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thesunloveschips · 7 days

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Eye of the Storm - Chapter 10: An Unfamiliar World

Summary: Nyra is one of the older Archeron sisters. Twin to Nesta. Plagued by a mysterious illness that her mortal body cannot endure for too long. And yet, it seems her curse is to see her family suffer. When the youngest of her sisters is whisked away into the land of fae, immortality soon follows for the rest of them. And as an immortal, there is more to her that she has yet to know.

Chapter Summary: Nyra tries to recall her memories from the Cauldron which includes the silhouettes of unfamiliar people. Rhys's sister makes an appearance. Nyra confronts Nesta. Shadows are supportive little darlings.

A/N: I am immensely thankful to @stormhearty. Your friendship is something precious for the real me who is a slightly crazy woman who loves food and fictional men. Thank you for helping me with this chapter. I will continue to fangirl over characters from books and manhwa with you.

Click here to access the Masterlist of the Eye of the Storm

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Nyra's POV

Approximately an hour was left for dinner. I was still sitting by the window in Elain's bedroom. Nesta was sitting on the armchair across me and the occupant of the room was still unconscious.

None of us were talking but I could hear the Cauldron cry as if it was in the same room. Its cries and pleas which I did not want to hear. Not after what it did to my sisters. I closed my eyes and remembered it.

It was cold and lonely in this place. The sensation on my body made it seem like I was floating. And then there was a rip. Pain shot through me. Pain unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. I could not move. Could not open my eyes to see what was going on. It started from my head, from between the eyes. And then it was there, on my chest. I felt like something was being taken from me and that my body was desperately clinging on to it.

It was exhausting. I don’t even know if I was crying. And then pain vanished. I was someplace warm now. I opened my eyes and saw the darkness around me. I was a silhouette of light. Underneath me, a body floated. My body. My weak, mortal body. I was still connected to it. A single glowing string continued to connect me.

And then there were whispers behind me. I turned around and saw other silhouettes. There were many. Each of them were standing at a different distances from me. All of them with glowing eyes. They were different in appearance—different heights, build, sex, skin colour, hair colour, clothing and so much and yet, the only thing that was common was the glowing eyes. I noticed that only one of them did not have glowing eyes. In fact, her eyes were closed. She was the one standing closest to me. A young girl with large bat-like wings.

My entire being felt a pull. I looked around trying to identify the source. It was that string connecting me to my body that floated in the abyss. I looked behind at the figures and found them facing me. Even the young girl with closed eyes. Everyone except the girl lifted their hands and a string flowed out from their palms towards me. With a bundle of strings in my hands, I let them go. The strings floated around me. I waved my hands and with knowledge I did not know I possessed, I manipulated the strings.

They weaved themselves under my guidance into something. A string from my own palm emerged and joined the creation. Whatever that was finally created, came to rest in my arms and I held it. I looked at the body below me and dropped the thing on it.

I had created a body which was merging with the mortal one that floated. The golden body and my own body were merging. I felt more strings from those behind me and I pushed them towards the merging bodies. Something happened. It seemed to help with the merger. And the final product was complete. I looked behind at the figures and they were looking at me, not with glowing eyes but with their own eyes. Approval, happiness, determination, pride—many emotions floated in their eyes. All of them giving me the nod to do something.

I looked at the girl whose eyes were still closed but this time, her lips were parted. And her young voice spoke. “You were poisoned.” I froze.

Another voice from behind her spoke. “You fought well.” It was a woman—tall and larger than women. Easily six feet.

The girl spoke again, her voice pained. “He has been waiting for so long.” And her hand darted forward to push me towards the new body that had been created.

Something stopped me from reaching my body. Some creatures. Many creatures of different shapes and sizes. They were blocking my path. I had to go. The pull was getting stronger. I closed my eyes and the next thing I knew, I was moving—fighting. Like a warrior with practised ease and strength, I was destroying the demons surrounding me.

A familiar presence was nearby. I looked around and felt the gaze of a predator. A familiar presence. I walked closer and identified that to be the one whom I shared a womb in this life. A sibling. What was their name? Was it a girl or a boy? Either way, they shouldn’t be in this place. I raised my hand when I got close enough and pushed them away. Their presence completely vanished and I was left alone with the figures around me.

My fight continued. I won. I walked over to the body waiting for me like a vessel to fill it. A pained cry caught my attention.

“Please.” It begged. And some stupid part of me walked over and helped it. It was wounded and I healed it. “I am forever in your debt.” We talked a lot and then I walked back and felt my essence enter the body.

Once I had entered the body, I looked around. There was no light, no screams, nothing. Just pure darkness. I lifted my hands and checked them. I was glowing. Energy crackled around me. Something glowed from above me. I looked up and saw a bright thread, the only source of light in this darkness. An identical thread sprouted from my chest and ascended to meet it. I watched as the two thread merge into one, as though they were never separated. And then something grabbed my wrists. It coiled around them like a rope and pulled me upwards.

The next thing I knew, I was exiting the Cauldron. People around me were screaming my name. What was it? I could not even see anything clearly. Wisps of darkness and water blurred my vision to the maximum. Something cool and comfortable was all over me. Some energy. It helped me walk and led me to the source of the shining thread. And then they laid me down and I fell a wave of comfort and relief. And I fell asleep.

There was much more to all of this than what I could comprehend right now. That girl and all the figures lined up behind her. This silence in Elain’s bedroom was too loud. I wanted to scream and run and vomit and do so much, all at the same time. The beast within me was my own self. My real self. My power. At present, she was tame; like a cat curled up for a nap. But the cat was starting to get irritated. It was on the verge of transforming into another feline creature of greater size and power should it be provoked for too long. The only thing calming my inner self was the night sky. The stars were a calming sight.

But why did I feel like this? Like a part of me was absent. And the emptiness was seeping into the rest of me. A desperate feeling of yearning was there. For what? For who? Why? To be yearning so much to the point where it was starting to frustrate me—whose absence was affecting me so? I knew it wasn't father. I did not interact with the man who had been so absent from our lives. During our childhood when we were wealthy, it was a physical absence. During our teenage years when we were poor, it was an emotional absence. When Feyre was taken and we mysteriously became rich, the physical and emotional absence became far too much that I did not bother. We talked only when it was required. With him entrusting the keys of the house to me because he was too afraid to face Nesta, who was the healthier twin.

Was it for Feyre, who had been taken from us only to return as a completely different person? I did not even recognise the girl who came back the first time. A girl with life breathed into her only to tell us about the man she fell in love with. She left to save him. And then she returned as a fae. A broken shell of the woman she had become previously. Her subsequent visits showed improvement but I did not recognise her even then. She was no longer the woman who was our sister. She was free and powerful and independent and that was good for her but my sister had died and a new woman had taken her place. Feyre was no longer our sister in many aspects. And yet she was. But I had this powerful feeling that she would not have come to us after becoming fae if it weren't for the mortal queens and the Book of Breathings.

From what Nesta told me, Elain had begged not to be drowned in the Cauldron and yet she had been the first one to be Made. The woman who went in crying and the woman who returned were two different beings. And now, she was lifeless. The only semblance of who she was could be found in the open curtains. I looked at the sleeping sister. She was pale and thin and the bones of her hand, cheek and neck were too prominent.

Nesta, who had kicked and screamed, before being thrown into the Cauldron. How did she emerge? She hadn’t told me anything. But the woman who was sitting in front of me was withdrawn. She was no longer the panther who waited in the dark before striking. She was a cat who had retired to sleep. Nesta’s claws were no longer sharp.

Then for whom was I feeling so much? This burning sensation. I think I would've cried if I hadn't averted my eyes to look at the sea. Even in the darkness, I could identify where it was after having looked at for so long during the day. So much love, it made me feel like I was bundled up in a velvety blanket. But the other emotions made me feel like the blanket would be ripped away from my body and I would have to wake up to a horrible world.

Nesta's movement began to distract me from my own inner turmoil. She had stood up, walked towards the door, opened it and peeped outside to see if anyone was there and then closed it again. She came back but did not sit down. "We ought to get ready for dinner."

"I suppose we should." I stood up and then looked at Elain. We did not speak because we did not know what to speak of. We walked over to the door connecting Elain's room with Nesta's and entered and closed the door behind us.

"Your room is ahead." Nesta pointed towards the door straight ahead.

"What do you feel about all of this?" I turned to the window. I knew that Nesta required space before she could answer difficult questions. Not looking at her meant that she would feel less pressurised and that she would have more clarity of thought.

Nesta looked outside the window. "We are in an unfamiliar world. I do not mind it much. I do not have a marriage waiting for me. But…"

"You worry for father?" I wanted to know what she felt for him. She did not despise him as much as she tried to pretend. And she would always leave the room whenever I tried to confront her about it, knowing my sick body couldn't follow her. But now I could. And it seemed like she was realising that bit too.

Nesta scoffed. "The man could barely pick himself up even when Feyre went out to hunt. You were sick. We needed the money for your medicines."

"What about you and Elain? What were the two of you doing?" This was it. This was everything. Our lives had revolved around this for so long. Feyre had continuously begged me not to confront Nesta or Elain about this and I truly found her foolish for that. Her kindness had been extended to undeserving people.

"We could never send Elain out. She…"

"Then what about you?" I asked softly. I did not have the patience to shout at her and she was no longer poised to strike. So would she answer me? "Feyre was just a child."

"I know you would've gone out." Nesta's voice was a mere whisper. "You would've done anything and everything for all of us. You're like Feyre in that aspect."

"I think I would have." I spoke. The salty scent of her tears spread around the room. "Do not try to deflect, Nesta."

I knew how much Nesta hated that cottage. That bed where mother had birthed us and died. Everything around us was a reminder of the weakness we carried within ourselves.

"And that trait of yours made you push me out of the Cauldron." Nesta looked at me, vision blurred by tears.

"What were you doing, Nesta?" I had to be more firm with her. I was rarely firm with any of them. That had costed us too much. And whenever I was, I snapped too badly.

"I was scared!" Nesta's voice rose.

"Scared of the world and in that house, only our father knew how to navigate through it." I added and hummed. "He disappointed you, didn't he? When he did not go out to find work and instead remained… hopelessly hopeful for a miracle." I moved towards the door Nesta had pointed at, the one that would lead to me bedroom and stood by the door. The door knob was a beautiful piece of wood, simple and shaped. "Our mother's lessons never included any survival skills but our father's travels did."

