#pale static lore

[palestaticexchange]

JUST THE TWO OF US

"Ey, C!" You shout over the fence where your new friend looks at you. She's all suspicious and shit. "Got you something!" Like a big man, you toss the chocolate bar and watch as she snatches it from the air. Primo-style.

"The fuck is this?!" C sneers, eyes glinting with danger. "You got me chocolate? The fuck are you?! Some kind of fägäri?!"

Your hackles raise. A shiver roots you into frozen mud at the unexpected aggression. Yeah, she's aggressive. Maybe the Cuno *should* have expected this. But you were being *nice* for fucks sake! You bought the scrawny little bitch some fucking chocolate! Money's *hard graft* in Martinaise! You're a MANS man: you know this shit... So you stole the 70 Centims from your deadbeat dad while he was comatose, then popped down the Frittte for some choccy.

In the eyes of this lass that's a weak manoeuvre. Time to embellish this shit: Cuno-style. "I fuckin' *stole* that from Frittte for you. Don't be ungrateful to the Cunn!"

Cunoesse cocks her head, bored. "*You* stole from Frittte?" Shit. She doesn't fucking believe you. A mocking whine creeps into her tone. "Cuno snuck past the fatass *kyrpänaama* stood outside? Fuckin' gun and all?"

Sweat prickles against the flannel of your top. No. Not sweat. It's just the lightning. This aint *shit* for the Cuno. You puff out your chest. "Maybe I did!"

C rolls her eyes then hops back. She's gone from sight but you hear her behind the fence all the same. "Fuck off did you."

"I fucking did!"

"No, Cuno," Bored again. "You didn't." The crinkle of tinfoil being unwrapped.

You growl and run at the fence. A tuffet of frozen crab grass bares your weight *just* long enough for you to vault up and grab the top. The wood wobbles and bangs in protest as you haul yourself onto your forearms, hanging half over it.

Beneath, the girl sits in a squat ripping strips of tinfoil from rich, brown chocolate.

"The fuck's your problem?! Try to do something nice for you and you fucking spit in Cuno's face?!" You puff out your chest again, but all that happens is a pressure against your ribs where you dangle. "Fuck you, C."

Her head snaps upwards, pippo catching against the wood. As her hat's dragged off it reveals lank hair. Her eyes are refined fire. "I didn't fucking *ASK YOU* to do that, did I?!" Her lip quivers when she snarls. She is a frenzied dog. "You fucking stupid vittupää bitch! Get out of my *fucking* face!"

You reel backwards, teetering on the fence edge as she lashes upwards. You thought she'd strike you but she throws something: a crushed ball of tinfoil which bounces, painlessly, off your face. Fucking pathetic is what it is.

"What is it you want Cuno? Want a big fucking scene?! Want me to *thank* you?!" She scrambles up and away from the fence, shoving half the bar in her mouth as she turns to face you. "Am I shupposed to-" She swallows roughly, brown-stained spit dribbling down her chin. "-Fucking *suck you off* or some shit?! Roll onto my back and let your limp little-" She coughs, pounding a fist into her chest.

"I didn't say that shit either!" You try to yell but it comes out more a wheeze. *Your* chest is hurting from the fence. "What is it then?! Is the Cuno a fag or does he wanna fuck you? Can't be both, C!"

Her face screws up as if she doesn't understand the question. She licks at her chops. "*How* the *fuck* am I supposed to know?!" She drags the back of her hand across her chin, regarding the sweet sludge before she licks that up too. "My bets on *yes* but that's *your* shit to sort out." Her eyes flick from her sticky hand to you. "And it's boring."

Whatever happened, whatever *barrier* you crossed; her rage is ebbing. You still don't fucking get it. She's just another silly bitch you guess.

"You better not be thinking nasty shit about me Cuno," C growls out a warning. "You've got that stupid fucking face on you get when you're thinking *stupid* fucking shit."

You startle, but play it off as teetering backwards. No sooner is that pressure lifted from your ribs than your FALNs make contact with the crushed crab grass. "Whatever, C." You shove your hands in the pockets of your windbreaker and turn. You don't need her. You'll be *forlorn* and shit. *Moody* like one of those cop-turned-killer types. You'll find a rooftop to stand on and stare into the distance all dramatic and shit.

Behind you the fence bangs as she scales it. There's a wooden wobble, and then a *weird* sound. Crunch. Oh shit. Is she-

As you turn you see her on *your* side of the fence. "The fuck you doing in Cuno's Kingdom?!" Your vitriol comes from a place of fear. She's never done this before.

You yelp as you scramble away, hands flying out your jacket as you make a dash for your hideout. You can hear her chasing but it doesn't matter. You've got your FALNs on. Primo-shit. High concept sportswear. Make a man a god. Three sizes too big. Make a man slip on his *fucking ass* as the whole *faggy* shoe slips around your fucking-

No. NO it's NOT fear! Cuno's not scared of anything, you're gonna-

Oh *SHIT* she's fucking *RUNNING* at you.

It's fear.

You're stunned as your back meets black ice. The white sky glaring bright above you and making your eyeballs throb. Your ankle hurts.

Quick pads slow into a leisurely walk, then she's stood above you. She smacks her lips licking chocolate from the inside of her cheeks. Cunoesse looks *beyond* bored.

Your ankle hurts.

"Real fuckin' cool Cuno. You pull these moves on the security fag outside Frittte?" She has chocolate all over the hand holding the bar. "He probably fucking *gave* this to you. Probably felt sorry for you." She takes a smaller bite this time.

"I told you, I-" You bite your bottom lip. She's being a *real* fucking piece of work today. "I fucking mugged him, yeah?! I'm a hard man! Hard man, Cuno! That's what they call me!"

The girl grins. Unlike normal it doesn't feel like she's on *your* side.

"Who calls you that? 'Cos it *aint* fucking me!" She cackles, spit-slicked globs of chocolate visible on the roof of her mouth from where you lie on the floor. "*Hard man Cuno* robbed the Frittte!" She mocks. "Took the fatass's gun and *SHOT* him with it!"

You snarl. You'll show her. You hop to your feet and- *FUCK* your ankle hurts! You yelp as you fall on your ass.

This only makes C laugh harder. "Holy shit! Are you for real!?" She walks around the length of you, eyes raking your prone form in glee. "How the *FUCK* you gonna claim shit like that if you can't even-"

You won't. You won't. No fucking way. You don't *DO* that pussy shit. It doesn't fucking help anyway. You fucking *WON'T*.

"Are you gonna cry?"

You won't.

A crow caws from the dead tree at the end of the yard. In the distance you hear the MCs making their way to and from the harbour. "Are you gonna cry, Cuno?" Oddly, her bark has lost its bite.

You stare at your feet still resting on the frozen slush. Your right shoe is still on but you've always lead with your left. The trainer's twisted sideways, your toes still clothed but heel exposed and flush to the ice. 'A strong left foot! My boy will be an athlete for sure!' And that's *worse* than being hit. A sudden burst of memory from the time *before* he got shit. Before *she* had to go and die like a stupid whore.

You start to cry.

"For fucks saaaake," C groans, arms dropping to her sides and cursing the clouds.

You don't give a shit. You'll fucking cry all day if you want: this is Cuno's fucking kingdom. Cuno can cry in Cuno's kingdom if he needs to. You cross your arms tightly over your chest and hiccup, still scowling at your feet.

C squints at you. For a minute she just watches you cry, then she drops into a squat next to you. "Eat this, runkkari." She holds the slobbery end of her chocolate bar against your face.

You scowl at her instead of your shoes.

"Huh? What? You want a fucking silver platter or some shit?!" She turns to spit quickly behind her. "Sorry, faggot, fresh out," she says sarcastically. When you neither move nor respond she wiggles the chocolate bar in your face. "My *patience* is running thin, Cuno..." She doesn't threaten you, but the threat *is* there. It's always fucking there.

Good. Maybe this time she'll actually fucking-

"Ugh!" She groans suddenly, dropping the hand that was in your face. "Fine. FINE! I'm fucking *SORRY* okay?!"

What?

"I'm *sorry* I didn't thank you for the chocolate, and I'm *sorry* for saying you wanna fuck me and shit when you're *probably* a faggot, and I'm *sorry* you fell on your skinny fucking faggot ass." She sniffs, then wraps the remainder of the sticky chocolate in ripped, crumpled foil. "So take the fucking sweets, paskapää." When it's wrapped, she leans in and tucks the sticky mess in the pocket of your windbreaker.

What?

"What?" She grumbles.

You blink. The chocolate's burning a hole in your pocket.

"You better not want anything else from me." She narrows her eyes. "I'll go. I'll leave forever."

She won't. You know this now: it's you and her. Cuno and Cunoesse. You're the same; that's why you named her. You smile.

"The fuck you smiling for, freak?! You bust your fucking brain when you fall?!" She cocks her head back and forth, assessing her Cuno for damages.

"Thanks, C." You say, pulling the chocolate from your pocket.

"Thanks..." She spits. "Don't *thank* me, you braindead fuck."

When you pop a cube in your mouth it's as sweet as it is slimy from her spit. Your smile widens.

"I fucking mean it, Cuno! I'm only keeping you around for alibi's sakes, you hear?!"

The crow caws again. There's a bang in the distance as something's unloaded from a crane. The backdoor to the Whirling opens with a creak and the blonde bitch gets one look at the two of you before she turns on her heel and takes the binbag *back* inside.

"I said do you *hear* me Cuno!"

You place your free hand on C's shoulder-

"Hey!"

And use her to pull yourself up, pushing your trainer back on.

"Touch me again and I'll cut your *FUCKING* dick off."

But she won't is the thing. She's fucking crazy, a killer for sure, but she's not *ever* gonna do that shit to *you*. You're *HER* Cuno, and as much as she's a crazy bitch: she's *yours* too.

Cuno and C.

Cunoesse and the big man.

This world is shit, but together the pair of you are gonna fucking make it.

#I *LOVE* these children. In ALL of these I've added a readmore after the first three paragraphs and it still didn't hide the first slur #on A03 I've tagged the work as having 'cuno-typical slurs' lol #anyway we are back and in full swing baybee~ have some traumatised kid bonding #pale static lore #cuno de ruyter #cunoesse #disco elysium

[lorkai]

.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ A/N: Hello Genshin fandom 🥺👉👈, how y'all doing? This is actually my first real time writing for this fandom but I've been reading so much sagau fics and they are all so cool that I wanted to write something too. Not really sure if I'm going to start writing for genshin but we'll see. Hopefully this is good.

"So... This is how it ends?" A last whisper leaves you as a coppery taste invades your mouth, a strangled half laugh escaping from your blood wet lips.

It was tragic. Still, a little comic how golden blood escaped from the giant wound in your stomach caused by Zhognli's spear. The whole world thought you were an impostor, someone worth killing and now time seemed to stop. The clocks hands stoping moving, the sand stopping falling inside the hourglass.

For a moment everything was static, unmoving, not even breathing.

The whole world was shaking, the winds started howling. You looked at them, eyes moving from face to face. And they had the audacity to look shocked, pale, nervous and anxious as you were dying.

The adrenaline had reached its peak, making any and all pain bearable, painless, but with an injury like that you knew what the result would be. You laughed again. After running away for so many months, being cold and hungry, and only knowing fear, you let everything you felt come out of your chest before your death.

You laughed till your eyes were blurry with tears. Tears filled with pain and hatred. You laughed till your throat was hoarse, the sound stretching till it was all but a hiss.

"Your Grace!" You heard Venti's panicked voice, smug smile wiped from his face as he had the audacity to come closer. Though he was far too coward to touch you, he fumbled anxiously. "No... How could this happen?"

Yeah, how could this happen? You thought bitterly. You were isekai'ed to this world but you were ok with it. And then the characters you used to love and cherish started hunting you.

All because of some kind of creator. You didn't even knew there was a creator in the game? There was one? You can't remember. Skipped dialogues, playing it through drowsiness, not reading the books. There was plenty of lore you could have missed.

It was too late now.

"Use your futile head once, bard." Was your reply, dry tone making him wince. "Write me a song while you're it."

"We thought..." Ei started. But a glare from you had her silent in seconds, imponent Shogun Ei trembling under your eyes.

"You thought but you didn't ask me for clarifications, you didn't let mm..." You coughed blood, a pool of golden coating your clothes and feet.

"You Grace!" Zhongli screamed, alarmed.

Your body became weak and you fell forward, your knees weakening and small tears running down your star like eyes, Zhongli held you, so delicate and with so much love. Once, you used wished for him to hold you like this, for him to cuddle you and share all this knowledge with you over tea but now it just left a sour taste on your mouth while you looked at those ambar eyes as the minutes go by.

"Please, don't leave..." A cry from Ei's wounded soul. Followed by Venti's regretful tears.

A god of freedom took the Creator's freedom, deprived them of it without using his mind like he used to do. And the goddess of eternity was sentenced a spend eternity alone, without her sister, her son, her creator...

Zhongli lips were moving, you could feel the vibration of his voice reverberating through his chest where your head rested. But the words became blurred and their meaning was lost.

The wind was swaying your hair so gently, caressing your face with its smooth invisible fingers.

In his arms, you died.

#genshin impact #genshin sagau #genshin impact sagau #impostor au #zhongli x reader #zhongli x y/n #zhongli x you #genshin impostor au #venti x reader #venti x you #venti x y/n #ei x reader #ei x y/n #ei x you

[https-furina]

— in another lifetime ! ★ | edition: archons, version 1.0

ft. venti, zhongli & ei x fem!reader

content. heavy angst, mentions of alcohol, death, blood, details of injuries, illness. refers to their story lore. spoilers for inazuma’s archon quest.

