#i'm not entirely sure how i feel about most of it being reanimated to make for a unified style but

[silasbug]

Good things come to those who wait.

#bapc #bee and puppycat #i am SO freaking excited for the official release on the 6th #feels like i waited forever- gave up hope- then waited even more- and finally it's happening! #i love this show so much #i'm not entirely sure how i feel about most of it being reanimated to make for a unified style but #i'm going to be cautiously optimistic and entirely hyped for whatever content is new #god i hope #i really hope this creates renewed interes & a possible future for this show #it feels like all my favorites are getting cancelled lately.. #bug.wip

[bcyhoods]

LOVEFOOL 💌 — ‘honey, i’m home’ with stevie please. no pressure at all and take ur time or feel free to skip it, idm at all. and congratulations again ml, ily xx

drew babyyyyy, i love u and i’m saur sorry this took so long!! i may have went overboard | 1.6k fem!reader

warnings: alcohol + one drunk steeb + undressing + shit ending

Robin is the first to insist that his party days are well behind him. It was supposed to be a lighthearted toast in some random corner of a vaguely familiar backyard. Keg King Steve has fallen from grace! Here’s to a sign of maturity!

The sentiment, much to Steve’s chagrin, leaves a bitter taste in his mouth and it rivals whatever’s in his cup.

“So Harrington’s a lightweight, big deal! I still think you’re just as charming.” With a heavy hand and a tipsy grin, Eddie reassuringly slaps across Steve’s shoulders. The sheer force of it has his entire body jerking forward and his drink jumping over the plastic rim. It spills over his fingers, grossly sticking to his skin and foaming at the edge of his sleeve.

He’s not quite sure why it even affects his ego so much, but it’s feeling bruised and battered. Like something sour and unforgiving crept into his chest and delivered a hefty blow to his Pride.

It has him sputtering as he lamely pushes away the metal-head, “I can still—I mean, I'm not…a lightweight.”

Robin is usually pretty good at spotting his unease when she’s sober, but the cheap beer seems to make her hypersensitive to his changing mood. She shakes her head fervently and harshly swallows. “There’s nothing to be ashamed of!” She starts, “I’m just saying, you know…you’re not who you were in high school! Which is good! It’s a good thing. It’s just, like, your tolerance decreases as you get older and less athletic, everybody knows that. So it’s perfectly normal.”

He knows that she means well. It’s obvious in the way she attempts to soothingly rub his arm, the way she smiles at him as best she can. But he’s feeling like he just got all the air knocked out of lungs.

You’re not who you were in high school.

It’s loud. It echoes unkindly against his skull and penetrates the most vulnerable parts of his brain until the noise is smothered by something else. Something a lot less intelligible, almost barbaric.

The frenzied chanting over by the keg rings in his ears and grows louder with each weak breath he takes. Eddie’s trying to help now — says something about how Steve can still outsmoke half his regular customers. But his voice is static in the boy’s mind now as his attention is focused on a pair of ankles being held in the air in the midst of the growing crowd.

Just then, an old lightbulb flickers on in his head, his Pride is reanimated with a dizzying desire to prove himself. His chest increases in size, his shoulders are pushed back, his chin is held high, but the confidence doesn’t seem to reach his face. “I’m not a lightweight,” he mumbles before he’s striding across the grass and taking his place at the keg.

Steve is not a lightweight. He can certainly still hold his keg stand record. But he’s got enough alcohol in his system to fuel a garage full of cars.

It’s why he ends up hanging off your shoulders, humming some song by The Smiths, and making it entirely impossible to unlock your apartment door.

The warm skin of his forehead pushes into your cheek as he noses at the junction between your neck and your shoulder. Muscly arms are tightly wound against your middle, trapping your own arms underneath and pressing your keys into your thigh. His fluffy brown hair, uncharacteristically and boyishly disheveled, tickles the corner of your eye.

“Steve, I can’t…” You try to fight off his arms, but they only seem to tighten followed by a groan of protest from him. You huff before softly restarting, “I can’t open the door, Stevie.”

“Oh! Sorry,” he whispers. He readjusts himself so that one arm is around your back and the other lies limp at his side.

You’re finally able to unlock the door and push it open with the toe of your shoe before you’re helping Steve inside the darkness of your shared loft. As soon as he feels your hands leave his body, he frowns and slouches against the wall, mumbling something that you can’t quite make out. When you close the door and turn on the lamp, he’s abruptly jumping up and taking a harsh breath.

“Honey, I’m home!” His loud voice bursts into the empty apartment and reverberates against the walls.

He tries to stifle his giggle when he sees you flinch and consequently hit his chest. You press your index finger to your lips and glare at the boy, but he only snorts at the conspicuous smile you’re trying to suppress.

“Shh, Steve—”

“Shh! My girlfriend’s sleeping. Cool it,” he interjects lowly with his own finger wagging at you. Another snort and chuckle comes from him at his own joke before his shoulders slump again.

“Let’s go join her, then, yeah?” You coax him, gently pushing at his back so that he’s walking forward. His footsteps drag the entire journey to the bedroom until he lays eyes on the unmade bed that’s just screaming his name.

As soon as his hand reaches down to touch the mattress, his limbs turn to jelly and he gracelessly flops into the sheets. A groan of relief and exhaustion is pulled from his throat as he lets himself sink further into the pillows. Once you’ve turned on the light, you lean down to take his shoes off before you’re yanking him back up to you. He’s standing, but he’s slightly rocking back and forth on his ankles with his eyes closed.

You’re untucking his polo and pushing it up his torso, but his arms remain stuck at his sides. You sigh and pat against his chest to get him to look at you, which he does. “Steve, baby, I'm gonna need your help.”

Wordlessly, he throws his arms up and grabs at the hem of his shirt once you’ve pushed it up his arms. He flings it off and grabs at his undershirt to do the same, but freezes when he feels you unbuckle his belt. His face is burning up now as he watches you tug the leather out of the belt loops and reach for the button of his jeans.

“Woah, take me t’dinner first.”

A lazy smirk and glassy eyes are pointed your way and a laugh is pushed from your mouth before you can stop it. Every ounce of smugness is gone within a second and all he can do is stare at you with a big smile.

“If you behave, we’ll go to dinner tomorrow. Benny’s ‘cause they have your favorite burgers.”

He doesn’t even register what you say because he’s too focused on your laugh. The way your chest rumbles and the way these cute little wrinkles start to form by the corners of your eyes. Even when you dip your head away or cover your mouth to hide from him. The sound itself is enough to have him smiling, but you just look so pretty when you’re laughing, he’s practically starstruck.

When he comes to, you’re tapping at his calves to step out of his jeans. As soon as you’re upright again, he points out, “I’m making you laugh. Am I funny?”

“Oh, yeah,” you say it like it’s obvious, “This is supposed to be a secret, but…you make me laugh a lot actually.” The admission prompts a happy puff of air from him as he sits back down on the bed. He’s looking up at you with wide eyes.

“Good. I like when you laugh. When you’re laughing at me.”

You tug at his tank top to signal for him to lift his arms, and he happily obliges.

Scars run across his abdomen and glisten with each movement he makes. When he feels your fingertips gently kiss at the edges of the marred skin, a sobering feeling of vulnerability washes over him. A feeling that he’d tried so hard to get rid of tonight, hoping to drown it with a wave of something, anything else. And you seemed to bring it right back without even trying. Only it doesn’t feel suffocating like it did earlier. It feels safe.

“You’re so good t’me…” His voice is much softer now. He leans into your touch, shivering as you drag your hands up to his face, but his eyes are unmoving as they gaze into your own. “I love you.”

You beam down at him and push his wild hair back to leave a kiss on his forehead. “I love you, too, Steve.” And though you’ve said it a million times before, always teeming with warmth and fondness, his brows still pinch together.

“Really? You love me? You’re not lyin’?”

Your expression mimics his. But you only get closer to him, reassuring him, “‘Course I love you.”

“But…even though I get like this? Even though I can’t—hicc—though I’m not Steve from high school?” He grimaces. The words from earlier in the night faintly resurface in the back of his mind and he’s feeling bitter all over again. But as quickly as they came, you’re just as quick to snap him out of it.

“Mhm, I love every version of you. I love you, now.” You drop a kiss to his cheek. “I love drunk Steve.” A kiss to his other cheek. “And tomorrow, I’m gonna love hungover Steve.” A small peck on his lips.

His eyes are slow to open when you pull away, and he reaches for your hips like he’s going to fall over. But he doesn’t. He gives you a gooey smile and juts his chin forward in a silent request for you to kiss him again. Even though he still has the faint taste of liquor lingering in his breath, you do it anyway.

“That’s good. Because I’m definitely gonna be that guy tomorrow.”

#this is a little rambly i apologize #ᝰ cece’s scribbles #stranger things #stranger things blurb #stranger things fic #steve harrington #steve harrington fluff #steve harrington x you #stranger things fluff #steve stranger things #steve harrington x fem!reader #steve harrington fanfic #steve harrington blurb #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x y/n #✸ 100 celebration!

