#maybe this is also just bc I had to do image descriptions for some art history courses and the main focus was on trying to remain as removed
Text
My issue with img ID on this site is that it's done in good faith most of the time, but just as often assigns a mood or emotion or interpretation of what is depicted that is very much subjective and can end up being straight up wrong or misleading.
#maybe this is also just bc I had to do image descriptions for some art history courses and the main focus was on trying to remain as removed#as possible from putting our own interpretation into a work at that stage of the analysis#your personal feelings and thoughts would come later but you HAD to make an effort of being as objective as possible#and that also meant not editorializing which I think a good amount of img ID does without realizing
3 notes
·
View notes
Note
Love the blog theme and colours! Esp the header. Can I get a HH matchup? The description is mostly pasted from another ask I did before, but like, I really don't have a new way do describe myself. Idk if this is as bad as sending the same propmp to two blogs, lmk cause I don't want to be disrespectful here
★Gender and pref: I’m a he/she and choose how I present myself based on the setting bc I’m not that open with ppl (yeah, it’s important to express yourself but realistically that won’t get me far in certain settings in my country); no gender pref but I’m not too fond of some writing choices when it comes to women in Viv’s works, depends on a character though
★Looks: my style has a rockstar gf vibe? Sometimes softer colours too. I'm 5’7, athletic but not ripped, gray eyes and wavy blonde hair. Ironically (in this context) lots of ppl call me an angel/angelic-looking. Not going to lie, that feeds into my ego a little bit but I don't really get what they mean. I wear makeup too, love the fox eye trend
★Personality, hobbies: I’m social and extroverted. Usually that leaves me as a leader of whatever group I’m in. I have a little bit of a hater in me, but I don’t show it if ppl don’t encourage it. I do like when it’s being enabled though. It’s not convenient when you’re in a position where ppl ask you for opinions and actually follow your guide, yk, if I manage an event I’m not going to go around shit talking everything. It feels nice to have someone who does that though, makes it easier to join in and not feel like a jerk (or at least be jerks together I guess??). I write my own songs and am in a band as a backup vocal. Kinda proud that it’s my band but I need to get better until I step up as anything more. I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I like to tease ppl if given the opportunity. Others say I’m flirty. Bold with it at that. I’m ambitious too. Kind of a big thing but I have npd (if you want to look it up without reading scientific papers, go on tumblr, the rest of the internet is filled with ‘demonic narcissism’ bullshit) and it influences the way I am. I care lots about my image and don’t have a ton of empathy. I don’t go kicking puppies, but it’s noticeable how I lack in this department. Sometimes people say I’m ’too nice to have it’ 🙄 cause i do well with kids and do all the youth group volunteering. Also, I do some martial arts and other sports. Kinda sceptical of romance at this point cause I had lots of it and I don’t mix well with a lot of people, but maybe I could do something serious for once if I had the right person. I try to be responsible and respectful but I have no issue finding my place at a wild party or something. I'm pretty chill in general, but I can be soft-er if I want, like with children or if the few ppl I‘m close with (I've got many friend groups but I struggle to make meaningful connections) need me. Usually I just stay my highly analytical, laid back self and say my silly little comments every once in a while. Heard I’m pretty funny if I want to be. My love language is acts of service. I like small things and I do them a lot. I can do words too, but I don't care for them in return. Like, you can be an asshole (up to a limit, I know my worth) and it’s cool with me if I see you have your ways of caring like putting on a song I like in the car
★❤️&💔: love movies like Fight Club (my fav), American Psycho and Donnie Darko; hate sharks, they freak me out; my fav book is The Catcher in the Rye; hate it when people push me to open up and be emotional; love music and I unironically had a few guys play songs AT me and I actually like that too, tho I get why ppl clown on it
★My type: I like people who are more negative than me and aren't afraid to shittalk everything. Just saying whatever, not caring if they offend ppl (up to a point, some issues aren’t debatable ik). They have to be somewhat funny. Just… not serious all the time at least. Don't really care for morality (to a certain point, again) if you're charismatic and fun to be around, I’m along for the ride and happy to support whatever you get yourself into. I think I would get along with someone who had a little npd too, I like to be able to relate to my partner a bit. If they work somewhat similarly, I don't have to struggle with understanding some stuff, bc I already know how to manage an ego or grandiose behavior. As for looks. Idk, I don’t have a set type. I think maybe ppl that are bigger than me? I’m pretty athletic so it’s not hard, but I guess that’s been a pattern? Also, I do enough of leading as is so in relationships, I don’t mind watching from the side and supporting whatever my partner is doing
-★🎶
first of all, thx!! my blog is all lute themed because i love her sm haha, also imo it’s not disrespectful so dw, but if some other blog gives you crap, i gotchu, anyway this was such a hard tie between quite a few characters, but here’s who i decided to pair you with…
Angel Dust !!
I was debating so hard between him, Husk, or Charlie — but decided with Angel cause he’s a happy medium imo
I feel like you and Angel can bond well, but under the correct conditions and circumstances, like you both have been through shit and it sucked — and it probably still has a tight grip on you today, but you guys give each other the boost to keep trucking along, you’re each others reasons to get out of bed each day, each others cheerleaders for lack of a better term
You definitely enjoy Angel because he’s not afraid to talk a bit of shit, but he’s also not as serious as Husk, he can have a good time, he also matches your flirty energy a lot so you guys kinda just bounce comebacks and random shit off eachother
Angel is ALL IN for your “rockstar + angelic partner” look, thinks it’s hot asf, genuinely thinks you were in Heaven at one point or another because of how undeniably beautiful you are
Angel also enjoys the kickass hater in you, you guys could sit and gossip and talk shit for several hours, but you both kinda keep eachother in check from going too far — especially infront of others
Despite Hazbin being a musical, I’d like to think Angel is canonically a good singer, because cmon, how could he not be with a VA like Blake Roman?? So he could easily sing at and/or for you, bitch would serenade you😩😩
Also bro finds the fact that you hate sharks hilarious asf, I could see him deciding to be a little fucker and getting you a shark plush as a gag/joke gift on Christmas or smth (or I guess Hellsmas?? Idfk.)
#reqs open#x reader#mio’s writing ! ☆#fanfiction#x y/n#x you#hazbin hotel#hazbin hotel x reader#hazbin hotel x y/n#hazbin hotel x you#angel dust x reader#angel dust#angel dust hazbin hotel#hazbin hotel angel dust#hazbin hotel angel#mio’s matchups ! ☆
10 notes
·
View notes
Text
Hm, I like Topaz now, in a very Succession fan way. I'd not get along with a real-life person like her, but her arc as a debt collector with some moral scruples is interesting. Just going to tag spoilers from here!
Like, she came off as downright friendly at first. Watching her politely fangirl over March and the heroine, I wasn't sure what she was doing on Jarilo-VI (but her staffers' initial trigger-happiness def made me wary). Still, maybe they weren't having their finest day and their boss was reasonable and dropped in for something mundane. Like establishing trade routes for the newly-space-cancer-free planet or whatever.
Translation in alt text for images (bc I can't be bothered to watch the quest in eng on youtube). Please note that I'm literally only a bilingual accountant.
Anyways, then I was like... sorry, credit history? And how would that preclude the planet from reestablishing its connection with the rest of the galaxy? My next thought was that mobster movies are very much a thing in the setting and that she's probably seen Godfather at least twice.
She's a pretty compelling character, debt collector and all. Because on one hand, a lot of her behavior was practically designed to tick me off. Like, if someone were to take me on a museum tour and keep talking about the exhibits in terms of their monetary value, I'd walk away within minutes. It's just such a fundamentally uncurious way to look at art and history. Plus, you know, she's a loan shark.
Still, growing up in an ecological wasteland where you'd have to be rich to escape explains the obsession with money, I suppose. If your only other ticket out of there is to join Evil Corp, guess you'd jump aboard and drink the koolaid. Besides, it's not like she had any actual choice, having been set up to work for them in some capacity by whatever government officials signed the planet over to said Evil Corp in the first place.
So, yeah, it sucked to see her try to inflict the fate her planet suffered on others, in the name of maybe saving them. But would living her childhood afterwards be considered "saved"? This imposition might have been what pissed me off about the character the most.
And yet she ultimately honors their decision not to sign over and even sticks her neck out to her bosses to protect them. Yeah, she stays with them (the biggest employer in the galaxy) and that means she's still going to pull this on another planet later bc it's in her job description. But it's not like she's in my situation, where the profession has a shortage and I keep getting recruiter invites on linkedin even tho I'm employed. So I suppose that's why she's a not particularly likable character with some redeeming moments to me, which happens to be a sort of character I enjoy. Might be my fave now bc I had a Succession-shaped hole in my heart ever since that show ended.
Also, fave moments from this story (translations in alt text):
March taking a doll of Pom-Pom along for the party T_T Also, I hope she holds a fashion intervention for the lead someday! I trust her to get it right, 2000's scene princess tiara and all!
Is the lead canonically braggy, or have I been making a lot of braggy dialogue choices? Wonder if this line changes depending on your track record.
Uncle, seventeen interviews for what seems to be a security guard gig? I mean, yeah, we later find out that he was a "special case" but this is ridic.
Also, lol best quest opening text:
Translation:
"Excuse me, has [heroine] passed?" (The sentence looks blatantly typo'd, as "помер"/"pomyer" is past tense for "died" but it refers to men and the female version would be "померла"/"pomyerla". Also, saying "прошу прощения, это помер []?" sounds like you're trying to clarify if someone truly died and doesn't really make sense as an opening text to someone.)
"I am actually quite alive!"
"Oh, sorry, autocorrect. I meant 'number'." (Number/номер/nomyer is one letter away from died/помер/pomyer)
Anyways, now I'm curious what the original lines were lol
#text post#gaming#honkai star rail#video games#hsr#i spent like thirty minutes on translations bc i don't play in eng#honkai star rail spoilers
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
reply roundup!
“hey isn’t it like the middle of the night” look don’t worry about it I just wanted to get this done before I move out of california on saturday and I’ve still got other stuff to do the next couple days
thank you to @cherrycreamsicle for more image descriptions for [tiny baby] and [custard]! I have added them as alt text with credit once again.
on [the last roundup] @sonisis said: you understood : D
yeah! I don’t speak any language other than english but I can read some french and spanish -u-
on [blep] @joekingv1 said: *puts tiny sugar cube on baby's tongue*
lol you might end up treat-training them to blep, although I suppose that’s not a bad thing
on [shoes] @ceylonsilvergirl said: I choose to believe that the red things are not his shoes but his actual feet, and that these new snazzy sneakers are over those
oh absolutely same, those are his funny little bean feet. he’s just running around barefoot all the time because he’s a dirtchild.
thank you for the delightful tags on the [sleepover] commission, like “they are giggling and goofing so much under there. maybe even making shadow puppets” from @pierrotcandy and “SCREAMS UNCONTROLLABLY. PUTS MYSELF IN A ROTISSERIE OVEN. PAYS YOU MONEY. AAAAAAHHHH ITS MY BABIE BOIS 😭😭😭😭” from @northeasternwind themselves :-) (so glad you’re happy with it!) I also finished the [two] [other] commissions from the very brief open period at the beginning of the month, they were all very fun. hopefully I can stay well enough to open them again soon.
on [licorice] @danwithouttheplan said: oh heck to the yup this is the good stuff let er rip im feeling so full of happy now i love this little beast with my heart and lungs
this is just an extremely delightful turn of phrase thank you, I also love this little beast with my heart and lungs!
on [fleeing] @ceylonsilvergirl described a nightmare I won’t copy/paste but it’s there in the tags as long as they choose for it to be
dang, that sounds like one of those nightmares that’s sooo stressful while you’re in it, but once you wake up you’re like “oh, actually that would be fine.”
on [blanket] @grimlocks-dad said: ooh i wish i was good at any kind of fiber art bc i would love a kirby blanket 👀 kirby and blankets are two of my favorite things haha
honestly highkey same, I’m not good at the right fiber arts yet to make something like this by myself but I wish I was! I wouldn’t be happy enough with it if I crocheted it!
on [blanket] @angst-and-fajitas said: This reminds me of a blanket I had back when I was a little kid :)))
aww that’s so nice! I never had a patchwork blanket like this but I think they’re really cute.
on [jacket] @ceylonsilvergirl added a [link] to a cover of come on eileen by save ferris
ohhh I’ve never heard this version before, this is fun! I grew up on 80s music from my mom and ska punk is like definitely top 5 genres for me, so it’s very appropriate XD thanks!
5 notes
·
View notes
Note
I have reread Boy Blue almost three times now. You are such a talented writer!! I hope this message dont bother you but I have two sorta fun questions:
1. When I watch Rainy Days, for some reason I feel like it's super Boy Blue-coded (?) Like idk, the ambiance, the moodiness, the yearning. What era / mv BTS you associate with Boy Blue characters (if any)? Or you can also answer for Collateral, whichever you want!
2. When you write a story, do you begin with like knowing how it's gonna end first or do you build a rough outline of events and then decide the ending? All the endings (if you can call it that) in Boy Blue and Collateral have been so unpredictable (literally I could NOT guess how it was going to end) so I'm just interested. Btw I'm not a writer so I'm sorry if this is a weird question!
P.s: i'm glad I didnt trust Yoongi in Boy Blue hehehe
Thank you so much for writing again and sorry for the long message!
ANON HELLOOO!!! 😍
THREE TIMES that’s wild wow thank you so much!!! (the chapters are pretty quick hehe but still wow!!!) this doesn’t bother me one bit, i’m very excited to respond to these! this is going to be a VERY LONG response hehe enjoy.
this response will contain spoilers, for anyone who hasn’t read these fics!
1. i get such big Boy Blue vibes from Rainy Days Tae!!! both in the way he is burying himself in the art (idk i get this obsessive vibe tbh) and also with how 😐 stoic and serious he seems through a lot of it. i see Boy Blue Taehyung trying so hard to distract himself but all he can see is someone’s face/likeness and he needs to paint it and carve it and build it somehow. and yes, definitely the ambiance and yearning!!! i will definitely be making it his personality in White Lies haha.
originally, i wasn’t really associating their personalities with any era, but Boy Blue Taehyung maybe had hints of Stigma performances (especially with blue hair, of course.) Yoongi and his boys i just imagined in like a Velvet Goldmine crossover almost, and Jungkook was if My Time were a little more punk (and a little more whiny haha.) (Namjoon and Seokjin didn’t really have development lol sorry boys!)
for Collateral, Yoongi was originally from That That, and the others came from any number of eras (Butter maybe, Proof at times.) but because these roles don’t really fit the guys normally, it’s all kind of all over the place and i don’t really imagine them from specific eras (i have been more or less keeping Yoongi current throughout Collateral and using more recent descriptions and images every time, with the exception of some mood boards.) sometimes my mind goes to Weverse magazine shoots, especially 2020 and 2022.
2. i almost never plot things out when i start, which was the case for Boy Blue and Collateral lol. i did sort of plan the ending of Boy Blue by the time Yoongi was introduced but i was still playing around with various ideas. (glad you didn’t trust him tho bc i made him obsessive and weird like immediately and it felt like nobody really caught that??? there were hints of his involvement throughout, tho, because i always loosely wanted that to be a plot twist. In the basement, when Yoongi says, “This wasn’t supposed to happen” what he means is “This isn’t how we planned it.” and even in earlier chapters when they are first captured, his behavior is erratic because he is upset with Taehyung, especially for having a gun.)
i finally wrote an outline for how i wanted to end Boy Blue somewhere around chapter 40. i was like “ok, we need to end this fic, it’s been going on for a long time now.” i think around 42 is when i had the ending completely figured out. most of Boy Blue was the product of me just logging out of class and creating chaos.
Collateral got an outline in chapter 12, and boy howdy, has it changed a lot. i don’t think think i had the actual ending set in stone until chapter 15. i think that was the point when i decided that in order for this story to get the ending i wanted, i needed to plan a sequel, and i slid Balming Tiger into the story.
THESE ARE PROBABLY WAY MORE WORDS THAN YOU BARGAINED FOR but i get really excited to talk about my fics, so thank you for giving me something fun and thoughtful to wake up to! feel free to ask more questions if you would like to! i am an open book!!! 💙💙💙 and thank you so much for reading!!!
0 notes
Text
im going to ramble abt art websites for a bit and its maybe going to be disjointed and potentially mean bc 1. i speak for myself im not here to convince anyone of anything so i dont care about sounding nice? and 2. im feeling a little offkilter lately BUT
these are no more good art websites and its a pain to see a new art website crop up every week and everyones like, thisll be the one guys! bc i dont think in this day and age its possible.
first; websites should not be profittable. ive been thinking abt this w like, twitter and tumblr and deviantart too where the problem is that people want to make more profit- they dont want to break even, theyre not trying to cover the cost of hosting and paying employees, they need an excess. it shouldnt be like this bc thats how we get the lower in quality, thats how we get this trying to appeal to third party money providers and not users and its always bad and more than that its just unnecessary. every art website that people love are the ones that remain stagnant because its reliable, people do not want continual updates to the ui of something they depend upon for posting and money. new experimental features esp on art websites are just.. useless unless theyre asked for and the garbage fed to us isnt what we asked for.
what makes a good art website? something you can post images, gifs, perhaps low quality videos on, have larger text posts for pinning and smaller text posts for status updates. id say an important feature is a gallery and featured page- profile customization is also important, at the very least have icons, text around a username, descriptions, and headers.
can you tell im thinking of deviantart? i think deviantart is the premium art website and i am so sad everyone left at eclipse- honestly not even that sad at eclipse. it was bad, it was broken, deviantart now has a fuck ton of little holes in it where pages just dont load right, ill get on the fucking new notification page and user profile later, but the way that, in the old days, it had huge spanning galleries, and it had “post type” search too! and it was annoying at the time, we hated this, trying to pick what kind of art your posts were, but it helped make searching for specific posts so much easier (now trying to find gifs on my old accs without it is impossible..). thumbs were good easy ways for ppl to spread content meant to be spread while immediately linking to the actual post- it stopped people from reposting art or using html linking the image itself without a hyperlink to take back to the post and credit, because the thumb was immediately easy to use and way easier than working around it. there was so much... community. like ok from 14-16 i was harassed hard fucking core by adults on deviantart because i was an annoying whiny kid that used dA as my support platform, because from 11-14 it really was! everyone was nice to me- my art was hot dog shit, but i dont think i EVER got a comment calling it bad. i got a LOT of comments telling me that it was good, and i really did believe that! being a preteen drawing dogs online and getting genuine support, often from other artists of my ilk but not uncommonly by artists who were immediately visually BETTER than me really really helped me get to where i am now- i never doubted myself because i was surrounded by people who were so happy to draw just like me, and people loved to see everyone elses work and characters- the joy for characters and stories is really what propelled popularity even when my art wasnt good enough to uphold this. i remember seeing a post a long time ago mentioning that like... sites like dA remained bc they werent just for visual artists which is a great point too- it hosted lurkers really well, artists were really friendly to people who commented on their stuff even if they didnt post anything, im p sure it did fairly well for people who wrote a lot of content, i know some people got popular just because they commissioned people a lot, not bc they drew anything but bc their characters and name got popular.
i miss the old dA notification page, it was SO GOOODDD the folders for where you could store old notifications, the way it was so perfectly set up to maintain a bunch of different notifications all categorized by type, the way that they took note to stop posts that were submitted in multiple groups from appearing again and again in your notifs, the birthday warnings, it was just.. so sweet! page customization too- it was just so fun finding cute little things to put on your page, and so versatile and useful too because you could get like, boundary or commission status or language stamps on there! and like, when i was 14 i had recoded my page a few times over myself, it got me interested in html coding! and now its all gone- for what? because the sleek look is modern, and modern things get more money from investors, and the platforms dont appeal to users anymore, they appeal to investors, because they want more money- they need more money. its a hole they dug for themselves, kind of- i feel like people down the line hosting THEM want more money and so it dominos.
