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leviiattacks · 3 years

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Could I request a Canon levi drabble? He realises he’s in love, confesses, then thinks about how he feels guilty for loving the reader

author note :: this was super quick but here u go !! i’m working on a long fic rn which is why it may not be great my brain hurts from all the writing i had to do for the fic 😞 ANYWAYS, shy levi ahead,,,, :-(

word count :: 1.2k

levi is super shy around you. he has no idea what to do, he has no idea what to say, he’s always stumbling over his words. it’s SO obvious that erwin and hange are able to decipher the meaning behind his unsual body language in a matter of seconds

might i add he’s always trying to subtly get your attention or at least look presentable

sometimes he leans against walls with one hand to look cool but one day he misses the wall completely and falls face first into a patch of mud

not a great experience because he sees you giggle at him

levi just ends up ignoring you and avoiding you a lot in an attempt to shake what he feels away but that’s another thing about levi when he’s in love. his infatuation is stubborn and unfading. unless given a valid reason to stop liking you he literally can’t force himself to stop how he feels

but sometimes there are opportunities where he does have to speak to you and despite avoiding you he finds himself surprisingly running into you more often than he thinks is humanely possible??

he’s in the kitchen making a cup of tea and suddenly you’re there to fetch some water.

he’s in the courtyard teaching some younger cadets and you happen to pass by looking for one of your blades you accidentally left behind

like he genuinely does not understand how he’s able to run into you this much because it makes no sense

apart from that he ends up taking a keen interest in your hobbies. he’ll try to understand why you enjoy specific things because the smile that paints your face is always so bright

you have this thing for strawberry jam and he’s never got why you enjoy it so much really ???

frankly he finds it to be so sweet to the point it’s sickening to digest

but that doesn’t stop him from buying some whilst in town and placing it in front of you one day

you look between levi and the jam jar a little confused

“you’ve been working hard and i accidentally bought this and i think you like strawberry jam so take it. i don’t want it.”

his explanation is UNBELIEVABLE because it’s a big fat lie but despite everyone else in the room being able to see through his facade you nod meekly and accept it with a grateful smile

after the jam incident everyone knows about how he has to feel but even if they do they don’t gossip about it when he’s around

now,,, levi is really in touch with how you feel because most of the time the way you feel impacts the way he feels. if he sees you laughing at dinner his mind is at ease but if your head is drooped downwards looking anywhere but up he makes a mental note to talk to you later

one day at dinner he sees jean whisper something in your ear and you laugh so hard you have to apologize to those around you for creating a disturbance

he burns in slight jealousy because he wants to know what’s so funny

that’s when his resolve starts slipping. he notices he’s stopped trying to ignore you and instead he’s gravitating towards you

and he hates it

vulnerability scares him so he stays away for a while until the next time you pull him in with your magnetic smile

once again, levi’s feelings are stubborn and unwavering.

he’s protective. always checking where you are in the formation. he can’t have any biases ruining expeditions so he never changes your position (despite wanting to on a number of occasions)

however, when the corps regroup he always looks around for a second ascertaining whether or not you’re in the vicinity and safe

one time he noticed you weren’t around and only relaxed when someone informed him you were with hange

he’s confusing when in love. hot and cold. left and right. dark and light. every move he makes he’ll make another that makes no sense. it’s because he’s never certain of what he feels. all he knows for certain is that he’s crashing hard and whatever is going on will end up in disaster if he doesn’t address it

it really does take him a long time to finally become mentally prepared enough to confess to you but he realises he has to push himself to do it otherwise he’ll only end up distracting himself and making a fatal mistake on the battlefield some day

he’s very nervous about it because he predicts you’ll reject him

“i’m interested in you.”

and when you don’t understand what he means by that he has to rephrase it a number of times before you do get it

“your actions concern me.” you still don’t get it

“i think we are jigsaw pieces.” again no nod of understanding from you, instead you ask him if he’s lost a puzzle piece and jokingly you suggest that sasha could have ate it

“if you were cold i would give you my jacket.” at that you say thank you but still don’t get what it is he means

he just doesn’t want to say it outright. he thinks it’ll be unbearably awkward.

but eventually he gives in and goes for it anyway

“fuck, what i’m trying to say is that i like you and i care for you...in a romantic way.”

he’s shocked when you beam, as cheerful as ever you say you like him back. he’s totally prepared for refusal so he just kinda stands there like a statue unsure with what he should do next

you take the lead moving to hold his hand with yours and when your fingers intertwine with his something in that moment makes levi feel whole. he feels full and happy.

from then on everything is smooth sailing, you and levi are happy but as the months pass and the tensions rise within paradis, levi’s guilt kicks in

he feels guilty for loving you and having the opportunity to have you love him back

there’s constantly a seed of worry in his stomach, it forever weighs him down and many of his sleepless nights are spent thinking about how he’ll have to let you go

after all, everyone he’s ever loved has had to face death’s door before him.

his fear gets the better of him and he even reaches the point of rehearsing what he plans to say to you in the case of a breakup

but this is levi we’re talking about and despite knowing you’re safer the further away you are from him he still latches onto you like a lost child

he thinks for once everything will be different. that you’re a positive sign. he chooses to have faith you make it out of this alive with him.

because although you could die you aren’t dead yet.

and that’s all that keeps his fiery hope steady.

he’s the candle and you’re his flickering flame of hope and for as long as he stands he vows he’ll keep you burning alive.

#levi #levi ackerman #snk #aot #attack on titan levi #attack on titan #aot fanfiction #aot headcanons #levi headcanons #levi drabbles #levi x reader #levi x y/n #levi fluff #levi angst #levi fanfiction #leviiattacks #levi scenario

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marshmallow-phd · 3 years

Text

Healing Touch

Part of The Untamed - EXO Wolf Universe

Genre: Wolf!AU

Pairing: Yixing x Reader

Summary: Medical school abroad was the last line on your to-do list before starting the rest of your life. Everything was going according to plan. Everything, that is, until tragedy strikes your campus. In the wake of a professor’s untimely death, you’re partnered with the cute boy with a breathtaking smile in the newly combined labs. You find yourself unable to resist the dimples and shy glances, but his life is here with no plans of leaving. Will you continue on as planned or will you accept the hand that Fate had dealt you?

Part: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I Final

The smell had not changed in all the years that you used to call this place home. Pinecone potpourri mixed with traditional cooking spices and a hint of citrus from the constant dusting. Your aunt had always been a bit eccentric, a bit off beat. It had made being raised by her both adventurous and anxiety-inducing.

In the privacy of your home, her random dance parties and unfiltered way of speaking made you laugh. But when you were in public and she was pretending to be a mannequin in a window display, you ran away to the food court to hide behind a cup of boba. The explanation was always the same no matter what antics she was pulling: she wanted to break you out of your shell. It seemed like a lost cause. You were comfortable in your shell. It protected you and kept you warm.

“I don’t see how you expect to go trialing off to a place you’ve never been before,” your aunt had complained when you first told her about applying to the far away college.

“They’re two entirely different situations,” you had argued. “I can go to class and go back home without any issues.” These days there was your phone if you ever got lost or in need of food but didn’t want to leave the comfort of your apartment. Modern conveniences only enabled your shut-in ways.

“But what about, you know, friends?” She looked at you over her stylish, cat-eye glasses that she had no use for with her perfect vision.

“I have those,” you insisted. So, you might not have had a best friend, but you had people that you occasionally hung out with and collaborated on. Then there was Victoria and Amber from high school. You still spoke to them regularly, despite them going to different colleges out of the area. Your aunt didn’t realize that not everyone needed multiple circles of friends to bounce between.

Pushing her glasses back up her nose, your aunt pouted. “I just worry about you, that’s all. You still don’t like getting into cars, especially by yourself, and if you happen to be studying late….”

“I don’t mind taking the bus.” A bit of a stretch. You did mind but would still take it if the situation were dire enough. Walking was good exercise. And better for the environment. Someone had to look out for the little bunnies.

“Alright,” your aunt huffed as she sipped on her now lukewarm tea. “It is your life. I’m just a spectator of it.”

“At least you have premium seating,” you teased.

That had made your aunt laugh. She was back to her more carefree self.

“Is that my favorite niece?”

“No, it’s your least favorite nephew.”

Your aunt poked her head out of the hallway, the edge of her pink fuzzy robe telling you that she was getting ready to go out.

That was the exchange the two of you always had when you came to visit. The first time around, you had rolled your eyes and given the sarcastic answer for the cliché greeting. As your mother and aunt were the only siblings in their family and your father was the single offspring from his parents, there were no other nieces or nephews to put above or below you.

Without prompt, your aunt passed through the living room and onto the kitchen. When she came back, she had two wine glasses filled with bubble pink liquid. After handing you the lesser filled glass, she sat down on the couch while you opted for the loveseat, letting your purse drop to the hardwood floor by your feet. Your aunt leaned back on the arm rest with one elbow as she sipped on the wine. “It’s watermelon,” she informed you when you hadn’t taken a drink. “Try it.”

Shaking your head, you did as she asked. Oh, no. It was delicious. That was dangerous. You took another, larger swig before putting the glass down on the coffee table.

