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develation · 11 months

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Eldritch/Cosmic Horror AU: Ink Inkwell

"The most merciful thing in the world, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far." - H.P. Lovecraft

Inkwell, originally Ink, was taken from his modern home by an eldritch beast known as ABERRATION, who turned the shy skeleton into a creature of rot and decay so he could have the strength to save its lost twin, ARCHANGEL. Although its intentions were of goodwill, the following downward spiral shows how much a simple dose of the wrong type of power can ruin a person.

"The Fragments of Reality" is a story of redemption first and foremost, the overall theme is one of atonement and finding oneself beneath a dark smog of gruesome actions.

(Outline is 98% complete, fic continuation soon)

Eldritch Creatures

ABERRATION: Eldritch "Nightmare"

ARCHANGEL: Eldritch "Dream" (deceased)

THE NEON GOD: World parasite

TAZOULOTH: Watcher

CAINSUBYTHAL: Soul Hound

THE KING IN YELLOW: Bearer of madness and damnation, the possessor of the eight eldritch terrors

ALDARNOTH: Tunneler between worlds

TYTO: The night

YOG ELARBASTOTH: Bearer of death and finality

YOG RYNORATH: Bearer of primordial existence and apparition

CARNHOLT: Alchemist

DAGON: Lark of decay and rot

CARCOSA: Harbinger of fatality

(Place your bets on who cursed Inkwell)

Inkwell

"I know always that I am an outsider; a stranger in this century and amount those who are still men." - H.P. Lovecraft

Inkwell himself goes through multiple character evolutions throughout his story. The references shown here are at the peak of his arc, showcasing his uncontrollable rot, creature companions, and the full effects of the curse.

Though being a multiverse hopper, he becomes unable to use all he's seen as warning for others, and instead a telling of the future. When common inhabitants approach him, all Inkwell can see is the dead and rotting face of what awaits the unfortunate soul.

There is no light at the end of his mission, no joy at the obtainment of ABERRATION's goal, only the nothingness of the infinite dark, and the creatures that lie beyond and between.

"I spent too long hearkening to the whispers that brushed against my skull, carving their call of purpose and fulfillment. Becking with black tendrils and seafoam eyes. I heed the call like some desperate dog with its leash loose and its tail broken.

Even now I still chase those whispers and phantoms, as useless as it may be. I have chased for so long that I have become one of them, a ghost, a creature of foreign realm, a bad omen to not be spoken of.

Do not be the dog Cross, do not chase the murmurs against your skull, do not heed to the blackened tendrils and ceaseless eye. Turn around. Before death and decay follow your every step." - Inkwell

(Ask and fanart are welcome)

(Inspired by SCP and H.P. Lovecraft)

(In collab with @sunlit-witch 's 50/50 au (Equiverse). Huge thanks to them, @phinix53 , and @pastelaspirations for letting me brainstorm and hash out ideas.)

#writing #character ref sheet #character ref #inkwell #ink sans #eldritch horror au #undertale au #utmv

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quitealotofsodapop · 8 months

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I know nothing much of Erleng Shen and his Plum Hill Boys, but I am picturing the most Himbo Fraternity Guys out there - chest bumps and all XD

[But for whatever reason, he isn't saying anything about it's apparent connection to The Cosmic Egg/Harbringer of Chaos to anyone...]

Is it a case of him not being a 100% sure if the connection is there or if it's a coincidence (both of the parents ARE celestial monkeys, who is to say a child of them wouldn't make something on that scale, after all) or a case of 'energy cannot be destroyed, so it moved somewhere else', but he sees it as 'the soul of the harbinger skipped to a new reincarnation'?

Oh yeah the Seven Sages of Plum Hill present themselves as a virtuous order of immortal soldiers, but at the end of the day they're a bunch a fratboy demi-gods chest bumping and calling eachother "Bro".

They're basically this image (the dog is Xiaotian Quan):

My au/theory is that the Plum Hill Sages are all fellow demigods/half-celestials who felt abandoned by the Celestial Realm and thus came together to do good in the world.

They're not all meat-headed however. They're just very good at hiding their wounds. Especially how they were most likely framed for The Burning of FFM.

They see Wukong as an "honorary bro" and like to have him up in Erlang's pad (described as separated from the Jade Palace by a large distance) for sparring and boozing.

They'd follow their Eldest Brother anywhere.

Even against the Emperor himself if they have to.

As for Erlang's knowledge of the Cosmic Egg/Harbringer being MK... it's a bit complicated. The connection is slim at best in his mind. Reincarnation is a possibility, especially since he knows how strong Mystic Monkeys can be, and Erlang first theorizes that Shadowpeach just had bad timing being around the Harbringer's soul.

Erlang doesn't want to destroy the Harbringer. As you said; "energy cannot be destroyed, only moved". So maybe keeping the energy safe with the two of the strongest people he knows might be a good option.

Also might come in handy later.

#lmk erlang #lmk plum hill sages #the monkey king and the infant #the monkey king and the infant au #lmk shadowpeach au #lmk au #erlang shen #sun wukong #the seven sages of plum hill #journey to the west #lego monkie kid #lmk character ideas #lmk backstory hcs #lmk character hcs

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deconstructthesoup · 3 months

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Fantasy High Adventure Time AU: Gods

Yeah, yeah, I'm coming back to this. I should probably start linking everything, but, uh, well... here.

Arthur Aguefort: The man radiates Magic Man energy, I dunno what to tell ya. He's not as sadistic as Magic Man is in canon at first, but he's still an agent of chaos who does what he wants without a lot of regard for others. Ayda is still his daughter, the result of a very brief and spicy affair with the Fire Queen, and he's not strictly a Martian---rather, a human from days past who made it to Mars and achieved immortality. Arthur eventually had to flee to Earth after causing a gigantic ruckus on Mars, and he still feels a lot of guilt from his past mistakes... but it'll take time for him to actually do something about it.

Tectonya Karkovnia: The ruler of Mars and a technical goddess, Tectonya initially welcomed Arthur Aguefort onto Mars, and the two became fast friends. However, once he started delving deeper into his magic-induced madness and fully lost it after a desperate attempt to harness incredible magic to reverse the effects of the Mushroom war, she fully cut ties with him. Now, she's ruling alone, and while she's worshiped heavily on Earth, Tectonya's really just an incredibly overworked person trying to run an entire planet. She may have almost all of the knowledge in the galaxy, but it's still a struggle.

Kalina: Known as the Cosmic Cat, Kalina frequently appears in people's dreams, and her presence is a clear sign that the dream will eventually come true. She's a lot craftier and classier than the Cosmic Owl, though when she speaks in dreams, she's still very blunt about what they mean ("meow, you're a sociopath," "ya blew it, kid," ect). Kalina's essentially your cool aunt who's probably into some shady shit, and she takes her job seriously... for the most part.

Cassandra: She has the mantle of the Wishmaster and is largely regarded as one of the chillest cosmic entities in the multiverse. They're best friends with Kalina and eventually Kristen---kicked off by the first time the Questing Trio came to the Time Room and the discovery that Kristen could use Wish Magic---and has almost a million niche hobbies to fill their admittedly vast spare time. One of those hobbies happens to be writing, and she's made a... sorta incognito world. It manifests as Aelwyn's genderbent fanfiction. Not the most original thing, but they're proud of it.

