#DON'T KILL ME IF ANY LORE'S BEEN SAID ABOUT THIS CONCEPT

[melodic-haze]

Who knows what the logistics of it would be but like. Reader who's kinda sorta Akivili's reincarnation of sorts and is just kinda clueless ab it but everyone else can kinda feel it

Imagine you, who has never felt satisfied with just staying in one place and one day the Express just pulls up and you feel especially drawn to it, though you don't know why. You try to rationalise it by saying that it's bc it's your biggest chance in seeing the galaxy!! And that's the most reasonable conclusion, surely!!!!!

But for some reason that doesn't quite feel right.

You stumble upon the Nameless and you greet them with a smile, and they can't help but stop in their tracks for a brief moment. Especially Himeko, whose eyes widen the slightest bit at the weirdly familiar energy you give off, and an interest in you grows within her—it's of a curious nature at first, though she finds herself wanting to be around you despite having only met recently. Even curiouser, when Pom-Pom sees you, stops with a weirdly glossy sheen to his eyes, and tells her that you "feel" like the Express itself.

Before you even ask if you could join them in their journey, it's THEM that asks you first. And really, why would you say no when that's all you've ever wanted?

You go with them in their travels, and for some reason you feel as if this is familiar to you. Why? Welt looks at you with a raised brow, though he doesn't say a word.. but he does ask if you'd be interested in tackling navigation with Pom-Pom. You agree, and it's the most natural thing you've ever done, as if attuned to the train itself.

You go from world to world, solve predicament after predicament with Stelle and the others, and you meet new people along the way and they can't help but be drawn to you. Is it bc of how easy it is to get along with you? Or is it how versatile you can be in every interaction and situation?

The stellaron in Belobog, for some reason, had whispered to be EXTRA careful of you to Cocolia due to an unknown fear of the things you can do, and her obsession to "protect" the world in her own way splits into an morbid curiosity of you. The Nameless, she gets, but why you specifically? And when she falls, it is then when she realises that ah, she is dealing with something far out of her reach.

Ruan Mei, the woman with an obsession to reach the power of a god—an Aeon—for her own conclusions, sees you for the first time and feels some sort of envy for you but neither of you know why.....so she runs tests, ones that she doesn't speak of to you for a mix of her own ensured safety, the lack of influence in results and HER lack of skill in communication.

You may go with it if you want, but when you tell her to stop she's.. strangely compelled to do so. Why is that? She investigates it herself personally by forming a connection with you through simply hanging out (and she even joins you in your expeditions at times), but that investigation melts away as she finds herself more interested in you rather than what you could be. Or does it? Who can tell with her.

And as you continue on with your journey on the Astral Express, you've drawn the attention of the infamous Stellaron Hunters. Kafka, especially, seems particularly interested in you. After all, what role do you have in the script and why, oh why, is Elio so unusually evasive when it comes to you? She makes it known—both your strange presence and her interest—and she keeps popping up left and right to speak to you without the pretense of combat in the forefront of her mind. As utterly useless and possibly unbeneficial to the script as it is, she finds herself wanting to witness your travels, wants to bask in that joy that only you could ever experience as you blaze a trail.

And through all of these encounters, you can't help but think of one thing:

Have you done this before?

#hazy samples! #surprise haze! #DON'T KILL ME IF ANY LORE'S BEEN SAID ABOUT THIS CONCEPT #I'M NOT CAUGHT UP TO LORE PLEASE #honkai star rail imagines #honkai star rail x reader #honkai star rail #honkai star rail women #honkai star rail women x reader #hsr imagines #hsr #hsr x reader #hsr women #hsr women x reader #himeko #himeko x reader #hsr himeko #hsr himeko x reader #ruan mei #hsr ruan mei #ruan mei x reader #hsr cocolia #cocolia rand #cocolia x reader #hsr kafka #kafka #kafka x reader #i'd tag stelle but i didn't talk about her enough to do so 😞 #akivili #akivilicarnation!reader

[stairset]

Alright now that it's the next day. I have to stress how fucking funny it is for me that Starset as a band has existed for 11 years and I've been a fan for practically that whole time and they had not a single song with any swear words to the point that it made them stick out because most of my other favorite bands DO swear. Which is not to say the concept of swearing was foreign to them, as Dustin's old band has several songs with swearing, the book has swearing, for the latest tour they played a whole ass short film that basically turned "Fuck the New East" into a fandom catchphrase which makes zero sense to anyone not familiar with the band and its Lore. But none of that is the actual Starset music. So you just kinda take for granted that they don't say naughty words in their songs and that's just how it is. Then comes the night of May 2, 2024. I'm at work cause I work the evening shift. My shift ends at 11:30 and it's 11 so I'm wrapping things up and getting ready to leave soon and needlesss to say I'm tired as hell and ready to go to sleep. The new Starset song just dropped so I listen to that as I finish up my work for the day. It's an absolutely epic banger which is no less than I expect from these guys at this point. And then. He says. FUCK. After over a decade of not a single no-no word these guys just suddenly drop The First Official Starset Fuck Song out of nowhere. They said what's so brave and new about this world you ask? It's a world where we say FUCK now, that's what. And I'm so surprised that I actually start to laugh out loud for a second before remembering I'm still at work so I end up just making a weird awkward half-laugh sound before stopping myself because if having a new song at all didn't wake me up then THAT sure as hell did. And then I jam to the song in the car on the drive home because a song like that can only be done justice by listening to it on a car stereo that's turned up way too loud. And I'm so into it I almost don't see a possum crossing the road in front of me and I barely slow down in time to not run it over. Which kinda freaked me out at the time cause I've never come that close to hitting an animal before but now that it's in the past it's hilarious because I can honestly say I found a song so good that it almost made me kill something. Truly a moment in Starset history for me.

#starset #shut up tristan

[creepylittlelady]

Proxies Headcanons! [Puppet Strings Lore Dump]

Hey! I have an unfortunate confession to make; I used to really like Fanon Masky when I was like 9 years old. Thankfully I finally watched Marble Hornets and realised what the fuck I'd been missing out. I used to love Fanon Toby too but maybe about two years ago I completely rewrote him after a sudden change of heart.

Did Hoody even have a fanon? I don't think he had a personality beyond being Masky's best friend. That's unfortunate seeing as how he's my favourite one out of the pair.

Anyways, the Proxies have always been such an interesting concept to me. I know that they don't exist in canon, but seriously it's an entertaining thing to imagine a sitcom between the Proxies and Slenderman.

So, without further ado, let's get into it!

Proxies Headcanons

-The 'Proxies' are the employees (only slaves like 50% of the time) of the Slenderman. They do have a greater purpose for being 'hired'; to serve as human energy for the Operator to feed off of. That's why the MOST unstable ones get picked to be proxies, since he feeds off of trauma and emotional energy.

-They do get paid, but only when the Slenderman takes over. Sadly he's aware of why they're here but accepts the fact that there's nothing he can really do about it since the Operator's fed on them so much that they'll basically die if they stop being Proxies (if the Operator doesn't kill them first). It's a lose-lose situation, unfortunately.

-As I said prior; they're the most mentally unstable in the whole Mansion. There are six of them; Rouge, X-Virus/Cody, Kate, Masky/Tim, Hoody/Brian, and Toby. Rouge is the oldest (due to the fact that in her original story she was almost married and almost a mother), and Toby is the youngest.

-Many of the Residents avoid them, especially Masky and Hoody. As they're the most well-known Proxies, they're generally known for being violent and ill-mannered towards others besides each-other and Toby. Although they get closer to everyone eventually, most of the residents heavily disliked them when they first arrived.

-Slender has no idea how they got here, although he has an idea of why they could be here. He's got no idea what happened to Toby, Kate, Rouge, or what the hell a Marble Hornets is. No matter how many times they explain what Slender supposedly did to them, he just doesn't remember as Charles wasn't conscious when it happened.

Although (I believe, its been a while) Marble Hornets take place in 2006, they sort of departed from the Labrinth and returned in 2009 after Masky and Hoody find themselves homeless and basically just drug addicts. They put up with Slender as they have no other place to turn to.

-They mainly go on Political Missions; such as assassinating a target in the Underworld, or they kill actual people in the real world. These usually consist of people who get too close to finding out about the Pastas, cultists, and basically just any random target Slender picks out for them.

-They're sort of their own family, as they share rooms in the same corridor which is quite far away from the other Residents. Rouge actually has her own home, but the other four live in the Mansion.

-They all magically have access to drugs. Nobody knows and nobody asks why, but whenever they need a fix, all they need to do is go to Hoody's room and pay $5.

-Speaking of Hoody, he has selective mutism, and even then he rarely talks. He only verbally communicates with the other Proxies, and doesn't speak to anyone else at all. Sometimes he'll randomly chime in to a conversation Toby and Masky are having and laugh as the two jump.

He's just a bit of a goofy guy, really.

-Wondering why I'm exclusively calling them Masky and Hoody? Well, I know it's sort of implied that Tim and Brian have DID and that Masky and Hoody are simply their alter egos, but in this AU they're more like personas that the Operator made up for them. He didn't like how disobedient Tim and Brian are, so when the Operator takes over he personally remolds their personalities so that they're more subservient. It sounds confusing but I'm trying

-I'm going to make a separate post for Tim and Brian, but a little backstory is that the two of them have known each other since Kindergarten and have grown up together since. They're best friends and their bond is just so strong that nobody can ever really come between them.

Although they're seen hanging out with Toby a lot, Toby is aware of the fact that Tim and Brian are the original duo.

-Masky is the unofficial group leader of the Proxies, and everyone else just kind of accepts that. He's a cool guy and does know how to take charge, however he's always incredibly rebellious to the Slenderman's orders, which leaves Toby to step up every time they fuck up real bad.

-Slenderman sometimes accompanies them. He doesn't help, he just watches from a corner and sometimes jumps out at them to scare them. It's a favourite pass time of his. He will help them out on occasion, as keep in mind he is a low-level God.

-Dr. Smiley and Nurse Ann's makeshift Hospital is basically their second home. Since they get injured so much on all of their missions (totally not due to Masky going against the direct orders), they often all come together to get treated with whatever nasty injury they get from their most recent endeavour.

-Hoody and Slender, both people who don't talk very often, easily understand each other. It's sort of an inside joke that they can telepathically talk to each other. It's basically the only form of a relationship they have considering Hoody's very wary of him.

-Masky hates cheesecake. And crayons. And children. And Slenderman (although when it's Charles they're relationship is a bit better). The Masky in this AU would fucking HATE fanon Masky.

Cheesecake is Masky's least favourite food. He'd rather eat a pile of dog shit. Lazari thought this was funny and made sure to include a panel of him eating Cheesecake in every comic that she makes.

