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messiahzzz · 22 days

Note

Hello! I love your meta-analysis of BG3 and share many of the same opinions concerning our boy, Gale. I have an interesting question for you concerning the orbs "volatility" in relation to intimacy (both physical and non-physical). I used to believe it was cannon that Gale couldn't engage in physical intimacy because the Orb may detonate, but when I played as Gale I was able to sleep with Astarion. This is in contrast to when I played as Karlach and couldn't touch anyone.

So, all of this is to ask whether Gale's dialogue at the tiefling party was him protecting himself emotionally or if he truly thought that any excitement would trigger the Orb (ironic given they are fighting for their lives daily)? Additionally is this why the Weave scene only features an imagined kiss rather than a physical one?

thank you so much for the questions!! i’m very glad you enjoy reading my posts 💕

gale: with my condition being as volatile as it is, i fear any undue, er, excitement, may tip it over the edge. so to speak.

i do believe that gale was being honest in regards to avoiding physical/emotional excitement concerning the orb. his first and foremost priority is to make sure to avoid as many potential triggers as possible, being fully aware of the catastrophe that will occur if he doesn’t keep an eye on his condition at all times. fighting is inevitable given the situation the group found themselves in. on top of that, every single day for the past year alone has quite literally been a life or death situation for him, wondering how much longer he can hold on until the orb inevitably takes over. i also think that he has experienced his fair share of horrors and tough fights in his past, considering his status as an archmage, as well as him being mystra’s chosen. even with his now diminished powers & the tadpole in his head he still remains in his element. magic is his life, it comes as easy to him as breathing.

gale: i'm what one might call a wizard prodigy, who from an early age could not only control the weave, but compose it, much like a musician or a poet.

more importantly, the devnotes also proof that the orb is indeed the reason for his deflection during the tiefling party:

gale: i see. then perhaps we see each other in the same light after all. a resplendent one, flush with warmth and anticipation, but one which i must shy away from, for now. node context: still flustered, but pleased to learn you like him romantically. then getting to the point - he can't do anything until the orb is dealt with.

if tav directly tells him to cease the perceived flirting, he will reveal that he considered their relationship to be a "budding romance" at this stage.

player: if this is an attempt at flirting, you should stop. i'm not interested. gale: right. understood. you shall hear no more on the subject from me. gale: consider this budding romance thoroughly nipped. though i hope our friendship need not come to such an abrupt end.

yet at the same time, he is also completely flustered if tav is the one who initiates the flirting:

player: do you like having your belly rubbed? gale: the pleasures i experienced in mystra's embrace go far beyond the pleasures of having one's tummy tickled. i remember once, she took the smallest piece of the weave and made it into- gale: wait. are you saying... nodecontext: taking the question seriously, missing the flirtatious side of it. nodecontext: realizing that the player was flirting, getting flustered

regardless of which flirt option tav chooses to pick, the outcome remains the same:

gale: you know what, i think i've clearly had far too much wine. and you've had nowhere near enough. i think this is a conversation best held back on - for now. nodecontext: flustered, hesitating to explicitly say what he thinks you were offering, then backtracking altogether

while battle naturally is always accompanied by the unpredictable, (as well as the dread of facing a yet unknown enemy) i don’t think he experiences quite the same amount of trepidation as where matters of the heart are concerned. or perhaps it would be more accurate to say it’s an altogether different kind.

the budding relationship with tav is once again unfamiliar territory for him after all those years he went without mortal intimacy, years that have been spent with mystra instead. it’s understandable that he exercises caution at all times, knowing what’s at stake if he lets go for but merely a moment. i also believe gale to be a character who generally goes “all out” once he chooses to be intimate with someone. we know that he doesn’t do casual trysts, friends-with-benefits arrangements, or anything of the sort. instead he wants to build a deep connection first. gale is a romantic through and through, he only feels comfortable being intimate once it has been explicitly established that the emotions he feels for tav are indeed wholly reciprocated. gale puts his whole heart into everything he does, he would’ve felt that it was a disservice to tav if he was only able to give them (according to him) even less than the remaining fragments of a broken man he has to offer — once he decides to give himself, he gives himself fully.

another added factor, however, is that the tiefling party simply wasn’t the right time for him yet, even if he already felt some attraction to them. part of him perhaps would’ve liked to go a bit further, be more direct about his growing fondness for them. spending a night together, just enjoying each other's company, talking until the sun rises, perhaps even sharing their first kiss if he felt that the timing was right — but i don’t think he would’ve considered this to be the appropriate stage in their relationship to sleep with tav either way. orb or no.

gale also tells us this much during the Last Night Alive scene, as well as during the conversation after you just met tara. in an ideal situation he would’ve taken his time, courted tav properly, said it all better.

gale: if things were different, if we were home, i'd have taken the time to do things properly. to say it all better. but time is short.

gale: i always imagined what it would be like when you finally got to meet her. this wasn't quite what i had pictured. gale: i thought we'd be in waterdeep. you, curled up before a crackling hearth while i prepared us a ridiculously extravagant meal, served with a batch of my homemade hundur sauce.

time is short.

i always headcanoned gale to be on the demi spectrum. that he needs to build a close bond before sexual intimacy is something that even remotely occurs to him. tav is an anomaly in this regard — he knows he deeply cares for them, emotions that developed even in the short, few months they've known each other, and that he doesn’t have the luxury of time to let their relationship unfold in all the many ways he dreamed of. all he knows is that he loves tav, wholly and truly. and that, by the gods, he has to make the most out of the few extra heartbeats he’s been given. even if his death is inevitable, he will at least be able to show them the depths of his affection. leave them with shared memories of pure tenderness, a knowledge of a love so profound that it might perhaps even prevail way beyond his passing.

player: what about all we shared together? are you just going to give up? gale: this isn't giving up it's securing victory, at a price i am willing to pay. and everything we shared can live on - with you.

i wouldn’t necessarily say that gale was trying to “protect himself emotionally” during the tiefling party, but rather acted accordingly to the horrifying circumstances the tadpole gang (and especially he himself) find themselves in. i don’t think gale ever really considers a romanced!tav as someone he needs to be guarded around. evident in the way he immediately throws all doors open without any sign of hesitation once he has their assurance that their love is indeed mutual. gale pours his heart out to them regardless, not knowing whether his feelings are truly returned. he is not a character who shies away from being vulnerable by any means. he is an open book, that tav is free to peruse in as they see fit. a slither of trust is all he needs.

during the weave scene the connection abruptly fades once tav either imagines passionately kissing him or holding his hand during a romantic walk. a scene that again shows that he is genuinely stunned by what he’s being shown. after all, it doesn't happen often that gale of waterdeep is at a loss for words.

gale: i... i didn't think... narrator: *you perceive quick-fire gusts of embarrassment, trepidation, and finally... elation.* gale: sorry, i wasn't expecting... but it is a pleasant image to be sure! gale: most pleasant, in fact. most welcome. nodecontext: warm, with real affection

i do believe the weave scene in particular to be a turning point for him. sort of an epiphany. the first moment in which he realizes that he actually might like the idea of eventually being with tav as perhaps more than a friend. that he is filled with fondness whenever they’re near and that he is excited to see where their joined travels lead them next.

player: when i said we could be more than friends, you answered 'perhaps'. what does that really mean? gale: if i recall correctly, the waterdhavian dictionary of the common tongue of faerun defines it as an adverb that conveys the meaning of 'it may be that', or 'possibly'. gale: you see, i'm not a big believer in fate, but i do believe in serendipity. gale: life is a tempest of events that sometimes we brace against and sometimes embrace. gale: you're one such event that, one day soon perhaps, i'd like to embrace.

given my personal hc of gale being demisexual, i genuinely don’t believe that he entertained the thought before that. he was way too preoccupied with other more pressing concerns. his overall condition, the tadpole, mourning the loss of his powers, still dealing with a lingering sense of loneliness and melancholy. a yearning for better times, as well as disillusionment of being cast out and left behind, even if he has already worked through his romantic feelings for mystra and their unilaterally ended relationship by then.

gale: i'm hardly pining. it's been a year or more since mystra cast me aside.

tav’s advances genuinely catch him off guard, which is, according to my interpretation, also the reason why their shared connection abruptly faded. a general loss of focus. gale immediately bidding tav goodnight to reflect on the situation and sort through his thoughts again shows that this wasn’t how he expected this moment of teaching to unfold. it seems rather uncharacteristic of him to initiate a kiss in this specific scenario. tav was testing the waters, whether it happened intentionally or not, and gale found himself pleasantly surprised by the turn of events.

i also believe that we generally shouldn’t use origin playthroughs as a cross-reference for the actual canon. larian approached each story with more or less detail and there are already so many inconsistencies present that have been pointed out by other players. instead we should see origin pts as an oc kind of scenario — larian handing us the reigns of each origin character, a way for us to have fun and figure out all the atrocities we could possibly come up with. sort of like playing with our own set of barbies. (“go nuts, show nuts” as tunglr staff put it back in the day) for example, playing as w*ll doesn’t lock you out of raiding the grove and spending a steamy night with m*nth*ra right after either. which is something that contradicts everything he stands for/something he wouldn't naturally do. even if you try to play an origin character as close to their canon portrayal as possible, you will still encounter several contradictions and discrepancies during the duration of your game. larian sadly also has a chronic pattern of overlooking gale in terms of content, fixes, and overall responsiveness. so it’s easy to conclude that his origin story simply hasn’t been fleshed out to the same extent & treated with the same amount of care and consideration that certain other characters received. (which is awfully ironic considering he’s been proven to be the most popular origin character, but i digress)

basically, this has been my very long-winded way of saying: the reason why gale refuses to be intimate with tav pre-orb stabilization is indeed because he is afraid of the orb accidentally detonating during a moment of carelessness and/or indulgence, as well as because of gale’s own preferences when sex & romance are concerned.

#baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #bg3 meta #long post #asks #gale's romance is the most delicious kind of slow-burn #or well. it would be if larian had actually bothered to put the same care and resources into his story #instead of merely cutting content and deciding to do a 180 #it speaks #please don't check for grammar i wrote this in a rush

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everlasting-rainfall · 9 days

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Could you do something involving Kid and Killer for that one piece crossing au please 👀

Separate or poly, whichever you want to do ~

I think that I have just the thing for them and I’m pretty sure that I might be able to handle the two of them being poly, my apologies though in advance if I don’t do them right

But let’s get into it before I potentially start rambling about something! And I hope that this is good! I tried my best!

!-MINORS DO NOT INTERACT AT ALL-!

!-POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNINGS-!

Violence, Murder, Sentient Video Games, Kid being Kid, Stalking, Writing Similar to Old Creepypasta, Obsessiveness, Noncon, Loss of Hope

!-POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNINGS-!

!-MINORS DO NOT INTERACT AT ALL-!

So honestly I can imagine that you’re the next person to wind up with the One Piece Crossing game and let’s say that like how you got your hands on it was that it appeared in a used games store for dirt cheap and you were hoping to get your hands on at least something like Animal Crossing

You returned home and you got comfy before booting up the game, you did the typical stuff of customizing your character and setting the time and all that but eventually it came time to pick your villagers

You hit the random button so many times as you had picked pirates over marines, you hoped to find something that fit your aesthetic but none of them really stood out to you

Shanks and Benn, Luffy and Zoro, Roger and Rayleigh, Omatsuri and Muchigoro, Bear King and Honey Queen, Doflamingo and Crocodile

None of them seemed to fit your type until you pressed random one last time and wound up with not Kid and Killer but two other characters instead, the two of them seemed like they would be pretty alright and match your aesthetic

Like let’s say that your aesthetic is like soft and cute, these two fit it pretty well however when you go to press confirm that these are the villagers you want

Random gets hit one more time by accident and suddenly you don’t know who you’re heading out with until you arrive at the island and dread fills you when you see who you got. Two punk looking guys who look like they don’t at all match your aesthetic

It’s disappointing but it is too late to go back and change it so you’ll just have to make do with these two as you go through the tutorial and figure out how to do things

As you go through the tutorial, you talk to what’s going to be your fellow islanders and find out that although Kid is rather grumpy and makes fun of you for having trouble with certain parts of the game. Killer is at least chill as he does make comments like “You really can’t get it?” before sighing and slightly assisting to get it out of the way

Eventually when your individual homes are set up and the tutorial has ended, you’re free to start having as much fun as you’d like here on this island

You make progress through the game and start trying to customize the island to fit your aesthetic, you start around your home with a very soft almost Sanrio esque aesthetic that just feels pleasant to look at but as you start stretching it out

That’s when trouble arises as you place down an item just a bit too close to what Kid must deem as his territory causing him to rather aggressively and rudely kick it over telling you to not put that kind of shit near his and Killer’s part of the island

These are just characters in a video game so you decide to wait until Kid isn’t around to place it down again only to be stopped this time by Killer who picks it up and gives it right back to your character with a “Don’t…”

It’s getting irritating as all that you want to do is decorate your island so you reload the game when it’s late at night and when the game indicates that the two men are asleep, you decorate and put the game down for the night when you’re done

The next time that you pick up the game… Guess what’s waiting for you in your mailbox? It’s a letter from Kid and Killer with a gift attached! You open it up only to find that it’s an item labeled as “Ruined Object” and the letter simply states “Don’t try that shit again!”

It took a long time to get this item in the game so you decided to talk to them only to find a new option for conversation in the dialogue box when you spoke to Kid called “I have a suggestion” and when you picked it. He told you to be quick

You were then presented with two options one that suggested you halve the island with them and the other being to insult him but considering how he and Killer ruined your object, you could not see that going well for you so you picked the first one

“Finally you’re talking sense… What do you have in mind?”

