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motherofplatypus · 10 months

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Miraculous Finale Review: Part 2 (Recreation)

Welcome back y'all, I hope you had a nice break from Conformation, because we are continuing our ride to the abyss.

You think S3 ending was bad? You think Simpleman was bad? You think Ephemeral was bad? You think Penalteam was bad? You think Evolution was bad? You think Destruction was bad? You think DERISION was bad? Well, say hello to Recreation, where you'll be taken for a long ride to the tunnel of The Writers Gonna Prove You're Wrong By Showing You How Much Worse They Could Go.

Yeah, idk why i put that gif there, but i really like it when i found it.

Anyway, may the great lord have mercy on the poor souls watching this episode. Because this? This is just a huge, massive, gigantic, gargantuan, cosmic, heaven through hell level of no. In every single way possible. This is a disgrace on every writers out there. Everything is so wrong that I don't even know where to start.

I'll just go with something small and talk about the fight between Bugnoire (ugh) and Monarch. Remember when Hawkmoth beat the crap out of both heroes with just the butterfly miraculous, a miraculous that's not designed for a direct fight? Now he has one that can one hit K.O, one that can transport him anywhere, two that grants defense, one that can transform him into any element, one that can paralyze the opponent by showing them their deepest desire, one that can grant any superpower (stupid power), one that can disrupt his opponents power, one that can shrink and multiply himself where each of his replica can use the One Hit K.O power, and one that literally can turn back time (sure he can't use it anymore since it eats away his life, but desperate time takes desperate measures).

There's countless combination where he can win with literally no effort. How the hell did he lose, if not because of divine level plot armor?

And the way Ladybug (I aint calling her Bugnoire. But I'll admit i like the costume) so easily took the rings? Something that should've happened in Intuition? So not only did they kick Adrien out from the finale, they also had to insult his intelligence by showing how easy it was for Mari to do it. Hooray for Girl Power That Exist By Degrading Male Characters Into Moronic Dumbass Creatures.

Also, Ladybug now can summon a Lucky Charm to her liking? I mean, a piano, a baseball bat, and handcuffs? And she can do it infinitely now. So what's the point of the goat miraculous then?

"But the cat and tiger have similar power."

The cat caused bad things to happen to whatever they touch, and those bad things tend to be destructive. The tiger only cause destruction by punching it real hard Sure, Ladybug has more utility whereas goat has more flexibility in terms of power, but I'm adding it here because it's just total BS.

And we were robbed of LB and CN vs Monarch, but I already rant about it in part one, so I'll save room for other points.

Quick reminder on previous post, remember the whole quantum essence thingy that makes those walking Q-Tips able to track Ladybug because they're inserted with the essence of both the Ladybug and Black Cat power? Now Bugnoire has both, why aren't they going after her?

On to the next one, how is Lila isn't affected by the nightmare? And no, I'm not buying the "She actually got it, but it's off-screen" excuse. She already used it on her sudden friendship with Kagami, and if you think that excuse can be used again, in the finale, you're dead wrong.

Then things got worse with the end credit scene where Lila (she called herself Iris, but i refuse to call her that) just rolled in to a new school just by asking Damocles to let her in. Hello? Administration? I get it if she's the mayor's kid or something, but she's nobody. Classic miraculous, you never fail to disappoint me with your lack of logic.

Speaking of lack of logic, we got Mirakungfu (?) Luka and co. Just when i thought the show couldn't get any worse with their lack of explanation (sarcasm), they introduced this.

Where or when or why or how any of this was written in without prior hint or scene or anything that isn't going to get explained from a tweet where That Guy gonna block anyone who as slightly as disagreeing with him, i have absolutely no idea, and I'm used to it. I mean, sure, why not? Drop all the plot convenience, plot armor, retcon, and Deus Ex Machina in the finale. Heck, I'm suprised that Goku and Naruto didn't appear to find the One Piece under the Eiffel Tower and they become the World's Greatest Chef to finally defeat the Founding Titan who controls an army of Shinigami.

Dear Neptune, who the hell wrote this scene?

Makes sense.

And I honestly don't know how it could get any worse, but at the same time we know it will get worse.

And Su-Han, you said you left to get some help from the temple in Multiplication, where is that help? Don't tell me the help is Luka and co who just learned how to kick asses off screen a few weeks ago? Good grief.

Still talking about the Mirakung-fuck-the-logic, we got Bunnyx. Yeaaaay. Oh wait, it's the adult version. The younger one still exiled.

What did she said? She can't meddle with the present, but Luka and co can? Yeah, that's right, and she proceeds to transport them to Paris, which literally her meddling with the present.

"Well she's not actually doing something there, so technically she's not wrong."

Technicality, technicality. Well technically I'm gonna whoop yo arse with a baseball bat if i met you, writers. Be ready.

Moving on to Gabriel's wish. He won, hooray or oh nooo, I couldn't care about it anymore. Anyway, we're shown how to make the wish, by calling the true form of Tikki and Plagg and call upon Gimmi.

First off, it's a waste of time showing their true form if in the end you're just gonna call someone else. It's like having the reception to dress like a queen just to ask them where the manager is. But you all know why this happen, since they need more dolls to sell.

Second, if all he needs to do is to call their true form, then why on heaven through hell didn't he just do that in Deflagration? He doesn't need to unify them, he just need to call. His victory was literally at hand and he can win, but OF COURSE they gotta drag things even further because they forbid logic to even exist in this stupid show! This is the entire conflict of the show, his main goal, and something he already knows how to do it, so tell me why on earth did—y'know what? Fuck it. I never see anyone complain about this plot hole, so certainly its not even relevant.

And now, the time has come, to talk about the reasons why this finale is not only bad, it's straight up something that will go down in cinema history as the worst thing that could ever exist. So take a deep breath, cause we're near the end.

The pure, unfiltered, audacity they had to not letting Adrien learn the truth of either his father and Chat Blanc. The two most important things of his character, all gone wasted. All because they forbid this boy to show actual emotion and becomes an interesting character that exist outside of being a simp and a trophy wife.

"But he know about Chat Blanc from his nightmare."

Mate, that's his nightmare. Nightmare is terrifying, but it's not real. We know that's something that happened, but he doesn't. That's just a horrible nightmare that he constantly has because of the akuma. He never know that it's actually real, and will never know.

Plus, that's Anticat, not Chat Blanc. Different name, different identity, different everything, but the same BS.

And then another pure, unfiltered, audacity of Gabe telling Marinette to not tell Adrien about the villain he is but instead the time he tried to be a good father? This is the funniest joke I've ever heard in the show.

What exactly did you try to do to be a good father? Making pancakes that even flies said "I ain't eating that shit"?

You literally imprisoned your son, never spent time with him until you know you're dying, cut him off from society, make him as your forced labor for your brand against his will and violates the rights of children, not letting him love the girl he wants, forcing him to get together with his ex, fly him off to the other side of the world away from his friends, akumatized people that you know is after him, gave your son nightmare to get your ultimate plan to work, using parental authority to abuse him mentally, and you were trying to turn him into a villain!

Audacity.

And then there's another pure, unfiltered, audacity of making Marinette (deep sigh) forgave Gabriel.

"But she didn't actually forgave him."

She showed him kindness. She offered him another chance in his last moment. After everything he did. After all the people he hurt. After he literally responsible for her losing her life as a teenager.

He turned your whole family into villains, the whole world into mindless puppets, turned a pregnant lady into a villain, and have you forgotten that he turned your partner into a literal world destroyer that gave you PTSD? Sure, Chloe made you suffer and you won't forgive her, but him? Who did the same, if not universally worse? You could show him kindness?

"But it's because she's worried about Adrien—"

Adrien. Adrien. ADRIEN! THE PERFECT BOY THE PERFECT SON THE PERFECT THIS AND THAT AND AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH I HATE THAT GUY! HE IS ONLY PERFECTLY WASTED AND USELESS! SNAP HIM OUT OF EXISTENCE RIGHT NOW! HIS EXISTENCE RUINED EVERYTHING!

I would love to end things right there and then because I'm sick of it. But no, the king of the worst thing to ever exist in history have yet to be talked about. This is the realest and most absolute fucked up thing in history of kids show.

Gabe becomes a hero

I know we shouldn't ask what they were thinking, but just why? What did he do to deserve a statue and the title of a hero? He's a fashion designer in public eyes, and that's about it. But that's not what's fucked up about it.

How could you even think that a girl who was mentally abused by her mother, never raised properly by her father, had to ask her mother why she doesn't love her, never known love, was disowned by her father for his own incompetence of raising her, and left with her abusive mother to be raised with most likely another series of abuse, as someone who is irredeemable?

And how could you even think that a terrorist, who's so fully aware and willingly imprisoned his son, cut him off from social life, prevents him from loving someone he choose, literally turned him into his slave to work for his business, and who would straight up beat him up once he learn he's a superhero, as a sympathetic villain?

"But people in the show doesn't know that."

Yes. That's true. But we know. We've seen what he had done. We've seen how rotten he is. We've seen how slowly crumbling into dust is a fate he deserves and we enjoy every second of it. And yet, after every vile things he had done, until the very end, Thomas and co still putting him under the "sympathetic villain" spotlight.

I know many of you who read this will try to defend Thomas and the writing. Trying to reason and excuse what he did here. But I'm sorry, I will not accept it. Even if he apologize, i will not accept it. Because this is beyond messed up. This is basically him spitting on the face of people who have been abused. This is him saying abuser deserves to be glorified.

Tell me folks: what logical reason do you have that you see a child abuser as someone who deserves to be seen as a hero?

This is no longer a matter of whether someone is an asshole or not. This is concerning on terrifying level.

I'm here to say this once, to all of you who still support the show: I'm concerned and sorry for you. The show that you loved, the show that brought you joy, the show that you may have recommended to other people and praise it, it was created by a monster.

Im not even gonna bother scoring it. This is not something that kids should watch. The message is too horrible to be let slide. It doesn't matter how good the animation and action is, they've spat on victims of abuse, and they're happy with it.

That being said, this has been my review. You can agree or disagree, just keep it civil with someone else who have an opinion. I know i might missed a lot of points, and I'm genuinely sorry if in the last part of this post i might be a bit too offensive even for salt post standard. But now, I'd like to hear your opinion. Was i exaggerating stuff or i made a wrong statement. Was i wrong for calling That Guy like that? Let me know, cuz you might help me see things in a different light.

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hughungrybear · 2 months

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Me while watching Cherry Magic Thailand (Final EP):

It's the final EP!!!! Where will I get my next serotonin boost then? 🥺🥺🥺

1. Achi's cherry has been officially popped (hehe *wink wink 😏). He has now lost his mind-hearing power. However, Karan, it's too early in the morning to be this cheesy though 😅😅😅

2. Awww. Achi's new co-workers are so sweet (even though they prioritise playing football above all else 😂).

3. Why is Rock holding the monitor though? 😅😅😅 Also, holiday bonuses is the GOAT.

4. My SingJan heart 🥹🥹🥹 Rock represents all of us in the workforce that have unrealised dreams. Pai is right though. Nobody can really stop you from doing what you love as long as you have fun doing it. That fan sign though 😂😂😂

5. It's meet the parents time. (Please don't be homophobic, please don't be homophobic). Achi's Mum is very confused why anyone would even want to date her clumsy son 😂😂😂

6. That's next level superstitious though - praying to pick the right gummy bear colour 😂😂😂 Even in his most simp behaviour, Karan is still handsome. Wtf.

7. Looks like they're setting Karan's parents to be problematic. At this late stage of the series???

8. Min's dreams are finally coming true. Hope that won't cause problems with his relationship with Jinta [after 5 seconds] Oh, Min WILL NOT LET IT BE A PROBLEM. Nice. 😊 Also, it turns out that Min's fans are also Jinta's fans. Lucky them 😅😅😅

9. Y'know it's weird to see Tay on the driver's seat since he hates driving irl, which makes New the designated driver in their TayNew Meal Dates.

10. I will never understand parents avoiding necessary conversations with their kids. It's not as if the issue will go away if they ignore it. Karan's mum is every bit of a cvnt (along with the silent, useless father).

Big Sis Karin is the real MVP. I just want to slap Karan's parents (especially the mum) after Karin's monologue. Karan stopping himself from holding Achi's hand because he noticed his Mum is looking is very fvcked up (it broke something inside of me 😭😭).

Karan is lucky to have Achi, but I think he is even luckier to have Karin as his concerned, protective big sis.

11. A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL???? REALLLY??? MY HEART IS FULL 😭😭😭😭😭 [after five seconds] Wait, IT IS A DOUBLE PROPOSAL. THEY HAVE BOTH PREPARED A RING AND WERE SECRETLY PLANNING TO ASK THE OTHER'S HAND FOR MARRIAGE THIS WHOLE TIME. ACHI EVEN DID THE WHOLE PROPOSAL ON ONE KNEE. YES, I'M SCREAMING 🤯😍😍😍😍

12. I still don't accept that Min's group became famous by dancing to Mama OK! song. 😂😂😂 Oh, Rock became a social media dancing office worker icon. So happy for him.

13. Yes, push legalising LGBTQ+ marriage agenda please 🥹🥹🥹

14. YES!!!!! MY ROCKPAI AGENDA HAS FINALLY COME TRUE 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

I'm really happy with how this series turned out to be (although they did not show when Jinta will lose his powers too lol). So far, GMMTV remakes are managing to give proper respect to the originals without becoming a copycat. I think with this series, we (and by we, I mean the PolCa fans) can breathe in relief that TayNew is really back.

Now, to wait for 23.5 degrees 😭😭😭

#cherry magic thailand #karanachi #cherry magic thailand ep 12 #cherry magic thailand final ep #taynew #tay tawan #new thitipoom

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semi-imaginary-place · 6 months

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guess I'm on weekly release now. ep 40 that must have been the most confusing battle for megumi. getting his ass kicking planning to get hit just so he can get another hit in and then his opponent stabs himself through the head. i was not expecting this much characterization from jogo. like usually you can tell which characters are going to be important based on how "cool" the mangaka makes their visual design and jogo looks like a normal flunky but he has a fully fleshed out character. sukuna and jogo are having a naruto style heart to heart wtf.

ah i wanna watching gojo go feral again what ep was that... ep 33 huh was it that far back? guess this whole arc is more about the fallout of gojo being sealed. damn yeah who animated that cut with the arm. the animation for this series really is top notch all around but especially the fights, i think jjk has cemented it's place as best animated fights i in any anime i have ever seen. satoru-chan is so manically happy to be fighting. wow this episode feels so much longer than it actually is.

41: well at least sukuna is having fun. and he took an interest in megumi, this can't end well for megumi.

I wonder why the author made jujutsu high be 4 years. for even 1st years its essentially on job training with them already being put to work. I do wonder how much schooling they're actually getting. and then narratively at this point there aren't even 3rd years and when i checked the wiki 4th year characters dont exist. and then with nanami leaving, originally i thought he then went to college but he's a lot younger than i initially though and most office jobs want more than highschool. so does jjk give you a university degree at the end? i know japan has 4 year universities but do they do 2 year associate degrees? just an all round weird decision.

i started out curious why people were mad about the sukuna fight and now im reading the manga i guess

yuuji: I don't need purpose i'm going to be a cog in the machine

huh itadori is actually choso's brother. huh. but the whole thing with the cursed womb fetuses was that they were never born. i dont know what is going on here. and why didn't choso recognize the stitches earlier. if brain dude is swapping bodies then the genetic material like gametes should be changing or is the implication that yuuji is also made from cursed energy/weird human experimentation. ... panda's right yuji really is attracting older brothers.