I'll get some more later! Hope you enjoyed ;)

#littlelady #creepypasta #slenderman #creepypasta fandom #creepypasta au #creepypasta headcanons #puppet strings #masky mh #tim masky #timothy wright #tim mh #mh masky #masky headcanons #hoody headcanons #hoody creepypasta #hoody marble hornets #hoody mh #brian thomas #ticci toby headcanons #ticci toby #kate the chaser #kate milens #rouge the proxy #proxy headcanons #proxy #the operator #marble hornets

[desultory-novice]

hello! i've been meaning to ask you this for a while, but i keep forgetting! i'll lead by saying that i'm sorry for being so annoying in your askbox about this stuff... i just really want to know your opinion!

i've been seeing a lot of "galacta knight is canonically dead" takes lately, and i was wondering what you thought about that? i've always been a little annoyed at the concept since star allies (and the star allies art books!) seems to make a big deal out of morpho knight being a fusion of gk and the butterfly, and while katfl seems to disprove this (?) it's also important to note that we never saw gk's soul leave morpho knight, only forgo's. i just feel like there's a lot more evidence for morpho knight to be a fusion than the other way around? i can't really talk to people about this bc it always makes me look like a fangirl that's upset her favorite is dead... :/ your killing game post kind of reminded me about that jajaj

Annoying? Noooo! Not in the slightest!

"Canon."

Oh boy. I mean, yes, I use "canon" myself but at the same time, I hear the phrase "canonically dead" paired with Galacta Knight and I can't help but laugh. (And sigh, because I really do think fandom can get caught up in policing people based on what's presumed(!!!) canon and that just seems like a big way to suck the fun out of things!)

But seriously, Galacta Knight is just one of the funniest characters to argue about this because before now, people were arguing he wasn't even canon at all! Can we just enjoy the character, people?! XD

That said, I did some looking through my copy of the SA art book and Galacta and Morpho's pause screen lore for this ask and...

The art book is pretty clear about Morpho Knight being a fusion of the butterfly and Galacta. That said, the pause lore also seems to imply that Morpho is their own thing, and that while they might be fused in this form, it's not to say that Morpho can only take that form because they absorbed Galacta/that it was borrowed from Gala.

Galacta definitely has an effect on Morpho, physically, as Morpho EX is explicitly stated to be a change brought on as Morpho finishes the process of absorbing Galacta's power and has learned to make it entirely their own. (Interesting how that turns them dark, not unlike the Aeon Hero unlocking his own "true" power and turning quite...malevolent looking.)

That Morpho needed Gala's power (in fact, Morpho is described as being "drawn  to" Gala so I don't think there's anything wrong with imagining fate plays a bit into their meeting) could be why Morpho becomes Morpho Knight to be but doesn't turn into, say , Forgo Knight after absorbing Fecto Forgo. (Although Fecto isn't a complete soul, missing Elfilin.) Morpho Knight probably couldn't have taken that same form in FL had they not fused with Gala but...

...because Gala wasn't shown leaving Morpho, does that suddenly mean Gala's dead? ...Personally, I don't think so. Especially if you are one of those "EX Modes are Non-Canon" people, in which case, we can take the pause screen text to mean that regular Morpho hasn't even "finished" absorbing Gala's soul! IE: It's still around.

But here's the real reason it's so odd to me to suggest that Gala is dead after their encounter with Morpho in Star Allies:

Galacta Knight is a character who pretty clearly has multiple selves from multiple timelines existing at any/many given points in the timeline! So the SA Gala was absorbed! What does that say for the other dozen Galactas flying around out there? There many be THOUSANDS of Crystal Prisons containing thousands of Galacta Knights floating through the mess that is Another Dimension! We saw that SA Gala getting absorbed had no effect on the Galacta Knight fight existing as per normal in RtDL DX.

Even if you wanted to go all River Song and say that getting absorbed by Morpho is Gala's end fate, that regardless of where we catch them in the timeline, that would be a fixed moment, we haven't seen Gala's beginning! (Even Aeon Hero would seem to represent something like Gala's "career highlight" phase.) It's simply too soon/we have too little evidence to say Galacta is "canonically dead."

It's just very silly to me to insist on/badger people about that. Which is why I tend to think that at least a portion of the people saying that are saying it as a joke. This humorous idea that "Man Galacta never even got to be canon (:Dess groaning in the background:) and the first time he does get to be canon, he dies! lolololol"

It's overplayed as a joke to me, but if that's the way they enjoy the series, I try to let them be and focus on the parts of the fandom/the discussions that are most meaningful and constructive to me!

(Lastly, I hope you don't feel like there's anything negative about being seriously concerned about the fate of your favorite or that it's anything to be ashamed about! Ask and talk away, please! I want note that if evidence ever came out that Marx was most likely dead, I would be rushing to complain about it/try to reassure myself that there was evidence to the contrary in every ask box that would listen! XD It's natural and very sane to get emotionally invested in the state of your fav in a series you're still currently invested in! Something something kill the part of you that cringes~)

#Kirby #Galacta Knight #Morpho Knight #Dess Quick Asks #Dess Rambling #Dess Theories

[ruthlesslistener]

What do you think about the fact that people genuinely characterize / write PK in fanfiction systematically hunting down / killing stray vessels wandering around Hallownest? or kicking them down from the ramp in the Abyss? like this has been on my mind a lot since this was one of my first fandom impressions I've got from him, which hm.

But anyway, this seems very ooc of him, especially since he's more of a passive and negligent kind of person, than a intentionally actively agressive one. What do you think?

I think that its fucking stupid, and I have no idea where people got the idea for it. A really common interpretation of the lore when I first joined the fandom was that PK would hatch the eggs in the White Palace (or, just create them in his workshop like the kingsmoulds and wingsmoulds), train them for a bit, and then throw the impure ones into the Abyss. This was seen as canon by many people and was the prevalent interpretation of the vessel-creating process. Many people also believed that the Path of Pain was a method for testing if the vessels were pure, and that PK would actively throw them into the gauntlet. Which would kind of make sense as agility training for PV down the line, but not as a means of testing out purity, ESPECIALLY since it...doesn't exist in the physical world. The White Palace as we see it in-game is a twisted amalgamation of what it was in the past to keep intruders away from the Pale King's dying location. So all that fanart of PK kicking vessels into buzzsaws is just for memes, not for serious interpretation.

And while I see the potential for angst, it was extremely disorienting for me to see after actually playing the game because there's just...no proof of it whatsoever. Like, I don't even know where the concept of any of that shit came about in the first place, because we explicitly see how the vessel-choosing process worked in the Abyss cutscene. The eggs were placed in the Abyss; the vessels hatched from them, then were called to climb up to the ramp by the Pale King. Said climb is near-impossible for a newly hatched vessel, as proved by challenge runners who tried it without any upgrades, so 99.9% of them failed, likely dissuading many on the abyss's floor. The vessel that made the climb was therefore not only proven to be capable of following orders without question, but also being physically fit enough to seal the Radiance.

We don't know if others made the climb and were thrown back down by PK after judgement, but there's also no proof of that being the case, and the fact that some escaped via other means to be later tested by Hornet post-fall likely meant that PK was aware of them, but decided to let them live on as backup. There is no evidence that he actively hunted them down or was physically pushing them to their deaths- he merely stood by and watched them die. This is ALSO supported further by him gaining a soft spot for the Pure Vessel later on, as it is extremely likely that such a thing was only possible because the Pure Vessel was the ONLY one of his children that he had extended contact with. It wouldn't make sense for him to grow attached to them if he had been actively training and killing his other kids, because he likely had no experience with that particular brand of weakness before them. Remember, the White Lady grows less cold with Ghost the more that they interact with her, as if forgetting the fact that they are a vessel; neither of the Pale Gods were keen on the plan to begin with, and certainly do not seem to have interacted with their own children much, if WL starts questioning if one of them is more than 'just a vessel' after Ghost goes off and collects the Voidheart. They would be a lot more jaded if they had been actively raising and killing that many kids before Ghost and Hollow showed up.

This, like you said, also fits with the nature of the Pale King's character much better than the fanon concept of him, because he is deliberately set up to be an antithesis to the incredibly aggressive Radiance. Where the Radiance is passionate, aggressive, and reactive, the Pale King is reserved, calculative, and passive. She comes flying forth in a rage when challenged by the Knight; the Pale King forces them to go through a grueling, long, twisting maze to reach his corpse, then kickes them out of the Dream shortly after. Where she advanced and killed through aggressively infecting the dreams of the mortals, the Pale King devised a plan in secret to use his own flesh and blood to defeat her, keeping it so quiet that even his five Great Knights didn't know that other vessels had been created (which is more proof that almost all of them were hatched and killed in the Abyss). When defeat seemed close, the Pale King hid himself away to die rather than confront the Radiance himself. Hell, even his plot to kill her- BOTH TIMES- was passive, with the first being him stealing her worshippers out from under her, and the second being a plot to lock her away in an inescapable, unresponsive body until she slowly died from being forgotten. He is the very DEFINITION of a passive ruler, a title that is ALSO shared by his wife, who neglected to care for the kingdom in its dying throes because she was too busy being sad in self-imposed horny jail exile to give a shit. There is no way in HELL he would have actively trained, killed, and hunted the vessels. That's giving far too much credit and ambition to a character whose actions repeatedly point to him being a scheming little coward who'd rather run away from his problems than stand and face them.

So tdlr: its great for angst but is entirely a fanon interpretation with no basis in canon whatsoever, and in fact actually actively contradicts the information we are given in the game itself.

#hollow knight #pale king #the pale king #anon #reply #hollow knight lore

[laurel-finch]

'I Don't Bite' S1.Ch14: Learning

Summary: Pack life takes an unusual twist... Referenced Episodes: None. CW: Minor gore. Major lore. Word Count: 7138 words. Recommended Song: Back In The Saddle -- Aerosmith Previous Chapter -- Masterlist -- Next Chapter

Caeden was surprisingly competent when it came to fighting, though he refused to explain why. He had deep scars running across his dark shoulders in a twisting pattern that gave me chills. Seeing him fight... he had a certain cold viciousness about him that made me doubt my easy victory the day we played capture the flag. I watched carefully as he stood at the edge of the ring where Andrew and Calliope scuffled together.

I scowled with my arms folded tightly against my torso and reclined in a newly bought lounge chair as I watched my pack members scamper across the lawn or tussle with one another. Booth had taken it upon himself to educate the others on fighting- few of them were capable fighters. At this point, I was more than ready to let him kick my ass in the ring, just so long as I could do something. I hadn't been on a run in weeks, and it was beginning to show. I could practically feel my muscles dampening. I would be sore after my next run, that much was certain.

I huffed and reached for my book on a small table beside me, ruffling the pages with my thumb. I really wasn't in the mood for reading, but I felt like I needed to do something with my hands. I sat up slowly and rolled my shoulders, enjoying the feeling of the harsh sun beating down on my exposed shoulders. We were well into spring now, and the weather was beginning to show it.

I stood and stretched my arms high over my head, feeling my bad shoulder pop. I flinched and brought my arms back down, rolling my shoulder once more. My shoulder was healing well. It was still sore and scarred, but the skin was beginning to heal over the top of it, closing the exposed wound. I expected that by the end of the week, it would be healed enough for me to start using it as I had before, though maybe with a little extra care.

I tucked my book under my arm and reached for my crutch – I only needed one now, thank God. Having to rely on an object to assist me was a new feeling. Any injuries I had previously had left me out of the game for maybe a day or two. The perks of healing quickly, I suppose, unless the damage was caused by silver.