[bonzos-number-1-fan]

Sam Messed Up + Tria Prima Ramblings

There are a few solid CAT# but one I really like is that it's based on if an incident affects the body, mind, or soul of the victim. This started off as an offhand example I used to explain how they could work, but there are a lot of fun links to it and will now make a semi-baseless accusation to continue to support it

Sam can't file documents correctly even when being told explicitly what to do.

Anyway, CAT#'s have been shown to have the following values, either in the show or on the Klaus doc: 1/2/3/12/13.

It stands to reason that if 13 can exist these are non-mutually exclusive categories and so 23 and 123 can also exist. And if an incident can be both 1 and 3 it would appear that these represent discrete facets of an incident's manifestation.

Given the show's obvious alchemic motifs it's not a huge leap to link that to the tria prima, alchemy's three primes; soul, spirit (mind), and body. These are represented by sulfur (🜍), mercury (☿), and salt (🜔) respectively. Each of which can be found on the OIAR's logo.

The strongest link here is that 3 is Body/Salt/🜔. Daria's transformation (full) was CAT3, ink5oul has 🜔 on their insta bio, and body is even the third thing in the list. Which is a great start.

We've also got transformation (eyes) at CAT23 which also helps back that up. There was an elemental of paranoia and mental manipulation to it as well as the transformation itself. That tracks really well for Spirit/Mercury/☿, which in alchemical terms is mind as most people would think of. CAT2 was also the watching doll which does also track.

The problem for me is with the last of our categories. CAT1 in the show has only been seen for reanimation (partial), combined with the extra context that said reanimation was "amalgamative", and I don't think that lines up well with a basic idea of Soul/Sulfur/🜍. If this was CAT13 I'd be all over this but I think given there is a strong emphasis of the physical body being an important detail here then it's not entirely convincing. Greater context could make it a stronger case though, if lots of undead ends up in CAT1 then it'd probably a sure thing.

The real problem with this idea is that Dr. Webber's incident seems to almost entirely disprove it. It was CAT2 and while it obviously had a strong mental component it's undeniably a huge physical transformation so it'd have to be CAT23 to really make this all make sense.

Which brings us to Sam. Sam definitely made one obvious mistake with the case number of Ep 3's incident. I think he also made a major mistake in its header. Both of which have solid foundations in the show's text. But I also think, somewhat seriously, that a third mistake has been made with the metatextual reason of obfuscating the meaning of this system.

So, after the incident plays and Sam talks to Alice about it she pretty explicitly tells him what it should be filed as. She says "“Infection” comma “arboreal”. Cross link it with “guilt” if you’re feeling fancy.", but this is what we get instead:

CAT2C8175-03042009-22012024 Infection (full body) -/- arboreal

Ignoring the header for the time being there firstly a very obvious and inarguable mistake. He missed out the R, and they all get the R because it's just a label. The header is also close to being different than what Alice mentions and arboreal as a crosslink specifically doesn't seem to fit in with the more emotional or mental elements crosslinks have had to that point. Arboreal doesn't fit in with regret, trespass, or dysmorphic, but guilt does. Which would make this the seemingly more correct case number and header:

CAT2RC8175-03042009-22012024 Infection (arboreal) -/- guilt

But based on the tria prima theory I'm now wondering if it's not meant to actually be this:

CAT23RC8175-03042009-22012024 Infection (arboreal) -/- guilt

And the 3 was removed to obfuscate the case numbering format. Because the stuff that was "wrong" is fairly obvious to find if that's all that was wrong with it but removing a digit from the CAT# is basically impossible to show unless you know for sure what's meant to be there. It's the sort of mistake that hides really well in ignorance, which makes it a great data point to screw with because of how it breaks ideas.

#the magnus protocol #tmagp #tmagp theory #tmagp speculation #tmagp spoilers #yes this is a cracked theory #no I don't care and neither should you #klaus is the backlog #klaus = kl4-u5

[nikki-is-a-nerd]

Karma is my Boyfriend

Synopsis:

You may not have any plans on exacting revenge to those who've wronged you, but when karma hits them it's no mystical thing, It's just your boyfriend who remembers everything.

Note: NO CURSE AU, Gojo x AFAB!reader, Freelancer!Gojo x College student! Reader

___________________________________

College isn't as easy going as your parents told you, neither was it your most memorable time. It was school, and like all things it had its ups and downs. For a person studying Clinical Psychology, you found that learning to read people and constantly being surrounded by them, wasn't a good mix. Yes, you have bullies, though you are annoyed by their actions your rational mind knows that the only reason they pick on you is because they either feel powerless towards the adult figures in their life or they point out your flaws that they too see in themselves in hopes of transferring their insecurities. Pitiful actions really. Satoru believed you were a saint because of it. How could you, an angel (in his very humble and true opinion, as he once so kindly exclaimed) be so understanding to the slimy, filth of the earth kind of people. Good question.

"Look at her, how can her boyfriend stand to look at her face all day? She looks like a corpse reanimated." A voice cackled.

"I'm surprised you even know what that word means. Let me guess, it was the word for the day?" You said off handedly.

Her friends or posse, glared at you. Like you cared. They snickered to themselves as you suddenly felt a warm liquid cascade down your body.

"Oops, now you look exactly like you should." Their leader laughs, a shrill sound really.

You didn't really care but this was a very expensive sweater that Satoru bought you with his first paycheck for one of his gigs. You sighed, sure he would say something along the lines of 'its alright, I can buy you fifteen more of those' or 'that sweater was so last season, now I can buy you something new' but this was your favorite. You wordlessly took off your now ruined sweater and walked away. A ruined sweater wasn't worth getting called to the dean's office.

Now Satoru was a lot of things, model, gamer, streamer, dance choreographer, substitute teacher for a high school (you don't really get how he keeps getting that), and in his words your loving rich boyfriend. But what you didn't know is that he's petty and vengeful to a fault. He believes that if you wouldn't do it, might as well he does because you are too empathetic for your own good (thank God you were studying to be a therapist). Now you may not tell Satoru about the bullies but Suguru does. You didn't know that Suguru was in the same university taking his Master's degree in business, and coincidentally just taking a video of the entire exchange to send to your lovely boyfriend. Yes, weird but in Satoru's defense his friends like you more than they like him (he's not entirely wrong).

Satoru received a message from Suguru, minutes after you walked away from your bullies. This day was his Streaming day, so mid stream his fans would say that it was the first time they've seen him frown. He kindly apologized to his fans and ended the stream early that day. He knew you weren't one to complain, or to tell him what happened. So he wordlessly shops online to get you a better and cheap (in his opinion cheap means something your bullies can't afford even if they used their daddies black card) sweater that you were sure to love.

"Toru I'm home." he hears your voice call out.

He smooths out his features, and smiles when he sees you enter your shared room. He also takes note that you probably used the university shower since you're wearing a different blouse and cardigan (both bought by him on your twenty-first birthday).

"Sweetie! Your home!" He lunges at you, long limbs and all.

"Toru, you're heavy and tall!" You whined.

"You left me all alone here in our home and when I show you how much I miss you, you complain." He sulks in a corner, making you laugh lightly.

"Not what I meant and I had to go to school." You reasoned.

"Take me with you." He whined even more, somehow reminding you of a kicked puppy.

"Tried that and do you remember what happened?" You asked.

"Not really, I just knew that I was ripped away from my darling baby!" He exclaimed as he walked towards the bed and flopped on it.

You shook your head as you opted to cuddle close to your boyfriend. You were exhausted, mentally, emotionally and physically. Satoru was more than happy to provide you comfort. As you slept, he checked out the people in the video that Suguru sent him. He remembers their faces, their leader, he remembers is also a model for the same brand he models with. She would brag about getting the job because of her father. He was close friends with the brand owner, after all she was his senior.

"Mei-mei, remember that one really annoying model of yours?" He messaged.

"Yeah, what about her?" She replied.

"Can you just terminate her contract and fire her?" He asked.

"Sure. I'd let Utahime deal with the rest. Plus she barely does shit. I didn't even hire her, I specifically said no, and her god father who works in the stupid casting still got her. Fired him too. But why do you want her gone?" She texted back.

"Bullied my girlfriend." Was all he replied. Mei-mei only sent him a thumbs up. Next were her friends, which was way easier. They were rich kids, just staying in the school because their parents were paying for them to be there, even with all the violations they had. Did it help that he was from a distinguished family and that Suguru was willing to play a part as well? Yes. Suguru's family and his family all petitioned for all four of your bullies to be expelled from the University and any of its sister schools, they complained that scandals like these were not worth protecting.

When you went to uni next week, you were surprised to see all four of your bullies having their things and themselves removed from the premises. You eyed them curiously and went about your day. You thought that maybe they were found doing something they shouldn't but they were rich, don't rich people buy their way out of their problems? Nonetheless you were kind of glad.

When you returned home, you found Satoru cooking in the kitchen. He's been proud of his skill as well after he took some classes since he felt bad having to make you cook dinner after your uni and your part time job.

"Welcome back? How was your day?" Satoru asked.

"Work was fine, the cafe was packed today. School was also fine. Saw some people get escorted out of uni." You said.

"Ooh, tell me all about it." He said as if he wasn't the reason.

"Well, the ones who were escorted out were notorious bullies. I mean who remains a bully well into college? Like what fucked up psyche must you have to do that? But they were also my bullies so a part of me was glad." You said the last part softly.