This brought up the in game map showing the island, Kid gave his suggestion first of very little of the island for you but you gave yours and drew a line down the middle of the game map. He didn’t sound happy but he told you to keep your shit on your side now

You continued the game after that and it seemed like everything was going well, you decorated your side of the island exactly how you wanted and they decorated their side too to fit their own style

When you would wander your island, you would occasionally see them on your side usually just wandering or needing to talk to you about something like “I found *insert object* and it looked like something you might want” or “Have you seen Kid anywhere? I can’t find him…”

These conversations would typically be short and the items that they gave you usually were your aesthetic but customized to be more in their style causing you to usually store it in your home inventory space or just get rid of it altogether

Eventually though you opened the game map one day to see that Kid and Killer had moved in with each other as there was one less house on the map, you went to see what was up thinking maybe one of their houses burnt down but when your character knocked and went in

You almost immediately turned around and left with a face bright red in real life the two of them were currently engaged in some very passionate activities with each other in their home, it was safe enough to say that you had your answer as to what was going on to make them move in together

They entered a relationship with one another and the game made it so that they moved in with each other as a result of it

You really weren’t expecting that sort of graphic scene to be in a game like this but then again, it wasn’t exactly straight up animal crossing so you just tried to forget it until you got a letter telling you to take a picture next time as it’ll last longer…

The game continued on after that with you hopping on for at least an hour everyday to do stuff, a few more villagers even moved in as well. Heat, Wire, and a few other people as well who all choose to live on Kid and Killer’s side of the island

It didn’t bother you though considering they much more fit in with their aesthetic anyways

There were a few days where you didn’t play as you were busy and whenever you returned, the two of them almost seemed slightly curious like “Where were you yesterday?” and “Don’t sleep so much… I’m not gonna wake you up if you do…”

But it was one day however when you and a friend of yours decided to try something as they had a copy of animal crossing and wanted to see if they could visit your island

So you did and your friend’s character was soon running around your island with you, the two of you were having quite a bit of fun as you both played around in every way that you both could think of but that fun started to come to an end when one of your villagers wandered onto your side of the island

It was just Killer at first who came up to you and asked who that guy was when you choose the dialogue option of him being your friend, Killer’s model visibly looked your friend up and down before turning back towards you and telling you to straight up ditch them before ending the conversation

After that, you continued to hang out with your friend but oddly enough you kept running into your villagers. It wasn’t just Kid and Killer who you kept running into either as you even encountered a few of the other villagers

All of whom told you that Kid and Killer were looking for you like “Killer wants to talk to you about something” or “Kid has something for you” but you always just ignored them thinking you could see them later

Eventually though, Kid came out of nowhere and entered a conversation with you while you were in the middle of something. You tried to speed through his dialogue by mashing the button but by the end of the conversation, he looked visibly pissed

Once that was done, you couldn’t get rid of him as he followed you and your friend everywhere like were you and your friend just trying to fish together to catch something? There’s Kid standing right in between the two of you

Honestly he almost seemed to be trying to get your attention too as he would make jokes about the small fish that your friend would pull up but if you pulled up a small one then he would give a gruff “Nice job”

This only ended when your friend finally left and you both agreed to meet up on his island next time due to the actions of your villagers

And when you did, you had a ton of fun but when you had your character return to your island. Almost immediately they were practically swarmed by Kid and Killer who demanded to know where you had been

Then after you selected the dialogue option to tell them, they looked visibly angry like “Didn’t we tell you to ditch that guy? They’re not good for you…” among other things

Eventually you got tired of it and decided to shut the game off while they were speaking as it wasn’t like you were going to lose any progress and besides you needed a break from that shit…

Especially when you hopped on the next day only to find your house that you had worked so hard on looking absolutely trashed

So you took a break for a good long while and played on your other consoles whenever you got the urge to play something, you even spent time with your friend in real life and the two of you got closer. You didn’t start dating but it could be assumed that you were

When your friend told you that they had something to give you on the game, you booted up your console at the same time that they did only for something that made you scream bloody murder to happen

Almost as if you had suddenly stepped into a horror movie, a large metal hand shot out of the screen and grabbed you in its grasp, your friend tried to pull you out of its grasp as you were pulled in but wound up getting sucked in too

Once you both had crash landed, you saw that you were being held by Kid as he wrapped one arm around you that kept you pressed tightly into him no matter how much you struggled

Your friend was lying on the floor looking dazed and confused, they barely even got a chance to register anything before they were suddenly cut down by Killer and as their blood was splattered across the floor, you found yourself as the center of their attention

“What do you think you were doing cutting us off like that when we were trying to talk to you?”

“We told you to ditch that guy and you brought them over… You mind as well have fucked them right in front of us with how close you two were!”

You of course tried to fight against the two of them with tears in your eyes as they both dragged you home, your island had been completely changed as well by them and the others. It was practically unrecognizable

Your home was no better as it had changed for the worse, the entire thing was completely in their style compared to yours as they dragged you upstairs. They threw you onto what used to be your bed and suddenly you were seeing notifications pop up in front of you

All things saying that while you’ve been asleep, Kid and Killer took over the island as its new leaders and completely got rid of the fact that you halved the island with them. They renamed the island as well and not only that but apparently entered a relationship with you as well

With eyes wide, you read all of them and didn’t quite know what to think but you didn’t have much time to think as you were slammed back onto the bed quite roughly to the point where you were sure you would have a nasty bruise

”If you want to cheat in front of us with someone like that then we’ll just have to remind you of who exactly you belong to…”

And it was after that when your outfit was completely ripped away from your body as they held you down and used your body like it was a sex doll as they made you move into so many positions and made you do so many things

By the very end of it… You were so relieved that it was over as you were covered in sweat, tears, bruises, bites, and a lot of cum…

“Better not try anything like that ever again…”

There was no escape from this game and you were stuck here forever with the two of them, they forced you to dress in a style exactly the same as them and treated you like a toy

They would tell you that they loved you dearly so there was no reason to act like you were trapped in some kind of horrible situation, you just needed to be reminded of who you belonged to is all and they were sure that you would be good now

Over time, they did start to become more kind with you even if just a little bit as Kid did start actually allowing you to leave the house without one of them. It wasn’t like you could go anywhere but they did tell you that these things could be revoked if you acted up

Eventually once you were good enough, Killer even allowed you to have something from your aesthetic and despite the slight bit of comfort that you felt when you held it

You knew that it could be easily taken away from you at a moments notice especially if they ever saw you trying to find a way out of the video game and back to the real world

Really truly… You just needed to accept that you would be here forever… There was no way out with them…

They had taken over your island, they had forcefully started a relationship with you, and they had shown what they were willing to do if you ever misbehaved too much

Plus what would you tell the police about what happened if you ever made it back? Your friend had been pulled into a video game with you and murdered by the characters? Like they would ever believe you

So… You were going to stay here forever and simply hope that maybe one day just one day, you would potentially free

Although you knew you never would be

#minors dni #the rain talks back #yandere #yandere one piece #reader insert #read the trigger warnings #yandere male #Yandere Eustass Kid #Yandere Killer #Yandere Kid Pirates #One Piece Crossing AU

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imagionationstation · 11 months

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I’ve seen a few AUs now where the baby turtles where like, actual baby turtle sized or at least palm sized, so I wanted to know; how would your ‘12 Leo react to a baby Donnie who could fit in the palm of his hand? (I know the ‘12 turtles were a little closer to actual toddler sized, but just imagine)

*squints at you and wonders how much you know about my “In Which” activities on A03*

Anyway. That- is a very loaded question.

So let’s keep imagining.

Imagine discovering this little turt. Imagine him being scared and confused. Imagine him desperately clinging to your attempts to comfort him, despite him not truly knowing who you are.

Imagine if he was completely untouched by harm, and every time he leaned against you, it was like he was trusting his whole body and soul into your care. Every time he smiled or giggled, it was like that little piece of happiness was reserved for you alone in ways that you could never hope to deserve. Every time that he cries, he looks so helpless and heartbroken that all you can do is frantically search for a way to make it better.

Now.

Imagine if this tiny, precious green gremlin of a creature could fit in a single hand. Imagine watching him getting stuck on his carapace and trying to roll over, only to fail over and over. Imagine realizing just how tiny and dependent he is. Imagine that ever time he shifts in your arms, you remember that if he fell, he’s so small that his shell hitting the ground might crack it. Imagine watching him try to crawl and realizing that anything could very easily crush him.

You’re a powerful ninja that can break his arm simply by holding him too tightly. He’s fragile, so fragile that any everything around you is a potential danger that could hurt him.

Imagine if every instinct in your being is constantly on edge and screaming- protect- protect- PROTECT- PROTECT- PROTECT-

Saying this would disrupt things would be an extreme understatement. Forget any kind of self-care/training/patrols, this kid wouldn’t be able to take his eye of lil’ Dee for a second. It would be almost obsessive, the way he can’t stand the thought of putting him down, much less handing him off to anyone else. As long as lil’ Dee is in reach, he’s safe.

Leo will make sure of it.

“Hey, Leo?”

The brother in question doesn’t look up from where his gaze is trained on the braced form of their tiny brother, who is busy trying to figure out how to eat the teddy bear that is several inches taller than him. The leader holds the toy as he lays propped in the crook of his other arm, and Donnie consents to chewing on the fingerless hand, furry arms clasped in six fingers that don’t quite understand how to release yet.

Mikey steps forward and drops on the other side of the couch, repeating his name for the tenth time. “Earth to Leo!”

With Mikey’s insistent voice next to him and hard to miss, he starts and glances to the side. “What?”

Used to his random space-outs by now, Mikey reaches out a finger to curl around the teddy bear’s arm, putting very little force into prying it from Donnie’s mouth. Donnie kicks his legs and growls, playful and determined, unconsciously locking his jaw as tiny fingers dig into the fur. Leo flinches at the sudden movement, but other than shooting him a wary side-eye, says nothing.

But maybe that’s because Mikey had yet to stop talking. “So we talked about it and April says that she’s cool to help take Donnie tonight. I know you don’t want anyone else messing with him, but it’ll only be a few hours. And he likes me and he likes her and we all talked about it, and Raph and Casey’s going to be doing Vigilante stuff far away from here and I know what you’re thinking, but we-”

“Wait, wait, wait, stop.” Leo mutters as he shakes his head, worn-out gaze moving to train on Mikey. “What’s happening tonight?”

Leaving no room for argument, Mikey raises a finger to the sky and then pokes his plastron. “You. Are sleeping.”

“I… Already sleep.” Leo argues anyway, already disengaging from the conversation to let go of the teddy, returning his attention to the turt. The furry head covers the small plastron, stuffed body in Leo’s lap, and Donnie releases his jaw, looking curiously at it.

“I haven’t seen you sleep once since Donnie got small.” Mikey argues as Leo sets a finger on Donnie’s side, preventing him from being able to roll around when he squirms.

“I never said I did it a lot.” Leo mutters reluctantly.

“How about yesterday? How many hours? Six?”

“Mikey…”

“Five? Four? Three?”

“I know my limits.”

“Tell me you at least got an hour.”

A heavy sigh as his shoulders slump, and he somehow seems more tired than before. “I don’t know, Mikey. It’s not like I’m counting.”

“And that’s going to change as soon as April gets here.” Leo looks up as if just queuing into their plans, and Mikey reiterates. “She’ll take Dee, you’ll set an alarm, and go to sleep. If anything happens, which it won’t, I’ll-”

“No!” Leo snaps, both turtles look equally startled by his proclamation. His eyes harden suddenly. “No, Mikey, I’m fine. Seriously. Leave it alone. I’ve got him.”

“Dude, you’re barely eating and you’re not sleeping.” Mikey argues firmly. “We talked about it and we think-“

“Thank you for making plans for me behind my back, but I’m fine.”

The sharpness of Leo’s tone can slice like his katanas. It only further proves how tired he is, as normally he would understand their concern rather than jump to the conclusion that they were working against him. He’d be annoyed, rather than angry.

Mikey stands his ground. “You’re tired.”

“I’ll survive being tired until Bishop’s team finishes the cure!”

“We don’t know how much longer that’ll take!”

“I don’t see why that matters!”

“That’s because your brain’s mush cause you’re tired!”

Donnie’s face scrunches with uncertainty as he looks between them, and Leo catches onto his unease, taking the forgotten bear and flinging it at his brother. Mikey catches it before it can hit him square in the face and Leo gently cups Donnie in his hand, standing up and stating, “If I wanted to sleep, I would sleep. So back off.”

“Leo-”

Leo’s already leaving. “Not up for debate!”

“Leo!”

Mikey stands up and waves his arms in a vent of frustration at the turned shell, but Leo ignores him, heading for the bedroom and slamming the door behind.

“You’re kidding!”

Mikey’s hushed gasp draws April’s attention from her studies, closing the laptop to set it to the side and joining him in the hallway. She stops by Leo’s door, peeking over his shoulder curiously.

From the light spilling in, she can see Leo curled up on the floor, his side leaning against a pillow to keep him from rolling left. His left arm hangs over it, hand slack over a tiny body like a shield, and Donnie cuddles into the blanket nest underneath him. The only form awake is Chompy, sitting near the nest like a little guard, tail tapping the floor as he blinks sleepily at the both of them.

“Chompy. Really?” Mikey whines, completely aghast. “Chompy?”

“At least he’s sleeping?” April offers off-handedly, trying to pretend she’s not equally as upset to be robbed of a chance to play with the hand-size turtle infant. “That’s something?”

“Yeah.” Mikey admits with a sigh. “Guess he really was tired if we haven’t woken him. And Chompy’s a pretty good alarm system…”

She places a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. “We’ll try again another time.”

He groans playfully, and then grabs hold of her hand, tugging her arm back the way she came. “Fiiiine. But we got all evening free and someone’s gotta watch Chris Bradford reruns with me!”

“Mikey.” She laughs as she plants her feet. “I have an essay-”

“Aprriiiiilll!”

“Shhhh!” She glances into the room as Chompy chirps. “Alright, alright. But I’ll have to multitask.”

“Deal!” Mikey hurries into the main room, and April turns to grab the door knob. She watches the tense hand over Donnie’s shell relax again, a sigh leaving his lips as the area quiets, and she wishes them and the watchful alien a soft, “Sweet dreams.”

Chompy settles to sleep as the door shuts, and April heads to the pit.

“So, how many times have you seen this episode?”

“Only seven!”

“Only seven, huh?”

81 notes · View notes

geonppangi · 1 year

Text

now that we know that zb1 is getting a show, here are some variety content i want to see

one thing that i don’t really love about variety shows is sometimes they designate one member as the mc/judge because they have an odd number. which is fair! but also i like seeing everyone be able to participate, so i thought it’d be fun if they compete individually or in groups of 3 and then have an expert come in to moderate. so everyone can do it and it would be more educational for everyone too lmfao

also mnet if you’re reading this, feel free to steal these ideas. i want to see these happen so badly

art episode

yes this is because i want to see ricky kill it like????

but i’m also really curious to know how good the other members are at art

maybe like a the members draw each other?? and they can pair up the members who don’t know each other that well

or they can choose what medium they want to use and do like something that represents their upcoming debut like a collage or smth like that

i love mixed media can one of them pls do it

or!!!!! they can do a design contest for the fanclub mascot and we can all vote lmao

so like bts with bt21

would also be a really cute way to introduce the name like maybe the members find out at the beginning of the episode and then based on what they drew we can try to guess what our name is

the potential is endless i’m telling you

i could see them either inviting an actual artist in to help or just straight up letting them go wild

but ricky is their expert

so i just found out after writing this whole thing that jiwoong is also good at art?? ^^his art

so if he and ricky are the new experts now

i think it’d be cool to see them collaborate on a piece and it would be very chill

while in the bg you just hear the members losing it

cooking/baking episode

similar to the cake decorating they did during the finale

i’m also thinking like seventeen’s cooking segments?

we can do teams of 3

can be same format as when they were preparing for their performances on boys planet but instead of killing part, main vocalist, etc, it can be appetizer, entree, and dessert or something like that

to make it even more interesting, they can play a game to find out what ingredients they get or the secret ingredient that they have to work with

so either like the camping cooking segment or like the show mom vs chef where they get an unpopular ingredient and have to make it appetizing

OR no teams and everyone creates their own thing

and they invite a celebrity chef to come be their judge/mc

pls i need a gordon ramsay crossover

i want to see him and gyuvin interact like i cannot tell you why but yeah (also yes, gyuvin can speak english but idk how well)

halloween cosplay episode

i might be biased because i am a cosplayer

but imagine a halloween themed episode where they have to make their own costumes

maybe they’re given like different fabrics or random clothes to work with

and they can figure out their own hair, makeup, and props too

i want at least one member to try sewing like i need to see it

they could invite special guests to come and teach them how to work with stuff like worbla or a sewing machine

and then at the end they have to model all of the costumes and film a dance practice in them because ofc they do

