#yes he DOES get basically two entries what about it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

riddles-n-games · 4 months

Text

You know what we’ve been really missing out on? A dance headcanon. It may have crossed your mind at some point or you have never thought of it, but trust me you actually have, so here you go and you’re welcome.

We’ve certainly gotten sprinkles (read: karaoke scene, I mean, we were about to get FED and bam Grayson pity party) of such things throughout the series but not in any outright way as is the case with many of the things that could give us more background on the Hawthorne brothers. (Why you holding out on us JLB??? Huh?!) Anyways, here. Read.

Nash-He does line dancing, I mean, you should have seen that one coming. He's basically the country star of his family and he owns it to the fullest; he's literally one of Taylor Swift's back up dancers for goodness' sake. Nash's favorite version of line dance is square dancing and being the sweetheart he is, he will go to retirement homes on dance nights and be one of the choreographers or partners to help the old folks who want to dance. Of course, when there's a festival, that's when he really gets down. But, this might surprise you; he's also had a stint with hip hop and he's pretty darn good at it. He can do the dougie for sure. In fact, he got so good at hip hop that he also started adding his own style to it and gave it his country flare at freestyle competitions (Jamie and Xander's minds were blown, at first, before the big brother cool wore off that is but they were still impressed🤭).

Grayson-All of them learned how to do ballroom dancing (mainly waltz) but someone had to be the best of them, too. Enter Grayson Hawthorne. He is certainly the go-to brother for these types of dances but he excels at tango and waltz which also give him his greatest enjoyment. Certainly, at school events, he was always sought after during the slow songs and was always leading man for the school's ballroom team. It was the one chance the ladies were allowed to swoon without a certain redhead ruining everything. Though he competed nationally and worldwide, he preferred the simple entry level competitions for the sake of the peace. It was also more fun. He also challenged himself by learning flamenco and he was enamored by it, loving the fast steps and quick changes from one thing to another. However, his grandfather wanted him to push it further since he was already pursuing the dance so he wanted him to do competitions and as much as he put his heart and soul into it, Gray hated doing competitions when he wanted to do this for fun. After his grandfather died, he quit comps and stopped dancing flamenco for a while but his brothers (read: Xander) have been encouraging him to take it up again as a fun hobby. He's been warming up to the idea.

Jameson-Should it really come as a surprise that this boy can tap dance? Because, yes, he can and he is damn proud of it. It’s a favorite party trick of his to pull on the dance floor or in the middle of the club and he’s always tearing it up. He also loves Irish stepdance and after watching the famous Riverdance live, Jameson was obsessed. That was how he and Xander ended up being trained by the very Riverdance company itself and they trained for two years until Xan no longer expressed interest but Jamie got good enough that he even went on tour with them. Also, he's been expanding his repertoire with street dancing, mambo, and most recently disco due to a certain someone's obsession with the 70s.

Xander-Despite Gray being the undisputed king of ballroom in the family, his youngest brother still takes to the swing better than anyone. He has been the most enthusiastic about it and loves the energy which matches him well in every aspect of the dance. Unlike his brother, competing never really bothered him and this is actually one of the things that he gets him into a perfectionist complex. He was a junior world champ on two occasions and now is teaching Max how to do it. On the more casual side of casual side of things, he also knows how to shag which is one of his favorite things to do on little dates with Maxine when they aren't going anywhere. And, of course, being the most sporadic of his brothers, Xander always shocks people when he tells them he also has done ballet. He never got to become a principal dancer as a junior dancer but he did get to do a few pas de deux and was a soloist when he was with the Texas Ballet Theater. His favorite ballets are The Nutcracker and Don Quixote; he appreciates Swan Lake but hates the unhappy versions.

#nash westbrook hawthorne #nash hawthorne #grayson davenport hawthorne #grayson hawthorne #jameson winchester hawthorne #jameson hawthorne #xander blackwood hawthorne #xander hawthorne #hawthorne brothers #hawthorne shenanigans #hawthorne headcanons #the inheritance games #the hawthorne legacy #the final gambit #tig #thl #tfg

63 notes · View notes

vickyvicarious · 1 year

Text

May 18, short and bitter!

There are three options for the gap between the entry of May 16 and now, and they're all painful in different ways.

Jonathan did not go and look at the door right away. This would go against his usual instincts to double-check as soon as possible in order to confirm what he has seen. I mean, he still does fairly quickly, but the day's gap is notable. If he really avoided it for a day, then that must speak to how absolutely terrified he was by the thought of being found out. He actually was willing to sit even longer in that uncertainty about his own insanity rather than know for certain (either outcome: that he's lost his mind, or that he is surrounded by supernatural creatures who want to drink his blood and Dracula is his safe haven). It really really drives home his fear. Jonathan went to look as soon as possible. He is so brave and so afraid of the uncertainty, of losing his sanity on top of everything else. He needs to know immediately, not only because of his own feelings on the matter (or perhaps despite them), but because this proof is a vital element in determining what he does next. It changes the situation completely - yes, for the worse, but what does that mean for his efforts to explore and escape? If he doesn't know then he might put himself in danger again. Furthermore there might be an element of him fighting against time, knowing now that he could die even sooner than he feared before, and wanting to ensure his diary is as complete and accurate a record as possible if that does happen. Sure, he has no way of getting it into anyone's (Mina's) hands but he still is trying to document all of this just in case as well as for his own sanity.

Now, Jonathan says he wrote that last entry "the morning of 16 May", meaning the incidents happened late in the night-early in the morning before dawn. If he hasn't been able to go look at the room until now, basically two days later (one full day gap but also the rest of the day of the 16th), there are a couple explanations:

He was physically unable to go there. Whether that means that he was too weak from being drinked by Dracula if you think that happened, or if he descended into a panic attack or something and lost control over his body for hours, or if he was just so sleep-deprived that he only managed to write that last entry and then passed out for most of the day, or even if you think Dracula magically encouraged him into a deeper/longer sleep... however you slice it he wasn't able to get there before dark. And then something prevented him again for the next day as well.

Dracula didn't leave him alone long enough to try. We know the Count prefers to be awake at night, but he can stay awake into the daytime. Maybe in the aftermath of this attack, he has been sticking to Jonathan's side. On the one hand this keeps him safe from the vampire ladies coming back right away, on the other it gives Jonathan little-to-no time to process anything without being forced into the company of his captor right after the assault/invasion of last night, and he has to just suppress how he feels and play along. Of course this can be combined with the previous option, if Jonathan slept away most of the 16th and then Dracula hung out with him on the 17th (the parts he was awake for given he's been on a mostly nocturnal schedule).

The final option, frightening in its own way, is that Jonathan is losing track of time. Maybe he wrote the last entry thinking he had awoken the next morning, but later realized that he had actually slept for a full day and was writing on May 17th. Maybe he's so messed up by the nocturnal schedule that what he said was 'morning' turned out to be much later in the day, too. If the weather were very gray and cloudy it might be harder to tell exactly where the sun is. And this would go well with Dracula failing to wind up Jonathan's watch, which was a literal if smaller-scale example of Jonathan losing access to certainty about where he is in time.* Of course, Jonathan can try and figure it out by looking at whatever signs he can spot out the window to establish rough time of day, even if not immediately. But if he's lost track of the date he has no one to rely on but Dracula, who could very well lie to him if he felt like it. The uncertainty about time could reflect further fears of going mad as well.

*I especially love the detail of the watch when thinking along these lines because there's a lot more going on too. Symbolically, his 'modernity' (the watch) has been messed up/rendered uncertain (this goes for both his experiences and his worldview) by his encounter with 'powers of the old centuries' (vampire ladies/Dracula) and while he can try to gather himself back up and keep going (wind his watch up again), he's now lost his way and can't be certain of his position or what to do (if he's on accurate time/when to set it exactly - and in more removed symbolism, if he has been irrevocably trapped by these old powers/how he can ever fight them).

#dracula daily #jonathan harker #i know stoker makes timeline errors sometimes and there's no real salvaging them. but other time you can get real watsonian about it/dig in #and that is what i choose to do here because it's such a small and easily-noticed gap - in a self-contained part of the narrative that #doesn't have to worry too much about lining up just right to other accounts #anyways regardless of how you look at it jonathan was very wise to wait until a time during the day. <3 hang in there buddy <3

177 notes · View notes

vashtijoy · 9 months

Note

hi there! apologies for the incoming wall of text, but this should be pretty well within your wheelhouse, at least:

i've fallen into a rabbit hole of trying to triangulate the most specific point at which akechi switches from using "Kurusu-kun" to using "Akira" to address joker. the main thing is that the variables are confounding -- the way most people play (like me and literally everyone on youtube), rank 6 is on 9/3 (still "Kurusu-kun"), and the next time you're likely to see akechi in a context where he addresses joker by name is after he's been recruited *and* is ready for the next ranks of the confidant (at which point it's "Akira"). so, related to that, i was wondering if you had any insight/sources on a few points.

first, in your "When does Akechi start using Joker's given name?" post, you mention that on 9/21 (outside of penguin sniper) he still refers to joker as "Kurusu-kun." do you have a source on this, and am i right to assume the implication is that this is observed after completing rank 6?

more generally, i'm curious about various combinations of confidant-rank and plot-progression when it comes to his greetings outside of penguin sniper. e.g., if you haven't gotten rank 6 by november (and in fact, i think you're locked out of completing it at that point? someone mentioned a 10/22 deadline for it), or if you talk to him after rank 6 but before recruiting him (as in your aforementioned 9/21 observation).

one last thing: akechi's dialogue on the train platform in the morning on 11/2. he uses "Akira" as an address here, firstly, and it's basically the only time he does so pre-third-semester outside of the confidant / overworld greetings; secondly, it seems this interaction is new to royal. given that it's new, i wonder if it's conditional on having reached rank 6 (i.e., you won't get the platform scene unless you've maxed the confidant so far), since the discussion seems to lead directly into rank 7 that evening.

TL;DR: very curious about teasing apart what happens because of completing rank 6 vs. what happens because of plot progression, and it's pretty fascinating just how hard it is to separate the two factors.

if you come up with anything, even just a confirmation of the 9/21 thing, thanks!

[here's that original post to keep it all together]

Hi! Don't overlook that you can always visit Akechi in Kichijoji. If he's there, he'll have a brief exchange and tell you he's busy etc if you can't do a confidant event with him.

Yes, the reference to 9/21 means this is after conf 6. Akechi switches from e.g. Kurusu-kun to e.g. Akira after he joins the team. The first use of it is on 10/31, outside Penguin Sniper—the first opportunity you have to run into him after your first foray into Sae's Palace, on 10/29. It is date-dependent; it's not dependent on conf 6.

The first opportunity you have to meet him in Kichijoji before that is on 10/22, when you're still <family name>-kun:

As far as whether there's a 10/22 deadline for conf 6, I don't know. I'll add it to the heap. The screenshots above were taken with conf 6 achieved. Like I mentioned above, 10/22 is the last time Akechi is available for a confidant rank-up before 10/31—"Honey, I'm home", the Shujin culture festival and blackmail, his admission to the team and the first entry to Sae's palace all happen in that interval. Akechi does not call the protagonist by name on 10/24 ("Honey, I'm home"), or, as far as I can tell, at any point before that Kichijoji meetup on 10/31. I think it's unlikely there are more complex mashups, simply because the script doesn't look that way:

{F1 81} is the family name (usually Kurusu or Amamiya); {F1 82} is the given name (usually Akira or Ren). Akechi has four possible greetings here. The first ("Hey, Kurusu-kun") goes to 10/22; the second, ("Oh, Akira") goes to 11/17, which is your last chance to do his confidant. The third ("Oh, it's you") is used throughout the third semester. I haven't been able to trigger the fourth ("Hey, Akira"); it may be unused.

Why do I think these may not vary? Simply because there are other F-codes like this, used as placeholders when someone's name changes based on a condition. Here's Muhen on Retro Street in Kichijoji:

That mysterious {F1 E2} is Muhen. But he's referred to by an F-code, because his name changes: before you do Akechi's conf 4, he's "Jazz Club Manager", but after you meet him during that conf 4, he becomes "Muhen". He has a special code that tests that condition.

But Akechi's chats only reference the protagonist's name directly. So my inclination right now is possibly, but probably not. Of course, it's possible the chat that picks the greeting from that set of four is where the logic is, so I wouldn't rule it out.