I remembered how Feyre had snuck into our father's office to see the maps and the trinkets he brought back from his travels. How father sat her on his lap and told her stories of the world outside. Nesta was staunchly against that. I simply smiled and encouraged Feyre to listen to father's stories. He would tell her about the different people, cultures, cuisines and adventures he had. And eventually those stories shaped Feyre into becoming the one to step outside their home to be the breadwinner.

"And even now, you love him."

"That's ridiculous." Nesta sneered.

"Why?"

"Because I am my mother's daughter."

"All of us are."

"I am more of her than any of you ever was."

"And what are we?"

"Not hers." Nesta did not say anything more but I understood that this was a partition that would remain in her mind. That Nesta would forever see herself as someone apart from her sisters.

"Is that why you never stepped out? Because our mother would've deemed it beneath her to toil for the family? And you're her daughter?" The words escaped me before I could filter them. I saw Nesta flinch. I knew I had struck well when she reacted and I did not like this. I did not like this conversation. Did not like that she was like this. Nesta would've done anything and everything for Elain and I but for Feyre, what was it?

I remembered all the times when we were young and Feyre used to look up to us. I spun my history lessons into stories and told my own version of it to put the younger ones to sleep while Nesta silently watched even though she pretended to be uninterested. Stories of kings and queens, princes and princesses and adventurers and treasure hoarders. Mythologies were the easiest to tell her.

Feyre learned words easily as she listened to my stories and Nesta's advanced speaking. Maybe that's why mother never realised she did not know how to write and read. And for a long time, I did not. Not until mother had passed. Feyre was friends with Elain in a way she never was with me. Friends who would run around the house together, paint together, garden together. To her I was an older sister, but Elain was a friend more than a sister. But Nesta?

For so long, I'd seen her hopefully look at Nesta for the love and companionship she received from us. She did pick up the fierceness from her but she never knew how to wield it. She learned it all on her own and while I was proud of her for being able to do everything on her own, why was she? Why was she the only one providing for us in a house with two more healthy women? Why was she the only one who could do anything and be useful in a house with two capable women?

I'd fed her false hopes during our childhood that Nesta would come around but I believed them to be true. I'd seen how Feyre, fascinated with the first set of paints, had created something and gift it to Nesta. The first of her creations was a gift to someone who simply took it, said her thanks and retired to her room impassively. Feyre did not know what it was called but she saw Nesta using something to mark the book from where she paused; a bookmark.

I saw Nesta keep that bookmark for years, not even allowing me to touch it. Elain did not know where that bookmark was from. The same went for her drawings. Every little scribble, Nesta kept them guarded in her drawers and never told Feyre. She never scolded Feyre for continuing to draw even when we had limited paper after losing our riches. She simply kept them when Feyre thought they were being burned to feed the fire in the cottage. Nesta was a woman of actions and words so why did she not act?

"We are our own person before we were her daughters." I twisted the doorknob to open the door to my room. The luxurious space greeted me with nothing but unfamiliarity. This was not home. "And you are no longer hers. No longer her daughter. I hope you come to accept it someday." I took a step but my other leg remained where it was. "You must apologise to Feyre for not stepping up. The both of you need to move past that."

I let the door slam behind me and began pacing the room. The fact remained that Nesta and Elain did nothing while father and I were physically incapable of going out. Feyre was the only one who did it. And I did not know why I kept defending both of them in my head. I removed the hair tie and enjoyed the feeling of my hair being free.

What did it mean to be an elder sibling? To step in for the younger ones? If that was the case, Nesta and I had done that many times before mother died. Things changed after that. Even then, I'd seen Nesta actively step in for Elain and in my sickness, for me but Feyre was someone she left behind.

I opened the closet wondering whether I needed to dress for the dinner or whether this gown would be appropriate enough. A silk gown of midnight blue grabbed my attention. I took it from where it hung and admired how it was more soft than the one I currently wore. I closed the door of the wardrobe and took the dress with me to the bathing chamber.

The bathtub sat there like the king in his kingdom. I looked away from it and stared at the mirror in front of me. A woman with incomparable beauty stared back but she was so confused. What good was flawless hair and skin and body when I could no longer identify myself? The woman in the mirror was an unfamiliar face. I was never this beautiful, never this healthy. This was definitely someone else.

This is not home. I wanted to cry at that.

The Cauldron had demanded far too much from me. It had exhausted me before I could leave its clutches. I felt it all over my body and I knew I was close to hyperventilating. I'll never return home. And all that pain. I would have died and yet, here I was.

What was the point of snapping at Nesta? We were here, no longer human. We could never return. And what was there for us in the land of the fae? There is nothing. This is not home. My home with my sisters and father. And when I inadvertently looked in the direction of the bathtub, I saw the Cauldron—black and cruel. I screamed in my head at myself to run away. But my legs, why weren't they moving? The Cauldron seemed to nearing me and I wanted to vanish into the shadows.

And as if my prayers were answered, the shadows emerged from behind like the waves of an ocean. I saw their reflection in the mirror and I crumbled as they embraced me and took me away. It was cold and calm. Only the wind remained for me to hear. I could not process anything but my own cries and tears. Where's my home? I screamed into the shadows and wailed. Tears had blurred my vision but I could see enough to identify that I was someplace dark. I sat down on the cold floor with my knees to my chest.

Home was Nesta's stubbornness, my father's hopes for tomorrow, Elain's smiles and Feyre's wildness. But I was somewhere where I could recognise none of my sisters. My stubborn sister had left everything to the youngest, who in turn lost a part of herself. My happy sister no longer smiled. And what was I?

I don’t know how long I was crying but a hand grabbed my shoulder. It was the only source of warmth. It was a large hand and I looked back. There was no one. I could not see the hand on my shoulder but I could definitely feel it. It was still there. And the shadows retreated and I was on the bathroom floor with a worried Nesta in front of me. She saw me and was saying something. She hugged me and rocked me and I closed my eyes. It was when I could hear my surroundings that I dared to open my eyes. Nesta was crying as she held me.

I moved my hand, took her elbow and tried to remove it away from me. It was a heavy arm and my movement made her release me from my embrace to look at me. Her tears were flowing and she looked so worried. “Are you alright?” She grabbed my cheeks and inspected me. “Did something happen? Talk to me, dear.”

Nesta was never affectionate unless she was worried. And that she definitely was at the moment. “I’m fine.” I whispered.

I escaped her embrace and stood up. I had yet to wash my face and I did just that. I kept on gathering cold water in my hands and splashing it on my face until I felt content. I looked up at the mirror and saw someone who I was starting to recognise. Me. The broken me. I took the towel hanging nearby and dabbed my face with it. I had to change clothes. As I was removing my clothes, I heard her call my name.

"Come to me after you've spoken to Feyre." Nesta knew what I was talking about. I wore the midnight blue gown which exposed my neckline and clung loosely to my figure. My hair was in a bun but with a few stray curls escaping here and there. We stared at each other until I made the move to leave for dinner even though I did not know where it was going to.

I walked ahead. I could hear Nesta behind me but I descended the stairs and heard the noise coming from one of the floors. I followed the voices and halted. I was suddenly reminded of the fact that I will be dining with strangers. Even though I'd met a few of them and dined with the brothers before, that was back in my own home. I saw Feyre and her family and I felt like something was attacking me. Meeting her in-laws was not how I ever expected it to be but when I saw Feyre walking towards me, I realised that I did not recognise her at all. Where the hell was my sister and who was this woman?

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babydollmarauders · 1 year

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can we have jacky having skin time with baby el?

throwing it back to el’s birth for this one!

exhaustion plagued me as i watch my newborn sleep in the hospital bassinet. Jack wanders the halls to try and find a vending machine to get me a quick snack before i finally take a nap.

ten hours of labor, approximately two hours of pushing, and she’s finally here. it’s only been about forty-five minutes since she made her arrival, but after not sleeping for twelve hours, i need a nap. she just finished feeding for the first time, so the nurse said now would be the best time to sleep.

“they didn’t really have many options, but i got you some chips and a twix. i figured i can have Luke stop and grab you something substantial when he comes by when you wake up.” Jack announces, stalking back into the room. “any suggestions?”

i shake my head, my eyes never leaving our baby.

“i’m not picky.” i tell him.

“well, we both know that’s not true. but okay.” Jack jokes, coming to stand beside the bassinet. “oh puck, how long has it been?”

i giggle at his new creative way of not cussing around the baby. i’ve tried telling him once already that she doesn’t understand cuss words yet, so it’s okay to wait to avoid cussing until she starts talking, but he claims he has to adjust himself to the new vocabulary.

“forty-seven minutes.” i tell him, glancing at the clock.

“alright.” he responds, walking over to the open hospital room door and shutting it before stripping off his shirt.

“what are you doing?” i question, watching as he picks up the baby and sits on the small couch in our private room.

“skin-to-skin.” he tells me, his voice soft as he moves her blanket so that her bare body is pressed against his top-less chest.

“it’s recommended to start it within the first hour after the birth. research shows that the first hour is the most crucial for maximizing bonding experience between the parent and child through skin-to-skin contact.” he explains.

i nod along, listening to him speak.

“you got it with her when they handed her to you after they dried her off. and when you were feeding her, i guess, technically.” he continues. “but i still need to do mine. i should hold her for about an hour, but probably no more than that because unlike your breast tissue-”

i scrunch my nose at the term ‘breast tissue’, making Jack chuckle.

“-which can cool down or heat the baby’s temperature. men’s breast tissue only heats her. which means if i do it for too long, she can overheat. it’s a fickle thing.”

“where did you learn all this?” i ask.

“parenting books.” Jack responds, his eyes already having left me in order to gaze down at our daughter as she lays upon his chest.

my eyes soften, my heart beating rapidly at the knowledge of how much research he did. i thought we read the same couple books, but i guess he read a few more than i did.

“i love you.” i tell him, my tone laced with adoration, making him smile at me.

“i love you too, sweet girl.” he blows me a kiss. “now eat, and get some rest. my parents get here in about two hours.”

i nod, opening my chips and snacking as i watch my husband hold our baby to his chest. every couple minutes i catch him whispering to her, random reassurances that he loves her and will always protect her, which makes my heart skip a beat.

#el!hughes au #jack hughes x reader #ask faithlynn ✨

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rebuilding-the-garg · 1 year

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The Gargantuan Fossil

This post was from the beginning of my project, thus some information I’ve written here is outdated. Please read my recent posts to see up to date information.

The Gargantuan Fossil is one of the most recognizable parts of the mid-portion of Subnautica’s gameplay. Its sheer size strikes both terror and awe into the hearts of players who stumble upon it. It’s unfortunate that only a third of the creature’s fossilized remains can be seen. Even using the Freecam command to check under the map reveals that the rest of the skeleton remains unmodeled. This is all we have of the Leviathan.