*squints* is that kazakstan????? when did kazakstan become a world superpower???? idk if its the translation but im having trouble understanding. kenjaku changed people into being more suitable vessals and to give non sorcerers cursed techniques? because that's not what the text says. then was does the remote activation do? and why did he need mahito's technique? it wasn't garunteed he'd be able to absorb mahito. i cant make sense of this.

poor megumi just got dragged headfirst into clan politics.

does the culling game apply to all cursed technique users or just ones brain dude implanted?

145: instrumentality??????? instrumentality. -_-

maki's new design is goated, love the sleeves. i like her more i hope she pisses off more men. i also finally noticed that meimei isn't wearing a dress, it's a tricked out onsie. i love that design

152. suguru was too pure hearted. see you can totally get away with mass murder you just need to play the politics game.

alright my curiosity is sated. not like i was watching jjk for the plot anyways.

i think i get why people were saying the zenin clan is kinda incest-y

huh is gege trying to say gojo taught sukuna about love.

so sukuna just ate his own mumified corpse's head, im getting that right?

Saw someone compare gojo to achilles (so geto would be patroclus?) And im mad i didnt think of that first

#jjk #jjk spoilers

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electricbluebutterflies · 3 years

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Not sure if you’re still taking prompts for Helnik, but I’ve been needing someone to write Nina telling Matthias she’s pregnant for a while now. In my mind, these two are eternally married and forever in love 😌, and them starting a family would just be... Ughhhh. Cuteness overload.

Modern AU / fits into my vague continuity there, detoured into some very vague NSFW for a moment, and also on ao3. They’re cute and I love them.

The timing is a little questionable, but then again that phrase could describe her entire relationship, if not her entire life.

Nina is not prone to ignoring things, but when her usually annoyingly predictable monthly cycle suddenly wasn’t, suddenly she got real good at excuses. She did have the flu in there, and she’d eaten some bad sushi a couple weeks before that and she thinks she read somewhere that fish poisoning can throw off your period, and the amount of meddling and refereeing she’s had to do in her friend group lately has been stressing her out, and-

By the time Nina bothers to take a pregnancy test, it’s been over three months since she last bled and she’s still not convinced this is an explanation. But she’s running out of anything easier, so what the hell and why not.

She tells no one, buys a couple different cheap tests at a drugstore on her day off, isn’t nervous or hiding anything so much as just doesn’t think this is that simple. Human bodies are weird, she is well aware, and maybe she’s ignoring an elephant here but it feels almost too obvious. She’s in an okay position to have a kid – she’s married, stable enough work schedule and she loves being an EMT, and has a great support system. This will not ruin her life.

Still, Nina is skeptical as she locks the door and takes a few deep breaths before she goes for it. This is too easy. She does not do easy very well.

Technically this hasn’t been a conversation. She knows Matthias wants kids, wants that chance to do better than his own past, and that’s about her reasoning for it too and that seems like a perfectly valid reason to go ahead. She hasn’t been on birth control since before she even met him – she’s tried a few different kinds and always got the weird side effects, and she hasn’t been convinced by Inej’s belief in the wonders of the copper IUD – and on some level it’s probably weird it’s even taken this long to get where she might be right now. An accidental pregnancy has been a possibility for years, and yet…

Pregnancy tests, Nina thinks, are one of the few things that are effectively designed to be easy to use. Just pee on a stick. Or in her case, because she is thorough, pee on three different sticks and let them sit on the bathroom counter for fifteen minutes and hope she doesn’t get confused on which one has which indicators.

It’s the longest fifteen minutes of her life, and she doesn’t quite make it.

Sure enough, all three tests are positive. She’s not sure how she feels about this.

Yes, she wants to have kids. Yes, she will be if not a good mother than at least an acceptable one. Yes, the squad needs a human mascot instead of the damned goats. This is a good thing, but right now it’s a lonely thing and-

It’ll be okay, she tells herself. She just needs to not be alone in it any longer than she has to.

Nina slips out of the bathroom and into the main room of the apartment, clutching the tests like a bouquet. Sure enough her partner is there, sprawled on the too-small couch and near-motionless even when she slips into view.

“We need to talk,” she says as she kneels down to eye level, well aware that phrase has never led anywhere fun.

To his credit, Matthias does at least recognize the objects in her hands. “Are you…”

“Yeah.”

He almost falls to the floor, tries to hug her and ends up tackling her instead. She doesn’t mind, makes cute noises as they figure out a good position for clinging to each other. She is lucky to be doing this with him, whatever happens.

“Do you… is that a good thing?”

“Yeah.”

Nina feels overwhelmed, unable to do words. This is happening, she processes as her husband puts his hands up her shirt and onto her belly, over the space where a little light is starting to flicker inside her. This is happening. They are doing this. It will be okay.

“We’ll figure out…”

“I don’t wanna talk about it right now,” she murmurs, nuzzling her face against his neck. “I’ve known for like a minute. Let me be weird about it.”

She can almost see the wheels in his mind turning, how much more effort this will take, how much he will need to do to protect and keep warm. They’ve pulled everything off so far, and it will be okay and-

“Can I be excited for you?”

“Sure. I’m just… this is a lot.”

He kisses her face instead of saying anything, finds her lips and shows love that way. She’s heard that some men get extra territorial when they find out they’ve gotten someone pregnant, and the potential of it is kinda hot right now. If this makes him more assertive with her, if both of them being overwhelmed for different reasons finally sets the balance…

Fine, the increased sex drive may already be her favorite part of being pregnant, like that’s even a surprise. She guides his hand where she wants it and he does the rest, petting her soft parts until she bites his shoulder because the apartment has thin walls and she’s naturally more of a screamer. Good man. This will be a fun couple of months.

“Will you still go down on me when I can’t see your head?” she asks when she’s breathing normal again.

“Only way to make sure everything looks right down there,” he replies. “Whatever you want, Nina. And whatever our little creature wants.”

“We’re gonna have to call it something obnoxiously cute or else-“

“We have time, right? You’re not…”

“I think I’m three months. Maybe closer to four? So yeah, we have time.”

He holds her just that much closer, and she is warm. They’ll be alright. The three of them, now. Perfect and safe. She’s not worried about a thing.

#Anonymous #ebf writes fic #helnik

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jaimehwatson · 3 years

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I made another Snowpiercer playlist!

After posting my Wilford/Audrey playlist a while ago, I added some songs that didn’t quite make the cut to a different playlist, intending to put together another similar one. But rather than focusing on just one ship this time, I also ended up getting really interested in theorizing about what Wilford’s relationship with Melanie might have been like before the Freeze, and exploring the idea that maybe there was something going on there and some kind of love triangle with Audrey.

So here’s my new playlist, full of absolute jams that could apply to any combination of relationships involving Wilford, Audrey, and Melanie, and/or just general Snowpiercer vibes! Read on for more detail about the songs I selected, and as before, content warning for references to canon abuse & self-harm/suicide.

1. “The Tradition” by Halsey

Oh, the loneliеst girl in town Was bought for plenty a price Well, they dress her up in golden crowns His smile hides a lie

She smiles back, but it's a fact That her fear will eat her alive Well, she got the life that she wanted But now all she does is cry

Thanks @onetrainsnowpiercer for getting me into this excellent album! I thought it would be fitting to kick off the playlist with one that could suit the earlier days of Wilford’s relationship with Audrey, like my previous playlist was more focused on.

2. “cardigan” by Taylor Swift

'Cause I knew you Steppin' on the last train Marked me like a bloodstain, I

I knew you Tried to change the ending Peter losing Wendy, I

I knew you Leavin' like a father Running like water, I And when you are young, they assume you know nothing

Did you think I would make a Snowpiercer playlist without Taylor Swift on it? Not a chance. I picture this one being more from Melanie’s perspective, reflecting on possibly having had some kind of ill-fated romance with Wilford when she was young and naive.

3. “No Children” by The Mountain Goats

I hope I cut myself shaving tomorrow I hope it bleeds all day long Our friends say it's darkest before the sun rises We're pretty sure they're all wrong

I hope it stays dark forever I hope the worst isn't over And I hope you blink before I do And I hope I never get sober

The only reason this perennial favourite of mine wasn’t on the first playlist was that I had too many Mountain Goats songs already and wanted to keep things balanced. But this one got all the ones that didn’t make it to the first playlist plus some more I thought about later, so I’m kind of giving up on that balance by now. They just have a lot of great songs about terrible relationships, and I love them all so much.

4. “Gold Guns Girls” by Metric

I remember when we were gambling to win Everybody else said, "Better luck next time." I don't wanna bend like the bad girls bend I just wanna be your friend Is it ever gonna be enough?

This is another one that I can picture being about young Melanie, gradually growing more aware of everything that’s terribly wrong with Wilford and his approach to life, and of how little he cares to try to fix it.

5. “You’ve Haunted Me All My Life” by Death Cab for Cutie

And there's a flaw in my heart's design For I keep trying to make you mine

You've haunted me all my life You've haunted me all my life You are the mistress I can't make a wife And you've haunted me all my life

And this one I can see being Wilford thinking about either one of the women, and his unhealthy attachment to them and inability to keep them around for very long—maybe once he’s finally reunited with them both on some level in season 2, but still can’t fully persuade them both over to his side.

6. “Old College Try” by The Mountain Goats

From the cities to the swamplands From the highways to the hills Our love has never had a leg to stand on From the aspirins to the cross-tops to the Elavils

But I will walk down to the end with you If you will come all the way down with me

Another Mountain Goats classic. If you divorce it from its context of being from a concept album about a horrible marriage, I actually think this song is kind of sweet in the way it describes a couple still committing to try to make things work despite a whole host of problems. But never mind that now, because I’m putting it back in the new context of a whole collection of horrible romantic relationships!

7. “Risk” by Metric

So you're beaten up but you bounce back It’s all part of the pull And the story runs like a soundtrack We repeat 'til we're full Started slow, started late Started strong, then we lost faith Started slow, started to lose control The more we accelerate, the more we accelerate

Half of arranging any playlist I make is just trying to split up the Mountain Goats and Metric songs so that they aren’t always clumped together. Anyway, this one seems especially fitting to me in its imagery of a speeding vehicle of some kind (it’s a train, I’m always picturing a train) alongside its description of a relationship going badly.

8. “Big God” by Florence + The Machine

You know I still like you the most The best of the best and the worst of the worst Well, you can never know The places that I go I still like you the most You'll always be my favourite ghost

I think this one could be any one of the three of them contemplating their complex feelings about the past at some point around season 2.

9. “I Still Do” by The Cranberries

I don't want to leave you Even though I have to I don't want to love you Oh, I still do

There aren’t as many specifics that match the characters going on in the lyrics here, since it’s more of just a general break-up song, but I also really like the creepy way it sounds.

10. “Fault Lines” by The Mountain Goats

But none of the money we spend Seems to do us much good in the end I got a cracked engine block, both of us do

Yeah, the house and the jewels, the Italian racecar They don't make us feel better about who we are I got termites in the framework, so do you

This one feels really fitting for pre-Freeze Wilford, especially the engine imagery!

11. “I Don’t Care” by Fall Out Boy

Say my name and his in the same breath I dare you to say they taste the same Let the leaves fall off in the summer And let December glow in flames

Erase myself and let go Start it over again in Mexico These friends, they don't love you They just love the hotel suites

Another song that is simply a) an absolute jam, and b) generally fitting for my favourite obscenely rich asshole and his terrible relationships

12. “You asked for this” by Halsey

I want my cake on a silver platter I want a fistful in my hands I want a beautiful boy's despondent laughter I wanna ruin all my plans I want a fist around my throat I wanna cry so hard, I choke I want everything I asked for

This one I can picture as Audrey—or maybe Melanie too, but especially Audrey—beginning to regret getting involved with Wilford, but only once she’s in way too deep for leaving to be a safe or easy decision.

13. “my tears ricochet” by Taylor Swift

And if I'm dead to you, why are you at the wake? Cursing my name, wishing I stayed Look at how my tears ricochet

Much like several other Taylor Swift songs, I just know in my heart that it’s the type of music Wilford listens to in secret, while possibly drunk and definitely singing along very dramatically. This one he dedicates to Melanie once they’ve met up again in season 2.

14. “Speed the Collapse” by Metric

All the way from where we came Built a mansion in a day Distant lightning, thunder claps Watched our neighbor's house collapse Looked the other way

This one has a lot of good apocalyptic imagery that I can imagine scoring Wilford’s life in the last few years before the Freeze, as he makes his plans to save himself and let so many others die.

15. “Ox Baker Triumphant” by The Mountain Goats

I will thank my ride and crawl my way back inside To the guts of the building where my enemies Hide in the dark like roaches And I will signal the camera crew and everyone will do What he's been trained how to do Sweat dripping from my face as my moment approaches

Click your heels, count to three I bet you never expected me A little worse for wear Practically walking on air

I love this song a lot, and listening to it lately makes me imagine Wilford plotting his revenge while on his way to catch up with Snowpiercer before the end of season 1.

16. “Firewood” by Regina Spektor

The piano is not firewood yet But the cold does get cold So it soon might be that I'll take it apart, call up my friends And we'll warm up our hands by the fire

Don't look so shocked Don't judge so harsh You don't know You’re only spying Everyone knows it's going to hurt But at least we'll get hurt trying

This has to be one of my favourite songs of all time. It’s very beautiful, and I love the piano in it. I’ve always personally interpreted it to be at least partially about someone surviving a suicide attempt, and the overall imagery about burning a piano for warmth—and this bit about not judging someone for doing that—reads to me as more of a general statement about the difficult choices people struggling with mental illness and other similar issues have to make to survive. I listened to it recently and I could picture Audrey singing it in the nightcar. I think it suits her well.

17. “Cry for Judas” by The Mountain Goats

But I am just a broken machine And I do things that I don't really mean Long, black night Morning frost I'm still here But all is lost

I think the imagery of this song suits the show a lot in general, but I can also particularly imagine it being Wilford in a rare moment of self-awareness about how much damage he’s caused to the world and the people around him.

18. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” by David Bowie

Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth You pull on your finger, then another finger, then your cigarette The wall-to-wall is calling, it lingers, then you forget Oh oh, oh, oh, you're a rock 'n' roll suicide

I love Wilford a lot. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him ever. I hope he kills more people, and I hope he gets his train back, and I hope he wins. But if he does eventually die in the show, I hope he’s found in the bathtub with there being some ambiguity about whether he really killed himself or whether one of his victims turned the tables on him, and I hope the climax of this song swells as the camera pans over his dead body. That’s the only Wilford death I will accept, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

19. “Source Decay” by The Mountain Goats

I park in an alley And I read through the postcards you continue to send Where as indirectly as you can, you ask what I remember I like these torture devices from my old best friend Well, I'll tell you what I know, like I swore I always would I don't think it's gonna do you any good I remember the train headed south out of Bangkok Down toward the water

Okay, I promise this is the last Mountain Goats song on the playlist. It’s just—it’s perfect. It has a train in it. And on the podcast “I Only Listen To The Mountain Goats,” John Darnielle commented that there’s barely anywhere you can go south of Bangkok before you hit the water, it’s a train going nowhere, it’s so good. It’s also one of the songs I’ve previously ripped a line off for my fanfiction titles!