"Did you say they were bullying you? Baby you should've told me. I would've given them a piece of my mind." He cooed. He should really get an award for how well he's acting right now.

"Yeah but it's nothing." You said as you clung to him.

"Well at least they won't bother you anymore." He said truthfully.

"Yeah. Karma really got them in the end." You said as you looked up at him with a small grin.

"Yeah, I told you so, Miss Taylor Swift is correct." He said playfully.

"Now let's eat dinner and watch the really cute anime we found." He added as he sat you down.

Yes, karma really got them in the end but just like what Taylor Swift also sang about. Karma is your Boyfriend, and he truly will do anything to keep you happy. Even if he seems petty.

#fanfiction writer #fanfic #fanfic writing #fanfiction #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu gojo #gojo satoru x reader #gojo satoru #gojo x reader #jjk satoru

[checkoutmybookshelf]

The Immortals Quartet

Time to chat about another of Tamora Pierce's beloved heroines and one of her early quartets. This is also the quartet that--in my entirely subjective experience--catches a lot of guff for its romance subplot. But we'll get to that. These are some of my favorite books of Pierce's, and I'm pretty sure that I read these after the Alanna and Kel books, although they were her second published quartet, coming before Kel. Let's talk The Immortals Quartet.

Veralidaine Sarrasri, unlike Alanna and Kel, is not originally Tortallen. Our girl is Gallan, and when we first meet her in Wild Magic, she is recovering from bandits sacking her village, burning down her house, and killing her family and all their animals. She's also desperate to hide what she thinks is a form of madness from every human she runs across, which gets really complicated when Numair starts teaching her how to harness her wild magic. And for just a hot second, can I say how much I love Numair in this series? He has just as much character as Daine and I am never NOT here for phenonemally powerful mages who are also basically oversized puppies.

Getting to watch Daine develop relationships with Numair, Onua, Alanna and George, the royal family, and the Queen's Riders is such fun, and so well done that when Daine finally feels safe enough to explain why she sometimes seems recalcitrant about her magic lessons it feels immensely earned. These relationships also become immensely foundational to the rest of the series, as does Daine's b-plot but still really compelling arc about hating Stormwings.

The Stormwing arc really finds traction in Wolf Speaker. In my experience, most people say that In the Realms of the Gods is their least favorite Immortals book, but for me, Wolf Speaker takes that prize. Not at all because it's a bad book, but for me it's the most forgettable of the four. Daine and Numair are investigating sus nonsense in Fief Dunlath, and there are blood rain and shape shifting/mind riding shenanagins and Daine begins to have holes poked in her Stormwing prejudice courtesy of Rikash Moonsword. It's a fine book, and the subplots with the wolves and ogres are compelling, but for whatever reason this book does not stick in my head.

The book that does stick in my head and is unequivocally my favorite of this quartet is Emperor Mage. This book follows the Tortallen peace delegation to Carthak, and geopolitical and divine shenanagins ensue. Dain's relationships with Kaddar and Ozorne--and particularly how Numair and Ozorne's history colors both those relationships--are again central to the plot. The Graveyard Hag is also actively throwing broom handles between the spokes of Daine's wheels by giving Daine the power to bring skeletons to a seeming of life.

That gets absolutely amazing because the Graveyard Hag wants Daine to reanimate human skeletons, but Daine makes the PHENOMENAL point that humans forget literal walking nightmares really fast. What humans don't recover fast from is when you literally raze their centers of government to the ground, including food stores, records of all kinds, and the freaking treasury. So instead of making human skeletons dance through the streets, Daine reanimates DINOSAUR SKELETONS and wrecks absolute shop. It's amazing, I wouldn't change a thing.

The other thing I love about this book is Numair yo-yoing between being an experienced intelligence operative and black robe mage and a complete idiot. He is tangled up in plans to free slaves and overthrow Ozorne and yet he still somehow manages to forget all of that and swing at Ozorne when he suggests that Numair is banging Daine. Numair. Honey, sweetie, friend, you cannot be THAT much of an idiot. And the best part is, at least three other characters call him on that idiocy. This book is fantastic.

In the Realms of the Gods is the book that, in my experience, gets the most flak from fans. My experience has been that people object to the student/teacher dynamic between Daine and Numair deveoping into a romance and the significant age gap between the two characters as the romance develops. People also seem to feel that this book is too long and drags in places. I don't tend to find that the book is draggy and long, but that tends to be a very "your mileage may vary" thing for readers.

In terms of the age gap and student teacher dynamics, I want to start off very clear: In real life, student-teacher relationships are never ok, are always predatory, and I do not support. However, to paraphrase Red from OSP, not every book that shows things that aren't unequivocally morally good do not need a "Do Not Try This At Home" sticker on the cover. Books don't have to be morally instructive, they don't have to show the best possible healthy relationships, they just have to be interesting. And honestly? I find Daine and Numair interesting. On top of that, Tamora Pierce is aware enough as an author that Daine and Numair actually do (however briefly) discuss the potential pitfalls of the age gap between them. They don't address the student/teacher thing, but then I wouldn't expect them to because that's not the relationship they have in this book. They are more partners than student/teacher. All this to say, I can understand why people dislike this romance, but I'm not here to throw shade, because honestly I enjoyed it.

I also enjoyed meeting and learning about Daine's parents, exploring the literal Realm of the Gods and all the wibbly wobbly timey wimey chaos shenanagins, and the conclusion of Daine's Stormwing arc. (And how dare Pierce make me cry that hard over Rikash. That was uncalled for.)

Overall, I deeply loved this quartet, and Daine is a welcome change from the very martial Alanna and Kel. She also represents an evolution of the magic systems in Tortall, which was really compelling and refreshing.

#tamora pierce #the immortals #the immortals quartet #daine sarrasri #numair salmalin #wild magic #wolf speaker #emperor mage #in the realms of the gods #ya fantasy #tortall universe #tortall #books & libraries #books and reading #books and novels #book recommendations #books #fiction

[henghost]

Twig Liveblog for Arc 9

jesus christ what a brutal arc... it felt like the baron was cutting out MY eye!! i know gordon's death was pretty heavily foreshadowed but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt! the strongest lamb just snuffed out anticlimactically by a faulty organ 😭 the academy must pay!!!

the next chapter, in which lillian injects wyvern to numb the pain--mood--was one of my favorites so far. visceral and devastating. the line about how lillian feels closest to sy immediately after his wyvern does and how sy feels most distant from her after her dose was heartbreaking--especially after seeing just how drastically it can alter a personality. does sy have an identity outside of wyvern? would lillian still love that version of sy? what unspeakable cruelty to taunt this weapon-child with visions of what a normal life might be like as the drug leaves his system, and then to make him chemically crave his own subjugation. also, if there's one thing we know about consciousness-altering substances it's that after you imbibe them you never want to do it again.... and then the dog dies in the next chapter oh my fucking god wildbow what did i ever do to you (actually don't answer that).

on a cheerier note, i think i'm ready to declare my undying support for mauer. he's so cool and sexy. he could start boiling babies alive in the next arc and i'd still defend him sorry not sorry. when they blew the duke's fucking brains out i was whooping with the rest of the mauerists. it's quite un-wildbowian, i found myself thinking, to make a religious leader so sympathetic (though the extent to which his religious veneer is just a ploy to get more people on his side is a little ambiguous), as religiosity, when it does come up in parahumans, is treated as fundamentally reactionary (the fallen being the primary example). there's also that little aside from one of the soldiers about how "safe to pray" now that the crown and academy have been repelled. i'm not quite sure what to make of it, and it's further complicated by the interlude.

the interlude, indeed, helped to clarify my thoughts about the primordials. unlike other experiments, which are either clones, edits of preexisting life, or frankenstein reanimations, the primordials are entirely new forms of life. they represent a counterpoint to the crown's attempt to create something "beyond" humanity through advanced science. and because they are truly new, they constitute a legitimate threat to the status quo: this is why they enthrall mauer, and why they terrify the crown. mauer literally chaining up a "god" of his own creation (who loathes him) to serve his own ends is, let's say, a little on the nose.

the twins were cool but the fight went on way too long. idk why getting married to the baron is treated like a fate worse than death... like girl i know tons of people who would kill to be in that position... anyway i saw arc 10 is like over 20 chapters long so it might be a while till the next one of these lol. the classic wildbow frogboil!!