i loved points too, ik people thought they were useless and the worth was hard for ppl to get but $1=100 points was SO GOOD like i know buying points w usd incures a fee and so ur not getting 2000 points if you spend $20 but trading between people for a lesser fee was SO FUN i got banned for doing this a few times LMAO but it really brings a community together. it encourages younger ppl without paypal to try and do commission artwork without breaking the law, and it wasnt as if points were WORTHLESS, because i know i traded usd for them!
and like, everyones like.. twitter is better. twitter is chock full of algorithm nonesense, theres ads between every post, video audio doesnt really work right (if you click on a video on mobile it just decides you will hear every video you pass now. which will be in between every normal post in the form of a fucking ad), images get compressed to hell and ive never heard any information as to how to avoid this, gifs turn into bad videos, you still cant post multiple gifs (i think youre supposed to but well it doesnt fucking work!), just fucking try and host pixel art on here, theres on way to say long form things to people easily- “use threads” real talk, as a user, if i see a thread i do not click it, its too much work if not offered to me. i am 1 person and i represent hundreds who see your tweets. if you scroll down onto any featured popular post you will see nsfw or violent bigotry. i used to report every bit of bigotry i saw and got fast reception, near immediate banning- since owner turn over, a post disparagingly saying faggot has not been responded to in the past 48 hours. the community is fucking insane and i cant blame them, its how twitter is built- there is no separation between official posts and casual posts, like on deviantart wher ethere was differences between journals and statuses- everything youd post as a status that would have gone under the radar is a big proper real post, every comment you make is a big real post as well, it forces a lot of passing commentary to the forefront of peoples attention which of course incurs drama. and ofc its an ALGORITHM BASED PLATFORM which means it REWARDS RECEPTION, inlcuding NEGATIVE- any of your posts that you intended to have as private and only for your 5 followers if it gets enough traction gets blown out of proportion and every single other user will see it only as the post itself, as a big number post which means its open for ridicule. i feel like it was host to more psyops than dA ever was? dA had a bunch of trolls but never any govt psyops like that drug minor one
anyways new art platforms dont work out bc they dont have enough people or draw- if you just are allowing people to post images and text posts, even if you have better page customization id just use twitter because despite its cons it has the major pro of, you know, having people using it- if you make a new art platform every week, theres no real point to pursue any of them, id just wait and see which one flourished- and because i dont participate, they dont get clicks, they dont continue to grow, and they ALL die. anyways moderation is impossible in the way people like- i know everyone wants to believe their niche discourse is clean cut and actually go to show deeper oppression but moderators on websites do not care- discourse is ever evolving and so heated that they cannot afford to throw out a guess and likely no one ever explains themselves, just say This ideology is something or other. and we all want it to be so simple that everyone has the Right opinion on pro/antiship, or fetishes, or terfisms, or mogai, but i promise no matter how easy it seems to you there are thousands who violently refuse and will make up their own buzzwords about how their side is right and the other is something or other. like aside from banning slurs or cruelty they really cannot do much and likely would not ban people who have a special word in their description that you and you alone recognize as a dogwhistle for x ideology. this is the problem i know a few art websites had where they had to say clearly what they would and wouldnt allow and NO ONE was happy. also to revisit that point on hosting a lot of people, an art website that is JUST an art website is like.. its not going to get community or that response i mention from other ppl. if i get on a website just to post art, why would i comment on anyone elses?
and like, dA i know it has like front page or new algorithm which spotlights a LOT of fetish content, but honestly like. you just have to accept that theres going to be fetish content, its an art website, if you want new unseen artists spotlighted you have to acccept that in the fallout of that theres going to be fetish content.
so uhmmm theres nowhere to go and nothing to do. get your asses back on dA eclipse was glitchy and sucked and showed dA didnt respect user opinion but it has not been that bad. its functional at the very least and its only ever dysfunctional because YOU all left. i cant get reception not bc dA is broken but because theres no one left to see it
1 note
·
View note
Note
whats your design process? like do you have multiple iterations of a design before settling or do you go straight to the final product? how much do you take canon designs into account, bc some of ur designs follow canon to a t (cricket, glory. etc) while others wildy differ (coral, tamarin, etc)
[rubs grubby little paws together] OH BOY IM GLAD YOU ASKED ANON!
Here's how I start- do I already have a design for them drawn out? May sound stupid, but if I have an art piece of a character from like, 2020, I'll start there. Ex- the first time I drew Coral was in this animatic.
Next, I decide- Is this design good? Or, do I hate it now? You can see in the aforementioned animatic, I liked my Coral design, so I stuck with it! But I wasn't so fond of my Turtle, so I changed him til I did.
If I didn't have a concept for them drawn out, I ask myself- do I have one in my head? I always imagined Tamarin as being light brown and orange, because when I read THK as a 12 year old, I didn't know what a tamarin monkey was, but I DID know that tamarind flavored candy was brownish orange. I later added blue to her design as a nod to her real, canon design.
Okay, let's say I have neither of those- I never imagined the character while reading them. They might have only been mentioned a couple times, so an image never solidified- like I never imagined what Snail or say, Truthfinder, looked like, because they were mentioned sparsely/never appeared.
With a blank canvas, I do these things in a variable order-
Check if the have a graphic novel design. I very rarely take these one for one, but they serve as a good starter.
Next, take their name into account. Cereus is a genus of cactus, so I gave her green eyes, but it also looks like the word Cerberus, so I gave her dog patterns on her sides. Snail got swirly snail-shell patterns. Urchin had a spiky frill. Mightyclaws has patterns on his talons. You get the idea.
I also do word association. Argus is a SilkWing mentioned in THQ, and in my favorite video game, a character is cursed by a demon with the "Curse of Argus." Therefore, I designed Argus after that character (Noel Levine from Witch's Heart, for those wondering). Another example is Saguaro, described as having a "Scar on her heart". This made me think of Mapleshade from warriors, who is sometimes drawn with a scar through a heart patterning on her fur, thus I gave Saguaro calico-esque patterning. Obsidian got purple spirals because he made me think of nether portals.
After that, I look at their family. This is also the one of the only times I drew out iterations of a design before settling- For Lagoon, Albatross, and Sapphire. They are the ancestors to the ENTIRE SeaWing royal line, so I wanted to start somewhere. (The other time was with Tsunami because girl she is IMPOSSIBLE to design.)
As you can see I ended up making Lagoon a deeper color and giving her mauve accents. Albatross and Sapphire were pretty similar though.
Back to looking at their family- when designing Secretkeeper, I took Moonwatchers and Morrowseers design into account- Moonwatcher was an emerald green, so Secretkeeper had to be olive to balance out Morrowseers midnight. When designing Ripple, I took into account his mom's design was indigo and pink. Pearl had pink accents because her father had coral accents.
Then, other facts we get about them. Quicksand died of illness, so he gets a mask. Mayfly mentions hippos, I make her purple. Truthfinder is a principal. she gets glasses and scrolls. Jobs, life, hobbies, etc.
If all else fails- A character is mentioned once, has no canon description, no family, no other details. Just a name, a name that gives you very little to base a design off of- I make a generic design for that tribe. Ex, I had NO idea what to do for Foreseer. Give them weird eyes, maybe? So, I started with a standard NightWing design. Then, give them a notable characteristic. A cool scar, a piece of jewelry, something to suggest a personality or a backstory. In Foreseer's case, I gave them a nervous expression, a nick in their ear, and a sapphire earring. Something to suggest a life.
All in all, remember that each character is the most important dragon in their own story, and they should look as much. And, that sometimes, being described with "snowy blue" or "ebony black" scales, like every other dragon in the tribe, is a bad way to design characters.
#not designs#housekeeping - design process#asks#anon#i went off on this ask#but i think its good to get out there!
14 notes
·
View notes
Text
Finding ChristBorg: A TED talk about what happened during the Coldharbour Compact.
Reposted from my tes reddit bc I want to see what y’all think.
I can't tell if I'm a genius, completely insane, or if I'm just late to the lore-party. Time to find out I guess. TL;DR at the bottom.
So it has never been explained what Sotha Sil did during the Coldharbour Compact to convince the daedric princes to not manifest on Nirn without an intermediary, and it probably never will be since the mystery of it all is far too cool. But that doesn't mean I can't read into it like literature and look for meaning in the other texts I can compare it to.
To start, Vivec is based off of the Shakta variation of the half female/half male Ardhanarishvara, where the gold-skinned female half is the right side. Both Vivec and Ardhanarishvara represent unity and duality, and looking at some images of Ardhanarishvara, it's kinda hard to argue that Vivec wasn't based off of them. Kirkbride even confirmed that Ardhanarishvara was the inspiration for Vivec in an AMA. Now, Vivec is part of the god trio the Almsivi Tribunal, along with Almalexia and Sotha Sil. Shiva, who Ardhanarishvara is the avatar of, is also part of a god trio, called the Trimurti in Hinduism. So it would make sense if the other members of the tribunal are also based off of one member of a real world religious triad. I have a shaky idea of who Almalexia could be, but my theory for her god-inspiration is nowhere near as solid as my theory for Sotha Sil, who I believe is based on Jesus Christ.
To start, their characterizations have multiple similarities. Both are one branch of a god-triad, with Sotha Sil as part of the Tribunal, and Jesus as The Son in the Holy Trinity. Both serve as a teacher, with Jesus being referred to as Teacher several times in the Bible, and Sotha Sil giving lessons on magic and Mysticism to the Psijic Monks. Also, both are characterized as wise, patient, and celibate. They both talk about moral and philosophical concepts with their followers, neither Jesus nor Sotha Sil are shown as having a temper or raising their voices, and neither of them are shown with a spouse or partner. Sotha Sil is specifically shown as not caring about the Night Mother's attempts to sexually manipulate him in book seven of 2920, The Last Year of the First Era. Now I know that 2920 is considered a work of historical fiction in-universe, but I don't think that matters in this situation since I'm approaching this as a person reading a text, not as a person living inside the lore world.
In terms of specific scenes that connect Sotha Sil and Jesus, the first I will mention is that they both use a makeshift whip to beat intruding wrongdoers and drive them away, while yelling about fathers. In the Truth in Sequence vol. 8 book, it says that "[t]hrough His will alone, Mighty Seht wound the veins (of metal ore) into god-bronze whips, and lashed the Prince pitilessly," saying "[b]ehold the wrath of lost Ald Sotha! Know death at my hands, false-son of a false-father!" In the Bible, Jesus found people doing sales in a place of worship, and then He "made a whip of cords, (and) He drove them all out of the temple," saying “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” (John 2 15-16).
Also, Jesus had close friends and followers who were called his apostles, and Sotha Sil has his own Clockwork Apostles. Sil's apostles reside in the Clockwork Basilica, and while basilica isn't an exclusively Christian term, it is frequently used to describe a type of church architecture, and is a term the pope uses to recognize distinguished churches.
Another similarity that I found was in the plot of Morrowind, where Sotha Sil's death was caused at the hands of Almalexia, who was someone he had once loved and trusted, much like with Jesus and Judas.
The most notable life similarity as it relates to the Coldharbour Compact is that both leave the earthly world in order to make a deal for the benefit of the souls on earth, and then return to the earthly world. This parallel is given extra weight with the descriptions of the scene in the book 2920, The Last Year of the First Era. Sotha Sil returns from Coldharbour by way of someone "rolling aside the great boulder that blocked the entrance to the Dreaming Cavern. This sounds a lot like the scene in the bible of the discovery that Jesus had risen from the dead, where "an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door" (Matthew 28:2). In addition, Jesus said "after He is killed, He will rise [on] the third day," (Matthew 17:23) and after Sotha Sil returned from Coldharbour, he "felt he had been away for months, years, but only a few days had transpired." Perhaps it had been 3?
In addition to the life and behavior similarities, there are similarities in dress. In the 2920 book, Sotha Sil is always described as wearing a white robe or cloak. In ESO, Sotha Sil is shown as barefoot, and wearing a blue sash over his long white robe. In medieval and renaissance art, Jesus is most always depicted as barefoot, and is frequently shown with a blue cloth over his shoulder. In most resurrection art, as well as in almost all 20th/21st century art, Jesus is depicted as dressed in white. While Jesus usually isn't usually shown wearing both the blue sash and the white robe at once like Sotha Sil is, I found one modern interpretation of Jesus that does dress him this way, and several depictions of him in Chinese art that also portray him like this.
I'm feeling almost conspiratorial here, but these similarities are far too many for me to think it's accidental, and therefore I have to think that all of this is meant to suggest that Sotha Sil serves a Christ-figure role in his story, i.e. in sacrificing own life like Jesus did in order to make his deal in the Coldharbour Compact. However I don't think Sil's sacrifice was quite so simple. After he is asked what he offered the Daedra in return for the deal, he states: "The deals we make with Daedra... [s]hould not be discussed with the innocent." This implies that in contrast to the Christ mythos, Sil's sacrifice was not blameless; he did not come out of the deal with his hands clean.
So, a Christ-like sacrifice that isn't quite as pure and selfless as it is in Christianity. What could that be?
My theory is that in order to make the Coldharbour Compact, he sold the lives of Vivec and Almalexia along with his own. Perhaps he told the princes that he knew the tribunal's godhood would end, and in exchange for their cooperation he promised not to tell the other tribunes or make any attempt to prevent his and his companions' demise. (After all, as far as I know he made the mechanical heart for keeping his city functional, not for recreating the divinity the heart of Lorkhan provided.) Or, maybe he offered to do something to assist in bringing the Tribunal down, and losing Sunder and Keening, the tools that helped them maintain their divinity, was intentional on his part. Sil deliberately sacrificing his own life appears to be reflected in Azura's statement after his death. She said "he shed his mortality long ago, and I am certain his death was no small relief to him." Of course she'd know that he let go of his life ages ago if he had willingly sold it to her. Of course she would be certain that he found his death to be a relief, if she'd heard him say so himself when he was explaining why a god would ever offer such a deal.
It would also make sense with Sotha Sil's character, since he allegedly loved the people on Nirn more than Almalexia or Vivec did, and the destruction of Gilverdale could have definitely been a traumatic enough reminder of the destruction of Ald Sotha for him to do something dramatic to prevent it ever happening again. And guilt over sacrificing his friends could have definitely been a contributing factor to the worsening self-isolation and intense depression in his later life. It would also be a definite explanation for why he apparently never met another soul in the 10 years between losing the tools and his death. Not only had he become extremely disillusioned with the imperfections of the world, he had now finalized the deal he made so long ago, and saw no point in continuing to interact with a deeply flawed world he was essentially finished with.
However, I do see some issues with this and how it would work in-universe. Namely the fact that Hermaeus Mora's seekers said the prince received something from every individual on Nirn as part of the deal, which is quite different from what I'm suggesting. A different deal for each prince would also explain why Sil was able to include Clavicus Vile and Mephala in the compact at a much later date. There would be no reason for Vile and Mephala to submit to a collective deal whose terms had already been decided. So if he offered the tribunal's lives as part of the deal, he would have needed to offer other things as well. But for me the most significant in-universe issue I struggled with was that using his death as a bargaining tool would create a massive problem for his ability to enforce the deal in the future. This could explain why both Molag Bal and Mehrunes Dagon manifested on Nirn after Sotha Sil's death, but since I think they were summoned by qualified mortals that could have been a loophole. Either way, making a deal that is meant to last forever by promising something that can never be taken back in the case of a breach of contract seems extremely short-sighted for someone who claims to be cursed with certainty. Especially considering how many of the princes there were known to be cheats and liars.
Unless, that is, you believe this theory I read about the reason why Sil was completely silent as he was killed. My original belief was that he was silent because he'd seen it coming long ago, and knew that nothing he could have said would have changed Almalexia's mind. And while that would be in character for him, now I'm starting to think that it was because he had already uploaded his consciousness elsewhere. This would fit in with the Christ-figure parallels, due to the Christian belief that Jesus is risen from the dead and very much alive. While Jesus returned to life at the same time he emerged from the cave, the completion of Sotha Sil's death sacrifice didn't happen until long after his return via the cave. While I have found no explicit evidence that he's still around, when you find his body in Morrowind he is shown hanging, with his arms outstretched at his sides, in a sort of crucifixion pose. And after the crucifixion comes the resurrection. Perhaps Sotha Sil is still around somewhere in the gears of his city, and he promised the princes he'd never be present or have any influence on Nirn so long as they kept up their end of the deal. Additionally, the 37th sermon of Vivec mentions Sotha Sil as holding "his swollen belly," carrying "[his] daughter." While Vivec's sermons are hardly ever literal, Kirkbride's comments suggest that maybe Vivec was being somewhat literal in this instance. Regarding this concept art, Kirkbride said "note the cosmic baby growing inside Sotha Sil. While Sotha Sil is dead as we saw in the add-on pack “Tribunal”, the child survived." Perhaps one of Sotha Sil's many body modifications made him able to carry and birth a child, and then he created a daughter through self-cloning or some other method that allows him to have enough influence to enforce the compact.
TL;DR - Sotha Sil has a lot of similarities with Jesus, so he's a Christ figure and therefore his sacrifice in the Coldharbour Compact was himself, and Almalexia and Vivec too, and that also means that he may still be around.
Anyways, thanks for reading and sorry if this sounds like I'm putting red strings on a wall as my application essay to the r/SothaSimps fan club. Also, lmk if I'm missing anything obvious. For me right now Reading Lore On The Bedroom Floor is a bit more manageable than playing the games, and there may be something I've just completely looked over.
#sotha sil#tes#the elder scrolls#tesblr#vivec#almalexia#morrowind#elder scrolls online#eso#lord seht
58 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Old Gods
Description: Jack has to get close to a powerful suspect. Jack also ponders upon his humanity.
Notes: genuinely didnt meant for this to get so long, my apologies, i just like writing conversations bc i never get to have them. also! I hate myself so much for writing supernatural fanfiction in the good year of our lord 2021. its not my fault, it was the only show i could watch with my cousin that we both liked. anyway! lmk if you like it i could do a part two
WC: 11k
+
The nearest library could hardly be called a library. A more accurate description would be a collection of books––a small collection––that could be read freely but never taken from the library itself. There was little need within the Winchesters to visit the library, considering they had one in their home filled with mythical lore, but the records of Kansas and neighboring cities and states were detailed thoroughly in the nearest library.
Jack knew a great many things; inherent natures and laws of the universe, the experience of power and of fear, both before him and within him. Many things he'd seen deserved to be feared, exposing him to dangers often unheard of amongst regular children.
Three months into existence, however, Jack liked to think he knew more than he did when he was born. This was because he'd spoken to more people, experienced more things, and learned select things about his mother, his father, his family, and strangers. Still, there were things that puzzled him––the age of the world was clear in his mind (4.543 billion years, four months, 22 days, 6 hours, and 52 seconds) but how humanity progressed into what they now were astounded him.
"Humans started as... these creatures with unending curiosity," Castiel explained to him, his hands folded neat in his lap but hidden by his too-long trenchcoat sleeves. "Ceaseless innovation. They started without language but they always had kindness. I think.. that's why God favored them, at least at first."
"So... kindness is a form of.. intelligence?" Jack asked slowly, his brow furrowed tight as he stared past his father.
"I believe so," he said, shifting in his seat. "Kindness drove these animals to building homes, to conversing with one another, to creating a better world for descendants they would never know. It's quite beautiful, actually."
"Am I a part of that story?"
Only half-human, only half-alive, only half the story, belonging to nothing concrete. Jack wasn't really human, leaving him alone in his species.
"Yes," Castiel said without hesitation.
Civilization first started off in a number of areas. The first book Jack found dealt with the fertile crescent northeast of Africa, where Mesopotamia brought forth a number of societies, of cultures, meshed together over the course of thousands of years. Sumerians were one of the first to build their cities, creating writing, the wheel, and the plow in their haven apart from the unpredictable and often violent wild.