“Gargantuan Fossil” is quite the accurate name, considering just a third of this creature’s skeleton measures 402 meters in length, with the creature’s total size being an estimated 1,100-1,500 meters. Just the skull itself is under 100 meters, and our human player character can nestle comfortably in even its smallest eye socket. I would’ve tried to show our human character’s model for a size comparison, but this thing is so large you wouldn’t even be able to see him.

There have been many different reconstructions of this behemoth of a fossil, the most popular being this commission piece made by Tapwing, for the YouTuber Anthomnia, shown below. And while it’s cool, it’s... not all that accurate.

In the past, I actually helped create a Gargantuan Leviathan mod based off Tapwing’s concept, working alongside other incredibly talented artists (who will remain anonymous, they can talk about their experiences as they please) and some... not so savory individuals. I don’t want to be associated with that old Garg. This reconstruction project is both a way for me to move on and make something better than what I had in the past, and to test my skills and knowledge in the various natural sciences.

Although there is a second specimen, the skull of a younger instance, this fossil holds no significant data outside of showing just how small these creatures start out as. As shown in the image below, despite being a much younger instance, our player character could still fit inside the Leviathan’s smallest eye socket, although it wouldn’t be as spacious as its adult counterpart.

The game’s PDA (Personal Data Assistant) states that the Gargantuan Fossil is approximately 3 million years old, which is INCREDIBLY RECENT. For reference, 3 million years ago we still shared the planet with multiple other hominid species like Australopithecus afarensis back in the mid Pliocene. The Subnautica we know today is a byproduct of a mass-extinction of megafauna, such as Leviathans. My guess as to how the Gargantuan got this big is a combination of deep-sea gigantism and an evolutionary arms race against the other megafauna alive during its time, with prey attempting to become larger than its predator to avoid predation, and the predator growing to continue this cycle. When this ancient ecosystem of leviathan-class super predators collapsed, likely because of the meteor that struck Planet 4546B, the Gargantuan Leviathan was out of a substantial food source and went extinct. It could be possible that these creatures even gave live birth due to their serpentine body and massive size, making them too large for life in the shallows, where laying eggs is easiest.

NOW. LET’S TALK ABOUT THE BONES!! It’s important to figure out if the Gargantuan Leviathan had a cartilaginous skeleton or a bony one, so let’s count the bones!!

There’s TWO WHOLE BONES!!! AND IF YOU LOOK NEXT TO IT!! THOSE RIBS ARE BONES TOO!!!! UWAA!!! SO MANY BONES!!!! How can we tell this is bones? It’s simple! Cartilage is rubbery and flexible, so it doesn't fossilize well, while bone is hard and rigid, perfect fossil material!! Cartilaginous skulls also tend to be made up of many little interlocking bones, with bony skulls being made up of only a small handful!

Another thing I found interesting about the Gargantuan Skull is that it seems to have a ball and socket joint? This could have just been a similar mishap to the top and bottom jaws being fused in the skull’s model, but I’m trying to keep things as close to the original anatomy as possible. The ball and socket joint probably evolved to help with the burden of such a massive and heavy skull and allowing for greater speed and range of motion. In a world full of Leviathan-class predators, being able to have a wide range of motion would be extremely beneficial in locating both potential predators and prey.

Despite its immense size pushing the claim this Leviathan was an apex predator, it sports a small pair of horns, which is unheard of in large apex predators here on Earth. The darker coloration leads me to believe that these aren’t just horn cores, but the entire horn. These horns were most likely used to assist in defending itself against predators while it’s still small and vulnerable. It could also be a possibility they were used for threat displays and territory fights though it seems unlikely due to their small size. Sexual displays are also unlikely since just about every creature in Subnautica seems capable of asexual reproduction, as noted in the PDA entry for eggs. Asexual reproduction seems to be a very ancient basal trait in Planet 4546B’s evolutionary lineage and was most likely evolved to help species persevere even with low numbers and harsh conditions, preventing the dangers of inbreeding.

Overall, the skull’s shape and tooth structure suggest a piscivorous diet (of course it eats fish, the planet’s 99% water), and its shape specifically is reminiscent of an Orca and Redondasaurus. The lack of nostrils stumps me, there’s no openings in the skull aside from its eye sockets, however there’s also no evidence for a gill apparatus. I’m... going to have to come back to that at a later date. Though I personally believe the Gargantuan Leviathan was an air breather due to the lack of evidence for gills.

OKOK, ENOUGH ABOUT THE SKULL ASRIEL, WHAT ABOUT THE RIBS?

WELL... THE RIBS ARE... SOMETHING.

Behold! My very poor photomash of the same two images to show the total approximate length of the Gargantuan Leviathan, and a bad edit to show off what I believe the whole skeletal system would look like! (skeleton image credit)

Despite the game’s PDA describing the Gargantuan Leviathan’s body as “eel-like,” its skeletal structure is more reminiscent of a snake. The ribs show no indication of limbs, so it probably had a dorsal fin similar to eels or sea kraits.

One thing I’ve noticed about the Gargantuan’s ribcage is the existence of what appear to be bony, avian-like uncinate processes, which help the trunk’s muscles pump in and air out of the body, adding onto the idea that this leviathan breathed air. These uncinate processes in diving birds are especially long, which help reinforce the body and musculature, allowing the animal to stay underwater for longer periods of time.

My hypothesis for the role the Gargantuan Leviathan played in its ecosystem is similar to the Sperm Whales of our world, taking in large amounts of air before diving into the depths to fetch their food.

Next week, I’ll be doing more research into the skeleton and possibly beginning work on fleshing the Garg out! If there are any sciencey folks out on Tumblr who want to add their own input, feel free!! I want information!! Correct me if I got anything wrong!!

#long post #VERY long post #speculative biology #speculative paleobiology #paleontology #marine biology #fictional biology #subnautica #character analysis #monster biology #leviathan #gargantuan leviathan #essay

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awokennerd · 1 year

Text

Cloudstrider Monuments

Okay, i was gonna write this a while ago but never did. So, my boyfriend and I were hanging out in the Hall of Heroes after we finished the Strider exotic quest. My bf realized it there seemed to be way too many monuments around the room, considering the few things we knew off hand:

The collapse was 1600 years ago. We know this tidbit from Petra Venj. In the lore entry "Refusal" from Forsaken, there is this line: "She [Petra] bites back the rest: how she wishes that back in two-thousand-and-whatever, when the Darkness hurled mankind off the height of its Golden Age to plummet sixteen centuries into barbarism, it had done just a slightly better job." So we know that Neomuna have been around for approximately 1600 years.

Cloudstriders live 10 years, due to the augmentations they go through.

There are only ever two cloudstriders at once.

Alright, with this knowledge, we decided to count up all the monuments in the room and around it, which gave us 480 monuments. This number might not be entirely accurate, but it gives us a good estimate. Now let's divide this by two (since there are two cloudstriders at once) and we are down to 240. If this is multiplied by 10 (for the max amount of years a cloudstrider could live) we get 2400 years.

2400 years of Cloudstriders. Now, obviously this doesn't take into account that cloudstriders can die on duty (like Rohan), but it seems that the Neomuni live in relative peace besides occasionally dealing with the Vex. This also doesn't take into account the early days of Neomuna. We don't know how many cloudstriders there are at once originally, but it seems like there have never been many. We also don't really know how new/old of a concept cloudstriders are. Was Strider, the first cloudstrider, around 1600 years ago or more recently? So yeah, if we think cloudstriders have been around for 1600 years and you minus 1600 from 2400, that's still a good 800 years. It seems weird that there would be that many Cloudstriders. But who knows.

Honestly, my bf and I probably just over analyzed the Hall of Heroes after we got done roasting Quinn for being a bad archivist and having none of this important archival material to Neomuna's history backed up. So take this all with a grain of salt. Except for the 1600 years detail. I think a lot of people don't realize that D2 takes place in at least 3600 CE (and it's probably a lot later than that cause of we don't know how long the golden age was).

#The destiny timeline is a mess #destiny lightfall #Neomuna #Destiny lore #Cloudstriders #Rohan #Nimbus #Strider #Destiny #Destiny 2 #D2 #Destiny the game

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ckret2 · 4 months

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i wish to know about how you characterize amorphous shape. amorphous needs more attention. (same with the other henchmaniacs without lines, but i prefer focusing on the character my brain has decided i am.)

I characterize them as approximately 14~19 separate individual shapes from Bill's home dimension that got combined together into one hive mind. That's why I refer to Morph as "they"—I'm not using "they" as a gender-neutral pronoun, I'm using it as a plural pronoun, they are literally multiple people.

How they got combined into one body will get explored later in the fic so I'm not gonna spoil it; but it happened during the destruction of the second dimension.

The polygon parts of them weren't all squares to start out with, but after a trillion years they found that most of the time it's easier for them to simplify themselves into a form that tessellates tidily. They can shapeshift and separate though, so they can return to their original shapes when they want, like:

(that's not literally the exact shapes they were, just concept art of what changing to their original shapes would look like.)

They're Bill's top scientists. Also, his only scientists. Not all of them were scientists, but when you've shared brains for a trillion years, you pick up each other's knowledge, and anyway over a dozen minds working on the same problem at the same time makes brainstorming faster. They're to blame for the interdimensional portal.

Any time Bill attempts to conquer a new dimension, he's gotta try to persuade the people inside that dimension to make him a portal; and in order to do that, he's got to pass those people portal blueprints; and in order to do that, he needs portal blueprints that both, a) work correctly in the physics of the dimension he's contacting, and b) can be built using the technology, natural resources, and construction techniques available to the natives. He wouldn't send portal blueprints that only work correctly with linear forward-moving time to the do-over dimension where spontaneous time loops randomly form, and he wouldn't send a design that can only be powered by nuclear fission to a culture that's barely discovered coal.

For a long time, Amorphous Shape were the guys Bill turned to for all those portal blueprint modifications. Any time he found a promising new dimension with a sufficiently gullible-looking species, he'd go in with Amorphous Shape so they could study local physics and technology and adapt the blueprints to fit local conditions.

By now, Bill & company have made SO many blueprints for SO many universes with SO many kinds of technology that when they find a new universe, they can typically tweak a design they already made rather than start from scratch; and Bill's been studying the blueprints for so long that now he thoroughly understands the science behind them and can draft & modify them himself, so he doesn't need Morph's help so much. He mainly consults with them to double-check the math before tossing the blueprints at a dreamer or to assist on really strange cases like that one dimension with a form of physics based entirely on the letter M.

