#would she be culled or nah?
Text
have to say I really loved how Shiv brought up the waiter. Does she give a shit about him, or that Kendall killed him? Nah, not really. Will she weaponise it to appear more moral in the moment? Yeah, absolutely.
It's like she said to Mencken: she's flexible. She LARPed as progressive to get her career in politics and genuinely believed she believed all these things--it's easy to believe you believe nice things, when the shit you actually do care about isn't in conflict with those beliefs. But then she wrangled Gil and Logan into a handshake, and she played her card as a woman to silence a victim--and, by shooting the one with her head above the parapet, many more victims--of institutional sexual abuse. She has even hurt herself by sailing too close to the wind in her girlboss liberal lean-in shit sometimes, with her dinosaur cull comment at Argestes, or with overplaying the hand she thought she had at Tern Haven.
She was viscerally angry at having to take the photo with Mencken, and perhaps angrier still when ATN called the election for him. Not because he's a fascist, although he is, and not because she dislikes him--although she does! She was angry primarily because the photo nuked any chance of a political career for her going forward, and because the call for Mencken hurt her chances with Matsson.
Did she ever make any of that clear in the moment, though? No. She talked about fascism and morals and things do happen, Rome. It is easier to wear that cloak that sometimes helps her--the woman cloak, where she claims to care for the group that she belongs to and steps upon its members at the same time--than it is to admit personal rage or vulnerability. That would be hysterical, and grasping, and not CEO material.
Shiv's relationship with womanhood is like Peter Pan's with his shadow. She used to be able to cast it off, or feel like she could, and now it is sewn in to her very fabric: it's everywhere she fucking walks.
She hates that there is not a play she can make that will separate her from the group of women-who-experience-misogyny. And still she makes use of that group, because it's one of an increasingly limited set of options she has. She was never allowed to gain experience--so she's inexperienced, and implausible, and shut out. It's the treehouse, again, Kendall up there playing king of the fucking castle. Shiv must have spent some holidays like that: Roman might have stayed with his mom in England on shorter breaks from military school, and Shiv was left to snotty, whickering horses and fucking tennis, throwing rocks up at Kendall whenever she saw a limb emerge from a window or doorway.
Anyway, if Shiv can't have the high ground, at least she can try to claim the moral one when it suits her. That's what I see as the context for her jab about Andrew Dodds.
#succession#shiv roy#there's a bigger thing here about like. shuffling through things that are true and using them as the face or reason for a bigger truth#that is less virtuous or more painful to admit#and that's shiv all over too: s1 'we're adults' instead of actually even attempting to talk it out#that WAS her attempting to talk it out#'love is bullshit' and 'box set death march' instead of getting into why she's so afraid of vulnerability#i love shiv so much lol#and also: KENDALL DOES THIS TOO.#fuck the patriarchy! he shouts#playing rape me on the speakers#it just hits differently for obvious reasons and is miles more transparent and manic.#roman is the only one who's not doing the dance
136 notes
·
View notes
Note
AITA for culling a mutant wiggler?
I (10, F, jade) was working in the caverns in a supervisory role when I noticed one of my co-workers secreting away a wiggler. This is not as uncommon in my cavern as it admittedly should be; the caverns are much bigger than most people think they are and there are many trolls working in mine in particular, and it is not openly talked about, especially around me as I am in a position of authority. But I am aware that a handful of my compatriots will hide one or two wigglers they find that they believe will be culled for some reason or another, such as a benign mutation or simply being small for their age.
Usually these situations will resolve themselves without my needing to interfere, as these jades will either manage to raise the wigglers healthy enough that they can slip them into the trials or find them a lusus elsewhere, or they will simply expire naturally. There have been cases where the jades have been caught, and they have invariably ended with the wigglers culled every time, as well as the jades responsible, and even some who were not. When I was a young adolescent just starting in the caverns, a group of mutant wigglers were found by the drones and culled. No individual jade would come forward and take responsibility for this crime, so about a two dozen of the trolls in the vicinity were culled indiscriminately and senselessly to make sure the culprit was taken care of.
It was a massacre that could have been avoided if they had just done as they were supposed to do. I do not tend to go out of my way to apprehend the trolls who partake in this practice, because I have no desire to see so many of my fellow jades culled ever again. If I do not see it, then there is no need for me to intervene. However, this jade is young and idealistic, and she was sloppy. I witnessed her removing the mutant wiggler from the caverns, and if I saw her, then the chances that a drone or another jade saw as well were very high. There was only one course of action, and that was to put a stop to her not-conspicuous-enough getaway quietly and discretely, and cull the wiggler on the spot. The young jade did not take this well, as she burst into tears and started screaming. I was forced to knock her unconscious in order to prevent further detection and disruption. I handed her over to one of her workmates and advised them to give her a talking to and place her on the right path.
I told my matesprit (10, F, jade) about this event, and while she says she understands why I did what I did, I believe she may be looking at me differently. AITA?
#I H^VE SOME OPINIONS ON THIS ONE TBH. J^H IS MY T^KE#YOU GOTT^ BE INS^NELY C^REFUL WITH TH^T KIND^ THING#am i the asshole#unreality
19 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Dark Forest
Follow up to The Devil Within. Mary has a talk with Silver (my oc).
Tw: mention of eating disorders and self-harm.
Covering their ears did little to soften the boom from the shotgun blast.
"Damn! Missed the little blighter." Tutted the old man in his tweed coat, a pair of protective ear muffs over his head.
Silver looked up and breathed a sigh of relief as the pheasant shook off the few pellets it had caught from the spread before flying towards the wood.
"Yeah, get away, go on." She was cheering for one side here and it wasn't the rich pricks. "Artemis, protect you."
"Who be Artemis?" Asked the woman at her side.
Silver felt a glow in her chest that she always got whenever someone asked about her deities.
"She's the Goddess of the hunt. And animals and children, nature. She's my favourite." Silver bit her lip afterwards, realising she should have phrased that different so as not to offend the others in her pantheon.
"Oh. But if she a goddess of hunt, won't she bes on the side of them with the muskets?"
The young woman scoffed; "Nah. She only supports true hunters. Those who had to kill for survival. These dickheads? They're just doing this for fun and because they can afford to miss. They could go down Waitrose and buy a turkey without it making a dent in their budget."
And it wasn't even as if they were helping to cull the birds, the only reason Heather had a license was for her Tory friends to come enjoy themselves with their blood sport. Silver was just grateful she hadn't been dead when fox hunting had still been practiced here, which Julian claimed to mourn.
Another bird flew overhead and the posh twat from next door fired his gun. Silver and Mary both covered their ears and flinched as the noise shook the earth. The creature plummeted to the ground, its spirit instantly floating up in a golden shimmer.
"Lucky beast." Mary huffed. She touched Silver's arm; "You sure you donts wanna go be with the others? They be on the other side of the land, near the lake. The poet don't like to be near gunshots so they keeps away."
Silver shook her head; "Kinda feel like I need to be here for the ones that die, you know? In case they don't go up? I know it's silly, they're only birds, but no-one should die alone."
Mary's heart gave a flutter at the girl's compassion.
"You is so much like Robin. No wonder he be smitten with you."
Silver's eyes widened, filling with unease.
"Oh noes, I don't mean in that way, darlin'!" Mary chuckled, touching her shoulder; "In a chaste and innocent manner. I thinks you be his Are-Demist."
"Artemis." That reassured her a little, though she's not sure how she felt being the focus of anyone's devotion. It felt like a lot to live up. She much preferred being the devotee, for as much as she appreciated Robin's care.
The flock seemed to be heading on, aware they weren't safe. The men packed up their gear and began to move further along the fence.
Silver and Mary walked a good distance behind.
"Have you eaten pheasant? Is it even that good?" She asked the older woman.
"It be very gamey but all depends on the seasoning. I used to love tending to my herb garden, oh all the housewives would come asking for basil and rosemary." Mary gushed at the memory; "Yous can make any meat tasty with the right seasoning. Even rat."
"Rat?!"
"Mmm. Times got hard, livestock died in harsh winters." Mary said, matter of fact; "Many a time it came down to a choice between a rat or the cow. And we needs the cow to be alive long as possible."
Made sense, Silver concluded. She supposed meat was meat at the end of the day.
"I'd been trying to go vegetarian before I died." She confessed.
"Oh, there were no such option for that in my days." Mary laughed, not unkindly; "Not enough fruit and veg to go around and if you didn't eat your protein, wells, you may as well have been kissing someone with the plague. No wonder you be such a skinny thing, if you be my daughter, I'd have had you eating five plump rats a day at least."
It took her a few steps to realise that Silver had stopped. She turned and regarded the girl who seemed wounded by her words, her brow furrowed, one hand clutching at her arm.
Mary's stomach twisted with guilt.
"Oh! Oh, I dids not mean to cause offense, little'en." She tried to assure; "S'just I sees the young maidens like yourself today, the 'super models' that these menfolk do bring with them to the mistress' functions. They be but skin and bone and at first I thinks their men be starving them but no! Julian say it be the fashion not to eat, even with more food than those in my time could dream of! I just don't understands it."
"Neither do I."
Mary tilted her head. It was easy to see that she'd struck a nerve for the child. She reached to take her hand, a gesture for her to open up to her if she needed to.
Silver did so, those calloused and well worked fingers folding over hers. She shrugged.
"I didn't care about looking thin. Everyone assumes it was about that." She admitted to the older woman, "But it really wasn't. After my dad died, and when I started getting bullied in school, I just...stopped eating. I dunno why but if I tried to force myself, I just threw it back up. I weren't bulimic, I didn't gorge myself. I just had no appetite. And I didn't even notice how skinny I was getting until I nearly fainted coming down the stairs."
"Oh..." Mary blinked.
"Mum didn't think it was anything psychological. She had her own shit going on. She just bought me a load of these disgusting protein milkshakes and made me chug them down breakfast and evening. They were vile...like liquefied expired beef." She made a show of sticking her tongue out. "I suppose it was her own way of caring about me..."
"You didn't try speaking to her? 'Bout your da? Or the bullies?"
Silver shrugged; "I didn't wanna worry her. Besides, you tell a grown up you're being bullied, they just tell you to ignore it. Not that simple.
"Hmm. Well I'd have said to give them a good wollopin'. That teach them not to mess with you."
"That's also not really allowed. And being skinny as a rake don't really help with the punching."
Mary nodded, she'd been a timid little thing herself, except for the moments she was pushed too far and would explode into a violent frenzy. Her own mother usually lashed her or let her be placed in the stocks on those times.
"Believe it or not, this is...was actually me on the mend. I never used to be brave enough to wear stuff like this when my ribs were poking out." She explained, waving her hands at her own stomach; "After I flunked out of college, I started getting into my Craft more and...I guess the gods became my therapists. They saved me, gave me something to focus on."
That didn't sound like the intentions of demons or false idols, Mary thought privately.
"How so?" She pried, wanting to show the child interest rather than doubt.
"There's this one goddess, Demeter. She rules over the earth, fertility and agriculture. She's also a fucking badass. When her daughter Persephone is kidnapped, she holds the world hostage and causes a famine until Zeus brings Persephone back to her." Silver explained, grinning with adoration; "Anyway, I just imagined Her giving me a telling off for not taking care of myself and accepting all She provides....I guess a bit like you."
"Me?" Mary frowned, fiddling with the laces on her bodice. "I wasn't meanin' to tell you off..." not harshly anyway.
Silver giggled; "I just meant that you showed you care, kinda like a..." She cuts herself off before saying the word; "Just. I dunno if you were a mum, but I can imagine you threatening to let the world rot to save one of your kids."
That deep, festering wound that never seemed to heal, after so many years, thrummed painfully inside her heart.
"Sorry, I...I didn't mean to..." Silver hesitated, catching her wince.
"It's fine, little'en. I did have children...Long time ago. And you be right." She would damn the whole world just to hold them again.
