#that said based on timing I assume this is about the bullet with its casing still on post in which case. idk what you'd want me to do?

[supreme-leader-stoat]

wait stoat are you a zionist

I mean if by that you mean "I don't think the state of Israel deserves to be wiped from existence," then sure.

#I'm being facetious here but. that's what it comes down to. #I think that the state of Israel has a right to exist. that is the basic entry-level qualifier for Zionism #that said based on timing I assume this is about the bullet with its casing still on post in which case. idk what you'd want me to do? #like even if I wasn't a zionist surely you can see how blatant misinformation deserves to be called out right?

[jeonstellate]

selene’s concerto — movement iii

as the sun continued to reign over the horizon, a part of your history repeated itself.

◎༄ jeon wonwoo x gender neutral!reader

◎༄ time travel!au, royal!au, moon lovers: scarlet heart ryeo-inspired!au

◎༄ bulleted list format — 2.5K words

masterlist | s. concerto masterlist | movement iv

[gif’s full credit belongs solely to its owner]

◎༄ remember when i wrote this, this, & this? yea, me neither. but apparently it’s been ~2 years since, oml. as of rn, there should be two more parts after this. hopefully, they don’t take me another 2 years . . .

◎༄ taglist: @jadesniall (msg me to be added!)

you miraculously reached the jeon household in one piece

of course, that feat isn’t without you making sure you didn’t fracture anything

and also you making sure that there isn’t any evidence on you

bc or else the princes and your fourth cousin would bombard you with questions once you arrive

surprisingly, though, despite the mishap, you are still the first one to set foot on the jeon household

so you told one of the handmaidens there to just come and find you when the lees have arrived

most of the time, when you happen to be the earliest, you seek out prince jungkook or his betrothed

just to bother them, really

but sometimes, you opt to just let time pass by taking a nap at the jeons’ botanical garden

you don’t lie down on the flowers, ofc

(you were taught better than that, js)

rather, you climb a tree and sleep on one of the branches

(just to clarify: it’s one of those trees with a large base and thick branches, like an oak tree or smth)

(the point is, it can support your weight just fine)

not sure if that’s comfortable, but you do it most of the time anw

esp if you’re not that tired to climb one

which was today’s case

tmi but one time you were so tired that you couldn’t climb up a tree and just passed out in the gazebo

since everyone knew your favorite napping spot is up your favorite tree, they assumed they would find you there that time too

but then you weren’t, so they actually had to make an effort to be able to locate you

in the end, they found you thirty-five-ish mins later because you?? somehow?? found?? the most secluded?? part of the?? gazebo??

lmao good times good times

so yea

you slept

and forgot about wtv mishap happened to you today

unbeknownst to you, the princes started gathering little by little while you slept

“where’s [first name]?”

the princes that cared about you the most (read: crown prince joongi and fifth prince seunghoon) arrived last, so they barely started caring about your whereabouts then

“the head maid said they headed to the garden when they arrived,” tenth prince seonwoo informs his eldest brother

“[nickname] must be sleeping then,” prince seunghoon concludes

“who’s [first name]? [nickname]?” a voice asks, prompting everyone present to look at its source

“ah, wonwoo, you’re here,” crown prince recognizes his brother’s presence, “finally after seven years”

“yea,” fourth prince taejoon chimes in, “seven years too long”

“not my fault,” the sixth prince shrugs

“ya! listen to this punk,” third prince exclaims, “he sounds like he didn’t even miss his brothers”

“the border has kept me too occupied,” prince wonwoo defends himself almost nonchalantly, with no remorse in his voice whatsoever

his brothers takes immediately notice of how he didn’t even confirm nor deny prince inyeop’s accusation

but no one bothers to point it out

after all, even if seven years had already passed, their brother still seems to remain the same

the sixth prince — who inherited their father’s cold, fox-like eyes — also conceals any warm emotion he feels to appear more like ice

truthfully, all the princes have that kind of cold intimidation around them

perhaps save for the fifth and seventh prince

and maybe the tenth, too

but the sixth born arguably has one of the strongest

something that only the first born can rival

given that they both got their strengthened aura after years in the battlefield

lowk it’s debatable who has the real strongest cold aura tho, ngl

the first prince had spent more than a decade in total in the battlefield, so he’s def more experienced than the sixth prince

however, according to rumors, prince joongi has gotten “softer” ever since he got married

and no one is really brave enough to confirm it, so

anyway

however

no fight nor battle has managed to take away their affections for their brothers

even if they refuse to admit it

and they both know their brothers well enough to know that they know that they care for them

so, yeah

there’s no really need for the sixth prince to admit it out loud

so the literal translation for his reply to prince inyeop is: “i did miss you guys”

or at least that’s how his brothers heard it

“we missed you, too, hyung-nim,” seventh prince replies on behalf of the rest

“yea,” prince seunghoon adds on, “that’s why you should go fetch [first name] at the garden”

(trust the fifth prince to pass the thing that prolly would’ve been ordered to him otherwise lmao)

prince wonwoo is about to argue, mostly about not knowing who even that is, but he’s easily overpowered by his six brothers

yea

that’s right

he might be a well-decorated warrior, but his skills are subpar when it comes to winning against his brothers

he can’t be good at everything, man

“[first name] should be on one of the trees!” they called after his retreating figure, “if not, look in the gazebo!”

the sixth prince thought it would be more practical to look for [first name] at the gazebo first since it was closer

but he finds no one there, so he figures the person he is looking for is really by the trees

so off he goes

in all honesty, prince wonwoo has no idea who he is supposed to be looking for

but he figures he’d spot that person easily

after all, who else would sleep at the garden??

and sure enough, it didn’t take him that long to spot someone on top of a tree

looking like they’re in an uncomfortable position, but sleeping peacefully nonetheless

frankly, the sixth prince isn’t the one to judge others quickly

especially given that others do that to him too often for his liking

which eventually landed him an unpleasant nickname in the streets

but that’s a story for another time

but it’d be a lie to say that he isn’t literally judging the person on the tree rn

justifiably so, though, bc

who?? in their right mind?? prefers to sleep on top of a tree?? instead of somewhere more comfortable?? and safer??

like, who knows, a guest room?? or even just inside the gazebo?? on the grass??

the jeon household is wide enough to house dozens — if not hundreds — of guests, there’s absolutely no way every single room is already preoccupied atm

esp with his temporary stay, which might’ve prompted some to steer clear from the household

sure, the gazebo might be a hard, concrete surface . . . but at least there are pillows in there??

plus there’s shade there as well . . . so why wasn’t that the main choice for naps?

and as for the grass . . . they can move wherever which way they want?? bc there’s no danger of falling?? and the grass should definitely be softer for the back than the branch is??

sigh, wtv

the person’s peculiar napping spot shouldn’t be his main concern rn

esp since he has no idea how to wake them up without activating the threat of falling

prince wonwoo’s chosen first course of action is to call their name — or at least, the name his brothers addressed the person as

“[first name]? [first name]?”

he unconsciously holds his breath when the person in question stirs in their sleep, suddenly more alert just in case they fall

much to his relief and slight amusement, [first name] doesn’t wake up and fall

so he tries again, this time with a louder voice

when that doesn’t seem to work either, he increased his voice volume again

as in closer to the volume that he commands his troops with

he won’t be surprised if his brothers heard it from where they are tbh

and yet

still nothing

[first name] literally just shifted their position to face away from him

and continued their journey in dreamland

prince wonwoo could’ve sworn he heard his voice echo so it was definitely loud

so how the fck did this person sleep through it??

in that person’s defense, they’re having an intriguing dream

esp since that person happened to be you

aka someone who just got treated like a sack of potatoes earlier by a masked rider

but the prince doesn’t know that

and does he need to?

maybe

maybe not

to him, you’re literally just the person his brothers want him to retrieve

and to you, he is the voice of the man in your dreams

yk the man you kept dreaming about? the one with specs and rolled up sleeves?

(if you need a refresher, here)

yea, him

okay, but really . . . that was kind of . . .

a lie

prince wonwoo’s — although you don’t know that it’s him yet — voice is actually coming through in your dream as a voice over

like an unseen narrator whose only lines are your name

or like a heavenly being who’s urging you to step into the light

either way, it’s unsettling to hear any voice in your dream

especially since it’s a dream you’ve had for a million times already

you basically already know what is supposed to happen, frame by frame

and that voice is definitely new

God???

God, is that you???

in your defense, it’s rlly coming off as someone omnipresent

yes, the voice is strangely matching the timing of the man in your dreams

but the shape of his mouth is definitely not matching the words you’re hearing

so, obviously, that voice can only be God

sure, you might not entirely believe in anything religious but honestly, as someone who somehow managed to travel back in time, you’re willing to think of anything

even if you don’t necessarily believe in it

duh

except . . .

is God allowed to curse?

‘cause you were certainly hearing a colorful language now

mixed with your name, ofc

wait wait wait

what if—

if it isn’t God, but Sa—

Sa—

you wake up with a start.

you’re so startled by the prospect of dreaming of the devil that you

plummet down before you can even remember where you were

rip

you instinctively closed your eyes as you wait your body to hit the ground

however, the pain never comes

and as much as you’re glad you didn’t feel any pain, you’re highly suspicious why you didn’t

so you opened your eyes

just to see something oddly familiar obstructing your view

your eyes shoots up in panic, as you mentally chant

“pleasedon’tbewhoithinkyouare” “pleasedon’tbewhoithinkyouare” “pleasedon’tbewhoithinkyouare” “pleasedon’t—”

unfortunately, no matter how many times you repeated it nor how fast you said it, you didn’t seem to be heard

which is a matter you quickly realized after making eye contact with a familiar masked man

aka the same masked rider that dropped you from a moving horse

aka the person you desperately wished he wasn’t

oh, what luck

the universe really likes you, it seems

please note the sarcasm

“you!” your voice holds so much disdain

“you again,” contrary to your disdain, his voice sounds exhausted, like he can’t believe he’s dealing with you again

excuse him, but you can’t believe you’re dealing with him again, either

if anything, between the two of you, you’re certainly the one who’s against your paths crossing again the most

and, really, no one can even blame you, if ever

esp considering that he did just drop you on the ground unceremoniously

“why are you here!” you can’t even bring yourself to make your exclamation sound like a question, “put me down!”

. . .

. . .

. . .

*facepalm*

clearly, you haven’t learned your lesson the first time

and clearly, this masked man is a little too great at following commands

“why am i here?” you hear him scoff while you try not cuss him out for dropping you. again. “shouldn’t i be the one asking you that?”

“i asked you first”

“why do i need a reason to be in my household?”

at that point, you have successfully used the tree trunk to help yourself stand, but you almost lost your footing the second he said that

thankfully, you’re able to regain it before you looked like a fool in front of him

phew

“what— what did you just say?”

you aren’t rlly sure if you actually wanted him to repeat what he just said, ngl

mostly bc you aren’t sure if you want him to confirm his identity

but oh well

too late now

“this is my household,” he repeats,

“i am prince wonwoo of the jeons, sixth prince of the kingdom, fifth-in-line to the throne”

.

.

.

.

.

meeting the prince who completed the ensemble of the king’s alive sons didn’t change anything in your life

at least that’s what you hoped to say

unfortunately, it isn’t necessarily the case

for one, you gained an “enemy” in the sixth prince

technically, you kind of treat the sixth and the third prince similarly

except your banters with the sixth prince aren’t exactly playful

on hindsight, it’ll be better to assume that you get along far better with the third prince

since, at least, you just tease each other to make your days more interesting

there’s only so much you can do for entertainment in this era yk

however, for the younger prince, there’s a feeling of . . . antagonism, almost

it’s definitely one-sided since you’re most likely the only one who feels that way

since prince wonwoo doesn’t seem to care

but wtv

you can’t just forget he dropped you off a horse

and then proceeded to drop you again that same day when you met for the second time

he hasn’t even apologized for either one, btw

when you tried to confront him about it one time and basically told him to tell you sorry

he just rose one of his eyebrows, scoffed, and then said: “you’re the one who told me to put you down. why should i apologize for doing what you told me to do?”

. . .

. . .

you hate how he had a valid point there

but you won’t admit that to his face

so you just hmph’ed away then and gave up on getting an apology from him from then on

in retaliation, though,

since you can’t have him feeling like he won wtv rivalry this is that you have going on

that he doesn’t seem to be aware of

you decided to never be nice to him

that seems like a reasonable course of action for you, esp given that the sixth prince doesn’t seem bothered by your attitude towards him

even if he’s the only one you don’t seem to like, out of his brothers

so yea

everything seems justified

funnily enough though, even with your personified source of high blood pressure,

you still won’t trade these days for others

esp when you know what the future holds for the royal clan and everyone close to them . . .

*plays ominous music*

#jeon wonwoo x reader #wonwoo x reader #seventeen x reader #jeon wonwoo imagines #wonwoo imagines #seventeen imagines #jeon wonwoo scenarios #wonwoo scenarios #seventeen scenarios #jeon wonwoo oneshots #wonwoo oneshots #seventeen oneshots #time travel!au #royal!au #moon lovers: scarlet heart ryeo!au #mlshr!au #jeon wonwoo #wonwoo #seventeen

[753398445a]

I feel like designing OC Endbringers, and I might as well share them.

So. How do Endbringers get made? I believe Eidolon's shard mixes concepts on his mind at the time with religious imagery he's familiar with and a powerset provided by Eden shards. This means that the "backstory" requires a specific time and that we know David's thoughts from this time period. On a more Doyalist level, I would also like to keep each one unique, narratively useful, and thematically relevant to Worm.

What if Scion killed an Endbringer immediately after Kevin said to? So like. The Echidna fight happens on June 20th, with Scion burrowing into the Earth and lasering Behemoth on the same day. Then Eidolon attends the June 21st Cauldron meeting from his flashback, and while here somebody adds on "By the way, it turns out Scion just randomly killed an Endbringer yesterday. What the fuck, right? Why did he do that? Should we tell people it happened?" The things on his mind from the fight, from the revelations, and from the meeting would be the building blocks for Behemoth's replacements (I'm giving him two for the record, no idea if that's always the result of one dying but I'll operate as if it were for the purposes of this post).

His own powers are weakening (this seems to be on his mind constantly)

He isn't strong enough to fight Scion (ditto this)

His Echidna duplicate seemed to be at full strength (this appears to have been on his mind ever since it happened)

The scrutiny caused by his clone's revelations (immediate relevance)

Shame for the things he's done (immediate relevance) (assume all unspecified bullet points are also immediate relevance)

The case-53s probably made him think about his role in abducting people, giving them powers, locking them up and/or wiping their memories and releasing them

Echidna's powers

The powers he employed against Echidna: Dessication, gravity manipulation, weird homing electric things, some sort of thinker power speculated to include precognitive danger sense and also knowledge of where to attack without harming civilians, sepia timeslow bubble, unknown power that explodes Alexandria clones

Queen 18.8 featured two Texas Wards named Young Buck and either Strapping Lad or Intrepid dying in front of him. I assume watching children you knew die of a knife to the stomach and immolation (respectively) leaves an impact for at least a couple of days.