Right now, Morph's bigger long-term scientific concern is the slow degradation of the Nightmare Realm and finding ways to help Bill shore up the crumbling reality; and implementing emergency quick fixes whenever something small falls apart, like a black hole threatening to destabilize the fabric of reality around several nebulas or knots tangling in wormholes because the ends are fraying.

If Bill is like the self-appointed god of the Nightmare Realm, Morph are something in between a demigod and a high priest: they don't have any reality-altering power themselves, but they do understand and influence reality far beyond any mere mortal and their petitions to the god to do this or fix that keeps local reality functioning.

Talking to them is like talking to a committee or a mob. Most of the things they say are collectively agreed-upon by the members of the hive mind, and so tend to have the careful precision of a department issuing a public statement rather than a regular conversation; but when something happens to get a majority of them mad, they get mad together and egg on each other's anger, and tend to immediately snap into confrontation rather than sit back until they calm down

They don't have a lot of hobbies they all share, so they tend to dabble in and drop a wide variety of hobbies rather than get really deeply invested in any. More likely to spend their spare time seeing what the other Henchmaniacs are doing and tag along on that than try to decide what to do on their own. Bad habit of just going back to work when they're bored since at least they can all agree that's productive.

They haven't gone on a date in billions of years and are not happy about this. They don't even have all the same sexualities, much less the same types. They need to go on a date with like a minimum four people simultaneously to balance out the fact that they'll be variously attracted to/repelled by any one singular date. Finding four people who cover their separate tastes and are all willing to go on a single date with "the same person" is pretty hard, especially when you're workaholics living with the most hated person in the multiverse and don't get out much.

Zealously, desperately loyal to Bill. They've spent a trillion years telling themselves that Bill's gonna rescue his devotees from the Nightmare Realm and claim a new dimension for them. By now it's become easier to pretend he's a flawlessly honest leader who'd never lie to them (unless he has a very good reason) than to grapple with his massive failings as a person and consider that maybe they made a mistake older than universes in following him. Any time one of their components starts to mentally doubt one of Bill's decisions, they're shouted back into conformity by the rest who are ready to offer justifications and explanations for anything he does. Can't do deep thinking on a difficult topic if you don't even have privacy in your own head.

If Bill ever wants to screw with them he can say "Morph, you're four of my best friends" and leave them going crazy trying to figure out which of their components he likes and why he doesn't like the rest. But Bill doesn't mess with the shapes much. Only if it's, like, really funny.

There used to be more surviving shapes in Bill's social circle, but over the eons they left one by one, until now it's just down to Morph, Kryptos, Hectorgon, and Bill; each time the shapes lost another member, it became harder for the remainders to consider leaving. Morph are no more capable of contemplating lives without Bill, Kryptos, and Hectorgon than you are of contemplating a life without bones. The feeling is mutual all around.

The rest of the Henchmaniacs could get fucked as far as they care.

#cipherdragon #amorphous shape #headcanons #gravity falls #about my writing #bill goldilocks cipher #ask #my art

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morimonchi · 3 months

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I made a list of all Real and AI characters in Duel Links so far! (with some of my own theories too)

So, one day I decided to take the time to investigate/study the lore of Duel Links because the voices in my head won’t shut up, is not an easy task since not many people archived that much info of the events and lore of this game until recent years. So, with the help of talking with some people online, the insane and cool people of Tumblr obsessed with this game and its lore as much as I am, and me playing the game myself and seeing the event and making my own theories, I ended up with this list! Warning: is a very long wall of text.

(shoutout to @cyberdragoninfinity and @fortuneangel on Tumblr, they are very cool and obsessed with the Duel Links lore which is based and their posts helped me out a lot, I even copy-pasted from some of Cyberdragoninfinity’s lore posts and Fortuneangel's own list because turns out they made a list of this stuff too, very good for me it made my job easier, although it would've been cool to find out about that earlier and not after I finished my initial list that took like 2-3 days to make lol)

Ever since the game first came out, the clues where always there that the Legendary Duelists and NPC duelists were all AI made by Seto "mentally unstable" Kaiba, which is kinda fucked up to begin with.

However, they are pretty bland and boring AI, since Kaiba probably only had second hand knowledge of some of the Duelist or he meet them but doesn't know them on a deeper level to make a good copy of them (heck some of them he didn't even meet at all). It’s all stuff Kaiba either heard about secondhand, or was physically present for to see in some way. He made the best approximation he could, on his own, but they’re just that: approximations.

however, starting from a certain event, things got weird: The Yami Bakura Event.

Easy best example is the first ever event character, Yami Bakura. A fascinating character in Duel Links lore, simply because he's the first Self Aware AI! So now, all character after the Yami Bakura Event aren't basic AI copies like the ones before, but instead AI SOUL copies (that's how I call them at least, but I'll be saying AI copies here for easier understanding/reading).

Meaning that they are copies made by the Kaiba's soul printer machine (insert crazy explanation of what the heck that is supposed to be) that uses the memories of the people connected to Duel Links in order create the DL world and the new AI copies in it.

suddenly characters felt way more alive and "real", even evolving pass their latest character developments from the manga/anime somehow? (and yes, the DM world is based heavily on the mangaverse! but somehow the characters have memories from the anime events).

However, not all characters moving forward are AI copies, some are the actual Real-Life characters, so I will only talk about the Real Life and AI characters that are self-aware to some degree, and some AI that I think might be unaware-

If I don't mention a character is because they’re probably 100% AI copy with zero awareness of what's going on in this Cosmic Horror Trading Card Mobile Game.

DM WORLD

All other DM characters before Yami Bakura are normal old AI copies, they were made by Kaiba himself so that's why they kinda bad, specially Yami Yugi being the first one to be made, making it the blandest AI of all and not like the real Yami Yugi at all.

So, starting from the original anomaly we have:

-Yami Bakura: the first self-aware character AI copy, 100% fully aware of it and even comments on it.

-Yami Marik: AI copy, iirc I think he’s fully aware of it too? He’s just here to have a good (violent) time. (EDIT: Fortuneangel on Tumblr was informed he’s fully aware of it, so yea, he’s an AI 100% self-aware).

-Pegasus: AI copy of mangaverse!Pegasus specifically; not only is he fully aware of that, he’s also aware of the multiverse inhabiting DL AND the fact that he’s dead! Fun!!!

-Ishizu: she’s a weird case I just got reminded by the fact that she like. can tell something is Amiss and wonders why she’s still wearing the necklace. So, she’s like an AI clone of post Battle City Ishizu being kind of forced to play out the role of mid-canon BC Ishizu, and she’s not fully aware of the details. ok cool Kaiba!!!!!

Now funny thing with Pegasus, when the Thousand Illusion structured deck was released, you can actually go check it and the text in front of it says:

"I'd like you to meet my key monster! Thousand-Eyes Restrict!"

so yea for this one Structured deck I think Pegasus pretty much told Kaiba "stfu this are MY monsters and I WILL present them!" which is very cool and epic and go Pegasus slay.

DSOD WORLD

Now here is where we have the man himself, not the DM one, but the DSOD one:

-DSOD, Seto "In need of goddamn therapy" Kaiba: who is 100% the real Seto Kaiba, playtesting and all that stuff. He's here doing crazy people stuff and playing God. I’m pretty sure DM Kaiba was only an avatar unlike this one, who is the real deal.

-DSOD, Mokuma: is also real and helping his brother with his ego projects and digital world domination or whatever the heck Duel Links is supposed to be.

-DSOD, Yugi Muto: is probably the only real Yugi Muto in the game, and is very sad when he duels AI Yami Yugi and I want to hug my boy Yugi pls.

Ok then, unlike the clear as day old and new AI copies of DM world, I'm pretty sure all the members of the DSOD world are the real-life characters themselves who actually got into Duel Links somehow (this is based on Joey's unlock event and the dialogue where he says that some KaibaCorp employee put a VR device on his head, I wonder if that happened to everyone else in DSOD World?).

Well, everyone except maybe that ugly humpty dumpty looking ahh dude, Scud is probably AI. Reason being he freaking died in the movie and we never see him come back, so I just assume he stayed dead and this is some AI error or smth, the game does say something about an error in the system when you get the Scud unlock available.

GX WORLD

Ok so, at first, I didn't think any of the GX would be the real versions other than Jaden/Yubel, but after some research I found info that makes it seem likely that Dr. Crowler of all people might be at least 1 of the real ones, this is because in his event he says something along the lines of “…Unbelievable! There are so many Duel Academy students here! WHEN THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO BE IN CLASS! If they stop showing up to my class, Duel Academy will cut my salary...”.

There’s also another dialogue with Jaden where Dr. Crowler says he’s on vacation so, we can be sure that AT LEAST Dr. Crowler is a real person, and that he got into Duel Links on his own.

And again, I found this info of Dr. Crowler and I’m like “ok so is just this two people, Jaden/Yubel and Dr. Crowler, cool” but then I found new info and…

THE CHAZZ

Yeah, Manjoume Thunder of all people is ALSO probably the real deal, the one and only, The Chazz himself. And that is only because of the “friends” he brings with him, Ojamas Yellow, Green, and Black wouldn’t be there if Manjoume was an AI, and even if they were they wouldn’t Leak Yubel's Event like Yellow did. I didn’t know this info before so thanks @ask-maxie-boy on Tumblr, owner of the one and only @incorrectduellinksquotes.

Then the list we have is:

-Professor Crowler: the one and only character I can say for sure is (maybe) real, like 90% probability of being real. If not, then I was lied to, backstabbed and quite possibly, bamboozled.

-The Chazz: another one with hard evidence to be the real thing, proving his humanity thanks to Ojama Yellow. truly only the best for The Chazz.

-Jaden/Yubel: is probably real? like at least he's aware of the AI copies and stuff, he knows about AND can see the other 2 Jadens and the one Yubel in the game, it should be clear as day for him.

-Supreme King Jaden, Yubel and Satorius: These are AI copies for sure but I don't know if they are aware of it.

-Jim Cook: He’s suspicious of Duel Links during his Character Unlock Event iirc, not sure if he's the real one or an AI.

And everyone else in GX is a mystery! I can’t say for sure if they are AI or not and don’t have enough clues to make a strong argument for neither of the two options.

5D'S WORLD

-Team 5D’s: WELL OK I WOULDA SAID THEYRE AI BEFORE BUT THIS LAST CHARACTER EVENT (Z-one) MAY BE IMPLYING THEY (yusei, jack, crow, akiza, and the twins) ARE ALL THE REAL DEAL SO. THAT’S AN INTERESTING TWIST IF SO!!! (Fortuneangel on Tumblr said calmly). Yeah, I agree with this information.