Silver looked down at her feet.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure, love. Anything." She was happy to change the subject, to distract her from the past.
The young heathen took a breath; "Did Robin ask you to talk to me?"
"What? No! I means...He might've mentioned you wanted us to walk when you awoke but..."
"It's just that, last time you couldn't stand to be in the same room as me and now you're letting us share these really personal things with each other. I'm just...wondering what changed?"
It was a fair question. And not one that Mary thought she could ever be truly honest with the girl about. She would be right to run away in fear and never speak to her again, nor would the others once they heard the truth.
"It took me a couple of weeks but I came to realise it weren't you I be afraid of." She confessed, honestly. "Sometimes them dark thoughts in our head get worse when we don't have means to starve ourselves...or worse..."
She reached out to brush a finger against a scar she could spot on Silver's wrist. The girl tugged down her velvet covering and blushed.
"I managed to stop that a while back as well...." She mumbled and Mary felt a wave of sympathy.
"Is used to bang my head against the wall. My old man would wrap bandages around it, so heavy I coulds feel my neck strain. Other times I woulds bite the skin around my nails so my mother made me wear mittens, even in summer. I looked like a right daft wench." She shared.
Silver's eyes seemed to light up with the relief of someone else understanding her, of having been through a similar experience.
"I taught myself to give my arm a pinch instead when I felt the urge. I know we don't bleed as ghosts anymore, but it does help. Either that or I talk to my gods." She said.
"'Spose that no different to how I talk to Jesus?" Mary asked.
"Pretty much. You know I don't really worship the devil, right? I don't even believe he exists. I believe in Jesus though."
The older woman looked ready to gasp in joy; "You do?"
"Yeah. I just don't worship him. Same as all the other gods I think are real, but don't pray to. I mean he seems like a cool guy, I just....don't like the church. I mean look what they do to their own followers..." She gestured to Mary; "And trust me, even though they've stopped doing that, there's other stuff they do that's far worse."
"Oh...I be aware." She watched the news on the picture box, she wasn't completely ignorant. "But that not be what Christ wanted, of that I believe."
"I agree." Silver smiled.
"T'is nice to have someone to discuss faith with." Mary admitted; "Fanny be a Christian and we sometimes have discussions, but Is thinks she approves of the unkind things many do in His name. The others don't really pay God much mind, except Robin and his nature spirits."
"Like I said, my faith saved me. In a way. Helped pull me out of that pit I was in. And yeah I died young but....look where I am now." She laughed.
Mary gazed around at the small section of English countryside they were bound to.
"A field?"
"I don't mean the field." Silver laughed; "I mean...you lot. This house. The land too, I guess. I know it's not much and...it pains me to think of all that I'm gonna miss but...I dunno, I just. Feel free, you know?"
When the girl looks at her with that smile, she's reminded all too clearly of Annie. Annie placing her hands on her arms and telling her they be more free in death than in life.
"...Yeah. I knows, little'en." She grinned.
Another bang made them jump, Silver instinctively reaching for Mary's hand.
"Bad luck, Barclay." The chubbier man said to the shorter one who lived a mile down the path.
"Luck won't help you! You couldn't shoot the broad side of a bus, mate!" Silver barked at the old fool.
Mary released a chuckle as the two of them decided to swarm around the men.
"Your wife doth drink like a fish to make you look the least bit attractive, you weeping bubo!" She sneered in Barclay's ear.
"Those pheasants brains are twice the size of yours!" Silver added, the two of them creasing up into giggles.
This was fun, even if they couldn't hear her. It felt like a better release than any harm to her body could give just to scream at them how she really felt about these rich snobs.
Another close bang from the shotgun made them both recoil, but it was worth it. Silver wasn't sure if it was more enjoyable to throw her own insults or get to hear the timid, mild Mary unleash herself and let her imagination run wild with her own taunts and curses. Whichever it was, it kept them both laughing until the men retired back to Heather's living room for tea and scones, and Mary and Silver walked to the lake to check Thomas wasn't too traumatised by the shooting.
It seemed to come all too quick for that final night to arrive.
"You sure you wouldn'ts rather sleep in the house? There be plenty of room." Mary asked her, not having slept that night, feeling an urge to stay awake until Silver's monthly time awake was done.
"Honestly, I love the bed Robin picked. But thanks for the offer." Silver reassured; "It's not like I feel the cold or even the dirt, it's surprisingly comfy. At least, I seem to wake up refreshed and without any bedsores."
That was good, though this month and all the ones going forward, she would assist Robin in visiting the child's vigil and making sure she was resting comfortably.
The horrid memory of her fit and screaming on the new moon haunted her.
"These dreams you has. You says they always be pleasant?" Mary asked, curious if the girl had any awareness of her pain, or the succour Robin had provided.
"Yeah. I mean....It's hard to remember fully. I'm only really left with feelings afterwards. And mostly they're happy ones, but..." She struggled to explain; "They play out a bit like a story. Like a movie or game that I'm the main character of. And there's always a moment in the story where I'm...scared or hurt..."
Oh, dear. Mary held her breath. So she wasn't completely oblivious.
"But then it passes and...in a way, its nice because it makes the rest of my dreams feel even better, if that makes sense? I guess it's my own dark forest."
"Ey? You mean the whole forest be yours?" Mary frowned.
Silver laughed; "No, it's an expression I learned in my English literature class in college. All stories, no matter how light, need a moment of conflict or danger. It's there to make you appreciate the happy ending. Like..." She tried to think of an example; "Like Jesus being tortured and killed, it's a horrible thing but it's what makes him coming back so special right?"
Understanding flicked a switch in Mary's head; "I sees. And like your mother goddess, when she loses her baby girl, her cursing the world be a dark moment but makes their reunion so lovely?"
Silver nodded, grinning a little. To think she'd been so concerned about their clashing religions causing strife between them. But Mary had listened and understood her, as she'd shown respect to her.
"I get why Robin is so smitten with you. And yes, I do mean it THAT way." Silver raised her eyebrows, knowingly.
The very not innocent and chaste way. She did have eyes.
Mary blushed and batted her hand; "Hush up, you cheeky little heathen. You should be getting to bed. The birds be waking soon!"
"All right, all right." Silver looked down at her boots, sheepishly; "...Will you come visit me?"
"'Course I will." Every day, if able.
Silver nodded, gratefully.
"Moonah girl! You ready?!" A gruff voice shouted up to her from below.
She poked her head through the window; "Be down in a sec."
Silver walked up to Mary and touched her arm.
"Thanks...for the talk the other day. I'm glad we're not scared of each other anymore." She chuckled.
Each other? Mary's stomach dropped. The girl had been just as afraid of her?
Oh. Oh...
She pulled her into a hug. The child tensed at first before relaxing into it, wrapping her arms around the larger woman and sinking into her warmth. Just for a minute.
"You tells me all abouts your dreams when you wake. And then we can go cursing the menfolk together some more." Mary sighed, wondering if this was how the pagan goddess felt whenever her daughter did depart for the Underworld each autumn.
Silver nodded against her; "Sounds awesome."
And when the new moon comes, when the pale light can no longer grant the child rest, Mary will be there. She'll split shifts with Robin to cradle the young girl and sooth her head, to guide her through the dark forest and back into happier times.
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Spoilers C3E45
Turn back, ye shits, or be SPOILED!
-
-
-
-
Right, so first and foremost glad to see Tal back.
Secondly, hot damn Morri is terrifying, fucking Old Lady from Spongebob, AH! Real Monsters looking ass. Quite curious to see where things go with her in two weeks.
Now on to FCG, while not the biggest reveal of the session, Letters origin as a Harmonious Aeormaton is a curious thing. If they were meant to be protectors, and guardians, seemingly caretakes/companions for singular individuals was his “line” targetted exclusively, by what ever Mage caused the Care and Culling, or were “lines” like Devexian, or forms like a Hodmedods used? Also the Professor stated that he has never heard of a Aeormaton with healing abilities which further adds confusion to Letters purpose.
Did the person he was given to show him faith, and that was why they were chosen to be murdered in the first place due to rising Anti-God sentiment in the Age of Arcanum?
Also did this happen after Aeormaton’s were emancipated? Because if so, it adds another shade of darkness to his predicament as a Sleeper Agent.
But this leads me around to Ludenis, in a curious fashion, one could say. Firstly, the Hubris of this fucker is so thick you can taste it. Secondly, I’ll admit, I didn’t believe he’d be drinking his own Koolaid/acting the true believer but I am willing to accept I may have been wrong. Yet, his whole comment about “Power is just a Tool,” makes me think he does not share his Cults “devotion” to this new world, or Otohan’s belief in being “better” than baseline mortals.
I desperately wanted to hear who was on that list of Historic Ruidusborn, especially since he was so cagey about his own connection to the Moon and the Beast trapped within.
That and seeing a comment from someone made it click as to why the Ruby Vanguard(If it Was in fact them and not Otohan doing some fuckery), is that they were likely after lore regarding the Gau Drashari, if any remained, and their connection to the rituals of the Prime Deities. Could be off base, but it would be an interesting reason.
Yet, what drew my attention the most was his rant to Fearne before he left. About seeing the Wrath of the Gods first hand. Now at first blush, while the cast seemed convinced he was talking about the Calamity, I thought he was full of shit or they were just reading that wrong. After all, he is from Molaesmyr, which was destroyed in some unknown disaster, which he was indeed alive for. Yet, the fault for that disaster seemingly lies on the shoulders of Aeor and their fuckery, due to hints laid back in C2.
Yet, a thought struck me. Ludenis lived in Molaesmyr, but shit it was never stated that he was born there. He’s an Archmage, more than that an Elven Arcmage, who has long showed interests in powers that manipulate the fabric of reality and have the power to roll back the wheel of time. What if...what if Ludenis did see the Calamity, though some form of immortality or the usage of the Clone spell he survived into the modern age, but what if we go even further than that. What if he was a Mage of Aeor, what if he saw the “fear” of the Gods first hand as the “hated rivals” returned to Family once more and struck their city from the sky in an act of monumentous Divine Intervention.
A shard of Aeor landed in Molaesmyr. He could have in some shape or form landed with it. The folly that devestated the city, corrupting the Savalierwood, and eventually leading to the breaking of the Star Razor? A misstep in his attempts to finish his people’s work. After all, he said it himself Killing the Gods, “Has Been My Life’s Work.”
Hell, wouldn’t it be wild if he was behind the Care and Culling? Nah...unless!
Moving away from that crazy old bastard...we learned the likely name of Ruidus’s people: The Reilora. Somal claimed they were behind the Flairs, not Predathos, so either they are working for the entity, their likely creator and she wasn’t in the know as much as the others were, or there is some more nebulous shit going on up there. After all, like she said, some of them appeared in Flesh, while others were simply energy. But most importantly, she stated that some were kind, empathic, caring...could that just be a ploy, or is there something else going on up on that Moon. To quote the codger himself, “Creations outgrow their creators”, and that includes the purposes given to them. If Predathos created them after consuming Ethedok, and Vordo...what did he make them out of, and why would they not also wish to throw off the shackles seemingly placed on them by the divine.
I still say Ludinus’s plan is doomed to failure, likely a cataclysmic one if he “succeeds”, especially since, with the nebulous entity and existence of the Luxon, who is to say Predathos wouldn’t simply turn his attention to Exandria, even if he consumed the Gods first?
Also I saw someone say the Gods dying would be a good thing, cause the Raven Queen would get ate, allowing Vax to come back and I just...I don’t think that is how that would work at all.
Also saw another, claiming that a Ruidus win could allow CR to divorce from WoTC, since most of the Gods are pulled from base D&D content and I just...I don’t think even if they did pull away it would be anywhere near that simple.