Gorthalax: Surprisingly, the almighty ruler of the Nightosphere, blessed with the power to devour souls, is a pretty chill and easygoing dude. Over the centuries, he's made several efforts to try and reconnect with Fig---who, for the most part, isn't really having it---and his attempts at reaching her through Adaine has led him to develop a friendship with Penny, who's somehow made friends with every single dark cosmic entity in existence. When Gorthalax isn't managing the Nightosphere, he's either participating in crazy underground fighting matches or rocking it out with Death, and that's pretty much how he likes it. Fig doesn't admit that she thinks that's cool.

Talura: She exists in a null void outside of everything, embodying all that is chaos and discord. But despite the fact that summoning her is a one-way ticket to an apocalypse, there is a consciousness in there, and underneath the frightening exterior and uncontrollable powers is someone who is just plain tired with her role. She wants people to understand that chaos shouldn't mean ruin and destruction, but after one too many times attempting to use her godlike abilities for good and failing, she's resigned herself to being the harbinger of desolation and All That Is Evil. Talura never asked to have the power to cast people to oblivion, yet that was the hand that she was given... and as long as she stays in her void, nothing will come of it. Unless someone's stupid enough to summon her.

The Nightmare King: Purely because they give off identical vibes and look almost exactly alike, I separated the Nightmare King off from Cassandra and made them the Lich. Really, nothing else to add---they're just the Lich with a different name.

Okay, one thing to add---when they're eventually defeated by Guardian Blood and turned into a baby, Kristen names them Lil' Cass (in honor of Cassandra, who at the time was briefly dead) and the Questing Trio gives them to the Thistlesprings to raise. So, yeah, Gorgug has a little sibling who used to be a being of pure evil.

#fantasy high #dimension 20 #fantasy high adventure time au #arthur aguefort #tectonya karkovnya #kalina #cassandra fantasy high #gorthalax the insatiable #talura #the nightmare king

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transingthoseformers · 1 year

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I am vividly reminded that as of the current timeline, around nearly years have passed since the unicron arc up until let's say the start of the Tarn and Fallen fiasko. This got much longer than expected, and i admit this isn't new information but a collection of previously established information organized into a timeline because uwu time periods. I will heavily rely on @ivycorp 's contributions, as I'm gonna be real they're the reason the TFP au exists, are very great at writing, and pretty much the coowner of this au.

(Technically, I wasn't going to include this, but Hazard arrived very shortly after the cosmic rust plague episode and a little bit after when Megatron woke up. This is because they are a fucking bloodhound when it comes to plagues and chemical weaponry.)

Orion was on the Nemesis in the Orion arc for, let's say three at minimum five maximum? months. [Remembering our forgotten games happens at some point in here, happens at some point around here, and I'm betting this becomes a whole hidden thing for a lot of the Orion arc— this will have consequences] About halfway through this the Elite triad arrives and there's a whole emotional thing once Optimus regains his memories and comes back.

Their little extra spicy dance lasted a While before Soundwave's revenge began, before that the Decepticons got more attached to earth culture, I would also say that lasted around six months enough for the 'cons to get used to Megatron's flustered and horny antics. So that places us at around eleven months max?

At the beginning of Optimus's emotional renaissance and increasingly awkward battles is when Dreadwing arrives and almost immediately fucks off into the woods. Soundwave bridges Arachnid into the Atlantic ocean to rust at the bottom of the sea, she survives on the Harbinger for a while, finds the Insecticons as she has a bridge key, and fucks off into the middle of Australia to set up the hive (which becomes very energon lucrative) Wheeljack arrived with Dreadwing, and stays around a little longer with Boyfriend Bulkhead than canon.

More towards the mid mark, Shockwave is revealed to be very alive and comes down on Earth. He drags a half baked Predaking with him, to nobody's knowledge just yet. [About when Colleagues with very enjoyable benefits is set] Juncee begins here with Sweet and Tenative Hope and it's so goddamn sweet. Pharma (and very quickly Tarn and the DJD) around the mid mark finds his way onto Earth on an escape pod actually. [This is when Rival Exes who at least pretend not to have feelings with each other happens uwu] He's very stern on Not leaving the base, and eventually everyone picks up the vibe that he's got unpleasant history with Tarn. Nobody questions this just yet, and we focus more on the Breakout, Megop, and continuing Ratchma antics. [Permanent honeymoon is placed in this section] This is around when the vehicon couple who had ran during season one and lived on the downed Eros get caught and offlined.

Closer to the end of the spicy battlefield dance arc, Everyone's starting to get very tired of the exponentially increasing Battlefield Megop. This is actually the first time the humans witness Megatron with a visor and when ge finally gets to pin Optimus— and then proceeds to get struck by lightning. They do not see Megs with a visor again for quite a while, because he's a stubborn asshole and forgets them more often then not. [And they were exes at war (oh my god they were exes at war!) Is placed here]. Exactly pretty much immediately after that are the events of [Megatron & his servo], which begins the glorious Soundwave's revenge arc!

[This is when I mention that Following the pull that bound us together (I will not let go) by far spans the most time, starting somewhat before Orion first heard of Megatronus alllllllll the way until the night after the fateful comm call that lead to the Soundwave's revenge arc lol]

The whole Tarn fanfiction ordeal likely started around when the guy first arrived and decided to turn in fics instead of reports. The domino effect of Soundwave and Starscream saying nothing of this for a while, KO and Breakdown learning through a loopy seeker and sharing unofficial information on the GC, Tarn turning in more fics, and eventually Star being allowed onto the GC and he comes bestowing an absolute archive of Megatarnma fics— of which Fowler immediately sees and that's hilarious. Quickly at the start of Soundwave's revenge arc, Megatron (who is distinctly not in the GC) has so many backlogged reports to do under Soundwave's supervision and this is when he learns of the fanfiction. Tarn, who is also not in the GC, spends quite a while longer completely ignorant of anyone knowing of his secret fantasy love triangle. [Detailed in the events of Tarn's imaginary love life - and the repercussions of his self-insert fanfiction] Let's be real this is another reason nobody on the Nemesis likes Tarn.

The Soundwave's revenge arc lasted a good four weeks. The Soundwave's revenge arc (calling it this is more if a misnomer by the end, as the revenge part fades quite a lot once they learn how much of a disaster Megatrons's internals are) is around when Miko started making a game of Houdiniing her way onto the Nemesis, naturally. Megatron is pretty much confined to the medbay for a nice while. At thr beginning of this Soundwave decides it's time to involve Swindle into this, and he arrives pretty soon as his one man ship The Hustle which is specifically customized his small stature and being fast arrives. [Quickly after this arrival I'm betting the events of Of holograms, galas, and unexpected guests happen] [This is also around when the powerpoint in Life on the Nemesis for the majority of its crew is shown, with the one vehicon that gets mentioned likely having been assigned to Hazard duty (mind the pun) in the mid to end spicy battlefield dance arc] Also among events is Dreadwing's rather gory death via the DJD, with bits of him being left across multiple countries.

At the three week mark Megatron gets his quarters back, and this only lasts three days. Then which Starscream half blows herself up live on stream thanks to Megatron's little problem distracting her. Megatron's newly returned private Quarters privileges get revoked, again. Rather quickly after this, Optimus's surprise visit happens. The toys get burned (by Primus not the toys!), the absolutely dope and iconic 2 v 1 fight occurs, annnd that ends in the charred remains of Orion and 'Tronus's collection are left on the battlefield. [As the events of When your nemesis is no longer coming to fight you in the field]

[ Megatron as a patient, or how Soundwave tries to not go insane with his leader’s unfortunate addiction to a certain Prime spans all the way from the start of Soundwave's revenge to the tail end of it]

But, eventually the autobots do learn, giving us another stretch of time as Silverlight's existence prompts a very important treaty and negotiations and "how much do you want me involved with childcare" conversations that need to happen. I'm gonna say this lasts a good three four months? Putting us at 18 to 19 months, around a year and three quarters. During quite an amount of this there's the whole extra protective Megatron stuff and the medics' antics to get checkups on both of them (... and hell, once they do that it's Optimus's turn) Tarn's starting to get super agitated and asks a lot of questions that nobody gives him a straight answer for, the rest of the DJD can kind of sense this and it blows up in everyone's face soon.