Growing up, you’d felt bad for your aunt. Sometimes you still did, though not as much after her many lectures as to why you shouldn’t.

She’d always been the carefree one. As a marketing consultant, she was constantly flying all over the globe, having adventures in between work meetings and bringing those experiences back to you in the form of expensive souvenirs. When your parents volunteered to go help a poorer nation with their health crisis, your aunt was quick to lend her babysitting services. It was only supposed to be temporary, after all. Then tragedy struck

Your parents never came back and suddenly your aunt was now your permanent guardian. The carefree spirit took it in stride. She shifted her strategy to more web-based conferences until you were in high school and able to be on your own for longer periods of time. She never turned into your mother; she never wanted to. For that, you were even more thankful. She was still the spontaneous, forever young aunt that you had always known. That stability in her personality was exactly what you needed. Too much had changed in your world on a dime, the less that was altered the better.

“What prompted this little visit?” she asked, a curious half smile on her lips.

You shrugged. “I hadn’t seen you in a while, so I thought I’d stop by and say hi. It looks like you’re getting ready to go out, though.”

Your aunt waved her hand limply. “Not for a few hours. Besides, anything can wait for you.”

Shifting in your seat, you smiled at the affection she had for you. “I finally heard from the university,” you told her.

Her eyebrows shot up. “You did? They finally decided to stop dangling the carrot and just give it to you, did they?”

“Not exactly,” you cringed. “They said they wanted to see how this semester went and then they would let me know.”

Your aunts face fell into a scowl as if something awful smelling had made its way into her nose. “What sense does that make?”

You shrugged. “I don’t know. But at least it’s not an outright no.”

Clicking her tongue, your aunt leaned forward so she was now balancing her elbows on her knees. “You know, there are still other options. Closer options.”

“I know,” you said with a monotone voice. “But Plan A is my focus. I’ll look to other options if that falls through.”

That knowing look you were all too familiar with formed on her face. A long, reminiscing sigh blew out from her lungs. “You are so much like your mother. It’s scary sometimes.”

You never knew how to respond when she said things like that. Should you be happy at the comparison? Sad because your mother wasn’t here to tell you herself? You were a child when your parents passed away. You remembered vague moments, birthday parties and movie nights. But when you’re that young, you don’t get a good idea of your parents’ personalities. You don’t learn what they like or don’t like, how they act in crowds versus a small group of people. You have to rely on the memories of those left behind.

You stayed at your aunt’s house for another hour or so, talking to her about her latest clients and nights out with the girls. You told her how your days were going and how you were adjusting to the new routine with the combined class. The news of Yixing sat on the tip of your tongue, but you couldn’t bring yourself to mention him. Her reaction would have been too predictable. She’d ask when the two of you were going to go out and when you explained that it wasn’t like that, she would ask why not. For that, you didn’t have an answer.

While you wanted to say that the two of you were just friends, it didn’t feel like the truth.

You saw more of Yixing than of anyone else, including Ran. He would walk you to class multiple times a day and the two of you would talk. Not about anything too deep. You weren’t at that level yet. He was funny and charming, never speaking a word that wasn’t kind. You learned that he lived in farmhouse in the woods with eight other people, all men. He swore it was never too crowded and that he actually enjoyed the company. He got lonely easily.

He also told you about how he took a few years off of college to figure out what he wanted to do. You’d asked him how he came to the path of becoming a doctor. He said he simply wanted to do something that would help people. He thought about opening a low-income clinic once he had his degree. Suddenly your heart was pumping under your sternum. When he asked why you went pre-med, you gave a shrug and said your parents and left it at that. These conversations were usually nice and lighthearted, you didn’t want to be the downer.

Yes, spending time with Yixing was nice, the highlight of your day, sometimes. But he also felt like a secret. One that you should keep to yourself for now. Good things didn’t always last. You wanted to see if this was a long-term investment for him before you invited anyone else in.

The next day, you needed some fresh air, so you decided to take a walk in the nature center on the edge of town. Although the woods would be a no-go area since they still hadn’t caught the animal terrorizing the area, the center would be full of people and should be quite safe. It couldn’t really be considered part of the woods given the infrastructure and the observation building, could it? Deciding to go anyway, you packed your bag with a few notes, snacks, and a water bottle. As your hand landed on the doorknob to leave, your eyes fell on the jacket lying on the back of the couch.

You hadn’t worn the comforting fabric since that day. The weather had been nice and putting it on would have seemed a bit obnoxious in your eyes. But this morning the weatherman had mentioned a chilly breeze. It wouldn’t hurt.

Arms through their designated holes, you left the apartment and started the walk to the outskirts of town. It wasn’t too far of a walk, maybe thirty, forty minutes at the most. You thanked yourself for wearing the jacket. A “chilly breeze” was an understatement. A few families and couples were dotted among the trails of the nature center that wound near and over the small creek. You passed by them all until you came to a spot that was deserted. Resting your legs, you sat on a bench with your back to the trees. The sun was shining up above. The only noise seemed to come from the rustling leaves and trickling creek. It was peaceful, just what you needed.

With your bag beside you, you took out a piece of paper with yesterday’s notes and started to review them. Some of the words were smudged and the edges were already crinkling, but you could make most of it out. The paper flopped in the wind. You thought you had a good enough grip on it, but a gust of air proved you wrong.

The paper went flying over your head and straight for the trees. Panic made you jump up, slinging your bag over your shoulder as you ran after it. The wind – now relentless – was enough to keep the paper continuously out of your reach.

It finally came to a stop when it caught on a tree root sticking out in the ground. You snatched the paper up and stuffed it into the bag to keep it from running away again. Straightening up again, your eyes settled on the horizon.

Then you screamed.

Yixing’s eyes snapped open.

He was no longer a wolf. He was human again. Sitting up, he brushed off the leaves from his arms. What time was it? Was it even the same day? He’d blacked out again. At this point, it was almost routine. His only consolation prize being the fact that he was alone. He still needed to figure out what was happening to him. He wasn’t ready to take this to his brothers. There was enough to worry about at the moment.

Getting on his feet, Yixing headed in the direction of where his things were stored. In order to avoid the others wanting to run with him, he’d entered the forest from a different area, storing his things in a bush to get back to later. He flicked his jeans to get the dirt off before pulling them on and then stuffing his feet in his shoes.

A piercing cry for cut through the air.

The hair on the back of Yixing’s neck stood up.

“Help! Somebody help!”

It was your voice.

He gasped. Then he took off. If anything happened to you-

Yixing skidded to a stop when he saw you kneeling in the grass. A body was laying in front of you, the clothes ripped and stained dark. It was lying face down, but Yixing could tell that it was a man and that he’d been attacked.

“(Y/n), what happened?”

You stared at him with wide, confused eyes. “Yixing? What are you doing here?”

He ignored your question, more worried about your own wellbeing. “What happened?” he repeated.

You shook your head as you dropped your eyes to the man lying on the ground. “I don’t know. I just found him like this. He’s still breathing but I’m not strong enough to move him.”

Yixing analyzed the situation. His car was only on the other side of the trees. The man was still alive. From Yixing’s point of view, he could make it, but they needed to act fast. Slipping his arms under the man while careful not to move him too much, he picked the man up and motioned with his head for you to follow.

He said nothing and you asked no questions as the tree line broke. Yixing scanned the parking lot of the nature center until he found his car. He rushed to the vehicle with a few glances over his shoulder to make sure you were keeping up with him.

“(y/n)?”

“Yeah?” You were huffing. Had he been running? He’d tried to go at a pace that you could keep up with.

“In my front right pocket are my keys. Can you fish them out and unlock the doors?”

You nodded. Yixing could feel your fingers trembling as they slipped into the denim opening. The shaking was even more obvious once the keys were free, the house and car keys clinking together as you searched for the fob to unlock the doors. Without prompt, you opened the back door to allow Yixing to slip the man into the bench seat. He told you to get in the front. You tossed him the keys and the two of you rushed to the hospital.

A pair of doctors rushed out of the automatic doors as soon as the car pulled into the emergency entrance.

“We found him in the woods,” Yixing explained. The doctors quickly examined the man as two more nurses came out with a stretcher.

“I think that animal attacked him,” you added.

Yixing’s eyes flickered over to you with worry. The doctors nodded in acknowledgement then helped the nurses move the man to the stretcher. The two of you followed closely but were forced to stay behind in the waiting room. Yixing sat next to you in the uncomfortable plastic chairs that were connected to the wall.

“You never answered the question.”

Yixing frowned. “What question?”

You turned to look at him with your eyebrows furrowed, making him want to reach out and smooth the creases they created. “What you were doing out in the woods.”

Yixing stiffened. He pressed his foot into the tile floor to keep it from bouncing. “I was… hiking.”

“Without a shirt?”

He looked down. Crap. He hadn’t even realized that he wasn’t finished getting dressed before he took off. “I get warm easily.”

Your eyes narrowed suspiciously. Yixing fought to keep his face neutral. It was a pathetic excuse, he knew it. But you didn’t call him out on it. Instead, you leaned forward, unzipping the polyester bomber that was easily recognizable as his own, taking it off, and holding it out to him.