But no––the next book Jack found stated that Jericho was the oldest city, west to the fertile crescent near the shore of the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. The citystate was independent from any other power, often becoming abandoned from raids only to return to high populations, as humans flocked back to the spring water that still poured from inside the earth to this day.
Over the rest of the day spent in the nearest library, Jack learned there was no single spot in which civilization was created and then spread from. The Nile in Africa brought forth Egypt, the Indus river in Pakistan birthed the Harappan civilization, and the two rivers Yellow and Yangtze in China created the first asian cities. From there villages, towns, and cities spread like mold across the earth's surface, eventually bringing humans to inhabit every continent and nearly every environment known on earth.
There were far too many things to know, and the strain of reading on his eyes eventually forced him to retire for the day. He hardly understood anything yet, but the librarian was understanding as to his prolonged stay, and wished him a good evening when he left. He beamed a bright smile despite the strange pain growing behind his eyes, and waved good-bye.
Dean gave him painkillers when he got back to the bunker after Jack thoroughly (and unnecessarily) described his headache.
"Humans are... strange," Jack said, his brow furrowed in deep thought. He rested his elbows on the table, leaning over an empty bowl of cereal.
"Not wrong, but, care to elaborate?" asked Sam, who was sitting across from him at the kitchen table, a newspaper and pen in his hand.
"Castiel said you created the first cities out of a desire to.. to protect each other, and to keep yourselves safe. And then the first thing you do when you meet other cities is to go to war with them."
Sam sucked in a sharp breath, leaning back as he set the newspaper aside. This would take a little more concentration than a passing ear.
"People are scared by things they don't know," Sam began only to be cut off.
"Why?"
"They don't know if it's dangerous. You didn't trust us, at first, either. We didn't know whether to trust you. Remember?"
"Oh," Jack said softly.
"Yeah. But you're right," he said with a long sigh. "It's strange. We're... strange."
"Are humans inherently good?"
"I don't think anyone is inherently good," Sam said, and Jack straightened his posture, suddenly confused by his claim. "Every person – every thing, every living thing has – has the capacity for good and evil. It's really just up to the individual to decide which side they want to give into."
"Am I a good person?"
"First off, you're not really a person," said another voice from the doorway.
Sam and Jack both turned at the same time, meeting the eye of Dean, who had yet to change out of his bathrobe despite it being 2PM.
"Second off, you haven't been alive long enough to be a good person," he continued as he entered, an empty coffee cup in hand.
"Dean –" Sam began, only to be cut off.
"What? It's the truth."
The coffee machine buzzed loudly once Dean pushed a few of the buttons, setting his cup beneath the nozzle. He muttered something to himself before turning back to the kitchen table.
"Anything strange in the paper?" He asked, leaning against the counter.
"Maybe," said Sam.
He grabbed the paper again, delving into the details of a nearby missing persons case that soon faded out of Jack's state of mind. His thoughts were still absorbed in his existence, in his beginnings, and how they compared to the beginnings of humans. At least with angels he knew everything; that was how angels were born. Knowing everything.
Jack remained seated at the table when Sam and Dean left, still stewing in his thoughts that he imagined would never go away. It was half an hour later when the two brothers returned, this time fully dressed, and packed up on their way to the car.
"We've gotta go find some local records," Dean said.
"So we're headed to the library," Sam finished, and the two gave each other odd glances at the coincidental synchronicity.
"I was there a couple days ago," Jack said, suddenly perking up. "Can I come with you?"
"Sure, just don't get in the way," Dean said with a dismissive hand, already leaving the doorway.
Sam pursed his lips, letting out a bitter, almost apologetic chuckle before he followed.
He liked the middle seat. It didn't have a seatbelt, but he wasn't sure what seatbelts were for anyways, and the middle seat allowed him easy access to see both of the Winchesters. Dean never spared a glance in his direction while he drove, but Sam offered awkward, curt smiles.
Technically Jack could just fly to the library in an instant, but the drive into town was pretty, lined with the colors of autumn. Recently winds had taken up a more brisk edge, marking the absence of birds that flew in packs overhead. He scooted to one of the window seats, craning his neck awkwardly to look up and out of the glass, grinning at the ravens flying through the orange and gold trees.
The librarian showed the three men where the records were kept, directing them towards missing persons cases when they requested it. While Sam and Dean thumbed through the records, Jack returned to ancient history books, studying art and images from Vedic India.
There, amongst the carvings printed on soft paper, he found something rather odd. He stood from his position on the floor, still staring intensely at the print as he walked over to the table Sam and Dean sat at.
"Hey Jack," Sam said as he sat down, gently placing the book on the table. He scanned Jack's hunched posture before he asked, "something up?"
"I found something... strange," he said, his brow still knotted neatly above curious eyes.
"Yeah well, join the club, kid," Dean said with a groan, wiping his face with his hand.
Jack opened his mouth to ask what they'd seen, but Sam answered before he could speak.
"There's been repeated attacks, kind of," he said, waving his hand vaguely. "Once every ten years a couple of kids go missing. Always two kids, always on the same day of the year."
"And another anomaly," Dean said, reaching over to a stack of papers and slapping them on the table in front of Jack.
Big, black words displayed the newspaper title, and below it, the date of publishing. January 4th, 1967. The main article dealt with a concert happening in a nearby city, and the image printed with it displayed a number of concert-goers, most of them in their teens or early adulthood. Hidden behind several other people, a familiar face appeared––the librarian. Unhindered by time.
"Is that..."
"Big boots over there?" Dean asked, pointing with his thumb in your general direction.
You were sorting through a stack of books, but as Jack looked down, he found you were wearing rather large boots. The ends of your pants drowned in them.
"Do you think they're related?" Jack asked as he turned back to the Winchesters.
"Possibly," Sam said with a nod. "Bit early to tell. But, uh..."
Sam trailed off as his eyes focused on something past Jack's shoulder. He, as well as Dean, turned to meet your eyes that quickly darted away once all three of them were looking at you.
"I think I have an idea," Sam said.
Dean and Jack curiously tilted their heads to the side at the same time, though when Dean noticed that, he fixed himself immediately.
"I think they have a thing for you," he said in a much quieter voice.
"Me?" Jack asked, pushing his finger into his chest.
"Yeah. You could get a little closer and see if something's up."
"Are you seriously setting up Jack with a fuckin' demon, for all we know?" Dean asked flatly, earning an odd look from Sam, who had never heard Dean protest putting Jack in danger.
"Dean, Jack's dad is a demon-angel thing. I don't think it's a big deal," he said.
That seemed to shut the older Winchester up.
"Hm," Jack hummed as he debated the idea. "I also found something strange."
"Oh, right," Sam said, clearing his head with a shake. "What was it?"
"It was also... the librarian," he said with a deep frown. "In one of the books."
He pushed forward the textbook, opening it to reveal the page in which he'd found your face. The stone expression was remarkably similar to your traits, from the curve of your nose to the positioning of your eyes, and the small, polite smile on your lips.
"I found it in the history section," Jack explained. "It says it's from Vedic India."
A quick Google-search later, Sam was reading out the age of Vedic India.
"According to this it says the Vedic age was approximately around 1500 to 800 B.C., so... about 2,500 years ago."
"Wow, this fucker's old," Dean snorted.
Sam shot him a look over the top of his computer screen.
Having found the information they were looking for, the Winchesters began to pack up their belongings and their scribbled notes, shoving them into their bags or into their many-pocketed coats. Jack, on the other hand, prepared himself for talking to you, hoping his ineptness towards social situations with humans wouldn't be too obvious. He swallowed through the knot in his throat, taking a shaking breath in an attempt to steady himself.
It didn't work.
"Dean, what am I supposed to say to them?" He whispered when they were already approaching the front desk, his palms growing sweaty.
"I don't know, their job or something? Something normal," he very unhelpfully advised.
"Thanks for letting us stay for the day," Sam said with a polite smile, handing back one of the printed out records you'd fetched for them from beneath your desk.
"Not a problem. You keep quiet. I like that in a reader," you said, smiling back as you glanced between the three of them.
None of them moved, and your expression turned to mild confusion. Dean had to jab Jack in the side to get him to speak. He opened his mouth to protest, but Dean motioned something to Sam, and the two of them quickly left for the car, leaving Jack alone while they 'situated' themselves.
"I, um..." Jack started before he was ready.
The silence felt wrong, but the silence after saying something was much, much worse. Whatever came into his mind first would have to be what he said.
"I like your job," he said, keenly scanning your expression for any hint of your thoughts.
You paused, clearly taken back for a moment, before you broke out into a chuckle, looking down to your hands as your face flushed.
"I like it quite a lot, too," you said with a grin, looking back up at him. "I've always been interested in becoming a librarian. Granted, I didn't quite imagine it in Kansas, but it is pretty here."
"Where did you imagine it?"
"Greece, actually," you chuckled, and he smiled as well, his heart thumping with a sudden haste. "I was heartbroken to hear the Library of Alexandria was burned down."
"The Library of Alexandria?" He repeated, tilting his head to the side again.
"Haven't heard of it?" You asked.
He shook his head gingerly. Was he supposed to?
No matter––you explained in full what the Library of Alexandria was, when it was created, when it was burnt, and the loss it caused amongst human society. He listened intently, frequently asking questions you were happy to answer. When Jack glanced out the library window, he found the impala gone, and realized Sam's plan had, in a way, worked.
"Are there.. any books about the library?" He asked once you completed your short story.
"Yes, but I don't want to hold you folks up –"
It was then you looked out the window as well, finding the two large men had abandoned the smaller.
"Oh where'd they go?" You said in a curious, high voice.
"Don't worry about that, I... have a bus," he said, earning a strange look. "I am... I ride buses."
A beat of silence passed.
"So the Library was in Greece?" He asked, and your earlier mood returned.
You brought him––with much excitement––to one of the rows in the library filled with simple textbooks for primary school kids. Other rows of your well-tended library were occupied by old books, their bindings worn and frayed at the edges from continuous use. Pages were turned yellow and were soft beneath his fingers, but despite their age they were rather hard for Jack to read and understand, meaning his discovery of children's comprehensible textbooks was a giddy one.
Jack wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to be looking for when it came to you. What counted as suspicious? You continued to speak with him even after the sun set behind mountains, that could be a sign you were trying to gather information on him, as well. That could also mean you liked him. Was your friendliness suspect?
"- and the Phoenicians were really only called that by the Grecians. The name came from the purple dye that they're famous for, some root word for 'purple people' in Greek is Phoenicia," you explained, moving your hands expressively despite the fact that Jack's eyes were set dead on the textbook on the floor in front of you. Paragraphs of words surrounded modern depictions of ancient people and their art.
"So what was their actual name?" He asked as he looked up to you.
"Canaanites. From the land of Canaan."
"... you know a lot," he said, looking back to the page as you chuckled.
"It's just memory," you said with a shrug.
"Can I... can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
"Do you know anything about mythical creatures?"
Surely this would reveal something, Jack thought––you might react poorly, in which case you could be the monster, or you might react in complete knowledge, which... could also mean you were the monster.
"A little," you said slowly. "Why do you ask?"
"I have an interest, in myths and monsters," he said, almost smiling again.
"Oh man, I have a show you're going to love."
Far in the back of the library, a hollow, steel door led to a small break room, the carpet inside being a dark, scratchy grey against his palms when he sat down. There were no chairs in the room, but an old TV sat on a cheap cart plugged into the nearest, bare wall. On the opposite side of the TV was a dull blue counter that stretched from the door to a window covered by plastic shingle curtains.
You snatched the remote off the counter, pressing a large, red button that had the television buzzing to life loudly. The screen sparked, static radiating around it as a thin line of white brought life to a Netflix loading screen.
After several minutes of waiting for Netflix to load and then typing a title into the search bar, a show called Myths and Monsters was before him. He let out a laugh as he realized what had sparked the connection––he'd literally spoken the title.
Would an ancient being or monster know how to work a TV?
Castiel could work a TV.
Kind of.
The first episode began to play and you took a seat beside Jack, crossing your legs neatly beneath you. A few minutes in, rain pattered lightly on the roof, followed by sudden winds that battered the now pouring rain against the window. Jack watched through the side of his eye as you smiled at the change in weather.
That was suspicious.
Late in the evening, when night darkened the land and heavy thunderclouds darkened the sky, he left the library. He stood in the threshold between the warm light on your desk in the otherwise dark room, and the falling rain outside. Yellow-orange streetlamps illuminated the sheets of rain and the nearby bus stop, but you still stopped him, holding the door open as you both stood motionless in front of one another.
"I have a car, I can drive you home," you offered, gesturing over your shoulder to a door in the back that led to a private parking lot behind the library. "I'm not sure if the bus runs this late."
Extended time with you would be good, and he imagined your face illuminated by dim dashboard car lights would be better than good––great. Beautiful. You had wonderfully warm features. But you couldn't know where he lived for a number of reasons; if you were the monster, that was giving away a hiding place, and if you weren't, you would wonder why he lived in such a strange place.
"Thank you, but it's alright," he said. "I like the rain."
A small smile stretched across your plush lips.
"So do I," you said, and the two of you bid good-bye, retreating into your respective dark.
He gave a thorough rundown of the events proceeding after Sam and Dean left, and the three of them––Sam, Dean, and Castiel––listened closely. Dean already filled Castiel in on the rest of the case, and the two brothers were eating at the long table in the bunker's library.
They stared at him in silence when he finished.
"Sounds like a regular kid," Sam finally said.
"Ah don't be so sure about that," Dean said, raising a single brow. "What did you say the monster probably was?"
"A – a fae, or something," he said.
"Fae's good at lying," Dean pointed out, earning a reluctant nod from Castiel.
"He's right. Fairies are remarkably good at acting," he said in his low, grating voice.
"So... what next?" Jack asked.
"We'll keep looking into the case more, and you can probably ask the librarian out on a date," Sam suggested, earning an agreeing remark from Dean. "You can keep them distracted while we search their house."
"Do we know where they live yet?" asked Dean.
"No, but it shouldn't be too hard to find out," Sam said.
Jack watched the brothers for a moment, his mind emptying of answers as to what a 'date' was.
"What's a date?"
"Oh Christ," Dean muttered, moving immediately to his feet and leaving the room.
Sam let out an exasperated sigh at his brother, turning to Jack to explain what a date was, what were appropriate date activities, and how he should act when asking you out and when being out with you.
"Okay," Jack said with a nod despite not really understanding. "What are dates for?"
"They're between people who are interested in.. getting to know each other," Castiel said as he took a seat beside Sam across from Jack.
"So... like when Dean and I went driving."
"No. Not like that," Sam quickly said. "Not like that at all. If – if a guy is interested in a girl, like interested in having her be his girlfriend, then he might ask her out on a date. It's a romantic thing."
"The librarian does seem to be interested in you, from what I’ve heard," Castiel said with a pointed look in Jack's direction.
"I think you've got a shot," Sam agreed, nodding.
Jack thought for a moment before he said, "okay."
A few days later––Dean insisted he only try a few days later, saying anything less was damaging his honor––Jack returned to the library, lighting up when he found you were still working at the small front desk, your nose buried in a large box full of papers. Large, round glasses were hanging off the tip of your nose, and you pushed them up to your eyes when they slipped further off.
The door clicked softly shut behind him when he entered, scanning the room as if there was another reason he was there. You watched him the whole time, continuing to when he approached you, something obviously on his mind.
"I was wondering..." he trailed off, losing himself in your bright, expectant eyes. When he realized he'd fallen silent, he added the first thing that came to mind––a lie. "... if you could show me where the... books are."
You chuckled before you said, "which ones?"
"Maps," he said, smiling as he came up with something actually substantial.
Of course, it wasn't asking you out, but at least it was talking to you. He would have to do that later, though he supposed he'd have to do it that day or he would be disappointing the Winchesters and Castiel when he came back to the bunker without even trying to complete their orders.
"We don't really have a maps section, but I might be able to help you if you tell me the time and place you're looking for," you suggested for him, and he nodded slowly.
"Yes. Please."
"So what are you looking for?"
"Oh. Right, uh.. Greece and Mediterranean," he said, repeating subjects from the last time you'd spoken.
"Mediterranean sea?"
He nodded.
"What year?" You asked.
"Uh..." he drew another blank, "two... hundred."
You seemed reluctant to ask the next question, but it was necessary; "before christ or after?"
"... before."
"Alright," you said with a soft snicker, moving around your crowded desk area and towards the bookcases.
Your stride slowed as you approached a certain shelf, shifting up onto the tips of your toes to reach the highest books. Jack thought of offering his help, but he wasn't much taller than you––if at all––and he didn't know which books to get down.
Four thick books ended up in your arms, and you heaved them over to the nearest table, letting them thump down heavily. You spread them out, flipping rapidly through the pages till you found the proper maps you seemed to have memorized within each of the books.
"This one's about 900 BC to 200 AD, so it's got a bit wider of a range. Includes the bigger cities. This one is.. 1500 BC to 300 BC, so a little bit within range, has a lot more cities," you said, moving from one textbook to the next while Jack stared at you, enamored by your plush lips.
He barely even noticed that you finished your explanations, nor your quick words mentioning you should probably return to your studies and leave him to it. But he reached out on instinct, grabbing your wrist and tugging gently, convincing you to turn back to him. Your eyes, still bright, retained that same patient expectancy as his previous evening with you.
"I... could you talk to me?" He asked, oblivious to the implications read clearly by you.
"About what?" You asked in return as you stepped subtly closer.
"About fairies."
You paused, your eyes widening slightly.
"The ones from Celtic folklore or... like modern media fairies?" You asked slowly, slinking down into a seat you situated to face him.
He did the same, his feet planted firmly on the floor as he watched you, a smile tugging at his lips.
"Just... the oldest versions of fairies."
You nodded, again slowly as you pursed your lips.
"Well the oldest mentions of them in literature actually comes from ancient Greece, from the Iliad, by Homer," you began, immediately using your hands expressively as you spoke. "Those weren't Celtic fairies, though. Greeks considered creatures like satyrs and such to be fairies, as well, so... generally fairies and the fae as we think of them now came from Ireland and Scotland."
"Where are they?" He asked with a head tilt.
You stuttered for a second, your eyes flying across the room until you stood, returning to the shelves. He watched with much humor as you read the book titles at a frightening pace, fingers flipping over the bindings till you pulled one down.
"Here, world map," you said, and though he didn't notice, you didn't comment on the oddity of not knowing where Scotland and Ireland were. Almost everyone knew where those two countries were; or, at least, the general area.
"In Ireland fairies are seen as simply... mythical people. Great warriors and poets, or witches, they're all considered part of the fae in Celtic culture. In Scotland, though, fairies are more dangerous, essentially being creatures that feed off humans in one way or another," you continued. "Like... banshees, those are Scottish, and jack o' lanterns."
"Jack o' lanterns?"
He'd heard of banshees before; they were mentioned a few times by the Winchester brothers.
"Not like the Halloween pumpkins," you said, but when you were met with further confusion, you slowly said, "...and you don't know what those are either, do you?"
He shook his head reluctantly.
You spent the next two, whole hours talking to him, going over any question he had no matter how much you thought he should've known the answer to begin with. Jack relaxed into that feeling, into that ease, while suspicion grew in your own mind. There was no one of his age and stature that didn't know the questions he posed. Still, you found yourself unable to pin any such wariness of manipulation onto such a polite boy.
Engrossed fully in whatever you had to say and rarely speaking himself, Jack absorbed a number of facts about the fae. About their trickery and mischief, about their magic, how different species had different thoughts on humanity. Considering the lengths you knew about other subjects, none of what you told him occurred to him as suspicious. You seemed, again, to be a dedicated––but human––scholar.
When at last he exhausted his questions, both on and off topic, he began a build-up of courage. Asking someone out for a case should've been much easier than this, or at least that's what he thought. Dean mentioned he'd done similar things for other such cases.
Jack's face scrunched up in deep thought despite the silence between you.