I hobbled up the steps of the back porch and relished the shade of the lip of the roof overhanging the back door. I loved the sun, it made me feel warm, safe even, but it was sometimes too much. Blistering. The moon, however... gave me a sense of hope and purpose.

It was always odd to me, how much of a pull the moon had on skinwalkers. The closer to the full moon, the more excited I got and the more I wanted to go out and run. Sure, skinwalkers were cousins to werewolves, but we weren't the same, not even close.

I wondered how many of the old skinwalker legends were true. Were we really witches in the early ages of our species? The Navajo had always said we were evil and did harm to our fellow man. Had we always been wolves? Or were we once some odd cross between man and animal in our early days, like our cousins the werewolves?

I cared little for the concept of deities, but I know that would be one of the many questions I would ask God if I ever had the chance to speak to him. That, and maybe why he felt the need to make humans so defenseless. I mean honestly, it's one thing to give a monster built-in weapons, but to leave a creature so defenseless that it feels the need to perfect the art of killing? That's ten times worse.

The door to the rickety old barn was open, pushed aside on rolling hinges to let sunlight spill into the dingy single room. I glanced from the fights to the door. No one acknowledged me as I stood up and hobbled across the lawn with one crutch– maybe I preferred it that way.

Clanking from within the barn drew my attention. I leaned against the large doorway and watched Booth march around with a quizzical expression on my face. Finally, the graying male looked up with tired blue eyes and grumbled.

"Andrew was complaining about the pickup acting funny when he went out for groceries," the older man grumbled, scratching the back of his head. "Figured I'd come take a look while Caeden's managing the fights."

I hummed quietly and sidled up to Booth, his eyes never leaving the truck. "What do you think's the matter with it?" I questioned. Booth huffed and crossed his burly arms.

"Probably nothing," he scoffed. "Andrew doesn't know a truck from a moped. Wouldn't be surprised if he's driving it a bit rough."

I frowned a bit and rested my crutch against the rusted car door. The pickup only seated two people, with plenty of room in the pickup bed to host more. "Andrew's a pretty careful driver, Doesn't know much about trucks, but he's safe. I think if he says there's a problem, it's worth looking into."

Booth grumbled and moved the tools from the hood, placing them on the straw and dirt-covered barn floor. "Pop the hood, would you?" he asked. I nodded and climbed carefully into the cab, and popped the hood for Booth.

I sat in the cab of the rusted old pickup while Booth leaned over the engine. My hands slid over the steering wheel reverently, squeezing the worn grooves where my uncle’s hands had sat ages ago. Firm hands that molded the world into a place that embraced him with vigor. It was a temperament I would never have.

“What’s going through that head of yours, dove?” Booth asked. My eyes flicked up to look through the windshield. The lifted hood of the truck blocked him from view. His tone was soft, despite the worn texture of his throat that led to gruff words. Soft, doting, affectionate. Did I deserve that?

“Do you think I’m doing the right thing?”

He hesitated. I could practically feel the way his thoughts roamed, searching for the right answer to my ambiguous question. “Elaborate?” he pressed.

“Like… I don’t know, I just sometimes wonder if- if taking on a pack was the right decision,” I answered in one shaky breath. “It’s not like I’m around much, at this point, and I never… never wanted a pack to begin with. Ever. I just never had an interest in it.”

I dropped my gaze as Booth slowly lowered the hood of the truck. His eyes settled on me in the cab, twisted in the seat in such a way that I could cradle my arms around myself without stressing my injuries further than I already had. I exhaled a deep sigh. “Sometimes I just… I come home to- to people in my house- my uncle’s house, and I just wish I was alone. I wish I wasn’t responsible for anyone but myself.” I paused and lifted my gaze to meet his. “Does that… make me a bad person?”

Booth shook his head, not even stopping to think first. “I think it makes you pretty human- or, close enough to it.” I cracked a timid smile. “It’s alright to want to be alone every once in a while.”

“Do you think we’re a normal pack?”

He huffed out a laugh. “I wouldn’t know a normal pack if it hit me over the head. I’ve only ever known scavengers and Chikaltio, and this is nothing like that. You’re more of a friend than a boss. I think we’re all pretty happy with the dynamic, even if you’re gone a lot.”

I didn’t answer. He held my stare for a few long moments before turning his attention back to the engine. “Might be time to sell it for scrap.”

I pursed my lips. There wasn’t a chance in hell that I would be getting rid of the truck willingly, no matter how much rust adorned its once smooth surface. It was my uncle’s, one of the few things I had left of him other than the house. A house which now felt more like someone else’s home than his. Clothes that weren’t his, furniture he would’ve hated, new residents deciding everything. My skin itched.

"Where are we gonna get another one?" Booth asked as he stood rockily on old legs. "I'm sure the government would take notice to us paying that much money. They aren't blind to credit card theft, y'know."

"Then we take from multiple accounts," I offered. "Five hundred here, three thousand there. Not too much, but enough." Stealing money was a rough business, we could only take as much as we needed to get by. I didn't like it, but it was necessary – we couldn't exactly get normal jobs, could we? Booth wiped his hands on his oil-splotched jeans and ran a calloused hand through his silvering hair. "I don't like it – stealing from people like that. It's not honest," I said, hoping he would pose some alternative.

"Since when is anyone honest? We sure aren't, and I'll bet my life that no one else is. Not the President, not the Pope, not even God. Hell, if God was honest maybe the world wouldn't be such a shithole," he retorted as he began filling his toolbox once more and locked the lid. "I don't much like the idea of honesty. It's flawed. No one's ever truly honest. If you say you are, you're lying." And with that, Booth swept up his tools and marched out the open barn door, leaving me alone in my bewildered thoughts.

—

Three weeks into my healing process, my leg was feeling much better. I still kept bandages on it, but I could at least walk without the crutch. Sasha demanded I keep a can nearby, in case I needed it, though I hardly used it. A few too many times, she smacked me with a dish towel for my stubbornness.

It was Calliope's night to lead a hunt and she had chosen to drag Andrew along with her. He wasn't too fond of hunting, but she felt he needed improvement. They worked well together, moving as a lithe team in the arena and on runs. They worked even better against each other, in the spirit of competition. The other pack members who wouldn't be hunting tonight had of course made bets of their own – my money was on Cal. She was beyond skilled when it came to hunting, and no amount of determination on Andrew's part would get him the win.

Calliope and I had spent quite a bit of time together during my house arrest. Several nights in the past two weeks had been deemed 'movie nights,' and several other pack members had chosen to join in. Sasha was a recurring face every night, while the boys would typically pop in to see what we were up to or steal snacks, Unsurprisingly, any time we watched a romcom, Marcus chose to join us.

While Andrew and Calliope were preparing for the evening hunt, I ran through Andrew's shopping list. I was eager to get out of the house, and there was no better time than now. It was surprisingly long, though I should have expected that. He was interested in trying out a few new recipes.

"Do you need someone to go with you?" I heard Sasha's cheerful voice from the kitchen. She popped her head out from around the counter, a mop gripped tightly in her hands.

I chuckled and glanced down at the list. "Maybe, but you look pretty busy, Sash. I can take someone else, no trouble." The short woman nodded nervously, her loose brown curls bobbing with her head.

I made my way to the door, grabbing my cane from its spot on the wall upon feeling Sasha boring holes into my head with her glare. I hobbled across the freshly trimmed lawn towards the bunkhouse.

It surprised me how mundane life felt when you became... well, mundane. I hadn't tried shifting in weeks. I was nothing more than human without my fur, and with my bad leg... I was about as mundane as it could get. If I wasn't living with five other monsters, then perhaps this could be that apple pie life Dean so desperately craved.

I needed to call him and Sam again, and check up on them. I had called them the day after I woke up, the day after they left. Sam had answered, telling me essentially what Marcus had said - that when I was healed, I was welcome to join them again. To my dismay, I hadn't spoken more than a few short sentences since our late-night conversation. I assumed he was busy, they both were, but I would appreciate more than a brief update.

One step forward, two steps back.

I quietly turned the door handle of the bunkhouse and poked my head in, searching the dimly lit room for figures. My eyes fell on three figures seated in the center of the room, sets of bunks lining the walls to my left and right.

"So while Sasha's cleaning the main house, you three are playing cards?" I teased, leaning against the door frame. Marcus, Caeden, and Booth glanced up, Marcus looking especially guilty.

"'S poker," Booth crowed, holding his cards up high with their backs to me. "I'm kicking their asses."

Marcus snarled playfully. "You've won like three rounds-"

"- Outta five," remarked Booth with a smirk.

"That doesn't mean you're kicking ass!" Marcus shouted, tossing his hands into the air, making sure to hide his cards from view. "You know what, I call," he snapped, dropping his cards onto the floor for all to see. Honestly, it was kind of a pitiful hand- two pairs, both low numbers and not particularly high ranking suits.

Booth followed quickly behind and deposited the cards at his feet. He had a pair of jacks of two good suits. He grinned, knowing that he had beaten Marcus yet again.

Caeden scoffed and gently placed his cards down, revealing three aces. My eyes widened, but not nearly as much as Marcus's. The blonde's eyes rivaled saucers and looked like they might pop out of his skull. Caeden leaned back with little reaction, crossing his toned arms over his chest.

Booth laughed loudly, the deep, rumbling sound filling the room and drawing a chorus of laughter from the other players. "S'pose we can't beat that, Caed," he said with a hearty chuckle and pushed Caeden's winning - a few cans of peaches and assorted vegetables - towards him. "Looks like you're out of the game, Marcus," Booth teased, gesturing towards the lack of cans in front of Marcus. His blue eyes lifted to meet mine and he flashed me a lop-sided grin shrouded by his thick, graying beard. "Care to take his place?"

I shook my head and placed a hand over my mouth to mask my grin. "Nope, I was about to head to the store. Marcus, you could join me, if you'd like?"

Marcus stretched and rolled his shoulders out. "Sorry, I promised Sasha I'd actually help her around the house today. Guess I'd better get on that now," he replied as he stood a bit shakily, probably from the rise and fall of energy. "I bet Booth'd go with you though."

Booth shook his head and hobbled to his own feet. "I'm on clean-up duty for when Cal and Andrew get back," he remarked, shaking out his legs from when they had been folded neatly not long before. "How bout you, Caed? You up for it?"

The older male shrugged and stood up, facing me with a rather disinterested look. His eyes briefly flitted to Marcus. "I suppose," he said before stalking past me and out the door.

I frowned and glanced towards Marcus who looked oddly worried. He was often an open book and had a hard time hiding his emotions – that was one thing I liked about him. You always knew what he was thinking. Caedan, on the other hand, was still reserved and closed off. He had grown quite fond of the rest of the pack, and they of him, but hardly ever spoke to me unless necessary.

I sighed heavily and turned to follow him out the door. Perhaps this shopping trip would be a good chance to get to know him.

The drive to the grocery store was silent, and actually rather uncomfortable. Any attempt I made at small talk was shot down with a dismissive wave or a low grunt. It was infuriating, and I was beginning to think I should have gone by myself.

In the store we chose to stick together; or rather, I went my own way and he followed not too far behind with a shopping cart. My eyes scanned the shopping list as we darted up and down aisles, never lingering for very long.