“I’m fine,” Yixing said, ignoring the jacket.

“You really should put it on. I heard the front desk call the cops. They’ll be here soon, and it’ll look suspicious. What would you tell them the reason was for you not having a shirt?”

A cheeky answer came to mind. Yixing bit down to hold it back, even if it would have caused your face to heat up in an adorable fashion. The instinct of making sure his mate was okay was almost too great to ignore. You were the one who needed to stay warm, stay protected. But you had a valid point. And you were inside, out of the wind. So, he accepted the jacket and ran the zipper almost up to his neck to hide the lack of shirt underneath.

The police arrived about twenty minutes later. They separated you, making him anxious. Over the next hour or so, Yixing gave his side of the story to the officer. They took him at his word that he was strolling through the woods. The doctors had already informed the officers that the wounds were clearly animal made. While severe, they weren’t life threatening. That gave Yixing a small amount of relief.

“Would you two like to see him?” one of the nurses asked another hour later. You nodded eagerly. Yixing stayed a bit behind as the nurse led you through the halls to a large room that held several beds separated by plastic curtains.

The man was awake. Black stitches covered his arms. Three claw marks ran down the left cheek. From what Yixing knew of the other victims, this guy was lucky. He was talking to a nurse when he looked to see who his visitors were. As soon as his eyes landed on Yixing, the heart monitor spiked and his breathing quickened.

“Hey, it’s okay, these are the people who found you,” the nurse said to try and calm him down.

“Oh.” The man’s heart rate started to slow again. Each breath was deeper until they were back to normal. “I’m sorry.”

“How are you feeling?” you asked, taking a step forward. Yixing fought the urge to put himself between you and the man you’d rescued. He was probably harmless, but he had also been through a traumatic situation.

The man nodded. “I’m… alive, at least. Thank you.”

You gave a small smile. “I’m glad I came along when I did. Did you,” you bit your bottom lip nervously, “happen to see what attacked you?”

Yixing held his breath.

“It was a large gray wolf,” the man answered. “Huge. Like a mutated one you would see in the movies. He came from nowhere, knocked me down. I thought I was going to end up like the others as he clawed at me. Then he was gone.”

Yixing’s fist tightened at his side, his throat constricting. He forced down a swallow. He couldn’t panic. Not here.

You frowned. “I wonder what scared him off.”

“Maybe you did?” Yixing said with a slight tease. It was more to keep his own mental state calm than for the benefit of everyone else.

“I’m not that frightening.”

“Whatever it was,” the man shook his head, “I’m thankful.”

“He should really rest now,” the nurse said sternly. Yixing nodded in agreement and, after the goodbyes were given, led you away.

Once outside of the hospital, Yixing stopped you. “I can take you home.”

“That’s okay,” you countered, “I can walk.”

He didn’t like that one bit. Besides, he really needed you by his side right now. “Where do you live?”

“In an apartment near campus.”

No way. “That’s nearly halfway across the city. I can take you. It’s not a big deal.”

You shifted form foot to foot, refusing to meet his eye. “I don’t… really like cars.”

“You made it here alright.”

“That’s because I was too worried about him to think about it. The adrenaline blocked everything out.”

“I’m a safe driver, I promise.”

“I believe you. I just-” You blew air out between your lips, which ended in a growl. It was actually kind of cute. Yixing pushed back a grin. It wasn’t appropriate right now. “My parents were killed in a car crash, so they kind of freak me out.” You sucked in your lips as if you hadn’t meant to reveal that vital information.

Oh. That explained… a lot actually. At least, in terms of what you had been holding back from him. He never wanted to push, but he felt better knowing more about you.

“I understand,” he said sympathetically. “Can I walk you home then? I can come back for my car later.”

You shook your head. “That’s ridiculous.”

“Maybe so. But I need to make sure that you get home safe.”

You weighed his alternative for a minute or so. Yixing kept his patience. He refused to push you farther than you were willing to go. He just needed to see you walk safely into your building and then he would be okay until he saw you again.

“Okay,” you sighed. “You can drive me home.” He could have leapt with joy.

Yixing waited for you to get in the car before sliding behind the wheel himself. The death grip you had on the side handle didn’t escape his notice. He made sure to slow down easily and to take each turn with care. The only words you spoke were to give him directions. It wasn’t until the car was in park outside of your building did you finally relax.

“Thank you,” you told him in a strained voice.

“Any time.”

“I’m sorry if I was a little dramatic. I—” the growl of your empty stomach interrupted your speech. You groaned from embarrassment. Yixing couldn’t help his laugh.

Knock, knock, knock.

Leaning over and looking through the passenger window of his car was a strange girl Yixing had never seen before. He rolled down the window barely enough to be able hear what she was saying.

“How the hell did you get (y/n) into a car?” the girl gasped. You visibly cringed in the seat, sinking down a few inches.

Yixing blinked, unsure of how to respond. “Um, I—”

“Yixing, this is my roommate, Ran,” you interrupted, saving him. “Ran, this is Yixing. We have class together.”

“Oh!” The inclination behind her exclamation was more than obvious. And Yixing didn’t object to it. “I just ordered pizza and I know (y/n) usually gets hungry around this time. Do you want to join us?”

You flashed your roommate a panicked look, but Yixing couldn’t resist the opportunity. “That sounds great.” He caught you flinching, so he added, “As long as (y/n)’s okay with it.”

“Yeah,” you relented. “It’s the least I could do. For the ride.” You flashed an annoyed glare at Ran before getting out of the vehicle.

Yixing shouldn’t be this elated as he nearly sprung from the driver’s seat. He walked around the car slowly and let you and Ran lead the way, in case you changed your mind. You didn’t, thankfully, and Yixing walked up to your door with anticipation so great that he almost was able to forget what the man had said back at the hospital.

Almost.

#exo #exo wolf au #exo wolf!au #yixing x reader #zhang yixing #lay #lay x reader #exo x fem!reader #exo werewolf au #exo werewolf!au #exo fanfic #exo fanfiction #exo supernatural au #exo series #exo college au #exo college!au #The Untamed Universe #Healing Touch

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greyias · 3 years

Text

Time to go Full Gravedrog

Hey guys. You know what we haven’t done in a while? That’s right! Put on our tinfoil hats, get tangled up in an entire spool of red string, and do a ridiculous deep dive on lore and make up wild insane theories about the upcoming story drop!

That’s right we’ve got some--

First up. If you haven’t watched it already, here’s the trailer for the 6.2 story drop, specifically for the storyline we’ll be doing our deep dive on, Echoes of Oblivion.

youtube

Are you pumped? I’M PUMPED. Let’s do this!

Okay, so there’s a lot to unpack here, and I’m going to state outright, that the chances of this being on the money like Gravedrog is... well. I’ve got no lottery numbers for you this time around. I can’t believe no one took me up on that offer. There’s always the possibility the storyline has absolutely nothing to do with any previously established lore, and they create something wholly new. And hey, if that’s the case, this is just free fanfic fodder for the masses.

But Charles did mention, I believe on the forums(?), that he’s seen one person guess what’s going on. The real question is... WHO GUESSED IT. HMM.

So I’ve been wanting to actually do a post on this a while, at least since Arcann’s voice actor accidentally made the slip up about Thexan being in this story drop. A large part of this theory/discovery goes to the lovely @confettininjabean, who found this piece of lore when we were getting tangled up in red string back in the Gravedrog days, pre-Nathema Conspiracy. Let’s just say, there was a... certain interaction on Twitter that had us thinking this had something to do with NC, and when it didn’t pan out we were like “Oh, weird, guess that wasn’t on the right track” and forgot about it.

Well, sort of. Because we were like, “that really seemed significant considering”, but hey, sometimes you hit upon a Gravedrog, sometimes you think Indo Zal is an evil mastermind playing 4D chess. In other words, when it comes to red string theories, you win some. You lose some.

Anyway. I forget why, but I went perusing on Wookieepedia a few months ago, looking back up this sort of obscure piece of lore for some reason. And something about it was.... FAMILIAR.

The article in question: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Thought_bomb

May I direct your attention, to this part:

Hey. Where have I heard that before?

Aw. Aw shit. Well I mean, that can’t be right though, right? Because it’s Satele and a bunch of Jedi/like-minded Force users that are being possessed right? And besides this is an an ancient Sith ritual thought to be created by...

Oh.

Oh wait.

But that’s a plague right? Not the same thing as a thought bomb. I mean it’s not like anyone in SWTOR has dealt with a Force plague--

Oh. huh. But you might say, “But Grey, that plague was invented by Terrak Morrhage, not Vitiate.” And you would be right! What I can’t seem to find confirmation of, thus far, is exactly when Terrak Morrhage lived, but by me and Jayde’s current reckoning, it seems like he may have been around possibly during the Great Hyperspace War, the end of which Vitiate used in his mad grab for immortality and power, manipulating what was probably a majority of the remaining Sith Lords into his brand spanking new ritual that he just needed a little help with.

