finding shelters that didn't ask too many questions and lied about his age to get under the table jobs. He also got pretty good at picking pockets.

That's how Caleb found him-hand in proverbial cookie jar, but instead of calling the fuzz, Caleb just smirked at him. "Well well, that's quite the talent you have there," he said. "Maybe we can put it to better use?"

So Caleb brought Willie to the club-offered him free room and board, three square meals if Willie agreed to help wait tables and attend to the guests. It seemed like a good offer, and Willie figured if it turned out bad, he could just head out once more.

It turned out to be a pretty sweet gig, all told. Willie liked getting paid to dance and sing for this rich idiots, and Caleb looked the other way when their wallets or jewels might have gone missing. As long as Willie gave a cut to the club, and didn't steal from the VIPs.

Willie also got to be Caleb's eyes and ears; reporting back to him the vibes and chatter he heard while working the floor, recruiting other kids like himself to come work there, or telling Caleb about other clubs trying to move in on their turf.

"Good job William," Caleb would always say, giving him that shark like smile that kind of scared Willie until it softened into something genuine. It made him feel... special, cared for.

Of course, Willie knew he wasn't special, he was one of dozens working and living here. All of the kids seemed to have a similar story-Caleb picked them up off the street, gave them a purpose, a home. Didn't ask much of them really, just their loyalty and devotion, which wasn't hard to offer to a man who lifted them from the gutter.

It all changed one night when one patron dropped a copy of Oliver Twist, and well, Willie does return stuff that isn't worth much-but he can't find the gentleman, only a piece of paper asking to meet the next day at a park bench. Willie decides he can do a good deed, and heads off the next day.

Only when he gets there, the gentleman turns out to be a cop. "Seems you got tangled up in something sinister."

Willie tries to play dumb, but the cop has pictures of Willie picking several pockets at the club, and doing some graffiti around town-enough to put him away for a bit, something he desperately wants to avoid.

"Thought you were the Dodger, but you're Oliver in this scenario," the cop says, laughing like the reference is oh so clever. "And you're gonna help us take down Fagin."

"You mean Caleb?" Willie asks. "He's a good guy."

"He's a thief, an embezzler, and an all around con artist. That little club of his is a front for a major ring of crimes, blackmailing the guests out of their life savings, helping the less than reputable members carry out crimes," the cop replied. "He recruits kids like you to do his dirty work and you don't even know it. It's a cult; making you think you're doing honest work when you're all be the ones held responsible if we let him get away with it."

So to save himself, and the rest of the kids, Willie agrees to a deal. He helps the cops (which revolts him honestly, he had always had a fuck the police mentality, but he also has a stay the fuck out of jail motto) take down Caleb, none of the employees serve time.

Bringing him to here, where he watches the cops escort Caleb out of the club in cuffs, he's stoic and silent, glaring at Willie, like he knows his role in this-maybe he does honestly.

It leaves all of them a bit lost afterwards. Everything is seized and blocked off while the investigation is underway. But Willie may have funneled away a large chunk of cash before the cops got to it, paying for a place for himself and anyone who isn't too mad at him for betraying Caleb.

It's a new start, and it's kind of scary, but WIllie breathes a little easier knowing he's free.

And finally gets around to reading that copy of Oliver Twist.

#filled prompts #ficlet #willie & caleb #julie and the phantoms

14 notes · View notes

three-of-swords · 10 months

Text

Fall of Porcupine was a textbook example of why a climax =/= the ending of a story. Stories need a falling action.

All the bugs, glitches, and graphical errors aside, the characters and story did seem really interesting. The story was fantastic, with a very clear catalyst for something going wrong, tensions rising, and then disaster striking, but like...

Well, spoilers under the cut I guess?

You start as a junior doctor in an underfunded hospital. You work on patients, developing a rapport with some of them. One elderly patient, beloved by the town, passes away. The town, already fed up with the hospital’s failing, starts to protest. Then a terrible bacterial illness infects the majority of the town, culminating in the hospital becoming over-capacity. The main character and his companion try to fix up the top floor, which has been out of use for awhile, but a fire starts. You end up running around saving who you can, and then dawn comes, your coworkers look back at the destroyed hospital... And credits roll.

I get that it’s supposed to be a massive thank you to workers in healthcare who are overworked and underappreciated, often working in environments that don’t give them the resources they need. But... They could have still made a better story out of it.