At some point, Megatron regains his quarters, and no more incidents seem to have occured or he was just quiet enough about it these times.

This is actually likely when the Grabbening occured, and honestly this is something I've been really itching to talk about more because it's a whole situation. I can see this being an ambush (that on the Decepticons' part is on accident, they did nOT know that there would be autobots out here) with Jazz and Elita, also naturally including Arcee and Bumblebee. It's the first time anyone besides Optimus has seen Megatron, and there's a serious initial fear of "oh FUCK, Megatron is not only here but we don't have Megatron aaaaand the kids and Fowler came with us frag frag frag—", at least until they notice how he isn't on his game. Like, time to start cracking half serious terrorcon and zombie jokes time. Hazard is also here, a rare sight on the battlefield, and absolutely terrorizes the hell out of the humans. The autobots immediately call for a groundbridge,, Soundwave tracks Megatron who's most definitely not supposed to be out of the medbay who the fuck let him outside for a flight, and sends out a bridge as well (don't worry this one isn't very close to the autobots' bridge, no shadowzone adventures for today). Everyone hears thunder, and as is Cybertronian policy to immediately GTFO and there's convenient bridges right there (Megatron, who's already certainly feeling like a terrorcon, actuallyis avoiding being struck by lightning! What an occurrence!). The catch being at least a few Decepticons having bluescreen moments and grabbing all four humans and booking it back to the Nemesis. Because naturally Knockout, Starscream, and Soundwave own the functioning processor components right now. There's a whole discussion about this the moment they get back, with so much arguing in Neocybex that the humans at this point have only vaguely learned some of. The humans are only on the ship for a good twelve hours because certainly the autobots are afraid as hell. Miko isn't because Miko is bold as hell, and at this point has somewhat desensitized Soundwave to her presence. Hazard drags Fowler to their lab with the intent to run experiments onto him and the kids are just kinda vaguely near the commanders. More terrorcon Megatron jokes ensue, because all he wants to do right now is make the most of his re reinstated quarters privileges. Fowler discovers the lost vehicon, (who i now dub Sidewinder because ykw ykw we've mentioned this guy enough that he deserves a two part name) which is a whole thing because he's gotten attached to them. Soundwave, who upon learning that Hazard has gotten the vehicons' favorite human and those guys are making a convincing case. Soundwave comes to the rescue for Fowler and Sidewinder, most certainly scruffs Hazard because of the rules violations he sees immediately upon entering the lab. The other vehicons actually nab both Sidewinder and Fowler, and it's a whole thing about rushing the mech to quarantine and frantically thanking both Soundwave and Fowler for rescuing him. Eventually, the autobots find their way onto the Nemesis and boy do the humans have a story to tell. This would also explain why in the sparkling fic Soundwave would've been pretty concerned about Megatron getting off the ship (btw he bribed Breakdown with string lights, the really good multicolored ones, and by pleading him to let him fly. Megan had no intention to give him the lights but Soundwave much exactly went in and got them for Breaky)

The surprise child is revealed after some missed appointments (likely merely a week). Around this point the neutral hired theraputic medic Rung arrives in the Chance, and upon the first visit he's pretty surprised at the emotional support sparkling. Also around this point, Tarn's presence is being slowly less and less tolerated on the Nemesis but let's be real that's also because of his one sided and slightly scary rivalry with the beep beep jeep, and the knowledge that he's most definitely still writing Megatarnma fics. At some point in what I'm now dubbing the beginning of the Oh Shit A Child arc, Swindle cut a deal with the Autobots with trading earth based luxury goods for Cybertronian luxury goods he has obtained. Surprisingly this does actually go fairly well for both parties, and neither betrays the other.

I'm betting the autobots didn't learn about the sparkling for hear this yet for another threeish months because wow they didn't want to deal with the awkwardness of telling them. I haven't quite decided how, exactly, but dear Primus it is juicy. At some point, Megatron is allowed back on the bridge and is a little less obsessively territorial with his sparkling. Which leads to so many cute interactions where he's holding Silverlight and mecha try to hide their gawking at a respectable distance. So 13-14 months? Tarn, at this point, is just... not allowed on the Nemesis. He's too dangerous and unpredictable to be around something so vulnerable and way important to their leader who already has notorious murderous leanings. Swindle is pretty relieved at this because i mean he definitely doesn't like being grabbed, and Knockout is glad because it means he doesn't have to treat another one of Tarn's stab wounds from said picking up.

Inevitably, Tarn learns of Silverlight and is very not happy that it threatens his fantasy. The Fallen sees this and thinks "okay finally we can get all of this moving a little faster" ... this may also be because I'm thinking thoughts about how Tarn's Voice has an impact on the Fallen even through the dimensional barrier. Sure, not Nearly as strong as it would be on a complete mortal, but it's somewhat an influence. He may be manipulating Tarn much easier than he did in canon with Steeljaw, but he cannot deny that this Tarn has more power than previously thought. The demigod is not used to being dare I say scared after millennia of being trapped. This is when Tarn's darkness in this au starts to really become apparent.

In this short time period in the first month or so after his discovery, Tarn's scorn is limited to quite a few savior fics fics involving Optimus and the sparkling. But eventually there is a public outburst where he sees Pharma for the first time in ages, and Pharma outright states that nobody loves Tarn, especially not Megatron nor himself, and that he honestly couldn't see why anyone could love Tarn. Which, might've been a shitty thing to say but this is when the events of Delphi get revealed so. Aaaand this is when Tarn, before openly threatens Megatron, Optimus, Pharma, Ratchet, and the sparkling (because let's be real Tarn has really and truly snapped at this point, and is willing to do just about anything to get what he wants.)

This will not end well for him.

So... that totals up (using the maximum ranges of the numbers i stated up above, naturally this will not be exact, and since this au is absolutely open to you guys' input as well, I'm fully willing to hear any of y'all's thoughts on the timeline and what you think should be changed to make more sense) bringing us to roughly a little over a year and a half 😁

Originally I was going to include all the way until the end of the Tarn and fallen fiasko, but it got so damn long i didn't have the energy to elaborate on that. But, for context, there's that, there's the events between it and the war over party, what happens beyond that and before the insecticons come up (which i imagine smack dab in the middle of that time period is the discovery about the true nature of the additive), the insecticon stuff, a lil gap between that, a relatively short ordeal with MECH and after that... afterward is pretty much the happy ending

#yes i busted out a calculator for this #long post #really long post #like partway through i wondered if i should put it on ao3 long post #tfp au #timelines #maccadam #au #not tagging every character #oc talk #mannnnn there's so much beautiful things planned #this au is the best #ivy you have encouraged such a clusterfuck with all the emotions and insanity and long posts #I'm still shellshocked that I've inspired actual real fics like. actual fics on ao3.#that there's a chance this au might very well outlive me and become a whole 🎶thing🎶#and exactly none of this is set in stone! it's flexible and fluid and ever growing

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raan-miir-tah · 3 years

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HOLY SHIT GUESS WHO JUST PIECED TOGETHER HER IDEA FOR A NEW FIC. ME ITS ME