Okay, and this is where we leave lore land, and enter into speculation land. I, um, just got sidetracked on Jedipedia (I’ll get to that), trying to find a codex entry regarding Vitiate I know I’ve read but I lost at some point. So, we’re going off memory here, but I’m fairly certain it’s stated in canon somewhere that prior to his ascension, Vitiate was obsessed with Sith alchemy and ancient Sith rituals. So if Morrhage pre-dated him, or was a peer, it’s possible Vitiate was able to learn about his plague, and adapt it to some of his other experiments.

Okay, back to the thought bomb for a moment. Full disclosure, I haven’t read the Darth Bane novels, so I’m going off of Wookiepeedia here instead of the source material (which is always a dicey affair), it says Bane adapted the thought bomb from notes on the ritual Vitiate performed. So, it’s possible the thought bomb is not a 100% Vitiate original, just a bastardization of it. But it’s interesting that the ritual itself gathers up and shreds the Force essence/soul of everyone in its path. Well, I mean, horrifying. But in this theory’s perspective, interesting in that when Vitiate used Zildrog as part of his ritual--where did all of the Force go exactly?

Because as you wander around Nathema, you hear the tortured whispers of every soul obliterated during that ritual.

This is talked about a little in the Revan novel, and it’s been a few years since I read it so I’m kind of going off memory again, but he basically created a void in the Force there. And remember... in the KOTET chapter we went to Nathema, he was actually visibly afraid a few times. Hmm... now why would that be? Was it Vaylin he was afraid of? Was it something else?

If memory serves, there wasn’t an actual explosion like as described with the thought bomb--because he wasn’t using the ritual as a weapon. He was using it to gather power, to shuffle off this mortal coil and live eternal as an annoying spirit who you just can’t quite squash out no matter how many mind mazes you build to keep him locked up. So, and again, this is speculation land, but all of that swirling Force and dead energy had to go somewhere right? I mean, Zildrog had his snack and went omnomnom, but where did the Force power go? And why was there a Void that constantly pulled at him and sapped away his power on Nathema?

Is it because the Force didn’t explode? Is it because he bound it up in his old disgusting decaying old man flesh? And the only reason he was alive because he basically made himself a little flesh horcrux that was destroyed at the exact moment we sent him off to the Void that he feared so much?

Hmm. Interesting.

Wait. Wait a second... I think there was something else he mentioned. Now, what was it?

You know, I had always assumed he was talking about Gravedrog being unleashed, since the whole reason he went to Zakuul was likely to find the Gravestone so he could pair it with Zildrog back on Nathema, and enact his galaxy-wide extinction event.

And maybe he was.

Or was he talking about his failsafe.

The one he knew would happen if someone destroyed his old, withered, icky body?

So... if the ritual/plague is some take on the thought bomb, and it infects any Force user like some prescient, who could have realized this is what 2020 held in store for us pandemic that spread rapidly and consumed everyone who touched it, until it made manifest what was once just thought...

Is the whole entire point of this to bring Valky back from the dead? Or is it just his last revenge? And what on earth would that last revenge be? Well... and just hear me out. Say there was this guy. Kind of an asshole. And he had this whole schtick about killing every single living thing in the galaxy and liked to consume whole planets in a single gulp just for funsies. Wouldn’t it be so funny if he, say, in the unlikely event he possessed some Outlander who happened to go “get out and get a job loser!” and booted him off to the beyond, and at the same time his old indentured servant and that chick he once possessed found his horcrux and destroyed that, wouldn’t it be a kick if that somehow kicked off a plague that consumed every single Force user in the entire galaxy until it had enough power and then exploded and completely wiped out all life in the galaxy, so that if the asshole who’s name totally isn’t Valkorion couldn’t live forever then neither could any. single. thing. in. the. galaxy.

I mean, that or it’s just a ploy to get him into one final boss fight.

But i dunno... I kind of just found the entire cast list of who’s in the Echoes of Oblivion storyline (warning, major spoilers and datamining on that link, and yes, that’s what distracted me on Jedipedia) and I’m kind of thinking. Having to keep the entire galaxy from being consumed by a sociopath’s final revenge kind of sounds like a pretty epic finale, don’t you?

And hey, if not. Free fanfic idea for anyone who wants it.

Oh yeah, also predicting the following:

We’re going on another mindscape adventure like in KOTET Chapter 9, but it’s Satele’s mind we’re in

It’s not actually Valkorion/Vitiate/Tenebrae, but a remnant/essence of him that’s made manifest by the ritual. Also he needs a combo nickname because I’m tired of having to pick one of three names. I shall call you Valkiatebrae. It’s a beautiful name. I know he’ll love it.

Vaylin and Thexan who we see in the trailer are probably also manifestations conjured by the quasi- Valkiatebrae

We’re going to Ossus? Or Ossus in Satele’s mind?

The Knight and crew missed a few of the death cult back in the storyline, and that’s who was either watching Tenebrae’s body, or who hijacked Satele’s ship OR they have some part in the ritual (perhaps the part to physically manifest Valkiatebrae). We see them in the trailer above.

Regardless if any single one of these predictions is right I’m going to die of feels

Because I think Satele and Theron may have a scene together????? OMG

I’m screaming again

I’ll stop now

I’m sorry Charles I hope I didn’t do it to you again I couldn’t help myself, but hey at least I kept it in this long

EDITED TO ADD: Okay guys, I’ve been looking more at Jedipedia. I think I can safely hazard a guess that a LOT of fans of different characters are going to be super happy with this update. Just saying.

#the return of spoilers grey #swtor spoilers #spoilers and speculation #swtor 6.2 spoilers #swtor 6.2 #honestly there's a lot more #but i've been thinking about this for so long #i know i've forgotten to include half of it #and i haven't had time to find all of my source #but here you go guys!#one last hurrah #and i even found a way to shoehorn gravedrog in there for you!

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storytell · 4 years

Text

@giftandguile asked

📂 more baccanos. every one of them

nice: when the gang eats together, she doesn’t eat until she’s made sure everyone else has gotten food. this used to be because they didn’t always have a guarantee of getting food, but now it’s kind of habit.

claire: claire isn’t usually super serious when he proposes to people, but he takes all proposals seriously even if they clearly aren’t, and if someone proposed to him first he’d take it as a sign that that person absolutely was meant to be with him and accept right away, even if he wasn’t considering them at all prior to the proposal.

maria: her favorite season is winter because she loves to decorate for christmas by cutting up paper snowflakes, cutting down pine trees to make christmas trees, and cutting up her enemies for that nice red christmas color.

isaac: his favorite animal is a stork, because he thinks it’s very noble of them to deliver all those babies to their homes all the time.

berga: he yells when he’s talking over mobile phones in the modern day. most people assume it’s just because he yells a lot but the truth is that one time luck told him he needs to talk louder than normal into mobile phones because the lack of a wire makes it harder to hear the person on the other end. and berga believed that.

donatello: he tends to get flirted with a lot, but he tends to politely brush off the women that do. he says it’s because his first priority is his duty to the lord, but really he’s just not interested and is reaching for excuses.

lua: she pays very careful attention to what people around her are saying. because she has such a quiet presence, people forget she’s there sometimes, or they find her more trustworthy. sometimes if the things she hears are interesting, she’ll tell them to ladd.

dallas: he passes away prior to the 2002 plotline of baccano!---despite only being able to die of old age, he was in very poor health before becoming an incomplete immortal, and wasn’t going to live that long as it stood.

rachel: she actually likes nice dresses, and secretly looks forward to any jobs where she can wear them. however, her usual outfit is plenty comfortable too, and she said if she had to pick one over the other for everyday wear, it’d probably be her usual outfit.

christopher: his favorite color is green! he mostly wears red because it matches his eyes. he used to also jokingly say it’s because red is the color of blood, but ever since he lost the will to kill people, that joke has become obsolete.

random useless headcanons. / accepting.

gabriel: gabriel likes to socialize with people who don’t know who they are, because many people that know who they are treat them with some level of caution or disgust.

chaini: the times at which she interjects into a conversation with her signature “hyaha!” are actually carefully planned to make sure she says it at a funny moment or a moment when someone needs cheering up. her follower is a lot less organized with where he says it.

ladd: the only person stronger than him that doesn’t piss him off is graham.

huey: they don’t harbor any particular fear of death, but they also aren’t ignorant to the possibility. they’ll only outright provoke someone to try and kill them if they know the other person won’t be capable of it.

victor: victor’s favorite curse word is fuck, followed by shit, bitch, ass, and damn. hell isn’t up there in his top five because he thinks hell is a really tame curse word. he’s never used the word cunt, because he’s saving it for “a special occasion when there’s a real bastard who needs to be cussed out to hell and back again”.

luck: one of his biggest pet peeves is people talking over him. there’s not many ways to make him more annoyed during a conversation.

graham: graham claims not to like sports, but if he had to pick a sport he’d want to play it would be basketball. that said, while he would be great as a batter, he’d be very difficult to be on a team with.

sonja: sonja doesn’t exactly have a sense of what’s morally right and wrong. she won’t know if something is right or wrong until someone directly tells her something is wrong. this is, predictably, because of how her parents chose to raise her (like seriously what the fuck were they on).

melvi: he’s never smiled out of genuine happiness.

esperanza: he is an excellent marksman, and is not to be trifled with in duels.. however, he refuses to fire his gun in front of a woman unless she specifically requests that he do.

sham: sham actually has full control of the vital systems of all of his host bodies. this means he could completely shut down a host body at will if he so chose, and it also means that he has to constantly keep their vital systems running along with continuously pretending to be all of them.