✉️ mail received! sender: venti

you had every ounce of reason to believe that the boisterous bard was in fact not a mortal. he knew mondstadt like the back of his hand - i mean seriously, do all bards recite the crevices of a cliff face the way that he does? - and even drunk he could blabber for hours on mondstadt’s history, occasionally mentioning things that were not public knowledge.

therefore you knew you’d be swallowing yourself into a mess when you fell head over heels for that playful giggle, the lingering taste of wine on his lips between kisses and how he always seemed to reassure you so perfectly - regardless of whether you worshipped the archon of anemo or not (he doesn’t mind anyways!)

you remember the day that he finally gave up his secret well. it was carved into your memory the same way venti had every inch of his country burned into his mind, the rocks, the lakes, the trees he rustled with familiar, warm breezes as you walk under them. you’d been ill for months, seeking help from a multitude of doctors to try pinpoint exactly what was wrong - it turns out you didn’t have long left to live. in a bout of emotion, venti exposed his true identity to you underneath windrise, not far from a statue of his own person.

one attachment added!

a gasp falls from your lips, another coughing fit shaking your body as venti perches himself down beside you on the picnic blanket, his hand rubbing your back warmly. you flash him an appreciative smile, to which your boyfriend returns as he presses a kiss to your head. weakly, you raise a tissue to your mouth as you continue to cough, as if something is stuck in your throat.

it’s becoming harder to breathe and when that lump in your throat finally hacks up, the white tissue in your hand stains a bright red. venti’s eyes notice it before you do, the hairs on the back of his neck standing in a panic as his breath hitches - no, you couldn’t possibly be leaving him this soon?

it was as if celestia was mocking him for falling in love with a human in the first place. a mortal with an archon? a concept so amusing in the eyes of those who live forever. it was bad enough falling for you knowing you too would leave him one day but it was even more of a stab to his chest when you were ill with mere months left.

“windblume?” venti whispers, concerned when you don’t respond straight away. your breaths are staggered, weak and wheezing somewhat. it feels like your lungs are filling with liquid, drowning out your vital organs as you become dizzy. your vision is darkening, static around the edges as you look over at your boyfriend.

he’s crying; rivers of precious, glittering tears are dancing down pale cheeks as he stares at you in fear. there’s no reassuring him now. you know that venti has seen his fair share of death, you couldn’t lie to him in such a scenario.

“in… another lifetime, okay?” your voice cracks, you’re running out of oxygen when your chest tightens and constricts like there’s a heavy weight pressing on you, “i-i love you.”

“wait- no!” venti cries out, catching you as your body slumps forward, your eyes unblinking. he squeezes you close, burying his face into your shoulder when he can’t hear your struggled gasps for breath anymore, “i love you too…”

✉️ mail received! sender: zhongli

he figured he’d done a good job of hiding his status as an archon, especially when he tries to emphasise that he is retired - xiao will always send him a straight, deadpanned look in response to this that makes you giggle. you’d seen through it all, namely because you’d been familiar with xiao prior to meeting zhongli. you knew the last remaining yaksha well, on friendly terms.

you knew xiao wouldn’t just respond to anyone the way that he does zhongli. you’d seen first hand how the adeptus responds at the voice of the taller man - obedient and loyal. not to mention, you’d heard plenty of times when xiao stumbles on his words, referring to zhongli by his archon name before his cheeks flush and he stutters out his human name instead.

zhongli thought the idea of love mediocre. it never seemed to impress him - you suspected that there had been a past lover involved but neither xiao nor zhongli confirmed or denied your suspicions. you also knew however that zhongli had every right not to return your feelings. what would an archon ever want with a human anyways?

but the benevolent turned archon cracked under your smile and contagious energy, admitting that he was an archon the same night he had said his true feelings out loud into the night of guyun stone forest - where he had taken you to delve into liyue’s history. it was a personal favourite activity to do with you, your eyes glittering whenever he’d speak of events long ago.

sadly, zhongli knows that he had delved too deep into too many scenarios for his own good, trusting the fatui within liyue at what cost?

one attachment added!

guyun stone forest was as peaceful as ever, the waves rolling up the sand beaches in melodies you wished you could paint on a canvas. zhongli knew you particularly loved this spot - he’d offered to take you to jueyun karst this evening but you was hellbent on coming back to guyun stone forest, a harsh reminder of the archon war to the tall male.

yet as peaceful as it was, a solace that the two of you would cherish any other day, there was the struggled gasps of your breath that broke the silence, meshing with the crash of waves and the whip of the wind on liyue’s coastline.

golden eyes stare at you, panicked and dilated as he takes in the way your blood is staining your attire, painting it red in the shade of jueyun chilis - would he ever look at the specialities of his own country the same again? let alone the location that he held the most memories at, especially with you, the only one he’d truly let close again?

“zhongli?” you whisper, watching the way he’s clutching his polearm with such vigor, brandishing it in anger after having fought off your attackers. if he wasn’t wearing his gloves, you’d see the way his knuckles are turning white.

“how are you feeling? does it hurt?” his polearm clatters to the stony pebbles of the beach you stood on, the very pebbles that are splattered in blood - not just yours but of numerous fatui lackeys zhongli had put to rest in your defence. he rushes to your side, gloved hands cupping your face as he makes you look up at him.

“it burns, li,” you wince, breathing is starting to hurt. it’s starting to take its toll paired with the blood loss zhongli knows he can’t stop, “i’ll be waiting for you in our next lifetime.”

zhongli grimaces at your words, not willing to grasp the concept of you dying yet - no, he possibly couldn’t. he was prepared for much longer time with you, he couldn’t have it cut so short. but he watches the way the sparkle is dying from your eyes, chapped lips parted as shallow breaths leave them.

“perhaps, then we will get this whole thing right, my love,” he reassures, a hand falling down to your waist when your knees buckle weakly under you, protecting your fragile body from the stones below, “i love you, y/n, always.”

✉️ mail received! sender: ei

following the traveler’s escapades in inazuma, ei wandered inazuma city many days to bask in the sunlight she hadn’t seen in decades. she’d hang around a particular café, one where you worked as a waitress delivering cups of hot matcha to tables of smiling elderly couples, dying old together until their last days. ei would sink deeper into thought whenever she saw you, some days even managing to run into you when you wasn’t working - it truly was accidental!

you would be a fool to not recognise her as inazuma’s archon, to which you do. she knows this when you respond to her in polite, formal gestures and yet you never fear her. you never cower in her presence or shake and shiver. it’s a peace she had yet to experience in her time out of the plane of euthymia.

when she announces her feelings to you, under the dazzling, colourful displays of naganohara fireworks in a quiet spot of tenshukaku’s gardens, she makes it clear that you will leave this realm of existence before her - without her. you do not fear this idea either, the same way you do not fear her. ei finds it courageous that you do not fear death as others around her do.

you do fear her capabilities as an archon, the destruction she can cause in mere seconds and the enemies she makes in the blink of an eye but ei never meant for it to turn out this way, they were her enemies to deal with, not yours.

one attachment added!

“ei…?” her name falls from your lips within seconds of your attack, a red river trickling from the corner of your mouth as ei lowers you to the grass below, kneeling at your side as she holds you close in her arms.

“shh, my dear, it is okay.” ei coos, raising a shaking hand to brush her thumb against your cheek, collecting tears yet to fall from your eyes although she can see them sparkling in rhe moonlight. thunder roars over head, lightning flashing around you in the midst of ei’s anger and worry.

it is the first time she has seen you so fearful with eyes wide as you choke on your own blood, coughing it up. it splashes onto her pale skin but she does not react, watching you helplessly as her grip on you tightens.

“this is it, isn’t it?” you ask with a raspy voice, a single tear rolling down your cheek that ei wasn’t quick enough to wipe away in time. ei flashes a sad smile down at you, not wanting to say the words you crave to hear.

“you belong with me - you know that, yes?” she suddenly states, her voice firm but there’s a slight waver in her tone, “maybe in another world or lifetime but i know you belong with me.”

you choke on a sob at her words, succumbing to your injuries as they burn and sting, red drops of blood dripping to the ground below and staining blades of grass. ei presses her lips to your head in a silent reassurance, knowing that nothing she could say would bring you calm now. nothing would bring you the divinity you feel when the two of you would sit under a shared parasol in tenshukaku’s gardens or wandered in the shallow waters of inazuma’s coastlines barefooted.

ei keeps her lips pressed to your clammy skin until your sobs and cries of how painful it is subdue, leaving her with your lifeless body in her arms. only then does the woman cry, screaming out into the night sky in a battle with the thunder - who truly felt more anger in that moment? she wails, wondering if she’ll ever live without the ones she loves getting taken from her so brutally.

© https-furina 2023.

#꒰꒰・♡ cold cases #https-furina #genshin #genshin impact #genshin angst #genshin impact angst #genshin venti #genshin zhongli #genshin ei #ei #venti #zhongli #ei x reader #venti x reader #zhongli x reader

[maydayissleepy]

With the semester ending I've got more free time but not more free energy,,, so I've been thinking about music again can't you tell

Anyway. Here's that Starset lyrics I relate to the twins post I promised like a month ago. Most of it is based on my own thoughts about them and my au tbh

And these won't include Every song in each album obviously but I do reccomend listening to them all anyway if rock is your genre

ALBUM- Transmissions

Down with the fallen- (listen recommended)

- includes guttural scream

No particular lyrics I'd like to point out, however because the lyrics suggest the singer is seeking some sort of support for uncertainty, has fallen to a low point in life, has themes of identity in war/death, I will deem it Acronix core

Halo-

While majority of the song is not stuff I'd totally associate with either of the twins, I do enjoy a few sets of lyrics for Acronix

[If it means the death of me, I won't let go]

[If you just say the word

I'll be there by your side]

Carnivore-

. Morro song actually

It has begun-

YEAH!! TWINS LORE CORE!!

[But everyone knows by now

Fairy tales are not found

They're written in the walls]

[But nothing could ever stop us

From stealing our own place in the sun

We will face the odds against us

And run into the fear we run from]

My demons-

Acronix core just by the name. I mean c'mon.

Antigravity-

Krux core just a touch, mainly because of the beginning  verse

[The more I fight, the more I work

The more I dig into the dirt

To be fed up, to be let down

To somehow turn it all around

But then fate knocks me to my knees

And sets new heights beyond my reach]

The future is now-

Just this one lyric for Krux. As a treat

[I have half a life to rewrite]

Point of no Return- (listen reccommended)

!! Acronix core fr !! A song about being drawn to fight? Absolutely

[There's a memory of how we used to be

That I can see through the flames]

[Embracing the fear, chasing the fight

The glow of the fire will light up the night

The bridges are burning, the heat's on my face

Making the past an unreachable place

Pouring the fuel, fanning the flames

I know, this is the point of no return

It's uncontrollable

Such a beautiful desire

There's something sinister about the way it hurts

When I watch it burn

Because I can't go back

The ashes call my name]

Not included in what I relate to the twins, but I still highly reccomend listening to- Let it die & Telescope

ALBUM- Vessels

Satellite- (listen reccommended)

Okay for this one I'll drag my ocs into the mix, because for these specific lyrics I'd associate with Krux/Roya

[Far across the emptiness I walk the night

And search the silence in the dark you left behind]

[And I won't suppose to know why you walked away]

And. These lyrics I don't relate to anything but they're some of my favorite ever so perceive them anyway

[I seek the stars above the world to be the guides

But they all pale against the light in your eyes]

Frequency- (listen reccommended)

-Includes guttural scream

Actually. More Krux/Roya stuff

[I was scanning through the skies

And missed the static in your eyes]

[And now the silence screams that you are gone

You've tuned me out, I've lost your frequency]

[These memories

They never leave]

Into the unknown-

-includes guttural scream

The beginning verse is actually Acronix in the time vortex guys

[Dislocated

Self is fading

Falling back from what I was

Flying through existence

Tumbling towards a burning sun

Something screaming in the distance

Telling me to come

It's calling me]

Gravity of you- (! LISTEN RECCOMMENDED !)

HOLY SHITTT

Intro verse? Time twins and the iron doom.

[There's a silencing

As the machine arrives here

I feel it pulling me

I feel the past that's died here

I hear it calling me

"You can come alive here"

I hear it beckoning

Until I am inside]

[A new world is breaking]

Noww the rest of this is Acronix and Cyrus stuff for my au. Because Ow

[I feel you here with me

When all the hope has died here

It's boring holes in me

Enough to get inside]

[To fall in the star is to be nothingness

To escape is to be empty

Fall into the star and then we won't exist

Or escape into the nothing

Your sky

The beauty alone is worth it

I will risk it all to own it]

Back to the Earth-

Not much here because its mainly a song for the instrumentals, but I always associated it with Acronix in the time vortex. The end is so GOOD though. Goddamn can Starset can make a cinematic song

Last to fall-

Krux lryics? Krux lyrics.

[This world is changing

But I'm still the same]

Bringing it down- (listen reccommended)

-includes guttural scream

Ooh okay so Roya lyrics. About Krux

[There's something inside you that isn't right

There's something that haunts your dreams at night

There's something that you have lost

And you're bringing it down

You're bringing it down

On top of us]

Monster-

In a shocking turn of events, song named Monster has. Krux associated lyrics??

[I've made an art of digging shallow holes

I'll drop the darkness in and watch it grow

My heart's an artifice, a decoy soul

Who knew the emptiness could be so cold?