#critical role#critcal role spoilers#cr fcg#cr ashton#cr fearne#cr imogen#cr orym#cr chetney#cr laudna#ruidus#predathos#aeor#ludinus da'leth#the luxon#vax'ildan#ashari#the raven queen
22 notes
·
View notes
Text
17th july. south border patrol. with @daiyus
"you know, i've been trying to figure out." he says, posturing. he takes to lean against a rock, setting the butt of his rifle on his knee so he can sling an arm around it, hang onto it. "i thought -- maybe it's a tantrum." free hand gesturing, palm up in gesture as he throws it around with a recklessness. "daddy's not paying enough attention me...let me do something drastic about it." he pauses, purses his lips as if he's really considering it. "would seem like your style."
"--but then, then i remembered that bleeding heart of yours." the words are flatter as he drones on, tone making it plenty clear of what anso thinks of men trying to be heroes. the downturn of his lips isn't quite strong enough to portray his disgust, but it says something about how pathetic he finds it. "which, i've gotta say princess -- real fucking cliche." he makes sure to add, in case it wasn't clear that he was unimpressed with even the implication of hypothesizing on it. "i thought -- nah. she couldn't do it, couldn't sacrifice a good chunk of the qz, even if it was a shit chunk. y'know, just by the stats of it all. 'cause that would make you too much like him." and here, as he often does, anso talks to talks. grating nails on chalkboard, he talks to scratch at, to pierce and pinch, to cull for blood. just a touch of it, just a enough for it to pluck and bead at the surface. "heavy is the head, i guess."
"so since i can't seem to figure it out for myself, why don't you tell me." he says, dips his head, a brow cocked. the grin on his face makes it to seem that he's already decided the answer, or decided how he feels about it regardless of what daiyu confesses to or not. "--did you do it?"
12 notes
·
View notes
Text
Chapter 209: Offering to the Unknown
// SPOILER WARNING!!! DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE CHAPTER YET. [Mind you, lengthy post!]
Opening words: “Going back in time to before Tsukumo's fight... the U.S. troops march into the colonies to hunt for jujutsu sorcerers!!”
[[OKAY WTHECK THEY’RE IN THE ZEN’IN ESTATE! Specifically the training & discipline room that’s filled with curses.]]
》 Kenjaku: "That random transfer/teleportation after entering a colony is not [disclosed] in the general rules of the Culling Game. Unless they respond to the Kogane's questions, that [random transfer/teleportation] won't happen."
I didn't like how the first sentence was translated in the officials, since the raws specifically mentioned that the transfer/teleportation wasn't [disclosed] in the Culling Game's general rules.
The kanji used in the second part of the sentence was 問いかけ (toikake), and it means interrogation, query, question, or inquiry. Not sure why the officials chose "call" instead.
》 Uraume: "This place would make a good “bath” that even Sukuna-sama [or Lord Sukuna] will be satisfied with."
The kanji used for bath, interestingly, is in quotation marks "浴" (yoku) so it *may* be referring to "ablution"/"bath" in Buddhism.
[[I'M LOSING MY MIND, IS THAT KIRARA ON THE RIGHT, IN THE TOP PANEL?!]]
》 Soldier Dude 1: "Well, that was easy. I don't know about this esper stuff or whatever, but.. what is the Lieutenant General so scared of?"
》 Soldier Dude 2: "He's a coward. Rumor has it that his wife's on his ass all the time."
Just wanna add that the kanji written was simply 小心者 (shoushin mono), which means a “coward” or “timid person". I'm not sure if "lily-livered" is actually a saying in Japanese, but if it isn't... why not just...
》 Soldier Lady: "Nah, there's more to it."
》 Soldier Lady: "At worst, we just gotta keep the brain unharmed... right?! Grenades weren't very effective and the taser gun couldn't even puncture him."
Not liking the official translations at all, so.
》 Soldier Dude: "Couldn't puncture him? You mean you missed your hit, right?"
Not that important, but I just wanted to point out that they excluded the first part of the dialogue which, imo, emphasized the comrade's disbelief. Before he goes to ask if she had possibly missed her mark.
》 Soldier Dude: "Or was he wearing a leather jacket?"
》 Soldier Lady: "Even a .50 caliber bullet couldn't go through. And I was hitting bare flesh."
Not that important again, but the dude was asking a question and not making a statement.
》 Soldier Dude: "Did that guy have an ID from Krypton or what?"
Written text: クリプトン星のID (ID from Planet Krypton).
》 Soldier Lady: "Moreover... He was a monster who could turn his head into a helicopter."
Officials forgot to include the fact that she labelled him 化物 (bakemono), which means "monster", along with how he was able to "turn his head into a helicopter". Plus, we only know of one dude with helicopter head thus far, so it should just be "he" instead of "their".
》 Soldier Dude: "...a helicopter?"
》 Soldier Lady: "It was a propeller. Propeller!! Like those on the Osprey and Chinook that we rode!"
》 Soldier Lady: "It means there are different kinds of these jyu-jyu-su-shi!! Some are like the weaklings you've kidnapped.. And some are monsters like those we've dealt with.."
The term for "jujutsushi" (jujutsu sorcerers) used here was written in katakana ジュジュツシ (jyujyusushi), which indicates a foreign accent, hence why I wrote it in that manner. Once again, she labelled the tough ones "monsters", but this time, the kanji is 怪物 (kaibutsu).
》 Uraume: "By pitting the Culling Game players against the armed non-sorcerers... in this case, soldiers." (...)
》 Kenjaku: "I'd give 60 points for that [guess]."
Kenjaku wasn't talking statistics, he was legit giving Uraume points for their guess/assumption.
》 Kenjaku: (...) "As insurance, I had the military from other countries sent into each colony. But I don't think the military VS sorcerers fight would be exciting."
Kenjaku mentioned "military VS sorcerers" in the raws, and that he didn't think it would be "exciting" [of a battle].
》 Kenjaku: "Incarnated players aside, it's the Awakened players that will probably have a hard time. To begin with, even if there are strong Awakened types, many of them are reluctant to kill."
As previously stated, I prefer the term "Incarnated" rather than "taken flesh".
》 Kenjaku: "If they suffer casualties to a certain degree, the military will retreat. And since non-sorcerers are worth fewer points, the players won't chase them without a good reason."
Nothing wrong with the official translations; I just wanted to share how the original sounds.
》 Uraume: "Even non-sorcerers release a large amount of cursed energy at the moment of death. Aren’t foreigners an exception?"
Uraume said "non-sorcerers", not soldiers. Also, instead of "non-Japanese", they used the term 海外の人間 (kaigai no ningen) which literally translates to "humans from overseas/abroad", or "foreigners".
》 Kenjaku: "Yes. Foreigners have no connection to cursed energy, but it's a different [scenario] when they die. “Death” inflicts enough stress to cause mutation in the [dying] brain."
"Death" was in quotation marks. Meanwhile, the kanji 変異 (hen'i) was used and it translates to (genetic) mutation so yes, this instead of "slight change".
》 Kenjaku: "So, from the beginning.. I had no intention to pit the sorcerers against the military. Even without such contest of power.. the "truth" is that the non-sorcerers cannot win, no matter how hard they try."
Should have said "from the start" instead of "at first", really. There was a mention of power comparison/struggle, so it should have been "contest of power". AND, I'm pretty sure this entire dialogue was spoken by Kenjaku, though some said the first half was by Uraume, then Kenjaku. Imo, it's more fitting if Kenjaku says it as it adds more weight to his already deranged character.
》 Megumi: "They're not Japan Self-Defense Forces!!"
》 Megumi: "What is their goal!? To protect the people inside the colonies?! But that was a stun—"
Closing words: “The jujutsu sorcerers' hunters close in!!”
—
My thoughts:
I remember that time when Q (somebody out there) asked me about the “bomb” that Kenjaku was planning to drop – many of us believed it was Sukuna. I thought of that too but then I really wanted it to be something else ‘cause I always enjoy the unexpected. So Q and I came up with more ideas, and one of them being a military invasion and the other was a more literal take - the use of conventional weapons against Japan. Although we didn’t get it exactly right (bc it was revealed that Kenny went around the globe and held meetings with world leaders, whereas Q and I assumed that the foreign countries got wind of things on their own via the news & media), I’m just glad to see that our assumption wasn’t entirely too far-off.
Kenjaku simply tricked - or I should say, lured - these foreign countries into Japan in order to accomplish his true goal – the massacre of foreign non-sorcerers conducted by Culling Game players & cursed spirits. They're about to get rekt! A few people still consider this military invasion thing as Kenjaku’s "contingency plan" just so he has something to fall back on in case things don’t go as planned with the Culling Game – true enough, the CE wasn't sufficient in other colonies. But in my opinion, getting the Incarnated & Awakened players to battle in the Culling Game is a pre-requisite, and the military invasion is most likely THEE plan from the very start. Just like that someone said...
Yes, I’m talking about the man Reggie Star! Much respect to this man ‘cause he literally unraveled everything that’s sketchy about the Culling Game, although he had no exact idea what that "bomb" could be. As he stated before, if the Culling Game’s objective had been to collect CE generated from the battles, then why is it that there were only 1 or 2 strong players in every colony? And if the goal was to take advantage of the players’ CE, you’d want the sorcerers to have “long and drawn-out battles” but instead, the Game has already reached a deadlock by the time Gumi first reached Tokyo No. 1 colony. Reggie further theorized that "taking advantage of players’ CE in the Culling Game is the secondary or tertiary plan", whereas the primary plan is the bomb. In other words, the players participating in the Culling Game is a pre-requisite for the bomb that will eventually drop later when "only the strong players are left" in each colony. And the bomb are these foreign military forces.
Kenjaku already foresaw that the CE generated from the Culling Game wouldn’t be enough to fuel the barriers and, as such, planned to use non-sorcerers/humans from other countries as additional fuel source (read: sacrifice), and thus went out of his way *months before* to meet and negotiate with the world leaders, tricking them throughout the process. As Kenjaku said, these non-sorcerers never stood a chance of winning. They're only needed to break the Game's long deadlock, as well as to generate additional CE. Simply put, these non-sorcerers are being served as "offerings". Hence, the chapter title!
#phew this was long thanks for reading this far!#jujutsu kaisen#jjk 209#LMAO even after death Ogi's corpse got huge disrespect! as it should be!#gege akutami#military invasion jjk#culling game#jjk manga spoilers#m/translations
17 notes
·
View notes
Note
the way u almost got me into shipping milf4milf yukiken 😭😭😭 they'd be so shitty together its amazing i wish more fanfics (and gege...) explored their relationship because they're literally foils. yuki wants to get rid of ce and kenjaku wants to optimize ce (i wonder if in the past kenjaku was also on the same side as yuki but then decided otherwise) even their character designs are like that (albeit kenjaku is in geto's body but still!!) heck even kenny acknowledges they're both very similar in the way they think i love their rivalry so much we should've gotten more of them butting heads in a debate type of way rather than just brawling and just more of yuki's thoughts about kenjaku and what she thinks about their similarities/differences. SIGH. like it seems as if they both had known each other before shibuya incident and its just oeijnsmjidjinjvchidnrh. yknow?
anyways uh sorry for rambling in your ask igydresrftgyh
i don't mind the brawl tbh gege tends to be very good at conveying characters' personalities, morals, etc through fights. it's just the the writing quality has been dropping since the culling game started ToT we could've had the star corridor fight focuses more on yuki and kenny and how their visions for the world clash so violently BUT ALAS!!!!
i do think kenny has thought of erasing CE before, not considering it but just thinking abt it. the hypothetical stuff. before going "nah that's boring" and goes back to cooking
i imagine they met before yuki has decided specifically that she was going to eradicate CE, since her plan before was simply "make a world where cursed spirits aren't born", and kenny's way of optimizing CE and turn everyone into a sorcerer was one of the two ways yuki also considered to go about creating that world. this would make their discussions go more smoothly because yuki was more open to ideas, and kenny might've tried to feed into those so they could gain a valuable ally. yuki never really got hardcore on either options at that time but she keeps their feedback loop going on anyway, it's not everyday she gets to have different perspective from someone who knows what they're talking about. it got her both valuable viewpoint and knowledge as well as the most fun she had in her life
another thing about yuki is that she's not only very smart but also a bit sick in the head. she said she's not crazy enough to commit non-shaman genocide but she's crazy enough to talk about it very casually. that came up in one of their discussions (and other various inhumane ways which also include kenny's ideas that they're currently working on). they both agree that it's a stupid and impractical way to achieve CE optimization. and they're both not really into that kind of lifestyle of waking up -> kill nonshamans -> go back to sleep, anyway. they're both the kind of people that enjoy life even outside of their grandiose goals
in short
[id: There narrative foils they might as well fuck nasty about it /end id]
#yuki seeing kenny's new vessel: damn this is a downgrade#anon#answers.txt#all i have r scattered ideas and little points BUT ANYWAY!!!!! milf4milf yukiken
10 notes
·
View notes
Note
The best idea I can come up with is that karkat just... Don't die.