"Why would Andrew want frozen lasagna? Can't he just make some of his own?" I inquired quietly, nose practically pressed to the paper as I made my way to the frozen food aisle.

"It's for Calliope," Caeden muttered out, just loud enough for me to hear. My eyes trained on his, his deep brown ones holding that familiar disinterested look. "Said she's never had it before."

"But why would she want the store-bought stuff when Andrew can make it?" I asked, turning to him and dropping my list at my side. Caeden shrugged and pushed past me, the squeaky cart rolling in front of him. I rolled my eyes. So much for that.

The frozen food aisle was not too far, only about three aisles down. While I searched for the lasagna, Caeden grabbed whatever he thought the pack might like. I almost laughed as I watched him deposit four boxes of pizza bites into the cart.

My eyes found the lasagna and I rifled through the different brands, looking for the best one. I smiled softly and inhaled the sweet scent of Stouffers. My mother would make it from time to time when she was too tired to cook.

I spun towards Caeden and tossed the package underhand towards him. "Catch!"

He did not catch it.

Caeden jumped back, a wildly frightened look in his eyes as the lasagna hit the ground. Thank God it was packaged, otherwise, there would have been cold food all over the floor. Caeden's eyes tracked up to mine, and for the first time in a very long time, I saw something other than indifference in them.

Fear.

It was the same look I had seen from him when I had first met him, back in that old hunter's house. Why would he have that same look now as when he had been shot?

"You alright?" I asked softly, worry dripping into my voice. He nodded and bent to pick up the lasagna as I tentatively made my way over to him. I reached to place a hand on his shoulder and he flinched away from me. My brows furrowed at this.

"I'm fine," came his gravelly voice, and just as quickly as the incident happened, he was gone, already at the end of the aisle and headed towards our next destination.

I scoffed and glared at his back. "Fine, my ass," I grumbled and followed him. The rest of the shopping trip was utterly silent until we got to the cash register, where I had to speak to the cashier. I paid while Caeden bagged our goods and placed them back into the cart.

"Have a nice day!" the cashier called after us.

I smiled at them. "You too!" I followed Caeden out of the store and to the truck, helping him silently load the groceries into the pickup bed. Not long after, we both climbed into the cab, me at the wheel, and headed home.

My finger tapped against the side of the steering wheel, contemplating how I could get him to say more than just a few words. I had seen him laugh and talk plenty of times with the others, though never when I was involved. Maybe occasionally on game night, but he was often stoic as can be whenever I was around.

"So..." I started rather awkwardly, looking for some way to make him talk. "How long have you and Marcus been together?"

Caeden didn't look away from the window, his eyes watching the tree line as we sped past. "Traveling or... together?" he asked, sounding just as uncomfortable.

"Either one," I offered, just hoping he would say more than three words.

"Traveling for four, together for three," he mumbled. "Roughly," he added as an afterthought. His fingers tapped together in his lap and I was sure he had finished speaking until he piped up again. He cleared his throat and spoke slowly, each word strained in effort at maintaining a conversation. "How about you and the hunter? Dean?"

My face flushed and I almost swerved towards the edge of the road. My grip on the steering wheel tightened. "We're not together. Don't know why everyone thinks that." Caeden hummed quietly and his fingers stopped tapping. I didn't think my grip could tighten anymore, but now I was clinging on with white knuckles and tense muscles. "We're not. And we're not going to be."

Caeden chuckled, a sound that surprised me as I had rarely heard it. "I said that once, too." From there the conversation died out and the cab was silent once more as we pulled into the driveway.

The rest of my day was spent doing simple chores and yard work, though my mind was occupied with swirling thoughts. Caeden, despite knowing him for months now, was still a complete mystery to me. I knew very little of his life prior to meeting the pack. I knew nothing about how or when he was bitten, how he met Marcus, or why he was trying to kill an old hunter with such vicious resolve.

I tossed my small shovel to the ground and sat back on my heels in contemplation. I didn't want to push him but did want to know him. I at least had the right to know why he refused to talk to me.

Right?

—

Another week and a half had passed and my leg was nearly healed. Sasha had pulled the stitches out a few days prior and I could walk without any sort of help. It felt great to not need a crutch. My muscles were only fragments of what they had been, but the last week had held many chances to rebuild.

I stalked out onto the lawn and towards my packmates, where Booth was leading fights yet again. Today was all about hand-to-hand fighting, something I certainly needed more practice in.

It had been a long time since I was able to shift, although I hadn't tried in the last few weeks. I hadn't had any contact with my rather vicious, instinctive side, nor had she felt the need to urge me to fight anyone and anything. I almost missed her angry outburst - at least when she was present I knew the ability to change forms lay just below the surface.

I had been trying not to think about my predicament. The scars along my thigh, shown clearly by the shorts I was wearing, were bad enough. I didn't need more on my plate.

I still wondered about the whispers from time to time. What was it that was speaking to me? I hadn't heard any of the whispers since my brief altercation with John. It drove me mad to think that everything I had been trying to understand was suddenly gone.

"Hey," chimed Booth, waving me over. "You come to watch?"

I shook my head. "I'm looking for a fight actually. It's been too long since I've had a good one." Booth frowned and I smiled at him with what I hoped was a reassuring grin.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" He asked, gesturing towards the spider web of white scars on my thigh. "You're still healing."

"I think I can manage it," I said with fake confidence, crossing my arms over my chest. Truthfully, I wasn't sure I would win a fight right now. Sure, I had received some tips on fighting over the years from my father or my uncle, but that in no way made me an expert. The lack of strength and confidence I had could be my downfall.

And perhaps, if I was in enough danger, I’d finally find it in me to change forms.

What I needed now was a solid win, when all I had been getting recently was losses. Booth seemed to sense that. He nodded slowly and shrugged. "Your funeral, kid." I cheered and pumped a fist into the air in excitement. "Calliope just got done with a match, but I can have her fight you if you'd like-"

“I’m real tired, Booth,” Calliope whined from her spot on the ground, her dark hair splayed out on the messy lawn and grass and weeds. “Give me a break?”

Booth pursed his lips and stared incredulously down at Calliope. The young woman scrunched her eyes closed tightly, avoiding his lingering gaze. He sighed dramatically and looked around the clearing, taking a mental catalog of my options. Marcus sat on the porch soaking up the sun with Sasha. Andrew sat on the grass on the opposite side of the ring, catching his breath after his bout with Cal. So that left…

“Caeden?” Booth called, and the quiet man twisted to face us. He stood at the edge of the designated sparring ring with arms crossed and brows furrowed. “You up for it?”

I heard shuffling from behind us and turned to see Marcus sitting upright in his lounge chair, suddenly interested in the fights. The relaxed grin he bore had rapidly disappeared, replaced with a curious frown. Sunglasses obscured his eyes, but I knew they were narrowed in curiosity.

“Don’t see why not,” Caeden responded calmly. I watched as he bent down and grabbed a roll of sparring tape from the ground. He taped his knuckles carefully before tossing it my way. I held my tongue, watching and waiting instead – I would have to treat myself carefully

"Right, this'll be a clean fight. I'll beat your asses, alpha or not, if it ain't.” I bit back a smile as I stepped into the ring and took to my side, by back to Booth. "You get knocked out or get your throat caught, you're done for. No shifting ‘til I say."

My ears pricked at that last line. Shifting. My skin paled as I twisted to look at him over my shoulder. “Wait, Booth, I don’t think-”

A shriek left my lips as a heavy weight collided with me, knocking my square onto my back. All the air in my lungs left my body in a quick puff of breath. “Caeden!” a warning shout came from behind us.

Caeden dove toward me and I lifted my knees to connect with his chest, his weight falling down hard on me and jarring my thigh. Pain rippled up my legs through my injury, a patchwork crater that was still working to fill the void in my flesh. I pushed and knocked him to the side and stood, stooping low in preparation for his next attack.

Caeden swung his leg out in a sweeping motion, connecting with the back of my knees and causing me to land on my ass. I sat up just in time to be met with a punch to the face.

"First blood!" I heard Booth call out. My head spun as I stood, feeling blood drip down my face. I wiped at my lips, my hand coming away red.

I stared at my bloodied hand in shock and wiped a knuckle across the base of my nose. I turned my head sharply towards my opponent, eyes narrowed with fury. "Did you just break my fucking nose?"

Caeden shrugged and brought his hands back up. "I think it's a good look for you."

I snarled and lunged, my elbow connecting with his jaw. His head lolled back and I gripped him by his ears, bringing his face down to meet my knee. Blood poured from his nose as he stumbled backward, a dazed look on his face. "Looks good on you too," I spat, blood dripping into my mouth.

He roared and launched forward, a blow connecting with my ribs. I swung back wildly, not caring where I hit him or what I hit him with. I fell to the ground, landing hard on my back in the dirt, and snarled.

I rolled to the side and struggled to stand, but was dragged backward by my ankles, nails tearing the sensitive flesh. Caeden released me and clawed at my hair, dragging me to my feet by my scalp. An arm struggled to wrap around my throat as I snarled and spat wildly, thrashing in his grip.

I grabbed his arm and dug my nails into his wrist, my teeth sinking into his dark flesh until I tasted blood. Caeden howled in pain and dropped me. I spun to face him with blood stained teeth.

"Shift!" Booth shouted and Caeden wasted no time in bursting forward in his fur, his chocolaty brown, wiry fur a tangled, bloody mess.

My eyes widened a fraction as he barreled into me, jaws snapping at my throat. Fuck. I still can't shift. I reached a hand up towards his neck and dug my nails into his fur, piercing the flesh. I pushed upward, putting pressure on his throat with the palm of my hand. Caeden slobbered on me, his claws digging into the soft flesh of my arms. I screamed as Caeden rolled to the side, dragging my hand with him and exposing my upper arm. 

“Caeden!” Marcus’s voice drifted from the porch, followed by the thump of him jumping off the porch and running towards the ring. Caeden’s icy blue gaze drifted from me to Marcus. His eyes narrowed, his teeth sank into my flesh, and he ground his jaws together.

I swung a punch towards Caeden, my fist connecting with the side of his burly head. He yelped and released my arm. I slid to the side, and stood on shaky feet, eyes trained on the wiry mutt before me.

"What are you doing!?" someone screamed to my left. "Shift!" My eyes trained on Booth's figure as he frantically gestured to Caeden. My eyes whipped back to the dog before me, trained on his vibrant blue ones, opposite to his usual brown.

Caeden lunged forward again and I side-stepped, kicking him hard in the ribs. He yelped and landed rougher than intended, spinning to face me once more.

Caeden lunged forward, paws colliding with my chest and throwing me over backward. I could feel the pull in me somewhere, that same feeling I had when the bear found Calliope. An itch in the back of my mind, like I knew what I was supposed to do but couldn’t quite get there. Like a slippery rope sliding helplessly through my fingers. I howled as Caeden snapped at my throat and I braced my forearm against his neck, struggling to push him away.

A high-pitched ringing filled my ears as I screamed, fighting to get him off of me. I screamed and snarled and clawed at his fur, my fingers gripping and tearing at his flesh in an almost pitiful display compared to his claws. The hair on my arms thickened and darkened like fur, but it just wasn’t enough.