The portal to Gimel

Echidna trying to bargain for her targets. (Imagine an Endbringer that does that. Communicates what person or thing its targeting and allows the defending capes to hunt down and sacrifice them "for the greater good". An EB that can be stopped easily harms their collective air of implacability, but also many people would do really fucked up things if they thought it would save a whole city.)

Missile strikes

Therapists

Cauldron's silencing of heroes who would leak information related to them

Being replaced

A lot of pieces to work with there... I would invite you to stop for a second and try coming up with your own Endbringers using this list before reading mine. Reblog with your ideas, even! The world needs more Endbringers (I mean, it really doesn't. But this fandom does).

Endbringer 1 is based on Worm's running idea that giving people powers hastens societal collapse. It takes the 'forcibly giving people powers' idea from what Eidolon helped do to the case-53s and mixes in an offensive power that mixes scrutiny with the shard that Hero, Citrine, and probably Softball got powers from.

Imagine an Endbringer who gives an entire city Codex's power (She was the Ambassador who shot invisible rays that permanently lower their targets intelligence for a temporary boost to her own). Imagine an Endbringer who makes 7,000 Heartbreakers. Or Svetas. Or Kings or Scrubs or Nice Guys or Tritaniums or Burnscars. Distributing a teleportation power that lets somebody chestburster their way out of any person they've ever met sounds horrible, but how much worse is it if the attack its happening on is when this fucker is attacking The Birdcage? What about giving a physically altering power to everybody that shows up to fight it, ruining their secret identities? What about making all the mundanes merge into Case-70s the next time they touch a parahuman?

An Endbringer who causes more problems in the long run is straying a bit close to The Simurgh's schtick, which isn't helped by her on-page attack involving flooding a city with parahumans and providing people with powers. The big difference is how this one fights at the time. Remember Citrine's line in Imago 21.4: 'I can use my power to cancel out the filters that keep someone's powers in their control. I can also remove the filters that keep their power from affecting them.' This Endbringer takes that horror game trope where something has a roving or flashing light, and if you end up in it there's just a cutscene of you dying with no recourse. Batman: Arkham Asylum is the first that comes to my mind, but it shows up in everything from Dishonored to WarioWare. In this case, its roving spotlights that appear to be emitted by the Endbringer's eyes (because being scrutinized by hostiles was on Eidolon's mind). Of course, the Endbringer doesn't actually need its eyes any more than the others do, and is capable of creating these beams anywhere if it wanted to stop going easy.

Now we move on to its appearance, which is a bit tricky. See, the first three used Christian imagery and the latter three used ideas from other beliefs. This could just be a weird coincidence, or it could be suggesting that at some point between The Simurgh and Khonsu David broadened his understand of faiths outside his own. I'm inclined to go with the latter, but that leaves the question of whether its happened at the point my Endbringers are created. I'm going to say it did, just for the sake of giving myself more options. Also, I would like to take this moment to point out that there is no obvious (at least to me) connection between what imagery an Endbringer is given and what their powers or M.O. are.

This Endbringer needs to have some longevity, which means its thick. It needs to be able to use its offensive power effectively: That means lots of eyes, and either being mobile/flexible enough to turn its head anywhere easily or that its eyes are all over its body. Ideally (for the Endbringer) its body should have the ability to do a lot of damage, since its powers can only directly affect people. My idea is a giant tree stump with eyes opening and closing all along the creases in its "bark", and roots that function as both flailing tendrils and as spidery legs. Against all reason I easily found a webpage that lists bible verses with tree stumps in them: the only ones with any distinct imagery are Daniel 4:15 and 4:23, which talk about having 'a band of iron and bronze around it'. This seems to mean circles of it on the ground, but making it be more like stump-bracelets makes for a good visual and obfuscates the inspiration a bit. Sadly the only named tree stump is Jesse (I'm not kidding, Isaiah 11:1 calls one that), which is an abysmal name for an Endbringer, so I had to look further. 'Irminsul' sounds Endbringer-y and was the name of a type of sacred pillar in Germanic Paganism. According to wikipedia, the oldest known description of an Irminsul referred to it as a tree trunk erected in open air. That works.

Endbringer 2: This one is inspired by the mystery aspect of Worm/Ward. It harms anybody who tries to spread information on it, even when dormant, and was naturally the result of Contessa(?) talking about offing whistleblowers in the June 21st Cauldron meeting.

On the subject of how information-spreaders die, we have several options. They could spontaneously combust (like that one Ward), but that's getting in Behemoth's way. Same for being electrocuted. They could suddenly have a knife in the stomach, but that doesn't feel like a Worm power to me and is a bit too on the nose. Likewise for using the missile strike as inspiration. They could be crushed by gravity or dessicated by heat, either of those two would feel suitably different from existing Endbringers but still like an Endbringer power. Annoyingly, I don't believe we ever saw one of these effects provided by an Eden shard besides Eidolon's, which would have made for a good selection method. (I flipped a coin, this is a gravity Endbringer now)

So I suppose that's also how it fights capes directly. Gravity manipulation is somewhat versatile, allowing for Eidolon's crushing effect, Topsy's ability to launch people skyward, even temporary black hole generation to round things out.

This feels like a very fast-acting Endbringer to me, one that shows up, crushes/elevates/black holes the area, and then leaves again (As opposed to other Endbringers, which show up further away from their targets and approach). It operates using the guerrilla strike method that all Endbringers (except Tohu Bohu) canonically adopted after New Delhi. And anybody who tries to report what happened is suddenly squeezed into a quarter-sized ball. Authorities can't warn people its going to show up, nobody can turn on the sirens, even trying to mobilize the heroes who signed up to fight Endbringers without getting crushed is playing with fire. Only figuratively playing with fire though - the coin didn't land on tails.

Its not a tank, so a smaller, nimble form is fine. Its not attacking directly, so it won't need a body that allows it to do so effectively. Its power is not connected to any body part. With no real guidelines as to what form it should take, I'm going to fall back on which religious symbol is the most religious: That's right, this Endbringer is a giant cross. Not really, that would be too silly. Its instead based on the largest religious structure in the world, which the internet tells me is Angkor Wat (its a Cambodian temple/city built in tribute to a Hindu goddess). Apparently it has five central pillars and a moat, and is covered in devatas. That's pretty easy to eldrich-up: Five arms and legs evenly spaced around a torso (the five central pillars), and instead of a head give it the appearance of faces trying to escape from all over its body (the devatas). Have it be blue because moats are blue. (I know technically water is reflective rather than blue, but shards don't care. They'd know that humans associate water with blue and go "Okay, sure. Whatever.")

That leaves the name. I get nothing for five-armed, too much for blue, and looking for religious figures assosciated with secrets only turned up Raziel from Jewish mysticism. Sure, let's go with that. I have been working on this post for four hours now.

In conclusion, my Endbringers are:

Irminsul, a giant tree stump covered in eyes that project rays that are an insta-kill (or worse) on parahumans, and ruins the world by distributing harmful powers. This is a good Endbringer.

Raziel, a five-armed, five-legged, blue torso with faces poking out of it that hit-and-runs with gravity powers that cannot be talked about without dying. I am unsatisfied with this Endbringer.

#parahumans #worm #worm spoilers #parahumans spoilers #wormwebserial #worm web serial #tw: religion #original character #tw: death #tw: stabbing #tw: immolation #tw: fire #angkor wat #endbringer

[famwhy]

Hello again, sorry for sending another message so soon after my previous one, but rereading your reply to my ask gave me two new mental images I figured I would share with you before the storm we are supposed to get where I live rolls in, assuming it does.

Idea one is, and this is partly born out of me being a fan of react fics, how do you think the Valkyries would react to a child or teenage reader from a post-apocalypse world like Fallout? For example, they summon the reader to them, only to see the tiny form of a child clad in makeshift armor, a revolver in their hands and a slightly mutated dog standing at their side.

How would they react to the countless scars that line their body, from laser and bullet and bade and claw and fang?

Be they mature or young, the readers body is a macabre piece of gruesome art, the scars telling the tale of their desperation to survive amidst a world that is in its final throes.

How would they react to the reader not knowing just what green grass is, let alone what unpolluted and un-irradiated water is?

Their stories of the dead and dying world, and of their desperate struggles to find not only semi-safe drinking sources, but also the medicine to contend with the radiation present in those sources of water, making many hide their tears.

How would they react to the tales of slavers and raider, of mutants and other horrors that roam the wastes, to the tales of nightmarish beasts and close calls with said beasts that nearly denied them this fated meeting?

And how would they react to the holotapes the reader brings with them that shed yet further light on the stygian world they come from, said holotapes being from the Storyteller series by Shoddycast.

The second one is a bit more self indulgent, but imagine that just as the Valkyries are protective of the reader, the reader is likewise protective of them because these girls have been through enough and they are not letting anyone talk down to them.

The example in question being the Genshin acolytes talking down about the Valkyries, only for the reader to come out of nowhere and just starts tearing into them both physically and verbally while everyone else watches in stunned silence.

In addition to this, the reader and the Valkyries are basically a giant found family and tend to act like one, much to the acolytes confusion. They are also fond collapsing in cuddle piles because dammit these girls deserve pampering and love.

Again, sorry for the word salad, I am half asleep at the moment lol. But I am supposed to be due a storm tomorrow and I figured I would send this in case it is bad enough I can not get on my computer tomorrow. I have a few more things to do, then I am calling it for tonight, stay safe and take care.

Hello! - and don't worry, you're not too much of a bother. If anything, I'm sorry for taking so long to respond, I've been really busy lately haha

I'm not too big of a fallout fan and know next to nothing about the game except for that one reference in Henry Stickmin but I could definitely comment based on your descriptions.

I'd assume that the valkyries wouldn't really react much to a reader from an apocalyptic world since the world of Honkai itself is a post-apocalyptic world. (Now, there may be spoilers if you haven't gotten too far in the story yet but) Mei, herself, meets a character that's basically wrapped in bandages and injuries from head-to-toe and doesn't react very much to the injuries because she's used to it. The valkyries themselves make it look easy but honkai creatures are no joke and have caused many to die - hence why organisations like Schicksal and Anti-Entropy were formed in the first place.

I'm pretty sure that people can also turn into zombies because of Honkai too so the girls are plenty experienced when it comes to apocalypses (let's not even mention Otto himself).

They might not be able to show Reader any sights like green grass if Reader is summoned around the endgame time but they have gone through hardships too and would be able to help Reader cope through their trauma. Definitely will be a whole lot of cuddles too.

As for your second idea, I love it! Just so many cuddles all around along with a fluffy and warm vibe that the poor girls deserve after so much anguish and heartache.

You be sure to take care too!

#rara answers #honkai impact #honkaimpact3rd #honkai x reader

[dazaiapologism]

do we know which definition of gravity chuuya manipulates. gravity is basically a force between two objects so, id assume it'd work on any two objects even if we put chuuya in space given that fact UNLESS it's specifically about the earth's gravity in which case earth is one of the two objects always which seems to be the case with how his powers work ? am i making sense

yes! you are right, gravity is a force between two objects and chuuya's ability seems to work a hell of a lot easier when dealing with the physical earth. There is definitely a reason for that and I was cursed by a wizard in my youth to constantly try to understand that reason as best I can and I’m still not very good at it I dont think but let me try to sketch out the parts I do understand here:

In classical physics, the more nuanced definition is that both objects always exert gravitational force on each other (newtons 1st law), and the magnitude of that force is directly dependent on the mass of the objects involved, while also inversely dependent on the squared distance between the two objects. in other words, the strength of natural gravity between two bodies is determined by the product of each of their masses, and that strength will drop off as the bodies get further apart (read about the inverse square law to learn more about that effect).

There is another constant, G, that we use to “quantify the relation between the geometry of spacetime and the stress-energy tensor”. Now I’m not going to pretend to be a physicist here I have an electrical engineering bs and I failed concepts of mathematics four times BUT! as I understand it: the stress-energy tensor is where the “information” about energy and momentum of a particular system (ie two bodies with gravitational attraction) is stored. You can use it to calculate things like gravitational flux, which is the derivative of gravitational force exerted on space-time.

Without getting too deep into relativity and frames of reference and multivariable calculus shit that honestly goes over my head too, I would say that we can think of this tensor as the magic sauce - it dictates the strength and direction of gravitational force based on fundamental mechanics of the universe that we are able to model without actually totally understanding what is “driving” it.

So I would also posit that this is what Chuuya’s ability is modifying. I think the strength of the change he is able to make is dependent on his emotional state and more specifically, I think his ability to distort it gets exponentially stronger relative to how pissed he is. That said, he’s not just able to freely push things in any random direction, it is much much easier to work with the natural flow of gravity than to craft brand new arcs of motion.

bsd gives us a lot of practical examples of this:

when he absorbs bullet impacts, he does not shoot them all back right along their path of motion, they float loosely around him for a moment before being repelled, rather than being perfectly reversed or anything like that. Note that bullets travel with a lot of stabilizing rotational momentum so it would actually be pretty difficult to just “send it back”. Repelling the relatively still bullets out in every direction is a much more intuitive manipulation of the force relationship between him and each bullet.

in fifteen, when someone shoots dead on at him, he diverts the path perpendicularly and then uses the force relationship between himself and the bullet to slingshot it back around his body along the trajectory it came from, which is very very different that stopping it and shooting it back

later, as an adult, we see that he IS now capable of firing bullets directly, though he’s doing it from a very high angle which suggests that he’s more just pushing the bullet past its usual terminal velocity on the way down and would still have to aim it manually before cutting it loose.

Finally, there’s the question of activation. Visually, we get the red aura cue to indicate something is “under his control”. Verbally, I think it’s described as him being able to manipulate the gravity of anything he’s in contact with and this is able to chain through various objects (layers of clothes, the dirt directly under his feet) to some degree. The chaining also seems to work better when he’s angrier, so he could for example pull up larger chunks of rock if he were pissed than he could if he were just showing off for fun.

We can clear up a lot of ambiguity around what actually constitutes touching by defining contact as exchange of force between two bodies. This actually solves problems like why can he pull up dirt but not like, make projectiles out of bundles of atmosphere or something. Dirt is a solid, meaning that although he is only directly in contact with the uppermost layer of dirt molecules, that upper layer is also distributing that force downwards deeper into the earth. Therefore, through chaining, he is able to pull up large chunks of the earth, centered around where he was standing. Liquid also has strong enough intermolecular bonds to behave roughly like a solid would: think of how water behaves in space. This does not work the same way as gaseous air - in a gas, molecules are constantly bouncing off each other, sharing and distributing force wildly. Some of those molecules would bounce off him, which does technically count as an activating condition, but they’re gone again just as quickly so he could not really do anything meaningful with it. In the end, if he were able to chain to surrounding atmosphere, it would be wisping away like smoke before he could do anything interesting with it.

