#but because the concept of power and the lure of it corrupts you!

[tavina-writes]

someone stop me from writing an essay about the themes of LOCH being commonly misunderstood by later works.

okay I guess I get frustrated sometimes because adaptations and also later wuxia goes "well it's okay to want to rule the world and or be the greatest martial arts ever if you're pure of heart!" "possessing the macguffin that ruins lives won't ruin YOUR life if only you were a good enough person!!!" which. explicitly not what LOCH is about.

Like, one of the MAJOR introducing elements of the 9 yin manual is "it's a doomed book because human nature such that it is will never allow something so powerful to exist peacefully in the world! and that's why everyone who comes into contact with it either dies or suffers immense tragedy explicitly because of the book, and like, this is not just.... a... it's not just a "oh that's neat" that's a thing that happens in the plot of the book. Everyone who gets near it or hears it or touches it....dies.

For example: at the first tournament at mt hua, Wang Chongyang beats everyone else there, becomes "the strongest in the world" takes the book and doesn't look at it. He's dead within the next five years, and someone (Ouyang Feng, dw we come back to him) tries to grave rob his casket for the book.

Book then passes to Zhou Botong, Wang Chongyang's younger sworn brother, who is tasked with hiding it. On his way to hiding the book he runs into Huang Yaoshi and Huang Yaoshi's wife, Feng Heng, who are newly married and in love. HYS wants the book, so he and Feng Heng concoct a scheme to get it, tricking ZBT. HYS gets his hands on the second volume of the 9 yin manual, and within the next two years or less: 1) two of his students steal his version of the manual, betray him, and run away 2) his wife, trying to cheer him up, tries to recopy the book and dies of fatigue and exhaustion post the birth of their daughter, Huang Rong. ZBT, meanwhile, because of the book comes back to Peach Blossom Island and gets imprisoned there for the next 15 years by the angry HYS.

Mei Chaofeng and Cheng Xuanfeng, because of stealing the book and running away from Peach Blossom Island, are persecuted by the Jianghu until they make it to Mongolia where MCF is blinded and her husband CXF is killed by the six year old Guo Jing in what can only be surmised as a....weird skill issue accident. Now, MCF carries the book with her for the next ~12 years, until y'know, plot keeps happening and people keep attacking her for the book.

Her copy of the book ends up accidentally with Guo Jing, who, right after learning it gets Suicide Boated by HYS who is also now his father in law. Also on the Suicide Boat are ZBT and Hong Qigong who were only tangentially involved with the book.

Ouyang Feng (told you we'd get back to him), wants the book and uh. lets just say he loses his nephew, gets nearly drowned several times for multiple days in the ocean, and then finally loses his mind. Which, turns him from a nobleman and a respected grandmaster to a crazy person for several decades.

Oh, and as for Guo Jing who is pure of heart and a good person and learned the martial arts in the book? Yeah his reward for having the abilities he does is...defending Xiangyang for the rest of his life. The next like three decades. Yes. He dies there. With the love of his life, 4/5 of their children, their grandchildren, and his teacher.

I don't know about you but that's not a reward that's a curse on his entire family lmao.

#I just. perpetually chewing over how anyone got the idea that #if you're pure of heart the curse will skip you #arguably #the curse did not skip Guo Jing so much as kill his entire family #yes that was a choice he made #but it was a choice he made with the understanding that he had the ability to do something and so therefore he felt morally obligated #Jin Yong is really fond of macguffins that kill people not because they're horcrux beacons of innate evil #but because the concept of power and the lure of it corrupts you! #and if it doesn't corrupt you it manages to hurt you in different ways #yes even if you're the protagonist #like the entire Guo family except for Guo Xiang dies in Xiangyang when the city falls to the mongolian army invasion #I cannot tell you how tragic that ultimately is #legend of the condor heroes #my meta #meta

[stormsthatrage]

Concept: Time-traveling Shinji, whose consciousness took over his younger body, press-ganging the young captain Urahara Kisuke into visoring the other Visored ahead of schedule.

Because the Visored are pack. They're fraccion. And that means they don't live without each other, damn it. Their bond is sacred, soul-deep, and not a single one of them wouldn't fight tooth-and-nail, wouldn't commit atrocities, to fix its severing.

So Shinji, upon arriving in the past, immediately hits up Kisuke. Shinji, of course, has spent enough time with the younger captain to know exactly how to convince him of the truth of the Aizen-induced apocalypse. (Aizenocalypse? Anyway.) Shinji also knows how to emphasize the increased power that comes from being Visored, and how necessary that type of power is in fighting Sosuke Aizen.

So poor Kisuke, under immense pressure from Shinji, finds himself luring various captains and lieutenants into his lab, one by one, over a period of a few weeks, to corrupt their soul. He feels like he's become some sort of horror story villain.

(Shinji does not tell him that, in the future-that-won't-be, Kisuke was framed for doing exactly what he's currently actually doing.)

As soon as each victim is visored, the fraccion-bond snaps into place with those that have already been visored. After a minor initial freak-out, they each quickly find themselves over the deception, agreeing that it was the right choice.

They also all get vague memories and emotional impressions from their future selves, thanks to the traces their future selves left on Shinji's spiritual energy. This has two effects. First, their control over their hollow powers is instinctual, as they essentially have the experience of their future selves. Second, they have a sudden and deep closeness to each other that is impossible to hide from outsiders.

Imagine. One by one, they go down to Kisuke's lab, and resurface with a personality change and a new and powerful ability to give the heebie-jeebies.

Kisuke is pulling his hair out at how suspicious it looks, and how utterly insane his life has gotten.

Also. All of the Visored seem to hover, and he doesn't know why? Before he violated their souls, they were all at best indifferent to him and at worst subtly hostile, and now suddenly they're all very concerned if he's eaten enough or if he's gotten enough sleep? They take turns bringing him meals and forcing him to go home at the end of the day? Instead of, you know, cursing his very existence?????

(What he doesn't know is this: In the future, he was pack, too, even if he wasn't Visored. He stabilized them, and then he and Yoruichi and Tessai -- who were all so young -- took them in at great personal cost. And then those three spent years looking after the Visored, even when none of the Visored knew control and were all wild and rabid and dangerous.

Of course the Visored hover. Of course they worry. Of course they're slightly possessive of their packmate who has no future-memories and doesn't know he's pack.)

Anyway. Imagine the outsider POV. Imagine Kisuke's slow descent into hysteria as he finds himself playing the role of horror-movie villain. Imagine half the upper echelon of the Gotei 13 hiding the fact that they're part hollow. Imagine...

#bleach #bleach au #time travel #time travel bleach style #visored #the visored are pack #hirako shinji #urahara kisuke #urahara kisuke's unwilling arc as a horror villian au #i am totally normal and sane and spend a usual amount of time daydreaming about time travel fanfiction

[spider-gem]

if you feel like hearing some silly goofy mobius-mr tesseract thoughts, I have a hc that post-finale mobius might- after a long long time of looking for a way to reach loki- go a bit bonkers with grief (particularly the denial/anger/bargaining stages of grief), he gets a bit morally dubious. over time he steals as many tesseracts as possible, hiding them away in a secret tva office. eventually, surrounded by thousands of stolen tesseracts and out of ideas of how to use them, he has a “WWLD/what would loki do? probably suggest we take a coffee break” moment and puts a bunch tesseracts into the office coffee grinder, making a piping hot cuppa jOH NO. except there’d be a little anticlimactic fake-out after he drinks it (maybe pairs it with some pie) where nothing immediately happens because infinity stones aren’t active inside the tva. but the moment he exits the tva…….

On a more realistic thread, I can imagine mobius somehow absorbing/becoming the space stone à la Princess Kida in Atlantis, and the stone ‘asking’ “where do you want to go?” and mobius ‘telling’ it “outside of space and time, I know a guy” or something. And prying open a tear in time and space to reach Loki.

The idea of missing a friend so deeply and wanting more than anything for them to be ok because you believe they deserve to be with you, helping them to be ok because it’s NOT FAIR -to the point of obsession and corruption, maybe even loss of self… ouch… but if he succeeded, “Time and Space” are always paired together after all (lmao “mobius, king of space”)

Anon, I love your mind! Mobius initially using the Tesseract’s power to find his (boy)friend, but slowly being corrupted by its power… Loki being the King of Time and Mobius being the King of Space… Oh, the possibilities…

The first idea is hilarious (Mobius, sipping the triple shot Tesseract espresso: hmm I probably should’ve done this outside of the TVA…) but I love the second concept! Mobius merging and becoming one with the Tesseract raises many questions of how it would affect him. Does the Tesseract have a mind of its own? Does it influence Mobius’ thoughts? My best guess would be: yes, absolutely.

This raises another question: if/when Mobius reaches Loki, how will Loki react to his friend’s new power? Loki has been lured by the Tesseract before, he’s been where Mobius is now. Will he be shocked seeing what it has done to his friend? Or has he been suffering this whole time, watching the timelines helplessly as the Tesseract has been corrupting his friend’s mind? And ultimately, can Mobius gain control of this new power, or will it control him?

I have to get this idea to Marvel…

In the meantime, I would love to know if there are any fics with this concept! If not, I’ll have to get writing, I suppose…

#im going to be rotating this idea in my mind for a while #thanks for sharing! #loki #mobius #lokius #mr tesseract #mobius m mobius #marvel #send me asks i won’t bite

[thefirstknife]

I'm in a desperate NEED for help cause I've recently developed an inconmensurable attachment for my boy Shin Malphur but I do not have A Single Clue regarding wHeRe to start reading about him! So if you'd recommend me some lore tabs I'd be more than grateful. It's completely understandable if for any reason you don't want to / can't, though. Drink your water and live your life!

Shin Malphur 👀 I like him :) There's also A LOT of lore about him, especially for someone who never appeared in the game.

First the most important is the lore about Dredgen Yor and Jaren Ward because that's what makes Shin. Dredgen Yor was the infamous Guardian turned Guardian-killer wielding the Light-consuming weapon of sorrow, Thorn. He was being hunted by Jaren Ward, a Hunter, who wanted to put an end to Yor's killing spree. In his hunt, Jaren found a young boy, Shin, and took him under his wing.

How Rezyl Azzir turned into Dredgen Yor: 1, 2, 3 Rise of Dredgen Yor: 1, 2, 3

When Jaren lost his duel to Dredgen Yor, Jaren's Ghost gave the Light to Shin, as well as giving him Jaren's signature weapon, The Last Word and then Shin continued the hunt for Yor.

About Shin's childhood, Jaren and Yor's defeat: 1, 2, 3, 4 Jaren's message to Shin attached to The Last Word

Shin ended up defeating Yor, but his hunt for rogue Guardians wasn't over. He founded the Shadows of Yor under a disguise to lure corrupt, rogue and overall bad Guardians to follow him so he can monitor them and kill them if he has to.

He also teamed up with the Drifter (who was a member of the Shadows of Yor for a while until he decided it wasn't for him) to create Gambit. Why? Well, at first, Shin was monitoring for rogue Guardians in the Crucible. Who is acting especially sadistic or cruel, who isn't complying by the rules, stuff like that. But the Crucible is where Guardians go to kill each other! A lot of people are going to act cruel. It wasn't the best way to make sure.

Therefore Gambit. A game where Guardians are given powers of Darkness to play with and are more susceptible to reveal themselves as corrupt (especially through the concept of invasions: Guardians who invade more often and for no reason are more likely to be tempted and corrupted).