“Caeden, stop!” Marcus shouted. A growl ripped out of Caeden’s throat. His jaws snapped at my throat, the ivory tickle of his teeth teasing my flesh.

I shouted once more and gave a mighty shove, throwing Caeden across the ring with strength I never knew I had. Caeden struggled to his feet, blue eyes wide with shock from my sudden strength. He drew back his lips revealing pink gums and bloodied teeth. I snarled back and brought my hands up, ready to fight him once more. His eyes narrowed coldly.

What do you have to prove? I questioned as I stared at him and paced around the ring, keeping my distance. He watched with curiosity, taking in the blood dripping down my face, my hobbling leg, my tired ankle from his ceaseless dragging.

The itch fell to the base of my neck, now more of a tug that seemed to urge me forward. My teeth elongated into fangs, nails sharpened into claws. It wasn’t enough- it was never enough. I needed more.

That scared me. The need for strength and power, so easy to abuse. I didn’t want it.

My eyes feel on my pack members- friends standing at the edge of the arena. Did I have power over them? Was that what scared me-?

Caeden launched himself at me in my distraction, faster than a bolt of lightning. I punched him in the jaw as he flew towards me, redirecting his course to land roughly at my side. I kicked out, connecting with his shoulder and he whirled to grip my ankle in his firm jaws. He yanked and pulled me to the ground, a wild fury and hatred in his eyes.

Hatred.

Why did he hate me?

I howled and kicked again, my heel landing against his temple. He stumbled to the side, his teeth still fastened to my ankle, blood dripping down his jaws. He looked at me with utter malice, and suddenly I recognized the fear he had once held.

He never trusted me, not like he did the rest of the pack. I knew that, of course, but why now-?

Oh. An alpha that can’t shift… isn’t an alpha.

His snapping jaws dragged me to the ground by my already weak ankle. My blood boiled as I writhed on the ground, flailing as hard as I could to get him off me. I swung wildly, gripping at his ears and his fur, bruising him with heavy fists, throwing him around with frantic kicks. Still, he did not loosen his hold on my ankle.

His blue eyes lifted to mine, holding a resolve in them that appeared to say I knew it.

You're not my alpha, they seemed to say. If you were, you could win this.

I don’t want to be your alpha- I want to be your friend. That’s what I wanted to say, but all that came out was a strangled cry.

I lunged forward, gripped his upper jaw and struggled to pry him from my leg. My skin was scorching with unfathomable rage as I gripped his jaw and pressed my thumb into the roof of his mouth, my nail digging into the sensitive skin. Blood dripped down my thumb.

Caeden howled out and scrabbled at my arm, claws tearing the delicate flesh. I snarled and gripped Caeden's throat, pressing my hand down until he was gasping for breath, blood trickling down his throat. Red tinted the edges of my vision, and this time I didn't push it away. I let it fuel me.

“Would you just-!” I shouted through hot, sticky blood dripping into my mouth.

Caeden's eyes were still wild with defiance and anger. I snarled a primal growl that startled even myself. I felt my eyes burning, that same feeling of electricity that raced under my skin, and they began to glow their familiar molten gold. Caeden howled and struggled under my grip.

“- Fucking listen for once!?”

My mind buzzed with an odd feeling, an unfamiliar presence that seemed to be cracking beneath me. Caeden howled, the only sound I heard amongst the harsh buzzing, and he thrashed. The defiance was gone. Instead, I saw fear.

No, no no no, don’t-

The floodgates broke and the buzzing swept over me like a tidal wave as memories and emotions filled my mind. Memories that weren't mine.

A young boy raced through dirty city streets, screaming for help as he struggled to outrun the pounding of feet behind him. He couldn't have been older than thirteen. He had deep scars on his hands, now drenched in blood from his bloody knuckles.

He ran, screaming for help that he knew wouldn't come. The thing owned these streets. It would catch him.

He felt a tearing in his shoulder and he screamed louder than he ever had before a terrified, pained scream. His deep brown eyes fixated on sharp, angular teeth digging into his shoulder. What felt like an electric shock went through him and suddenly he was a bleeding heap on the ground.

And suddenly the boy was older, though only by two or three years. He argued with a much older, grizzled, and angrier-looking man who was riddled with scars and tattoos. The older man smacked the younger boy backhand across the face, sending him sprawling on the ground.

"I won't do it!" the boy spat.

"You will," snarled the older man. His voice faded off into a series of threats as the memory swirled and faded into another.

The boy was running again, once more away from pounding footsteps behind him. He lept into the air and shifted into a deep brown, wiry form, blue eyes blazing. He howled in delight, a howl that delighted in the feeling of freedom.

The boy laughed gleefully as he pranced around in an open field around a recently dead deer, blood fresh on his matted jaws. His first kill. He could live without eating humans, despite what they had told him. Suddenly, his eyes whipped up to meet a brown pair, belonging to a dog. This dog, a clear English pointer, was like him. A skinwalker, right?

The English pointer had turned out to be a girl, and he thought she was rather pretty. She coaxed him into following her, and he did. She had a pack.

Packs are terrifying. Look at what his last one did.

But her pack was good. They welcomed him with open arms. They were kind like he wanted to be. Nothing like in the city.

He could be free with them.

And he was free for years. He rose through the ranks and quickly became the alpha's second. His alpha.

And suddenly his alpha was gone. The tents were burning, his pack was howling, screaming in pain. He could hear them, he could feel them dying off one by one. Suddenly his heart squeezed.

His alpha.

He raced towards the largest tent and burst forth to see an almost blinding flash of light and his alpha thump to the floor, lifeless, a bullet hole in his head. Caeden screamed, pain and sorrow ripping through his body as his now burning blue eyes fixed on the hunter who did this.

He would remember his face, his smell.

He looked older now, though it had clearly only been a few years. He looked exhausted as tears ran down his face.

A new pack had come into the area and they had taken over. Caeden had lost the challenge. He lost the pack. And now these new monsters were wreaking havoc.

He writhed under the weight of heavy silver chains as they dug into and burned his naked flesh. He was bound tightly in the middle of the camp for all to see. Their precious alpha, who couldn't protect him.

He deserved the scars the chains would leave.

The memory changed to one not long after, maybe a week or so. Caeden was covered in blood, his skin raw and torn. He fought with tired motions to push his former beta away, telling her to run. She removed the chains and ushered him to leave, to get away, to bring help.

He couldn't. If he did, she would take his place.

"I don't care," she said. "Just go."

And he did. He ran and he ran until his legs collapsed, not caring that he couldn't breathe. And still, he crawled, dragging himself through the woods. He stopped his scrambling as two massive golden paws landed before him, and his blue eyes trailed up to meet playful green ones.

Memories whirled past faster than they could truly be understood. Caeden running through wide, green fields with Marcus, their paws muffled by the grasses. The two quickly became family and accepted no alpha other than themselves. The bond they shared.

And suddenly it was dark, and one smell filled Caeden's nose. The smell of the hunter. He chased it with Marcus not far behind, hunting the man down. It had been years, but Caeden hadn't given up.

There was the house, with its single light from the second story. The duo stalked up the porch in their fur and Caeden shifted, pushing the door open for Marcus. He pounded up the stairs to find the man reclined in a chair. He shifted and leapt onto the man's back, tearing his flesh and basking in his blood.

And all too suddenly he was ripped away. He lifted his head to snarl at his attacker, only to be met with golden eyes bearing down on him with absolute rage.

And then he was bleeding and burning, silver filled holes in his stomach. He would die here.

He woke up in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar house. And before he knew it, that house was his. But he did not belong to the house. He hated the black monster that pulled him here - hated that he respected her and that she expected him to submit. Why did Marcus submit? Had they not agreed that they were their own alphas?

And now here he was, bearing his throat to her, sealing a bond he had never made with another alpha. Not his first. Not his second. Certainly not his third. But now, he was bound.

I gasped and stumbled backward, the flood of memories fading. Caeden groaned and clutched his head. When had he shifted back? His blue eyes faded to their rich brown and they fixated on mine that still held their gold.

I felt something heavy settle between us, like a chain tugging us together. Electricity buzzed under my skin, not like the molten heat I had felt previously. No, the heat was mine, but this was him. The weight settled at the nape of my neck. I stared at him in shock as the glade fell quiet.

#supernatural #spn #dean winchester #dean winchester fic #dean winchester x reader #sam winchester #supernatural fanfiction #supernatural x reader #fluff #angst #slow burn #cross posted on ao3 #cross posted on wattpad #monster reader #Monster #original characters #original monster characters #x reader #female reader

[ratgirlcopia]

Nah, i think what you said in your lore opinion makes a lot of sense, actually, and as your token mutual who is (unfortunately, here) very fond of terzo and meliora, i think, from a 'what is ghost to someone just getting into it' perspective its probably the most coherent way to approach it!

(My migraine addled brain last night suggested it's like. Vampires before and after Dracula. Prequelle and Impera are putting a definite and more specific thing together. The earlier albums and papas play with a premise, and it's not that there's *not* stories there, but. If you're writing a dracula story you don't really have to integrate other earlier, potentially contradictory, vampire concepts unless you want to, because we've got a single, specific iteration we're working with now. The previous papas and how they interact with copia's lore are functionally, as you say, more like fun AUs than equal canon)

yeah i think this is a really good way of looking at it! the previous papas are essential to how the concept evolved, but they're just not part of it anymore, they were a separate thing, and that time is pretty much over. sorry in advance for how long this is, this ask just made me start thinking about it again and i think it's an extremely interesting topic.

it's sort of wild, because i guess they figured that in order to keep people invested, copia had to be part of the "same" universe, and there had to be background characters carrying over across eras to bridge the gap, but the longer it goes on, the more it becomes obvious that the story probably would've benefited a lot from doing something like, "hey, the three previous guys were all from, say, the swedish location of the ghost ministry, but now we're going to talk about all-new characters from the los angeles location and it's a separate thing." but the decision to keep imperator and nihil as characters who have always been orchestrating things across eras (thus retconning a lot of stuff in the process) means we have these very ambiguous connections that weigh down the narrative.

even nihil's whole existence is contradictory. they present him as if he's been "papa" forever, we also have the "there can only be one papa" rule copia throws out during the ascension show, so then we're left with...what, nihil was papa before, then his kids were papa, then he went back to being papa? if the title is that easy to toss back and forth, it doesn't really mean anything. but if we view nihil-imperator-copia as their own universe, with nihil holding onto that title forever because there just isn't anybody else who's good enough for it, his whole deal makes a lot more sense.

the previous three are killed off SO unceremoniously, and because they are literally never brought up again, it just feels like (again, understandably) the writing at the beginning of the prequelle era was pretending there's a connection to the past eras that wasn't really there, to convince people to stay invested in what was essentially a brand-new thing. but now that it's worked and people are invested in copia, there aren't any more call-backs to previous eras, because they don't need them. but that weird "is it the same thing or isn't it" connection is still there because they relied on it in the beginning of the prequelle era.

it's the kind of thing that would drive me absolutely crazy if i was responsible for figuring out how to tell a coherent story, but thankfully that's not on me so i can just watch.

i think ghost is probably a very, very difficult thing to write for because of all this, which is part of why i'm so interested to see what the ghovie ends up doing. i think it could be a really cool opportunity to retcon the parts that don't make sense and try to edit all the weird, ambiguous loose ends together into a good, internally consistent story. they'd have to be willing to risk going "hey, these things aren't connected at all, sorry," more openly than they have before (even though that's basically the reality, with the current era not acknowledging the previous guys at all), but i think it would be worth the risk in terms of turning out a story that can stand on its own as a logically sound thing.