We don’t get any answer for the infection, which I assumed had something to do with the fountain water. It’s implied that the hospital fell into disarray because of an embezzlement scam, and while one of the partners to this crime ultimately dies trying to make it right, the other gets away scot free.

I was hoping I’d get to spend more time with the characters. Goof off in the woods with Pina, get a new plant, maybe play a mini-game where Finley gets to help build a memorial statue for a patient he couldn’t save. Mia plays basketball and is in an improv troupe, but each of these hobbies is mentioned only once and there’s no arc to her character. Mr. Glendower sort of just disappears after the funeral, except the weird, goofy scene where the main characters steal his key.

There was so much story and so much potential left in this game, but it ended immediately after the climax. I can’t say the story was bittersweet or hopeful. The only message it had was pretty much, “To healthcare workers. We see you.” Which would be fine, except that the story could have. A moral? A happy ending? A suggestion of a solution? No. It ends with the hospital burning down, the main characters exhausted, many people dead to an illness that was neither explained nor explored, and all those prophetic dreams and deep mysteries and selfish scams unsolved.

So uh. Yeah. Do not recommend. 3/10. If you want a story about caring for the sick or deceased, play Spiritfarer. If you want a game with an art style similar to Fall of Porcupine’s, play Night in the Woods.

#julian plays #fall of porcupine #unfortunately

22 notes · View notes

enchantedchocolatebars · 4 months

Text

Gorillaz Teacher! AU Headcanons

🍎 Original headcanons ✏️

🏫 Ao3 version 🎒

Murdoc:

• Wait, how did he even get this job and why hasn't he been fired yet?

• Teaching is honestly just a shitty day job for him. Once he earns enough, he's quitting to become a famous rock star with his own band! He could see it now: fame, glory, girls. It sounds like a dream come true. But until he had the money to make that dream a reality, he was stuck as the school's social studies teacher.

• When he quits his job as an "educator", it's going to be very similar to the fuck you scene from the movie "Half Baked".

• He is disliked by the students in all of his classes.

• He has a habit of arriving 30 minutes late to class. Sometimes he'll show up completely sober, while other times he'll show up drunk.

• The pickle has WAY too many political views that he refuses to keep to himself.

• If Murdoc falls asleep at his desk, one of the kids might try to either draw a dick on his forehead and take a picture of it, or they might try to put a 'kick me' sign on his back. But they have to be EXTRA careful or they might wake up the grumpy goblin!

• If he does wake up, he'll be extremely mad and end up giving the whole class a pop quiz first thing tomorrow morning.

• He finds grading papers to be too difficult, so he doesn't bother doing it.

• The only time Murdoc actually teaches his class something about social studies is when the principal or some other important staff member walks into the room to see what's going on. Once they're gone, he goes straight back to sleep.

• He believes that Stuart Pot, the new music teacher at school, is an idiot. He decides to give him the nickname '2D' because he feels that the man is too dense. Murdoc has walked by Stuart's classroom a couple of times before and has overheard him and his students singing while he plays the piano. To hear more, he would usually place his ear against the door. He had to admit that the guy had some really nice vocals. Plus, he's tall, pretty, has blue hair, and both eyes! Murdoc makes a mental note to remember to make that Stu-Pot guy the front man of his future band once he gets the money he wants and decides to quit.

• Murdoc only tries to 'befriend" 2D because he's a music teacher and also because he wants him to be his future front man.

• When he learns that the teacher of the class with the highest test scores will receive a large bonus pay, he decides to change his style of "teaching", forcing the students in his class to study intensely for the upcoming test. However, the kids end up getting low scores.

• He has been embezzling money from the 9th grade bake sale.

2D/Stuart Pot:

• He is the new music teacher!

• He quickly becomes well-liked by students and co-workers.

• Stuart is a nice teacher who carries himself off as a goofy professional who knows what he's doing.

• Believes that every one of his students will become a great musician one day.

• At times, he enjoys teaching while music plays in the background.

• He may accidentally give students test answers when they ask for clarification on a question

• He will write original songs for his class to perform.

• Has an after-school club where he teaches students how to play piano, keyboards, and melodica.

• I can imagine him being an actual teacher in real life.

• Stuart is a bit terrified of Murdoc because one time, when the two were on lunch duty together, Murdoc was explaining to him a dream that he had last night where he launched his car through a music shop that Stu-Pot was apparently working at and had knocked one of his eyes out! “ Oh, uh, o-okay… W-Well, it’s a good thing you aren’t actually going to run me over with a real car, right?…RIGHT?!”