-Bruno/Antinomy: 10000000% AI copy, is actually fully aware he’s just some code on a hard drive and has commented on it!

Not sure if he knows he's dead but knowing Bruno, he probably knows that.

-Kiryu: OK, hear me out, this one? I'm not really sure if he's real to be honest, BUT, during Z-one's event he had such a cool interaction with Z-one that I think he's a "post-canon" version of Kiryu????

which is very freaking cool and not something that I could say is AI. But again, is my personal theory that this Kiryu is THE real Kiryu, however, I could be wrong.

-Paradox: aware of his own dead, Pegasus dead, the Illiaster's deaths, the multiverse and that he is probably an AI copy (thanks for that Pegasus, very cool).

-Z-one: Aware of being dead and all that, not sure if he knows he's an AI? probably knows, if anything Bruno might've told him

-Aporia: indeed, all Illiaster are self-aware of being dead, yippieeee!!!

-Primo: AI copy 100% for sure like no doubt and probably unaware of it, a sad creature (also, during Z-one's event, he had a realistic depiction of a panic attack).

For the rest of the 5D's cast, I have no idea but I think they are AI? say some of them like the Dark Signers are definitely AI, no doubt, but I’m not sure about the others.

But then we have someone like Tetsu Trudge… Who I have no fucking idea what's the deal with him. Is he a copy of first season Trudge, the one with no character development? or is he the real one? He can’t be the real one, he’s a mean dude again! I really have no idea about him and it annoys me. I’m going to say he’s AI.

ZEXAL WORLD

Ok so, I have no idea what's going on with Zexal, I think almost everyone is AI? but like, I'm not sure? You see, events in GX and 5Ds are just repetitions of sorts, and everyone seems aware of it and having Deja Vus, that’s why I believe that al least some people in GX and 5D’s are real. On the other hand, we have Zexal which is also repeating itself, but no one is going "Hey didn't this happen already?", which is very odd and makes me believe they are all AI in there, and both Arc-V and Vrains are continuations of the original stories.

however, we do have one group of people in Zexal that might be relevant:

-The Arclight Family (III, IV and V): probably the only real persons in Zexal, or at least, the only ones we know might/could be real.

during III's event, III decides to study duel links and find out what it is, why events are happening again, what the heck is a KaibaCorp, etc.

also has the theory that Duel Links is a Chronomaly of some kind, because you know, is III of course it's a Chronomaly he thinks about, but he’s theory has some merit I’ll give him that.

Now V... I forgot V's event, sorry, but he's aware too.

IV on the other hand, is also aware, but not because he figured it out or something, III pretty much just told him lol. Doesn't seem to care too much he's just vibing in DL. Of course, he's helping his brother when needed, but he seems chill about it.

ARC-V WORLD

I have no idea who is real or not. We know the events in Arc-V World are a continuation of the end of the anime, so that’s at least a good sign but…

Declan and Shay, Yuya, Sora the bracelet girls, all seem to be aware that something isn’t right here, but to say they are fully aware of what's going on I can't say. So even with the self-awareness, they are most likely AI, all of them.

They at least know the whole "Memories brings people" and are investigating what's going on with that which is cool.

I can say Yuto is most likely AI, same goes for Yugo and Serena. But they don't seem aware of it and think they separated from Yuya/Yuzu somehow instead.

The only one I trust might be able to figure something is Reiji, because is Akaba fucking Reiji.

VRAINS WORLD

FINALLY, A WORLD WERE NOBODY IS AN AI COPY (I mean, there's Ai, who is obviously and AI but like, you get what I mean lol)

So yeah, Vrains World is pretty much just a sequel to the anime so everyone here is not only the real ones, but also the only characters that are aware that the other worlds exist (aside from like, Yugi, Jaden and Yusei because you know, Paradox’s Event and Bonds Beyond Time, but they only know each other’s worlds/eras so they don’t really count).

This is because in the Ghost Gal event they reach the limits of Duel Links and get to see the other Worlds (DM, GX, 5D’s, Zexal, Arc-V and even Sevens!)

So yea the VRAINS cast in DL effectively becoming horror movie protagonists wasn't on my bingo board but I'm totally in for this.

All of this happening in a free trading card mobile game… thanks Konami you epic.

SEVENS WORLD

Yeah no, they’re all AI SOUL copies let's be real here, maybe Yuga in a future event will do the classic Yuga thing and be like "Oh, I already knew we are AI and that this world is a fake recreation of ours, is the first thing I checked when I got here" or something. And I have hopes in Nail to be cool and epic and figure out the situation but for now the Sevens group knows nothing (except maybe Yuga, because is Yuga).

Now that’s all the characters we have available for now, once we get some new events and relevant information and lore, I will update this list to see if we can add someone else new or an older character that we didn’t know was aware this whole time! This was a fun thing to write, I hope I managed to explain it all correctly and that is easy to understand, if anyone has some information that they would like to share feel free to ask! Again, I want to say thank you to @Cyberdragoninfinity and @Fortuneangel from Tumblr for being so cool and having so much info on Duel Links lore available and for sharing with everyone, now I’ll see you all next time Konami decides to hit us with a sledgehammer of info out of nowhere in a Tag Duel Tournament or something, byeeeeeee!!!

#yea seems like i got a lot to say huh?#yugioh duel links #yugioh #duel links #duel links madness #so this what having a brainrot feels like #why is the lore of a free mobile game so deep wth Konami #keep doing it tho #it's very cool and epic #thanks to #cyberdragoninfinity #Fortuneangel #for the help and info

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darkangel1791 · 1 year

Text

Because many of you answered in the poll that I should keep the disclaimer with the fic for the sake of historical preservation, I thought you might like to see this. It's about when Anne Rice Fanfic was taken off off the net.

In 2000, when the cease and desist letters were sent out by Anne Rice's lawyers, we were ordered to remove all fanfiction based on her characters from the internet immediately or we would be sued. A lot of pretty terrible things had already happened to some fanfic authors, so we all took them down. Where our sites used to be, many of us put this image.

It linked to a site which said this-

***********************

WHERE CAN I READ FANFICTION BASED ON ANNE RICE'S BOOKS?

Nowhere. You can't. On April 7, 2000 Anne Rice had the following message to say on her webpage:

"I do not allow fan fiction.

The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters. I advise my readers to write your own original stories with your own characters.

It is absolutely essential that you respect my wishes."

This statement was then followed up by attacks on Anne Rice fanfic authors. The attacks consisted of, amongst other things, e-mailed threats regarding not only the writing of fanfiction but any writing that any fanfic author attempted to engage in (regardless of who owned the copyright), attacks on businesses that the fanfic authors owned and weeks of harassing personal letters sent to fanfic author's e-mail addresses and guestbooks. Personal information about fanfic authors was also dug up by Anne Rice employees and used as part of the harassment. Suffice it to say, Anne Rice made her displeasure clear.

SO WHAT HAPPENED?

Unable to defend themselves against these attacks, the fanfic authors responded by going into hiding.

BUT DOESN'T ANNE RICE HAVE THE LEGAL RIGHT TO TELL THEM TO STOP? WHY DIDN'T THEY JUST STOP WRITING AND LEAVE IT AT THAT?

Yes she does. However this was not an issue of Anne Rice asking the fanfic writers to stop. If that had been the case there would have been no problem. The problem was that she was not asking or even telling, she was using the excuse of fanfic to cyber-stalk and harass the fanfic authors, even after said authors removed the illegal fanfic from their sites. Not having the money or legal resources to defend themselves against this, hiding was the only option left.

COULDN'T THE FANFIC AUTHORS JUST TRY BEING NICE TO ANNE? MAYBE SHE WOULD HAVE AGREED IF THEY HAD ASKED POLITELY.

The fanfic authors were nice to Anne. When Anne Rice fanfiction started Anne's publisher was aware of it (even going so far as to link Anne's offical Random House website to many of the fanfic-oriented sites) and quietly let it be known that there was a "don't ask, don't tell" policy in effect regarding it - as long as the fanfic authors didn't shove the fanfic in Anne's face, The Powers That Be could pretend that it didn't exist. In addition to this the early fanfic authors spent months researching the legalities surrounding fanfic and asking questions of other fandoms to see how they respected copyright law in their fanfic writing. This knowledge was then used to create a disclaimer system to make sure it was understood that at no time did the fanfic authors intend to infringe upon Anne's legal rights.

This system of mutual respect lasted for approximately five years. After five years Anne Rice abruptly changed her mind and let the fanfic authors know it by way of her lawyers. Fanfiction is now considered unacceptable by Anne.

WHAT ABOUT DISCLAIMERS? DON'T THOSE WORK IN OTHER FANDOMS?

For years a disclaimer was used in front of all Anne Rice fanfics which mirrored the disclaimers successfully used by other fandoms, namely one which pointed out that the fanfic in question was a "non-profit, amateur effort not intended to infringe on the rights of Anne Rice or any other copyright holder." While this disclaimer has worked well in other fandoms, Anne Rice considers it unacceptable. According to Christine Cuddy, Anne's lawyer "Even when done on a non-profit and/or amateur basis, such use of [Anne's] characters without Ms. Rice's permission constitutes copyright infringement."

DID SOMEBODY TRY MAKING MONEY USING ANNE RICE FANFICTION? WAS THAT WHAT CAUSED THE PROBLEM?

No. At no time did any fanfic author make money using Anne Rice fanfiction in any way, non-profit or otherwise. The only times that money changed hands were when fanfic authors and fans bought Anne's own books.

WHAT IF I WANT TO WRITE ANNE RICE FANFICTION?

Are you sure? Know what you're getting into. The threat of personal harassment is very real. Anne Rice does not want you writing fanfiction and she has the money to make you stop. Do you really want to try this?

WHAT IF I HAVE ALREADY WRITTEN A STORY AND WANT TO SHARE IT WITH OTHERS?

Don't. Not if you truly want to obey Anne's wishes. That's really all that needs to be said there. However, if you absolutely have to write a fanfic story and have to show it to somebody else via the Internet (which is, again, a violation of Anne's wishes) then doing the following may be of help. Bear in mind that this is not being offered to you as a guarantee or as any kind of legal advice. You could do all of this and still get sued. These are simply suggestions which may help you avoid being harassed:

Do not put the story up on a webpage. Share the story with others in e-mail, such as on a private mailing list.

Do not attach your real name to the story. Use a pen name instead.