The train station meeting on 11/2 does lead in to conf 7, but the "Akira" address isn't dependent on conf 6—it depends on the 10/31 switchover we've already discussed:

Again, the given name is hardcoded; it doesn't appear to test the confidant level, like Muhen's.

other notes

Akechi also uses Joker's given name in the engine room—"I wonder why we couldn't have met a few years earlier, {F1 82}..."—and again, the {F1 82} code is hardcoded.

The only point I'm aware of when he doesn't do that is 1/2, when he walks into Leblanc and tells Sojiro he wants to speak with "Kurusu-kun". He reverts back to Akira, though.

#persona 5 #p5 meta #goro akechi

57 notes · View notes

reds-skull · 5 months

Text

Not Alive, Nor Dead

[PREV PART] [AO3]

This is an extremely short chapter because I had to finish it in a cliffhanger. Don't worry, I won't let you suffer too long, writing the next one right after posting this :D

The early morning sky shines through the helo windows, brightening by the minute.

Ghost, Soap and Gaz have gotten to their transport after a small debrief confirming all the details of the mission. Their main objective is to find a connection from the anonymous PMC to the international human trafficking rings. Secondary objective is to rescue the two revenants El Sin Nombre gave them at the party.

Ghost mentally goes over the layout of the abandoned mall. Gaz will be combing through the top floor, the roof of the building eroded with time, letting the Sergeant fly in easily. Soap and Ghost will search the ground floor, starting at opposite ends.

He got authorization to use Limbo from Shepherd, as always, but while the mall is huge, it would be extremely risky to use it with the two Sergeants in the building.

If Johnny wasn’t a Limbo magnet, perhaps he would’ve considered it. But with his little problem, along with potential kidnapped targets, Ghost will once again have to rely on his non-supernatural abilities. That is, unless a very unlikely opportunity presents itself, and he can be sure all friendlies are secure.

The Sergeants have been discussing their powers for the past who knows how long.

“I think the worst time I used them was on a skyscraper, got knocked unconscious and came to while falling off, thought I would die again”, Gaz snickers. Ghost remembers the mission - Garrick was shaking and unresponsive when he dropped to the ground. He’s heard the story only about 50 times now.

Soap smiles, albeit forced, and turns to the window to contemplate.

“What about you, mate? What’s the worst you’ve had to heal from?” Gaz inquiries gently.

The Scot starts playing with the flames burning from his fingers, “losing legs always sucks, but the shittiest I had to deal with was a bullet to the head.”

Ghost stiffens, Garrick’s brows furrow, “fuck, how does that feel like?”

“Depends on where you get shot.” Johnny shrugs, raising a hand to his nape, “here it would paralyze me, till the wound heals at least.” the hand lifts to the back of his head, “hind brain could make me blind”.

He brushes through his hair, following the warhawk, “middle is a lot of things, memory, speech, can make me act like I’m… a child basically.”

Soap stops at his forehead, tapping it once, “and frontal lobe… that’s where yer personality is. How ye control yer movement and speech.”

The cabin is quiet for several long minutes, the howling wind and his fast beating heart a soundtrack for Ghost’s spiraling thoughts.

“How many times you got shot in your head…?” Gaz asks, the concern and horror palpable in his voice.

Johnny’s eyes are lost far in memories when he answers. “Once. Straight on.” He laughs, something broken about it, “it felt like I would never be myself again.”

No one said a word for the rest of the flight.

Gaz hops off first, not waiting for the helo to land before jumping down towards a large hole in the mall’s ceiling.

Soap goes next, getting off near the south exit of the building. He turns back to give Ghost a dazzling smile, thawing some of the ice built up in his veins, before squaring his shoulders and entering.

Ghost is taken to the north entrance, the chopper barely touching the ground before lifting off back to Los Vaqueros base. He takes stock of the mall, the wide windows haphazardly covered by tarp. There are no guards outside, and the doors are open.

He would consider himself lucky if he wasn’t suspicious of things appearing so deceptively easy. He checks his silenced pistol one last time before making entry.

The shopping mall is unnaturally empty, almost like Ghost walked in and everyone disappeared, stores still full of inventory.

He clears them one by one, half listening to the Sergeants do the same.

“Place gives me the creeps, are they feckin’ hidin’ from us?” Johnny mutters.

Ghost is reminded by what the Vaqueros said, that the PMC might have a revenant in their ranks helping them disappear. The store he’s standing in could be full of soldiers hidden by strange powers, and he would be none the wiser until they strike him down.

His eyes itch to close. If only he could use his powers safely… no matter how hidden any person is, no one escapes Limbo.

No one except the Scot currently complaining in his ear.

Ghost stops dead in his tracks and drops to a crouch when he hears footsteps. Not a second later a man walks by the store he’s in. The soldier is in a shaded part of the mall, the lights long gone, and Ghost can’t make out the details of his uniform, but he sees the rifle in his hands damn well.

“Got a hostile walking by, taking him down.” Ghost mutters into his radio before stalking closer to the soldier. He needs him dead, can’t risk going forward with a threat at his six.

He notices a mask on his face, an eerily similar look to the PMC he and Garrick observed in Sweden.

Ghost lines the shot at the man’s head, and the silenced bullet slices through the air, going right into his target.

He waits for the body to drop, and time seems to slow to a halt.

The soldier’s head, a hole clearly shining through it, turns agonizingly slowly towards him. Ghost feels his eyes widen, his focus pinpointed on the soldier’s features. What he saw was no mask. On a blank face, smooth, dripping darkness, a maw stares at his direction.

“Ghost, how copy?” Johnny whispers in his ear after he has gone dark for too long.

He watches the soldier search for whoever put the bullet in his head, moving, not dropping dead.

He lifts a hand to press the button on the comms, unable to take his eyes off the… thing currently hunting for him, “they’re not human”.

“Ghost, repeat your last-”

The creature snaps its gaze to something on the floor, and bends down to pick it up.

“The soldiers, the PMC, they’re not bloody human.”

The object shines as the thing rises, light catching on it, and Ghost recognizes his own bullet.

Soap answers confusingly, “I’m seeing three right here, they look human.”

The soldier’s head snaps forward, away from Ghost’s position. South.

Gaz’s voice comes through, “What the - they all saw something on my end. Soap, did you get spotted??”

“No! They just-”

Far off gunshots cut Johnny off, the monster in front of him now running at inhuman speed south.

“Soap! They’re going for you, RUN!” Ghost shouts at his Sergeant, finally revealing himself and shooting at the running soldier. He empties a whole clip before it drops dead, sizzling and melting to the floor.

Garrick calls in, “they’re not fucking dying! Soap, what’s your status?!”

Static and shots fill the line for a second, before Soap responds, “-too many– can’t– Limbo—”, the radio cutting off as he runs.

Johnny wants him to use Limbo?!

“Sergeant, get as far as you can from the mall!”, Ghost barks, starting to run the other way, “Garrick, search for the revenants, path should be clear of hostiles, clear the floor and get out!”

Gaz sounds frantic when he objects, “sir, I can get Soap out of there, just need to reach him-”

“Negative, someone needs to look for the targets-”

“-but sir-!”

Ghost growls, holding on his radio so hard he can hear the plastic cracking, “that’s an order, Sergeant. Is that clear?”

Gaz is quiet for a moment, “...yes sir”.

Ghost resumes his mad dash north, his rib cage vibrating from his heart. He wants nothing more than to save Johnny, but he needs to finish the mission.

Explosions echo through the abandoned building, each a booster for his feet. His Sergeant isn’t weak, he tells himself, he tries to wholeheartedly believe, but the fear flowing within him refuses to accept that.

“Ghost!”, Garrick snarls, “found the revenants, extracting them now!”

Johnny tries communicating again, his voice desperate and out of breath, “-do it–far—NOW!”

Ghost slides to a stop, closing his eyes with a scream.

Limbo rushes to replace the empty walls of the mall, and Ghost feels his muscle tense, almost snapping with the struggle to reign the realm in. He feels the soldiers get swallowed by it, his victims dragging them off to rip and tear and melt them into nothing.

He counts from 5.

The victims eat away all that comes through, the soldiers disintegrating into smoke.

4…

Shrieks bellow from the residents of the void.

3…

His hands start shaking, the light around him flickering, letting in the eternal sharp cold of Limbo.

2…

His victims stop, a quiet falls on them. They look towards the distance, an excitement washes over the not-dead.

1…

Ghost shuts his eyes, gathering back Limbo just as it rushes to consume Soap. He is knocked back by the sheer force of it, Limbo fighting to stay open.

He lays there, shaking, feeling sweat track down his body. His muscles convulse violently, and he lifts an unsteady arm to his comms.

“Soap… how copy…?”

The silence that fills the air cuts through him more than the freezing lands he has reign over.

“Garrick?”

“Ghost, revenants secure, I’m good.” the Sergeant lets out uneasily, “I don’t- haven’t seen Soap, sir.”

He gets up, legs uncooperative, “call for exfil, I’ll look for the Sergeant.”

He hears a shaky breath from Gaz, “Ghost, there might not be a body to find after-”

“He is not. In. Limbo.” Ghost snarls, veins so cold his blood feels frozen.

Johnny isn’t there. He can’t be. He CAN’T.

Ghost almost falls back to the ground, stabilizing himself on a wall.

His breath is heavy and loud, panting like a fucking rabid dog, teeth bared under the skull mask.

He walks forward, in search of a flickering flame, a silly warhawk.

A warm smile to liquefy his blood once more.

Sorry not sorry haha

38 notes · View notes

ro-botany · 7 months

Text

An Attempt at a Semi-Realistic Analysis of Thoron Stab Wounds

Yes, I already made a post about this recently. But in my reply to Ana's musing about the subject of the thoron blade, I largely assumed fire-like behaviour from an electric spell, and it's been itching my brain all day. So let's go over it again:

What would be the effect of getting stabbed with a bolt of electricity? What would that look like if we offered like five more centimeters of realism to this setting?

If you don't read the full post, my conclusions are basically:

If we treat a thoron bolt like a live wire, then even if it's a relatively weak source of electricity, with that entry placement it's instantly arresting breath, causing severe convulsions, and probably killing him in record time.

I don't care that Chrom has the power of god and anime on his side. There is no way in hell he's speaking or controlling his own movements in this moment.

The best interpretation of the thoron blade stabbing is the interpretation that makes the story feel best to YOU. Ignore me and my math if it doesn't spark (hah) any joy or interest for you.

Content warning: Detailed discussion of electrical shock and burns, and descriptions of such.

Classification of Energy Blades

I generally consider the thoron blade to be a subtype of a broader class of fictional weapons I call energy blades. These are your lightsabers, your halo fireblades, things like that.

Most of these weapons tend to behave like sources of pure heat, and most can have their behaviour modelled like a Hot Knife. The weapon is treated as though it has a physical component -- a sharp blade at its center that handles most of the actual cutting or stabbing -- and the fire/plasma/heat is treated as a secondary effect of the weapon. Narratively this is often the more balanced choice, because it means the weapon puts out a reduced amount of heat energy, which means damage is (mostly) contained to the initial wound site and its immediate surroundings. This is how you get instant cauterization weapons.

The other option is the Literal Flame model, which assumes pure heat energy with no physical cutting component. This is rarely, if ever, used in fiction, because it is overpowered. It works a lot like the acetylene torch analogue I used in my reblog of Ana's post. In short, for a volume of heat energy to be capable of "cutting" flesh, it's effectively vaporizing/instantly melting that flesh. That means it's putting out a LOT of energy. For a heat-based weapon, that means massive amounts of burning around the wound site, penetrating way deeper into the surrounding tissue than you expect, and the sheer heat of the air around the weapon causing widespread surface burns.

But the problem with using heat-based models in this instance is that Thoron is not a pure heat-source. Thoron is electricity, and electricity behaves very differently from pure heat. So if our aim is semi-realism, we ought to model it like electricity.

The Behaviour of Electricity

Fictional electric magic -- thoron included -- rarely behaves like real electricity. So, for our purposes, rather than an actual arc of electrical energy, let's model a thoron blade as a source of electricity.

Validar, through Robin, has effectively jammed a live wire directly through Chrom's lung and kidney. What does that do? To talk about that, we need to talk about how electric shocks work.