Noodle:

• She has a full real name, but prefers to be referred to as Noodle, which was a nickname she received in her childhood.

• The children generally call her Ms. Noodle.

• She's the teaching assistant for Stuart's class!

• She's kind because she helps everyone in the class who needs it, even the spoiled kids.

• She's in charge of the guitar club after-school!

• She really likes the guitar club since it provides a safe and fun environment for students to come together and enjoy music.

• She's a master at playing acoustic guitar and ukulele!

• You'll most likely find her in the teacher's lounge playing on her pink handheld game player while drinking tea and munching on the candy and snacks that they have in there.

• The teacher's lounge is her favorite room to be in for obvious reasons.

Russel:

• He's a no-nonsense math teacher who will joke around with his students from time to time, but then gets very serious with them when it comes to their grades.

• Mr. Hobbs is skilled at making math fun with a capital F!

• They didn’t do so well on a test? Not a problem! Russel will happily allow a student to retake it, as long as they go home and study.

• He will greet each student by their name when they enter his class.

• Russel has a general concern for his students and desires the best for all of them.

• His students can count on him being genuine

• Will bring treats for the class if they did really well on a quiz or test!

• Allows his students to use their phones once they have finished all their work.

• When his students throw him a surprise party in the classroom on his birthday, he breaks down in happy tears.

• Murdoc's classroom is situated across the hall from his own.

• Russel doesn't know why, but he feels that Mr. Niccals is teaching for all the wrong reasons.

• He really doesn't think Murdoc should be teaching teenagers, or really anyone. Russel couldn't think of anyone less qualified to be a teacher.

• Whenever he's in the teacher's lounge, he likes socializing with other teachers like 2D or Noodle, but never with Murdoc. Russel tries to avoid him.

#gorillaz #murdoc niccals #gorillaz 2d #2d gorillaz #gorillaz noodle #noodle gorillaz #russel hobbs #ao3 #a03 #ao3 link #a03 link #ao3 writer #a03 writer #headcanon #headcanons #writing #my writing

7 notes · View notes

bitter-rabbitholes · 2 months

Text

I got to watch the Phantom & Ghost playthrough (thanks to @pain-in-the-butler d(^-^)), and I've been dreaming of Phantom & Ghost getting a remaster with HD graphics and a expanded story line, so here's how I would've liked it:

a coherent narrative

I think it would've benefited the story to just stick to one POV for the entire game, and you'll have to complete both Sebastian and Ciel's routes to get the final ending. Similar to other visual games games that have multiple endings depending who and how you play, that give you a true ending after completing the game.

like wow, the game is kinda nonsensical to follow? not only can you switch between the two different POVs while playing, but you can do it after nearly every scene? So all the clues and reveals feel all over the place and referenced in ways that don't make sense.

general appeal

alright lets be honest, the game's main appeal is its characters. getting to play all these scenarios with the servants and Lizzy is what's fun. sadly, the minor characters weren't as interesting to bounce off of, so it would be nice to lean into their eccentricities (when you got a guy named Patrick the Grey wizard).

Add more scenarios, more character combinations, more dialogue options. Can't tell you how disappointed I was that Stella's pov barely showed anything, esp since the moments between Lizzy and Stella were really good. Like, let's play with all these different povs! Stella's route could have flashbacks and much needed backstory to solve the mysteries. Lets see Lorraine, Patrick, and Stella's parents in the past, since so much of the story revolves around them And having all these expanded character options really build the replayability of the game.

tonal dissonance

This game was disorienting to me because how light the story remained. Kuro is a dark story! It has a lot of morbid humor and something disturbing happening in the background. This game really was just some average errand for Ciel and Sebastian and it falls flat. So I had ideas to bring in out more of those darker tones kuro has, described in the next section.

the villain

I understand why Lorraine was made into the villain as a "surpise twist", but I truly dislike that she was the bad guy after dealing with suggested abuse and getting jealous over a child (without even the backstory to back it up??). There's ways to give misdirection over the villain without resorting to the cheap maid plot twist, that is frankly tired now. (also I thought count ridley would be the villain? what was he around then for lol)

There's still a mysterious air around Stella's father, right? maybe, instead of villainizing an abused maid for the nth time, we can have a more in depth exploration of the maid's abuse and the father's character. maybe we find out the father was quite a vile person. Stella's route could imply the abuse happening in the background and how disturbing it is.

perhaps after the first half of the game, Lorraine is pined as the murderer, but Stella insists that she's innocent and we to find the true culprit. the player is mislead here a bit, because Lorraine's attitude does take a turn and she acts very bitter and erratic (which we find out later her signs of abuse).

eventually Lorraine is found innocent and her father is blamed for the murder, and Lorraine gets with Patrick to take care of Stella at the mansion, a perfect happy ending.