Lore book about Shin's observations of Drifter (and coming up with the plan) Lore book about a lot of the stuff in regards to Shadows of Yor and other details, but most importantly Shin revealing that he was the one who founded it Lore book for us after we earn The Last Word (that details the whole plan about shutting down Shadows of Yor and weeding out those that were genuinely members because they were corrupted) Lore book for us again after Shin decides to retire

Shin is unique in many ways as a Guardian, given that he received someone else's Ghost as his Ghost and didn't have to die to get it. However, we do get a tiny hint as to why this was possible in Ghost Stories lore book: Confession of Hope Part One and Confession of Hope Part Two details a story about a Ghost that couldn't bear to see a family lose their baby (which died in a Fallen raid) and gave that baby its Light. That Ghost went on to die, and the baby's family died as well and the baby was adopted in the village called Palamon and was named Shin.

That's why Shin calls Jaren his "third father": the first was his biological father, the second was the one that adopted him in Palamon and Jaren was the third. Shin died as a baby and was resurrected by a Ghost which then later died. So Shin had the Light but not his original Ghost (which presumably allowed him to age normally). So later he gets adopted by Jaren's Ghost and didn't have to die for it because he already did die once before and already had the Light in him.

Also if you have an hour and a half to spare, most of this is told in a sort of cinematic way by Byf on youtube.

I hope this helps and that it isn't too confusing! It's a bit rough putting it all in vaguely chronological sense given that Destiny timeline is the way it is. But these are the most important lore mentions and lore books about him.

#destiny 2 #shin #ask #long post #lore vibing #we have no clue what he's up to now and how he's handling guardians using darkness #and hive having the light. lmao #shin answer your phone

[lucascecil]

Sixth Doctor - Project: Blue Box

TV Stories

◆ The Twin Dilemma

◆ Attack of the Cybermen

◆ Vengeance on Varos

◆ The Mark of the Rani

◆ The Two Doctors

◆ Timelash

◆ Revelation of the Daleks

◆ The Mysterious Planet

◆ Mindwarp

◆ Terror of the Vervoids

◆ The Ultimate Foe

Audio Stories

- 6th Doctor Adventures

◆ The Ratings War

◆ The Maltese Penguin

◆ Real Time

◆ Her Final Flight

◆ Cryptobiosis

◆ Return of the Krotons

◆ Voyage to Venus

◆ Voyage to the New World

◆ Trial of the Valeyard

◆ The End of the Line

◆ The Red House

◆ Stage Fright

◆ The Brink of Death

◆ The Headless Ones

◆ Like

◆ The Vanity Trap

◆ Conflict Theory

◆ One for All

◆ The Murder of Oliver Akkron

◆ Elevation

◆ The Rotting Deep

◆ The Tides of  the Moon

◆ Maelstrom

◆ The Mindless Ones

◆ Reverse Engineering

◆ Chronomancer

◆ Broadway Belongs to Mel

◆ Purification

◆ Time-Burst

◆ Girl in a Bubble

◆ The Corruptions

◆ The Wrong Side of History

- Main Range

◆ Davros

◆ Year of the Pig

◆ Whispers of Terror

◆ … ish

◆ The Reaping

◆ Memories of a Tyrant

◆ Emissary of the Daleks

◆ Harry Houdini’s War

◆ Plight of the Pimpernel

◆ Recorded Time and Other Stories

◆ 1963: The Space Race

◆ Breaking Bubbles and Other Stories

◆ Blood on Santa’s Claw and Other Stories

◆ The Wormery

◆ I.D./Urgent Calls

◆ Vampire of the Mind

◆ The Acheron Pulse

◆ The Lure of the Nomad

◆ Iron Bright

◆ Hour of the Cybermen

◆ The Hunting Ground

◆ The Marian Conspiracy - ★★★★★

If anyone is unsuse about how good pure historicals can be, check this out. This is a fun adventure but also charged with this sorrow and melancholy of knowing there is no changing the past; a concept a bit weird for a time travel series but still it’s in these situations that Doctor Who leaves me the most breathless. Add that to the impecable chemistry of the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn Smithe and you have one of the best companion introductions ever.

Complete review: here.

◆ The Spectre of Lanyon Moor - ★★☆☆☆

The first time I listened to this release, I left with a bitter taste in my mouth. It was not the worst thing ever, but extremely average. I had a lot more fun in Lanyon Moor this time around, but I am sad to say my opinion didn’t change all that much. There are good things here - the main characters have stellar chemistry, I love the setting and the premise. But it’s a story that don’t leave much of an impression and, even if not bad, is quite forgetful.

Complete review: here.

◆ The Apocalypse Element - ★★★☆☆

I can acknowledge the good things about The Apocalypse Element as a war epic in a huge scale (Daleks vs Time Lords) but it’s not the kind of story I like, specially because I started Doctor Who in 2020. I feel it would be dishonest to call this a tradicional Dalek story, but if we ignore this is the first time this specific conflict was done - it’s still a tale of a bunch of Daleks trying to invade a planet and destroy the whole universe. What gets to me the most is that I’m not necessarily a hater of traditional stories - I love how Lucie Miller/To the Death builds beautifully upon that with a huge character focus on part one and Masters of Earth is an action epic that is delightful to hear -, but this one I just don’t get. The best thing in my opinion is by far the regulars (the Doctor, Evelyn and Romana), which are great and very well characterized. I think average is too harsh, so consider this one of the good stories I like the least.

Complete review: here.

◆ Bloodtide - ★★★★★

An energetic adventure and full of powerful images. Bloodtide is one of the best Silurians stories and a triumph as a historical. Bringing Darwin and them together is a really clever choice that opens a lot of opportunities to work around biology concepts and ideas within the interspecies relationships. This is also a narrative full of wonder - for Galapagos, for its characters, for all this background it wants to tell. And I go head on in wonder with it, it’s a tale that fascinates me. All of that plus one of the best performances for Six and Evelyn and you have one of my favorite releases of the Sixth Doctor.

Complete review: here.

◆ Project: Twilight

◆ The Sandman

◆ Jubilee

◆ Doctor Who and the Pirates

◆ Medicinal Purposes

◆ Pier Pressure

◆ 100

◆ Assassin in the Limelight

◆ Project: Lazarus

◆ Arrangements for War

◆ The Nowhere Place

◆ The Crimes of Thomas Brewster

◆ The Feast of Axos

◆ Industrial Evolution

◆ Thicker Than Water

◆ The Wrong Doctors

◆ The Holy Terror

◆ Last of the Cybermen

◆ The Condemned

◆ The Doomwood Curse

◆ Brotherhood of the Daleks

◆ The Raincloud Man

◆ Patient Zero

◆ Paper Cuts

◆ Blue Forgotten Planet

◆ City of Spires

◆ The Wreck of the Titan

◆ Legend of the Cybermen

◆ The Curse of Davros

◆ The Fourth Wall

◆ Wirnn Isle

◆ Vortex Ice/Cortex Fire

◆ Antidote to Oblivion

◆ The Brood of Erys

◆ Scavenger

◆ The Widow’s Assassin

◆ Masters of Earth

◆ The Rani Elite

◆ Criss-Cross

◆ Planet of the Rani

◆ Shield of the Jotunn

◆ Order of the Daleks

◆ Colony of Fear

◆ Absolute Power

◆ Quicksilver

◆ The Behemoth

◆ The Middle

◆ Static

◆ Cry of the Vultriss

◆ Scorched Earth

◆ The Lovecraft Invasion

◆ The End of the Beginning

◆ The One Doctor

◆ The Juggernauts

◆ Catch-1782

◆ The Wishing Beast/The Vanity Box

◆ Spaceport Fear

◆ The Seeds of War

- Classic Doctors, New Monsters

◆ Judoon in Chains

◆ The Carrionite Curse

◆ Together in Electric Dreams

- The Companion Chronicles & Peladon & Stageplays

◆ Peri and the Piscon Paradox

◆ A Town Called Fortune - ★★★☆☆

◆ Night’s Black Agents

◆ The Ultimate Adventure

◆ Beyond the Ultimate Adventure

◆ The Death of Peladon

- The Lost Stories

◆ The Nightmare Fair

◆ Mission to Magnus

◆ Leviathan

◆ The Hollows of Time

◆ Paradise 5

◆ Point of Entry

◆ The Song of Megaptera

◆ The Macra

◆ The Guardians of Prophecy

◆ Power Play

◆ The First Sontarans

◆ The Ultimate Evil

◆ Mind of the Hodiac

- Short Trips

◆ Not Forgotten

◆ The Shadow of Serenity

◆ Primer Winner

◆ Murmurs of Earth

◆ The Authentic Experience

◆ Under ODIN’s Eye

◆ To Cut a Blade of Glass

◆ The Doctor’s Coat

◆ Mission Improbable

◆ These Stolen Hours

◆ The Darkened Earth

◆ The Wings of a Butterfly

◆ Intuition

◆ Mel-evolent

◆ Loud and Proud

Books

◆ State of Change

◆ Time of Your Life

◆ Millenial Rites

◆ Killing Groung

◆ Burning Heart

◆ Business Unusual

◆ Mission: Improbable

◆ Players

◆ Grave Matter

◆ The Quantum Archangel

◆ The Shadow in the Glass

◆ Instruments of Darkness

◆ Place of the Red Sun

◆ Blue Box

◆ Synthespians TM

◆ Spiral Scratch

#Sixth Doctor #Doc Thoughts

[buggie-hagen]

Sermon for Christ the King (11/26/23)

Primary Text | Ephesians 1:15-23

----------------------------------------------------------

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

          The kingdoms of the world are defined by things like geographical territory, the exercise of authority and power, and a people who belong to such a kingdom. Today we tend to call them countries rather than kingdoms, and we don’t really have kings. Though some of us Americans have a fascination with people like the King of England and his late mother, the Queen of England. King Charles is himself a weaker form of a monarch than what we find in history. Though there are still some places throughout the world where kings and queens are a primary political figure. In the US we don’t call the leaders kings, clearly. There was a whole Revolutionary War about that. We have presidents, governors, and other elected officials that hold the political power. Elected officials are, at least in theory, supposed to represent the people who vote for them. But as with anything a human being touches, self-interest, wealth, and the lure of more wealth tend to corrupt the way things should be. Government, as an established order of God, is supposed to be one of his good gifts—operating in the world as God’s left arm. When it operates as intended it makes sure everyone lives in peace, that there is enough bread for everyone to eat, and it seeks to prevent and punish any evil that may arise within society. Because you and I are sitting here today safely with relative peace in our land and hopefully a full belly—we know this function of government is more-or-less accomplished—even while at the same time we can acknowledge the heaping swaths of corruption and injustice that nevertheless exist. Though the US is not a kingdom under a monarch as traditionally understood it still operates as a kingdom because it has a geographical territory, it exercises authority and power, and it has a people who belong to it. And even though we be red-blooded Americans, I suspect kings and queens remain common in the stories we teach our children and in the media that entertains us. So a king is not an unknown concept to us.