Working title rn is “a Sign of the Times”, a Techno centric modern AU where he is the harbinger of the apocalypse. It follows both his petty conflicts and grand, cosmic conflicts as he grapples with not wanting to end the world. Tons of SBI family dynamic, Rivals duo, whatever the fuck his and Skeppy’s duo name is I forgot-

#kyne shouts #I saw a painting from 1400’s and felt like I got smacked in the face with a frying pan #AND ITS TWINS DUO CENTRIC BABY LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOO #the ending tho? no clue. might save the world might end it #a sign of the times

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queenofbaws · 4 years

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Day 28: Parade

Fandom: Until Dawn Characters: Sam Giddings, Ashley Brown, Chris Hartley, Josh Washington, mentions of the rest of the gang Rating: T (Language) Words: 2,416 Author’s note: This is admittedly a stretch on the concept of a ‘parade,’ but...hey, any excuse for another dive into Fuck No: The Movie, because IMAGINE MY SHOCK AND DELIGHT that other people seemed to enjoy this horrible au I’ve had fermenting in my head like some sort of disgusting moonshine. Hehehe ;P ---

It was Emily who reached out first because…well, because of course it was Emily who reached out first. She didn’t tell any of them she was going to do it, didn’t even mention that she’d given it any further thought after that first angry text, she simply took it upon herself to knock over the first domino. Would she have done it if she’d known it would start a month-long bout of bad moods and all the old aches and pains? That remained to be seen.

The lot of them understood that in the end, whether or not she’d meant to start everything up again, it didn’t matter. So little of what they did ever fucking mattered, because the past had already happened, that very same past that was beyond their control, and even if Emily hadn’t sent that angry email to their shared publicist, they suspected something else would’ve thrown them all together again. That great cosmic butterfly just kept flapping its wings.

And those gusts sent them tumbling back into the nightmare of Blackwood Pines one after another after another.

***

“I’m going to fucking scream,” her text read, four phones lighting up with the notification before showing the harbinger of true terror, of real dread: a little grey speech bubble with ‘…’ slowly ticking away.

“You okay, Em?” Matt.

“Uh oh.” Mike.

“What’s wrong?” Sam responded, already suspecting she knew.

But it was only Jessica who sent what they were all really thinking. “What did you do?!”

The text that followed was nearly as long as the novel that had started the whole situation, Emily’s usually flawless communication breaking down into misspellings near the halfway mark, devolving further and further until the very last line, wherein she gave up on words entirely and mashed a series of emojis never before combined by man.

She was mad—fuming, really—but the story was easy enough to follow. After watching the interview, she’d pulled the strings she had at her disposal, made some calls, found some people, places, things. She’d always been good at that sort of thing when push came to shove, Emily Davis, and time had only seemed to sharpen that ability. It was through that little search that she managed to turn up the name and contact info attached to their publicist, their legal team, and then oh.

Oh.

Had the emails started.

“I was perfectly civil,” her text read, answering a question none of them had asked, “And the fucking GALL of this ASSHOLE was UNBELIEVABLE!!!”

She left out most of what was said in their conversation, hand-waving away things that the rest of them knew better than to bring up, until finally sending the pièce de résistance: a screenshot of the very end of their correspondence. A little something sung to the tune of…

Emily Davis: I think I know what I’m talking about here considering I’m, you know, also a survivor of the incident.

And then the publicist’s response—a scanned page from the front matter of The Mouth in the Frost.

Publicist: Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

If she responded to that (and not a one of them doubted she did), she didn’t include that information. What she did do was give that first domino a shove, dropping three phone numbers into the group text. The exchanges were unfamiliar, but no one had to ask to know what they were looking at.

“I’m not fucking talking to them,” Emily continued, “But hey, if you guys want to, well then who am I to stop you?”

And to be fair, they all knew it was a bad idea.

But that butterfly just kept flapping its wings.

***

Emily going first wasn’t a surprise. Matt going second was.

“First number is Chris,” his text began, surprising everyone who saw it pop up onto their screens. “Second is definitely Josh. Third’s probably Ashley. They didn’t answer.”

And yeah, okay, that much made sense at least—time changed a great many things, but Ash had always been the sort to avoid confrontation however she could.

“It was hard to tell at first because they both did that thing they do, but I’m almost positive #1 is Chris and #2 is Josh.” No one needed to ask what he meant by ‘that thing they do.’ It was easy enough to imagine the onslaught of maddeningly flippant jokes that would’ve been sent his way…easier still when he sent a screenshot of his own.

It was a group text, the contact line at the top reading ‘3 People.’

“Hey guys,” Matt had sent.

“New phone, who dis?” read two identical responses from two very different phone numbers.

As though no time had passed at all, as though they were sitting in the great room and complaining about the heat not running, everyone who read that exchange shuddered with an involuntary wave of nostalgia. If they tried hard enough, they could picture Chris and Josh looking up from their phones at the same time, grinning, jabbing finger-guns in each other’s direction, guffawing over the jinx.

It wasn’t half as funny as it might’ve been back then.

Like Emily, Matt didn’t send all of his conversation, but he kept in a few key pieces.

“We know it’s you guys, okay?”

“Ooh ominous,” from phone #2.

“Shit, I love this crap. How about this…the crow flies at midnight,” from phone #1.

“Look. Chris. Josh. I know you guys think this is funny, but it’s not. It’s super not.”

“I have never. Once. IN MY LIFE. Even MET anyone named Josh. You are absolutely barking up the wrong tree, bud.” Phone #2 seemed happy enough to get the last laugh—there wasn’t a single reply to Matt’s messages after that.

“I tried,” Matt said to the rest of them, his resignation somehow impossibly audible in those few letters. “I’m too tired to deal with this crap again guys. I think I’m out.”

And that was that.

For a time.

***

It was almost as if the five of them had developed a sort of sixth sense for one another—like they could sense some disturbance whenever one of the others was preparing to reach out to them, like the air filled with the ozone that came before a storm. They would find themselves bracing wherever they were—work, home, out with friends, on a date, buying groceries—not even fully realizing they’d been grimacing until someone else pointed it out.

And then, like magic, a text would come in and everything would make sense.

The next member of their sacrificial procession, it seemed, was Jess.

Her message was only half a surprise, really. “I reached out to Ashley,” she typed, “And I got her to answer.”

No one was particularly shocked at that. The cops and the rangers had never believed them, had repeated time and time again that there must’ve been a gas leak in the lodge, that there was a faulty pipe leading to the fireplace that had been slowly but surely poisoning them all night, filling their lungs with carbon monoxide and their heads with visions a little different than sugarplums, but they’d all heard (and believed) each other’s stories often enough to know that for whatever reason, Ash had very nearly died that night trying to help Jess.

Now, the ‘Jess’ in question hadn’t actually been her, of course—the ‘Jess’ in question had actually been, well…Hannah—but that was incidental. The fact of the matter was they all knew Ashley had cared enough to try, so it only made sense that Jess would zero in on that, try to get her foot in the door that way.

“Oh yeah?” Sam replied, finding herself cringing as she typed it out, knowing without really knowing that this would just be another toppled domino in the pattern, another example of how far all of them—not just Josh and Chris and Ash, but all of them—had fallen. “How’d that go?”

“What’d she say??” Emily asked.

Pins and needles as they waited for her response. Unlike with Emily, there was no blinking ‘…’ to whet their anticipation, only stone-dead nothing as they waited and waited…and waited for Jess to reply. When she did, the anticlimax was somehow worse than sitting through the video of the interview had been.