Defining contact as exchange of force also solves another neat trick - exploding the laser sight guns. Light behaves like a particle - which is to say it travels through space-time and exerts and experiences force when it encounters other bodies. This force is very weak and generally not something we experience as tactile sense, but it is definitely there and is the driving principle behind solar sails (japan successfully launched a spacecraft called IKAROS that traveled at least 110 million km using this technology!). We also know that gravity is very much capable of distorting the path of light (as this is what creates that reddish halo we see around real black holes).

Therefore, a red dot sight trained on Chuuya would indeed count as contact and he would be able to invert the direction of the gravitational attraction between him and the dense stream of light particles. Now, lasers use optical feedback loops to focus and amplify light emission, which means that the current output of the system is used to calculate the future state of output. Operating normally, optical gain will stabilize the beam and light will be emitted from the laser. I don’t know enough about optics to say what would happen if one were to reverse the direction of the laser output, but it would certainly cause something fucking weird to happen and not out of the realm of plausibility to say it would generate a lot of heat. Now the last thing you want on an automated turret stacked with high powered explosives is a sudden heat source - you know how gunpowder works. Gun get hot, powder go boom.

And I am at 1.2k words here so I’m going to shut the fuck up now. But please feel free to ask further questions or poke holes in this, as it is quite literally my single favorite thought experiment to roll around in my brain. I hope you were able to learn something about Chuuya physics from it and if not, thank you for reading all my shit anyways. Let me know if theres anything that needs further explaining.

#chuuya physics

[back-and-totheleft]

An unrepentant contrarian

Director Oliver Stone was wounded by the criticism he faced when he brought out his epic political drama JFK in 1991. “I was more of a younger man. It was painful to me,” he said recently. It didn’t do the film any harm to become the centre of controversy – it received eight Oscar nominations and was a box-office hit – but Stone was offended at being described as a dupe who had allowed himself to become the mouthpiece of conspiracy theorists.

JFK was based on an investigation by former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison, played in the film by Kevin Costner, whose writings were dismissed as “hallucinatory bleatings” by Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association at the time and one of Stone’s more vituperative critics. The film urged viewers to believe that the facts of President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 had been covered up, starting with the number of times he had been shot and from where, through who did it and why, ending with who knew the truth and why they stayed silent.

Essentially, his position hasn’t changed. Stone blames the CIA specifically, plus a supporting cast of officials who smoothed over or botched any real investigation; he also blamed Lyndon Baines Johnson, Kennedy’s vice-president and successor, hinting that he might have been in on the plot. “The Warren commission (into Kennedy’s assassination) was a sham,” he says now. “They (meaning the intelligence agencies) appointed it.

“Lyndon Johnson basically didn’t want problems because he says he feared war with Russia over Cuba. That was his excuse. But if he’d really looked at the case, if he had had proper intelligence agencies working with him, he (would have known) that the Soviet Union had nothing to do with this assassination. Robert Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy wrote to (Russian president) Khrushchev saying, ‘We know it’s not you; we know it’s a right-wing plot from our own country’. And that’s what it was.”

Since the film came out, a good deal of documentation has been released into the public domain that he says bears out his original case. He puts that case in JFK: Destiny Betrayed, which is now available as a four-part series. A two-hour movie version will open soon.

JFK is exhaustive in its detail and exhausting to watch. There are so many names and faces of people who either had something to do with the assassination and its aftermath or have an opinion about it that it is probably impossible to stay across them all. At the same time, a fair level of knowledge is assumed. In the first episode, we dive straight into the aftermath of Jack Ruby’s arrest for shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. If you don’t know who they are, you’re going to spend a lot of time on Google.

Even Stone recognises that watching four hours of amassed evidence, much of it to do with bullet angles and the irregularities of Kennedy’s autopsy, is a big ask. “That’s why we did two hours,” he says. “The four-hour series is more of a scholar thing. I think it’s less effective and more boring, but you have to understand why it’s there. And there are some great things in it.”

Most interesting for anyone who isn’t a grassy-knoll buff is the background to Kennedy’s political development. “You get much more into who Kennedy was before he came to office,” says Stone. “We see he went to South-East Asia as a senator, where he sees the French losing the war in Vietnam. We see these unpopular, courageous stances as a senator and congressman and that he takes a lot of heat for it. Because you can’t understand who he is as a president until you see what forms his morality.” Kennedy believed America should be an anti-colonial force; anything else was un-American.

This is the real backbone of the film and series because it provides some ballast for the ostensibly weakest part of his case: why the CIA, in cahoots with the FBI, the mafia, the political right and the corporations that formed the military-industrial complex, would find a popular American president sufficiently threatening to kill him in broad daylight.

“He is one of the most important presidents because he was for peace at a time when we were on the brink of war,” says Stone. “In 1960, when he ran, the Pentagon was ready to take out Russia on the first strike. This was what their thinking was: ‘We gotta nail these bastards now’ … That was their Dr Strangelove thinking. Johnson put us right back smack into the middle of the biggest war we’d ever had since WWII and it was a disaster, as you know. A debacle.”

Of course, Oliver Stone is a contrarian, as evidenced by his lionising of American bogeymen such as Vladimir Putin (“a very patient man”), Hugo Chavez and the egregious former dictator of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, in soft-soaping documentaries. He refused to join the hand-wringing about Donald Trump, even at his most fractious. “I don’t see Trump as a major figure compared to (George W.) Bush. I don’t.” he says. “Bush really set the agenda for the country. We went into a global war, the war on terror.”

The invasion of the Capitol last January, which one might think would worry someone anxious about the survival of American democracy, didn’t trouble him either. “I think a lot of the press has made it bigger than it is. I think there are more important things going on than that January 6 event. People were pissed off, that’s all.” What appals him, as a supporter of Julian Assange, are the likely ramifications of any security breach. “How they’re going to spy on every American because of this stupid thing.“

One thing he does concede is the shift of the entire political spectrum to the right. Religion, which he once thought was fading from American life, has now returned as a right-wing political force. “It’s one of the great tragedies of my life, because it’s changed the nature of life in America. It’s made us more stressed, more harried, the wars have continued without reason,” he says.

And we should know it. “In Australia, you’ve been the victims of CIA plots for a long time but you’re not the only ones,” he says. “You know you’re not an ally. You’re a satellite of the US and it’s a shame you don’t realise it.”

Follow the money, he says. Follow the military hardware. Take note.

-Stephanie Benbury, "An unrepentant contrarian won’t change his position on JFK’s murder," The Sydney Morning Herald, Dec 1 2021

#oliver stone #jfk: destiny betrayed #destiny betrayed #the sydney morning herald

[stillness-in-green]

With the final battle bring cameos from all walks of villain life, it makes me wonder....where the fuck are Chronostasis, Mimic and the Eight Bullets? (I guess Gentle/Brava too) It's likely they would have been broken out too, right? Was expecting a sub-plot where they try to reconvene with their old boss...except Rappa. Rappa's too good for Overhaul! XD. Them being missing sticks out so much,it makes me wonder if there's a plan for those guyds. Gentle and Brava too since its heavily implied they were in/or going to be, in a sort of rehabilitation program.

I would guess it’s a combination of a few factors.

* As far as the villains that returned during the Edgy Deku arc, they were kind of a Greatest Hits deal. They weren’t just “every villain ever,” but rather the key arc villains Deku himself fought: Muscular, Stain, Overhaul. It did make Gentle and La Brava’s absence stand out, though given the initial framework of “villains that Deku didn’t understand,” perhaps Gentle was already seen as “resolved” in Horikoshi’s mind?(1)

* In the current arc, lots of much more minor villains have been spotted, including a bunch of early faces from the streets or USJ, along with more obvious ones like the Sludge Villain. One commonality there might be that the “escaped convicts” have generally been framed as AFO’s people, for all that there’s no particular reason to assume e.g. Evil Abe Sapien from USJ would be more loyal to AFO than Shigaraki, or indeed loyal to either of them. Still, our other missing villains definitely have loyalties above AFO: Overhaul (the Hassaikai), each other (Gentle and LB), and Re-Destro (all the MLA types other than RD himself). So maybe they’re not in the current arc because AFO and/or Horikoshi didn’t want to deal with those divided loyalties?

* One further consideration: in real life Japan, prison populations are separated into different facilities based on both demographic traits and different aspects of their offenses: non-violent offenders aren’t housed in the same facilities as violent ones. While I don’t know if that carries over to HeroAcaJapan (it’s obviously not true for Tartarus, which just on the face of it houses both men and women, but Tartarus is framed as a special case), if it does, I have to imagine AFO prioritized facilities for violent, and ideally repeat, offenders. So at least in some cases, we might not be seeing prior villains because they just weren’t in the prisons AFO targeted.

Did the purely defensive Tengai count as a violent offender, for example? How about Trumpet? Gentle has certainly engaged in violent behavior, but does he really warrant getting sent to the same place someone like Rappa would wind up?(2)

I ran the numbers on prisons in real life Japan for the PLF mass arrest essay a while back, and while I am rather doubtful that Horikoshi has done the same, the evidence does seem to suggest that the prisons in HeroAca!Japan have considerably increased in size compared to real life.(3) That being the case, if may be a simple matter of luck or unluck that determined whether, for example, the prison the trash trio were at was targeted.

I don’t, for what it’s worth, think there’s any real implication that Gentle and La Brava are going to get off with just a rehab program. They’re both adults, were both being questioned by the police last time we saw them, and Ultra Analysis says Gentle is currently “serving time and reflecting on his actions, all while being concerned about La Brava.” The translation on that book is pretty dodgy in a lot of places, so I wouldn’t swear 100% to the accuracy of that statement, but it is in line with what I took to be the implications of Gentle’s last scene, that he should serve his time and then work on turning his life around.

That said, I would 100% love to get more returning villains. I’ve talked about it lots with friends—circumstances under which the MLA might return, or Gentle and LB, or the Hassaikai, or the character I actually think is the most glaring absence right now, the final member of the Vangaurd Action Squad, Mustard. And as mentioned above, we are getting lots of returns and callbacks here in this final act (more than is good for the story, frankly), so maybe we’ll get some of them yet!

Thanks for the ask~~~

---

1: As I have remarked on numerous occasions, I don’t like the idea that Deku’s Understanding is the only thing that separates villains that deserve to be saved and those that can just go rot, but that’s neither here nor there.

2: Being cynical about it, I would note that he got into a violent altercation with a minor, used his quirk to incapacitate four heroes on at least one occasion, and has been vexing the police for up to six years. Nothing about HeroAca society as it’s been presented—and especially the HPSC—suggests that he’s going to get off lightly. It’s only the, well, gentle framing of Gentle and his scene with the gorilla heteromorph cop that gives me any hope,

3: 10,000 escaped prisoners from seven facilities in BNHA; meanwhile, the single largest prison in real life Japan holds barely over 2000, with the majority of facilities being considerably smaller. And we don’t even know if AFO freed every inmate at the non-Tartarus facilities, or if the wardens managed to get things back under control after an initial crisis. If that’s the case—that at least some of the target facilities, only a percentage of inmates escaped—those facilities would have to be enormous.

#bnha #bnha endgame #shockersalvage #stillness answers

[feralphoenix]

NO ONE IS HAPPY WITH THIS: Leitmotif & Sound Palette In “Sealed Vessel”

whats UP hk fandom i am back with—“more picante takes?” WOW YES HOW DID YOU KNOW!!!

CONTENT WARNING FOR TONIGHTS PROGRAM: today we are discussing the hollow knight boss fight, and all that entails for all the characters involved. relatedly this post does not have anything nice to say about the pale king, so if you’re very protective of his character, you may want to skip it.

FURTHERMORE, i would like to iterate that this essay is working from a place of compassion for ghost, hollow, radiance, AND hornet, because every single one of them is miserable at this point in the game and doesn’t want the events of this boss fight to be happening at all. this post is not an appropriate place to dunk on ANY of them. if you want to do that, please do it elsewhere.

thanks for your understanding.

ALSO, AS USUAL: if youre from a christian cultural upbringing (whether currently practicing, agnostic/secular, or atheist now), understand that some of what i’m discussing here may challenge you. if thinking thru the implications of radiance and the moth tribe’s backstory is distressing for you, PLEASE only approach this essay when youre in a safe mindset & open to listening, and ask the help of a therapist or anti-racism teacher/mentor to help you process your thoughts & feelings. just like keep in mind that youre listening to an ethnoreligiously marginalized person and please be respectful here or wherever else youre discussing this dang essay, ty

NO ONE IS HAPPY WITH THIS: Leitmotif & Sound Palette In “Sealed Vessel”

A while back @grimmradiance​ made a lovely essay about comparing and contrasting Hollow’s moveset in their Hollow Knight and Pure Vessel boss fights and using what can be gleaned from the differences to speculate about their psychology. (This essay is currently their pinned, but I’ll attach a link in a reblog.) It is extremely good, and it made me want to look at the Hollow Knight boss fight my own self through one of my own areas of expertise, meaning music!

As we are all well aware, Christopher Larkin's soundtrack to Hollow Knight rules ass. There are two specific ways in which it rules ass that are relevant to this essay: Leitmotif, and sound palette.

Quick rundown for folks who aren’t familiar with these terms: A leitmotif is a melody associated with a character or event or mood that's incorporated into songs in different ways based on what's happening in the story. Undertale is an example of a game with an incredibly strong use of leitmotif that’s really only possible because Toby Fox is both the composer and the game creator, so he can synchronize the subtleties of the writing with music and scene scripting too.

The phrase “sound palette” can have a lot of meanings, but in this case I’m using it to refer to specific instruments or groups of instruments that are associated with certain characters. If you’ve watched Steven Universe and seen interviews/production commentary by its composer team Aivi & Surasshu, you’ll hear them talking about part of their approach to scoring episodes being how each main character is represented by certain instruments: Steven with the triangle wave, Pearl with jazz piano, and so on.

Hollow Knight is a small team project rather than a one-person show, so Christopher Larkin can’t go quite AS over-the-top with leitmotif integration as Toby Fox can on simple virtue of Team Cherry having to communicate what they want to him. But Larkin is Hollow Knight's sound designer as well as its composer, so he folds leitmotif and character sound palette together with striking use of stems to create a very immersive and cinematic musical experience that enhances HK’s story and gameplay.

This brings us back to the track Sealed Vessel, which has EXTREMELY tight and cinematic sound design and uses leitmotif and sound palette to not just sock players in the feelings during a charged and dramatic boss fight, but also tell us a lot about what Hollow and Radiance are experiencing emotionally, especially with the gameplay in mind.

So, let’s play the soundtrack version of Sealed Vessel (and some other stuff) and talk about what’s going on in the game during it!

You may want to get out your copy of the OST or visit Christopher Larkin’s Bandcamp page so that you can listen along.

LEITMOTIF & SOUND PALETTE

Before we actually get into analyzing Sealed Vessel, let’s talk about the involved characters’ leitmotifs/sound palettes so we know what we’re listening for.