On this day we call Christ the King. That implies he has a kingdom. Though the kingdom of Christ is different than all other kingdoms on earth. It is a spiritual kingdom. That means a kingdom that is not found with eyes. It is not the sort of kingdom where we could say, “See! This building is the kingdom of Christ!” or “See! This ethnic group is the kingdom of Christ!” or “See! The people who dress this way are the kingdom of Christ!” You couldn’t go to Germany and be like, “Here. Germany is one and the same as Christ’s kingdom.” The territory of Christ’s kingdom has no land boundaries. It is not beholden to a certain ethnicity. Instead, his kingdom is in diverse, little pockets throughout the world. The kingdom of Christ has for its citizens some each of Ukrainians, Russians, Brazilians, Ethiopians, Indonesians, Israelis, Palestinians, and yes, even some Americans. Christ’s kingdom is a spiritual kingdom because it is found in the heart. A particular kind of heart though. Not the heart of a holy, righteous, pure, ideal or an astoundingly moral person. Such self-made saints he sends away. So let us not come to God with presumption of our own goodness. Christ admits into his kingdom only what we would call a “broken and contrite heart. Such a heart God will not despise” (Ps. 51:17). Therefore, Christ’s kingdom is filled with real-not-pretend sinners…rot-gut sinners who at the same time know their need for a savior and in him have a real-not-pretend-forgiveness. Luther says: “Thus only those sinners belong in the kingdom of Christ who recognize their sin, feel it, and then catch hold of the Word of Christ spoken here: “I do not condemn you.” (pause) The citizens of Christ’s kingdom are those whom God has spoken into the ears Christ’s own words of “I do not condemn you.” This is called gospel-speaking. Gospel-speaking happens in Christ’s spiritual kingdom known as the body of Christ. Which, the body of Christ has another name—the Church. The church, which is not only “the body of Christ” but is “the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23). So God is in the church fully and without remainder. Which means the church is not similar to a voluntary human organization like a pickleball club or a philanthropic society. The church is a necessary, divine institution designated so by God. Which God gathers to himself whenever the gospel is given in his holy word and his sacraments. (slight pause) The church of Jesus Christ is put together by God through the gospel. Which means the kingdom of Christ is put together through the oral word (the “oral word” which we otherwise know as a sermon). God creates the church as well through communion and through baptism—which are little sermons in the water and in the bread and the wine. In these lowly, and by appearance, insignificant things and people God builds the kingdom for his Son. In his oral word he makes known the immeasurable power of God for us who believe. The very same power that raised Christ from the dead is what makes living people out of dead people. The same power that gives us hope in this dark age.

The Kingdom of Christ is different from the kingdoms of the world because it has something the world does not believe in: forgiveness. This kingdom Christ is defined by forgiveness. Luther gives us a key to the proper understanding of Christ the King. It is simply Christ the King speaking to lowly sinners like you and me, saying: “This is the slogan of my kingdom. I forgive your sin; for in My kingdom no one is without forgiveness of sins. Therefore, you too, must have forgiveness.” (pause) It is precisely this power of the forgiveness promised in the crucified and risen Lord and King Jesus Christ that raises people like you and me from the dead. Christ becomes your King with these words: I forgive you all your sins. I do not condemn you. And now, Christ is your hope—a hope that cannot be undone. This is God’s great and immeasurable power first in Christ’s resurrection, and now begun in you in your hearing of the word. Christ is not just any king. He is your King. Through this word you have heard, you are made alive together in Christ. By grace you have been rescued. Amen.

[rabdoidal]

[pretend there's a tea emoji here] vampires?

Oh baby I can talk about vampires forever! I love how vampires were constructed to be nobility that were, literally and metaphorically, draining the people they lorded over, often becoming a power struggle between the bourgeoisie VS the proletariat. The image of the classic rich, pretty, and ultimately strange vampire is so burned into the collective consciousness that the concept of the mysterious royal languishing in his bedchambers is pretty universal, but the more recent trope of the post-80s vampire is one I'm more interested in watching.

Vampires during the 80s-90s turned from strange recluse into mysterious queer - the polyamorous mess of The Hunger (1983), the friendly neighbours Jerry Dandrige and his servant Billy Cole in Fright Night (1985), the curious Michael Emerson and the alluring David Powers in The Lost Boys (1987), the overtly queer but toxic Lestat and Louis in Interview with the Vampire (1994). The new vampire didn't have to come from money, but they were older, more dominant, and held power over the main character, representing temptation and manipulation for them.

This is due in part to both modernisation, and the HIV/AIDs epidemic. Some directors wanted to show what eternal life would mean for the modern city-dweller - what one's sexuality would be, coupled with the inherent intimacy of feeding off another and what the bond between vampire & victim would be (albeit still only depicted via lingering eye contact and pinning each other to walls and wearing an awful amount of leather). Other directors and artists responded to the times - vampirism was coded as "a disease you contract only under specific circumstances" that was passed between "people who live in cities that go out late at night" as well as the lingering idea that vampires were seductors, able to use hypnotism to "lure in innocent minds" to be hurt or infected.

Horror is, perhaps unfortunately, a genre that can get away with representation because it can still be seen as evil. We can have characters of all types of backgrounds, sexuality, race, gender, and socioeconomic class, but the catch is always going to be either "this character is The Other and is therefore inherently evil" or "this character is an innocent that has been corrupted by The Other." The turning of the vampire into a gay allegory is one that, in many circumstances, makes me happy to see people like me on screen, but it has been used in so many ways to hurt us at the same time.

All in all, I think vampires have have come a long way, and I certainly enjoy the decentralisation of the rich vampire into a variety of identities and positions in power - they still represent a type of hierarchy over others that I think is an important thing to keep vampires a monstrous creature in cinema. They aren't my #1 monster but they sure are interesting as hell!

#personal #ask meme #vampires #horror #aids cw #long post

[demonfamilytherapist]

Okay so in the Shadowbringers expansion they introduced these new enemies known as Sin Eaters. They (most of them) were once living beings that were corrupted/mutated by primordial light/holy aether/magic. Kind of like demons, but holy/light based demons. Most of them have names like Forgiven Rebellion, Forgiven Cruelty, ect. There's some more powerful ones named after the different types of Greek love (Eros, Philia - they are Light Wardens) as well as Cardinal Virtues.

They were specifically designed to be eldritch horror but themed around light. The stronger ones can actually turn mortals into more of them. They are bad, really really bad. When they were being designed the concepts kept having to be sent back because they were being made to look too pretty/"good"/angelic.

Apparently the name Sin Eater came from the idea of man's sin becoming too great and causing the world's destruction. Sin eaters exist to consume and eat, and in a sense take those sins away.

The player more or less nearly becomes a Light Warden in everything but appearance at one point the game due to having absorbed the corrupting light from the previously defeated wardens. You've taken on so much excess light that your soul is beginning to crack and is at risk of shattering.

Which made me think of Sin Eaters being eldritch beings in Obey Me. Because horrifying creatures that still wield light/holy powers/magic? Sign me up! I can only imagine how the angels and demons would react to meeting one of these abominations. Of course my favorite Sin Eater is Forgiven Obscenity. She's kind of pretty.

I could see them almost being villainous counterparts to the Avatars of Sin and the angels. I'm still thinking about how they would actually come about in Obey Me's universe. Maybe either as beings that already exist but were incredibly rare that most felt them to be myths (like cosmic/eldritch horrors). Or the result of some sort of experiment by the Celestial Realm and they loss control.

Plus I could see them actually being natural predators of both angels and demons. More demons then anything because of the whole sin thing.

Some Sin Eaters are little more than animals, but there are quite a few intelligent ones - like on the level of human intelligence.

Anon you've accidentally hit on one of my favourite tropes: Light as a corrupting horror. It blinds just as well as darkness, it lures you into a false sense of security, it tells you it's good! That it's there for your own good, what would you do without it?

My thoughts on its origins would be sort of the inverse of the brothers' status as fallen angels. Given their 'forgiven' titles, it seems the Sin Eaters must be former sinners - maybe the strongest are former demons? A demon that was cleansed by the Celestial Realm? An accidental baptism, of sorts? You can have their same power structure in the game, where animals are turned into Sin Eaters without much intelligence, humans and regular demons/angels vary depending on their previous sin/magic maybe? and powerful demons/angels ascend into Light Wardens or even the Cardinal Virtues.

The Celestial Realm, at first, is delighted - even smug and amused at this development. Isn't it wonderful, that even demons can be Saved? Can feel the Grace and Love of God? Truly, their Father is beyond merciful.

But... as it turns out, angels aren't actually free of sin, it's just that their loyalty to their Father happens to outweigh that sin. We see it in every angel we've met so far (Luke and Simeon have their respective associated sins. Raphael doesn't have one himself yet, but what we've seen of his backstory and his personality shows a bit of pride and wrath at minimum). When the Sin Eaters decide that even angels are impure beings needing to be cleansed, that's when the Celestial Realm recognises them as an issue.

According to the Wiki, it seems they have a form of resurrective immortality too? So it's a threat that only keeps growing. A threat large enough to unite the realms as allies, perhaps?

Maybe MC, with the ring/Ring of Light, has to face down the Light Wardens. They're the only ones who stand a chance of being able to absorb that much corrupting light without turning themselves. Diavolo might be able to handle a bit too, being a very powerful demon, but Lucifer and his brothers (aside from Satan) used to be angels - their risk is actually much greater, as they haven't entirely gotten rid of the light within themselves. The idea of Satan having to take a hit for one of his brothers, since he's the only one who can risk exposure without turning straight away...

Forgiven Obscenity is very pretty. Also, Light Warden Eros looks like Cerberus.

#asks #anon #sin eater anon #that's your title now i guess #also sin eater used to be a job in some cultures #they'd ritualistically eat over the grave of the sinner (from memory) #as a way of consuming their sins so they could go to heave #*heaven

[jadespeedster17]

Corrupted/Egg Tommy AU

Yup, we’re going down this rabbit hole, my ideas however are a little different. Using some concepts from both @smallm0th and @deyageka ideas. Along with some corruption concepts from @littlewolf651 As we have this fun concept that the Egg is connected to The Void. 

OKAY!

So this idea starts when Tommy is in the Egg Room before bring Tubbo along. Upon touching the Egg, he gains a rune on his palms. Can be whatever you wish, but it basically stands for ‘Corruption’. (I often see it as an hourglass symbol.)

Tommy gains magic from the Egg, and it slowly corrupts his mind as more runes of many meanings spread along his arms. (Things that might mean Destruction, Blood, Power, Fire, among other things.) And his eyes turn from a bright blue to a dark blue, and glow red along with the runes when he uses his magic. 

He wears dark black robes with red and white trim, not like Phil’s, more like Harry Potter sorcerer robes. They aren’t as flowy, they hug his frame rather well. Think like Organization 13 from Kingdom Hearts.) With a belt around his waist that holds potions. His shirt stays white, but the red sleeves turn white also under the robe like coat. Though he rarely takes it off. There are also vines that hug around his chest and arms. With dark black pants on and white and red shoes. 

This Tommy is calmer than before, still rude and mouthy, but he swears less and has more of a cool demeaner, with a slight aloofness about him now. He seems to be enjoying where he currently is, and loves the magic he’s been gifted or cursed with, however you wish to see it. He now has control of his life and what he wants in it, all for the price of just obeying the Egg and doing as it asks. For all he’s been given, it seems like a simple and sparing price to pay. 

Out of respect for Bad, and per his request, Tommy does swear less than before. But that is because Bad is the Leader, and Corrupted Tommy acknowledges this and understands that he is only the helper. Something he is content with, as it means less stress and less things to worry about. He used to be a Vice President after all, and he finds leaving Bad and Ant to deal with the spreading and problems are much easier on his mind.

He’s given a chance to do as he pleases and enjoy life to it’s fullest, just spreading the spores and helping convert people. And Bad keeps him in check really so he doesn’t over use his power or let it get to his head like Dream did with his type of power. Bad is the leader, and Tommy has learned that he isn’t. 

POWERS

Tommy has been given a variety of powers but he has his favorites.

1. Red Fire: This fire is the opposite of Blue Fire. It’s often called Blood Fire, and can melt the skin off a person at it’s highest temperature. It’s much more tame though compared to Blue Fire, which requires more chaotic energy. Red Fire requires a calmer nature to use it, it took Tommy a while to learn to turn off his emotions to use it. But it slowly became second nature with each Rune he gained.

2. Illusions: He can manifest illusions of peoples desires out of a red mist like substance. It moves like water, but looks and feels like sand. Twisting and turning to create what you want to see. From this, Tommy can show you what he want more than anything, and what the Egg offers to you. They are only illusion to the real thing, but with enough concertation, he can made their solid for a short period of time. 

