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dycefic · 1 year

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Tom Saves The World

Everyone knows that it’s super-heroes who save the world. They fight the aliens, or the monsters, or the bad guys. And mostly, that’s true.

But not always.

I’m a psychic. The thing is, my range isn’t that great. I don’t have much detail more than about 36 hours out, 48 for something really big. I’d had a nebulous sort of bad feeling for about a week before this one finally hit, and it was big. Something very tough and very supernatural was going to come up out of the harbor of Nova Roma, and the death-toll was going to be high. Crazy high.

I did all I could. I told the Unaligned Supers Job Placement Agency, and they put the word out to everyone on both sides of the Line. The Henchman’s Union don’t like natural disasters any more than anyone else, and they’re often quite helpful against eldritch horrors and stuff like that. Things that don’t hire henchmen and ruin the property values.

The trouble was, nobody big was around. The only really big team of heavy hitters on the West Coast were away dealing with some sort of doomsday cult - I never was clear on what that was about - and Guarde and Dog Fox were out of touch and even Mx Frantique was out of town at someone’s wedding. It was going to happen in less than two days and we couldn’t find anyone to help and I was seriously considering calling in some kind of bomb threat or something to get people away from the docks, at least.

And then, about eighteen hours out, it just… went away.

Which never, ever happens.

My powers might be short range, but they’re reliable. I don’t get stuff wrong, and I hadn’t been able to find any way to prevent what was going to happen, or even been able to identify anyone who could. But someone did. Someone had done something to stop the threat, something that happened literally while I was opening my car door. When I reached for the handle, thousands of people were going to die. By the time the door was open, there was no threat at all.

At first I thought it must have been a ranged thing. Like, whatever I’d been seeing (all those teeth, I saw them in nightmares for months after) had been distracted by something tasty on its way here and gotten off track, that it’d come up somewhere up or down the coast. My range isn’t that big, either. Anything outside about thirty miles might as well be on Mars for all I know about it. So we kept a watch out, and warned the chapters of the Union and the Agency in other cities.

But nothing happened. Nothing at all. I couldn’t explain it, and I was really unpopular for a while. Supers do NOT like people who cry wolf. There’s enough freaky shit we have to deal with without someone panicking everyone with a dire prophecy that fizzles out.

Thank all the gods that Tunny showed up. Nobody’s really sure what Tunny actually is - sentient fish creature, some kind of really mutated human, an alien, or what. She changes her story a lot. But she’s pretty friendly, especially for a twenty-foot-long horror-movie-mermaid-thing with four arms, so when she came into harbor to pick up some supplies a guy from the Agency went out to tell her what I’d seen. I’d gotten a wharf and dock number, so she went down to check.

I don’t think anyone had ever seen Tunny scared before. Her English wasn’t good enough to really explain what she’d found hibernating down there, but it was something very old and very powerful and very dangerous, and if it’d been woken up my vision would just have been the start of the crisis.

She rounded up a bunch of whales to help her move it, once she was sure it hadn’t been agitated and wasn’t likely to rouse if moved carefully. They towed it out before dawn, not wanting to scare the civilians, and when I saw the footage from the helicopter the Union sent up, when I saw how big the swell was, how many whales were pulling, I swear I nearly crapped myself. No wonder I’d been getting hints a week in advance. Somehow we dumbass humans had built a whole fucking city almost on top of some kind of Ancient Old… THING, and eroded the sea-bottom until it was exposed, and if someone hadn’t done whatever it was we’d all have been dead long before Tunny arrived. And not just all as in ‘all of Nova Roma’, it could have taken out half of the continent... or all of it.

It took me years to find out what happened. YEARS. It turned into a kind of hobby, tracking everything that might possibly have come into contact with Wharf 38 on that particular day.

And what I found, eventually, was a city employee named Thomas Briggs.

I’d found out early on that 38 wasn’t in good repair. Not that bad, but not great. It was old, things were getting a bit saggy in a few places, but there’d been no sign that anything was likely to fall off on the day. It had sat there for a couple of years after the crisis that never happened,, doing its job without problems then been rebuilt without any drama at all.

Entirely, completely, and totally because of Thomas Briggs.

The story, when I finally pieced it together, went like this.

There’d been some project or other to build some sort of high-budget science project over on the other side of the harbor, hanging it off’ve Pier 8, the furthest out on that side. Something about tracking sea-life or ships or something. My conversational English is near perfect, I’ve been here for years, but I don’t speak science nerd in ANY language. It’d all been approved, some university was covering most of the cost, it was all gonna be fine. And it was gonna be over on 8 because that side of the harbor is the shallow end. It’s where the sailboats go. All the big stuff that would block visual sensors and deafen the thing with engine noise was over in the thirties, in the real deep water.

They were almost ready to install the thing when a bunch of rich dudes suddenly got their panties in a bunch over having a big sciency tower thing ruining the view from their yachts, and tried to get it moved.

To, and I’m sure you guessed this, Wharf 38.

Which was completely insane. It wouldn’t be able to do its job over there, it’d be way more in the way, and (although they couldn’t have known it) the installation would definitely have woken up the Thing sleeping by the wharf and we all would have died. But rich dudes with yachts don’t care about that stuff. They’d bitched out and bribed up their friends on the city council, and those friends had done their thing, and the scientists had been left in the dark, and it’d almost gone through. They’d figured to install it right away, so that when the science guys found out it’d be too late and they’d either have to pay a lot to move it or just use it where it was.

Enter Thomas Briggs.

Mr Briggs, Tom to his friends, didn’t give a crap about the yachts or the science. He was a senior money guy for the commercial wharfs, the one who figured out things like how much money they’d take in in a quarter, and what the repair budget should be, stuff like that. He found out about this thing two days before the disaster would have happened, and sat down and did the math.

Then he sent out an email to the guys trying to push this through, and he ripped into them like they’d threatened to knife his mother. I got my hands on that email, and I didn’t understand a lot of it any more than the council guys would have. It was ALL numbers. But at the top he wrote it out in plain English. Pier 8 was new, and rated to handle the weight of the thingy. Wharf 38 was going to be scrapped in a few years, and it was NOT rated for that kind of structure. Pier 8 had plenty of room around it. Wharf 38 was already a tight fit for the big commercial ships, and adding a structure sticking out on one side would block off at least half of the wharf to those ships completely.

Bottom line, putting the thing on Wharf 38 would cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars more per year than putting it on 8, AND the city would have to eat the cost if 38 collapsed under it which it could easily do, AND the city would have to pay to move it in a couple of years anyway when 38 was due to be rebuilt.

And he cc-ed every important person he had an email address for, including the mayor, the anti-corruption people, and several reporters.

He must have sent that email right when I was opening my car door.

The whole plan collapsed right there, and some people got fired. There was no news story because the whole plan got killed before the reporters even got to the right office. The installation was started on Wharf 8 a few weeks later and I never connected it to a commercial wharf on the other side of the harbor.

One email, and a man who I never could have located in time, a man who had no powers at all, a man who was just conscientiously doing his job looking after the city’s money saved the city, and the continent, and maybe even the world.

Who could have predicted that? Not me, that’s for damn sure.

I can’t deny that I went home and got drunk off my ass that night. Just thinking about how close that had been made my hands shake. One man. One honest man who’d done the math.

I put the word out, once the hangover wore off. What had happened. That Thomas Briggs was the reason we were all alive and everyone better make his life real nice from now on, because he’d done what none of us could do and nobody but the supers would ever even know it.

He’s got a lot of luck coming to him, I can tell you. We don’t forget debts like that.

And I knew that’d freak him out, because honest men don’t like it when people start doing them a lot of favors for no apparent reason, so I tracked him down at the little bar where he likes to have a quiet beer on Friday nights before he goes home. Hell, I was the one who’d gone through it all, back then. I should get to tell him.

I sat down beside him at the bar and looked at him. I saw a thin, small, balding man who looked like he worried too much and didn’t get enough sleep, with lines around his eyes. Yeah, he looked like a man who’d do the math. “Thomas Briggs?”

He blinked at me through his glasses. “Yes? Do I know you?”

“No, you don’t. My name’s Barkhado Omar, and I’ve been looking for you for a long time.” I offered him my hand and he shook it, still looking confused. Which was fair, ‘cause I doubt a lot of seven foot tall Somali women came up to him in bars even when he was young. He’s got to be close to retirement now.

He frowned. “Looking for me? Why?”

I smiled at him. “Tom, let me buy you a drink and tell you about the day you saved the world.”

It’s usually us who save the city, or the world. We have all the intel, all the advantages, all the powers.

But sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s someone like Tom Briggs, doing the right thing at the right time and never knowing that he changed the course of history.

Wild, huh?

This story is a direct result of me and my ex chatting about how different the entire Marvel Universe would have been if Jean’s first ‘resurrection’ - being found in a life pod under a wharf, IIRC - had happened at like... any other time. Earlier. Later. It would have changed SO MUCH.

And we speculated about how it could happen, how someone just puttering around in middle management might have unknowingly saved countless lives, prevented Madelyne’s corruption, the legacy virus, all of it, just by postponing that particular set of repairs a bit longer.... and I couldn’t resist writing a version of the story in which Tom does, in fact, save the world.

