This is inspired by another ask i saw two years ago actually... And since i'm in love with your work, i would like to see a headcanon in your perspective of this situation! How the M6 would react if MC got seriously hurt, BUT, by defending someone else?
The Arcana HCs: When you get hurt defending a child
In the time since Nadia has become Countess, the sight of a hungry child huddled by the docks is far less common, though today is sadly an exception. You don't give yourself much time to think before stepping in between the terrified kid who just ran to hide behind you and the angry crook chasing after them. You're too distracted trying to make sure the child is safe to block the sudden blows to your head and ribs, and by the time you hear your lover calling your name as they sprint to your side, you're already passing out.
Julian
Can't help feeling proud of you even as he (with the help of several South Enders) shuts down the crook and starts fussing over you
Doctor Mode is very helpful right now. He can let his medical training take over and save his panic and anxiety for later
Said medical training quickly continues to the small person beside you once you're patched up and assessed enough to be transported to his clinic. Bruises like that do not belong on a child. Oh. Oh no.
At this point in your relationship he knows himself enough to know he shouldn't try to address someone else's emotional state until he's fully aware of his own, so after patching them up he drops them off at Mazelinka's on his way to his clinic to keep caring for you
He also doesn't want to risk the kid seeing how hurt you are (and how upset the people who love you are at seeing you hurt) and blaming themself for needing to be protected
Mazelinka knows a thing or two about dealing with freshly traumatized children. She's got them covered
You, on the other hand, are not covered. You're not going to die but it's going to be a while until you're physically okay again
He feels like he's going to be sick. He understands fully why you chose to protect someone weaker than yourself like that, hell, he'd do exactly the same in your situation -
He'd do the exact same. He has done the exact same, frequently, for much less noble causes. He is beginning to understand all the scary moments he put you through due to his own self sacrificing habits and he doesn't like the picture of him that it's painting
Pulled out of his spiral several days later by a knock at his door and the biggest puppy eyes he's ever seen on the child you got hurt defending. Apparently they do feel rather guilty about you after all
Julian bonds with them quickly and even lets them tend to your less gnarly injuries, to show them that they didn't do anything wrong and that they can help. Will adopt them if you don't stop him
Asra
They'll parse through all the complex emotions they feel about this whole debacle later. For now, there are only two things that matter:
1) Protecting you, because he loves you, and 2) protecting the things you love and the decisions you make, because he loves you
The crook in question is immediately blown back into the ocean. The physical description and account of their crimes will be passed along to Nadia via Faust's Delivery Service shortly
Both you and the child you were protecting are coming back to the shop with him. It's easier for him to stick to his priorities if everything involved stays within a ~20 foot radius of each other
As soon as you're laid down on your bed and Asra starts healing you it becomes obvious that the kid cares about the person who just stood up for them and wants to help you get better
Well, now they have some common ground. There's never a bad time to teach a child some comforting healing magic
Once you're all set, he'll sit the kid on the couch and help them heal their own bruises as well. Getting an up-close look at them reminds him uncomfortably vividly of his own shared childhood with Muriel
Aaaand that is as much vulnerability as they're comfortable with indulging in for now. They'll set the kid up with some picture books and magical games to distract them and hover by your side instead
You don't remember much of what it was like while you were asleep and recovering, but you do recall the sound of your love's soft voice whispering his own confessions through the night as he waited
How scared they were when they saw you fall. How they adore who you are, but how a small, selfish part of them wishes you were less kind
How that same small, selfish part of him wishes you'd have shown up and done the same thing for him when he was that helpless kid
By the time you wake up, Asra and the child you protected have become best friends and are gearing up to be partners in crime once you're strong enough to handle their shenanigans
Nadia
On principle alone, she couldn't be prouder of you, even if she is furious at whatever series of choices and circumstances led to you being subjected to such an assault unprotected
The crook finds himself on the sharp end of her sword in seconds. It's less than ten minutes before you're being bundled off to the Palace for treatment while Nadia tries to cool off by collecting witnesses
The key witness - no, the child - oh dear. She's never been the best with small children. Or children in general, for that matter
And this one is trying so hard to be an adult. Further questioning reveals no parents, no home, no guardians, no schooling, no food -
This won't do. She can't expect anybody to testify against your attacker on an empty stomach, and this small, scared person would technically be a ward of the state, so to the Palace with her they go
It's only after she's gotten back to the Palace, situated the child with instructions for food, clothes, and a bath, and managed to get some time alone that the full emotional weight of the moment hits her
You're hurt. You're hurt because you did the right thing. And you doing the right thing got you hurt because the city she's responsible for is still a place where cruelty wins and weakness is exploited
She knows it's not true, but it feels like a personal failing on her part that it ever happened in the first place. It's hard not to blame herself when you're laid out in front her, unconscious and injured
Thankfully she doesn't have too long to spiral because she's interrupted by a timid knock at the door and a very young voice asking if you're okay and if there's any way to help
Promptly followed by said child making a very guilty confession to their Countess that it's their fault you got hurt
This snaps her out of it immediately. Reassuring the kid as to who is really to blame puts her own doubts to rest as well. Not only that, but she's going to be their patron now. And you will be their role model
You wake up later to levels of hero worship you are not prepared for
Muriel
His heart is full and it is panicking. Intensely. Simultaneously.