#twigblr #twig web serial #twig liveblog #henghost's twig arc #sylvester lambsbridge

[ironladders]

so i had a thought about ashrah and syzoth and i really dont know how to feel about it so i want your input. and keep in mind i am still new to MK lore and dont understand the ins and outs of it like most other people do. but i read that in past timelines at least, demons of the netherrealm were dead bodies reanimated by quan chi. so i was wondering, how do you feel about the idea of ashrah having been syzoths wife in her past life, probably unbeknownst to her. does it make sense, the implications of it, etc.

hi sorry i was in figure drawing when i got this ask & that class lasts 6 hours 🫠 art school was a mistake

anyways: this is so good and yet evil oh my god??????? it probably wouldn't work in canon unless stuff got retconned, but the implications here are so interesting to me regardless and you could do so much stuff character-wise (especially for ashrah) with this concept.....

first off, don't worry about not knowing extensive details about mk lore. it's bound to be confusing for someone new to the franchise, and even then plenty of us who've been here for a while don't entirely know what's going on either. i had to look up half the shit i mention in this post just to make sure i'm not off by a bunch

syzoth would have the biggest mental breakdown ever if this were a thing. poor guy can't catch a break

this would be a lot for ashrah, if she were to find out or otherwise put the pieces together. i mean, her whole thing is wanting to be fully human, and yet in this idea, she's not aware that she once already was human. that would be absolutely wild and 100% turn her entire world upside-down if she were to ever find out that truth.

the angst in this idea would go crazy. I LOVE IT. i think that syzoth would be reluctant to get close in any way with ashrah (at least initially) because, even if he doesn't know about how some demons are dead people brought back to life, ashrah physically resembling + sounding like his dead wife would mess with his head SO much.

poor ashrah, too; she's trying to learn what it means to be human and make friends with all these new people, and everyone in the good-guys group seems to be willing to be open with her--except for syzoth. and she has zero clue why. of course, because of their similar pasts and common struggles, they'd probably be drawn to each other anyways, but it'd be 10x more depressing than in canon

i imagine in this concept, shang killed her and then gave her corpse to quan chi. i don't think shang tsung would've given syzoth's family the dignity of dying in the living forest, tbh, i personally believe he dragged them off somewhere far away to die (which is also how i imagine syzoth went so long without knowing they were dead in the first place. easier to keep him in the dark about his family's fate if he's not aware of where they are). alternatively, ashrah could be put in a similar boat to old-timeline hanzo, who was a vengeful spirit of the netherrealm after being killed by bi-han, and then continuously manipulated by quan chi. i guess she would have to be somehow turned from a spectre to a demon, but i'm sure they can figure it out with magic lmfao

you're sort of right about the reanimated/reincarnation thing, it just doesn't apply to every type of demon. (more lore explanation under the cut bc i rambled a lot and it got a bit long oops) (if you read up on all this already and this information is useless to you i sincerely apologize in advance)

the lots of different demon types in mortal kombat: imps, oni, the enenera, cambions, and other miscellaneous ones. iirc there was also gonna be another class called "elder demons" (like elder gods but not really???? i guess???) in an older game but that was scrapped.

there’s technically a difference between the oni and other demons, because quan chi in the old timeline was an oni before he turned into a demon after mastering sorcery. so i guess oni are like… lower than demons??? or something?????? i’m not actually sure what the difference is between the two tbh 😓

we know that the enenra are created from the souls of slain mortals, so they'd be an example of an undead person coming back as a demon, as mentioned in this very sad scenario. the only enenra that we've actually met in canon is smoke, who was explained to be one after dying as a child via his mk9 ending

it's really fucked up lol, some cult kidnapped & sacrificed him when he just a kid

so that would be one example of how in this au/scenario/thing, ashrah could've had a human life once and not be aware of it. this tracks pretty well with mk9 smoke not remembering his previous life or death, until his early memories came back to him after so long.

the only issue is that smoke was reborn as an enenra right after he was killed, and after he took out his revenge on the cultists, he woke back up in his human body with no memories of his previous life. so i assume this would apply to any other enenra: they die, come back and do their thing, then go back to their original bodies right where they died with no memories of their old lives. they don't minecraft respawn in the netherrealm, which is where ashrah is from. but if pre-death ashrah in this au was dragged to the netherrealm and then killed, then brought back as a demon that's further manipulated by quan chi's dark magic, i guess it could work?????

(speaking of the enenra: in one of his mk1 intros with ashrah, smoke mentions dreaming of the enenra. so either tomas already died in this new timeline & just isn't aware of it, OR he's gonna kick the bucket soon and come back as an enenra. either way, we should probably prepare his funeral in advance lmfao).

there have also been demons that aren’t enenra, but are still dead people reincarnated by quan chi, as you mentioned. they're really obscure characters -- i had to look them up to make sure i wasn't making this up in my head lmfao -- but in the show mortal kombat: conquest there's siann, mika, and sora. they're undead corpses of the netherrealm that were brought back to life as demons via quan chi's magic

they lived they served cunt they died

from my understanding (i haven't watched mk:c, i just read their wiki page) they were basically being forced to work for quan chi otherwise he threatened take away their living forms, which sucks. also mika might have a crush on quan chi….. for some reason???

the difference between these three and the enenra, though, is that they seem to actually be aware that they're undead lol. but maybe that's just because quan chi keeps threatening them with being corpses again if they don't follow his orders (again, haven't watched mk:c). who knows! their wiki page isn’t that long and doesn’t give me much info so i don’t have much to go off of 🤷🏻‍♂️

ashrah in mk1 does have a canonical demon type; she mentions that her and her sisters are cambions in an intro with kitana, hence how sareena can seamlessly change between her human-ish and demon form. i don’t thiiiink cambions are “reborn”/undead the same way the enenra would be? in irl folklore “cambion” is used to refer to either a changeling — which makes sense given sareena — or a demon-human hybrid. i really doubt ashrah’s the latter, though, so i suppose she just... spawned into existence as a cambion one day. or maybe she has demon parents running around somewhere. idk bro

i guess what i’m trying to tie together here is that in the “ashrah is a reborn dead person but doesnt know it and unfortunately said dead person is syzoth’s dead wife” nightmare scenario you’ve presented to my inbox, it could go a few ways:

she’s an enenra

same situation as the mk:c girls

hanzo-esque situation (although he's not a demon so. idk)

the second one is probably more in line with what you're thinking of, except that unlike the mk:c girls, ashrah would be kept in the dark that she's a reanimated corpse of a human woman.

and, i said this earlier, but i'll say it again: this would be a wild twist for ashrah character-wise. imagine: she’s fighting for her absolution, fighting to be a human and rid herself of her demonic nature, and then it turns out all along that at one point, there was a time ashrah was human. she had a human life and appearance once, and it was all ripped from her one day and she had no idea. even if her previous life wasn’t related to syzoth or anyone else on the roster, that would still suck. but on the other hand, i think it would give her even more incentive to purify her soul & finally kill quan chi. she'd be hurt, angry, want vengeance for the human woman she once was. the woman that was wrongfully murdered for a sorcerer's selfish gains. the possibilities are endless!!!

i dunno what else to put here or how to end this off, but i've got so many thoughts now... oughh

#not art #ask #ashzoth #angelscales #ashrah #syzoth #iiii am too tired to tag the rest of the ppl mentioned here LOL

[fvriva]

9, 13, 18, 23, 30 for whoever you wanna talk about!!

gonna answer for ellie and francois because they're the most developed of my guys lol

9: Is your Tav from Baldur's Gate? Why are they traveling there?

I haven't gotten to that part of the game yet so specifics currently elude me. However, Francois is living in Baldur's Gate with their noble mother and is generally pretty sheltered. Kind of bitchy as a defense mechanism. They study necromancy there as an excuse to keep to themself.

In contrast, Ellie was just passing through, though they were visiting their birth dad for a bit.

13: What are their thoughts on killing? Is it a necessary evil or do they enjoy it?

Ellie says that killing is bad and that they avoid it but they definitely get a little kick out of it. Especially if it's funny. And they deserve it. But also sometimes even when they're not trying to be lethal it just kind of happens.

Francois on the other hand doesn't have that level of tact. They think death is cool. They like the feeling of dying and the adrenaline of being brought from the brink. Plus a lot of people suck. So.

18: What would your Tav be doing if they weren't on the Nautiloid?

Ellie probably would've still gotten roped into something because of their wandering bardic nature. They'd still be with their siblings too. They're not entirely sure that they made it, but they didn't see any indication of their siblings being taken or dead, so they're pressing on.

Francois would be neck deep in various books on infernal law and reanimation and necromantic history, trying to figure out how to make flesh golems and things.

23: What do they do after the absolute crisis?

Hard to say in any event, I'm still deep in Act 2, so I'm not so sure of my options. Both Ellie and Francois are drawn to power and adventure like moths to flame.

30: What's your favorite thing about your Tav?

Ellie I care very much. Even though in BG3 they're aged up some (and more angular looking then they should be), it's giving me the opportunity to really flesh them out in a different way than I could in the campaign. Also the sheer power they wield in both a combat and a roleplay sense is immeasurable.

Francois on the other hand is fun because while I made them with the intent of putting them in something else, I'm really getting a kick out of the emergent stuff I'm experiencing in this playthrough! I like the degree to which they're empathetic towards the tieflings and especially the thief kids, and yet so callous and even a little flippant about so many other things.

ask me questions about my tav(s)!

#chesca.txt #bg3 #oc talk #i may reblog this later with more guys as i go but we'll see

[cryptidblue1]

I'm having Thoughts on how I want RoF to go in regards to Pale King's reaction to Lavender and the Vessel Brigade as a whole. Because as much as I really like the whole awkward family reconciliation trope. I think that with how I made the vessels basically escape the abyss right before Pale King got his perfect vessel that he may not be as easily capable of accepting Lavender or any of the Vessels.