For electrical current to flow, you need a circuit. For a body to complete a circuit, it needs to contact two points with different voltage levels. A bird sitting on a high voltage wire has two feet touching points of the same voltage, so, voltage difference 0, the bird is safe. Chrom, however, has a live wire stuck through his kidney and feet on the ground; he's forming a circuit between a high voltage wire and the low voltage ground. Big voltage difference, big problem.

Once you get past the outer layer of skin, two things happen when a person is shocked. One, human bodies use electricity to move and to send nerve signals, so any muscles getting shocked will tense up. And two, humans do conduct electricity but don't do it well, which means there's a lot of heat being generated, which means the tissue getting shocked is also getting burned.

The majority of an electrical current will follow the path of least resistance. In this case, that means the shock initially goes from the impalement site, down through the legs, and out the feet. But electricity follows ALL available paths in some amount, so its not one straight line through the body, it does wider damage than that.

So What's The Damage?

Time to do some math!

(I am not an electrician or a doctor; please bear with me)

To my understanding, injury from electricity is a function of current and duration.

According to my sources, the amount of shock current someone experiences can be estimated using Ohm's law. To do this we need to know the voltage we're dealing with... so we're going to have to fudge some numbers here, since we can't actually measure the voltage of fictional magic spells.

Given thoron is a third tier lightning spell I'm going to say it's powerful, but not anywhere near lightning-from-the-sky powerful. I'll ballpark it around the voltage of... well, an electric chair, of the persuasion that kills you. Best I can tell, that means 2000 volts. You could probably reasonably go higher, but this feels intuitive to me.

My sources also tell me that the average internal resistance of the human body, with no skin in the way, is 1000 ohms. Just an average, not accounting for the different resistances of different tissue types and fluids.

So! To get the strength of the shock current Chrom's getting:

I = V/R = 2000 volts / 1000 ohms = 2 amps.

2 amps of current. Chrom is experiencing approximately 2 amps of steady current over 22 seconds.

I know that 2 amps doesn't seem like a big number. I need you to understand, dear reader, that currents that injure and kill humans are measured in milliamps. I need you to understand the sheer magnitude of how bad this is.

0.03 amps of current causes muscle contractions strong enough that you can't let go of the thing shocking you.

0.15 amps is enough to stop your heart, if the current goes through your heart -- which means death. It's enough to stop your breathing if the current goes through your lungs/diaphragm. It's enough to cause your limbs to tense so hard you are physically thrown.

Much more current than that, or current for more than fractions of a second, and you start talking severe burns.

I need you to understand that we have just directed 2000 milliamps of current through most of Chrom's internal organs for 22 entire gods-damned seconds.

Did I pull that voltage completely out of my ass? Yes. But Chrom is getting shocked directly in the organs for 22 fucking seconds so there is literally no voltage we can pick that isn't completely fucking him over. The exact number is just a question of how singed we want him at the end.

I know he has dragon heritage and general anime dude resilience on his side. I know this. But I cannot stress enough the degree to which that is not helping him here. In fact, things like the mild super strength like he has PROBABLY WOULD MAKE IT WORSE because your muscles contract way harder than you normally can contract them when they're being shocked!

No, Really, What's The Damage?

Best as I can tell, based on my limited understanding of electricity and its effects, here's roughly what happens to Chrom upon getting stabbed by the thoron blade when we pretend like this setting is a smidge more realistic than it actually is.

If you do not want to read graphic descriptions of injury this is your final warning to bail out of this post.

The instant the blade impales him, all the muscles from the bolt to his toes constrict. He instantly stops breathing. His legs and abdomen convulse so hard it throws him away from Robin.

He lands on the ground, and now the current isn't just going through his legs; it's going through any part of him that touches the ground, and that, in the end, is what's lethal.

His entire body locks up. Muscles pull as tight as they can go. He's convulsing on the ground, like a seizure, only worse. The skin around the bolt bubbles and chars. It smells like meat burning.

There's a sound like wood snapping as the force of his own writhing muscles fractures his bones.

He doesn't speak. He doesn't even scream.

It's bloodless and quiet. Twenty two seconds is a long time.

If Chrom was lucky, he died quickly. Heat turning blood to jelly, a lick of current stopping the heart, pain so great his brain knocks out of its own accord to spare him.

If being a son of Naga "helped" at all, gave him any resilience past what is human, it only means he was conscious a few seconds longer. Just enough time to be aware of the loss of control and the razor-sharp fire of nerve pain that erases all thought. With luck, not enough time to consciously realise he's dying, or whose fault it is.

Twenty two seconds is a long time.

The exit wounds on his back, on his limbs, on his head, sear, then bubble, then char in places. The damage around the bolt bubbles and blackens out and out and out. Don't think about what that looks like on the inside. The smell of burning flesh is thick enough to choke on.

He's still convulsing and burning long, long past the point of death. It only stops when the bolt fades.

In Conclusion:

The only thing saving us all from trauma around this cutscene is the T for Teen rating.

Validar could you pick literally any other execution method because holy hell. Robin carries a sword. Why didn't you just use THE SWORD, VALIDAR.

If you choose to model the thoron blade as a Hot Knife, or as a Literal Pinpoint Flame, or as either of those with a secondary mild electric shock effect, those are all extremely good options for how to handle this event. They offer an experience closer to canon with a highly variable level of injury severity. Singe the man to your taste, allow last words or don't, pick your level of blood and bad smells, those do it all.

Live Wire, as described in too much detail in this post, may be a marginally more realistic model if you want to treat thoron as a straight up source of electricity. Live Wire is also probably the most horrifying option of the bunch, and the one that offers everybody involved the least closure, which has it's own narrative value.

In the end, this is naught but applying a little too much realism and math to anime video game, because I find that fun. If this doesn't work for you throw it out. Pick whatever interpretation makes the best narrative for YOU. If you are like me and are fascinated by the most horrifying option, welcome, we can feel terrible about this together now.

Electricity is terrifying, never touch an outlet, rest in charred little pieces Chrom, goodnight everybody.

#graphic descriptions of violence #electrocution #fe awakening #chrom #meta #I GUESS???#long post #grimleal studies #this is a lot more math and a lot more words than anyone needed to put into this but *i* had fun #sorry or you're welcome whichever is more applicable #i continue to be allergic to brevity

39 notes · View notes

dailycass-cain · 4 months

Text

Detective Comics #1079 brings a lot of plot points Ram V has been spinning this arc to a head, including the one involving Cass. So here are my thoughts on the penultimate issue.

There's just a fondness I have for this series as THE Batman comic right now. It has an aura of late 90s to early 00s Batman comics spun in a modern angle.

I feel quite at home with this run.

All the protagonists are given their due here. No one is cut short, and we get teased with more entries (because Ram V did say EVERYONE would get their moment and three characters have been quiet until this issue) as the arc reaches its final crossing.

There are a lot of emotional bits here from Lian/Jade's stuff (which feels like we're getting to the final bits for them sadly, which I hope we don't) to the badassery of Azrael (gawd I want more of him in this run).

Then there's Cass's section with Freeze.

It makes complete sense that with Selina's plan in full effect if you haven't figured it out now, that Cass's part was a distraction and an attempt. To get the Orgham distracted so Selina could steal her prize.

It just feels so opposite to what's being presented in Batman and Catwoman comics along with the whole Gotham War debacle, and how rewarding this run is to seeds to prior Ram V runs (Catwoman) and this one.

This is an event done right, with stakes presented as high, villains who are quite imposing, and an emotional rollercoaster ride.

It's said in panels what the Reality Engine does, and we've seen it in action when Bruce tried to stop it. But dammit I SO want to see a story on Cass's struggle against it.

We see it teased in this issue, but a hardened warrior like Cass against this thing? GIMME!

The art here just looks so warped until the predictable occurs. Freeze betrays Cass and Selina's plan. He gets what he wants, and chills out.

Though Selina DID anticipate this, it wasn't her real goal which she does achieve in the issue.

However, I'm curious about what will come with Freeze having access to the Reality Engine and if Cass will have a role in stopping it?

I'm guessing YES.

Though it sort of feels like Cass's role in this arc has come to an end. I mean it feels like it but who knows. That said if it was and this is the final appearance of Cass in 2023.

Dang, I want more Ram V-written Cass goodness, please.

I am curious just how much damage both she and Freeze did as the latter did set off a "freeze bomb" that she escaped from, but there's no telling (until future issues) how the Orgham will recover from this setback.

I'm glad this arc was "bi-weekly". Though, as much kudos I give to the writer, both Jason Shawn Alexander and Liam Sharp deserve so much credit for this arc too. Everything they've drawn in this arc just CLICKS with the writing.

Again, this was another stellar issue, and I can't wait to see where this arc ends. As basically, Selina has won. The question is can she run away with that win or will someone ELSE sneak in? I think the latter might occur.

Look, I know it's highly unlikely but I kind of want a Flamingo vs Cass or Azrael fight. Just two hardened folk going against a foe like Flamingo? Gimme. Let Bruce take on Hurt and finish the Barbatos plot.

Though part of me wonders are Jean Paul and Barbatos linked?

Or even Cass and the Bat Demon?

These just avenues never explored given Jean-Paul did become Batman and is sporting said batty costume in this arc.

This was another fantastic issue on this run and I just wish we'd talk about how AMAZING this series. That and how when this is collected in complete form how KILLER this story will be even more.

#cassandra cain #dc comics #my thoughts

18 notes · View notes

vellaphoria · 11 months

Note

Can I ask about "truth serum or dare" from you WIP list? 👀

it was originally my February YOTP entry which I am very late on lol

Basically: every year, Bruce makes everyone go through something akin to exposure therapy with truth serum. Tim, Dick, Jason, Steph, and Damian have instead turned it into a modified game of truth or dare where you challenge someone to a dare and if they decline, you get to ask them a question, prompting a forced response via truth serum.

Tim usually wins the game with his lying to Batman skills, but Steph is trying to pull of a surprise victory that year by exploiting Tim's crush on Dick.

Long excerpt is below the cut:

Steph glares down at the aerosol canister like it personally broke her dad out of Blackgate, once upon a time.

"I just don't get why we have to do this every six months," she says, tossing the canister from one hand to the other.

Tim shrugs. "Could be worse. Could be every two months. Like the Gotham sewer escape drill."

"Ugh, don't remind me," She grumbles.

"At least it isn't shots anymore. That's one good thing."

There's a knock at the door frame.

"Hey, are you two ready?" Dick asks, poking his head in. He looks a bit… dressed down.

Steph almost laughs at that. While comfortable clothes are probably a good idea for tonight, he's the only vigilante she knows who consistently wears his own merch. Though she’d be lying if she said that he didn’t make the too-tight t-shirt and Nightwing sweatpants look good…

"One sec," Tim says. He holds up the aerosol and promptly sprays himself in the face with it.

“Alright. I think it’s working, but…” He raises an eyebrow at Dick. "You get one free shot. Ask me something."

"Why can't I ask you something?" Steph asks, trying not to sound whiny.

Tim makes a face. "Because you know too much," he says. Which is honest, if uninformative. "Also, that was a question."

She sticks her tongue out at him.

Dick, on the other hand, looks like he's really thinking about it. After a moment, he grins. Wide enough that it can’t mean anything but trouble.

"Who's your favorite vigilante in Gotham?"

"You are," Tim says, apparently before he can think better of it.

Steph gasps in faux-offense. "Rude."

"Hey, he calls it like he sees it." Dick waggles his eyebrows in a way that's exaggerated enough to make Steph laugh.

"Jerk," Tim mutters. Though he smiles as he says it, so he can't be too mad.

He stands up from his seat, putting the aerosol canister back on the counter.

"I think there's an extra one back there if you haven't gotten yours yet," he says.

"Nope, not yet. Thanks for not asking."

It's the tradition, of course, to only ask questions within the game itself or by specific request. Anything other than that counts as cheating, and generally results in automatic disqualification and the offender being made to pick up extra chores from Alfred.

Usually the worst ones. Like scraping bat guano off of various things in the Cave.

“Well, don’t take too long,” Tim says.

Dick doesn't make any particular effort to move out of the way as Tim walks past him, but he does glance down, his eyes tracking him as he leaves.

Is he… staring at Tim's ass?

When he looks back at Steph, he startles like he'd forgotten she was there. Then his expression turns a little guilty. It's confirmation enough that yes, he absolutely was.

Steph feels herself smirking. Because this? This gives her an idea.

This is how she’s going to finally be the one to finally beat Tim at his own game. And there's nothing he's going to be able to do about it.