20. “Sellers of Flowers” by Regina Spektor

The sellers of flowers Buy up old roses They pull off dead petals Like old heads of lettuce And sell ’em as new ones For cheaper and fairer But they die by the morning So who is the winner? Not the roses Not the buyers Not the sellers Maybe winter

And Regina Spektor closes out the playlist again! This song is another one I picked more on imagery and vibes than anything else. But since it’s about a young child in a world that seems to be moving inexorably toward an all-consuming winter, if it suits any of the characters, maybe it’s an appearance of Alex here at the end!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the playlist!

#snowpiercer #wilford #music #snowpiercer tv

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hermitcraftheadcanons · 4 years

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Hello Internet, welcome to GAME THEORY, where instead of putting a joke here I want to ask you a question. It's time to talk UNDERTALE.

Now I don't think I've ever gotten this many requests to cover a theory, (no requests times no requests is still no requests.) Anyway, across my tumblr dashboard, NO ONE has asked for this. And honestly, I'm disappointed. True loyal theorists will know that Undertale is my favorite game of all time.

Undertale is a game where every character, from goat mom to grind fodder has a sympathetic design and a unique personality, motivations, goals, fears. Whether you're saving or slaughtering them, the game makes you feel something every time you enter an encounter. But to me, one character stood out amongst all the rest. SANS. A skeleton named after the font, Comic Sans. ANYWAYS, Sans is, well, there's a lot of mystery around this guy. And before we get into it, let me put up a very special spoiler warning: UNDERTALE is a game best experienced blind. So if you haven't played it, pause your reading of this and come back after you've finished. I PROMISE YOU, I PROMISE you won't regret it. Alright, so everyone out of the pool and ready for the adult swim? Good. Because I'm feeling pretty determined to get to the bottom of Sans' mystery. So just to recap for those of you who haven't played the game and ignored the SPOILER WARNING, or just need a refresher, Sans is one of the two skeletal brothers who appears in the game. His partner is Papyrus, a loud, goofy trap lover also named after a font. But in the world of Undertale their origins are a big question mark. All you really know is what's given to us by a shopkeeper in Snowdin, who explains that Sans and Papyrus, quote, “just showed up one day and asserted themselves.” Weird, right? What's more is that, well, Papyrus is just kinda the goofy sidekick. Sans is much more complex.

He likes fart jokes, but he's also incredibly powerful and deadly serious. Not only is his boss battle the hardest in the game, he's one of the only characters who has knowledge and power over space and time. He can take shortcuts around the world through ridiculous routes. Even is walking through walls. He also acknowledges that he's only one of infinite versions of himself, making self-aware commentary of the various timelines that you've played through in the game. He can even count the number of times he's killed you. He acts like an arbiter of this world, passing out judgements on the player's actions in the game, even explaining the secrets of EXP and LOVE, or EXECUTION POINTS and LEVELS OF VIOLENCE, just to clarify. In short, he just doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the world of monsters. But then, what, or who, is he? Well, the idea that he doesn't belong in the underworld seems to be correct.

The evidence seems to point to the fact that he WAS, in fact, formerly a surface dweller. In the true pacifist ending of the game, as the group looks out onto the horizon, Papyrus asks Sans about the giant ball in the sky. Sans says, quote, “we call that the sun.” This is important because A, the usage of the word WE, and knowledge of the sun shows that Sans has a kinship or knowledge with other humans, and B, that despite he and Papyrus both being skeletons, or, supposedly, brothers, and apparently appeared in underworld at the same time, they CLEARLY have two very different histories. Why would Papyrus not know the name of the sun but Sans would?

We get further clues to Sans' origins as we hear him say multiple times he wants to "go home" or "go back." He says as much during his dinner date scene at the Mettaton hotel. He notices that the player wants to go home and says, quote, "I know the feeling." He then continues, "maybe sometimes it's better to take what's given to you." As though he ended up in the underworld by accident. AND in a genocide run during his boss fight he says, quote, "look, I gave up trying to go back a long time ago." End quote. And before you say he means going back to the surface world, that's clearly not the full story. His very next line of dialogue is, "and getting to the surface doesn't really appeal anymore either." Key word here is “EITHER.” Yes, he seems to hail from the surface and wants to go back, but based on his dialogue he no longer considers it his home. It's as though the surface world he once knew is gone, as though he's from a different time. It's pretty intriguing. So we're left with a being that appeared out of nowhere, presumably from being from the human surface, but from a different time period, who seemingly has the power to teleport. That's a lot of questions and not a lot of answers.

But here's where things get REALLY interesting. Sans has a hidden workshop that takes a fair amount of searching to find. You could say it takes a lot of DETERMINATION to unlock. Anyways, obligatory determination references aside, as you start to look for this easter egg Sans gives you a key to his room and says "it's time you learn the truth." After some searching you find the workshop which contains items that leave even more questions. A photo album featuring Sans and a bunch of smiling people you don't recognize, a badge, blueprints with illegible handwriting, and a broken machine hidden behind a curtain. In the latest update, one more detail was added. A hand-drawn picture of 3 smiling faces with the words “don't forget.”

So, what does it all mean? Well a lot of Undertale theorists have been linking these details to a feature to a character named W.D Gaster. A ghostly character who never truly appears in the game. Honestly, covering him is a theory all unto itself, and probably one best saved for another day. Even still, none of the Gaster theories I've seen have been able to explain all the details. In particular, the photo album, and the badge. And that's what kept nagging me as I researched Undertale. A badge? That one in particular really stuck out to me. Why would such an oddly specific item to be hidden in the huge easter egg of a room? Something that supposedly reveals the truth about Sans? Badges just aren't important in Undertale. Then it hit me. What if this badge isn't from Undertale? What if this badge is from a completely different series? And was, in fact, the most important badge in the history of gaming? One of the Iskall patreon badges.

Now, for those of you wondering what I'm talking about, the Iskall Patreon Badges are a pivotal item from Iskall’s patreon. You know, the one on Hermitcraft. Anyway, the Iskall Patreon Badges are a really important part of Iskall’s character. So I asked myself; what if the badge in Sans' drawer was ONE OF THOSE EXACT badges? Well first off, it made Undertale connected to my favorite youtuber, thereby making it even COOLER, but that's still a pretty big logical leap. I needed more. Let me tell you, as I started looking, more and more pieces started to fit into place.

In Hermitcraft Season 6, there are three Architechs. (This was before Stress joined in season 7.) These 3 were Iskall, Grian and MumboJumbo. And what does Sans happen to have in his other drawer? A photo album with pictures of Sans with people you don't recognize. Of course you don't know them, they're not characters present in Undertale. And note the word that's used here, PEOPLE you don't recognize. Not underworld monsters. So that's 2 items oddly linked to the Hermitcraft series.

But then, how do the blueprints and broken machine fit in? Well, in the final stretch of Hermitcraft, Iskall is the only one who hasn’t died since the Demise game, so he sells his own body to the highest bidder. Except, it comes with a cost. Everyone is poor. As a result, and with the help of ImpulseSV, the Architechs (minus Mumbo,) are forced to finally kill Iskall, ending his streak since the beginning of demise. I watched this episode in 2020 and I'm not ashamed to admit that when I first saw this scene, I cried. It's DEVASTATING.

Iskall says goodbye to his friends, his co-workers, this character you've grown to love and care about is suddenly promising to sacrifice his life. For all he knows, there is no possibility of him being able to come back after his Demise. It's this incredibly dark departure in the final moments of what was otherwise a fun, quirky, and colorful Season 6.

So what does all of this have to do with Undertale? A LOT, actually. But the first thing you need to know is that the hermits are known for their, let's say, unique written linguistic style.

That would explain the illegible handwriting on the blueprints. And the machine? I think a broken infinity portal is behind that curtain. Now that may seem like a stretch, but it actually explains a lot.

If Sans wound up in Undertale via whacky infinity portal hyjinx, it could provide a reason for why he's a skeleton. He used the machine as organic matter and suffered the consequences. Not killing him, but turning at least a part of him into a pile of bones. That could also explain why Sans has given up hope for going home. Remember the infinity portal is a time machine. By being in the underworld, he's not only in a different place, but based on how he talks, he's also in a different time, with no hope of travelling back to the time he came from. This could theoretically happen. It turned Scar into a wizard and completely disintegrated Welsknight, so the rules are… Flimsy at best.

But the crossovers between Hermitcraft and Undertale continue. In Grian’s episode, (EDIT IN TIMESTAMP) he mentions he’s amazed that Iskall only escaped his demise with a lost arm. He says Iskall had “a lot of determination to not die for real,” and that he’s going to continue to study this. Seems awfully similar to the same experiments happening in Undertale around the trait of determination, no? Especially since so much has shown that Sans was a key player in those experiments.

But I'm sure you also want physical evidence right? Well don't worry, because I have plenty. Take a look at Iskall and Sans side by side. Iskall’s left eye is replaced with a diamond loupe. Sans’ left eye glows blue when he’s mad. Both have extremely chill yet are known for their jokes and, dare I say, laugh.

In short, we have some incredibly strong proof that the Hermitcraft Cinematic Universe, (HCU) is somehow connected to the Undertale world, which brings us back to our initial question, WHO IS SANS?

Well, what if we took it one final step and said that Sans happened to be Iskall from Hermitcraft? Sent through the Infinity Portal at the end of season 6 to go to Season 7, carrying an Iskall Patreon Badge and his photo album. Not only do all the items in the workshop suddenly fit, but so does Sans’ behavior.

Remember, Sans can seemingly travel extremely quickly. And Iskall just happens to have an elytra, a device that allows people to travel hundreds of metres extremely quickly. This even explains why Sans bleeds when you finally hit him. He is, or at least, WAS, a human.

Oh and finally, Sans shares two out of five letters with the name Iskall. That's just a fun one. I thought it was worth mentioning.

But if there was any doubt, we have to look no further than the creator's previous work. Toby Fox, the man behind Undertale is actually DocM77, the creator of every hermit (besides Scar.) Now, if Toby Fox, the creator of Undertale, is also DocM77, creator of Iskall, we know they will most definitely share a universe. Which brings us back to Undertale. 2 faces, with “don't forget” written on it? It's Iskall, trying to remember his 2 friends. In short, Undertale is a continuation of Toby’s version of Hermitcraft Season 6, with Iskall never being able to get home, adopting the name Sans. The pieces all just seem to fit. Now all we need is an appearance from Ethoslab and we’ve got ourselves a true sequel.

But hey, that's just a theory. A GAME THEORY! THANKS FOR WATCHING!

#hcraft #hermitcraftheadcanons #iskall85 #iskall #TheScience!#posted 11.05.20 #long post #please note this is literally a copy paste of the actual script #with some changes #but yeah actual cred to Matt on this one

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iwillhaveamoonbase · 4 years

Text

Replay ch. 1

Did I start yet ANOTHER AU? Yes, I did. Callum, Ezran, Soren, and Claudia run a popular YouTube channel while Rayla is a lawyer that Callum asks to model for him. Plans for the fic to be rated E down the line.

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

Callum smiled as he sat in front of the camera, Ezran, Soren and Claudia to his side. “Hello, everyone and welcome to the first video of our new channel. My name is Callum Evans.”

“I’m Ezran Williams.”

“Soren Ricci,” Soren winked at the camera.

“And I’m Claudia Ricci.”

Callum nodded. “And we are going to be trying spicy snacks.” Soren and Claudia immediately paled. “We saw the video the Try Guys did and me and Ezran said ‘there’s no way half of that is that hot.’”

“Nope,” Ezran shook his head.

“And I know what you’re thinking, ‘what do you four know about spice?’ Well, first, Ezran and I are actually half-siblings. Our mom and aunt are half-Thai and half-Korean, and if you know anything about Thai or Korean food, it’s really spicy. My dad was mostly German and Irish, but he spent a lot of summers in India and the Sichuan area of China due to his parents’ work as translators. So, there’s that spicy food again.”

“And my dad is half-Jamaican and half-African-American. If you’ve never had Jamaican food, it uses a lot of herbs and spices to make everything on the flavor profile. My grandmother, in connecting to her roots, started getting really into traditional African cuisine which tends to involve a lot of chili and warming spices. Also, our aunt is married to a lovely woman from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, so we’ve had lot of Congolese cooking as well. The ultimate comfort food in our house is probably a West African spicy peanut soup.”

“If you’ve never had it, go make some right now,” Callum nodded.

Soren gulped. “Claudia and I are terrible with spicy food. I am also mildly lactose intolerant so I really hope there is no cheese here.”

“Hate it,” Claudia said. “I like a good cake or ice cream.”

“Clauds is super into dessert.”

Ezran smiled. “As am I. My favorite flavor profile is sweet. I got our mom’s sweet tooth. While Callum’s got a thing for spice.”

Callum nodded. “My step-dad, Ezran’s dad, not only grew-up on Jamaican and traditional African dishes, he also grew-up with Brazilian neighbors who would bring traditional Brazilian barbeque, called churrasco, to all the neighborhood cook-outs. Well, let’s stop talking about it. Let’s get down to this. We have all ten items the Try Guys used-”

Claudia gasped. “Please tell me you didn’t get those rock candies!?”

“Of course, I did!” Callum set all the items on the table in the box he had put them before pulling out the candies.

Soren groaned. “NOOO. We’re gonna die.”

Ezran sniffed. “No, it’s a psychological thing where your brain is saying it’s on fire.”

“That doesn’t make it better.”

Callum smiled. “Let’s do this! First,” Callum took out the Cheetos, “Flaming Hot Cheetos. The Try Guys didn’t use the chili lime ones, which I find a shame, because there’s more flavor in those even though they aren’t quite as spicy.”

“I agree,” Ezran said as he opened the bag. “Chili lime is a classic flavor combination. Put it on mango and I am pretty happy.” The bag was passed and they all tried one. “Not spicy at all.”

Callum ate another. “Nope. They’re good, but there’s no real heat there.”

Soren groaned. “This is perfect for me. It’s got a bit of heat, but it’s not overwhelming.”

Claudia nodded. “I agree. I don’t want to go hotter.”

Callum shook his head. “For those of you who are wondering, Soren and Claudia are siblings and childhood friends of me and Ezran. Their dad and our dad are best friends. But, when they come over for dinner, our family has to seriously downgrade the spice level or else these two freak out.”

“And,” Ezran interrupted, “when we go to their place, we have to bring our own hot sauce. Well, that’s mostly Callum. He carries hot sauce in his bag.”

“That’s because mango chutney doesn’t travel well.”

“See, mango chutney is almost going into too hot territory for me. At least, the brand Callum buys is.”

“That’s because I buy authentic and get it shipped directly from a company that makes traditional chutneys here in the States. Next snack; Takis Fuego.” Callum held up the bag. “This time, we got the chili lime!”

“Chili lime!” Ezran pumped both his arms up.

Callum opened the bag and took one, passing it to Ezran before moving it on to Soren and Claudia. “What I taste most is that lime flavor, which is fine with me. I want it hotter, but I love lime, so I’m not complaining.”

“It’s not bad,” Claudia affirmed. “I actually do like this. Like you said, that lime is what’s really hitting, but the spicy is there.”