Both of these things are easiest to identify when characters have a distinct theme song. Ghost does not. However, the main theme of Hollow Knight (see: the title track, Hollow Knight) is used as a leitmotif for the vessels as a whole. Most pieces involved with a vessel character include this leitmotif somewhere. For instance, you can find this leitmotif and variations on it in Broken Vessel’s boss theme. The Vessel leitmotif is led by a cello solo here, so we can identify that the cello is the central part of Broken Vessel’s personal sound palette.

When the Vessel theme is associated with Ghost in specific, it tends to be performed by viola and/or piano, as it is on the title track and in other places like the opening cinematic.

Moving on to Hollow, their specific sound palette is established not in Sealed Vessel but in Pure Vessel, their pantheon boss theme. (Sealed Vessel was composed first, since the Godmaster DLC didn’t drop until over a year after HK’s initial release, meaning Pure Vessel was reverse-engineered/extrapolated from relevant parts of Sealed Vessel. But we’ll get into that later!)

The major instrumental fixtures in Pure Vessel are choir and tubular bells (i.e., those dramatic vertical fellas that sound like church bells or a carillon), with some soft background instrumentation: bass drum, woodwinds (appropriately led by flute in the main melody’s “falling motion” - flute is the centerpiece of TPK’s sound palette), strings, and high/mid brass. Hollow’s overall sound palette has a very Christian choir-esque sound (in the Pure Vessel theme this is very idealized and saintly: soft and slow and tragic) and the beginning of their leitmotif has a very distinctive climbing melody that mirrors their ascent from the Abyss. The Unbearable Vesselness Of Being leitmotif is absent from the Pure Vessel track.

Meanwhile, Radiance’s boss theme is a very fun expression of her character upon which Larkin evidently went ham. Her sound palette is expressed through full orchestra (plus choir and pipe organ) that has a special emphasis on the bass part of the brass section, which does not see much use in the HK soundtrack. Her leitmotif has also got cute and distinctive touches: It’s full of triplets to match her tiara-looking antennae, and also has a repeated “fluttery” pattern of background sixteenth notes as countermelody, often spiraling downwards.

The majority of the piece is loud and bombastic and in a minor key to play up the “resplendent and terrible” wrathful aspect of herself Radi is pushing during this section of gameplay, a very quintessentially moth intimidation tactic: Try to look as scary as possible to keep your enemies from messing with you, since you’re not built for fighting. These blasts of intensity from the brass section match Radiance’s strategy of Overwhelm You With Bullet Hell Spam To Make Up For Lack Of Battle Experience/Poor Aim. But in between said intensity spikes you can hear traces of softer instrumentation and major key, little glimpses of a gentle warmth we can otherwise only infer from her backstory and the implications of Moth Tribe lore.

0:00 - 0:41 - OPENING AMBIANCE

The Sealed Vessel track begins with the ambiance of the Black Egg Temple’s interior: The faint tones of the glowing seals we hear when we pass by them, the only light in a pitch-black world besides the floor lighting up under Ghost’s feet.

Then a slow string tremolo fades in, slowly growing louder. In the track new notes join the tremolo progressively, while in-game a violin joins the anticipatory chord every time you snap one of Hollow’s chains. Which, may I say: A+++++++ sound design!!!!!! Rules ass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The tremolo reaches a peak in dynamics - all three characters present are extremely tense - and then cuts off to allow for Hollow’s boss battle opening, i.e. Radiance screaming. Team Cherry kindly demarcates each phase of the battle with a Radi yell.

0:43 - 1:39 - PHASE 1: HOLLOW ON AUTOPILOT

Phase 1 opens immediately with Hollow’s leitmotif in bells, but with brass, piano, and percussion backing them up; grand and tragic. In the background the bass section of the orchestra's strings flutter in a repetitive pattern of 16th notes, i.e. Panicky Radi Noises. The violins harmonize with Hollow's leitmotif as it climbs, but then join the rest of the string section in fluttering 16th notes, transmuting what in Pure Vessel is the flute leading Hollow back down (8th notes) to a slightly louder “a” from the backseat.

In actual gameplay, the only attacks Hollow uses are their basic nail skills. Building on grimmradiance’s analysis of the window their attacks provide to their psychology, and pairing that with the Pure Vessel leitmotif booming over the metaphorical loudspeakers, we can tell that this is Hollow reacting automatically to a threat the way that their father trained them to. Their conscious mind might still be making dialup noises at Ghost’s sudden reappearance jumpscaring them with murky childhood guilt and trauma, but that’s only let muscle memory take over. Slash, parry, charge and thrust. Their time spent at bee bootcamp (which we can assume because Hornet was trained at the Hive and Hollow’s form while nail fighting is identical to hers on their shared moves) has served them well.

Radiance, meanwhile, has frozen completely for this combat phase, and contributes nothing here except the anxiety of the string section.

As the strings continue to go “a” the piano (Ghost) and woodwinds harmonize on something between Hollow’s personal leitmotif and the Vessel leitmotif in the backdrop.

However at around 1:29ish, the key changes, building into an overall color change for the Sealed Vessel piece.

1:39 - 2:15 - PHASE 2: SHE’S AS SCARED OF YOU AS YOU ARE OF HER

In actual gameplay, the part of Sealed Vessel used for phases 1 and 2 of the Hollow Knight fight is the Entirety of 0:43 - 2:15, possibly because there’s no easy transition spot like there is between phase 2 and phase 3. But the changes to Hollow’s moveset are clearly tied to this specific part of the piece.

Phase 2 is where Radiance pushes herself past her freeze response and starts trying to hit Ghost. Hollow gains two attacks here, which we can tell are Radi because they’re often accompanied by her crying (a softer and more abbreviated sound than her full scream): These two attacks are the Infection blob blast and the Light/Void pillar attack that hits for a full 2 masks damage (which appear to be Radi’s take on Hollow’s Pure Vessel-exclusive moves, their grabby tentacles & silver knife pillars respectively).

In the Sealed Vessel track, this part of the piece is almost entirely Radiance’s fluttering. The strings start by following the descending motion of Hollow’s leitmotif but in 16th notes, then ratchet up to start spiraling down again while straying further from Hollow’s leitmotif. This section ends in a back and forth between hard blasts in a one-two-(rest)-one-two-three pattern and gasps of fluttering between, with piano and low brass building behind it. Eventually the nervous fluttering of the strings becomes less frequent between the blasts: Radiance is inexperienced with fighting and very very afraid, but she’s also FUCKING PISSED and prepared to defend herself.

The OST version of the piece punctuates the break between the first half of the piece and the second with Radiance’s scream.

2:16 - 4:04 - PHASE 3: “I’M HELPING! :)” SAID HOLLOW; “HOLY SHIT PLEASE DON’T,” SAID LITERALLY EVERYONE

Phase 3 opens with Hollow stabbing themself repeatedly, a movement pattern they repeat throughout the phase. It is shocking the first time you see it, and never stops being horrible and sad no matter how many times you do this part of the fight.

Here, Hollow’s mind has finally come back online after their own freeze response, and they choose to destroy themself and bequeath the duty of sealing Radiance to Ghost. Even if they can’t be the one to make their father proud, they can still make sure their directive gets carried out.

Radiance knows exactly what they’re up to and why, and she reacts to this by completely losing her head and mashing buttons in a panic. This is something we see out of her at the ends of her boss fights too, where she’s feeling too threatened and afraid to do anything but spam optic blasts. In the Hollow Knight boss fight this manifests in two horrifying-looking but easy-to-avoid new attacks: The Infection blob sprinkler and the ragdoll.

Ghost does not react visibly because we're in gameplay, but their horror and grief at their sibling’s choice is echoed in the BGM. The Sealed Vessel piece goes soft and sad, with Ghost’s associated viola leading the bass strings in the Unbearable Vesselness of Being leitmotif. At 2:51 the violin comes in with Hollow’s leitmotif, and gradually the choir appears in the backdrop. The ensemble’s overall dynamics build in a slow crescendo, and at the very end of this segment the other instruments begin to join in.

This segment of the piece is also used in phase 4, which occurs if you don't have Hornet’s help or miss your cue to Dream Nail Hollow. Phase 3 ends when Hollow reaches 0 HP; in phase 4 they are for all purposes already dead. But Radiance manifests an extra 250 HP out of terrified, unadulterated FUCK YOU FUCK THIS!!! even though all she can do is get Hollow to fall on their face trying to slash and ragdoll them around. The BGM continues to play as Ghost absorbs Radiance from Hollow and Hollow’s body loses its shape and dissolves into liquid Void.

And there’s one other place in gameplay Sealed Vessel (Unbearable Vesselness of Being) is used: The Path of Pain, the completely evil kaizo-level obstacle course which presumably featured in Hollow’s childhood training, and behind which the Pale King has hidden his last and most terrible secret—that he had realized on some level that Hollow was a kid with feelings who loved him and wanted to make him proud, and condemned them to death despite it all by using them to imprison and torture Radiance as he’d always planned.

The OST version of Sealed Vessel includes the music for both normal ending cinematics, so we’ll be looking at them too.

4:05 - 4:35: ENDINGS 1/2: NO ONE IS HAPPY WITH THIS

In the BGM for The Hollow Knight and Sealed Siblings endings, the Vessel leitmotif is played by violin, viola, and choir while the cellos and contrabasses—and then the brass bass section too—play a slower version of Radiance’s downward spiral. But once Ghost is pierced by the Black Egg’s chains and Radiance’s struggle to free herself ends in failure, the soprano and bass sections harmonize. The animation zooms out of the temple and the seal reforms. They are stuck together now until the end of Ghost’s life. Hooray.

The OST version of the track immediately segues into the BGM for Dream No More.

4:36 - 5:45: ENDING 3: THANKS, I HATE IT

Here, Hornet’s associated instrument, the violin, plays one long sustained note with a few notes of Ghost’s piano alongside as she wakes up.

TPK’s goddamn flute comes in at 5:00 with his leitmotif overpowering the backdrop Vessel leitmotif on piano while Hornet surveys the carnage: The temple has been destroyed, Radiance is dead, and what’s left of Ghost’s corpse is smeared across the floor. The Void may have taken umbrage with his horseshit and unceremoniously vored him, but the motherfucker still got what he wanted in the end; the Pale King has ended the Infection by completing his genocide of the moths, using the children he abused and abandoned as his proxies, and wasting two of their lives. Can I get a hearty THIS SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in the chat.

Given that Hornet herself is canonically unsure if bringing the fight to Radiance is really a just course of action, one can only imagine how she must feel when she sees the cost of that decision.

Our only real moment of catharsis is in this shit situation comes in at 5:13, where the flute gives way to a solo from Ghost’s associated viola, playing the Vessel leitmotif as the Siblings curl up and sink back into the mountain of their corpses. Goodnight, kiddos. You deserved better, and so did literally everyone involved in this whole stupid boss fight.

This is where the OST version of Sealed Vessel ends. Even without the gameplay and story context it slaps, but now that we’ve taken a look at how this 5:45 piece is wall to wall misery and fear on the part of literally every involved character, hopefully it will have even more impact!

#hollow knight #sealed vessel #the hollow knight #the radiance #hk radiance #ghost hollow knight #hk ghost #hornet hollow knight #hk hornet #essay #hollow knight meta

[eli-kittim]

Science & God’s Existence

By Author Eli Kittim

Can We Reject Paul’s Vision Based On the Fact that No One Saw It?

Given that none of Paul’s companions saw or heard the content of his visionary experience (Acts 9), on the road to Damascus, some critics have argued that it must be rejected as unreliable and inauthentic. Let’s test that hypothesis. Thoughts are common to all human beings. Are they not? However, no one can “prove” that they have thoughts. That doesn’t mean that they don’t have any. Just because others can’t see or hear your thoughts doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Obviously, a vision, by definition, is called a “vision” precisely because it is neither seen nor observed by others. So, this preoccupation with “evidence” and “scientism” has gone too far. We demand proof for things that are real but cannot be proven. According to philosopher William Lane Craig, the irony is that science can’t even prove the existence of the external world, even though it presupposes it.

No one has ever seen an electron, or the substance we call “dark matter,” yet physicists presuppose them. Up until recently we could not see, under any circumstances, ultraviolet rays, X – rays, or gamma rays. Does that mean they didn’t exist before their detection? Of course not. Recently, with the advent of better instruments and technology we are able to detect what was once invisible to the human eye. Gamma rays were first observed in 1900. Ultraviolet rays were discovered in 1801. X-rays were discovered in 1895. So, PRIOR to the 19th century, no one could see these types of electromagnetic radiation with either the naked eye or by using microscopes, telescopes, or any other available instruments. Prior to the 19th century, these phenomena could not be established. Today, however, they are established as facts. What made the difference? Technology (new instruments)!

If you could go back in time to Ancient Greece and tell people that in the future they could sit at home and have face-to-face conversations with people who are actually thousands of miles away, would they have believed you? According to the empirical model of that day, this would have been utterly impossible! It would have been considered science fiction. My point is that what we cannot see today with the naked eye might be seen or detected tomorrow by means of newer, more sophisticated technologies!

——-

Can We Use The Scientific Model to Address Metaphysical Questions?

Using empirical methods of “observation” to determine what is true and what is false is a very *simplistic* way of understanding reality in all its complexity. For example, we don’t experience 10 dimensions of reality. We only experience a 3-dimensional world, with time functioning as a 4th dimension. Yet Quantum physics tells us there are, at least, 10 dimensions to reality: https://www.google.com/amp/s/phys.org/news/2014-12-universe-dimensions.amp

Prior to the discoveries of primitive microscopes, in the 17th century, you couldn’t see germs, bacteria, viruses, or microorganisms with the naked eye! For all intents and purposes, these microorganisms DID NOT EXIST! It would therefore be quite wrong to assume that, because a large number of people (i.e. a consensus) cannot see it, an unobservable phenomenon must be ipso facto nonexistent.

Similarly, prophetic experiences (e.g. visions) cannot be tested by any instruments of modern technology, nor investigated by the methods of science. Because prophetic experiences are of a different kind, the assumption that they do not have objective reality is a hermeneutical mistake that leads to a false conclusion. Physical phenomena are perceived by the senses, whereas metaphysical phenomena are not perceived by the senses but rather by pure consciousness. Therefore, if we use the same criteria for metaphysical perceptions that we use for physical ones (which are derived exclusively from the senses), that would be mixing apples and oranges. The hermeneutical mistake is to use empirical observation (that only tests physical phenomena) as “a standard” for testing the truth value of metaphysical phenomena. In other words, the criteria used to measure physical phenomena are quite inappropriate and wholly inapplicable to their metaphysical counterparts.

——-

Are the “Facts” of Science the Only Truth, While All Else is Illusion?

Whoever said that scientific “facts” are *necessarily* true? On the contrary, according to Bertrand Russell and Immanuel Kant, only a priori statements are *necessarily* true (i.e. logical & mathematical propositions), which are not derived from the senses! The senses can be deceptive. That’s why every 100 years or so new “facts” are discovered that replace old ones. So what happened to the old facts? Well, they were not necessarily true in the epistemological sense. And this process keeps repeating seemingly ad infinitum. If that is the case, how then can we trust the empirical model, devote ourselves to its shrines of truth, and worship at its temples (universities)? Read the “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” by Thomas Kuhn, a classic book on the history of science and how scientific paradigms change over time.