3. Blood: His own blood is a weapon now, infused with spores from the Egg. Anywhere or anything he bleeds on can grow vines and flowers. His blood is warm to things, and can heat up even more at will. If Tommy were to bleed on a person, he could cause vines to spread along their body and root in their body. It’s one way to corrupt people, but he’s admitted to Bad he dislikes doing this as it causes the person intense amounts of pain. And there is no guarantee they will be corrupted for the long run.  He also can create runes on the walls, floors, and ceiling of places with his blood. To create protection or corruption in areas. He did this to the Egg room making it safer to leave it alone as people who intend to harm the Egg have a harder time entering.  Tommy doesn’t use his magic often though as it’s rather draining. 

4. Wings: Tommy has wings now, they are large, dark red with white speckles along the flight feathers and turn from dark at the top and bright red as they go down. Though, he doesn’t use them to fly that often, mostly used for intimidation, he can float without his wings just fine. 

5. Creation: Tommy’s found he likes to create things more, but doesn’t do so often. He isn’t sure where this knowledge came from, but it’s there and he helps out Ant and Punz in building things for the Eggpire. It keeps him occupied really, and at least it’s something to do.

PERSONALITY

This Tommy is calmer than others. He isn’t as loud, but still rude to people in a playful manner.  He’s still protective of people he cares about, but this extends to the fact he’s not afraid to kill to protect them now. If it won’t affect their views of the Egg, he’s willing to help out here and there with things. Such as using magic to repair things or make things. 

He’s aloof too, still friendly Tommy as ever and, unlike other members, he’s easy to approach and talk to. That is what makes him deadly, his attitude and easy to approach look outside of official meeting lure people in.  He’s still playful, and pranks people, but these even come off slightly as more planned and less mean. Like he’s actually thinking about it before he does it. He also still mouths off to other members when they try to force him to do things, save for Badboyhalo.

Tommy is also very respectful to Bad, he doesn’t talk back to him like he would Ant or Punz, to get on their nerves. If Bad tells him to do something, Tommy does it without question. He sometimes laughs and says he sees Bad as a better Father Figure to him than others. He swears less at Bad’s request, which that shocked alot of people. Guess more reason to wonder what the hell did this Egg do to Tommy?

However, when situation calls for it, Tommy can be very cold and uncaring to people who are trying to harm the Egg. He’s not afraid to kill, one shot from his Red Fire and you’ll wish you hadn’t do anything to The Egg or it’s followers. He’s their power house, and the Eggs Protector.  He gains a coolness to his words when in the Egg room, and when agitated or aggravated he gains a voice that sounds like two people mixed with his own voice. It’s honestly terrifying to hear, as at these moments it feels and sounds like this isn’t Tommy but The Egg speaking through him. 

His voice also gains a softer tone when offering up your desires, and sounds like honey to the ears. Enticing you to listen to what he says, it’s very creepy when you notice it. 

APPERANCES

- Dark blue eyes that glow Red when using his magic.

- Runes along his arms that glow red when the magic is used.

- Hair has some white streaks in it

- Coat like robe over his outfit, but now with dark black pants. (Think Organization 13 from Kingdom Hearts.)

- In the Egg Room or near the crater he has vines growing along his arms and chest. 

- Away from it, wears a white, long-sleeved shirt and black pants with red shoes, looks very normal. Never would think he was corrupted until his eyes glowed red.

- Hair is longer, never bothered to cut it, makes a short pony tail.

- Has a belt around his waist that either carries potions or his daggers/sword.

- Might have a small backpack on, just a simple draw string bag really with food or items in. 

#eggpire #egginnit #dream smp #badboyhalo #dream smp tommy #dream smp badboyhalo #tommyinnit #Corrupted Tommy AU

[robininthelabyrinth]

continuation of Star Wars Wangxian AU - on ao3 or tumblr

-

The way of the Sith is the dyad, the rule of two: always two, no more, no less.

A master and an apprentice – one to represent the allure of the Dark Side of the Force, the other to serve as the baited, walking willingly into a trap. A pair of magnets, the moth and the flame; without each other, they were incomplete, unstable, and only together could they be considered complete.

Perhaps, Lan Wangji reflects, he should have considered this fundamental precept more thoroughly.

Certainly earlier.

If he had thought about it earlier, he could have taken steps, measures, something. Anything, really, as long as it wasn’t…

“Hey, Master! You’re back! Did you have a nice trip? Kill lots of people?”

…this.

“No,” Lan Wangji said, in the tones of one who knew suffering. The Dark Side rippled around him, thickening as he poured his frustration and annoyance into it – a complaint shared with the abyss, in a world where rage and despair only made the abyss stronger. “No deaths.”

The Sarlacc didn’t count.

Anyway, Wei Wuxian had been the one to kill it in the end, in order to enable them to escape. He’d almost looked like he’d felt bad about it, too.

Silly fool, Lan Wangji thought with far too much affection.

Though, speaking of silly fools...

Xue Yang grinned at him, his little tiger tooth making the otherwise vicious expression significantly less intimidating. 

Lan Wangji had observed that fact early in their acquaintance, and had resolved never to tell Xue Yang so as to let him continue to be frustrated by the apparently inexplicable fact that people never seemed to take him seriously at first glance. If Xue Yang ever figured it out and confronted him about it, he could even theoretically, at a stretch, justify it as additional Dark Side training.

“Sounds like a wasted trip, then,” he said. “I killed five.”

Lan Wangji met his gaze with a steady one of his own. “I do not recall instructing you to go on a mission.”

“Aww, but Master –”

Lan Wangji was newer to the Dark Side of the Force than Xue Yang, but he had the rigorous training of the Cloud Recesses behind him: he did not even need to reach out deliberately through the Force to oppress Xue Yang, driving him to his knees.

“It was a continuation of an earlier mission, Master! I wouldn’t disobey you intentionally –”

Lan Wangji released him. “Of course you would.”

Xue Yang looked up at him, grin back on his face. “Well, yeah. But not that obviously. I wouldn’t admit it to your face.”

He would, if he thought he could get away with it, and Lan Wangji permitted a look of skepticism to cross his face, though he did not comment aloud. 

“What mission?” he asked instead. Knowing Xue Yang as he did, there were very few missions that he had given in which murder was permissible, much less multiple murders. They were trying to keep a low profile, after all.

Xue Yang bounced to his feet. “I invaded another Hutt palace!” he announced gleefully, his eyes shining like stars. “Dressed up as a bounty hunter and everything!”

Xue Yang had once been a slave on a planet controlled by the Hutts, a dirty sandy place with little compassion for the young and none for the weak – and Xue Yang had been both. He had been bartered from one master to another until one careless owner had crushed his hand and his spirit at the same time, rendering him even more useless and condemning him to a terrible fate. No one wanted damaged goods, no one but those who wanted to break them further.

How Xue Yang went from that to being the apprentice of a self-styled Sith Lord, Lan Wangji was unsure beyond a basic understanding that Xue Yang had somehow risen up from his dire circumstances to massacre the entire clan of that particular owner. They had met only when Xue Yang was already in the midst of his training, a slightly gawky teenage delinquent who’d long ago learned that murder was the first, best, and only answer to all of his problems.

He’d tried to kill Lan Wangji, of course.

The circumstances had been admittedly been rather unusual. The Sith tradition called for dyads, a master and an apprentice in each set (though of course there could be more than one set of Sith, though rarely if ever on a level or in an area where they could challenge each other); the typical way of things for the Sith was that the apprentice struck down the master, rising to take on an apprentice of his own, or that the master tired of the apprentice and lured another promising would-be apprentice into Falling, with the typical test of a new apprentice being the slaughter of the old one.

Lan Wangji was strikingly idiosyncratic in that he had Fallen entirely on his own, without a master to guide him to the Dark Side. 

This did not mean he was without knowledge: the Lan sect, which prized learning, of course had a rich collection of treatises on what the Dark Side entailed, although they were meant to be read as warnings rather than guides. After he had had the Force vision of that terrible future, the future he would Fall to the Dark Side, had Fallen, rather than permit to take place, Lan Wangji had stolen several before departing the Cloud Recesses.

It was little surprise, then, that Xue Yang’s old master had put such effort into recruiting Lan Wangji as his own apprentice once he had discovered him.

Lan Wangji had had no patience for such nonsense. Rather than slaughter Xue Yang, who had clearly been incited against him, he had followed the traces back to their origin and killed the Sith master that Xue Yang followed instead.

Unfortunately, per the rule of two, that left Xue Yang without a master and Lan Wangji with the horrible realization that would-be Sith masters would be crawling out of the woodwork to attack him on a regular basis if he didn’t put himself in a dyad at once to prevent it. In the interest of not being harassed, and thereby distracted from his plans, he had recruited Xue Yang as his own apprentice, skipping the apprentice step entirely and becoming a master.

Perhaps that was why Wei Wuxian had called him a Sith lord, he mused. Wei Wuxian was sensitive to the Force, talented in it almost to extremes; maybe he could tell that Lan Wangji was in a position of dominance, rather than growth.

“ – it was great. Even with all the warnings from previous incidents, they were so arrogant, thinking it would never happen to them. Rotten slugs! The leader had a rancor in the dungeon under his throne, too; the thing was kept half-starved so that it’d turn on anyone that got dropped into its nest – wretched little space, I could barely move, much less a rancor –”

“I take it from your explanation that we now own a rancor,” Lan Wangji said, feeling somewhat pained.

Pained, but also gratified: he had been working on teaching Xue Yang the concept of empathy, reasoning that the truly psychopathic would never truly be able to connect with the rage, suffering, and pain that powered the Dark Side of the Force.

Only once Xue Yang understood love, understood it and lost it, could he truly understand the Dark Side as Lan Wangji did.

A pet was a good start.

“Uh, maybe? I mean, rancors are from Dathomir, which is pretty steeped in the Dark Side, so it’s almost like they’re a natural ally of the Sith –”

Rancors were semi-sentient five-meter tall reptiles that resembled boulders, with armored hides that could resist blasters and even light sabers at times, and while it was true that their home planet was rich in the Dark Side, home of assassins and Nightkin and murderers of all sorts, rancors themselves were actually quite friendly and non-combative as a general rule.

Not that Xue Yang knew that. 

“You will care for it yourself, without disturbing me,” Lan Wangji instructed, not wanting Xue Yang to dwell too long on whether or not what he had done was appropriate. Some people could only be coaxed, not coerced; Xue Yang’s former master had very nearly ruined him, teaching him all the wrong lessons about divesting oneself of emotions (the Sith way, of course: no emotions but hate) without any of the necessary context, and any future education needed to done cautiously to avoid Xue Yang becoming utterly consumed by the abyss, capable of nothing but lashing out, a rabid dog in need of being put down.

Lan Wangji was not in the market for another Sith apprentice.

Xue Yang, at least, was easy to manage: as long as he was permitted to vent his more murderous inclinations in the way he liked the most, pursuing the vile Hutt clan wherever they had set up their gangster dens full of corruption and rot, his attempts to overthrow Lan Wangji were half-hearted and disinterested, and the worst Lan Wangji would need to put up with was a bit of back talk.

“Of course,” Xue Yang said, grinning with teeth. “Wouldn’t want to keep you from your boy, would we?”

…not that the back talk wasn’t annoying.

“You are not permitted to speak of him,” Lan Wangji said coldly, but that never worked for very long. Xue Yang was an extremely disrespectful apprentice, although Lan Wangji supposed it was his own fault for rejecting the rigid hierarchy of the traditional master-apprentice relationship – of the entire concept of the Sith lord and the classist structure generally associated with it – and encouraging Xue Yang to similarly reject such things in favor of the anarchy of self-determination. “He is not yours to even think of.”