#ask #singinrevelry #i mean. it was already a pretty big risk to kill off the previous three. so i don't think tf is particularly Risk-Averse in that sense. #it's an absolute mess of a thing as-is and that's certainly fun. #but i do genuinely believe it has the potential to become coherent. and that's what makes me insane.

[thefirstknife]

What happened to the whole Enceladus theory? I remember the idea was that the Deep Stone Crypt was in it but then it turned out to be Europa. That message that Cayde left for Petra (and the fact that it was coded) seemed important and I was wondering if it still is even relevant to current lore or if it was kinda ditched by the devs. Could Enceladus still be relevant in the future?

It was a theory based on a misinterpretation of the messages and then shared by Byf who perpetuated the theory. He even later came out to clear things up, but I think the damage was done at that point.

Basically, Cayde left 10 messages to people he believed might be the ones that would end up killing him. One was for Petra, which has the coded message about something being on Enceladus. A completely unrelated message was directed to the "minds behind the Deep Stone Crypt." I need to stress that these are completely separate messages. All messages are unrelated to one another and they don't seem to have any specific order. The one before Petra is for Drifter. After Petra is the Deep Stone Crypt, but then after that is the one for Suraya.

It was genuinely a cool idea and seemed to work with what Cayde told us about the Deep Stone Crypt before; that it was in a place that was cold. He also initially mentions Saturn as he starts talking about it, but then corrects himself and says it's "someplace else." Enceladus is an icy moon, similar to Europa, just orbiting Saturn and not Jupiter. I think people really wanted to connect these two things so it became a popular idea that Cayde's knowledge about the Crypt was something he wanted to tell people.

What doesn't make sense is him saying it to Petra. The Awoken really have nothing to do with the Deep Stone Crypt and there's no reason for him to tell Petra where it is. And of course, the message of him even mentioning Deep Stone Crypt is not even the same message where he mentions Enceladus. Maybe people also connected the two messages because one follows the other. Could also be that a lot of people forgot that they're separate.

Enceladus WAS once considered as a candidate for this. However, this was a very long time ago. Like, it was in concept stages back during vanilla, maybe even earlier. I did a little research about it at one point. The artist uploaded the art that was labelled as early concepts for Europa and said that the reason Saturn is in the sky is because Enceladus was considered as a location, for a brief period of time, during the concept stage. As I noted in this little research, the artist also said that he got the idea for "red ice" from another artist, however the red ice is present on real life Europa, but not on Enceladus. Enceladus may have been considered as a location at some point, but definitely not long enough given that even back in concept stage, they were already mixing it up with Europa. It definitely wasn't still in consideration when the Cayde lines were being recorded. They wouldn't record it based on some early concept art, so unless this was a spectacularly convoluted mistake... It's unlikely.

We still don't know what Cayde wanted Petra to know about Enceladus, but if it's anything, it probably has something to do with some Awoken business. My favourite theory is that it has something to do with Harbingers, a very curious Awoken weapon that's kinda sort of half-sentient. They were all deployed during Battle of Saturn and they all "died" there, except one, and only Mara knows where it is. The lore on Telesto also tells us:

Vestiges of the Queen's Harbingers yet linger among Saturn's moons.

The old Telesto lore from D1 also has the same tagline and additionally:

Expanded search of Saturn's nearby moons produced only one notable discovery: A cloud of Harbinger matter collected around Saturn's 13th moon, designation "Telesto." A sample is enclosed for your examination.

It makes a lot more sense to me that Cayde found something like this on Enceladus and wanted to alert Petra to it (especially at the time when Mara was considered dead). We still don't know however and it's unclear if it will be relevant ever again. It might, but it's not super important. I'd really like to know of course, especially if it's something Awoken like a Harbinger or maybe something even more mysterious we've never heard of before!

#destiny 2 #enceladus #cayde-6 #petra #awoken #harbinger #ask #long post

[muzzleroars]

Wanna share my take on the lore that was revealed in the Ultrakill ARG

Like,, at first, when I saw that Hell is A Living, Thinking Thing Actually, I was like "aaah scary evil mastermind, noo"

But then, after thinking some more (though some media that I've consumed recently might have influenced me) I came to a different conclusion: hell is baby. evil but baby

I mean, just think about it

God creates Hell

Hell gains sentience

And then what it sees? Eternal torment

And the human expeditions probably aren't better, cause humans probably only thought about what use Hell is for them; and also probably violence was more common after humans and machines came to Hell cause demons and husks attack them on sight in most cases and then they had to protect themselves and stuff

And children generally can be cruel unless they're taught what is wrong, bored children especially so, and in hell's case it's even worse

And all Hell has ever saw and could learn from was violence and other amoral stuff

So in the end we have Hell, a bored, cruel, likely powerfull toddler, basically

Machines at least had their programming (for better or for worse), which might have limited their violence to some extent (or in some hcs still does), and yet they still had a hand in killing off humanity. Hell either doesn't have any "programming", or if it does, it's probably smth among the lines of "torment sinners", as that's the purpose with which God created it. And obviously this doesn't make Hell any less likely to be violent and amoral

Anyway, I'm not good with words and this sounded better in my head, but that's it

YEA let's talk about hell theories!!! (i get pretty speculative, BUT this is such an interesting topic!!!)

your idea is a really interesting take on what might be going on with hell, and in a similar vein i very much enjoy that while hell may be orchestrating a lot of what's happening, it's quite difficult to say if it's truly at fault in this scenario. because like you said, hell is made for one purpose and hell knows nothing else beyond that purpose. it was made as a place of eternal torment and i'm kind of half wondering if hell is like. lucifer prime, should that exist for angels. that he was killed in his fall and transformed into hell upon his death, spawning into being hateful of what had been done to him but still under god's directive to be the source of eternal damnation. WHICH IS PROBABLY WRONG BUT i think no matter what, hell was conceived to carry out damnation and that was an entirely new concept upon its creation, nothing had ever been made before to be strictly evil and cruel. and it was left to fester, denied god's light and left on its own but still with a job to carry out. and not to relate EVERYTHING to inhnmaims, but it's very reminiscent of am in this regard - relegated underground, trained only on violence and torture, and then left to rot on its own with no other input. what else would it become but something that wants to devour all, that needs more and more grotesque entertainment in its wretched existence?

to me, the machines made by humans and the hell made by god parallel each other a lot - they are created in hubris, in a sense of complete control on the part of their makers, and yet look at what they are. the machines are powered by blood, possibly made so due to wartime needs; hell is a place filled by design with unfathomable horrors. and i think both of these decisions were far from rational choices, but instead the creators acting in fear and anger, on pure emotion. and they both created something they could not undo. the machines are blood hungry, they don't care about the new peace; hell exists only to satisfy a need for punishment, for revenge, for torture. and the terminals get bored. and hell gets bored. and now both creators have a massive, sentient network on their hands that is no longer taking their orders because they've been too far away from it for too long. i am REALLY starting to think the terminals absolutely had something to do with humanity's fall, locked up in hell and forgotten just as hell itself is. they are abandoned and uncared for, but still they think, still they live, still they want to do what they are designed to do. perhaps they were twisted by hell, perhaps they weren't at all, but these two beings are operating in sync at this point imo and no one is left at the wheel. no humans. no god. no creators, only beings like machines, angels, and hell itself that can only run on their programming and protocols. in that sense, ultrakill is a bleakly empty and directionless world, everything that's left something that was only ever meant to be...automated. the mechanisms run forever on, into destruction, into extremes, with what they were designed for disappearing in the rearview mirror. the prime souls are kind of the only thing left that has a true sense of autonomy, and they're being slaughtered by v1's directives as well.

GOT A LITTLE CARRIED AWAY...but i totally agree that hell isn't necessarily a mastermind, just another being that is, in a way, doing the only thing it knows to do. i do wonder if there's really any goal to it, or if it just wants the show to last as long as possible. does it know its resources are finite, does it want to survive or is it finding something to kill it when god couldn't? does none of that factor into it and hell truly is just bored, it doesn't care about the outcome nor does it care to speculate about it or even consider it. whatever the case i'm interested to see how it turns out, especially because this lore is answering literally all of the mechanics on how the game works in a satisfying way...which is just such neat worldbuilding!!

#genuinely i LOVE when mechanics are incorporated into the canon of a piece of media #and it seems like this game is interested in giving reasons for all of it which is just. so cool imo #esp since it's being handled well and nothing has been clumsy about the explanations #they all work with the universe and are organic to it #they add to it and flesh it out so like!!! it's very good to me aha #cake answers

[hezuart]

Well, that sure was a heated response, wasn't it? They seemed especially pissed about your comment regarding Otto's abusive behavior towards Noone, though that seems understandable. But they may have had a point about the series being implied to have been taking place on an alternate realm long before the podcast confirmed it to actually be the case as I do recall some of these interviews that they've mentioned. Also, people have been saying that Tarsier handed over a lore bible to Supermassive Games and that they were following those concepts not yet touched upon, so there's that to consider. Personally, I don't think that the podcast contradicts established canon, more so expands upon it, but you shouldn't have to feel forced into liking this direction of the series just because that may have been the idea from the start. Any thoughts?

Thoughts below Option A: You have loving parents and a kind doctor to take care of you. You are told you have a brain tumor that may or may not be benign, they'd have to run further tests, but its not something to worry about just yet. The doctor starts plugging you into annoying machines. You get a lot of headaches. He explains he needs help finding his sister but you get mad at him and refuse to help. He says if he could trade places with you to get your headaches and terrible dreams, he would, but he can't. He starts being mean and drugs you to sleep so he can find his sister. Option B: You teleport to a world where you have to fight for your life and always be hunted by grotesque, terrifying creatures that snatch, torture, and kill any and every child you've come in contact with. The worlds you teleport to are completely different each time. They are incomprehensible. You have no support system. But at least you won't have to worry about your tumor anymore. It's not about dismissing his abusive behavior, it's about Noone being dumb for picking the clearly wrong choice here.

Tarsier in its early days has always been confused as to the lore of their series. They tried to have a tv show made, they tried to make comics. Six allegedly has amnesia. But a lot of things were canceled or changed. Their first game actually, The City of Metronome, was taken and remade into Little Nightmares 2 essentially.

"The evil Company managed to uncover the secret of a wondrous machine capable of creating ideas and designs for world-building. Possessing this knowledge the Corporation set out to construct their own version of this machine. With the machine finished the requirement for maintenance arose, the machine and newly constructed areas needed a workforce to make sure everything was running smoothly. And what better way to employ some workers than to kidnap children, suck out their souls and put them to work?