#short fiction #dyce's supers universe #comics inspired #sometimes something just goes right #horseshoe repair

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rendy-a · 11 months

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Hey, um hi! I'm new here, nice to meet you, sorry I'm a bit awkward with requests

So, Could we have some of the Self aware AU with Idia and Sebek? It can be whatever you want, a headcanon or a mini one shot, whichever you prefer more^^

Thank you ahead!

~~~🌟🎃

The interesting thing with Self Aware AU is that you can write it like the game characters are aware of you as you play or you can write where the player is isekai’d into the game and everyone knows about it. Last time, I had written it in the perspective of playing the game irl. I thought this time, I’d write it as though the player was somehow drawn into the game. Hope you enjoy it.

Remember, the Self-Aware AU is a yandere AU!

When you’d awoken inside your favorite phone game…well, you’d freaked out. But then! You’d made one rule; never mention the game to any character. It was just strange. Plus, you weren’t sure how they’d react! It was a rule you’d managed to follow, until today.

You, like the character Yuu in your game, were a first-year student at NRC. As much as you’d liked to have avoided all the game characters to prevent triggering any dangerous events, you shared class with Ace and Deuce (plus lived with Grim). Over time, you’d been pulled into lunches and joint classes with all the first-year students. Thankfully, the first-year students weren’t where the problem was. That was with the Housewardens and you avoided them in every situation possible. You were relieved that the plot of the game had you living in such a remote dorm and excused you from attending any sort of club activities.

And yet, you sometimes wished you would meet the characters. It would be so cool to talk to your favorites, see them in actual real life! Only, you were also pretty sure the minute you came face-to-face, you’d say something embarrassing or stupid. Like you did when you met Ace and Deuce. You still cringe when you remember calling them the ‘single braincell duo’ to their faces. Yes, it was probably for the best that you took isolated halls to class to avoid the seniors. You wouldn’t want to turn the corner and ACK!

You rolled over from where you’d fallen and gazed up to see who or what you’d collided with. You recoiled in horror as nebulous blue flames made patterns across your vision. “What kind of ridiculous anime situation is this. Real people should look at where they are going in the hall. This place needs a mini-map to avoid NPC’s like this. I can’t believe on the one day I have to attend class in person some extrovert is lurking in my quiet hallway…” He hadn’t looked up from where he’d fallen but you could tell in an instant that you’d triggered some rare event and encountered a wild Idia.

You spend this small moment wondering if you should pretend to know him or not. He’s a Housewarden, so you should probably know who he is, right? But at the same time, he never leaves Ignihyde, so how would you know him? Maybe you should pretend to not know him. “It’s you,” a small voice interrupts your dilemma. You look up at Idia in surprise only to find a matching expression of surprise on his face. Then his mouth parts slightly and a string of words emerges. “What should I do? I didn’t prepare for this event. I’m not ready to meet my Oshi in person. How do I trigger the correct dialog option here? I’m going to get a death flag; I just know it…”

He says a lot of things, but one thing catches your attention: Oshi. Were you somehow Idia’s favorite? That can’t be, right? You let out a giggle at the absurdity of the situation. Idia’s eyes grow large, and he shrinks back at the sound, started to hear it coming from your mouth. “Don’t be so nervous Idia. Nothing bad is going to happen,” you say softly. When you speak to him, Idia loses control of himself and starts talking rapidly, “Of course! If the Player says so, then it is so. They are so amazing, like limited SSR class amazing. I don’t deserve to even be in their presence. They are probably thinking, who is this gloomy weirdo with the fire hair? Why is he dressed so strange, he probably doesn’t have any fashion sense.”

“That’s not true!” you shout, “I remember when your Ghost Marriage card came out! Oh my gosh! It looked so cool! It was totally my favorite card. I had to pull 200 times to get it!” Then you abruptly stop, realizing you’ve said too much when Idia’s hair turns completely pink. “I…I’m just going to go,” you say as you cover your face in embarrassment and walk back around the corner the way you had arrived.

The students of Ignihyde gave Idia a wide berth as he returned to the dorm. No one dared approach him while his hair flickered so violently from gentle pink to blazing red. Idia himself seemed entirely unaware of the bizarre show he was putting on. He continued mumbling and giggling to himself all the way back to his room. When he finally found the solitude of his inner sanctuary, he jumped on his bed and hugged his Player-print body pillow. “Hee Hee Hee!” he laughs out loud for no one to hear but himself. “I did it. I meet my Oshi!” Then he rolls over onto his back and stares dreamily into the ceiling, “They knew who I was. That must mean something. Maybe, this is fate?”

There was only one rule all the inhabitants of Twisted Wonderland had; don’t interfere with the Player. It was a rule he’d managed to follow, until today. Today, Fate intervened. If Fate wanted you two to be together, who was Idia to argue? As he stared at the ceiling, Idia’s engineering brain went into gear planning designs for a place he could take you where no one else could reach. A place where you’d finally be alone, with only him. Just like Fate had planned.

Over time, you’d noticed that the residents of Twisted Wonderland treated you differently. You remembered the first time you heard Crowley tell the aggravated student body he’d assigned weekend cleaning duty to all students to clean up the campus for their use…because he was so kind. While all around you, students started grumbling, you’d burst out laughing. When everyone had started looking at you, you’d choked off your laugh and covered your face. “Sorry, he just…he said the thing,” you managed to get out between smothered chuckles.

No one ever called you out on your strange behavior. It was like they all collectively got together and decided that you were allowed to behave in any way you chose. They, on the other hand, often seemed to struggle with deciding if they should act normally in your presence or not. The number of times you’d slipped into a room of rowdy students to have the conversation cut off into a silent awe was alarming. Today was just another example.

You’d gotten back after a class and lay in your bed, bored. You’d think that being pulled into your favorite game would give you endless entertainment but, after a time, it just settled into being exactly like school in your world. The only difference is you occasionally went out looking for locations or characters in the game, like a sort of anime pilgrimage. Sometimes, you’d been caught in awkward situations, but you’d just sort of nod and say, “This all looks fine,” and leave. No one has ever called you out on your intrusions. So…you just felt free to invite yourself anywhere you were curious to go. Today, you thought about things you were interested in and decided that you’d go to some of the clubs to find out what the club uniforms looked like. After all, not all those cards were released; it’s like the ultimate preview!

You were almost used to the way things fell silent when you entered the stable yard. Members of the Horseback Riding Club stopped what they were doing to stare at you. Those who faced away noticed the attention of their fellows and turned to see you before they too, fell silent. In almost no time at all, they had casually circled you, as though waiting for you to hand out some sort of instruction or give a speech. You rubbed your head and thought, guess it’s time to break out the old ‘nothing to see here’ and bounce. Before you could though, a call broke the silence. “HUMAN!”

You turned toward the sound, an eager expression coming over you. Were you about to experience the famous rants of Sebek? As you hoped, Sebek was loudly berating students at the outer edges of the semi-circle for their inattention during club activities. You eased yourself forward, hoping to catch sight of him. No one tried to bar your way, parting before you as you progressed. You easily reached his side and leaned forward to watch his antics. Suddenly, he turns and grabs onto YOU! “HUMAN, YOU AREN’T EVEN DRESSED YET! THIS SORT OF SLOVENLY BEHAVIOR…” and then he trails off as he looks at your face and you can see the awareness fall over him.

His eyes go wide, and he immediately let’s go of your shoulder, visibly taken aback. He stammers and you imagine you even see tears gathering in his eyes. You think to yourself, time to find a way out of this before things get even worse. “I…I’m here for an inspection…” you say carefully. All the gathered students listen intently, standing just a touch straighter. “Sebek, I have decided…I have decided to see how many push-ups you can do in a minute.” It made no sense, and you knew it made no sense. You wondered if this would finally be the time someone calls you on your BS but instead, Sebek perks up to an extreme degree. “YES, OF COURSE! RIGHT AWAY!” he bellows.

You stand at his side as he begins, pretending to care far more than you do about the results of this demonstration. Honestly, it is impressive. The speed at which he sets out to complete the exercises is extreme. You wonder for a moment just what sort of training Lilia DOES give to Sebek and Silver to get them to this level of fitness. When he is finished with the allotted minute, he jumps to attention, standing much as you’d imagine he does on guard over Malleus. You give it a moment and then say, “Yes, that will suffice. You may all return to your duties now.” Having ordered the students to depart, they comply with a surprising speed. They all still watch you but now they do it while pretending to be engaged in filling buckets with water or looking over curry combs.

You give one final nod to Sebek and say, “Good job,” before you walk away. That was more than enough excitement for one night. You’d rather spend the rest of the evening in Ramshackle than deal with any more things like this tonight. Behind you, Sebek watches you go in awe. You praised him; you told him he did a good job. Before you quite got out of earshot, you heard one last shout, “SILVER WAKE UP! THEY PRAISED ME, THE PLAYER PRAISED ME!” You laughed to yourself, what a strange world this was.

That evening in Diasomnia, Sebek carefully pulled his portrait of Malleus off the wall. Nestled behind it was a photograph of the Player. He gazed at it reverently. They’d spoken to him today; praised him even. He wasn’t yet over it. He thinks we will never get over it. He places your photo next to his pillow as he lays down to sleep. In the morning, he’ll put it back behind the portrait. He’d not dare to change his room’s layout from what the Player knows! But for tonight, he’d fall asleep to your face and the remembrance of your voice. Someday…maybe he’d not even need to use a photograph. ‘NO!’ he tells himself sternly, ‘the Player is not for you!’ And yet, some dark corner of his mind tells him that ‘good job’ is just a small step away from ‘I love you.’

#twst #self aware au #twisted wonderland #yandere twst #tw: yandere #yandere idia x reader #yandere idia shroud #yandere sebek x reader #yandere sebek zigvolt

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eldritch-spouse · 6 months

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Bro that whole fucking thing where Admin got stuck in a wall and fucked by the staff was POGGERS!!!!!

Can we get vice versa? As in TCE staff getting wall fucked??

TW: Noncon.

In reference to this post.