However in the true ending, we find out that Lorraine did kill the father, but it was to protect herself and Stella from his abuse. We don't know how the mother died exactly, but let's implied that he was the one to kill her (mad father vibes). Ciel doesn't reveal this, since the case with the ghost and embezzlement is solved, but Lorraine gets away with the murder. Sebastian could suggest that Lorraine only did it for her benefit, because now she's acting as head of the manor, through Stella (or whatever edgelord nonsense he'll say).

The games ends on the note we, the audience, will never know Lorraine's true motives, all while Stella remains naive, still thinking the best of her parents and Lorraine. All we can hope for, is that they'll take care of each other now, though who knows what the future holds.

So there's plenty of dark aspects to this story while having a rather positive ending for our main characters! let me know what yall think! any other ideas for an ending or story route?

(anyway here's a drawing of Stella and Lorraine to convince yall: x)

#b.au #i really want to go into different endings and the like #i used to be a huge rpg maker fan so the influence definitely shows lol #also any witch's heart fans here? heard the game is getting an update #i should get back in the game it's been sooo long #anyway my versions the sisters unite!! none of this jealousy over a child nonsense #but yeah i have a ton of ideas the more i think about it #you can tell how much better this story got cause it focuses on the women lmao #kuro #kuroshitsuji #phantom & ghost #lorraine mcdowell #stella rose #b.txt

5 notes · View notes

literaticat · 2 months

Note

Hi. A subplot in a novel I'm working on has a character setting up a GoFundMe page for someone to help them buy something that's an important part of the plot. Do you think I should use the name "GoFundMe" - is it okay to do so legally? Could it date the book? Would it be problematic in other ways? Previously, I've deleted refs to Facebook in other books and made fake social media names, but I'm wondering if I should do something similar in that case, as most people know what a GoFundMe page is and if it's not called "GoFundMe", I'm not sure it would be as relatable? What do you think? Would appreciate any advice you could give. Thank you!

It's OK to do so legally.

It could date the book -- but maybe you don't care about that! You just have no idea what will be popular a month from now, let alone YEARS from now -- if the book is published but then GFM goes out of business or falls out of popularity and another website takes its place, then obviously your book will be forever tied to a time when GFM was the popular fundraising site. Which is fine, if your book is set specifically in the 2010-2020s, but if you want your book to be "timeless" that might be not great.

Could it be problematic in other ways? I don't know. Anything COULD be problematic. Maybe the book is published, and then two months later, the CEO of GFM (???) is embroiled in an embezzlement scandal or something. Who could say?

Should you change it? That's entirely up to you. If you are using your Facebook thing as an example: Facebook is also well-known, and a different site "might not be as relateable" -- and you still changed that. You don't HAVE to change it -- but as we know, social media sites, like any websites, come and go in popularity. If you namedropped Friendster or MySpace or something, your book would be forever tied to a specific time. Whether that's a problem or not is not for me to say.

But if you DID want to change it, I think that it would be fairly obvious to any reader that if the characters are exchanging messages on something called ChatMe, it's a messaging app like WhatsApp, or if they are posting pics on PicMe, it's a social media site akin to Instagram, or if they are doing a fundraiser on FundUs, it's a fundraising app. It will be obvious in context. No?

4 notes · View notes

thefanficmonster · 2 years

Note

Can I request a fluff Drabble or smth with Connor Walsh where he’s struggling with a case and than his 4-6 year old kid points out something about the case that helps Connor solve it and he’s just really proud of them?<333

Aww sure thing, darling! Enjoy the drabble 💕

Father-son relationship: Connor & Child Character [How To Get Away With Murder]

Warnings: None :)

Genre: Domestic/Family Fluff

Summary: see request above

This was the type of case that got everyone fuming. Literally everyone. Yes, even the too-cool-to-care Frank. How did Annalise pick this one out of all the cases that she rifled through this week? It's almost as though she wanted to make them suffer because she dropped the case on the K5 and hasn't made an attempt to help them ever since. She proclaimed she had some work of her own to do therefore wouldn't tolerate anyone trying to bother her.