I've lost the parts of me that make me whole]

Telepathic- (Listen Reccommended)

Pov Acronix has a crush on Cyrus but he doesn't know what the hell that feeling IS and he thinks he just wants to be Really Good Friends with Cyrus because he's Smart

[You had me under spell right from the start

I don't have a telepathic heart]

[But I don't ever know just what we are

I don't have a telepathic heart]

[Give me the words to say to make it enough]

[Should've never felt this way

Cause you're the sun and I'm just a moon

I'm in the dark 'till you light the way]

Everglow- (you already KNOW listen reccommended)

-30. Second. Long. Scream. What more can I say

I dont even relate the lyrics to either of the twins but the scream holy hell. Immediately Acronix core

Not included in what I relate to the twins, but I still highly reccomend listening to- RICOCHET!!!!!

ALBUM- DIVISIONS

(Btw this is when they started giving each of their songs individual symbols. GOOD SOUP)

Echo-

I'm finding many more sets of lyrics for Krux rather than than whole songs like with Acronix. Probably because Starset is more themed with futuristic/Space stuff. Anyway. Specific lyrics for Krux again. And Roya. They've been on my mind alot recently ok

[I know life is a journey

So what happened to me?]

[I know life is a journey

But you gave up on me early

Tell me, why were you in such a hurry?

I don't know, I don't know]

*skips basically the entire album*

Diving Bell- (! Listen Reccommended !)

Oooooh ow wait okay Actually. Actually. Krux core. Breaking news this hits closer to how I imagine him dealing with his problems more than I ever imagined

Just. The entire song ok (except for versions with the "wake me when the new day comes" bit at the end. Ignore that)

Songs I don't particularly relate to the twins but I still recommend listening to- Other worlds than these, Faultline, Telekinetic

ALBUM- HORIZONS

Devolution- (listen reccommended :) )

-includes guttural scream

Krux lyrics yippee!

[We've been burying the pages

We've been trying to erase this

Built a wall between the truth and us

And it's not enough]

Symbiotic- (listen reccommended)

I have no good reason to call this one Acronix core but I will and you can't stop me

Dreamcatcher- (listen reccommended)

Cyrus song Actually. I relate it to how the Overlord stuff in season 3 effected him, it likely making him much more cautious about how he's developing his technology and keeping it out of the wrong hands, likely feeling a sort of duty or obligation to do so and work even harder because of the trouble it had already caused ninjago.

[I know I can't fix what's broken

If I just pretend to try

I'll follow the path I've chosen

Searching in the endless night]

Something Wicked-

-includes guttural scream

For Krux, It was mostly here for some stuff for an early draft of my au but there's still alot about it that I love

[I've been digging through the dirt that was left behind

I've been dredging through the mud for it]

[How can I tell if the sky is falling?

How can I fix what there is no mending?

How can I tell if I am not well?

I've lost myself

I have come undone]

[And all of the horses

And all of the men

Won't put it back in place

Or bury it where it had been

When all of the forces

Have been overrun

You'll whisper, serpent tongue

What you fear you have become]

Songs I don't relate to the twins but still reccommend listening to- Icarus, Infected, The Breach, and Otherworldly.

And a NOTE about Otherworldly, Has one of the song bits ever, 2:57 to 4:10. Good Soup.

I'm not gonna go into their singles or MNQN for now but perhaps in the future

#mayday's the eleventh hour #mayday's music thoughts

[dr3amofagame]

I promised twt a threadfic bc like man for a writer I’ve really just been posting NOTHING and I figured I’d put it here too - I planned on making it cover more of the scrapped lore but it just ended up being c!Dream and c!Sam having an awkward conversation in a box for an excessive amount of time again whoops. 

tw: fictional abuse, torture, starvation references, c!Sam is an unreliable narrator and c!Dream is trying to convince him of things, which always makes for a fun combo ! i love them your honor

“Prove,” Dream says, barely over a whisper, “that you’re different.”

Sam scoffs. His trident scrapes over obsidian. A chip shatters, jumps over the ground, sharp and brittle. Sam watches as it settles into the dimpled surface of the floor. No mining fatigue - the obsidian feels so much more fragile, here. 

A chattering crash of chains; the iron-clad tip of Sam’s boot digs into a furrow in the ground; he turns, furrowed brows. Dream’s knees bleed, where they are pressed into the obsidian. It is still newly hewn. Sharp-edged.

“I have nothing I need to prove to you.” Clipped words. He doesn’t reach for his mask - or worse, the jagged line of the scar that slips underneath it, the metal reconstructing his eye socket, the redstone whirring set into his skull. (Red, red, burying deeper-)

Sam turns, and betrays nothing. The butt of his trident does not touch the ground.

“Sam,” Dream calls (and he calls, and he calls, because Dream does not speak without expecting an answer-) “Sam, he’ll kill me, you know he will-“

“You killed me.” A clack, teeth clicking together, jaw snapping shut. Sam’s hand reaches up towards the edge of his mask with a mind of its own and he pushes it down when he realizes it’s in line with his shoulders. He doesn’t turn around. 

“That- that’s true,” Dream murmurs, and Sam wants to tell him to stop sounding like that. Like he’s conceding - Dream doesn’t surrender. Never when it really matters - his eye, the metal one, swivels and hums. “To- to be fair, it was only- one life.”

“That doesn’t make it better,” Sam snaps - his grip tightens on the trident and he swears that static jumps up its handle, even though this isn’t even the one with Channeling. 

(Dream’s voice, and he’s left a live wire - rising heat, sparks flashing. His stomach flips in nausea and nerves and hunger.) 

“And this isn’t for me,” Sam mutters, three paces right. The cell is built wrong - it’s too wide. He keeps stopping a block and a half short of the wall. “You shouldn’t be free, Dream.”

“…well,” a pause - Sam imagines Dream’s bottom lip caught between his teeth- “That’s- a bit of a- a matter of perspective,” a beat, fingers tapping against his thigh, “right?”

“Do not try this again, Dream,” Sam says, still refusing to look behind him to the pale face behind the glass. He can imagine his expression well enough without sparing more of his time and attention to Dream’s manipulations. “The only perspective you care about is your own.”

…okay,” Dream’s voice is slow, weighing every word. Metal against metal, another lapse in sound - Sam corrects his mental image. Dream can’t fidget with his hands when they're tied behind his back. None of the crying obsidian is in the right place; a drop lands to his left, shattering against the edge of a block, torn apart on its knife’s edge. Purple splatters, beads against the side of his boot. “Okay- fine. I- this isn’t about the prison.” 

Sam scoffs. Everything is about the prison. He turns to examine the floor, the missing netherite barrier. 

“Sam,” Dream’s voice pitches higher. More desperate. “Sam, you know he’ll kill me.” 

“I know,” Sam replies, tone unwavering. The silence returns. Sam tries to imagine his face - twisted in anger, maybe, at being so casually rebuffed - or have his eyes widened in that meaningless mockery of terror? Or perhaps he has his eyebrows furrowed in that searching glare towards the floor - examining the obsidian for cracks. Examining Sam for weakness, for a foothold, for that pin to push and pry at ‘til it all gives way and he’s granted the keys of the kingdom.

There is no such pin, Sam is sure. Dream has run out of options, this time - at Sam’s mercy. Justice upheld. No more words, no more lies - just silence, in all its solid comfort. Under his mask, he feels the corners of his lips twitch, the way the scar splitting his face in two moves with the motion. 

Dream’s voice is low. “You can’t get the revive book if I’m dead.” 

“So give it over, and I’ll keep you alive.” Sam raises his eyebrow, one last gambit. He’s not expecting much - it’s almost rote, at this point. He asks, and Dream denies him. Dream calls, and he never enters the cell. There is nothing they share that does not demand surrender. 

“No- then you’ll kill me!” 

“I already told you that I wouldn’t.” 

“You-” Dream cuts himself off. “Quackity is going to kill me.” 

“Give me the book,” Sam repeats, “and I won’t let Quackity kill you.” 

“Stop lying to me.” Dream’s voice wavers. Redstone hums next to Sam’s ear, a staticky low buzz. He looks up, watches the torches flicker on the wall. The light is softer than the overwhelming heat and light of the lava curtain. The flames dance and flicker. 

“I don’t lie,” Sam says, closing his eyes. The air in this cell is cool - cold, even. A little damp. “I’m not like you, Dream.” 

“...you’re not,” Dream echoes, and his voice sets Sam’s teeth on edge. “You’re not. You’re not like me and- and you’re not like him.” 

Sam’s jaw twitches. The chains rattle; Dream’s breathing rattles with them. 

“I lied- to you. I betrayed you, I manipulated you,” Dream breathes, like some twisted confession, the things that Sam knows but hates hearing Dream say anyway. The things Dream will admit despite this, or maybe because of this, the things he will only tell Sam. He finally turns around, one slow step after another, until he has traced a half-circle back to the center of the cell and is facing directly across from where Dream is chained on his knees behind the glass. Dream’s gaze flicks upwards. “I killed you.” 

Dream’s hand, around the pickaxe’s handle. Quackity somewhere above them both, finding the same pickaxe, blood and gore on the prison’s floor. Sam doesn’t quite flinch, but there’s an ache to his jaw, his temple. 

“You know what Quackity will do.” Stripped of his armor, his mask, it’s easier to see the way that the muscles over the back of his neck and shoulders screw tight, the anxious flicks of his eyes - the floor, the ceiling, Sam. The floor, again. It’s nothing like the prison, where skin stretched thin over bone left little to the imagination, where he’d walked into the room with Dream cracked open, laid bare, more times than he cared to count. “You- you know, Sam. You know-” 

Sam clears his throat, and the sound echoes. Dream’s mouth shuts. 

“...you- you’re not the same, as us.” Dream looks up and meets his eyes. The light in them isn’t a constant thing, like it was in the prison - it flickers and grows and dims, twin spires of flames from the torches fixed on the wall behind him. He wets his lips; his voice hardens. “Prove that you’re not the same as us.” 

Sam glares. Dream’s eyes narrow, searching. 

“Prove that you’re different, prove you’re nothing- nothing like the two of us. You know what I’ve done, fine. You know what Quackity can do. Has done. Look at this place, Sam, look at- this isn’t- you’re not-“ 

“This is justice.” Sam gestures at the walls of the cell, and Dream flinches, swallows. 

“No- no,” Dream shakes his head. “This is murder. This is- you know what Quackity is like. You think this will be quick?” 

“If you stayed in the prison, then you wouldn’t be here.” 

“Fine. Fine- but he’ll torture me. And then he’ll kill me. He’ll kill me, Sam, you know he will.” 

Sam breathes out, slow and harsh through his nose. He opens his mouth to speak and doesn’t say a word. 

“Prove that you’re different,” Dream’s Adam’s apple bobs, neck straining to look up at Sam - he doesn’t remember stepping this close. He’s too aware of every movement, every blink, his hands twitching at his sides. “And let me go.” 

#my writing !! #lord i just post NOTHING nowadays im so sorry #this is very short too SKSKSK

[thelador-s-mclargehuge]

Episode 3, Finding some footing!

So this is where I started to find where I stood in the series. The last couple of posts was just me going scene by scene describing things, this one I want to focus in on two things. Starting a Lore Bible, and Action Scenes.

So between ep 2 and 3 I took a trip to my grandmas which is always good to get the creative juices flowing. And I knew the Mantis Lords were coming up, and I thought "Mantises are kinda tied in to a lot of places, what with the Trator Lord, the breakup between the tribes, and the pale mourner quest. It seems like there's a lot of fertile ground for lore expansion there!" So I started expanding The Mantis stuff. Then I kept going. I'd established that Fighting History, was going to be a simplified version off Film History I'd already name dropped Zells and Hilltop, during the hornet fight. How much farther can I go with that? And maybe I should give the exposition to Sly.

The Concept I had for Quirrel was based on a Blade Runner 2049 reference I used him to make in the old series... but what if I Kept Expanding Outward.

And eventually, it was time to make this episode. Here is where I had an idea of where to go after this. I'd been playing it by ear up until this point, with a few exceptions. I knew how I was going to do some story beats, like Myla and The Ending. But now I knew what direction I was taking everything else. Hollow Knights lore is veeery open to interpretation. And If I was going to make a narrative series out of it. I needed to interpret. So I decided to go hard on that. I'd say I threw off my shackles and made my own cannon, but Hollow Knight's cannon is a tapestry filled with bits torn out on purpose. So I just filled them in. And while filling them in I realized how wide the canvas was. So I just kept going. And I'm still going!

And ultimately, going that direction I think is the best way to go. Everyone watching the series probably know how the story goes. And it's going to go mostly the same way. But it sure feels a lot different when you've got a lot more going on. And I still got a lot of surprises up my sleeve!

Now let's talk about the fight scenes. So something I didn't talk about during the Episode 2 behind the scenes is that I stopped rendering these videos in 60fps. The reason I did that is because, with the dynamic cutting, the Hornet Fight Scene just looked *way worse* in 60FPS. That framerate is really good when you have to watch out for Hornet's attacks, and therefor are focusing on a mostly static screen where the movement is done by the character and not the camera.

But when every action gets it's own cut, And the camera AND the characters are moving 60FPS can get visually overwhelming. You don't need to actively interact with A Youtube Video. The editing and camera movement does that for you! And if you just have a static screen of the characters moving it looses a majority of the 'oomph' quick cuts, zooms, and framing can give you. It's incredibly boring!

So I render these in 30FPS exclusively now.

But the reason I bring that up is that I noticed something else in the Hornet Fight It's very vertical, and Academy Ratio Widescreen looks much better than 16:9.