“I said it was a dick move for the guys to act like that to Matt. She sort of just brushed it off, so I said they were ALL being dicks, acting like this and not talking to us before anything.”

When it became apparent she wasn’t going to type more than that, a response from Mike popped up. “…and???”

Jess must’ve been doing something, because it took another few minutes for her to answer. “And she just said ‘Sticks and stones,’ and that was it.”

“You didn’t say anything back?!” Emily’s message came in so quickly, it was like she’d read Jess’s mind instead of her message.

“Why would I? Fuck that.”

No one else made any attempt to call or text them. It was obvious there was no point. They were going to keep being evasive, churlish, snickering little gremlins, so why bother? Their procession of check-ins and messages came to an abrupt, screeching halt. That should’ve been the end of it. It probably would’ve been for the best if it had ended there.

The butterfly, of course, had a differing opinion.

***

“Cushy digs. Glad they’re living it up.”

“You’re not going to punch anyone, are you?” She stared out the window of the car, listening to the click and zip of Mike removing his seatbelt. “Really gonna need you to promise me you’re not going to punch anyone.”

He opened the driver’s side door before pausing to glance her way. “I’m not a teenager anymore, y’know. I’m an adult. A professional adult. I don’t just go around punching people all willy-nilly.”

She tightened the corners of her mouth into something that didn’t feel much like a smile at all. “I don’t hear you making me any promises.”

Scoffing, he stepped out of the car. “I’m a man of my word, Sam. Which means I don’t make promises I’m not totally ready to keep.”

It was as good as they were going to do, she knew, so she got out of the passenger’s side and shut the door behind her. “Fair enough.”

Emily might’ve had her secret collection of strings to be pulled, but so did Sam. Why no one had thought to reach out to the Washingtons, she couldn’t quite say—maybe they had, maybe each of them had quietly tried to ask Bob and Melinda where they could find the others, maybe they had just kept their mouths sealed up nice and tight. It stood to reason, didn’t it? But she had an ace up her sleeve that none of the rest of them did. Namely, of the entire group, she was the one closest to the Washington family. She was the one who could leverage her relationship with the twins the most successfully against them.

And she hadn’t wanted to do that; it just wasn’t her style. Sam wasn’t the sort to use social bonds as bartering tokens, she liked to think herself above exploiting other people’s weaknesses and soft spots, but…but, but, but.

But this movie was a bad idea. The book had been a bad idea, the game had been a bad idea, and with each and every day that passed, she felt the familiar old chasm of dread in her gut opening wider and wider until it became—this was where she always had to laugh—a mouth coated in frost.

The more press the story got, the more people dug their teeth into it (and she had to stop thinking of it in terms of eating, devouring, biting, or else she’d lose her mind), the closer Blackwood crept to them. It had been nearly imperceptible for so long, hardly more than a speck of dust on the rearview mirror of her mind, but now it was getting bigger and bigger still, as though she’d putt her car in reverse and put the pedal to the floor.

People would start asking questions. Well, people would start asking questions if they hadn’t already. Someone, some ambitious young podcast host, maybe, someone not all too different from how Josh had been at that age, would put two and two together. There they were, three survivors of the Blackwood incident, thick as thieves, creating horrific stories of murders and maimings and downright massacres. It only made sense to ask the question: Does this have anything to do with what happened up on Mount Washington? Is this really a made-up ghost story? Did this actually come from some dark corner of your brains, or are you trying to tell us something?

And once people started asking those questions, well. It was only a matter of time before they branched out, wasn’t it? It was only a matter of time until they started looking for the rest of them.

So yeah, the Washingtons had told her where to go. And as luck would have it, Mike lived close enough that he was willing to make an afternoon of it, too. Sam hadn’t said as much out loud, wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to voice it in a way that wouldn’t come across as uncomfortable, but she was glad he had. In a way, it was like getting the old dream team back together—the two of them had seen some things, after all. They’d walked through the same fire, literally as well as figuratively. If they’d been able to face down not one, not two, but three of those things there at the end and come out (relatively) unscathed, then what where three socially incompetent dorks, right?

Right?

She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear as they neared the door, pulling in a long, steadying breath as she did so. “No punching,” Sam said again, pressing the doorbell before bracing herself, trying to listen for footsteps nearing the other side of the door.

“No promises,” Mike repeated, steeling his shoulders, still managing to cut a hell of an imposing figure when he wanted to. “But I’ll see what I can do.”

#until dawn #queenie writes challenge stuff #queenie writes supermassive #fuck no: the movie #i feel like you can tell the precise moment the fatigue kicked in and my brain stopped working but #here we are friends - almost at the end of the month long challenge #and the symptoms syndrome is catching up to me lol

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boyancient · 4 years

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i did a bit of a run down of my main cycles verse while plotting with someone today, and i figured i should probably post it here too (after some editing) just to make it easier to plot w ppl...... anywaY here’s my main verse summary:

it's post-s1 finale and heavily canon divergent. instead of being scattered in the 60s, five and the rest of his siblings arrive back home at 13 or so years of age, and they're all in their child bodies. they try to avert the apocalypse by bonding with vanya / helping her control her powers etc etc. they connect better as a family, work through issues, get in fights and make up, all that jazz. years later in 2019 the apocalypse happens anyway, and they have to jump back again. and that's how the cycles begin.

there are in total 56 cycles before the apocalypse is averted for good. a lot happens in those cycles. each one takes from 10 to 20 years to either fail or succeed. five is 500+ years old by the end of it, and the only one left from the original s1 timeline. he is not having a good time, suffice to say.

vanya causes the apocalypse for the first, seven cycles i'd say?? that can be changed through plotting ofc but by the eighth cycle, vanya is not the bomb anymore.

the universe, or the timestream, or the powers-that-be, whatever you wanna call the entities that decide what happens to people and the universe at large, turn to their second best option: the doomsday cult. the conductor and his orchestra create an apocalypse piece that they've been working on for decades upon decades, except in this cycle, and for eight cycles more, they actually succeed in creating and performing this end of the world piece.

however, just because the cult is now the universe's default harbinger of doom doesn't mean vanya is not an option any longer. if the cult is killed off too soon, if they fail too early, the time stream will turn back to vanya again, events lining up just so, and she goes off again. that, or the time stream will find a new bomb to set off the apocalypse.

they manage to stop the cult by the 16th cycle, but they took too long, and the time stream had already built up yet another trigger for doomsday: a nuclear apocalypse.

and on and on the cycles go: the hargreeves arrive at a certain point in time before the apocalypse, one less hargreeves every few cycles. they grieve their dead and their dead-once-again, they reckon with their losses, and start over.

by the 32nd cycle, five is alone again for the first time since he reunited with his family in s1. he plays the game of cosmic whack-a-mole for 24 more cycles, plugging holes and blocking paths that lead to the apocalypse mostly on his own. by the 50th cycle, he has to 1) make sure vanya is stable and in control of her powers, 2) take down the doomsday cult, 3) steal reginald's modified nuclear weapons and neutralize them before they got in the wrong hands, 4) kill all the denizens of hotel oblivion before they broke out and 5) steer the meteorite off course before it crashed to earth and killed everyone, all before april first 2019. it's a lot. he doesn't do it all on his own ofc but for the most part he's the only one with the full picture in mind while planning their next move etc etc.

i know this isn't everyone's cup of tea, so if anyone would prefer plotting in a more canon compliant verse, or any of my other AU verses, we can talk about it. i'm sure we can come up with all sorts of plots either way.