Like, everyone thinks it will happen soon one way or another but he's to good at his job to cull and he just keeps on living. The empress is so divorced with time that doesn't notice "that freaky pipsqueak? Nah let him he's like a hundred something with that horrid color of his he's about to drop any day now just look at him", and a perfectly healthy karkat at the side "QUIT TELLING EVERYONE THAT IM ABOUT TO BITE THE DISPERSE GRANULAR MATTER IM GOING TO OUTLIVE YOU EVEN IF I HAVE TO IMPALE YOU WITH YOUR OWN RIDICULOUS FUCKING FORK OF YOURS BEFORE YOUR DESCENDANT DO IT FOR ME" "be careful with that mouth cherry crab anyway yeah blow up that planet" "THAT PLANET IF JACK FULL OF VERY USEFUL RESOURCES AND IT WOULD TAKE A FUCKING METRIC TON TO BLOW IT UP TO SMITHERINS" "maybe only a little?" "NO" "fine" so essentially karkat is effectively the long suffering right hand man whose actually in charge and is pretty weird for everyone involved.
Ohhhh this is *good*
Eventually there's so many of Karkat's people in the fleet that word starts to spread that the homeworld's now practically a paradise planet and everyone from the older generations wants to go back to see it in person, but the Condesce doesn't want to relax the adult exile policy so they all just stop doing what she wants until she officially makes Karkat the leader
15 notes
·
View notes
Text
6/28/21 Loft Notes
Yep.
Artemis is definitely Satin's daughter.
Look at Bijoux's round little head.
And her pitch black feathers.
ALL of the LE babies have those two traits.
Now look at the shape of Artemis' head.
It isn't round.
And Artemis isn't black.
Busy day today.
Sprinks is going home.
Then I have to go get my fucking shipping crates and curse at UPS.
They have had the damn things since Wednesday and keep saying they can't find my house, but tracking on the fucking trucks has shown they just don't even enter my neighborhood before giving up for the day.
If it's a video game or computer part my Husband ordered, they have no trouble finding us.
They left my plaque at the wrong fucking house. (The neighbor they left it with was kind enough to bring it to the correct address.)
We paid them extra to drop it at a UPS drop off point because we didn't want to fight with them over it, and they just fucking took it back to the hub, stuck it on the shelf and went Fuck it.
It took two fucking days of calling to find out that they just went fuck it and stuck it on a shelf at the hub.
Y'all, the box Sprinks is going out in is my last one.
I need my fucking box palate.
A LOT of birds are ready to go home.
Oof, the post office is busy today.
May have found a place for Luxie!
We have a visitation appointment.
Oh.. Mah God.
There wasn't a lot number on the package.
No fuckin' wonder they never came into the neighborhood!
God dammit, Horizon.
Boxes acquired.
Safely back home, post Sprinks drop and box acquisition.
Time to play yet another rousing game of Who's Fucking Egg Is This!
Lighting round!
Farthing is on it, just below the nest Nobu and Leela picked.
So, is it Luxies?
Or did Farthing kick Nobu and Leela out of their nest at a crucial moment and then claim the stress lay?
As I sat down to write that, I got a call about this bird:
Who was found on a hiking trail in Lawrenceville.
They caught the bird on Friday, gave it to some one they met through Palomacy who said they would rehab it and are having second thoughts.
Hopefully, the place the lady who is holding it plans to take it has a loft. If they do, great. It has a great chance of living happily.
Well, that was a bust.
I never mentioned in any adds having more than one racer.
And this guy's disappointed I don't have several.
Nah, bud.
"We're gonna wait."
Doooon't hold your breath.
I don't raise purebreds.
I got what gets retired from the project when they get retired.
Patron: "not only that, you don't even really get discounts for sending several birds at once right? they all need their own box"
They showed up at my house.
I tried to ask what they wanted over the phone when they called.
When they said racing homers, I said I had a hen. One.
They said they wanted to see the farm, and asked if today would be a good day to come.
I told them I would be here.
So, they show up, moments after I have gotten off of a rescue call that has taken hours.
I'm a mess.
The (house) ac spectacularly died.
By which I mean the prong to which the breaker was attached had disintegrated.
They had to make a new breaker and rewire the AC to a different spot.
The rescue call starts just as I come out.
And minutes after the call, I resume and they get here, and are quietly disgusted.
Like...
Y'all.
My day has been shitty and exhausting.
Y'all cudda avoided the trip with "Oh, you only have one homer? I'm sorry, we were looking to pick up more than that."
I fucking hate feeling like a waste of some one's time and resources.
I'm just tired and angry, and because of all the interruptions, I'm barely getting started.
On the plus side, nobody's going to try to fly Luxie and either get her killed or cull her for not being what they expected.
Alex tread Passenger.
Farthing tread Passenger.
Cousins came to help.
I have showered, and feel like a person again.
Patron: "I'm happy for Passenger. It must feel wonderful to be accepted into such a well-resourced flock after everything she's gone through as a feral"
Patron: "i like how she went the opposite direction of Dodger and Alex and instead of being pigeon racist everyone's hot because they're not on the brinck of starvation"
Postage to send Sprinks home came out to $58.15
Bringing our PayPal Balance to $468.00
48 notes
·
View notes
Note
wibtA for culling a troll on her wriggling day? i (18, Bronze, m, prinCipal) haD a student (2, bluE, F) who doesnt respect anyone, and recently nearly decapitated my moirail (17, Gold, m, teacher) for putting Her In time-out. she was sent to me along with her lusus, who defended her actions. she's never been Justified in her attempted cullings before this, but as a bronzeblood, i haven't been able to do anything against her.
with her actions against my moirail, i believe there's a chance i could get away with culling her. my moirail can't tell me not to (he's still unable to talK) and her wriggLing day is coMing up, i thiNk it'd be at least a little funny to cull her then.
what dO you think? wibta for culling a troll who tried to cull my moirail? my moirail would Probably not want me to do it, she is young, and many castes above me, but it would be funny (and justified!!!!!).
9 notes
·
View notes
Note
I really adore your writing! Can I PLEASE request a purple Sollux drabble? Maybe interacting with gamzee?
hey, gz. wanna hang out?
Gamzee stared down at his phone, squinting his eyes at the purple text. Somewhere in his addled think pan he thought it was strange. Sollux hardly hung out with anyone in person. He was always a shut in, especially for Purple blood standards. Only clown who'd attended less church was probably Gamzee himself and that was only because Sollux sometimes made video calls. But, ever sense Aradia... it was a miracle he still answered texts.
Still, Gamzee wasn't gonna say no to his blood brother's company. Maybe Feferi helped him cope. Maybe he went pale for Karkat, those two had always been close. Hardly mattered.
WeLl, ShIt. SuRe MoThErFuCkEr. CaN't SaY nO tO a NiCe AnD pRoPeR hAnGiNg SeSsIoN. wAnT mE tO sWiNg By YoUr PlAcE, oR wHaT?
nah. ii'm at the door. ii wa2 iin the area and fiigured ii'd a2k.
Right on cue, there was indeed a knock at Gamzee's front door. Huh. Sollux must've been right at the door when he texted. Made sense. If Karkat was any indication, Sollux had a habit of just barging into a brother's hive like he lived there and playing all their video games. Probably remembered at the last second that he and Gamzee weren't that close.
When Gamzee open the front door, he found himself staring at Captor's chest. Even hunched over as he was, Sollux was still the tallest troll Gamzee knew. The boy managed to be both lankier and buffer than Gamzee somehow. Granted, that's not hard. It'd be a stretch to call any version of Sollux Captor buff, but any purple blood with a proper lusus was going to be thicker than Gamzee.
Gamzee stopped that thought dead before it sunk in any deeper.
"At least I know I'm not interrupting anything." Sollux said dryly. "That's not the hair of someone who had plans for the evening."
Gamzee snorted, appreciating that the ribbing was good natured. Sollux didn't regard him with the same contempt, say, Equius did, so it was hard to take anything he said as an actual insult. Same deal with Karkat, really. "So, what brings you around to my hive? Feferi finally convince you to go outside?"
Sollux's lips twitched into a smirk before he jutted his thumb behind him. "Nah. I'm just picking up an old hobby."
Gamzee's eyes trailed to the cart Sollux had parked at the bottom of the steps, a chill going down his spine at the sight of faintly blue blood trailing down it's side. "Oh..."
Gamzee's eyes twitched back to Sollux, who just sighed. "I'm on my second kill, so don't worry. I don't kill in odd numbers. Plus, I've seen you making diamond eyes at Karkat and I'm not that much of a dick."
Gamzee let go off a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. "Well, it's good to know I won't be adding to Aradia's fucking corpse collection-"
Sollux stiffened and Gamzee stopped dead. Shit. Fuck. He should know better. What was he doing bring up Aradia, fuck-
"It's... fine." Sollux sighed, bringing his hand to his temple as he steadied himself. "I'm fine. It's fine. She would've found it funny, anyways." Sollux forced a smile onto his face. "Besides, you're not wrong. She'd love to throw corpse parties for these motherfuckers in whatever rung of the Dark Carnival she wound up in."
Gamzee laughed politely and stepped aside to let Sollux in before the conversation got any more uncomfortable. Sollux plopped onto the couch, quickly propping his legs up on the table. "You got any video games? I somehow doubt you're much of a shooter fan."
Gamzee grunted, sliding him a faygo as he took his seat. "Nah. Tav got me into fiduspawn. You ever play that?"
Sollux snorted. "Funny story about that, actually. EQ got me into it. I was talking shit about it around him and he protested that NP was into it."
"Did he? Shit, man, good for him. He always kinda... rolls over around me. Motherfucker's always trying to please me."
"Well, yeah. It's NP we're talking about here. You'd complain is I started talking shit about Tavros."
Gamzee blinked. That was... oddly pointed coming from Sollux. Sure, every word sounded like a sarcastic insult when you put it in his mouth, but it sounded like he was trying to make a point. That suddenly serious stare wasn't helping, and it made Gamzee cough uncomfortably.
"Uh, yeah, I would." His eyes flickered towards the door. Towards the cart. "...Why?"
"You got any feelings for him?"
Now this was starting to get wildly out of character. Sollux was the last person to stick his nose into anyone's love life, unless it was to annoy Eridan somehow. Hell, people just being sappy around him annoyed him, which made this even more bizarre.
"Yeah, well, Tav, said he wasn't interested."
"He's not?"
"Look, bro, I appreciate it, but we don't need an auspistice. You can't mediate what ain't there."
"But you do feel something for him. You care about him, pitch, red, I don't care how." Sollux was almost looming over him now, even without standing up. Gamzee was beginning to wonder whether he should go for his clubs when Sollux sighed.
"Right, right. That.... probably doesn't make any sense to you. I'm sorry." He stood up, face not just sour like usual, but outright grim. "Let me show you what I'm talking about."