So i played around in the hornet fight a little, and eventually decided against going with that. Because hornet did do a lot of jumping in the air and having the full 16:9 rectangle gave me a lot more vertical room.

But I didn't need that with the Moss guards.

So the day before it needed to be released, I looked at it, and it felt like half an episode. There wasn't really a conclusion to it. 'cus at that point it just had the moss guard fight on the bridge and "Still Counts!" was all the training out lil guy did the whole episode.

So I thought "Why don't I just put, like, another fight scene in there where he learns something?"

So I did that. Then I went back to my Widescreen idea.

And I thought to myself "Okay, pretentious much? You're just gonna change the aspect ratio purely for the fight scene on your Hollow Knight Youtube Video?" Everything Everywhere All At Once hadn't come out yet, you see.

So I thought "Well okay, If I'm gonna do that. I think I need another reason for it to be there other than It Looks Better This Way" Which was wrong, of course, that's always a good enough reason. but I thought "If he's training, maybe those are the margins the character writes his notes in. He can put boss attack strategies in there!"

And, while it's been a pain in the ass and a helova lot of work. It's honestly one of the best ideas I had for the series! And I made it 3 hours before my final render lol. Sometimes you give yourself needless barriers, but sometimes a clever solution to something that isn't a problem, turns it into a new cool thing. Not always. Probably not usually. But sometimes!

#HKRBTS #Hollow Knight #funny #Behind The Scenes #content creation #hollow knight resurrected #Youtube

[southerndragontamer]

Happy Halloween 2: Tricks and Treats

Halloween was known for being the time of year for costumes, for pranks and candy, for scary stories and for those who practiced magic to find a zenith of power from the veil between worlds being at its thinnest.

Of course for you, this meant you were at home for the night, porch lit for trick or treaters with a big bowl of candy and baked goods nearby and while you waited for anyone to show up you were watching scary videos. More specifically you were watching Mark’s and Jack’s older Darkiplier and Antisepticeye videos. What could you say, you loved the pair of dark sides and their stories even if Dark’s was more fleshed out at the moment, Anti’s was catching up with the lore from Anomaly.

As you switched from Raspy Hill to the start of Sister Location, you shivered as it suddenly felt like it got colder, as you heard the hum of your lights increase. You pulled the blankets more around yourself in response and tried to tell yourself you were being silly, you’d done this before and there hadn’t been anything like this. It was just the excitement of the holiday getting to you.

But for a split second you could’ve sworn there was an extra giggle in the video from the glitch.

When you switched again, this time to Dark’s part in ADWM, there was definitely an electronic almost static hiss and the lights dimmed a bit more than usual…you felt chills down your spine. You could’ve sworn for a second there was a smugness to Dark’s smile when he appeared. You had the urge to go check the breaker and out of worry for the wiring, you paused things and did so. Your flashlight scanned over the breaker box, nothing seemed out of the ordinary and when you touched any outlets they were room temperature so you didn’t think anything was in danger of catching fire, which relieved you as you went back to the living room.

You blinked, the video you’d had your phone on had changed to the PAX video for Anti. You hadn’t changed it before you left, had you? You must’ve though there wasn’t any other way for it to have switched, you shook your head and told yourself you were getting caught up again. But while it was there you clicked play.

When Anti said that you’d found someone to replace him, there was this sneer to his face that hadn’t been there last time…he spoke with more of a snarl. You swallowed down the instinctive rebuttal as there wasn’t any way for him to hear you anyway and this was an old video it shouldn’t be changing…Then Anti suddenly laughed, a feral grin stretched across his face and you felt your stomach drop as his voice whispered in your headphones.

“Are ye so sure o’ tha’ puppet~?”

You threw your headphones off, paling as the realization that you were in the middle of something you really should not be and yelped as a clawed hand broke through the screen of your phone like it was little more than water. You threw your phone as the lights flickered and started to flare green and then red like an alarm.

Anti glitched his way out of your device in a way that looked painful considering how small the screen was, his form flickered between the more animalistic and more calm fury he’d shown recently, scar dripped with almost black blood as his eyes either green eyeshine or a manic green and blue or black, locked onto you.

You bolted and he cackled, the sound piercing and made your head ache to the point you almost collapsed, you were half blind in panic as you ran through your own home to try to get to the backdoor. It felt strange all of a sudden, the wood creaked and groaned and seemed to warp under your feet, the static and white noise was right behind you. Lights popped and glass shattered from the overload of power that was forced through them with a near hungry hissing growl.

“Ye can run but ye can’t hide from me puppet~”

You felt your lungs begin to burn, your blood roared in your ears and you couldn’t speak from the terror that constricted your throat, the static felt like it was right at your back. Anti was closing in on you, you had to get away you didn’t want to be caught, you sprinted and leapt for the doorway.

The ground suddenly fell away underneath your feet as if it had never been there, a furious, brain scrambling sound that was almost a roar almost made your ears bleed as clawed hands swiped against the ends of your hair in an attempt to grab you as you fell into cold black that surrounded your home.

The air was stolen out of your lungs, you didn’t have any time to scream as wind whipped around you and you subconsciously flailed blindly in an attempt to try to catch yourself. But of course in the void there was nothing to grab onto, instead a hand clamped around your wrist and almost wrenched your shoulder out of its socket. Your head snapped up, wide eyed as you began to pant now that you weren’t in an endless free-fall into oblivion…to meet Dark’s gaze.

The shadow smirked at you as he lifted you to the patch of land that appeared underneath him. It looked like glass…or maybe a frozen lake, it shined like a black mirror…and let you go. You panted hard, trembling as your body tried to leave the adrenaline fueled survival state you’d just been in. There was a soft tsk, and your chin was being tilted up just so to make eye contact with Dark as he softly rumbled.

“You poor thing, so terrified…Anti’s always been a brute on these nights. You’re fortunate that you weren’t solely in his camp hmm darling?”

You shivered softly and swallowed, you didn’t really know how to react to any of this even as on reflex your cheeks tinted with heat. You felt calmer now, the last of the panic left you as he talked like a hypnotic charm. Dark stroked your chin just once before he stepped back, his touch lingered on your skin. You took a deep breath and stood up as you refound your wits, about to answer him when there was a cascade of static and green flared into black as Anti manifested on the other side and prowled over to reach Dark.

“Oh no ye don’t ye icy bastard! They’re mine!”

Dark chuckled and smirked, hands behind his back in his usual position as he responded back with a twitch of his lip.

“Your name isn’t on them Anti, and they quite literally fell into my hands. Am I supposed to just ignore that?”

Anti bared his teeth in a feral manner, crackling with energy as his body flickered and glitched and you couldn’t really look at him for long or your eyes almost crossed.

“Fockin yes! Ye know what my strings feel like and they’re covered in em!”

You looked down at yourself confused and partly in shock and concern and gasped a little as you saw green strings coiled around your wrists and body, you felt them tight around your throat like a choker. Dark’s scoff made you look up to the arguing Egos.

“And you know what my shadows feel like, and they’re also covered in them.”

Your eyes widened more as you saw them as well now, wispy smoke-like shadows curled around your body just like Anti’s strings, the two forces were mixed around, the static sparked against the frost that the shadows created. Clearly, neither of them liked ti share, which was proven when Dark sighed and let out a growl at the same time.

“It appears we’re at an impasse, they’re equally claimed.”

Anti didn’t speak in words but the visceral sound of fury he made in response made you clamp your hands over your ears to try to stop the pain that erupted in your mind. Your vision swam in and out of focus after it stopped and you whimpered a little, unsure if it was the aftermath of whatever pulse had been through your body or if it was the fact that you were in the Void but Dark and Anti didn’t..look normal.

Anti was a mess of static, glitches, multiple eyes of different shades of green, black or blue even brown, and too long limbs with knife like claws, too wide grin with too many teeth, for a few moments his neck looked like a second maw, as his body contorted and twisted you felt nauseated.

Dark was almost the same shade as the abyss around you all, outlined in red and blue that was cracked and fractured and held together like broken glass, three pairs of eyes, one blue, one red, one outlined in a faint silver, his body looked too big, too much in the space and you felt squished.

You couldn’t really…focus, it felt like too much for your human mind, the next second the two of them flickered back to ‘normal’ human bodies again. Masks back in place. They looked at you, then each other and then they both smirked.

“Looks like you have to make a choice darling.”

“We do not share puppet, yer lucky I’m even entertainin t’is shite”

You looked between them and your heart sank slowly in your chest and you swallowed hard. You didn’t know who you should pick…what would happen if you made the wrong choice…but you had to. The clock was ticking, unless time didn’t exist here? Time was broken for the both of them after all.

There was a soft hum and it was both of static and shadow as they waited for you to speak up, to make a choice between them. Between Dark’s cold nature that spoke of blunt truth, that you’d be treated like a bird in a gilded cage who would hardly notice when something happened. Or Anti’s unpredictable nature that was hard to tell whether he lied or told the truth, that you’d be treated like a plaything who would need to pay attention.

This was a twisted Trick or Treat….and you had no way to know which would be which until you picked it.

#Darkiplier #Man with No Shadow #Markiplier Ego #Markiplier Fandom #Antisepticeye #Glitch Demon #Jacksepticeye Ego #Jacksepticeye Fandom #Fanfic #South Writes #I literally had a burst of inspiration this morning that led me to write this #So you guys get two fics today! #Over 13

[enkisstories]

Detroit Disco

I’m in the process of creating the Disco Elysium precint 41 officers as sims to unleash them into my Detroit save. In the meantime have this drabble:

Detective Gavin Reed pressed his phone to his ear, only to move it further out the very next moment. The background noise was worse than ever. It was almost transcending static noise and coalescing into sentences, the echoes of each and every phone calls that had been made in Detroit since the invention of the telegraph.

“You were saying what?” Gavin asked. “Ah, I see. A drunk police lieutenant. Laid waste to his hotel room and threatened to blast his own brain out. Huh, right, that really sounds like ours. I’ll send someone over to pick him up.”

The detective covered the phone’s micro with his hand. “Your partner was found, Connor. I’ll dispatch a patrol android to fetch him.”

Returning to the phone, Gavin asked: “But how in hell did you manage to rile the motherfucker up like that? Wait, he did what? Toss your Great Skua against the wall? Why’d you show him a fucking Great Skua anyway? Hank is phobic of flock birds, of course he’d lose it, man! That’s on you!”

♪♫ So turn ‘round the fire with a glass of strong ale ♪♫ the stereo bawled. ♪♫ And tell us a story from beyond the Pale ♪♫

In Detroit PJ700-302 entered a regular DPD patrol car to drive to Martinaise. She returned with Harrier Du Bois.

In Revachol Judit Minot entered one of Precinct 41’s remaining three Coupris Kineemas to drive to Greektown. She returned with Hank Anderson.

Hank Anderson’s finger moved from one officer to the next.

“Gavin. Tina. David. Check.”

“No! Chester, Judit, Mack!”

“Uh-uh”, Hank shook his head. “That’s not Officer Mack. I’m a bit confused about how many Macks we have and what they all look like, but this man isn’t one of them.”

Three pairs of eyes moved towards the door when it opened. In came Trant Heidlstam, accompanied by Satellite-Officer Jean Vicquemare. A French sounding name, a name that wasn’t out of place in Detroit, similar to “Martinaise”. So why was Hank unable to place that particular neighborhood on his mental map of the city? He couldn’t have spaced out that badly?!

Jean took one look at the stranger, his internal Conceptualization and Visual Reconstruction agreed on the man’s differences to Harrier being neglible and therefore slotted him into the same spot in his mind, regardless of how often the other officers stressed that Hank wasn’t Harry. What the heck, they even started with the same letters!

“Look, I told you I didn’t want to deal with this crap. Clinically depressed and all.”

“Clinically?” That tidbit at least piqued Hank’s interested. “As in: diagnosed? I never had the energy to get diagnosed. Even if I had, what would it have changed… They’ll only ever tell you things aren’t the way you make them and the problem is you.”

Yay, all I need is a change in perspective and Cole is alive again!

“But things ARE the way they are, and so you nod sympathetically, tell the psycho lady her mantra has helped you a lot, go home and uncork another bottle. Not that anybody would fucking care. They only want you to function, like an android.”

There it was again. Androids. This Hank person mentioned them every second sentence, with great disgust, but also with a scarily detailed lore attached to the idea. Where Harry had temporarily forgotten reality in the past, Hank seemed to have filled the holes in his mind with a construct. A construct involving a slave race of artificial people. It was probably a highly sophisticated political commentary. Alas, it was also highly annoying.

“So what are we doing now with Commander Corkscrew?” Chester asked.

“Shut up, Gavin!” Hank snapped. “You’re not helping!”

“I’m not…”

“I said shut your trap! Not just because it’s enervating as hell, but if you are serious about your promotion, you got to act more professional!”

So. There. He had said it. There wasn’t anything wrong with Gavin Reed’s detective work, just a minor tendency to jump to conclusions. Putting effort into improving his work performance might earn Gavin a bit of promotion credit, but the big chunk was to be gained in the categories “Teamwork” and “Character development”, two areas the detective neglected.

“But I don’t care to get promoted!” Chester McLaine protested.

And then he screamed on top of his lungs, when Hank lunged forward, hugged him tightly, kissed him on his forehead and cheered: “That’s the spirit! Our boy is growing up!”

Falling back on what he had mentally filed as a Hank-repellent, Chester whimpered: “A… ndroid? Android!”

“Yes, yes”, Hank promised. “We’ll buy you one after your promotion.”

The promotion Chester McGavin didn’t want, the officers realized. So there was no risk of having to really gift him an android.