——-

Cosmology, Modern Astronomy, & Philosophy Seem to Point to the Existence of God

If you studied cosmology and modern astronomy, you would be astounded by the amazing beauty, order, structure, and precision of the various movements of the planets and stars. The Big Bang Theory is the current cosmological model which asserts that the universe had a beginning. Astoundingly, the very first line of the Bible (the opening sentence, i.e. Gen. 1.1) makes the exact same assertion. The fine tuning argument demonstrates how the slightest change to any of the fundamental physical constants would have changed the course of history so that the evolution of the universe would not have proceeded in the way that it did, and life itself would not have existed. What is more, the cosmological argument demonstrates the existence of a “first cause,” which can be inferred via the concept of causation. This is not unlike Leibniz’ “principle of sufficient reason” nor unlike Parmenides’ “nothing comes from nothing” (Gk. οὐδὲν ἐξ οὐδενός; Lat. ex nihilo nihil fit)! All these arguments demonstrate that there must be a cosmic intelligence (i.e. a necessary being) that designed and sustained the universe.

We live in an incredibly complex and mysterious universe that we sometimes take for granted. Let me explain. The Earth is constantly traveling at 67,000 miles per hour and doesn’t collide with anything. Think about how fast that is. The speed of an average bullet is approximately 1,700 mph. And the Earth’s speed is 67,000 mph! That’s mind-boggling! Moreover, the Earth rotates roughly 1,000 miles per hour, yet you don’t fall off the grid, nor do you feel this gyration because of gravity. And I’m not even discussing the ontological implications of the enormous information-processing capacity of the human brain, its ability to invent concepts, its tremendous intelligence in the fields of philosophy, mathematics, and the sciences, and its modern technological innovations.

It is therefore disingenuous to reduce this incredibly complex and extraordinarily deep existence to simplistic formulas and pseudoscientific oversimplifications. As I said earlier, science cannot even “prove” the existence of the external world, much less the presence of a transcendent one. The logical positivist Ludwig Wittgenstein said that metaphysical questions are unanswerable by science. Yet atheist critics are incessantly comparing Paul’s and Jesus’ “experiences” to the scientific model, and even classifying them as deliberate literary falsehoods made to pass as facts because they don’t meet scholarly and academic parameters. The present paper has tried to show that this is a bogus argument! It does not simply question the “epistemological adequacy” of atheistic philosophies, but rather the methodological (and therefore epistemic) legitimacy of the atheist program per se.

——-

#scientificmethod #Godsexistence #religious experience #visions #ThomasKuhn #scientism #technology #metaphysics #empiricism #firstcause #scientificdiscoveries #quantum mechanics #physicalphenomena #godandscience #metaphysicalphenomena #exnihilonihilfit #bertrand russell #immanuel kant #a priori #fundamentalphysicalconstants #paul the apostle #elikittim #thelittlebookofrevelation #principleofsufficientreason #leibniz #parmenides #ek #William Lane Craig #big bang #apologistelikittim

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

HASO, “The Plan.”

Getting excited for tomorrow. I have had this idea for a while and am pleased to be able to execute it. Building up to something good :)

Dr. Krill, Adam, and Dr. Katie stood in the low ceilinged Vrul council chamber at the center of the city. The entire room was as Adam had remembered it, with large glass windows looking out at all 360 degrees of the city. At one point he had assumed it was just the selfish desire of the ruling class to look down on the citizens, but as he looked, he could now see that there was some utility to the tower, almost a watch tower over the city. The canals and structure of the city itself could be sectioned off if there was ever an emergency, cut like a pie into triangular sections that could be excluded from the force shield if it was ever needed. 

As soon as their historian had put forward her hypothesis, the Vrul council had been called to order, and a few other GA members were now sitting in on the meeting remotely. They would have come themselves, but upon hearing about the horrible creatures that were, even now, clawing at their walls, the council had ordered the shield sup for what must have been the first time in millennia.

Luckily for them, they had never let the shields fall into disrepair, and as he looked out the window he could see the shimmering blue purple nexus of power glistening in the sky above them.

It worried him thinking that the ancient Vrul had deemed it necessary to have a force field that went into the sky as well. Dr. Kell had had a ruptured helium sack when they brought him in, but that gave the assumption that, perhaps, he would still have been able to float in his infected state, which was not something that bare thinking about, though it WAS an important item to consider.

“Yes, all the evidence does seem to point to that.” The counselor said, their head turned towards the GA chairwoman as they spoke, “We have contacted the other cities along the central line and they report their cities are built in much the same way. Satellite imaging shows clusters of…. The nesting sights all over the world, though their greatest cluster happens to be around our city. If each circle has approximately seven of the creatures burrowed below it, we estimate about 49,000 of the creatures possibly burrowed below our landscape. The animals in the area seem to know to steer clear of the nesting sites. The larger animals have moved in great migrations towards the poles where there are few of the nesting sites, and the animals who have a lighter step are prone to avoiding the circle when they can. Zoomed in pictures DO show the occasional skeletalized remains of some creature or another, but it is hard to tell what they died from.

The GA chairwoman was nodding, “So you believe that the cities were built for a different reason than originally thought.”

There was a pause and then the council nodded, “Yes, it seems likely that Vrul lived in open cities before the outbreak began and then built the city in defense against the creatures. The Deltas, we have found are the main spreading vector, since they are stronger and faster, they are more mobile, but the disease affects everyone similarly causing acute aggression and infected pustules filled with sores that rupture and spread a cloud into the air.”

Dr. Krill stepped forward just then to cut into the conversation, “Dr. Katie and I have examined the infection under controlled conditions, and it is clearly a disease that originated on this planet. It does not have the structures you would assume from a viral or bacterial infection common on worlds where the creatures are more animal than plant. In this case the subject does seem primarily interested in infecting our species. The disease is transmissible primarily through respiration where the spores enter the body and into the lungs, as it were, where they are dissolved and the toxin spreads directly through to the brain. It will then destroy most of the decision making and memory centers of the cortex, amp up aggression, and then start germinating more spores in those packets that we have seen.”

“So it isn’t contagious to other species.” The Chair woman asked 

Krill shook his head, “I did not say that.  While it is a disease that is meant for plant-like liforms, any creature with lungs similar to ours are also under direct fire of infection. Humans for example send blood directly to their brain from the lungs, and have cortical centers that are generally analogous to our own. Of course, humans have the blood brain barrier that would be much less likely to allow that to happen, so I don’t see a mental breakdown as part of its affect on humans, but I do imagine they could develop sores that could burst and be contagious.”

“I see, than what is your plan?”

Another of the council members took the moment to step forward, “Clearly we restrict movement outside the city. It worked for us for four thousand years and it shall work for the next four thousand years.”

There was a murmur of agreement around them before.

“You’re not fucking serious.”

There was a pause as the entire council chamber turned to look at him, Admiral vir standing just before the window and staring down at the city.

The human looked on in absolute consternation.

“Do you have a problem with that, human.”

Admiral Vir drew himself up, “Damn straight I have a problem with that. You have an opportunity to take your planet back. You have all the weapons and all the allies in the galaxy and you won’t even fight for your own planet. Living in your air tight cities and using it as an excuse to bring down even greater restrictions on a group of people who have never known any sort of freedom before.”

“Watch your ton-” “No, I am not one of your citizens, and I won’t be silenced for my opinion. At the end of the day it IS your decision, but you have to understand. The Vrul home planet is one of the greatest sources we have of natural gas and yet Vrul economic power is at an all time low, and that is because the group of you wont leave your cities to harvest it. Now we learn that there is a reason, a stoppable reason, and you just want to sit here and do nothing about it always watched by the fear of what if something happens, what if one of them gets in somehow, what if the strain changes, what if what if what if.” He looked around the room, “not to mention that if you took control of these things, you would be able to expand your cities, which would mean no more termination orders for those who are deemed, by the government mind you, to be useless.” he gave a very pointed look at Krill, “You would have had the doctor dead if it wasn’t for my intervention, and then as soon as something went wrong you called him back. I think that is a perfect example on how this system just isn’t working.”

The Vrul council stared at him, and it was pretty clear that they weren’t a fan of the words coming out of his mouth. There was one problem though, there were other citizens in the room than weren’t going to keep their mouths shut. There was Krill of course, who they had already discredited, but the Admiral had waited for the perfect opening, the the psychologist was there, the historian and more than a few other assistants, who he could see were Betas.

He knew from what Krill had said that Betas were insufferable gossips. So anything that happened in this tower was likely to get out.

With grudging slowness the council grinded back into movement, “Than what do you suggest, Admiral? We are not well versed in military tactics which is what this would require. You  can hardly blame us for turning back to the one thing that has always worked.”

Good job hiding behind being pathetic he thought to himself.

“It is a good thing that I am Admiral of the GA armada and have some experience with the tactical side of warfare.” He turned to look around at the others, “We will want to continue doing our tests on these creatures. I want to know what their weaknesses are, and I want to know how to kill them. This is to hoping that bullets do the trick, but I also want to know what they are attracted to. Some of you have suggested vibrations in the ground, in which case, I can use that.

Krill and katie agreed with him.

And he walked with them as they stepped from the room.

“You are really toeing a line the way you speak to them, I think.” Katie whispered quietly

He leaned in, “I have a feeling that the Vrul weren’t always like this. The traditions of government they have now are based on martial law that was present during a zombie apocalypse four thousand years ago. They don’t want to give up their power, but my duty isn’t to their government, it is to their citizens.”

Krill hummed his agreement from Kati’s opposite side, “The Admiral is right, I believe. The more I think about it, the more I have come to a conclusion that we are not as….. How shall we say…. Fragile as the council would make us believe. A lot of what they say is based on the idea that we need to be protected, but I think that ideology is something that was passed down from when we actually DID need to be protected. What other truths about the Vrul don’t we know because we haven’t been allowed to look into it further.”

Adam tapped his fingers against his crossed bicep, “The maximum age of a Vrul for one. I read a paper that said that the average age of a Vrul before termination is only around thirty or forty years, but if what they are saying is true about these zombie vrul, than it is likely they are around four thousand years old.” He glanced over at Krill, “how old does this make you past your termination order/”

Krill shrugged, “I was evaluated early, so I am only considered 35 in your human years, a little bit older in the Vrul reckoning of things, but that does pose an interesting hypothesis. I have never actually seen a Vrul die of old age. But it would make sense with the termination order. If we were forced into cities, than it would make sense that they would do these things out of a need for population control, that is assuming that we can live forever, a thought that seems ludicrous to me, but still.”

Adam nodded, “Starting off though, I want to know what kind of music does what to the creature.”

Dr Katie looked at him skeptically, “Music?”

He nodded, “Music.”

“What are you planning, she said suspiciously, looking him over with a critical eye.

He smiled, “Dealing with the hoard all at once, but if we can do that, and use music against them, well then I would want to use all of my inherent advantages now wouldn’t I?”

Katie nodded with some thought and motioned him onward.

They went back to the chamber, while he and some of the marines went back to the wall, where the group of ravening Vrul were still tearing at the base.

“Lower the shields.” he ordered on of the Betas.

The creature looked at him like he was nuts, but the look on his face made clear, in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t going to argue and hurried to do as Adam ordered.

The small section of the field opened, and he leaned out over the drop looking down at the creatures still clambering at the wall.

“Huh, Maverick, come here.”

Maverick trotted over behind him, rifle bouncing in a sling against her chest and she skidded to a halt next to him, “Yes Boss.”

“Think you can shoot one of them in the head from up here?”

She paused, frowned but then shrugged, “I mean…. yeah , probably.”

“Go on, target practice.”

She looked at him a bit confused for a second, before shrugging and leaning out over the drop. He grabbed her by the back of the shirt just to give her that extra bit of security while she got a good angle.

There was a small pause, and then a sharp subsonic crack as the rifle fired. The Vrul flinched at the shockwave and Adam’s ear’s rang. Damn idiot forgot to put in some hearing protection before she did that, but what was done was done. Not even a millisecond later there was a sharp explosion as the Vrul in question shattered into its component parts. It cracked open like an egg and the strange, and deadly pollen ruptured out before falling back onto the ground.”

Maverick drew herself back inside the shield which shut quickly.

“Huh, that worked better than expected.”

“Yeah, but did you see the polen?”

He frowned and nodded, “I did. I don’t think any Vrul should be going on this mission with us, and as for the humans. IT will be full suits and respirators for everyone. I want to see how long these spores can last in the environment by themselves. Hopefully it isn’t long, because if it is then that puts my whole plan out the window. I also want to see how long it can last in the air, because that is going to be super important.

***

When he returned to the lab later on after coordinating his original idea Dr. Katie and krill were waiting for him with their results.

“So, what did we find.”

“A couple of things.” Krill announced, “FIrst of all, the spores last a very short time outside the host, maybe twenty four hours at most, though that is only when provided with the perfect condition. They cannot infect the surrounding plant life or the soil. The spores themselves are rather heavy and so they don’t stick around in the air longer than the wind can keep them up, and they seem to be neutralized by water, or water ruins their infectivity when outside a subject, so that is also good news. His helium sack would still work if it was not for the tear, which means that these creatures can float, and we know that the deltas can burrow to some degree.”

Adam was nodding slowly, “And how about the music?”

“Ah, that we found is interesting. A steady and predictable beat does cause them confusion, so most human songs will get them. Anything without a measured beat isn’t an issue, like classical music for the most part. Songs that have no drumline don’t confuse them as much, and songs where the drum line isn’t as noticeable also don’t affect them as much. A good predictable drumline as seen in many rock songs will get them nice and confused, but your best bet for neutralizing them is a hard rock or metal drumline with additional patterns coming from the guitar and vocal track.”

“Hard rock and metal to save the day then.”

They looked at him with a curious expression as he grinned at them.

“What are you planning.”

“I am planning to kill zombies, and I am planning to do it in style.” 

[tsbikersau]

Chapter 6

The crash played in Logan’s head on repeat, like a cursed video that was meant to be forever ingrained into his head, burned onto his retinas never to fade away. He knew that would not be the case, but it didn’t change the fact that at the moment he truly was reliving it over and over again.

It was horrifying, he had to admit. Even more than horrifying. He saw Roman in the lead, so he could assume he wasn’t one of the victims but this another annoying voice in his head screamed for his attention with “Well what if he did?!”. He didn’t, Roman was fine. He was fine. There was no reason for overreacting. He was a professional, he must be okay.

Logan was taken out of his stupor by Patton’s strong grip on his upper arm, shaking him slightly. People around them were leaving the stands, and Virgil was hyperventilating. Of course. He cursed himself mentally for letting himself get so lost in his own turmoil.

The seats closest to them were already empty, leaving enough room for Logan to crouch in front of Virgil without worrying about blocking the path (there was always some asshole who didn’t understand that they can go the other way and insisted on making everyone’s day harder, so he was glad this was already out of the way).