Sollux made his way to the door wheeled his cart inside, a chill went down Gamzee's spine.
"...Bro. Did you?"
"No. Gog no. Fucking Messiahs above, hell no! I cull trolls but I'm not a sick fuck who parades their corpses around in front of their friends."
Sollux looked down at the cart, at the body hidden beneath the crumpled sheet. He seemed far, far away for a moment, like his soul had been taken by the Messiahs themselves and his body was an empty shell they left behind.
"You... know Aradia's dead, right?"
Gamzee relaxed, more confused and sad now than afraid. "Yeah."
Sollux looked at him. "Do you know how she died?"
Sollux didn't need an answer and he didn't wait for one. The purple voids of his eyes showed behind his matching glasses. "It started... when Vriska abducted me."
"I was out doing my regular, bi-wipely rounds. Looking for two bodies for Aradia to preserve in a 'corpse party'. Or, more accurately, looking to make two bodies for her to preserve."
"I'd spotted a couple of burgundies, so I went to make my move. I'd barely seen Vriska's face by the time the bag was over my head and by then the needles were in my neck. My guess is she'd paid some FLARPers to help her. I know damn well she couldn't handle me alone."
"When I woke up, I was in Vriska's hive. She looked so... fucking smug when she had me all chained up. She explained what Aradia did to her. Talked about how she'd sent some ghosts her way... and she wanted to get even."
"So Vriska was going to have me kill Aradia."
"That's when the torture began. It was pretty amateurish, but that's all it needed to be. She just needed to distract me, make a crack for her to slip into... one opening was all she needed to grab my mind."
Sollux was staring down at nothing by the time he finished, bending the metal handles of his cart with his grip.
"I still remember the walk to Aradia's hive." He said, choking back something. "I could hear her scream in my mind before she even saw me."
Gamzee's hand landed on his shoulder, snapping Sollux back to reality. Sollux pushed the smaller clown back before clearing his throat. "So, the next time I left my hive, I decided to pay Serket a visit."
Sollux threw the tarp off to reveal Vriska's mangled body. Or, what was of it.
Gamzee took at a step back. The amount of patchwork Sollux had to do to get Vriska's upper torso back in one piece would be impressive if it didn't imply how grizzly the scene must've been before he started. Tellingly, Sollux didn't even try to put Vriska's legs back together. He just dumped the soupified slop into a box and put it on the bottom shelf of his cart.
"Jegus..."
"Yeah, I got carried away."
Gamzee backed up and fell onto the couch, mostly just to get away from the smell. Sollux pulled his two swords out of Vriska's head, wiping them clean in one quick stroke.
"So... why are you telling me this?" Gamzee asked.
Sollux seemed to think for a moment, staring at his reflection in the blades. "To try to understand." He waved his blades vaguely over Vriska's... "body" for lack of a better word. "Most of this was unnecessary. She died quickly but... it wasn't satisfying."
Sollux looked at Gamzee meaningfully. "I figured you could tell me why."
Gamzee's eyes widened. "Shit, man, you mean because..."
"Of Tavros. Yeah. Vriska killed him. The army won't take someone who can't walk and he has no where else to go. That's assuming someone like, well, me, doesn't just pick him up off the streets. He's living on borrowed time on a planet like this, and that's all her fault."
Sollux looked at Gamzee meaningfully. "So... is this satisfying to you?"
Gamzee sunk into the couch, staring up at the ceiling. "Fuck, man. You can't do this to a motherfucker. This is a lot to drop on me all at once." He looked at the corpse, trying not to curl his nose at the sight. "...I mean... no. Fuck, I'd hesitate to say anyone even deserves that, but mostly it just makes me feel... kinda sick."
Sollux slumped down. "I don't get it. This should be satisfying. We should be glad that she's dead, but we're not."
Again, Gamzee was there, suddenly resting a hand on Sollux's shoulder. "...Look, man. I'm sorry I'm not any help with this. Karbro is so much better at this shit than me, but..."
"...I guess it's not really her death that we're looking for. We're looking for a way to make it so all the problems she caused never happened. And... that's not gonna happen. I've accepted that Tav's not gonna get his legs back... and I think he's accepted that too. And, Aradia, wherever she might be now up in that Dark Carnival, knows that she's not coming back either. So... shit, maybe we should just... keep moving?"
Sollux stared at him blankly, before that default grouchy snarl crept back onto his face. "That's a really shitty way to end that spiel, you know that?"
Gamzee shrugged, that some color had bled back into Sollux's face. "Well, shit. I'm no Karkat and you know it."
"Yeah, you're not. I'd still be huddled up inside without that grouchy asshole."
Sollux sighed. Not tiredly, but like a weight had been lifted somewhat. With all that off his chest, Sollux tilted his head up. He nonchalantly lined up his swords and slid them down his throat, swallowing up his blades until only the hilts remained to dangled beneath his uvula. Gamzee squinted at him curiously.
"....What?"
"Shit, man, I have no idea how you manage to talk like that."
Sollux smirked, grabbing his faygo off the table and chugging it in two swigs. At this point, he was just showing off. "Very, very carefully. I'll teach you sometime."
Sollux threw the tarp back onto his cart and began peddling it out the door. "I'd better get going, the sun will rise soon." Gamzee waved him off as he opened the door, pausing just before he closed. "Oh, by the way. You owe me a game night. This one derailed."
Gamzee just nodded as Captor slammed the door, knowing that was Sollux-ese for "let's hang out sometime".
#bloodswaps#drabble#sollux captor#gamzee makara#aradia megido#vriska serket#tavros nitram#purple sollux
31 notes
·
View notes
Note
How do you think our hiveswap clowns would take to a talk about what families are and all that being a family entails? I mean 'humans give live birth and nurture their own young' parts are science and reasonable to grasp. The parts where you'd have to explain things like marriage, divorce, and adoption and disownment miiight be tougher to explain. Shit what if it all went right over their horns and you come to them about one of these family things happening to you fuck man that'd not go well/
Oof, we getting into some heavy stuff rn. It’s hard enough to explain Alien Biology in a way that doesn’t make them want to forget they ever knew you to try and purge whatever the hell it was you just told them from their mind. But the fun social dynamics that come with that??? This is certainly above their paygrade.
Marriage:
The clownlets are all for it once you explain it. Granted, they understand it more as a party to celebrate rather than having an actual ceremony among other things that go into marriage itself. they may also ask you to marry them as a moirail because they just wanna have fun with all their friends right now! Almost nothing can sway them.
Marvus is all for that kind of idea. He gets to flex and party till dawn?? Sign him up. Once you remind him that it’s about getting bound together with someone until something unforgivable or death happens, he sobers up a bit. It’s not that he has commitment issues, but seriously? How would you even know that? How could you ever decide that one singular person would be the only option for your quadrant for the rest of your lives? He then gets even more confused when you mention that that’s why divorce exists.
Chahut appreciates the religious ceremony aspect of marriage. To acknowledge the fact that the marriage was facilitated by the Mirthful Messiahs guiding a clown to their destined forever quads and having a celebration for them to further announce that joyous realization? HELL YEAH. She supports the idea 100%.
Divorce:
They all don’t like nor get the idea of divorce. It’s one of the hardest things to explain to them as a thing that happens.
Marvus’ main point is why go through with the whole wedding thing if you’re unsure??? For something so serious and lifechanging, why bother doing all of that and then turning around and saying ‘nah fam I was wrong’?? He doesn’t take well to the idea of ‘what if your partner cheats or is abusive?’. That kind of crap is sinful???? Like legit clowns do not accept that. He gets the partner dying and moving on but doesn’t agree about divorce thing.
Chahut feels similarly but also adds that it’s blasphemous to even somewhat imply you thought such an unworthy partner was a blessing in the first place. She’d likely mention that any partner that is found to cheat on or abuse their partner (clown or not), it is cull on sight. “we don’T Take kindly To Those Types of scumbags aT The church.”
The clownlets were too happy about marriage for you to kill it with divorce. They’ll learn when they’re older.
Adoption and Disownment
This is a surprisingly easy concept to grasp for Chahut and Marvus. Turns out Gamzee’s predicament with Goatdad isn’t exactly uncommon in the purple community.
The clownlets really only get Adoption(after relating it to how their Lusci are). Again, you didn’t want to rain on their parade with the idea of disowning a child.
79 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Wilford Rant Post that Nobody Asked For
I’m drunk again and ABOUT TO GET BACK ON MY SOAPBOX!! We had several Audrey posts, now we’re talking about (🍗*drumroll*🍗) Wilford! Buckle the fuck up, because I have so much to say about this guy I had to put it under a cut.
Wilford is...an odd character. Like very odd. He's supposedly this master strategist who is semi-omniscient and is always one step ahead of our heroes...yet he makes the dumbest decisions possible:
1. Treatment of Alex,
2. Handling of the Till situation,
3. That dinner/carnival show scene.
First up we have his treatment of Alex. Oh boy. He made several large blunders here. Even though Wilford can accurately sense Alex pulling away, his reaction is to push her away even harder? He’s also jumping the gun hugely - we can see that Alex is severely conflicted about going back to Melanie, which would be the perfect time for Wilford to maybe have a conversation with her about it, like ‘hey kid, don’t forget who was with you these last seven years when your mom abandoned you!’ instead of doing that (which would be the common sense thing to do if he wants to keep her close) he actively antagonises Alex to the point that she reveals all that stuff about the culling that he did on Big Alice - like, why? She’s his lieutenant who’s spent seven years with him and has all the dirt he probably doesn’t want the Snowpiercer people to know. Even if he feels angry and vengeful that is his protégée is going back to his mortal enemy, why would he not at least try to cover his bases? Not only does Alex know all of his bad deeds, assumedly she knows everything about how Big Alice works. Isn’t that information you’re trying to keep semi-secret?
TILL! Righteous queen, we love that. What's up with this? Wilford's turned into a poser all of a sudden with the guilty First Classers. Till’s like ‘no, we can’t kill them, that’s the wrong thing to do’ and Wilford’s like ‘lmao whatever I’m still gonna kill them’ and I’m like...exactly what does that do for you? How is that meant to get Till on his side? He must deduce that having the train detective on his side is important, and Till is clearly shown to be at least a little unsure of this guy’s motives, so...why? What’s up with this? That whole scene confused me (but it was very visceral. Tick✅ of approval for Things That Flip Gohoubi’s Biscuits)
The carnival scene!!! What the fuck was the point of that!!! I don't think I need to explain that to y'all!
Antagonising Alex✅
Antagonising Bennett✅
Freaking out Ruth, Till, Winnie etc✅
Giving LJ a good show ✅
Like okay, maybe Bennett is a lost cause, but he has Till, Ruth, Alex and others who are CLEARLY conflicted about who they want to swing with, yet he just is like nah we don’t need them. Like they're all arguably very socially powerful people on the train, who would be useful to have around, but Wilford’s like nope I’m gonna drive them all away and then be surprised when they end up rebelling. Like. WHAT?
And like, I’ve heard some people talk about how Wilford is this hugely egomaniacal, arrogant guy who’s so overinflated by his ‘Engine Eternal’ image that he just does whatever and expects to be able to put everything back together the way he wants after the fact. But..he hasn’t been played as a character who is arrogant and does whatever he wants without abandon, at least not in that way. Despite his sociopathy, characters keep referring to his plans as something that he puts some thought into and how he's willing to play the long game. It’s shown in the text as well:
1. He sabotages Snowpiercer’s gills (lol) so that he can get access to the engine, and save everyone so it’s not seen as a hostile takeover;
2. He foments tension and terror in Snowpiercer with Pastor Logan and the murders so that when he shows up, he can pretend to set everything to rights;
3. He supports Melanie’s research-station-retreat so that he can leave her behind later, despite knowing that any entertainment of the climate model idea weakens his influence;
4. He at least pretends to show some goodwill even in situations that would probably disadvantage him so that he can gain the trust of the SP citizens.