"Are you alright, Jack?" You asked.
"Oh. I'm... fine," he said, nodding his head in a way that didn't convince you all that well. "I – I wanted to ask you something."
You nodded, gently helping him along.
"I know we don't know each other that well, but... you.. interest me, and.." he trailed off once more. It was difficult to tell a lie that was technically the truth. "I was wondering if you wanted to go with me. On a date."
He expected a number of things from you––perhaps anger, perhaps embarrassment, perhaps shock, but you just chuckled, leaning back in your chair. His brow furrowed at your odd reaction. Were you laughing at him?
"Was that what you wanted to ask me when you first came in?" You said through your giggles, your soft skin glowing in the warm, early evening light.
"... yes," he said, huffing out his own chuckle as his eyes fell to the floor. "I'm sorry."
"There's no need to apologize," you said with a grin. “You’re the one who had to listen to me ramble.”
"So.. will you..?"
"Yeah," you chuckled, nodding. "I enjoy your company as well."
A smile made a permanent home on Jack's face as he returned to the bunker, his official mission having been successfully completed, and his hands still burning with the touch you left as he walked out the door. While most of the town smelled like baking pies and cinnamon cider, the bunker carried no such warmth, and smelled more like rotting leaves than anything else, though Sam lit a couple apple candles in his room. The scent filled part of a long hallway.
He found his fathers all sitting on a single couch, facing a television that had some sort of film playing on it through the static. Jack silently stepped round the nearest chair, taking a seat beside them, and watching on intently. A soft, high note hummed from the speakers.
Red, ratted curtains pulled way for sunlight streaming through dust-filled air. The wooden windowsill had a vase in which a single, molted flower sat, most of its petals having fallen off long ago. But that wasn't where the camera stopped; it halted above the image of two women tangled in sheets similarly worn down as the curtains were, requiring many patches over large holes. One had their face pressed to the other's neck, her nose nudging a sharp jawline owned by still sleeping eyes. Their limbs were knotted tight together, chest to chest, and a quiet, sleepy melody humming out of the smaller's pale lips.
Jack frowned. He'd never seen two people so physically close together. The nearest thing he'd seen was Dean and Castiel hugging, and even that was reserved in a way. This was pure trust––pure peace, and he found himself wondering if it was entirely fictional, or if such happiness could really exist in the world that at times felt poisoned.
Maybe it did exist if you found a way to smile that brightly.
He earned a whole other course of schooling once he announced their plan was successful. Dean clapped him proudly on the back, shooting a dirty grin that Sam countered with clean praise. Even Castiel seemed to be proud. Jack beamed at that, his heartbeat now pounding at the thought of three days from now; when he had planned the date.
In the meantime, the brothers stayed up for most of the night, though they looked much worse for wear that morning than Jack after he stayed up with them. Researching faes was actually a little easier than a lot of other monsters––there were many articles about them, and a deeply-engrained fear of changeling children had led to thorough documentation on the fae realm and its inhabitants. Jack was still a little slow at typing, so Sam captained the computer research, while Jack sped through the books in the bunker's library. Dean looked through articles and stories in newspapers searching for any hint of where they children might be kept if they weren't immediately killed.
The more he read about fairies, about their habits, their composure, and their lies, the less he could picture you as one. Originally a fairy brought to mind someone beautiful and fair, or someone like you, with dazzling eyes that could stop an archangel in their step. But the sharp teeth and wicked, wirey hair didn't sound at all like you. He'd felt your hands––once brushing over his––and there were no claws or stinging sensations that lingered in your touch. Still, the Winchesters probably knew better than him, and he pushed the feeling aside.
In the next evening, after Dean took a long day nap, Sam and Dean set to packing up their tools and tricks once more, tossing them into the back of the impala with the rest of the permanent fixtures. Jack watched as they did this, his hair still neat and clean despite not sleeping or washing up for two days.
"Can I come with?" He asked in the politest voice he could manage.
They were headed off to the library under the cover of night. After hearing about several back rooms Jack noticed during his time there, a reasonable question was posed––was there more information you could be hiding?
"Uh –" Sam began, only to be cut off by Dean saying –
"No. If we get found, that's fine, but if you're with us, we lose your relationship with her."
Before Jack could reply Dean climbed into the drivers seat, followed by Sam clambering in beside him. He had issues getting into the car at times. The engine stuttered to life, and Sam waved good-bye through the windshield as they pulled and drove the car away.
Jack frowned, his brow knitted together again.
"Bye," he said, but he was the only one to hear it.
Castiel would be back soon. He decided waiting in the library would guarantee he'd see Castiel as soon as possible, something he desired, as there were a number of new questions he wanted to pose to the elder angel. Thousands of years his senior, Castiel must've had answers––some sort of insight to some strange impulses, or simply comfort against 'wrong' thoughts.
Technically your library was private, meaning others weren't allowed to take your books away from the building, but you allowed him to take something home under the assurance of a guarantee. He would return it next time he saw you, a promise that clearly meant a lot to you going by the ease that overtook you when he said 'okay' with a signature, sweet smile. The only reason you leant the book to him was because it contained information you considered thought-provoking, thoughts about how humanity evolves, and how technological advances could change the actual anatomy of the human mind. Some of the claims seemed to him to be a bit of a reach, but others brought him interesting points.
The metal latch on the door let out a resounding click as the door swung open, Castiel standing behind with wild hair and a stunned look about him. He flung the door shut before running down the stairs towards Jack.
"Have they gotten back from the library yet?" He asked as he approached.
"No, they left..." he glanced at the clock, "a couple hours ago."
"Hmm," Castiel grumbled. "That's a long time for them."
"Should we go help them?" Jack suggested, setting your book aside as he stood straighter in his chair.
"No, we'll give them some more time. See what happens," he said before he set off, jogging into the hall.
Jack sighed as he slumped back into his seat, almost mourning the death of an easy excuse to go see your library. And Castiel left before he could ask him anything. Dean had a point, though––if they were caught and he was with them, that would ruin your relationship entirely, and that was something he, for some reason, despised.
It took another hour and a half before Sam and Dean were waltzing back in from the garage, tossing their duffel bags aside and shucking off warm, autumn jackets to side chairs. Something must've given away their presence, as Castiel was quick to reenter the main room.
"How did it go?" He asked.
"Like shit," Dean said, not even bothering to stop as he passed Castiel.
"We didn't find anything," Sam clarified. "Whole place was clean."
"Well.. maybe it's at their house," Castiel said almost gingerly, turning to keep his ever-vigilant eyes on the elder Winchester. "All the tools and... stuff."
"Yeah, that's what we're hoping," Dean said as he disappeared into the hallway.
"When did you say your date was again?" Sam asked, turning to Jack, who blanked for a moment before he answered.
"Two days from now," he said.
"Alright, well... we'll see what happens," he said with a nod, setting his hands on his hips. "Hopefully find where they might be hiding the kids."
Dean reentered with a bottle in hand, taking a quick swig as he settled down into one of the cushier chairs.
Jack's heart sped when his fingers began to fidget together, squirming restlessly in front of him. Questions still lingered on the edge of his mind, and answers from anyone would do him well, though he was well aware Dean would probably be reluctant to offer any advice to him.
"Could I ask you some questions?" He asked in the general direction of Cas, who happened to be standing right beside Dean. Castiel opened his mouth to answer.
"Sure," Dean said before he could speak. Castiel promptly shut his mouth after that.
"I know this shouldn't get in the way of the case, and it won't," Jack said as he took a seat opposite Dean. He and his brother shot each other glances. "I just have strange... thoughts, when I am around the librarian. Impulses, kind of."
Dean, who had raised the bottle to his lips, paused at those words and set it down instead, a decision that shocked both Sam and Castiel.
"What kind of impulses?" He asked in a flat voice.
"I want to... eat them," Jack said slowly, his brow furrowed deeply as he looked at the ground. When he looked back up, all three men were staring at him.
"You want to what??" Castiel asked.
"Like.. put my mouth on them...?" He tried.
"Wait – you mean kissing?" Sam asked as he shifted his weight between his feet.
"N... no, I don't think it's that," Jack said, though he was growing even less sure of himself with how they continued to gawk at him.
"You want to make out with the fairy?" Dean asked with a look that screamed 'unbelievable'.
"Maybe?" was the best answer Jack could offer.
Dean sighed, rubbing his face tiredly with his free hand.
"I don't want to.. encourage these thoughts," Castiel said, "but they might help on your date."
"So I should kiss them?"
"Maybe at the end of it," Sam suggested.
"And... how do I kiss?"
"Fuckin' –" Dean muttered under his breath as he stood, leaving the room with annoyance in his scowl.
The three of them––Jack, Sam, and Castiel––watched Dean round the corner and disappear.
"Ignore him," Sam said.
Sam, with some help from Castiel, patiently re-explained the happenings and ongoings of dates, from conversation topics to activities often done on dates. Sam assured Jack that he needn't do anything dramatic, over the top, or especially original, since Jack 'wasn't actually going on a date,' a phrase that made him a little sad for a reason he couldn't identify.
A bouquet of chocolate roses lay in his hands, the neon and florescent lights of the convenience store flickering and buzzing above him. Sam insisted a good way to start a date was with a gift––conventionally flowers, but the second Jack saw the chocolate roses he was entranced. He'd never seen candy in the shape of something real. Surely you would be delighted by the art, as well. Sam was less sure than he was, but allowed him to buy it with a chuckle, muttering something about how he wouldn't need to get chocolates anymore.
"Now remember," Sam began as he adjusted Jack's collar, "blood-soaked iron is what kills them, but since we don't have that right now, I think iron should hurt them."
"Forks, fire pokers, metal pipes... those usually have iron in them," said Dean.
"And if you get into a fight, just get out of there," Sam finished.
"No hanky-panky, either," Dean said.
"Dean," he hissed, slapping his brother's arm.
"What's hanky-panky?" Jack asked, furrowing his brow.
"Nevermind, just––be safe, have fun," Sam said with a smile, patting his shoulder.
The brothers dropped him off at your house before circling the block in search of a good vantage point. He took a shaky breath as he climbed your steps, soon rapping his knuckles on the plain, wooden door. It was a bit of a task trying to swallow, but he managed to push past his tight throat and put a smile on his face.
Footsteps sounded, growing closer until the door opened, revealing your wide eyes and the olive green silk you wore, draping elegantly from your chest down to your feet. A heavyweight scarf rested upon your shoulders. The warm light of the hallway behind you illuminated the loose strands of your always messy hair, but the sight still had his lips parting as he gasped softly. He felt suddenly out of place in his simple button-down, pants, and everyday jacket, shifting his weight almost uncomfortably as he found himself at a loss for words.
"You look... really nice," he said rather awkwardly, gesturing vaguely to your outfit with a dopey smile.
"Thanks," you said, chuckling. "You look nice too."
He stared for another moment before he suddenly remembered the chocolate and foil roses in his hands.
"I got these for you," he said as he handed them to you, scanning every inch of your reaction. "Sam told me to get flowers, but I think this is better, ‘cause then you get to eat them."
"You actually can eat roses! They just don't taste very good," you giggled, fixing your hair as you took them, a blushing smile still on your face. "I do like chocolate more, though."
"Oh, good," he said, his shoulders finally falling from their tense position. "I hope you don't mind walking. I don't know how to drive."
"I like walking, actually," you said as you walked past him, trotting down the front steps of your house. He followed along, his soft brown hair flopping like a puppy's ears over innocent eyes. "I like taking walks at night, but I don't take them a lot. It's kind of dangerous."
"Why?"
"A lot of people aren't very nice, or they're down on their luck and make poor decisions. I don't want to get hurt or mugged just because I like wandering around."
"Why would someone hurt you? You're such a nice person," he said with a frown.
"That doesn't mean anything," you laughed softly.
Food wasn't a particular attraction of Kansas, but few things were. The amount of restaurants in town was high, most of them serving a very similar menu containing lots of meat, barbecue, pie, and sometimes funnel cake. None were all that classy, so Jack took you to a place that Sam recommended––a nearly 24 hours open cafe whose kitchen was always open, and who hosted quiet, live jazz on select evenings.
You and Jack spoke of a number of things while you walked, none more interesting than any of your previous conversation topics, as you seemed to want to stay on the topic of him as a person rather than the history you usually rambled about. You asked who Sam was, which he explained as one of his fathers, at which point you asked who the second was. He hesitated for a moment, unsure if he should tell the truth or formulate a more normal-person lie.
"I... my mother died in childbirth," he said, his voice uncharacteristically low and quiet, murmuring with the sureness of his trust in you. "My father, Castiel, takes care of me, with his brothers, Sam and Dean."
"Oh. I'm sorry," you murmured, and he opened his mouth to give the usual speech––it's alright, I've gotten used to it––but you continued with, "it's an honorable way to die."
He paused to absorb your words. No one had ever said that before.
"Yeah," he finally said. "I guess you're right."
"So what's your father like?"
He sucked in a breath, forced to once again decide between a truth, a half-truth, and a lie. Like with most things, he took the middle road.
"My genetic father isn't... I don't talk to him," he said.
"Oh."
"But Castiel is good. He always tries to do what's right. I'm still trying to learn about this whole.. being-alive thing, from him."
"I think we all are," you chuckled.
You ended up ordering for him when you finally got to the cafe, standing in line for only a few minutes before you were looking for a table. He had trouble understanding the menu, often asking you what things were, and eventually you had to gently push him on to let the next people in line have a turn. If this bothered you, it didn't show.
Piano and saxophone played in time with one another, their rhythms and melodies dancing around the beat of the drummer. Scant, warm light shone from above, illuminating the haze of clouds drifting from smokers, most of whom stood in the corner, nursing the embers as they watched the musicians play. Jack tapped his foot to the beat against the dark oak floor.
You joined him a moment later, two coffees in hand and your coat draped over your arm.
"Have you ever been here before?" You asked as you took a seat, casting your jacket over the back of the chair after you set the coffee down.
"No, I don't really get out much," he admitted.
"How come?"
"I don't.. really have friends," he admitted, again, though this time much more reluctantly. He'd heard that generally people respected you more if you had friends.
"That's alright," you said, leaning back with a soft smile made only more alluring by the dim, red and orange light. "I've found it's more fun to stay in than to go out sometimes. Everything becomes the same after a while. You can drink at home, you can dance at home, sing, host parties..." you sipped from your steaming cup, ".. so, obviously, I don't go out much either."
"You have friends, though?"
"Not really," you chuckled, glancing down. "Books last longer than conversation, generally."
"Then... why talk to me?" He asked, attempting to meet your eye with that knot still tucked into his brow.
"Because you came to me."
Soon your conversation was halted by a server bringing out your food. You made sure to thank him as he left, before hungry eyes settled eagerly upon your funnel cake. Unwrapping the napkin, you set the orange cloth on your lap, revealing your silverware. Jack followed your lead, copying your motions near exactly down to you rubbing your hands together excitedly.
He'd never tried funnel cake before, leaving him to melt as he took his first bite.
"Good, isn't it?" You chuckled through a full mouth.
He nodded ardently.
The crowd began to thin halfway through your meal, turning thick conversation to quiet murmurs confined to singular tables in corners and shadowed areas. Jack still had yet to find anything incriminating about you, an answer that led only to other questions, ones that flew wildly around his head.
You didn't seem human––at least, not entirely. There were things you said that hinted to something else, a knowledge within that was a little too wide for the lengths of a human mind. That and your soul; what he could see of your soul was strangely colored, florescent holographic, and warped far more than normal people's usually were––almost as warped as Sam and Dean's souls now were. Bright, yes, but warped. Something had happened to you.
But there was nothing bad within you. Darkness tinted the edges, the edges so often scraped by the world around you––the world around both of you––but the center within, where your heart emanated, was clear. It was actually rather beautiful; you were rather beautiful.
He wished he could tell you without seeming strange.
"What do you think about most, Jack?" You asked, pulling him away from his thoughts.
He instantly stuttered, as what he'd been thinking about was you, but he couldn't say that.
"Just.. uh, my, uh.. my place in the world," he said, tapping the end of his fork on the old wood table.
"Like your job, or your purpose as a human?" You asked as you sipped from your third refill of coffee.
"My purpose, sort of," he said, his eyes flickering to the ground. "I have a lot of responsibility. My father thinks I'm very powerful."
Was that giving too much away?
"What does he want you to do?"
"He wants me... to stay alive," he said, earning a soft chuckle from you that had a smile spreading across his own face. "I think he wants me to be safe and happy."
"That's a wonderful goal," you said with a grin. "And there are so many ways to achieve that."
So far he'd only found ways to achieve the opposite––how to antagonize the world by existing, how his grandfather wanted him dead, how his genetic father would use him for any power grab he posed. If you wanted to feel at risk of dying at any moment, he knew a thousand ways to do it.
"I haven't really found any," he said quietly.
You paused before you asked, "do you want my advice?"
He nodded, hesitantly at first, but sure of himself when you smiled softly.
"Always be kind to others. Mind your own business unless someone is getting hurt, and if you have to get your hands dirty, do it for only a second. Then get the hell out of there and wash yourself clean for the next hundred couple years," you said.
There it was again. A hint of something more. In passing conversations Jack heard from strangers, no one spoke like they lived history. Not like you did. And he'd wager no historian spoke with the sense of memory that you did.
"Anything specific make you realize that?" He asked, unable to stop himself from chuckling.
You looked his age––sometime in your 20's––but you spoke like an 80 year old. Something about that facade appeared humorous to him. He also looked your age––sometime in his 20′s––but he spoke like a 10 year old far more than he liked to admit.
"Family drama," you said dismissively. "I've been steering clear for a while now."
Did fairies have families?
Well, if you were a fairy, you could just be lying then.
Jack frowned. If Dean or Castiel were here, they would know what to say and think.
"I understand," was what he said instead.
The impala was still parked near the house by the time Jack was walking you home, a sight that nearly sent him panicking. Sam and Dean wouldn't want him to do that. So he clenched his fists in his pockets, his shoulders tightening ever so slightly as he tried to slow his pace in a way you wouldn't notice.
But you did. Of course you did.
"You alright, Jack?" You asked, matching his pace.
"Yeah, I just..." what was something normal to say? Something he could back up – "I meant to ask you something, but I didn't ever... find the time to."
"What was it you wanted to ask?"
He shivered as a brisk wind picked up, the dry, orange leaves on the edges of the sidewalk passing quick by his feet in the breeze.
"Do you think everyone feels this lost in life?" He asked, barely audible above the wind.
"There's a little bit of you in everybody, just like how there's a little bit of everybody in you. You're capable of the same things that a murderer is just as you are a... a hero, or a martyr," you said, taking time to think before you spoke. "Humans are remarkably similar, you come to see after a while. And even Gods face these questions, these wonderings of their origins and their purpose, if their creations are everything they're meant for or – or if they're doing something wrong, and they should be doing something else instead."
He continued to stare at the ground as you walked slowly side by side, brought out of his intense expression by something soft flopping over the back of his neck. His heart thrummed as you stopped him there, turning him to face you, and looking him in the eye as you fixed your scarf on his shoulders. The effect was instantaneous––his shoulders relaxed and the stress fell from his brow, absorbed in the warmth of your gesture.
"Whatever you're going through," you gave him a pointed look, telling him silently to not deny this truth, "is worse and better than what other people go through. It may not be the best but it's probably not the worst."
Your advice, though insightful, didn't mean much considering his problems had to do with the continued life or prompt execution of the entire universe by a bitter, old man. But the main point remained; there were more painful deaths than his, just as there were better ways to die than he would or will. He may not be facing the best circumstances, but they could be much worse, and the fact that normal humans often asked the same questions he did was more of a comfort than he thought it would be. Perhaps he really was connected to his mother in that way.
The steps creaked beneath your shared weight as you both approached the front door of your house. You opened the door, stepping partway through the threshold before you turned to him, hesitation lacing your open mouth.