Ezran hummed. “Can I have the rest of the bag when we’re done?”

“Sure.”

Soren blinked a bit. “I think it’s spicier than you guys are giving it credit, but it’s pretty good. I would take that lime flavor over the chili.”

“It adds to it Soren.”

“Chili is pain!”

“Life is pain!” Callum retorted.

Claudia rolled her eyes. “Not another ‘Princess Bride’ reference. You watched it once and you wouldn’t stop quoting it.”

“Inconceivable.”

Ezran raised a brow. “‘You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.’” Callum laughed, high-fiving Ezran as Soren and Claudia watched on.

“Nerds,” Claudia and Soren sang out.

“Proud of it,” came Ezran and Callum’s reply.

“OK,” Ezran said. “What’s next?”

Callum looked at his notes. “Pulparindo! Tamarind candy.” Callum handed each of them their own packet. “It’s kind of like a fruit leather.”

They went through all the snacks, Soren and Claudia progressively begging for milk as they went. “MILK!” Soren gasped on the Carolina Reaper jerky.

“You’re lactose intolerant, Soren,” Claudia coughed.

“MILDLY.”

“You guys got soy milk?”

Callum nodded. “I keep some in the fridge in case Aunt Amaya comes over.” Soren ran for the fridge in Callum’s house. They weren’t planning on saying anything if the channel continued, but they were currently in Callum’s father’s childhood home. His grandparents rented it out to him for school because they had moved into a retirement community. He had completely renovated it and now had this room designed just for these videos. “You OK, Soren? We’ve got one last item, the Sonoran Spice Company’s Carolina Reaper Pebbles.”

“NOOOOO!” came Soren’s scream from the kitchen.

Ezran started laughing, taking a handful of the leftover Takis. “Come on, Soren! You’ve come this far.”

Claudia looked close to sobbing as she looked at the snacks on the table. “It’s so hot. I can’t taste my own tongue.”

“You can’t taste your tongue, Clauds.”

“SHUT UP.”

Ezran laughed at the two as Callum snuck a few Takis for himself. “For those of you at home, there is no denying that that jerky is hot. Callum and I just crave the heat while Soren and Claudia do not.”

Soren finally came back, sighing as he looked at the camera. “I’m gonna die.”

Callum opened the candy, pouring a few into his hands and passing it over to the others. Ezran took more while Soren and Claudia each only took two. “That’s all you want?” Callum asked.

“YES,” came the combined response from Soren and Claudia. The four put it in their mouths together. Immediately, Soren and Claudia freaked out, reaching for the white bread Callum had brought them earlier. Callum and Ezran coughed a bit, but, for the most part, they had built up a tolerance that didn’t make it as painful as if they had gone right to the candy.

Ezran nodded. “It’s hot. No denying it. But, I think the jerky was hotter.”

Callum nodded as well. “No doubt, jerky was a bit hotter. But I picked the candy last because of how the Try Guys reacted to it. I was wondering if maybe it was the hottest thing.”

“It’s too hot,” Claudia said around a mouthful of bread. “It’s like torture.” Soren whimpered in response, gulping more of his soy milk.

“Well, I guess that’s all the time we got. Please subscribe to our channel as we continue to, most likely, eat food or, maybe just do whatever we want. ‘Til next time.”

Soren turned to Callum. “Why do you get to do the sign-off?”

“Because this was my idea.”

“You almost killed me!”

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

Rayla snorted as she walked into the cheese shop with her coworkers. Maybe it was Runaan’s influence, but she was a bit of a cheese snob. Scottish food was mostly friend, but Runaan had grown up in England and spent a few years in France, leading to strong feelings about what made a good cheese, but she had not been impressed with any of the cheeses her coworkers considered ‘good.’ “I’m telling you, you have to go to an actual cheesemonger. The grocery is not good enough. At least go to a delicatessen.”

“Rayla, we’re lawyers. We don’t have time to go to a cheesemonger and have them select a variety of cheeses for us.”

“We do blue sky, fraud. We have time.” Rayla walked in, making sure her suit was still well-pressed. She didn’t like a wrinkled suit when she paid good money to get it dry-cleaned. When they looked around, they saw a group of four at a table, several cameras around them and a few people also there. Her cheesemonger, Marcos, was talking to them. She saw a jar of one of her favorites, Meredith Dairy Marinated Goat, on the table. “The kind they have on the table? It’s really good. Spreads amazingly on bread.”

One of the guys at the table, a young man with green eyes looked over and did a double-take. She made eye contact, slightly startled by just how green his eyes were. The rest of the table looked over at the group, a few jaws hanging open. Marcos smiled over at her, walking over. “Rayla! Sorry, we’re filming a video right now. Did you want to get your usual?”

“That’ll work. I was hoping to convert my coworkers to actual decent cheese because if I went to one more office party where someone brought an unaged cheddar and no other options, I was going to lose my mind.”

“Got it. Let me go get that cheese for you.”

Rayla’s coworker raised a brow. “Now what?”

“We go back to the office and try it. Because once it gets home, it’s not leaving my apartment unless it’s part of my lunch.” Rayla walked around the shop, ignoring the video going on until she heard some hissing. She turned her head, making eye contact with the boy from before again. He gulped, walking forward. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of her coworkers, Kasef, glare at him. “Back off, Kasef,” she muttered to herself.

“Hey,” the guy stuttered a bit as he made it to her.

“Hello,” she answered. His eyes went wider, probably at her distinctly Scottish accent. “Yes, my accent is real. I grew up in Aberdeen, Scotland. Can I help you?”

The boy flushed. “Yes, actually. My name is Callum Evans. I’m an artist and I would love to paint you.”

Rayla tilted her head. It was a unique come-on. “What’s that video your doing? Art?”

“YouTube. It’s a thing I do with my brother and my childhood friends. Being an artist isn’t the most lucrative thing if you don’t do graphic design. I do commissions and try to sell my art, but there’s always low points. YouTube helps off-set that.”

“Fair. YouTubers don’t really have a good reputation.”

“I know. We’re not involved in any of that drama or crazy stuff going on. Claudia does make-up, but, she mostly sticks within our circle of food YouTubers.”

“Mostly food?”

“Mostly food.”

Rayla nodded. “How do I know you’re an artist?”

Callum reached for his phone. “Here’s my Instagram and a couple of my sketches that I haven’t posted yet.” He handed her the phone for her to look through.

“You sure you trust me with your phone?”

“Not really, but I’m a stranger asking to draw you. Some level of give and take has to happen here.”

“I agree.” Rayla went through his art, humming as she saw the variety of subjects, though he tended to focus on people. There were a lot of pictures of the same three women. “You like drawing women?”

“That’s my mom, my aunt, and my aunt’s wife. You’ll also see pictures of my grandmothers and Claudia.” Rayla looked closely at a few of the pictures. She could see the family resemblance between him and some of the women, particularly in the jawline and cheekbones.

She paused on a picture of one of the women he looked like and another one of the three he drew often. They were smiling at each other, flushes on their cheeks. “This picture is beautiful.”

“Thanks. That was at their engagement party.”

“I’m sold.”

“Really?” Callum asked, looking like he couldn’t believe she would say yes. She couldn’t believe it either.

“I have four parents. My biological parents are bodyguards for a member of the royal family and were travelling a lot so I was raised by their best friends, Runaan and Ethari. I got a lot of teasing as a kid for having two dads. If you can draw these two as unabashedly in love as you do, I’m sold on you as a person. I’m Rayla Burrows.” She stuck out her head, giving a slight smile as a he took it. “You have a decent grip.”

“My step-dad taught me how to do a good handshake. Can I have your number so we can plan this?”

“Do you have a studio?”

“Yes…in my house.”

Rayla paused. “Would it bother you if I asked someone I know to come?”

“Not at all. Whatever makes you comfortable.” They exchanged numbers and Callum walked off, looking back at her every few moments. Marcos finally came back with her cheese, smiling. As she walked out of the shop with her coworkers, she cast one last look at the group. Callum Evans…interesting.

#rayllum #rayllum fanfic #tdp #the dragon prince #au #moonbase fanfics #replay

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jungle321jungle · 4 years

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Level Two: Wait, You’re Not An NPC?

The world of Swords of Power and Conquest was one Virgil dove head first into, giving his soul and life to the game. He would play whenever he could, and had even decided he wanted to go into game design. At times he had even dreamt of how wonderful it would be to be inside that world for even a moment- until that world became his reality.

The familiar world he had come to love was now a foreign prison, one with no way out.

A Log Horizon AU. If you don’t know what that is, this is a Show Better Than SAO AU. If you still don’t know, the sides get trapped in a video game.

Ao3 - Masterlist

Taglist: @hells-missing-a-goat @angels-and-dreams @ollyollyoxinfree @gattonero17 @chumo-cookie @dreaming-always @anxiety-ismy-name @mrbubbajones @janustheliar

~~~~

Level Two: Wait, You’re Not An NPC?

Virgil wasn’t sure how long he had stood there. Stood there staring at his surroundings in shock and disbelief. But it was the familiar sound of a message which shocked him out of his stupor. Virgil’s eyes darted around him wondering how to open and answer- or if he was truly insane- when a voice sounded in his mind.

“Tony?”

The voice was one which filled Virgil with relief to the point of tears welling in his eyes, but none of this could be real, right? Right?

“Tony?” It asked again.

Virgil chose to indulge his own delusions as he wiped at his eyes. “Jack?”

“Oh thank God that worked!” The voice came from the other side of- of Virgil’s mind? “What the fuck is going on?”

“You’re asking me? This-” He stopped looking around at the forest and taking in the feeling of the sun streaming through the trees to let its warmth land on his skin, and the sound of animals running round. The sounds which were both so familiar and yet so foriegn. “This is all...”

“I know. One moment I was sitting in my room, the next I’m standing in the Tavern. And I mean, not my character but- but me.”

The unsteadiness in that voice was something Virgil wasn’t sure he had ever heard before. But then again, neither was this situation. “I’m at the fork,” was all he said.

“Then get your ass over here.”

With that the “call” ended and Virgil found himself moving. Leave it to Piggy to calm him down to a state of action with so few words. He wasn’t sure anyone else he had ever known was capable of such a thing.

Virgil moved quickly. He ran down the path following the way he knew but keeping his eyes peeled. Monsters had always been in this area, but when the Tavern had been opened the monsters had become some sort of a rite of passage. If someone couldn’t get past them, then they didn’t deserve to be in the Tavern in the first place. That’s why he and Piggy together had placed the sign post and the teleport spot at the fork. It was a test. One Virgil hoped he could pass.

He gave a hard swallow as he continued on listening carefully to the sounds in the trees, bushes and forest floor. But not daring to stop long enough to wait for something to find him. He was close. The Tavern would be in the coming clearing.

Ralph was waiting for him in the coming clearing.

It was when the breeze ceased that rustling became clear. Virgil’s breath shuddered but he didn’t stop and draw the sword he could feel strapped to his back. Not yet. As it grew closer and it’s footsteps sounded heavy Virgil reached back his fingers closing on his sword hilt- ready. He would wait as long as he could- because he couldn’t afford a fight. He couldn't afford the risks he had thought he had enjoyed.

Virgil could feel the roar of the monster in his bones- in his core. Tyren. A level 28 monster resembling a mix of wolf and cat with claws which hold poison. They were generally weak on their own. But they had a habit of traveling in packs. This wasn’t a fight he could win- not anymore. All he could do was run.

His heart drummed faster in his chest with every step he took. His eyes were burning with unshed tears but he couldn’t let them fall and obscure his view. Not when he could see the Tavern. Not when in a few moments he knew he’d be able to see the sign for the Serpent’s Den. Another roar sounded to his right. Followed by one to his left. And the growling from nearly all sides.

They were going to trap him. To get in front of him and surround him and then take their time ripping him apart. He wanted to puke. He wanted to feel like the walls weren’t closing in. He wanted to be back in his room- hell he’d go back to taking that fucking exam. He’d go back to anything. Anything but this.

He launched himself into the clearing not daring to look back as the roars continued. He sprinted for the back door praying to anyone who would listen that the door would be open. Thankfully his prayers were swiftly answered as the door burst open and Ralph was standing there crossbow in hand. Despite himself Virgil felt his lips curl into a smile as he watched his friend take aim. He ran toward him not bothered with where Ralph was aiming. It could be to his heart for all Virgil cared, it would be better than being torn apart. But he heard the whistle of an arrow flying past his head and the screech of a pierced tyren. He didn’t dare look back.

It was close. Ten steps. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

Virgil threw himself onto Ralph sending them both flying to the ground and he could only laugh in relief as they both hit the ground, and the door slammed shut behind him.

Virgil closed his eyes letting his tears fall as he listened to the sound of Ralph’s heartbeat. Ralph himself did nothing simply laying there, not saying a word nor pushing Virgil away. But after a moment Virgil pulled himself off and Ralph moved himself into a sitting position. Today’s face scanning Virgil with eyes that screamed worry.

“I’m okay,” Virgil said finally.

“No you’re not,” he disagreed. “No one’s okay right now.”

Virgil only gave a nod as he wiped at his face. When he had he looked back to Simon’s face unsure of what to say or do- but he found his gaze drifting above his head to the screen name which still managed to float about his head, lordofthelies.

“This is too real,” he said finally.

Simon gave a chuckle, “Not the word I’d pick, but yeah. You sure you’re okay?”

“None of them got me,” Virgil assured him, but seeing the disbelief in Simon’s face he continued. “But I never thought I’d be scared of tyrens ever again. Haven’t worried about them since I got past level 45.”

“I’m not sure if alcohol works here,” Simon said standing. His eyes darted around his office before he extended a hand. “Join me in finding out?”

“Hell yes.”

They drank and sat in a comfortable silence and it wasn’t until Virgil could really feel its mind numbing effects that he spoke again. “Customers?”

“None,” Jack replied. “Today was the peace talk remember? I had closed in order to prep for the guilds which had rented out the space for a private space to talk. They had just walked into the forest and me back into my office when...”

Virgil nodded and knocked back the rest of his glass and reached to get himself a refill. “I had been out scrap picking. I had just teleported.”

“Have you been able to reach anyone else?”

Virgil shook his head, “I don’t even know how.”

“To be honest I’m not entirely sure either. I was just thinking that I needed to message you no matter what; and then I heard the sent sound. And then I could hear you.”

“Have you gotten anyone else?”

“A few. Tact, Rolls, Bilder67. But for those who aren’t responding I don’t know if it’s because they’re not logged in or because of something else.”

“They probably don’t know how.”

Piggy’s eyes showed overwhelming disbelief but he changed the subject. “You should get some sleep. I’m going to stay up in case anyone comes.”

“But-”

“You know where my room is.”

Virgil wanted to argue, but the thought of sleep was enticing, so he made his way upstairs to the small little loft and flopped on the bed, drifting off near instantly.

~~~~

“Morning.”

“Morning,” Virgil mumbled back, moving to sit at the bar counter. “No one came then?”

Simon shook his head then he sipped at what must’ve been coffee. “None. And I’ve only heard back from Tact... but I figured out a few things.”

“Like how to cook us breakfast?”

A smirk graced that face as he turned slightly to face Virgil. “I was going to explain that I figured how to use game controls but I mean if you want burned eggs I can do that instead.”

“You can’t cook?” Virgil asked in surprise.

“Not well.”