Do not use the e-mail address provided by your ISP when sending out the story. Instead create an anonymous account for yourself with Hotmail, Yahoo or any other web-based provider and do not include your actual name and address when filling out the forms for that account.

If you have to put the story up on a web page do not use the webpage that came with your ISP account. Get a webpage from a free server such as Geocities, NBCI or Angelfire.

If you have put the story on a webpage do not link to the story from elsewhere on your website.

If you have put the story on a webpage do not submit that webpage to any search engines, webrings, link exchanges or other public forum.

Do not attach any personal information to the story, your email or your website in any way. This includes your real name, the name of your ISP, your home address, where you go to school/work or anything else that could be used to trace the story back to you. Likewise do not include any information about whether or not you are or were in the ARVLFC, as it is possible for them to trace your personal information through there as well.

Obviously at no time should you show or send the story to Anne herself or anyone who works for her.

Again doing all of the above is a violation of Anne's wishes. If you are writing fanfiction based on Anne Rice's books then you are disobeying her orders. Period.

I'M NOT A FANFIC AUTHOR BUT I DO ENJOY READING IT. IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO?

Given the sheer volume of Anne Rice fanfiction that has been written (and, as the above question shows, that people are perhaps continuing to write) it is obviously false to say that all Anne Rice based fanfic has disappeared off of the world wide web. Undoubtedly some of it still exists out there in some form or another. If you manage to find some there's nobody out there who can stop you from reading it and enjoying it. However at no time should you take what stories you find and put them up on your own webpage or even link to the webpages that you find without that author's permission. Making Anne Rice fanfiction available from your website via copying or linking to the story will get you into trouble - not just from Anne but from the author as well. Don't do it.

HOW DO I FIND THE STORIES THAT ARE STILL OUT THERE?

We don't know. And we certainly couldn't tell you if we did.

QUOTES OF NOTE

"I suppose the character is public ground. If you're willing to bring it into people's houses every week, the [fans] are entitled to certain liberties, where ever their imagination is carried by those characters."

--Paul Gross, aka Ben Fraser and Executive Producer of Due South, quoted in the Toronto Globe & Mail, Augst 8, 1998

"I am flattered and grateful for this outpouring of support, admiration and recognition. I am moved to tears actually at how my performance has moved so many others. The websites are magnificent. All the photos, artwork, chats, fiction and videos are really great. I honestly never thought I would create such a stir but I feel absolutely blessed that I have."

--Scott Cohen, aka "Wolf" from The 10th Kingdom in a letter to http://www.wolfpackclub.8m.com/letter.html. Spring 2000.

"I've read some of it... I find it very flattering that people love the characters that much."

- J.K. Rowling on Harry Potter fanfiction that can be found via the Internet. Fall 2000

*****************

I believe this was posted on October 4th, 2000, which is Louis' birthday, and also Anne's.

I believe I know who wrote it, but I am not positive, and even 23 years later, I am not going to expose them to any possible danger. It may be improbable, but never impossible.

So this is our history. This is what happened. And do please remember that J.K. Rowling was thought to be a perfectly decent person in the year 2000.

This isn't meant to spread any animosity now. It is just a look at history. I don't see how it belongs in AO3, but I want to put it somewhere before the Wayback Machine drops it.

ARVLFC = Anne Rice Vampire Lestat Fan Club

In 2012, Anne Rice kind of said fanfic of her characters was okay, but in 2014 she took it back.

With her death, I should think that only Christopher Rice would have the legal right, and possibly the money, to pursue this again, but so far he seems uninterested.

You may also want to read this article.

A Deep Dive into the Anne Rice Fanfiction Debacle by August T.

#anne rice #vampire chronicles #Anne Rice Fandom History #vampchron history #croatoan fanfic #where has Anne Rice fanfiction gone?

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nihil-nan · 1 month

Text

Worldless optional boss spoilers (with a lot of silliness) under the cut

--~--~--~--~--~--~--~--~--~--~--~--~--~--~

So, the path of determination? Yeah more like the path of pain part 2. We all had our share of agony going through that thing, but I had the (dis)pleasure of finishing the entire thing without the knowledge of Edda's ability to sprint up walls...

Why? Because I thought it could only be done from solid ground, no clue that it was possible after a wall jump..

BUT not all is bleak, because it made for a very incorrect- yet interesting- run of the path of determination~

I present to you: the path of derangement

Now some interesting commentary about this approach: (if you're interested)

1- As you can see, Edda's wall jump recharges Aven's double jump, which can be done back to the same wall where Edda can wall jump again, and rinse and repeat. Now the devs ensured that this method is going to be INCREDIBLY painful to execute: the black glitches are placed so closely to a lot of the walls you're supposed to sprint up that even the slightest mess up in timing/direction between dash-swap-jump-swap-dash is a death sentence.

Let's just say I've been trying this for so long the timing became second nature muscle memory for me..

2- Yes, you can skip a portion of the path of determination. At about a minute in I was able to skip this part like:

Blue for dash, orange for long jump, red for swap. With Aven a double jump will also get you a longer distance, although you'll have to be precise about where to jump off the wall (which I approximately outlined in purple) otherwise this won't work.

3- Learning to cope with no wall sprints was 60% of my path of determination learning journey. It was Difficult. I'll be honest I lost count of how many times I fell but I was stuck at this path for days..

4- I don't actually find it easy to complete the path normally... that really says something lol.

#worldless #worldless edda #worldless aven #tw spoilers #worldless game #worldless summum #worldless path of determination

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obsidiancreates · 5 months

Text

Recounting A Long-Expected, Never To Pass party

Part of the There and Back Again (Starting From The End) series

They're not even a day out from Erebor when, after a bit of somber silence at the knowledge of the quest ahead of them, Kili speaks up.

"So, Bilbo," he says. "Uncle tells us you knew two Hobbits who reminded you of us."

Bilbo chuckles merrily, puffing a pipe scrounged from the ruins even as he walks- they're not making much haste yet, still recovering from their journey to the mountain itself- they'd all been terribly pained to leave, but it couldn't be helped. Bilbo isn't sure if he can resist The Ring as Frodo did, and Gandalf agrees it's best to travel with a large band in case they are still yet hunted. Even with Azog gone, dangers roam the wildlands.

Even so, Bilbo drinks in this time with his long-ago companions, family, like a sapling tasting of rain for the first time in many long years among a desolate patch of land. "Going around telling all of my business, Thorin?" he teases.

"They'd asked about what you'd shared with me," Thorin says, a small quick of his lips showing he knew Bilbo's comment was in jest.

"Yes, I did know two hobbits quite like you boys," Bilbo says to Kili, and he hears Kili and Fili murmur to each other in excitement. "Steady now! You won't meet them for some time yet. But I have plenty of stories to share, if you like."

"I think we'd all enjoy a merry tale or two," Balin says, grimmer than the young princes. "We're not likely to see much merry ourselves on this journey."

"Exactly my thinking, Balin. Let's see, where to start... well, one of their grandest muck-abouts was at my own birthday, my hundred-eleventh near sixty years after returning home. Gandalf rode in for the party of course- we always kept a close friendship after the journey- and brought with him his magnificent fireworks."

"You make fireworks?" Bofur said in surprise, looking up at Gandalf.

"Indeed I do. They were the only thing Bilbo recalled about me when I came to his door."

"Yes, well, you brought many for my party, of course. I'd invited half the shire, and the other half had turned up anyway!" He let out a laugh. "And Merry and Pippin- nicknames spoken more often their their full names- they of course got themselves into a spot of trouble. They went and rifled through your cart, so I was told, and pulled out a firework in the visage of a dragon! I imagine you'd intended it as the party-ender show, and a treat for the children who adored my stories."

"You told hobbit children about this quest?" Dwalin looks at Bilbo skeptically.

"Oh, put away that look, Dwalin. I told them uh... approximations, of our journey. Close enough to inspire wonder and teach some valuable lessons, but changed a bit to add some fun. I made up a wonderful song for the incident with the spiders- ha! If only I'd thought of it in the moment and not years later." Bilbo smiles fondly as he talks, his pipe resting in the corner of his mouth and occasionally drawn and puffed from.

"You, singin' a song?" Nori snorts. "Can't imagine it."

"Hobbit sing often! I've come up with a good few myself, even along our quest. I just didn't find it entirely appropriate to sing them. But you're getting me off track! Merry and Pippin stole the dragon firework and lit it- inside one of the tents, Frodo told me they'd later discovered. Burnt and flung into the water by the flight. The dragon swooped down upon us all, and I remember- yes, I remember Frodo grabbing me and telling me there was a dragon, and I told him 'Nonsense! There hadn't been a dragon in these parts in a thousand years!' He pushed me to the ground as it flew overhead, and the whole of Hobbiton watched with baited breath as it flew away before bursting into showers of light! Quite a good show, we all thought, and I later saw the dirty faces of Merry and Pippin washing up the dishes as Gandalf smoked and watched."

Gandalf laughs now. "Perhaps this time around you'll get them to be better behaved."

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it," Bilbo ways with a glint in his eye. "I was just as bad by then."

"Got stuck with the sticky fingers, eh?" Nori grins approvingly.

"Not quite, Nori. But at the same party, oh I made it a night to truly remember. The memory is a bit soured now, knowing the nature of The Ring, but even so it's a good one."

"How did The Ring play into a party?" Ori is throughly confused between his two older brothers.

"Oh, I used it to get into all sorts of mischief over the years. In particular, I was prompted to go and give a speech as the party was reaching a natural high- and of course I'd planned to give one anyway. I got up on one of the ale barrels, and I remember exactly what I said, as I'd planned it for many weeks."

Bilbo clears his throat, and tries to adjust his voice to match his older tones more- a strange sensation to be sure.

"My dear Bagginses and Boffins, Tooks and Brandybucks! Grubbs, Chubbs, Hornblowers, Bolgers! Bracegirdles! And Proudfoots!"

He interrupts his own recreation to shakes his head. "Got that name wrong, but it drew a laugh from the crowd when he corrected me so it hardly ruined the event."

"That's a strange lot of names, laddie," Dwalin says.

"I could say the same about yours. All entirely respectable Hobbit families- well, depending upon who you ask. Now what came next... ah, yes."

"Today is my one-hundreth and eleventith birthday! But alas, eleventy-one years is far too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable hobbits. I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."

It draws some surprised barks of laughter from the company, including Gandalf, and Bilbo thinks it might bite the end right off of the pipe if he smiles any harder hearing the laughs of his dear friends- Thorin, Fili, and Kili most of all.

"The looks on their faces! They didn't grasp onto it very well, and the ones who did didn't appreciate it! But I knew it'd bring amusement somewhere, in some day."