That's left the five students with plenty of research work to do, work they inevitably caved and started taking home with them. It's a guessing game how much of it they actually get done with all the distractions they have at home, but unlike the others, Connor gets a pass for that one. Rightfully so, because the man has a lot more responsibility than his colleagues.

He has a toddler to be looking after all on his own while his partner is on a trip provided by the establishment where they've been interning.

"Alright buddy, it's you and me against this fu...." Connor cuts himself off on time, "...damn case. Come on."

With that, he sits the five-year-old in his lap, turning the TV to a cartoon channel as to keep his son entertained while he rifles through a few more files before calling it a night and turning to watch cartoons himself.

He's just flipped to the page of the file with the press-taken pictures of the day of the first trial taken outside the courthouse. Most of them have captured the plaintiff and the defendant along with his previous lawyer.

Basically, this man's wife is suing him for supposedly embezzling portion of her half of their joint company's income. He's sworn up and down to every tabloid, every journalist and even everyone in the Keating office that he's had nothing to do with the embezzlement that has been proven to actually be taking place behind the scenes.

As Connor's reading the recounts of what went on before, during and after that trial, a little finger lands on top of the attached picture up above the typed out writing.

Looking up, Connor chuckles to himself, seeing that his son is pointing to the bright red jacket the defendant's wife - or now presumably ex-wife, is wearing. "You like that jacket huh?"

Turning the page, he's met with the pictures of the second trial that happened within months of the previous and was the last one the defendant attended with that lawyer who claimed he was a lost cause and dropped him before her career could get ship-wrecked. Why he waited four months before contacting Annalise is a mystery but, if Connor's to be asked, he believes the man is actually guilty. They've brought up too much concrete evidence for him not to be. And he knew that. But he's now restored his determination to not pay the large sum he'll be owing his wife (ex-wife) if she wins the lawsuit.

As he's reading through the recounts, his son once again takes it upon himself to point at one of the pictures that are pinned at the top of the document. His dad has an idea of what he's pointing at before he even looks up, "Ok, ok, I promise to get you that jacket for your next birthday." It's only after he looks up that he realizes that although his son's pointing at the same jacket as before, it now resides on a different body - the attorney's.

"Wait a second..." He mumbles, aware that he's grasping at straws here. There's a big possibility they both own the same or similar jacket. Which is exactly why he quickly flips back to the previous pictures to compare the two.

It's the exact same jacket. It's the same fucking jacket, holy shit!

An emblem of the designer on the bottom of the right side - check!

An identical seemingly cigarette burn mark on the left sleeve - check!

An indent in the leather around the collar - check!

"Oh my fucking God! They were working together!" Not minding his vocabulary anymore, Connor carefully picks up his son and sets him down on the couch next to the file as he dashes to grab his phone and dial Frank. While it's ringing, he makes a point to kneel before his son and give him a kiss on the forehead, "You, sir, just saved your dad's life. You're getting ice-cream tonight."

"You're buying me ice-cream, Walsh?" Frank, who picked up a moment sooner than Connor expected, says with upmost confusion.

"No, but I think I just solved your case. Sorry, we just solved your case." He quickly corrects himself before sharing a high-five with his son.