“And you own a Tavern?”

“A virtual tavern. Why don’t you cook and I’ll explain?”

“Alright,” Virgil shrugged, hopping off his stool and making his way to the kitchen. He paused upon entering it, “How do I even access food? Is it in the cabinets? Or my inventory?”

“Ah, so you do need to know how to play.” Simon smiled.

“Just hand me food.”

Simon shook his head, “You need to learn. Basically focus on what you usually see on the computer screen.”

Virgil raised an eyebrow but when Simon made no move to do anything he closed his eyes picturing his screen in his mind. In the top corner left would be his health. In the bottom right would be the mini map of the area, and his five saved skills. In the bottom left corner would be the inventory he’s wearing, the stats of his clothes and his sword. And in the top right would be the bar for him to access skills or inventory. Picturing it all he took a deep breath and opened his eyes and nearly stepped back in shock to see his screen as pictured.

And he wasn’t exactly sure if he was shocked or relieved to see his HP at 73%.

“Push inventory,” Simon advised.

Virgil nodded and reached up to hit the word inventory and was surprised to see as the boxes appeared. For a few moments he scrolled through what he had, before he found some eggs and he apprehensively moved to tap the icon. Except his arm went into it and his fingers closed around a large egg. He pulled his arm back and the large egg came with it- he needed to take it in two hands to ensure he didn’t drop it.

“Nice,” Simon nodded, moving past him to turn on the stove and setting a pan on the burner. “I want it over easy.”

“You’re getting scrambled.” Virgil replied, setting the egg on the counter and already searching his inventory for some milk. “This thing is too big for me to flip it. It’s scrambled or nothing.”

“Fine.”

They lapsed into silence as Virgil worked, but a question was still burning in his mind. “The Starter Village... it’s probably safest there, isn’t it?”

Jack gave a sigh, “Probably. But it’s also probably swarmed with people thinking the same.”

“Safety in numbers?”

“Chaos in crowds.”

“Avoid people then.”

“That’s not what I mean. I said I talked to Tact right? People are rioting in the Starter Village. And most cities. They’re gonna deplete all their resources. Meanwhile it’s just the two of us here, we’d last longer here. And if someone makes it here? Well, if we’re gonna survive we need strength. People who can make it here are strong. We know that much.”

“We don’t even know if we can make it here anymore,” Virgil pointed out as he put the eggs on a plate. “But I get what you mean. Is Tact coming here?”

Jack gave a shrug as he handed Virgil a fork and poked at the food. “I don’t know. He said he wanted to gather information first, but I doubt he’ll come this way until we figure out what happens when HP reaches zero. And if health potions work.”

“I hope they do.”

“Same. And when people do get here. I think we should lay low for a while. People will probably swarm you for new armor and swords. Maybe we can get more information from listening to the chaos. But it might be a few days before anyone comes.”

Virgil only nodded, not wanting to acknowledge that they could really be here that long.

~~~~

Nine days.

It had been nine days since Virgil found himself trapped in the game he had fallen in love with. And he still found there wasn’t much he could do. One day four he and Jack had been bored and daring enough to step outside the Tavern, to see how their swordsmanship fared against one another before even daring to take steps in the woods.

From it Virgil had learned he could still use basic moves and swing his sword well enough. And he had also realized he could use his saved skills or very basic skills the same way he had accessed his inventory. But now one day nine neither he nor Jack had figured out how to do both simultaneously. And it seemed the few customers and coworkers which had trickled in didn't have a clue either. They had all run for their lives and stuck to the basic skills and had barely managed to make it to the Tavern. But all of them agreed that despite the danger outdoors the Tavern was safer than the cities which were rapidly running out of space, and due to fear of going hunting players were running out of money and had resorted to robbing one another. Virgil could only hope those people wouldn’t come his way.

“Hey! Anthony! Get me another beer!”

Virgil only blinked at the drunk customer (blueskiesareyellow according to his screen name), “Hello sir, would you like to browse my shop?”

“Beer! I want to buy beer!”

“I’m sorry I don’t sell that item. But I do my best to sell all sorts of armor, weapons, and rare items. Would you like to look around?”

The man gave a look of disgust and began shouting at one of the Tavern girls, MannaM, to get him a beer. “Damn NPC. Good for nothing.”

A woman further down the bar gave a laugh, and Virgil recognized her as one of his repeat customers, FuckThisImTheB3st. “Be nice to my man Anthony. He’s got some good stuff to sell!”

Virgil gave him a slight smile, “Hello ma’am, would you like to browse my shop?”

“Not right now,” she dismissed.

“Alright. Please let me know when I can be of service.”

On any other day this would be considered horribly slow. Only six customers, and two workers. Usually they were packed all days of the week with players gossiping information to be sold to the highest bidder. But now all they had was a depleting amount of food and alcohol to be sold. And Virgil wasn’t entirely sure what they would do when they’d run out of food, Simon claimed he was working on it but Virgil doubted he knew either.

The slamming open of the Tavern door was something of a surprise. Then it walked three faces which Virgil recognized. Virgil tried to keep himself calm as one of which locked eyes with him and stormed up the counter and slammed his hands down on it. “I need the owner. Now.”

Virgil gave him a smile, “I am the owner of my shop. Would you like to browse?”

“What? No- I want the guy who owns this place.”

“I do my best to sell all sorts of armor, weapons, and rare items. Would you like to look around?”

“No! I want to speak to the owner.”

“I am the owner, sir. Would you like to browse-“

“Are you even listening to me?”

“He’s an NPC dumbass!” FuckThisImTheB3st shouted.

Tact stepped up next to his companion. “Hello Anthony, May we gain entry to your shop?”

Virgil gave him a smile and moved out from the behind the bar and led the way to the hidden door. He unlocked it and stepped into his shop. Inside Simon stood holding out an armored vest to a player, kittycat=patt, but both looked up as Virgil entered.

“Tact!” Simon smiled. “Good to see you.”

Tact gave a nod as he moved forward leaning on his cane as he did. “I’ve told you many times to call me by name and not that uncreative nickname.”

“And since when do I listen to you?”

“Roman! Remus!” kittycat=patt smiled. “It’s good to see you both! I haven’t seen you both since the Dragon Raid!”

“Patts!” <3getting2Dsat1 cheered running forward to embrace the other girl. The two started talking quickly and suddenly but Virgil was still trying to process that TheSwordTwins- aka the duo with their own YouTube Channel that Virgil had watched every video from were casually standing right in front of him.

“Tony, lock the door?” Simon asked, stopping Virgil from staring. When the door was locked all of them sat down at the table leaving Virgil standing.

“Hey Lies,” royaltyforroyalme or Roman started. “Can you tell your NPC to stop staring and leave?”

Simon paused before he shook his head, “He stays. Anyway Tact, why are we all here?”

“My name is Logan,” He corrected instantly. “I am a tactician for the pay, it’s not who I am. But as for why we all are here I have two pieces of information to share. And lucky you for you I won’t charge a fee.”

“How generous.”

“The first is I have seen first hand that just as when this game was purely game, revival is possible.”

“You’ve seen it?” kittycat=patt blurted.

Logan gave a nod, “I have. I had posted myself outside of the East Hospital and was awaiting to see if anyone revived. And someone had. Two evenings ago I was about to head back to the inn where I was staying when the tell tale glow of the building started and a player appeared in front of it proclaiming and crying in relief at still being alive. I kept my post until this morning and confirmed this was not a fluke by watching it happen multiple times and I also interviewed each of the revived players. Thus I can conclude that when a player's HP reaches zero they come back to life as a character should. But at the same time it doesn’t seem to be a pleasant experience.”

“I think that’s the best thing I've heard since this started,” Piggy commented, relaxing in his chair. “But what’s the second piece of information?”

“I have a theory- or perhaps hopeful thoughts on how to get out of here.”

“What is it?” Virgil blurted moving closer.

“Ah, is that what it takes to get you to break character Anthony?” Logan asked, amused.

“Answer the question.”

Logan nodded. “The main quest. This game was designed so that it would update itself when the main quest was completed. Perhaps a fix to the servers can free us. That’s why I asked you all here. Lies is not only a legendary holder, but one of the biggest names in the information trade. Roman and Remus each hold one as well, and when I called both they told me Patton was as well. And you Anthony are certainly high enough level to aid us.”

“That’s a gamble.”

“It is,” Logan acknowledged. “But it is better than simply sitting and waiting for rescue?”

“Wait,” Roman cut in. “You’re not an NPC?”

Virgil blinked, “No. I’m not.”

“Then why?”

“People are more likely to talk about things when they don't know they’re being listened to,” Piggy commented. “And now since the joke wasn’t as funny as I intended, Tony come sit.”

“I can’t go get a chair, everyone out there doesn't know I’m not an NPC.”

He patted his lap, “Sit.”

“Fuck off Piggy.”

“Am I not good enough to sit on?”

Virgil resisted the urge to punch him in the face as he looked back to Logan. “If the game reboots if the quest is cleared, wouldn’t that just kill us?”

“As I confirmed there is no death as we know it in this world, that is unlikely,” Logan replied.

“But how are you going to do it? We’re still missing five swords. Not to mention the main quest is literally impossible. That’s why no one has done it!”

“There was no motivation to. Before the goal of most players was to simply enjoy the game for all about its main quest. We simply need to shift focus.”

Virgil shook his head, “Ralph tell him it’s impossible.”

Ralph paused in thought before he sighed. “We don’t have any better ideas at the moment. And at least it’s something.”

“What if we only have a limited number of lives?” Virgil tried.

“There’s only one way to find out!” Remus cheered. “Roman! Stab me through the boob!”

Roman paid his brother no mind, “He does have a point. We don’t know if our luck will run out.”

“I think we should go for the swords,” kittycat=patt tossed in. “If it’s possible we can get out quicker shouldn’t we?”

“Do we know where the missing swords are?”

At that Logan turned to Jack, “What do you know?”

Jack gave a frown and his eyes flickered to Virgil before he crossed his arms over his chest. “Before we talk about that we should talk about logistics.”

“What's there to talk about?” Roman frowned. “Either you have the information or you don’t.”

“The game ends when one person collects all ten legendary swords. Shouldn’t we discuss who will be doing the holding of these swords? Because quite frankly I don’t know anyone sitting here well enough to believe you won’t steal everything and sell it.”

“I want to go home, not make money!” kittycats=patt said quickly.

Logan gave a nod, “We both know I have gold to spare.”

“I want to get back to my life,” Roman agreed.

“How much money do you think you’re all worth?” Remus asked.

“Remus.”

“I’m kidding Ro! Kidding! I wanna get back too... mostly. I mean can you blame me? This is cool as hell.”

“I suggest we each hold onto our own swords until the end,” Logan stated, putting things back on track. “And as for acquiring more, I suggest the person who claims it carries it. And once we have them all between us we figure out how to clear the game itself. Until then we have no choice but to trust one another.”

For some reason Virgil wasn’t sure he liked that idea.

“We’re going to need to practice fighting,” Virgil pointed out. “Jack we could leave the Tavern to MannaM and head to a low level area to grind and figure it out.”

Jack gave a nod of thought, “We certainly could.”

“Have any of you figured out how to use the skills?” kittycats=patt asked. “I can use the easy ones but I can’t do any combinations.”

“I can,” Remus tossed in. “You just gotta move and it kind of happens.”

“I’ll need you to be a bit more descriptive,” Logan frowned.

Remus gave a shrug and pulled at the mustache on her face. “They just happened. Like muscle memory or something.”

“Hm, then training will need to proceed. Perhaps you can tell us what it is we will need to know about the other locations when we have?”

“No, I’ll tell you here,” Jack sighed. “I know this is the most secure spot. I can only hope your lips are sealed just as tightly.”

Virgil wanted to disapprove, but he knew Simon was right. “Well maybe first we should start with what swords you all have and then Simon and I can tell you everything we know?”

There was a pause as eyes looked round the table before Logan spoke, “I hold the Sword of Time.”

“I have the Sword of Ice and Water,” Patts announced.

“Sword of Sound,” Remus put in.

“Wind,” Roman said quickly.

“Faces,” Simon finished. “As for the others, I know that two elemental swords are still fully unknown, some rumors say they are in circulation others say they are yet to be claimed. I personally believe there’s truth to both sides. One of them, likely the Sword of Stone, is in circulation, given the Sword of Flame is pretty distinct. Someone would know if it was used. The Swords of Darkness and Light are also both unclaimed. Tony has a theory on those. And then the Sword of Stars is in circulation. Last I knew it was in the hands of a guild, so Mr. Guild Hopper might know something.”

Roman crossed his arms, “I don’t.”

Simon didn’t seem convinced but he let it slide. “Tony, your theory?”

Virgil gave a sigh, “The location of the Sword of Darkness isn’t exactly a secret. But despite that no one has been able to get it given the pitch blackness, and the boss monster. According to the lore to the game, the sword belonged to a fallen angel who tried to attack the heavens. When he lost and died the sword created the barrier to protect him. Meanwhile the Sword of Light was considered tainted and needed to be purified. But my theory is this, that given the true quest of the game is to unite all the swords, that the Sword of Light and the Sword of Flame must both be used to retrieve The Sword of Darkness.”

“I don’t understand,” Logan frowned. “I understand wanting to use the Sword of Light but why Flame? It’s said that any lights are automatically extinguished within the dark.”

“Yes, but there’s multiple reports about the boss monster inside. Some seem to think it’s the fallen angel himself revived, some say it’s a dragon, some think both. But all seem to agree that they were certainly burned inside the dark. Now perhaps the Sword of Ice and Water could put it out. But if the Sword of Flame is used it could theoretically form a protective shield of flames to absorb those thrown at us. Or something to that effect.”

Logan paused and Virgil could see the wheels turning behind those glasses, the Tactician's mind working. “Then after training we’d need to go after the remaining sphinxes and gain clues about the Swords of Stars, Light, along the way.”

“I can continue to check in with my network,” Simon promised. “But we need to be careful about people knowing we’re going after the swords.”

Virgil gave a nod before a thought occurred to him, “Eric please do not tell R3M333. He’s not subtle.”

“He’s not that bad. He’s good at collecting information, just not keeping it...”

“Please Eric.”

“Fine.”

“Real quickly,” Roman put in. “What should I call you? Because you’re not-NPC has called you like ten different names.”

Eric blinked as if the thought hadn’t occurred to him, “Tony is a bit of a nerd. See my screen name is lordofthelies. But he read it first as lord of the flies, and ever since he calls me by the name of different characters from the book. But you guys can call me whatever, Lies, Lord, or-”

“Sexy?” Remus asked.

Eric gave an awkward smile, “I was going to say my middle name is Dante. You can me that or Dee. Trapped in a game or not, I rather not give you my first name.”

“Pleasure to meet you Dee!” kittycats=patt smiled. “I’m Patton! Call me that or Patt! But before we leave, can I buy some armor off of you too? As much as I love this outfit it’s not good for defense.”

Virgil paused looking over Patt’s oversized skirt and heels silently wondering how she had managed to make it to the Tavern in the first place. “Yeah feel free to look around my shop.”

~~~~

“You think this is all a terrible idea don’t you?”

Virgil looked up from where he was sitting on Dee’s bed and gave a slight nod, “I don’t trust them. And yet we just told them everything, Dee.”

“Not everything.”

“Oh?”