The Gang: some of the older members of the gang hang out more with the younger members because it’s a lot less stressful and because the kids need someone to babysit them.

charon: if claudia really wanted them to, they’d star in a film alongside her. however, they have an aversion to the spotlight and would prefer to continue doing stunts because stuntmen are seen as more intimidating, and they usually don’t have to talk.

maiza: he prefers the fashion of the 1700s to what he wears in both the 1930s and the 2000s, but he doesn’t say anything about this because there’s no point in complaining.

czes: he’s kind of a really picky eater. there’s a chance that if he had been allowed to grow up he would have grown out of it, but since it’s physically impossible for his tastes to change, he’ll always be that picky.

ronny: ronny is very rarely surprised by things, even when he’s limiting what he knows so he can make guesses as to what the outcome will be. when he is surprised by things, those events stick out in his mind more often than ordinary but still chaotic events.

jacuzzi: funnily enough, he doesn’t actually like to admit that he’s crying, even when there are literally tears streaming down his face. he’ll either turn away completely, bury his face into his hands, or use the nearest person as a shoulder to cry into.

roy: sometimes roy has dreams/nightmares about some of the hallucinations he had while he was addicted to drugs. usually, just before he’s jerked awake, he’s calling out for edith in his sleep.

kalia: between her and kate, she’s the first of the two to die. she dies of lung cancer in 1984.

rail: christopher once offered to give them an actual name, but they refused, saying that they didn’t deserve it. this wasn’t quite true to what they thought; instead, they just figured it’d be less painful to be called rail if they chose to be called rail.

#i hate you #her SISTER was a WITCH! RIGHT? ;; OOC #giftandguile

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homestucknightfall · 6 years

Note

In the broadest of strokes, how would the endgame have looked like?

Oh man. Writing out the ending is a lot easier said than done, because there was just so much buildup and lore and backstory that needed to be laid out first, otherwise the significance of the endgame wouldn’t make any sense

But! Broad strokes! I’ll try and cover as much as I can but my memory about everything isn’t perfect. Feel free to ask more questions if you need a gap filled in!

This summary got a lot longer than I anticipated, so the rest is under the tab!

So essentially what was going to happen next was Vriska, John, Liz, FDave and the rest of the remaining kids regrouping and coming up with a plan to get the Ring of Nightmares back from Cristyle, since it is the only way they know of to subdue her, since killing her is near impossible due to her shape-shifting also regenerating her. Fdave, as a last resort, also asked Aradia to come to Earth to try and help them go back in time to fix this, with the understanding that this timeline would be doomed. Aradia shows up, and immediately points out that “time here feels funny”. She explains that it feels like time here is in motion, but somehow senses that in the background everything feels… stilted. Aradia brings out her time travel devices, activates them, and they explode into white bolts that shatter the space around them. Looks like going back in time is not going to happen.

This plan to catch Cristyle ultimately fails, but Terlock appears before our heroes and reveals how they can beat Cristyle: Hades. His void powers allow him to significantly reduce the powers of those around him, hence why they’ve had so much trouble fighting him in the past. This is also why Cristyle constantly berates Hades, essentially she knows he could kill her if he wanted to.

Hades ultimately ends up pulling a Zuko like pretty much everyone predicted! Though his motives are not to save earth in the long term. His home planet is still very much in jeopardy. Rather he realizes they have a common enemy in Nero and agrees to help thwart him.

Cristyle meanwhile is pretty hellbent on getting vengeance on Vriska somehow. She saw the future where Vriska kills her beloved sister Sylja, and wishes to inflict the same pain upon her, before killing her. In the future, (That FDave hurriedly sent her to, to get her out of the way) he actually returns to the ship flying overhead, where Raven, the Shinobi (and Witch of Time) who is being held captive there. She takes the Scarf of Time, and the dagger pulled from Sylja’s chest, and Nero finds her. He identifies that dagger as one Sylja had stolen from him, and instructs Cristyle to fuse the Scarf and the dagger, take it back in time, and kill John with it.

Meanwhile, Vriska, John, Liz, Fdave, assisted by Hades, Kate and Gary (who have intel on Cristyle’s whereabouts) are able to track down Jade and Roxy, wake them from their slumbers with Hades’ help, and have them rejoin the group. They come up with a plan now that Hades is on their side to travel back to Cyronilla, find the device Nero was planning on using to overclock Cristyle’s powers, and destroy it. Sylja steps in and provides them with a visual of the location of the device, and it is revealed to be none other than a Quest Bed, one with the Heart symbol imbued upon it. 7 more quest beds are in the room, one for each of the following symbols: Void, Mind, Doom, Time, Space, Light, and Breath. The Time and Doom quest beds have blood stains on them.

Nero later finds out about Sylja’s involvement with giving information to the kids. He speaks to her, and informs her that once Cristyle is no longer useful to him, he has no reason not to kill her. He essentially threatens her with Cristyle’s death after the invasion unless she tells him what she told the heroes. And she gives in. Cristyle is informed about the heroes plans, and blows up Hades’s moon base, including all of his transportation equipment and essentially his only way to access Cyronillia, essentially killing their plans to destroy the Heart quest bed. Also all the cows he had been harboring died too, which enrages Hades, his disdain towards his sister has now been elevated to outright hatred.

Now the only course of action the heroes have is to simply prepare for the invasion. Sollux, Equius, and later Kanaya and Terezi after the threats on Alternia are dealt with, show up, and start preparing weapons to take down ships all over the earth. What they end up making are a network of giant pylons which will defend the planet once they invasion begins. Fdave notes that this timeline has completely veered off from what he remembered. He has no idea of what’s to come, except for the date that Nero and his fleets are set to arrive. They continue to try and track down Cristyle, but she is uncharacteristically keeping her profile low.

Meanwhile, Rose is continuing her adventure through Nero’s castle. There is a lot of running around, guards looking for her. She finds Nero’s room. There she finds Sburb Artifacts. There is a also Lord of Doom outfit. Rose eventually finds her way to Raven’s chamber. Raven talks to Rose, and explains that she’s been captive here for thousands of years. She directs Rose to her journal from her Sburb days. Raven then asks Rose to kill her to spare her misery of existing in this state, and to save Earth. She explains that the Shinobi have been using her powers to travel to Earth and will use them for the final invasion. Rose asks if that means dooming the Shinobi to being sucked into the black hole, and Raven explains that there are plenty of viable planets in their own universe, and Nero’s decision to take over Earth was based on an old prophecy that he was stubbornly following. Rose makes up her mind, and decides to let Raven die. Raven explains that in her suit, there is a magical ring, the counterpart to the Ring of Nightmares, that is keeping her alive, and that Rose must remove it.

Nero however, steps in at the last moment and completely loses his cool seeing Rose about to kill Raven. He throws Rose against the wall, and as his rage builds, the ground around them begins to shake. Outside, the black hole that has been looming over the plan suddenly begins to violently churn and expand. It is Raven who then speaks to Nero, in a calm and lucid voice. She instructs him that he needs to regain his composure, otherwise they will all be destroyed. Nero is at a complete loss for words, stating that this was the first time Raven spoke to him sincerely in ages. Outside, the Shinobi are panicking.

Raven asks Nero to let Rose go. Nero agrees to her wishes. “As you wish, my love” He says. “Child, there is a ship on the far balcony. You may use it to return to your home” Rose, with Raven’s journal safely hidden from Nero, takes the ship, and returns to Earth and rejoins the rest of the kids.

Vriska and John’s relationship continues to advance. They pretty much have nothing left to do except wait for the invasion, so John asks Vriska to a dance held by his school, with the understanding that this may be their last chance to live out sort of a normal life and have a normal relationship.

