So annoying how inaccurate the Sonic Wiki can be

It's helpful for having a collection of easy-to-access sources to sort through but it's a pain fact checking every single one only to find the wiki misunderstood or lied about a particular detail

Waylan’s Sabbatical (7/?)

A chunk of writing following our party NPC (and my Son) as he breaks away from the party. Our campaign uses names of places from various fandoms for fun but they have no real relation to the source material. (We also call the Raven Queen Nara because of some hasty Wiki reading) This section contains Terran and Waylan’s first meeting!

TW: Mentions of past torture, general violence, injury.

Part: First | Previous | Next

The Black Knight takes him through the forest. Introduces him to any creature that is sentient enough to understand. He meets a Green Hag who wants to pull out his liver and fill his corpse with frog eggs for whatever reason but she, like Terran, and the forest giants that he meets, seem to follow whatever the lich says. Waylan never sees him threaten them, there is never any animosity. Just short respectful conversations that lead to whatever creature taking a brief interest in him. He wonders if he would be as safe if he ever tried to return without the Knight at his side. These visits go on for weeks, and eventually he finds himself asking, 

“Why do you keep introducing me to, no offense, monsters?” 

“Because you came to the forest to be away from humans.”

“I came here to be away from everyone.” 

“And yet you kept finding your way into my company.” He can’t argue so the Knight continues. “You spoke when you were deep in the fever. You called out for a man and promised him you would not become a monster.”

Waylan bristles. “I wasn’t in my right mind.” 

“Perhaps, but oftentimes people are more honest when they are not. My Queen used to say that when her advisors reprimanded her for getting visiting diplomats thoroughly intoxicated but I believe she was right and the same wisdom can be applied here. You are frightened of becoming a monster, and yet you continue on in my company. Now I am showing you more monsters. Are you frightened of them?”

“Not when you’re around. For whatever reason they listen to you. I don’t think you’d let them kill me.” 

“And if I brought you to them as they were standing over a fresh kill?”

“I’ve seen you standing over a fresh kill.” Adventurers still come and die. Now that he’s staying in the castle he’s bared witness to it. Only once. A small party, four of them, in cheap vestments. When the lich cut the first one down, two immediately turned to run. The third howled, tears streaming down their face. The Knight didn’t leave them in their grief for long. 

“Were you frightened of me then? Did you object to my actions?”

They’re leading questions, but Waylan’s learned that the Knight won’t drop a subject once he becomes interested in it. “I was…” Sad isn’t quite right. He certainly felt something for the group. But it hadn’t been enough for him to step in, it hadn’t stopped him from checking to see if there were any valuable items on them before he left their corpses to mold away on the ground. “I was relieved that I didn’t know them.” He finally says. “This is your home, and whatever you’re planning on doing to the kingdom is your business. If they come here with the intention of doing you harm I understand why you have to defend yourself. But I’m glad I didn’t know them.” Because every adventuring troupe could have been his. And he’s been on the other side of the fight. He’s seen his friends cut down. He’s hated evil creatures. 

But he still doesn’t know what the Knight is doing in the forest.

“If those adventurers knew you were inside, watching as I killed them and their friends, they would believe you are a monster for standing by and doing nothing.” 

“It’s a matter of perspective. That’s what you’re getting at, right?” He rolls his eyes. “Every evil creature I’ve ever heard of, read about, or met has played at that angle.”

“Then perhaps there is some truth to it, Waylan.” 

****

“Can I ask you some questions?”

Terran lounges across the stone floor of his lair, a massive cave that he carved out of the side of a small mountain range that broke up the gently rising and falling hills of the forest. It’s not the first time Waylan has been allowed inside, but it is the first time he’s ventured in alone. The Black Knight had left a few days prior, saying the scouting he needed to do that was too dangerous for the living. Waylan spent the first two days in the Prince’s room reading what he could of the books. But the ticking gears in his arm and the memory of blood dripping onto a stone floor became too much. Seeking out the dragon’s company had been risky. But Terran had looked at him, one massive yellow eye, tucked his leather wings into his body, and taken human form. It had taken him a few minutes, digging through the horde of treasure that he’d warned Waylan would be harder to get to than it first seemed, before coming back with a polished wooden board and two small bowls. 

It’s a game that Gadreel had called Go and that Terran sniffs dismissively and calls Weiqi. The dragon is a more skilled player than him, but after nearly three dozen losses Waylan starts to understand that the dragon is very good at making it look like he’s using one strategy while actually employing another. Waylan thinks he could play with Terran every day until he dies and still lose. 

“You can ask.” But there’s no telling if what the creature says will be true. 

“When I was in the kingdom there were only vague rumors a dragon had come to the forest. Why didn’t you go and seek tribute?”

“Stupid boy, you know of the Goddess’ blessing on the edge of the forest.”

“I know that it’s less a goddess’ blessing that marks the start of the Dark Forest and more the end of the scar that the lich’s ritual made on the land.” The notebook he’d found locked away under the Prince’s desk had extensive notes on the process of becoming a lich and what it would cost. “Which means you’re choosing to stay here hidden away in the forest like a wyrmling instead of claiming Okren for yourself. That seems strange for a creature as powerful as you.”

Terran clicks his tongue and takes seven of Waylan’s pieces in retaliation. “Careful little mage, flattery will get you everywhere.”

“I think there’s already enough dragon blood in my family line, not that it wouldn’t be an honor.” He hates how quickly the response comes from him, hates that the rhythm of their flirtation reminds him of Lugh. “Why don’t you go to the kingdom?” He asks again, setting a piece to block what he hopes is the dragon’s next move. 

He and Terran take another few turns before he speaks again. “My horde is smaller than you expected it to be.” Waylan pauses as he reaches for another stone. “You mentioned it to the lich when you left my domain for the first time. The creatures that serve as my eyes and ears have a farther reach than you assumed. I escaped with my life and only a small amount of what is rightfully mine.”

“Escaped from what?”

“An old rival. While I grew wise over the centuries he grew vicious. He would have razed my forests to the ground and killed all that had offered me tribute in the nearby villages had I not abandoned my lair and left a sizable amount of my treasure. As it is, now he is growing fat and contented while my worshippers continue to pay. My spies tell me that as long as he is given tribute my forest stays intact, as do the villages.” Waylan sighs as Terran takes his last stronghold and effectively ends the game. “And the more contented he grows the easier it will be for me to slither into his misbegotten lair and slit his throat.” The dragon leans back and stretches his arms above his head and Waylan notices for the hundredth time how skinny he is in this form. Wonders how he earned his title. “You lose again, little human. If we were playing for your life I would have already swallowed you whole.”

“Good thing we’re not doing that then. Another round?” Terran shrugs, but he helps Waylan clear the board without protest.  “So you’re just buying time here?”

“I have been around long enough to spot a fisherman even when he does not carry a pole, little human.” 

“I’m just trying to figure out why you’re here.” Terran clicks his tongue derisively. “Why the Black Knight lets you stay here, and why you listen to him. Liches pose no threat to you and he has no tribute to offer. I don’t understand why you’d defer to him.”

“Perhaps I should kill him then? You certainly make a strong case for it.” 

Cold shudders inside of Waylan’s chest. “No. That’s not–”

“Relax, Waylan.” The dragon orders flatly. “I’m well aware of your soft spot for our Knight. A place scarred with the darkness of creating a Lich gives creatures like the ones you’ve found more power. I stay here gathering strength to take back my home. The others come because they are pulled to it. Some creatures even spawn from it. The Lich, as much as he hates the king, feels a noble,” he hisses the word like a curse, “love for the kingdom itself. He will not let any of us stay on this land if we do not abide by his rule. Were the Knight my only opponent I would have claimed this land for my own, taken my tribute from the people. But he has many who would fight alongside him in these woods. And I am not in the habit of pursuing hard fights for few rewards.” 

“I have some friends in Oshime I wished lived by that philosophy.” Waylan considers this information for a moment. It raises more questions than it answers. “Why does the Knight hate the king?”

“That’s not my story to tell, little human, nor one I know every detail of. You’re just going to have to ask him yourself.” Terran’s head then snaps towards the entrance of the cavern, voice easily switching into common. “Are you going to continue to lurk in the shadows, Lich? Or are you going to come collect your pet?” 

“I have no need for pets.” The Knight says as he steps further inside. 

“I’m not a pet.” Waylan snaps in draconic. 

“Only because he has yet to ask you to kneel.” Terran purrs with a smirk. 

“Fuck you.” It occurs to him belatedly that he shouldn’t be rude to a dragon, but, well, he’s always rude. 

“Come get your yapping pup before he pisses on my shoes.” 

“Waylan is not a pet, he is a companion.” The Black Knight says flatly. “And if he were to piss on your shoes I am sure you would deserve it.” 

Terran’s brow quirks before he turns and smirks at Waylan again. “Maybe he’ll ask you to kneel sooner rather than later.” 

Waylan, very maturely, picks up a stone and throws it at the dragon’s head. 

Hey, Peter!

A/N: This was based on an idea that @thekillingquill gave me but I think it’s fair to say that i got carried away with it. I don’t mind though, I had fun writing it even if it took me a million years. Also, I’ve only seen the movie once so excuse any minor mistakes.

Part 2

Summary: Of course someone was bound to find the web fluid, after all, a drawer in a chemistry desk wasn’t exactly a world class hiding place.

Word Count: 4,308

Warnings: There’s at least a single swear.

Maybe it was the tone of her teacher’s voice, maybe it was the boring beige colour on the walls that she always found herself staring at, or maybe it was just the subject itself, but whatever the reason was one thing was absolutely definite; chemistry was the most boring subject she’d ever taken. Even when they were mixing concoctions they weren’t allowed to make anything explode so what was the point in paying attention.