Behind you, Jack managed to spot two shadowed figures running across the hallway towards what he presumed to be a back door. His eyes widened imperceptibly and he pursed his lips, quick averting his gaze back to you.
"You're special, Jack," you said quietly, scanning him with a careful look. "Don't let bad circumstances own you. You only get so much time in this world."
"You're very kind," was all he could managed to respond with. "Thanks for... going out with me tonight."
"Of course. I like talking to you."
"I'm glad you do," he said with a sheepish chuckle, one you mimicked as you fixed your hair.
"I'll see you again soon?"
"Yes, I – oh," he interrupted himself, remembering your scarf still enveloping him, "this belongs to you."
"Don't worry about it," you said, taking his arms and settling them back down to his sides. "It's kind of cold out tonight, and I'm assuming you're walking home... aren't you?"
"... yeah," he lied, blood rushing to his face at the thought of taking a piece of you home.
"Then I'll get it back another time," you said, smiling.
You hesitated to close the door again, and instead you gingerly moved forward, raising yourself to press a single, soft kiss to his cheek, the edge of it just barely touching his lips. His mouth parted in surprise, but before he could say anything you shut the door.
He walked back to the impala completely starstruck.
"I don't think they're dangerous," Jack said, restating what he'd said earlier to Sam and Dean on the drive home––he just couldn't see you as suspicious. Strange, yes, but not murderous.
"If what you say is true, though, then this is quite likely a fae," said Castiel as his eyes flickered from Jack to Sam and Dean.
"See? Facts are facts, kid," Dean said, pointing to Castiel with a smile.
"Hexbags, crystals, actual photos with them from, like, 1890? And the amount of plants," Sam continued with a slight shudder.
"How many plants were there?" Castiel asked, frowning sternly.
"Too damn many," Dean answered for him. "The point is, we gotta interrogate that thing."
"They didn't do anything wrong!" Jack said, his voice tripling without his knowledge.
Everyone in the room reacted accordingly––stiff postures and sharp breaths as the golden light faded in his eyes.
"Jack..." Castiel began hesitantly, his voice quiet and low.
He barely uttered out an 'I'm sorry,' before he turned and left, disappearing down the hallway and into his room.
It took him nearly a whole day to leave his room, having spent most of the time alone to brood and ponder over his actions, and whether or not he was being manipulated by a fairy creature. He couldn't deny the fact that there was a chance he was wrong and he was under your control, thus landing him with the only sane decision, somehow; trust Sam and Dean.
Silence surrounded him as he padded through the bunker, headed towards the kitchens after not eating for nearly 24 hours. Technically he could live without food for much, much longer than that, even without sleep, but it wasn't a particularly pleasant experience.
When he reached the kitchen he also found it empty. In fact, the whole bunker sounded empty, leaving all the cereal for him. He smiled.
Sam and Dean returned before Castiel did, though after their return they hid away doing 'private business' in the basement area. Jack tried to ask what it was they were doing, but Dean curtly brushed him off, sending him back upstairs to go clean up the mess they left in the kitchen after a quick, midnight dinner.
As he was scrubbing the dishes, a door lock clattered in the distance, marking Castiel's return. Now that the fort was manned again, he could sneak off to see you in the morning. Castiel informed him that showing up at people's houses at midnight could be seen in a very bad way. He knew you wouldn't judge him, but he still didn't want to embarrass himself, and it was only a few more hours to wait till dawn.
He could fly. He could also ask Sam or Dean to drive him (while he could also ask to drive Baby, he knew the answer would be an ardent no), but the grey clouds promised rain, and the smell of rain hitting the leaf-covered earth pleasured his mind. With your scarf wrapped around him, he could avoid the cold as well.
His feet were a little tired by the time your library came into view, though still warm in the crisp air from fuzzy, woolen socks. The frayed edges of your scarf fluttered about chaotically in the wind as he noticed something rather odd––the library wasn't open. None of the lights were turned on, the chairs were still atop the tables, and you were nowhere to be seen. He had left the bunker a little early, but you always opened by 5AM at the latest, and it was 8 now.
For several minutes he hadn't a clue as to what to do, meaning he stood motionless in silence in front of the glass door, his head tilting slowly to the side in confusion. Maybe you woke up late––that would explain it. You were perfectly safe in your bed, dozing after a good night's sleep, completely unharmed.
But things rarely worked out so easily for Jack. Your home was empty, no sign of your disappearance left as your shoes, jacket, keys, and wallet were still left by the front door. In a sudden panic at the thought of your absence, the world around him flickered for a split second before he appeared in the bunker's war room. Knowing the usual fate of the people he cared about, you were probably being hurt, perhaps kidnapped by the actual fae who'd been killing the children, or lost of your own volition in a forest you wandered too far into.
"Castiel." Jack grabbed the angel's coat sleeve, stopping him on the way to the stairs. "I went looking for the librarian and they're missing."
"Missing?" Castiel repeated with a grimace. "Did you check the library and the house?"
"Yes, I couldn't find them."
"They might be headed for the children," he said, sending a pang through Jack's heart that he ignored.
"Is... is there a way to track a fae?"
"There's no spell I know of," Castiel said, his gaze falling to the floor as he scanned his mind. "But if it's a magical creature, it may carry a sort of... a sort of scent."
"A scent?" Jack furrowed his brow, wondering if something could carry your scent.
Something you'd been around a while. Something like your books, or your bed, or –
Jack jumped after he realized he was still wearing your scarf which, despite its' time with Jack in his room, still smelled of you. He shoved it into Castiel's arms, but he only gave him a confused look.
"It's their scarf," he explained.
Castiel spared him from the embarrassment of explaining how he'd gotten it.
He held the crumpled scarf in his hand up to his nose, intaking a deep breath with closed eyes. Jack hadn't ever heard of this kind of tracking, which was odd since he inherently knew most things about angels, but he would never distrust his father. What he did distrust was the churning feeling in his chest, as though a curved knife had impaled itself in him and twisted slowly through his skin.
Doubts pervaded both angels almost immediately as Castiel followed the trail. It led near to the stairs, but took a harsh turn and went into the hallway, leading them further into the bunker.
"Are you sure this is theirs?" Castiel asked as they hurried down the hall.
"Positive," he said, earning a sigh and a nod from Castiel.
They continued, this time less sure of themselves, as the scarf continued to lead them through the bunker, trotting down stairs till they landed in the base floor. Here the walls, ceiling, and floor were made of thick cement, allowing their footsteps to echo around the empty halls.
Jack picked up the pace and Castiel followed, running after the trail that ended right in front of the dungeon door. The torture room door, where monsters were locked up, and sometimes friends as well. A sort of fury was boiling in his blood despite his earlier acceptance of the Winchester's plan. Keeping you here in secret was never something he agreed to.
Without even fully realizing it, Jack was wrenching open the handle, the door whizzing open and slamming against the wall with a resounding crack. There, in the center of a pentagram, you were bound to a chair with thick, iron chains, your molted form flanked by Sam and Dean. The latter carried a knife in his hand, one covered in dripping blood. Sam whirled around at the sound of the door opening, meaning he was the first to see Jack's glowing eyes, and the suddenly panicked expression on Castiel's face.
"What are you doing to them?" Castiel growled with wide eyes, taking long, quick steps over in front of you. Without hesitation he undid the restraints, letting you fall down to the floor.
"Cas, they're a fae," Dean said, his tone stern and curt.
"No, they're not," Castiel replied, his own voice equally as sure. "I can't.. blame you, for not knowing this. You're only human. But it's obvious to me."
Sam opened his crossed arms, waiting for the angel to explain himself. Meanwhile, Jack regained his composure after being shocked by Castiel's actions, and made his way over to you, kneeling at your side. You'd been cut in a few different places––nothing too grievous, at least not by Winchester standards––and drops of your blood painted streaks down your sweaty skin.
"They're an Old God," Castiel finally said, but the words were followed by silence.
"We're just supposed to know what that is?" Dean asked gruffly.
"I thought your brother might," he said in a quiet voice.
Dean unfolded his arms, shifting his weight as he cast a glance to his brother.
"Old Gods are... ancient deities created by wandering bands of hunter-gatherers in your past. They got their power from their worshippers, not from Chuck, which... made them very different, to say the least," Castiel continued, still keeping his voice soft as he raised his hand above several of your wounds, stitching the skin back together with his grace.
"I've heard of hunter and gatherers," Jack said as he recalled some of the books in your library. "They wandered in bands of around 50 to 100 people."
He earned several unimpressed stares.
"Well – if they got their power from worshippers, how's this one still alive?" Sam asked after a moment of silence.
"I don't know," Castiel admitted. "I've never met this one before."
"Okay, just because they're not a fae doesn't mean they aren't the one that killed those kids," Dean said, interrupting their short conversation.
The iron knife still twirled in his hands; the only weapon against fairies. Jack kept a close eye on it as they spoke.
"An Old God would never hurt a human," Castiel said with such an intensity that no one had any choice but to believe him. “And besides,” he turned back to you, “they would’ve lost their powers long ago when humans stopped believing in them.”
Your eyes listed open while you lay in Jack's hold, the swirling image of your friend coming lazily into view.
"... Jack?" You mumbled, struggling to keep your eyelids up.
His gaze shot down to you, eyes widening at the sight of your movement.
"Hey," he said softly, hushing you when you tried to speak. "Are you okay?"
You mustered your strength to nod.
"I'm assuming you're an agricultural God," Castiel said after a moment of watching the two of you interact. "You look to be around 12,000 years old." He looked up to Dean and Sam. "That's how old agriculture is."
"Yeah, I know," Sam scoffed, but Dean remained silent.
"Do I really look that old?" You asked, laughing through your slurred words.
"Your soul does," Castiel answered.
You hummed weakly in response, drifting back into unconsciousness, your body going limp in Jack's arms.
Jack healed what remaining injuries you had, using it partway as an excuse to touch you. His palms set flat on the cuts, and with you far off in your dreams, you didn't feel the burn or the relief of his healing. He thought first to bring to his room to lay you on his bed, but Sam gently suggested that you should be put in one of their many spare bedrooms.
Castiel and the Winchesters attempted to take his mind off of you, but it wasn't long before he was back at your side, waiting for you to wake up again. He scanned your body constantly with his mind, searching for any hidden injuries he might've missed the first time around. The case remained unsolved, the children still missing and the culprit unknown. Your disqualifying left the Winchesters with no more suspects, but Jack couldn’t bring himself to worry about a creature that wouldn’t strike again for another ten years when you wouldn’t wake up to his voice calling your name.
It took hours until you stirred again, eyes fluttering into a half-open state as they fell to Jack. He had his head hung low, his elbows leant on his knees, and his hair drooping in front of his face.
"I was created in Turkey," you rasped out through a dry throat.
At the slightest sound his head shot up, eyes widening with a spark upon seeing your soft smile.
"It's a country, by the way," you mumbled, correctly assuming Jack didn't know the country, and only knew the bird. "At a place they call Gobekli Tepe, now. The people of the land would... would gather there, and share their cultured seeds, and the magic needed to make them grow."
"Magic?"
"Simple water and sunlight," you said with a weak chuckle. "It was magic to them. Everything was."
You fell silent before you said, "I miss them."
"Were they different? From people now?" Jack asked.
"Very," you nodded assuredly. "But there are some people, nowadays, that remind me of them."
He chuckled quietly. Warmth spread from your touch when you reached forward, just barely gracing his hand with yours. He took the initiative, entangling your fingers together, and watching intently as your thumb ran over the back of his hand.
"You are a new God, aren't you?" You asked, narrowing your eyes curiously, with no sense of hostility.
"I'm... I'm a nephilim. Lucifer's son, actually, but I promise I'm not like him," he said, gripping you tighter.
"A nephilim?" You asked with a frown.
"The son of an angel," he clarified.
It was the first time he was able to tell you something you didn't know instead of the other way around.
"I've never heard of angels."
His brows raised in surprise.
"Really?" He asked.
"I haven't really kept up with the world as of recent. When did angels first appear?"
"I... don't know," he said after wracking his brain and finding no answer. "Castiel might know."
"Castiel.. Castiel, that was your father, right?"
"Yeah. The good one," he said, earning a chuckle from you that brought a blush to his face.
"He is another God?"
"Another angel, yes," he nodded. "(Y/N), I... I have so many questions for you."
"About what?" You asked skeptically, giving him a playful glare.
"About humans, mostly," he said. "I mean, I've already been asking you questions, but now I know you have a lot more answers than I thought."
"Yes, well, I do keep my memory stored in a mushroom," you muttered beneath your breath.
Jack frowned. Was that normal?
"Can you tell me about them?" He asked, just barely masking his eagerness.
"My people?"
He nodded, and you smiled softly, your eyes glazing over as you recalled thousands of years past.
41 notes
·
View notes
Text
LoZ AU- The Courage of Running Away Part ELEVEN
(oh my fuckin gawd)
Slightly lighter on the art tonight and heavier on the prose bc last post I did like six or so whole pages and needed to let my arm rest today
This is also gonna LOOK like a supplementary post until we get to the end but this is probably how I’d be presenting it in the prose version too tbh
#AU August
#LoZ AU: The Courage of Running Away
So in Courage of Running Away (and there's some evidence this might be true in canon tbh), all of the women of the Zelda line do in fact have a magical power, separate from though connected to the Triforce. They call it the Light of Hylia, and it's attributed to the Goddess's blood still running through their veins. Even the Lorulean royal line still carries it, despite having broken off countless millenia ago over theological dispute.
But the Triforce of Wisdom also surfaces from time to time, and years ago, when she was only a child herself, it awakened in Queen Zelda.
Her parents, wise rulers themselves, saw the glow of the mark on their little girl's hand, and decided..... To do nothing. To keep it secret and hidden, until one of the other Triforce bearers arose. Surely, they reasoned, one piece of the Old Goddesses' power was manageable on its own, as long as nobody else knew.
And then... Nothing happened. For sixteen years nothing happened. Maybe, Zelda thought, the other Triforce bearers had had the same idea. Maybe, she thought, this had even happened before. Maybe, she thought, nothing was going to come of this after all. She was crowned queen. She selected a husband, a fine man who would make a suitable peacetime king. She waited, but she chose to live her life in the meantime.
[Image description: A large and heavily built man in a winged crown and blue clothing. He has long, dark blonde hair, thick eyebrows and thick mustache and a well trimmed beard. He is labeled “King Aldway Philominas (Queen Zelda’s husbando.)” End ID.]
(Note on Aldway: Credit for the name goes to @iced-blood who is half my sounding board team for this AU, the other half being Invid. Ice has probably named about half the characters at this point lmao)
And then Chief Eltani of the Gerudo, newly a mother, came to her for advice.
And Queen Zelda looked at the faded, inactive birthmark of the Triforce of Power on the hand of Eltani's infant son, and she said, "Keep this a secret. Raise him to be a good man. It's all we can do."
(and Eltani said, "well good because if you'd told me to throw him in a ditch I'd have to declare war" and Zelda laughed because how else do you respond to that, and now they were friends)
When Link is born three years after that, she doesn't hear about the faded mark of Courage on his hand, but she DOES hear two years later about when Astramorus's wife dies, because she was a well known swordswoman from a long line of Hyrulean knights, and it was apparently spectacular.
[Image Description: A round-faced woman with a mischievous grin. She has orange-strawberry blonde hair and green eyes, as well as thick eyebrows and a solid build. She is wearing a blue hat similar to Link’s classic hat, green earrings, armor over a blue shirt, and a red cape over the armor. She is labeled “Catena (Link’s Mother).” End ID.]
(And yes while this is insight into Astramorus's motives don't worry that I'll act like it excuses him, because obviously it doesn't. It’s also some very funny insight into Astramorus because I tend to think Catena (once again named by Ice) is basically ALttP Link as a woman, which means that young Astramorus, man of the cloth, looked at this little gremlin tank of a lady who could snap him in half, drink him under a table, and who loved helping people, fighting, money and music in THAT order, and went “that one. That’s the one.” Which is very relatable and humanizes him a lot more than I expected.)
In fact, Queen Zelda doesn't hear about the mark of Courage on Link's hand until a few months before he turns seventeen, when Astramorus sends word that he's been training him, and that he wants to present him to the Royal Family when he comes of age.
Queen Zelda is, truth be told, furious at the gods. "The Goddesses are cruel!" she tells her husband. "how can I, a grown woman and mother of fourteen years, ask a seventeen year old boy to carry a weight like that? And the worst part is that if I'd been our daughter's age, or his, I'd not have thought twice! No wonder our history is so bloody and battered, no wonder we've risen and fallen so many times!"
And then Link vanishes. Astramorus seems worried, yes, but just as much about what she and her husband will SAY as about what might happen to his son. He promises to find him and he talks about setting him back on the right path.
And when she finally sees Link for the first time, it's when he's pushed Astramorus away, and Astramorus grabs him by the hair and chin mere moments later, hissing in his face. Her daughter runs faster, starts yelling at him first, and then Astramorus goes and grabs the girl by the arms.
Well, no wonder Queen Zelda blasts him through the castle wall, yes?
[Image Description: King Aldway stands on a walkway on the outside of Hyrule Castle. Behind him is an enormous explosion, which is blowing his hair and clothing forward. He looks rather shocked. End ID.]
#my art#au august#loz#loz au#Loz au: the courage of running away#This isn't the end of Astramorus sorry if anyone was hoping
28 notes
·
View notes
Note
Helllo!!! I’m loving your headcanons so far!!!
Do you have any general personalities descriptions for your boys yet?
a of all, bsdaifjkbfjkowp thank you!!! b of all, im sorry this took so long?? i rewrote it like 3 times & it still might change bc im indecisive. also it turned into a lil bit of a headcanon post. i hope its understandable?
once again i am struck with the fact that the boys need nicknames. hmm.
UNDERTALE:
Sans: Guy who is deliberately and unabashedly Cringe. Overall, fairly laid back. However, he still prefers to maintain distance between himself and most people. It was already a natural facet of his personality but it was exacerbated by the Timeline Jank. People tend to forget he’s as smart as he is, they don’t think he’s stupid, they just mostly know that funnyman side of him. If you're a dick to Papyrus, he's gonna be a dick to you.
Papyrus: Things are so exciting and fascinating to him, even the most mundane things. Despite seeming completely oblivious to things that seem completely obvious, he's very smart and deceptively cunning. Even though he knows how people see him (a big loud child) and he doesn't get quite the reception his brother does, he knows he'll win them over one day! He tries to avoid thinking about how lonely he actually is. It’s fine. He knows Sans is dealing with something (he won’t tell him what) but he figures he doesn’t need much else on his plate.
UNDERSWAP:
Sans: In this post, I mentioned that he's kind of always naturally been the more outgoing brother and that he's taken on this much more outgoing and bubbly persona as a result of the impact the timelines have had on him. He's competitive in a more aggressive way (maybe not quite the right word to use but), by which I mean he's kind of a sore loser sometimes. Also? He's a huge flirt, he's pretty skilled in the art of flustering.
Papyrus: Also in this post, I said that he's pretty chill until the conversation turns to something he's passionate about, then he reaches True Papyrus Volume Levels (and Chaos Levels). He is fairly relaxed, yes, but part of it is compensating for how awkward he can be. He gets embarrassed really easy, even something as small as misunderstanding something that was said. However! He’s a pretty popular artist online! Though he uses a pseudonym, being recognized and talked to by a stranger in public is not something he would look forward to.
UNDERFELL:
Sans: He’s cruel and crude, that’s kind of his whole thing. He’s not really the best at keeping a hold on his temper (though there’s a few other factors at play there). Keeping up the whole tough guy persona is the number one priority thus he doesn’t deal much with his emotions or inner turmoil or any of that other crap. Like US!Sans, he’s a flirt, except his flirting is mostly crude comments and jokes. And yet, somehow it works? Guy who is a disaster. He’s oddly nostalgic, mostly about his relationship with Papyrus. He wishes he could have been a better brother, but it seems like their relationship is too far gone.