Does that look like stuff that was come up with on a whim? This guy clearly thinks ahead, y’all. Basically: have the writers just been hotboxing the whole second season? Cuz if so, I want in on that. #JusticeForJoe
This doesn't even get into the queer-coded bullshit and treatment of sensitive topics by the writers related to Wilford, however I'll leave that to someone more qualified than me to talk about
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
Title: Dawnshard
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Summary: Dawnshard follows the story of Rysn, the Thaylen merchant whom we've seen before in the Interludes of the first three books of the Stormlight Archive series.
Rating: ★★★★★
Review:
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Anyways.
DAWNSHARD!
I feel Rysn’s pain. I too find stuff most unimaginably boring interesting.
Oh no, something is wrong with Chiri-Chiri.
“A few anxietyspren, like twisting black cross shapes, appeared around Rysn.”
Huh, interesting.
“She’d already sent a request via spanreed to someone she thought could help with Chiri-Chiri.”
*Narrows eyes* Who?
“her eyebrow jewelry tinkling softly”
Roshar is so weird. (Edit: Understatement of the goddamn decade)
“The king wants to meet this Dalinar Kholin and see these Knights Radiant for himself.”
Man I should have reread these books. Oh well. Goodluck Dalinar.
It’s very interesting that now Navani is Queen of Urithiru. So Dalinar is King? WAIT WE’RE IN URITHIRU! AHHHH!
“She was an intimidating woman with her Alethi height, her black and grey hair done in intricate braids atop her head and woven with glowing sapphires.”
Nah, she’s a mom. I wouldn’t be surprised if she tries to mother you.
Rysn Ftori. Did we know her last name?
“Finally the queen stopped, focused on the chair at the rear of the room, then pulled her chair over and sat before Rysn. It was a small gesture, but appreciated. Rysn didn’t mind when people remained standing in her presence, but there was a certain thoughtfulness in the way Navani situated herself so they could discuss at eye level with one another.”
As stated, Navani is a mom.
Oh, I think we read about this in Oathbringer.
The Prince of Liafor???
The Rock of Secrets. I see Brandon wasn’t trying too hard with this name.
“As the months had passed, Rysn had begun to truly grasp the strategic importance of Stormlight as a fuel both for fabrials and for the Knights Radiant. Beyond that, the enemy had creatures—known as Fused— who used the Void’s own Light. Chiri-Chiri fed on that just as eagerly as Stormlight.”
Hmmm…yeah…
…………………I kind of ship Lopen and Talik. I don’t know how to feel about this. Brandon is creating some very odd ships this year. (If you haven’t read the RoW previews, trust me, there’s a weird one)
““It’s politics. The annoying kind.”
“There’s another kind?”
No.
YAY RUSHU IS COMING ALONG!
“She owned it. She commanded it. But at least according to maritime tradition, it was not hers”
This reminds me of how Navani sees herself as not an artifabian (I’m not even going to bother look up the correct spelling for this)
“Radiant the Lopen”
PFFFFFFFFFFFT
““Lopen,” Rushu said as she worked, “you should not be tormenting Brightness Rysn with your prattling.””
Rushu! How dare you question the Lopen!!
““Brightness Rysn shouldn’t have to crack jokes at her own expense in order to make other people comfortable with their personal insecurities.”
“Yup, true,” the Lopen said. “She shouldn’t have to.””
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooo
“Two halves of a ruby, containing two halves of the same spren, can be made to move in tandem with one another”
…TWO HALVES OF THE SAME SPREN. PARDON?!?!!
I’m assuming that if you can get a ship to move fast enough then a spanreed will work. Much like Brandon has said that time bubbles can work at a certain speed. Plus y’know, Roshar is constantly moving, we just don’t feel it.
“It’s why the motion and curve of the planet don’t influence spanreeds.”
Or y’know, I’ll just be fucking WRONG.
“That . . . didn’t make much sense to Rysn.”
Same.
I’m guessing that Nikli is a worldhopper. From where though? I don’t really trust Nikli right now though. Hmmm.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NIKLI IS ONE OF THOSE CREMLING THINGS NONONONONONONONONONONONOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
WHAT MEAN YOU ONE OF THESE…SWARMS KNOWS DALINAR “I know he will destroy us”
From the dustjacket of Way of Kings:
“The last is the highprince, a warlord whose eyes have opened to the past as his thirst for battle wanes.
The world can change. Surgebinding and Shardwielding can return; the magics of ancient days can become ours again. These four people are key.
One of them may redeem us.
And one of them will destroy us.”
So Dalinar will Destroy the Sleepless.
“Plus, Yelamaiszin said, we should have compassion for those we must cull. It is good you like the humans.
Must we cull them though? Nikli replied.”
Oh, the Sleepless gotta cull humans. Fucking great. AHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Is it just required that every single novella is going to have these fuckers in them?
“When the swarm that had become Nikli had been Separated, it had already contained hordelings evolved for this subterfuge. Nikli had further evolved them, and was now certain that the body didn’t need the tattoos to cover the seams in its skin”
Wat.
Also who’s Arclomedarian? Now I need to go reread Edgedancer to see who that guy was. Oh? Who are the true traitors? It’s probably Hoid.
“where they would either fall to the winds or enter the realm of the Sleepless.”
Man, if I was on that ship, I’d take drowning over finding that. Let’s notttttt.
“This was sent to another vote, and Nikli’s bodies— the distant ones, not on the ship—all vibrated with anticipation.”
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
“Can block a Shardblade, Rua tells me, if it’s thick enough. They get it from Soulcasting, though only a few can make it, so it’s pretty rare”
Y…you can soulcast aluminium? Holy fuck.
No Lopen! You belong with Talik. He can capture that Tsundere heart.
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?
As someone who has read Mistborn, you don’t want a dramatic end of the world. It causes essential crisis.
“More spren than animal, they were somehow able to magnify peace and confidence.”
Like…rioting?
““No,” several voices said from the crowd—but she couldn’t see who. “That’s bad luck!””
Nikla…
“Storms. It was as if . . . as if the body had been made up of cremlings.”
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
“no more real than things like the gloomdancer or sea hags from Thaylen mythology”
Well, I’m sure these things don’t exist.
“Hmmm? Oh, no I was napping during that.”
I do love Rushu.
So…Huio…created…flying machines. Motherfucker.
I can’t believe Roshar has hove chair before cars. Also HOVER BRIDGES LET’S GOOOOOOOOO.
Nikli…what are you doing?
Rushu is a soulcaster! Wild.
“Regardless, I demanded that Navani send me with either a Shardblade or a Soulcaster to get through.”
You fucking what mate?
“Strange, to think how optimistic she’d been only a short time ago.”
That tends to happen with Brando Sando books. One moment the characters are on top of the world and next everything is crashing down.
The sun being shattered into pieces? Well that can’t be good.
“She counted the shards in her mind, over and over, feeling a reverence to the number.”
Ten or sixteen?
“It looked vaguely like an enormous grub with a wicked beak of a face. It had spindly arms running all the way along its body, and had reared up so it was mostly vertical, using its pointed limbs like spears to try to skewer the sailors beneath.”
Again. Roshar. Fuck off.
“The Mother of Machines,”
Thirty emerald broams says the back of the book has something about the Mother of Machines on it.
“I . . . have no idea what any of that means,”
Me reading half of this book.
“And in truth, those treaties were made with other gods. I had hoped the Gods Who Sleep Not would be similarly bound, but now I am not certain.”
OTHER GODS? WHICH ONES?!
GOOD JOB HUIO!!!
“We wish to avoid losing control of a force that could destroy the cosmere.”
Odium? Just don’t let any love struck teenagers near it and you’ll be fine.
“As I and my kind are not native to this planet, we prefer the term ‘hordelings.’”
W…Where are you from?
This reminds me of Skyward.
I am sure that Rysn will not be able to employ it. How many books do we have left?
“And then eventually, they were used to undo Adonalsium itself. . . .”
YOU FUCKING WHAT?!
Rysn, you’re going to get a visit from an asshole. Be prepared and good luck.
I can’t for Arc 2 where we get so BIG CHIRI-CHIRI.
Interesting so Rysn will never become a Radiant.
“Regrettably, there has been a conflict on the beach with some of our more . . . specialized hordelings,”
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
“You have Remade yourself.”
Remade? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Oh no. Lopen noooooooooooooo.
Who needs a Hover chair when YOU CAN RIDE A CRAB DRAGON! SUCKING ALL THE STORMLIGHT! WIELDING THE DAWNSHARD!
“Was it . . . brighter than usual? Why did the colors in her room look so exceptionally vivid all of a sudden?”
Idos Domi! What heightening are you?
I was not expecting this. My thoughts are currently just on the floor, screaming. Brandon, you cannot just drop lore on me like this.
27 notes
·
View notes
Text
Cull to Adventure, Chapter 5, Draft 1
[[As Tumblr increased the size limits for posts, I can finally put this chapter draft all together.]]
Marie was already in a sour mood, having woken up far earlier than preferred. But it got worse as she realized she might as well have slept in; hardly anyone was around today. The heat wave, combined with the fact that all games were postponed until the respawn points have power again, meant that no one was around. Marie knew she couldn’t move too far from where the Outpost was without drawing unwanted attention, but it was a bit demoralizing. She was glad she had the parasol for the scant shade it provided in the midday sun, but she still tugged at her kimono every so often.
Well, if she wanted to find her cousin and the stolen Zapfish, she would have to do it herself. She didn’t want a second celebrity disappearance to cause more chaos, but she didn’t have much choice. Agent 2 would have to complete the rescue mission alone.
As she looked in the Outpost for her Charger, she debated whether Gramps should be alerted at this point. She decided against it, still; he was probably stressed enough about his mission with Agent 3, and she didn’t want him throwing himself in danger trying to find Callie. That was her job, darn it!
She opened a drawer and found her charger waiting, but…where was her uniform? The armored hoodie, the short, the boots, even the headset were all missing. She rustled around; maybe a bit of disorganized Callie rubbed off on her…but no, they were gone! Someone was in here! They took the Splattershot and one of the Ink Tanks, too!
A flash of panic came over Marie; someone had come in, and the outpost was breached! But… wait, why wasn’t her charger taken? Or any other supplies? Just the Agent getup and weapons—Oh.
Oh no.
She ran out of the shack, stumbling over her kimono a few times as she went for the manhole to Inkopolis. She had to get to Ammo Knights, and fast. It was lucky there wasn’t really anyone in the Square; while Marie took care to make sure she wasn’t immediately recognized by the adoring public, she didn’t care as much in the rush she was in.
The doors to the Ammo Knights store burst open the moment she unlocked them. Sheldon barely had time to look up in shock before the idol was in the back, frantically booting the computer up. Several monitors came up, each showing different angles of a new part of Octarian territory. None of the cameras could see anything, but when Marie put the headset on and heard panting and slight whimpering, her suspicions were confirmed.
Cull had gone into Octo Canyon alone.
Marie took a deep breath, turned the mic on, and coughed politely.
“Eh—” started Cull’s yelp, before he remembered where he was and clammed up.
“Oh good, you remembered the headset,” Marie said, keeping her voice level. “Okay, I think we can get you through this, but… I’m not sure where you are…”
“C-came in a-and made it to ch-checkpoint…”
Marie checked. The simulated sunny beach area in Octopolia did have a trail of green, including some inflated sponges. And it led right to a smaller respawner, directly in front of a massive road of pink ink. From where the camera was situated, Marie could see a Balloon Fish, but there were a few things behind it that were too blurry to see.
“They got some- some kinda robot b-bombs!”
“Octopods?” Marie asked. “Shouldn’t be a big deal, right? They just run at you.”
“…B-but that one at the start was so fast…C-can I really take more than one in a f-fight…?”
Marie leaned back in her chair, noting where the blurs were.