First, he's shoving the crook out of the way. He saw several other friends rushing over to help on his way, they'll take care of the rest
Then, he's catching you up in his arms so he can take you to get the medical attention you need. He'll have his panic attack about the injuries he sees on you after you're in a physician's care
And the kid - the kid can't be ignored. He cares too much, you clearly care too much, so they're coming with him. He bundles them up in his cloak and takes off, potential kidnapping charges be damned
Asra doesn't waste any time treating your injuries once the small group reaches the shop, and does the same for the child right after
Muriel begins to manage an apology to the kid for carrying them off like that, which is when he starts to learn a little more about who exactly you just got hurt trying to protect
The child doesn't have parents or a guardian wondering where they are, they don't have a safe place to go back to, and from the sounds from their small belly, they haven't had a proper meal in a while
Muriel likes to offer excuses when he's not ready to face the sincerity of his own desires. He could use an extra set of hands helping around the hut while you're recovering, right?
The hut's pretty spacious, all things considered, and the kid's pretty small, and you'll probably want to know that they're okay when you're regularly conscious again, and the chickens need regular feeding ...
The child in question doesn't have any complaints. They're eager to see you recover soon too, and are very happy to help when it means having a roof over their head and enough food
Inanna loves them. Soon there's a rotating schedule on who tends to you while the others handle small tasks. Muriel's internal debate on how hard it would be to adopt is obvious and endearing
Regardless, it results in him spending more time down at the docks, working with Nadia to make a better care system for others like them
Portia
She saw one cruel, overconfident idiot making her MC hurt and went ballistic. That crook won't walk straight for a while and everyone who witnessed her martial skills will never consider testing her again
Immediately after that's done she is all over you, fussing at any blood, checking your bruises with a gentle touch, and hauling you up in her arms and onto whatever vehicle she can use to get you home
Oh, and the kid is coming with her too. That's non-negotiable
You're both spirited away to her cottage within the hour and cleaned up. Julian appears red-faced and out of breath after an ominous message reaches him through one of the South Enders who saw it all
While he tends to your more serious injuries and makes a diagnosis, Portia is mothering the child into shape - putting ointment on bruises, drawing them a bath, piling a plate with food ...
... altering some of her gardening clothes to fit them, putting their dirty clothes in the wash, asking them where they live, where their family is, crying for the fourth time that day over the answers ...
Until you're awake and she feels like the incident has been properly resolved, the kid is staying with her. She's making up a cozy bed for them on the couch and plopping a purring Pepi into their lap
All the care she has to save for when you're awake gets funneled into that child. She'll make them chamomile tea in the evening to help them sleep and listen to them process their feelings from the day
The moment you wake up, she is pouncing on you with all the aggression your injuries allow her to indulge in. She will pepper your face with kisses while tears roll down her cheeks
And scold you lovingly, of course. Why didn't you call her sooner?!