“Say, there is a certain logic to this man’s ramblings”, Trant mused. “His brain is working differently, but it is working. I’d say it’s save to put him back into the contest…”

“Case. You mean the murder case, of course”, Jean corrected. He liked where this was going (namely a Hank-free office).

“…and figure out everything else while we’re going”, Trant finished his sentence.

And so it was decided.

*

“I’m not Disco.”

“Come again?”

“I’m not Disco”, Connor repeated, clearly puzzled and probably also feeling insulted in a profound manner. “This is about the only thing I got out of the stranger. Other than that he isn’t Hank Anderson, I mean.”

Gavin Reed slammed his cup onto the table, causing an elaborate castle Officer Tina Chen had built from potato chips and nachos to crash.

“And why is that so?” the detective challenged Connor. “Why are you unable to make progress with the deviant cases or to find the amnesic weirdo in our database? Because you’re not Disco! See? He told you!”

Gavin triumphantly leaned back in his cafeteria chair. He really had no idea in what way not being “disco” was supposed be a shortcoming. But he wouldn’t have been Gavin Reed, had he not jumped to every opportunity to diminish Connor RK800.

“If only you tried to be more Disco, you’d have the deviant cases solved in no time!” Gavin went on, under the impression that he was driving the knife deeper.

Connor, however, blinked, and stated: “But then I’d replace you even earlier, detective. If I solved the deviant cases, I’d proven that the RK800 detective android is superior to a human one.”

“Oh, shut the fuck up!” Gavin demanded, while swiping the chips into Connor’s direction like artillery fire. Then he kicked his chair back, pounced Connor and rammed him against a column. “Take your racist bullshit out of my police station and don’t forget to grab your new partner on your way out! I don’t want to see either of you again before sunset!”

“My new partner?”

“Well, you lost your previous one. If you don’t want to file a Lost & Found, you better take Detective Mindblank along instead.”

“I don’t think the Lieutanent being missing warrants a Lost & Found, Detective.”

“Don’t want him back? In this case we agree on one thing. Nice!”

“No, I meant that a human missing warrants…”

But Tina and Gavin weren’t listening anymore. Grabbing the android’s right, respectively left, arm, they escorted him into the foyer.

“You have your orders.”

#detroit become human #dbh #disco elysium #dbhtextpost #sims4 dbh gameplay

[luxrayz64]

like ok I think for a video game to be adapted into a movie, you need two elements: you need strong, defined, pre-existing* characters, and a linear full story.

on the first point: I'm specifically looking at protagonists here. you don't want a silent protagonist to be adapted into the movie, because silent protagonists are not for that purpose; silent protagonists are for players to project onto**. without the player there, these characters fall flat because there's no character to invest in, nothing to get attached to, right?

like, let's take the knight of hollow knight fame. the knight is silent. the knight never shows any emotions. the knight is, for all intents and purposes, a blank slate. you can argue for characterisation: knocking the pale king's corpse off his throne, bringing flowers to elderbug, saving zote. but all of these actions are things that the PLAYER chooses to do. the knight doesn't do that. these are completely optional. it's entirely possible to playthrough the game with these events not happening. in fact, the complete opposite can occur: you can leave zote to die. you can kill the nailsmith instead of sparing him. none of these things have bearing on the knight's character, because the knight has no character outside of what the player gives them. So, if the knight were to be adapted faithfully into a movie, what would that look like?

well, there would be realistically two options: either keeping them as barren as before, or writing new character traits into them. on the first point: this would be boring to watch. it would also require skipping major events: having the knight choose to abandon zote because you don't want to make them kind is a character choice. having them save zote because you don't want them to seem callous is a character choice. without completely erasing zote (among other things) from the narrative, this first option is impossible.

the other option would be canonising one interpretation over everyone else's.

and to be clear, having characters be different between game and movie adaptions isn't necessarily a bad thing, as I'll get into in a second when I talk about sonic. but when this happens with a character like the knight, who has no established personality, it starts to get a little bit tricky. especially for a game like hollow knight, where it's non-linearity and open endings and vague lore are kind of the point! it's something that simply just doesn't mesh with film. it's something that only a video game can pull off and still be fulfilling.

so. what kind of characters are we looking for then?

well, as I foreshadowed just now, sonic!

sonic games are (for the most part) kind of the perfect example of a game begging for a video game adaptation. sonic, and everyone in his world, have defined personalities. specifically talking about sonic adventure 2, every character has a strong introduction that tells you very explicitly what they're about, characters have character arcs (outside of sonic himself - I'll get to that) and while the plot is shown in a non-linear fashion with the hero/dark/true stories, it's not all that hard to fit it into one linear story. very little would be lost in adapting this story because the player interaction was never really all that important.

sonic is a great character. you know exactly what he's about. you're not making decisions for him, your only job here is getting him from point A to point B. as the protagonist, he's a static character: he never grows or changes within his games, because he's the one impacting everyone else. to adapt him to a movie, liberties will have to be taken - static characters are much less engaging when you're not in control of them after all - but he has a strong enough character to begin with that whatever you do change won't matter; as long as he has that trademark cocky, carefree attitude of his, you'll recognise him as sonic. and the movies do in fact do this. they make him younger, less experienced. he has to grow into his video game counterpart. but at the end of the day, he's cocky, carefree and will always stand up and fight: he's still recognisably sonic the hedgehog.

so. we have an example of the perfect character for a movie adaption. what about a strong character, but less strong story?

let's talk about sonic again real quick. so, sonic adventure 2 has it all: a strong (possibly too large but eh) cast, a strong and linear story, and plenty of world building to fill in any gaps. what about, say, sonic adventure 1?

well.

sonic adventure 1 tells its story 6 times, through the eyes of 6 different characters, before finally giving you the final story, which ties together all the loose threads with a neat little bow. all of these character's povs (yes, even big's) are integral to the story: every character has a part to play in getting us to that final story, and every character also gets visions of the ancient past - it's up to you as a player to put it all together. if this were to adapted to a movie, it would need to cut a few corners. that much content cannot fit in one movie. it can't be spliced together, because there's just too many moving pieces. it could only work if you cut down on the amount of pieces - culling one, two, maybe three of the 6 major players in the story but- uh oh! fans aren't going to be happy about that!

for example, E-102 gamma's story might have very little to do with the rest of the plot, but his story is still incredible start to finish. he's a beloved part of that game. not to mention that where his story does intersect with everyone else's makes things messy if you were to try and cut just him - there's a part of his arc that is also absolutely integral to amy rose's story. big's story is the one that most heavily intersects with gamma's, it would be difficult to include one and not the other, but big's story also reinforces sonic's - all six stories work in tandem to make a complete picture. untangling them to figure out what can safely be cut will likely result in a movie script that heavily mangles so much of sonic adventure's plot: you'd lose so much of what makes the game as beloved as it is, it's just not worth it.

this can apply to lots, if not most games. video games just have the extra space for extra content. they're not confined to just a few hours of story. you'd have to think carefully about what can be kept, what needs to cut, can you get away with cutting that.

and then on the other side, there's something like the original megadrive game, or, say, mario, where there just.. aren't enough moving pieces to pull a plot out of. we've seen it happen before with video game adaptations, like mortal kombat or the original mario movie, or maybe even the upcoming animated mario movie to an extent (still too early to tell with that one, but the plot they've crafted appears to have required them to rework princess peach into an entirely new character).

mario games are so cut and dry, where most of the meat here IS the player interaction: the platforming, the level design, that's what people play mario games for, not the plot. taking that out, we're left with a few half developed characters and a very barebones damsel in distress plot. you just... can't make a movie out of that. not without some extreme liberties. it's so much riskier, and unless the team is someone who genuinely loves and respects the source material, it's just not going to turn out well. just compare the live action mario movie to the animated one.

and finally. look. video games are niche. they can afford to be targeted at niche audiences. a hollywood blockbuster*** on the other hand, won't do that. executives won't respect the source material. again, look at sonic! his first movie is passable (imo) because the team behind it really do respect the source material and tried their best to keep it as faithful as possible. but it still had that truly awful initial design for sonic, and it still introduces a few generic human characters (one of which is a cop of all things), and it still has a very safe 'cgi animal and a normal guy go on a road trip) plot. they were allowed to branch out more and make a movie that was so much more sonic for the sequel, but only once that first movie was a success. second example: upcoming animated mario movie casting chr*s pr*tt.

just. you don't want your favourite video game to be turned into a movie. please just go play your favourite video game again.

tldr: video games are art on their own. most are just flat out incompatible with film, especially as the film industry stands today, and if I ever hear link speaking in full sentences I will kill someone with my bare hands. thanks for reading.

*you can make up a character sometimes. it worked for pokemon because pokemon is more about the world than the protagonist. in fact extra note it's probably easier to get away with this in games where the protagonist is customisable or changes every game than it would be with games with recurring silent protagonists like half life or zelda.

**I AM NOT ENDORSING THE MISGENDERING OF CANONICALLY NONBINARY CHARACTERS. DON'T FUCKING DO THAT.

***this point is admittedly more about the film industry/who's in charge of making your video game adaptation than it is about adaptations. we can all dream about the perfect ghibli animated zelda movie, but let's be real. that shit will be marketed to children by virtue of it being animated and it will be heavily censored. + they'll make someone stupid voice link instead of hiring an actual voice actor.

#GOD this turned out long. I know I said I was done but I have adhd I am incapable of shutting up about a subject #I don't have anyone to talk about this with at the moment so sure I guess writing an essay on my tumblr dot com works instead #SORRY if any of this doesn't make sense btw sonic was a really good example to use here but I mayyy have gone too in depth into sonic #again. adhd. #espeon cries #analysis

[p1nk-pallas]

Pretty sure no one on this app follows @/FennelMboro on twitter so have no idea what this post is about BUT.

That account is a CH&T roleplay account of Fennel, run by me, and I've been discussing one of my OCs on it recently. This post is about her! It will definitely be edited in the future, if I can find this post again LMAOO

Who is “Nala”?

Nala is one of my Camp Here & There original characters! I don't fully remember where the idea for her came from (she kinda just appeared one day I guess GOD that's so in character) but I do know that she's, in a way, Helen Distortion from The Magnus Archives but OC-ified.

She’s an entity with a constantly changing and morphing appearance, but her most common appearance is this: brown skin, pale white hair, bright, saturated blue eyes, wide, toothy smile, strange facial scars and SHES A FAT WOMAN FUCK YEAH I LOVE HER SEXY MF sorry what who said that

Where did she come from?

—

Currently, the only reference to her origins on the Fennel RP account (where you see most of her lore, as I AM the person who created her) is this picture below.

The post with the picture says “I don't know who the people in the background are, but that woman.. looks exactly like Her. But human. Much more human.”

This is an image of what Nala looked like before she became the entity that now haunts the woods and terrorises Fennel, and sometimes The Macaroni Penguins (yeah they have an RP account), Yvonne and Sydney.

—

What can she do?/How powerful is she?

Fennel already figured out how to “find” her. The way Nala can send people to her domain is normally by placing a certain object somewhere, and if you look close enough, you realise it looks.. off. Like, say you're walking through the woods, and you find a tree. But this tree looks like a large cardboard cutout, and when you shine your torch on it, the light goes around rather than on. Nala normally does this, places a random weird looking tree. And the way to travel to her domain is by approaching the object, and touching it. Simple!

In my first drawing of her, the background is of her domain.

White noise, or some sort of TV static, with a purple tint to it. The background noise is static, accompanied by some sort of feedback and far-off forest ambience.

Her abilities are strange, to say the least. You would think that this old (well, she usually presents as middle-aged which isn't OLD OLD) woman would be all nice and innocent but TRUST ME she's an ASSHOLE.

As I said earlier, she's inspired by Helen Distortion. If she was a TMA character, she'd obviously be an Avatar of The Spiral, spreading lies and deception about pretty much anything, and letting people perceive her as a good person before she strikes.

The way she injures/scares people hasn't exactly been explained yet, mainly that she gave Fennel some sort of visions and now they're scared of the camp, and the hidden entities that lurk in it.

On 25/3/24, there were a few threads from the Fennel, Yvonne and newly made Nala roleplay accounts discussing Nala's past and abilities.

Fennel: "To start it off, I did find a picture of (presumably) Nala when she was.. human? Alive? and a newspaper article from when Lucille went to this camp as a teenager. About three girls being on the lake when the sky, like.. *breaks.*"

Yvonne: "??? What happened?"

Fennel: "So, after the sky breaks, everything goes dark and quiet. Well, not quiet. All that is heard is white noise. After an hour of this, the sky goes back to normal and all three girls disappeared. Only one went back to camp the next year. That was Lucille. As for the other two, I only found their firstnames. Daisy and Samira. Maybe.. don't bring this up to Lucille."

The thread above was after Nala and Yvonne had had a questionable conversation too.

Nala: "I swear if Fennel makes me start liking the penguins I might just start terrorising people other than the counselors... Maybe not Lucille though. Not that I'm afraid of her, I'm not, but I think what I did before was a bit harsh.. eh, who knows. Maybe she's over it 🤷🏾‍♀️"

Yvonne: "…do I want to ask what you did to Lucille or no… also why do you have a account…"

Nala: "I've been watching you guys and figured out how to use one of these things! Anyways.. yeah, you don't want to ask what happened. But trust me, if you asked her, she'd have a more violent reaction.

All I'll say is, back then, I didn't have a good perception of time and mistook one of her friends for somebody else, and I may have, uhh.. traumatized her and another friend to "get revenge" on the wrong person"

Yvonne: "NALA..."