Perhaps a wiser man might refuse to let Xue Yang even know of such a weakness, but Lan Wangji was moderately sure that in an even fight – or even an uneven one – Wei Wuxian would have no difficulty putting Lan Wangji’s unruly, unwanted apprentice in his place.

“Yeah, yeah,” Xue Yang laughed. “I know: hands off, no touching. I still don’t get it. What’s so great about this one guy? The universe is full of people, even force-sensitives; if you’re so hung up on having a Jedi, why not go find one that’s a little more compromising?”

Because there is no one else like Wei Ying. There will never be anyone else for me, not ever – only him.

“One day you will meet someone who moves you,” Lan Wangji said placidly, a touch of his old talent for Force visions shimmering in his soul in confirmation of the dimly uncertain future. “And we will have this conversation again, when at last you understand.”

“Sure,” Xue Yang said, clearly disbelieving. “Whatever. Let me tell you about these two bounty hunters I met on my trip – a matched set, one in white and one in black - fuck, they were so annoying, you wouldn’t even believe –”

#mdzs #lan wangji #xue yang #wei wuxian #my fic #my fics #escape your destiny

[infinite-xerath]

Runeterra Retcons 9: Shaco

The time has come to discuss League’s resident killer clown… Or killer jester, I suppose. There is a difference, not that it really matters because even the lore doesn’t ACTUALLY know what Shaco is. To be frank, Shaco is a weird character because he’s NEVER had a proper place in the story, even from his conception.

Shaco’s original lore paints him as a complete and utter mystery. Nobody knows who or what he is, where he came from, or what he really wants. All anyone has ever known is that Shaco loves killing people because he thinks it’s funny. He could be a demon, a rogue weapon, or just a homicidal madman who’s really good at what he loves. That’s where his character begins and ends, so there’s really not much to actually analyze here. Shaco’s second lore attempts to give us a little more detail but all it really does is say the exact same thing with more words added in.

Of course, Shaco’s first two lores were written at a time with the Institute of War and Summoners were still canon, so after the retcon back in 2015 Riot opted to give him a new backstory to make him fit in with the new world of Runeterra. That backstory, as we can see, is ultimately little more than a placeholder. I mean, his extended bio doesn’t even match the blurb on his Champion page!

In summation: Shaco is a haunted doll who belonged to an unknown prince of an unknown kingdom and was transformed by unknown magics for unknown reasons. This backstory now feels especially redundant with the introduction of Gwen into the game, a living doll with a similar backstory albeit far less evil. To be frank: there’d be room to have some interest thematic parallels between Gwen and Shaco if Riot had written these two in such a way that they were creations of the same person or belonged to the same kid but wound up becoming wholly opposite of one-another.

For example: perhaps in an alternate version of the lore, Gwen comes to embody the childlike innocence and hope of her maker/owner and seeks to spread joy and cheer while Shaco is a corrupt and perverted manifestation of those desires who seeks only to amuse himself in the suffering of others. This, I think, would have been a fantastic way to go about it, but given that Gwen is already so heavily tied to the Shadow Isles plotline and Viego is set up to be her primary enemy, I feel like it would be kind of difficult to work Shaco into that dynamic at this point.

Besides, it’s clear that Riot DOES have plans for Shaco: namely, that they aim to retcon him into being a demon. This is somewhat evident by his champion title, the Demon Jester, as well as his relationships are listed as being Nocturne and Fiddlesticks, the demons of nightmares and fear, respectively. There’s also that branch on the demon family tree labeled “Delirium” which would fit a murderous jokester pretty well.

To be honest, I was initially hesitant to even bother doing an episode for Shaco given that Riot clearly has at least some vague idea of what to do with him, but since reworks are coming out a lot slower now and Shaco’s not even on Riot’s priority list as far as we’re aware, it’ll probably be a WHILE before we actually see them do anything with this particular concept.

So, given what we know about Riot’s current plans, the general direction of this rewrite is simple: make Shaco a demon. Admittedly, though, that’s a little easier said than done. Demons in League are creatures who feed on mortal pain and suffering, but each of them has a different way of going about it. Fiddlesticks mainly uses paranoia and trauma to drive his victims mad while Nocturne takes a more Freddy Krueger approach of just invading dreams and turning them into nightmares. Tahm Kench likes to make Faustian Bargains by giving you everything you want and then tearing it all away from you, while Evelynn lures you in with seduction and then proceeds to tear you apart piece by piece.

Every demon takes a different form and has different ways of going about things, but all of them share a core concept: they feed on suffering and misery, be it physical or emotional. That said, there’s a bit more to demons in Runeterra than just that. See, back when Fiddlesticks was released, Riot went and released what the community has dubbed the “Demon Family Tree,” which appears to be a chart displaying the hierarchy of demons and different emotions that different kinds of demons can prey on.

Now, admittedly, there’s a LOT about this chart that we don’t currently understand, and frankly I wouldn’t be surprised if Riot doesn’t either. There’s a key that resembles the one around Zoe’s neck in the top-left, a bunch of circles in the top right we don’t know the meaning of, and a whole bunch of text written in what I think is supposed to be Old Noxian that we can’t currently decipher. There have been theories and discussions about this already, so I’m not going to get too deep into it, but the main takeaway, I think, would be the words on the chart that we CAN read: Fear, Delirium, Nightmares, Secrets, Bliss, Frenzy, and Obsession. There’s also the term “Azakana” at the bottom, though we know thanks to Yone that this basically just refers to a demon that hasn’t fully matured yet.

Tying the chart back to the demonic Champions in the game, it’s easy to piece together the connections that they each have: Fiddlesticks is fear, Nocturne is Nightmares, Raum (the demon bound to Swain) is Secrets, Evelynn is commonly believed to be Bliss, and Tahm Kench is most likely Obsession. That leaves Delirium and Frenzy untouched, which leaves us with two spots to fit Shaco into.

Now comes the hard part: the decision. Delirium refers to a state of mind in which one’s awareness of their actions or environment is significantly reduced, whereas frenzy is a sudden burst of frantic, uncontrolled emotion, typically rage or aggression. Either one of these could work well for a killer jester, but I personally think that delirium would suit Shaco better in terms of how his personality is portrayed in game. So, with that said, let’s dive deep into the realm of demonic and see what can be done to turn this cursed puppet into a proper Demon of Delirium.

It is often said that misery and comedy are but two sides of the same coin. Laughter often comes at the expense of others, and one person’s despair may be another’s delight. Most entertainers would tell you that walking the line between humor and malice is key, but to Shaco, such distinctions are a joke for which he himself is the final punchline.

The demon known as Shaco has stalked Runeterra for ages, spreading his twisted influence far and wide. There’s nothing Shaco loves more than to bring joy to those who need it most, often appearing to mortals who have experienced great loss or tragedy. Those coping with grief or misfortune may find themselves unexpectedly visited by a grinning jester, who assures that his only desire is to take away their pain with the power of laughter.

At first, Shaco’s antics are innocent enough. Some cheesy jokes to lighten the mood, some harmless pranks to lift the spirits of the downtrodden, all with an unyielding smile that one cannot help but start to imitate. Soon, those enthralled with Shaco’s antics are invited to play games with the jester to help distract from their worldly worries. Those who accept are whisked away to partake in a day of fun and merriment, playing all manner of pranks on friends, family, and even innocent bystanders.

When the games end, Shaco leaves his playmates cackling insanely in the aftermath, often surrounded by bodies and covered in blood. None laugh louder than Shaco, however, who delights in watching his playmates slowly regain their sanity and come to realize all the atrocities committed at his side. Some cry out in despair, while others break down laughing or crying harder than before. Some go mad, others are executed for their crimes, and some even opt to take their own lives. All outcomes are equally hilarious to Shaco, who soon sets out in pursuit of his next playmate.

Stories of the Mad Trickster exist all across Runeterra, often told as children’s tales to teach valuable lessons: don’t trust strangers, never give in to sadness or despair, and always be mindful to never take a joke too far. Few truly believe in Shaco’s existence, but those who fail to heed such warnings may find themselves to be his next playmate, as well as the butt of his joke…

So, this one was a bit shorter than normal, but I think it serves to get the point across. As the embodiment of delirium, I wanted to give Shaco a set-up sort of similar to Tahm Kench: he appears to offer help to those in need, only to end up ruining their lives in the long run. The difference, of course, is that Shaco lures people in to help them forget their troubles with fun and games, only to escalate to full-blown murder and mayhem.

In essence, Shaco drives others to delirium, making them believe the carnage is all just fun and games until his spell is broken and reality sets in. I’d like to think he particularly likes preying on the downtrodden because those who are suffering mental anguish already are easier for him to cast his spell on.

This is just my take on Shaco, though. Who can really say what Riot will do with him in the future? Who knows, his rework might end up even better than what I have here, but of course, anything is bound to be better than his current, non-existent lore.

#Runeterra Retcons #Shaco #League of Legends

[not-xpr-art]

Unprecedented ~

A bog of filth piled high with coins 

A clang of chains twists fear in your loins 

A fire burns high as all sit and stare 

A rust corroded man tries to tell you it's not there 

A ripple of water reflects something not real 

A dust covered track boasts of nothing left to kill 

A fan of feathers each as blind as the last 

A world so corrupted; a world dying fast.

(04/2021)

(digital painting of an apocalyptic/hell-scape version of our current world inspired by the seven deadly sins... as you can probably expect, there is a lottt of symbolism in this piece, which I’ll go more into below, along with some detail shots!)

This piece has kind of been a 6 month long labour of love, starting with a vague idea I had of a piece that is going to reflect the strange and scary times we’ve all lived in over the last year or so, and then slowly begun to take shape into a kinda apocalyptic/hell-scape piece based on the seven deadly sins representing our current world...

(also the poem above is something I wrote too, but couldn’t fit it anywhere in the actual piece itself)

The piece itself took roughly 60 hours of painting over almost an entire month. I originally planned for it to be a big mixed media piece, but instead decided I would try to keep it as purely a painting. Surrealist art was one of my biggest inspirations, purely because I thought the style would fit this piece the best. I also like how as a style it combines things that are familiar with things that are strange, which is exactly what I wanted for this piece!

The piece is split into 3 major sections, and 7 individual sections (to reflect the 7 deadly sins, which I’ve wanted to do my own version of for ages now). I had thought at first I would stick to creating demonic ‘characters’ for each sin, but then found this illustration on Wikipedia depicting the 7 sins as animals which I thought could both be an interesting challenge for me, and would visually be more interesting too! 

I also decided pretty early on that I didn’t want any humans actually in the piece, but rather the imprint of humans. Our actions, our feelings, what we leave behind, etc...

First is the section is dedicated to Greed, Gluttony and Lust, known as the ‘lustful appetite’ sins.

At the top is Greed, which is symbolised by a toad. I wanted this to be representative of capitalism, the toad looming over piles of gold, surrounded by a cardboard box (a not-so-subtle dig at people like Jeff Bezos lol), as it is surrounded by a bubbling dirty bog. The toad is ‘crying’ the same sludge, which I wanted to act as ‘crocodile tears’, showing their falsity. (I feel like it’s also important to note here that in my notes for this part I originally wrote ‘won’t someone think of the economy :(’ lol, which was something I heard a lot of in the news last year...).

Below that, and in direct correlation with Greed, is Gluttony. Gluttony is depicted as a pig, which is why I painted a pig skeleton. This is supposed to represent our overconsumption and over-production, and how that has impacted the planet. Plastic hidden in plain sight, increase of forest fires, etc, all under the ‘watchful’ gaze of mother nature (the trees were inspired by a post I saw about ‘Quaking Aspens’) I wanted the ‘overlord’ of this section to be dead to symbolise how humanity’s gluttony has lead to complete destruction, even in hell itself...