58 notes · View notes

freedfromthegalactichivemind · 1 year

Text

Fanfic ideas I don't know if I'll actually get around to doing: (Followers tell me if you think any of these are interesting). Stray Hordak-idea I got a few days ago that I've pinged around the old noggin: I don't know if this one is safe to write because it feels like it might be a little lurid, might earn me the wrath of other, more coddling Hordak-stans... So, the idea is that a random Force Captain has done something grave. My idea was basically embezzlement, one of the guys in charge of the supply-lines nicking some of the supplies to sell on the black market for his own profit, meanwhile troops aren't getting their ration bars and armor and (in my darker than canon Etheria), this has caused deaths of troops. The offending Force Captain is found out and must be made an example of. It is not an offense that simply shuffling off to Beast Island will suffice for. Hordak basically needs to drive the fear of Prime into his troops, so he does a very public, mandatory-viewing torture-session on the guy. I don't want to make anything horribly grisly-detailed, more like, Hordak has loyal captains strap him between two poles so that he can deliver 10 lashes, followed by some prods with a stun-baton. The guy is not killed, but before being imprisoned, he does regret defying orders - and others know what Hordak will do to them if they ever get caught doing something so egregious. And... while third-person writing feels best for me, the entire thing is Hordak's POV, as in, while he is making a necessary example of a man who got greedy and who cost Horde-lives, he is, the entire time, not at all feeling comfortable with his actions. He does not like doing this stuff hands-on. He is having flashbacks to Prime - Prime's very personal pool-dunks and throat-grabs and other, similar off-screen stuff that Prime did to him and his brothers to lay down the law. Hordak is torn between this being the only way he knows how to lay down discipline and feeling personally uncomfortable with the up-close and personal nature of it. It's set pre-series proper (like, Adora and Catra are little kids, dunno if they'll be made to watch, probably), and this is basically when Hordak decides to be less personal in his discipline - to order others to do such things, to use things like the air-machine. I sort of want to do something exploring Hordak having a budding conscience, but also being ruthless - like, there is a reason why he's in the position that he's in at the start of the series, but there's also the poor sad-man indoctrinated/conflicted bat-clone, there, too. The other idea I have is a thing I've had for-freakin' ever. It's an Angella-idea. It ends with rescue, but it is Angella's experience trapped between dimensions. (You can basically come up with anything for that, ranging from "shred-across-spacetime-she's-totally-dead" to "maybe she's living an alternate life with her happy family in that happiness-world), but this idea takes direct inspiration from the SCP Foundation. I've seen an animated lore-video about The Red Reality. It features a researcher who gets sucked into a void-dimension and the "red" part of it comes from a machine that got sucked in with him that has a red blinking light. He uses this machine, the one sight / sense in the entire place as an attempted sanity-beacon as he wanders endlessly. Attempts at rescue in his case do not go well and eventually he is unraveled by the "low-reality" aspects of the void-realm. I'll not have that happen to Angella, but I do want to explore a bit of going mad from isolation and countermeasures against it - and the idea that she could have only survived with her mind intact because she is an immortal being, that is, if she were an actual mortal human, she would have lost her mind completely. In other words, when she comes back and recovers, she has some data for Entrapta.

#spop #she-ra #fanfic ideas #hordak #angella #queen angella #spop spoilers

17 notes · View notes

cookinguptales · 2 years

Note

At the night market Guillermo called Nandor “Master”, at least I think I heard him say that. But I believe he did that just to keep up appearances in front of all the other vampires.? Guillermo didn’t call Nandor “Master” all season long otherwise, right? Do you think Guillermo still attends to some of his familiar duties? Does Nandor dress himself, gets out of the coffin alone, brush his hair on his own? Who is getting them their food/ their victims? We haven’t seen them feed yet in s4 (Aside from Sal, who was killed and we were told that they will drink him later).

He's done it a few times, actually, including when it's just the two of them. He did it, for instance, when he was calling for Nandor and trying to find him when he broke into his treasure room. I'm not sure he even knew the cameras were down there when he was calling for him, so I don't think it was for their benefit.

That said, it's way less regular (usually he just doesn't refer to him as anything at all) and he's also much more likely to just refer to him as "Nandor" as opposed to "my master" in interviews, though I've noticed that they've also cut Guillermo's interviews way down. (Something that makes me nervous, tbh; is there a reason they want to keep Guillermo's motivations more mysterious? Was it just the embezzling thing or is there more...?)

I think that he's probably still doing some familiar duties, but only for Nandor. He's obviously washed his hands of Nadja and Laszlo, he seems resentful when they ask him to do anything these days, and he's not bothering to fix up the house. That said, it could just be that it's such a wreck that it's not worth cleaning it. There are no bodies piling up, so it could be that he's at least doing that.

The fact that Nandor's first response upon waking up is to call for Guillermo makes me think that Guillermo's probably still helping him with his morning/evening routines. But that could also just be that he pretty much defaults to calling Guillermo for help and he's still not used to doing things himself. Guillermo didn't immediately come, but it was the middle of the day (so he could be asleep or out) and there also wasn't long before the scene ended. Possible he just couldn't get there within thirty seconds. lmao

The fact that he had no idea what Nandor would be wearing what he was in 4.05 kind of seems to imply that he's not dressing him every time, but I think there were probably exceptions to him dressing Nandor a few times when he was busy in s1-3, too. (Like I don't think Guillermo was dressing him for the gym, for instance.) So I'm not sure if that's evidence one way or the other...