So, once again, she found herself slumped onto her desk eyes drifting back to the dull walls as her mind wandered to more interesting things, things worth spending brain power on. The monotone drawlings of her teacher faded into a soft buzzing at the back of her head, like a fly that refused to be caught as she found anything she could to busy her fingers fiddling with the rim of a filled beaker on her desk, in her unfocused stupor she glanced up for a moment her fingers slipping and tipping the beaker towards herself just enough to spill half the contents directly into her lap before she could get the container upright. “Shit,” she squealed before she could stop herself, jerking backwards slightly as every eye in the room zeroed in on her, including those of her teacher who was simply glaring perhaps because of the disruption, or maybe because of the language she’d chosen to use, “uh, sorry… What is this stuff again?”

“It’s only saline solution, which you would be aware of if you were paying attention.” He chastised, though he sounded somewhat resigned, like a man who’d told a cat one too many times to ‘stay off the furniture’ and now was simply saying it out of obligation, not because he believed the damn cat would actually stay off the cabinetry. In this situation, the metaphorical cat was in fact, Y/N, a most difficult student despite being the most inquisitive person one could aspire to meet. “Get it cleaned up.” He sighed wistfully before returning to addressing the rest of the class on the subject of chemistry.  

Y/N nodded hastily to herself and looked frantically for something to mop up the liquid that was still dripping off the desk and into her lap. She leaned over, pulling open the drawer in the side of the desk in hopes of finding a towel of some kind, what actually seemed to reside in the drawer was much stranger. On instinct, she jerked her hand back hastily like she’d touched something scolding, and even so she leaned in closer. It was webs, or at least it looked like spider webs, but it was nothing a spider would have done. It was too disorganized, even the structural element seemed altered from that of a normal web, and with that knowledge in her mind she reached out to touch it, “Definitely not spider web.” she mumbled to herself. Unfortunately, Y/N was a person who had run into her fair share of spider webs while she walked, distracted by her phone or a book that she’d picked up on a whim, and sure it was sticky and a pain in this ass, but it definitely didn’t feel like this.

It was thick, and it stuck to her fingers at even the slightest touch, it smelt of chemicals she didn’t pay enough attention to be able to identify, the pattern in the drawer was erratic and unplanned, like it had been entirely an accident and she wouldn’t be at all surprised if it was an accident. Someone had made this in a school lab, and she was willing to bet that it wasn’t for an extra credit project. “What the fuck?”

“Miss. Y/L/N!” she jumped at the sound of the voice, her eyes darting up towards the front as she slammed the drawer shut, narrowly missing getting her fingers caught.

“I was looking for a towel.” She defended, stumbling over almost every word, trying to adjust to or justify what she’d just found in her mind to absolutely avail.

“What part of that activity requires the foul language?” He asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

‘Oh, so you notice me swearing but the chemistry nerd with the spider kink slips past your keen eye?’ She thought, having to bite her tongue to keep from letting those words tumble out into the waiting ears of the entire classroom, “Sorry, sir, won’t happen again.” She sighed, giving a sweet smile for emphasis. He seemed unimpressed but nodded nevertheless.

“It better not, once more and I won’t be so forgiving.” And with that he went back to teaching, Y/N attempted to refocus on the lesson at hand and for about 23 seconds she succeeded, but whose mind wouldn’t wander after they’d just discovered a man-made spider gunk in the drawer of their desk. So, for the rest of the lesson she quietly contemplated who might be the culprit, and -perhaps due to a painful lack of friends- she came up blank, and to add to that frustration, her jeans were still wet and she’d lost hope in them properly drying before class let out.

When the bell went, everyone was hurrying to leave, as though they didn’t have another class to be at in ten minutes time anyway. Y/N hung back, digging in her bag, hoping she’d left her gym shorts buried somewhere in there, and in the first stroke of luck she’d encountered that day, she had. When she was alone in the room, everyone having cleared out, she pulled off the quickest change of her life and immediately regretted the decision to wear her Burgundy sweater today, the glaring yellow shorts didn’t exactly bring the outfit together. Still, her time to worry about that was limited to nothing considering she would be late for her next class if she didn’t leave now, but there was one thing she couldn’t shake from her mind.  In a last minute decision, she crouched beside the desk and opened the small drawer, examining the webbing that sat there for a short moment before she took a sharp intake of breath and shoved her hand into it, grabbing as much as possible in a single fistful, shoving it into the front pocket of her backpack and wiping away the excess on the material of her bag, some stayed stuck to her fingers which she was sure would annoy her all day. With that bad decision out of the way she zipped up the front pocket of her bag and wandered out of the classroom as inconspicuously as possible, checking her phone to confirm exactly how late she was, only two minutes.  

The stroll to math class was leisurely, personally she had little aptitude for what you would call ‘traditional’ schooling, she preferred to learn of her own accord on whatever subject pulled her interest, for instance, she’d spend this afternoon with her head buried in research on spiders and their web patterns, no doubt.

She didn’t bother knocking when she arrived, nobody who’d met her expected her to be anywhere on time and so the fact that she strolled in within the first half of the lesson was nothing short of a miracle. The teacher paused for half a second at the interruption before he proceeded without acknowledgement of her arrival, and Y/N wasted little time finding her place, slipping into her seat in the second last row, all the way to the left. “Hey, Y/N.” The boy beside her said in a whisper, smiling with his whole face as she turned to him, beaming back with a matching expression.  

“How’s it hanging, Ned?” She asked, hushed in tone as she pulled a textbook for the wrong subject out of her bag.  

“I got the new Lego Death Star,” he said, pulling a Lego figurine out of his pocket, imitating the characters voice as he continued, “it’s awesome.”

“I don’t doubt that, dude.” She chuckled back, trying to look busy, Ned looked her over his eyebrows furrowing as he chuckled softly.  

“Why are you wearing your gym shorts?” He snickered, causing the girl he was addressing to examine her own attire again.  

“It’s the new fashion, all the girls are doing it.” She deadpanned, looking him directly in the eye, but the moment his expression started to drop, she laughed, shaking the seriousness from her features, “No, I just spilt water on myself, and I’d rather look like a doofus than like I peed myself.” She explained and his smile came back in full force.  

“You’re so weird.” He mumbled and she shrugged in response.  

“But isn’t that the best thing to be?” she sighed, and with that Ned’s attention drifted back to the lesson and Y/N’s turned to her phone, concealed under her desk as she scanned the Wikipedia page on spider webs, and the different species patterning. As per usual, she was sceptical to take the word of a wiki article and followed the source links, one after another, trying to find something or anything that made sense after her search on ‘man-made spider webs’ only turned up YouTube videos and articles on that Spider-Man guy she’d seen all over the news.  

The lesson passed her by in what seemed like seconds, she was only jerked back into reality when the bell rang out, and on any other day she’d be grateful for the time going so fast, but with no answers to any of what she wanted to know, she was feeling less than satisfied to say the absolute least.  As everyone filed out, she stood with her brows knitted together in frustration, she wasn’t going to accept defeat but whoever had made this stuff knew what they were doing, and if the was one thing Y/N never knew, it was what she was doing, and she was willing to admit this was going to be a harder solve than she’d first thought. “Are you okay?” Ned asked, his timid voice making the tension in her face ease slightly, he was so sweet it was hard not to smile around him.  

“I’m fine,” she chuckled, brushing it off, but just as she did a thought appeared in the back of her mind, like a tiny bell starting to ring, “you have chemistry the period before me don’t you?”

“Yeah, I think so, why?” The class had emptied by now, which left them alone which she was thankful for, this was weird enough without some asshole making a big deal of it all.  

“Do you know who sits in the fourth row from the back, on right, the seat closest to the middle?” She asked, noting how Ned seemed to have to think pretty hard about where exactly she meant.  

“Oh, Peter sits there!” He blurted out as soon as he reached the revelation, “Why did he leave something behind?”

Peter Parker, of course it was Peter, the kid was basically a genius and those guys always had weird stuff going on when nobody was looking. Y/N nodded slowly, choosing to confide in Ned for the sake of research “Maybe, I was looking for a towel earlier and I found this stuff in one of the drawers.” As she spoke she swung the bag around to her front, unzipping the small pocket in her backpack, showing the webbing that had attached itself to the material. That was going to be a bitch to clean.  

Ned’s eyes widened marginally, but enough for her to notice it, he held his breath as he tried to come up with some fabrication that could get himself and his friend out of the situation at hand unscathed, “It’s uh, a project. Right yeah, it’s a chemistry project for, uhm, extra credit because he’s falling behind. His, uh, his internship with Stark takes up all his time so uh, yeah…” He sputtered out, proceeded by a nervous chuckle. The boy was sweet but he was a terrible liar. “I have to go.” He spat out quickly, speed walking out of the classroom before she could gather her bearings enough to stop him.  

“Something weird is going on.” She mumbled to the empty room as she too headed for the exit, one thing she was sure of was that Peter definitely had something to do with it, and she had no idea why.

The rest of her day was spent in much the same curiosity, her rapt attention devoted to what she’d so intellectually deemed ‘the weird web stuff’. By the time she was walking home she’d gone over a million different theories, every single one of which lacked evidence, some of which didn’t even make sense, but hopefully she could piece together something. Wildly distracted and slightly disoriented by the whole situation, she found herself walking the wrong way to get home, somehow managing to end up at the back of the school where it was all but deserted. Deserted except one other person.  

Peter.  