His own mind was racing, heart beating somewhat frantically, but he tried with all his might to at least seem in control and composed. When he reached for the headphones around Virgil’s neck, which must have fallen off when he started panicking or he took them off himself because the crowd was quite orderly that day, he tried not to pay any mind to his shaking hands.

“Virgil, I need you to take your hands away from your head,” he started, hoping he can get through to him. “I have your headphones but I can’t put them on if you’re blocking them. It’s okay, there is almost no one here. Everything is fine. You are fine.”

How long did they stay like that, before Virgil returned to the present? Neither of them noticed, it wasn’t important. Patton sighed, relieved, when Virgil’s eyes were once again conscious, without that fog of unwanted memories clouding them. He bit his lip a little too hard, which he noticed only when Patton took a packet of tissues out of his pocket, took one out and passed it to him with a smile and a quiet “for your lip”. Virgil’s hands were violently shaking, but he tried for a small grateful smile from behind the tissue.

The ride home was quiet. Patton insisted on driving everyone back, even though he lived in a completely different part of the town. When they were all securely in the car, Logan checked his phone. There was a message in the group chat, and once he read it he felt the weight of a tonne worth of bricks getting lifted from his shoulders and he could finally breathe in fully.

“Roman is perfectly fine, albeit a bit shaken,” Logan said aloud, following that with reading the message to everyone in the car. He heard the shaky breath of the anxious man in the back, he saw the way Patton’s reassuring smile lost its strain, becoming genuinely relieved.

The ride was silent, everyone too caught up in their own heads to care for any conversation. Logan was thinking about everything aside from the fact, how relieved he felt, and how affected he seemed to be. He got so used to ignoring his abnormal feelings towards their star biker, but now it felt like he wasn’t able to do that anymore. No matter how much he tried to focus on Virgil in the back, one thought kept coming back like a very annoying pendulum. A mantra set just to taunt him.

He could have died. And I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

I almost witnessed Roman’s death.

And if he knew that those kinds of thoughts were ultimately pointless, he couldn’t stop them from coming. Because yes, this time it ended up okay. But what if there is a next time that isn’t this fortunate?

Logan looked out of the window, on the blurs that were the buildings passing by. He was still feeling miserable and there’s only so much a person can do to feel a semblance of being detached from the situation in a car with three people in it.

***

The race was, ultimately, decided to be not taken into consideration. There was no time to reschedule before the next part of the contest, and since that one was meant to finalise who gets to ride in the semi-finals, the boards decided to make an exception and take the points the riders ended up with after the previous one with additional points added based on the positions right before the crash, probably the most complicated way out possible. Which, in short, meant that Roman got qualified, obviously, but so did Remus.

The moment Roman entered the garage the following morning, it being the middle of the week and of course they would be working, Virgil threw the cloth he was using to get some of the grime off his hands on the floor and positively threw himself at Roman. Such a display was so unexpected that the biker had to take a step back, almost losing his balance, but he soon recovered enough to laugh at the string of curses that was being muttered into his jacket. He hugged the man back, and from the looks of it, it was a proper squeeze.

Logan couldn’t hold his little smile while watching the exchange. They might banter and edge on the borderline of a fight every other day, but in the end Virgil really cared for every one of his friends.

Of course no one will speak about that lapse of judgement that made him hug Roman. Aside from Roman, for whom the action may become another thing to banter about. Of course.

(He really appreciated it, though. Not the fact, that he almost fell and lost another chunk of his dignity, but the hug itself was really what he needed, although he didn’t realise it. He must have been still shaken, more so than he thought on entering the shop.)

The second Virgil released him, another pair of arms took him captive, this time without cursing him to hell and back. The day more than one swear world in consecutive progression leaves Patton’s mouth will be the day of the apocalypse, that was a known fact.

When Roman looked to Logan on the other side of the working station, he was smiling brightly, but when Logan smiled back (he couldn’t help it, the relief he felt on seeing Roman alive and breathing too much for his stoic expression. Frankly, he didn’t care) he could swear Roman’s eyes got a little softer. There was something in his expression before it got covered up with a confident wink, to which Logan could do nothing but huff and go back to his work. There he was, he will be okay.

After that, the day went as usual. And if Logan glanced up from his work to check if Roman is really alright a bit more often than he would normally, well, no one really noticed. Aside from the biker in question, but he wasn’t going to bring it up. Yet.

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

Masterpost --- Next Chapter >>

Taglist: @mariita-2006 @bullet-tothefeels @crossiantgay

#sanders sides #logince #sanders sides fic #logince fic #tsbikersau #roman sanders #logan sanders #remus sanders mention #angst and fluff #ts sides

[quothethemenevermore]

And here's a fic I wrote based on more ideas

Warning: contains fear play and mentions/character thinking they will die (they will not, vore here is completely safe)

Okay, he knew that Bubby said it was going to be fucked up, but he wasn't exactly expecting this. He was supposed to go to the past, wasn't he? If that was the case, this couldn't possibly be right.

He did wind up back in the lobby of Black Mesa, completely put together just like before the cascade, but there was nobody there. No guard at the computer, no scientists running around preparing for the test, nobody. It was eerily quiet, and empty. It left a very uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He really shouldn't be delaying, he had a passport to destroy. "Right, passport… where did I leave that? ...The locker room." Right, the locker room. He needed to get back there. Should be easy, with nobody here.

Especially no security guards bugging him about passports. He tried not to think about Benrey, how they were actively trying to kill everyone, how they had almost lost the fight against them. And now, the possibility they could be waiting for a chance to strike.

"Benrey can't be here, he's back in the.. homeworld." He tried to reassure himself as he continued down the hall. He could only hope that the science team could hold their own with them, though he wasn't too concerned. He had a feeling they'd be fine, he needed to focus on his part. The halls were still empty, still quiet, and he almost let his shoulders drop.

Until Benrey's head popped up through the floor, right in front of him, and he jumped a foot in the air. "Yo!"

"Oh, hey man!" He took a few steps back, trying to create some distance between the two. His breathing picked up as the two stared at each other. "What are you doing?" "Nothing! Just, headed to the test chamber! Got a big test today-" "oh, cool." There was a rattling noise, one he swore came from the alien themselves, and a shiver went down his spine. "Yo, wanna head back to my place and play some video games?"

He really didn't want to, but he also didn't want to piss this eldritch being off while being the only other person here with them. Passport, right. Gotta get to that passport.

"Maybe, after the shift, you know, got a big test.. in the chamber-"

A malicious look overtook the alien's features, and his heart dropped even further. "Yo, you wanna die? Haha."

His nerves got the better of him, breaking into a fit of panicked laughter. With no other way but forward, he chanced racing past their head and down the hall, almost breaking the door's button with how hard he pressed it. His heart was running a marathon in both his chest and his ears, making it almost impossible to hear Benrey behind him. Not that it mattered, because they just kept popping up around him no matter what he did. He tried to round corners and hide off the path, but nothing seemed to deter them, following and toying with him.

He tried shooting at them again, knowing that it wouldn't do much, but he had to do something to throw them off, he had to get to that locker room! He had long since lost track of low long he spent weaving through the halls of the facility, one he swore he was more familiar with. A trickle of doubt seeped into his frantic thoughts.

Was he even going the right way anymore? Did Benrey manage to turn him around? He rounded a corner, almost smacking into the wall, and-

The locker room door! It was at the end of the hall, he just had to make it there. He didn't bother hyping himself up this time, breaking into a dead sprint, one that was only possible due to the adrenaline flooding his system. He was sure he cleared the hallway in record time, skidding to a stop to avoid slamming into the wall. But it was as he was skidding that he realized: in his rush, he forgot one very important detail about his enemy.

~

Oh, it was almost too easy to scare Gordon here. Unlike in Xen, their body couldn't fit through the tiny halls of Black Mesa. However, with only their head visible through the hall, the human seemed that much more scared. It definitely wouldn't have had the same effect if they had shrunk down. Hell, it seemed that he was mostly scaring himself, all they had to do was follow him. Still, they kept taunting the human, relishing in the fear radiating off of him as he ran away. The game of chase continued for a while as Gordon tried to find his way around and away from them.

Up until the two actually made it to the hall before the locker room, and Benrey remembered why they followed Gordon here.

If he got that passport, they'd be vulnerable to the attacks. They wanted to shrug it off, assume they'd be fine, but.. there was a lingering feeling of dread that maybe, just maybe, without the passports they could be killed for good.

It wasn't a pleasant thing to think about, and it only got worse when they remembered a conversation they had with Tommy before the team went to Xen, about the human he was currently scaring. Making sure they knew that a lot of Gordon's anger was an outlet for his fear, him being scared that he was going to die, because he couldn't come back. They were sure they'd be upset in that situation too.

Suddenly, frightening him didn't feel like such a good plan.

Maybe they should talk things out, like they told Tommy they'd try to do. There was no guarantee Gordon would even listen, or care, but they could try. They'd like to make things right, too. Wanted to try and be friends with him again if he'd let them. But in order to do any of that, they couldn't let him through that door. That was their only option. Coming up with a plan, they clipped out of the building, back into the void, and focused on the human's frantic footfalls down the hall. Right when he started to slow down, they raised their hand directly into his path, blocking the door.

~

A giant hand clipped through the floor, just in time for Gordon to slide right into it, so out of breath he couldn't even scream. It curled around him as more of the eldritch being rose from the floor, their head now visible too. For a moment, they simply watched him as he tried to get his breath back, gold eyes glowing against the shadow on their face. Their pupils dilated the longer their staredown continued.

"Looks like I caught you." There was a smug note to their words, and Gordon's adrenaline was already so high his reaction was a shrill squeak of laughter. "Yea, now are you gonna let me go? Gotta finish the shift, remember?" His words shook with the fear of his unknown future, which only grew worse at the lip smack in response.

"No, man. Wanna hang out, don't gotta finish the shift to do that." "But there's an important test today! I have to go-" their expression was bored, but their eyes narrowed as the human continued. "Dont gotta do the test, could just hang out here." With that, Gordon finally cut the act. No matter how much he tried to sweet talk Benrey into letting him go, it was obvious that it wasn't gonna happen.

"I don't want to hang out with you, man! You're trying to trick me! You tried to kill me and the science team! You caused this!" He waved his minigun arm at them, ignoring the sparks of pain that shot up his arm from doing so. Their eyes focused intently on the waving gun, very similar to a.. predator tracking its prey. Gordon couldn't help but tremble harder.

"Why not, bro? Can't we just chill here, hug and shit?"

It would probably be uncomfortable for the human to hug with that hev suit on, so they should probably get him out of it. That was another thing he'd been complaining about, right? Maybe he'd appreciate it. They could phase him through it through an opening, but there's only two of those on the suit currently, and they knew Gordon would panic worse if they tried to use his head.

Too quickly for the human to comprehend, Benrey's other hand came up, pinching the minigun between his thumb and index finger.

"Benrey, what the fuck are you doing?" He attempted to shoot the gun, but the barrel was pressed tightly between the two trunk-like fingers, effectively squashing any bullet he could fire. "Gonna do something.." they mumbled, tugging very gently on the gun. His heart stopped for a moment. "C'mon, man, once wasn't enough!? You have to take the gun too!?" He all but wailed, unable to keep what little calm he had. He slipped into a full-blown panic, barely taking any breath in but not daring to move lest he managed to assist his second amputation. He tried not to focus too much on their eyes, laser focused on his arm.

He got more mumbling in response, another tug. Their eyes lit up, and Gordon tensed, trying to brace himself for the inevitable pain again-

And another tug pulled him forwards, feeling significantly lighter than before. A large crash sounded behind him and- yep. That was his fucking H.E.V suit, or at least the armor for it.

Benrey just stripped him of the only protection he had. With that done, the minigun was released, their other hand moving to cup him in their palm instead of simply holding him in a fist. "There. Don't have to deal with the hev suit in the way."

His mind was racing too much to focus on the fact that they said 'hev suit' and not h.e.v. suit.

"For what? Benrey, what the fuck are you going to do to me?"

"Told you, man. We're just gonna vibe here for a bit. Calm down."

"I don't want to calm down, I want to go home!" He squirmed in their hand, which quickly closed around him again.

"Bro, stop moving. Gonna have to restrain you." "You might as well if you think for a goddamn second I'm going to just lay here and let you-" their eyes had narrowed further, pupils nothing but slits, and a frown stretched across their face.

Oh, no.

~

...Yea, there was no way they could talk to him with all the squirming and panicking he was doing. They couldn't risk keeping him in their hands- if he slipped out of them, they weren't sure they could catch him again before he got that passport. They couldn't really see into the locker room as well as they wished they could, making it hard to clip into said room, so once Gordon got in that room that would be it.

But how else could they restrain him?

They could always shapeshift a pouch to put him in temporarily, it wouldn't take too much work and he wouldn't be able to escape. They risked freaking the human out more, but there wasn't much worse they could do with how scared he already was, right?

Internally, they focused on making a small pouch. Access to air, no acids.. after a brief moment of thought, they also gave it the ability to make sweet voice, knowing they'd likely have to calm him down.

Externally, they had been silent for a few moments, eyes going unfocused. The longer it went on, the more scared Gordon got. Finally, they spoke up, their eyes focusing on him again.

~

"That sucks, gonna have to put you in the chill-out room, then."

"Chill out room? What the fuck are you talking-" they interrupted him by taking his minigun into their thumb and index again, bringing it close to their face and singing a low note. "What are you doing!?" There wasn't any sweet voice that could actively bring harm, was there?

~

Right, mini gun arm. Can't have Gordon blowing a bunch of holes in them before they could calm him down. They'd need to jam it, somehow. Delicately, they pinched the gun again, trying to ignore how he tensed at the motion. Making some sticky sweet voice, they covered the gun in it, blocking the barrel and coating it well up to his upper arm. They had to make sure it would stay stuck long enough to calm him down.

~

Reddish-purple orbs surrounded the gun with a grape-like smell, at first confusing and frightening him further. Upon seeing how sticky they were however, Gordon's eyes widened when he realized what they were doing. Taking away his only other way of defense. He knew it was pointless, but he couldn't just watch it and do nothing! He tried pushing one of the fingers away from the gun, only succeeding in getting the jam sweet voice on his hand. After what felt like an agonizingly long time to Gordon, the gun was released, sticky and useless. He clutched it close to his chest, uncaring about the sweet voice sticking to his bodysuit. "Calm down, just getting you ready for the chill-out room." Gordon narrowed his eyes to the best of his ability, summoning all the anger and bravery he could. "What. Is. A. Chill-out room? Where are you taking me?" He got a smirk as a response. Then their mouth was opening wide in front of him, sharp teeth and dark blue flesh on display.

And it didn't take long before he was pushed closer to that bear trap maw. All the anger from before vanished, and all he felt was fear.

"Wait!" He flailed around, but it didn't stop his captor's plan, and he quickly found himself face first on their tongue, teeth snapping shut behind him.