Dee raised an eyebrow as he sat beside Virgil on the bed, “I know you lied about your theory. That’s not it at all.”

Virgil gave a shrug, “You don’t know that.”

“Yes I do. I may not have heard your theory before but I know that’s not it. I just know you’re a good liar. But I also won’t ask you to tell me what it is.”

Virgil looked into his eyes- those actual eyes. The way Dee has designed the character before he had earned his legendary sword. “Then what are you asking of me?”

“I ask that you don’t trust anyone.”

“I take it that includes you?”

“I’m number one on that list.”

Virgil gave a yawn as he laid back on the bed, “Then make sure I’m number one in yours.”

~~~~

Level One - Level Two - Level Three

#virgil sanders #janus sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #patton sanders #remus sanders #video games #videogame au #sao au #anxceit will come #so will logince and intrulogical #idk how to tag this ill figure it out #the bois get swords i dont make the rules

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the-endless-storm · 4 years

Text

Nuzlocke Shield Part Four

Part Three

An we are off again. Three zones to go through to get to Hammerlocke, let's see what we get.

Stony Wilderness it is snowing, and we get Sneasel, which is a dupe so let's try for a second one. It's a Chubcoo.

Oreo - Chubcoo (m) Slush Rush Sassy (SDf up / Spd down) “It scatters things often!”

Giant's Cap is sunny (thank god) and we get Lombre! Wasn’t expecting this.

Pina Colada - Lombre (m) Rain Dish Docile (no change) “It's impetuous and silly!”

Lastly Hammerlocke Hills is raining and we get Pelipper. Meh.

Febreeze - Peilipper (f) Drizzle Modest (SAk up / Atk down) “It's very finicky!” Rainy Mark

This is the first Pokemon I’ve caught that had a mark on it, but it's not enough to warrant putting Pelipper on my team.

I see Bede and the Chairman in the middle of Hammerlocke, but let's do some exploring before story time. First up, a house with a Blakckbelt and a level 2 Cottonee. Um ok.

Oh fuck. Oh fuck. I forgot about Endevour. It left Snapper with 1 HP! That could have been a disaster!

I’m wary about going into the Battle Cafe. I know they're double battles against fairy types, and the only effective move I have at the moment is Acid on a baby Pokemon. So I’ll give that a miss for the moment, maybe come back when Toxel has evolved and I have some Steel moves somewhere.

Mmm, Chairman Rose knows exactly what he's doing walking around the city in those shorts. There's a guy outside the far left Pokemon Centre, trying to meet someone. Maybe if Chairman Rose spent more time on Grindr he wouldn’t want to resurrect ancient deities.

I wish we had a chance to explore more of the castle part of Hammerlocke. There are loads of paths and stairwells with gates on them that look like they should open up.

Anyway, let’s see what Route 6 has on offer, thankfully not another damn Ice type.

Oh wait, Team Yell first.

Yay, Jett is evolving into Toxtricity Amped Form!

Ah! Bullseye is evolving in Mudsdale too! Awesome sauce.

Ok finally back to Route 6 and our encounter is a Heatmor! Interesting, I have genuinely never used this Pokemon before.

Otis - Heatmor (m) Flash Fire Modest (SAk up / Atk down) “It takes plenty of siestas!” Rowdy Mark

I think I’m going to swap out Carcoal for Heatmor. It has better stats and isn’t four times weak to Water and Ground. There's a TM for Fire Spin in the Hammerlocke shop too, and whilst it's not the greatest attack it should cover Heatmor until it learns something else.

While I’m back here, I’ll check the Move Relearner for my newly evolved Pokemon too. Heatmor can relearn Incinerate, so Fire Spin isn't needed now. If money weren’t so easy to come by I might be upset about spending 10k.

Get to the end of Route 6 and the dumb fuck trainer has his Koffing use Self Destruct, good thing I swapped Otis out for Snapper otherwise that could have been a short career again.

I like Stow-on-Side, it's good a good look to it. No encounters here though, so I'll head up to the mushroom forest bit and see if I can catch a Psychic, Ghost or Dark type and not another useless bird or something.

Dammit Hop leave me alone.

Dammit Opal leave me alone.

Dammit Team Yell leave me alone. Can’t do anything I want these days.

Fine, Glimwood Tangle is out of the question until I beat Allister. Going to go train a bit.

Got everyone up to 35-36 and raided a few dens to get some TRs that really didn’t help a great deal with moves. A lot of my team have totally the wrong natures, boosting Attack when Special Attack would be better and vice versa (Toxtricity being a prime example). But we'll see where we go.

Also Drumroll has evolved into a Rillaboom. This play through is notably the first time I have used one of the starters, as I generally dislike all three in this game.

Time to hit the Gym.

The trainers didn’t put up much of a fight, but I’m wary of GMax Gengar doing a lot of damage because I don’t have anything that resists Ghost attacks. I hope Drednaw will be fast enough to get off a Max Darkness and survive anything Gengar throws at her.

Not faster than Gengar, but Gengar used Max Ooze which Snapper resists, and the Max Darkness KO'd it.

Ghost Badge get!

Dammit Bede leave me alone

If Rose disqualifies Bede in the name of keeping things fair, shouldn’t help also disqualify Marnie (or at least issue a warning) as a result of her supporters actively attempting to sabotage other gym challengers?

Dammit Sinistea leave me alo... oh no never mind. Sinistea you can stay :)

Chamomile - Sinistea (g) Weak Armour Gentle (SDf up / Dfc down) “It likes to fight!” Vigor Mark

Goodbye Machoke, Sinistea is on the team. I'll use the Cracked Pot I have to immediately evolve it into Polteageist, and as always check back with the Move Relearner.

I'm half way through the Gym Challenge. I have two zones left to explore in the Wild Area (Dusty Bowl and Giant's Mirror) not counting the two I need to cross water to reach. I’m in no immediate need for new Pokemon right now, so I’ll see what the weather is like on them going forward and visit when it's not snowing or raining.

I love Ballonlea, it's such an amazing looking town. This is the best looking location in the entire game, it's like all the design budget went here instead of being shared out elsewhere.

Got some eviolite, useless atm but you never know if I might need it in the future.

Let’s take on Opal and get that out of the way.

A trainer's Morgrem almost knocked out Chamomile with an attack, but luckily I was faster and able to take it down first. Close though.

Bullseye makes quick work of both Weezing and Mawile, and Opal's stat boosts certainly don’t go amiss. I was intending to use Jett here, but with Bullseye's Stamina boosting its defence, plus a speed and special defence boost from Opal she might not be needed.

It took three Max Steelspike's but Alcreamie fell to Bullseye. Opal only asked two of her three questions.

Fairy Badge get!

Back to Hammerlocke and Chairman Rose's Grindr hook-up is still waiting at the Pokecentre. I think now that I’m back I’ll do the Battle Cafe I skipped last time.

Oh fuck yeah, they're level 37 each. If I’d tried this back when I thought about it I would have been under level 30 and it would have been game over for me.

What a crap prize. An item that restores 20HP. Wowee.

Eww Bede is here again. Gross.

Let's do the two spots in the Wild Area now to get them done and out of the way before I head to Circhester.

Giant's Mirror gets me a Roselia. Not great tbh. Oops, knocked it out. Oh well.

Dusty Bowl gets me a Dubwool. A Dubwool!? Of all the Pokemon in the Wild Area I get the big goat!? Ffs.

Babs - Dubwool (f) Fluffy Relaxed (Dfc up / Spd down) “It's capable of taking hits!”

Back to Hammerlocke, past Sonia and the pointless bit of storyline that has no impact. Though it is refreshing to hear characters say “this isn’t for kids to worry about” instead of the fate of the universe resting firmly on your shoulders while the elite trainers sit and watch as is the norm in most Pokemon games.

God do I have to fight Hop AGAIN!?

“The way you battle, it kind of reminds me of Lee” you mean, well using proper strategy and skill instead that'a expected of someone aiming to be the champion, Mr “ive studied all my brother's battles, now wooloo use tackle on the steel type”?

“Now have a taste of our true power!” Water attack against a grass type. Ok.

Route encounter is a Corviknight, so another dupe. Next one is a Shelmet. Ok, I like Shelmet, but being unable to evolve it makes it pretty useless.

Kiniggit is a bad name I can't enter. I assume it's because the French used it as an insult against King Arthur during his quest for the Holy Grail.

G'night - Shelmet (f) Shell Armour Naughty (Atk up / SDf down) “It takes plenty of siestas!”

Ok, that's enough for today, this has been a long one. No deaths though so that’s good. Might finally have some balance to the team.

Current Team Drumroll - Rillaboom (lv 40) Bullseye - Mudsdale (lv 41) Snapper - Drednaw (lv 40) Otis - Heatmor (lv 40) Chamomile - Polteageist (lv 40) Jett - Toxtricity (lv 41)

Boxed Joltik Slowpoke Charjabug Croagunk Oddish Snorunt Sizzlepede Sneasel Chubcoo Lombre Pelipper Carcoal Machoke Dubwool Shelmet

Losses Bandit the Nickit - Knocked out by a fat squirrel Gumball the Tympole - Devoured by a centipede with a moustache Castlevania the Rookidee - Torn apart by a cute mole HaagenDazs the Vanillite - Murdered in an act of revenge by a smelly frog

Wild Area Tracker Rolling Fields West Lake Axewell East Lake Axewell South Lake Miloch Dappled Grove Watchtower Ruins North Lake Miloch Giant’s Seat Motostoke Riverbank Bridge Field Stony Wilderness Giant's Cap Hammerlocke Hills Dusty Bowl Giant's Mirror

Part Five

#me #pokemon #pokemon shield #nuzlocke #long post

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whitetigerdemoness · 4 years

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Could you tell us how you came up with Prism's design?

Only if you want pages of excited chatter, anon *excited vibrating*

Here’s his concept page for reference:

So I’ve actually used Marc as a butterfly miraculous wielder before in an AU that never got written, so that’s where his name comes from. I think the original use of the butterfly miraculous, before it got corrupted or whatever Hawkmoth did to it, was to find people with strong, positive emotions\desires and turn them into champions to protect people. That’s where the “Prism” name comes from, turning an inner desire into outer power, like how when white light passes through a crystal it becomes a rainbow. I also liked how this tied into the pun with Marc’s name, since if you take out the M you get “arcanciel” or “arc en ciel” which is rainbow in french.

Back to his physical design. I never finalized what Butterfly Miraculous Prism looked like, but one detail that stayed concrete was the white hair becoming rainbow. Miraculous-Prism uses the Butterfly Miraculous as a hair accessory (It makes sense to me that you can wear a miraculous where ever you want and still use it so long as it’s on your person. Something like the Dragon choker could be worn as a bracelet, for example, or the Goat Barrette as lapel pins. The lady bug earrings could be cufflinks! Get creative!) And the divide between his white and colored hair is the miraculous. Obviously for Akuma Prism I couldn’t do that, so I just used a normal crystal.

Having realized that Reverser’s powers were similar enough that with a little tweak they could mimic the butterfly miraculous (changing a person’s self, Reverser made things opposite but doesn’t Hawkmoth kinda do that too? Most of the Akuma act completely different from how they would as normal people. Part of that is their driving emotion, but I really think it changes them at a fundamental level too, making them more honest about what they want.) I thought about how an Akuma version of that would work and came up with “true self” thing, which I think fit very well with the whole white light into a rainbow theme.

We’ve seen that if a person’s Akuma form changes (Invisable vs Miraculer for example) they can look completely different but I wanted to keep elements of Reverser in Akuma Prism’s design. The white was the easy part. I made his body suit black and white but that just looked boring. At first he had a more human looking face and skin tone too, but once again that was boring and he looked too human. So I thought back to the butterfly theme and was like what if I give him wings? Everyone in this show is already a furry I’m not making a stretch. The part where ‘at rest’ his wings fold over him like a robe was largely inspired by Big Chill from Ben 10. I’ve always liked his design, and giggled like an idiot when I realized I could make one side white and keep him kinda looking like Reverser, and turn the other side multicolor and keep his “Prism” theme. Originally the colored sides of his wings were more of a mosaic with all the colors on each wing, but I’m not a good enough artist to make that look good. I changed it to a simpler design because all the sketches with his mosaic wings looked like crap tbh.

There you have it anon! I hope this was what you were looking for and I didn’t ramble on too much 8D

#miraculous ladybug #marc anciel #Anonymous

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stfustucky · 6 years

Text

Here, have some bomb-ass Stucky fanfiction

I’ve been reading tons of fic the last few weeks in all the haze and craze of IW, and have come across some real gems. Time to make a rec post and share the love with all of you! Enjoy xx

Note: SOME FICS CONTAIN IW SPOILERS, so check the tags before you read! This post will be spoiler free.

.............

Grab Your Things (I’ve Come to Take You Home) by belovedmuerto 22,310 words, complete Explicit, no archive warnings apply -----> Steve getting hit with some sparkly purple sh*t during a battle and left with all of his old ailments gives Bucky the opportunity to do something he's been meaning to do for ages.

the way your face could light the bitter dark by Lizzen 2,760 words, complete Mature, author chose not to use archive warnings -----> Steve finds Bucky a year after the end of Infinity War. Fix-it fic ***CONTAINTS IW SPOILERS***

the cold never bothered me anyway by icoulddothisallday 75,562 words, complete Explicit, no archive warnings apply -----> Bucky Barnes has spent his whole life in a state of mild hypothermia. Steve Rogers has spent the last 70 years in the ice. The two things aren’t related until, suddenly, they are. Shrunkyclunks soulmate AU Author’s tumblr: @icoulddothisallday

So Alive by GottaSaveBucky 108,976 words, complete Explicit, -----> Steve is a comic book artist and creator of the character Captain America and only visits this bookstore because of the superior baked goods, honestly, not the gorgeous manager. Bucky designs the comic book displays in his little shop and tells everyone he meets about his favorite author, Steven G. Rogers.

The City in Which I Love You by magdaliny 5,209 words, complete Explicit, no archive warnings apply -----> Steve and Bucky raise baby goats together in Mongolia and everything is rainbows and sunshine and peace. Author’s tumblr: @magdaliny

Moosebumps by rohkeutta 4,207 words, complete Teen, no archive warnings apply ----->Steve and Bucky are road cyclists who don’t know each other until Bucky crashes into a moose and Steve has to go to his rescue. Author’s tumblr: @rohkeutta

Just Dropkick the Shame by MissyPJ, Rohkeutta 7,909 words, complete Explicit, no archive warnings apply ----->Bucky has a kind-of sort-of thing with his boss Steve Rogers, and also drunk-tweets about Captain America’s daddy level sometimes. Turns out those two hobbies may be more related than he thinks. Author’s tumblr: @rohkeutta

M is for Murder by Rohkeutta 4,196 words, complete Mature, no archive warnings apply ----->Bucky’s having a hard time paying rent and turns to tumblr for help. I’m pretty low on funds and need to make ends meet this month. I’m taking commissions for hits in the New York City area. Will Not Kill: Captain America or other Avengers. Will partially refund payment if target turns out to be HYDRA. Will not go to Jersey. No dismemberment or killing children. Message for negotiations and payment details. Author’s tumblr: @rohkeutta

Collateral by Aylwyyn228 13,384 words, complete Explicit, author chose not to use archive warnings -----> Thanks to Hydra’s mindfuckery, Bucky can’t be penetrated without a lot of pain and yet can’t achieve orgasm without getting fucked. He’s really trying to figure this shit out, though, preferably without breaking Steve’s heart in the process.

Darling Wolf by cleo4u2, xantissa 15,605 words, complete Explicit, no archive warnings apply -----> When Bucky put on the mask and browsed the clubs, he just wanted to find Steve. All he wanted to was to let go, to finally relax. He didn’t expect to find so many disappointing doms. All but one. The one he’d been looking for. The one he was afraid would find him. Authors’ tumblrs: @cleo4u2, @xantissa

Controlled Release by steebadore 9,073 words, complete Explicit, no archive warnings apply -----> Bucky's just having a little trouble...finishing. Completing the mission. He can squeeze the trigger but he can't make the shot is what he's saying. Which is why he's here, loitering outside a nice brownstone in Park Slope, trying to find the courage to knock on Captain Come Control dot com's door for his three o'clock appointment. You know, just normal Thursday things. Author’s tumblr: @steebadore

Mokusatsu by Shadesfalcon 125,492 words, complete Explicit, author chose not to use archive warnings -----> Clint Barton has been strung along from abusive relationship to abusive relationship all his life. Now, being trapped in a bureaucratically mandated relationship with not one but two doms is going to be difficult and dangerous. Especially since these two doms are both members of the Avengers themselves. He hopes that whenever he disappoints them, they’ll have at least a little pity on him, even though he knows he won’t deserve it. ***PLEASE READ TAGS CAREFULLY, CONTAINS VIOLENCE AND PAST ABUSE but it’s so so good. just like, be careful if you’re triggered by such things, okay?*** Author’s tumblr: @polyamoryavengers