If anytime was a good one to ask him something, it was now, when he was cornered and staring at one of the massively tall fences at the back of the school as though he was assessing it. Y/N breathed deeply as she took a few quick steps towards him, making it all of three feet before he took a short run and jumped the fence as though it was only inches tall. Her whole body froze up on her immediately, tensing on instinct as her mind tried to process what her eyes were refusing to. Peter didn’t seem to notice her there, he just kept walking as though he hadn’t committed an act that was highly improbable if not completely impossible. “Not possible.” She mumbled softly to herself, approaching the fence slowly, standing directly at the base and gazing up at its immense height, she jumped once only to find what she’d assumed she would; she couldn’t even clear half her own height with all of her effort.  

“Who the hell is this kid?” she mused softly, watching him through the fence as he broke into a run, her eyes narrowing as she watched his retreating figure.

As intriguing as it was, as intriguing as he had just become, she couldn’t stand at the fence in disbelief for the rest of her life. She did stand there for a solid half an hour, trying to comprehend how he could have achieved such a feat, she came up blank, it was impossible, but she knew what she had seen and there was no talking herself out of it.

The walk home took longer than usual her pace sluggish as she let her mind flick between what she had found and what she had seen and how on god’s great earth the two things could be even remotely linked to one and other. This was a day she was having trouble adjusting to, and for good reason. The path was so familiar to her that she was sure she didn’t even need to pay attention to where she went, she could get home on muscle memory alone and with other things occupying her busy head that’s exactly what she attempted to do. She mentally filed through all of the information she’d gathered, trying to make sense of what had happened and how any of it affected her. As she wandered almost as fast as her thoughts, she’d assumed autopilot would kick in and she’d end up at her front door, kicking off her shoes, in no time, it was only when she noticed the unusual ache in her legs that she snapped back to reality and surveyed her surroundings. Immediately, dread flooded her chest and her blood went cold when it became apparent that she didn’t recognise a single thing in the area, an area she’d definitely never explored, and quite possibly never seen.

The panic was immediate and almost crippling, she felt trapped in a wide open space and the sun was beginning to set even now, she’d been walking for hours, she hadn’t even realised. At night, everything looked even stranger, everything became even more foreign as the light disappeared and it only served to make her heartbeat spike to what felt like dangerous levels.  I should have been paying attention! The frightened voice in her head was screaming at her as she fumbled her phone from out of her pocket and opened it, opening Google maps to find her way home, the app had barely opened before her screen went dark and that dreaded empty battery symbol flashed up before the device shut down completely, she’d spent all day researching Goddamn spider webs, and it had drained her battery to nothing. She was stuck.

The afternoon light was fading quickly and she had to make a decision about what to do, it was a city, surely she could find a phone somewhere, but the only number she had memorized was her own and that wasn’t helpful. She could ask directions, but in an unknown part of town she wasn’t exactly comfortable approaching strangers. The only viable option that she could come up with was that she would have to figure it out on her own, and try to retrace her steps from memory, a hazy and distracted memory that couldn’t exactly be trusted but was all she had. Y/N took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm slightly as she started walking back the way she came, ignoring the shaking of her own hands and the way her heart fluttered into her throat with each step she took on aching legs. The burning in her muscles seemed only to make her more fearful every time someone passed her she ducked her head and stared at the ground, without the company of her music the city sounds frightened her simply because she knew they were ones she didn’t recognise and even as she sped up and tried desperately to remember which way she came from, she couldn’t see anything that looked remotely familiar.

The sun was gone now, and she’d been left alone with only the company of streetlights. Alleys and roads that weren’t lit properly weren’t an option to her anymore and that meant that she could be shuffling about this town all night. The time was unknown to her, she couldn’t check her phone and was too afraid to ask, her legs we’re shaking from the cold and from being overworked, there wasn’t anywhere nearby she could take shelter but if she tried to force herself to stand any longer she’d collapse. Near terrified and unsure of what to do next, Y/N sat down carefully on the steps outside an apartment block, if anyone tried to harass her she figured she could yell here and someone would hear her and come to help, at least that was the hope.  At that point she’d been forcing herself not to cry for at least three hours and it wasn’t working anymore, she could feel hot tears on her cheeks as she peered out at the street, desperately searching for a sign with a street name she recognised. She couldn’t find one.

It was deserted, and somehow that made her more frightened, her chest was heaving with breathless sobs, short with panic, as she breathed in freezing air that burnt her lungs with each vibrating exhale. Over the crying, she didn’t hear the soft thud of someone landing gracefully, or the nervous shuffling of their feet. 

“Uhm, are you okay?” He asked just loud enough to be heard, her head jerked up slightly, her watering eyes meeting the covered face of a boy she only recognised from news clips and YouTube videos.  

“A-are you… actually Spiderman?” She asked softly after grasping for a moment for something, anything, to say in that situation, and he only nodded, rubbing the back of his neck, a nervous tick.  

“Yeah, I heard you crying I thought you might need some help. What’s wrong?” In true super hero style, his immediate instinct was to deflect the attention to the distressed, or maybe that was just his kind heart, either way she smiled and used her sleeve to wipe her face.  

“I just got lost, and my phone died, I should have been home hours ago.” She shrugged.  

“I can take you home if you want? I know every inch of this city and I could probably get you back before you freeze to death too.” He offered up, she couldn’t see him smile in the suit but she could hear it in his voice, and just the fact that she wasn’t alone anymore made her heart beat slow as she started to calm.  

“Yeah, if you have time.” She beamed, her cheeks still flushed and puffy, “I’d hate to keep you from fighting all the real crime.”

“Wandering the city in the dark in those shorts is a real crime.” He chuckled, Y/N glanced down and cringed at her bright yellow gym shorts, she’d forgotten she’d put those on.  

“You might be right…” She grumbled, pulling herself up off the step, giving him her address.

They started walking in relative quiet, it wasn’t often she walked home with anyone, let alone a boy who was all but an honorary avenger. “I guess you can’t tell me much about yourself can you.” She finally said.

“Not really, the whole secret identity thing and all that.” He sighed heavily, his shoulders dropping slightly as though it was a great difficulty to keep his identity hidden. Which, in all fairness, she assumed it would be.  

“I guess Stark didn’t get the memo on that…” she muttered, he laughed beside her, full and unrestrained. It was a familiar sound and her eyebrows knitted together as she tried to recognise it. 

“That’s true, but Mister Stark and I aren’t exactly on the same level,” he paused after that, only a second passed before he stuttered out a continuation, “b-but I’m a lot closer than you’d think, and I’m definitely very valuable to him and our, uh, team!” He managed to get out, his chest puffing up with a cute kind of pride. 

“I don’t doubt it.” She giggled back, the thoughtfulness falling from her face to make way for a smile.   

Somehow the conversation spiralled from there into a discussion of literally every other member of the avenger and just how cool they really were, Y/N even listened as he excitedly recounted the battle he’d been part of with the whole team, she’d never seen someone so proud of having stolen a shield… But that wasn’t something she’d experienced often either.  

From there it morphed to a conversation about superheroes in comic books, and then movies, and then they ended up on a tangent that had them talking about ‘Lord of the Rings’, and by the time they’d reached the front of her building they’d somehow managed to find their way to ‘Star Wars’.  

“I just think it’s unrealistic that the Death Star would have such major design flaw!” She argued and he scoffed, Spider-Man scoffed at her.

“But they explained that it was planted there intentionally in ‘Rouge One’!” he shot back.  

“Okay but how come no one else in the process of checking the plans, construction, and testing it before everyone just hopped on board, noticed that giant gaping issue, hmm?” She asked, her knowledge wasn’t the most expansive if she was honest, she’d seen all the movies countless times though, and this had always confused her, even after ‘Rogue One’.

“…look are you going inside or not?” He asked, clearly defeated, she obviously couldn’t see his face but she could imagine the expression and it filled her with a delight she couldn’t quite explain.  

“I guess I should.” She chuckled, wandering hesitantly up the stairs in front of her building, he stayed planted at the bottom, watching her get to her door safely.  

“I have a friend who has a Lego Death star, so tonight I’m definitely asking him, because there has to be an explanation.” He huffed softly, “And I know where you live now so I will come back when I have the answer!”

At first she laughed and shook her head, and then she frowned with some vague recognition, and then, after a long moment of things falling into place in her mind and ends being tied up, her eyes widened and she almost choked on the air she was breathing. The web in his desk, how weird Ned had acted, him jumping the impossibly high fence, and that familiar laugh, it couldn’t be and yet…

“You alright?” He asked, watching her standing idle at her door, she whipped back around to face him perhaps too fast.

“Yeah I’m fine, totally fine, thank you for walking me home.” She stumbled slightly on her words but still smiled, trying to figure out how to proceed from her, trying to decide whether or not she should make it known that she… well, knew. 

The familiar boy in the spider suit cleared his throat and nodded, “Okay… I’ll see you later.” he mumbled awkwardly, turning to walk away. Y/N swallowed the lump in her throat and pushed away the anxiety of what she was going to do next, if it really was him who knows how he’d react, and if it wasn’t she’d look insane.

“Hey, Peter!” She called out, the words coming out too loud and almost without her control, he turned. He turned. “Thanks again.” She said quickly.  

“You’re welcome.” He waved, and watched her scurrying inside her building, tripping over her own feet. It was confusing to see her so flustered so suddenly, and for a moment he brushed it off, walking back down the street, whistling tunes to himself.

He got to the street corner before his whole body froze up and his shoulders tensed.  

“She called me Peter.”

Also tagging: @tasteofswallowedwords bc she also wanted to read and she’s amazing

NDRV3 Demo Analysis w/ Full Game Spoilers!