So things were all well and good then, until a young man training to become a steam-train engineer one day met a girl aboard the train he was working on. She makes him question the purpose of life in the city, is the Corporation to be trusted? Could it be that it is evil? Together you both set off on a quest to unravel the Corporation's mysterious, probably evil plans."

This game insinuates the evil corporation can create worlds but doesn't say the children are FROM other worlds. It's a fantastical, creepy place with its own lore and literal world-building, why would the children NEED to come from IRL? Same goes for LN When it comes to Tarsier, they were heavily inspired by Spirited Away as you said, where Chihiro is transported to the spirit world and forced to work in a bathhouse, so that may be where they are coming from. But if you think about it, there is no legitimate reason to include the fact that children come from the real world. The children in the video games are never confused. They never cry. They never act like real children would, separated from their parents in a terrifying place. I would sit around and cry until something came along and killed me immediately. A child stands no chance of survival there. Some of the children of LN are cruel. A cruelty that shouldn't come with children from the real world so commonly. Six is sadistic, Mono uses a gun to kill the Hunter, he has an axe to violently break down doors and smash porcelain children. Seven electrocutes the Granny. They are also insanely smart, all good at puzzle-solving. They never act like real children from the real world. But when it comes down to it, they can't return home. So why include the fact that they are from the real world at all? What's the point of that? They don't act like they're from the real world. "Six was actually a sweet little girl with two loving parents and maybe even a younger brother!" Is such a weird direction for this series to go.

#its completely unfitting #little nightmares #ask #text post #long post #the sounds of nightmares

[syntheticmortal]

just saw an art piece from one of your players that hit me with the most incredible sense of nostalgia and happiness. i used to run Lupines -- not Garou, because i was a teenager then and hadn't touched Apocalypse (even though I love apocalypse dearly now) and sometimes think about going back and making Lupines a thing again, ahah. Also, if you want, I can send you some stuff for old Werewolf source books, I saw your 5e post!

God that piece is, on a personal level, one of my absolute favourites to come out of The Little Black Door chronicle :')

And Lupines is such a fucking mood mate, keeps my poor players on their toes when the things outside the city are just 'nah they're not really statted, they'll just sort of kill you' - you've never seen more desperate drive rolls in your life XD

Which is my way of enthusiastically encouraging you to work on your own Lupine concepts!! And take that as an excuse to come show me if you do!! I rather like the Garou, and have used them in one VTM game where I revealed a Kindred as Kinfolk - but it's so much fun to screw around with new ideas, keep the table fresh

(plus, personally, adding new elements keep the horror alive, players can't treat threats like they're from a bestiary if they can't be sure what's going on >:D)

And thank you for the generous offer! I've actually been fortunate enough to scrounge the old lore thankfully - it's just very awkward because I don't know what's meant to still gel with the W5 lore. With Garou Tribes kinda being something one chooses I struggle to define them beyond a loose spiritual brotherhood - as opposed to the culture of a shared permanent curse with VTM Clans, or the inherent variation that comes from within a rather large ethnic group a la the old Garou Tribes

And then in turn how does this extend out to things like the Black Spiral Dancers? I can make decisions for my own games but if things are _different_ now they are not adequately defined anew for my liking as a Storyteller (or even a Player trying to make something withn the context)

That said, to echo the post you mentioned, I think I'm starting to get a grip with making my own antagonists - and in turn I've started to think more about Sept cultures, rather than Tribal cultures, and treat Tribes like specialisations almost. With any luck, there'll be enough to run a game with when it becomes time to do it! :') <3

#SyntheticQuestions #Werewolf the Apocalypse #WTA #W5 #vampire the masquerade #vtm #The Little Black Door #my ttrpg games

[bumofthewild]

omg your ffxiv journey is so sweet ;____; it's so touching to see other haurchefant fans waaaaah everything in ishgard is so crazy. do you have any thoughts? on his family, ysayle, estinien? aymeric?

awwww ty i feel like all i've really done is tweet "i love haurchefant" or complain abt fantasy racism but i'm happy you think so...! and yess infinite love for haurchefant forever i was not expecting to fall for him like that at all. he is literally perfect.......!!!

im actually obsessed w ishgard im hoping you understand that asking for my thoughts on anything is opening a floodgate but i will try to reel it in! ok! here we go!

ok i love ishgard.... i love its extremely insular and severe and almost monastic atmosphere. i am a hugeee fan of secluded locations as the setting of a story so when i realised hvw was going to be largely about ishgard i was so excited. i also really love plots where characters are in hiding/have to take refuge in a hidden and secretive place??? and then the fact that the place you have to take refuge in is haurchefants family home??? i started writing fanfic immediately i literally felt like i was being spoiled like they wrangled that from my brain i genuinely couldn't believe i could experience so much luxury all at once. of course that's been ruined after doing the vault which i have been genuinely handing terribly but. moving on!

emmanellain is so funny and i think the contrast between him and artoirel (silliness/overconfidence vs seriousness/insecurity) is really interesting, down to where you go with them on their separate missions. really fun way of exploring more of ishgard. i like their dad too he's genuinely sweet which i thought was a nice surprise. it really stuck out to me this one moment where the war worsens and he says you can't stay anymore bc its become so dangerous, bc i just automatically assumed everyone would beg you to stay and help. that really touched me. i feel like hvw somehow passed my convoluted eq test

also learning haurchefant was an illegitimate son in the way you do w artoirel just telling you really stood out to me o__o not bc that kind of thing is an issue but bc of how you learn it idk backstory on the characters kind of throws me off in a good way bc of how linear the game is. idk i cant formulate thoughts on haurchefant rn itd need its own post. some other time..

i don't believe in things like nobility as an actual moral concept, obviously, and fantasy games let alone ishgard really test my patience with it, but i do love it aesthetically. same w christianity. i really like idk arthurian medieval aesthetics. the high houses + their motifs really got me like i specifically love unicorns and roses if hvw was trying to appeal to me directly it knew exactly how. ishgard's politics too i thought that shit was so interesting i'd love to learn more about the rocky relationships btwn the houses. and we loveeeee toppling the church thank you heavensward

there were a lot of times though where i was really frustrated with the dragonsong war and this is my issue with ffxiv in general but the way it treats beast races is extremely disturbing. i pretend i cant read whenever a character on the "good" side talks about "civility" or "reason/sense". and the ishgard lore being ppl directed by their god to inhabit a land only to find that land inhabited by "savages" (the dragons) that they have to kill now bc as "reasonable" beings they have a religious claim to that land...is an insane thing to write about!!! jrpgs are crazy!!!!!! like i genuinely need it to stop but i guess they at least (???) kind of turned things around with hresvelgr and ysayle offering the perspective of the other side and i think they made it an interesting issue enough for the game but lord it is disconcerting. that being said the foundation of ishgard being a total lie (and being described constantly as a sin) is still a lot of fun to me like thank god. and the quirky somewhat found family journey w ysayle, estinien and alphinaud to unearth the truth was one of the best parts of hvw imo. i loved seeing estinien act almost like an older brother to alphinaud, and for estinien and ysayle to constantly be at odds and alphinaud trying to keep things together. i am so fond of that section of the game.. just felt like you were climbing higher and higher into figurative heaven (i love the title heavensward im glad they used it in such fun ways) and seeing stubborn bastards like estinien question what he knew. he was so funny by the way i was not expecting that even though i knew an estinien was a popular char in the game for a while. i also like ysayle a lot like her passion was very compelling, and when she finally talks to hresvelgr the way her goals would be tinged w a sort of self-serving personal feeling at times i found really interesting. all of it was so interesting whenever the plot strayed from ishgard id be like take me back PLEASEEE. idk i like chars who behave like tools (estinien) or become tools by accident (ysayle). i think those two should hang out and bicker and begrudgingly accept each other forever

also i love aymeric like i already loved aymeric from post-arr idk if you play w another dub but his english voice has this softness to it that i find so cute. idk he's kind of delicate to me maybe not what they were going for but i'm into it. the fact that post-arr to me is just watching aymeric and haurchefant be in a wol-loving contest MAKES ME SICK TO MY STOMACHGHH i love the ishgardians how much they like wol in a place that's notorious for being so cold is so great. i think love is real on earth. and not in the self-insert "i need every char in this game to want me" way i just mean that i like love a lot, and they are not shy about the fact that they love you. its great. also when they revealed aymeric was actually an idealist and that getting jailed as a heretic meant little to him if it could bring about a new ishgard--literal nail in my coffin. i love idealism!! i was really pleasantly surprised that the nobles you come to know decided to care more about bringing in a new age for the region rather than being noble. whether or not that change comes is to be seen ofc.. but considering the brume is a location that exists well. what is with this game and the fantasy cops always being really bad...? like is ffxiv actually down for the cause...? (joke)

ik ishgard has its whole classism thing going on but that seems more like fray's department now which i have yet to dance with.. i mean literally just dissolve the class system...but this post is already very unorganised so. no more. i would pay an infinite amount of money to bring haurchefant back. each time i think about him i slip up and think about his gravestone instead and feel nauseous. great game!

#asks #anonymous #ffxiv spoilers #heavensward spoilers #spoilers #seriously like huge spoilers for heavensward #excited for post-heavensward though *scream* #i typed this up last night and was like i need to edit it when i wake up bc its too long and its still too long

[adobe-outdesign]

driffloon for pkmn review? theyre my fav! (altho trubbish is my second fav, so mind my taste)

If you have bad taste then I have even worse taste, because I absolutely love the Drifloon line.

It's actually kind of surprising that it took until Gen 4 to give us a proper balloon Pokemon, considering there was a scrapped idea for one as early as the Red/Green beta (Jigglypuff kind of counts, but I mean something that is literally a balloon rather than a mammal). Regardless, the balloon we did finally get is perfect in just about every way.

Conceptually, the idea of an eerie balloon that floats around at night, luring off children to drag them into the afterlife is terrifying and makes for a great concept (even upstaging Hypno in the horror department, on the grounds of it actually killing the kids it lures away instead of just eating their dreams. USUM even had a quest wherein it's implied that a Drifloon killed both a child and her Hypno to "make friends" with her, which is just all kinds of messed up).

On the plus side, it can't drag heavy kids off and gets pulled around by them instead, which is hilariously endearing.

Visually, the purple is quite fitting for a ghost-type, and the yellow accents make the design pop nicely (no pun intended). The little hearts at the ends of the strings are adorable, serving as weights (I also like the way it has two strings in general, allowing them to function a bit like hands).

I also really like the way the mouth is done; it's actually a small circle in the middle of the X. In other words, it's a hole that got patched over. How perfect is that?

The only thing I can nitpick here is that the white on top of the head is... like, it's not bad, but part of me questions if its really needed. Still, I can get wanting something to break up the form there and the way it looks like a cloud is fun, so I'm not going to complain too much.

Also, final side note: Drifloon has what I consider to be the scariest Pokedex entry, ever, in the form of this tidbit:

Thankfully, Drifblim is just as good as Drifloon, keeping all the good aspects of it while making it look more advanced. Despite the name, it's much less based off a blimp than a hot-air balloon, complete with a "basket" of sorts, a nice rounded pattern at the base, and lines going up the body. I'm not entirely sure what those four limbs are based off of (saddlebags, maybe?), but they work well and are a nice departure from Drifloon's strings.