Doubly so because the vessel brigade are basically curbstomps all over Pale King's entire belief and conjectures regarding how the Void actually works in regards to taking over a god infused body. Because before the entire vessel project the only thing that could really be used to test what the Void actually does to living beings are kingsmoulds and whatever the Collector is. Unless you subscribe to him actually using living subjects to test things. So, Pale King literally based everything, pinned his hopes, and shackled himself to the guilt of killing every offspring he would ever have with Pale Lady.

So having what is basically a herd of reanimated corpses of children he sacrificed roaming about, and one of them somehow having an ability to remove the infection from the waking world would not be something easily accepted. Because what does that mean in regards to his theories, the time, the sacrifices. All of it a waste because the vessel plan clearly was not the Only Answer as he believed, and this also makes it now a question on would this particular child have the abilities needed to fight against the Radiance if they had been allowed to live and grow as his child and not a vessel of the void?

Like that very thought likely would be so intrusive and confidence shaking if not confidence breaking, because what else has he gotten wrong in his quest to stop the infection? Was there always another way that he couldn't see?

Which then gets into if you're in Camp: Pale King is inherently arrogant by being a Higher Being, thus would denounce any flaw of himself until forced to accept it or hide from it. Or in the Camp: Pale King knows he can make mistakes, but he does everything to not make such because he knows full well how devastating such a mistake would be for his kingdom and the lives in it.

So nothing regarding the first or even subsequent meetings between Pale King and the vessels is going to be anything but horrible feelings and misunderstandings because Lavender is basically just stumbling along trying to fix something they believe they broke when they got forced down the path of not being a pure vessel, and none of the other vessels actually know anything about what is going on considering they kinda just exist and are still figuring out how life works to begin with. Which can get even more complicated because I don't think either side wants it known by everyone and everything about the vessels being void beings, and thus having to actually explain how they came to be.

Though that makes me wonder if at some point the Pale King has to basically bullshit that void beings can happen under very specific circumstances and just let the Knights come to some off the wall conclusion based on what little they know and what they believe from observing Lavender's behavior.

Like this is a Tangle of Emotions I need to figure out, because I can't keep stalling on this meeting, but I have way too many thoughts on how badly this could go, especially as I'm pretty sure from the vague outline forming of this plot that Bad Times happen if Pale King can't accept in the most distant of ways the vessels as living beings.

#Blue rambles #RoF AU #Reversal of Fate AU #I have a lot of thoughts about the Pale King and his actual thoughts on Vessels #like the various ways he could go if he realized they were sentient #and the horror of such #I'm pretty much paving the plot of the AU as I walk down the path #I only have a vague idea on the outcome

[bansheeoftheforest]

Hey lol, my power just went out and I'm having a moment, do you have any headcanons abt Hyde or Jekyll and his family dealing with storms and outages? Especially if outages and storms are stressful for them? -💙

:o I hope you are okay blue!!!! Storms and outages are scary af sometimes, please stay safe!!

I just woke up after having slept like. 10 hours but I tried my best, if you want more I'd be happy to give you some more hcs, though!

Henry has always been scared of storms and lightning, they had a lot of those growing up and Henry always heard his older siblings talking about the horror stories surrounding storms; campfire ghost stories, as well as the destruction that the storms brought to their city or the people around them. Henry was a very timid and easily intimidated kid so storms came high up on his list of fears.

He only "stopped" being so scared of lightning because of the Frankenstein plays, where the reanimation of the Creature was depicted as having used pure lightning from storms. Henry began to love the concept of lightning out of the context of storms but is still incredibly scared of them both.

Hyde will always deny being scared of storms, most of the time he claims he was brought forth upon the earth of mankind by Satan himself during the century's worst storm. The moment he hears lightning he will quiver in his boots. He is better at hiding it than Henry, though, as Hyde often is good at hiding his fears.

They didn't have to worry about power outages as electricity wasn't commercially available when Henry grew up, so most of the time they just waited out the storms. Most of the waiting out involved Mama and Papa Jekyll gathering all their kids in the living room, putting on the fire in the fireplace, and telling stories to distract them. While Henry was the only one downright afraid of the storms, his siblings also got nervous and needed some distraction too, even if they quickly began to look forward to the storms so they could spend some family time together.

Henry often spent those stormy days in the lap of one of his older brothers. Being 8 years older than him, the two twins were always incredibly protective of him and especially when bby Henry was quivering and sniffling. His sisters were, too, incredibly protective of him and always wanted to help comfort him-- whenever Angus and Ian weren't available, Blair and Lilith would have him smushed between them and they would try to distract him from the thunder by tickling or play fighting with him.

Once Henry got older and began to get into Frankenstein, his family's key phrase to distract him from his panic was to say "Remember Frankenstein? It was a stormy night like this that they created the Creature!". Probably not the best phrase, as his parents did not want to encourage him... To do what Frankenstein did, but it was enough for Henry's momentary panic to turn into a short moment of fascination. On good days, Henry would start rambling about science until the storm was over, on the bad days, Henry would start imagining the Creature outside their window and get even more scared.

Whenever their parents would be gone on business trips and storms would start, Henry's siblings were always prepared to make the best of it. Angus and Ian would try to cook food (they are good cooks, they just end up playfighting a lot), Blair and Lilith would distract Henry, while Freyja, Isla, and Peigi would set up the fire in the living room and get blankets. Chicken soup in front of a roaring fire, cuddled up next to his older siblings, and wrapped in his favorite blanket really helped Henry to deal with storms, and lose his fear of them... A little. He was still scared, but he felt a lot safer with them around him.

He has experienced his fair share of storms in England but the worst ones were in university, just because the classrooms didn't isolate the sounds of thunder and the dorms were quite thin-walled. He knew he was safe but the sweeping winds and lightning did nothing to soothe his worries. Luckily, during classes, he often had Lanyon right by him, and during the evenings he often had both Lanyon and Utterson. In the beginning, neither of them knew about Henry's fear of storms but as Lanyon observed how Henry's pen jumped over the paper for every hit of thunder, the way he trembled, and the way he started to cold sweat, it did not take long for him to scoot closer by their shared desk and put his knee against Henry's in hope of calming him. Storms during the evenings in their dorms were better because neither Utterson nor Lanyon was afraid of giving the physical affection that Henry needed. Lots of cuddles and lots of hugging. Neither were really scared of storms themselves-- Lanyon found them indifferent and Utterson found them fascinating, but neither wanted to see their friend hurting like that.

The Society is large and thickly walled enough for storms to almost be unnoticeable, however, the outages really are not. While most of the Lodgers found it as a mild inconvenience (or a large inconvenience for Tweedy, Pennebrygg, and Flowers), the realization that the storms could bring out their power for days really was not a realization that Henry liked, just because it made him feel so hopeless and defenseless.

A particularly bad storm brought their electricity out for, well, days, quite a lot of time before Frankenstein even stepped a foot into the Society. The Lodgers gathered each other (and Henry) into a parlor, lit candles & the fireplace, and decided to tell ghost stories. Henry tried his best to keep calm as the storm got worse and worse and the thunder and lightning, too, got worse and worse, yet the two Lodgers next to him quickly noticed his stress and nervosity. Quietly scooting closer and trying to distract him. After all, they were much friendlier with each other back then, so it could have been any lodgers.

Whenever Henry, god forbid, is alone during storms, he does his best to replicate the coping mechanisms his family gave him as a kid. Cuddling up in thick blankets and trying to block out the noise, trying to distract himself, or going to someone he trusts in hopes of comfort. Luckily, most of the time it works, even when he isn't sure of which persons he can trust. He has a reputation after all... But the storms sure as hell scare him enough that he does not give a shit about it.

Maijabi is one of the persons that Henry trusts the most, simply because he knows he won't judge him for his fears. Most of the time during storms, Henry scurries off to him for safety. Maijabi, of course, understands his fear perfectly. He lets Henry stay with him for as long as he wants to, and he brews honey and lavender tea for him as well <3

Hyde is not often allowed out during storms-- both because Henry is way too stressed to let him out and because Hyde is way too scared to actually go outside during them. In the few instances where he has found himself in control of the body during a storm, he spends the entire evening seated on one of Rachel's counters in the kitchen while Rachel herself bakes him cookies. Rachel, of course, does not have the heart to start teasing him about being afraid of storms of all things, she is just glad he trusts her enough to... Well... Be in the kitchen with her during storms.

Both Hyde and Henry are sensitive about their fear of storms, they "know" it's irrational and "childish" of them so they are very self-conscious about showing or playing into that fear. Lanyon once made the mistake-- during one of the first storms since Henry and he met-- to joke about Henry's fear for them, which really did not help Henry's self-consciousness about it. Lanyon quickly realized his mistakes and made up for it by comforting Henry a bit extra that evening.

Henry always having people he can trust with his fears and being able to cope with them my beloved <3

#ask #blue heart anon #banshees hc #tgs #the glass scientists #tgs hc #the glass scientists hc

[the-coffee-story]

Rise of the Forest God

Chapter 17 - Professor Tally Winchester

Winchester Hall was a beautiful, dark Victorian mansion á lá Addams Family that rested proudly upon the tallest hill around. The windows, grey with age and dust were tall and skinny and a rusted iron gate, with weathered carvings now indistinguishable rested half swallowed by dirt and uncut blades of long dry grass. The whole thing blended rather well with the crawling forest behind it.