AND THEY ALSO GO TRICK OR TREATING

dorm content

obviously we need some dorm vlogs!!

like if we could get an episode of the members balancing being idols and school for some of them

also a dorm moving in + bedroom decor episode

i’d love to see the members do challenges to win like a budget for their common space furniture

and then an ikea vlog of them trying to get furniture in a certain amount of time maybe??

or it’s a scavenger hunt for money inside of ikea while they’re simultaneously looking for furniture

also cooking vlogs or maybe the members try to host a housewarming party

i’d literally cry if they plan a housewarming and then invite their friends from boys planet to come

please i just need to see dog union and junrae reunite

and imagine if we can get wumuti, seo won, woongki, and hwan hee

this is purely wish fulfillment but i want it so badly

and i want to see their skincare + morning routines

closet tour?? the boys shared their clothes so often on the show that it was hard to tell who wears what normally

pc decorating episode

could be an album unboxing episode

and if the album itself has any sort of interactive element like how seventeen’s semicolon had the weaving kit then they could assemble that

they can also get toploaders to decorate

it can be based on the pcs they pull because i have a strange desire to know what their pc luck is like

also i know this is sort of blasphemy but it is their album so ig they get a pass

but imagine journaling but with the photobook and maybe stickers if they include any

in case you can’t tell, i want to see how artistic the boys are lmfao

amusement park episode

we all knew this was coming

why are we surprised

hear me out, it’s a combo of an escape room and an amusement park

so like to escape the amusement park they need to collect clues which are scattered all around the park

some of the clues require them to go on the ride first

they can also be split up into teams of 3 maybe?? to see who can get out first

and the team that gets out last has to go on a ride that the other two teams pick

school episode

i want yujin to be the teacher

and the rest of them are the students

and they all play some sort of character but like switched

watch sung hanbin and zhang hao switch

jiwoong and gyuvin

matthew and gunwook

this is purely because i need to see gunwook cringe while doing aegyo

gunwook our canadian oppa

tbh i think matthew can pull off the student president character

ooohhhh and he should debate too

and i saved the best for last

taerae and ricky switch, outfits and all

THINK ABOUT IT

LIKE RICH EXCHANGE STUDENT TAERAE

AND LOSER (AFFECTIONATE) FASHION TERRORIST RICKY

---

show and tell?? mini series

like i want each member to teach the other members a specialty of theirs

ig ricky’s was the art episode already so pretend that’s here

cafe episode

yes this was inspired by my idea of hanbin teaching all of the members how to tut and waack

but i feel like that’s too easy, so how about having hanbin bring the group to his family’s cafe and they run it for a day LMAO

or maybe help run it…

and hanbin’s mom can teach them (not hanbin bc cold injeolmi toast…)

i want gyuvin waiter like i cannot tell you why but

and taerae too bc the more i can see him smile the lighter my soul feels

and matthew waiter for the same reason ofc!!!

jiwoong making coffee, pls he has such barista vibes

hanbin on making hot desserts because i want him to redeem himself

and gunwook and yujin on decorating desserts because i also need them to redeem themselves for their cake

ricky on sodas and smoothies because his mocktail video was just too smooth like that’s what won me over

zhang hao on tea and tea lattes

idrk why but i feel like he’d be good on whisking matcha

like the violinist wrist yknow

strings ensemble episode

also zhang hao teaching them how to play violin

he can also play piano and gunwook said that one of his goals was to learn how to play

so what if they make their own little strings ensemble with gunwook piano solo

you cannot tell me that gyuvin doesn’t give off double bass and taerae doesn’t give off cello energy

as a cellist, i’m claiming taerae

ricky would probably play violin, like it has very expensive vibes

and hanbin too because haobin violin lessons…can you see the vision

i think yujin and matthew would play viola. i don’t have any reasoning but ik some violists and they all have that energy

jiwoong gives me saxophone vibes 💀 but since we can’t have that, i’ll also give him the cello

it has a really warm and deep sound?? idk i feel like it suits him but maybe i’m going insane

wouldn’t it be so cute if they played an arrangement of their debut title track

also not alone would be soooooo cute

learning english episode

with our canadian oppa matthew

i think it’d be so funny if ricky and gyuvin pretended like they didn’t know any english

ik vancouverites don’t really have a “canadian accent” but i want matthew to mess with them by doing like a newfoundland accent so badly

youtube

or he just starts speaking french but with like an english accent and we see how long it takes the other members to figure it out

i feel like ricky would know but not say anything

debate episode

so as we know, gunwook is a debate kid (i say that both lovingly and maliciously)

so essentially going seventeen’s debate night LMAO

i want the members to vote on something that they fundamentally believe to be true

like what way should toilet paper go

and then put them on the opposite team

BUT we follow actual debate rules so they have to do research and cite their sources

prepare objections, etc etc

all within like 15 minutes lmfao

---

musical episode pt 2

but i specifically want them to write the whole thing

one team can write the script, another can write the music and choreograph and another can build the sets and plan costumes

as the resident actor, i nominate jiwoong to write the script and help direct

maybe gunwook for writing too? he’s a nerd and a debate kid so i feel like his writing must be good

MUSIC TEACHER HAO WITJ DANCE TEACHER BIN AND SINGER SONGWRITER TAERAE

literally the dream team i’m sobbing

ricky on set design and costumes because he’s an art kid so i trust him

and matthew too because his cake in the final episode was actually really cute??

not sure where i’d put gyuvin and yujin? maybe gyuvin on script writing so he can be with gunwook because i will never get sick of watching them interact

and yujin on set design?? but also yujin and jiwoong (T ^ T) and i want to see the sheer chaos that is gyuvin trying to build a set

maybe they can play rock paper scissors to figure it out

actually just a whole school performance episode or mini series??

so each episode could be a different performance that they put on as a school recital

to perform for their parents LMAO (yes this is just the artist battle special star creator stage)

i need them to do a spoken word poem and or interpretive dance because i had to do that in elementary school and i need somebody else to share in my suffering

some ideas include: a poem about the importance of colours?? and a series of tableaus depicting the creation of the Canadian Pacific Railway

they could also do church plays but instead of stories from the bible they can be like korean folktales or disney ripoffs

and ofc they have to do the awkward singing and then doing hand movements that correlate to the lyrics of the song

could also be done with their debut track btw

i want fancams of all of this

sports day

you know i had to do it

isac also works!! but idk if they're doing that so um

so with the summer olympics coming up in 2024, i think it’d be so funny if they do some summer olympics sports

volleyball segment for gunwook our resident haikyuu nerd please

and they can wear the uniforms from the anime too

please please please wakeone think about it

also imagine a skateboarding episode?? idk why maybe it’s the north american but i feel like matthew would be surprisingly good at it?

also surfing?????

idk if the surfing scene in korea is good but if not they can always take a trip to hawaii or smth i certainly will not be complaining

esports + pc building episode

listen we have 3 whole gamers in the group, this is kind of perfect

the gamers can be the captains of each team

i want the lame ass esports poses and intros

and the stats too like imagine

ALSO if you guys have seen the trash taste pc building special but think about the potential

so it’s partly based on skill and also how well they can build a pc

so they build the pcs and then play using the pcs

there should be a separate prize or bonus for building it the fastest (but not necessarily the best)

also i want the editing thing where they have an expert build the pc properly and then every time that the boys fuck up, the clip of them messing up is played right after the expert does it the correct way

think about the chaos

mock trial episode

same sort of thing as the debate night but they have to represent their clients

i feel like sung hanbin would be the defendant like i have no evidence for this but i want someone to indict him

he just seems like he would be really good at pretending to have not committed a crime

and then 2 attorneys and 2 witnesses on each side

prosecutors: gunwook and zhang hao (imagine the haobin tension guys) (also gunwook just has major prosecution vibes idk what to tell you)

defence attorneys: matthew and gyuvin

prosecution’s witnesses: yujin and taerae

defence’s witnesses: jiwoong and ricky

i feel like gunwook and zhang hao would be really good and logical

but like how can you not want to trust matthew and gyuvin like they’re so sweet

also i need them for comedy

gyuvin would 100% object to random shit and i need that

i’m sorry but i can’t imagine yujin and taerae being very good witnesses so ig it balanced out gunwook and zhang hao?

and jiwoong and ricky would be AMAZING witnesses

like it took skill to not be evil edited so ricky would be able to keep his calm so well and jiwoong too like i would trust whatever they say

and the judge could be an actual lawyer they brought on as the expert for the episode

and the jury can be the staff lmfao

now what is hanbin’s crime you might be asking?

being too handsome tbh i have no idea maybe the fans can vote on it the week before or smth LMFAO

---

volunteering mini series!

it really warms my heart to see people give back to the community, especially idols because it inspires a lot of fans to do so too!

it’d be really nice if maybe as a holiday special? they went around to different places and volunteered to spread awareness for the causes

maybe it’d be better if they split up?

the members can choose what they’re passionate about too

my personal suggestions/ideas would be:

a retirement home (they can perform music for the elderly people there. i’m thinking zhang hao and taerae would be a good combo)

a hospital

a soup kitchen

a community centre (i’d love to see hanbin and gunwook teach after school dance lessons to children)

and the proceeds for the episode could go towards different charities or programs for these places (ie if they need more funding or renovations) as well as a link for fans to donate more to these places

---

#Youtube #zb1 #zerobaseone #sung hanbin #zhang hao #seok matthew #ricky shen #park gunwook #kim taerae #kim gyuvin #kim jiwoong #han yujin #reality show #variety show #zb1 headcanon #zb1 imagines

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thenhlteaissuperhot · 6 months

Note

What are your good and bad surprises in the league so far?

There are, of course, significantly more examples than this, but I don't want this to be a long-ass post so I will just point out my personal highlights of highlights - naturally, they are quite Czech-centered since that's my main interest:

GOOD

The Bruins - obviously.

To be honest, I was slightly anxious about their fate from now on since losing two elite centers like Bergeron and Krejci at the same time, and also guys like Orlov and Bertuzzi, does leave you quite vulnerable, especially after a crushing first-round exit like they have experienced, but they have honestly been rocking it so far and I love it for them.

The Poitras kid, Zacha stepping up his game and delivering as the first center, Pasta showcasing that he very much belongs in the top 10 of the league, Swaymay with Ullmark being the best goaltending duo in the entire league, Marchand giving slays left red right as a captain, the defense being solid...

Filip Hronek in Vancouver

The Hughes-Hronek defensive pairing is among the best right now, they have clicked extremely well with each other, Filip is getting extreme ice time, and I am glad that at least someone from the former Red Wings is thriving in their new home

Quinn is literally leading the defensemen in points and Filip is 4th, which is insane, considering he has never been viewed as a top defenseman among Czechs

Anaheim and Arizona

They still won't make the playoffs, we all know that so let's not be delusional here, but they are finally getting genuinely fun to watch and showing us the immense potential they have.

Logan Cooley is doing great for a rookie in Arizona, has eight points already... - imagine what Bedard would be able to showcase if he had at least a slightly decent team around him

Lukas Dostal in Anaheim's net...

Jack Hughes and Elias Pettersson - for obvious reasons, just look at the stats

BAD

Edmonton

Honestly, has someone told them that having Leon and Connor on the team doesn't mean you don't have to invest in the defense and goaltending because I feel like they genuinely don't know that

Is it really that hard to look around and fetch at least a solid goaltender? They are the complete opposite of Boston right now in terms of the net - sorry not sorry, but they don't have a single goaltender they could truly rely on, both of them are equally struggling and the awful defense is certainly not helping them. Just go look in the European leagues, there are a ton of outstanding goalies who would be eager to play in the NHL if you gave them the chance

Imagine how sore Leon's shoulders must be right now from carrying the team - you can't depend on one elite player to drag you through the mess, you yourself are responsible for, you have to have some sort of backup when one of your stars gets injured

Jonathan Huberdeau

You gotta feel for Calgary right now - signing this guy to an 8-year, $84,000,000 contract and him scoring two goals for you in ten games played...

Jakub Vrana

I was genuinely hoping that St.Louis would be the right destination for him in terms of them giving him the space and ice time to showcase his skills and solidify his position on that roster, but instead, it's the third team that makes him a healthy scratch

I know that there is a lot of pressure there for the team to perform so it might not be entirely Jakub's fault, however, this really is his last chance to stay in the league and currently, he is not delivering the results needed for him to be given another contract

Dominik Kubalik

Watching him at the Worlds where he was single-handedly leading the points of the Czech team and scoring basically every single game at least once, I did have great expectations of him, but so far, he has scored only two goals in Ottawa.

I am not that knowledgeable about the Senators - frankly, the only piece of information I know is that Tkachuk, Stützle, and Giroux are there and that Ryan Reynolds wanted to buy the team before he invested in yet another trash called Alpine in Formula One, but knowing Kubalik, his problem probably is the lack of ice time and competent linemates, which I am not sure is going to improve any time soon

Genuinely hurts to see another former Red Wing struggling

#nhl #nhl players #ice hockey #boston bruins #arizona coyotes #anaheim ducks #filip hronek #dominik kubalik #jakub vrana #jonathan huberdeau #edmonton oilers #leon draisaitl #logan cooley #lukas dostal

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everynicorobin · 9 months

Text

Favorite Robin panels, cont.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Sabaody (cont.)

Chapter 495

Look at her. What's she doing. What is that face. I love her.

Chapter 496

Top ten funniest panels in One Piece

Chapter 507

I really respect her decision. She could have taken the easy way out and saved herself and everyone a lot of trouble by skipping out on getting the Road Poneglyphs, but she has enough faith in herself and the crew to know that they'll make it on their own.

Chapter 510

I admire this quick thinking. Her Clutch move might have worked by redirecting the beam at the sky, but she might not have been able to generate enough hands to pull that off in time, especially considering (though they didn't know this at the time) that this Kuma is a robot duplicate. So she does the next best thing: Slam his jaw closed like an alligator's and blow him up from the inside.

Chapter 512

Although it was Usopp who grabbed her at the time, I appreciate the similarities between this panel and the ones where Robin is rescued from Aokiji and then abducted to safety on the sea train.

Tequila Wolf

Chapter 593

She loves them so much!! She's turning down the chance of a lifetime so she can go be with Luffy in his time of need! Just starts crying just starts crying

Chapter 596

auuguhughh she loves her friends

Sabaody (return)

Chapter 599

Look at her!! She's so happy to come back and meet up with everyone :')

Chapter 600

And she wants to see Luffy again so much!! Ms Robin I love you!!

Fishman Island

Chapter 605

This one is great because this is the first time Robin's drawing something unusual they've seen, but she acts like it's a habit for her. Plus, this is what the sketch ended up as:

Chapter 616

This is just a lovely shot of her. Look at her. Keep looking at her. Beautiful.

Chapter 628

This is a very nice moment - very peaceful and calm, yet her words hold some kind of weight. We've gotten more hints as to Joyboy's identity at this point, but back then he was just as big a mystery as the One Piece itself.