The first thing he was aware of was how warm it was, which he tried to ignore how nice it felt after dealing with the cold metal of that suit for a week on end. Touch seemed to be his only sense that would be useful here, anyway. There was too much noise around him, breathing and squelching as their tongue moved under him, his own heart still racing in his ears, his eyes rendered useless by the dark.

Their tongue moved up, swiping across his face and knocking his glasses off. Not that they were of any use currently, but he needed them! Blind and panicked, he squirmed around, trying to find them before-

He was pressed up against something hard, the roof of their mouth, if he had to guess. And quickly after, a 'glrk' interrupted the organic white noise around him. He was released afterwards, and he scrambled to try and find the frames, only to realize…

That fucker just swallowed his glasses.

Shit.

There really was no coming back from this point, was there? The only other pair he owned was at home, and unless he somehow managed to kill Benrey blind, he wouldn't get to them. He could get to this pair, but that meant..

Well, Benrey's goal, as it seemed.

Was this really how things were going to go? They came this far, and this was how it was going to end? And on top of that, they weren't even going to be merciful and kill him before they swallowed him?

He bit his tongue, hard, willing the tears that stung his eyes to go away. If this was really how he was going to go, he would face it with what little dignity he had left. And speaking of that..

He lashed out at everything he could, kicking and punching. He doubted it would do much, especially with his gun jammed, but at least it should hurt a little. If he was going down, he was gonna be as inconvenient as possible.

He got a little sense of pride when he was lurched back up, pressed tighter than before to stop his assault. That pride bled back into panic as he heard a high note rumble around him, and he picked up on their plan instantly, squirming against his temporary prison.

"Don't you dare! At least let me have a fighting chance, dammit!" It was almost impossible to keep the warble out of his voice, but he had a feeling he wasn't heard, or was simply ignored regardless. Sure enough, a blue glow filled the space, and as the smell of blue raspberry overpowered his senses, his body went limp.

There was a small, satisfied hum as the note ended, and it took a lot more willpower than before to not cry.

So this really was it? Not even trying to fight back got him anywhere, this was really how it was going to end. He wouldn't get to see the science team again, or Joshua, he'd never get to go home. And it only hurt that much worse that he had kind of hoped that they could get past this. He knew the two of them hadn't really gotten along, but he had thought they were- well, not friends, but he didn’t completely hate the guy and he thought the other felt the same up to the betrayal. Of course the next step to literally amputating him would be to flat out murder him.

His shoulders shook, and he gritted his teeth, trying not to let himself sob.

It seemed that Benrey was growing impatient, as after that he wasn't toyed with any longer. He was released from the tight fit, sliding the opposite way that he wanted to. He couldn't even fight as he felt himself be swallowed, closing his eyes.

It was such a tight fit that he couldn't move if he wanted to. If he had the energy to. The bigger concern to him was being unable to draw in breath. All he could do was wait, hear their breathing get louder around him and their heart beat start from below him, moving to be above him. Or rather, him moving to be below it, the muscles around him relentlessly pushing him further. His lungs started to burn, and he wondered if maybe he could suffocate and still get a merciful end.

Luck was not on his side, as seemed to be a common thread for that day, and he was forced through a tight ring of muscle, finding the ability to draw breath again.

When he landed, he didn't want to open his eyes. He didn't want to see what was going to be his demise. But seeing as the only other sight he had were those sharp fangs…

He reluctantly opened them.

It was definitely what he imagined a stomach to look like,- what he could see through his blurred vision, that is- dark and slick and warm. The only difference was the blue glow to the muscles around him and the sharply sweet smell.

Like blue raspberries.

Is this where they make their sweet voice?

There didn't seem to be any active at the moment, but he was still affected by the sweet voice from earlier, a fog over his mind and body sluggish. He almost didn't have it in him to panic anymore, not just from the sweet voice but also from resignation.

He didn't have any chance of making it out of this, there was no way he could fight back now, so he might as well accept it. It was with those thoughts that his eyes stung, and he didn't try to hold the tears back anymore.

His shoulders shook as he cried, trying to keep quiet. He didn't know if Benrey could even hear him in here, but he really did not want to talk to them anymore either way.

Unfortunately, he couldn't even get that small mercy.

"You good, bro?"

"Why the fuck would I be good right now? You know what, I don't care. I don't even want to hear you right now, just leave me alone." "No, man. Can't hang out if we don't talk." "I don't want to talk to you! Just let me die in peace." "What?" Of course, Benrey would go right back to their old ways. His hysterical brain must have imagined the concern he thought he heard, with the alien acting like they aren't in the process of murdering him. God, he could almost imagine the head tilt that the alien was doing, and it only infuriated him more. At this point, he might just wind up dying to his blood pressure. "You ate me, Benrey. That's going to kill me." "'M not gonna kill you, man." "Then why the fuck did you eat me!?"

"Needed to chill out. Couldn't let you in that room." "Why? Because my passport's in there? Because it would have been what I needed to finally kill you?"

"Why do you wanna kill me so bad, kinda hurts, man." "Because you're trying to kill me!" He slammed the minigun against the wall he sat against. "You're not gonna die. Just need you to calm down for a minute, so we can talk."

"It's kind of hard to have a conversation when your time is limited." He snipped back, folding his arms over his chest. "Don't you think if I was gonna kill you you'd be gone by now?"

"Unless you're purposely stalling your system. I wouldn't doubt that as an ability." "Maybe you're not even in a stomach at all. Ever consider that?"

No, he hadn't. He was too busy panicking.

And he said as such with another hit to the wall closest to him. "Why would you even do this if you aren't planning on killing me?"

It was quiet for a moment, and he took the chance to try and steady his breathing.

~

They hadn't considered the fact that he was going to be this scared. Before, they wanted to scare him, yea, but not like this. He was still angry, of course, but he hadn't stopped quivering since they had grabbed him. They could hear the defeat, the tears in his voice.

This wasn't the reaction they had wanted, not anymore. Now, they just wanted to talk to him, try to talk things through. They wanted to apologize.

Hell, that's what they've wanted to do for a while now. They tried to apologize about the ambush before, when he first got the gun on his arm, but then the scientist just kept yelling at them and shooting them and-

Well, they got angry. And after that, Gordon became dead set on killing them, and..

...they really need to get all this sorted out. Before they did anything more that they'd regret. Wish they could say the same for the human, but..

~

Gordon looked around curiously as the blue glow faded into a multiude of colors, fruit punch overtaking the blue raspberry smell.

"I just wanted to scare you a bit. Didn’t plan on killing you. Didn't really plan on hurting you, either." "Bullshit." He didn't get to say much else before Benrey cut back in. "They weren't supposed to take your arm. They said they were gonna take you to their base outside of Black Mesa, maybe rough you up a bit. They didn't say anything about trying to kill you."

No matter how sincere the alien sounded, he wasn't going to let himself believe it. That's the last thing he needed to do where he was currently residing. "Then why did you bully me about my arm after it got cut off?" Another bout of silence. "Thought it was gonna grow back, wanted to take your mind off it."

That…. Actually made sense. Of course the being who could respawn and regenerate would think the others could too, especially after Coomer and Bubby's show of the same abilities (Not exactly the same, but they always wound up uninjured and alive in the end). Tommy was careful enough that that was never a problem with him. They must have genuinely assumed that he would grow his arm back.

"I… guess that makes sense. But what about all of this?" He swept his arm across the chamber. "This doesn't make any sense, except confirming what we all knew." "Told you guys to go back, didn't listen. Had to contain you somehow, keep you from getting to that room."

Something occurred to the scientist, then. With how serious they were about stopping Gordon from getting the passport, it was almost like… Benrey seemed scared of dying. It was strange, with them dying and coming back so often. He'd think they'd be used to dying at this point. "Why are you so afraid of dying this time?"

".... I dunno if I'm going to come back this time. Or if I'll get to leave Xen if I do."

"....Oh." Was all he could say, taking in the new information. Benrey was scared of dying.

...Just like he'd been, this whole time.

Benrey filled the silence. "Just wanted to be nice. Be friends, get out of Black Mesa together. But you were making me mad, constantly shooting me and hitting me. Wanted to get back at you, make you regret doing that."

That was fair, he supposed. Yea, what Benrey had done was worse, but he couldn't really be excused for his actions either. Even if they couldn't die then, it probably still hurt.

He sighed, looking around.

Benrey wasn't angry anymore, not that he could tell. They just seemed to want to get past all of this, be done with the big fight. And he'd definitely been in here long enough that something should have started happening.

The walls around him shifted colors of oranges, purples, and reds, mimicking what he assumed would be a sunset.

What would sunset rhyme with? It had been as close to an apology as he was expecting. Sorry, remorse, regret…

He could almost hear Tommy's voice putting the rhyme together.

Colors of the sunset means I'm filled with regret.

They were apologizing.

And since he got an apology, it was only fair he gave one back too, especially with his actions. "I'm sorry, Benrey. I was getting aggravated with everything because I wanted to get out of here, put everything here behind me and not have to think of it again. I was stressed, and you were just adding to it. It doesn't make what I did okay."

Yellow joined the colors on the wall. "'S fine. Wanna try again?" "Sure. My passport's in my locker, if you still wanna see it." "Nah, I'd rather just hang out. Can head back to Xen in a little bit."

He had been relaxing steadily since they had started talking, since he learned that he wasn't going to die, but he finally let himself fully relax against the walls around him. Benrey was the only enemy here right now, and he trusted they weren't trying to kill him anymore. And now, with the air cleared between them, the biggest weight of all was pulled off his shoulders.

After all of this they can head back to Xen and get the hell out of Black Mesa for good. Until then, he was fine where he was.

Except for one more thing. He sat up, causing a flash of teal to take over most of the colors on the walls. "You good?" "My glasses. You swallowed my fucking glasses and I need them." He felt around the ground near him, trying to find them. He squinted, trying to at least see slightly better to find them.

He tried to ignore the rumbling laughter around him. "They should still be there, can't really go anywhere else unless I make them."

"And you better not have." He said sharply, his hand touching something that was distinctly not the soft flesh around him. He grabbed the frames, pulling them up to look through them. He wasn't going to put them on right now, no need to, but he needed to make sure they weren't broken. Thankfully, they weren't.

"Found them?" "Found them." He flopped backwards, holding the frames loosely in his hand to keep track of them.

The walls turned to a dark blue, not like the calm down hue. He assumed it was a default color, since there was no fruity smell accompanying the change. He closed his eyes, letting himself relax again.

~

It was uncomfortable to keep their head and hands clipped through the building, so Benrey let themselves slip further into the void, slowly to not disturb the human napping within. They couldn't help but release the yellow sweet voice that had been building up since the two made up, singing softly. After all of this, they'd be surprised if Gordon woke that easily, but they didn't want to invoke the tired wrath of him regardless. They had time to relax, the warm weight in their abdomen completely taking over their thoughts.

It hadn't gone over exactly how they wanted it to, but Gordon not demanding to be let out after they talked definitely meant more to them than the brunette probably knew. The fact that he trusted them enough to let himself be completely vulnerable, tucked away where nobody could find him. Completely surrounded by Benrey, and not afraid or angry about it (anymore, at least.)

They took a deep breath, feeling more sweet voice welling up in their chest, and released it with a hum, yellows and pinks filling the dark around them.

After all of this, they looked forward to getting to befriend Gordon again, this time not having the threat of being killed lingering over them like a damp, suffocating blanket.

They knew they should be heading back soon, lest the remaining members of the team get themselves in trouble, but for now they simply wanted to enjoy the peace.

Just as a caution, they tried to reach out to the skeletons to have them keep an eye out for them. After that was finished, they simply closer their eyes and let the void carry them for a while.

#hlvoreai #Safe vore #Non fatal vore #Soft vore #Fearplay

[incorrect-ikevamp-quotes]

Hi again! I come to you today with a question that may simply be a continuity error, but I'm still interested in your thoughts! In the main story, le Comte *knows* it was MC that came through the door behind him. Yet in Comte's "One Night, Beneath the Crescent Moon" POV story, he said he "...had no idea of what would happen next... That she would end up using the same door and end up stuck on the other side." What's your take on it? Thanks in advance! 💛

Hiya! First off I wanna apologize for how long it took to reply oTL I had originally drafted a response and then lost it when I accidentally closed the tab, and whenever that happens I always have to like sufficiently mourn the words I lost 😂😂😂

But to answer your question! If I’m entirely honest, I can’t remember what it was Comte said exactly in the Main Story in regards to her entering the door. There could be a lot of explanations for him saying he “knew”: continuity error, him wanting to put her at ease by seeming “in control” of the situation (while he’s screaming internally), or maybe even him wanting to cast some doubt as to whether or not he’s a person that can be trusted (aka the whole like “MC nooooooo don’t trust me I’m a vampire very bad very scary run away” kind of like Leonardo). 

All that being said, given the evidence we have and the stories I’ve read from his POV--esp that Crescent Moon one you referenced--I’m most inclined to believe that he had no idea she would follow him that day at the Louvre. If anything I really don’t think he ever anticipated any human person could follow him through the door? Because remember Sebastian (and the suitors for that matter) only manage because Comte is their escort. Sure their will to live on was strong enough that he could hear them, but they had no capacity to approach or find a door on their own as far as we currently know. The door was closed when MC found it; this suggests that Comte fully closed off that avenue to make sure nobody wayward stepped in by accident. He did the responsible thing and he left long before he could ascertain her safe journey through time, but she still managed to make it across somehow.

That’s why I think MC’s mere existence is earth-shattering to Comte. I mean we have all the good basics: a lovely lady, sweet and hard-working, means well and does her best. And these attributes all do matter, for sure. But the door is perhaps a greater catalyst in their romance than we might have first anticipated.

There will be some semi-hefty JPN rt spoilers below the cut for Dazai and Comte, so I’m just going to keep it under wraps just in case there are people who want to remained 100% unspoiled:

TW: Mentions of suicide in Dazai’s rt

The reason I say this is twofold, based on information provided by Dazai and Comte’s Main Story route. In Dazai’s route, remember that the focal point of the story is that Dazai wants to go back in time to kill himself as a baby so that he can never grow up to write his books or cause anyone pain in the near future--essentially, suicidal ideation to a frightening extreme. One of the main reasons that he fails (though MC plays a significant role in stopping him, too) is that Dazai’s will to kill himself is too weak. In simpler terms, this means that--no matter how much he insisted he wanted to die, the truth of his heart was revealed in his constant hesitating and difficulty going through with it. This is very often a reaction from people who need sizable psychological assistance to overcome trauma; they don’t usually want to die, it’s more that the pain of surviving their experiences is outweighing any possible joy they can find in living. 