You know who loves this, don't you? Santi. It's not his first time "getting stuck" in a wall, and it won't be his last. He'll readily perk up upon being touched and you can probably hear him moaning and begging from the other side. Whether you choose to stuff his ass or suck him off, Santi's having a great time and he hopes someone shows up to fuck his face too. He wants you to call others, wants to be taken advantage of viciously.

Morell is dying. Like actually dying inside. The way he tenses as soon as you feather a hand over his ass, cursing obscenities through the wall, banging on it with his fists. Oh, there'll be trouble. You may get him to quiet down and hear him moan quietly if you only choose to touch his cock, but put even just a finger up his ass and this man will try to buck you off like a rabid bull. Make sure he cums from it so Morell is forced to admit anal isn't all that bad.

Gallon can't really get stuck in a wall. What could happen is that he'll take a small eternity to wedge himself out of a tight spot. In that span of time, he can easily angle his body to avoid penetration in certain spots, but he's still likely to get fondled in general and shudder about it.

Grimbly is also another one you should be careful with. Even if he looks small and helpless, Grimbly has sharp and fast legs, you'll get something punctured if he doesn't like where things are headed. Fortunately, so long as you're moderately gentle, Grimbly's happy to mewl and lean into what's being done to him, cock leaking between his clenched legs.

Patches is hard in very little time. He shudders ans gasps at the first touch, though might very quickly turn to begging and rasped cries. Part of him hopes he's absolutely torn apart, that you'll crush his balls and slash his skin, carve little messages there. Of course, you should punish him for finishing when things barely get started too.

Nebul will despise this day for the rest of his unlife. Because lots of people want to put him in his place, most of all you probably. You'll be able to hear his threats and feel the wall rumble with the intensity of his voice, but he's helpless. The only way Nebul can resist is by keeping as quiet as possible. And he clings to that viciously.

Vinnel is deathly afraid that somehow, someway, someone might succeed in ripping his suit- Which is unlikely. People will hump and try to free his cock, but he won't let them, spending the whole time berating whoever touches him for being gross little things who would pathetically grind on him. It's the only line of defense he has while he desperately tries to keep his erection from showing too much.

Belo is panicking so hard. Everytime he's touched, he puffs up and booms threats at whoever's there. And honestly, you'd need a sturdy fucking wall to keep him in place. He squawks and tries to lean away from touched to his slit and cock, trembles when his ass is spread and hopelessly goes limp at some point, asking for forgiveness from Krulu when he starts to take pleasure from his own assault.

Fank-e can honestly just demolish most walls. But. He might not, for some reason or another, maybe to prevent anything from falling onto his visor. He can and will take most of whatever's done to him giggling, enjoying it even. Until someone figures out how to remove Fank-e's cock/robussy and runs off with it. Then he'll get mad.

Sybastian is another one who's panicking, mostly because he hates the sensation of feeling trapped. He's going to try to shift into different things you'll have difficulty fucking, but if you assure him it's just you and you're not going to do something wild, Sybastian will actually spread his legs so you can touch him better. Do get him the fuck out of here though.

There's absolutely no wall that can keep Krulu contained. And even if you could, are you ready to seal yourself into a fate worse than death?

#Morell oc #Santi oc #Patches oc #Belo oc #Gallon oc #Nebul oc #Fank-e oc #Sybastian oc #Grimbly oc #Krulu oc

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interstyx · 2 months

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The longer this workplace abuse situation goes on the less I'm inclined to believe it. At face value it's a very typical development for entertainment companies -- I presume at least some of you know about Telltale Games and Kindly Beast, just to name some -- but the more testimonies that come out the fishier this smells.

We know that there were some bad times during the production of Meta Runner but the given narrative of insanely quick artist turnout and crunch just isn't supported by the actual credits in MD + TADC pilot, which remain consistent and even expand throughout. If there's indeed crunch/a high turnout, it must've then stopped before MD began production or started after TADC's pilot aired, which does not line up with the narrative laid out by the testimonies at all; these suggest years of workplace toxicity and a kind of studio-wide culture change that could not have happened so quickly, all of it made weirder by Kevin Temmer's hiring (who I understand has been through industry abuse/crunch before).

To be clear -- I think Celeste's firing is a completely fucked situation, but that we'd be wiser to separate it from the AnimeAmerica testimonies. One's confirmed true by name + Glitch responded to it, the other's all uncharacteristically vague anonymous testimony.

That's my main sticking point; the testimonies themselves are very nebulous and I believe they only evolved in detail as skepticism began piling about them. This could very well be a whole buncha cope on my part but flowery language like the last testimony's "yet you [Kevin Lerdwichagul] sit on your broken throne" is very odd when it comes from an exposing of workplace abuse. It's the kind of thing you'd find in a breakup letter, not a years-later testimony is what I'm trying to say.

It's extra weird that the testimonies would be anonymous too -- Glitch isn't exactly an established player in the industry, so I don't see how blacklisting would be a concern [EDIT: though NDAs could be behind that], and by now you'd expected some ex-employee identities to have begun coming out instead of all of them being anonymous. A personal impression that could easily turn out wrong; all of the AnimeAmerica testimonies [which are themselves not verified sources, even if the person posting them is] read awfully similar to have come from different people with different trajectories, and it's definitely eyebrow-raising that they get crazier and more flowery with time.

In any case, if there's any truth to the narrative we'll see so in the credits to MD ep7. There'll be a lot of missing names compared to ep6's/TADC's, or they'll stay mostly the same.

#murder drones #glitch productions #tadc #smg4

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asha-mage · 5 months

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WoT Meta: 'Salvation and Rebirth'

One thing that is fascinating to me about The Wheel of Time is that, despite the fact that the two of the biggest influences on Robert Jordan's cosmology are traditional Hinduism and Protestant theology (in general but especially American Protestantism), as near as I have been able to determine on my 20+ re-reads his world has neither a concept of karma or heaven.

Karma- the belief that your deeds in your current life will impact your rebirth in your next life (to vastly simplify)- is very Big Deal in Hinduism (and several other related religions, such as Buddhism- another big influence on Jordan's cosmology) and yet it is entirely absent from anyone's belief system in the WoT. No one seems to attach strongly to the idea that terrible deeds in your past life might be the source of your misfortune in this one, or that the reason to do good things in this life is to ensure a better rebirth next time. People hope for rebirth into a better life all the time, but they treat this as a capricious whim of fate, not something their actions might reasonably impact.

Interestingly though, some characters do subscribe to semi-related idea, not from Hinduism, but Christianity: Godly living. This is the idea that all troubles are self inflicted, and that if you just work hard, live virtuously, and embrace God ('walk in the light') nothing bad will happen to you ('you wont attract the Dark One's attention'). But their is no serious suggestion that this might be tied to past or future lives, and also the series takes great pains to demonstrate that it's wrong. Bad things happen to seemingly good people all the time (including Our Heroes), and if their is rhyme or reason to be found in it, it's usually the result of a working of fate so vast that the characters involved can not perceive it with their limited knowledge and view. This is one of those central themes of the series that I find so compelling and one Moiraine lays out in TDR (and during her confrontation with Logain in the show): The Wheel itself is not good or evil, it just is, and it weaves fate to a design so intricate and so massive that the human lives pulled about within it are given as much care as....well, as the loom gives to a single strand in a tapestry.

In the same vein the idea of a heaven- an enteral paradise, even just an intermediate one between rebirths, is also absent from Jordan's world building. Their is a belief that your soul will return to the nebulous 'Light' upon death if you where a good person and be taken by the Dark One if you where a bad, but no one seems to equate the 'returning to the Light' with being rewarded for good actions with a paradise where all their desires and needs will be meet, and where they get to chill out until, presumably, its time to be reborn. The idea of Heaven- that earthly suffering being rewarded after death with eternal salvation is a Big Deal in pretty much all Christianity but especially Protestantism, which fundamentally is/was about the idea that salvation could not be gate kept by earthly institutions and was solely the providence of God to deny or grant. The closest you get in Jordan's world any kind of afterlife is the World of Dreams, where the Heroes of the Horn (and only the Heroes) await their rebirth. But that can't properly be called a Heaven- not when nightmares walk it, and the conflicts of the living world can easily, and frequently do, seep inside. Not to mention any mortal can reach it without having to die- by just going to sleep.

And which, on that note, the very idea of the Heroes of the Horn is contradictory to the idea of an eternal salvation. In a system where their is salvation after death, the Heroes would be rewarded for their valor and heroism with eternal peace. Instead their reward is endless lifetimes of adventure, which means endless conflict but also endless legends and stories, as well as the chance to keep making the world better, righting wrongs and putting fate back on track. In this way the Heroes of the Horn are clearly inspired by the idea of the Dashavatara from Hinduism- mortal incarnations born specifically right the ship of cosmic order when fate/the world is getting out of whack. But interestingly, in Hinduism the Dashavataras (and the other avatars) are all Gods taking mortal flesh, and so inherently divine. This is an idea, once again, that many people in Jordan's world believe to be true (most notably the Prophet and his followers) but isn't- Rand isn't the Creator in the flesh, or a vessel of the Light. He's just a person, one whose heroic nature and kind heart earned him a place as a Hero of the Horn, but still mortal beneath all else that he is. And that fallibility, that reality that he isn't a God, that he can bled, be hurt, die, even turn to the Shadow- is a core part of understanding Rand's character arc.

One final thought on this (and the thing that started me thinking on the subject to begin with since The Fires of Heaven is where we are introduced to this idea for the first time in the books): there is something incredibly fascinating to me that to the characters in Jordan's world, the highest and most sacred oath you can swear is on 'your hope of salvation and rebirth'- which taken in the lens of our world are two fundamentally opposed ideas. For Christians salvation is eternal- the salvation of the immortal soul in Heaven free from earthly suffering. In Hinduism, rebirth by definition means continuation on earth, a chance to redeem past mistakes, to better the world, to make new good karma that will enrich your fate.