Visually, outside of what I said about the white cloud at the top previously, I really don't have any complaints. I guess you don't really need the red--the eyes could've stayed black and the bottom could've been yellow--but it helps make it feel more grand compared to Drifloon, so I don't think it's bad that it's there. Other than that, it's great.

Also, I really like this 'dex entry, which is sweet and poetic instead of horrifying like Drifloon's:

So yeah, overall, these balloons are perfect. Perfect designs, perfect lore, perfect 'dex entries, perfect concepts. A++, would let it steal my child.

#drifloon #drifblim #pokemon #pokemon reviews

[unskilledpoint]

does prevskilled have symbolism? he's a cool character, but i'm wondering if he was just there or actually meant something.

ummm yreah a liddol it was probably my like worst attempt at subtle symbolism ever thuogh so fuck it lets just do complete analysis of prevskilled. hes pretty fun to talk about actually. also somewhat personal to me? tangentially speaking.

anyways. prevskilled! quick lore recap he was an asshole capitalist who achieved immortality, before shedding the "universal veil," seeing that the world hasn't started yet and killing himself. fun!

so symbolism. prevskilled is a very meta character. his introduction was meta, he concept was meta, and thus his analysis is meta.

prevskilled's entire arc is told from something that unskilled is looking back on. their character arc has happened. they are no longer capable of changing because their character arc is in past tense. they are doomed to remain stagnant. hence the complete lowercase and almost utter lack of any punctuation, and emphasis being in bold rather than italics or caps or even with the 8x quirk. his inability to change went through to his speech.

okay, so let's look at the contents of said arc. prevskilled basically, got too meta. he learned too much, lovecraft style. the "universal veil" he mentioned in one of the journal entries was literal. he saw, somehow, that the EPPRBCU didn't actually start yet. this was pretty much worldending for him. especially when you read through some of it and realize how much of it involves being known and recognized. but since the EPPRBCU wasn't a thing yet, prevskilled was pretty much doomed to irrelevancy. and he was well aware of this.

here's the part more relevant to unskilled. before prevskilled killed himself out of sheer hatred of irrelevancy, he cloned himself in the form of a second file, in the form of unskilled. he edited his own file for certain traits, killed himself, and released the second file in a last ditch attempt for relevancy. so now, we have unskilled. and there are some pretty major differences/similarities between the two!

prevskilled had a god complex, unskilled has. all of that. prevskilled was also really ambitious, unskilled genuinely wants to be left to their own devices. but also they're very similar! a fondness for the number 878, a tendency to dryly and judgmentally comment on others, etc.

this leads to the question. we know prevskilled did change unskilled's code. but how much? did all of that actually affect unskilled's current personality? or was it all just luck? would prevskilled also have turned out like unskilled had they been coded earlier? would unskilled have turned up like prevskilled? i don't have any particular reason or desire to answer any of these, but if you do some analysis of him yourself i'm sure you could come up with something.

you could also draw some parallels of unskilled/prevskilled's computer code to real life genetic code. should my parents have made me, with their history of mental illness? again, i've no interest in answering this. just a little tidbit, i guess.

last topic! i just want to call to attention prevskilled's relationship with unskilled. he's pretty much always critiquing unskilled, usually telling them to kill themselves or calling them weak for trying to kill themselves. unskilled, obviously, points out how prevskilled is a hypocrite, as he attempted suicide a long time ago. prevskilled usually responds with "it was just a moment of weakness" and leaves it.

this in turn raises a couple interesting questions. could prevskilled be projecting his own insecurity about suicide onto unskilled? does unskilled remind him of themselves? it's pretty likely, in all honesty. again, you could draw some parallels of unskilled and prevskilled and irl parents and their insecurities, especially combined with the pun of genetic/computer code.

anyway! that's pretty much it. i dunno. this isn't super long so hope you aren't like disappointed or anything. i'm sure i could've forgotten something but i'm pretty sure i've hit all the major points. so. yeah! stay sillay and stay safe its a wild world out there :3c

#everyone praise me and my ability to symbolize even if its not true. at all. #character analysis #prevskilled

[overlyimmersed]

So, about my AU... Lets do this a little differently this time...

So, in light of having to rewrite my entire AU almost from scratch, I've decided I'll post parts of the timeline in chunks by season of the show as I get them rewritten. Maybe that'll make it a little more digestible over all, though it'll still be compiled on timeline page, of course.

So I guess I should probably talk a little bit about this AU, actually. I haven't really said much. That's kinda just how things have always been before. I just kind of toss the information into the void and hope someone finds it. But this fandom, this community, it's different. There's a lot more...talking, then other fandoms I've been in. So lets talk.

I suppose we'll start with the name? Some of you may have seen me use it a few times. Years ago I got into the habit of using alphanumeric designations for my AUs, mainly as shorthand to help me keep track of the media the au is from, how it's altered from canon and what year I started it in, to help me keep track of time. Though this AU lacks the dating component...which was not a great idea on my part... that's a flaw that came about form my previous hyperfixation. I created too many AUs for that one, which I usually don't, so I started using a symbol system as a subcategory and it fricked the whole system...

ANYWAY

This AU is designated "SDS-RBF-215*" SDS = Seven Deadly Sins, RBF = Reborn Fairy, and 215 is my numeric signature. The asterisk is from the symbol system mentioned above. Which is technically necessary, as I do have off-shoot AUs from this primary one. But those are private cuz they're dumb...

So I suppose if this AU were going to have a title rather than a designation it would be "Reborn Fairy".

It's called that because the POV character, a self-insert OC, is reincarnated from another universe.

And on that note I'd like the record to show that I made this choice before I knew about Elizabeth. Reincarnation is one of my most used tropes. I'd also like to mention that I didn't know the word "isekai" until very recently...

So besides this new MC, what exactly is different between this AU and canon?

Well, not including the story consequences of the MC's existence, I did add some lore and stuff. Primarily the concept of "The Bard to the Fairy King"

Each Fairy King has had a bard alongside him to serve as a history keeper, moral guide, and any other role the Fairy King requires. These bards are always born in the Fairy King's Forest, rather than in the Fairy Realm proper like other fairies. The primary mission of The Bard to The Fairy King- or Fairy King’s Bard, sometimes shortened to just Fairy Bard- is to keep the history of the Fairy Race. They write books, tell stories, sing songs and create works of art keeping track of history as it passes. Like how each Fairy King has the magical ability “Disaster”, Fairy Bards always have “Starlight” giving them a flawless memory and the ability to generate and manipulate silvery light. It's primarily used to project records of memories, though it can be used offensively if needed. They also share a single special technique that’s passed from one to the next, a song called “Song of the Fairy King” which will increase the Fairy King’s power in an act of desperation. It can also be used to save the Fairy King’s life if need be. The use of this spell expends the Bard’s life force, and thus can only be used once. So the Bard must act wisely. As time went on and more unfortunate events tarnished Fairy history, the Bards became more and more high strung and anxious, plagued by their perfect recall of tragic and violent events. Fairy Bards Morvydd - The Bard to Fairy King Gloxinia. Primarily a poet. She, and her twin brother Owain, were killed in the raid on Stigma headquarters during the first Holy War. Camellia - The Bard to Fairy King Dahlia. Primarily a dancer. When Dahlia disappeared, Camellia went with him, at some point she used “Song of the Fairy King” to save Dahlia’s life. Maranwe - The Bard to Fairy King Harlequin. Primarily a harpist. A very unusual fairy with a complicated history. She left with a group of other fairies to meet with humans and was thought dead for 700 years before she, along with her missing Fairy King, returned just before the second Holy War. 

I've also applied my various headcanons, of course. Which can be read here. I'm not going to list them on this post cuz I don't want to have keep more than one post updated everytime I add a headcanon. The one linked will always be kept up-to-date.

#seven deadly sins #nanatsu no taizai #7ds #nnt #seven deadly sins AU #nanatsu no taizai AU #7ds au #nnt au #7ds fairy #nnt fairy #seven deadly sins OC #nanatsu no taizai OC #7ds oc #nnt oc #SDS-RBF-215* #Reborn Fairy AU

[patchesjam]

Do people actually think genloss is going to be A Big Thing? Bc last time I checked Ranboo does not have the big audience or the big streamer network they'd need to pull that off. Also, coming from a writer, I have A Lot Of Doubt in his ability to tell a cohesive story. Like I know the DSMP isn't a great example (since it was written on the fly and all) but like... Tommy and Dream figured it out - so did Bad and Hannah and the other Eggpire peeps. Phil gave us some closure, too. But nooooo Ranboo got bored of the server so he had to jump the shark and kill off his character out of nowhere even though Wilbur still needed him for lore. So like. What happens when he inevitably gets bored of genloss? What then? Will it remain unfinished, or will he just start throwing random angst at it in an attempt to get attention? If he behaves how I think he will, then he's worse than 13 year old me writing RotBTD fanfiction. Because at least I gave them endings and stuff, even though they were written 100% without any foresight whatsoever. Basically I have no faith in them whatsoever to tell compelling stories, I hate their fanbase and their fan's extreme radical ideology and excessive bulling behavior, and I mostly hate their 'I'm morally superior to everyone else' attitude. Also I still don't know what went on between them and Tubbo - because I kind of get Mean Girls vibes from the whole situation and it makes me deeply uncomfortable. Unrelated to the rest of the ask: Thoughts on Dream copying other YouTubers and hiring a bunch of actors to localize his vids into Spanish?

oooo a long one :)

i saw a lot of boobers say that sorta thing when the dsmp was in big talks again, like 'ranboo has moved on to Bigger and Better things' and them bragging about how it will leave the fandom and that he doesnt need dream + dsmp for relevancy. i see less of it now because i block anyone who mildly pisses me off on twitter - so basically every boober.

and yeah the streamer network thing is interesting because i was thinking this the other day, all of dtkq, tubbo, foolish etc have quite a lot of good relationships and connections to actual streamer streamers (hasan, rae, sykkuno, ludwig) and ranboo + co seem to very much stick in that group, ranboo and whoever he decides are his friends for that month. i never see them in anything more widely twitch related which is interesting and imo a sign of short longevity

as for the writing.... yeah. i think he will go the way of angst. i personally think that he seems to have very little overall idea for the actual concept and storyline a year into planning so i have little faith in that. its like when authors go 'oooo i want to write a teen fantasy novel' and then try to make a random plot to fit the genre. i could be wrong though shrug.

its been said a thousand times before but one little minor slip up from ranboo will lead to a massacre. i used to feel sorry for him about this but he truly did it to himself being a spineless bastard and never calling people out on their shit. it was easy enough to say 'pwease stop being racist' and he fucked that up 3 times.

annnnd finally i dont know if he's done that already or just something your questioning but its interesting... I dont think he'd get as much out of it as other youtubers because, due to excellent concepts and editing esp for manhunts theyre completely watchable without knowing english. obviously you miss a bit but cool plays are universal. i still think it would be interesting to see though, and it wouldnt hurt at all so i could see him doing that at some point. i think he might not though because he is so protective of his work and still edits everything himself, might not want that, so not sure!

#ask tag #its interesting about the localizing though i always wondered if tommy started that based on dreams advice