He's definitely doing a lot of work for Nandor, but it's hard to say if he considers that part of being a familiar or part of being a best man. (Or occasionally being Uncle Memo.) He took care of the wives, wedding planning, and Nandor's dick, but that could be best man/friend stuff. Even if the Djinn clearly saw that last one as a familiar thing and was trying to manipulate him as such... He wasn't given much of a chance in 4.04 to do anything for Nandor one way or another (other than the whole pokemon battle situation, but idk how much choice he had there); they mostly just bickered like a married couple in the rest of the Night Market.

He obviously still cares about Nandor very deeply and that muddies the waters a lot. How much is he doing for him because it's what a familiar does, how much does he do because it's become habit to babysit him, and how much does he do because he loves him...? idk. Hard to say.

He's done a lot of care work for Colin Robinson, too, and seems to think of himself in a nanny role, which seems to kind of go along with familiar... but again, it's unclear if he considers that to be a personal choice rather than an obligation as familiar. He served water during the interview, similar to how he served food to the human gf when the vampires came to visit in s3, but that might've, again, just been for Colin's sake. Like Nandor, it's entirely possible that he's just caring for the people that he loves here as opposed to doing it because it's his "job". (Then again, he always seemed to consider being a familiar a labor of love, too...)

I do think that Guillermo is definitely falling into some very familiar (no pun intended) familiar patterns, but he's coming up with a million and one reasons to excuse that. He's caring for Nandor as much as ever and in ways that are even more onerous than they used to be, but he can say that's because he's his best man and his friend. He's caring for Colin Robinson to the point where he considers himself an unappreciated nanny, but he can say that's because he won't let a child be abused. He's doing a fair amount of work (it seems) for the club, but he can say that's just because he wants to skim off the top.

Guillermo keeps repeating this whole looking out for number one thing, but it seems that he's falling into a lot of the old patterns that got him into this mess; he's just conceptualizing them a different way. He's in denial, I think. He can come up with a reason for every horrible, annoying thing he's doing for this household, but he's still behaving like a familiar, to some degree. Just a very bitchy one. Which I respect.

I guess it's hard to say because Guillermo's familiar status was always so tied up in his codependency. Being a familiar was always more than a job for him. He did it because he loved them and wanted to be a vampire. He clearly still loves them and clearly still wants to take care of them, even if they piss him the hell off. So how much of this was ever being a familiar, and how much of it was just being Guillermo...?

(I will say that I am surprised that Guillermo's allowing so much sunlight to come into Nandor's room during the day, but it's possible that he just hasn't realized what a safety hazard that is yet. He's pretty clearly distracted.)

The one thing that really gives me pause is him not talking about becoming a vampire anymore! I do think he still wants to be one... He kind of sideways alluded to it in 4.01 when he said something along the lines of "one could argue that being a best man is better than being turned into a vampire. I don't know why anyone would, but."

But he hasn't been nearly as direct about it anymore, which makes me wonder if he just has no faith in them ever doing it. (I know that Harvey kind of mentioned this in an interview, but idk how canon it is. Harvey... says a lot of things.) If that's the case, him still being there at all requires considerably more mental gymnastics than I'd previously thought.

I will be genuinely upset if Guillermo ever gives up on being a vampire, unless it's to focus on being something else similarly supernatural, but if he's just disillusioned with the vampires a bit, I can handle that. lmao. Giving up the vampire thing would just be too much change in his core motivations happening offscreen, though. I'd hate that.

#whoops this got long #wwdits meta #wwdits #wwdits s4 spoilers #nandermo #guillermo de la cruz

31 notes · View notes

bunysliper · 7 months

Note

Can we get your answer to Q.4?

4. what is the plot bunny you’ve been carrying for the longest? optional bonus question: do you ever wonder why you haven’t written it yet and experience deep existential dread?

H'okay, so this is actually one that I don't even have written down in my ideas file, but it's something I've had at the back of my mind since like 2014-2015ish. Basically the totally cliff's notes version is something terrible happens with Castle's investments/financial situation through no fault of his own and - similar to how Martha's con-artist husband ran off with all her money, leaving her broke - it requires them to make some serious lifestyle changes. I just think it would be really interesting to explore how Castle handles not having the money he's gotten so used to having, and how Beckett helps him through the crisis.