(My friend Elfi/Apri made this and jesus fuck shes a fucking genius please love her)

First off, let me mention that I immediately went into sleuthing mode while I was playing the demo for about 4h (both English and Japanese), because I'm aware that even DR demos have a decent difficulty level to its case writing (judging by suspicion not necessarily incriminating Hifumi The Harmless in the demo until the manga came into the picture with the full story) and this demo seemed too easy if you don't give it some proper thought like most of the unspoiled fandom is still not used to doing. From what I managed to piece together with the clues shattered throughout the demo and based on the knowledge of the full game's content, I'm convinced Naegi is the correct culprit vote like we all thought, BUT (huge but) paying attention and giving it some thought grant you the speculation that he could've actually had an accomplice outside of the protagonist room. And that accomplice is no less than the scheming mastermind of the game: Shirogane Shirogane Tsumukweeeen. (Yes, that Despair Arc dub meme never gets old) Let me start my explanation with the clarification that this demo is clearly another in-universe promotional method for V3 like the Maki, Kaito and Ki-Bo poster. It's like a popular show treating its fanbase with the kind of sneak peek preview to let them know what to expect. I also want to clarify that people were indeed able to enter the protagonist room before the gym announcement, because how else would you explain Tojo being able to clean the whole dormitory? This leads me to the conclusion that Tojo likely got her hands onto a master key from Monokuma with Tsumugi's aid and she locked the doors of all the rooms after cleaning them. Yes, Hoshi was there too, but so was Yumeno for a bit and that still doesn't mean they entered the dormitory later. Considering how Ultimate Dedication Kirumi is able to afford wasting time on introducing herself if she was supposedly in the middle of cleaning when you just arrive at the dorm, it's quite safe to assume the job was already done at that point and that is why the protag room is already locked if you do try to open it before going to the gym. In fact, all the rooms are locked. Kaede clearly was the last student to wake up, and Tsumugi being the only one with the ability to confirm Kirumi's alibi - despite Hoshi and Yumeno presumably being at the dorm as well - is a major hint that the clean-up was pretty much done waaay before you awoke, got past all the other students from the AV Room onwards to the dorm, and finally listened to the introduction of those three. I say three because I honestly think Yumeno was in the kitchen at first and only appeared in the dorms once the body discovery announcement was made. Anyway, Kirumi obviously locked the doors for safety and privacy measures once the clean-up was done. I believe Hagakure's "corpse" was already in Kaede's bathroom at this point, and here's why Tojo probably neglected to inspect and clean ALL of the bathrooms: As someone who comes off on the surface as a trustworthy and supportive person, not to mention that she acts as a huge fan of a maid's work, Kirumi is inclined to believe her if Tsumugi simply insists for example that Monokuma told her that all the bathrooms were taken extra care of to be spotless. As I've established, there is no breathing room for the player after the gym announcement, so Tsumugi had to be the only character present while Kirumi was cleaning the dormitory. Because she simply admires Kirumi's work as a maid due to how much of a geek she is, so she had to keep watching and this doesn't seem suspicious to you at all without fullgame spoilers because they always made Tsumugi out to be a bland motherly "heart on her sleeve" nerd type of girl. It is entirely understandable that Tsumugi - as the MM getting her lifetime dream of a writer debut on TDR come true - wants the killing game to start as fast as possible, and this is emphasized in the full game by how she gives them a two days time limit right off the bat to commit a murder or else they'll all be mass murdered. In the full game, this doesn't work out so well and she doesn't like how Kaede gets so well along with Amami in that bonus scene (explaining why Kaede believes in his innocence to be the MM in Case 1) without even knowing about his impressive SHSL Survivor status as the only survivor of V2. And Rantarou also turns out to be better at nail painting than the Ultimate Cosplayer thanks to living with twelve sisters at home, making her outraged with jealousy. To push her over the edge, time is running out and a mass execution would be a boring and way too quick end for the season, which would affect the ratings. She can't allow that, so she goes with the two characters she passionately dislikes so far to get them out of the picture and continue the show. Arguably, she would've even been fine with any vote that wasn't her because the MM being executed would also end the show too early. Kaede and Saihara were the prime suspects, so even though she framed Kaede for also trying her hardest to expose her due to the same reasoning and she conveniently set a death trap with a similar method to how she decided to kill Rantarou (remember, the heavy iron balls were in the warehouse available for anyone to grab), Saihara would have been fine too. Kaede works better though, because she is legitimately convinced of her guilt. Shadowing her as the demo first culprit is a nice nod to the full version and it makes perfect sense in context, and I'll explain why right now. No, sadly enough, there are no chances of that but that info is (preferably?) not spread through the fandom and only on the wiki. Turns out that when you enter Amami's research faculty, you discover a recording of himself before the memory manipulation process (there's a vast difference with that and brainwashing :')) in which he reveals that he is from the previous killing game and he was the only survivor there. That likely makes him more worthy of the SHSL Survivor status in the fanbase's eyes. Especially Tsumugi lmao She's a full-on critic Anyway, I liked clearing that up for the people here, but now onwards. I'm almost 100% sure that Kirumi would vaguely hint towards this exchange of words happening between her and Tsumugi if the player voluntarily approaches her after she decides to stay behind with Hajime, but that's something I'd have to check with a replay. Hajime and Makoto actually being in the demo/in-universe preview episode is also a great treat to hardcore fan Tsumugi. Especially Makoto, the protagonist of her favorite cast. We already established before that Tsumugi is going back to the original and she wanted to recreate the DR1 cast & killing game whilst simultaneously criticizing the flaws of her favorite game/season (the reality tv killing game started with reboots of the original fictional material with real actors, as evidenced by the collage sequence if you manage to read through all of them.)(edited) I initially thought of them possibly being Tsumugi's cosplays, but that ended up being too far-fetched for my taste and some of the 53 seasons do involve aforementioned reboots of originally fictional source material. It's just a little too fastly skipped on in the collage for the most part after the first ten entries.(edited) And just who from the cast do you think even Tsumugi would detest despite being a DR1 stan? That's right: Yasuhiro Hagakure. This passionate hatred is even further emphasized by there not being a Hagakure parallel in her fanfiction. She likes her casts well-rounded. But that doesn't explain the revealed fake death at the end, so let me continue my theory. Tsumugi invited Hajime, Makoto and Hagakure along to the live preview of her writing and acting debut on Team Danganronpa. Because she arranged the perfect protagonist who's like no other and ideal to keep milking the series, on top of that that person is also female, the actors for the OC leads (who obviously also survived in their portion of a reality tv killing game to stay faithful to the omnipresent motto of keeping the MCs alive, despite the vast differences in the rest of the  survivor sets for DR1 and 2 which I'll tackle in a bit) are brought back to their roles to guide Kaede and introduce the nostalgia Tsumugi is going to include in the upcoming season. Ah, and before anyone comes up with a "Rantarou" rebuttal for the sake of completing the DR1 parallel, keep in mind that his personality mainly stems from the previous season and there are some characters (like Gonta) that even Kodaka admitted he has never written before because Tsumugi managed to give a sense of uniqueness to the cast.(edited) And the remaining students also managed to drift apart from the character arcs she so thoroughly planned for them, but that's meta for another day. Remember the "fake" AU leaks that I eventually explained to be V3's version of the (either tv or game) outcome for the events for 1 and 2 in their universe? Well, Hagakure dies in that. Probably also the first victim, explaining Monokuma's fourth wall breaking comment that this is actually his second time dying. It's a double-sided statement that you won't catch up on if you haven't practically finished the game. His character was basically recycled with a look-alike actor in order to fool the audience with that pretense of Danganronpa just being a cool TV show (more on that in that ending meta I plan to discuss here some time) - I assume they do this with all previews of new seasons once the audience started doing some digging on the real people behind their beloved characters or perhaps the real names were initially not even included in the credits (like when they did the reboots) until they started with new storylines to not run out of ideas, keep profiting and take the thrill a step further) - and because he therefore wouldn't have experience with acting like Hagakure, Tsumugi left him out of the preview until it was time for his body discovery. Being the comic relief character he is supposed to be, Hagakure's actor was fortunate to be able to be used as a fake death with the plot convenience of Ultimate Detective not entering the crime scene in the demo. All this clearly explains the black screen ending scenario where the returning characters all wonder if their acting was good, and Hagakure suddenly rushing in to reveal it was a fake death. TDR is teasing and deceiving you, the unspoiled viewer anticipating their announced renewal for another season, because deception is what it's all about with V3's Truth vs Lies theme. A neat manner to let the world know what to expect. TDR probably also uses these previews to test the results of the memory manipulation used on the cast and the audience's reaction on seeing this cast in action. The company wants to know if Tsumugi's adjustments are sufficient or if there's anything left to mold their personalities for in order to appeal the whole cast to the audience, explaining the pleasant surprises like Tenko initially being hyped up as the discourse character yet actually being the most morally good female of the cast. Seriously, the best part about V3 is that it all (even the promotion) comes full-circle if you give it some proper thought. The entry is filled with a never-ending cycle of full-circle moments which are able to blow your mind when you finally connect that cycle. Spoiling, fourth-wall-breaking game promotion before the game is even out. It's incredible how far they planned ahead, honestly Anyway, let's continue. There's some necessary details left to make the full picture. So basically, Tsumugi arranged this whole scenario with the three of them, and considering how safe it is to assume how passionately Tsumugi despises Hagakure, they might as well have even had to resort to a compromise to give Hagakure's nobody actor a planned fake death as long as Tsumugi makes sure nobody enters the protagonist room. The fake crime scene they set up must not be exposed. There's obviously frozen blood bags in TDR's various morgues from all the reality tv killing games, so they used the dead Hagakure's blood to shroud the new actor in. This is all done to make the timing so fresh and in case they cannot prevent the Ultimate Detective from investigating the crime scene. Saihara would definitely catch up on fake blood, after all. You can supply blood in a fresh manner by sustaining them in frozen blood bags. Common scientific knowledge. And it makes sense to supply their blood because TDR started these behind-the-scenes kidnappings and schemes up with running out of ideas and the reality TV reboots of their original source material. No way would the ratings - which are so important to them because they're making a good living off of this show and it can't end in their eyes - stay unaffected by a simple reboot, hence the new survivor sets that I will headcanon as being part of the TV reboot from now on. This indicates that they kept the strengths of the original entries, but they twisted the story of the games like we already were informed of by Tsumugi. They're greedy and huge perfectionists, so those previously fictional characters really had to be brought to life. That's where the development of the futuristic technology comes in. More on TDR specifically in my ending meta though! :P Well then, let's further detail how this off-screen plan worked so well in case the realization is not hitting someone yet. The knife is actually just twisted in a gaping hole from his shirt being stabbed in his abdomen non-fatally, so I suppose it makes sense that it looks so real once he plays dead and they add real blood on him. Implying that the fandom or the in-universe audience will spend that much doubt to it with how legit it looks, but Saihara definitely would inspect the corpse more as it's his duty. It's a huge plot convenience that Saihara does not bother to do so, likely because he's already made up his mind on who the culprit is like all of us did from the start: Naegi Makoto. And while he is not exactly wrong, he's dense to the major foreshadowing of an accomplice due to a lack of evidence. A nice mirror to the real first case. Tsumugi truly is a master puppeteer, and I still view her as a controlfreak because the term means that she is obsessed with maintaining her control of something. And that is emphasized in the game multiple times once Monodam, Angie and Korekiyo turn the planned pattern for the killing game around in chapter 3 and so onwards. Back to the demo: after the preparation process is done, Hagakure is left alone in the bathroom waiting for his scene to act like a corpse, not allowed to make a noise.(edited) Tsumugi and Makoto split up; former approaches Kirumi to start cleaning as soon as possible (probably convincing Monokuma to give the SHSL Maid a master key) in order to avoid anyone meeting Hagakure; the latter goes to check on Kaede in the AV Room in order to continue the plan "smoothly" as he mentions later in the class trial. Wanna know why he had to part ways with Kaede when all the students are demanded to go to the gym? It's simple when you've gotten this far. Since Tsumugi cannot possibly ignore this order from Monokuma and come out of the shadows with her real personality, Makoto is the one who needs to proceed with the last phase of the plan: splashing the actor playing dead in freshly kept blood from the frozen blood bag for his original predecessor. Hagakura is the one who got the kitchen knife and might as well have been the one to non-fatally stab himself, but that's just a small detail and it makes sense that the cast without the detective (thus inexperienced with murder cases) would legitimately assume his death to be for real just upon the sight of a drenched murder weapon and the excessive amount of fresh blood.(edited) And this is exactly why the blood confirms the time of death being a few minutes ago when they were all at the gym. Lastly, this also explains Makoto's hair dropping at the crime scene. Stuff like that commonly happens, especially when you're in a rush and they probably had to fake a convincing struggle in the short period of time they had. He was obviously able to access the room because he was the first one to receive the keys due to likely being the only person not to be infected with sleeping gas alongside Hagakure.(edited) I can't connect where Hajime's part comes in though, so maybe he wasn't involved - which I can understand cuz a fangirl prefers cooperating and interacting with her favorites - or perhaps his only contribution was (unknowingly of Tsumugi's elaborate scheme) aiding Tsumugi and Kirumi with his confidence and experience in order to convince Monokuma to hand over that master key for the maid to do her job. I really believe Hajime's actor was kept in the dark because unlike a personified Naegi, the personified Hajime wouldn't be lured to a route as corrupt as the former took by being willing to do anything to keep living off of TDR's unquestionably high salary if you survive AND return to the show. No, this actor only thought he was hired again for nostalgia's sake, because that's what we all assumed as well. And Hajime was the most intended as a returning lead to guide Kaede on the road of leading her group and passing the leadership onto her, despite not being her instructor like Naegi but that's all according to plan, of course. This is my demo headcanon. This is my conclusive interpretation of the demo