Papyrus: He also doesn’t have the best control of his temper but he has an image to keep, one of a cruel and cold Royal Guard Captain. He didn’t used to be like this, but it’s necessary for his survival. He’s still surprisingly empathetic, something that could never really be beat out of him. HUGE perfectionist nearly to the point of it being debilitating. He oscillates between hating how weak he is and desperately wanting to be able to be weak. While he acts prideful about his ‘work’ int the Royal Guard, he is genuinely prideful about things like his cooking. Often to the point of arrogance.
SWAPFELL:
Sans: He’s seen as very cold and calculating, well-spoken. But he also knows when and how to turn on the charm. That’s how he’s even made it this far in life, it’s vital to his survival. He can also be very prideful, particularly in his position as Queen Toriel’s right hand and in his ability to remain cool in high stress situations. He’s well aware of how overprotective he is with Papyrus, he’s terrified of how cruel the world is and terrified that he’s stunted him to the point of not being able to cope with it.
Papyrus: He’s deathly shy. If it were safe/a good idea to use his own brand of shortcuts to get out of situations, by god would he. He, like his non-Fell counterpart, thrives in the relative anonymity of being online. Past that barrier of shyness, he’s excitable and surprisingly jovial. He tries to find some reason to be at least content, he thinks it helps Sans worry less (even if it doesn’t really). He’s actually pretty mischievous, though only dares to pull pranks on his brother.
HORRORTALE:
Sans: Horribly cynical and jaded. He’s working on it, even if he doesn’t particularly want to sometimes. He’s not home, so to speak, most of the time. He’s easily frustrated by the gaps in his memory, then he forgets why he’s frustrated and gets even more upset. He’s naturally very wary of everyone else and again, very much prefers to keep distance between himself and most everyone he comes into contact with.
Papyrus: He definitely tries to hide everything behind a happy demeanor, he tries to fix everything for just about anyone (especially his brother) without any fuss and tries to make it seem like he’s totally fine. There’s also this sense of jadedness, he tries to curb it but sometimes it still slips out. He still tries to act like himself, like he’d been before the Famine, but it’s exhausting and he’ll eventually come to terms with the fact that he’s no longer the same.
HORRORSWAP:
Sans: His competitive nature has morphed more into him being more of an aggressive hothead (though not quite to the level of UF!Sans). He’s really self-conscious about his new stutter and bringing it up frustrates him the same way treating him like a child had before. He has terrible mood swings, he can ruin his own day over nothing and it kills him. He’s really trying to get better, but he still has a hard time being honest with people.
Papyrus: He’s gotten pretty cynical since the Famine, he puts part of the blame on himself (if only he'd just been brave for once), even though he knows there's not really a whole lot he could have done. He’s even quieter than he used to be, he’d prefer if he could just fade into the background. He hates how much he stands out in any crowd and tries to avoid going out at all costs. The only one who can get him out is Sans because at least they can ignore everyone else and concern themselves with each other.
HORRORFELL:
Sans: He’s...mean. Like. He tends to be a major jackass. He can’t help but think well, humans aren’t exactly gonna wanna know a monster, much less him. And hey! Might just help keep his newly expanded family safe! He ain’t complainin’! He’s really just bitter about how things have gone for him and his brother (and about how things will likely go in the future). For as many dark jokes he makes to Frisk and Aliza, he’d be the first one to come to their rescue, he’s just that kind of friend.
Papyrus: He’s fairly quiet these days, but don’t think he’s not going to find some way to give you some kind of attitude. He’s been putting a lot of work into taming his anger, which is no small task considering everything. He still has his moments, but he prides himself in being able to cool off and keep himself somewhat calm. He still hasn’t been able to do much about his perfectionism, in fact it’s gotten worse, but he’s trying. And he, like his brother, is extremely protective of his little family, and god help anyone who dares try anything.
A B-Bonus????
UF!Comic Papyrus: (he’s the only one with a nickname...lol) Reggie here struggles a lot with who he is as a person, is he more Sans? More Papyrus? An even 50/50? Or is he someone else entirely? He’s introspective and hyper aware of his mannerisms, particularity in the ones he deems too Sans-like or too Papyrus-like. He’s not exactly the nicest, partially as a mechanism to keep people away (it’s just...easier that way). Reggie keeps to himself most of the time. He’s not shy though, he’s more than willing to speak his mind, even if it comes out more crass than it was intended.
#undertale headcanons#undertale#underswap#underfell#swapfell#horrortale#horrorswap#horrorfell#sans#papyrus#comic papyrus#ratsoh-writes#as always im not sure im happy w this but im not letting myself fuck w it any longer lol.#i was gonna add the bros from my own au but. ive never talked about them#maybe youll see them some other time
49 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Purchase from Amazon
Purchase from Somewhere Else (tons of options, including Audible, Kobo, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, and Apple Books)
There’s no spoilers on these slides; all the information in them is basically same stuff you’d read on the back cover/product blurb.
I’m trying to earn a bit of extra money because I had some huge vet bills hit me last month, and it’s looking like my old lady cat is gonna have to be on a specialized diet for the rest of her life (she was already on one, but this new one is gonna be even more expensive). Reblogs are appreciated!
Full image descriptions can be found behind the read more cut.
Thank you to @bisexualbaker for help with the slide descriptions.
Slide one: I think you should buy these books
(but I am the author so take that with a grain of salt)
[Images: Covers of the first four books of Tales of Inthya: The Queen of Ieflaria, Daughter of the Sun, The Queen of Rhodia, The Empress of Xytae.]
Slide two: Ok so wait what is going on here?
* This is a series of books that you can read with your eyeballs!
* There’s also audiobooks of the first two so I guess you can also read it with your earballs!
* I don’t know how anatomy works
* I majored in English
* We’re getting off topic
* Every book in this series is a high fantasy romance centered around a f/f couple.
Slide three: Book 1: The Queen of Ieflaria
* Princess Esofi is engaged to marry Prince Dead Guy.
* I dunno why his parents named him that?
* Anyway he dies.
* But it turns out this is a queernormative setting, so Esofi can just marry Prince Dead Guy’s sister!
* Except Adale is all, “I can’t marry you, I’m a mess!”
* And Esofi is like, “Yeah I agree, you are a mess.”
* But then they both realize Adale is actually cool and smart and cares a lot about people.
* Also there are dragons.
[Image: Book cover of The Queen of Ieflaria]
Slide four: Book 2: Daughter of the Sun
* Orsina is a Lawful Good paladin on a Quest. What is her Quest? She doesn’t know.
* This lack of information is slowing her down substantially.
* Aelia is a minor chaos goddess who has zero worshippers and almost no magic.
* Orsina vanquishes Aelia for being Evil.
* Or at least for being A Huge Jerk.
* But Aelia is not really vanquished and they run into each other again. But Orsina doesn’t recognize her.
* They’re gonna fall in love!!!
[Image: Cover of Daughter of the Sun]
Slide five: Book 3: The Queen of Rhodia
* Esofi’s terrible mother gets a copy of book 1 and reads it and is like, “I don’t think so!” and sails to Ieflaria to make a nuisance of herself.
* She’s not homophobic or anything. We don’t do that here.
* She’s just jealous because Esofi is being favored by their patron goddess.
* Orsina and Aelia show up too!
* It’s like a crossover. Except they were always in the same setting. But now they’re in the same room.
* Also there are even more dragons.
[Image: Cover of The Queen of Rhodia]
Slide six: Book 4: The Empress of Xytae
* Crown Princess Ioanna of Xytae is having a bad time because the national sport in her country is Being A Huge Jerk.
* Meanwhile, Princess Vitaliya of Vesolda is having a bad time because her dad is getting remarried.
* The princess:everyone else ratio on this planet is a little skewed.
* Ioanna’s dad dies and her sister is like, “You can’t be empress if you don’t like * Being A Huge Jerk!”
* And everyone clapped.
* So now Ioanna has to win the support of her people and get coronated and kiss Vitaliya.
[Image: Cover of The Empress of Xytae]
Slide seven: Book 5: Daughter of the Moon
* This book isn’t getting published until late 2020. But I can tell you a little bit about it.
* Princess Netheia, Ioanna’s younger sister, has been found guilty of Being A Huge Jerk.
* And exiled to Ieflaria.
* She meets Klavida, whose hobbies are studying obscure magic and not wanting anything to do with Netheia.
* Klavida’s disdain for Netheia’s behavior sort of makes Netheia want to become a better person.
* Unfortunately she has an evil goddess screaming in her brain.
[Image: A blue rectangle; text on it reads, "Sorry I do not have the cover art yet; please enjoy this delightful rectangle instead!"]
Slide eight: Other miscellaneous facts
* Each book is dedicated to a different cat in my life.
* My naming choices are bizarre and my audiobook reader deserves an award of some sort for tolerating my nonsense.
* The books are all standalones with no cliffhangers or anything but they also weave together like a beautiful tapestry or maybe a plate of spaghetti that eventually leads to a meatball or marriage.
* “TWO PRINCESSES CAN’T GET MARRIED BC THEY NEED HEIRS!” The whole thing is explained in the first few pages of book 1. You don’t even need to buy it to see. It’s in the free preview.
* CONCLUSION: It would be neat if you bought these books because I am poor and depressed and I’d like to be rich and depressed, ideally.
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
no one asked or cares but I did finally match songs to all my idol ocs so I will be sharing those with you
basically they are inspired by underrated (? maybe not) idol anime akb0048, I never gave them a unit name and just refer to them as “space idols.” officially they travel between planets and space stations performing concerts but secretly they also smuggle items and information into areas that have harsh governments. all their names are stage names/codenames so I haven’t thought about surnames for them. also I didn’t draw these I made them in a dollmaker
ako - accha koccha game (idol time pripara)
ako’s a dancer who puts on really energetic performances with a lot of audience interaction. I think her voice is probably a little less cute than nino’s but the energy of this performances matches the energy I imagine for ako. ako’s one of the original members of the group and was chosen for her heartwarming backstory of growing up on an impoverished planet rather than a specific skill that would aid in their secret espionage mission. she’s very engaged with fans and usually wears a handmade item from a fan in every performance. she’s part of the main trio with hime and yuki
izumi - identity (aikatsu friends)
izumi was really hard for me to place bc she has more of an adult image than most anime idols but is also quirky and silly. so I went with the quirky image for her and matched her to mirai’s song about how it’s good to be weird. I hate the outfit in this performance and it doesn’t suit izumi anyway but the vocals and dance are good. izumi joined the group in the second wave once the main trio had gotten some popularity and while she’s a great singer and looks good in everything she is also an engineer who specializes in a) robots and b) breaking into places. she’s a trans woman with cool big sis energy and is dating hikari. the two of them are in robo trio along with ayame
hikari - cutie breakin’ (prichan)
cutie breakin’ was the first boyish idol song that came to mind and it suits hikari bc their specialty is dance. I can’t see them wearing a joutfit like suzu does though. they joined in the second wave as a hacker and intended to stay offstage as much as possible but they came to really enjoy dance to their surprise. the idol image isn’t really for them so they tend to look annoyed when dolled up for concerts and photoshoots but some fans think that adds to their charm. they’re nb and dating izumi, and they’re in robo trio with her and ayame
ayame - dream colored energy (prichan)
I picked this song for ayame mostly based on the lyrics about being a guiding presence and helping others but I think rinka’s soft voice suits her. ayame is the one who gives robo trio their name bc she herself is a robot. btw robo trio is not an official or even a fan nickname, it’s a nickname used by me and the idols themselves bc ayame being a robot is a secret. there are not a lot of lifelike humanoid robots in the setting and since ayame was liberated from someone who bought a robot that looks identical to a human woman for nefarious reasons they just pass her off as a human. it’s working pretty well bc no one expects you to steal a state of the art robot and put her in a popular girl group, especially without advertising her as being a robot. she’s really sweet and caring with mom energy but she can be super weird about it bc she’s fascinated by human bodies
yuki - do you remember love? (macross)
I was like “i cant just say my character is voiced by iijima mari” but for yuki I definitely imagine her having the voice of a retro idol and one whose voice is soft but resonant. lynn minmay was the first character I could think of fitting that description. yuki’s the vocals of the original trio and has a surprisingly arresting stage presence on her own but prefers to fade into the background a bit when performing in a group. she, ako, and hime actually grew up in an orphanage on the same planet and were already friends before joining the group. she’s pretty quiet unless you get her going on one of her favorite subjects, namely her hobby of building and collecting figures. everyone else is always arguing about whether or not they can let her talk about it openly to fans bc they don’t want nerdboy fans to latch onto her in gross ways but also they are sick of hiding her gunpla every time they do “backstage” videos
aoi - I am the best (2NE1)
aoi is kind of the main character to me. she was the last to join and they tried to market her as a naive new girl briefly before realizing that she is loud and knows too much so they just let her be annoying and sexy. since she has a sexy image I had to go for something outside idol anime but I don’t know any idol music so I had to go for this one which is iconic to me. idk if aoi would wear any of the outfits in this mv but she would certainly rap about being the best. her previous dance experience was actually all ballet so she loves to pull out ballet moves with no warning. her defining character trait is that she has fun. although she also has a darkness to her past bc when her mom fucking died she revealed that she had been one of the secret donors behind this idol espionage project and she wanted her daughter to help with the project any way she could so of course aoi was like “I will dance in stiletto heels and high waisted shorts. to honor my mother’s memory.” shes in chill/newbie trio with tsuki and rie
tsuki - dreaming bird (aikatsu stars)
I also thought about a yurika song for tsuki but yurika has a rock edge that tsuki lacks. tsuki is a singer above all else and has a powerful voice. she can dance but she prefers to simply stand onstage and sing. her family was really rich with millions of credits or whatever but they lost their entire business in a spaceship fire during which tsuki was trapped under burning wreckage and ended up damaging her legs and lungs. now she’s a cool cyborg with artificial lungs that let her sing without breathing but she has no money and no family. so she was like “I’ll make it big using my one talent!” and ended up getting noticed by the space idol project
hime - open your heart (aikatsu friends)
hime may not be the protagonist in my eyes but she has the energy of an idol anime protagonist and is the glue holding this group together. so I had to pick a protagonist solo for her. she probably has that kind of cute singing voice too. I liked the lyrics to this one so I picked it. hime is kind and loving in a way that’s kind of unreal. she’s always positive bc she’s like “I got out of the rough situation I grew up in, I made eight great friends, I have literally millions of fans, how can I not be grateful?” her quirk is to always wear a crown. she was picked to be the center of the group at the very start and that hasn’t changed. she is the center of the nine person group as well as the main trio
rie - hip (mamamoo)
rie’s another one who’s too cool and sexy to get an idol anime song so I gave her a kpop song I know and like. it’s really catchy and danceable and I think rie would wear pretty much any of the outfits in the mv. rie is actually mostly paralyzed and primarily interacts with the world through an experimental robot izumi built that’s basically a mobile hologram projector. either she can control the exact movements of the robot while making pre-programmed gestures with the hologram or have the robot stand still or follow a programmed path while controlling the hologram as she would a real body but she’s become really adept at using it. she’s really stylish and loves designing clothes for everyone but she has to be extra careful about her own so the accessories don’t clip through her body while onstage
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
y’know the one thing I hated while I was doing my arts degree, and still hate after having graduated from it, is the condescending statement/belief from people that “oh why didn’t you just do a more useful degree like maths or science???? and not your useless bullshit mickey mouse arts degree, which was never intended to give anyone jobs outside of teaching, anyway!” or some other horrendous bullshit, such as: “why didn’t you just stay with communication & media studies and complete the marketing & PR major???? you would’ve had a job after all of the unpaid internships you do throughout the course!” or whatever. (media and communications is abbreviated to m&cs further down in this post, just an fyi).
but, meredith. do you know that even people with science & maths degrees struggle to find meaningful work that’s related to their degrees? do you know that some of those people will turn to teaching anyway just because they feel like there’s nothing else that they can do??? do you know that some people (mainly me and probably quite a few others) just can’t handle maths past like idk year 6 level??? I would’ve been completely and utterly fucked if I even tried to set foot in first year uni science or maths subjects. even though some of the content did interest me.... (also there’s the fact that my handwriting wasn’t good enough for diagrams etc etc in maths & science- but that’s a whole other topic not for this post).
like I had to totally skip out of psychology/sociology and even the PR major, bc they required you to do statistics subjects.... where no matter what level of study I would’ve/could’ve done for those subjects, i would’ve still failed them spectacularly because my mind really struggles with processing and working with numbers. but that’s besides the point.
hey earl, do you know some people simply do not suit particular fields of “real world” or “practical” study areas like business subjects? trust me. I tried that one sem of marketing 101 and intro to management/ business communications in first year. and you know what I found? that my mind just could not take the complete and utter dryness of the content of marketing theory and, again, numbers. and that’s despite the earnest encouragement of my tutor, who thought I had a knack for marketing. i literally almost fucking died in that business communications subject... even though the lecturer seemed to like me as well. but as i thought further ahead into my degree in comms & media, i dreaded it. I absolutely fucking dreaded it. the PR stuff sounded as equally dry & boring (besides the point that every project was group work lmao) and so did upper level marketing subs in advertising/marketing strategy/various fields of marketing etc etc. i couldn’t stomach that lmao. and besides the point, the analysing of media just bored the fuck out of me too, for some reason. I just didn’t like the subject. hell, even my advanced diploma in marketing from business college was a fucking hard slog for me.
but when i sat in my english, philosophy, (kind sorta) history and -further down the track- creative writing subjects.... I fucking loved them. I was writing like I’d always wanted to. okay yes I did get pretty dismal marks in most of my philosophy and english exams or assignments. but I don’t fucking care. I was there doing what my mind was built for. if id tried another business subject, like intro to economics or even gone back to redo that “intro to management”/“business communications” (or whatever it was called) as an elective/as electives, i probably would’ve dropped out of either of them in the first 2 weeks. whenever i read those subject descriptions, they literally put me to sleep.
also, for the media and comms point. do you know that there’s loads of media & comms students that don’t get jobs because there’s just such a HUGE intake of students in those courses??? do you know that that the most popualr field in that degree stream (at least when I started that degree at my local home uni in 2015) was journalism & professional writing??? where literally EVERYONE was aiming to be a journalist????