Cristyle decides that now she will make her move. When Vriska goes off on her own, Cristyle sneaks up behind her, and stabs her through heart with a kitchen knife. Vriska falls to the ground and dies, and Cristyle uses the resulting blood to take Vriska’s form and return to the dance, Nero’s time dagger in hand. Vriska of course, having suffered a blindside death of neither heroic nor just leaning, revives, and realizes that Cristyle can now take her form. She rushes back to the party just in time to see Cristyle dancing with John, and holding the dagger behind his back. She pierces John’s back with the dagger, and what happens John is enveloped in a red crackling light, and he vanishes. Vriska sees this happen and goes into a fury, attacking Cristyle with everything she has. Cristyle eventually returns to her normal form and nearly kills Vriska again, this time with the circumstances of her death potentially being heroic, until FDave and Hades step in and join the fight. Cristyle realizes she is in trouble, and escapes the situation. (this whole scene was actually partially story-boarded in a scrapped flash animation)

Vriska is now completely distraught. John is nowhere to be found, they have no idea what happened to him, if he is alive, or if he can ever be retrieved. The only real reason she had to be on Earth has been taken from her. She begins to spiral into a depression. FDave steps in after Vriska cuts her hair short, just as the Vriska from his timeline did after everything started to go south. He sees this as an omen that nothing has chance, and he steps in to talk to Vriska. He explains to her than in his timeline, Future Vriska, even after John and everyone else died, fought up to her very last breath to try and make things right. He tells her that he knows her, and he knows that she is never one to give up, and has it in her to do whatever it takes to find John and save Earth. He then tells her the story of what happened in his future, and how Vriska sacrifices herself to save him so he could go back into the past and make things right. This whole backstory was also a flash, and I had started story-boarding 4 years ago and had been slowly adding to over time. It is largely unfinished and there is a lot of gaps, here it is: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6yfr3mmnw02hsg6/DaveVriskflash.swf?dl=0(warning: there is some mild flashing colors in this animation that I hadn’t removed yet)

Rose, meanwhile has begun pouring through Raven’s journal, and it is her account of the Sburb session as it happened. Tens of thousands of years ago, the Shinobi had played a Sburb session and created their current universe. The players consisted of Raven: the Witch of Time, Zarlo, the Knight of Space, Icarus: the Heir of Light, Shawntie, the Seer of Breath, Hades: Prince of Void, Cristyle: Thief of Heart, Sylja: Sylph of Mind, and Oren: Lord of Doom.

Rose is very confused by Hades, Cristyle and Sylja’s names being in this journal. As far as she could tell, the three siblings where fairly young and had no involvement with the Sburb game. The Shinobi described in this book where clearly different people with their similarities to their modern counterparts only superficial. Rose reads on and finds that as with any session full of teenagers, a lot of drama ensued. Their was a power struggle between Shawntie, Oren, and Hades. All three of them wanted to be in charge of the team. Oren was the reincarnation of Orpheus, who was essentially Shinobi Jesus, and believed that he was entitled to lead them all to victory. Shawntie however despised Oren and felt he didn’t live up to who Orpheus once was, and asserted that she had to work to gain her prestige unlike Oren who has born with it. Hades, however saw the instability in the two of them. He knew that Oren was deeply insecure and mistrusting, and Shawntie was headstrong and stubborn, and offered to lead the group, as he was the true heir to the Throne of the Shinobi before their home was destroyed in The Game. Oren despised the two of them, Shawntie whom he had never gotten along with was ruthless in her criticism of him, and Hades he despised for more complicated reason.

Oren had grown up believing that he was the prince of his people set to inherit the throne. In reality he was a decoy prince, places their in order to protect the true blood heir, Hades (Sort of like how in the prequel Star Wars trilogy, Padme was the real queen, while the Queen Amedala we saw was just a decoy). When Oren discovered that he would not inherit the throne he began to mistrust everyone around him. He loathed Hades, feeling that he was not raised to be ruler, and therefore has no claim to the throne. Even after it was revealed that Oren was the reincarnation of Orpheus, the savior of the Shinobi, they refused his claim to royalty, stating that Orpheus was not a figure meant to lead, but a figure of self sacrifice for the greater good. Oren was intended to step aside and allow Hades to be the true ruler. Then Sburb happened and all of that stopped mattering.

There were also some LOVE TRIANGLES going on with the 8 Shinobi! Oren was in love with Raven, who wanted nothing to do with him. She saw just as plainly as any what an insecure backstabber he was. Cristyle became enamored with Oren after discovering he was Orpheus’s reincarnation. Sylja was in love with Cristyle, because as a orphaned child, Sylja grew up on the streets, cast out by society. It was Cristyle who was the first one to show her kindness and would offer her food and money any time they encountered each other. They became good friends, but Cristyle was completely unaware of Sylja’s affection for her.

There’s a couple Shinobi I haven’t talked about much yet, as they are kind of irrelevant to the grand scheme of things, but in summary of each of the 8:

Oren: The reincarnation of Orpheus, though thus far he had been failing to live up to it. Hades: The levelheaded and wise beyond his years Prince of the Shinobi. Cristyle: The intelligent and charismatic hero, her drive and resourcefulness she chose to use for good.Sylja: The soft-spoken and shy orphan girl, shunned by society but brought into the friend group by Sylja. Shawntie: The brash and stubborn leader type. Raven: The bookish and withdrawn spell-caster, and unknown to her, the reincarnation of Eurydice, Orpheus’s beloved wife whom he failed to save in the past. Zarlo: The trickster, used to work in a circus.Icarus: The engineer, is lucky there is no sun in Sburb for him to fly too close to.

So the stage is set, the 8 Shinobi play out their game. Everything is going according to plan, with the Shinobi making good progress in completing their assigned trails and whatnot. As Oren is progressing towards his Denizen encounter, he finds that the way is blocked with 8 locked keystones, each one corresponding to the Aspect of each player in their game. He activates the Doom keystone, and realizes he needs to bring each of the other players to unlock their keystones so he can progress. He manages to convince each of them to activate their corresponding stones, up until he gets to Shawntie. She refuses to help him out, and Oren becomes enraged. They argue, and in a fit of hysteria, Oren kills Shawntie. He is horrified at what he’s done, and hides her body away.

Some time passes and Oren ends up alchemizing a dagger. But, as soon as he picks it up, it begins to emit red sparks, flies out of his hand, and John appears! This knife is piercing his chest, but their is no blood and he doesn’t appear to be harmed.

Rose, upon reading the book, realizes what happened to John, that he was sent back in time to the point in time where the dagger he was stabbed with was created.

John quickly befriends Oren, and soon realizes that he has been sent to a Shinobi session. However, he doesn’t realize that he has been sent back in time. He believes that these Shinobi are currently in the process of playing Sburb, believes that the black hole devouring Cyronillia is Sburb’s way of destroying their planet. John realizes that if he helps the Shinobi complete their session and create a new universe, they will no longer need to search for a new home and can leave Earth alone.

So John proceeds to help Oren, and they locate his quest bed. John explains that when he is ready, Oren must die on this bed in order to resurrected in his God Tier form, and that each of his friends must do the same. Oren, realizes his session might be doomed since Shawntie is dead, and he keeps quiet about this. He doesn’t want John to know he killed her.

John eventually explains to Oren that his home is under attack by his people. The Shinobi want to make Earth their new home. John talks about Earth extensively, and how much he loves it and how much they sacrifices to get their new home. Oren listens intently. He doesn’t comment about how his home was destroyed, and internally he starts to piece things together…

Eventually Oren takes John to the temple with the aspect Keystones. There is one left, the Breath keystone, and John, as an Heir of Breath, is able to activate it. Oren thanks him, and John explains to Oren that he is about to face Yaldabaoth, the most powerful Denizen. However, before they part ways for Oren to face his Denizen, Shawntie appears, inexplicably revived. She explains that Hades found her, and had revived her dream self. She has come back for revenge, stating that Oren is a danger to their entire session and attacks him. Oren and Shawntie fight again, with John being knocked out trying to mediate. Shawntie is victories this time, landing a fatal strike on Oren. She leaves him there to die.

John wakes up while Oren is bleeding out, and realizes they can’t beat their session without him. He carries Oren to his Quest Bed where he dies, and moments later Oren is resurrected as the fully realized Lord of Doom. Oren thanks John for reviving him, but something in Oren has changed. He tells John that he is going to kill Shawntie, and John tries to stop him. But, Oren pulls the knife from John’s chest, and he fizzles out in a burst of sparks. He takes the knife, hunts down Shawntie and kills her.

Upon finding out what he had done to her, the rest of the Shinobi turn on him, but they are outmatched. His paranoia and spite got the better of him, and one by one he killed Hades, Sylja, Cristyle, Zarlo, and Icarus. Even Raven he decides is better off dead than knowing the atrocities he’s committed. However, as he watches her bleed out, he decides he can’t let her die. He brings Raven to her quest bed and she revives as a God Tiered Witch of Time.

Oren falls to his knees before her and cries, completely overcome by guilt and horror at what he has done. He pleads with her that he will do whatever it takes to atone for his crimes. He will do whatever it takes to set things right. He says he will find a way to save this session, create a new empire, and he and Raven can rule together for the rest of their immortal existence. But Raven refuses, and leaves him alone to rot in this failed session.

Left with no other choice, Oren returns to the gate John had helped him open and proceeds to make the trek to the center of his planet down a spiral staircase to confront his only remaining hope: Yaldabaoth.

Yaldabaoth explains to Oren that his actions have doomed the session, but he offers him a choice. If Oren is successful in defeating him, Yaldabaoth will grant him one of two options:

1) All of Oren’s friends that he killed will be revived and able to complete the session and move on create a new world, at the cost of Oren being forever trapped in the core of his planet in the session for the rest of eternity.

2) Oren may complete the session by himself, but the new universe he created will be doomed from the start. The soul of Orpheus that he had betrayed will slowly consume everything until all that Oren had worked for would be destroyed.