The final in this section is Lust, represented as a goat. This one is arguably a lot darker than the previous 2, and is reflecting the violence performed against women over the last year (Sarah Everand’s murder in the UK and the 6 Asian women shot in Atlanta, just to name a few, not to mention the various hate-crimes against trans women which have been helped with the rise of transphobic rhetoric). Lust is often depicted as someone attractive trying to lure you to sleeping with them. But I feel like that misinterprets what lust really is. Someone with lust is described as being a ‘slave to the devil’ (hence the chains in my art), and I wanted to showcase lust as a quest for power over someone else’s body, particularly women’s bodies. The eyes in the darkness are representing the fear that so many people feel about going out at night, and the goat being in the light also shows how danger can come at any time of day, in any place. The design of the goat was inspired by this medieval artwork of a seven eyed lamb. 

The central section is Irascibility, and includes the sin Wrath.

Wrath is represented by a Lion. I wanted this section to be dedicated to how racial injustice against black people has been truly highlighted in the last year, particularly in the case of George Floyd’s murder. Angry people are described to being slaves to themselves, a selfishness that is both reflected in wrath and in racism, and is why the lion has it’s paw rested on a ball and chain. I wanted the lion in this section to be a statue, both because of the Edward Colston (a slave owner who lived in Bristol) statue that was pulled down by protestors last year, and also how statues of lions are a significant symbol of Britishness in general (for example, Trafalgar square) and therefore in turn a symbol of the institutional racism that still permeates so much of the UK. This is also reflected in the rust covering the statue and the trees surrounding it, showing how old and well rooted racism is woven into the fabric of our world. The colours surrounding the trees, and the trees themselves, were based on these photographs of Sulphur lakes in Indonesia. 

The lightning is a suggestion of change in the air, and a reflection of the Black Lives Matter movement. Although this whole piece is of course a critical look at our current world, I also wanted to have an air of ‘it’s not too late’ to it. That we CAN make this world a better place to live if we’re willing to fight for it!

The final part is the 3 final sins grouped into the ‘corruption of the mind’ section.

The snake represents Envy, which is also a sin that is associated with vanity, which is what I decided to focus on for this. The snake is completely absorbed in it’s own reflection, very much like narcissus. My idea was the concept of the envy of things that aren’t real, much like how social media has created a world where we strive to be something that we are not, something that we will never be. So to us, the outsider, all we see is an abstract shape of a snake, something that’s intangible. Whereas the snake is so distracted by it that they can’t see the rest of the world. The reflection of the water was based on a photo I took of some reeds in water, which I also thought looked a bit like wires or computer circuit boards. 

Above the snake, and taking advantage of it’s distraction, is Pride. Pride is shown as a peacock, obnoxious in it’s wings covered in glowing eyes. Pride is described as something that ‘blinds’, hence why some of the feather-eyes are closed. The peacock is wrapped in a snare wire and is partially behind bars. This is to depict how pride causes people to play the victim, suggesting their intentions are pure, only to stab you in the back, so to speak... The ideas behind this one are more general and vague than the others, more of a commentary on humanities general hubris rather than any specific event. And perhaps speaking of how if we’re not careful, pride will sneak up on all of us, and will ultimately be our downfall.

The final section is above Pride and represents Sloth, depicted by a pile of snail shells. I had originally planned for this whole piece to be dedicated to the pandemic, but realised there were a lot of other issues I wanted to talk about aside from that. So Sloth is the dedicated ‘virus section’, representing how slow my country’s government (and many like it) were in bringing in precautions to stop the spread and save lives. Sloth is often described as a failure to love God, negligence at it’s very core. Both Pride and Sloth are partially covered in bars to critique our current justice system, which suffers from being overly prideful and negligent itself...  

This piece is in effect my way of trying to deal with a year that has really fucking sucked lol... It includes a lot of bitterness and anger, feelings I think many of my generation will relate to. 

But despite this, I don’t think it’s hopeless... I believe in humanity, in the goodness and beauty of it. Perhaps a naïve notion, but one I will cling on. For if we delve into despair, then it will truly be too late...

I hope people like this piece since it took a really long time and effort! 

Other inspirations for this piece:

various images & quotes about car crashes, various surrealist artists’ work, Evgeny Sedukhin’s symphony of the 6th blast furnace, paintings by David Mensing, this creepy lad and this lil snake lying in a chalice.

#artists on tumblr #apocalyptic painting #original art #seven deadly sins #hell #digital painting #painting #animal art #unprecedented #surrealist art #i know i usually put the descriptions and what not in a reblog #but i figured it made more sense to keep this all together since this piece is so tied to the symbolism lol #please give this some love it took over 60 hours to finish lol

[flame-shadow]

Thoughts on areas like the Soul Sanctum, Deepnest, or the Mantis's area?

(My brain doesn't wish to cooperate with the name)

you’re going to get all three because two of those areas are faves of mine and the last one has one of my fave boss fights :3c

[i don’t have the wiki pulled up or anything so obligatory disclaimer that i might misremember some things. also, im gonna throw all of this under the cut because this is going to be more of a stream of consciousness than an actually coherent thing]

SOUL SANCTUM

let’s just get this out of the way first - love love love love love the music holy shit. it’s not something i’d listen to when i want to chill out, but oooohhhhh those organs. and when the whispers are in there too?? and “Mage Under Glass” with the laughter??? yesss

Anyway. In general, I’m a sucker for unethical laboratories in stories and games. There’s so much potential for fucked up and creative ideas within canon and in the fan characters/interpretations (I’m looking at you, Fraught. i love you, you fucked up spider <3). 

How do you get soul? you harvest it. and you get on the king’s bad side in the process of course. and the watcher’s too, im sure. lurien’s like, ‘hey wtf those bugs are citizens under my watch. stop it’ and ‘well fuck you, im gonna point my telescope right into your office window, you soul bastard. i can read all the notes on your fucked up experiments now. whatcha gonna do now?’

How unethical were the experiments before the radiance’s insidious presence became a factor? Even if the Sanctum started as a safe place of learning, I think it wouldn’t have taken long for at least some of the bugs to start doing questionable things. Not everyone needs a moth to nudge them to cross the ethics line. But when the soul master changed course, set the scholars to study immortality, what did they focus on? improving the body so it won’t slow and cease its function as time passes? prolonging the stability of the mind so age doesn’t corrupt memories or cognition? focusing on a bug’s own soul to do something that way? any combination of this could fuck up the stability of the mind and/or body of the subjects. That’s where we get the mistakes/follies, right? too much soul for some that cause melting pretty quickly. for others that don’t have a negative reaction right away, maybe a dependency on soul is built up and must be maintained to stave off negative effects of withdrawal, then of course there’s a shortage. you can’t harvest bodies forever. maybe the souls of the infected bugs aren’t viable, maybe the infection taints them, spreads the infection to whatever bug absorbs it. there are options here.

There’s also the soul warriors. They have dream dialogue where they say something about not remembering how they have these moves or how to fight or something like that, right? so what if those bugs had souls of trained fighters like city sentries implanted in them? they suddenly have new instincts for situations that they themselves didn’t experience or train for. i kinda get neuromod vibes from this concept (from the game Prey). 

Also, the parallels between the soul master and the pale king are neat. they both have corpse pits. they both think they’re hot shit (and to be fair, they are both powerful even if they’re in different leagues). the radiance directly fucks with both of them. neither of them admit defeat in their final dream nail dialogue. (iirc, arty-cakes has made a similar observation about the parallels, but i noticed this long before they made their post. still, it’s a good observation)

uhhh okay i’ll stop there for the Sanctum

-

DEEPNEST

...skitter skitter skitter skitter...

i feel so sorry for anyone who has arachnophobia and couldn’t enjoy the game because of this area. that sucks. this is one of my fave areas specifically because of the skitters and clicks and snaps and wibbly music/sound effects that occasionally made my skin crawl. 

im a fan of spiders and centipedes, and deepnest delivered! 

i have a lot of headcanon stuff for deepnest society and beasts that has little to do with the game or established lore, so i’ll leave that for another time. But for more game-related stuff, let’s see...

i think nosks and corpse creepers and grub mimics, if not different life stages of the same species, are at least related. like how wild cats and cheetahs and panthers are related but not the same. nosks have the most developed shape shifting capabilities, and they have a sort of pocket dimension that they can fold their body into so they can fit into smaller disguises (how else do you explain how large the infected nosk actually is compared to the much smaller knight that it ran around as to lure the player in? magical dimension powers is what i’ve decided)

the weaver’s den showed much more development of architecture. more metal and arches and stuff. i can’t recall to what extent the basic shapes and materials reflect parts of hallownest, but i think that place was a more recent development compared to the rest of the Beasts’ infrastructure.

PK reeeaaallllyyyyy wanted to get a tram all the way across deepnest, didn’t he? we get one tram to the eastern edge which conveniently takes riders to the ancient basin below where most of hallownest’s citizens are. but then the failed tramway that heads for the distant village. could it have been one of the lesser conditions of herrah’s and pk’s agreement? but herrah would be asleep so she wouldn’t need the tram to visit the palace or have hornet visit her. but why else would a tram be intended to cross to there? idk that one doesn’t make much sense to me. maybe i’m forgetting a detail, but whatever.

deepnest is a horrible maze that i will continue to get lost in.

[bonus - okay i’ll share this:  one of the made-up swears i use for my beast character is “writhing mass” in reference to the skittering, scuttling pit of writhing things found as an area hazard in lieu of acid. like “bloody hell” or something haha. also it’s just fun to say.]

-

MANTIS VILLAGE

Alas, i don’t spend a whole lot of time in this area. I think the mantids are cool and honorable, and i apologize for my weaverlings attacking friendly mantids, but sometimes a little deepnest should be allowed to cause mayhem in the mantis village, okay?

mantis lords/sisters of battle are great boss fights. the choreography and smoothness and reflexes and aaaahhhh yeah

i seriously wonder what’s up with all the giant spikes though. like. not even deepnest has giga-spikes like that. ......actually. i wonder if those spikes are there in case the beasts overrun the village. they’d certainly be painful obstacles to beasts trying to climb out of the village and into the fungal wastes.

I think it would’ve been cool if there had been some bit of dialogue or a lore tablet that hinted at the mantis traitors. i know there’s the broken throne, but i didn’t notice that; it was pointed out to me after i’d already played once or twice through the game. don’t get me wrong- it’s a cool little thing to look back on and be like ‘i see what you did there’. environmental storytelling or whatever. but i’d like a little more anyway.

i wonder how the fungal folk feel about the mantids. i imagine they occupy their own sections of the fungal wastes and just mutually don’t bother each other. i wonder how diplomacy would work between a mantis of individual mind and a mushroom of shared consciousness? they make a nice contrast in a sharp and cutting/soft and bludgeoning way as well as a swift and silent/energetic and noisy way with how they attack and stuff.

okay that’s it. thanks for asking! if you read all of that, have a cookie

#alskdflasf maybe this is why i shouldn't make posts with takes #i just ramble instead of having cohesive ideas #still! this was fun to ramble about! #thanks for sending the ask! #rambling #flame answers #even though i feel like i asked a lot of my own questions too haha #alistairillustrates #the pale king #the radiance #soul sanctum #soul master

[duelistkingdom]

fall from grace (1)

Two households, both alike in dignity

An uneasy truce between Heaven and Hell was struck eons ago. Tensions still simmer underneath the surface between the two warring factions. Dartz has agreed to keep his angels in line and Pegasus has agreed to keep his demons in line. Their grudges run deep, a danger to those that they command.