I was one of the very, very few people when I began in media and comms, to outwardly say that she was there to do marketing or maybe the marketing & PR double major.... and everyone looked at me as if I was insane. “why don’t you want to be a journalist? I think journalism is so cool and that I’m more likely to get a job in that than you are in marketing or PR. you actually engage with real people in journalism and do meaningful stuff with the community!” was one of the utterly dumb responses I sometimes got from people in that course, when I told them the above. but you know what kelsey, or, trent? neither one or any of us are “more likely” to get jobs in media & comms... when you’re both competing against people with “proper” straight journalism degrees who might have more media experience than you- if you didn’t do an internship or do some uni newsroom/magazine or whatever.... or maybe more streamlined (if that’s the right word) media &comms degrees.... as well as generally competing against each other, in the same field, for the fucking same exact jobs. while im competing against commerce students doing marketing and PR and people doing the PR & marketing major in m&cs.
also in relation to the above, doing multiple unpaid or even severely underpaid internships in journalism, or even marketing, probably won’t fucking secure your chance of getting a bloody job, adam. just shut the fuck up. those internships may have helped you. but they most likely won’t help most people, theresa. because there’s only a tiny freakin chance that the place that they worked for will actually give them a guranteed job at the end of their internship’s timeframe or at the end of their whole degree. it’s a fucking scam lmao.
and plus, (not to be as rude as you were to me).... but why the FUCK would you want to go into journalism.... when it’s been debased so fucking much by media outlets like buzzfeed; writing nothing but clickbait bullshit listicles.... and is polluted by internet virality.... so much so, that more than half of the people my course had the career goal of being a viral youtuber or an instagram influencer???? like i’m sorry. this is a dumb asf course, no matter the field you’ve chosen to study.... and there’s no way that a single one of you will be a successful viral youtuber or an instagram influencer???? what on fucking earth led you to believe that????
like no offence. but there’ll only be a lucky, lucky, lucky few who get to be the next jennamarbles, ray william johnson, pewdiepie, lily singh, tanya hennessy, jeffree star, james charles, etc etc.... or hell, even friendlyjordies (if you want some satire & politics). and for instagrammers.... idek know them. someone list some instagrammers lmao. but my point still stands.
being an influencer or youtuber- both with huge followings- is a fucking pipe dream- as much as me being a hugely successful author is. it only goes to the insanely lucky, lucky few who have the right connections and the right digital savviness/finesse to grow to be uber successful.... or who started super early, before it was even considered a job title (like jenna mourey/marbles and ray william johnson listed above, and several others not listed who have big fan followings on here) and eventually grew to be the first original titans of the youtuber job title.
or again, they already have some type of other successful media career (like tanya hennessy is an aussie radio announcer. jeffree star had a short lived myspace music career in the late 000s mostly, and made cameos in emo music videos and LA ink at the time also, for example) so that they can successfully fund their youtube channels and/or instagrams as side projects or whatever, as part of their media portfolio.... and they also know how to engage and grow follower bases etc. because they already have an existing one. so it’s twice as easy for them.
tbh i actually entered the m&cs course bc of my use of this hellsite and all the weird trends it had and stuff.... but I eventually got over that as I realised that I just did NOT fit into that field of study. I realised I was too shy... and I also just hated the fact that I had to learn how to use twitter and wordpress and probably eventually snapchat & instagram 😂
i had also gotten sick of follower counts and “growing a following”- considering that by 2015, I’d hit over 3,000 followers on here, I think.... and I realised just what energy and time it took to build this blog.... and my followers.... that I just didn’t have the energy to expend on other platforms for the same thing lmao. like it seemed like more wasted time. I was tired. in addition to that, i also realised that i didn’t want to waste my whole fucking career on the internet worrying over a business’s/company’s multiple corporate social media channel follower counts and image etc.... when i’d done enough of that for myself on this hellsite lmao. doing that stuff with other students in the m&cs course seemed fake asf, especially when it came to giving feedback comments etc lol.
but do you know that one place where you don’t have to give a flying fuck about followers, post views/comments, and blog views? philosophy and english. lmao 😅. no one gives a fuck what you say. unless, of course, you have the evidence and the force of argument to back your pov up. that’s what I was about and am still about. I loved reading and analysing the many books I had to read (contrary to the complaint posts that I made on here lmao)- whereas learning about media and who owned what and how media is manufactured- just made my brain freeze. and although I didn’t do my readings in philosophy (lmao)- i enjoyed a good bulk of the content I had and the issues it involved. doing media & journalism subjects in the m&cs degree, on the other hand, terrified me, bc it meant I had to get in front of a camera and speak- which also scared me bc i look & sound terrible on camera lmao 😂. but I didn’t have to do that almost throughout the entirety of my arts degree (im obvs not counting class presentations in this lol). but do you get my point???
and also the teaching comment. don’t get me wrong, i know a good bunch of people go into teaching after their arts degrees... including many of my friends; and a load of the people I was in my arts degree with. but that is mainly because with other degrees like journalism or media & comms or whatever other fields that they overload into uni arts departments- have taken our job titles away, in a sense....
so, then you’re practically forced to either go into teaching, or go into something outside of your expertise; like idek human resources management/a MBA via a masters.... or, again into something like librarianship via postgrad study- so, that for the love of fucking god- you have a job title to whack next to your name-!!!-instead of just “arts graduate” or “english major” or “philosopher” that all mean fuck all. and that’s because those labels sound vague, unhelpful, undefined and useless; as that’s opposed to something like “teacher” or “librarian” or even “information specialist”. all those titles/labels sound defined, and have actual useful concrete skills: like coding, database creation and maitenance & information retrieval (amongst other things), for a librarian/an information specialist, for example. these skills are then translated into something that you can physically demonstrate to people.... unlike with philosophy and english where people perceive that it’s just “all in your head” and “doesn’t produce anything worthwhile” bc of your very obvious skills that everyone has of communication and writing. like idk. anyway.
anyway here’s my rant for november.
13 notes
·
View notes
Text
i have caught up with the magnus archives.
when i started listening, i started a text file to note down any thoughts/confusion/analysis/jokes i had as i listened. i isolated a few bits of it into standalone text posts that i already posted, but here is the whole thing, my long-form liveblog
thoughts on the magnus archive as i listen
jonny sims gives an impassioned performance of someone's statement-- a diegetic impassioned performance, as we witness it being interrupted and resuming-- and follows it up with his own judgement of merciless doubt. classic. why the impassioned performance? he's just a nerd. i dearly hope this is the fandom consensus
every episode ends at the perfect volume to which i have adjusted it, and then i start the next episode and it blares in my ears. i think the volume of the intro must be like 1.75x the volume of the rest
*makes a serious effort to listen to and remember the name and date at the beginning of the statement recording* *forgets completely within 2 minutes*
i saw a fanart of gerard keay and learned [1] that he must be a good guy after all, since they drew him lookin cute, and [2] that his name is not, in fact, jared key. what, am i supposed to be looking at the transcripts? understanding names properly? in my defense, jonny sims clearly articulates "Jared" when he says it. maybe i'm not as good at decoding british accents as i thought. [footnote added in later: ok good i'm not the only one who hears "Jared" and thinks "Jared" instead of "Gerard"]
when gerard keay was described as having numerous eye tattoos on his joints, obviously my first thought was, "including the ankle? so he's count olaf?" because that's definitely a way count olaf would disguise his eye tattoo: by tattooing eyes everywhere else too and becoming The Eye Tattoo Guy. anyway this is part of why i was not at first inclined to think favorably of gerard keay
"The first thing about this statement that makes me dubious is that it comes from a fellow academic." if you know shit fuck you
it has come to my attention that there are ships. makes sense... after all, everyone in every fandom is horny af*. i'm not in deep enough to ship yet but naturally i'm keeping an eye on it
*horny af for depictions of intimacy, sexual or otherwise, but mostly sexual
definitely feel like i need to be writing down every name i hear because they're never not cropping back up but for now i'll just let it all wash over me
so sasha has been replaced with not-sasha, huh? pretty sure. though i'm not good at distinguishing voices. but that sounded pretty different, and my listening comprehension wrt that table isn't that bad. <<as time passes i doubt myself more and more on this point but not enough to go back and listen again
"You believe me?" "Yes, I think I do." (smashes button labeled "CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT" and a loud buzzer sounds)
IT'S MICHAEL!!! i hope michael is a long-term good guy... he's not seeming like a good guy right now... he says he's mostly neutral. vaguely recall seeing a tumblr post about michael in the recent past but that didn't give me any hints and i don't remember it well anyway. michael's voice is good though. good laugh
i'm not good at visualizing characters based on descriptions, let alone based merely on their voices, so the only image i have in my head of jonathan is a furrowed brow
i'm on episode 49 and i don't like jonathan's distrust of his colleagues... i don't understand why his immediate suspicion was that gertrude's murder was an inside job. hasn't he just learned firsthand that the institute is not impenetrable? it's not inconceivable that someone could enter and shoot her and leave. especially when it took place in underground tunnels connected to unknown locations.
there's a good Old Lady Voice Combo on episode 62
so agnes montague was heavily cursed... that's my conclusion after episode 67
elias seems to tell jonathan to "get some sleep" a lot. though it IS generally good advice
episode 70, 9 minutes, 41 seconds: jonny sims's cell phone goes off in the background
small brain: ghost ship
medium brain: ghost train
galaxy brain: dirt train
i wanted to see if there was fanart of michael so i looked it up... i might as well have googled "blonde slenderman"
sweeney todd mentions tally: II
for some reason, hearing michael described this time as "a tall man with curly blonde hair and an unnerving laugh" puts an image in my head without my consent, and that image is chris fleming. now, he's not quite blonde, is he? but that doesn't change my casting decision, which is now set in stone. hope he does a good british accent
"YES i know what a meme is."
why is melanie the first/only one to notice that sasha is now not-sasha? is it because she is experienced in firsthand paranormal encounters (whereas the archivists are experienced in decidedly SECONDhand paranormal encounters, save for the worm debacle)? oh, my question was answered handily in the next episode. ok.
the replacer definitely limits its glamour to everyone except one person just so that it can be amused by the distress and confusion of the one person who can see the truth. that must also be the reason it chooses a completely different appearance. it surely COULD replace a person with their exact likeness; it just uses another face for fun, and to be satisfied that it can get away with it.
this table has appeared in like 10 episodes... Guess It's Crucial
jonny sims yelling while swinging an axe. jonny sims goes through michael's door (eyes emoji)
the idea of the replacer killing jonathan and not even replacing him brings to mind "AT LEAST RIDE IT YOU ASSHOLE"
wasn't expecting to hear from leitner at this point... he's dropping tons of lore here. too much lore. so much is happening. i have to say i kinda like it better when the stakes are not quite so high as this.
so at the end of season 2, tim and martin believe that jonny sims killed this guy, who they probably don't know is leitner... and we the audience believe that elias, now almost certainly a double murderer, has very quietly stabbed leitner to death. do i the audience believe it? i'll keep an open mind for now. things are not always as they seem. except when sasha was replaced with not-sasha, which was exactly as it seemed. [footnote added in later: looks like elias being a double murderer was exactly as it seemed.]
so jonathan sims is the name of the actual guy voicing jonathan sims. it's a cecil situation. so are they someday going to go back and retcon every episode to change his name, like with palmer/baldwin? or does jonathan sims just not mind being a character as well? as long as it doesn't devolve into RPS i guess it's fine. if there's fanart of jonmartin i hope it doesn't depict them as their actors bc that's too close for comfort to RPS
there's been a truly hellish c*ndy cr*sh ad that has played like 40 times between episodes and i'm pretty well convinced to never ever play that curséd game
elias has some serious blackmail for daisy, huh? that's heavy, having police characters in fiction who do extrajudicial killings. life imitates art imitates life
"i'm not on drugs or anything. ...what? i could be on drugs!"
he said "ample opportunity" but like "amplopportunity" with emphasis on the "plop"
it was obviously elias who delivered the statement to jonathan in hiding, because he knew he would record it despite not being at work... bc he's a nerd
so if gerard keay has eye tattoos, does that mean he also serves the uhh the observing or whatever? [verdict arrived at later: no he just has those because he's cool. or because his mom tattooed him. ok almost certainly the latter.]
"what do i feed it?" obviously you feed it filled up cassette tapes, jon... nothing has ever been more obvious
it's okay that jon very stupidly burned his hand to a crisp. you don't need even one hand to turn on a cassette recorder. you can do that with your nose
so if these people who are wax figures serve the desolation, and not-sasha was spending time at the wax museum, does that mean there is a connection between the replacer and desolation? i think that would make sense, since both seem to enjoy making people feel bad feelings. also i'm starting to think that agnes was not actually cursed, but that would mean she burned that guy on purpose after being nice to him... was she just really selfish in that way? using him to experience Dating and mutilating him when he crossed the line, so she punished him as a cruel goodbye? or just building up his hopes so they will be even more fun to burn down when the time comes?
"perhaps doing a bit of mindless filing will help distract you." honestly that is something i would like to do in real life... i do enjoy a good mindless task. though doing mostly mindless tasks 40 hours a week is not a fun time for me lately. but it would be better if i didn't have to listen to bad radio at the same time
what?! the friendly midnight acrobat described in episode 90 sounds totally non-threatening and i hope there's fanart of it. was that gym just jared the bone turner helping people live their twisted athletic fetishes?! [footnote added in later: YES! god i hope people draw these turn-boned creatures optimized for their gymnastic of choice. show me a person who remade their body specifically for the balance beam]
so the power endowed in the archivist by the viewening is that when you sit them down across from someone they want to interview, that someone will invariably spill SOME beans and think it was their idea. maybe? [footnote added in later: yes.]
ok so Michael "The Distortion" Michael, of fractals and golden ringlets, has specifically tormented this other michael, lichtenberg michael?
jon is clearly moved to ask questions by an external force because he's a sensible guy who would not try to ask questions when daisy is holding a gun on him
i think basira has precisely the same accent as estelle... or maybe just a similarly staccato way of speaking (or of line-reading)
[episode 93]
elias: (holding jon's face between two pieces of bread) what are you?
jon: (sigh) the archivist...
well, they did something i didn't expect them to do with this show: create a compelling in-universe reason for jon to read statements aloud. because obviously until now there was none.
jon did the cockney accents. (insert emoji for indescribable feeling)
here's the purpose of the pit: if we all climb in the muddy pit together at night, the earthquake will only jiggle us gently and no one will be inside collapsing buildings to be crushed. it's only logical
ok i was gonna say this before but why is jon still at georgie's house??? he's not on the run for murder anymore, right? he has an apartment with all his stuff in it, right? [footnote added in later: i still don't understand why it was like this.]
i will confess that usually once the credits start to roll i zip to the next episode, but this time i zoned out a bit and it's really funny that jonny sims reads out "Rate and Review Us Online" in his archivist voice
a third michael. this one is probably already dead though. unless distortion michael takes over this guy's body or something. oh, jon came in at the end of the episode to say precisely this.
was episode 100 mostly improvised? if so, that would be appropriate. but i wouldn't put it past them to write every stuttering bit of those four statements
MARTIN...................................................................................................................................................... (typed this as martin gave some of his own money to the lady who expected payment for a statement)
i'm skipping 100.1 through 100.5 for now... just for now.
ok so michael is michael but not lightning mike michael, and two of these michaels are dead, but one is something that has never been alive nor dead. got it
everyone's morality is much more gray than i at first anticipated. the only people who seem to be solidly and earnestly on the side of good, as much as possible, are jonathan and martin and basira and georgie and maybe tim?
so michael just died and was overtaken by pseudo-helen? neo-helen? ok. that's kinda too bad, as i enjoyed michael's terrible laugh and unpredictability. but the feeling of michael being revealed as having been michael shelley feels somewhat similarly disappointing (but a bit less staggeringly groan-inducing) to when the mysterious koro-sensei in assassination classroom was revealed to have been a twink in his past. because of course he was. (that's when i stopped reading that manga. too precipitously dumb to sustain my suspension of disbelief.) it's like, ok, you had an interestingly mysterious character going on, but having solved the mystery, what interestingness is left? not much. fortunately this was resolved by promptly ending the existence of this michael and instead introducing new and improved helen
ooh martin has the asky ability too huh? nice [footnote added in later: he only used it this one time, and i'm wondering if they did that and then forgot and decided that jon is actually the only one with asky ability.] [[another footnote added in much later: How did i manage to mistake jon’s voice for martin’s voice? How?]]
the way martin said "kumo ga tabeteiru" in episode 110... alexander j newall does not watch anime
"I'm a book." ~Gerard Keay, 2017
it was a few episodes ago now but i noticed that when jon clearly articulated "Jared" referring to gerard, elias was like "Jared? you mean Gerard Keay?" (pronouncing it like "Gerard.") there is definitely a disagreement between these two (actors) about how to pronounce that name
the eye, the spiral, the end, the stranger, the lonely, the desolation, the slaughter, the vast, the buried, the dark, the corruption, the web, the flesh, the hunt.
Q: why would anyone want one of these rituals to succeed?
A: it's their fetish. it's their sexual fetish
ok time to make up names for each possible apocalypse. these are the real and true names according to me, who knows such things:
the eye - the viewening
the spiral - down the drain
the end - the really end end
the stranger - oh wait we know this one. it's the unknowing.
the lonely - the alonening
the desolation - Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Lightless Flame
the slaughter - world war all
the vast - the expansion
the buried - the grand lahar (or the Smothering)
the dark - the extinguishment
the corruption - the Great Rot
the web - the spidening
the flesh - the smorgasbord (or the Eatening)
the hunt - come and get it
gerry said there was no dark god of indigestion, but i can tell you from personal experience that there is. though it's true that there is also fear involved, so maybe no separate pantheon is necessary
i sense that there is a battle between people who say it like "gotta get myself oriented" and "i feel disoriented" (as feels correct/natural to me) and people who say "gotta get myself orienTATed" and "i feel disorienTATed," and this podcast falls SQUARELY on the latter team. they've said it like 20 times
idk why he has to be such a dick to helen. jeez
the guy who coded his mind into a computer, which of the 14 was that? the corruption? the stranger? gotta be the corruption, but that doesn't fit perfectly with its rot/bugs aesthetic...
speed -> speeding -> sped. heed -> heeding -> hed. thus i decree
in my dream i listened to a whole episode of this show, narrated by gertrude, and i was like "whoa this is cool" and i went to write it down but i was still in the dream and writing doesn't work in dreams :( also any successful writing in dreams doesn't transfer to real life paper :( the only snippet i remember: “...in his white mouth, which had known only bread...”
"I, uh..." Jonathan Sims, a thousand times, 20XX
martin's job is PLAINLY to distract elias and elias barges in like "martin. i see you're trying to distract me." and martin's like "maybe i am!"
o, jonny took a breath. that's good
he wasn't hooked up to an EKG or anything? you spend long enough with no heartbeat that they're just like "i guess we can turn this off"
this episode about philosophical zombies sounds a lot like that NPC meme from a year or two ago... and it makes me kind of uncomfortable, the way this person inspects others to determine whether they are True Minds or Impostors based on their emotional expressions, their eyes... because i don't always do the correct or appropriate expressions, and would someone judge me as being a non-person who is trying and failing to imitate human emotions?
i generally don't enjoy ships that have more-or-less explicit canon support, but i can't say jon/martin isn't good
melanie blaming jon isn't right... no one had a better plan to stop the unknowing, did they? (they didn't!) didn't all of them agree on the plan and understand that they might die? (they did!) she's just imposing survivor's guilt upon him because he survived for supernatural reasons. but it's not like he eagerly embraced his new supernaturalness, or even asked for it outright! i think she's being unreasonable. i didn't like her insistence on trying to kill elias either, even though elias is a huge dick. what's with her?
wait, peter lukas is the lonely? (meme where calculations and equations whiz past me)
jonathan baa'd
oh, see. the bullet is making melanie act without reason. i get it now. can't say i think they had the best approach to getting the bullet out, but all's well that ends well (???)
martin is being prohibited from talking to jon >:I
martin is on a first-name basis with peter lukas >:I...
martin grumbles, "i don't like being manipulated..." while obviously and continuously allowing himself to be manipulated
jon is afraid of and uncomfortable with what he's becoming, at least to a degree, right? but he seems to be going about his duties (i.e. feeding the eye) with vigor and without reluctance. is he really that motivated by his own desire to know and understand? who is he doing this for? is the eye's influence on him so strong that "doing what the eye wants" seems to manifest as what HE wants to do?
"He'd place it over the one he wore already, and he would larf and larf and larf" (from breacon’s statement... just heard it like this for some reason)
deep water could be the domain of both the buried and the vast, because you could lose yourself in the vast ocean, but experience the physical effects of being buried under thousands of feet of water...
so tom han was an avatar of the flesh but he ultimately died after being tortured by the spiral... right?