Apparently her thought process is showing, since Dick raises an eyebrow at her.

"Okay…" he says, "that's a mildly terrifying expression. Do I even want to know what you're thinking?"

"Nope!"

He shakes his head. Then he goes for one of the leftover aerosol containers.

"Well, better get ready. This game isn’t going to lose itself…"

#ask games #jagn answers #gerryrigged

31 notes · View notes

canonicallysoulmates · 1 year

Text

J2 Main Panel Vegascon 2023

The panel starts with Jared revealing that he currently doesn't have an ACL on his left knee. He still did the beginning of the panel jump, can you jump without an ACL? Sure. Should you? Probably not.

Jensen tells him to get that fixed to which Jared replies that he can't get it fixed right now because he's in season.....so Jensen leans over and smells him.....and says that he is.....what in the ABO AU is going on here 💀

Jared is an omega. Confirmed.

I'm moving on from this before I lose my mind....but they've role-played this, I'm just saying.

Anyways, Jared seriously has to deal with that knee because he comments he has to sometimes lift it and put it back which is concerning. And then the conversation turns to when is it too late to be saying Happy New Year, the crowd says February, then Jared asks if everybody can agree that Christmas lights can stay up later than that for ambiance lighting. Some in the crowd say if they're clear or white, someone says all year long- Jensen says you can leave them up all year but turn them off the week after New Years because if you have them on all year then it's not special anymore when you get to turn them on. I agree with that, part of what makes Christmas so special is that it comes around only once a year.

They both went away for the holidays. Jared didn't put up a Christmas tree this year, but according to Jensen D put one up after Thanksgiving while he was filming so the day after they got back he had to take it down and put the whole thing away. And it's one of those trees that put on a light show, and Jared's like "does it dance?" and Jensen says yes...and that it also makes an amazing beef stroganoff. So Jared asks what his favorite stroganoff is, they laugh and he calls Jensen handsome. He's either making a comment about Jensen stroking off or referring to this entry from Urban Dictionary. Either way 😏.

On to questions! When they get nervous or scared during scenes, how do they overcome their fears? Jared asks if there are bears involved which reminds Jensen of a video that he saw of a bear walking down a highway and fixing a traffic cone that had fallen over.

Jensen says he's less fearful of stunt scenes than emotional scenes. For him, stunts are fun he gets to throw himself against a wall or dive over a table or get into a fake fight. Jared says that as far as stunts go at least on spn, and on Walker, in his experience by the time he does a stunt on Walker it's been done multiple times by his stunt coordinator so he feels safe and secure, obviously, something could go wrong no matter what but in his experience, he's been more physically injured on scenes that didn't require a stunt double than on scenes that were like here's where you jump through a window like they did in s4.

Jensen makes the comment that Jared didn't get hurt at all during that scene but ask him to get into the backseat of a car and he rips his scalp off. The story behind that is that during the first episode of s3 there's a scene where the boys have to get into Bobby's car which is a beat-up, two-door Chevelle. Bobby and Dean go in the front seat, and Sam has to hop into the backseat but Jared is not a short person there's not really an elegant way for him to get into this car, he has to pull the lever that moves the seat forward so he can crawl in, and Kim Manners, who was directing the episode, is yelling at him to hurry up that they're supposed to be running from a demon. So he's like all right and starts basically launching himself in the car, and he's banging into everything, and after a couple of takes they're fixing Jared's hair and a clump of his hair comes out and their stylist is freaked but assumes he's losing his hair so she doesn't say anything she just starts coming up with a plan but the next day there's another clump of hair and this one has skin and blood attached and she's like 'wtf???' and she checks Jared's scalp- Jared had been scalping himself on the top of the car every time he jumped in because the window didn't have weather stripping it was exposed metal.

They actually kept that piece of hair as a prop and it's what was used when Sam had to summon a crossroads demon.

To actually answer the question about how they deal with their fears, Jensen says it depends on the situation and what kind of fear it is they're feeling, he says that he and Jared are similar in that when they're doing a scene to some degree there's a focus on what they're doing that's right in front of them and it's like everything else blurs away, and in the two to three minutes they're doing a scene nothing else is being thought off other than playing that character in that moment with whoever else is in that scene, and it's an interesting feeling cause when they yell cut the real world floods back into your mind so it's almost a weird checking out for a couple of minutes and then checking back in.

Jared agrees, and says that for him thinking back on it, he got less fearful as the seasons of SPN went on; he remembers being very nervous during s1 about emotional scenes, some of the stunts, and some of the exposition scenes but then he'd do them and realize it wasn't the end of the world. So there was kind of a life lesson there for him, and probably for Jensen as well, to just do it, just do their best. That's all you can do and that's something he has gradually accepted and it has helped.

Jensen brings up the saying "do something every day that scares you" and he thinks the lesson in that is that the more you push yourself and do things that give you pause the better at it that you'll be so he thinks if there is something that scares you or something you're hesitant about trying, whatever that might be, the more you can do it the easier it will become. x

When they go back to Van is there somewhere they always try to eat or somewhere they always try to go back to? Jared answers yes, Gotham, and Cioppino's for sure. Jensen agrees, he says over the years there are certain favorite restaurants they've had but at this point when they go to Van they want to go see people that they miss so he'd rather go sit at the dining table of one of their crew member's houses than a restaurant. x

If Sam and Dean kept a journal like John did what would be their top hits in terms of drawings and what they would put into it ie. monsters and hunts? Jared says that in Sam's journal, Ruby would probably be dog eared. Jensen quips that it would say "don't fall for the first one, wait for the second one to come along"....there's something kinda snarky about that *snort*

Jensen says Wendigo would be one of the top ones, number one would be yellow-eyed demon. Jared says he didn't start his journal until after they killed Azazel, so it would be Ruby, Lucifer, maybe Gadriel/Ezekiel. Someone in the crowd mentions soulless!Sam which Jensen says would be in Dean's journal. Vampires, Chuck, Leviathans- someone mentions fairies, Jensen says that would just be one page with three words "fight the fairies" and maybe at the bottom it would just say microwave. x

What is Jensen's insight toward demon!Dean's indifference towards Baby? Jensen answers that he thinks it was demon!Dean's indifference towards just about anything that's what kind of made him a demon that he didn't care about humans or anything in the human world except maybe karaoke. That it was more just a general indifference towards anything although that's a hard one to be indifferent about even if you are a demon. And he will say that it must have been really painful for Dean to watch this demon take his vessel and then not care about the car, that it was tough on him, and it was hard to play. I get what he's saying but I genuinely don't know if he just worded this weirdly or if he forgot that demon!Dean wasn't a possession. x

The next fan is having a birthday re-do because the previous year was supposed to be a milestone birthday but they broke their back - ouch - so they want to know if the boys have any suggestions. Jared jokes "don't break your back again" and Jensen says that he thought for sure Jared was gonna say "we're glad you're back" 😂

Jensen asks the fan what are some of the things they were looking forward to that they didn't get to do last year, the fan replies she missed conventions, some trips, concerts, and wasn't able to drive for 7 months. So Jensen's suggestion is that she gets in a car and drive to all the cities where the bands that she likes are playing, go to those concerts, and stop by some of the conventions the boys are doing. x

What do they think is the worst thing Sam and Dean ever did? And (in the fan's opinion) why was it leaving Adam in the cage? Jared offers up for consideration that the boys never really had Adam, that he thinks if they had they would have done their damnedest but he thinks instead Sam and Dean kind of had to go into hunter mode. He and Jensen, and he thinks probably everyone else, wanted a win like that for the brothers but like many things, in their lives, it came with a big asterisk of bad news. Supernatural was comedic at times but it was also kind of tragic, nothing ever really went just right for the boys, they were always waiting for the other shoe to drop and when it did it was heartbreaking. So, he thinks the boys did the right thing with Adam, as horrible as it sounds. But he doesn't think Sam needed to spend so much time with Amelia. He thinks he would have gone after his brother a bit earlier. Agreed! 💯.

Years later and I still hate that storyline.

Jensen says the worst thing Dean probably did is not dodge a little stick of rebar. x

If they had the opportunity to be cast as a villain or as a superhero what would they choose, or what would they like to be? Jensen replies he kind of got to do both he was a superhero and kind of a villain and he says kinda because in Soldier Boy's mind he was not bad. He was the hero of his own story. He asks the fan if they mean a certain universe like Marvel or DC, fan replies if he had the opportunity to do something else in addition to Soldier Boy. Jensen says even though he does get to voice him he would be Batman. And villain wise he doesn't think he'd ever want the job but the Joker. But he states again that's not a road he'd like to go down.

Jared says he's not super interested in exploring the superhero kind of journey and tropes and archetypes he would love to play a villain maybe like Elon Musk 🤣 He doesn't have a specific villain picked out but he likes psychological mind games so it would be something in that line. x

Do both of them have new works in the pipeline? Jared says he doesn't, that Walker Independence finished filming s1 they still have a couple episodes to air, and they are still shooting Walker s3. Because Jared referred to Walker Independence as Windy Jensen got confused and thought Jared was announcing he was doing something with the restaurant Wendy's 😆

Jensen says he has a few things coming this year, the first few months of the year are pretty busy for him with multiple projects. And he just signed a deal that he can't talk about yet but it will probably be press released soon and that will lead to some stuff in development 👀

If the roles were reversed in Mystery Spot and it had been Dean who had to watch Sam die, how long would it have taken Dean to figure it out and what would have Gabriel been trying to teach him? Jensen answers it would have taken Dean much longer because he would have started to enjoy himself knowing he doesn't have the consequences of tomorrow and that could last for some time before he decides he's bored of that and should probably fix the situation he's in. And he doesn't know if there would necessarily need to be a lesson maybe 'get your head out of your ass' or 'don't eat tacos' to which Jared points out he would be the one eating tacos but Jensen says maybe that's the lesson be careful with what you eat and that leads back to the Wendy's comment from the last question, and they plan a Wendy's commercial on the spot. WENDY'S MARKETING WHERE YOU AT? Also, Jensen makes the joke that they're announcing their new advertising company J&J Ads and that is actually a damn good name for an advertising company. x

The next is a question and a surprise! A fan proposes to their girlfriend on stage (they propose at the mic, the boys invite them on stage), and she says yes! Congrats to the happy couple and the dude does not lose the opportunity he asks Jensen if he would sing at their wedding. Jensen says if he has an opportunity- and the dude says Oct 7th. The man came prepared! Jensen says to let him know and if he can he would love to sing at their wedding. 💍

The next fan is a middle school teacher and they want to know what kind of middle school boys were they and do they have any advice for her middle schoolers? Jared starts to say that he thinks he was actually a decent middle school kid and Jensen immediately goes "I was not". He says, "avoid having your parents called in the middle of the night by the police department two counties over".

That he could sneak out and be gone forever but nowadays with technology most middle schoolers have phones, apple watches, tracking devices- you can't get away with the kind of stuff that he would get away with back in the day so he would say don't do that but you're still young enough where it could be fun.

Jared gives a serious answer and says his kids go to therapy and one time they were talking with their kid's therapist and they said that there's an interesting way to pose a question to a child. If you need to ask something serious it is wise to lead it by telling them: [name of the child] I'm going to ask you a few questions and just so you know I already know the answer to some of these questions, and then you ask your question, like did you paint the wall? Because sometimes you have to ask kids things and they just need to admit it but their instinct because they're defensive is to go "no". And this is something he'll go through with his kids he'll ask them something like "did you leave your laundry on the floor?" and they instinctually go "no".

Jensen says he would say this to middle schoolers as well as high schoolers: you only get one go around with that experience so try to get as much out of it as you possibly can. One of the reasons he's on stage today is because he had somebody in his high school life encourage him to try out for the spring play; you should try as much as you possibly can cause you never know what doors it may open so he would encourage middle schoolers and high schoolers to try to expand as much of their experience within that space as they possibly can cause who knows where that might lead, try to get as much of what that portion of your life can offer cause it's a lot.

Honestly, I would say that's great life advice in general because there's no age limit to learning and/or expanding your experiences and trying new things. x

The next question comes from a fan who has yet to watch the finale and they want to know if they should. The answer from both of them is, yes. Jared thinks it's worth it, even though it is difficult to watch. Jensen says that the reason we watch these shows and we follow these characters and these storylines is that they draw emotion out of us and it's an escape from life, we get to go on this journey with these two brothers and experience what that story and that journey is through them so he thinks by not watching the final episode you're robbing yourself of the emotional journey we got to go through.