The Changes we dread (are the changes we need) by araydre, sapphire_escapist 32,370 words, 3/12 chapters as of 5.7.18 Mature, no archive warnings apply -----> In a world where superhero IDs are still secret, Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers are both Captains America, and Bucky has had enough of SHIELD controlling their life since they woke up from a 70-year-old nap under the ice. So they do the only sensible thing to do and start auditioning to find the "third" Cap... which goes exactly as well as you'd imagine. Author’s tumblr: @cpt-winniethepooh

Carpe Noctem by GoldBlooded 68,169 words, 22/27 chapters as of 5.7.18 Explicit, creator chose not to use archive warnings -----> When the world’s power grid is shut down thanks to a terrorist organization, the world is plunged into an apocalyptic return to violent, domineering alphas and omegas who have to fear for their lives. Alpha!Bucky and Omega!Steve wind up on the run together hiding out in a bunker in the middle of nowhere, finding connection with each other in the midst of the world falling apart. Author’s tumblr: @duelingnebulas

How to Draw Fallen Angels by BetteNoire (WeAreWolves) 17,627 words, 4/? chapters as of 5.7.18 Explicit, no archive warnings apply -----> Steve Rogers, smol angry artist, helps out a guy having a panic attack in a museum café. No good deed, as they say, goes unpunished.

#I came in like a rec'ing ball #fic rec #stucky fic rec #stucky fic recs #stucky fanfiction #stucky fanfic #duelingnebulas #cpt-winniethepooh #rohkeutta #polyamoryavengers #cleo4u2 #xantissa #steebadore #magdaliny #icoulddothisallday

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fox-household · 5 years

Text

Act 4: Education and Moral Standards, Chapter 2

Alright, this one took even longer, I know there’s definitely a pattern here. But this sort of got delayed with personal issues, life stuff, school work and now the end of the school year is coming up, so yeah. While I’m not sure how the length of this chapter really compares to the others, but because of the fact that school is going to get harder soon and my feelings when it comes to progress, I’m going to start trying to post shorter chapters. One of the worst feelings I get is that since I haven’t posted anything for ages, I feel like I’ve made no progress at all, it really pains me sometimes and since I’ve been holding myself to some sort of standard of length, it feels daunting to write a new chapter even if the length probably isn’t as much as others do. Anyway content shouldn’t be lessened overall, just there will be a larger number of chapters. Thanks for being patient, hope it was at least 2% worth the wait if even that. FIRST, PREVIOUS, NEXT, INFO

Asgore The ten-minute drive was completely silent for the most part, all the goat child had to do was listen to the rumblings of the engine and Alphys make a few comments as she drove in her car, which the other two secretly found quite cramped compared to what they were used to. The light green Volkswagen had probably only been bought since the small stature of the owner was the only thing considered in the thought process of the buyer. Asgore continued watching all the familiar buildings go by, day after day he had seen them, yet despite this visual familiarity, he probably only knew about under half of them and what was inside. All these buildings had history, with people who ran it with their own fascinating stories to tell, tragic backstories to tales of luck and fortune, anything was possible within his ignorance and lack of knowledge, he much preferred it that way. The truth would only leave him one conclusion, no room for imagination, where was the fun in that? ‘’So Asgore, anything we should know about the school? Any warnings that we should be aware of?’’ The child turned his gaze from the window and looked to the skeleton in the front passenger seat, leaving a small moment of thought before answering, ‘’Not really, it’s pretty normal I guess. Got a pair of buildings to split the large amount of year levels, it goes P-12. So there might be a decent few people there… otherwise just talk to the people you need to talk to and get out.’’ Asgore’s words were slow and deliberate which appeared to amuse Sci slightly judging from the way he let out an amused huff, ‘’Fair enough. I’m sure it won’t be that bad buddy, everything’s going to be ok.’’ The backseat passenger didn’t appear too convinced, ‘’Well, we’ll see shall we?’’ The car took a sharp right turn and the three of them ended up leaning in the other direction before straightening up again. ‘’Alright, how about this, we go out and do something fun later tonight, something just a little different?’’ This seemed to intrigue both Alphys and Asgore, the goat tilted his head slightly and watched the skeleton while the driver gave a small glance, ‘’Th-that does s-sound nice, d-do you have something in m-mind?’’ ‘’Yeah, like maybe we could go out tonight and get some sweets? Brighten up the mood a little bit. Would something like that please everyone? I’ll even shout for us all.’’ The other two looked at him, both with a smile, Asgore found it was him that was going to speak for the both of them. ‘’Alright Sci, I’ll hold you to that, sounds like a plan. Better not forget buddy’’ He chuckled lightly, a happy smile appearing on his face, ‘’Guess I have something to look forward to now’’. The child’s gaze returned to the window, except this time it was in higher spirits, deciding to now focus on the potential positives of this experiences, whatever they maybe. Eventually the vehicle reached their destination, turning into a carpark outside a large brick building with multiple floors, windows and even a bit of a garden around the edges. Looking from the outside the place seemed a bit unremarkable as the building didn’t really have any decorations or any sort of grand design on it’s exterior and the yard around was just paths and grass for the most part, at least on the side they were on, if it wasn’t for the size of the place there might’ve been a slight question to how much money they actually had. The trio left the car and looked up at the closest building, the silence being broken by Sci, ‘’Uh Asgore, is this…. It?’’. The goat seemed the be in happier spirits now, some of his usual energy being rejuvenated, ‘’Yes of course it is, this is the high school building, you know, 7-12?’’ He crossed his arms and shook his head slowly, ‘’Although I assume you’re talking about the lack of uh… colour and variety? Well we personally think they decided that design doesn’t matter for high schoolers, like all people only care about the facilities, if you head over to the primary building, it looks quite colourful and child friendly.’’ Asgore shrugged and with putting his hands in his jumper pockets, he started to walk towards the front entrance to the school. The other two followed behind, letting him lead the way, ‘’I-it’s uh a l-little bigger th-than I th-thought it would be… do a lot of p-people come to this school?’’ ‘’It holds a good number, a thousand maybe? I’ve never really thought about it before, but there’s enough that I don’t really know everyone, probably don’t take my word for it at all’’. The entrance held a little above ground level, access being restricted by up by stone stairs or a ramp that came from the side, above the glass-wood doors was the name of the school in a bolded, fancy font that he hadn’t ever really cared to co ’McConville Academy’ They went to the front desk at first and signed in at a record book, being greeted by a middle-aged turtle monster who asked the adults a few questions about who they were, a suspicious tone pervasive throughout, they both deemed it was fair enough that they questioned two random people that just had wandered into the school. After a few minutes and one explanation from Asgore about why they were here, they were free to go on their way. Alphys looked at a crumpled piece of paper that she’d been gripping onto, ‘’S-so it s-says here th-that, um E-English is first i-in l-like fifteen m-minutes? You know wh-where to go?’’ Asgore nodded, ‘’Yep, second floor, room 14. Honestly not to bad for a second-floor room. The teacher I suppose isn’t to bad either.’’ ‘’You like English kid?’’ Sci’s question prompted a small shrug from the prince leading them, ‘’English is fine half the time, I think I do ok. Depends on what we’re doing I suppose.’’ Being led by Asgore, the group arrived at a classroom with seats outside it as an obvious station to wait. They sat down on the chairs that were closest to the door and remained silent, thinking to themselves. Asgore looked at the other two, Sci seemed as calm as ever but Alphys on the other hand seemed more nervous than usual, the way she had her hands together twitching and tapping made him worry a little, was she going to be alright, did she realise she didn’t have to do anything except listen? The seconds waiting there turned to minutes until finally a pair of adult monsters left the classroom and they heard a yell from inside for ‘’NEXT, COME IN!’’. They obliged and ended up finding what amounted to a mostly empty classroom, all the chairs that were normally there could be found stacked up at the side of the room, the tables were nowhere to be seen, the windows showed back out to the front of the school, the entrance they came in quite visible from their elevated position. The main attraction, made obvious by being the only thing of note, was the teacher’s desk with four chairs in the front of it, the desk itself was recently cleaned and had nothing except for a small stack of paper and a nameplate that matched the large name written on the blackboard on the wall behind the desk. ‘’Mr Breve’’ Although the blackboard included underneath it ‘Music and English Teacher’. The teacher himself was sitting behind the desk, a Shyren cladded in a white t-shirt, leaning backwards on his chair and humming a slow tune to himself. As the three of them took their seats, he decided to get the opening word in, his voice having some sort of song like rhythm to it. ‘’Something seems off here… one of you may be a skeleton yet, none of you are Doctor Gaster, you are the same Asgore right? Or has there been a mix up?’’ The Shyren’s tone didn’t portray any worry or annoyance as he moved forwards so his chair and himself were properly upright, looking between the visitors. ‘’O-oh uh, n-nice to meet y-you sir, we’re umm… stepping i-in for G-Gaster, he couldn’t make it sir.’’ A sympathetic smile came across the teacher’s face as he watched the female monster fumble her words, ‘’Well that’s a shame, but no worries, I’m just as happy to meet you two. Oh and please, don’t call me sir, just call me Breve’’. Now getting up from his chair to give a handshake, both taking the handshake one after the other. ‘’A-Alphys’’ ‘’Sci’’ ‘’Oh lovely, may I also implore your relationship with this fine young man here? Why you have taken him instead of the good Doctor?’’ Sci gave a shrug, deciding to take this question for the two of them, his smile being a calm one, yet his eyes seemed to be approaching half closed, as if he was just going to fall asleep in a few minutes. ‘’Yeah I guess we’re mostly just friends, at the moment acting guardians I suppose you could say, right?’’ Concerned looks were given towards Sci by the other two as he looked over, but nothing was said quite yet about his tired expression, ‘’Uh y-yeah, we’re his g-guardians.’’ The child spoke up now, his tone rushed as his desire to get things moving along, ‘’So shall we talk about how well I do in English, we’re in here for that reason after all.’’ Mr Breve gave a relaxed sigh and smiled, ‘’Guess you don’t want to be here long huh? Well let’s begin shall we?’’ He brought his hands together and stretched his fingers, making a cracking noise. Using the next few moments of silence to his advantage, he thought about what he was going to comment on first. ‘’Well I suppose to start with negatives… the kid’s not that great at analysing things, just seems to struggle with it… disagree?’’ Realising the question was pointed at him, the goat shrugged dismissively, ‘’Yeah, I mean I guess, don’t really get it honestly, really hate trying to figure out those persuasive articles.’’ Asgore started to smile slightly, his eyes bringing a slight spark of hope, ‘’But I am improving right Mr Breve? My marks are getting better I’m sure of it’’. A kind smile approached his lips, ‘’Yes you are, I think with a little effort you’ll get there… and let me tell you guys, he doesn’t slack on the effort that’s for sure. Real hard worker this one.’’ With that the goat seemed quite happy and prideful, looking to the other two now, Alphys appeared to be happy with that at least, while Sci seemed… almost asleep? ‘’Also Asgore here is quite skilled at writing his own stuff, like stories or even argumentative pieces sometimes. Also, surprisingly, this trooper here is quite the poet, he has a way with words that help portray emotions and sometimes even make you feel things, probably one of the only ones in my class that doesn’t mind when poetry comes up. Even with those argumentative pieces, while he maybe weaker when it comes to using logic, reason and some of the more nitty gritty stuff, he makes fine work when it comes to making you care, making you actually want to agree with him through feeling. All in all, for what he lacks in some areas, I believe he well makes up for in others… anything you would like to add Asgore or even anything you two would like to ask? Man, the compliment part is so much more fun the other stuff. ’’ Asgore beamed at his teacher, ‘’No sir, I’m good.’’ The lizard monster shook her head, giving a smile, ‘’N-no I th-think that’s g-good to h-hear. Thanks s-so much f-for seeing u-us’’. ‘’No thank you for coming in, always appreciated. Also here, catch, can’t leave without the complimentary treat.’’ Mr Breve pulled out two things out of his desk, one being a small chocolate in a blue and silver wrapper which he chucked to Asgore, another being a bouncy ball which he started to throw up in the air once he was leaning back in his chair. ‘’Oh, by the way, I don’t know if you guys knew but Asgore doesn’t actually have to be present for these interviews, you could’ve just left him home, you guys seem pretty chill, so I’ll let you onto a little secret. Bringing the student always makes things just a little more awkward, or at least to me it does.’’ Asgore and Alphys had already got out of their chairs by this point, both looking surprised, the prince a little more than the other. ‘’Wh-what? But I thought it was mandatory, isn’t that why I’ve always had to come?’’ The monster let out a chuckle, ‘’Nah my dude, it was Gaster who was making you come. A real scary time usually, like you guys are cool because you’re chill. But he’s always so serious and down to business, can tell he’s calculating every negative I feed him… the guy could just learn to calm down you know, or at least put on a smile? Maybe he needs a soothing song once in a while… but you didn’t hear this from me alright?’’ Asgore giggled and let out a very amused expression, ‘’Your secret is safe with me Mr Breve, trust me’’ ‘’Also uh, can you make sure you guys take your friend with you ok?’’ The two suddenly became aware of a snoring noise coming from the room and they both could only give puzzled and concerned looks towards their now fully asleep companion, his bones rattling slightly with each breath. ‘’Hey Sci, is something the matter?’’, Asgore closed the door behind him after letting another family into the classroom, now they stood in an empty school hallway. Sci mumbled something inaudible before speaking, he had the type of tone that someone would make when they were trying to brush off a situation, ‘’Yeah I’m fine sorry, j-just not feeling great, maybe I’m getting sick? Would you mind if you let me freshen up or something in the bathroom?’’ ‘’Y-you s-sure you’re going t-to be ok? Th-this doesn’t s-seem r-really n-normal… a-also do y-you need Asgore t-to show y-you where to go?’’ Alphys watched him, no one could tell what doom bringing possibilities she was going over in her head. ‘’Nah I’m fine, don’t worry, I um think we passed one on the way here?’’ The skeleton in a manner that made it seem like he was in a rush, started backing away from them. ‘’R-really… I g-guess I didn’t n-notice it, w-well you stay safe I suppose’’. ‘’Make sure to give us a call if you need anything alright, don’t want you to be our school’s first injury from falling asleep.’’ With a surprisingly hearty chuckle, Sci gave a thumbs up and walked out of view. The remaining two looked at each other. ‘’Hey uh Al, you think he’s actually alright?’’ Alphys stopped her a moment and thought for a second before answering, giving a faint smile and the goat a slight ruffle of his hair, ‘’I hope so, b-but wh-whatever happens, w-we’ll m-make sure to w-work it out.’’ She gave a small sigh and a bigger smile towards Asgore, ‘’Y-you can g-go you know? Do wh-whatever you w-want, wander a-around, I’ll t-take care of th-this ok?’’ The boy crossed his arms with a suspicious gaze, ‘’Are you sure? I mean you’re going to be all by yourself and you don’t know this school… sounds like you could use a guide’’. ‘’N-no, no, d-don’t you worry about m-me, I’ll uh f-figure it o-out, I-I j-just don’t want t-to drag you a-around. Plus i-if all y-your teachers are like h-him, than things sh-should be fine.’’ ‘’Well at least head to the front office and ask for a map, take a picture with your phone or something, that way you’ll know where to go…’’, Asgore grinned and grabbed Alphys in a hug, ‘’…thanks Al, you’re the best, you’ll go great… just uh watch out for the art teach alright? She’s a little full on.’’ The scientist was smiling just a moment ago, giving a tight squeeze, before worry went over her face. ‘’U-uh full on in umm wh-what way?’’ The response she got from that question wasn’t exactly what she was hoping for, a chuckle and an ominous ‘’Oh you’ll see.’’