Chapter 629

God this is so funny. Why'd she do it like this. She could have stopped their fight any other way.

Chapter 643

A very cool Robin! Her pose is great here, especially with the sunglasses, and she very casually deflects their praise onto Jinbe, not taking any credit.

Chapter 648

Another adorable Robin and Chopper moment! She doesn't even ask if he needs help, she just supports him without a word.

Chapter 648

I love that she chose to hold his head like that instead of holding him under the arms like a normal person

Chapter 649

She knows how to do an epic reveal and puts that talent to good use. It's a serious subject, not only because they're talking about a potentially destructive power, but because that power belongs to a young girl who has no idea of her true ability.

Punk Hazard

Chapter 655

A super cute panel where she enjoys Usopp's misery while feeding Luffy :)

Chapter 659

An amazing panel for several reasons. Robin's inner thoughts are cute as always. Based on Luffy's lack of worry or "How will we get across?" attitude, it seems he has the same idea as Robin. Usopp knows them well enough to read their minds at this point. Absolutely incredible.

Chapter 661

A great scary Robin face and all she wants to do is steal the enemy's clothes

Chapter 665

Her cold fury for the fact that Franky is making weird faces in Chopper's body culminating in her commanding him to never speak again is just hilarious

Chapter 673

Always very funny to see how not seriously they take to being kidnapped and tied up, and the fact that they're reminiscing about when Robin was an enemy is doubly amusing

Chapter 696

HER HOODIE

Dressrosa

Chapter 700

Yet another peek into her vivid imagination

Chapter 705

The combination of the hat and sunglasses gives her a very classy look here

Chapter 711

This is Robin's first expression of comic shock and I love it so much

Chapter 711

Another great expression, coupled with the fact that this is the moment Usopp's habit of self-aggrandizing and lying finally breaks her

Chapter 728

Robin gives off the air of, and often is, sensible. It's moments like these that really stand out, when she's swayed by a sob story (even if she's not crying) or walking headfirst into danger.

Chapter 728

Her second expression of comic shock, even better than the first since she's participating in a group gag this time

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

#tree of knowledge #fujikos-gun

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life-in-the-garden · 4 months

Text

A Spell Bottle for Big Al

This spell is dedicated to my boyfriend @mikk1n, who introduced me to the world of Walking with Dinosaurs and its various sub-series. The BBC walked with dinosaurs so that Prehistoric Planet could run.

outdated illustration of an allosaurus from Dinosaur National Monument, by the United States' National Park Service

Anyway...

This spell calls upon the power of the Allosaurus jimmadseni specimen identified as MOR 693—however, this fossilized creature is more commonly known as “Big Al” thanks to an imagining of his life’s story being told via a BBC television program in the year 2000. (The Ballad of Big Al was a Christmas special for the popular Walking with Dinosaurs series, and it can be watched legally on the Internet Archive—part one is here and part two is here).

Big Al’s bones currently live in the Geological Museum of the University of Wyoming in the United States (see his exhibit here), but when re-watching his story with my boyfriend late at night I was struck by the depiction of his life. Although I’m not happy with a multitude of the narrative choices that the writers made—my ire is primarily directed at the massive time skips of multiple years and the overall rushed brevity of the story—what really stuck with me was how realistic it felt.

Now, I’m not talking about the depictions of the dinosaurs or the quality of the practical and special effects; science and technology have marched steadily onward since the year 2000, and what we know now puts our prehistoric knowledge from 20+ years ago to shame. That can’t be helped. What I’m really saying is that so much of Big Al’s depicted life was spent searching for food, failing to acquire it, and ultimately dying of starvation… because of a broken toe. Yes, he was an apex predator of his era, but the show is very careful to point out how much his life teetered on the knife’s edge of his physical prowess as a predator—although he healed from a variety of injuries and illnesses throughout his less than a decade of life, ultimately Big Al was brought down by a broken bone that developed a fatal infection and rendered him unable to hunt.

While Big Al failed to reached adulthood, that doesn’t mean you have to do the same thing. This spell is designed to create part of the spirit of Big Al into an animal ally (if you’re not from an indigenous culture that incorporate usage of totems or spirit animals, please don’t use those terms) to aid you in your own efforts toward continuing to survive whatever troubles currently plague you.

Method

Now, the sky’s the limit for what you can ask Big Al’s spirit for help with. However, my own witchy intuition (aka UPG) says that an allosaurus isn’t going to understand a school/university assignment well enough to be able to help you with it. Their knowledge predates algebra. On the other hand, I’m sure theropod dinosaurs (Big Al among them) were incredibly smart in much the same way modern corvids are, so your own UPG might differ on this point…

In other words, make this spell your own! What follows is just one way that you can request aid from the spirit of Big Al; this one is designed for (since Big Al died with an infected fracture) remembering to take your pills.

You will potentially need…

1 empty pill bottle

Pebbles, beads, or crystals of some kind that are small enough to fit inside the pill bottle

Sealing wax (your choice of color) or liquid glue

writing supplies OR 1 carnivorous dinosaur toy, ideally a small & cheap one

Instructions, such as they are…

(This is the boring part.) Put the containers for the pills you plan to consume in a place where they are prominent enough that they won’t blend into the background. If you have a lot of different pills to take and want help remembering the instructions for them, keep a piece of paper nearby (or make a note on your phone) with notes for what pills you are supposed to take at what time + any additional helpful information.

Cleanse the empty pill bottle, the pebbles/beads/crystals, and (if using) the dinosaur toy. You can cleanse with whatever method seems best to you—personally, my favorite method is via candlelight.

(This is the less boring part.) If using the dinosaur toy, have the toy preside over your pill bottle(s) that actually have pills in them. This toy is the embodiment of your animal ally. You can set this up on your altar if you use an altar + want to keep your pills there, but it’s not necessary. If not using the toy, use the writing supplies to draw a picture of a carnivorous, bipedal dinosaur on a piece of paper—this will go under your cleansed (and soon to be filled) pill bottle as the embodiment of your animal ally.

Put some pebbles, crystals, and/or beads into the empty and cleansed pill bottle.* Put the cap on and shake it a few times—or more than a few times, if that’s what feels right to you. If you enjoy verbal incantations, you can say one here; it can be as complex as a full-length sonnet in iambic pentameter, or it can be as simple as “amen” or “so mote it be” or what have you.

* Note: as weird as it sounds, I don’t really care about crystal correspondences in my personal practice; they are just pretty rocks to me. Therefore, I’m not going to tell you what crystals work well in this spell. Follow your intuition!

Once you’re satisfied with the pill bottle, seal it with wax or glue and keep it in a place where it’s hard to ignore. Ideally, this place will be right next to the dinosaur toy, or if you’re not using the toy then atop the piece of paper with your hand-drawn dinosaur. Shake the pill bottle full of pebbles, crystals, and/or beads every time you need to take your meds; for me, the rattling sound is part of the ritual and helps me remember to go over to the medicine cabinet and take my pills with breakfast.

And that's it! I hope Big Al and this spell inspire you in some way. If you have helpful medication of any kind, please remember to take it!

If you enjoyed this spell, please consider tossing some spare change toward my ko-fi. As a poor university student with an abusive home life, every little bit helps me get a few centimeters closer to moving out + pay for food and veterinary expenses for my cat.

#witchcraft #witchblr #witches of tumblr #magic #haven's original spells #spell bottle #pop culture witchcraft #pop culture magic #dinosaur #the ballad of big al #cw animal death

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shenanigans-and-imagines · 2 years

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Congratulations on the milestone!! You deserve it. Thank you for all of your hard work and amazing writing you share with us. I absolutely love your Thrawn pieces. He has such a unique voice and you really let it shine through. I have to admit I swooned about 100 times reading through the different prompts and imagining them with Thrawn, but in the end I am nothing if not a sucker for the hurt partner trope, and the thought of Thrawn taking care of a potentially injured reader just Does Things to my heart. So I humbly request the prompt “taking the other’s hand to look for injuries” with Thrawn x reader.

Again, thank you so much for putting these incredible pieces out there for us to enjoy. Your hard work is appreciated and thoroughly loved.

💙, stars-suns-and-spaceguns

A/N: Thank you so much for all those kind words. It really means so much to me. 💙

You were a mess and it was all Captain Reeves fault.

You were still just a junior lieutenant; a glorified mechanic really. Compared to the rest of your peers, walking around in their finely pressed uniforms, you were often sweating and partially covered in oil. Captain Reeves made it her mission to point out every instance you were out of uniform, as if you could be expected to keep a jacket on when you were upside down in a TIE-Fighter for hours on end.

Luckily, any complaints Captain Reeves might have had were dismissed by Grand Admiral Thrawn. He had taken note of your improvements on the fighters, as well as the droids and other sections of the ships you had repaired. This attention had sparked an unwanted rivalry between yourself and Reeves, one you were paying for now.

You straightened your jacket, trying desperately to look passably professional as you approached the Grand Admiral's office.

Reeves had informed you, quite last minute, that Thrawn had requested a report on your progress. You were surprised as usually such reports were given by the hanger officer, but Reeves insisted Thrawn wanted to speak to you. You were doubtful at first, but it was obvious how annoyed she was at being passed over. It was likely the reason she gave you no time to shower or attend to the cut you had gotten just minutes before.

You had rallied though, making a quick bandage around your hand and grabbing your notes before running halfway across the ship.

The door to Thrawn's office slid open.

You allowed yourself one last deep breath and stepped inside.

Thrawn stood behind his desk, his attention on the projected schematics in the center.

Your shoulders relaxed, the mystery of why you were summoned resolved. He wanted to compare your improvements to the standard TIEs to his TIE-Defender project. No elaborate presentation required.

"Junior Lieutenant Y/N," he acknowledged, stepping out to meet you. "I thank you for your promptness. At ease."

"Of course sir," you said. Suddenly your training didn't seem so bad. You hadn't even realized you were standing at attention. "Captain Reeves told me your wished to speak to me."

"I do. I understand you have been able to improve the TIEs gunner accuracy by fifty percent."

"Yes, sir," you said, a warm feeling spreading through your body at the praise. "I have the notes here, if you care to look them over."

You handed him your data pad. To your surprise, however, he did not take it. His lips pressed into a fine line as his eyes narrowed.

"You're injured."

You looked down, suddenly remembering the bandage covering your palm.

"Just a scratch, sir," you said.

He didn't say anything for a moment, taking the data pad out of your grip.

You thought that would be the end of it, but instead of continuing your conversation, he placed the pad on the desk before offering his hand to yours.

"If I may."

It wasn't an order, but you were in no position to refuse him.

You tried your best to ignore the sudden heat in your cheeks when your skin met. He handled your hand with care, turning it over to examine your work.

The blue of his fingers looked so strange compared to your own. They were long and elegant, but there was a roughness to their texture. They held the scars of combat and wire burns just as yours did. It was a similarity you should have expected, but surprised you all the same.

He glanced up at you, silently asking for permission.

You didn't trust your voice, only managing a small nod in response.

Gently he pulled away the now red stained cloth until the only thing surrounding your wound was air.

You winced at the sight. You hadn't thought it was bad as all that.

Thrawn's frown deepened. "Why did you not report to medical?"

"You requested my presence, sir," you said, lacking a better excuse. "I was told it was urgent."

Why didn't he just let go of your hand? Surely by now he could feel how your pulse was racing.

He shook his head. "Captain Reeves should have given you leave for a proper examination. I will speak to her later."

"Please, don't," you blurted, unable to stop the words.

Thrawn's eyes met yours, forcing the air right from your lungs.

"Part of a captain's duties is to ensure the health and safety of those under their command," he said, simply. "If she's been neglecting these duties, disciplinary action must be taken."

Your throat was dry, but it was clear he was waiting for some kind of answer.

"I only meant..." You swallowed. "I don't think she was aware, sir."

"Perhaps, but this is not the first time something similar to this has happened."

Your silence was answer enough. He was right, of course. Any little inconvenience Captain Reeves could send your way she did. There was a reason small nicks and burns covered your hands and arms. Nothing life threatening. Nothing that could be considered a true neglect of duty, but enough for you to keep your own med-kit in arms reach at all times.

You hadn't thought anyone noticed, but Thrawn had.

"I will speak to her," he repeated, firmly. "In the meantime, report to medical. Once you are cleared for duty, we may continue our conversation."

"Yes, sir," you said, with more breath than you meant to. "Thank you, sir."

He nodded in approval and it was only then did he release your hand.

"Dismissed."

You did not wait a second longer. Cradling your injured hand you swiftly made your way to the med bay, your feet carrying your forward while your mind remained with Thrawn.

It was nothing. Grand Admiral Thrawn was unique in the Imperial Navy for actually caring about his crew, even a low ranking officer such as yourself. He simply wished for you to remain efficient in your duties. It wouldn't do well for the mechanic to not have use of their hands.

Still your thoughts lingered his touch and the intensity of his gaze. It was a moment, but a one only you and he shared. Perhaps, if you were lucky, you would have another. At the very least, it was very likely you would be dealing with Thrawn directly going forward instead of Captain Reeves.

Things were about the change. You just knew it.

(8/20)

#star wars #thrawn #grand admiral thrawn #thrawn x reader #grand admiral thrawn x reader #star wars: rebels #the thrawn trilogy #5k followers #5k celebration #2022 fic

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talenlee · 30 days

Text

Talen Month 2024!

Welcome to Talen Month here on press dot invincible dot ink!

A pattern has formed, a groove has been worn, and I treat April as a month in which I’m going to focus on writing about indulgent, entirely self-serving nonsense. No topic is too niche, no character exploration too unnecessary, and no corner case complaint about some other nonsense is too specific for me to do it if it tickles me distinctly and doesn’t also fit better into another theme month.

Like, c’mon, there’s gotta be something for Dread Month and Tricks Month. October and August if you’re new here.

But what does this actually mean?

The whole question of making a blog which is literally just my own daily writing, and then having a month dedicated to talking about myself or my interests seems when viewed at arm’s length like nonsense. Everything on this blog is stuff I care about. I’m always going to talk about things as they relate to me, duh. That’s the whole point, I didn’t train myself to understand and deploy autoethnography relentlessly because I wanted to pretend I didn’t exist.

If you go back and read earlier parts of the blog, you can find my posts from when I was trying to position myself as a neutral observer of videogames, and even then I found the idea of it stifling. Early Game Pile entries would include a list of reasons I could imagine someone wanting to play a game, and of course, that list was going to be filtered through my imagination and opinion. On the one hand it’s not that hard to have some empathy for a potential or imagined reader, and what might help a game or piece of media interest them. It’s hard to have empathy for every possible reader, and that’s where we start to get into the shape of you – the reader – that is in my head.

In my mind, you’re probably queer. Not necessarily, but probably. You at least are adjacent to queer spaces, since you got to found me. I don’t have an assumption that you’re a boy or a girl, though I think I probably joke around as if you’re a girl or girlthing more likely than you are a boy. I think I do that because I don’t think it’s interesting to joke about my reader being a boy — everyone does that. It’s much funnier to — accurately or not! — crack jokes about not liking girly games like Bloodbourne and Dwarf Fortress.