Oren, being unable to cope with the idea of sacrificing himself, chooses the 2nd option. He kills Yaldabaoth, and the choice he made is set into motion. Oren proceeds to the new Cyronillia, and creates a new empire in which he is the sole ruler. The black hole that Yaldabaoth promised is created, only known to Oren, and it slowly begins to expand threatening to devour everything. Raven attempts to thwart him, and he captures her and holds her prisoner, hoping that one day she will come to see him as he sees her.

Oren, still struggling with the guilt, reverses his name to Nero. He wants to leave the past behind him and start over as a new person. He knows that Shinobi souls reincarnate, and hopes that as his old friends reincarnate he can make things right with them. But time and time again, as his friends reincarnate, he repeats the same mistakes. He can’t let go of his disdain of Hades, he is terrified to let any new version of Shawntie live past childhood in fear that she will grow up despise him and try to kill him.

It is Sylja who is the most problematic for Nero. As a Sylph of Mind, for some reason Sylja is able to remember every past incarnation of herself, and thus she remembers the atrocities Nero committed. She has been responsible for every uprising against him, and after so many failed uprisings, Sylja lost hope and vowed to never speak again.

Over time Nero grows more and more jaded. And he becomes more and more desperate to find away out of the thrall of the black hole. It is his encounter with John that gave him hope of escape. To Nero, John was a walking prophecy, that one day his empire would seek out a planet in another universe known as Earth, and he would make his new empire there. And thus, he begins his plans to take over. Nero over time decides to take on three children (Shinobi don’t reproduce normally, they are created in a DNA pool and given to Shinobi who are fit to raise them). The three children Nero happen to receive are Cristyle, then Sylja, then Hades. Maybe now that his old friends are finally this close to them he can keep an eye on them… Maybe raising them is how he will atone for killing them in the past, he decides.

So back with the heroes, Rose is now informed about the Shinobi session, and knows what happened to John. And, just in time, John appears back in the school gymnasium, and returns to the group. Vriska is overjoyed, and imbued with a new sense of hope. Rose informs them all of the story of Nero and the session.

And here is where I stop writing for the time being, as this “Broad strokes” summary has ballooned out more than I anticipated. I will try and have the rest of out as soon as I can, don’t be afraid to keep bugging me about it!

Feel free to ask any questions, as there where a lot I skimmed over and a lot of plot threads I didn’t talk about. I will try and answer what I can time permitting.

#homestuck nightfall #nightfall #mspfa #mspfa nightfall

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perfectackeracy · 7 years

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Shingeki no Kyojin chapter 98 review (+ theories)

This chapter marks the ending of volume 24 and finally ends up with the moment that was hyped at the beginning of the book, in chapter 95:

The highlight of the Liberio festival, the stage - Ch. 98

And what a festival it was! It’s probably the only chapter of the volume where Reiner spends a good time in company of the kids, where every event happened according to the plan... till the cliffhanger of the volume came to ruin the good mood.

Indeed, it’s one of the rarest cases where it’s hard to predict what’s going to happen next, because our now-protagonist was left in the dark since Eren surfaced in Liberio, triggering a bunch of unexpected events by his mere presence... just like Grisha did when he came inside Paradis. Because hey, the idea of hope and prosperity for Mainland Eldians wouldn’t be funny to envision if literally everything went as planned!

Looks like Eren isn’t in position to attempt anything funny. He’s got what he wanted in Liberio and can return to Paradis. At best, we’ll see another timeskip of reorganization before sailing on Paradis, at worst, someone interferes against Eren or Eren does something stupid and the mood is already ruined before the operation even starts.

T’was a nice chapter with content definitely worth talking about.

The cadet batch

The future of Marley

The Yeager’s family reunion

Willy Tybur

The basement meeting

Key points

Follow me under the cut!

Not really a WTF CR, but one translated panel in particular is outright bizarre and gives a different interpretation of the whole scene.

“How we’re feeling?” Looks like they were rejoiced at the idea of beating Gabi up instead of complaining about the racket for a foot race. Not really cool for Gabi.

Oh and also...

Wat is coherency

Seriously, one time it’s Liberio, the other time Rebellio... just pick a correct translation...

Moving on the group who had quite a fair load of spotlight in this chapter…

The cadet batch

The cadets as waiters - Ch. 98

If anything, this chapter highlighted the four kids a lot, starting with Falco beating Gabi at an endurance race. I guess playing deliveryman while drinking the freedom kool-aid for a month helped a lot. We also got to see how the four kids reacted with each other differently. Previously it was as a group of four, but this chapter denotes the individuality of certain relationships.

Gabi loves when the Udo and Zofia duo sides with her and holds influence and authority over them. However, the duo cheered when Falco beat her for the first time. It goes to show she was known as the undefeated one. As important as her grades were, her character paints her as the dominant figure: she’s authoritative and dynamic, and really can’t stand competition. That’s why she treats her relationship with Falco as rivalry, and thinks he’s only there to grab the merits, when his brother already got some.

Gabi rejecting Falco - Ch. 98

Obviously, this is not what Falco intended at all. He doesn’t think he’s up to become a warrior in the first place, but only gets in the way of Gabi’s glory to protect her, because he loves her that much. More than restoring the family’s honor or going on Paradis, all he does is exclusively for the sake of the girl he loves. Between that and his compassion for war victims, he truly behaves like the cinnamon roll of the group. He’s also a bit naive: getting friendly with a stranger and even considering him his friend, truly unaware of his real motives. Falco puts so much faith in him, he’s even separating from the main group to pick him up at the festival. Eren became his confident and lays on him discussions he can’t have with others. Not even Gabi or his own brother.

Eren’s (and Reiner’s) legacy - Ch. 98

Despite that, Eren rubbed on him a little too much. Would he keep the same cool face if Gabi ends up rejecting him too often or if he grows up and realize it’s not worth it? Looks like he’s heading for the wall of a brutal realization, namely that his new friend isn’t the man he thought he was or… worst of the cases, if Gabi dies. Gabi dying would also break Reiner even further.

So far, Gabi and Falco are the moving elements of their group of four, while Udo and Zofia tag along; between Gabi and Falco, Gabi is the more leader-like, wanting to put Falco in his place. Falco’s reasons for going on is exclusively for Gabi.

The other two, Udo especially, had their moments in this chapter.

Gabi supervising Udo and Zofia - Ch. 98

Especially around Gabi and the preparations for the festival. Zofia was adorable and she’s definitely nailed as the weirdo of the group after 93. She makes off-topic statements in contrast of the actual mood, which adds a nice lighthearted touch. She has the chilliest temper of the whole group, being absentminded most of the time. The ice to Udo’s fire.

Udo’s struggles have been highlighted in this chapter. We’ve learned his family moved from another internment zone from another country and the struggles he faced there were far worse than in Liberio. That explains why he was constantly worried about the reputation of Eldians in the world and why he’s the most skeptical of Marley’s treatment of Eldians. In the corner of my heard, I thought about him having similar traits to Annie, particularly in their cynicism and their tendencies to lash out and go with the flow. Annie has a tendency to run away, physically and emotionally. Not sure what Udo would do in war conditions on his own, but he does lash on other things and other people... unintentionally.

Udo getting pissed at the guests - Ch. 98

Of the group, Udo’s the one with a hot temper: almost squeezing Falco’s head when he thinks about how incompetent Marley’s navy is, kicking town property when he thinks about the MEU survivors demonizing Eldians further and in this chapter, he almost gave in to the provocation from the guests talking behind his back, making him spill wine on that Touyou noblewoman.

The Touyou noblewoman - Ch. 98

And luckily for him, she covered him up. This scene served at the same time to introduce the Touyou clan, directly inspired from Japan, and their mark (the same one on Mikasa’s wrist) and to show strangers can be kind to Eldians. The latter serves for Udo’s development, considering he was the most hopeless for the festival.

The four of them shone as a true group of friends hanging out during the festival where the cultural gates opened to Liberio for the first time. The kids had their fun and could have their taste of freedom for the first time. Tasting new foods, listening to music, viewing other people… They all were in the mood to party and that was the most lighthearted moment of the chapter. And who can forget that tragic moment leading to the death of Reiner’s paycheck?

“Papa, can we have some pastries?” - Ch. 98

It’s adorable how Reiner hangs around the kids during that festival. Everytime he has a free moment, he hangs around the kids, and everytime he does that, you get fatherly vibes from him. Towntrip in Fort Slava, paying the kids’ food at the festival... despite being riddled with depression and PTSD he spoils them rotten when he can.

Will to live restored - Ch. 98

Because those smiles restore his faith and give him a reason to keep going. That’s more important than his paycheck. It was also worth it for his cousin: she partied too hard but felt at least things were changing, due to the recent events following the peace treaty with the Middle-Eastern Union. What she doesn’t know is why Willy showed up and she likely doesn’t know about Paradis’ operation taking place soon. In chapter 91, she wanted to get the Armor to get her chance at crushing Paradis, but now that it’s confirmed Reiner will be going there for the last time, I’m not sure how she’ll take it. Would she let go? Would she go through an existential crisis? Would she die before knowing it?

Nothing’s going to go well for the kids, will it?