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean

When Atem from one of the high houses of Hell is discovered dying in the streets of 1920s Paris by a mysteriously kind angel, tensions of this old war spark when she elects to save his life. The devastating fall out of one simple act of kindness is more than enough to shatter the truce. Soon, it maybe be impossible to avoid the resulting war for all species on Earth.

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend

-------

cw: mentions of blood, self harm (kind of? there’s no scarring involved, it’s more like Allowing Oneself To Starve To Death), suicide idealization (nothing worse than you’d read in canon ygo), some artistic license re: european history espeically re: the french, violence

you can read it on ao3 here!

if you enjoy my work, considering supporting me through ko-fi!

Atem should be dead. That much he knew. He should have been dead and buried thousands of years ago. Instead, here he stood anyway because the universe did not care about “should haves”. Mortals did not know how lucky they were that they did not know what lurked in the shadows of the world around them. The last vampire he talked with could not understand the concerns Atem had about feeding on the ignorant mortals. He would prefer to leave mortals to their own devices. Yet, Bakura had claimed part of the fun of being a vampire was that they could kill corrupt politicians with no fear of repercussions. While Atem could see his point, Atem still thought it was wrong to kill someone. It was still better than most other vampires, who considered the homeless and young children to be their prey. 

Atem stumbled over, his hand pressed against the wall in an attempt to hold himself up. Bakura was right - he was letting himself waste away to dust by refusing to feed. If he did not find a way to sustain himself soon, then he would surely die. That was when she came into the picture.

Her light filled the small alleyway and he felt the urge to shrink away from her. He could tell right away this was not a being he was supposed to interact with. It felt almost like when he attempted to enter a church or a mosque or a synagogue - like he was being pushed away. Atem groaned, sinking to the ground as he stared up into her face. He couldn’t describe what he was looking at. All he knew is that she was easily the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. 

“Are you okay?” she asked. “You seem like you need help.”

“I’m fine,” he said automatically, the desire to hide his weakness from someone obviously more powerful than him. Her celestial aura radiated. He noted that she wasn’t dressed in the contemporary fashion. There could be several reasons for this, except her clothing was easily decades out of date. He wanted to comment on this, but held back. Perhaps he wasn’t as in touch with the latest trends as he thought he was. “Go find someone else to bother.”

She raised a brow. “You don’t seem fine to me,” she said, twisting her skirts as she leaned down to be eye-level with him. He noted the fabric - silks. Perhaps it was an old hand-me-down from a sister, he reasoned, trying to argue against the very facts in front of him. Then again, most women in Paris seemed to prefer to keep up with the trends. Something was not right about her. “Please… Let me help.”

Her hand hesitated, hovering just slightly over his cheek. Oh, how he wished that she might. “Thank you for the offer, you’re very kind to do so,” he said, well aware there was nothing she could do to help. That’s not true, Bakura’s voice in his head reminded him. You could ask to drink from her. He brushed the thought aside. “However, I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do to help.”

Had she seen his teeth? Surely she must have seen the sharp points of his canines and incisors - so much sharper than any normal human’s teeth. Would she know? If she knew, surely she would not still be this close to him. She’d know the danger and let him die here. 

“There’s very few things I cannot do to help,” she said gently, her hand finally touching his cheek and he cried out in agony. He’d never felt pain like this before. He had no way to even describe it. The closest he could imagine would be like a fire surging through him, its source the point where her hand met his flesh. “Oh,” she said, pulling her hand away as he sank further down, attempting to move away from her touch. “You’re not… You’re… What are you?”

His eyes connected with her and he finally understood. She was divinity. The desire to escape from her and her holy touch ebbed in him, even as he slowly succumbed to inescapable thirst. “You’re an agent of God,” he said, sounding far more accusatory than he intended. “You’re here to finish me off.”

The sentence came out as a snarl and she recoiled away. In a weird way, he was grateful. “No, you misunderstand,” she said, sounding near desperate as her hands went up. “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that I couldn’t heal you that way. Please, let me help.”

“You can’t help me,” Atem stated plainly. “To help me would go against your mission of wiping out me and those like me. You and I both know that I’m an unholy being, a blight upon this Earth. Go on, then. I’m weak. Haven’t fed in almost a month. It’ll be easy.”

She pulled the wrap off her shoulders and Atem expected death. He was curious what it might feel like. Instead, she wrapped the cloth around her hand. What a strange action to take, he thought. Did she hope it would keep the blood off her saintly hands? “I… can’t condone the act of taking a human life,” she said, her face unreadable. “You were once human, were you not?”

“I… no,” he said. Of all the things to ask about. Surely she would know better than anyone else what turned a vampire. That some of them had never been human. “You know the families better than anyone.” His lips twisted up into a sneer, daring her to stain her hands with his blood. “Come on. Don’t you get your laurels if you kill a demon?”

This caused her to freeze. She stared at him, as if trying to make a choice. “I’m not going to kill you,” she said gently, the clothed hand touching at his cheek. Why did she not make the killing blow? He’d never heard of an angel torturing their enemy before. “You…need to feed, however.” She seemed conflicted. “It’s a strange crossroad you’ve placed me in. I would suggest that you drink from me, however I’m not sure it would help. I think the best thing for me to do would be to find someone who will allow you to drink from them.”

His eyes went wide before he scoffed. “Heaven’s not going to like that,” he said, unable to help the smirk forming on his face. This angel had his curiosity now. “Do you often help vampires drink the blood of helpless humans?”

“Do you want help or not?”

She was now glaring at him. Atem could comprehend an agent of divinity glaring at him. He let his lips twist up, revealing more of his sharp teeth. “I just feel that you might want to think twice about letting me live,” Atem said, almost daring her to kill him. He could be released from life and any expectations placed upon him. He could find out what happens upon death for creatures like him. He could hear Bakura in his head again, telling him what an idiot he was for idealizing the concept of death. “Aren’t you going to get in trouble for this?”

“What do the affairs of Heaven matter to a demon?” she replied, and her tone was outright dismissive. He examined her again, noting the full lips and freckles splayed across her dark skin - so dark, he thought she might blend into the night if it weren’t for the light she radiated. “Stay there. I’ll bring someone to you.”

Atem figured that it was a neat way of keeping her hands clean - to pretend to offer to help then leave him to die. He groaned as he leaned back, examining his hands. His age was beginning to show. The skin on his hands appeared to be flaking off and he sighed. Bakura always said that he was going to wither away and die if he kept putting off feeding the way he had. It was a slow death, but what did a creature like him truly deserve? He’d figured that the angel had disappeared and had no intention of showing back up.

He was wrong. The angel had returned with a brunette woman who couldn’t have been older than twenty-four. He could smell the woman’s scent - fully human. No trace of magic on her. The woman fit more to what he’d come to expect of a human at the turn of the millennium. 

“He’s dying,” the woman said, sounding concerned as she kneeled next to him. “You said I could help,” the woman said to the angel. “How can I help? I’m just an actress, not a doctor. You should take him to a hospital.”

“A hospital won’t help him,” the angel said, looking on edge. “I’m afraid I may have left out a key detail. Anzu, he’s a vampire. He’s dying from starvation.”

Anzu looked startled but she did not move away. So this was the angel’s plan: lure an unsuspecting girl in to be his dinner. Atem couldn’t help himself: he laughed. “I could’ve done that and better,” Atem remarked with a smirk, unable to help but wink at Anzu. “You would’ve liked how I would’ve flirted with you,” he said, the charm a natural part of the feeding process. “I’m not feeding on her.”

“And why not?” Anzu asked, looking genuinely mad. Atem was startled - he’d never seen a human actually look angry about a vampire refusing to feed on them. “If you’re dying of starvation, you’re in no position to turn down a meal! So how does this work? Do I just…let you bite my neck or...”

“I… I can drink from your wrist,” Atem said, too startled by Anzu’s willingness to turn her down. She responded by pulling up her sleeve ever so slightly to reveal her pale, thin wrist to him, and sticking it right in front of his mouth. Anzu gave him a look that said ‘well, go on then’ and he was in no position to argue. He was too weak to argue. He felt almost embarrassed to allow his fangs to puncture the young woman’s skin in front of an angel, but the return to strength felt amazing. He could feel the energy surging through him again, and it took everything in him to cease drinking from her, lest he drain her.

He pulled away from her wrist, noting the glazed-over look in Anzu’s oversized eyes. He decided it was a good look for her. Atem could now handle looking directly at the angel, and realized he had no name for her. The angel pressed her hand to Anzu’s cheek, and Atem watched the puncture marks he’d left on her heal before his eyes, leaving nothing but two sets of faint pink scars. The pink in Anzu’s cheeks returned and she blinked, looking startled. 

“That wasn’t so bad,” Anzu remarked, a grin on her face. “Hey, don’t starve yourself again, okay?” She fished around in her purse before handing him a card. “Find me next time you need to feed. I’ll let you drink from me again.”

“I’ll walk you home,” the angel said, taking Anzu’s hand in hers. “I’d be a very poor guardian angel if I let you get hurt.”

Atem couldn’t help himself: he winked at the angel. After all, that was clearly a joke for his benefit. Guardian angels weren’t real. And if they were, they certainly weren’t going to lead a mortal into being bitten by a vampire. She ignored him, however. He could actually stand up now. “Hey, wait,” he called after them. “I never got your name.”

The angel froze up. For a minute, Atem thought she might tell him her name. Instead she continued forward as if she didn’t hear him. He flipped over the card Anzu had handed him and was surprised to note that it had a telephone number on it and her full name. Anzu Mazaki, actress. If he wanted to, he could look into local plays that she might have done. He stuck the card in his pocket, deciding that he should go drop in on his dear cousins. If he trusted anyone to have answers about what just happened, it was them.

 It had been stupid of her to save a vampire. Keket was very aware of the potential consequences of her actions the minute she elected to save his life. A vampire that should have been dead was now alive and prowling for fresh new blood because she chose to save him. Not only that, she handed up the girl on a silver platter to the starving vampire, despite knowing the risks of a feeding vampire. Keket warded Anzu’s door, fulfilling an already-broken promise to protect her. She failed to mention that she’d known that the starving vampire could have easily killed her. Keket reasoned with herself that he was able to stop himself when feeding. This was a small comfort.

Vampires, as far as Keket was aware, were dangerous. It was why she wasn’t surprised to find Jonouchi standing on the doorsteps of the apartment building that Anzu lived in. He had the same easygoing grin as always. “Boss saw you saving a vampire,” Jonouchi said, looking almost apologetic about having to deliver the news. “He’s pissed.”

“Does he have anything better to do than spy on us?” Keket responded. It was a stupid question. Of course their boss would keep tabs on his two best soldiers. Her wings ruffled in agitation underneath the layers of clothing. “He was starving, and I helped him feed. No one died.”

“Someone could have died,” Jonouchi said as he pointed up to the building that Anzu was in. “She could have died. And what if she was important in the grand scheme of things?” He sighed, running a hand through his hair and shaking his head. “Ket, you can’t just keep doing things like this. You said it yourself: the vampire was starving. You should’ve left him to die.”

“I know,” Keket replied, the agitation growing. Of course she knew that it had been a mistake to willingly take a mortal to a vampire. She was very aware of the fact that she’d betrayed their mission. “I just… I couldn’t let this vampire die. It didn’t seem right.”

“You can’t tame a vampire.” Jonouchi sounded almost incredulous, and Keket glared at him. Of course that hadn’t been what she was thinking. Even she didn’t know what she’d been thinking when she’d held her hand out to that demon. “Look, that’s what people are going to think. Why did you save him?”