#SCIENCE SANS #glitchtale alphys #quantumtale asgore #fox household #story #undertale #school life

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dailyaudiobible · 6 years

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04/30/2018 DAB Transcript

Judges 9:22-10:1, John 1:1-28 , Psalms 101:1-8, Proverbs 14:13-14

Today is the 30th day of April. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I'm Brian. And it is great to be here with you today. So, we just got started into a new week. And here we are ending a month. This is going to complete four straight months together moving day by day through the Scriptures and we'll leaving the month of April behind us after this and move into May. So, it's great to be here with you today. And not only are we closing a month, we're opening a book. When we get to the New Testament portion of our reading today, we will launch ourselves into the final gospel, the gospel of John. And we'll talk about that when we get there. But before all of that, let's pick up where we left off in the book of Judges. And today we'll read Judges 11 and 12. We're reading from the Names of God Bible this week.

Introduction to the book of John:

Okay. So, we concluded the book of Luke, which is the third of the gospels yesterday, which means we have arrived at the book of John, which is the final of the grouping of books known as the gospels. And those books are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And as we've talked about in the past, while we went through Matthew, Mark and Luke, we mentioned that these are known as the synoptic gospels largely because there's a definite harmony to them. In many ways, they cover very similar ground. And they seem to be sharing the same traditions and stories. Now that we've come to the gospel of John, John is quite a bit different. It's about 90% different in fact. There's only about 10% of John that refers back to any of the material in the synoptic gospels. John, of course, was one of Jesus disciples and there really isn't any contention over who wrote the book of John. There are many compelling facts, even in other church histories, that John was the author of the gospel of John, and that he wrote these things down after he moved from Jerusalem to Ephesus during the latter part of his life. After Jesus died and was raised from the dead ascended back to heaven, John went on to be a church leader in Jerusalem. He was known as a pillar of the church in Jerusalem. A core leader. But he did leave Jerusalem somewhere around AD 66. And in AD 70, so four years later, the Romans...I mean, they just had had enough of the uprisings and they came and completed leveled Jerusalem. But it's believed that John left a few years before that happened and moved to Ephesus where he was a church leader there. And there's quite a bit of historical evidence to prove this. There were many young disciples of the older John who went on to live lives after he died and wrote stories of his life and of the early church and some of those stories still survive today. John wrote his gospel, then, probably in Ephesus later in his life and he refers to some of the other stories in the synoptic gospels. And, so, it seems that he had knowledge of them. And that this, then, would be the last gospel written. Because, I mean, we can think, Ah, I read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and they kind of all were written at the same time, and, you know, everybody got together and had a writing party and wrote these things down. But that's not how it happened. Mark would have been the first gospel written. And then it would have been about fifteen years before Matthew and Luke found there place in the story. And then about fifteen years after that is when we get to John. So, John is the final gospel written and he knew the traditions of the gospel. Obviously he was a disciple of Jesus. So, he knew the stories because he was there. But he also knew what had already been written down. And rather than telling the same stories, he, in effect, wrote the rest of the story. This is important because, whereas the other gospels were meant to give the story of Jesus and a compelling reason to believe in Jesus, John wrote his gospel to people who already believed. He wrote it to strengthen, deepen the faith of those who had already come to know Jesus. So, we'll notice as we go through that John has an interesting writing style. It's very, very unlike Luke, which is very linear. John is more stream of consciousness in a way. It's not written in a linear fashion. It's not A to Z. John may make a point that he comes back to later on. In fact, he does this a lot. So, if we embrace this, we'll find that the language is conversational and beautiful, rather than just historical account of events. He's putting his heart, his feeling, his feelings about what he's saying into the gospel. And we'll find that the spirit of the book is very passionate and very and very careful. And it's a beautiful experience following the synoptic gospels. John's gospel is more intimately written. And reading it gives us the sense of kind of being one of those early followers of John. Maybe sitting at the feet of the old saint and listening to him tell the stories. Stories of his life, stories that he actually witnessed and participated in. Stories that had shaped him and that had grown sweet with age told by a great man who had experienced these fantastic things about this man named Jesus. And so we begin the final gospel. John chapter 1 verses 1 to 28.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we are ending a month. We have also begun the book of John. And we've already spent some time talking about that. But it's hard to just blow by what's going on in the book of Judges with the judge Jephthah because it's like he sacrifices his daughter to God, right? So, what's that all about? And each year when we come to these particular passages we talk about them for a second rather than just kind of tip-toeing, you know, beyond like they don't exist. There are some stories in the Bible where you're like, wait a minute. What in the world is happening? It's very easy to just read through the story and go like, this doesn't work. Like, why is this in the Bible, why is God condoning this? And it kind of leaves us uneasy. So, rather than just dancing around it, we need to just go there for a second and talk about it. We're in the book of Judges, so we're watching generation after generation after Joshua in the Promised Land. And we're watching what the people are doing. And we're seeing that they're doing everything they were warned not to do. And we're seeing the repercussions of that. So, the people have not obeyed Moses teachings. They have not obeyed Joshua's leadership. They have strayed as they were warned and they are chasing after other gods, they are chasing after other people. They are mingling and they are becoming something different than what they were designed to be. And so they're mixing the worship of Yahweh, the worship of God with the Baals, the Asherah’s and it's becoming something else. So,me hybrid thing. And there's definitely archaeological evidence to this fact that still exists today. People worshipping Yahweh while worshipping a goddess of some sort, usually Asherah, at the same time. So, as we go through the book of Judges, we can safely say the train has come off the tracks and we are in a season where God is still around, certainly, but the people have largely abandoned relationship with him. So, this Jephthah story that we just read. You know, he's sent away because he's the son of a prostitute and he's brought back so he can fight a battle. And we can see that his upbringing hasn't... He hasn't been raised in the ways of the Lord. He's been raised in the ways of the culture that he's in. And the Bible describes the culture that he's in as one in which people were doing what they pleased. Whatever was right in their own eyes. So, when Jephthah makes this interesting vow, whatever comes out my front door when I come back as I'm victorious in battle, I'll sacrifice that to the Lord. I mean, what kind of a vow is that, right? What are you hoping comes out your front door? A goat? The family dog? But as it turns out, it's his only child who happens to be a daughter. And when he realizes what he's done, he's made this vow to God and now his daughter is the one that he's promised to God he's gonna sacrifice, he doesn't know how to get out of that and so he is heartbroken. His daughter goes away for a couple months, comes back. And I've studied this. I've gone through this passage extensively just to see is that really what happened? And, I mean, it seems like that's really what happened. He sacrificed his daughter. She willingly gave herself up. So, we can be revolted cause that's a revolving thing. And then we can have questions about why God wanted this or why he let this happen. And that's also very very problematic, if not revolting, right? So, then we have to go back to the text and try to find God in it. And then we find out, oh, he didn’t tell Jephthah to do this. He didn't ask for it. He didn't make any promises over it, he has nothing to do with this. And, in fact, although God is not giving any instructions to Jephthah in this whole scenario, he does have some thoughts about human sacrifice. And on multiple occasions, God speaks about that. And he says, that isn't something that even ever crossed my mind. I didn't invent this. In fact, it's one of the behaviors that were happening in the Promised Land that God was trying to eradicate by allowing Israel to come into and take over the Promised Land. So, now what we have is a look at how sideways things have gotten for the culture, for the people in the book of Judges. They're doing things to honor God that God has already declared he despises. This is how backwards things have gotten for the children of Israel after Joshua and the generations that follow, the centuries that follow. But this is how sideways we can get in our mixed culture and our mixed religious beliefs. And when we get trapped in our religion and forget that what we're actually here to be is in a relationship. So, we can go back to the story of Jephthah and realize there were no angels instructing any of this. God wasn't present in any way asking for this. And it's a heartbreaking story that never needed to happen. And then all of the sudden, well then all of the sudden things can bubble up out of our own heart. Because there's a lot of things that we thought we should do or? be done or whatever that didn't need to happen. And there is no point trying to blame God for what he had nothing to do with. And our lives are in the story that we read today.

Prayer:

And, so, Father, we thank You for Your word. And we thank You for the things that it brings up. sometimes it tears the scab off. sometimes it pricks us. sometimes it comforts and soothes us. But it is always pulling us forward. It's always inviting us deeper into relationship with You. And, so, we invite You, Lord, to plant the words spoken today from the Scriptures in our hearts and lead us into all truth as You've promised. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

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And that's it for today. I'm Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hey everybody. Hey, this is Annette Allison from Oklahoma City. You guys crack me up. Hey, standing out here by the fire. I’ve got some roasty, toasty marshmallows I’m fixing to throw on the campfire. And maybe a nice pot of stew in a big old cast-iron pot with a nice lid all smoked up in the fire. It’s gonna taste great. Hey, I just want to give glory to God today. Woo hoo! All of my project that I’ve been working on for __ and bought by the company, by the Air Force, and by my base, and by my superiors, and the shop is coming in line. And I want to thank all of you people who have maybe thought about that and thought about me and supported me through prayer and nice emails and things like that because it’s been a big situation. So, through God’s help and just helped me out with all of the things that had to be done in the knowledge that I had to learn to even do the job in the first place. That’s great. I am just thankful, thankful, thankful. In the end of…oh…in another week I am going to go see my sons Ricky and Alex up there in Greeley and Loveland Colorado. So, I’m looking forward to that. And the week after that I have a thousand mile ride that I’m going to be completing with my husband. Woo hoo! And we’re going to be doing the four corners area. And, so, what I understand is there’s gonna be like a couple thousand people on the ride. So, hey, pray that maybe I get to talk to Jesus, talk to people about Jesus, and I might get to talk to Jesus. And just pray for everybody’s safety because that’s a lot of people and a lot of coordination. I love you guys. I’ll talk to you all soon.

Hi Brian and Jill hi DAB family. This is Viv from Canada. I’m calling in today because I saw a post from Lisa. And Lisa, my dear sister, I just want to call in and encourage you. Hopefully I can encourage you the way that you have been encouraging so many of us over the past few months. And I just want to let you know that I am really sorry for the loss of Jeff’s dad. And I just want to pray for you and your family right now. So, Father God, Lord Almighty, I lift my sister and husband Jeff and their family to You Lord. And Lord God, I just thank You for being there for them, bringing them through a period of time when they had anxiety for when Jeff’s dad was in the hospital. And now that he’s gone Lord I just pray Father God that You will be there to comfort them Lord to pull them to Your bosom Lord Jesus. I pray Father God that You will bring people alongside them who would help them through this difficult time. Father God You are Savior, You’re a healer, You’re a deliver and I pray Lord God that You will heal and deliver this family through this painful time. Father, I lift them up to You and ask Lord God that You would just shine a light into their life right now, Lord, something that would just let them know that You are there. Father I thank You for what You’re going to do in their life and I pray for healing of their spirit Lord. I lift them up to You Lord Jesus. And I pray Lord God that You’ll just protect them, protect their emotions. And I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

Hey DAB family this is Sharon in Chicago. I haven’t called in a little while. I just was listening to some of the prayer requests that I heard Mel from, I believe, Central Florida calling and just kind of tugged at my heart. So, it’s pray. God thanks so much for today. Thank you that you are the one that invented sleep and you don’t need sleep but we do and you know that. So, we ask that you would just give Mel the ability to fall asleep, whatever would create that, that you would just do that in her body in her mind and that you give her the energy that she needs to get through the day and for anybody else that struggles with sleep deprivation. I think…I believe her name is my little Sharee that called about that too. So, we ask that You just do a mighty work in their lives. Thank You that You have brought about some healing in that regard for my brother and I ask that You do that for my dad as well. And thank You that You are powerful and that prayer is powerful. Please help my heart be able to remember that and be willing to acknowledge that You are good and that Your plans are best. Please help our hearts not give up hope. And we ask that You would restore to us the joy of our salvation. Greatness __ Spirit. Amen. Thank You for this prayer line. Thank You the words uttered to not only change the course of future but also just encourage and strengthen our hearts. Amen. Bye guys. Have a good day.

Good morning DAB family this is Paula calling from Albuquerque. I hope you guys are doing well. It’s Friday, the 27th of April. I just wanted to call in for couple of things that have really touched my heart this week as I’m listening to the podcast and to community prayer from last weekend. Sharon in California, No Longer Victorious. It sounds like you’ve given up hope. Go read Romans 8:24 and 25 and other Scripture you can find on hope. That’s our word for this year, remember? And I know it’s not an accident that my next journal that I started writing in this year is, ‘Dear God give me hope.’ And, so, all the Scriptures in it are about hope. I hope that encourages you. Also want to lift up all the men that are suffering the consequences of sin in their life, that you all are coming forward and you’re taking that power back from Satan. Praise God for you. For Brian and Jill’s marriage, Jacqueline my sister and family in San Angelo California, Salvation is Mine, continuing to lift you up always. Walta, for your mom and hospice, I could hear the heaviness in your voice. Praying for you. Dwayne in and Wisconsin. Karen in St. Louis, you really touched my heart. I’m 60 and went through a divorce 11 years ago and I have felt those same things even though I have been married before, I have felt those same things. And thank you Sonja for your call today to encourage her because God will do whatever He wants to do in His time. We must remember that it’s according to His will not our own. EZ, thank you for your call of encouragement as well. Terria, when you pray, the Holy Spirit knows what you are trying to say even when you don’t have the words. I hope that enco…

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