Colt and Zeke playing catch - Ch. 98

Lastly, I wanted to talk about Colt. Despite hanging with the warriors rather than the kids, Colt had his caring moments, especially about him not wanting Falco to be selected for the Armored Titan. As the official big brother figure of the cadets, him not being shown in group with them makes him detached from them. The other warriors except Zeke are around his age, but their ranks are different, so I feel like he’s a bit awkward around them.

Not only that but I have the feeling he’s… pretty much a trained regular for the future warchief. In 91: his ideas got turned down by Commander Magath. In 93, he feels like he can’t measure up to Zeke’s abilities. In 95 and onwards, he remains pretty much in the background: Porco and Pieck contributed to the discussion more often.

Zeke is particularly attached to his successor, inviting him to play catch with him. Additionally, Zeke must have helped him ascend to the rank of warchief considering the fates of the Yeager and the Grice family are connected: they were both tarnished by the actions of Grisha and Uncle Grice respectively and as Grandpa Yeager states, they had no choice but to send anybody available in the military.

The future of Marley

Magath and Willy discussing about the future of Marley - Ch. 98

Magath and Willy were talking in metaphors, to refer to the military officials as “the home”. The “expansion” refers to the recruitment campaign and the “demolition” refers to how much generals Magath plans to fire, especially after the morning reunion. He also referred to “usable posts” like Reiner and Zeke, and the “sneaking mice” as Eren.

The most shocking thing of the chapter is how quick the current Marley officials have been dismissing Reiner’s intel under the pretense Eldians know less. Between the start of the chapter and the commentary about their navy, making child warriors and any strategy that isn’t titan fighting, the officials are quite incompetent. Both Porco and Pieck made sneaky remarks about it.

If anything, it’s a good thing Zeke started this plan: by allowing Magath and Willy to take the reins, they can restructure the whole army before they launch an assault on Paradis. I’m giving at least a two-month timeskip before they launch an attack, making it three months in total since the end of the conflict with the Middle-Eastern Union. This is the same timeskip between the battle of Trost and the battle of Shiganshina. And at the end of the first month, from Eren and the others’ point of view, we figured out who the traitors were, learned a bunch of information and overthrew the previous government. Here, Zeke, Willy and Magath made everything possible to orchestrate a revolution. In the meantime, the chapter ends with Eren, the mole, revealing himself.

When you think about it, from the FT arc to the end of the Uprising, the SC, under the reins of Erwin, hunted the hidden mice (RBA) and put in place a government suiting their needs, with a puppet leader (Historia) for one particular campaign: retaking Wall Maria. Replace Erwin by Zeke and Paradis by Marley and you’ve got the same goals.

The Yeager family reunion

Eren playing with a baseball - Ch. 98

…Though it can hardly be considered as one, when the only contact Eren made is with his brother, through letters. His grandparents aren’t aware their other grandson was at the hospital.

A month passed since Eren asked Falco to send his first letter. The dialogue implies Eren and Zeke have been conversing for a while. Zeke’s line about being a brother and his face implies he started sharing the sentiment only recently, and overall, there’s this glove and baseball. The two of them have been conversing for a while.

Eren’s presence has been revealed by Zeke, indirectly, to Magath. Whatever Eren is up to, he’s already under suspicion and thus his movements are limited. I don’t think we’re up to see a clash between the warriors and the Advancing Founder in Liberio. Especially when Eren will eventually return on Paradis, because he got what he wanted: Zeke’s trust, allowing to come closer to him, because he’s the missing ingredient for a fully-functioning coordinate. And Zeke’s royal blood is of course, unknown from both sides. It can mostly be used as a means of blackmailing. Or worse, forcing Zeke to eat his brother so his mind will be savagely hacked by two lines: Yeager and Fritz. That or Zeke only revealed his royal blood to a couple of trustworthy individuals so the correlation between his blood and the royal blood can be falsified...

C’mon, it doesn’t take a brilliant mind to figure this shit out… - Ch. 93

But more than his brother spilling the beans on him, Zeke is rather optimistic about Eren coming in Liberio. He still communicated with him and offered him baseball equipment, so he doesn’t get bored at the hospital… all of that instead of ratting him out. After all, he still carries the Founder and everybody at the strategic table knows it. Yet he lets Eren act as he pleases. The reason for it is simple:

“Someday… I’ll come to save you” – Ch. 83

And it looks like he didn’t even have to come in Paradis to get him. He directly fell into his hands! How convenient…

The sensitive side of Zeke wants Eren to be free from the brainwashing his father inflicted him. He wants to believe Eren has seen the light in some way and thought he could understand what he has been through. What Zeke saw in Shiganshina was a naïve boy who was misled by his father throughout his life, because he himself was forced to go to the warpath since birth. What he doesn’t know is Eren being closer to his father than he thought. A while ago I suspected Zeke to lose and die because he took his family matters too close at heart. It looks like it hasn’t gone off the picture yet.

The rational part of Zeke still wonders why would Eren show up now. What could possibly make him move now where everything is going smoothly? He’s conscious that what describes Eren’s condition is “brainwashing” and nobody gets out of it easily. It seeps into your brain long enough so your perspective on reality is fooled. I think Zeke will realize way too late that Eren’s brain isn’t wired like that.

Grandpa Yeager also met his grandson in this chapter. While the former is completely unaware of his real identity and motivation, the latter knows everything, from Grisha’s pint of view. He felt all the disgust Grisha had for him when he “bowed down to his masters” when Fay died, how Grisha inherited the Yeager clinic, how morbid he looked when Grisha was cuffed and taken for interrogation and how Kruger explained how he didn’t want to lose any more of his family. Eren understands the situation in which his grandfather has been, and despite that…

“Regrets…? It seems… You have your own about your family.” – Ch. 98

He managed to strike an important nerve. He’s unfazed by what he did, because his actions were intentional but at the same time it’s sad to see Grandpa Yeager is still haunted by Fay’s death and Grisha’s actions. Those actions made him lose his children and the grandchild is condemned to a life of war and a short existence to repay the Yeager name.

Without any further addition, Eren mixes in the crowd for the upcoming festival, where he’s meeting the last survivor of Paradis’ operation.

Willy Tybur

Willy captivating the crowd - Ch. 98

Part of why I loved this chapter is because of Willy’s… willingness to cooperate with the plan. After shaking his hand with Magath’s, the two of them started to occupy their roles, and Willy finally stepped out of the balcony to join the crowd. As the ruler of Marley, he holds the belief it’s a nation for Eldians and Marleans. However, taking the first step to put them on an equality foot isn’t obvious.

Willy taking a new role - Ch. 98

There’s the weight of the time and the generations crawling on Willy’s back, but also the ascending hatred of Eldians from the world, and the alignment of the diaspora with the vow of renouncing authority to serve the former oppressed people in their wars, and stay isolated in internment zones. Despite that, he’s handling the international scene quite well. Many leaders from the world knew him since he was a child, like Ogweno, Nambia and that MEU ambassador.

Willy saving the night - Ch. 98

He’s also a charismatic leader. When the Marlean ambassador failed to capture the attention of the people, Willy saved the night by promoting his production, using an elaborated speech. The whole crowd cheered him up. I’m curious about his acting talents.

And of course, probably the most peace-ruining moment of the chapter…

The basement meeting

Eren and Reiner meeting after 4 years - Ch. 98

Considering everything that transpired since last chapter, it’s quite a shock. And just casually on Eren’s part moreover. I’ve written about why Reiner was traumatized in my last review and here it is, blowing in his face. Meanwhile, Eren looks so nonchalant it’s disturbing to say the least. Rubbing Reiner’s wish to return home in his face when he lost all his companions and showing there out of the blue, completely unaware of what’s going on.

They’re both in a situation where neither any of them can fight or trashtalk, considering Falco’s in the same room. Either Reiner will send Falco off to have an adult talk with Eren, either Eren will be vague about anything that transpired on Paradis, because the festival is starting soon, and they only have a couple of minutes before returning to their positions.

Eren wouldn’t gain anything from Reiner’s side, since he observed him for a while. Reiner however, would like to bombard him with ask: why are you here? How did you get here? How could you mix in the crowd? What happened to Annie and Bertolt? What did you do to Falco? What the fuck is this greasy, dirty hobo look?

Whatever is going to happen between the two, I’m not going to like it at all. I’m expecting Eren to make me feel uncomfortable depending of what he’s going to say to Reiner and since he asked Falco to bring Reiner down there, he ought to get something from him. Either blackmail or false promises. We’ll see.

Key points

It’s been a month since the victory of Marley over the MEU

The Marley government is an “unruly mob”

The internment zones are scattered all around the world

Zeke and Eren have been communicating a couple of times and Magath is aware of Eren’s presence

Grandpa Yeager works at the hospital and is unaware he had a conversation with his other grandson

The man who helped Grisha getting in the revolutionary group is Uncle Grice

Colt and Falco’s motivations to get in the army were to repair the Grice family’s honor

It’s likely Zeke did the same too, for the sake of his grandparents

The “Touyou” clan comes from the nation of Hizuru

Willy encountered leaders of the world when he was young

Liberio was the former capital of the Eldian Empire and the place of birth of Ymir Fritz