#yes i sent this whole ass shit to someone via dms #look. i cannot change. this. by the time i realized how long it got it was too late. anyway they're fine.#i did more embarrassing things before in search of plots i'll live w this just fine #anyway #hc.#does this count as hc or #worldbuilding.#i don't have a world building tag tbh may not rly add more to it than this but w/e it's here just in case #//RELEASES THIS INTO THE WORLD AND LEAVES IN A HURRY #there's a lot to explore in this verse and i've been fleshing it out since i made my first blog back in march 2019 #so im pleased w it

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armsdealing · 4 years

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* the gods, for reference.

janus, cosmic god of knowledge, wisdom, time, gates, wealth, fire, energy, travel, libraries, artists, and historians, keeper of the infinite library of babel. original god of his own religion, zhaogdism.

marena, cosmic law of death, queen of the netherworld. original goddess of the fictional aequist pantheon.

thor, god of thunder, lightning, storms, strength, protection, hallowing and fertility. norse pantheon.

fenrir, god of destruction, last resorts, wolves, hope, and harbinger of ragnarok. notes: as per my interpretation as well, he’s the wolf who swallows both the sun and the moon. norse pantheon.

dionysus, god of the vine, grape-harvest, wine-making, wine, fertility, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, theatre. greek pantheon.

hephaestus. god of fire, metalworking, stone masonry, forges, the art of sculpture, technology and blacksmiths. notes: yes this is an au for charles, What About It. greek pantheon

joaquin. guardian god of the netherworld, companion of death, reaper of souls. original god of the fictional aequist pantheon.

#long post #just so ur all Aware #of what's happenin here #* nulliverse.#misc.#and if you wanna plot with any of these just lmk

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plutoandpolaris · 5 years

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Fantasy AU- The God Files: Proelia

I've decided to make a little mini series based on the Pantheon of the Fantasy AU world and where they came from, because this world is much older than the AU itself and I'd like to share it all with you guys.

First up is Proelia: Anti's darling mother, the Goddess of War, and a walking Pantene commercial.

In the Beginning the world was sparse, populated with Vitae’s precious creations, the humans, and whatever livestock they needed to survive.

Death existed already, old age and accidents were common culprits, but Rancor felt that the cycle was taking its course far too slowly.

Vitae had many creatures to populate her realm, but Rancor’s was sparse. As a god of death, he could not give life as Vitae had, only take it.

And so he used his rage and impatience, and gave it form as a daughter, Proelia, first born of Death. She would be a harbinger of destruction, a cold cruel hand to drag Viate’s precious creations into the darkness of his realm.

But she needed a counterpart. Even in Rancor’s quest for power, he knew that all things needed balance. He needed a moderator, someone to lead and care for the souls that Proelia tore from their earthly shells.

And so Lugenta was born, Goddess of Rebirth and Grief, Queen of the Underworld.

Proelia was very effective at her chosen task, even too much so. Her first big accomplishment was a daunting one, introduce hatred into human history.

Taking the form of the beautiful daughter of a poor nomad, she latched herself onto the king of the largest city at the time, Consus. She used her charm and manipulative words to claw her way into the king’s head, convincing him that his family was conspiring against him.

In his fearful paranoia he killed them, slaughtering his wife and children. When his subjects found out they stormed the castle, killing him in revenge. Not every citizen agreed with this however, and suddenly the large capitol descended into anarchy ruled by paranoia.

“What if you're just like him?! What if you kill my family too?! I'll have to kill you first!”

Humanity no longer trusted each other. Proelia took it a step further, placing the fear of the unknown into their malleable minds. If you don't understand it, you can't trust it. It must be evil, you have to kill it.

The shattered remains of Consus turned on the neighboring cities, attacking them in proxy battles that eventually turned into the first war.

Before this point Proelia didn't have much of an identity. She was but a daughter of Rancor, an extension of his anger and lust for power. But with this action she gained a title all her own.

She was no longer Proelia, daughter of death.

She was Proelia, Goddess of War.

The disease portion of her title wouldn't come until later.

Proelia had become bored with the humans and their petty scrabbles. There's only so many ways to kill someone with a bow, sword, knife or axe, and she’d seen them all. No, Proelia wanted to hurt them deeper, more completely. She wanted to dismantle them from the inside out, take the well oiled machine that Vitae had designed and destroy it.

And so she molded the first disease, using the powers of destruction Rancor had gifted her as a base. She infected the livestock first, although it took a few decades before the strain began to spread to the humans.

Once it did, however, it was devastating. It could wipe out cities in weeks, creating a wave of death and horror that halved the human population in two years.

And finally, Vitae began to take notice.

She had watched her people begin to descend into darkness, but as was her way, she refused to interfere. Now, however, with her precious creations on the verge of extinction, she took action.

Much as Rancor had done to create Proelia, Vitae crafted a child of her own, made to be the complete and total antithesis of everything Proelia stood for.

Suddenly, Proelia’s deadly sickness had a cure, in the form of Sana, child of Vitae, God of Medicine.

At first the humans refused to accept Sana’s gift. Proelia’s lies had settled deep into the human population, and they met Sana’s gift with distrust and violence. Sana had yet to develop a very imposing physical form. They were a newborn deity, appearing as but a mortal, begging the people to accept their gift or die from Proelia’s poisons.

But they wouldn't listen.

All except for one family, fearing the illness. They had watched other cities fall to the plague and were willing to try anything, even a remedy gifted to them by a stranger. That night Proelia descended on the city, infecting each house as she passed, but Sana’s medicine kept the family safe. When they awoke, they were the only survivors.

Sana revealed themselves as a God, teaching the family how to make the medicine themselves, commanding them to spread the knowledge. The father of the house, a man named Beuin, became the first medic, and with his family's help he built Sana’s first temple in the center of town.

Sana’s influence spread, their teachings saving millions of lives and their message of goodwill eating away at Proelia’s stranglehold little by little.

This did not go over well with Rancor. Proelia began to grew weaker every passing day as humanity wrestled themselves out of her control, and Rancor began to see his well crafted plan falling apart. Sana needed to be dealt with, and soon.

Rancor commanded Proelia to meet Sana in battle and destroy their physical form, giving Proelia time to reinstate her power over the mortals.

And so they met on the battlefield, the site of the first war, a barren field stained with centuries old blood and cursed so heavily that nothing had grown there since. (Not that any farmer would dare try).

Proelia expected this to be easy. Sana was a devout pacifist, there was no way they could hold up against a hardened harbinger of war. However, no matter how fervently Proelia hacked and slashed, Sana wouldn't die. They refused to fight back, taking blow after blow, but every wound closed up as fast as it had been inflicted.

“As long as the people have hope, I cannot be destroyed.”

Sana had given the mortals a weapon more powerful than anything Proelia could ever wield, and with it Sana’s physical form could not be destroyed.

In a last ditch effort to smother Sana’s influence, Proelia had them captured and hidden away in a circle of the underworld so deep that even the oldest and most cruel of souls could not reach it.

Proelia hopes that the darkness would eat away at Sana’s spirit until they were nothing but an empty husk, and that the mortals would bend and break without their guiding hand. While it did dampen the effect of Sana’s influence, Vitae’s creatures were hardy, and would not be broken so easily. Even still Proelia fights to keep them under her influence as Sana continues to lend the mortals her power, even so far below the earth.

But they grow weaker as the centuries weigh on.

One day, Sana’s light will wink out once and for all, and Proelia will take back what’s been hers all along.

It's only a matter of time.