If you're not down to adopt the child involved (which, she is, but not without you), she'll enlist Nadia and Mazelinka in starting a Nevivon-style group home with conditions good enough for their care
Also she thinks the injuries you picked up are hot and will initiate a make out session with her hero (you) when they catch her eye
Lucio
He likes to say he's grown as a person when it comes to his self-restraint, but there will never be a time when seeing you in any kind of danger doesn't turn him into a vengeful mercernary
The only way that crook escapes with his life is if someone else intervenes and redirects his attention to your current state
He doesn't even notice the child cowering behind you. His world is currently MC-sized and that's the only thing getting his attention until it is safe. He's been in enough combat to know basic first aid
Once he's done all he can initially do, he's picking you up and carrying you to the nearest good doctor to handle the rest
Has no idea there was even a kid involved until there's a timid knock at the door of the clinic a while after you've been admitted. Opening it reveals the small person from the docks, bringing an apology
They're worried about you and feel bad that you got hurt protecting them. Lucio, unfortunately, does not handle this revelation well
There is still a memory tucked to his core of a shivering six year old stuck out in the snow, abandoned by his mother until he can fight and kill a bear on his own. Since when do kids get taken care of?
Since when is any child worthy of protection, let alone yours?
He is well on his way to a verbal beat down of the tiny person who put you in so much danger because they weren't competent enough to handle their problems on their own, when his own words hit him
He sounds like his mother
He does not want to be his mother
He's folding his lips, noticing the bruises on the kid's face, and wordlessly opening the door wider for them. He's still angry, but he's grown enough to know when to keep his words to himself
He tosses the physician another coin to tend to the child's wounds and sits by your side instead. You thought he was good enough, and he's glad you were right. You think this child is good enough too
Makes sure to get the kid properly settled in a good home (with your help) before he moves on to the next job
Cultural Insights of Our Own: Lessons From a Newly Decoded Digital Archive
Interplanetary Journal of Cultural Studies
Volume 16, Issue 3, Pages 322-340
Abstract
The recently decoded Internet Archive includes the digital artifact called “Archive of Our Own” (AO3) from early third millennium Earth. AO3 is unusually well backed up and therefore is presumed to contain some of the most significant -- perhaps even sacred -- texts of the time. In this paper we present our preliminary analysis of AO3 metadata, including new insights about the literature, gender and sexuality, religion, and scientific understanding of this historical era:
I. LITERATURE. We describe the cultural centrality of figures such as the Winchesters and Reader. We explore how they featured heavily in every dominant literature genre of the era, including Fluff, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, and Oral Sex.
II. GENDER AND SEXUALITY. We review the overwhelming evidence that male-male relationships were the most culturally significant sexual and romantic relationships, but we also show that it was a culture with an unusually broad set of sexual and gender roles. In particular, we highlight the unusual tripartite conceptualization of gender as including alpha, beta, and omega roles; we note the apparent prejudice against betas, illustrated in the prevalence of “no beta we die like men” and similar protest slogans.
III. RELIGION. We describe a newly discovered religious taboo: doves were a common sacrificial animal of the time, but they were forbidden from being eaten.
IV. SCIENCE. Finally, we present new insight about alternate universes. While previous scholars hypothesized that the scientists of Earth may have developed a correct early theory of the multiverse by the late second millennium, our analysis of AO3 presents evidence to the contrary. As late as the early third millennium, prevailing theories postulated highly specific universes, such as a universe in which everyone is in high school, or a universe contained within a coffee shop.
Taken together, these historical insights show that further investigation is warranted into the valuable documents stored within AO3, perhaps even going beyond the metadata to examine the full texts.
I love that Jules Verne asked the question "What kind of person could circumnavigate the world in 80 days?" and decided that the answer was not a groundbreaking explorer or genius inventor, but a guy who's really, really, really obsessed with train and boat schedules.
my final paper for my CS degree was literally "how can we algorithmically optimise for the fastest possible circumnavigation route on commercial flights?", which incidentally required me to adopt a very good working knowledge of what flight options are available at what times (and also led to me accidentally memorising several hundred airport codes)
incidentally the fastest possible route seems to be about 51 hours, if you're working from 2022 schedules like i was. if you use current schedules and are very optimistic about how quickly you can transfer between flights, you can maybe get it down to around 48 hours (also known as 25 millivernes).
areudirty
titsay
dailybridgerton
turnnoffyourmind
romaincrisis
andulkaphoto
kianamaiart