Materials for Disinformation at the age of algorithms

論文

https://web.stanford.edu/~gentzkow/research/fakenews.pdf

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4429952/Fake-News-May-Have-Contributed-to-Trump-s-2016.pdf

假新聞例子

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pope-francis-donald-trump-endorsement/

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/hillary-clinton-bought-137-million-worth-of-illegal-arms/

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wikileaks-clintons-purchase-200-million-maldives-estate/

報導

Trump won because of facebook

Did Fake News On Facebook Help Elect Trump? Here’s What We Know https://www.npr.org/2018/04/11/601323233/6-facts-we-know-about-fake-news-in-the-2016-election

Facebook fake-news writer: ‘I think Donald Trump is in the White House because of me’ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/11/17/facebook-fake-news-writer-i-think-donald-trump-is-in-the-white-house-because-of-me/?utm_term=.8be8b191af99

Donald Trump Won Because of Facebook http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/11/donald-trump-won-because-of-facebook.html

Click and elect: how fake news helped Donald Trump win a real election https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/14/fake-news-donald-trump-election-alt-right-social-media-tech-companies

How Russians Used Social Media to Boost the Trump Campaign, According to Robert Mueller’s Indictment http://fortune.com/2018/02/17/how-russians-used-social-media-election/

How WeChat Spreads Rumors, Reaffirms Bias, and Helped Elect Trum https://www.wired.com/2017/04/how-wechat-spreads-rumors-reaffirms-bias-and-helped-elect-trump/

Facebook Groups are “the greatest short-term threat to election news and information integrity” http://www.niemanlab.org/2018/11/facebook-groups-are-the-greatest-short-term-threat-to-election-news-and-information-integrity/

Disinformation

We Tracked Down A Fake-News Creator In The Suburbs. Here’s What We Learned https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/23/503146770/npr-finds-the-head-of-a-covert-fake-news-operation-in-the-suburbs

Most Americans Who See Fake News Believe It, New Survey Says https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/fake-news-survey

Twitter to use algorithm to identify abusive accounts https://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/03/01/twitter-use-algorithm-identify-abusive-accounts

“Fake News” Still Proliferates https://ktrh.iheart.com/content/2017-02-09-fake-news-still-proliferates/

The Guardian: Facebook’s Attempt To Combat Fake News Is A Total Disaster rhttps://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2017/05/17/guardian-facebooks-attempt-combat-fake-news-total-disaster/216519

The Seth Rich conspiracy shows how fake news still works https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/20/the-seth-rich-conspiracy-shows-how-fake-news-still-works/?utm_term=.74bee1e62f4b

We have learned a lot about online disinformation — and we are doing nothing https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/11/02/we-have-learned-a-lot-about-online-disinformation-and-we-are-doing-nothing

Russia

RUSSIA-LINKED FACEBOOK ADS TARGETED A SKETCHY CHROME EXTENSION AT TEEN GIRLS https://www.wired.com/story/russia-facebook-ads-sketchy-chrome-extension/

Russian propaganda may have been shared hundreds of millions of times, new research says https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/10/05/russian-propaganda-may-have-been-shared-hundreds-of-millions-of-times-new-research-says/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9ab49d94d063

How Russia Harvested American Rage to Reshape U.S. Politics https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/09/technology/russia-election-facebook-ads-rage.html

How Russian Facebook Ads Divided and Targeted US Voters Before the 2016 Election https://www.wired.com/story/russian-facebook-ads-targeted-us-voters-before-2016-election/

Others

Google, democracy and the truth about internet search https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/04/google-democracy-truth-internet-search-facebook

Who Really Controls What You See in Your Facebook Feed — and Why They Keep Changing It http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/cover_story/2016/01/how_facebook_s_news_feed_algorithm_works.html

News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2018 (90%) http://www.journalism.org/2018/09/10/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2018/

Shadow Profiles

Shadow profiles are the biggest flaw in Facebook’s privacy defense https://medium.com/r/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2F2019%2F1%2F9%2F18174631%2Fold-people-fake-news-facebook-share-nyu-princeton

Shadow profiles — Facebook knows about you, even if you’re not on Facebook http://theconversation.com/shadow-profiles-facebook-knows-about-you-even-if-youre-not-on-facebook-94804

Anger mounts after Facebook’s ‘shadow profiles’ leak in bug https://www.zdnet.com/article/anger-mounts-after-facebooks-shadow-profiles-leak-in-bug/

Firm: Facebook’s shadow profiles are ‘frightening’ dossiers on everyone https://www.zdnet.com/article/firm-facebooks-shadow-profiles-are-frightening-dossiers-on-everyone/

Zuckerberg denies knowledge of Facebook shadow profiles https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/11/facebook-shadow-profiles-hearing-lujan-zuckerberg/

Facebook Shadow Profiles: The 5 things you need to know https://www.slashgear.com/facebook-shadow-profiles-the-5-things-you-need-to-know-12527207/

How Facebook Figures Out Everyone You’ve Ever Met https://gizmodo.com/how-facebook-figures-out-everyone-youve-ever-met-1819822691

Advertisement

Facebook earnings: Will advertisers stick with the social network? https://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebook-earnings-as-facebook-is-called-digital-tobacco-advertisers-loyalty-is-biggest-question-2018-10-27

It looks like Facebook is aggressively trying to expand its business beyond selling display ads https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-ads-stagnate-new-revenue-sources-2018-12

Facebook’s global revenue as of 3rd quarter 2018 (in million U.S. dollars) https://www.statista.com/statistics/422035/facebooks-quarterly-global-revenue/

臉書最新財報大公開！靠廣告大賺 3000 億台幣，馬克喊話：維護社群比獲利重要 https://buzzorange.com/techorange/2017/11/02/2017-fb-quarterly-results/

Honest Ad Act

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honest_Ads_Act

Facebook: What is the Honest Ads Act? https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-hearings-what-is-the-honest-ads-act/

Facebook’s Honest Ads Act is a way of evading the real issue https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/facebook-honest-ads-act-evades-real-issue Whether one supports or opposes those provisions, they would not prevent the kind of foreign interference we saw in 2016. The Honest Ads Act would not stop foreign nationals from stealing American identities and presenting themselves as authentic. It would not prevent online trolls from sharing political memes that sow discord. It would not stop the spread of “fake news,” much of which is created and shared by Americans.