Jared concurs and adds to remember that it's the final episode of SPN but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the last episode of SPN. x

When is the third Radio Company album coming out? As soon as it's finished. It's currently being mastered so hopefully by the end of this month if not then he would assume in February. x

If they could have had anyone guest star on the show who would it have been and who or what would they have played? Jared replies Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum, and conversations were had about possibly having them on the show, they also tried to get Stephen Amell on the show- they tried to be on a different show where they go into town and kill two vampire brothers, he's referring to the Vampire Diaries and he's mentioning Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder who played the Salvatore brother's are both friends and he was with them when they did a VD convention and a Vampire Diaries Convention🤣

He would have loved to have Milo on the show- Jensen says they're more likely to pick friends of theirs because what they get to do is a lot of fun when they have people that have fun with them. That's a large reason why a lot of the faces you see on Walker and Winchesters, or even up on the stage are familiar faces because they want to continue working with the people that they like, they want to continue playing with people that enjoy playing. x

Also, there was a cute moment before the question was asked because the fan mentioned that her husband took them on a family trip and they got to go to Jensen's brewery, Family Business, and Jared asks if it was a family trip or a business trip, and Jensen slightly shakes his head and says he could it hear too, he could hear Jared thinking up that joke then he turns, looks at Jared, who's all proud of himself, and fondly goes "you're such an idiot" as he turns back around and bursts into laughter. I swear this man is the biggest fan of Jared's stupid jokes 💕

Last question! Is there a song they’ve heard so many times that they’re sick of listening to it? For the fan the song is Firework by Katy Perry, Jensen comments he went through a Firework phase he had to listen to it every time he got the kids to school and it was awful.

Jared says Baby Shark, also comments that he thinks a lot of the songs on the radio right now he doesn't love listening to on a regular basis- the fan mentions Let It Go but Jared likes it, Jensen has listened to it a million times. There's a song by Shawn Mendes that JJ makes Jensen listen to all the time but he can't remember what it is, and then at the end, Jensen takes a shot at Maroon 5 saying that they'll continue to weather those storms in the car when listening to songs they don't like incessantly or even bands that they don't like *pretend cough* Maroon 5. x

J2 Main Panel Vegascon 2023

#j2 tinhat #honestly both panels were really good #that question about the album reminds me i have yet to watch jensen's concert i really have to do that this week #mine #noniwtv

59 notes · View notes

actualaster · 1 year

Text

Okay, I got curious about how the "lloyd shipping dynamics" pie chart got broken down since I knew there were more Lloyd ships than just those in that specific chart, so I decided to check it out for myself. Wondered if maybe they didn't have any fic on AO3, or if there was some other reason to exclude them (plenty of reasons for that depending on the type of data you wanna look at--like if you only look at pairs not trios, or if you only want to know about ships that have more that one fic and such)

I did try to do a pie chart but no matter what I did, some fics just... Never were displayed because it could only display so many entries (especially when they were tiny %) that the smallest slices just.. Got excluded. I tried.

I was also curious how it would break down if you took into account the fact that ship tags are not mutually exclusive and thus fics can have multiple ship tags on them. Why are there two sets of numbers here? The first is "the % calculated comparing the ships to the fics. The second is pure ships. Basically first being "this is what % of the fics are tagged with these ships" the second is "this is what % of the total ships each one makes up".

Anyway, the data and some extra details about what data was collected and how and such below the cut.

Basic takeaways: Colloyd, Zelloyd, and Kralloyd are the Top 3, but Lloyd gets shipped around a bit, with 10 different canonical character's he's shipped with (either via a single pairing or as part of a trio) and several OC ship fics. Popular guy!

First breakdown, what % of the surveyed fics are tagged with each ship?

Colette: 55.30%

Zelos: 33.06%

Kratos: 6.03%

Sheena: 2.08%

Genis: 1.66%

Colette/Lloyd/Zelos: 1.66%

Yuan: 0.83%

Kvar: 0.62%

OC: 0.62%

Colette/Lloyd/Genis: 0.42%

Lloyd/Sheena/Zelos: 0.42%

Genis/Lloyd/Mithos: 0.21%

Kratos/Lloyd/Yuan: 0.21%

Lilia: 0.21%

Lloyd/OC/Sheena: 0.21%

Lloyd/OC/Zelos: 0.21%

Presea: 0.21%

Second breakdown, what % of the total ships does each one represent?

Colette: 53.2%

Zelos: 31.8%

Kratos: 5.8%

Sheena: 2.0%

Genis: 1.6%

Colette/Lloyd/Zelos: 1.6%

Yuan: 0.8%

Kvar: 0.6%

OC: 0.62%

Colette/Lloyd/Genis: 0.4%

Lloyd/Sheena/Zelos: 0.4%

Genis/Lloyd/Mithos: 0.22%

Kratos/Lloyd/Yuan: 0.2%

Lilia: 0.2%

Lloyd/OC/Sheena: 0.2%

Lloyd/OC/Zelos: 0.2%

Presea: 0.2%

I'd be curios how this would change if I included data from sites like FFN, honestly. Or even if I could find some old archives with ToS fic, or maybe DA, or possibly even Wattpad? Mostly because I wonder how many ships I'd find that didn't make it to AO3 (there's at least one lloyd/mithos fic on FFN, for example). However the sheer amount of work that would be to compile the data across multiple sites and try to correct for cross-posting gives me a headache just thinking about so. Lol nope, not happening.

Moving on to info about the data collection, and such...

First up, some base info on the data gathered:

481 fics total, 500 tagged ships total.

All from AO3

Data taken as of March 10th, 2023. Uh... Let's say 7am, -6GMT.

Data was gathered manually by going through AO3's entire 1,461 and manually tallying things up. (Including repeated checks to make sure no new or updated fic posting messed with stuff)

By this I mean "I had a sheet of paper and color-coded the tally marks as I went so I could check every 10 pages that I was getting everything I wanted to include and my math was adding up

(...I still have the feeling I overlooked a few but at this point I've spent way too much time on this already for an informal survey so.)

Counting by hand ensured that I didn't overlook ships for not thinking about them (Kvar/Lloyd, a few of the trio combinations).

(Fun story: I discovered that the Lloyd/Lilia tag, if you click on it, points to the Lloyd/OC tag which is incorrect. For those who don't know, Lilia is a canonical minor character from Dawn of the New World, the sequel game. In DotNW it's revealed that Lloyd proposed to her. It makes some sense in context but yes it's still weird, and yes the fandom had an understandable fuss about it at the time. Also, yes people are still annoyed by it.)

ANYWAY. Moving on from that... For a fic to be included, it needed to meet the following two criteria

Ship must be tagged in the relationships field. So adding a ship in the additional tags field would not get it counted.

Ship was a romantic and/or sexual pairing.

Some additional notes on that:

Ship was marked as implied, mentioned, or any other indication it was not a major focus but was still tagged in the relationship field: included

Ship was indicated as one-sided: included

Ship included a ship event (e.g. a ship week) but did not include a ship tag in the relationship field: excluded

Additional tags made it ambiguous if the author intended for a fic to be considered romantic, sexual, familial, and/or platonic: excluded

Furthermore, no fic was excluded due to content--so you have the fluff-fests and the fucked up darkfic all included in the above data.

Honestly if I were to do something like this again I did learn several things that would make it go smoother, but at this point I have spent over 30 hours over the last... IDK, 2.5 days or so? on what started as idle curiosity because my brain got locked into an obsession spiral and refused to let me drop it so I'm not going to go through and try to do this again anytime soon. At least not unless it's for a fandom with a hell of a lot less fic lol.

Anyway, based on my own data stuff I assume that OP of the pie chart actually used ships for their sample size, not fics because that was the only way I was able to get close to reproducing their results when looking at those ships only? Not something that matters much in this case, however--they did their math based on ships and it all checked out so.

#tales of symphonia #lloyd irving #shipping #lengthy post #sorry no fancy pie chart everything i tried kept eating a few of the ships #tos #anyway that's enough math for the year now i think

39 notes · View notes

lilbreck · 10 months

Text

ST:TOS 104 - The Naked Time

Daughter: AKA: “The Mostly Clothed Time”

The episode opens with a voice over talking about how they’re supposed to be picking up a scientific party, then when they discover the scientists are dead… no reaction. I mean, they could have scanned the planet for life (they apparently can do that according to The Man Trap), but Kirk didn’t mention that in his Captain’s Log and Spock later informs Kirk from the planet’s surface that all station personal are dead. Yes, I’m irrationally irritated by this. Don’t worry, there’s a lot I’m irrationally irritated by in this episode, and I plan to make that everyone’s problem. 😉

My daughter and I both had a laugh over the beekeeper protective suits that Spock and Tormolen were wearing. I mean, the hood portion was open at the bottom, so it was basically useless. I’m also unsure how both weren’t freezing. Sidenote: apparently, these costumes were made from shower curtains. It shows.

Now, let’s talk about the mannequin. The one that is very obviously a store mannequin and not a dead body. When noting the awkward body proportions, my daughter and I both came to the same conclusion:

That mannequin died in a beaming accident! Now, granted, my daughter and I may be the only ones who see this, but it will not leave our heads.

Now listen, I would complain that a scientist would never casually remove his glove in a potentially contaminated area, touch random surfaces and then his face, and then casually put his glove back on, but I’ve actually worked with scientists. Scientists and doctors can be some of the grossest/careless people when it comes to those kinds of things. It’s either that or they’re verging on germaphobia. Not a lot in between.

It’s hilarious that, right after Tormolen (Joe) gets his glove back on, Spock comes in and says, “Be certain we expose ourselves to nothing.” He’s just a bit late on that one. Also, his deadpan delivery of “It’s like nothing we’ve dealt with before” just has me rolling and I’m not sure why. Especially since they really don’t have a lot of information on what happened. For all they know (given that they haven’t really analyzed anything yet) they all could have been drugged.

Was it a contractual obligation to have random dramatic close-ups of Kirk, or was this just really a thing in the 60s? As much as I could take or leave Kirk as a character and Shatner as an actor, the close-ups of him are all stunning.

I want to touch all the bubbly looking buttons and such on that transporter console.

Given that Spock had to physically restrain Joe from stepping off the transporter, it is very obvious that the Enterprise (and probably Starfleet by extension) does not have a decontamination procedure. Honestly, the transporter room itself should be a decon room with the engineers working in a separate booth that does not share an entry/exit with the transporter room. Everyone should automatically be scanned upon beaming up (and down for extra safety). Now, this would not have really helped in this case, unless the computer kept a record of each crewman’s biosignatures to compare against how they are when they beam up.

I may have put a bit too much thought into this.

And another thing…

There was no cleaning/sterilizing/decontaminating of this bed between patients. I’m also failing to see how it’s only reading the patient when both medical personal are leaning on the damn thing. And what is the actual biological reasoning behind having Vulcan pulse rates be so high? I’ve seen people trip over themselves to give in depth theories on how this could be possible… but I’m of the mind that it was just a “see how alien he is?” that they threw in. I told you there was a lot I was irrationally irritated about.

My daughter and I were both rolling our eyes at the casual xenophobic insult McCoy threw at Spock. My daughter files that under “highly unprofessional.” However, I choose to believe it was just two friends ribbing each other.

Joe is absolutely losing it, but the way that Kirk handles the situation reminds me that, although I’m “meh” on him as a character, he does have his subtle moments of showing he’s a very good leader. Also, if Kirk is not a bi/pan hot mess, then why is he always giving men these sultry looks?

Ooh, sidenote, both my daughter and I theorize that everyone wears those black undershirts except Kirk. It’s either that, or every time his Cheapfleet issued shirt gets torn, he just happens to not be wearing it that day.

Here, have a random cap with Chapel in it. I know we usually think of her as being blonde, but her hair is silver here, and in a very… interesting hair style. Does the Enterprise have a ship hairstylist?

Now I get that polywater intoxicates people, but why sweating? It’s possible that sweating is a normal side-effect of being drunk and I’m just weird in that I don’t. Anything is possible. Either way, Joe is an angry/self-hating drunk. Speaking of drunks, let’s talk about what kind of drunk each of the other named crew members are, shall we?

Riley is the flirty drunk who will serenade you, your dog, and your grandma. Sulu is the drunk who will try to lead you on an epic adventure.