And yet, the characters in Randland don't view them as contradictory (or if someone does we never hear them voice that thought). Which makes me suspect that salvation and rebirth refers to the Prophecies of the Dragon and the hope they will come true. Salvation in this context is not the salvation of the soul, but the salvation of the world, the wheel, the pattern, fate- saved to continue on into eternity. Rebirth refers the hope you will get to be reborn again- which would only be denied to a person should the Dark One triumph and remake the world....or maybe even the hope that the Dragon will be reborn to save the world, to bring salvation to earth.

That would mean the oath came from a time when the Prophecies where fresh and new, before False Dragons tore countries asunder in wars and before hatred and fear of the Dragon had time to embed itself.

But by then, as often happens we are told, the origins, the why, where forgotten, even the tradition remained, and so no one realizes that, to this day, the most sacred of oaths, including the Three Oaths of Aes Sedai, are sworn in the name of the Dragon and on the hope of his coming.

#Wheel of time #WoT #WoT on PRime #Wheel of time on Prime #Wot Meta #Wheel of Time Meta #Rand al'Thor #Moiraine Damodred #I think about this series WAY to much #I don't think their are any spoilers in this so I'm going to leave it untagged #everything mentioned is either an idea the show has established or a vague allusion

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thedrarrylibrarian · 11 months

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Hey!Can you please recommend me some fanfictions where harry sees draco's sectumsempra scars and feels absolutley guilty?

It need not be the main focus of the story,but one good scene about it would do!

Thanks.

Hello, hello! Your holds have arrived!

I loved your ask, and appreciated the openness of it, as I think not being limited to completely Sectumsempra focused fics allowed me to pick some extra great fics! In general, for this list, the shorter the fic, the more focused on the Sectumsempra scene/scars it is. Hope you enjoy!

Sectumsempra Scars

That Won't Erase It by @triggerlil (539 words, rated M)

Two men, a multitude of scars, one intimate moment.

I'm Sorry (it doesn't matter) by @carpemermaidtales (words 637, rated M)

Harry trailed off and pressed a kiss to Malfoy’s temple. “I’m still sorry, all the same. I wish that hadn’t happened. I wish you weren’t scarred from it. I guess now I know why you always insist on showering at home instead of in the training centre.”

“Well, that, and the facilities are appalling,” Malfoy muttered acidly.

Harry froze. He hadn’t realised Malfoy was awake.

Sectumsempra Scars by @drarrily-we-row-along (1,055 words, rated T)

Harry woke up first the following morning. He’d shifted, rolling toward Draco and opening his eyes; he wasn’t prepared for the sight that met him.

The normally flawless skin of Draco’s chest and abdomen was covered with raised scars, scars that intersected and crossed all the way up to his neck, one trailing as high as his cheek.

And for a minute, Harry tried to piece together what could have happened in his bed overnight.

life's like an hourglass glued to the table by @phoebe-delia (1,455 words, rated T)

I really don't know how it got like this.

That's not true, yes I do. Of course, I do. I was there, near the middle of it all; not the epicenter, not the periphery, but somewhere within the nebulous part in-between. I was close enough to be scathed, to be one of the supporting characters—though I'm fairly certain my support was the problem—but I was neither protagonist nor antagonist.

Phoenix in the Fire by @fw00shy (1,466 words, rated E)

Their first time was an accident. "Sex pollen," Draco claims, though everyone knows it was too much Ogden's after Puddlemere beat the Tornados 240-230.

"He's like a vengeful sex demon after he's lost," Harry confesses in the privacy of Hermione's kitchen. "A lustful, bitter jackhammer."

Sun Stroke by @peachpety (3,854 words, rated E)

Draco, Harry, and a handful of friends take a summer holiday at the beach. With the help of a sultry sea setting, encouraging friends, and a fisherman’s jumper, Harry and Draco's mutual attraction swells and things get hot on a salty summer night.

Erase the Shame by @fleetofshippyships-archive (6,763 words, rated E)

An Inter-House unity party is the last thing Draco wants to go to. It's not long into a game of Truth or Dare when he is reminded why.

But maybe his dare is worth it after all.

In The Company of Serpents by @corvuscrowned (24,954 words, rated E)

There’s something wrong with the serpents at the Greengrass Ophidiarium. Luckily, a certain Parselmouth just might be able to help.

Oh, Sinnerman by @lou-isfake (40,068 words, rated E)

“I’m serious, Potter,” Malfoy said quietly. “That was some real bad luck you had, being there last night. They will come after you, and they will kill you—after torturing you for information on my whereabouts.” He pocketed Harry’s wand, but held on to his knife, twirling it between his fingers. Harry was distracted by its movement, the reflections of the bright, dawning sun on polished silver. “I’m not happy about it, either, but you’re stuck with me for the foreseeable future.”

He watched Malfoy’s face for a long time, in a staring contest he wasn’t sure he’d signed up for. Stuck with Malfoy, for the foreseeable future, on the run from a massive crime syndicate that had infiltrated the Ministry and was out for their blood.

It was all very familiar, except for the Malfoy part.

Everything is Relative to You by @thehoneybeet (43,111 words, rated E)

Potter was supposed to have lived. Draco is certain of this. That Potter would no longer walk the earth was tantamount to the sun moving west to east across the sky. If only he could have stopped this from happening, if he’d have known…

It comes to him as ideas often did: too late.

Or, Harry dreams of his past lives, and Draco is in every one.

Not From Kindred Stock by @p1013 (45,779 words, rated E)

"Potter!" Draco calls again, but this time he pauses at the sound of his voice. "Potter?"

Something is very wrong.

Because now that he's gained a little of his equilibrium back and the room is no longer spinning, Draco has a sinking realisation that his voice doesn't sound rough or gravelly, but rather different. Different like his vision and the feel of his body around his bones and the bloody goddammned fucking clothes on his—shagging Salazar, God fuck, this isn't his body.

Among Ancient Pines by @graymatters (73,981 words, rated M)

Every day, Draco Malfoy tries. With every fiber of his being he tries. But he doesn’t much think about what he’s trying for.

In his final term of Healer training, Draco is unfortunate enough to find himself on a plane, the only means of traveling to a small, magical town in rural Alaska. Years of hard work have culminated in an opportunity to work with an experimental wandmaker to study the intersection of Healing and wand theory. When Draco arrives, he doesn't find the wandmaker, but does find his apprentice, who happens to have ridiculously messy hair, a lightning bolt scar, and a definitely-not-charming smile. But Draco isn’t going to let Harry Potter get in the way of him becoming a successful medical researcher, even if Potter is stubborn, hot-tempered, reckless, surprisingly gentle, has bizarre taste in music, and likes to leave his shirts unbuttoned. How hard could the next few months be?

A fic about challenging assumptions, discovering self-worth, the silver lining in failing to meet expectations, and finding friendship, love, and purpose in a small Alaskan town that’s steeped in magic.

in the dark by @toxik-angel (81,213 words, rated M)

Draco Malfoy may not have a Manor or money or status or a family or friends, but he has his looks, and goes into the glamorous modeling field.

And listen. Listen. No one can blame Harry for being obsessed with him all over again.

Bolts by @lqtraintracks (114,500 words, rated E)

Harry joins the Hogwarts staff as the new History of Magic Professor, while Draco has already been teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts for the past year. When Samantha, a first year, is being bullied one day and throws a made-up Truth curse at her harasser, only to accidentally hit Harry instead, Harry becomes cursed to tell the truth, and not only that, he has to regularly tell it to Draco Malfoy. Samantha is clearly gifted, maybe the most powerful witch or wizard to ever come through Hogwarts, and yet she has no idea how to take the curse off. As they work to remove it—and also teach Samantha how to control a power that's becoming more dangerous by the day—will Harry's truths become too much to handle? And will whatever’s going on with Draco just make everything exponentially worse?

❤️ As always, if you find a fic you enjoy, please remember to leave the author a kudos or a comment! ❤️

Lots of Love and Happy Reading!

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spacemagicandlaserswords · 1 year

Text

Open and Waiting (Chapter 2)

Gif from this post by @ashr-jedi

Summary: Hunter makes an appearance. You continue to warm Tech’s cock with your mouth and ruminate on previous experiences with Crosshair, Wrecker and Echo.

Relationships: Tech x f!reader, a little bit of Hunter x f!reader, mentions of Crosshair x f!reader, Echo x f!reader and Wrecker x f!reader

Warnings: NSFW, cock warming, voyeurism, domination, submission, Dominant Tech, submissive reader, poor self worth, feelings, smut with feelings, sexual inexperience, inexperienced reader, polyamory, gag reflex, pretend sci-fi technology/science, pretend Star Wars planets and locations, not beta read. Mentions of: Deep throating, face fucking, fingering, thigh fucking, tit fucking, bukkake, cum as lube, finger fucking, grinding, toys, butt plug.

Word Count: 2085 (Chapter 2)

Authors Notes: Please read the warnings! And please let me know if you enjoyed it. The filth continues. Interspersed with … feelings? In my smut? It’s more likely than you think.

I realised I forgot to give any context for where this story sits timeline wise and who the character of the reader is! Timeline wise, this happens at some nebulous point after Echo joins The Bad Batch and before Order 66. The reader is part of the Batch but beyond that you can interpret them however you wish. The most common example I've seen is a medic but a jedi, mechanic, intelligence officer or some other random reason for the reader being in the squad could all work as well. Whatever works for you. The main thing is that the reader is a submissive that the Batch share between themselves and are the reader's dominants. The Batch are all Dom’s in the AU of this fic, but they all have different ways of approaching it, which you’ll hopefully get a little inkling of in this chapter.

Chapters: One, Three, Four, Five, Six | Ao3

Open and Waiting (Chapter 2)

I don’t know how much time passes but eventually I hear the faint hiss of the cockpit door opening and a soft, smooth stride moves out into the main area of the ship.

Hunter.

Our sergeant can be completely silent when he wants to be, so he’s deliberately making sure his approach can be heard. An existence created purely for tracking means that he’s basically permanently stealthy. It can be decidedly startling when he just appears next to you out of nowhere. We really need to put a bell on him or something. Though he’d probably figure out how to move so that it didn’t make a sound. Sneaky bastard.

A gruff voice at the end of the workbench announces his arrival.

“That’s in more bits than when I saw it last.”