Nala: "I think all three of them are crazy now! Or, horrible people. Or both!"

Yvonne: "Wow. *slow clap*"

Nala: "I'm.. not sure why I told you that. If anyone, Fennel is the sort of person I'd confess this stuff too. Hmm."

After this, Yvonne runs back to her cabin, and tells Fennel about it.

Now, as you can probably guess, these two events are linked. on a totally unrelated note here's some art of a random girl on a kayak

—

Holy fucking shit she has angst

“While Nala is a deceptive asshole, she has the ability and enough humanity to care about people. That being said, her way to show care is by hurting those who hurt the people she cares about. Also, she is not good at showing she cares about someone, either that or she doesn't realise she's hurting and scaring Fennel.” - sent by me in the ooc GC, shared with other CH&T roleplayers.

There is no public information on her life just yet, but all I can say is she used to be a kind person, when she was alive, but somebody hurt her. Maybe it was an accident, maybe it was on purpose, but either way, her anger made her into a morally wrong “person”.

—

Fun facts!

Nala is a polyamorous lesbian

She "canonically" listens to Will Wood and Miracle Musical

She's VERY inspired by the Hawaii: Part II album

She's Indian

"Cervidae - a large family of ruminant mammals" not sure why I gave her that as a surname but fuck it we ball

In the first image shown on this post, there is a blonde woman. Nala was MADLY in love with her but the mf had a husband

She sees Fennel as a sort of grandchild

On an unrelated note, Nala and Fennel have very similar features

Nala has met Lucille before! Lucille hates her guts!

—

She's terrified of penguins. Yeah that's why she hates the macaroni penguins

in her whole entity form, she's over 7ft tall BUT in her human/disguise form, she's 5'1. yeah. Nala was that short when she was alive

“The Decepted who became The Deception”

—

Post created 20/3/24

Edit 21/3/24 : added another WIP of the art below, added a "fun facts" section

Edit 24/3/24 : added the finished version of the art above

Edit 25/3/24 : added more lore to the "how powerful is she?" section, added art to the same section, added more fun facts

Edit 14/4/24 : added another fun fact (I'm not gonna update that every time)

#camp here and there #camp here & there #chnt #ch&t #chnt original character #original character #oc #nala cervidae #fennel marlborough #chnt roleplay #p1nk art #p1nk pallas

[palestaticexchange]

IT TAKES A VILLAGE

"What's that?"

Your brother holds something small and shiny. His eyes glint like the thing in his hand does when he looks at you. "Go inside!" He says. The other one giggles.

"Show me! You have something!" You stumble to where they're crouched in the sand.

"Go away, Lily!" He's pouting now.

"This is our thing," the other one says. "We found it out there!" A wild finger swings towards the mound out in the sea.

The waves push back and forth over the sand. It's like a game: they want to pull you close then shove you away again. You shiver every time you look over them. "You can't go there..."

"W- Why did you tell her?"

You stamp a foot to catch the boys' attention. "You can't go out there! It's dangerous! Mom said!"

"Go away, Lily!" Your brother who holds the shiny thing stamps back. "This is why you can't play with us! You ruin everything!"

"No I don't!"

"Yes you do!"

"No I don't!"

"Yes you do!"

"N- No I don't!" Your lip wobbles, nose already growing thick with snot.

You other brother giggles as he replies in perfect chorus with his twin; "Yes! You! *DO*!"

It's too much. You squeal once then run crying back home. Your wails bob in pitch each time your little feet pound against the sand.

"Oh?" You can't see through your tears but hear the old lady call out to you as you pass her. "What's wrong, dear? Come talk to Isobel!"

You don't stop, just pound up the wooden slats and into your home. Your little paws grip the edge of the sofa and hoist you up. Then you curl up in the corner and wipe your snotty face against the woollen throw. Crying, wailing, wiping. You blow thick sneezes against the ratty blanket that smells of the sea and wood smoke. 

Outside you hear the rumbling of adult voices, a moment later the door creaks open once again. "-Don't know, she just ran right past me."

"Right," Mom's voice. "What's all this crying for, girl?"

You raise your wobbly face from the blanket. Through your tears you spot the blue and yellow form of your mother and reach out for her. The sofa sinks next to you, sending your little body into her as she scoops you onto her lap.

"Hmm? Are we being silly?" 

You wail against her chest as she cuddles you, one hand stroking through your hair. "T- they, w- why?" Your little fists twist into the front of her coat, the nylon making sweet swishes against your short nails. "W- why w- won't they l- let me p- p- pla- pluh- *PLAY* w- w- with t- theee~!" It's too much again. You grind your snotty face against your mother as she coos softly.

"Ah. This is about the twins again." 

You nod, sniffing. 

"Hmm," The hand on your back starts petting it affectionately. "Boys are like this I'm afraid, little one. By the time they'll *want* to play with you the game won't be in your favour." 

You sniffle. You're not sure what mom means, but it doesn't sound fair. "But I want to play! I want to g- go on ah- ahd- ahd-ven-tures too!"

As you squeak out your new favourite *big* word your mom pauses in her stroking. She never shouts, or leaves you on your own for more than half a day, but she can get quiet. Then she runs her hand down your back again- slower this time. "Is that what you want? Or do you just want to be included?"

You unburrow your face from her chest and look up at her. She stops petting your hair and lifts the blanket, dabbing at your eyes then closing it around your nose. You blow into it.

"My special girl." As she pulls the wool away from your face you can see she's smiling down at you. "Do you want something all of your own?"

You gawk up at your mother before nodding quick. 

You feel a puff of air hit your face as she laughs through her nose. Then she's lifting you off her lap and placing you on the sofa. "Let the boys keep their silly games." She stands and walks to the high shelves above the fireplace, standing tall and lifting a paper box down. "Mom's going to introduce you to a very special old friend of hers." You see a flash of something white, then she's holding it behind her back with one hand and replacing the box with her other. She walks back to the sofa and drops to a crouch in front of you. "He's been *my* friend since I was your age... But I think you need him more than I do now, pet." 

You gasp as she pulls the doll from behind her back. "Woah~!" You forget your brothers and their adventures and their games. In front of you is the scrappy off-white body of a toy, an animal you recognise from one of your worn picture books. "A baa-lamb!" 

Your mother's face scrunches as she smiles. "Well done little one." She turns the old thing over, she seems suddenly... Not sure. "I called him 'Lamby' but I suppose you could call him something else if you liked..." The smile returns as if nothing had happened, then she's holding him out to you. 

You draw in breath and take the toy, his black button eyes already filled with love for you. "Lamby..." You whisper, stroking along his wool.

As you stroke your new friend you feel your mother's hand return to your hair, stroking you in time. "I just know you'll take *good* care of each other. Like he took good care of me." 

You will take good care of me, won't you Little Lily? He says. I've had a long life, but I will be your friend for as long as you'll be mine. 

You release a peel of giggles and kick your little legs. You pull the toy tight against your chest, liking the soft scratch of his wool against your still-damp cheek. Like the rest of the house he smells of salt, smoke, and seaweed. A moment later, you hear the creek of the door.

"Here comes trouble," your mother sighs. 

From just outside you hear the old lady urging the boys up the steps. Then one of the twins comes into view with eyes like saucers. 

Elder by 36 minutes. He plucked the metal shell from the sand. You look down at Lamby, not understanding what he means, then up again as your brother starts to talk.

"M'sorry Lily..." He mutters, shuffling awkwardly. 

"Now your turn," Isobel urges from the doorway. Her hand rests on your other twin's shoulder as he turns shyly against her side. 

"M'sorry..." He says quietly.

Mom gives the old lady a quick smile, then bends down to level with your brothers. "I have told you before to be kind to your sister-"

"Whas that!" The older one hops, pointing at Lamby." 

You're a big girl. The stitching of Lamby's mouth is faded but you can tell it used to be pink. Let it go. You need them and they need you. You *all* need each other.

You take a deep breath and puff out your chest, holding Lamby in your lap. "His name is Lamby and he is my friend. You can k- keep your games and metal shells." You lift your chin like a big girl would.

Your older twin cocks his head, the one in the doorway pulls his fingers from his mouth to smile. 

"There's my good girl," your mom says with a smile. 

#pale static lore #disco elysium #lilienne carter #little lily #lamby #lilienne the net picker #lilienne's twins #pale static exchange

[booksandwords]

Void Black Shadow by Corey J. White

Series: Voidwitch Saga, #2 Read time: 3 Days Rating: 4/5 Stars

The Quote: That's right I'm not afraid of your guns or your prison; I chose this. You think I'm your prisoner? You're all dead fucks walking, and I'm a monster in human skin.

Warnings: murder, torture and erm... genocide... 😶 yeah it's a lot.

Mariam "Mars" Xi is back. While kicking ass destroying the MEPHISTO fleet at the end of Killing Gravity she lost a friend, Mookie. Now she's off to track him down and bring him home to Trix and Squid on the Nova. She did also gain a potential ally if she can train him, help him and get him healthy, the boy she saved from Briggs's ship, known only as Pale. She is teaching him control but they have a long way to go.

While in Killing Gravity our antagonist was a known quantity, Briggs and MEPHISTO the antagonist/s for Void Black Shadow is more of an unknown, it's still MEPHISTO but there are new players as well. While looking for information on where MEPHISTO sent Mookie the crew of the Nova run into the Legionnaires. The Legionnaires are augmented MEPHISTO soldiers. They are highly reminiscent of the Borg, heavily augmented, with a hive mind and no access to individual thought. I can't remember all my Trek lore but I'm pretty sure the Borg are the inspiration for the Legionnaires. They are an effective villain or the pawns to the villain, in the same way that the void witches were for Briggs. The face of MEPHISTO in Void Black Shadow is Doctor Ratham. The man who runs the prison moon that Mookie has been sent to, Homan. Ratham is an intelligent man when it comes to psychological and physical manipulation and torture. He knows exactly what is most likely to hold a prisoner in line. As a villain, he's the right choice, intelligence over the force of Briggs.

I like the ending which I'm actually going to write thoughts about. Void Black Shadow set up Static Ruin well, encourages the reader to finish the series. Void Black Shadow is an almost unexpectedly intelligent title. The phrase itself appears multiple times with different meanings, the most obvious being space. 

This moment lead me to another thought. Mars is a protagonist you don't want to think too hard about. Honestly, she is probably closer to an antihero. There is just so much death and danger around her. Those closest to her risk their lives, sanity and bodies. She can also play a bit fast and loose with the innocents in play. I really hope Mars finds her way back to Squid, they are good for her. She is different around them. Almost like they remind her a little of Sera. I've decided Pale is interesting, I didn't expect him to be so important. But I can see him becoming a real wild card.

Before I jump into my quote dump I will write what would usually be a conclusion. The plot of Mars saving a friend and getting vengeance the only way knows how is enjoyable but highly violent. That said I do recommend this but If you are going to read it I advise reading Killing Gravity first. While this may standalone reading as part of the sago you will get so much more out of it. The characters are complicated and you will start thinking about the morals of action, means and ends. But that doesn't make the characters any less likeable.

Some quotes

"Did she really destroy a whole fleet single-handed? Shit is crazy." "Yes, Miguel, I really did. And since you've brought me all the way out to the ass-end of nowhere, the least you could do is talk to me, not about me." "Eh, sorry, chica." — Stackhead Miguel is back. This is his "inside" voice, Mars and then Miguel's outside voice. He's now terrified of her, I mean fair she's freaking terrifying, but still willing to give her info. (Miguel and Mars, p.15-6)

"How do you feel, Mariam?" I try to think of the best words to describe my particular mix of brain-fog and sluggish limbs. The best I can come up with is, "Drug-fucked." — Oh God this is a perfect definition for that feeling. I know all about that. I can't believe I never thought of that phrasing before. (Ratham and Mars, p. 81)

#book review #corey j. whilte #void black shadow #voidwitch saga #read 2022 #readaustralian #space opera #ktreviews #tw murder #tw genocide #tw torture #booklr #spoilers on goodreads

[desultory-novice]

Do you have any headcanons on Marx Soul?

Do I have Marx Soul Heacanons...?

...This does remind me that sometimes I end up with several headcanons for a character that, oh, maybe differ from each other or conflict in some way? But heck, I typically love them all and want to play with all of them, so I just kind of juggle from one to another as the mood hits me! (I'm frequently balancing several different Kirby "universes" in my head for this reason.)

So I can't just give you one static Marx Soul HC that is my favorite. What I will do is take this opportunity to share several Marx Soul ideas I'm fond of, as well as just gabbing about Marx Soul (and Marx) in general, because there's some cool things going on there that can't easily be wrapped up in HCs alone!

---

Marx Soul is a fusion of Marx and Nightmare

...This one is my baby. Mostly because I think I'm the first one (?) to come up with it? This is entirely based on the similarities Marx Soul shares with Nightmare (color palette, necklace) and the fact that Marx Soul's JP pause description doesn't specify that it is Marx's "evil soul" that resurrected after the collision. Aka, what if a part of Nightmare got stuck in Marx (through any number of methods, but obviously, I favor the "he was once a peaceful Noddy hit by Nightmare shrapnel" theory) and when Marx was on the verge of death, Nightmare "woke up" and took over his unwitting host.

I like this one a lot because I, err, maybe kinda like body hijacking as a plot point...Oops... But also I just love love love the Dreamer (Marx being a Noddy) vs Nightmare (Nightmare being, well, a "nightmare"...) parallel and putting them together in one body gives me even more fun ground to play with there!