Chapel is the horny/romantic drunk who is (obviously) prone to declaring her love and sighing wistfully. Spock is that drunk girl crying in the bathroom.

And Kirk? He seems to be a very angry and bitter drunk. Not cute.

I would just like to note that this “respirator” attaches to nothing. I know, advanced technology and everything… but it still makes me laugh. As does this device that could be a blowtorch, cordless hand vacuum, or lord knows what.

Behold, Sulu hotness. Given the sweat, it’s hotness in more ways than one. Also, Sulu has pockets!

Uhura, as per usual, is absolutely divine. Also… I kinda ship this as well.

Given how sweaty Sulu was, both Kirk and Spock (and Uhura) should be infected at this point. In fact, I choose to believe Spock is, and that’s why he seems to exhibit symptoms so quickly after Chapel touches him.

Behold: a child’s crude drawing of Texas. An artist Scotty is not. Nor, it seems, is he very safety conscious. He really should try some eye protection.

Rand, once again, being harassed. Not gonna lie, I was scared we were gonna get creeper!Chapel here. Thank goodness she’s not that kind of drunk.

This moment here with Kirk and Uhura snapping at each other and then apologizing and smiling? I love it. I also think it’s a sign that they’re already infected. I don’t care what the episode tries to say, they touched Sulu’s sweaty skin, so they’re infected.

I think this is the only unrequited relationship I have ever really shipped. I love this tragically doomed-in-romance Chapel, even while I’m hoping that it’s one of the things they change about her Strange New Worlds.

During the fight scene between Kirk and an obviously infected Spock, my daughter was chanting “Slap fight! Slap fight!” repeatedly. Yes, she giggled near uncontrollably and I was amused.

What I do find interesting, and what never seems addressed, is that Spock just… randomly recovers. At first slowly, then he’s pretty much recovered when Scotty comes in.

I like how, during Kirk’s speech here, he talks both about how he’s very much noticed Rand, and he displays his resentment for and devotion to the Enterprise. For all that I can see why people ship Kirk with various other characters, I can’t see him ever choosing any of them over the ship. He’s very much married to it, in my opinion. Hell, he even told that ship that he would never lose it.

I would just like to state that there is absolutely no reason they had to wait for Kirk to get to the bridge. He did absolutely nothing except tell them “engage,” which a randomly no-longer affected Spock could have done from engineering and got them out of it that much sooner. However, we would then no longer have had these dramatic scenes:

End notes:

Daughter: I headcanon that Chapel collects wigs and, in this episode, admits that even she doesn’t know what she sees in Spock. Spock crying in this episode was unsettling and it’s possible that they have a shirt-ripping quota. Also, in the future, men wear space-heels!

Me: One thing I keep forgetting about this episode, but which is important, is that it helped establish the idea of time travel in the Star Trek universe. I’m not sure if that was for the better or worse, but it did establish it.

End of episode tallies (details by daughter)

Unprofessional Behavior: 02 (Joe taking off his glove and scratching his nose on a planet where causes of death are unknown, McCoy insulting Spock. All other instances are either under the influence or life-or-death situations.) Total: 07

Starfleet Are Cheapskates: 01 (Kirk’s shirt tore. Again. Apparently, this is going to be a running theme.) Total: 03

Reasons Why Enterprise Needs a Counselor: 02 (Joe’s breakdown, Sulu and Riley witnessing his suicide attempt) Total: 04

Early Episode Weirdness: 00 (Nothing here, to my knowledge) Total: 05

In The Future, We Like It Retro: 01 (mentions of tapes) Total: 02

We Should Have a Rule for That: 02 (The lack of standard biohazard procedures are why this episode happened. There’s also a lack of eye protection when sawing through the wall. Nothing happens, but it could have. Mom blames Kirk for that one.)

#star trek #star trek: the original series #tonya watch along #star trek: tos

7 notes · View notes

theluxuriansecret · 3 months

Text

Diary Entry 02092024

Dear Diary,

SO much has happened since the last time I wrote. I hate that I have kinda fallen off from writing but honestly, I only ever want to use my computer at my dsk and I never wanna sit here though LOL. But today I am feeling really good, fresh sheets on my bed, clean room, freshly showered, i feel really good right now. I don't know where to start really so I guess i'll just start with news thats not really news.

One, I'm still unemployed *palm to face*. I'm not going to lie I haven't sent in a job application in like a week because so many of these jobs are not real, they're already filled, I'm getting a bunch of rejections. It's a bit much I'm not gonna lie. I DID have a job interview yesterday because a previous interview that I had, the interviewer liked me so much and was like "yes, you didn't get this job, but I really like you and I think you'd make a great fit in our company somewhere, jus not here" basically. I think it went well, but I'm not going to hold a high flame to it this time. I am applying to these government job that was recommended to me. It's a job I guess. Sometimes I wonder why I'm not super ambitious, but truly it's for someone else. I don't care about all that stuff, not that I'm not a good worker or hard worker; there is simply more to life than work.

OKAY here it is. I am excited about this one. I have a boyfriend. WOAH I know, I can't believe I didn't lead with that, I had to get all the boring shit out of the way first. SO, I have written about this guy before. He was actually a guy I had a crush on around a year ago and ended up sleeping with in October. Turns out sleeping with a guy really doesn't stop him from liking you. Some of them just really don't like you, OUCH! That's alright though. Things are going so well with him and honestly I don't want to jinx it. But this shit is truly something I only thought I could have in a fairytale. He lets me be me. He understands I am a human. He understands I have dreams and goals and wishes outside of him. I have hobbies, I have friends, I have a life; he is not my world, I am my world. He lets me be and I love it. Our chemistry is other worldly and our connection is truly something I have never experienced before. In our conversation it's like we manifested each other. AS we got to know each other as friends and were working on ourselves, we found our way back to each other and deepen our connection. Last night I realized I really love him. I love him so much. He's wonderful. I mean I have always loved him, obviously in a friendly was. As a friend, I adore him; I did then and I do now, even more. This time around I love him, I really do. We both recognize that we are always growing and changing and that we need to work through things together as a team, as a partnership, and what makes it better is that he is a really easy person to talk to.

Last week I decided i was going to go se him because there was no way I could wait for our original date to se each other. He lives 4 hours away now, but this ain't my first rodeo. So, instead of waiting two months I drove down to where he lives and spent like two days with him, in that he did tis really cute Valentine's day thing for me and it was wonderful, got me flowers, chocolate, wrote me a card. It was so sweet and I loved it. Our time together was just mazing, nothing felt weird or awkward, it felt how it usually does, just with more love honestly. He took care of me the whole time, something I have never experienced before, and wow. i do just love him. (Which I have not said, or will say until I see him face to face honestly, but honestly want him to say first LOL)

I spoke on the phone with one of my besties yesterday and she is silently going through a lot right now, and I'm going to do my best in supporting her through it as much as I can. She struggles with substance abuse and she's entered a new relationship with a 30 year old insecure ass man. He is insecure about EVERYTHING. Mind you this girl is a Sagittarius, you can not be insecure dealing with a sag. I feel for her though, and I'm glad that she sees me as a confidant. I'm glad that she is able to trust me and really share with me her very ral struggles.

OH btw I am going to Miami in March and I'm very excited! Real first trip with no parents, my girls, and a beach AHHHH. I'm mad excited. (I REALLY WANT A JOB THOUGHHHH)

That's all I got for now though. Till next time xoxo

SOTD: Such a Thing by Alex Isley + Jack Dine

#dear diary #online diary #journal #secret diary #journaling #secret journal #2024 #love #romance #new relationship #boyfriend #healing is not linear

2 notes · View notes

transingthoseformers · 7 months

Note

I am now thinking so much about dynamic changes that could happen now. Pre-Megatron but Megatron having to deal with the aftermath when he gets on about the rogue mnemosurgeon in the locked medbay room. Which makes me think that setup ends differently with Drift returning more quickly (Pre-Megatron?).

So this is their last journey before they arrive for Dark Cybertron that builds in the background only to explode post-Tyrest with the Lost Light Ratchet leading going after Drift because Ratchet ran off. The Tyrest Incident accelerates it and leads to more explosions of tension.

Maybe even a cryptic comment from Pharma about Ratchet not noticing what had been done to him.

Other contenders for change:

Sunstreaker having nightmares and having memories of his brother, Ironhide, and Bob get fuzzy and is convinced someone broke into his berthroom. Something proven when Bob gets a chunk of the mech and becomes growling and protective and Sunstreaker does NOT take kindly to someone else messing with his brain after what has happened to him. He is extra furious because the image of what happened is blurred, and like in TCaTC, Chromedome isn't using traditional entry points. He is an early proponent of the cospiracy that something is happening.

Rodimus is only attacked once and has nightmares of Nyon, and reacts instinctively and burns Chromedome. It leads him to being in a bit of a negative loop.

Rung is atrempted, and it knocks memories loose instead, and now he is dreaming about four siblings and is strangely standing out.

Ambulon, interestingly, doesn't remember Pharma, who wasn't close to him but promoted and treated him mostly fairly and until the rather ridiculous last hour frame attempt was his best boss who recognized his skills and reacted accordingly. This ironically saves his life and leads to Pharma inspecting them and laughing because Ratchet didnt notice. He is a little gleeful as he sees this as proof. First Aid doesn't kill him so Pharma is in the brig and it takes everyone a long time to approach him and find out Pharma has mostly reverted to a newbuild because Ratchet was such an important part of his life the only memories left were Tarn and suffering so he only has vague memories of being born, learning, some of Delphi which are again fractured and unclear more a vague idea of patients and surgeries and knowing who Ambulon/First Aid is, and a boogeyman of Tarn and his voice and now being "safe" on the Lost Light. He doesn't remember the Red Rust because Ratchet was too tied to the resolution so itvwas deleted in an attempted defrag

Pharma basically thinks his life is birth -> training -> assignment to Delphi which conflats his early residency and Delphi memories so he doesn't know he was in charge and has concluded Ambulon was -> The DJD attacking (?) -> Tarn = Suffering -> a disease (?) -> being "rescued" (mixes Tyrest and his arrest) -> staying in the brig and a sharp pain

He assumes he is isolated due to a disease quarantine and is generally calm and friendly and eager to impress. His brain may have suppressed/deleted a bit more than intended defensively.

Exactlyyyy (does this mean Optimus doesn't drag a mnemosurgeon to somewhat threaten Megatron into fessing up memories "for evidence", or does this mean he drags in someone else?)

I feel like just the idea of having a rogue mnemosurgeon on the ship definitely freaks Megs out, especially considering how confined to the ship he is and how strict the conditions of his time there are. Honestly I'm surprised we don't get MORE angst regarding Megatron and Chromedome doing his mnemosurgery thing, PTSD is a bitch like that.

Ohhoh yes just imagine him stepping on the LL and one of the first people he meets is Deadlock Drift.

Yessss yess this is a far more extended process than the other Events, and Pharma totally gets to call that out (probably because those two probably did have good memories at some point, and well we know what happens to good memories here. But also because the personality changes)

Tyrest typically tends to not help situations yeeaaahhhh

Plus like in The Cop And The Cryptid, not using the traditional entry points has a chance of ~effects~ on the doctor as well as the victim patient.

dAMN RODDIE W, okay that makes perfect sense considering Rodimus's outlier ability and based on what I know of Rodimus... He's already hiding so much heavy shit under a smile and perky attitude.

Interesting result there on Rung, as Chromedome's attempt to shadowplay him actually leads to him remembering more rather than less (though from what I remember of Rung these new vague memories are liable to start fucking with him.)

Oh wow yes that's interesting because it also demonstrates how different Pharma was before shit started going sideways regarding the deal with Tarn and the t-cogs from only the thoroughly damned weren't enough. Super fucking interesting how this changes how Ratty, Aid, and Ambi INTERACT with Pharma and how their side of the Tyrest incident is affected.

So Pharma is basically starting from scratch, hmm. Took all of them but one person a long time to approach him, it seems. Chromedome's attacks are messy, and it's really showing with Pharma. He's rather confused, and I think this says a lot about what the situation on Delphi was like pre Red Rust too as again that was merely the straw that broke the camel's back as the noose that was his deal with Tarn grew tighter. And the fact that because he's missing some of the pieces so he's attaching the ones he does have to the wrong places? Yes. Exactly.

This is why shadowplay scares me so much. This had to have been such a left turn for the rest of the LL crew as far as Pharma is concerned and there will be so many consequences.