“Yes.” Tech replies. “I hypothesised that the size of the casing could be reduced by 2.56% if I reconfigured the internal power connectors into a series of bi-linear couplings. I am currently applying this theory to the prototype you see before you, hence the 'bits' on the workbench.”

“That’s a lot of parts to shove into a small box.” responds Hunter.

“They will fit.” Tech testily replies.

“I don’t doubt that.” Hunter answers.

There’s a brief pause while Tech zaps something and Hunter shifts slightly to the side.

I think I’m being inspected.

Hunter definitely can’t have missed that I’m currently naked, kneeling between Tech’s thighs with my eyes closed, hands restrained behind my back and Tech’s cock stuffed in my mouth.

“You went with the leather cuffs then.” Hunter states.

I am definitely being inspected.

“They are more suited to the purposes of this exercise.” Tech explains. “The focus is on sensation and submission and as an introduction to this practice, I thought it pertinent to ease into the experience gently. The leather cuffs provide an acceptable level of restraint and serve as a reminder of their position, both physically and mentally.”

“Plus you made them.” Hunter adds.

“Correct. Both the wrist cuffs and collar are of my own design and creation.” Tech replies.

They’re talking about me like I’m not even here. Like I’m not currently desperately drooling around Tech’s cock, unable to move or escape their gaze. The thought makes my pussy throb.

“Oh, she’s enjoying this.” Hunter laughs.

“I trust you can smell her arousal.” Tech asks, though it’s not framed as a question.

“Yup.” Hunter answers. “I could smell her in the cockpit like she was in there. It’s stronger than usual.”

“I have observed a number of indicators of her heightened state of arousal myself.” Tech adds.

“Is this what she’s been worrying about?” asks Hunter.

“If by ‘this’, you mean the practice of cock warming that the two of us are currently engaging in, then yes.” Tech replies.

“You’ve just got your dick in her mouth.” Hunter observes bluntly.

“Yes.” replies Tech. “That is the point.”

There’s a rather telling pause and I can just picture the looks that are being exchanged. An arched, tattooed eyebrow is probably being met with a decidedly unimpressed flat stare emanating from behind yellow lenses. Another slip of drool spills from the corner of my stretched mouth and runs down my chin to join the rest of the mess that is covering my face.

Tech shifts and launches into a lecture. There’s probably a finger being raised.

“Cock warming is the practice of placing one's cock in an orifice of one's partner. This can be done via the mouth, rear or vagina, if the penetratee possesses that particular genitalia. The cock is then left inside the partner's orifice where they are to keep it warm. The name speaks for itself. Outside of the basic principle of the act, the parties involved can agree on various additional stipulations, such as how long the penetratee must keep their partner's cock inside them or if they are allowed to move or make noise. I have read numerous accounts where both partners extol the virtues of this practice, describing it as surprisingly peaceful and an excellent way of entering subspace.”

“I’m sure it’s enjoyable, I’ve just never heard of it, that’s all.” Hunter supplies.

“I must admit that I was not overly familiar with the practice myself but it has proved to be a most enjoyable addition to our play thus far.” Tech provides.

I could already tell he was enjoying it, given the harness of his erection currently occupying my mouth. Hearing the verbal confirmation just adds to the feeling of deep satisfaction and submission warming in my chest. Another shiver runs through my body and I can feel more of my saliva pool in my mouth.

“Was there a reason for your interruption of my work?” Tech directs at Hunter in a slightly curt manner.

“That’s not the only thing I’m interrupting” Hunter snarks back.

“Quite.” Tech leaves the implication implicit.

Hunter sighs briefly before adding “Yeah we got a comm from the 369th.”

“Ah. Are they still experiencing difficulty with the Separatist base built into the side of the Markontia Gorge on Bezril IX?” Tech asks, fully aware of the answer already.

“Yeah, they might need our help with their current campaign but nothing’s confirmed yet so we’re on standby for now. If they need us to blast a hole into the Seppie base then we should hear back by the next rotation.” Hunter adds.

“Wrecker will be pleased.” Tech comments.

“I can think of something else that would please Wrecker.” Hunter slyly hints at.

“Wrecker may make use of our shared submissive when it is his turn.” Tech replies swiftly, irascible intent laced through the words, making it crystal clear that I am his right now.

“Additionally, he has made it quite clear that he does not wish to test the limits of her capacity for oral penetration until her gag reflex has improved.” Tech adds.

A slice of shame and disappointment cuts through me. I’ve always had problems with my gag reflex. Lack of experience will do that to you, I guess. I’ve been slowly working on improving it and they’ve all been so gentle and careful and patient with me. I desperately want to be able to deep throat each of them or be face fucked into a wall one day. At the moment though, the best I can manage is the tip of one of their cocks at the back of my mouth and even that still sets the damn thing off sometimes.

Wrecker has been so sweet about it. There is no denying that he is exceptionally well endowed and that his cock is, well, enormous, to put it bluntly. The poor man is well aware of it too. There is nothing I’d love more than to be absolutely impaled on his thick cock, but the first time I saw it I did worry that I’d never be able to fit it in me. I still do but we’re slowly getting there. He’s been so wonderful and understanding of my current abilities and their limits. Wrecker is such a beautiful human to experience pleasure with. He’s so full of joy about the entire thing. I didn’t have a great deal of experience before somehow ending up with all of them and I’d never had a joyful sexual encounter before Wrecker. I didn’t even know it was possible and had burst into tears afterwards. He’d been so alarmed and concerned that he’d inadvertently hurt me but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. Thankfully, he’s the most emotionally intelligent out of all of them and we’d had a wide-ranging, open and reassuring conversation about sexual experience and intimacy as I lay curled against his chest. I still struggle with tensing up sometimes and Wrecker has been a great boon in getting me more accustomed to preparation. He’s a big proponent of lube and has a whole assortment of different types that we’re slowly working our way through. One or two of his fingers are more than enough to open me up and I could have those big, thick, slicked up digits sliding in and out of me for hours.

And there is nothing quite so wondrous as lying there laughing and kissing and giggling as he fucks my thighs. Wrecker has been very keen to emphasise that there’s more to sex than just penetration and we’ve been exploring some intriguingly varied ways to experience pleasure together. The first time he’d fucked my tits was something else. His oleaginous, lubed cock sliding between my breasts, cupped in his massive hands as his fingers and thumb played with my nipples. When he’d finally exploded all over my chest, neck and face, I don’t think I’d ever been covered in quite so much cum.

Well, at least not until we had that bukkake session. Trying to get cum out of your hair in a sonic is difficult to say the least and Hunter ended up hand washing it out for me. It had been worth it though for the way they had all looked down at me while they pumped their cocks and came all over my obedient, kneeled form, mouth hanging open and tongue out to catch as much as I could.

I’d knelt there afterwards like a statue. Covered in their cum, stained and claimed in their release. Rivets of translucent white slowly running down my skin. I could feel it pool in the hollow of my neck and drip off my nipples. It sounds ridiculous but in that moment I just wished I could exist like that forever, eternally marked as theirs. Just like I wish I could openly and proudly display the marks they leave on my skin, claims bruised into my neck for all to see. They are all such wonderful dominants, each unique in their own approach. I’m eternally thankful that they all chose me to be their submissive. I would happily serve at their feet and allow them to use me as they pleased for the rest of my existence if this damn war wasn’t going on.

I do need to work on having a bit more self preservation though. One of them is bad enough but whenever they end up scheming together, they start coming up with Plans and Ideas. That’s how I then found myself wiping their cum off me with my hands before eating it in front of them like some lewd and licentious spectacle. Being made to finger yourself using the cum of your dominants as lube while they watch is also a whole new level of depravity. I’d had to beg each of them for permission to cum before I’d finally been allowed to finger fuck myself into oblivion.

Wrecker isn’t the only one that is explicitly clear that their boundaries for playing with me are guided by my current abilities. Crosshair steadfastly refuses to even entertain my suggestion of face fucking until I can, in his words, “keep my balls against your chin, doll”. Echo had gone all serious when I had timidly requested to go down on him for the first time. There had been some stern yet heart-felt words about the importance of pacing and not rushing into things or pressuring yourself to try something you’re not ready for. We’d ended up grinding against each other instead, which was just as enjoyable. It meant I got to watch him come undone as I thrust my hips into his groin and then he’d made me straddle his leg and grind myself to completion on his thigh. There is something about the sensation of smooth durasteel gliding under your wet, sensitive pussy and pressing against your clit that is otherworldly. I’ll have to ask Tech if he’s able to shape some kind of toy out of the metal. A durasteel butt plug sounds like an excellent idea.

I still wish I could do more for them and wasn’t trapped in my own body and mind. The discontent and shame at my perceived failures is still there, despite how well I might be managing to warm Tech’s cock with my mouth at the moment. My lips are wrapped around a decent amount of his length and the tip of his cock is fairly close to the back of my mouth but I could always do more and try to get him a little deeper. I take a steadying breath through my nose, will my throat to relax and move to take more of him in.

------

Author’s Note: Tiny bit of a cliffhanger! This is mainly because I wrote this all in a giant keyboard mashing haze with absolutely no thoughts of structure. Going back while editing and trying to figure out where to shove in chapters to break it up has been a bit tricky, so if they’re a tad clunky that’s why.

You’ll see how Tech reacts in Chapter 3, along with some musings on previous sessions with Hunter and Crosshair.

Taglist: @queenariesofnarnia @skywlker-sluvtt @techs-assistant

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nikosheba · 1 year

Text

Okay but. you guys know this scene right.

i HAVE to talk about this.

because we’re so used to the beautiful way it’s cut. Faramir brings in the hobbits, he says to take them to Denethor, that he’s sending a “mighty gift.” But shit goes down and he thinks better of it and lets them go. This is intercut with Sam’s magnificent speech about Some Good In This World That’s Worth Fighting For and the victory at Helm’s Deep and Isengard being obliterated by Ents.

but

the thing is

if you cut out the other scenes

and JUST look at what’s happening in Osgiliath

this is what happens word for word:

Faramir: Take them to my father. Tell him Faramir sends a mighty gift. A weapon that will change our fortunes in this war. Sam: Do you know why your brother died? He tried to take the Ring from Frodo! After swearing an oath to protect him, he tried to kill him!* The Ring drove your brother mad. Scout: NAZGÛL! Frodo: [walks slowly up a bridge to stare at a Nazgûl] Sam: [tackles him] Frodo: [draws Sting] Sam: It’s me. It’s your Sam. Don’t you know your Sam? Frodo: I can’t do this, Sam. Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something. Frodo: What are we holding on to, Sam? Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for. Faramir: I think at last we understand each other, Frodo Baggins. Madril: You know the laws of this country, the laws of your father. If you let them go, your life is forfeit. Faramir: Then it is forfeit.

OKAY. SO. Being intercut with the other scenes REALLY gives this one a boost because I didn’t realize how weird this is until this most recent viewing which has to be like my 40th time through.

Faramir has made his choice and then he sees Sam tackle Frodo and make a nice speech and then he says I think we understand each other Frodo Baggins???? What EXACTLY has this taught him about Frodo that’s worth ALLOWING HIS FATHER TO EXECUTE HIM (according to this nebulous “give me the ring or else” law Denethor supposedly has in place)???? Like he just sees Frodo being wet and pathetic at Sam and is like “hold on I have to rethink my entire life”?????? He genuinely goes from “Take them to my father, I’m sending a mighty gift” to “AH NOW I UNDERSTAND” in 5 minutes and explicitly seems to understand FRODO after hearing Sam make a speech at him??

how did I never notice this before it’s driving me crazy i’ve been thinking about this for 6 weeks

* Asterisk because Sam, one, you don’t actually know how Boromir died so that was a weird power play, and two, if we know that Faramir ALSO doesn’t know how Boromir died it occurs to me that it kind of sounds like Sam is saying, “Yeah, I did it, I stabbed your brother for coming after Frodo and I’ll stab you too, Legs.”

#lord of the rings #lotr #faramir #samwise gamgee #frodo baggins

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suzukiblu · 9 months

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Hello all, I am honestly not even sure how long it's been since I've really talked to anyone online and I'm very sorry for just straight-up ghosting so many of you, but I'm trying to work on resuming my life and reconnecting with people a bit and especially trying to start picking up all of the commitments I've let myself drop in the past year or two.

Full disclosure, I've been having a bad time mentally for quite a while and just haven't been available to anyone in my life, online or off. I'm really sorry to have stressed people out with that because I know I did worry a few of you. I'm just not all here, to be honest, and I haven't handled it well. I'm having some personal struggles and just not doing my best taking care of the resulting issues--it's not anything trauma-based/triggered, it's more along the lines of problems with in-built psychological issues stemming from chemical imbalances that I just don't always manage as effectively as I could. But I'm not physically ill and haven't been in an accident or anything like that, and I'm trying to re-engage with life now. Catching up with people I owe communication/commissions/explanations to is on my list, but I just haven't managed to make it very far into said list yet. I am, however, physically healthy and in stable housing, and if anything emergency-adjacent happens I do have local friends and non-local family members I could get help from, so I'm not in an "immediate crisis" situation.

I'm just also unemployed, out of money, and scraping by on food stamps and state-issued healthcare that doesn't cover my previous psychiatrist, and I haven't been able to find a new one in-network who's taking patients and actually, like . . . calls me back when I leave a message or email them in interest of making an appointment. I'm signed up with a program that can help me get a job, hopefully, but the process is taking a little while and I'm not sure how long it'll take in the end, so the future is very nebulous at the moment.

And like . . . VERY full disclosure, I'm just very depressed and stuck being off my meds for the forseeable future. My room is a mess I can't bring myself to clean up, I feel like I can't engage meaningfully with a lot of things, I don't feel hopeful or optimistic at all, my emotional responses are all heavily muted, my coping mechanisms are avoiding breakdowns but are not long-term helpful or productive, and I'm neglecting a lot of people and things in my life and my own best interests because I just . . . don't care.

I know my situation and my feelings are largely just because I'm going through a major depressive phase unmedicated and with limited personal resources, it's not an end of the world scenario or anything. It's just been difficult and upsetting trying to find ways and motivation to fix my life and get out of that phase when I'm already feeling sunk in a quagmire and like I did all this to myself with my own mistakes, and I'm just trying to take things one step at a time and build back up from where I'm at.

So long story short: I'm not doing great right now but I'm stable, and I greatly appreciate the concern and grace I've been given while being just entirely off radar and am going to be doing my best to make right or make up for the neglect. If anyone wants or needs to check in on anything I owe them, please feel free to message me and ask; I'll be trying to contact everyone I owe anything to but given the brain-fog I've been dealing with I don't trust myself not to miss anybody in there, so believe me, if you feel the need I will in no way be offended and you'd probably be doing me a favor anyway.

Thank you all, you've all been so good to me over the years. I'll hopefully be in touch soon. ❤

#rintalk

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blaiddraws · 1 year

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Is there a summary of the fulcrum au?

undoubtedly but i don't feel like looking for it so. quick recap!

twin dragons au -- ingo is Zekrom and emmet is Reshiram. the way it works in this is that they can be Either human Or dragon but not physically both at the same time. zero dragon traits in human form, etc.

which is why it's Really Freaking Weird And Alarming when emmet finds himself half-reshiram'd one day. (especially once he later realizes ingo is missing--)

anyway. ingo gets eeby deebied and something about the trip to hisui smushes his human and pokemon form together. and since he and emmet/reshiram are so closely connected it kinda. pushed back to him as well.

various side notes under the cut;

- ingo arrives in hisui with no memories, but does have a somewhat easier time regaining them, especially once akari shows up and helps him

- dad ingo. adopts akari. we love to see it

- he also isn't technically a warden but the pearl clan lets him do what he wants. they treat him like a person, for the most part, but not really like a Human, if that makes sense. he's treated normally but there's always a strange tone to most of his interactions with the residents of hisui.

- pearl clan also decided he must be a gift from sinnoh. adaman saw this, decided ingo is a gift from HIS sinnoh and actually belongs with his own clan. ingo ignores this and hangs out in the highlands the majority of the time. but does spend a lot more time with the pearl clan because they're the ones that found him and took him in

- meanwhile. emmet stays out of public eye for a hot minute. and by that i mean a month or so. which isn't that surprising considering his brother disappeared. people figure he's just trying to cope.

- but. he's driving himself insane he can't stay away from the subway that long he has GOT to get back. or he will die. (he says this, dramatically, to elesa). and there's no leads on getting him back to normal.

- (technically, he could take a trip to sinnoh and call up arceus. but with ingo missing he feels that leaving the region would be a bad idea and totally irresponsible.)

- so he just. Shows Up At Work One Day. all half-reshiram'd. as if there is nothing wrong. depot agents, after a moment of baffled staring, have to just roll with it.

- the Public, however. dhkshsksbsksjd

- all he can say is that he has No Idea why he is Like This (true) and it happened when ingo disappeared (true). "But why do you look so much like Reshiram?" "you expect me to know the answer to that?? i'm a train conductor." (blatantly skirting around the truth without directly lying).

- eventually unova accepts that. yeah okay their subway boss is fluffy now. weirder things have happened tbh.

- surprisingly enough, the whole thing stays pretty well contained within unova, ESPECIALLY nimbasa. emmet is THEIR subway boss and he's Going Through It. he deserves to be treated well. etc.

- ANYEEWAYE. cut back to hisui. ingo adopts akari etc etc etc. she starts helping him regain his memory. and the more things he remembers, the easier it IS to remember.

- once akari finishes the pokedex, he remembers a significant amount of his human life. not quite enough to be Normal, but a fair amount. (he also remembers some stuff from being a legendary dragon, but a legendary dragon is a LOT more long-lived than a human. there's a Lot there to remember. and is a lot more... nebulous of a mind than a human's.)

- akari takes him with her when she goes to fight arceus. ingo has a little chat <3. arceus puts ingo and emmet back how they were before, because they cannot exist in the long-term with their forms smushed together like that.

- (Emmet wakes up one day human again, doom-brains himself into thinking ingo died despite how that would be impossible (considering zekrom is literal deity, the embodiment of the concept of ideals.). spends like two hours like that before elesa and drayden and iris have to knock some sense into him.)

- arceus. like. because Ingo asked nicely, arceus retcons (not Really retcons because it knew ingo would ask this when it did it. time is weird) kyurem into having a human form. caveats of this includes. kyurem doesn't Know or Remember that they're kyurem. they can't shift into kyurem. etc. because kyurem shouldn't be able to have a human form in the first place because of their. them-ness. their existence. makes it impossible. but arceus makes it possible because ~hadwavey seals their power away and uses its own to keep the human form intact idk~ Arceus-ness.

- ingo and akari spend the next few weeks tying things up and saying goodbyes before they go home. (ingo goes around saying his goodbyes and expressing his gratitude to people. COMPLETELY forgetting to mention the very important fact that he was that one dragon guy. he goes around to the same people a second time, significantly more mortified, and explains.) (akari was there most of the time and let it happen. it was hilarious.)

- ANYWAY eventually ingo and akari go home. happy reunions time!!!

- (and then, of course. we get into what is almost like the postgame plot equivalent of the au dkshksdhksjsjd. Who Is Kyurem?)

#answered #fulcrum au #''various side notes'' was supposed to be. side notes. but then i started rambling lol #''quick recap''. sigh #not art

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restlesshush · 1 year

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The use of Chuck as a tool of analysis in fandom is genuinely so frustrating, because fundamentally it encourages people not to engage with spn as a piece of media made by real life flawed human writers, which is what it is!! Like, Cas’s inadvertent structural protagonist status at various points has nothing to do with ~him vs Chuck~ or whatever, but due to specific oversights by the writers such that his actions are the ones driving the plot rather than salmondean’s. ‘Chuck’ isn’t trying to ~keep him out of the story~, that doesn’t really mean anything (and if it wasn’t for that one line in Unity, no one would necessarily even think it) – it’s that the writers, trying to keep him off screen, gave him more interesting and more impact-having things to do than they gave salmondean with their much larger amount of screen time. Like I get the Chuck explanation being enjoyable, but we already have a real life explanation, and it’s pretty fun in itself imo! Gamble very much did arguably make Cas the structural protagonist partially as a direct result of trying to kill him off, which is kind of hysterical.