You’re younger than me. You watch anime and you play videogames, but you don’t read as many books as you like. I think this because I think that I think of reading books as interesting and a way to broaden your horizons, but I also don’t read as many books as I’d like. Sometimes this is because my day can consist of choking through six dense chapters of four different books and sometimes it’s because it’s a lot easier to put the TV on and let twenty episodes of Bluey happen.

You’re more of a console gamer. I can talk to you about old PC games from the 1990s and I need to explain how they work or what life was like for people interested in that play space, because you don’t know what I’m talking about. Not a cruel thing or a ignorance thing – I don’t think less of you for not knowing, but I think it’s worth explaining it. I think that part of that is because I think it’s interesting. When I dig into how Commander Keen works, being able to explain how the EGA processor worked is really me teaching myself something I half-understand, and then share with you because I … I like talking about it?

I definitely think there are words and topics you’d rather I avoid. I think that you don’t like seeing me be mean to things, or about things. I think that you’d rather not see me using generative media for bumpers in my posts, and that you either don’t care about my using of alt text or you care about it in hypothetical. The fact I’m trying to get in the habit for it is something you probably think ‘oh, that’s nice, that’s a good habit’ and that’s the end of it. I think that if there are people reading this who benefit from good alt text, there aren’t many of you, maybe one or two. I also think that that one or two are worth doing a good job for, as a matter of principle. But I also think if I screw up, or my alt text is bad, I’m not going to get told about it.

I think you used to be on twitter.

I think you think I’m interesting, but not cool.

I think you think my writing is engaging, but not deeply affecting. I think you’re really glad to see stuff on a website that’s being made and maintained and not being used to advertise. I think that if I started promoting or doing calls to action, you’d find that unappealing. You wouldn’t necessarily hate me for it, but it would be something that you didn’t have to deal with here, previously, but now you do have to deal with it, and that’d be a bummer.

I also think there’s a good chance every single thing I’ve looked at and thought ‘wow this sucks’ is someone’s favourite thing. I think, if I rubbish an anime or a game, I have pretty good chance that you are either really relieved to see someone finally talk critically about it, or you’re super bummed to see someone you respected talking about something you love cruelly. I think this is part of why I keep a mix going on: I think that you might tolerate a few sassy posts about something you like, but if I let my natural impulse to complain overwhelm me, you’d have a blog that’s grumpy and mad for several days in a row and that might just be enough to make you give up on checking.

I don’t think you check. I think you’re either using an RSS reader because you’re smart and cool and better than me with computers, or you see my work linked other places. The idea that my blog lives in a space like someone’s daily webcomic link folder is kinda nice but I have no idea if anyone else even does those any more.

This is mostly just anxieties, of course. I’m concerned about being seen a particular way. I’m afraid of behaving in a way that’s too much. I don’t want to make you feel like you shouldn’t bother checking. I want to share things that are funny and exciting with you. I also want to get better at writing and part of that is forcing variety, because otherwise I will default to cliche phrases and reusing jokes from a more successful Adams, whether that’s Douglas (very good) or Scott (very bad).

This month, I’m going to try and talk to you with less of the anxiety. More willingness to talk about things I normally skirt around. And yes, that means I will probably spend a lot of words focusing on some extremely niche nonsense or maybe diving way too deep in something I think you’d find dull.

Sorry.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Diary

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ruthlesslistener · 1 year

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...okay now I'm haunted by "what if the planet in Subnautica is in the process of developing its own indigenous sapient life after the Sea Emperors' deaths... and it's the reaper leviathans"

like the scanner calls them basically all brawn no brains but the fate of the Degasi suggests they recognize 'one of their own' and react to avenge/defend it, and their circling behavior means they're basically taking their sweet time sizing you up before they attack. They have dexterous appendages that could be easily adapted to tool use.

...And now I have a stray plot bunny because this thought is running into "if the warpers talk to each other using sophisticated protocols the radios can pick up, they're undeniably sapient themselves and their behavior patterns attacking you reflect this" and just imagining like. a reaper leviathan beginning to develop telepathic communication, trying to eat a disoriented warper who's lost their connection to the others, warper cuts reaper's mouth to get it to back off, and they end up in a standoff that ends up a conversation.

I mean just imagining a reaper leviathan as an early-sapience protagonist is very funny to me. My mental image constructs a teenager who lucked out genetically and got big faster than her neighbors so she thinks she's hot shit but is understimulated due to lack of a challenge, but whose primary emotional cope for basically anything she can't rip to pieces is to just Yell At It until it realizes how big and scary she is and backs down.

Oh my god you have no idea how much I'd adore an au like this. While I love the Architects as dearly as anyone, one of my biggest disappointments with Subnautica was that the intelligent species native to the planet got kind of left to the endgame/shuttled to the side, and then cut from the sequel when the main writer for Below Zero left. Like, I kind of get it, they wanted to have it be a big lead up in the og story and they had troubles in the next, but I want!!! More intelligent fish aliens!!! ESPECIALLY since the Sea Emperor has a concept of reincarnation, implying a philosophy and belief system that is unique to their species and doesn't require hands to maintain.

Though honestly, I think there's a solid enough baseline for that plotbunny already- Planet 4546B has recently undergone/was in the grips of a mass extinction event due to the bacteria plague, which means that there is not only a good deal of resource scarcity compared to the bountiful sea life that the ancestors of the current-day Reapers experience. Paired with that, the Sea Dragon Leviathans- known predators of the Reaper- have dwindled in number to only about three active individuals, which means that there's a lot more Reapers around to compete with. Assuming that intelligence is tied to adaptability, and that the Sea Emperors and Reapers share a common ancestor with the trait that formed into telepathy in the Emperor species, and you have a setup where natural selection is prioritizing Reaper leviathans who are not only mature strong enough and fast enough to outclass the other Reapers, but are also intelligent enough to outwit them. Size and quick maturity might have been a confounding factor in human evolution, but in terms of an egg-laying species, we can perhaps have them experience a longer incubation time, which results in a bigger hatchling. The increased size allows the baby to outcompete other juveniles, which in turn gives it the calories needed to help build that big brain that becomes a necessary tool once it becomes large enough to be seen as competition by adult Reapers. And as for the telepathy, being able to potentially settle territorial disputes and gather huntsmates, leading to less energy and risk wasted on members of the same species, and more being aimed at taking down more prey. It's a totally feasible fictitious evolution path, especially since the leviathans themselves are so mysterious

(Also, animals always tend to be more intelligent than people expect them to be. If the PDA was scanning for brain size in relation to muscle mass for the Reapers, its very well likely that it assumed intelligence based off of that, which we know from birds is not an accurate judgement.)

BUT ANYWAYS I'm also incredibly fond of this concept because ngl it also reminds me of how I write young dragons (especially from a specific tribe) where young female adolescents go through this big period of teenage badasseryhood where they essentially try to act like they're hot shit to try to intimidate potential rivals and test the waters to see which of the older females are starting to go soft so that they can go on ahead with their territory-claiming. For this specific Reaper, I can easily imagine a scenario where she's got an advantageous new mutation that lead to her outclassing her peers, but being in that awkward spot where she's just not quite big enough yet to challenge any of the older reapers, so she instead spends a good deal of time mucking about trying to work on looking Big and Scary, which involves a lot of tearing shit apart with her mandibles, roaring, and trying to stun prey into silence with her telepathy, which makes her Very Loud but also Very Good at Being Loud with her thoughts.

It would also be interesting to delve a little into Warper telepathy- the Architects bioengineered them into what they are now out of a probably-extinct species, and are thus likely responsible for giving them the ability to interact with computers and teleport, but since telepathy already existed in at least the Sea Emperors, the ability to communicate could either be natural to the species they modified, or implemented because they themselves did not think that they would be capable without being networked. What makes this so interesting, however, is that the Sea Emperor mentions that the Architects were incapable of hearing her (most likely because they were all networked; Al-an makes a very big deal about that, so they were probably closed off to outsiders and attuned only to other Architects), so it could be that the Warpers were ignoring this very loud new baby up until one got disconnected from the rest (perhaps due to mechanical failure?) and thus ONLY has Large Screaming Teenager to talk to. Which sets up a very interesting potential partnership between a very old, very exasperated, and very aware-of-vulnerability-Warper, and a very bored teenage Reaper who only knows violence and yelling, but is letting this particular Warper live because she's so bored out of her skull that the intrigue of helping them is better than tearing up the reef and getting tail-smacked by her elders for the nth time. Maybe the Warper can teach her how to use her telepathy better, and talk to her about the Architects and their purpose while they travel to find new parts to fix them with.

Fuck, that's a really good story prompt actually. I'm weak for accidental mentorship or adoption stories, doubly weak for inhuman apex predators being dumbass teenagers, and the potential language differences between two types of telepathy could be really fun to play with. Plus there's the advantage of getting to write about intelligent aliens that don't craft like us or built societies like we do, which is something that I personally think is severely underrated in sci-fi

#like my seawalker species was specifically inspired by me wanting an intelligent tribe indigenous to subnauticas world #that just kinda got outta hand #subnautica #ganymedesclock #but seriously i dont think i can reiterate just how interesting of a concept and a story dynamic this is #like holy shit this is really really fucking good #gonna be chewing on this one for weeks #reply

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venjamin-kingdomhearts · 8 months

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What are your thoughts on the idea of Namine restoring Ventus' memories of Union X? I've seen it a couple times and I don't think it'll happen but I think it could make some interesting fanfics. I also like it since it would mean Ventus and Namine would meet which I'd personally love to see.

OK so I've definitely talked about it a tiny bit in this post here (which someone drew some wonderful art for eheh), and a touch here BUT i ended up making a one-shot based off the idea here.

Hey so. Apologies that this took *checks calendar* 20 days but I kept getting distracted by drawing ideas. I AM here now though and want to thank you so much for you patience and the ASK i love talking abt stuff like this eheh.

Ok, in general I LOVE the idea. Though my biggest fear is that ACTUAL KH will have Naminé recover Ven’s memories offscreen, so I can’t say I want it to be canon just because the fear of like. Ven’s lost memories being magically recovered without any real payoff is just so real. Best case scenario is that it’s a separate plot where we see Ventus struggle with his recovered memories and worst case scenario is that it’s offscreen, so… I’m trying not to get my hopes up (and failing).

BUT onto the actual Nami and Ven interaction. As someone who loves them as friends and a ship there is so much potential here. You can boil it down to two major things though; how Ventus reacts to his recovered memories, and how Naminé feels about having to use her powers again. I feel like this idea allows for SO much angst for each character and a chance for them to connect on a deeper level.

Like, Naminé was made to use her powers to hurt Sora. She clearly carries a lot of guilt still, and I’ve seen SO many headcanons about her swearing to never use her memory powers again that it’s practically canon in my eyes. Of course, she eventually DOES have to use her powers when searching for Sora (as said in re:mind) , but I think she only looks through Xion and Roxas’ memories, no altering them. So, she’s sworn off altering memories, helping people remember and forget. She only searches through memories when she’s told, and of course, never wants to hurt anyone with her magic. Naminé is tired of being “the Witch”… and luckily, Ventus doesn’t see her as that. I’d like to imagine that they’re friends and get to know each other a little before the idea of using Naminé’s powers on Ventus is even a thought. Like, Ventus IS aware of Naminé’s powers from the beginning, but he’s only heard whispers of it, little facts. Nothing super major and concrete, just a general “memory magic is a thing Naminé does”. I think he does ask her a bit about it, but it’s silly questions. Questions no one’s ever asked Naminé, like, “do you ever use your magic to find your keys?” “do you remember everything you’ve ever read?” “oh, if you can control memories, can you read minds? quick, what number am i thinking!” Just silly little ‘can you’s and ‘what if’s. It makes Naminé laugh, because no one’s ever thought of her magic like that. As something that can be used for the mundane, for little situations where no one’s memories are at stake. I think eventually she would open up more to Ventus about her magic, because he sees it as something that’s not too scary.

Course, after a few deeper conversations, Ventus would be able to catch on to the darker parts of Naminé’s powers. He might even… think of how scary they could be. I don’t think he’d ever be scared of Naminé, but one day he might be sitting alone, thinking of what it’d be like to forget what he has right now. Wonder, for himself, how many of his own memories are really real, since he’s forgotten so much. He trusts Naminé. But he realizes how terrifying it would be, to have his memories altered.

But around this time, Ventus starts questioning a lot. His memories have always been muddled, and now that he remembers pieces of his life while he was Xehanort’s apprentice, before Vanitas came to be, Ventus has this lingering sense of “I don’t really know who I am or who I was, do I?” Then there’s Chirithy, who is proof Ventus had another life he left behind. Ventus begins to wonder what that life was like. Begins to question if the Ventus he is now is anything like the Ventus he was before. In a way, he views his lost memories as… a different person, almost. Ventus might even wonder if, with that line of thinking, he’s simply…someone else, pretending to be Ventus. The “replacement” of the original.

I think Ventus would be scared to confront that original self.

But he would have to, because of course there was something special about Ventus’ past life and it was something that could hint to what’s happening right now and where Sora is and who the Guardians of Light have to fight next. So when everyone looks to Ven for answers, Ventus looks to Naminé, and the process begins.

Ventus feels bad that she’s using her powers because of him. But Naminé smiles (it must be fake. It has to be fake, it doesn’t quite reach her eyes) and nods, knowing her magic is needed and everyone is counting on Ven who’s counting on her. But when they’re alone, away from prying eyes and the rest of the Guardians, when the lights are dim and Ventus’ smile fades, Naminé asks him if this is what he wants.

Ventus is a bad liar, but he’s got Sora’s stupid habit of insisting he’s fine. Unlike Sora, Ventus can’t keep smiling and he’s WAY less convincing. So no matter how many times he denies that he’s scared, Naminé whispers:

“I know you’re scared, but it’s not a bother, Ventus. I’ve done this before, you’ll be fine. As soon as I find those Chains, I’ll reconnect them, and then-“

“But what about you?” Ventus interrupts. “I don’t- don’t want to force you to do this.”

They’re both scared. Really scared. And I think they’d realize it then, that Ventus is secretly scared of losing himself to his memories, and Naminé is secretly scared of messing up. They don’t want to go through with this-

“But we have to. For Sora.”

Ventus takes a breath.

“If- if my memories can show us any hints for what we have to do to find him, I-I think we need to do this. But-“

“You’re still scared.” Naminé looks Ven in the eyes.

Ventus swallows. He nods.

“And so are you.”

They leave it at that. Mutual recognition that they’re both scared of what will happen next, but that this is something they must do. They are in this together, and they trust each other enough to acknowledge they are afraid.

Eventually, Naminé has to search through Ventus’ memories. Alter the Chains connecting them, thread them together in ways she’s only even had to do for Sora, when he fell asleep in Castle Oblivion. It’s almost like an operation. Terra and Aqua hold Ventus’ hands and say their “see you soon”s before he drifts to sleep. Angel the Wise and his Apprentices have to assure them that Ventus won’t be sleeping for so long, not a year and definitely not 12. The process will take a while, since Ventus’ memories are so twisted and Naminé needs time to untangle them, but she has support. She’ll be able to help him soon.

Naminé and Ventus are alone again, before he must sleep.

“Hey, Nams?”

Naminé looks at him quietly. Ventus smiles.