#maccadam #transformers #whole lot of guys #but especially #mtmte chromedome #Chromedome is moving damn fast #i can imagine megatron being more paranoid in the beginning of his stay in this timeline because the rogue mnemosurgeon thing #because even though CD is locked in the medbay Megs is seeing the results of shadowplay right in front of him and better safe than sorry #and like we know Megatron's attempted shadowplay still affected him neurologically even if it didn't wipe all of the intended memories #that's another thing i think about is the physical neurological effects of mnemosurgery like we see in TCaTC #it's fucked uppppp #lose all your senses au

6 notes · View notes

tailsrevane · 1 year

Text

ships i ship the hardest

one of the things i've always loved about tumblr, and a big part of why i'm so happy to be back, is that (and yes i know i'm dating myself here) it feels like a spiritual successor to livejournal. and frankly, i fucking miss livejournal something fierce.

so it seems like a bit of a waste to just reblog stuff & write the same reviews of media i've been writing wherever my online presence has existed for the last half decade or so. it's about time i get into that really cringe bullshit that i always used to post on livejournal. and this seems like exactly the kind of thing I woulda posted on there back in the day.

cringe is dead, long live cringe.

now, just to set some limitations on myself so this post doesn't become totally unreasonable (just reasonably unreasonable), i'm going to make a genuine effort to limit myself to one entry per show/game/whatever (i fully reserve the right to just flagrantly ignore this limitation when i so choose). i will also mostly focus on couples rather than just putting all my favorite characters in a giant polycule. cool? cool.

(cw: some of these characters will have canon age gaps and/or are minors in some canons, just assume there's an element of au-ification or time skipping here. cool? cool.)

sontails

my profile on every social media site used to include "and yet, be it cruel or comforting, this machine unerringly writes sontails angst & fluff. that's what it does." so, yeah.

i also happen to believe that they're in a big ol' gay polycule with shads & knux, and recently i've especially had QUITE A FEW THOUGHTS about shadtails (do i share that fic here? hmm. i'll think about it.)

but yeah. for me, sontails has always been the central relationship of this franchise, even before I shipped it. i got super annoyed when the franchise did dumb shit like when sonic x gave chris almost exclusively emotional beats that should've gone to tails, or when sonic unleashed gave sonic a substitute sidekick (ok tbf i was already a shipper by the time i played unleashed), or just the games increasingly deemphasizing their relationship in general.

but, yeah. probably needless to say, this one is super important to me.

godzilla/mothra

godzilla is a bratty bottom, mothra smacks him around every now & then when he gets out of line. this is just canon.

riker/worf

a lot of this is just the fact that frakes' charisma is totally off the charts, and riker is such an outspokenly openminded dude that you can kind of imagine that literally every single conversation he has with a sentient, physically compatible, appropriately-aged character has a non-zero chance of ending with them in bed. he's like a non-predatory kirk. just total throwback pulp-inspired sexually adventurous explorer dude.

and as worf is canonically his best friend, and we see several instances of them sharing a deep, emotional bond, it's kind of hard NOT to at least see possibilities for shipping here.

what really cemented this for me was when we got to season 2 in our most recent tng rewatch. this is a season that early on features riker being extremely excited to serve aboard a klingon ship as part of an officer exchange (to learn about his boyfriend's culture!), and closes with the scene i screencapped at the top of this entry of riker making worf his first officer during the wargames. also somewhere in there riker joins worf on the holodeck for his klingon calisthenics program. they just do everything together, it's so sweet.

also worf dating troi towards the end of tng & riker having clearly had a fling with dax in thomas riker's ds9 appearance really put the icing on this polycule. it's basically just canon. if picard season 3 doesn't give these two some good moments together it's gonna have some 'splainin' to do.

catdora

yes, yes, i'm being boring and shipping a canon couple. here's the thing, though. i literally started watching this show because i knew the central protagonist & antagonist were canonically gay for each other and i'm sorry but i fucking love that shit.

every time catra captures or beats up adora i feel squirmy. and then catra shows up to princess prom in a messy tux and homoerotically/threateningly dances with adora culminating in dipping her??? and guys, my little gay heart can't take it. it's too yummy. HELP.

but then season 5 happens and there's that agonizing apology AND THE RESCUE??? where a swordless adora nevertheless transforms into she-ra THROUGH SHEER FORCE OF GAY WILL & GAY ANGER to protect her kitten???? and i'm sorry, THIS IS EVERYTHING I'VE EVER WANTED OUT OF MAINSTREAM MEDIA, PUT THIS GAY STUFF DIRECTLY INTO MY VEINS.

so yeah i kinda ship them or whatever.

adiray

yeah, yeah, i’m being boring and shipping another canon couple. but i'm sorry??? they're the first trans/nonbinary characters in the history of star trek??? and they're dating each other??? and they're part of a big queer chosen family???

also the episode where we first meet gray is just one of the best episodes of the whole damn franchise? the scene where all of tal's past hosts embrace adira is just so fucking wonderful. and then once gray is literally brought back from the dead he picks just the most epic, wonderful nurturing life direction.

i love these two so much and i want them to be so happy & safe. protecc at all costs!!

lumity

i mean yeah again they're canon but fuck you i only recently started actually getting canon queer couples in shit i watch!!

but yeah seeing these two bring out the best in each other and just being absolute badasses whenever they're fighting to protect each other and also they're powerful witches, just, YEAH this shit rules. and they're so dang sweet.

flick/cj

i'm not nearly as into cj as i am into my beautiful enby punk/goth lizard boy, but i gotta admit they're hella cute together and i want flick to have all the happiness their little gay scalie heart can contain!!!

karai/leo

this is basically down to the fact that in literally every iteration of the two characters, karai bullies the fuck outta leo, and as someone who used to intensely relate to leo because he’s got “the good kid” syndrome something fierce, obviously i always enjoyed seeing her be all femdommy towards him.

nowadays, i tend to relate to donatello more than leo, but i still really enjoy every iteration of karai playing with her food with leo.

also, honorable mention to karai & april from the 2012 cgi series. the episode where karai beats the shit outta april definitely made me feel feelings the first time i saw it. and every time karai defeats or captures her she always calls her “princess” & is all condescending in general, and it’s just, fuuuuuuuuck, it’s SO gay.

also also obviously i ship basically every combination of the four turtles. i mean, duh.

russian winter

i was shocked when rewatching babylon 5 a few years ago how upfront the show was about the relationship between commander susan ivanova & talia winters. in her last appearance on the show, talia slept with ivanova, and in a later episode when everyone on the crew has to tell a deep, personal secret ivanova says that she loved talia. considering we’re talking about the 90s here, that was pretty fucking explicit.

and yeah, there’s an unfinished fic sitting on one of my harddrives about ivanova rescuing her. maybe i’ll try to get back to that at some point, idk! i haven’t been writing much fic lately.

jake sisko/t’lir

jake sisko/enby vulcan, jake sisko/enby vulcan, JAKE SISKO/ENBY VULCAN.

aragorn/legolas/gimli

it’s that thing where you take a very homosocial book and add expanded roles for some of its female characters to make it less homosocial but you change exactly nothing about how emotionally intimate the homosocial relationships are and also both gay people & people who are more conscious of the fact that gay people exist watch your movie, so like, yeah this is kinda inevitable?

gashir

i don’t even give a shit about bashir when he isn’t interacting with garak. he might as well be a non-character.

i fucking love garak he is such an amazing bratty dom. i love watching him play with his food (his food being bashir).

milippa

i mean, burnham has more feelings about georgiou than she does about any of her actual on-screen romantic partners, whether it’s for her gentle mommy domme prime universe georgiou or her badass mean domme mirror universe georgiou. i like michael with book, don’t get me wrong, it’s just hard for me to get as excited for heterosexual relationships as i do for queer headcanons, especially when one of the two participants is a mommy domme.

jaydick

i’m not super invested in this one, especially since it requires dick to be a service top and i think he’s at his most natural as a bottom, but yeah their dynamic has always been pretty charged to the point that the first gay fic i ever wrote was about these two.

12 notes · View notes

mar-the-magician · 1 year

Text

Studying For Entry Exams With A Sweet Fae Friend

I’m alive, I swear I’m alive!!!!! It has been… like, two months since I posted a chapter of Layered Realms. Apologies for that— life decided to kick my ass in every possible way around mid July and things are only just recently settling into place more. But!!!!!!! Now I can actually guarantee at least somewhat regular uploads, because I have a chapter’s worth of buffer! And yes, heheheheh, that does mean I am sitting on an entire chapter that none of you have seen yet 😏

Also, I’m aware that I gained about thirty-odd followers during the period of time that I didn’t post anything about LR, so if you’re reading this thinking “What the fuck is Layered Realms?” Then here’s your explanation! It’s an original story of mine, and here’s where you can get more info about it!

Cw/Tw: Character is depicted kind of spiraling, not really having a panic attack but something along those lines. Other than that, I think we’re good!

Now that all of that is out of the way, I’ll stop talking your ear off and let you get reading! Chapter six, part six of Layered Realms, part five of A Traveler’s Tale.

Studying For Entry Exams With A Sweet Fae Friend

I shoved the books, pamphlets, and articles farther away from me on the table and collapsed my head into my arms. None of this was sticking in my head, and it didn’t make any sense. I was exhausted, my brain was foggy, and I’d been working at this for hours now. These materials all seemed custom-made for people who had grown up knowing about magic, and all they really needed was a light refresher on the basics and to then delve deeper into the more obscure things that would be on the entry exams. I needed much more than a refresher on the basics, I needed an entire mastercourse. There was no way I was going to pass those tests. And then what would happen? I might not get to see Eris or Amir or Hedera ever again, and I would just have this knowledge and these books and materials that I spent way too much money on and time on, and it would all be—

I heard clomping nearby. It sounded like it was right outside my kitchen door.

“What the…” I approached the door and peeked out.

“Eris?!” I swung open the door immediately. Unlike when I’d last seen him in the forest, he had that illusion spell or whatever it was over his legs. Granted, not as bad as a kid with goat or deer or whatever legs standing right out in broad daylight, but they still looked wonky.

“Eris, what are you doing here?” I hissed, dragging him inside. He flashed a silly grin at me.

“I heard Amir and Hedera talking and Hedera was asking him to send you something, but he said you’d probably be stressed with studying so he’d wait. I didn’t want you to be stressed! So I came to find you!”

“How did you even—“ I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“Never mind. Does anyone even know where you are??” His face fell.

“Ooh… I should have thought of that, shouldn’t I…” ‘Oh no you made the child sad, you made the child sad you idiot—‘

“I hope I didn’t worry anybody, I don’t want them to be scared for me—“

“It’s okay, buddy, I can text Amir, remember? And he can tell Hedera and anyone else who needs to know. It’s gonna be fine.” I reassured him, ruffling his curls. I walked back into my main living room, motioning him to follow. His eyes widened at the pile of printed materials on my table and I laughed a little.

“Amir was right about that, I am stressed.” I snatched my phone from on top of a book about how commanders influenced history without being found out as magic users (one of the only ones that had made some semblance of sense), went to messages, and scrolled.

‘Just in case no one knows, Eris is with me. he came to cheer me up lol’

‘Ah, excellent. Thank you for telling me Traveler— I had a pretty good guess, but it’s good to know for sure. Now Hedera won’t bite my head off. 😂’

‘😂

does he need to be back by a certain time?’

‘Just don’t keep him too long. I’ll let you know if Hedera says otherwise, though. I can come pick him up and just teleport home with him when you’re done.’

‘sounds like a plan!’

I turned back to Eris.

“Amir knows where you are now, and he says you can stay for a little bit!”

“Yay!” He scrunched up his cheeks till they nearly closed his eyes, and pulled his shoulders right up next to his ears.

“Amir’ll come get you when it’s time to go. Until then, what do you want to do? I can put off studying for a few hours to destress, I suppose…”

Eris widened his eyes almost comically.

“Oh no Traveler! You still gotta study! You have exams in a couple days! I was just hoping I could make the studying itself less stressful…” I sighed.

“Okay then, buddy. How do you plan on doing that?” I sat back down and patted the seat next to me. He scrambled over to be next to me and had a quick look over the books.

“The way Hedera always tells it to me is like this: when you have an overwhelming project or problem, the first thing you gotta do is break it down to ‘manageable chunks.’ Then you just take the chunks one at a time, and you’re done before you know it! It’s like cutting up your food before you eat it!”