Also the thing is like, Chuck as the authorgodvillain was such a late addition that pretty much nothing is designed around him being the most satisfactory explanation – and it’s incredibly nebulous what viewing earlier events in that light of his intervention is even supposed to entail. If the writers had the courage of their convictions a little more, we could have been invited to recontextualise various really out of left field events in this light, eg @autisticandroids has talked about this re godstiel and the way the leviathans came out of nowhere, and me and them have also discussed it re gadreel being set up to be the “perfect deantransgression” (as @themauvesoul has pointed out) – it would make sense for a villainous author trying to create drama (and undermine Cas) to have contrivedly brought those things about specifically to that end. It is absolutely the case that there are places where it can be fun to say “it would make sense for Chuck to have made this happen for x/y/z reasons”, and it would have been very brave and sexy for the writers to be like “oh yeah lol this thing we wrote would have made more sense of it was Chuck”, but it would be very silly to say “oh the leviathans coming out of nowhere wasn’t actually bad writing because that was Chuck” y’know? Chuck as the authorgodvillain is a concept you can play with if you like, but he’s not a tool of analysis. In the show’s protagonist-powers-deconstruction episode the writers aren’t even brave enough to attack the most egregious writing conveniences facilitating the story, so extending the Chuck lens anywhere else in a way that lets them off the hook is extremely generous, as well as just pretty meaningless.

Fundamentally , the main function that Chuck as the authorgod really serves is a way to handwave away the bad writing (or any other disliked things) in spn when 1) the bad writing is interesting and 2) do we really want to give the writers that get out of jail free card?

#many nick posts cited here hi nick!#chuck spn #castiel #spn meta #spn #worded thoughts #this is not to be a killjoy it’s just it’s not a tool of analysis.#this applies to chuck won theory also tbh #if they wanted us to think chuck won they did a bad job conveying that also!!

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misseffect · 3 months

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7 snippets, 7 mutuals

Thanks for the tag @otemporanerys!

Tagging a lot of people who have already been tagged: @diaphanouso @helila @dispatchwithlove @kalliesa @angry-jager @dwarrowdams @serendipitys-teapot

All of these are from my Mass Effect F1 AU: Flashpoints

+++

Singapore Shower

One moment Garrus is holding her by the arms, water rolling over his shoulders – there's a knotted look on his face; his mouth is moving but no sound is coming out, which is weird – and the next she's lying on her back on the shower room floor.

"Shepard? Hey – c'mon."

Garrus is kneeling beside her, pinching her arm gently, holding her legs in the air with his shoulder. She feels heavy, like her bones are full of syrup, and the thumping behind her eyes is keeping time with the fuzz crowding her vision.

"Shit."

"It's alright." He sounds further away than he should, and so does the water still beating down on his back. "You passed out for a second, that's all."

+++

Shepard Does An AMA

probinguranus6969 - Would you rather fight 20 duck-sized Jokers or 1 Joker-sized duck?

janeshepard54 - I know your reddit handle joker

probinguranus6969 - damn it

+++

FaceTime Antics

She fishes another biscuit out of the packet while Garrus props his phone up on the side and heaves his suitcase onto the bed. It’s a nice enough room from what little she can see: old-fashioned, like the rest of the place, but in a plush, cared-for sort of way.

“Oh, by the way–” Crunch. “–you don’t happen to know how the dark web works, do you?”

He unzips the case and flips the lid. “Not really. Why?”

“I got called up for drug testing at Paul Ricard and my sample went missing,” she says, chewing glumly. “Joker’s winding me up about it; thinks someone’s selling vials of my piss on the black market.”

+++

Normal Thoughts To Have About Your Bestie's Car

The second he starts to ask the car for more, everything changes.

It feels familiar – in fundamentals, sure, in throttle and steering output – but there’s something else, too. It’s more pliable than the Hierarchy car, more predictable than anything Omega or Archangel could give him; it's unlike anything he’s even driven, but somehow he knows it. Like catching a familiar smell in a place you've never visited.

And then it hits him.

It's not the car. It's her.

He knows Shepard's driving style almost as well as his own – reactive and twitchy, nose-heavy, late-braking, all faith and guts – and this thing lives and breathes it. It takes everything he's got to give, the good and the bad, and amplifies it tenfold. It grins and says c’mon, I dare you.

It’s not just a car designed with her in mind. It’s like wearing her clothes.

+++

Not To Be Dramatic But I Would Die For Mr Blobby

Shepard rounds the corner into the kitchen to find Mr Blobby loitering by the back door like a pair of cow-coloured slippers.

“He’s in a time-out," Hannah calls through the open window, paintbrush in hand.

“Aww, Blob.”

Mr Blobby makes a mournful rrrr sound. There’s a dab of brown paint on the end of his tail.

+++

Shepard Has PTSD Probably

It's not a nightmare really. Sure, it wakes her up every few hours, sweaty and unrested, and when she closes her eyes again, it drops her right back where she left off, but it's not scary. She's not being hunted or chased. She's not standing at the front of class with no clothes on. Nobody's dying.

Shepard's driving a road car on suburban streets - shifting, nebulous streets; faintly European but also faintly not - and somewhere in the distance, there's a fire.

There's a fire and she has to reach it.

She can see a column of black smoke in the distance, catch the odd lick of orange between buildings, but every turn she takes feels wrong and by the time she doubles back, the smoke isn't where she thought it was. It's in her rearview mirror, or out to her left when it was on her right. Sometimes a fire engine blasts past her in the opposite direction, the wailing siren fading before she can follow.

+++

Everybody Hates Conrad

Mathematically Shepard could win the Championship as early as Japan, five races before the end of the season, and it shows. Media seems to come naturally to her in a way it never has to him, but still; he’s never seen her so relaxed this early in the year. Al’Jilani can’t draw her in with pointed questions about Anderson giving her an easy ride and she doesn’t even bother taking a bite out of Conrad Verner.

“Any comment on rekindling your relationship with Thane Krios?” he asks, his big square face expectant.

Shepard scratches under her chin. “Why am I always the last person to find out who I’m dating?”

There’s a ripple of laughter. Emily is checking her watch and people are starting to shuffle their belongings around.

“Are you going to answer the question?” Conrad calls, but by then there’s enough ambient noise for everyone to plausibly ignore him.

#my fic #flashpoints #realised the other week that Singapore Shower can't happen in Singapore bcs it's too late in the race calendar :')#so i'll have to give somewhere else a heatwave instead #mr blobby is my favourite npc

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emblazons · 1 year

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you've been writing a lot about parentified Mike lately, and while I appreciate it, from a story perspective I just don't understand why.

Maybe its just because I'm an elmike truther, but it really doesn't make sense to me why they would put such an unpleasant aspect into their friendship or romance when they could have just had her upset at him over Max's death or not sharing interests? With steve and nancy they broke up over barb and nancy wanting something else which made of sense without making steve "parent" her. idk. Maybe you're the wrong person to ask lol I'm just thinking out loud

I mean. Maybe I'm not the best person to give insight into why the duffers do what they do, but I can give why I think they did it?

Forewarning: this got really long, apologies lmao

Honestly (and take this from an out-of-universe perspective): I think they're fully aware of the strangeness of El as a character, and how she has a lot of narrative/personal "growth needs" that other characters don't just by nature of her background. She even from the pitch is referred to as "the outsider," and all of her arc, not just the romantic one, has been centered around finding a 'home' in the world, on top of finding the family she lacked before.

This, I'm almost certain, is why she always ends up on different paths than every other person she interacts with—she started with almost no sense of self as an individual, which means a sense of "self" has to be built and discovered (and remembered) for El in a way it already has been for our other characters. Max, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas—all of them have interests and desires, a sense of family (good or bad), know what they enjoy, and are evolving as they go along...but El didn't at the start of ST beyond lab trauma, which is why The Duffers have centered almost all of her character growth since then around discovering where she came from & who she wants to be.

With Mike though...there is an entirely different set of relational and character needs that have to be addressed. With Mike, the main struggles he has (from the pitch, again) are with insecurity, his belief that a girl will resolve that insecurity, his feeling valueless unless he can do something for the people he loves (almost like 'earning his place' in their lives) and his (almost certain) queerness...combined with how he is, at the end of the day, just another "everyman" guy.

Unlike El, Mike has some sense of personhood, his own established friends and interests and a home—but he doesn't feel like he has a place he's intrinsically appreciated, because (for whatever reason) he feels who he is inherently inadequate. Its why every season (and every time we hear Finn dig a little into Mike's character) we hear about Mike trying to serve others and "feel needed again," despite being hesitant to let them in—he desires unconditional acceptance, and to be valued for who he is inherently...while also being terrified to let people in enough to see him (lest his core identity be rejected).

When Mike and El were just friends, it was easier to sort them out as some version of "equals;" we all have friends who are in different life phases than us, or who have different needs we're trying to walk alongside as they try to meet them, which is why their friendship is cute in S1. With actual romantic partners though, we introduce an element of "trying to get your needs met" with the person you're most closely involved with...and for Mike and El, that means blending "a nebulous sense of self and desire to find an identity + family" with "a desire to have a girl fill a sense of inherent unworthiness," which, as most of us can see, leads to disaster.

Basically: From the snowball onward, writing romantic mlvn meant exploring what happens when you mix what El is looking for with what Mike tries to do to feel valued...and The Duffers have decided (rightfully, I think) that this means Mike is going to (consciously or not) move towards becoming the things El lacks to "become valuable," aka: protection from the "bad men," someone who is able to keep her safe from them, and...someone who can help her fill her needs for home + family, even though he is dramatically under-equipped at all of 12-15 to meet that task.