Debunking Three Myths about the “Honest Ads Act” https://www.ifs.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/2018-05-29_One-Pager_Wachob_Debunking-Three-Myths-About-The-Honest-Ads-Act.pdf Myth #3:The Honest Ads Act would prevent or deter foreign interference in elections. FALSE.The 2016 election cycle saw Russian-affiliated groups utilize stolen American identities to purchase a small numberof political and issue ads online. The Honest Ads Act would not have stopped these actors. If the proposal becomes law,anyone capable of posing as an American citizen would still be able to purchase ads without social media companies or thegovernment realizing. The legislation would also not prevent foreign actors from posting political content on social media forfree and relying on other users or “bots” to spread it. Nor would the proposal prevent other, more significant means of foreignmeddling, such as the hacking and leaking of campaign e-mails. Despite supporters’ claims, the Honest Ads Act would notprevent foreign interference in elections of the kind that occurred in 2016.

Without new laws, Facebook has no reason to fix its broken ad system https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/31/18048236/facebook-mark-warner-fec-congress-honest-ads-act Ever since, Facebook has been the target of close scrutiny from lawmakers. Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) introduced the Honest Ads Act last year in response to many of those concerns. The bill would amend one of the biggest campaign reform acts, the BCRA, to force paid internet and digital advertising to adhere to the same standards as television and radio. Larger online platforms like Facebook would be required by law to maintain a public file on these advertisements which would include who paid for ads totaling over $500, how many views the ads attained, the rates charged, and contact information for the purchaser. - Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO), a sponsor on the House version of the same bill voiced similar sentiments. “Paid political advertising should be subject to the same disclosure requirements regardless of what form it takes — the Honest Ads Act I introduced would assure such,” Coffman said to The Verge. “The American people deserve to know who’s paying for the ads they see on the Internet just as much as they do the ads they see on TV or hear on the radio.”

Facebook’s quiet battle to kill the first transparency law for online political ads https://qz.com/1235363/mark-zuckerberg-and-facebooks-battle-to-kill-the-honest-ads-act/ The act introduces disclosure and disclaimer rules to online political advertising. Tech companies would have to keep copies of election ads, and make them available to the public. Facebook’s shifting views: “We support Congress passing legislation to make all advertising more transparent, but we’re not going to wait for them to act,” he said.

Facebook paid for its own ads https://www.recode.net/2018/10/23/18015228/facebook-top-political-ad-buyers-trump-beto-elections

Facebook gatekeeping failed

We ran 2 fake ads pretending to be Cambridge Analytica — and Facebook failed to catch that they were frauds https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-approved-political-ads-paid-for-by-cambridge-analytica-2018-10 At the UK launch of the ad tools earlier this month, Facebook said the new service was not explicitly designed to catch malicious actors, but to provide transparency.

We posed as 100 Senators to run ads on Facebook. Facebook approved all of them. https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/xw9n3q/we-posed-as-100-senators-to-run-ads-on-facebook-facebook-approved-all-of-them “If Facebook is going to claim to verify who’s paying for political ads, they need to actually do the work”

Facebook’s political ad tool let us buy ads “paid for” by Mike Pence and ISIS https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/wj9mny/facebooks-political-ad-tool-let-us-buy-ads-paid-for-by-mike-pence-and-isis

Shining a Light on Ads With Political Content https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/05/ads-with-political-content/

masterpost on why mod norway hates den//nor a lot without mentioning kin stuff or specific ships that are better

disclaimer: this post isn’t to start an argument, the only reason I’m making it is to organize my thoughts about den//nor because @ adhd wyd. 

This is okay to reblog, but I will ignore any and all reblogs adding on things about how I’m wrong. This is based off a mix of opinion, canon and scientific evidence about attraction, and I really, really, don’t want to argue about den//nor, especially with people who ship it. So really, for the sake of my mental health and your time, don’t bother arguing with my stubborn ass. I’m not going to change my stance on this and there’s nothing you can say to change that.

contents: yaoi / it’d be unhealthy (for both of them) / the actual shippers / dynamic

yaoi.

I’m not saying I dislike gay ships, no. I live for gay ships, I’m a gay male, I love mlm ships. Big comfort material. I dislike yaoi, gay ships are fine and dandy. Yaoi is gross.

Yaoi (”Also called BL (Boy’s Love) and Shounen Ai, yaoi is a genre of manga that fetishizes m/m relationships and relies on homophobic stereotypes for plot and character devices.”), and fujioshis.

“In most yaoi mangas, there is one agressive masculine man who preys upon an usually much younger, submissive feminine man. It strengthens the homophobic myth of gay men being predators and pedophiles.”

Doesn’t that sound a lot how the fandom portrays Denmark and Norway? Denmark is canonically the same height as Norway (Well, Norway is like an inch shorter at most), and the two have about the same body shape. Yet what do y’all fujioshis do? Draw Norway as some femme boy that’s like a foot shorter than Denmark.

“It also relies on heteronormative stereotypes, where there are always strict uke/seme roles in bed, as well as a feminine caring and a masculine powerful dynamic in the relationship outside of the bed.  “

Again, what do y’all do? Make Norway super femme and oh so much smarter than Denmark, making Denmark the unhealthily powerful one -- Bringing me to my next point;

it’d be unhealthy (for both of them).

“They have known each other since childhood, but while Denmark considers the two of them to be like best friends and believes that Norway thinks the same way he does, he is unaware of Norway's blunt teasing.[7] Norway frequently refers to him as anko[12], a term Himaruya has described as having a nuance like older brother or oniichan, the familiar form of big brother, and having a classmate-like feeling.[13]”

“Main article: Norway

Norway is a childhood friend of Denmark's, who he feels rather close to and strongly about, believing that Norway sees him the same way as a "best friend." “

(source: Norways wiki & Denmarks wiki)

Since I’m not sure how to word it; lets take my parents for example; they’d been dating since they were 15 (fifteen) until they were like 23-24. My mom used to go over to his house every. single. day. because she felt more at home there than at her own home. They never argued, they were like a perfect relationship almost. Why they broke up? My mom, and I quote, “saw him more like a brother than a lover.” Which is a completely justified reason to break up! My parents have the same relationship as siblings. Now, if my parents felt like siblings after 8 years of growing up together; imagine the bond that Denmark and Norway have.

They grew up together for thousands of years! Meaning they’d be much, much closer than my parents were. So maybe they could’ve dated at some point in their history, but I can see them doing the same thing my parents did; break up because they felt like siblings/being best friends would be better. Plus, you don’t call your lover “brother”, even if you’re not actually related or don’t mean it as sibling-way especially if you have other, blood-related, siblings.

Why would a relationship be unhealthy for the both of them?

Because if they feel like brothers, then you get the same unhealthy benefits of actual incest from the Westermarck effect, “a hypothetical psychological effect through which people who live in close domestic proximity during the first few years of their lives become desensitized to sexual attraction.” Which, guess what, Denmark and Norway have known each other since childhood, 

Fujioshis turning the shp into yaoi + the westermarck effect; what do we have?

If you put the two into a relationship you’re implying that one of them is unconsciously forcing themselves onto the other. Or just, y’know, people straight up writing something like Danish Slaughter House - a fanfiction where Denmark straight up rapes and kills all the Nordics.

And speaking of Danish Slaughter House, let’s move on to the next point;

the actual shippers.

I don’t even know where to start with this one. I guess I’ll start with shamchat, a great site, I spend a lot of time there - as one of my biggest hobbies in the past few years is roleplaying. I have almost 2 years of experience with writing Norway. The thing is, when I come across Denmarks on the site it almost always, if theyre a Dennor shipper, starts off as something like:

Best friends hanging out -> Denmark asks Norway to do something with him -> Norway is busy -> Denmark gets sad -> Norway tries to make him feel better -> Denmark confesses feelings.

what? and then Norway will tell Denmark that he sees him as a brother or just doesn’t feel the same, and then there’s a long range of reactions I’ve gotten from Denmarks with this, some of the worst including being harassed ooc for not shipping it, being guilted ooc for not shipping it (@ my RSD, someone telling me that they’re crying because I don’t ship something just. x20 as bad as neurotypicals), Denmark trying to force himself onto Norway sexually, and there was actually one where they had Denmark threaten to kill whoever Norway had feelings for.