[Taglist]

@egopocalypse @epicfangirl01 @kitnkas @mijako98 @anothermarkiplierfan @iris-the-asparagus @bunchofdoodlesinspace @awkward-bullshit @amockingbirdslament @the-cosmic-creations @wingsofthefierydragonheart @eightales7

(Please let me know if you'd like to be added or taken off)

#antisepticeye #jacksepticeye au #septcegos #fantasy #pluto's fantasy au #pluto's writings

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fudgecake-charlie · 6 months

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i saw this post by cemeterythings ( as well as the famous angel interview comic) and i thought it would be fun to try and execute

#hermitcraft AU #skyduo #grian #not tagging pearl sorry!#cosmic harbingers AU #art out the oven #getting the images was fun despite the art block #i planned to have this be a longer comic with way more eldritch effects but. i'm good #[scheduled]

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landlordrecords · 5 years

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Best of 2018

I fully intended to carry on doing monthly charts this year, but each month it went way too late & I just gave up in the end. Couldn’t not do an end of year one though. Bad year here in real life (again), for various reasons. I kept listening to stuff, but perhaps not with my usual enthusiasm for several months in the middle. Still some great stuff, as ever, of course, & I think this is a pretty hot list, the usual mixture of serious contenders & goofy bits n bats. I’ve included reissues if they’re comps or issued with extras.

1) Let’s Eat Grandma - Hot Pink (Transgressive) - extremely moreish single, produced by SOPHIE.

2) Let’s Eat Grandma - It’s Not Just Me (Transgressive) – another SOPHIE-touched piece, this one more 80s-tastic.

3) v/a - Strictly Rhythm Underground 90-97 TCD (E Archive) – was always a bit wavery over Strictly, with tastefulness on one side & cheese on the other, but Bill Brewster dug out a peerless selection here, barely any fat at all.

4) Soft Cell – Keychains & Snowstorms 9CD Boxset (Mercury) – too many versions of the same tracks, but practically everything is here, including illuminating obscurities. What a group!

5) Ceramic Hobs – Black Pool Legacy DLP (Harbinger Sound) – wonderful to see this happen, & so well done – track selection, mastering, sleeve art & liner notes all excellent.

6) Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids – An Angel Fell CD (Strut) – lovely straight-up cosmic jazz album. I’ve not really been following all the new jazz stuff, but this did seem to epitomise it.

7) R Kelly – I Admit It (YouTube) – obviously a deeply reprehensible human being, but his music still (sporadically) transfixes me. A 19 minute trap beat, autotuned (which I usually hate), with the musical equivalent of OJ Simpson’s (If) I Did It dumped on top. Gobsmacking audacity, but a fascinating piece of self-denial.

8) Flying Lotus feat Busdriver – Ain’t No Coming Back (from Brainfeeder X comp) – Brainfeeder skates between bland & astonishing. Here, rapper Busdriver acts as jazz narrator.

9) Espen Lauritzen – Cid B (Fiedeltwo, from Appendix Double Mixpack EP) – bludgeoning acid techno, from a great compilation. Just discovered it’s originally from 2014, but…whatever.

10) DJ Taye – Roxxanneee (from Teklife VIP 2019 bundle) – late entry: footwork-style Police rework.

11) BCUC – Emakhosini CD (Buda Musique) – great (& mildly bonkers) long-form South African tuneage.

12) v/a - For Discos Only TCD (Craft) – had to pull out of doing a piece on this, but it’s great anyway…prime long disco mixes from Fantasy & Vanguard. Hands-down classics from the Blackbyrds and Sylvester; production jobs from Roy Thode, Shep Pettibone, Bobby Orlando, Patrick Adams and Patrick Cowley; and endless Mecca, Casino, Loft, Paradise Garage, Warehouse and Music Box tunes.

13) Hilary Woods – Colt CD (Sacred Bones) – I can be a little suspicious of overly adult work, but this one made me ashamed in the presence of its dignity & maturity. A real grower, well worthy of investigation, & virtually out of nowhere.

14) El Chombo feat Cutty Ranks – Dame Tu Cosita (Ultra) – not the first tune to worm its way into my head care of those daft dance challenge videos, but one can hardly argue with a rerub of an obscure reggaeton tune, featuring Cutty Ranks.

15) SOPHIE – Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides album (Transgressive) – pop’s cutting edge?!

16) v/a – The Man From Mo’Wax (Mo’Wax) – funny and not entirely wrong slating for this/Lavelle in the Wire, but there’s a whole stack of great tunes here, & some of the ones I rolled my eyes at at the time sound pretty smart now.

17) Let’s Eat Grandma - Falling Into Me (Transgressive) – not got quite the edge of the SOPHIE ones, but still very high quality pop. I’ve selected tracks rather than just the album, as I think the quality doesn’t hold up over the whole thing; the good ones are really good though.

18) Chrissy – Resilience bundle (Chiwax) – Chrissy Murderbot goes pretty faithfully old skool rave.

19) Akito – Gone Again album (Tight Knit) – the offbeat grime stuff seems to have dropped out of fashion, but I still like it. Impressively high quality collection of it here.

20) Will Saul - Inside Out (Aus Music) – don’t listen to enough mixes these days, but this one covered all bases early in the year.

A special mention for the Mansur Brown album. I’ll admit that I snorted with derision at the promo sheet stuff about Jimi Hendrix-meets-trap, but…it wasn’t far from the truth. Intriguing stuff…

And a new feature, which I should have been doing for years now…

Promo trends…

Still a lot of alt pop coming through, mostly pretty bland. Seems to be angling mostly towards dream pop and synthpop now.

So much ambient music (coming from all angles), that it’s getting ridiculous. Post-classical as well. I was initially pleased to see the revival, but, honestly, do something else now…

Breaks revival now looking like a ‘thing’ (I suppose I would know if I was in any clubs these days)…with the ex-dubsteppers clearly now having rinsed out…

Techno, of all kinds. I get sent so much of this it’s staggering, but I’m not complaining, as it’s often very good.

Plenty of deep house around as well, although not as impressively weird as some of the stuff from recent years.

Much of the guitar stuff I get sent is risible, but there’s obviously a cartload of that as well, as ever. I can discern a reasonable amount of post-metal stuff now as well, and I don’t get sent much metal. That stuff is…OK.

Witch house slight return?

#blackpool

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warcrafttimemd · 6 years

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Thoughts On The Criticism of AU!Draenei Direction

As the fallout from the revelations of the Mag’har Allied Race scenario continues to spread through the fanbase, I’ve seen plenty of good reasons why the decision to turn the AU!Draenor Draenei evil was a terrible one: it’s illogical, it invalidates the entirety of the Warlords of Draenor storyline, it’s a weak-ass excuse to set the Mag’har against a threat they need help with that they couldn’t get from the AU!Draenei that also completely ignores all the other nonsense going on like the crazy plants in Gorgrond, it’s the latest in the increasingly shameful exhibit of how Blizzard doesn’t know how to write female characters, it’s a pathetically lazy attempt to peddle the ‘both sides are evil’ narrative even though the AU@Draenei are not and have never actually been part of the Alliance, it’s just bad fucking writing, etc. It is an awful decision for all those reasons listed.

I have seen one that doesn’t work, though, and it’s been written a number of different ways:

“Draenei don’t/can’t work as oppressors because they’ve always been oppressed.”

“Draenei are victim-coded, so making them evil is wrong.”

“I can’t/don’t feel sorry for the Mag’har because they treated the Draenei so horribly in the past.”

It all basically boils down to this: Draenei, as villains, are impossible. Frankly, I don’t buy it.

“Draenei don’t/can’t work as oppressors because they’ve always been oppressed.”