The team was waiting by the gate, curious and giddy with half-numbed nervousness.

"Well, now I'm definitely interested," Walther commented, peeking through the towering, rusted gate. "This looks like it's haunted by at least three ghosts who died a horrible death. They never found the heads."

October laughed.

"Seriously October, imagine the Addams Family's mansion, now scale it down a little."

He raised an eyebrow. "Can't wait for Morticia to pop out."

"Well, Morticia was definitely not on the phone," Violet noted.

Suddenly, the carved, dark-oak door that rested comfortably in the centre of the home's front opened, and a young man peeked out, adjusting his glasses as he took a moment to assess the situation. After a few moments passed, he noticed the team waiting by the gate, waved to wordlessly grab their attention, and quickly scuttled over.

Tally Winchester was a medium-heighted, slender and bald individual with large, wildly blue eyes behind thick glasses and a countless amount of scattered silver piercings dotted in and around his earlobe. Despite the fact that it was it had just dawned early spring, his skin was sunburnt and tanned, as if he spent most of his days somewhere lost outside. He walked with a noticable limp, and Walther didn't need to wait long for an explanation, when a prosthetic briefly appeared between his worn brown converse sneakers and faded jeans.

"Hi!" He flashed a toothy smiled at the group and opened the gate. "Great to see you, I'm Professor Tally Winchester!" He shook everyone's hands as they trickled past. The sleeves of his petrol flannel were rolled up, revealing a rather out-of-place, faded tattoo of a crawling lizard and a bunch of old scars. "You can call me Tally though."

Violet held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Violet, we talked on the phone."

"Great to meet you all!" He grinned. "Are you coming inside?"

***

"Before anyone asks, I inherited the house," Tally explained while leading them upstairs. "It's rotten and I hate it and the bills are a naked horror but I doubt I can find anything that has more capacities for a library." He opened a door. "Intrate, everyone."

"Remarkable," Doc commented.

Remarkable was indeed an understatemt. The room they'd entered was a library- with a beautiful brick fireplace and huge windows that let in the sparse afternoon sun, bookshelves brushed against the webbed ceiling and sunk into every wall. The floor was carpeted, through incredibly uncomfortable to walk on, and the furniture antique. One wall was plastered with photographs and notes.

"Nice," Walther mumbled, taking the second to once again soak in their surroundings.

Tally grinned, idly brushing aside pages and old notes compromised of incomprehensible scribbles and drawings. His teeth were somewhat crooked. "I didn't replace any of the furniture, but I did sell a chunk of the old books. There was just no space for mine." He closed the door behind them. "So anyway, you wanted to know about the cult?"

"There's been a bunch of murders in Forest Lane that were eerily similar to what it did, so yeah." Thasfield shrugged his broad shoulders. "We suspect the cult might be involved."

"Oh, I heard about that on the news!" Tally sorted the files on the table until he found what he was looking for. Then he looked up. His face was serious now. "At this point I'd like to admit I have a slightly selfish motivation in this."

"What is it?", Violet asked.

"You see..." Tally leaned against the table. "For context, I'm a history professor, but my focus is on cryptids and modern legends. Historical context, potential explanations, yada yada. A few years ago I stumbled across the legend of the Forest God."

Walther's face lit up. "Oh, I remember that story, my parents used to tell it to me when I was a kid! This one guy got lost in the woods, was found dead and after his funeral his reanimated corpse came home and his wife who loved him very, very much-" They side-eyed Violet and Coffee, who in turn glared back. "-couldn't accept that maybe it's not exactly normal that your husband's corpse is vibing around, then after a while he started killing people, then he killed her and then the neighbours buried him in an iron casket in the woods so he would stop randomly murdering people. Right?"

"You summed it up." Tally nodded.

"But who believes in that?!" Violet frowned. "I mean... it's just a legend, right? Somebody finally snapped, had a rough week or something, and people straight up believe his bullshit?"

"He came back from the dead and started murdering people, Violet," Doc commented.

She shrugged dismissively. "We've all been there."

"I don't want to meet you after a bad week," Tally remarked with mild discomfort, absentmindedly flipping through pages of notes and nonsense. "The existence of the man who allegedly became the Forest God is proven. His name was Eustace Wyndham and if you ask me he had rabies and some things were added for drama. But that's not even relevant, because the cult came almost a hundred years later." He slid around the table and opened another scattered file. "1969 they started to worship the Forest God. At first it was nothing special, you know, just the average college student nonsense." He held up an old photograph, subtle wonder in his eyes as he stared into it, before handing it to Walther. "Here, you can take a look at this! That's the entire cult. The guy in purple with the long hair is one of the founders. The other founder left in 1970 after getting a bad feeling about the whole thing. I caught him for an interview five years ago. Lovely guy, sadly died of cancer shortly after. It's a shame. You can pass the photo around! Notice how they're all wearing cow parsley wreaths. That was the flower associated with the Forest God and the flower scattered all over their murder victim's body, or rather what was left of it."

"All the victims had cow parsley in their mouth," Doc realized, dragging a hand up to rest in his soft ginger curls, staring blankly into the distance, thinking.

Tally nodded hastily. "Exactly! And now please look at what I found on my windowsill this morning!"

He limped over to the tallboy, half relying on the nearby furniture for support. Leaning down and throwing open a drawer, after a short while of sifting through papers and photographs, he took out something else. Then he held it up.

It was a wreath of cow parsley.

"That's....not good," Walther murmured after a long moment of stunned silence.

Tally nodded, twirling the flowers between his thumb and forefinger. "You get it. You know..." He leaned heavily against a dusty, worn table and heaved a small sigh. "When Wilhelm called me at first I was very sceptical of it all. I'm not a group project person, if you know what I mean. But this is just the tip of the ice berg and I have a feeling that I might be next, so I decided to work with you." He shrugged his shoulders.

While he'd been talking, Coffee had been furiously typing. He handed Tally his phone and Tally read it out loud.

" 'How about we use you as a bait?' Um... Can you...can you please explain what exactly you mean? That doesn't sound particularly safe-!"

He handed Coffee's phone back to him, paranoid he might accidentally drop it, and the detective started typing an answer, this time with significantly more determination.

Hear me out. So my idea was basically that tonight we let the killer come, but were going to be prepared. In other words, we gather a big group that's going to protect you, and we're going to arrest the murderer once he's here. What do you think?

Tally hesitated for a short moment and chewed his lip, opening his mouth to reply, then closing it again.. "I mean... I guess you have a point, sooner or later he's going to get me either way."

"I mean, let's be real, you can't run forever," Thasfield said, leaning forwards. "Even if you move, it's still going to take a while, and judging by what we know you're being pretty actively stalked, so it's quite possible he'll just follow you and then you'll be killed by a Forest God in a hotel room in Central Graytown. Which probably makes for an interesting plotline in a noir film, but we're talking real life here and I highly doubt you're so keen on landing in the morgue anytime soon. Although the Doctor is an expert at autopsies."

Doc smirked.

".........yeah," Tally admitted. He sat down on the table and scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, that sounds...icky but realistic." He closed his eyes took a deep breath. "Alright. Who's gonna be on this team?"

Doc's phone's rang loudly to shake up their newfound confidence, and he excused himself, stepping back into the dusty hallway to take the call.

"I mean, most of us for starters," Violet said. "But I was also thinking of grabbing Gary Fox and Wilhelm. Strength in number, you know?"

Doc eventually came back to the group. His weathered face was stricken with subtle anxiety. "Bad news."

"What is it?", Walther asked.

"Alice found her mailman by the stables."

Walther frowned. "Okay, and what's so special about that?"

"His left arm was by the stables. The rest of him was scattered across the field."

"Dear God, is he okay?"

"He's okay, but he's dead." Doc turned to Tally, lowering his voice just enough. "Can we settle on tonight?"

Tally nodded. His sunburnt face had notably paled, turning his skin a somewhat pasty yellow. "Sure. What time are y'all coming?"

"Is five o'clock alright with you?"

Tally shrugged his shoulders. "Sure."

#reviews are welcome ;) #remember to listen to the song #the coffee story #rise of the forest god

[summerofspock]

Could I please have the director's commentary on The Kepler Omicron Party? I'm reading it now though so might not read your response right away to avoid possible spoilers! Basically no rush to answer. 😄 Loving it, btw, just haven't stopped to drop a comment yet.