For fucks sake! Once I was on as FtM!Caught Binding!Norway because I was feeling incredibly dysphoric, and I had a Denmark threaten to out Norway to the other Nordics, while Norway was begging him not to, and when he finally agreed not to  - which took actually making Norway (and me for that matter, since I have really big emotional ties with Norway) cry - he immediately jumps to a confession, which Norway sorta tells him off because what makes anyone think after threatening to out someone as trans they’re gonna accept a uwu love confession uwu uwu, which in turn upset Denmark and the entire rp turns to them - Norway trying to make him feel better, telling him that he’s his brother and always will be, etc. Making the biggest effort to make him feel better, but no instead he runs away to his bedroom, locks himself in his closet and tried to stab himself to death.

Most of these were done while I was on mobile, so unfortunately I don’t have saves to them.

Am I upset that you people portray Denmark horribly? Of course. My point isn’t the portrayals of Denmark here, though. Because the canon portrayal of Denmark is actually pretty fit for Norway, not going to lie, but my point is about how the shippers pull bullshit like this when someone doesn’t like their ship, which again ties into the homophobia of yaoi.

“Many mangas in this genre also have a plot centered around rape (the seme/top rapes the uke/bottom, then the uke realizes he actually loves the seme and allows the relationship to continue), abuse (physical, where the seme will hurt the uke, or emotional, where either part will threaten things as far as suicide if the other part dares to leave them), pedophilia (shota is a subgenre of yaoi in which boys as young as 5-6 will have sexual relationships with middle aged men). “

Most of these I’ve actually had to deal with personally aside from the pedophilia/shota bit, while I’ve never actually done an rp with someone as Shota!Denmark (I skip anyone who thinks shota is ok), I’ve seen them around, along with Shota!Norways.

I’m not going to start with the amount of Denmark’s on shamchat idealizing Norway in every way, shape and form.

dynamic.

Admittedly, Denmark is an almost ideal guy for Norway personality-wise, with how socially inept Norway is (Which Denmark can still be there for him if they’re friends), but for Denmark, Norway isn’t super suitable. The idea that Denmark needs someone to keep him in check is a little, how do I say it, wrong. Denmark is over 2000 years old, he’s smart enough to keep himself in check, while it would be nice for him to have someone to be there to tell him “You’re being too loud” and to give him a little help here and there, best friends can do that, can they not? As for a romantic partner, Denmark would probably be better matched with someone who doesn’t have trouble complimenting people or doing things solely to please him.

Denmark has his self image as a priority, and as shown by the above strips I’ve given, Norway isn’t the best to give him that. Norway is better at subtly doing things for people he cares for, not outright stating and cheering for him - which I did try to find the part of a strip where Denmark was imagining Norway and Iceland cheering for him (Or something like that), I couldn’t find it, but that one in specific emphasizes that a romantic relationship between Denmark and Norway wouldn’t quite work the same way their brothery relationship works.

Everyone teases and gets into arguments with their siblings, (Which Norway does tease & occasionally insult Denmark) and you always know that everything your sibling says to insult you isn’t serious, but even though Denmark “blatantly ignores offensive and aggressive social tones ”, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t pick up on them and he holds himself up too high for it to be a healthy relationship romantically if for either of them if Norway isn’t going to be positive, Norway is kinda negative and Denmark contrasts that greatly, but if Norway can’t give Denmark flattery and self esteem boosts straightforwardly, then Denmark won’t be happy in the relationship, which makes him less positive, making him less ideal for Norway. Whereas if they just stay as brothers, it’s easier for Denmark to just brush off any teasing or criticism Norway might have.

As for romantic relationships for Norway, I did say earlier that Norway needs someone who’s positive, good at social interaction, cheerful, friendly, etc. He also needs someone who easily picks up on the little things he does and isn’t extremely high-maintenance when it comes to needing flattery. Someone that Norway doesn’t have to be straightforward with. While we’re at it, I’ll also mention why someone who isn’t these things wouldn’t work, Norway needs someone positive and good at social interaction because he’s not these things, (He’s said it himself, he is painfully shy around strangers as he resolved to leave upon seeing them; yes I’m ignoring that he did all that speaking right after he said that, this is because I’m going off the it was only there for comedic purposes and doesn’t mean anything), and he needs someone cheery/friendly to contrast himself (I’m not saying he isn't friendly! He is quite that, but isn’t great at expressing it.), since a relationship between two characters who are really apathetic about a lot of things would just end in them thinking theyre apathetic abt each other. Picking up on little things + not needing to be straightforward with is kinda self explanatory after the stuff about Denmark.

Anyways, back on track. Kinda? Conclusion.

I do like the “quiet one & loud one”/”opposites attract”/similar tropes a lot, but when it comes to Denmark and Norway it doesn’t quite work out as well as others might. Especially with fandom misportrayals, it kinda ruins the pairing for me.

Issues in the Media Reflection

Name: Gabriella Magrath

 Partner(if applicable): Marko

Issue: American vs World culture in the media.

What I was trying to get across to the class about my issue?

Our main idea that we were trying to teach the class / our thesis was Americanization in the media imposes a negative influence in modern day European culture. We described the meaning of Americanization and why leaders of other countries would be afraid that the growing popularity and the mainstreaming of American culture in the media imposes a threat to their national cultures. We gave examples on how the culture in different European countries is assimilating to American standards in the media. We also gave examples of the stereotypes placed on America by other countries and the romanticization in American media of other cultures (the example used was Paris).

Production Elements Organisation -Research, -presentation, -creative process

I started the research very early. I collected all the sites and resources I thought would be useful for our topic of the presentation and shared them with Marko. We then went to the second step of going through the resources and picking out all the useful information regarding our thesis. I went through almost half of them and Marko was supposed to go through the other half so could start the powerpoint while he wrote out a rough script of what we were to say. Then we went through the rough script together and made it into a more dialogue format so it would be easier for the class to understand and more engaging. I think that our organisation was okay. The way that we did it was very successful but I do think it could have been better if the research didn’t take us so much time at the start. I think that our presentation style was very effective at relaying the information.

Participation. Comments about cooperation, diligence, support. To what degree partners contributed to the overall work and success of the project?(if applicable)

I think that Marko and I worked very well together. We were never afraid to bounce ideas off each other if we weren't sure about something or had an idea for the presentation. That is what I look for most when choosing a partner for a group project because I am an audio learner so it is important for me to talk about things before putting them into a final product. I believe that we could have been more diligent when we were doing the research portion. Unfortunately, I was waiting a long time before he did his part of the research. I was waiting a while before I could start to put the powerpoint together because I wasn’t sure of all the points we wanted to talk about. We really got a hang of working together however when we got together and we were able to go through our ideas and all the information at once. Overall we worked very well together.

What aspects were most successful? Least? What I would do differently?

I often think that when people do group presentations the reason they can be less successful is when there is no evident teamwork. Therefore I think that the most successful part of our presentation was our decision to make it more of a dialogue format. In my opinion that is the best way to engage the class and to make them more willing to participate. Our least successful part of the presentation was the videos. Unfortunately, it was very difficult to find videos that supported our thesis or said exactly what we wanted to say. So next time I would do more research and looked for other medias to support our thesis rather than looking for a video to back up each of our points.

Theory: How did we use a variety of medias to get our point across? Why did we choose what we did? What worked? What didn't?

I really enjoyed making the powerpoint because I got to use various social media outlets in order to create it. I found images and memes to engage the class and to be used as a media source. Like I said before, in my opinion, the videos we chose for some of our points were not as effective as we hoped. For example, the first video we showed was meant to show how a girl that was American born who now lives in Milan, Italy perceives stereotypes in the media and how American culture is portrayed/interpreted. I think that it was a good concept but it didn’t get the reaction we hoped. It was probably due to the fact that the girl in the video was not very professional and we stopped the video a bit too soon.

How did we explore the use of technology/media concepts in relation to our issue?

We looked at a lot of research done on European students in particular and the effects that American standards in the media had on their behaviour and attitudes. Also on the amount of violence in the media due to American influence. We talked about different kinds of medias that were used historically to make American culture more widespread and that is the use of propaganda after the war. That was a very early example of the mainstreaming of the American Dream. Another example of the media we explored were movies. Violent films have never been popular or celebrated in Europe, only in recent years have we seen a spike of violence in films and this is due to the growing popularity of American movies.

Analysis: How much of our presentation was based on research? On opinion? (whose?) INCLUDE A LIST OF RESOURCES, CITATIONS

All of our presentation was based on research. Only one part was based on opinion and that was my personal experience of living in Paris.

http://access-internationalvg2.cappelendamm.no/c951212/artikkel/vis.html?tid=385685

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americanization

https://www.raconteur.net/culture/american-culture-rules-the-world

http://www.americans-world.org/digest/global_issues/globalization/culture.cfm

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/business/media/01soft.html

http://www.collegiatetimes.com/opinion/american-media-has-significant-impact-on-european-attitudes/article_c3ea5b04-cd84-5c7e-ba25-b8c913a08a80.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ar-torre/sex-violence-book_b_5571674.htm

http://deadline.com/2013/11/gun-violence-in-movies-a-view-from-abroad-632569/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/10141229/The-brutal-truth-about-violence-in-the-movies.html

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1958/06/is-france-being-americanized/376248/

Depth of content: To what degree did we introduce new ways of looking at this issue, new information? Was this class 'educated' or just 'entertained'?

 Unfortunately, I don’t think that we explored any new way of looking at this issue but I think that we did offer different ways of looking at the topic. We tried to bring in viewpoints that the class has probably never heard from before personal experiences that they can learn from. I think that this was very crucial for our presentation to make sure that the class got to hear from both someone they could relate to and someone they couldn’t. Like for example the girl in the first video we presented where she talks about her experience living in Italy versus my personal testimony about travelling in Europe.