"we're not people, though, are we? not anymore." close enough, i'd say.
jonathan has deployed THREE "I, uh..."s in episode 131 alone and i want to smack him in real life. FOUR NOW. JON. JONATHAN SIMS THE REAL ACTOR. LISTEN... quit falling back on your "I, uh..."s. and if they're written into the script i'll punch whoever did that too. total of five in a single episode. never utter "I, uh..." again
i hope whoever's throat is okay after doing bone turner voice for a whole statement.
jonny sure needs saving quite often, doesn't he.
peter lukas being a slightly chipper advocate for becoming a follower of the lonely is very strange
neil lagorio and his whole cinematographic history is made up but they namedropped kevin costner, who is real
VERY, VERY GOOD laugh at 23:44 of episode 136
melanie getting her session recorded... i was doing audio transcription for a while and you'd definitely come across bits of therapy-type sessions that very much seemed like they should have been confidential.
i wonder if the eye ultimately turned its back on gertrude and allowed her to be killed. if jon could survive a collapsing building, could gertrude not have survived a couple of bullets? wouldn't the difference be the protection of the eye? [footnote added in later: of course now i see who turned their back on whom.]
i'm somewhat heartened to learn that agnes montague was, in fact, a heavily cursed individual, though she seemed to have embraced it to a degree... and she wasn't made of wax.
i like that jon now includes helen in his office politics briefing
basira's like "Edmund Halley" and jon's like "Halley's comet?" (like “Hale-ey”) and two minutes later jon's like "Edmund Hally" (not "Hale-y")
"What's this?" "OH... That's, uh... that's... my rib..." "Right." (tiny clunk of rib being set down)
so giving a statement puts a curse on you... or is it "having a statement extracted / being compelled" that puts a curse on you? and the resulting curse, the fear it reawakens, is that good for the eye, or is that good for the powers that initially caused the fear?
well, i heard a homestuck reference in one of the patreon names at the beginning of an episode, and who is surprised? of course, i'm not one to talk
episode 144- the english think their summer is bad... as a professional "hot weather is bad" person, i feel doubtful, because if the sky is grey, it is not as hot as it Could Be, and therefore one should quit one's bitching
first statement about the extinction... interesting. but hearing martin be a jerk to daisy makes me sad :(
the powers never tell avatars exactly what they need to be doing, but that's just concerning the means. the ends are always clear: the power gets fed. and all of the powers feed on fear. also jonny is horny for statements. i hope, but also doubt, that his harmful behavior is at least partially the spider's doing. oh, i see now that it's not. yeah.
jon wants to eat fresh and delicious statements produced just for him, instead of reconstituting the dusty old statements already in the archive
episode 148 - samson stiller gets a crush. but in all seriousness, is he becoming an avatar of the eye but like, not institute-related? is that a thing? i guess that would make sense, but still seems weird
episode 149 - considering ring -> rang -> rung, we seem to have stumbled upon spin -> span -> spun, and the compasses gently span around (9:40)
does martin have loneliness powers now? it's sad that he is getting lonely... as a lonely person, i know.
the lady on TV in episode 150 was just speaking simlish.
i really want jon to overcome his urge to forcefully take statements because i want to be able to root for him still
british podcasts really have a leg up over american podcasts, at least among american audiences, purely based on their interesting and varied accents
i can't say the gravedigger's envy doesn't make me myself feel like going to sleep in the cold dirt forever. but bad depression lately is also a factor, so
jonathan having to settle for reading already archived statements instead of harvesting fresh ones is exactly like a vampire (not the kind detailed in this series) who has to choose between hunting people to suck their blood or drinking bags of donated blood from a (near-endless) stockpile. there's an ethical choice with a clear right answer, but the urge is also understandable
jon following up gertrude's tape with just "fuck" was really good. now he's like "ok martin. let's run away together"
spent all day at work thinking about how i can't fuckin believe the first thing jon did when he heard how to escape the institute was to go tell martin like "there will be a great cost, but... we can elope now"
also if tim was still around jon would tell him the way out and he would do it right then and there, i'm 100% sure. like before jon was finished explaining tim would be like "the eyes? (grabs scissors) got it. (does the deed)"
earlier today i was just thinking that we would almost certainly hear gertrude's death on tape, especially given that we now understand tape recorders are wont to turn on autonomously whenever something important is happening. anyway then i came home and heard gertrude's death on tape
peter, as an avatar of the lonely, is easy to play like a cheap whistle because as someone who clearly hates spending time around other people, he is not keen to the symptoms of being played.
elias is like "you'll have to go into the lonely to get him" and jon's probably thinking "but then at least we'll be in the lonely... ~*~*~together~*~*~"
i think martin's whole thing for most of the series has been that he sounds a little doofy, for lack of a better word, and people constantly underestimate his intelligence. and now he has played peter lukas like a cheap whistle and forced me to realize that by taking for granted that he was being successfully manipulated by peter lukas, i too was underestimating martin... and his pure love for jon <:3c no but seriously i even remember explicitly making a mental note to remember that martin is smartin but it fell by the wayside as my emotions (of sadness that jon and martin seemed to be growing further apart) took precedent
i work a non-verbal job just doing mundane tasks and that gives me all the time in the world to think about things like "if they were to have jon and martin reunite in a tearful embrace, how would you convey the physical contact in an audio format? like, whap? soft thud?"
jon enters the lonely and voiceover peter comes in to try and factcheck the ship
i guess it makes sense that peter would try to do the ritual for the lonely all by himself
did he kill peter by asking him to death? or did peter just self-destruct rather than be forced to answer?
the way jon snapped martin out of the loneliness just by making him look at his face... that's powerful. as a lonely person, i know that the most cry-making thing you can realize when you feel alone is that another person is, in fact, there with you
martin went for a walk and now it's thunderstorming. i wonder if he came back as soon as it started raining and now he's standing nearby invisibly as jon reads the intimidating magnus statement. ...I GUESS NOT
i plan to read through the transcripts of all the episodes (as it’s faster than re-listening, though i might selectively re-listen) so that i may better understand some things and answer some questions in this post that i didn’t ultimately resolve. i can’t say i was paying 101% attention all the way through. also april is very far away
6 notes
·
View notes
Text
Museum of Mayhem Art Analysis
ahhh it’s finally here and it’s AWESOME. Lots of credit to @ifalnasminiatures for bringing this to my attention! Also credit to Hayder Hype for providing (nat zero six on gearbox forums) sources (Ashley Landry on twitter) in the description of his video because oh man it’s a lot
you can view most of these art pieces on the borderlands instagram as well
lots to talk about especially regarding the calypso twins so let us dive right in
tl;dr: tyreen has a weird red marking on her face in some old designs. i think troy used to be blind and missing his metal plates. more proof for my elpis/chemical sludge/lost legion theory that the twins are using said chemical sludge to give their followers psuedo-siren powers bc a dahl pumping station (hyperion pumping stations on pandora) but dahl had a presence on the moon
one of my favorites, it reminds me a lot of the Mask of Mayhem, but for villains.
Punk Girl is shown again twice, probably further proving she’s tied in with the CoV somehow
we also got some crazy looking villains such as
baby face. which is all kinds of extremely fucked up
this dude who looks like he could be a miniboss with the glasgow smile and the cool goggles
this guy who i legitimately thought was dr zed for a hot second there
could it be
the evilest brother?? pfft nahhh
this girl who seems like she could be a unique character with a baseball cap. wondering if maybe she’s related to Punk Girl in any way. What’s the verdict on the other band members? 🤔
uhh let’s give it a solid maybe and move on
this piece! very interesting to me
so, the very first thing i noticed is zane’s eye patch being on the other eye lol
amara’s tattoos are also gone, however that might’ve been for reasons similar to the japanese cover art of the game.
most interestingly is a point @ifalnasminiatures made and it’s that the calypso twins are actually palette swapped! you can see Troy is the one with the white hair and Ty is the one with the darker hair. which I think mayyy play into a few things we see later about the twins
we also see a tiny ship in the background. i can’t tell if that’s sanctuary-iii or the blue/yellow ship, it all blends together a lot due to the quality of the pic. but it is next to the calypso twins, which makes me want to believe it’s the blue/yellow ship we see with red markings all over it. you know this one from the mural of mayhem wallpapers
you can see the reddish markings on the back right next to the engines
then we have ummm
this cover art
😬
thanks for not using this one gearbox cuz
oh my god
she just reminds me of suicide squad, that’s not a good image you wanna dredge up from the deep recesses of your fans’ brains
she might be a unique character given the clothes/hair? cuz you don’t normally see psychos with stilettos on. or yknow, shoes in general. the hair also seems way to clean and neat to be a psycho/cultist
i just feel uncomfortable looking at this, so moving on
a different logo. also not my favorite cover art, but at least im not physically uncomfortable looking at this. that poor girl’s pelvis... anyway
lots of silhouettes
interestingly, i feel like the roses might have been a thing they just put in for the new cover art. haven’t seen hide nor hair of them across any of the pictures i’ve seen.
we got a lot of figures. out of them i most definitely recognized amara, salvador, maya, another salvador?, zer0, moze (maybe?), and axton. i thiiink one of them is maya as well, but im not 100% on that.
i can guess why they didn’t pick this one: it’s hard to tell who’s who. a lot of these poses make the silhouettes kinda hard to see and the merging together at the bottom makes things even worse. i do think it’s interesting there are some bl2 characters on here as well, but hayder hype mentioned they very well could be placeholders, and given that i can’t make out fl4k or zane, im inclined to believe him.
this art which was used during the promo for this event
rip elpis i guess LMAO
a better look at the psycho himself from the promo released by the borderlands twitter.
there’s a new red planet which hasn’t been shown off before, looks like a gassy planet kinda like jupiter, but interestingly it has this green crack in the side?
very reminiscent of pandora’s eridium scar. i am wondering if this is because this planet had a vault opened, or if it is tied to the Eridians at all. be interesting if it was their homeworld.
also i have no idea what the symbolism is in the homeworld destroying another planet but maybe we shouldn’t think about it too hard e_e
the other planet that’s being destroyed... idk fellas
it doesn’t match up to me but like, this is only one shot
i don’t know 🤔 if you really squint, maybe you can see that hint of purple at the bottom there?
here
tbh, i thought this was elpis the first time i saw it due to the cracks, but i figured elpis doesn’t have like continents across its surface, just craters. and wayyy more cracks.
so it’s probably not pandora and it’s probably not elpis.
huh...
i do think the actual shot is suspended above promethea, you can see the familiar asteroid belt surrounding it
there’s also a planet in the background,
which i imagine isn’t pandora bc no eridian scar
could be elpis or eden-6, or the 5th planet we don’t know about. i kinda get the feeling the 5th planet may be that gaseous red planet tho. which is probably going to be super weird to traverse now that i think about it. they said oz kits weren’t coming back, right? i wonder how that would work. hmmmm
there’s also this redder planet here which i actually DO think is Pandora. if you squint real hard u can see the purple from the eridian scar. plus the color matches up pretty well with the pictures provided above.
there’s also these two bodies over in the corner where the light is coming from. i can’t tell what they’re supposed to be
there are also these little dudes in the top right
i assume they’re maliwan? they remind me a lot of the maliwan drop ship things that fly overhead when you enter promethea
YESSS okay this is the start of some PRETTY WILD twin stuff
troy: missing his tattoos, blind in one eye, has a weird mark above his eyebrow. also, no metal bits!
Tyreen!!! with a red stripe across her left cheek going up to her eye??? no tattoos on her left arm as far as we can see, but that might be for marketing reasons (she’s also covering up part of her bicep). she’s also missing her coat and chains and wearing a different glove.
we also have a bunch of bl2 VHs taking up space. again i think hayder hype is right in that they’re simply placeholders. not much else to say, but
this trend of Tyreen having red markings on her face and Troy being blind in an eye (or both) actually continues through a fair amount of these posters!!!
more cover art. one of my least favorites again... i just think it looks like the psycho is puking out the VHs. also, seems to be an older version of the psycho mask.
fl4k seems to be less rendered than the rest of the cast? like they have less detail, especially on their coat
also you can see an older looking space shuttle up at the top, which reminds me a lot of the one we use in TFTBL to get to helios. except less caravanny and more rockety
the splatter also reminds me of siren powers, with the purple and the glitter. it’s cool that it’s showing a different shot than what’s behind it. maybe a hint to siren powers because it’s sort of like a portal.
more puke!
this time troy is blind in both eyes it seems,
tyreen seems to still have a mark on the left side of her face, im wondering if this ties into her scars at all? it doesn’t seem as prominent as the previous red mark.
Zane seems to have an actual eye patch instead of his more high-tech eye patch, which reminds me a lot of the leaked character concepts from like january i wanna say
amara seems to be dual wielding lol i wonder if originally that was going to be one of her 3 skills but then they were like “wait salvador. wait. nisha. FUC-”
also fl4k is being obscured by this weird saturn-like planet. let them be free!
moze is missing, the saturn like planet shows up 2 times total, and that blue/yellow ship is seen again behind troy
as for the purple stuff? you already know my theory that the twins are going to be using the chemical sludge on elpis to empower their followers. it could also just be straight eridium/slag. you know, like the testing from the WEP with bloodwing and even krieg. we’ll have to see. it would be interesting if they tied krieg into the story through there.
i do lowkey think it’s chemical sludge though, because some of it is actually glowing blue in places, you can see it clearly below amara’s feet. maybe some tie in to siren powers cuz they glow the same blueish color. who knoooows not i
big shot of this psycho here, looks like he’s crumbling.
i really like the 4 VHs standing at the base with the elongated shadows. very dark vibes from this tho, probably not suitable for the series as a whole. i can see why maybe they decided not to do it.
i wonder if we’ll see this giant psycho statue somewhere on pandora. it would certainly be a sight to behold.
also i kinda wish we had cloaks like the concept art shows. cloaks are cool
more sketchy art. this one is also kinda strange, i definitely get why they decided not to go thru with it.
possibly tie-in with the ‘mother’ imagery we get on the propaganda signs across pandora.
lmfao the foot
very bl2 like, im glad they didn’t stick with this. i like that they decided to change things up
troy seems to be blind and also missing his metal implants on his face. his jacket also looks a lot different, it looks more like tyreen’s with the spikes and stuff across it. we also can’t see his metal arm at all, tho we do see his sword! which looks a lot different, im glad they decided to revamp it to be more visually interesting lol
tyreen is more interesting to me. it looks like her right arm has like a silver coating over it? unless that is a metal arm as well. she also is wearing a different kind of glove. her tattoos are missing as well, but again, it’s probably because of the cover art. her scars also definitely seem to have reached her left cheek at some point.
zane also looks a lot different, tho amara, moze, and fl4k look about the same.
another shot of the ship, this one is definitely the blue/yellow one. there’s gotta be some significance with that, right? either we’re getting skins for sanc-iii, we’re going to be painting it a new color, or it’s a different ship.
what the HECK
maybe the twins stole sanc-ii and we’re using sanc-iii. idek. this ship is driving me up a wall lol
gun head.
not a lot to say here. i actually like this one lol it’s very mellow and straight to the point. it’s nice that the logo is right in the middle, not at the top like most of them.
game. buy it. okay? cool.
similar to the other background we did, a bit different. again, like @ifalnasminiatures pointed out, the twins are actually palette swapped here.
Zane also has the old eyepatch on his right eye instead of his left eye, and his jacket is black instead of blue. fuckin’ edgelord.
one of my favorite ones out of all of them. it’s beautiful, i really wish they had kept it. Fl4k is missing but i assume they were meant to go next to Amara? i also think it’s interesting Moze is in the front, as I took Amara to be the leader this time around. Zane is also an older design, with the eyepatch back on his left eye again (starting to think this is an aesthetic thing lol) and a black jacket instead of blue.
We see the twins on the top. Tyreen has that mark on her face again, and Troy is the same as the last few covers.
We also see Maya, Zer0, and for some reason Brick? Which is weird to me considering we have a few other characters who initially feel much for important to the story (cough Lilith cough), but I’m not complaining.
the purple splatters again make me think this is a tie in to eridium/slag/elpis’s chemical sludge. i also like the logo being worked into the design instead of just thrown on top, i think that’s a nice detail
i couldn’t find a great shot of this poster which is a shame because it’s one of my favorites
a lot of baddies to go around on here. i love the dude up top, he reminds me of the Anchormen from the captain scarlett dlc in bl2!
these dudes
we can see Punk Girl on the left again
and this guy who appears to be in some medieval armor
i have no idea what’s going on there but i am EXCITED
i’ve been thinking and tbh i think the multiple planets thing was just an excuse for gearbox to go absolutely ham on the character designs/settings.
i mean why should they have to hold back all their medieval armor designs for another dlc like tiny tina’s? all their pirate/sea-fairing designs for a pirate dlc? fuck it! go WILD. i think they did, anywho
there’s also this post which... tbh i can’t make out much at all. again, seems like an older psycho mask design. it looks like there are characters in the splatter on the bottom left, but it’s very hard to tell who’s who, especially at this angle and image quality lol
if we get a better shot later on i may return to this piece and try to figure things out!
we also have this piece which is giving me huge ‘Happy Together’ vibes. very trippy
moze looks like she’s using an untextured atlas gun? dunno what’s going on with that tbh lol
i really like this one too. it’s cool. i get why maybe they wanted to go a little crazier tho, feels too simplistic for the MAYHEM vibe they’re going for.
oof! can we get an F in chat for whatever planet/moon this is
lots of pink floyd vibes going on here as well
we see a different looking blue/yellow ship flying away from the explosion. it seems to missing a lot of the parts that make sanc-iii so recognizable including the engines/wings
i like the destruction vibe they’re going for here, really sells the “universe destroying power” the twins are supposedly going to get.
anyway, in addition to the cover art pieces, we also got a few concept art pieces as well!
this bit which looks like a gun
you see the aiming mechanism up there? you see how it’s aimed at that planet/moon? yeah i 100% timed this so you’d see the above concept art with this immediately after :P (im kidding i didn’t but hey now you don’t have to scroll)
fuck yeah babey
we also have seen something similar to this in the gameplay trailer!
i didn’t actually think it was a giant fucking GUN tho. can we get an F in chat for Promethea and/or whatever else this thing gets aimed at
yooo
i thought this was opportunity at first cuz of the bridge but it’s more likely promethea
when u go meet zer0 you can see some water surrounding the city so i would guess this is somewhere else on promethea
im mostly interested in the giant fuckin triangle in the middle of that courtyard looking area
oh also the giant trench of destruction on the right there. that’s probably important, too.
more concept art!
i think the bottom of the 4 VHs is actually what was leaked in january.
some art of the twins on the left there, tyreen is so much shorter than troy omfg
and this does indeed looks to be a younger version of angel so credit to @prettypinkdork for mentioning that on my angel post. it is nice to see those tech-y wings in action, definitely does prove it’s her.
we can also see this art of what i think is Punk Girl, which is interesting to me because she looks to be doing something with her right hand. possible siren powers? maybe!
we also get a much cooler, bigger version of that maliwan ship people were talking about, with what look to be maliwan... eye bots? surrounding it. this is soooo fuckin awesome to me because it reminds me of a sailboat. and airships are fucking COOL
but something interesting is that i don’t think this ship was actually always maliwan
we got an A in the back here... for Atlas? i mean... you know it’s coming... the colors would match up. Yeahhhhhhh...
more interesting is that it actually looks like maliwan covered it up with their flags/tarps. i would not be surprised if this was claimed by maliwan possibly during the takeover.
a cyclone, with a whole fuckin lot of detail. just... holy shit.
not much else to say here though. i like the stuffed animal on the side, though
a better shot of jakobs manor which holy shit looks badass as fuck
big turret/observation thing on the right there? im not sure
pretty sure this is eden-6. also more tropical trees? possibly a water planet? but maybe just ocean on eden-6. also there seems to be like webbing on whatever is on the road, so maybe some spider-like wildlife?
most important to me is this
yeah i would bet that’s eridium/slag/the chemical sludge from elpis
im pretty convinced this is something on elpis mostly because the DAHL logo on the side. which again, they were on pandora yes but they were mining for iridium not eridium. if this was pandoran pumping stations, that would be hyperion.
i do think this is elpis. and i do think the twins are using the chemical sludge that mutated the lost legion into those fake siren things to give their followers superpowers.”holy holy holy” indeed.
this, plus the rakk wings on the psycho in the mask of mayhem are just convincing me more and more
that’s all for now folks. i gotta run
32 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
madomagitransparent
PMMM Transparents (inactive)
tailormadeitineraries
Untitled
tailormadeitineraries
Untitled
stop4death
mymy