“I don’t know,” Keket admitted as her wings expanded out from behind her. She turned towards Jonouchi, glaring at him. There was little left to say. “Look, just tell the boss that I won’t do it again, okay?”

“Keket…”

Jonouchi certainly had more to say, but Keket was done. She launched herself upwards to the sky. Flight had always been the best way to clear her mind. Seeing the Earth below her felt familiar. While the appearance changed, it changed so slowly that sometimes it felt like this was how it always had been. It was impossible to imagine the Earth looking any other way.

And yet she remembered when the entire mass of land was congealed as one, before it broke up into what it was now. She remembered when the land was roamed by giants. It was enough to put into perspective a single mistake. She’d saved one of Hell’s creatures. She’d gone against every single doctrine in doing so. Keket reasoned with herself again: his existence was a mere speck compared to the endless time that stretched out in front of her. Even if he managed another thousand years, it was nothing compared to the billions she’d seen.

Getting worked up over this was nothing. This was a single moment in billions of lifetimes. If she was lucky, she’d never even cross paths with this vampire again. Still, she couldn’t help but fixate on the fact that he’d refused to drink despite his obvious thirst. If Anzu hadn’t insisted… Would he have allowed himself to starve to death? It went against everything she’d been told about vampires.

He was different, and she was obsessed with that. The memory of his fangs came into sharp view. He told her outright that he’d never been human. Then why had he acted so human? He acted as if there had been something inside him to save. She pushed the thought away. If she began to think that maybe everything she knew was wrong, then she’d spiral too much. It was dangerous to question what she knew.

She’d always been told that faith meant never questioning what she’d been told by those closer to the highest power in Heaven. When she drew her sword, it was because it was willed to be. Keket had gone along with what was willed to be for so long that she’d never stopped to think about what she was doing. Destruction at the end of a blade because the divine powers that be said it must be so. If she questioned it now, then she had to question everything that was spread out in front of her. It broke her heart too much to even think of another possibility.

 Kazuko needed help and she needed help fast. The wound she had would take her life if she didn’t act quickly. If there was one thing she was grateful for, it was that witch’s shops weren’t all that hard to find if one knew where to look. And Kazuko knew exactly where to look. The sigils in the door frame made it clear what she would find here. She’d shoved the door open, her hand still firm over her stomach and forcing herself to stay upright. 

“If you think this looks bad,” she said through gritted teeth to the stunned shopkeeper, “you should see the other guy.”

“Holy shit,” the dark-haired man breathed, turning his back and grabbing a handful of bottles off the shelf before heading behind a curtain. Kazuko examined the shop, noting the choice of green shelves and strange plants hanging from the ceiling. It wasn’t a bad place to die. She assumed that he’d left her to die, anyway. Instead, he exited out of the backroom with another man who was much shorter than him. “And she just came into the shop like that!”

The hair on the man that accompanied the dark haired man was impossible to believe. Blond bangs with wild dark red hair that had light ends, best described as being in the shape of a star. How long did it take him to do that hair? “Hey,” he said and his voice was so soft. Or maybe that was simply the blood loss that made his voice seem far away. “Hey, don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.”

She hissed as he moved her hand away from her wound, his brow furrowing. The next thing she knew, she was collapsing into his arms. “Sorry,” she said, surprised at how far away her own voice sounded. “I think I’m dead.”

The world went black around her.

#oc x canon fanfic #atem x oc fanfic #atem x oc fanfiction #atem x oc #pharaoh atem x oc #myfanfic #oc: great royal wife keket #oc: kazuko kubota #fic: fall from grace #it's HEEEEERE

[joeys-piano]

Accidentally Tripped -- Here are my WIPs

Tagged by @vogueriddle -- thank you so much for tagging me and I think you’ll be delightfully amused with whatever I’ve responded with when I wrote this in the middle of the night. I decided to do a lot more and instead of just writing down the name of a WIP I have on queue, I gave an abridged thought process of what it is, too.

Rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardles of how non-descritive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it. Tag as many people as you have WIPs.

1, Title -- Is That a Wand in Your Mouth, or Are You Pissed to See Me? (Trapped in a vending machine and struggling to break loose, Theo sends a patronus to Draco and requests for back-up in taking this down. Because the vending machine is refusing to give him his hard-earned candy, his chocolate bar is caught in the coils and because this is a magical vending machine, he can’t summon it out. So he’s just sitting there, arm jammed and lost in the guts of this nefarious machine, subsisting off of walnuts he rattled from the lower rows and through the Augamenti’s he’s been pointing towards his mouth. Nearly two hours later, Draco finally receives the message. He walks into the Auror office and finds a silvery, wispy rooster with the most passive-aggressive Theo-voice he has ever heard.)

2, The AU where Tom and Harry are babysitting little Teddy over a weekend, and Nagini (being a motherly serpent) decides to teach him the art of survival by chasing him around the house

3, a Master of Death AU where Harry’s existence is forever changed when he comes back to life in the Forbidden Forest. Because Death has shared with him some of Its powers, and it’s hard to get close to people or be as close to them as you once were when you could see the hour of their death and how much longer they have left to live.

4, Epilogue What Epilogue AU -- the last Muggle Studies assignment of the term for the soon-graduating Eighth Years: “If the world were to end tomorrow, who would you spend today with?” While the essay is meant to be reflective and sort of an assignment towards closure given the Wizarding War in the previous year, it’s reopening some tender wounds that haven’t healed yet for many students.

5, Ancient Wizarding Bonding Magic AU where Harry’s trying to get tailored robes for a wedding he’s attending and may’ve accidentally evoked an ancient bonding ritual while getting his measurements at the Knights of Walpurgis, Tailoring.

6, a six part project following the lives of Tom and Harry through Hogwarts and their early adult careers; where Harry’s fascinated with the other’s eyes because of the wilderness he finds inside them whenever Tom’s parselmouth instincts start to bubble the surface. So essentially, it’s kind of like Magical Inheretence in a way because during his fifth or sixth year (I don’t remember what I outlined) Tom unlocked the rest of his inheritance and so he’s able to tap into his full magical potential and whatnot. But the caveat is that it aggravates his inner-serpent instincts and he’s having to learn how to control them again and try to live a mostly normal life. (I love magical inheritance kind of stories and I’ve been sitting on this for months)

7, Title -- The Way The Smoke Leaves Your Eyes (Post Second Wizarding War, Auror Potter is sent out on rotation to spend 6 months in Azakaban as a guard at the prison. Coincidentially, Healer Malfoy is also sent on a 6 month rotation to Azakaban as part of assistant staff and for -- well, healing. A lot can happen in 6 months. You can tell I haven’t thought this out. I was thinking of something akin to that Naruto Shippuden movie Blood Prison because that is the best movie out of the franchise.)

8, Title -- Neither of Us are Lying (But One of Us is Innocent) [1950s, Cold War era kind of project where Tom is an examiner for the Office of Wand Permits, where his job is give foreign and passing wizards to the British wizading community a spell-casting test and determine if they pass and can obtain a legal permit to practice magic in Britain. And you think he’s doing his job well. No siree. This is a corrupt man and there are no controls over the wand-permit system so who says he can’t purposely pass wixen who really shoouldn’t be in Britain and who says he’s not assisting Grindelwald’s supporters into the British wizarding community so that there can be a coup and an uprising to crush the puny community?

And this thought was born because I figured he would work in the Ministry of Magic after he graduated and would take an unassuming role that actually has a lot of power surrounding it and he gets to puppeteer things behind the scenes because bruh, that’s a great idea. Anyway -- the Department of Magical Law Enforcement catches wind that there’s possibly a mole! In the Ministry! So if you’re going to flush out a rat, you go to do so...mysteriously….cue Unspeakble Potter posing under an alias and having Tom being his examiner, and have two rats to their role try to lure the other into a trap.)

This is totally inspired by a James Corden skit he did with Eddie Redmayne, and it’s so genius that I wanted to write a fic based on that concept. And make it Noir.

#tagged #tag game

[somebigface]

Dang haven’t checked this Tumblr for a while and I missed a lot lol. Glad I found this again. I have a question for Big Face, I noticed that it was said that Gabriel Lure was possessed by a evil entity called Lebone. Who or what is he? Adding onto that how do Spirits work in this universe? Is it like a Spirit vs Demon thing or are their stuff in between like Poltergeists?

"Where in Oddworld do i even begin...? I suppose I should start from the beginning. Lebone is the son of two of Oddworld's important gods:

Mother Odd: who created the entire Oddworld, including its people, the plants, and animals…

and Afareet: who is in charge of the dead, and acts as judge for the spirits when they pass. He will also act as punisher for Demi-gods or spirits that act too far out of line.

In comparison: Lebone is weaker than his parents. Only classifying as a demi-god in power. The three oracles and the shrykull classify as demi-gods due to them being mortals that gained slight divinity. Their powers still dwarf in comparison to Mother Odd and Afareet. Lebone was a born demi-god.

Mother Odd and Afareet take their duties seriously and love each other very much. they help each other with their roles. Lebone tried to undo their work. Their own son, is the reason why my people are enslaved to this day. Because he grew too greedy. Too hungry for bad quarma. So he rose the mudokon moon into the sky to seed favoritism directed at the mudokons from Mother Odd, when there was none. Mother Odd loves all her children equally. She just had a fondness for mudokons, but it didn’t mean she loved the other creatures any less.

There was a balance of good quarma and bad. Bad quarma coming from Afareet, the good from Mother odd. The Oddworld became imbalanced by this greedy Shadow Lord. I wouldn’t call Lebone a demon as much as he is a fallen child of Odd. A Fallen angel so to speak. He will no longer be a threat to Oddworld as long as Afareet keeps him locked away within our hell.

Why he sought out Gabriel Lure, Abe’s father by birth specifically…? We don’t know. That is something Gabriel himself will have to open up to us about, and I don’t think he is comfortable with doing so at this time. While completely free of the Dark Spirit’s hold, there’s so much he’s still not telling us right now. He will open up to us in his own time. at least I hope he will.

How spirits work…it depends on the spirit itself. Some act like a source that would allow for a Demi-god’s rebirth…like Lebone’s fragment before it was purged of any corruption. Some Spirits do have a presence on Oddworld and will even assist mudokons when they are called upon! In a way they CAN do poltergeist like activity such as trigger mechanisms in machines set in place to quash them. The influence they have on oddworld depends on how powerful the spirit is.

We shamans can communicate with spirits and demi-gods…but even I cannot interact with Mother Odd or Afareet directly. As they are gods. Not spirits or demi. You would need the help of a seer, be granted an audience by the gods, or… or you’d have to convince the three oracles to get you an audience by speaking to them directly. I can initiate communions with these gods, but I cannot interact with them personally. I’d be acting as a gateway for a student to communicate with the spirit. If that makes any sense to you grey faces. I am not a seer. I am a shaman. I speak more directly to spirits and demi-gods. I am a vessel for the Shrykull as well.

Lebone was considered the greatest threat to Oddworld. Hopefully we can focus on repairing the damage now.”

((Mun here! I have some lore posts and stuff that talk in depth about the concept of Lebone, Mother Odd, and the finally named Afareet over on @spoocyshrub! Lebone's information is here and information about Mother Odd and Afareet is here! If you have more questions you can still ask away! Big Face knows much about Lebone and i don’t mind answering these questions. especially for those who might be out of the loop and all!

Glad you found my Tumblr again Anon! I'm sorry you missed out on so much hehe! if you got anymore questions to prod my way. you can send them here to have Big Face or The Three Oracles answer them in character. You can also go send some asks into my box on spoocyshrub for general questions or oddworld head canons too! you can also send Gabriel some questions over there too! just keep in mind some subjects are a little touchy for the guy right now!))

#Ask Big Face #Anonymous #Long Post