This way, Marx Soul has DOUBLE the reasons to want revenge on Kirby! I would argue that you could use this as an explanation for the infamous Marx Soul flash frames that occurs right before Marx transforms!

Because there's like a frame or two before Marx grows his wings and goes all boss mode where he actually looks like Marx Soul. And this is back in the original game, before Marx Soul was even created! Which is just fascinating...! 

So, if Nightmare IS lurking inside Marx, that flash could be a hint of Nightmare's power resurfacing/awakening with the sudden surge of energy? Also, Marx is *exceptionally* pale during that brief flash, with his skin turning a pale, sickly, corpse-like purple, just like Nightmare's skin!

Ahem. Outside of my desperate attempts to find enough evidence to make other people latch onto my favorite HC, I also just like it because it would make Nightmare more of a threat too. Which I always enjoy. Gotta give credit where credit is due to the OG "scary" Kirby boss. (...Even if the scariest part was how surprisingly easy it was to run out of time in the orb phase of the fight.) 

And if Nightmare, in *some form* carried on over into a second game (aka, Super Star) we'd have an antagonist who makes a much better foil to Dark Matter/Zero! Now we've got “The Dark Matter Trilogy” and “The Nightmare Trilogy!” Or maybe “The Fountain Trilogy?” Err, duology! Because I can't link a third game into this. Unless I'm missing a relevant game somewhere...?

(...Smash Bros Ultimate...??)

Oh, yes! Another thing that's kind of fun/funny about this theory is that, if it were true, in light of the connections Forgotten Land gives us regarding the Galactic Novae, then a Nightmare-carrying Marx Soul has the potential to be a fusion of THREE lifeforms, depending upon if the Novae are made from a living Elfilis simulacrum or a fake one. (But again, the *heartbeat*...)

Anyway, three may honestly be too much, but I absolutely believe Marx Soul is a fusion of two lifeforms, minimum. You COULD see the "splitting in two" at the end as just a random creepy thing, or some kind of ironic fate based on his black hole attack, but I can't believe it’s unrelated. The Kirby series has too many meaningful lore and background bits tucked away in innocuous places for that and I think the splitting is a sign of...SOMETHING. 

Just not sure what.

--

Marx Soul and Void...?

I've been trying to think about WHY Marx Soul and Void share a battle background. Obviously, I considered the shared BG to be an important element in my Nightmare v Marx comparisons. They're not identical, such that you could say they occur in the exact same place, but they are close enough to be noticeable.

But I really have no idea why...! The fight with Void's core takes place inside Void Termina's shell body (?) and it's difficult to say WHERE that space even is.

Given that Marx Soul is absolutely an Ancient artifact-fueled beastie made out of various Nova parts, it's not unreasonable to suggest that the weird polygonal beehive-esque space these fights occur in is one that spawns when you break or otherwise corrupt some kind of Ancient power source? ...Or rather, something the Ancients USED as a power source? ...A twisting of reality?

Void Termina wields the Master Crown as a weapon. And I think Void/Void's power must have been the inspiration for the physical crown's creation on Halcandra. Plus the Ancients (presumably/possibly) built the Novae based around Elfilis's dreamscape-creating/dimension traveling powers. 

Man, what little we know about the Ancients, we're already getting the feeling their "best" creations came from stealing the powers of other lifeforms...

Would you believe that, as big a Marx fan as I am, I hadn't even made the connection between Void Termina's glass wings and Marx's glass wings until it was pointed out to me? Ahaha... I guess I just associated Marx's with all that pretty color-changing, where as Termina's wings looked so static. But they are the same shape...ish. And I think that's relevant! Somehow! Again, it's a little hard to make a solid connection, unless you can somehow connect the Void-born species and Elfilis with each other...? That is, a connection outside of "A Voidborn and a fragment of Elfilis went on a journey together in Forgotten Land!"

(Also, why am I suddenly interested in calling Kirby's species "Voidborn?" What is this weird Bloodborne/Gothic-Horror Kirby crossover building in my head...?)

Oh, oh! But another thing that's kind of neat (BIAS TALK INCOMING) is that, partly due to their popularity in the fandom at large, Marx and Magolor ARE slowly working their way up into sub-main character status of the Kirby series! And I'm not just talking about the concert promotion either...!

I can't say if this was in all 30th Anniversary merch, but I got the Kirby Room Light (sooo cute) and it came with a booklet introducing the various major characters of Kirby and right alongside the four heroes (and Rick, Coo, and Kine) were Marx and Magolor. Not only does this please me for personal reasons, I think it's a REALLY GOOD CHOICE.

One way or the other, whether Magolor is just a Halcandran fanboy (fan cat?) or an actual Halcandran, whether Marx is just a jester or some sort of green goop producing semi-clockwork being now, the two of them provide an excellent link to the broader Kirby cosmos! They were villains once, are no longer serious villains now, both survived (?) their experiences, and they can be "friendly" to the heroes (...if you have enough REAL CASH on hand. Or maybe they’ll ambush you mid-credits sequence because it's funny!) 

Anyway, the brilliance of upgrading them to major characters is that the dev team can keep the main 4 relatively free from weird, complicated Ancient backstory hijinks (...although Meta Knight, should he also be Voidborn, remains a big, untapped secret...) while still giving us players a cute orb-sized link back to them any time they choose! And that's another reason Void Termina is such an interesting fight! Because while Void calls back to pretty much every Kirby boss, the two bosses they call back to the most are... Marx and Magolor.

.........This was about Marx Soul. Right. Sorry. Didn't mean to get distracted.

(But WHILE I'm distracted, I meant to say that part of what this means to me is that, if we were to get a new, more faithful Kirby anime, I can totally see/respect/want desperately for Marx and Magolor to become a Team Rocket-esque pair of reoccurring villains this time around. A selfish, greedy Dedede as villain of the week needs to go. Let the selfish mischievous jester and greedy lying wizard cause all the problems!)

--

Ahem. Now back to Marx Soul. And headcanons.

So, I dropped this idea out there once, but I headcanon Drawcia as Marx's magic teacher pre-Milky Way Wishes, and the reason for that is almost entirely due to their connection as Soul bosses and the inherited move set. I mean, he turns INTO PAINT! Who else could he have picked that up from but the living painting herself?! Of course, moves would be carried over from Soul boss to Soul boss after that, regardless of any potential ties between them, but eh, this one is too firmly entrenched in my mind that I just can't get rid of it!

...I like to imagine Drawcia made Marx's training anything but easy. (She IS a villain.)

--

Marx Soul and Death in the Kirby-verse

This one gets a little complicated because it's tied to a bunch of things and is more of a philosophy(?) thing rather than a headcanon thing? I’m going to talk about it anyway though because why not!

So, I think, in general, the understanding/implication is that Marx either died or was very near death after the collision with the Nova. His body is an ashen grey and he's not moving after that. This would, in a sense, make Marx Soul out to be Marx's animated corpse. (Yikes...)

But death is WEIRD in Kirby. There's that line in one of the early material books or earlier interviews or something (although every time I get asked about a source for these things, I end up being wrong so take what I’m saying here with a grain of salt, please!) but I RECALL a bit about the creatures in Popstar coming back "like the grass in summer." ...Or maybe it was weeds...? 

And yes, it might've been referring to the respawning system in the 2D games and NOT a lore element. But I'm ridiculously fond of this one as lore for whatever reason and I tend to work it into my generalized Kirby headcanon almost every time: the idea that things on Popstar never really die.

(It’s a stretch but then again...the critters in the Forgotten Land DON’T respawn like the Popstar ones when you destroy them. Now, that's because there's no "screen border" you can cross that means its safe for them to do so...and they DO respawn if you exit and re-enter a room. It’s an out there idea, but isn't it kind of interesting...?)

So, anyway! Popstar as a weird Fountain of Eternal Youth/paradise planet where nothing ever dies! Maybe it's energy of the planet? Maybe that's why everyone is attracted to it/always wants to invade it? And if Marx and Kirby had fought on Popstar, maybe Marx would have just been sent flying ala King Dedede in Dream Land 1? But they fought juuuuust outside the bounds of Popstar, so when Marx makes a magnificent crash into a Galactic Nova, he's a little more messed up than typical. (If Popstar residents CAN’T get permanently injured or die, that crash must have been a real system shock to poor Marx...)

And now you have this weird dead/dying/undead/undying Marx (...all the worse if he had just enough lingering Popstar energy in him so that he COULDN'T just die post-crash, but wasn't alive either...) Anyway, depending upon how deep you read into it, what you get there and the emotional implications of it are all kind of horrible, really. Because Kirby has never really faced or had to contend with, err, death before... Not yet, at last. Anything that's been an invader to Popstar is destroyed or dispersed in a safe clean way, but Marx is different because Marx was at one time alive and now...isn't.

I imagine, sometimes, what that must be like for Kirby. Kirby wouldn’t be exactly responsible for Marx’s death or the creation of Marx Soul because it was Marx himself that went spiraling out of control, but still... 

Even though Kirby games have no specific timeline, I occasionally think about how various events would take their toll on Kirby. Affect Kirby’s growth. (Like the stuff with the friend hearts in Star Allies and how Kirby goes on to save EVERYONE in FL, right off the heels of being unable to save either Secty or Haltmann. When you look at the big picture, it DOES tie together.) 

Long story short, I have various thoughts about the fact that the next mainline game to be released after Super Star Ultra is Return to Dream Land - where Kirby is (implied to be) constantly in the company of Meta Knight, Dedede, and Bandee. Maybe they thought Kirby shouldn't be alone after, well...after the ghost of a former foe came back from the dead for a ghastly revenge...? And boy is Marx Soul ghastly. At least for the early Kirby series. The awful noises, glitchy movements, and the weird bits of sanity-slippage you get from that fight does play strongly into the "zombie Marx" theory.

Speaking of Marx Soul graphical weirdness, I love how, among the new animations for him, we get this cute (?) little one where he curls up into a ball...? Except the way he tucks his wings in so that they slowly cross over him/vaguely meld into his body...? It's not your typical HORROR horror, but there's something unnerving about it. Maybe it's that "creepy cartoon" effect?

...Brief aside. I’ve only watched, like, 10 episodes of Steven Universe but I did watch the movie, thanks to a friend. And my mind almost can't help but make visual parallels between Marx and Spinel. At least as far as "creepy cartoon characters who are creepy specifically BECAUSE they are a cartoon."

What makes this one move of Marx's even more weirdly dissonant is that when you stop to look at the sprite, he's got this surprisingly peaceful expression on his face for squishing himself into a physically impossible little ball of impossible.

--

Marx Soul is Marx's Negative Impulses/Thoughts

This HC is one I barely use myself, but I LOVE to see it??? 

I'm not at all into Marx/Marx Soul selfcest, which, frankly, is where I see this headcanon pop up the most, but ahhh, I can't help but enjoy the concept of a Marx Soul continuing to linger in the back of Marx's mind whispering all sorts of horrible things in his head even after Star Allies. As someone with negative intrusive thoughts, it feels kinda good to see versions of a comfort character struggle with them too, in either a mental or physical form...

It also makes for some damn good fanart.

On that note, temptation is strong to make a parody of Guchiry’s Flower song "Abnormality Dancing Girl" that plays into this version of Marx + Marx Soul.

--

Back to random Marx Soul observations!

You know what I also love? The minor detail of Marx Soul's hat switching colors! Regardless of WHAT Marx Soul is, we understand him to have needed to use the power of the Nova to reconstruct/revive himself, and I occasionally like to think the reversed hat is a possible representation of just how wrong he was when he came back. Yes, it doesn't exactly work out logically or physically, because Marx wasn't (yet) split in two when he near-died, but it's almost like, while absorbing Nova's parts to remake himself, he (or it) put himself back together in the wrong way. His eyes are more prominently facing outward too. I'm not exactly saying his left eye is on the right and his right eye is on the left now but...maybe?!?

 So much body horror in one tiny jester 

...Oh geez...! Speaking of...

This just came up in my feed today, but Super Star was supposed to have one last mini-game included in it that was horror-themed and it was initially planned that Kirby would have his *mouth sewn shut* by the villain so he couldn't use copy abilities?!? (Yikes yikes...) And he'd have to collect them instead? 

This is, I gather, the base of the system used in Milky Way Wishes? 

The lost game theory makes sense, because Milky Way Wishes is more like a rehash/revisitation of the other Super Star mini-games. Every planet is made of reused tiles. The most original element in it is Marx. So...if Marx was originally planned to be the villain of that horror game (...and it fits, what with him being a scary clown...) Well...you can sort of see why Sakurai's original version of Marx is a whole lot scarier if THAT is the kind of thing he'd do to Kirby...

...Also, I don't know why...but I get the strong feeling that, seeing as how Marx in MWW suffers a very karmic "He's destroyed by the very comet he wished on!" defeat, the ending to this horror-themed Kirby game would probably have the magic Marx used on Kirby backfiring on him in a very bad way... 

Imagine a zombie Marx Soul making Those Noises with a stitch-ripped mouth... 

...Or don't, because, you know, that's awful.

...

...

I CAN'T END THIS ON THAT IMAGE IN GOOD FAITH SOOOO....

...Aha, I know what I can still talk about! The Roses! 

Marx Soul's roses! Who told them they were allowed to add roses to Marx's attack patterns?! It's so...gah, it's so interesting! How is it Marx goes from thorny vines (...thorny catci?) to blooming roses?! I have NO idea. Kumazaki, why did you give Marx Soul roses?! Marx isn't tied into the plot of Triple Deluxe in any way, is he?! It's just...I mean, roses have a ton of associations, of course. One for every color. But Marx Soul's roses are blood red.