Being oppressed or conquered in the past, whether as an individual or a group, doesn’t prevent an individual or a group from being oppressors or conquerors in the future. There’s no Ron Swanson-style card they get to hold up that says “I can do what I want.” What it does mean is that, having been treated in this awful way, they should know better than to turn around and do it to someone else. Unfortunately, you can look at the entire history of Azeroth to see how that lesson’s taken hold in others - or hasn’t, in most cases.

To the more severe version of the idea, that Draenei can’t be oppressors - that they are physically and morally incapable of the act on an objective scale, no matter the actual results of their actions - because of how they’ve been treated in the past, I also say bollocks. The ability to dominate and conquer is directly related to the power wielded by a person/faction; when we left AU!Draenor at the end of Warlords, the AU!Draenei were still on the back-foot (back-hoof?), but when we come back to AU!Draenor, even though we don’t have exact specifics yet, we can infer that they’ve grown in size and strength enough not just to challenge the Mag’har, but to become the dominant species/faction on the planet.

Whatever power of the Mag’har/Iron Horde wielded in the past, it’s now passed to the AU!Draenei. They have the power, and they’re happily using it to convert, enslave, and wipe out the Mag’har. When a faction starts outnumbering and enslaving other races, they don’t get to hold onto that ‘oppressed’ title. As Garrosh Hellscream himself said:

“Draenei are victim-coded, so making them evil is wrong.”

This variation holds the most water for me, although I’d still argue it’s inaccurate. Is turning the AU!Draenei ‘evil’ morally wrong? No. Is it distasteful? Arguably. Is it a poor idea at this point in World of Warcraft’s story? Absolutely.

To a certain extent, I think I see what Blizzard is attempting to do: they’re pulling an ‘Arthas,’ showcasing how dire a threat is by showing that even the best and brightest can be turned into moustache-twirling villains by its influence. I think that Blizzard hopes that in doing so, not only will they add a huge amount of weight to Xe’ra’s actions in Legion, they’ll also be adding a huge amount of weight to the concept that the Light can be just as dangerous as the Void, which has, up until the Xe’ra stuff, seemed more like trite ‘all things in moderation’ philosophy than something concrete.

Xe’ra’s extremist approach was easy enough to pass off as a fluke for a number of reasons: because of existing in a fragmented state for so long, her sanity was questionable (wow, another insane female character, real original Blizz), she was ancient beyond reckoning, coming from a time and place far divorced from Azeroth (and Azerothian ideas about good and evil), etc. Xe’ra was really the first true instance of a Light-aligned character doing some really questionable stuff in the name of the Light; there have been other characters in similar circumstances (Arthas, the Scarlet Crusade, etc.) but all of those were shown to be ultimately under the control or direction of more nefarious forces. There’s no question what Xe’ra is up to. Xe’ra can’t be discounted as a rogue agent anymore. She isn’t the exception, she’s the harbinger, and the AU!Draenei (and potentially more characters in the future) are what she is heralding.

As to whether turning a ‘victim-coded’ race into conquerors is ‘wrong’...I guess I don’t even really understand that concept, that once a race/faction has been established as more likely to give ground than hold or take, then they’ll never, ever do anything but that, and that changing or reversing that behavior is morally incorrect on the behalf of the writers. Honestly, I addressed most of that in the first section. Yes, the Draenei have been shown to be naturally peaceful, and retreating from a fight or attempting to negotiate is their first instinct. However, they’ve also been shown to be easily swayed to drastic action when their faith is appealed to, something both Sargeras and K’ure took advantage of in the past, though for different reasons. A running theme in the Warcraft games is how absolute power corrupts, and there’s no good reason why any faction should be immune from that, no matter what they’ve been through. Dealing with shit in the past earns you nothing on a cosmic scale, which the World of Warcraft writers seem to enjoy reminding us a lot of lately.

That still doesn’t make the decision to have the AU!Draenei go Crusades on Draenor any better. It’s certainly in poor taste. The people of AU!Draenor got about as happy an ending as World of Warcraft affords: the bad guys were defeated, and everybody was pledged to a brighter future because, down at brass tacks, that’s what they all wanted. Then we come back years later - from the clues in the broadcast text, I’m assuming the Mag’har scenario takes place about 20-30 years after the events of Warlords - and find that literally everything is ruined. Nothing the players did really mattered at all; even though the Legion is no longer in the picture, Draenor is still in the hands of tyrants, it’s just religious fanatics instead of savage warriors this time. Who knows what’s happened to the Arakkoa. They were probably first on the AU!Draenei’s ‘to-smite’ list. It’s such an absolutely bitter pill that it almost defies belief. I joked about it in a post a while back, but Blizzard really did make Warlords somehow worse.

“I can’t/don’t feel sorry for the Mag’har because they treated the Draenei so horribly in the past.”

I call this the ‘Killmonger problem,’ because the folks who feel this way don’t assign an intrinsic negative value to certain actions/practices, but rather base their approval of those actions/practices purely on who’s performing them. In other words, they don’t have a problem with objectively evil actions like conquering and/or enslaving, but only as long as they’re the ones doing it or it’s happening to someone they don’t like.

Because the Mag’har were awful to the AU!Draenei in the past, there’s a tacit approval on some of the players’ parts of the idea that now the AU!Draenei should be able to be as awful as they want to the Mag’har. That’s not a perspective concerned with justice, but with vengeance, with ‘getting even.’ I’m not denying that the Iron Horde did some heinous things in the past, but visiting those horrors back on them does nothing but continue the cycle of violence.

Look, if the writers fail to elicit sympathy for the Mag’har, that’s partially on them. The way they’ve botched this entire thing, I’m not surprised. I’m having a hard time myself, although I suspect that’s mostly because I’m still trying to wrap my head around how the AU!Draenei could’ve possibly gone this bad in the first place. But I think the whole scenario also challenges us as an audience to look at this once completely sympathetic faction and what they’re doing now, and ask ourselves “Am I okay/not okay with this, and why? Am I getting a vicarious thrill out of seeing Draenei finally beat some Orc ass after years and years of oppression?” If the answer is yes, then own it, but don’t pretend like you’ve got the moral high ground to criticize story direction when you’re the one condoning or at least complicit with the faction that’s killing people for worshiping the wrong god. Glass houses and all that.

There is one more variation I’ve seen - not listed above - that explicitly has to do with how certain races in World of Warcraft are tied to real world equivalents, but that’s a complete can of worms that’s not really ever worth opening. Once we start talking about how certain factions are (insert race/religion)-coded, we project biases and opinions from the real world onto situations and people in completely different contexts, and we start debating about both as if they’re one, and they’re really not. Every race and faction in WoW is a mishmash of influences from multiple cultures, and trying to superimpose real world history over a fictional universe that exists as such leads directly to The Yawning, Dark Cavern That Nothing Good Ever Comes Out Of.

Sorry if this entire post has come off as completely bonkers. I’ve been drafting and rewriting it over the course of a couple of days, so I know it’s not the most coherent thing in the world, but, for whatever reason, whenever I saw justifications like this for hating on the Mag’har scenario, it just really ground my gears. Don’t get me wrong, I hate the direction that Blizzard has chosen to go with AU!Draenei, but I also feel pretty strongly that there are valid, logical reasons for disliking something, and then there’s just pseudo-socio-political nonsense. Feels kind of like people giving a politician a hard time about his/her looks or clothing choices when they're an abhorrent human being with no morals and terrible politics. If you're gonna go after a problem, go after it for the right reasons.

#world of warcraft #battle for azeroth #mag'har #draenei #warlords of draenor #beta #rage.txt

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