“I know you haven’t started yet, but… thanks, Naminé. In advance.”

Ventus felt the urge to say that. He couldn’t tell why, but… well, Master Eraqus always told him to be polite.

Naminé manages a smile, Ventus falls asleep, and she begins her work.

Anyways, things don’t go… well in my head. There’s a lot of remembering bad things and a lot of Naminé going “oh shit, Ven’s gonna have to remember this and he’s going to feel TERRIBLE.” a lot of her realizing what stuff he’s been through and now, she’s in this weird place where she KNOWS and it’s up to her to decide whether Ventus should remember or not. And fuck, it’d be so much pressure for her. just…. you ever had to sit with a friend while they describe something horrible they’ve been through? it had to deliver bad news? Naminé is just feeling all the worst parts of that. Sorry for Ventus, sorry for Strelitzia, sorry for everyone. She wants to help but she doesn’t know how, all she knows is that she can either help Ventus remember or hide all the memories away again and pretend she couldn’t reach them.

(also, Marluxia was there apparently and Naminé does NOT want to unpack those feelings goodness gracious no)

Now, whichever choice Naminé takes will be a mess of angst. Because on one hand, she can let Ventus remember and everyone will deal with the consequences, or she can make him forget, and only she would know about the Age of Fairytales and Strelitzia’s murder and how very young Ventus had been when he was dragged into everything. Either way, there’s no going back.

It’s all a matter of whether Naminé has the courage to ask for help and risk hurting others, or pretend everything is alright and take on the pain for herself and herself alone.

#my thoughts #thank you for the ask!!!!#ventus and namine #ventus #namine #kh #SORRY FOR ANY SPELLING MISTAKES IM TIRED AND ON MY PHINE

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everlasting-rainfall · 8 months

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I really like Mabelle , I find her backstory interesting especially her being in long ear tribe

(I wonder if there have special abilities like how the three eye clan , have good eye sight that there can see something happen so fast .

Example when Puddin saw Sanji go super sonic so fast , that no one saw him coming except Puddin .

Or like how the Kuja tribe only give birth to females?

sorry for rambling, I love finding out about people ocs . I really like yours . You even inspired me to create my first ever one piece character.

I hope we can see more of Mabelle interacting with shanks crew (aww love that she acts like Luffy and Uta mother figure 🥺)

I wonder how would Yandere Luffy be if he did join shanks crew at a young age with Mabelle who can read his mind , would she terrified and try and help Luffy darling ? Or would she be used to it since Shanks and Benn are her yanderes ? Would she try and convince darling that she should be thankful that Luffy likes her not some creepy pirate sailing the seas?

Ooh would Uta still be around or would it still follow canon where shanks crew leaves her ?

Sorry getting off track XD

I hope we see more of your ocs in the future ^_^

Oh!! I’m so very happy to know that I inspired you to create your first ever One Piece OC, dear! That makes me smile! You should post about them, I’d love to hear about them Also a lot of people seem to very much enjoy Mabelle and that makes me quite happy as she is one that I did put quite a bit of effort into although I wasn’t sure if her concept would work at first or not

As for if you’ll see more of my OC’s in the future then you might possibly, if I get insulted on Pony Town again for my OC’s and want to ramble then that could prompt me to talk about the others but for now they’ll stay private until I feel a need to info dump about the others

Anywho! Enough about the others! Let’s get onto Mabelle!

!-MINORS DO NOT INTERACT FOR ANY REASON-!

!-POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNINGS-!

Kidnapping, Character Death, Murder, Suffocation, Stockholm Syndrome

!-MINORS DO NOT INTERACT FOR ANY REASON-!

!-POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNINGS-!

First thing’s first! It’s important to note that my OC’s are practically always evolving in terms of character like Mabelle has wound up with quite a few more S/O’s as now her partners consist of Shanks, Benn, Hongo, Lucky Roux, Limejuice, Gab, Yassop, and Banchina

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s truly get into it now!

So when it comes to the Long Ear Tribe, I can imagine that they have incredibly good hearing as a result of their ears as they are able to read minds with them but imagine if your hearing was always that good? Everything would be hurting your ears

But you can’t exactly turn off your ears or mute your hearing temporarily as much as I would personally like the ability to do so sometimes so the Long Ear Tribe has figured out a way to make things easier on themselves that isn’t being extremely quiet or making themselves deaf

The simple answer is well… Ear blockage like things to cover your ears so they won’t get hurt by every little sound, things like earplugs or sound blocking headphones or in Mabelle’s case a porcelain shell

Mabelle herself used the porcelain to shield her ears and it worked but now that her S/O’s have broken it off as part of the deal, she’s started wearing earplugs and it works perfectly well if they were made by the Long Ear Tribe as no one makes earplugs quite like they do

Because of their hearing, it’s nearly impossible to sneak up on a member of the Long Ear Tribe like you can do it but good luck and it’s also pretty hard for them to not know that you’re coming like Mabelle was able to hear an enemy ship approaching about twenty minutes before it even got into sight

You probably also wonder how Mabelle ever gets any sleep on the Red Force especially with some loud pirates and two loud children running around and that’s because she’s gotten used to it like she had a lot of trouble at first but now she sleeps so deep that she doesn’t even notice when Luffy and Uta sneak in to eat the porcelain off her body as they think it tastes nice (Mabelle makes her own porcelain with Non-Toxic ingredients so it isn’t dangerous, it’s basically like white chocolate almost)

The home island where the Long Ear Tribe originates from is also pretty quiet on account of a lot of people having very good hearing like visitors are encouraged to keep their voices down and as a result, if you’re someone that enjoys lots of quiet then it’s a perfect place to live or vacation at

Despite the calmness of it though, most people still do carry earplugs on them though as you never know when someone noisy will dock at shore

If you’d like to see more of Mabelle’s interactions with the Red Haired Pirates then I can assist with that and tell you a few things right here and now if you so please!

Mabelle interacting with the Red Haired Pirates can be a bit awkward at first due to her tendency of not joining conversations unless directly spoken to or pulled into it by someone but that doesn’t mean that she won’t directly interact with them

She is a bit of a medic but at the same time, Hongo is the ships doctor so she’s mostly a seamstress who fixes clothing and more than once has she gotten pretty irked by seeing messed up clothes

Like there was this one time on the boat that the crew had just gotten out of a fairly tough battle, clothes were dirty and had quite a few damaged parts to them

Mabelle had been below deck protecting the kids from danger and when she heard the sounds of celebration from the deck, she went up and immediately saw the state that everyone’s clothing was in so she went back downstairs and grabbed some quick replacements for them to wear

When she came back up, no one even knew what hit them as one second they were wearing their clothes and the next they were wearing what were basically just red gowns as Mabelle took off downstairs to get to work

Luckily she was finished by the end of the day and all the clothes were perfect but anyone coming across the red haired pirates would have thought that they were some kind of cult based on the outfits that they had been given to wear until Mabelle was done

Mabelle also really enjoys having people who appreciate the clothing that she makes for them as on her island, not many people were big fans of the things that she made and even if they were Mabelle’s appearance was enough to scare people off as people would be fine until she spoke and her mouth wouldn’t move

Plus making mostly costumes didn’t really help as a lot of people who would buy the things that she made would usually return them after whatever event the costume was needed for has passed, it really was a wonder that she had stayed in business in all honesty

So the Red Haired Pirates although they don’t wear a lot of the nice clothes and costumes that Mabelle makes as they prefer to only wear them for events that could call for them without potentially putting Mabelle in danger like “Oh those look great! Who made them?” “Our seamstress made them for us” “A seamstress, hm? Might need someone just like that…”, they will wear the more casual things that she makes though

This makes her incredibly happy and she’s even found a way to help a lot of them relax as you know those ASMR videos of people taking your measurements? If someone on the boat is very stressed then she brings them to her room and makes it quiet, she speaks in whispers and takes measurements of whatever she can think of as gently as she possibly can

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t and it all depends on the person like it works for Benn, Hongo, Shanks, and Lucky Roux but it doesn’t have much effect on Bonk Punch or Yassop like it’s relaxing for them but not so relaxing that it makes stress melt away or in Shanks and Lucky Roux’s case completely fall asleep

Yeah, it is pretty cute that Mabelle also does act like a mother figure to Uta and Luffy like it wasn’t that way at first but in a Yandere scenario where Shanks kidnapped Mabelle then her first interaction with the two of them was literally them calling her Mama

The two of them are very protective of Mabelle but she’s usually the one that winds up protecting them a lot of the time which she doesn’t mind as long as they’re safe, the only things that she minds from them is when they make a mess of her work area or sneak in to eat her porcelain as previously mentioned which causes her to have to spend quite a bit of time putting porcelain back in all the places where Benn and Shanks haven’t pulled it off from

Despite that though, she loves both of them dearly as if they were her own children and has made sure that they know that they’re both beautiful no matter what happens and she’ll always love them dearly

One of her gifts to Luffy actually has been letting him look around her fabrics and play with them so she could guess which one that he liked the best then she made a hammock for him out of it while one of her gifts to Uta was Uta drawing up a picture of herself singing in an outrageous looking outfit on stage then Mabelle made said outfit for her as a surprise

Uta and Luffy aren’t the only kids that Mabelle acts like a mother to though as there is another one that you all probably know and his name is Usopp as in a Yandere AU then there was no way that Yassop didn’t take Banchina with them like he likely kidnapped her from Syrup Village

Usopp likes playing with Luffy and Uta a lot of the time but he isn’t the biggest fan of Mabelle as he’s scared of her because he thinks that she’s a haunted statue like his first interaction went like this…

Usopp was wandering around the halls of the Red Force pretending to be a pirate and defeating imaginary enemies only to come across Mabelle who was standing still, he pretended that she was a giant who would fight to protect his family and he proceeded to fake fight Mabelle who held still once he was done he stood proudly with his chest stuck out and proclaimed his victory only for Mabelle to chuckle

You could practically hear the record scratch from Usopp as he paused and went white, he immediately ran away yelling out for his Mom and Dad because there was a ghost but luckily they did convince him that Mabelle wasn’t a ghost and she made it up to Usopp with a very well made pirate costume as an apology

He does consider Mabelle to be like a Mom as he listens to her just as well as he listens to Banchina, he’s still a little scared of her though as he has a tendency to hide behind Luffy occasionally when he sees her

So when it comes to your question about Yandere Luffy joining the crew from a young age, I heavily doubt that if Luffy was a Yandere that Shanks isn’t a Yandere so as a result everyone on the Red Force would wind up being some form of a Yandere as well

They probably kidnapped Luffy from the island now that I think about it as they give me serious vibes of being Platonic Yandere’s but I’m getting off track

Mabelle’s reaction to Luffy being a Yandere would depend personally as if she had only recently been kidnapped by Shanks and them then she would be horrified and try to do her absolute best to talk him out of being a Yandere however that’s useless

But if she had been around for long enough to develop Stockholm syndrome then she would be happy that Luffy is just like his many Papa’s aboard the Red Force and that he’ll make a Darling oh so very happy someday

As for how she would react to Luffy’s Darling, that would require the Red Haired Pirates meeting up with the Straw Hats long enough for Mabelle to meet Luffy’s Darling

If Mabelle wasn’t completely under the delusion that being a Yandere is a good thing then she would attempt to help then Darling like she would do her best to try and set her free but it’s not like it would work, Yandere pirates are everywhere and it’s not like Mabelle can just sneak Luffy’s Darling out without getting caught

Luffy hasn’t seen his mother figure in ages so even if Mabelle tries to sneak the Darling out underneath her dress then Luffy is going to quickly get in her way and take up all of her time talking to her which would eventually result in someone noticing what she’s doing and ratting her out so the Darling has been recaptured

As for if Mabelle was completely under the delusion that being a Yandere is a good thing then she wouldn’t attempt to help the Darling at all and well I guess she would help her but just not in the way that the Darling wants

Mabelle will talk all about how she was scared at first too but then it turned out that Shanks and his crew simply wanted what was best for her and to love her as if she were their wife, it wasn’t so bad and she started to love them back as they made her feel so beautiful even without her porcelain and made her feel like she was worth something

Plus so much could have gone wrong if she didn’t meet them and she’s sure that it’s the same thing for Luffy’s Darling, they’ll eventually see just how much Luffy cares about them and loves them and when that days comes they’ll realize just how amazing this life of theirs is

Just how much worse it could be without him as just like you said, they could have gotten picked up by some kind of creepy pirate sailing the seas who would have treated them like trash underneath their feet but instead they have Luffy who is so very loving and kind

Also would Uta still be around like the events of canon changing to where Shanks and the crew never left her on Elegia after the Tot Musica incident? I think that could go either way but I personally want to think that it wouldn’t change

Shanks and them definitely would have been way more reluctant to leave Uta on Elegia like I’m not sure of the extent but imagine a lot more threats of violence to Gordon if he doesn’t take great care of her plus I can also see like them killing a few civilians who they deemed as bad people or threats to Uta then just being like “Oh oops! Tot Musica got ‘em! Oh no!”