"I'm going to use that whenever we have to start sitting in on Court Meetings," Kili snickers.

"You will do no such thing," Thorin warns.

"Let the boys have a bit of fun, Thorin," Bilbo chides. "Life is too short to not, even when it's longer than an age. Otherwise you may end up like Thranduil did- took many years of tense teatimes to soften him up, I tell you. Don't give me that look you lot, there's few others to talk with in those lands and by the time I awake back here I'd spoken to just about every elf many lifetimes over. Now, I went to say- I feigned a bit of nervousness here to sell it, and don't allow anyone to tell you otherwise, purely for show did I stumble on my words and I include them now to give the most accurate impression of the event-"

"I uh, I ha-have things to do. And here I reached into my pocket, and pulled out The Ring so that no-one saw it, and put my hands behind my back. And I went on to mutter a bit to myself- nasty habit I picked up on this very quest- and put my attention on Frodo."

"I regret, to announce, this, is the end. I'm going now. I bid you all a very fond farewell. Goodbye."

The company are all leaning in, enraptured- including Gandalf, though there's a worry to his expression not unlike when he'd heard the speech the first time around.

"And in front of the whole of Hobbiton, I vanished! There one moment, completely gone in the next! The crowd went into an uproar, of course, or as much of one as a party of well-drunk and fed hobbits can be. I raced back up to Bag End and didn't take The Ring off until I got back inside and shut my door."

Bilbo near giggles at the memory. "Oh, the looks on their faces! I got quite a scolding from Gandalf afterwards, as you can imagine. Magic rings are not to be taken lightly, and of course in the moment I couldn't imagine why that was. And then, ah..."

"Well, then it turned to a moment more befitting of the evil The Ring holds. But even then, the memory of that final great prank kept me smiling and laughing for many years!"

"... Well... if it wasn't such an evil ring, I'd ask you to borrow it and do something similar," Kili admits, smiling. "Can you imagine, Fili?"

"And you'd rally us all up into a search party," the eldest brother says with a small smile. "Imagine Nori with an ability like that. None of us would be able to find anything ever again."

"Perhaps," Balin interrupts, "We shouldn't speak so lightly of the powers it gives. Temptation is easily felt, and not so easily dismissed."

Fili and Kili share a look, and then nod.

"We didn't mean anything by it," Fili says.

"Purely admiring our own Bilbo Baggins becoming a mischief maker," Kili adds.

"And I've got plenty more mischief left, once this whole nasty business is done," Bilbo says, head held high and smile bright with amusement.

#the hobbit #bilbo baggins #thorin oakenshield #bagginshield #gandalf #the company of thorin oakenshield #fanfic #my attempts at fanfic

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razmerry · 1 year

Text

Drawtectives: Orc Lore... 2!!!!

My first Drawtectives orc lore post that I made 2 years got over 600 notes, and I always intended to compile one for the second season. I just needed to rewatch all of it first! This one includes more general information about the Drawtectives world than the first did, cause it’s really fun.

Part 1

Episode 1:

- York has become a male model! Good job, king

- Extra world lore: Boogle, Bamerica (where engineers drive the train)

Episode 2:

- Common knowledge in the orc tribes is that the one thing you can’t fight is death - it gets you in the end

- “There’s always time for the east” - a classic Northern tribes quote

- Extra world lore: Pollywood, gredit cards, Zac Giraffe, Belp, Bi-Fi, Halloween is canon!

Episode 3:

- No one has ever reported back after confronting a wild train

- Reconfirmed: the roughly cuboid shape of wild cats, including tigers which have a Garfield-like appearance

- One of the only comics in the Northern tribe was Cashews by Barles Pört, featuring Sneppy

- Things York can write: eat my butt, wow now thatsa potata, Sneppy

- York doesn’t talk about his #1 and #2 weirdest days: “too weird”

- York is “a very social creature” according to Rose; all he needs are friends and food

Episode 4:

- Confirmed for the third time: York is a math guy

- York is big enough that he has a high drink tolerance

Episode 5:

- The “Ren Faire Las Vegas” is a story in the Northern tribe told to children, about a magical place with heroes and knights and glitter; York hoped to see it someday

- Which included the hero “Belvis Breseley” and his many disciples

- Interestingly, the Benaissance appears to possibly be etymologically linked to this “Ren Faire”, when the famous turtle painter Michaelango lived

- A classic game from the Northern tribes called “Lift It”: where you have a heavy object and see if you can lift it

Episode 6:

- It takes York a few seconds to transform between “Fight Mode” and “Show Mode”

- More Cashews lore: the lead character is Barley Brown

- Another newspaper comic: Beefcliff, which is apparently spelled differently in other locations

- BC also exists: unclear if this is our world’s or simply a coincidence

- Wild trains enjoy bones: new, old, yours, doesn’t matter to the train

- It’s speculated that trains evolved from wild bikes, with some diverging evolutionary lines including trucks

- Wild trains have feline ears and tails; if the ears are in the alert position, the train has now targeted you

- “Life is a railroad, and I’m going to ride it ‘till my stop”: a line from the hit group Bascal Blatts

- An interesting thing to note: synthetic trains are built in the image of wild trains

- York lost 17 of his cousins to wild train attacks; so York has approximately 35 cousins according to him (and I trust his math)

- Wild trains have a “burning inferno” as well as a mouth-eye, and the tail can be used somewhat like a blade

- Stripes on the side of the wild train help it blend in with tallgrass environments

- Horse Pope: holy figure? Into gambling? Oversees soups?

- York: sometimes known as “The Terror of the Northern Tribes”

- York has a net worth of about 6 million bones in his bank, although it’s unclear what the exchange rate is to Bamerican dollars

Episode 7:

- Bibby Joey: creator of the famous song “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”

- BUNO!

- Eugino, a popular card game (Eugene-Oh?)

- I’m not writing down the rest of those board game puns

- The only game played in the Northern Tribes was “rock hit”, where you threw rocks at another rock in the air and see which rock survived; perhaps Lift It was more of a personal challenge

- There are no tables in the Northern Tribes

- Eugene’s favorite karaoke song is “I Need A Villain” by Donnie Byler, featured in Grek 2

Episode 8:

- York is the smart one, according to Rose: “he thinks the loudest”

- He’s also bad with faces and voices according to Rose; reconfirmed from S1E5

- I just really like that he was 100% convinced that Alm and All were different people

- Phone-bone, apparently

Episode 9:

- I enjoy the two-part confirmation that Northern Tribes orcs have southern accents

- “Joe Beans” is not a traditional orcish name

- Not everyone knows that the Northern Tribes have a monarchy

- “Orcish size” drinks are in a bucket, evidently they are literally sand buckets

- Jancy came to York’s first modeling show :,)

- York once tried to arm-wrestle a snake

- Wonderful film by Studio Jiggly: Ghosted Over There

Episode 10:

- No lore just solving the case!!

Episode 11:

- York’s favorite action hero is Ben Ception, who enters people’s dreams

- List of the months: Febicember, Smarch, Mapril, Junary, and Bachtober

- York’s powerful… stream gives him time to get his arms warmed up for a fight

- Another social media app; Binstagram

- “Lofty goals do lead to existential horrors” - daily quote by Rose

#drawtectives #drawfee #season 2 #season two #gyorik rogdul #rose #grendan highforge #grandma #rpg #celestial spear #orc lore

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duckapus · 1 month

Text

Incorrect Quotes (ssenmodnaR Edition)

Now that it's been a while since "It's Gotta Be Perfect," SMG4's once again feeling comfortable with the idea of being more ambitious with his videos. Thankfully he has learned his lesson and won't be striving for perfection, and he also won't be trying to go it alone. Instead, he's taking inspiration from the man he was designed as a self-insert of and putting together a production crew (of actual employees, not enslaved Toads. That's another low point he doesn't want to go back to.

Next up on the applicant list is Baljeet, for some reason, who's been asked to put together a meme compilation as a test of his editing skills.

"Alright kid, show me what you got."

"Of course," he moves to hit the play button, but pauses to add, "I should warn you, however, that it is a bit... strange, at certain points." He hits the button before 4 can ask what he means.

ssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnar

FM: *gestures incredulously at a car* Who parked their car...

*the view shifts slightly to reveal a jpeg of a BLT under one of the tires*

FM: On my sandwich!?

Steve: I did!

FM: *gets so angry he explodes into a coin*

ssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnar

*MarioMario54321 and Tari face each other on a version of final destination, with MM wearing a Duel Disk and Clench transformed to fulfil the functions of one*

MM: You ready?

Tari: *grins* Born ready.

MM: Well then... *starts using the Yu-Gi-Oh! intro Yami voiceclip* It's Time to D-D, DD-D-DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD *D-ing continues as he starts spazzing out*

Tari:

Clench: 'da fuk?

ssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnar

Elanore: *runs around in an office building, throwing raisins around like confetti* RAISINS! RAISINS! THEY USED TO BE GRAPES!

ssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnar

Meggy: *wandering through what's clearly a Zelda dungeon for some reason*

Random Evil Wizard Dude: *appears from the shadows, pointing menacingly with a staff* Stop right where you are, Maddy.

Meggy: *gasps* How did you almost know my name?

Wizard Dude: I have approximate knowledge of many things.

ssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnar

Desmond: *sitting on a bench, minding his own business*

Franky: *rises up behind him* I can smell you.

Desmond: *jumps up in shock while yelling in Homer Simpson's voice*

ssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnar

MM: DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

ssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnar

Perry: *assumes a fighting stance in the middle of a warehouse while Doof does an evil laugh off-screen*

Doof: You are too late, Perry the Platypus! I am now... *drives on-screen in a forklift* FORKLIFT CERTIFIED!

ssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnar

*this would work better in a visual format, just picture Paige doing the same actions as the music video while Crabcake keeps showing up in the areas they point out in funny poses*

Paige: Now everything smells like salmon!

My shirts!

My couch!

My sheets!

If I had a couple more square feet,

I imagine this would not happen!

Everything smells like salmon!

Straight-up salmon.

Smell it from the bed to the door,

when you're living in a space that's not much more than a cabin,

well sometimes this happens

Everything smells like salmon.

FUCK IT UP ANDI!

Andi: *epic keyboard solo*

ssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnar

Avatar Kirby: *reenacting Speed of Kirb...through the Showgrounds, while the SMGs watch him through the coffee shop's window with resigned annoyance*

SMG3: I'm not helping him if he pisses off Marty.

ssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnar

*back at the Yu-Gi-Oh! duel, Tari and Clench have resorted to playing against each-other while they wait for MM to hopefully pull himself together*

Clench: ...Well this sucks.

ssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnar

*The Abyss and Juliano are in the middle of a fancy restaurant...for some reason*

The Abyss: I poisoned one of our glasses, but I can't remember which.