How well did our examples reinforce and illustrate our points?

I think most of our examples did a very good job at illustrating our points. The only problem was finding videos that suited the thesis correctly. I think that the propaganda poster that we showed first was a very good example and illustrated the history of Americanization in the media very well. As I mentioned previously, however, the video of the girl explaining her life probably could have been more effective either in our presentation of it or if it were a more professional person in the video. Overall I think our examples reinforced the points we were trying to make and illustrated our thesis.

What new skills did I develop during this project?

I developed research skills during this presentation. Without proper research, this project would have been very unsuccessful and so I think it was crucial that I did the most thorough research of the topic possible. Once the research was completed it was much easier to see where we wanted to go with the presentation and the types of things we wanted to cover. Like with any project getting to know the material as well as possible before outlining what you want to say is very important. This project forced me to develop research skills but also teamwork. In order for this project to be effective there also needed to be communication between the presenters. Throughout the research process, Marko and I had a shared document where we compiled all our work so it was more practical and there was no break in communication.

What new things did I learn about myself in the process of working on this project? (related to the content and/or process)

Honestly, first of all, I learnt that I am a fantastic procrastinator. I've pretty much perfected my procrastinating methods. But I also learnt that in group projects it is important to check up on the other partner because they are most likely doing the same thing as me. This talking about it made me want to stay focused on the task because I was also trying to push someone else to do the work as well. As for the content, it was mind blowing seeing actual statistics describing and documenting the negative effects that American media has on European culture.

What might I do differently if I were starting over? What skills can I transfer to my next assignment in this class or others?(or life!)

I think that the research skills that I developed will be very useful when it comes to my next assignments and so will the teamwork skills. Also if I were to start this project over I would have used my class time more wisely and gotten together with my partner earlier on in the process to have a clearer picture of what we wanted to do.

Waylan’s Sabbatical (5/?)

A chunk of writing following our party NPC (and my Son) as he breaks away from the party. Our campaign uses names of places from various fandoms for fun but they have no real relation to the source material. (We also call the Raven Queen Nara because of some hasty Wiki reading)

TW: Mentions of past torture, general violence, injury.

Part: First | Previous | Next

The next time he makes his way back to the ruined castle is because there’s a storm coming. He spots the clouds gathering as an inky blotch on the horizon and notes the various creatures desperately trying to go to ground before it hits. With so many monsters in the forest he doubts he’ll find any kind of proper shelter that will keep him safe from the onslaught he thinks is coming. So after a short debate, wondering if the Black Knight will extend the same hospitality as he had the first time, he decides that he’s better off dealing with the lich than the stampede of creatures moving through the woods. 

He gets to the ruins before the rainfall starts. There are fresh bodies in front of the castle and he doesn’t bother to pick through their belongings, instead making his way straight to the front gate and calling inside,

“Black Knight!” His voice echoes against the stone, dulled under the sound of the raging winds. “It’s Waylan, I was hoping that I could find refuge from the storm with you!” 

There’s a long pause and he has to leave soon if he’s unwelcome. He could probably get to some of the spider catacombs, blast out one of the smaller caves with a few fireballs and take shelter until the rain passes. 

But what remains of the gate starts to click and groan as the old chains are used to lift it from the ground. 

“You are always welcome, traveler.” His voice is low, but Waylan catches it as he ducks into the ruins. It’s still loud inside, enough cracks in the old stones that the wind is rattling through, but it’s not too much. And it’s certainly warmer inside. 

“Thank you.” He says genuinely. 

“The storm might not pass for some time, follow me.”

Liches play the long game. Waylan knows that. Knows that creatures that live for hundreds of years are more likely to stab you in the back after you’ve shown it to them twenty times, but there’s little motivation for the lich to kill him. There are enough adventurers that come to the castle that he must have sacrificed enough souls to live for another two hundred years at the very least. So he follows the knight through the halls, up a spiraling staircase and out onto one of the towers. 

“If you are going to stay here you will need water.” Waylan spots the overturned barrels that look like they’ve been up here for years, but a few of them aren’t crumbling with age. “The well turned putrid many years ago.” He and the Knight set them upright to collect the rain water. But as the first few drops begin to fall the Knight ushers him back inside, and not a moment too soon as the sky splits open into a downpour. 

“Thank you.” And he means it. “I don’t mean to continue to impose.” 

“You cannot impose here. What you do is visit. The dead outside impose.” 

“Still, you saved my life last time. All I did was burn some spiders you could have killed yourself.” The Black Knight concedes the point with a nod before gesturing for Waylan to follow him back down the staircase. 

“Allow me to show you what remains of my home.” 

****

There are places in the castle that cannot be traveled through, areas where the floor is too weak to support weight, areas where the vegetation has collapsed the ceiling, but aside from the areas that are unsafe there are no places that are off-limits to Waylan. 

“Where are you from?” The Knight asks. He stokes a fire to life inside of a study, larger than the meeting hall of the council building. Waylan is eating a portion of rations, sat on the stone floor. The expensive rugs that had once likely lined the entire room have been eaten away by insects, sunlight, time. It feels ancient as he sits with this creature who has existed here for centuries. 

“I’m from Oshime.” 

“Ah. When I was alive there were only nine provinces, I believe there are more now?”

“A few.” 

“I have not heard much about the world beyond Okren since I became this, will you tell me about it?”

Waylan hasn’t ever been much of a talker. Not when it wasn’t trading sarcastic barbs, but he’s safe and dry so he figures he owes the lich at least some world history. 

****

After waiting out the storm he comes and goes from the castle. The lich seems to enjoy his company and Waylan appreciates his reserved demeanor, which considering liches are evil creatures probably says more about him than anything else. But it’s nice to have a ‘home base’ to return to as a resting point between the deeper sections of the Dark Forest and the kingdom’s capital. Eventually the Black Knight even shows him a different entrance into the palace, through a servant’s tunnel that allows him to slip in and out when the lich is not home. 

He never asks where the creature goes. 

The lich always asks why he’s still traveling the forest. 

****

When another storm drives him back to the castle a few weeks later he finds himself alone. The lich is nowhere he can find and without much else to do he begins to wander the castle. Everything is swathed in a thick layer of dust, so it’s easy enough for him to spot a door that looks like the knob has been polished in comparison. Waylan hesitates in front of it, inspects the floor, and the lock, the lintel above. Because he’s seen Ray stabbed, poisoned, and dropped into enough pits to know that checking for traps is an essential part of being an adventurer. 

But the door reveals no ill will. 

So he turns the knob and enters. 

Nostalgia hits him like a warhammer to his sternum as he peers into the dark room. It’s a massive space, nearly triple the size of his own modest bedroom back home. And here is another moth eaten bed and what what once ornate furniture that’s long since gone to ruin, but the desk, that stretched the entire length of one wall, is mostly intact. There are bottles and books strewn on every surface, piles of crystals, scrolls, tapestries, cauldrons, beakers, even a small pile of scrying bones left casting an ill fate from two hundred years ago. There is magical paraphernalia from what he suspects were all corners of the world at one time. 

He wonders briefly what Faith did with all of the things he left in the basement of his home. If she had to go through his and his father’s stuff, the boxes of his mother’s belongings that were stored up in the attic. Maybe he’ll ask her about it if he sees her again. 

Waylan is careful as he picks through the room. The books on the table are too fragile, even the slightest touch sends the brittle pages crumbling. But the ones sandwiched into the bookshelves are a little better. Their spines are loose and the binding fragile, but he manages to open a few of them. Some are in common, others in what looks like elvish, even some celestial. He knows four languages, but even common isn’t helping him here. Not when the books are written in such an outdated form. 

When the Knight opens the door hours later Waylan is sat on the floor, having found the one text written in draconic and using it to translate the common notes scrawled in the margins as best he can. At least dragons hold a longer lasting fidelity to their language, though it shouldn’t come as a surprise considering how long they live. 

“How long have you been in here?”

“I don’t know, since mid afternoon maybe? You weren’t home.” 

“I’m aware.” The Knight exits the room and Waylan just shrugs and continues scrawling notes into the small journal that he’d bought once he realized that if he kept scrawling notes on his map he wouldn’t be able to read it anymore. He makes it through another two and a half pages before the door opens again. The knight carefully picks his way across the floor until he can kneel down beside Waylan. “It’s past midnight.”

“Shit, really?” Where had the time gone? He startles when he sees the Knight offer him what appears to be a steaming cup of tea. “Thank you.” He doesn’t point out that the Knight long ago told him that he doesn’t bother with stocking things to eat or drink. It’s not hard to make tea from the plants in the forest, and he already knows the lich keeps herbs on hand for whatever reason. “Is this your room?”

“No. My room was down in the barracks.” He sits back, looking around the room. “This was Prince Westly’s room.” 

Waylan is a lot of things-- sarcastic, rude, broken-- but he’s not stupid or unobservant. “I’ll put everything back. I didn’t mean to intrude.” 

“You can’t intrude on a space that has not belonged to someone in two hundred years, Waylan. He would have been happy to show you every inch of this room, all of his research, a dozen times over if he thought you were interested.” It’s the first piece of information the lich has offered him about the old inhabitants of the castle. 

And for some reason he feels like he owes a bit of his own history in return. “Where I grew up there weren’t any magic users. That was big city stuff. When I could suddenly light my hands on fire I didn’t have anyone to teach me. So I got my hands on as many books as I could find. They helped me get through the years I was alone.” 

Waylan feels the tectonic plates of their relationship shift. It’s slight, and he’s cautious, but he doesn’t see the harm in it just yet. He wonders what the reverberations will shake loose.