Sure thing. If anyone reads this post and thinks hmmmm interesting, i’m in. heres a link to the fic

KOP is interesting because its the first fic I’ve had a beta on (shoutout to @wingittofreedom) and so there was a lot more discussion/thought put into it than i normally do with my fics and it was a really awesome learning experience

KOP came into being when I listened to a series of episodes on Last Podcast on the Left about the Donner Party and how unlucky those people were. at every turn something went wrong and they were so close to survival but it didn’t work. and i wanted to explore a similar survival situation. how do you handle it when control keeps slipping from your fingers?

ultimately, i wanted to try my hand a survival fic. its one of my favorite genres and i’ve never written in it before. One thing i feel is missing from every survival fic is the emotional fall out. something like that would be traumatic and in this case i used a jim with a traumatic Tarsus experience so going through something similar again would only compound the trauma. that being said, i swore to myself i would spend as much time on recovery as i did on survival and its honestly the thing i think works most about the fic. and every comment i get thats about how real the recovery portion is makes me so proud of the effort i put in

to start, i had no idea what the horror would be on Kepler Omicron. i knew the seasons would cycle and I knew everyone would die. i was torn between real zombies (dead and then rising again) and more mindless infectious zombies. what i knew was that there would be gore and there would be violence and i tagged that early on.

once i put 2 and 2 together about reanimation and a planet with hibernation i was firmly in the zombie track and all i needed to do was write it out.

do you know what’s hard? writing two people who don’t know each other stuck on a planet and falling in love amidst horror and gore. how do you make that realistic and not entirely codependent? my beta helped a LOT on that front but when Jim and Spock are rescued I knew the relationship was unhealthy and I knew I’d have to address it and so we get in to the sex as self harm bit.

when writing ive slowly come to find that im just projecting on characters. i have a lot of trauma in my past and one of the ways i handled it was by having a lot of sex that i didn’t want to have just so i could feel wanted and so i could feel anything. and i think thats something jim would do as well.

so really it just keeps getting worse until it gets better.

i loved writing the metaphorical trauma break when jim is in iowa. the storm and the peace and jubilance of it all was really cathartic for me.

then i had to write jim and spock coming back together and falling in love all over again.

and man, if i thought writing it on the planet was hard it had NOTHING on writing it after the sea of trauma i had created. i rewrote the ending like five times. my beta kept calling me on things that didn’t make sense and i was tearing my hair out.

finally i settled on what i had and called it good. 

two months later my beta talks to me about how my metaphor of zombies was really poignant and i said “metaphor?”

and she said “yeah of course. like how you can think your trauma is gone but if you just bury it then it will keep coming back. and leaving kepler omicron represents the choice not to bury it but to leave it behind.”

and so i was emotionally confronted by my beta on how i used this story to process my trauma and tell the story of my own bullshit.

which...isnt that what we all do when we write?

#answers #long post #chauncey writes fic #KOP #cw sex #cw self harm #cw zombies #boisonberryjamarama

[chibinightowl]

For the writing meme: Tim&Dami "The answer is always blood magic" I can just hear the tired/sarcastic/done/exasperated tone of voice either of them would use for that. Please and thank you. Also, it's a Dragon Age quote and I'm unable to pass it up.

Lookie what I got done tonight! Set in the same universe as How to Summon Me on a Monday Morning.

~*~*~

Damian scowls fiercely at Tim, his little face puckered up even worse than the time he was forced to admit Tim was right about something. That’s a good memory, but now is not the time for happy thoughts or pixie dust.

“You will undo this, Drake.”

“I’m trying, Damian,” Tim replies just as crossly, flipping through his spellbook. “I know it’s hard to believe, but I’m not exactly thrilled about it either.”

“This is all your fault.”

Tim slams the book shut and glares at the boy. “You’re the one who went through my spellbook in the first place. Try again.”

For a brief moment, Damian has the grace to look shamefaced, his gaze dropping to the carefully sealed cardboard box at his feet. It’s hard to miss the protective symbols drawn on the lid and along each side of the box. There’s probably even symbols on the bottom. “I was trying to find something to help her.”

This is why Tim can’t be righteously furious at the young animagus. Damian is so in tune with the needs of animals that the family swears he’s more empath than mage. Thank the gods he is still too young to shape-shift.

“I know and that’s the only reason why I haven’t turned you into a toad.”

The now undead cat in the box lets out a ghastly hiss that manages to send chills down Tim’s spine. From the looks of it, Damian is spooked too.

Good.

Tim opens his book again and flips to the spell he’s fairly certain Damian tried on his own. It’s the only one that deals with raising the dead, although the spell on the next page is one he uses more often, which is banishing the magics used to raise the creatures. “Does this look familiar?”

Damian leans cautiously across the table, trying to avoid knocking into anything. “Yes, I believe so. I recall the part about this being a blood spell.”

Shaking his head, Tim grumbles under his breath. “The answer is always blood magic. Stupid half-hearted sacrifices.”

“What was that, Drake? I believe Pennyworth has stated more than once that you shouldn’t mumble.”

Tim glares. This is why he doesn���t live at home anymore, even if it does mean he has to cook and clean for himself. “When you’re performing necromancy, it’s the act of killing one creature and releasing their life energy that’s used primarily to fuel the spell to raise the undead. The greater the sacrifice, the more powerful the spell.” He pushes his glasses up his nose. “What did you kill?”

Damian stands stiffly even as his dead cat howls again. This time, it doesn’t bother Tim so much. In fact, if he could get away with it, this would be a great way to scare away those pesky sales people who insist on knocking on his door all the time. How they manage to get past his wards, he hasn’t a clue.

“I didn’t kill anything,” the boy replies proudly.

“Then that’s why Athena is trying to eat you,” Tim retorts without missing a beat. “Did you really think you could raise the dead without sacrificing something?”

“I spilled over a third of a cup of my own blood.”

Tim frowns and tries really hard not to strangle Damian. There’s only one way to deal with this now. “No wonder she turned out like this. Give me the box.”

Damian stands protectively in front of it. “I will not let you hurt her.”

“The cat is dead, she won’t feel a thing,” Tim says. “You know this as well as I do, even if you don’t want to admit it.”

The kid sighs and looks away. They both pretend those aren’t tears he’s battling against in his eyes. “Fine,” Damian says after a moment. “Just…can I watch?”

Tim thinks about it briefly. It’s entirely possible the cat is possessed and if she is, then he’ll need Jason to help banish the demon, however minor it is. Summoner he may be, but he also has a surprising talent for holy magic. “Probably not,” he replies. “If she’s what I think she is now, I’ll need to call Jason and have him bring that flaming knife of his.” The one that burns blue from holy flames when in the presence of evil. Like in that one movie they like to watch and make fun of before moving on to more interesting things than wasting their time on a movie they’ve seen a million times already.

Damian shakes his head resolutely. “I’m the one who did this to Athena. I should see it through to the end.”

It’s a brave statement for a twelve year old boy but Tim rises from his work table to place a hand on Damian’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t want you to see this,” he says. “Remember her as the cat she was before.”

Not as the screaming doorstop he’s still half tempted to turn her into. Perhaps he can find a stuffed one online that he can reanimate. If anything, it would be an amusing way to spend Halloween and give the trick-or-treaters something to really scream about. He used to have a bird that would dive bomb unwanted visitors until Jason shot it.

Once again, they both pretend Damian isn’t crying when he turns his head away to stare at the wall and the gloomy bookcase full of arcane crap Tim inherited from his parents. Neither of them were exceptionally powerful in their craft but he makes up for that in spades.

“Okay,” Damian says in a small voice. “Will I be able to lay her to rest when you’re done?”

Tim nods. “I’ll make sure to save the all ashes for you.” All things considered, he feels he’s being a great big brother for not keeping some of the ashes aside for spell components. It would be well within his right to demand such and Damian knows it. “You should go now.”

Damian nods again and kneels in front of the now growling box. “I’m sorry, Athena. I should have known better. Farewell.”

The growling turns into a shriek as Damian leaves the room. Tim waits until he’s left the house before slipping on a pair of rune-stitched gardening gloves. He’ll need all the protection he can get.

Kneeling in front of the box, Tim carefully opens the lid. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with.”

He slams it shut almost instantly as a malevolent aura fills the room. “Shit.”

Well then. Time to call his other half. Picking up his phone, he presses his second most used speed dial. “Hey, Jace…you won’t believe what Damian did this time…”

#chibinightowl writes #Tim Drake #Damian Wayne #Mage!AU #background JayTim #undead cats

[gold3nladybug]

Let's build a Legacy Deck

I do a lot of thinking about magic; you've possibly realised that, since I post long diatribes about what the game means to me on a somewhat regular basis. However, I'm not really very... let's say creative in how I approach the game. I'm not looking to explore new ground, I'm mostly trying to be as good at this game as I possibly can be. I'm pretty competitive, but my motivation isn't really winning - it's more about improving.

Legacy is a beautiful format. Not just the cards themselves, but the complexity, diversity and unbelievable skill ceilings that you can strive to attain playing these cards. I always feel like there is so much more I can learn, so many things I can improve. The level of mastery that could be achieved with these cards is seemingly endless.

So it is only fitting that we start here:

Mercadian Masques is the best Brainstorm. Don't @ me.

Now, beyond that, it's actually not that easy to branch out too far. There is a very real, very challenging financial barrier to playing this amazing format (and indeed all non-rotating formats share this problem to some degree). I own a handful of blue duals, and that unlocks a certain subset of the format for me. I bought them over the course of a year or so, and they were much, much cheaper than they are now. I doubt I'll ever be able to justify buying more, and since I don't have the quantity of duals necessary for some decks, and I own zero Tropical Islands, that subset actually isn't that large. I also don't really own any of the cards to play non-brainstorm decks - no Death & Taxes, no Eldrazipost, no Lands, no Quinn the Eskimo (yup, that's a real deck name. Give it a google, its delightful).

So, I own Tundras. That means that in Legacy, I'm pretty much always playing Miracles. My collection supports that. But that isn't really where I think I wanna be right now

Beautiful.