Afterwards I feel like during Uta’s transponder snail shows from Elegia then at least a good few people from the Red Hair Pirates act as sort of moderators and what that entails is basically seeing if there are any people they don’t approve of watching their daughter perform then dealing with said people via banning them... from life

Personally I also think that the idea of Platonic Yandere Red Hair Pirates just showing up in Film Red would be incredibly chaotic but I love the idea of it in all honesty plus when they take Uta with them, Uta is definitely on lockdown for like half a year afterwards

“Shanks, I’ve fully recovered… I’m fine…” “Not good enough for me, go back to bed… You look tired…”

Eventually they’ll loosen up and Uta can actually do things again instead of sleeping and staying in bed and having all her needs taken care of by a ship of fathers

I’m getting off topic, aren’t I? Well no matter…

Much like most of my OC’s as well, Mabelle does have an aesthetic board that I’ve made for her so I’ll post it right

Also much like most of my characters, Mabelle does have a few bad endings that she can hit like one of her bad endings is that she has an argument with her S/O’s that gets so heated that things that shouldn’t have been said were said and Mabelle ran off

Both parties needed time to calm down so they let Mabelle go as they knew she would be fine and besides when they were ready to go, they would find her or she would find them so they could talk things out

That didn’t happen though as Mabelle didn’t come back to them that night so the next morning, they went looking for her only to find a horrific sight as Mabelle had completely relapsed into covering herself with porcelain but went into an absolute frenzy

It was on her hair, covering her clothes, it was everywhere but most importantly it was covering every area that she could have breathed out of leading to her suffocating inside of her own porcelain shell

As for her other bad ending, it’s an ending where she never met Shanks and them so she would have stayed on that island eventually succumbing to the islands high beauty standards and dying

#the rain talks back #yandere #one piece #yandere male #one piece oc #oc #original character #oc x canon #minors dni

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iuvant-tenebrae · 6 months

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from High Tension (2003) review by Nathaxnne

"as a tween i am absolutely sure my body was expecting an estrogen-dominant puberty. although things didn't make sense they were mostly tolerable or at least i could ignore them by shutting myself up in my room and daydreaming. after the onset of testosterone-dominant puberty this was not possible. everything went completely wrong. the wrongness did not go. i was hoping it would. i was hoping i would get used to it. i never did so i basically conversion-therapied myself into what i thought was a conventional cishet male sexuality. the wrongness however went all the way down, into all of the systems, all of the cells of my body. it is a profound discomfort all of the time that flares into acute pain. your skin feels wrong, saturated with toxins it continually secretes but never eliminates. everything is distended and prolapsed or cut away narrowly. what you want might be ok but how you want it will never be, can never be right, no matter what you tell yourself or what you do inside to make it make sense to put the jigsaw puzzle together in the dark, forcing the pieces together good enough and hoping it makes an image legible to others even as you have fashioned yourself into a foreign hostile object, colonizing only first yourself. the potential for abuse, for atrocity, under such conditions is rampant and expected. you will never be able to get anyone to see you as you understand yourself and worse you will never be able to get anyone to understand that no matter what it looks like the way in which you want the way in which your desire is manifest is understood as noise as an interference pattern to oneself even as it 'looks ok' or 'checks out' a rerouted circuit a violence done. the revulsion, the shame, the being right about everything being wrong. people will tell you it is ok. it isn't ok or what will have to occur to make it ok seems impossible like it is something that you cannot even imagine happening so you live with it, the revulsion, the self-hatred, the violence. [...] the way in which i can understand my desire, my identity, is inextricably bound from the forces which produced me and which kept me from ever being able to be, manifest as such. i cannot help but be aware of this aspect of myself, both ever present and as a potentiality, a path from which to diverge even fractionally. as i grew older the urgency of needing to transition grew. i did not so much believe i could finally have the life i had denied myself as much as i desperately needed to avoid dying in what the world could only read as a man's body and what i regarded at best as a logjam in the eye of god, not yet swept away in the flood that follows an irritant, a blockage. i have only ever been a haunting or reverse-haunting, a tv ghost smeared by static into something unmappable onto its source, a vehicle skidding into overturn My gaze an icepick My gaze a switchblade My gaze a circular saw"

#trans #sexuality #lesbian #high tension #haute tension

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greens-multiverse · 4 months

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[after - almost six months, holy fuck - here's part two of my end-of-anniversary-crystal songfic about abe and azure journeying to the bottom of reality/excuse for a lot of expository flashbacks about my season 2 myth arc headcanons. part one, which contains most of the setup, is here. our song being ficced is still the ai girl and the deep heart sea; tonight we're on the first full section, 'reincarnated girl rho.' this... turned out much longer than i expected]

so if you did go diving into the depths of the substructure-sea, what would you find just below the surface? easy: the physical world

you might think we live in the physical world, but that's not entirely true. human bodies exist in the world of atoms and forces, but human minds, like the minds of anything sentient enough to dream, belong to the lower layers of the noos. that's the term for the blanket of ideas and memories and stories we sophonts collectively lay over bare reality, the landscape of thought that gives everything meaning. up here, a piece of stone could be the last remaining artifact of a lost civilisation, or a source of energy that could power a city for generations, or the mark of the one true king. down there, it's just a collection of molecules

still, as stark as it might look with the haze of imagination removed, the topmost portion of the substructure is pretty similar to the world we know. the stars spin and the elements flow and people and animals act just the same, though if you didn't know how our home layers work you'd never guess why. and even if you do, it's hard to impose the framework of narrative over them for very long without the support of the noos. down there, nothing could be or means or implies anything; it just is

which isn't to say travelling through it would be exactly like going for a walk in our home layers - it might, if you were going for a walk across it, but if you're going down through it things get very strange very quickly! the philosophers also say that time is a direction, much like up or forward, and they're fairly close to right. going through the topmost layers of the substructure feels like plunging through entire timelines, events thousands of miles and dozens of years apart all flashing past your eyes at once. it's like experiencing dozens of scenes from the same story all at once, all without any context to tie them together or any subtext to give them meaning. but if it's a story you played a part in, you might be able to follow along, just about

it's pretty easy to find yourself reflecting on it

sunlight zone

Azure, the girl who returned

down here, I can see everything

as we drift downwards, time and distance fall away, and all that ever was blurs together, like disconnected clips of an absurdly long video. it's as if in the final death throes of this tiny shell of a world, the strings holding its timeline together have snapped, and the whole arc of its short history has tumbled into my hands. I feel like I could see anything, anywhere, if only I knew how to sort through the heap. I can even catch a glimpse of its ever-fewer potential futures

the back of my right hand shines a familiar colour I still cannot name. Abe's hand in mine crackles with haze, purple and white chasing each other around his crumbling skin. beneath it, I can just about see the beginning of a vast, eternal structure

the further we descend, the closer everything draws to us. it's becoming hard to distinguish discrete events, everything running into everything else. soon, I realise, the only moments I'll be able to perceive at all are this world's approaching end, and its distant beginning

but I don't need to look to see all the parts that truly matter. ever since IT came, I've remembered everything I've ever witnessed in perfect clarity

IT was far too unstructured to be called an 'entity' there was no one who understood what IT was or why IT had come into existence so they called it 'Missingno' or 'the glitchhaze' or 'OLDEN' some even called IT 'Altair' as if IT were a god

I did not witness ITs entire emergence, of course. the formation of the confluence called OLDEN began before my world was created, before his, perhaps even before the true reality all the worlds of the haze are mere shadows of. whatever ITs source, IT came to impinge on that reality, chewing it up, piece by piece, shredding order and logic and spacetime until only a formless haze of glitches remained. there was nothing anyone could do to stop IT. even the gods could just barely slow IT down

and yet, so I'm told, there was no malice in IT, not then. ITs bites at the edge of the universe were random, almost exploratory, as if IT didn't know what it was, or even what IT was. everything IT touched collapsed into haze, but that haze did not lash to corrupt everything it could reach or sink beneath the surface of reality to poison it from within. most often it disappated, and even when it lingered it reached out tentatively, inquisitively, even playfully. whether IT was curious or hungry or simply lacked enough of a mind to want anything at all, no one knew, but IT wasn't trying to destroy our universe in the beginning

but by the time IT came to my world, IT had changed. IT had learned how to hate

IT came to a world wracked by change and uncertainty and shredded it apart with a brilliant vicious light since no matter what all would someday return to the void why not cut short this farce of a universe and bring an end to ITs own suffering?

my world was nothing. a bubble within a bubble, a tiny simulation created as a last bastion from the corruption. but limited as I knew it was, insignificant as I knew it was, it was mine, and I fought hard to free it from those who would harm its people. I defeated each gym leader, I tore apart Team Rocket, I ascended the Indigo Plateau to claim the title of our world's first champion. ten settlements, twenty-five routes, a hundred and fifty-odd species of pokémon, and I stood above them all, the strongest trainer between the impassable mountains and the waters that trailed off into nothingness. I swore to protect them from whoever and whatever might seek to harm them

I was so young, then. so naïve. so arrogant. despite everything I had already learned, it never occured to me SOMETHING might come that I could not fight

IT came to my world at dawn. by the morning's end the ocean was a writhing mass of corrupted matter, advancing northwards in an unstoppable deluge. by mid-afternoon, the plains were choked with haze, towns and forests collapsing in on themselves faster anything could flee, faster than most could even notice. by nightfall, all that was left of my world was a mountaintop, and a temple, and me

I had begun the day determined to fight IT until the breath left my body, but by this point all I could do was sob. I had lost all my allies, all my pokémon, all my hopes as city after city fell and nothing we could think of so much as made IT flinch. they had relied on me to save what they could not, take revenge where they could not, and I had failed them all. despite everything I promised on the Vermillion dockside, I hadn't been able to protect anyone. all I had left was despair

I'm not sure why I had been allowed to escape. perhaps IT meant to save me for last

IT came slowly up the mountainside, chewing the horizon as if savouring each bite. I watched it from the empty doorway of the temple, unable to muster the energy to flee any further. for the first time, but not the last, I sat and waited for the end

then the space just in front of the doorway flickered, and Abe stepped through a crack in reality and out into the snow. we had known each other for some time now, he who designed my world, I who tracked him down and demanded to know why. I had seen him teleport across the world through his unknown doors many times before, but I was still somewhat surprised to see him alive. so quietly for a moment I didn't know if he heard it, I croaked out his name

he was just as shocked to see me here, I could tell by how quickly he spun around. his breath caught for a second, and he mouthed, "I'm sorry." then he turned to face the approaching chaos, and his shadow blossomed into an infinity of fractals

the beginning of the battle between the last of the fossil gods and IT was, I am told, like nothing ever seen by living eyes. unseen it remains, for I did not watch it. I moved further into the temple, behind enough walls it seemed unlikely I would be impaled by debris, and there I curled up and waited for the storm to pass. there was nothing I could do against IT I had not already tried a thousand times, and besides, what difference could a single powerless human make in a clash of the divine?

all around me, the earth, the walls, even the air shook. I could not even begin to interpret the sounds - the crackling, the tearing, the rattling - erupting from the temple's entrance, but soon enough I saw cracks drive through first the stonework and then the empty air. I knew my world was finally dying, and, despite my youth, despite my pride, despite my fear, I felt strangely relieved. a gash in spacetime snaked through the halls towards me, shedding glitches, leaking a brilliant, terrible light -

and from a direction I was not watching, something pierced the back of my right hand

I instinctively jerked my arm back towards me, but as soon as the impact sight came into view, I froze. there was no blood, no pain beyond the initial shock, not even a wound. there was only a sliver of dark orange stone barely larger than my fingernails burrowed into my skin, faintly humming. I had just enough time to take in the sight before the tear in the universe reached me and glitches overwhelmed everything

everything, that is, except me. the stone walls melted, the air collapsed, the world around me crumbled into a thick morass of swirling, chattering, ever-changing decay, but I remained just as I was. even when the haze lanced out at my body directly, the force I had seen rend through buildings and mountains and people alike in mere seconds slid off my skin like a passing rain. the space (if one were to call it that) around my head shifted rapidly between water and wood and viscera, but I could breathe more easily than I had in hours. through the flickering, crackling haze, for the first time I saw the back of my hand gleam

I did not know, then, that the miniscule stone shard tinting my skin an impossible colour was the last remaining fragment of an entity older than the gods. at the end of the battle I was sheltering in the temple from, IT aimed a dart of pure haze right at the core of the only fossil god still alive, the Dome. but for whatever reason such a being might do such a thing, the Old Amber leapt into its path. the impact made the packed-together rock at the heart of their being burst into a thousand infinitesimal pieces which flew off in all directions, shattering against the mountain or evaporating upon contact with the glitches. but somehow, through a series of coincidences and just-right circumstances, one shard slipped through it all and landed in me

was this planned by the Old Amber, or mere happenstance? I still don't know, and I doubt I ever will. but whether there was a purpose behind it or not, from that moment on the glitches could not touch me. a whole world could dissolve into haze around me, and I would keep my form, and my identity, and my memories. no matter how much time passed, no matter what happened, I remained myself

but all that I discovered later. then and there, curled up in that crumbling temple at the end of everything I'd ever known, I dazedly watched half a dozen tendrils of corruption pass through my body harmlessly before I realised I was not, in fact, dead. I reached out for one of the few remaining patches of wall and slowly got to my feet, and just when I'd found a stable footing my world finally snapped open and I tumbled head over heels into the glitchhaze. I fell for what seemed a thousand years through light and texture and shrieking, repetitive sound, and none of it so much as pulled my hair. the shock had faded from my mind enough I was beginning to wonder why

then my back slammed against solid ground. it knocked the breath out of my body, and when I inhaled I tasted air once again. the surface I was lying on was wet, spongy, and stable, at least as far as my arms could reach. when I pried my gummed-shut eyes open, the first thing I saw was a dazzlingly blue sky

it was a fairly typical early hazeworld fairly early on in its development. no tree was yet tall enough I could not step over it, the largest animals were barely bigger than mice, and the pokémon were still amorphous clouds of spirit, not coherent enough to create physical forms. even once it had fully matured, its sky never changed from that brilliant blue, and its dirt squished like jelly rather than crumbling. the worlds of the haze were only ever so real, and this one was even less so than mine had been

but in that moment, all that mattered was that it was

yet there was one whose existence ITs haze could never erase I was "Vega", lodestar inviolate, she who saw everything

that grassy clearing caught in an eternal morning was not alone in the glitchhaze for long. as some consequence of its battle with IT, the Dome created handfuls, then dozens, then hundreds of these tiny worldlets, little pockets of order billowing in the haze. each new hazeworld was just a touch more real than the last - a sky that dimmed and brightened again, soil that could be broken up to plant whatever fruit you pleased, water that cycled from stream to lake to cloud and back; a little larger, a little more self-sufficient. soon they were detailed enough humans could live there, and they built settlements, then cities, then regions. and then, slowly, step by stumbling step, they began to reach out across the haze to each other

I had long mastered the art of travelling through the haze by then. Abe, who had also survived that last battle, had to travel between worldlets through broken warps and bizarre glitchmancy tricks, his unknown doors writ large, but I could simply walk off the edge of one world and stroll through the glitches to the next one. not that it was ever that simple, of course; navigating the endlessly shifting landscape of the glitchhaze was more art than science and more luck than either, and I seldom arrived in the precise world I was aiming for even when I didn't spend months lost in the wilds of the haze. but it was never dangerous, not for me. out of everyone in existence, I alone travelled the haze without fear

the people of the hazeworlds grew used to Abe and I passing through their regions. we both got into the habit of telling them stories; he of the worlds that lay past their borders and the ways they could be reached, I of the worlds that once were and how they had been destroyed. we taught them what the haze was and that there were others like them beyond it, and they taught themselves how to send things through it; first information, then objects, then living beings. soon the haze was home to a great alliance of worlds, interconnected by hazeships and databeams and a dozen kinds of interworld teleportation, fighting back the glitches wherever they could, always searching for a way to defeat IT forever. Abe and I they revered as gods, the ones who had shown them the nature of reality and bestowed upon them the power to change it. with our teachings, they so fervently believed, they would restore the universe