“I guess that makes sense…” I sighed. Eris smiled at me.

“And… this is my wisdom, so don’t take it quite as seriously, but if I can make it pretty and fun, I think it makes it feel better even when you’re doing hard things.”

“How would you suggest we do that?”

“First off, Traveler, you should drink water and get yourself a lil’ snack.” He commanded firmly. “Amir always says he can’t focus with an empty stomach.” I rolled my eyes and barely contained a sigh. ‘Does Eris even know what Amir eats?’

“Okay, little man.” He followed me around the kitchen as I assembled a bowl of fruit and yoghurt, ate it, and filled a canteen with ice and water.

“Yay!” He said as we settled back in at the table.

“Now. Do you have cute stickers and writing pads?” He asked with big, shiny eyes.

“Mm— somewhere…” I remembered one of my friends had given me a bunch of cute office and study supplies back when we thought I was actually going to have enough money to go college right away.

“Hang on.” I got up and began rummaging in one of my drawers. Somewhere in here, maybe at the very bottom—

“Here we go!” I tossed the pack of notecards and stickers onto the table in front of us.

“Yay!” Eris clapped his hands and and eagerly attacked the plastic shrink-wrap.

“These are cute! Okay, now try breaking this problem into chunks?” He looked over the whole stack of materials and singled out the example problems sheets.

“This seems like it’d be important. Is it actually the way that the tests are gonna be?”

“As far as I can tell.” I shrugged. He nodded.

“Okay. Maybe make a list of what’s asked in these questions?” My eyes widened.

“Oh my word, how did I not think of that?” He giggled.

“Sometimes a fresh mind and a fresh pair of eyes are all you need!”

“I’ll say!” I grabbed a gel pen and a lined notepad with rainbow bubbles on it to start making that list. Eris laid a gentle hand on my arm.

“I… I think you should read through all the problems first, then go back to the beginning and start writing things down.” I gave him a grateful smile.

“You’re a lifesaver, in more ways than one.”

“It’s no problem, really! I like to help!” He smiled so big that his eyes closed.

The problems were just as confusing before, but I carefully read through every word, taking note of repeated concepts. I made it to about problem seven before I started breathing heavier, thinking once again of just how out of my depth I was, and how hard it would be to pass those exams, and there might be intimidating people there, and I only had a few days left to prepare and—

Eris gently head-butted me, nuzzling into my shoulder.

“Take a drink of water?” His words were muffled in my sleeve. I stared down at him.

“Why?”

“You’re getting all caught up in your fears. Amir says water distracts you from your thoughts and makes you focus on the action of drinking. Maybe it’ll pull you out of your head. Take a drink of water. For me?” My hand shook a little as I reached for the canteen and brought it up to my mouth. I focused on the cold water moving across my tongue, then into my throat, and how the muscles in my neck and throat felt while I swallowed. It was so cold that I could feel as it went down my esophagus and into my stomach. I slowly set the canteen back down. As soon as I did, Eris locked his arms around my opposite shoulder, going under one arm and over the other.

“You can do it,” he whispered. I felt my heart squeeze.

“Thank you, kiddo.”

I managed to make it to problem nineteen before Eris butted me again and motioned toward the canteen. I huffed at my own sensitivity.

“Don’t feel bad about it! I don’t even understand half of these words! It’s definitely hard, and that makes sense. I’m just tryna help with that.”

“I know, but I wish could just— deal with my problems like a normal person.” Eris turned his head up to me with upturned eyebrows and wide eyes. They were hazel at this angle.

“I don’t think there’s any… normal people. Hedera always tells me there’s no wrong way to deal with your problems as long as you’re not hurting anyone.” I made a helpless face.

“I guess— ugh, I guess you’re right.” He just held me tighter.

“You got this.”

Every so many problems, Eris had to remind me to drink or take some breaths. By the fifth correction, I was getting used to it, and the next time I felt overwhelmed, I did it without him asking me. He smiled and nuzzled further into my shoulder.

“How many are there?”

“Forty-five.” I said, a miserable undertone in my voice.

“Hey, you’re gonna be good! Don’t worry! I’m here to be your friend, and you can start on the list as soon you get there. You just wanna read it twice so that you makes sure you don’t miss anything important.”

“I know, little guy. Thank you.” It took us a while, but we finally, finally made it to question forty-five. I already had about five themes and concepts that had stuck out to me because of how often they were repeated, so I put those first at the top of the list.

“1. All human magic users are classified as one race, “commanders”, regardless of affiliation.

2. Humans without natural command who practice manufactured command are called “practitioners” (and that’s what I am)

3. Since I’m gunning for the practitioners’ classes, I’ll mainly need to know about their methods. The main methods are; specific, complex hand movements; drawing diagrams, sigils, transmutation circles, glyphs, and runes; combining reagents as components, sort of like a potion; and the spoken word.

4. All the other types of visual magic are made up of runes, which originate from the demon and fae written languages, as well as drawing from draconic, aquatic (which is apparently mermaid language), and the ‘evocative languages’ of other magical races. The spoken word magic also draws on these resources.

5. Commanders, fae, demons, and other beings with a natural command over a magical force, all draw magic from their own realm. No matter where they currently are, their energy is intertwined with the magic of their own realm, and they channel it through themselves by directing their energy. Practitioners use outside methods of channeling the energy around them. That means whatever realm they’re in, that is what they are drawing magic from.”

I looked down at my handiwork with at least some measure of satisfaction.

“I’d say that covers the most important bits. Now I can try to work on some nuances…” Eris shook his head vigorously.

“You should find where these facts are talked about in your books and articles and stuff and go back over those parts. Highlight them with something pretty! Copy them off onto your notes! Make sure you know all those parts really well! Then you can try to work on some— smaller thingies.” I sighed.

“I guess so…”

“Take a drink of water now— in fact, maybe you should have some sweet drink to celebrate!” I smiled.

“That sounds nice.” He grinned big and pretty at me.

“Hang on, I can make you some tea! Meantimes, maybe work on your five facts. You could give yourself a sticker you like for each one you feel like you really learn!”

“Will do, captain!” I flashed him a grin. The hopeless, emotionally dead feeling in my chest and the pit of my stomach was conspicuously lacking.

“Just don’t burn the kitchen down,” I remembered to caution as I turned back to the books.

“I’m not gonna!” He protested.

“I know how to make tea, Hedera and I pretty much live off it.”

“But do you know how to work a stove?” He fumbled for a second.

“We-ell, no, n-not exactly… but Amir has told me how they work before!”

“I do not trust you not to hurt yourself, my friend—“ I got up and dragged the book I was working on with me to the kitchen, supervising Eris as he very exaggeratedly and slowly, to prove that he knew exactly what he was doing, set my little heat-proof glass kettle on the stove, filled it with water, and started it. Then he pulled from his brown leather satchel at his waist, which I hadn’t even noticed he still had on him, a little pouch of dried leaves.

“Hedera and I grow these as magic practice, so some of them are a little funny sometimes, but these are the nice ones.” He informed me as he got down two mugs for us. He swiveled his head around the kitchen and then asked

“Do you have any cloths that you don’t mind getting a lil’ bit stained?”

“Sure,” I motioned to the cupboard where I kept my rags. “Just pick the most beat-up looking ones.”

He lined the mugs with two raggedy cloths and crushed the leaves into the bottoms of them.

“There we go! Now we can drain the tea leaves out when they’re done steeping.”

“Mmm.” I smiled at him.

“Thank you.” He grinned, silly and sideways.

“You don’t have to thank me, Traveler! I wanted to do it!”

“I know but—“ the water for the tea started boiling. Eris placed a finger over my lips, effectively shutting me up.

“Shhh! Okay, now I gotta take care of this.”

Careful not to touch the hot parts, he took the kettle by the handle and poured the hot water into the mugs.

Once the tea leaf fragments were drained, Eris had somehow managed to turn the bitter leaf water into something delectable with sweetener and cream, and we sat at the table sipping our little “health potions” as I began thinking of them. (Though to be honest, I thought it might actually be a health potion at first— it made me feel that much better.) After he finished his warm drink, Eris got even more cuddly than before, squishing his cheek against me and closing his eyes. Soon enough, I heard his breathing grow more and more slow and even until he was almost snoring softly. He’d fallen asleep with his arms locked around me. I looked down at his calm, peaceful face and smiled, pressing a small kiss to the top of his head. It helped to have him close, breathing a slow, calming rhythm against my side, his warmth almost like a constant reminder to slow down and take it a little easier. Take a breath and a step back if need be. For the first time that day, I actually got into the zone. Time didn’t seem real as I lost myself in the materials, taking pages after pages of notes, marking down and tabling for later the things that didn’t make sense at first so as not to lose my rhythm.

It was quite the shock when I finally set down my pen and looked at the time. And looking out the window I saw that it was already getting dark. Careful not to wake Eris, I reached over half the table with my ink-covered dominant hand and grabbed my phone.

‘Eris is asleep— think it’s about time to come get him?’

It took a few minutes to get a response. As I waited I gently stroked Eris’ hair and stared pensively out the window, and then a notification with Amir’s nickname popped up on my locked screen again.

‘I think so

Hedera would probably prefer him back before the sun goes down completely’

‘Seems reasonable’

‘I’ll just teleport to you, if that’s alright— address?’

I sent him my address.

I gently shook Eris’ shoulder to wake him.

“Amir’s gonna be here soon to take you home, buddy…” he blinked hazily and continued clinging to my arm as I stood up.

“Mm, okay…” I grabbed my phone and half-led, half-dragged Eris through my kitchen. Whipping out the phone, I texted

‘I’ll just come out to the front with him’ to Amir and opened the door to find him standing there. Despite the recent less-than-autumnal weather, he was wearing a pair of black leggings and a warm maroon sweater that had glittery strands woven into the rest of the fabric, a heart cutout, and sleeves that billowed out before being sharply cut off by a wrist cuff of fabric. He tapped his ankle-length boot.

“Well, aren’t you going to come out to the front?” I rolled my eyes.

“Front, I’m gay.” I said in a monotone. He golf-clapped at me. Smug bastard.

“Very good, very good.” He held out his arms for the still half-asleep Eris, and his whole snarky demeanor changed. He leaned down and cocked his head.

“Hey buddy… you ready to go home? Did you have a nice time with our Traveler?” Eris nodded drowsily.

“They did so good… I think I helped a lil’ bit…”

“You helped bunches, kiddo.” I reassured him, awkwardly snaking my arm out from his grip and allowing Amir to wrap his arms around him and hold him close. He looked so peaceful, cheek squished and hands nestled against Amir’s side.

“You’re a lifesaver.” I whispered to him.

“Get much done?” Amir smiled at us both. I laughed softly.

“I think I absorbed more actual knowledge in the time he was here than I did in the whole day and half I tried to study before.”

“He took a looooong nap, huh?” He said, looking at how out-of-it Eris was. I nodded, smiling at him.

“Almost three hours.”

“He’s really taken a liking to you,” he slid an arm under Eris’ legs, which looked significantly less human than they had when he arrived. I waved.

“Bye, little friend!”

“Eris, oh Eris… your glamour could use some work,” he clicked his tongue.

“So that’s what his illusion spell is called!”

“Mhm,” Amir nodded, seeming distracted. He drew a circle in the ground with his toe, like he was planning something out— then he nodded and a low, nasal hum emanated from him. It felt like a solid something passed through me, and I cocked my head at Amir.

“What was that?” Amir winked at me.

“Demons are oft purported to be uncannily good at warding. I just warded this whole area— after all, if you’re going to be learning magic, you may have a mishap or two, and it would be awful if a neighbor were to hear of it or see it.”

“I haven’t even gotten in yet…” I mumbled, rubbing the back of my neck.

“Oh, but you will~!” He and Eris disappeared, the dim light revealing a small spark left in their wake. I watched as it dissipated with the last of the day’s sun. The sunsets were coming earlier and earlier these days. Finally, I went back inside and closed my door. I still had work to do.

…Apologies for the lore dump… anyway…

I’m not gonna lie, I had some trouble with this one! Big shoutout to BFF for helping me figure out what felt so wrong about the writing at first and thus leading me to fix it! Also she wants me to remind all of you that she has laid a claim on all of the LR characters and they are all hers! 😂

Thank you very much for reading! Next upload will be exactly one week from now! And I can actually guarantee that this time! 😅

18 notes · View notes