Because (especially s4) one of El's core needs has become a healthy father figure and found family, Mike is going to move toward behaving that way to be valuable...which means he's going to inadvertently conflate himself with the men who have also placed themselves in that role: Hopper and Brenner. It also means that Mike is going to feel that same "my child is leaving the nest" energy when El "grows up" and into herself as a wholly independent entity—which is why we see him say as much to Will in the van before the painting—

—and why it sometimes seems like El is almost "rebelling" against Mike as much as she has Hopper and Brenner over the seasons.

To your point though: all of this is inherently different from Steve and Nancy...because both Steve and Nancy had that sense of individual identity that El lacked at the start of the show. There was no space for a "parental" aspect to enter their romance in that sense—it was just two people who were incompatible, which is why they failed. Similarly, if Mike and El would have started the romantic part of their relationship at end of S4 points of the narrative—or even end of S3, after El had a second to come into her own with Max—things would have been a lot different for them, I think.

Only...that's not what happened, and...not how they're resolving Mike's insecurity about being inherently valuable. They broke Mike and El down romantically vis a vis this "she's looking for herself and he's trying to fill his own void with her" track, and then gave Will the entirety of the hand to soothe Mike's deepest fears instead, which is why Mike and El will break up and Mike will end up with and around Will more, because Will knows Mike’s heart and sees Mike as an equal even with his flaws...and loves him for it. 🤷🏽‍♀️

(There are also (in my opinion) fundamental thematic reasons they were working toward as reason why they wrote even the breakdown of mlvn that way (the themes of rejecting forced conformity, found family, and even embracing your love for things other people might think are childish are served by this "version" of the Mlvn to Byler transition) but. I can see why someone wouldn't like it if they were attached to Mike and El being close anyway lmao).

Anyway! I hope...that helps? Honestly that's just how I've come to understand it, and hope that offers some sort of solace or explanation. Its what makes the most sense to me anyway (lol).

Regardless, thanks for the ask! :)

#anti mlvn #elmike #stranger things #byler #mike wheeler #el hopper #st analysis #my st commentary #st writing #asks #the me tag #duffer brothers #the come back tag

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eldritch-spouse · 2 months

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How would the Clergy guys react to someone abandoning their pet at the clergy? Like their pet is well behaved and a sweetheart but they have gotten bored and have decided to leave them at the clergy so they don’t have to deal with them their self?

🍄anon

[Could have abandoned the pet on any regular street, which is already awful enough, but why not go the extra mile and release it in a place notorious for senseless violence and bad people? *Wheezing*]

Morell doesn't have time for this. Get it out of his kitchen, asap. Even if he used to deal with animals plenty when he was younger, his schedule is far too busy now, he can't keep it back home and he sure as Hell can't keep it in the kitchen at The Clergy. This will be promptly thrust onto someone else or he'll personally place the abandoned outside the perimeter of the building.

Listen, if it's not equine, Patches likely doesn't care all that much. He definitely doesn't want it in his lab. Likewise, he's often too much of a hot mess to keep an animal that isn't something both him and Stitches are fixated on, so this is also being dumped on someone else.

Gallon is somewhat averse to germs, and that applies here. He doesn't know where this animal has been and he shares no fondness for it, so it's more likely the slime will attempt to contain it. At the same time that he's not very keen on interacting with it, he also won't allow others to hurt it. This will soon become Admin's problem.

Not going to lie, Grimbly sees that thing and immediately ponders if it could be a potential snack. Then reminds himself it likely won't taste that good. The animal is quickly caught regardless because of hunting instincts he can't quell, but ultimately, he's also putting this on someone else.

Santi truly holds no malice for animals, but they just don't like him... He tries to shoo the little thing outside as smoothly as possible, and if he fails, he tries to get Grimbly to catch it so they can, once again, take this to more capable hands. It sometimes saddens him that cute animals will avoid him.

Would you trust any living being with Vinnel? No, of course not. He probably doesn't get to be anywhere near the animal before someone else rips it away from him. Fortunately, Vinnel's overwhelming hatred and desire to maim extends only to people, so it's not as if the animal would be in terrible hands. If he manages to grab it, he'll bring it on stage depending on how docile it is.

Belo is an angel. In spite of being a warrior, he still attracts and calms animals with ease. Once spotted, Belo will attempt to approach the animal and get it within his grasp. He will then request to see Admin as soon as he can so the power can ask to fly this animal to a different location. A shelter, if he's informed of where those generally are.

Nebul is the most apt monster to deal with this, and more often than not, the person the others bring found animals to. He can usually get a grip on the situation easily and has little trouble babysitting until something can be done about the situation. Besides, Purpur loves new friends! Maybe, if things line up, Nebul will adopt it.

Fank-e, Gods help him, is just painful to animals. He's huge, very loud, very flashy and fast. No animal likes that. He'll spend his time chasing after it only to either fail at catching it, inflict ridiculous amounts of collateral damage on his surroundings, or give the poor thing a heart attack when he catches it. He would try to keep it, but the chances of that poor pet living in constant misery are high, so other staff members remove it.

Listen. If it's small and wandering around all lost, it's a snack. Said pet would last very little around Sybastian, and that's that on that.

You know Krulu would probably would make the ground swallow that thing. You'll never see it again, who knows what happened to it.

#Morell oc #Gallon oc #Belo oc #Patches oc #Nebul oc #Sybastian oc #Vinnel oc #Santi oc #Grimbly oc #Fank-e oc #Krulu oc

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antimony-medusa · 1 year

Text

This is just me rambling about fandom trends cause I wanted to inflict it on my timeline instead of people's DMS.

Okay so I kinda stopped reading SBI for a while, except for my especial subscriptions (got burned out on tommy-centric), and then I got invited into a friend server with a bunch of new young writers and dipped my toe back into what's going on in the genre. Staring around the room like "what's happened while I was buried in a spreadsheet? Oh my."

And it has been FASCINATING.

First of all like, there's just like, a lot of Dark SBI, to the point that it seems like more than when I last checked? Which I don't have a problem with, but it's always very interesting to me because that seems very much like a reaction to fandom trends, more than canon? Like people get tired of a certain dynamic (foster aus! good dad phil! exploration of canon!) and decide they want something else. And what they want is kidnapping, which like. That's an honourable tradition in fiction, o7. Seems like a lot of kidnapping to me, but you do you.

Also, on the other side of the coin, there's also a lot of tooth-rotting-fluff, similarly focused in on like— okay like a lot of that was crimeboys, which is a canon dynamic, but once you add in the pet names and like, platonic kissing, that's not streamer dynamic either, that's a new third thing which is made up by the fandom. Neither of those boys are that open about their emotions, you made that one up. This isn't canon-compliant OR RPF, it's a secret third thing.

Like I can't stress enough that this characterization, in the trends taken as a whole, is neither drawn from canon nor from non-lore streamer, this is something else entirely. Tommy is very sad and baby and cries a lot, and Techno looms and doesn't make jokes and calls people "runt" a lot, and Wilbur is very clingy (and emotionally intelligent in the fluff and sometimes for evil reasons in the dark)— phil doesn't tend to get much characterization except sometimes murder, which honestly I cheer on whole-heartedly.

It just seems to me that this is very much fandom reaction to fandom? Like it's fic in conversation with other fic and other characterizations and filling in the gaps with other fic. Like, I wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of these writers don't follow the streamers and don't watch their ongoing content, and don't go back to the lore streams either. It's just all recursive fic. And I'm not saying that as a bad thing, just as a thing that makes me go Oooo, huh. Look at that.

Which is interesting to me as we look at not getting more DSMP content in the future, to see if we end up with a self-sustaining little fandom engine cause for me (techno-centric), I'm not getting any more lore content, but for some of this fandom (subscribed to a bunch of writers who post once a week) they're getting new content about their blorbos all the time. Their blorbos that again, I have to stress, were made up by the fandom and have minimal relationship to the streamers or the lore.

Okay and that is all stuff that makes sense to me— it's fic of fic, it's responding to fic trends, characterization has drifed from the source text and settled into a fanon canon. Now we get into the thing that makes me go ???????

Which is that everyone seems to be doing father-son relationships now? And not really Dadza, which at least I'm like, okay, sometimes phil is dad-like specifically to tommy, but Dadbur and Dadnoblade? Which makes me go?????? Tommy gets aged down to like 9-14 or something, so he's sad baby, and then techno or wilbur is a nebulous Adult, and then they have either a dark or a joyous found family moment with cuddles in.

And okay I've been hanging out over in emduo-centric and broad-dsmp-cast with dips into hermitcraft, I full on record-scratched when I hit technodad for the first time.

APPERANTLY, I hear from other people, dadbur stories just spiked through the roof after the utah ending, which made me go???? I guess the idea is that you could walk away from a brotherly relationship but not from a parental relationship? Which uh, as someone who's seen what happens in the bad dad phil tag I hate to break it to you, but, anyways, you do you.

And if there's dadbur, they have to get techno in with that. Guys there is so much technodad now. It's bedrock bros but they're not bros any more. Tommy is baby and Techno takes care of him. Serious dad technoblade.

And the best theory I have for what's happening is that this is twitter-driven, because you want that close relationship with affection, but you're realllllllly scared of anyone saying Shippping, so by making it a parental relationship you're even more platonic? It's either platonic-driven or just a need to make tommy soooooo baby and a dad will take care of him more than a brother will? But again, a dad can do that and still be platonic, where if it's just a brother that will be too much?

I can cling frantically to logic and follow a thread through to where I'm like okay, I guess that makes sense, but oh man as someone who barely even thought it made sense when people dad-coded Phil, I see Technodad and I go HEH???

Anyways, that has been my last few weeks of avoiding my deadlines by reading what the fandom babies in discord recommend. Discovering new levels of fanon characterizations and so much dad-coding. My WIPs are going well.

#fandom analysis #fic trends

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