Stoneblade has had a bit of a renaissance recently, putting up good finishes at a high level because someone recently decided "I think I should play Death's Shadow in Legacy" and almost won the Pro Tour. Decks that play white mana have a pretty solid answer to that, and Stoneblade's ability to switch strategies between defender and aggressor is really valuable. I loved Miracles with Sensei's Divining Top, but the deck was a problem, and without that card it can't always claim inevitably. You need to win the game somehow, and Batterskull is a pretty solid somehow. But it can't do it alone.

Here's the rest of the team.

Snapcaster Mage is a ridiculous magic card. There are a lot of good instants and sorceries, y'all. In a format like legacy, though, playing the full four copies can sometimes be a liability, especially if you don't have cards like Lightning Bolt that can let you convert excess mages into a noncommittal, one size fits all kinda spell. All the cards I have are pretty specialized, and Snapcaster Mage can be all of them. Absolutely wild. I hear Tiago Chan, the winner of the invitational that led to this card, became a professional wrestler.

Wild.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor set the gold standard for what a Planeswalker could be. It feels like a privilege to be able to play with this card sometimes. One thing that I find interesting, is that in my experience I am vastly more willing to +2 Jace as my main plan than others. I get that Brainstorming is awesome and all, but the elevator going up is pretty cool too. It doesn't create numerical advantage, but using Jace's fate seal can create a lot of qualitive advantage and also let's you use an ability that wins the game. I'm a fan.

Vendilion Clique, though, might just be one of my favourite magic cards. It does a whole lot of very cool things, the most important of which to me is create informational asymmetry. This game would be a lot easier if you knew all the cards your opponent had, and usually that means you have to play cards like Thoughtseize. But that card is gross. Also, don't sleep on using Clique to send one of your own cards away, especially if that card is an equipment that you can find with your stoneforge mystic.

Lastly, we have True-Name Nemesis. This card isn't always good, but when it is it's the best card in your deck. If creatures attacking or blocking matters in a game, there is no card that does either that is better for its cost than TNN. My copies are the only cards in my deck that are altered or signed, and I normally like having things be really consistent in my constructed decks, but you can see Zack Stella's beautiful signature. Can you blame me?

So that is how I'm going to win. How am I going to not lose?

Death's Shadow matches up so poorly against Swords to Plowshares, like damn. My pick for the most outrageous removal spell of all time, even with Assassin's Trophy coming down the pipeline, Swords to Plowshares solves so many problems. A lot of this post is just me gushing about these cards, and I understand that might not be the most engaging thing to read, but I really do just love so many of them.

The rest of these spells are broadly about patching holes up. One of the amazing things about Brainstorm is that you get to see a lot of cards each game, so having a few discrete answers to unusual problems can pay a lot of dividends. Council's Judgment and Enginnered Explosives can answer weird permanents that might otherwise beat me, and Supreme Verdict (though sometimes weird in a deck that wants to put creatures on the battlefield) will occasionally just bail you out. And while it might sound funny, it really is relevant that it is blue sometimes.

This is also the best counterspell art. Still don't @ me.

Force of Will is a bit of a weird card, because in a perfect world I wouldn't even want to play it. It is clunky, puts you down cards a lot of the time and is a massive hassle to play for retail. But also, sometimes Force is the only thing standing between you and rampant degeneracy. People play Belcher in this format! It is the glue that holds the format together.

And then we get to this, and I start to question if I actually know what I'm doing. Sometimes I make these really calculated choices, trying to eke out the smallest possible advantage. Other times I think to myself "yeah, that seems right" and this is one of those times. Flusterstorm is a really powerful, versatile piece of interaction that comes with inbuilt protection and scales throughout the turn. Great with Snapcaster Mage, but absolutely worthless some of the time. People play Chalice of the Void in this format!

Spell Snare is hyper specialized, but it does a lot of things that Flusterstorm can't. There are a legion of incredibly powerful, diverse threats that exist at 2cmc in this format; Baleful Strix, Hymn to Tourach, Tarmogoyf, Sylvan Library, enemy Snapcaster Mage, Counterbalance, Exhume, Infernal Tutor, etc, etc. Snare stops them all cold, but only them.

Spell Pierce is the middle ground, the bridge between two entirely different points of view. It's kinda boring, but its pretty okay at standing in for both of the other's jobs. Spell Pierce never wins employee of the month, but I hope it knows I appreciate it.

One last spell in the main deck, and its Search for Azcanta.

X marks the Spot! I play with checklist cards almost exclusively for any DFC cards that I use, even if I'm 100% sure the sleeves I'm using are completely opaque. It is way better to be safe than sorry, and I also like not needing to actually take my card out of the sleeve to flip it when I can have the real card off to the side in an inner to place on the board when I need it.

Once, when I was playing two Azcanta in a standard deck, I asked my teammate if I should have two Azcanta sleeved, one flipped and one not, because I couldn't actually have two in the same state on the battlefield. They looked like they wanted to slap me.

After that is just lands, and you probably don't want to see that...

Who are we kidding, the lands in a legacy deck are beautiful

I'm really proud of my legacy manabase.

This is also one of those examples of those really calculated choices, optimising for the smallest possible advantages. It turns out that you're only allowed to play four Flooded Strand, and after that NONE of the fetches get both basic Island and basic Plains. Normally this means a couple of Scalding Tarns, or whatever other blue fetch you have a few copies of, but why not extract the tiniest, most infinitesimal fraction of an advantage. What if they Pithing Needle Scalding Tarn? What if they're monsters who cast Surgical Extractions on random targets to see if they getcha? Well you're not going to get me, because I have insulated myself by playing three different blue fetches and an Arid Mesa.

Otherwise, Karakas is a lovely tech land against any sort of reanimator strategy, while also unlocking all sorts of fun play patterns with Vendilion Clique. Wasteland is playing in a similar space, being a low investment singleton that can be really good in some matchups, but I don't know if I like it. I might play an extra basic over it, we'll see.

But wait, I hear you asking, why are you playing Volcanic Island. You don't have any red cards!

Entirely fair question.

All the way from the sideboard, red cards.

As you might have gathered, there are some pretty amazing blue cards in legacy. I'm not one to let people just get away with playing blue cards. It's a little weird to have a 2/1 split of red blast effects, but it's just one of those micro optimizations. Sometimes they'll have a meddling mage naming Pyroblast, you know? Also, on my wishlist is a black border red elemental blast of some description. My pyroblasts just look so much prettier.

Also I guess I lied about TNN being the only signed card I play. But again, just look at Franz Vohwinkel's signature. Impossible to turn it down.

The rest of the sideboard is pretty easy to break down. A Hydroblast, because we can't let people get away with playing red cards either. An extra Flusterstorm, because it's just a fantastic card that usually gets better after sideboard. People usually have pretty good spells in their decks, and stopping Flusterstorm from countering those spells can be pretty challenging. Disenchant is a pretty good hedge a lot of the time, for a similar reason. People tend to have some high impact enchantments or artifacts kicking around, so I usually want a cheap way to fight that available to me. Containment Priest and the two Surgical Extractions are a concession to the speed and power of reanimation strategies, that also happen to have some really good splash damage against other really powerful strategies. I kind of want to make room for a Rest in Peace, but for now these will serve. Monastery Mentor is just one of those cards that, in a post sideboard game where a lot of the removal is gone and Pyroblasts imperil the battlefield and stack, can take over a game with extreme speed and quickly end it. It could also be something like a Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, but there's value in dodging Spell Pierce.

So the only part of this that might be a bit weird is the Spell Queller, Counterbalance package. My thinking is, coming from Miracles, that Counterbalance is sometimes an exceedingly powerful card. And sometimes it's pretty janky. It's hard to truly cut it from the main deck there, because it helps enable so many of the soft synergies in the deck (revealing for Predict, making all the cantrips that much better, finding spots to crack fetch lands for extra value), even though the times that it's bad it is so bad. But here, I've almost got the same amount of cantripping and deck manipulation as I would in Miracles, but my main proactive gameplan is strong enough that I don't need them in my main deck. It's a perfect card to slide into the sideboard, where I can access it both as a value engine for blue pseudo-mirrors and a desperate tool to fight combo as well.

Spell Queller was a card I considered for Vendilion Clique's spot for a long time. They are approximately as vulnerable as each other in the context of the format, but eventually the inability to profitably play it for value proactively gave Clique the nod. But the other main three drop I play kept me thinking about it. When it matters, TNN is exceptional. But when it's bad, there's nothing you want less; True Name feels like such a brick if your opponent is doing something degenerate. It's an easy swap in those situations for this powerful reactive spirit. Like Mentor, dodging Flusterstorm and Spell Pierce is a huge deal in winning counter wars while also transitioning into an aggressive stance. So many important cards are vulnerable to being quelled, and I'm honestly quite excited to play with it.

So... there you have it. That's my legacy deck. It's not perfect, and I'm sure before too long I'll end up putting Terminus back in here and going back to Miracles. It's hard to change decks in Legacy, and not just because of the price. These cards really do feel special, like you're playing with important pieces in the history of a really great, really important game. I hope I get to keep playing Legacy for a long, long time.

#mtg #i only own snapcaster mages #mtg legacy #lets build #trying not to eat the delicious cards