Juliano: The way this dinner is going I hope it's mine.

ssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnar

Mario: Fuck you, Baltimore!

Bob: If you're dumb enough to buy a new car this weekend,

Mario: You're a big enough schmuck to come to Big Bill Hells Cars!

Bob: Bad deals!

Mario: Cars that break down!

Bob: Thieves!

Mario: If you think you're gonna find a bargain at Big Bill's,

Bob: You can kiss my ass!

Mario: It's our belief that you're such a stupid motherfucker-

Bob: You'll fall for this bullshit!

Mario: Guaranteed!

Bob: If you find a better deal,

Mario: Shove it up your ugly ass!

Bob: You heard us right!

Mario: Shove it up your ugly ass.

Bob: Bring your trade!

Mario: Bring your title!

Bob: Bring your wife!

Mario: We'll fuck her!

Bob: That's right! We'll fuck your wife!

Mario: Because at Big Bill Hells,

Bob: You're fucked six ways from Sunday!

Mario: Take a hike!

Bob: To Big Bill Hells!

Mario: Home of Challenge Pissing!

Bob: That's right!

Mario: CHALLENGE PISSING!

Bob: How does it work?

Mario: If you can piss six feet in the air straight up-

Bob: -and not get wet-

Mario: You get no down payment!

Bob: Don't wait! Don't delay,

Mario: Don't fuck with us, or we'll rip your nuts off!

Bob: Only at Big Bill Hells!

Mario: The only dealer that tells you to FUCK OFF!

Bob: Hurry up, asshole!

Mario: This event ends the minute after you write us a check!

Bob: And it better not bounce or you're a dead motherfucker!

Mario: Go to hell!

Bob: Big Bill Hells Cars!

Mario: Baltimore's filthiest,

Bob: And exclusive home to the meanest sons of bitches in the state of Maryland!

Mario: Guaranteed!

ssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnar

*several robed figures stand in a circle around a chained up Teletubby*

Robed figures: Chanting in unison, chanting in unison, chanting in unison... (yes, they are actually chanting the words "chanting in unison" in unison. it's even an actual voice clip from the Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.)

Luigi: *opens a door to whatever room these guys are in, sees what's happening, and swiftly backs out the way he came*

ssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnar

Hex: *dancing to Buck Bumble's theme music*

fucking Jerry the Goomba kid: Buck Bumble sucks, ya dumbass!

Hex: *the music stops with a record scratch and she slowly turns her head to look at him with a vacant expression*

A Few Seconds Later

Hex: *back to dancing, now with Jerry's burning corpse off to the side*

ssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnar

MM: DDDDDD-DUEL! *finally done, he looks up to see that Tari got tired of waiting and left* Ah, crap.

ssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnarssenmodnar

"...The hell was that?"

"That is what I said! Oh sure, give all the weird stuff to Baljeet! It definitely will not make no sense without context! I do not think some of them are even from our universe, and I am not sure how that is even possible!"

"Well...it's at least well-edited? Might work as part of a "Ssenmodnar" video or something, we haven't had one of those in a while. I'll, uh, I'll get back to you later, alright?"

After he leaves, Baljeet sighs and looks back at the monitor, "I need better clips."

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discar · 9 days

Text

HZD Terraforming Base-001 Text Communications Network

Chapter 32 | Prev chapter | Next chapter Chapter Index

FlameHairSavior: Varl, where are you?

BoyNextDoor: Outside. I've almost got our mounts ready.

FlameHairSavior: Oh, thanks.

Zo: Erend, please clean up your beer before you leave.

HIMBO: DONE!

Zo: I didn't mean chug it.

Zo: Oh, never mind.

DIVINER: Wait, where's Beta??

FlameHairSavior: I'm getting her ready.

β: im fine

FlameHairSavior: She doesn't like going outside.

β: i said im fine

MARSHAL Kotallo: I believe everyone is ready.

FlameHairSavior: All right, we're coming outside.

----

FlameHairSavior: We're ready to start.

FlameHairSavior: Sorry:

Zo: For what?

[FlameHairSavior] has invited [BoyNextDoor], [HIMBO], [β], [MARSHAL Kotallo], [DIVINER], and [Zo] to a holo-chat

DIVINER: Oh no.

FlameHairSavior: We need to be able to actually talk for at least some of this.

MARSHAL Kotallo: Best to get it over with.

----

HIMBO: SO. ZO.

Zo: Is something wrong?

HIMBO: NOT REALLY. JUST SITTING HERE DOING NOTHING.

Zo: You're supposed to be ready for the Zeniths!

MARSHAL Kotallo: You can't remain perfectly alert at all times.

HIMBO: SEE? LISTEN TO THE TENAKTH!

MARSHAL Kotallo: But you should still keep from allowing yourself to be distracted.

HIMBO: DON'T LISTEN TO THE TENAKTH.

DIVINER: I'm more worried about distracting Aloy and the others!!

HIMBO: IT'S FINE, THIS IS A PRIVATE CHAT.

FlameHairSavior: No it's not.

HIMBO: CRAP, SORRY.

FlameHairSavior: It's fine.

β: focus that one almost hit you

FlameHairSavior: How are you talking and texting at the same time?

β: multitasking

BoyNextDoor: While that's impressive, maybe just stick with one?

β: im only doing three things at once

β: im not even watching tv

Zo: ...are you normally watching shows when you talk to us?

β: sometimes

β: usually just listening to music

β: aloy above

FlameHairSavior: Yeah, I see it.

BoyNextDoor: You two are going to give me a heart attack.

----

DIVINER: Should I be concerned that none of us have been ambushed??

Zo: Do you WANT to be attacked?

DIVINER: No, but isn't that the point? We're supposed to be distractions!

MARSHAL Kotallo: Welcome to guard duty.

HIMBO: YEAH, YOU CAN NEVER TELL IF IT'S QUIET BECAUSE NOTHING WENT WRONG, BECAUSE NO ONE IS COMING FOR YOU, OR IF THEY FOUND A WAY AROUND YOU WITHOUT YOU NOTICING.

DIVINER: [Groan.gif]

DIVINER: How do you deal with it?

HIMBO: THE BOOZE HELPS.

Zo: PLEASE don't drink right now. This is important.

HIMBO: I'M NOT DRUNK, JUST NEED TO WET MY THROAT A BIT.

β: alcohol actually dehydrates the body increasing your need for water

HIMBO: WE DON'T NEED YOUR FANCY SCIENCE TALK RIGHT NOW.

MARSHAL Kotallo: That is not advanced knowledge. My tribe certainly knows that you need water more than alcohol.

BoyNextDoor: Same with the Nora.

Zo: I didn't know, but then, I rarely drink.

HIMBO: WHY DOES EVERYONE ALWAYS GANG UP ON ME?

----

FlameHairSavior: That's a big one.

BoyNextDoor: One second, let me tap into your video feed.

BoyNextDoor: ...okay, I can't do this. Beta?

β: oh wow i think hephaestus made that special for you

MARSHAL Kotallo: That means you get to name it.

β: really

HIMBO: IT'S TRADITION! FIRST PERSON TO SURVIVE MEETING A NEW MACHINE GETS TO NAME IT!

FlameHairSavior: According to my Focus, it already has a name. Slaughterspine.

β: oh

HIMBO: WELL THAT'S DISAPPOINTING.

MARSHAL Kotallo: Still, I have heard of slaughterspines. They are dangerous foes. Be on your guard.

DIVINER: I'm looking up pictures, and I can't figure out what Old World animal they're based on!

ADMIN [GAIA]: It appears to be based on the Spinosaurus, a North African spinosaurid that lived during the Late Cretaceous Period, approximately 99 million years ago. However, HEPHAESTUS seems to have used older, inaccurate models of the creature's design.

HIMBO: ...HUMANS WERE AROUND

HIMBO: NINETY-NINE MILLION

HIMBO: YEARS AGO???

ADMIN [GAIA]: No. But fossils from pre-historic times have been unearthed by every human civilization in history. Many of the ancient animals were misinterpreted as various supernatural monsters, but over time entire fields of study were dedicated to reconstructing the lives and appearances of these creatures. My predecessor was quite fond of them, and modeled many of her machines on extinct megafauna. When APOLLO was deleted and it became clear that Stage-2 organisms would not be re-introduced in a reasonable time frame, she began modeling many of her new machines off these more contemporary animals as well.

FlameHairSavior: Yeah, I saw all that in the Zero Dawn labs.

FlameHairSavior: Well, most of it.

FlameHairSavior: Okay, just bits and pieces.

Zo: Wait, aren't you fighting this thing right now?

FlameHairSavior: Multitasking.

BoyNextDoor: STOP TALKING AND JUST FIGHT!

----

FlameHairSavior: Well, that's done.

Zo: Thank the trees.

FlameHairSavior: Took longer than expected.

MARSHAL Kotallo: Only you would complain about taking too long to fight one of the most dangerous machines alone.

BoyNextDoor: She's always like this. At least we're done here.

β: we still have to hack it

FlameHairSavior: Right. Hacking. Computer hacking. Which I am sure I will... be able to do.

β: its easy you just match up the things with the other things and then follow the thing with the thing

FlameHairSavior: ...I'll be right over.

----

BoyNextDoor: That was interesting.

DIVINER: What? What??

BoyNextDoor: Watching Aloy not be instantly perfect at something.

FlameHairSavior: Ha. I practiced for everything I do, you know.

DIVINER: Oh, the hacking.

FlameHairSavior: I'll get good at it eventually.

β: you wont need to because im here

DIVINER: Aw!

MARSHAL Kotallo: So that is a mission success?

FlameHairSavior: I think we're good. We just need to

FlameHairSavior: Ohshitohshit

DIVINER: ????

BoyNextDoor: ZENITH

[BoyNextDoor] has been DISCONNECTED [device not found]

Zo: Varl?

Zo: Varl!

MARSHAL Kotallo: Soldier, respond!

HIMBO: WHAT'S GOING ON OVER THERE?

β: aloy do it

β: dont let them take me

FlameHairSavior: I

β: aloy you promised

FlameHairSavior: I'm sorry.

β: YOU PROMISED

[β] has been DISCONNECTED [device not found]

[FlameHairSavior] has been DISCONNECTED [device not found]

ADMIN [GAIA] has been DISCONNECTED [device not found]

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