Why I haven't written it yet? I think it's mostly that so many other thoughts/ideas keep jumping the line. Plus, I'd want to do some research to figure out what might cause the problem (stock market crash, broker embezzling, etc.) before I really jump in and i just haven't yet. (I'm too busy being filled with existential dread about everything else to feel it about not writing this fic, lol.)

Thanks, Anon!

#answers #ask meme #anonymous

6 notes · View notes

bigskydreaming · 1 year

Text

An under-appreciated facet of (unapologetically petty) Roberto Da Costa’s character is that everybody assuming he’d grow up to become a villain is literally his hero origin story.

Back during the original New Mutants, everyone from Xavier to Magneto to Cable to Gideon were all convinced that he was this hothead with too much pride, bravado and ego and he was inevitably going to grow up to sell out or turn on his friends or betray any ideals he might have in the name of self interest....

And Roberto was one hundred percent aware of this from day one. Partly because none of them were subtle about assuming the worst of him and partly because as he’s the first to tell everyone, Roberto Da Costa is a frickin’ genius.

But the thing I absolutely love about his character was rather than dwelling in his bitterness about this - which he did feel, with extreme validity - he spitefully doubled down on being everything they never gave him credit for being. A genuinely good person invested in his friends, his people, the world at large.

Here’s the specific angle of all this that I LOVE though. Because proving everyone wrong about him isn’t the SOURCE of Roberto being a hero.

To say that would be to give all these people credit for his choices, his very fundamental inner nobility and goodness.

Nah, the distinction that I LOVE is that Roberto was always going to be a hero, IMO. But what all the vaunted leaders of mutantkind’s lack of faith in him DID result in....

Was HOW Roberto went about being a hero as he grew older.

His heroics aren’t because of them - rubbing everyone’s faces in his heroics though....THAT’S where the pettiness and spite comes in. That’s the part they earned with their lack of faith in him...and keep earning, as they keep doubting him all over again every single time he does something - DELIBERATELY does something - that seems to validate their NEED to insist they were right to be wary of him all along.

Like.....Roberto’s pattern is he dives headfirst into plans and agendas that on a surface level, at first glance, even upon deeper scrutiny - SEEM like a fall to the dark side, a betrayal of some kind....UNLESS you actually have faith in him and his intentions and abilities.

He did it when he joined with Gideon, seemingly confirming all his teachers’ doubts about him....and then betrayed Gideon to of course side with all his friends.

He did it when he joined the Hellfire Club, taking his father’s old position and rising through the ranks to become the Lord Imperial, seemingly confirming Xavier and others’ fears that he would grow up to be exactly like his father....except he only joined the Hellfire Club to sabotage, undermine and dismantle them from the inside while funneling all their assets and resources into the X-Teams. Like he literally joined the bad guys just to embezzle from them before bouncing.

He did it when he took over AIM and installed himself in just the right place and position to perfectly oppose and thwart Evil Captain America when he tried to use AIM and similar organizations to take over the world.

And now he’s doing it again with his shadow games against Brand and SWORD as a member of the Night Table who neither needs nor wants to loop anyone in on his plans because he shouldn’t HAVE to, he’s NEVER been the threat or bad guy or self-interested asshole people keep writing him off as or assuming he’ll someday inevitably expose himself to be....

And he’s not doing all of this BECAUSE nobody believed he could grow up to be a hero. Nah, he was going to do that already. He’s just doing it this specific way as his fuck you to all the people who claimed to want to teach him and help him grow while expecting to have to take him down at some future point.

He’s like HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO TEACH YOU THIS LESSON, OLD MAN (Xavier)....

Because if they would just fucking BELIEVE in him every time he does the same shit he’s done a million times before, without ever actually being vulnerable to being corrupted or succumbing to the dark side, because he knows who he is and wants to be, what he believes in, and no matter how flippant he is these aspects of him and his goals, values, beliefs....they’ve NEVER actually been shaky or easily influenced or coopted by others...

Well then, Roberto keeps pointing out to everyone with his actions, his schemes - and his victories - then maybe they wouldn’t all keep looking so fucking dumb every time his latest dark side turn just turns out to yet again be one more long con on behalf of the good guys.

Roberto Da Costa is like, I’m going to take every single character trait you all pointed at as reasons to be wary of me when I was just a kid who deserved adults who believed in me, and these are the very tools I’m gonna use to single-handedly save the world so many times you’re going to look stupid lmfaaaaaaaaaao.

#x-tag

9 notes · View notes