“You don’t have to, ex-Agent 4! If you can take that Balloon Fish, the Octopods should all pop with it!”
“B-but if I go up there, w-won’t they pop it and…?”
“Nah, they’ll run up to try to blast you. The Balloon Fish’ll be fine!”
Bad time for a joke, Marie realized, as she saw something shake in the respawner.
“Look, look,” she said, frantically trying to clear Cull’s head of some of the anxiety. “All you gotta do is keep your distance! Pop that balloon before the Octopods get to you.”
Cull finally surfaced, out of the respawner, and swallowed. He looked at the expanse of Octarian pink before him; it was going to take a lot of ink to even get to the Octo-bombs. He started firing, and Marie saw that his attention was divided between his path-making and the upcoming encounter.
“Hey, eyes on the prize, kid, not the road!”
Well, now the kid’s movement was slower, but at least he seemed more alert.
A thought came to Marie.
“…Ignore that when you start driving, ok?”
The Octopods started to rush in, but it was too late. Cull had already hit the Balloon Fish, taking the bombs and their weird red balloons with them. Octarians had the strangest ways of holding Power Eggs.
“Nice.”
That just left a layout of crates in a flattened “u” shape against the wall, a wall which had two Balloon Fish attached to it. As Cull looked up and around, Marie took a moment to swap through the cameras, finding a launchpad at the top, and the next camera showed a checkpoint. Thankfully, nothing between there and their current position Cull would have to worry about.
“All right, so just pop those balloons and swim up there. Nothing to worry about.”
Cull looked, hesitantly, but nodded. The Balloon Fish made short work of those boxes and covered the wall in green. But… he hesitated, rubbing the back of his head. Marie could hear sheepish mutters of “uh” and “oh boy” over her headset. She was about to ask what the holdup was, maybe throw in a joke about enjoying his handiwork, but all that came out was “wh” before she realized the problem – he was a slow swimmer when it wasn’t a vertical slope.
And she had seen the kid climb, too. This looked like a tougher thing to scale, sure, but his grip back then was impressive, and she was sure he could have figured something out. At the very least, it would probably be better than him struggling to swim up like he would have to now.
“Okay kid,” she said, attempting to hide her haste in correcting this, “I don’t usually recommend this, but you might want to try a running jump here.”
“O-okay…”
Marie watched as the ex-Agent stepped back, steeled himself, and sprinted to the wall. He jumped, and Marie thought he was going to slam into the wall, his squidforming was so close. However, it wasn’t close enough to conceal the fact his tentacles were… well, half-gone. He disappeared in the ink in a flash, but Marie could still tell, especially as he splashed and struggled to get the vertical movement.
Marie couldn’t do much more than watch; explaining how to swim to a fellow Inkling would just be dumb, and she wasn’t good at motivational platitudes. Still, she could try to encourage.
“Almost halfway there. Just keep breathing.”
“Just got past the second Balloon Fish; you’re almost there!”
Cull finally slipped over the edge onto wooden floor again. He couldn’t even kidform, and Marie could hear him panting and fully view his squid form.
His fins were much more disk-shaped than most, making his silhouette look less like an arrow and more like a mushroom with a point on top where his mantle ended. His skin had a spotted texture, as if someone had lightly sprayed him with darker green paint. More prominent, however, were his eight arms, all irregular stumps of what was expected, clearly from an injury long ago. His two tentacles, while about as long as most Inklings’, were notably thinner, and showed the same signs of being cut off at the end.
And Marie had sent him headfirst into danger. Worse yet, he refused to leave.
Cull wasn’t panting for too long; he soon kidformed, and was silent on his walk to the launchpad. Marie wasn’t sure what to say; she may like snarking, but humiliating someone was something else entirely.
A few quick key presses, and Marie could watch him land on the next section, where there didn’t seem to be much going on. There was a single sponge floating in the middle of a gap in the road, but not much else to see other than a few pillars. As Cull tentatively clambered down in case there was something, Marie switched to the next available camera. She could see Cull fill the sponge with ink to make a bridge in the distance, but more importantly, there were patrolling Octarians moving in a synchronous circle on some grates that were jutting out of one of the pillars.
“Octotroopers above you,” Marie called out, as Cull walked forward. She could see him step back onto the sponge, looking up and spotting the enemies. He tentatively moved forward, but never so much that he committed to a plan before stepping back. Thankfully, neither Octo seemed to have seen him, their gaze focused squarely on what was in front of them rather than what was below.
“C’mon,” Marie said, after about fifteen seconds of this, “You gotta do something if you wanna get outta here!”
“Uhm…”
“Oh for— just go! Take ‘em out and find a way up!”
Well, at least he was moving forward. The bad news was, the Octarians saw him, and began firing shots through the grate. At least the ex-Agent 4 was aware of this, and trying to zig-zag a little bit. He made it under the grate, with only a few spatters of pink on him for it. When he shot straight up and splatted one of the Octotroopers, however, his reflexive ducking was not enough to stop himself from being coated in green ink.
Despite herself, Marie had to stifle a snicker. Maybe it was just a needed release from stress, but there was something adorable about that pratfall. It reminded her of something that happened when she herself was younger, when she played one-on-one with Callie. The exact same thing happened to her, except she completely missed Callie…
“Y-you there?”
Marie took a breath, composing herself. Cull didn’t need the idea that she was laughing at him, nor did he need to hear her worrying about the other Squid Sister.
“Yeah, um… look for a way up the pillar. Looks like the grating goes to another floor… Just watch for that Octoslob and you’ll be fine…”
But Cull wasn’t looking up now. His attention was caught by something out of range of the cameras. He fired ink offscreen, slowly and carefully. Marie didn’t hear any return fire or Octarian shouts from his microphone, but all the same, this was concerning.
“Uh, I said ‘up’ the pillar…”
“Th-there was a lot of pink ink over here…J-just want to be sure…”
“I understand that,” Marie said, quietly kicking herself for not thinking of the possibility of an ambush, “but they’d have a hard time chasing you up. You might be better off—”
She heard the sound of wood breaking, and hoped to the Crane that Cull was alone; she’d be hard pressed to help him if she couldn’t see.
“Huh…Is that…?” he said, after a pregnant pause.
“Hmm? What was that?”
“N-nevermind, I must be mistaken…”
Marie heard some paper rustling, and then some grunting and splashing before Cull emerged from behind the pillar, now on the second floor. He took a few breaths, leaning against the column, before finally heading to the wall.
After making a break through a few more Octarians and some kind of wall-cleaning robot, he made it to a dead end. Behind a bunch of crates destroyed by a nearby Balloon Fish, there was nothing but a sheer drop to the facilities miles below. To his left, he could just see a large wooden wall, with the launchpad there. He groaned.
All Marie could say was “Sorry, kid, but you gotta make it through this.”
Cull stepped back to look, but he didn’t know if he could make another climb like that so soon. Instead, he looked to the re-inflated Balloon Fish, and then at the wall; not even at the launchpad!
Marie was at a loss for words when she saw the kid start clambering onto the enormous ink bomb, and rather quickly at that. Sure, Cull slipped once or twice, but he never once lost his grip. Within fifteen seconds, he was wobbling on top of it, looking almost like an eight-year-old bouncing on a waterbed. He sat down and started rocking, as if he was trying to get comfortable.
“Okay, look,” Marie finally said, “I get it may be tiring, but that’s no excuse for lazing around and…”
She stopped when he stood up, the Balloon Fish rolling back so far that Marie stood up, shocked at how far over the ledge Cull was. Cull, for his part, had an expression like he swallowed a sunfish whole, but kept his eyes to the wall he had to climb. He took one step forward, waiting for the Fish to roll enough…
And then he jumped. His hands reached out, and he was able to grab onto the ledge. By all accounts, he shouldn’t have been able to keep his grip, but it was dawning on Marie that he was a whip-lash squid.
He hoisted himself up, finding another piece of Sardinium, then looked over the edge to see about that launchpad. It was a simple swing down, and Cull was on his rapid way to the next area.
Marie was there to witness each remaining step. The ambush from above, where Cull leapt screaming into his first Splashdown. The attack immediately after, where he managed to actually take one or two of the Troopers before they even landed. Cull getting splatted again by the remaining Octarians, though he didn’t gasp as frantically when he respawned this time. He was able to finish off the other Octotroopers and make it to some more sponge-scaling situations and an easy battle.
After a bridge made from sponges filled with Balloon Fish ink, Marie’s eyes widened. Up ahead, a bulbous flying thing she knew all too well, and she was about to cry out a warning, but stopped herself. She was already dealing with a bit of a nervous wreck; no sense in giving him a heart attack in all three of his.
Instead, she said, as plainly as she could, “An Octobomber. Gross.”
“What—” Cull started, before yelping. He just saw a Splat Bomb land by him, and it wasn’t his.
Marie sighed as he respawned. Even if she didn’t want to scare the kid, that warning may have been less than helpful.
“Sorry, squid,” she said, apologetically. “Didn’t want to scare you…”
Cull walked back over to where he was, far more slowly this time. Shooting gobs of purple at him was one thing, but now they were hurling bombs at him!
“Ugh… how close is the Zapfish?”
Marie blinked. She hadn’t even been looking for the Zapfish; she was just making sure this kid got out alive.
“Um…”
She could see Cull looking around, mostly up and at the corners of platforms. She assumed he was looking for the camera, but he was nowhere close. At least it kept him safe while she re-calibrated the ZapSeek program that Sheldon wrote.
“Let’s see… the Zapfish is… uh…”
“Ye—?” was all Marie heard in response, before the computer suddenly went black. Her eyes widened, and she frantically mashed the power button, but all she heard was the equally frantic clicking of the button.
Sheldon opened the door behind her, frantically pulling out a set of keys. He dashed to a caged area behind the computer, where he kept the generator.
“Sorry, sorry,” he said, trying each key in turn as fast as he could, “Without Zapfish, we gotta rely on this generator, and as you know, this is an old thing, and the fact is, it’ll take a bit to refuel it and start it up again, not to mention the computer booting time—”
“Sheldon!” Marie said, sharply. “Just tell me what I can do to help get it back! There’s a kid lost in Octopia here!”
“Right, right,” Sheldon’s capped silhouette nodded. “Sorry. So, I need you to take the rip cord here and wait to give it a good yank! There’s a coupla things I gotta keep in place over here while you do that…”
Marie walked over, but saw multiple cords that looked pull-worthy.
“Um…”
“You got the rip cord?”
“No…”
“All right, hold on…”
The sound of Sheldon pouring whatever the generator needed slowed to a halt, and he patiently walked over, instantly finding the correct cord and handing it to her.
“I’ll let you know when to pull. It might take a few tries for it to start, but keep at it.”
Marie nodded, not understanding when she heard a variety of switches being flicked, as well as some clatters.
“All right, you ready?”
She pulled the rip cord. A rumble, but nothing else.
“Okay, try again.”
It took a few more pulls, but the generator eventually roared to life.
“Now, lemme take care of getting you started, and I’ll be out of here…”
Marie didn’t dispute that. She was a lot of things, but she was no computer squid. She waited for the slow booting, the password entry, the appropriate programs written by Sheldon…
It felt like hours, but everything Marie was used to was back up. Sheldon saluted, then went back to working on his weapons.
Right, so she could flip through the cameras again, and find Cull who was… still standing at that checkpoint. Her audio wasn’t working, but she could tell he was just calling out, trying to get a response.
It took a minute for Marie to find the volume and fix it, but she was greeted with a quiet, almost fearful “…hello?...Yes?...Is the Z-Zapfish close…?”
“Yeah, hang on,” Marie said, putting on a practiced smile. “It was just a technical thing, sorry.”
“O-okay…”
“Just keep moving forward, m’kay? That Octoslob might have bombs, but he’s pretty slow, so just keep on your guard, okay?”