Abe helped them whenever and however he could, but I seldom did. I could never muster the will to do much more than pass on my stories, never shake the feeling that no matter what anyone did, reality had merely been granted a stay of execution. why, I still cannot say; perhaps my mind was as trapped in that moment of despair as my body, and just as my hair never grew no matter how many decades passed me by, my heart never lifted out of that black pit. or, perhaps, I simply never managed to overcome my grief. all I could bring myself to do was sit on the outside of that glorious dream and half-heartedly hope it would be fulfilled

alas, it was not to be. no matter what they tried, no matter how they struggled, in the end there was nothing we mere humans could do against ITs hate. one after another, the worlds of the alliance were overcome and fell, and the links they'd forged between them became vectors for the very corruption they'd been made to fight against. over the course of its long defeat, the alliance grew desperate and cruel, but even that was not enough, and once it finally broke the surviving worlds of the haze were left completely without protection. once upon a time a world was not considered stable unless it was completely free of glitches, but now even the most substantial were strewn with impossibly stretched landmarks and holes in reality that opened into infinity. even Abe, as immortal as I was but for somewhat different reasons, began to mutate, his form and his memories slipping away a fraction more every time he crossed the haze, until all that was left of him was a barely sentient heap of glitches, marked out from the rest of the corruption only by the occasional flash of purple

but I? I remained. no matter how many worlds crumbled around me, no matter how long I spent lost in the haze, my self was preserved. even in that final barely coherent, violently unstable, utterly corrupted mockery of a world, where no division existed between human and pokémon and language had degraded into loud, garbled noise and time had broken in a way impossible to put into words, I had not changed one bit since the day my world died. in my customary seclusion, I watched the strands that held together this final world quietly fray, and I wondered whether, once all existence had been devoured by IT, I would finally be permitted to cease

isolated as I always was, she nonetheless tracked me down. a girl with blue hair and red scales and a wide, fanged smile, whose eyes were tinged the faintest purple and whose voice carried a muted echo of thousands more. like so many residents of the haze before her, she and her allies had sketched out a wild, one-in-a-million scheme to restore the lost worlds and bring the battle to IT. I didn't believe they could do it - there? then? at the end of everything? - but for the very last time I gave them my stories. I told them everything I knew, fully expecting that it could never make a difference

some time after that (in a manner of speaking) the last world abruptly shattered. the slow rot that had been eating away at it since before time had broken suddenly surged, and pillars of pure corruption burst out of its husk of a sky. as the ground beneath my feet dissolved into glitches for the very last time, the shard in the back of my right hand vibrated so fast it became painful. through the haze and the light, I thought I saw my left hand begin to melt -

and I sat in the Champion's Chamber of the Indigo Plateau, on the same plastic folding chair my world's Lance had taken to calling my throne, so many long years before. the stitching on the jacket I had left dangling on it the day my world had ended pressed into my back

it took me so many long seconds to comprehend where I was. it took me several more to realise I could still move. my heart hammering, my body shaking, half-convinced that if I moved too quickly this dream would burst like a bubble, wholly expecting Koga to burst in at any moment and announce that something was eating the sea, I got to my feet. I took a few dazed steps, and my shoe tapped against something on the floor

I looked down, and I saw pokéballs

what can I say about what happened next? my charizard wrapped my tail around its body and held me close as I cried. his scales rustled, solid and alive, radiating a warmth that drove my grief to the edges of my soul for the first time in an eternity of loneliness. with every pokéball I opened, every old ally I reunited with, every step I took in a world like so many others I had passed through but in its details unmistakably mine, it receded a little further. how it came to pass, I suspect not even the gods could say, but the people of the last world of the glitchhaze had brought back the first. they had brought me home

the story of that reborn world is not one I am equipped to tell. as much as I tried to keep a grasp on events, from the moment we discovered there was a new land beyond the once-impassable western mountains I played at best a peripheral partin the saga of ITs final defeat. but I was once more part of it; so longer a silent, sobbing witness to a fate I could not change, but an active participant in an impossible, glorious miracle. I fought where I could, and I laughed when I could, and though my sorrow never entirely went away it became easy put it aside for a few moments and bask in the beauty of this dream-made-reality

and yet, as wonderful as it was, it was not perfect. there was one person missing. I scoured the world in my search for him, both the tiny region we had grown up in and the new lands blossoming into existence all around it, fully convinced he had to be out there, restored along with everything else. but I never found more than a shadow. there was one time… but that was not him. I have been told over and over again that my best friend still lies at the bottom of the Cinnabar Strait, as dead as this world once was, and will soon be again

but that cannot be. he was a host of the Voices, and even when all of reality was on the verge of being devoured by glitches, they were as immune to the corruption as I. somewhere, somehow, he must still exist, if not in body then in spirit, if not within this universe then without it. and though logically he could be anywhere in the infinite nothingness outside reality, I know - somewhere, I think I always have - where he is. for so long I thought him unreachable, but no longer

wait for me, Evan. I'm coming to save you

and as for THAT which declared everything I had l ever loved and all we dreamed together no more than a useless charade what would I say to IT? … come on we've still a long road ahead

#twitch plays pokemon #mitzi fic #mitzi writing #azure #abe #old amber #and this remains not not about #olden #approaching four thousand words! i was not expecting the sections to get this long #i can't promise the next one will take less time to come out. it's almost certainly gonna be narrated by the voices #and they're always Fun to write #i decided azure talked like she'd swallowed a thesaurus very early on and had a lot of fun writing her #and i have decided who exposition guy is!#layer 2: the stream

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sablegear0 · 1 year

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Thinkin bout Dark Samus

I’m having Thoughts about Dark Samus so now you all have to hear them.

Specifically, I’m having thoughts about revising old fics and/or potential interactions between Dark Samus and Adam because of course I am. Headcanons ahoy under the cut. (This one got inordinately long, like four pages long, so brace yourselves.)

We don’t know what was going on in the GF Capitol during the Phazon Crisis. I’ve taken some guesses at it over the course of Electrochromic, but we don’t have any canon material. I imagine things were tense, obviously, knowing that the Space Pirates essentially had planet-killing weapons at their disposal.

I’ve toyed with concepts of what Adam might have been up to during this time (some of which may make it into EC/EC-adjacent pieces later), but one thing I’ve pondered over but never really been able to put into a fic is the possibility of Adam encountering some facet of Dark Samus.

I have a headcanon that any creature exposed to phazon radiation becomes connected to the “collective”/hivemind of Phaaze in some way. Only badly corrupted creatures become a part of the hivemind, but something as simple as a radiation burn can loosely connect a creature to other creatures who have been exposed to phazon. There have been no officially documented cases of “phazon sickness” among PED Marines, but I imagine exposure to the substance has caused a handful of unusual anecdotal symptoms. Afflicted troopers often feel as if they are being followed or watched. One extreme – and concerning, given the distance from the front lines – case involved a test trooper on Daiban hallucinating the presence of “a woman in black” observing his test along with the science team.

The Dark Hunter is curious and capricious. She likes to observe, but rarely appear or interact. She uses the network of both soldiers and victims the Pirate campaign accumulates to extend the reach of her perception. One version of the interaction with Adam I’ve pondered is him coming to be injured or otherwise exposed in a lab test (he’d be fine, of course, just a minor injury) and attracting the attention of the Dark Hunter. In some versions it’s just a mounting paranoia on Adam’s part – he knows something is present, observing or following him, there’s an unfamiliar figure in crowds and around corners. His peers chalk it up to stress; everyone is overworked because of the crisis, he’s shaken up from his injury and that trauma is affecting him, he just needs a break, to talk to someone. And they’re not wrong, and for a brief time Adam is convinced what he’s experiencing is just internal.

But Dark Samus (I want to give her a different name, I can’t imagine she would use this one for herself) doesn’t like to be ignored. Maybe her approach becomes more direct, maybe she starts to pick at the thoughts and memories of her new favourite thing to watch, push phrases into his mind, maybe she creates a more visible manifestation, even takes on a human-like form and speaks to him directly. I couldn’t decide.

But I want to know what these two would talk about, or clash about. Does Adam know what she is? Does she look like Samus, or can he make the connection? How does she feel about him? He’s interesting, certainly; a high-ranking officer in her enemy’s army, well-connected and highly capable and intelligent. Could she use him as a source of information, or is he merely a curiosity, a source of entertainment?

There’s another version of this scenario that I’ve been mulling over recently. Sort of a combination of a pair of fics I recently retired from DA. Part of me wants to rewrite them because their style is old and dated, and I feel like I could do a better job of them now with more material (both hc and canon) and experience to work from. I want to dig into Dark Samus on a personal level, which I tried to do a bit in the past, but I literally wrote that fic in my teens, so there wasn’t much emotional maturity or intrigue in it. Being just older and having existed more, I think I have more I can use a version of that fic to say (and maybe finish it this time).

And part of that is because I’ve been thinking about this interaction/scenario, and considering Dark Samus’s motivations and self more. What sort of instincts does a chimera like her have? What does a being with emergent sentience think like, what are her priorities and wants? This is where the sort of crossover and jamming Adam into the situation comes in.

His involvement begins when Samus is the last of the Hunters to lose control of themselves and turn against the GF (drawn from the other retired fic). Having some experience working with her, Adam is brought in to help/consult on what the heck to do with/about her. Through a series of contrivances where he comes into direct contact with Dark Samus, he negotiates a hostage trade – himself for Samus’s autonomy back – and is baffled when the Dark Hunter accepts.

Adam doesn’t see this as being terribly hazardous to him personally. Between his backup and training (despite not being psionic-sensitive, he’s been trained to identify and fend off psionic intrusion. Thanks Project Icarus.) he’s confident he’s both equipped to handle this, and disposable if absolutely necessary. His initial assumption is that the Dark Hunter sees him as a source of information more valuable than having one extra Hunter on hand, so it’s a fair trade. But over the course of his interactions with her he comes to realize that isn’t really the case. She doesn’t grill him for information or even really treat him as a prisoner – for the most part he’s stuck in her private quarters but it’s relatively comfortable otherwise. She treats him like a guest... almost like a companion.

The truth of it is that she finds him fascinating, not for what he knows but for who he is, how he functions. They��re not so different, she thinks.

I’ve been considering Dark Samus’s relationship to Phaaze. Phaaze isn’t evil, it can’t be, it’s just a superorganism that is driven to spread and reproduce, like any living thing. Dark Samus doesn’t take control of Phaaze so much as find a way to facilitate what it’s already meant to do, attaching the stolen Aurora Unit just gives Phaaze a nudge towards self-awareness and a direct interface with her. It can launch leviathans at targets instead of just at random, but it’s still very much the same self-perpetuating collective it always was. And of the two of them, Phaaze is the one in charge. Dark Samus helps it, guides it, but does not control it. And therein lies her perceived similarity to Adam. They’re both “middle management” – high up enough to lead, to be known and looked up to, even idolized by their subordinates, but both still obligated to the whims of a larger organization. In her case, the Phaaze collective, in his, the Galactic Federation as a whole.

What Dark Samus is interested in is how he performs and copes with his role. Adam comes to notice that when she isn’t out doing Evil Leader Stuff, Dark Samus just... sleeps. Or does nothing. She spends a lot of time resting, but it’s not because her position is all that strenuous. As they talk he comes to realize she sleeps so often because she’s bored. She doesn’t have any conception of what to do with herself when she’s not active. The only cultures she’s been exposed to are the Ing and Space Pirates, neither of which have any concept of “leisure activities” or “hobbies.” Pirates seldom make art, they don’t have a music culture, their sapient drive to create has been bred out of them in favour of aggressive or servile qualities. They’re just a step above a hivemind themselves, and when they’re not working, they’re sleeping. So Dark Samus thinks this is normal, even though she knows, deep down in the human parts of herself, that something about it is wrong.

She asks Adam what he does when he’s not working, she finds it fascinating, almost funny, that he’s in a similar position. He doesn’t have a very healthy work-life balance, not a lot of time for his hobbies because work wears him out, not a lot of friends because he tends to keep to himself. In a way, Dark Samus finds the minimal difference ideal. It would have hard for her to relate to someone more social, more creative, because the gap would simply be too wide. But Adam’s tentative step up from her utter inaction – and the depression it causes her slightly-too-human psyche – is a welcome education.

It’s such a novel experience the first time he plays music for her, dredging up a wonky keyboard patch to install on the console in her private cabin. (Yes this is a persistent headcanon.) He’s not even sure at first if she can parse music as something enjoyable or if it would just be noise for her. She tries to poke into his mind while he plays but he pushes her away; knowing what he’s feeling would be cheating, he wants her to listen and feel for herself. It’s rough, whatever he plays is all from memory and it’s not all there, but it’s good enough. When he asks her what she thought, she doesn’t respond much. She’s not sure, herself. It was so utterly alien to her. She asks him to play it again, and this time, he lets her sift through his thoughts while he does.

And this is where she finds something that truly captures her attention. The associated memories that surface when Adam plays – jamming with Ian, the sheer joy of making music with and for someone, the grief of losing him, of playing alone now that he can finally handle doing so. She realizes she’s never felt these feelings before. Joy and grief. Not alone, and never together. But she understands she could have, should have at times. But they’re new. She’s only ever felt self-satisfied: stealing from Pirates, freeing their metroids, taking over their systems, making them her own. There was never joy in that. She’s only ever felt angry: fighting and destroying, avenging her lesser kin, and herself, upon the Pirates or her rival-original. But there was no grief along with that. And now she knows there should have been. She should have taken pride and joy in her abilities, her wide-ranging explorations across impossible land- and space-scapes. She should have grieved the abuse and deaths of her brood-kin at the hands of the Pirates, perhaps even grieved her own deaths and transitions, the trauma she’s suffered.

There’s been a piece missing this whole time, and she hates it now that she knows what it is. Because it was a piece of that part of herself she most despises, that finnicky, sensitive human part. But it’s at the forefront, she owes her sense of self and her ambition to it, to forsake it would be going back to being just Metroid Prime; intelligent, but still just an animal a bit too clever for its own good. She comes to realize that some – not all, but a large some – of the discontent she feels is because that human part of her wants. It wants to be occupied, maybe even to create, it wants to socialize, maybe it wants friends, family – was that why it felt like such a good idea to bring metroids to Phaaze, did she hope to create other creatures like herself? That part of her likes this new human guest, too. Is it just because he’s male? Or because he seems so unafraid of her, treating her like an equal, letting her learn from him and holding so little back?

But... can she confide these thoughts in her new guest? Can she dare to consider him a “friend” in some capacity? Has he already figured her out? Is there a way to learn more without exposing too much vulnerability? Is there a way to do more without becoming distracted? She has her war to wage, Pirate Generals to appease with new targets and strategies. She can’t afford to go soft on them now. Not that her position is as perilous with them as it started out, they’re all well and loyal, but she can’t afford to lose ground to the Federation by diverting her attention.

Adam, on the other hand, does come to realize he’s exposed a soft spot here. But it comes with its own risks and conflicts. The idea of dissuading, or even flipping the Dark Hunter from her cause is incredibly tempting. But also... this is something he’s learned in confidence from an incredibly dangerous creature. She’s kept her abilities toned down around him to keep him safe, but her mere presence could be lethal to him, and making a move like that too obvious would not only risk his safety, but risk the Dark Hunter doubling down on her tour of destruction out of anger and spite.

Therein lies the appeal and the trouble I find in this situation. I want to explore this conflicted nature I believe exists in Dark Samus, and I’d like a human character to help facilitate that (or if I revive my DS-centric fic, some slightly more introspective Pirate characters). But I don’t like the idea of it being framed like someone, esp. a male character, “saving” her. At the same time, it seems extra tragic after all that introspection to have her decide that no, she doesn’t want to know that side of herself, and commit to burning it all down instead – destroying everything in her path so there’s nothing to tempt her to “go soft” again, so she can be lonely at the top and try to convince herself it’s fine.

But I crave that angst and introspective interaction, you know? Just like with Adam and Raven Beak, I think there’s some interesting parallels and contrasts that can be teased out of these characters interacting. Tbh, I just tend to gravitate to Adam bc he’s muh favourite, which means I have to jam difficult emotions into him whenever I’m not (and sometimes even when I am) putting him in mortal peril. Anyway thanks for reading, this one got way too long but I had to get it out of my head.

#sable has a take #sable's fic #metroid #metroid prime corruption #dark samus #adam malkovich #this one got away from me #i just have so many feelings

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