And he has those hearts on his wings. What do those mean??

I actually ended up doing some research on this, because I was trying to figure out if there could be some meaning to Marx's heart wings. Tbh, the first thing that came to mind was "...Is this a Dio Brando reference?" Because of the heart-iconography + crazy villain thing. But through that, I learned that the "heart shape" actually existed in Japan for centuries! Only it wasn't a "heart," it was a boar's eye(?) And it was a symbol of good fortune and to ward off evil. Interesting how, even if it didn't mean love yet, it was still a positive symbol.

So why is Marx associated with these positive symbols?! But this may be another Void connection because Void is all heart imagery all the time!

...And...so is Elfilis...

Huh. Wasn't I just wondering about ties between Void and Elfilis toward the beginning of this essay? If Marx's hearts are Elfilis's hearts are Void's hearts...?

Alas, I don't have an answer. Ran out of headcanons.

In any case, I really do hope that Marx's rising popularity means a consistent appointment to the position of semi-regular character (like with Magolor) because there is just SO MUCH packed inside this little jester to explore!

#Kirby #Kirby series #Marx Kirby #Marx Soul #Nightmare Kirby #Void Termina #KatFL spoilers #Fecto Elfilis #Magolor #SU mention #JJBA mention #cw text descriptions of body horror stuff #cw mentions of character death #selfcest mention (not shipped) #Dess Text Post #Dess Answers Questions #Long Post #...3k words long!!

[viseralantlers]

golden cow (dreamXD x reader)

warnings: possessiveness in a relationship 

request: nope !

note: my brain just went burr on this one, inspired by george lore etc! My brain said you have read Circe apply it ! Hope you like it <3333 also could not call him XD i would die and pass away

synopsis: making a deal with dreamXD

A cold hand lifts my chin to look up at an empty mask. Etched with an ‘x’ and split to reveal a single piercing green eye. I wanted to fight back, to relent the gaze that tore through me, but I couldn’t.

Anything I wanted was too tempting an offer.

“You promise me forever?” the bag on my back weighted heavily with its contents, those of unspeakable riches. His vice grip on my heart didn’t stutter as his voice crackled, his touch insistent on possession. My fingers absently began rubbing the hilt of my newly acquired sword, noticing how it felt jagged where I knew it to be visibly smooth, like a lasting scar from it being torn from the rips of this world.

“Yes,” a sealed contract “forever.” the finality of an opening wound. I shuddered with the world as he pushed his hand to caress my face, the motion made the hairs on my arms stand up, his touch akin to that of the cool press of the end of a gun. I was pulled to him as the planets are pulled to the sun, his power intoxicating. “But how will I last? I will rot before you even think about ceasing to exist” he leaned impossibly close to my face.

“What I cherish I keep.” His static voice whispered into my waiting ear. “You will be my golden cattle and I will be your Helios, though I have no reason but my own to protect you, to keep you.” His words sent shivers down my spine as he finally pulled away from my rigid body.

 ------------

Ghostbur gave a weak smile after he finished his song, anxiously continuing to pluck the strings. I reminisce at the soft tone of his voice, the way it reminded me of the butterflies that use to beat my stomach. I clapped as the people around me followed suit. I noticed their hesitance, their fearful distance, but I tried not to let it keep me. They were scared of my power, the biting cold that followed my words. As the crowd dispersed I walked up to the star, eager to praise him.

“You never lost your talent, even in death.” I smiled at him as he slowly strummed the battered guitar, its strings uncut and wild at it’s head and its bridge slightly crooked. The sight sent a pang to my heart, specifically the black nail polish I knew to be that of my own. A mark of Wilbur and I’s past.

“Thank you, y/n.” his face flushing a pale blue as he began to kick the dirt on the ground “I’ve been meaning to ask you about how you were with Wilbur. I’m trying to piece together the more positive parts of him. I don’t want to see myself just as a man who hurt others I guess.” He gave an innocent smile as he looked up to my own surprised expression. I swallowed as his words hung in the air. I hadn’t been ready to face that part of my past. I had been pulled away from it by my present.

“We,,, We had been in-” I felt my body turn cold as an unnatural sound of rushing air filled my ears. X.

“Do not waste your time with, Apollo.” He firmly gripped my shoulder from behind as I watch Ghostbur’s eyes widen before he quickly scurried away.

“X, he didn’t-” he pulled my frame closer to him as watched Ghostbur flea.

“Doesn’t matter, I don’t know why I let you wander around here anyway. You could come home.” I shuddered at the proposition, feeling his gaze. The End was a terrifying and unforgiving place in my head, somewhere I couldn’t stand to be chained to. I didn’t need my day to day to be as cold as my lover, no matter how much I learned to cherish him.

“I would miss the sun, my love.” I closed my eyes soaking up the way the rays currently warmed a side of my face.

“You would have me.” X pressed.

“You are my moon. You may be cold, but you make the tides come in, and you pull me home and swallow me whole.” His mask hid any emotion he had towards my words, his body language just as stoic and unreadable.

“Then who is your sun?” 

note: really like doing the slight poetic dialogue cause I literally write poetry first and foremost jcjsbcjsbchsd might continue this if requested <3333

#dream x reader #dreamxd x reader #dream x y/n #dream x you #dream smp x reader #mcyt x reader #mcyt x you #mcyt x y/n #mcyt insert #mcyt imagine

[lucky-sevens]

carmilla basics

recently, there’s been a lot of discussion about mischaracterizations of dr carmilla, which has led to a lot of people asking how to understand her lore! being unsure about how to start with carmilla is a completely valid feeling, given that knowledge on her is far harder to gain than knowledge of the albums or the crew of the aurora. i’ve compiled this meta due to discussion on maki’s discord about this, and it has been betaed by @stolen-stardust! in this post, i’ll outline the basics; who dr carmilla is out-of-universe, a summary of who she is in-universe, and where to find the content centered on her.

more under cut!

out-of-universe, dr carmilla is played by maki yamazaki. maki’s website can be found here and her bandcamp can be found here (it includes the solo carmilla albums, as well as music unrelated to the mechanisms that i’d highly recommend). 

all the lore about carmilla’s relationship to the mechanisms has parallels out-of-universe. (from here on, i’ll use ‘the mechanisms’ to refer to the band out of character, ‘the crew of the aurora’ to refer to the band in-character, ‘maki yamazaki’ to refer to her out of character, and ‘dr carmilla’ to refer to her in-character.) the mechanisms were maki yamazaki’s backing band, meaning dr carmilla had the crew of the aurora as her backing band. during this era, the band was technically a separate entity from the mechanisms or from the solo dr carmilla albums, and was known as dr carmilla and the mechanisms. this band began in 2010 and split up in august 2012. (see ‘a brief mechanisms timeline’ by @wickedace, as well as further confirmation by maki on her server and on the mechanisms website.) due to the increase of mechanisms fans happening after dr carmilla and the mechanisms broke up, there are minimal records of this band. 

when they broke up out-of-universe, in-universe lore about carmilla leaving was established. the crew of the aurora’s official statement is that she was pushed out an airlock (x), though we know from maki that was untrue; possibly because they lied on purpose, possibly since lore has been retconned and diverged between the groups since. 

maki yamazaki then went on to create solo music as dr carmilla, much of which seems to be things that were written and performed in dr carmilla and the mechanisms but recorded as solo versions with changed instrumentals for the studio recordings. she currently has two albums and a single out as dr carmilla (as well as, again, unrelated solo music that i’d highly recommend), and is working on a trilogy of albums with a group of people as dr carmilla and the void quartet (official band name announcement here). due to this, as well as unrelated things like the death of byron von raum, talking about the mechanisms like they are completely over and have static lore isn’t really correct.

in-universe, dr carmilla is a lesbian vampire and the person who mechanized the crew of the aurora. 

to understand her lore, analysis and extrapolation is required. i have gone further into this here, where i organize her album exhumed and {un}plugged into chronological order. for now, i’ll write a basic summary. 

at some point (when she was younger than 30), carmilla became a vampire. this could have been, but is not explicitly, what her song alive, i cried, is about. she is one of only two vampires. the assumption that many people have made and that all my theories are built on is that the other vampire was her lover, loreli. this is supported by maki saying ‘dead needs further clarification’ when asked whether loreli was alive or not, suggesting that she was undead. however, there are other theories, the main one that i have seen being that the other vampire is rocket girl, the unnamed character carmilla is singing about in her song ‘rocket girl’, who we know has more lore about her that is currently unknown. for simplicity, i’ll write the rest of this meta with the assumption loreli is the other vampire. after she was turned, or potentially before, her relationship with carmilla turned toxic and abusive, which a few of carmilla’s songs are about, most notably pin cushion. 

carmilla’s home planet, terra, was already heading towards destruction, but something she did changed it greatly. (i’ve touched on one of my theories about it here). the main source we have on terra is here, which describes it as completely destroyed. this is likely after carmilla has already left. we know there were songs about the destruction of terra (see the tv tropes page) but they were not recorded and may have been retconned. carmilla destroyed one of terra’s moons, which is likely related. we know carmilla adopted aurora as an orphan and aurora was a moon of terra, which likely meant that the moon of terra that was destroyed was aurora’s parent and this was when aurora and carmilla first met. (more on this in my aurora meta.)   

from here, her lore gets fuzzy for a while. we don’t know what happened between her and loreli to make her strike out on her own or what initially led her to make the crew of the aurora immortal. we do know she had some kind of involvement in the bifrost incident (see my eldritch mechanisms meta), which some people theorize was before she met the crew of the aurora. we also know there were failed mechanisms before the ones we know. i’ve written about my theory that one was king cole, but the others are unknown.

we get more clarity when she meets the mechanisms. this is the lore most people know about and the lore with the most controversy. we know the mechanisms overall have very negative feelings towards her and that carmilla loved them and considered them her children. i won’t reiterate what has been said before on this subject; my older meta on carmilla’s relationship with the mechanisms is here and i feel that it analyzes canon thoroughly. there are a few discourse posts on tumblr about this; i was looking for one i had a memory of seeing that addressed and analyzed the situation and couldn’t seem to find it, but i’ll use @stolen-stardust’s, here, as an example. to summarize the actual lore for people who are very new and have no basis, she made them all immortal and lived with them on the aurora for a long time. 

after leaving the mechanisms, she chased after them for a while- or at least, they believe she chased after them- and watched the events of once upon a time (in space) with the toy soldier (see: the song eleven). my personal theory is after that she went back in time and buried herself alive with loreli, which i’ve talked about in my previously linked timeline meta. however, this is not canon. what is canon is that afterwards, her song exhumed happened, which mentioned her cloning herself; more on that here. she is currently travelling with the void quartet, her new (mortal-but-likely-eldritch) band, on the silvana (a spaceship that’s likely sentient and definitely has some strangeness going on with them), through the weird (an eldritch extradimensional space). more on this will likely come to light on the release of her new albums. 

with her out-of-universe and in-universe lore summarized, i’ll link some resources for finding out more!

studio albums

ageha (prototype edition)- bandcamp | youtube

exhumed and {un}plugged- bandcamp | youtube

singles

the city {nex:type mix}- bandcamp | youtube

eleven- bandcamp | youtube

live recordings (dr carmilla and the mechanisms)

lashings- youtube (with subtitles) | transcript

homesick- lyrics video | youtube | transcript

unrelated work

made in a day- bandcamp

wouldn’t it be nice 2b human?- bandcamp

transmissions albums- 01 | 02 | 03

miscellaneous

official in-character twitter

tv tropes page

photos- (x)(x)(x)(x)(x)(x)(x)(x) (note that she’s a lot less pale than commonly depicted; please do not whitewash carmilla in your art.) 

as said on my about, there is a specific document with a lot of lore compiled that’s exclusive to the mechanisms discord and maki’s discord server; maki has said that she doesn't want it shared outside of the discord, as most of the lore is improvised and subject to retconnings, as well as having that ambiguous status that word of god always has. more on how to join the discord can be found here.

#dr carmilla #the mechanisms #the mechs #meta #my posts

[hustlemeanokay]

So, if you haven't checked out the lore tab on this baby... then damn, you really should. Because... just damn.

I've copied it below the cut from Ishtar-Collective

Forbidden Memory : Light a candle for those we've lost

Commander Zavala whisked silently through the Tower, his path lit only by the pale glow of the Traveler. He had postponed this trip until the dead of night, when the only souls around would be as eager to avoid conversation as he was. Here in the darkness, his title dropped away and he was just Zavala.

He had spent his day both dreading and anticipating this journey. Of all his worries, this short walk had burdened him the most. His preoccupation ended with his arrival at the memorial. It was a hodgepodge of items, provided by both Humans and Eliksni. Zavala found their incongruity comforting.

Reaching out, he took a candle. He closed his eyes and cast his memory back to the day of her funeral. The smell of low tide and the rumble of thunderclouds on the horizon. He felt their static charge surge through the salt air and into his body.

He opened his eyes and the wick burst into flame. Zavala smiled. It was just the type of parlor trick she had always enjoyed.

Zavala placed the candle amongst its extinguished fellows, soothed by the tiny, flickering flame. He reached back, calling forth another memory:

Her lithe form, curled under the thin blankets in contented sleep. The predawn glow seeping into the room. Her dark curls splayed across the white pillow. Her musky, floral scent. Her clothes strewn across the furniture.

He yearned to reach out and awaken her—see her drowsy smile, hear her voice. But he knew that would transform the experience from memory to fantasy; he wanted to preserve her as she was: perfect and mortal.

Then the moment vanished; he was Commander Zavala once more.

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