Cull gulped, but still started taking steps forward. It was slow and halting, with him looking around as if he was expecting the Octobomber to have flown to where he was.
Marie wasn’t going to spur him too far forward; the camera systems for other areas were still loading, and she didn’t want Cull dying down there, especially if it would be from something super avoidable.
Suddenly, after some tentative advancement, Cull ducked into the ink. Marie switched from the loading screen back to him the moment she heard a splash. He was nearing the Octobomber.
“Remember, kid: those Splat Bombs have timers on ‘em. Keep moving, and don’t let ‘em catch you! That’s a rule of the battlefield!”
Cull wasn’t moving.
“Come on, this is no time for hide and splat! You gotta move forward! Once you get to the Zapfish, you can get out of there!”
“But…” Cull whispered, still not so much as swimming an inch, “I-I don’t know…”
“Look, kid,” Marie sighed. “If you want to find your way home, you need to get past this guy. I already told you; keep moving and you’ll be a harder target for him!”
After a second (presumably waiting for the fat flying octopus to look away, which Marie had to admit would be a decent strategy), Cull emerged and started running, firing wildly as he did so. The Octobomber flinched as ink hit them, and they spun around, quickly lobbing a bomb at the Inkling intruder. Cull kept running forward, barely out of the blast’s range. He kept shooting, somehow missing half his shots as he did so.
It gave the Octobomber enough time to fire another bomb. Marie would have congratulated Cull on his plan of circling to avoid the explosives, but she was too busy gasping as he inattentively moved towards the edge.
“Kid, watch it—”
“Yeah, just keep movin’! Works great!”
He cheered as he splatted the enemy, but the cheer was short lived as he fell off the ledge.
Marie didn’t see his ghost swim up. She waited, desperately scanning every pixel, rotating every camera, but she saw nothing.
She started breathing again when she saw his hands inch onto solid ground, followed by the rest of him.
“Oh, thank Cod,” Marie said, more under her breath than anything. “Right, so….”
The hacks into the next area of security cameras finally loaded. Marie wasn’t sure what the delay was. Something about cache? She’d have to ask Sheldon later, but for now she looked into the next set of cameras, and…
“Hey, good news!” she said. “You’re almost to the Zapfish and outta there!”
“Uh, y-yeah…” Cull said, sounding like Marie did when she first learned how to fake smiles. “Uh, al-almost might be a strong word…”
“What are you talking abou—oh.”
A quick pan of one of the cams showed the problem. A series of dry sponges formed a line from the floor Cull was on to the floating island the Zapfish was on. Even if he used the Balloon Fish lined across the sides to fill them up, this would be a struggle for him to swim up what most Inklings could with just a bit of effort.
“Er… yeah, this might be tough…” Marie trailed off. “I’m sure you can make it up there, though…”
“Nnn…”
She saw him standing there, craning his neck to see the sun-shaped wall far above him. She couldn’t see his expression, but she could tell he wasn’t exactly readying up for the climb. Heck, he was walking back to a ledge (thankfully, a part with a railing this time). He looked around a little, but he didn’t see anywhere else he could try to go.
The blue skies made from blue monitor light surrounded him on all sides, illuminating a sparkling blue sea under him. Looking out on the wooden platform into the distant waters like this was filling him with nostalgia, back when he could only be halfway between squid and kid at most. He remembered having to brush his tentacles off his eyes a lot, to see a cloudless sky like this, with rocky beaches and wooden docks. The false sun was still a good one, adding to the illusion pretty well. Even if the air was still the stale air you’d find in caves, it didn’t matter; the atmosphere was so much like that of a beach, giving a very surreal vibe of familiarity along with the floating platforms, debris, and screens. This was inspiring.
“You okay, kid?”
“Hmm? O-oh, yeah, j-just needed a moment…”
He pulled himself away from the view, having calmed himself a bit. He took a breath, and looked at the challenge before him.
He fired at the first sponge until it was dripping with ink. He took a breath, and climbed up to the top of it. It was easier to just climb up the one, and he still had a dry, shrunken sponge in front of him.
He stepped onto the dry sponge, and was about to fire to inflate it as well, but he realized he’d have to do still more climbing with the other pair up ahead. He wasn’t sure if he’d be up to that; even that one small swim took effort. He still wanted to get the Zapfish in something resembling a timely manner, so he looked either way. It’d be a tricky thing, but he’d done crazier tagging a spot on Moray Towers the one time.
Standing on the tinier platform, he looked at the Balloon Fish on either side, and popped one.
Marie’s jaw dropped. She just saw Cull get flung like a ragdoll as the sponge exploded out to its full size under him. He flailed and hollered, but not as intensely as she thought it warranted. Heck, it almost seemed planned, as he landed flat on his back on top of the next set of filled sponges. He grunted, but he quickly got up and leapt at the final wall between himself and the Zapfish’s platform. A couple of grunts and kicks against the wall, and he could move from dangling by his fingers to actually getting onto the platform.
From there, Marie could view him freeing and petting the Zapfish. He sat down as the platform moved to the exit, the Zapfish on his lap. It was kind of adorable, honestly.
#cull goes to octo canyon#cull to adventure#splatoon#splatoon 2#splatoon 2 fic#chapter 5#draft 1#cull to adventure full chapter
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Role Swap AU stuff
So idk I thought I'd share a sort of rough outline for the au since I haven't been drawing anything worth posting here. It's just for fun, and the universe it happens in is just different from the regular, so some weird stuff is in it that doesn't exactly make sense? but makes for a fun au.
There's still a bunch of keyblade weilders around, they haven't died out yet. Eraqus is one of the masters, but he didn't agree with some of their practices and broke out of the unions to do his own thing.
He moved to The Land of Departure with his young apprentices, Terra and Aqua, and continued training them there.
The rest of the masters didn't approve of this and have kinda shunned him.
The keyblade weilders still use the union set up from long ago during khux times. Five great masters running their own unions.
Although over time it's kinda slipped away from "dandelions" and turning back to the way it was right before the war.
Xehanort was also a master in this system, and also left to continue his studies of darkness. (Or got kicked out, depends on who you ask. They were really wary of his studying)
Xehanort goes evil and all the events of Birth By Sleep play out. Terra is possessed, Aqua lost in the dark realm, and Ven split and resting in Sora's heart
None of the other keyblade masters didn't notice/help because 1) busy with other stuff 2) it's Eraqus and his apprentices, we just leave them alone
During all this time Xehanort has also been culling keyblade weilders to make sure that only the best would be left for his war. (best not exactly meaning what keyblade weilders of light think) Which, yeah it's pretty distracting when you're coworkers are dropping dead around you.
One keyblade master couple found orphan smol Sora and adopted him into their small family.
Growing up with their biological son (Caelum) he knew he was adopted, because they wanted him to know the truth. But might not have gone about it the best way
With the troubles going on with keyblade weilders dying and darkness spreading in the stars the two masters couldn't spend all their time with their kids. So they left them home where they were safe and went to do their duty. (I think that's like,, illegal child abuse but like,,they probably left a babysitter so it's ok)
When Sora was four he meant Ven's heart and welcomed him in. After that he had a very good imaginary friend.
Caelum and him would play with Ven when he wasn't napping, even though Caelum couldn't see him. Sora just told him what he did.
Ven became very close to the two and kinda took care of the kids, stopping them from doing stupid stuff.
Their parents had them moving around a lot. Very much like a military family, where they're stationed somewhere else and so have to move there, but the difference being the kids would be moved to a different "safe" world, a quiet one where not much happened.
Things start getting messy as the organization slowly grows and their shadow lengthen. Maleficent seeking power makes a deal with them and they being collecting the Princess of light.
Of course she thinks she's got control over them and is actually pulling the strings, but nah, lady you're dealing with Xehanort. In multiple people at once smh
Kairi is, like she normally of course, a princess of light, but had grown up in Traverse Town with the other refugees from Radiant Gardens. (Leon, Cid, Aerith, Yuffi) and has picked up a bunch from them.
Riku grew up on Destiny Islands. He does fishing in his downtime and kinda hangs out with Wakka and Tidus but doesn't really have any friends. His dream of seeing other worlds forgotten in childhood .
When things start progressing and getting bad Mickey sets out to find the reason and sends Donald and Goofy to find the "key"
The Darkness spreads to Destiny Islands where it infects it and destroys that world.
Riku gains the Kingdom Key in the process and ends up in Traverse Town, alone and confused.
Donald and Goofy find the "key" that Mickey told them about and where able to get Riku to meet the keyblade masters, where they explained stuff to him and began teaching him.
Caelum turns 15 around the same time all this is happening. His parents come to pick him up because he's old enough to begin his training now. So he goes off with them to Twilight Town, their base world.
Caelum meets Riku during his training and the two kinda make friends, both being new to this.
Sora is left behind because he's still too young, his chance will come soon, he just had to be patient.
Sora is too dramatic about all this and feels abandoned and unwanted. (If you want more detail on this you can ask, it's just long) and is very hurt by it. Darkness visits him, and tells the poor gullible boy a few lies and half-truths and tells him to join him.
Sore believes all the lies about the keyblade weilders being blinded by the light and joins the organization to bring the balance of darkness back.
Darkness plants itself in his heart to wait for its chance to claim its vessel.
Sora changes his name to Roxas and turns his back on the keyblade weilders.
Roxas then helps them in their kidnapping the seven princesses and preparing their hearts to open the keyhole. That's how he meets Kairi, being one of the ones he captured.
Kairi tries to talk him out of all this and he kinda softens up to her, but still won't turn. Him being very much influenced by darkness whispering in his heart.
Finally seeing that he won't she's able to break out and get away. 1. Because this girl got a keyblade and can fite 2. Roxas is off his guard around her.
Kairi finds the keyblade weilders and explains everything she's learned. They get really worried about this and begin freaking about everything going wrong. They tell her to lay low, being a princess of light she's in extreme danger.
This really annoys her because um she can do things too??
Around this same time Caelum gets permission to allow Sora to train along side with him, even though he's not old enough.
Excitedly he goes to tell him the news, only to find him missing and his whereabouts unknown. He searches around the world for a while until he returns alone to tell his parents the bad news.
His parents search for their youngest son across the worlds but none of them are able to find him.
Caelum is told to not worry about it, and they'll find him eventually
Riku introduces Caelum to Kairi and the three hang out and train together. Kairi technically shouldn't be training because she's too young and a princess of light but the boys don't care.
Eventually Caelum gets tired of waiting, they aren't looking for him, they're too busy with the other important stuff they have to be doing. Sora is his little brother and it's his duty to make sure he's okay, and knowing him so well he'd have the best chance of finding him.
So he sneaks off against orders to go find him.
Kairi goes with him because she wants to help, not sitting around hiding. And she's itching for action. Riku joins them because he really wants to make sure they're safe, and he was feeling restless. He had keyblade that was sorely needed but wasn't being allowed to help?
Rebel kids run away and make a rebel gang :)
During their adventures through the different worlds Riku seals the keyholes to the world's hearts, saving them from the darkness.
Eventually they find Sora, and find him listening to darkness and on the bad guy's side. Kairi recognizes him and tells Caelum about what he's been doing.
They get in a little skirmish and part ways unhappy.
The rebel gang finds their way to The Keyhole and they're able to seal it and stop Maleficent from getting into the dark realm.
The three then in deep trouble for breaking the rules are no longer allowed back on Twilight Town so make base somewhere else and being figuring out what else they need to do.
So that's kind of how kh1 would go in this au ^^
#role swap#role swap au#kh#kingdom hearts#kh au#alternate universe#au#sora#caelum#ventus#ven#text#headcanon#eraqus#xehanort#kairi#riku#long post#am i too happy about this#yeah
27 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
teachingabroad-blog1
Teaching Abroad
haruzes
Haru
dallina17
Aira
animemangawaifu
Silly, Sexy Fun With Anime Girly Girls
the-chronic-shadow
Dream on Titan