But back to the most important part in bold. When Dazai asks about being able to use the door to travel through time, Charles confirms that it’s possible to travel without a pureblood escort. HOWEVER. This type of travel is very, very difficult unless you have an intense sense of willpower. I imagine the implication here is that you have to have an overwhelming desire and firmly believe it’s where you want to be in order for the travel attempt to succeed at all. (I don’t think the tethering point necessarily matters, but there is a suggestion that strong bonds between people--whether platonic or romantic--can serve as powerful guideposts when the door is distorted.) In other words, the reason Dazai relies on Charles’ moral bankruptcy is because Dazai knows he doesn’t feel strongly enough to go through with the suicide. He needs someone else who has the sheer determination and unbending will to see it through when the door opens. 

This is why Dazai is forced to ask Charles to accompany him, even though Charles doesn’t necessarily want to kill him. For Charles, this is less about a desperation to kill Dazai and more about his intense obsession-love for MC, and his willingness to do anything to receive her love/attention in return. In Charles’ view, since MC is ostensibly in love with Dazai, removing Dazai from the picture permanently is ideal. While Charles’ judgement is clouded and a little horrific, he is nonetheless rock steady in comparison to Dazai’s nonstop wavering. Dazai knows that he’s fickle on a personal level; one moment he wants to die, another he’s too afraid to let go of what he does care about or upset anyone. He’s at a point where he doesn’t know what’s right or true anymore and he’s floundering, which is honestly fairly common among those who share his lamentable condition. (Most people don’t have a death wish--it’s more a combination of circumstantial problems and healing that has remained in stasis that constitutes the extremity of that behavior.)

Moving right along, Comte’s route also features a similar testament to willpower, believe it or not. This happens in the last few chapters of the main story. Basically, Shakespeare dumps MC on Vlad’s doorstep and she’s more or less suffering the latter’s monologuing for a good while. Not long after that Comte appears and nearly shoots Vlad in the head, the bullet just grazing his cheek. Comte demands that he let MC go, and Vlad--in a classic sadistic act of compliance--wrenches open the door and just tosses MC into the freefall of distorted spacetime.

Now this is dangerous to MC’s life in and of itself, but there’s a key element there: distorted spacetime. In this main story the door never returns to its normal state after that first month period. Rather, the expanse of the door is too dangerous to be traveled even by a pureblood, let alone a human being. The chances MC will ever be able to escape in order to survive are closer to zero than any other number. Remember that Comte is immortal. If he gets stuck on his own, he can’t die and the damage to his body is always more than able to heal when he’s back to safety. (He even warns Leonardo in Leo’s MS that the danger of getting stuck in some kind of pocket in spacetime is still too significant to be ignored, though I can’t be sure if that’s due to Leonardo’s inexperience with time travel/requirement for an escort, or just an inevitable risk you juggle anytime you travel through the door.)

Of course Comte leaps in after her to try to save her, but presumably their entry point is long gone now (Vlad shut the door), so they’re just kind of floating in amorphous time. They do and don’t exist. Comte is understandably distraught because MC’s life hangs in the balance; if they don’t find a way out, she is almost certainly going to die. Comte admits that--while he hates the fact that his very existence is a danger to her, he still doesn’t regret finding her by any extension. MC protests, naturally, that there’s nothing to regret. Circumstances be what they may, she loves him. 

Now, here is the key. While Comte is trying to think of a way out, MC is thinking hard about wanting to return to the mansion. Her mind reflects an acute, intense desire to return home to the place where they both belong. And wouldn’t you know it? They both suddenly tumble out of the door in the mansion and onto the carpeted floor, whole and alive, sputtering in disbelief. Comte is baffled at first but it can only give way to immense relief that she’s safe, and he just immediately breaks down.

The only reason the two make it out unscathed is because of--I can only assume--MC’s overwhelming will to live on with Comte and return to the mansion. While it would have been natural for her to be overcome by fear to the point where she could make no productive decision, or even humor the concept of focusing on their home, she does it all the same with immediate success. That’s also part of why I think Comte just 100% caves into both of their feelings in the next chapter. He saw firsthand that, not only does MC keep a level head under duress, but she also has the overpowering will necessary to survive amongst vampires. And it was perhaps this unshakeable will in the first place that landed her in the late 19th century all those weeks ago.

It’s interesting because, honestly? Her entry through the door is more or less a hinge point for their romance. While it obviously isn’t the only reason he cares about her, it definitely is one of the bigger reasons he even feels safe enough to court her in earnest in the aftermath. It is literally only after this event that he confesses everything. Why he created the mansion and the men. How he’s really felt about her and himself all this time. What Vlad showed her and the implications of Vlad’s existence. And finally the truth about what he wants. He wants a relationship with her, but he keeps being held back by the fear that he’s too much. That the demand of being by his side will outweigh any happiness she might find choosing him. (Granted MC and I find that preposterous given how attentive and considerate he is, but you know). But after seeing her pull off surviving Vlad and traveling through the door by her own willpower again? I think it sufficiently lessens his doubts as to whether she could handle a future with him. It gives him the courage to just ask her: Do you want a future with me? Can you handle the demands of a vampire that cannot accept a mere human lifetime to be in love? 

And so this is why I have unceasing Comte brainworms ladies and gentlethem. I need to go lie down before I start crying again, I love him oTL

#asks #ikevamp #ikemen vampire #ikevamp comte #ikevamp saint germain #ikevamp meta #fangdad propaganda #ikevamp dazai #ikevamp leonardo #ikevamp vlad #ikevamp jpn rt spoilers #i hope this makes sense/was helpful! #you're always welcome <3333 #man i need a snack but comte isnt here so whats the point #*long dramatic sigh* #AND WUV. TWUUUUUU WUV......WILL FOWOW U FOWEVAAAAAAAAA..... #AND MAWWIAGE......THAT BWESSED A W A N G E M E N T......THAT DWEAM W I F I N. A DWEAM. #SO CHEWISH YO WUV #i have exactly one brain cell and all it does is rattle for comte 25/8 #god idk how im going to wait for his wedding event in ENG oTL #i am tender #not incorrect quotes #rambles

[golden-kettle]

No Place For Love (Mista x GN!Reader)

Guido Mista x GN!Reader - CHAPTER ONE

TW// Strong language, slight violence

You’ve dedicated the beginning of your young adult years to Passione and La Squadra. You weren’t about to choose the enemy over the opportunity to finally get the pay you and your teammates deserved. Right?

Word count: 1,888

It’s been a hot minute since I posted something, so here’s the new project I’m working on! An enemies to lovers story with Mista :) I’m going to try and update as much as I can as I’ve been thinking about something like this for a while. hope you enjoy the first chapter 💕💕 Trusting anyone outside of your gang is a death wish. There's no room for love in the mafia of Passione. You knew this better than anyone else. Sure, you aren't the same as you were years ago. Naïve and inexperienced. However, would you be willing to throw it all away, the blood you've shed and the strength you've gained, for a singular person? That was the very question Risotto asked you when you returned from an incomplete mission, slightly injured.

"I shouldn't have to say what we all know, but this goal is what we live for," he said.

The goal he was referring to was that of taking over the drug routes of Passione, defeating the mysterious boss in the process. It was something you found was impossible, until Risotto told you and the other members of La Squadra that the boss had a daughter. And that daughter, Trish Una, was under the protection of  Bruno Bucciarati and his squad members.

You were told to go and find their current location in Italy as if it was the last thing you'd do. You'd then place a tracking device on one of the members and leave as quickly as possible. Simple, especially for the traits and powers of your stand. So why were you sitting here in front of Risotto with the tracking device in the palm of your hand?

"You need to go back there."

You looked up at him with guilt in your eyes, a silent plea to let you at least spend the night at the base then try again tomorrow morning. Risotto understood right away, observant as he is. With a sigh, he spoke in a low whisper.

"You know that if I let you stay here any longer, the others will say I play favorites. Get going."

You stood up and brushed off your clothes, walking to the door to exit Risottos office. Putting your hand on the knob, you froze without turning your head.

"Risotto, I have one request."

He didn't say anything in response, keeping quiet. Although you knew he was listening.

"If I can't carry out this mission in 48 hours, call me a fool."

With that you left the room, swiftly exiting the base and paying no mind when Formaggio attempted to spark conversation. Deep in your gut, you knew Risotto had no clue as to why you took the time to say such things, but you did. Because before you failed at completing this mission, you ran into someone you've only seen in a photo on an information sheet. Guido Mista, age 18. Stand name: Sex Pistols. 

The first time you saw him you intended on putting the tracking device on him. You would knock him out once he was alone, put the small device between the grooves on the bottom of his shoe. Then leave as if you were never there. Obviously, fate had other plans.

He was standing in line at a café, a small list in his hands. Presumably, what the rest of his squad wanted, you thought. When he finished ordering the list of pastries and drinks, he glanced over his shoulder to you. His eyes widened for a second until the cashier told him his total. 

"Ah, yeah, let me get that."

You watched as Mista shuffled through his pocket, pulling out money to pay. 

"I'll be paying for their meal too," he said as he gestured to you.

"Oh, that won't be needed sir," you said with a smile

.He returned your smile with one of his own, "what do you want?"

Is he trying to flirt with me? You thought before telling the cashier your drink order. Mista then paid for his and your order, walking over to a table to sit while he waited. You did the same until he waved you over. What's the harm in sitting with him while you waited? Perhaps you could get something out of him.

"So what's your name?" he asked, practically beaming when you sat down across from him. 

You answered truthfully, there was no way for him to have any information on you. A staple of being on the hitman team is being anonymous, so there was no background on you. If you were to die, the only way you would live on was through the memories of your teammates. 

"Ah, well my name's Mista, I haven't seen you around before, although you look Italian. You from the south or somethin'?"

"No, I'm from around here. I probably just got lost in the crowd. Or you aren't that observant." 

Thinking that you might as well play along, you didn't feel guilty in teasing him a little bit. In fact, he seemed to enjoy your banter.

"Oh, I am insanely observant. Like for example, you have a stain on your shirt right there," he reached over and pointed. 

When you looked down, he raised his finger and flicked your nose. You couldn't even be mad at his kindergarten teasing. You crossed your arms as he leaned back and laughed.

"Haha. Very funny," you said with a smile, "but are you willing to tell me a bit about yourself, Mista? I will say it's not every day I get someone to pay for my order."

"Sure can do, what are you dying to know?"

"Why did you decide to pay for my drink?" You knew you should ease into the questions so you could get something notable out of him.

"Isn't it obvious? I think you're cute."

You laughed softly at the statement, "you're right, I guess that's self-explanatory isn't it?"

Mista hummed, "my turn to ask you a question. What do you think of me?" he grinned, putting his chin between his forefinger and thumb.

You took a moment to think. No way in hell you were about to boost his ego more than it seemed to already be, but you weren't about to be flat at rude instead.

"I think you're generous, yet insane to be wearing a hat and knitted shirt in the Italian spring sun," you spoke out of a light laugh.

"That's fair."

You smiled, leaning against the table and rubbing the back of your neck. You turned your head to avoid his gaze, acting shy, as you spoke your next question.

"You have plans after this? I know you probably ordered for a group of people.. but maybe we can make a detour at my place?" you glance back at him with an innocent smile on your face.

"Well... I do have plans after this, but I'm sure they can wait. I want to get to know you after all."

How gullible can he be? Isn't he a gunman in the most notable mafia present in Italy right now? No matter the case, you just found an easy opening. This mission would be completed earlier than you thought.

After some small talk and retrieving your order, you lead Mista down the street and into an alleyway.

"My apartment is just on the left side once we get through here," you smiled, "but you won't be seeing it."

Mista glanced back to you, confused by the last few words of your statement. With that, you used your stand to push him to the ground, knocking the bag of pastries and cardboard holder with the drinks out of his hands. You watched as he reached for what you assumed was a gun in his boot, but straddled over him and pinned his hands above his head.

"Fucking hell, how are you so strong? What do you even want from me?"

"I want you to shut up and sleep," you spoke with a total shift in tone and attitude.

He grinned to your surprise, then in a flash he wrapped his leg around yours and flipped you over. Now he was pinning you down. He grabbed his gun and let go of your hands, pressing the gun against your forehead. 

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded."

I told you my name, Mista. Don't have me repeat myself."

He pressed the gun harder against your head, but your face remained neutral and unbothered.

"You're part of a gang, aren't you? What are you after from Passione? Or are you after us specifically?"

"Don't you think there's no point in asking me questions if I'm not going to answer them?"

Mista moved his gun in a flash, firing a bullet into the ground beside you. He then pressed its barrel against your forehead once more.

"I'm not messing around."

”You were a few minutes ago. Honestly, it seemed like you were so sure you were gonna get a kiss from me. Maybe more. Just how down bad are you, Mista?"

"Stop saying my name as if you know me."

"But I do know you, dear. That new capo, Bucciarati. He broke you out of jail and you joined his squad. The name of your stand is Sex Pistols, truly fitting for a man like yourself."

With that, he slapped you across the face. You froze for a second before speaking again.

"..Did you just slap me?" You spoke in a tone of utter shock.

"Want me to do it again, “dear”?"

"What are you, a sadist?"

"What are you, a masochist?" He replied, clearly mocking you.

This wasn't going to get you anywhere.

"I'm sick of this," you said, manifesting your stand behind him.

Your stand then put its arms around Mista's waist and pulled him off of you. You stood up and ran back to the crowded streets of the town, taking the shock he had of you being a stand user for granted. Once Mista gained his senses, he started to chase after you. However, it was a lost cause. You were already lost within the people. 

It wasn't until you were running for a half-hour that you realized you didn't complete your mission. Risotto was bound to be pissed at you. Hell, you were pissed at yourself. You had no clue what came over you.

"What was I thinking?" you said to yourself.

You could've had your stand knock him out while he had you pinned down. In fact, that was the plan when you walked him into that alley. 

He's attractive. That's why you didn't hurt him. You sighed. As much as you didn’t want to admit it, that was the only reason that made sense.

"God damn him."

As you walked back to your base you thought about what you'd say to Risotto. Maybe you could convince him to let you spend the rest of the day rethinking a new plan and get some sleep before acting on it tomorrow morning. Instead, you ended up saying nothing and let him scold you.

Now you were here, outside the base and walking back to the busy city Naples. Thoughts going at a hundred miles an hour, you knew Mista probably returned back to wherever the rest of his gang was. No way you could take them all at once. 

You told Risotto to call you a fool if you failed to carry out the mission because that's exactly what you'd be. You thought about his question. Would you be willing to throw away everything you've built for only one person?

Only a fool in love would do that.

#guido mista #guido mista x reader #mista #jjba mista #mista x reader #jjba #jojos bizarre adventure #jjba part five #Golden Wind #Vento Aureo #reader insert #enemies to lovers #no place for love #kettle.writes

[mrs-tsunderemeitantei]

According to your theory on Bourbon and Haibara, I find it weird that Bourbon doesn't know anything about the past of Ai when she was in BO, don't forget that he was in BO long time ago, while Sherry at that time is still a kid and in USA for study at least. It is strange to me if he didn't investigate about her thoroughly at that time while on his mission. However, when they meet sooner or later, she will despise him even more when she discover that he is from PSB, and had intention to use her.

Heyy! Tbh, I don't think he was in the organisation any longer than she has. If we ignore the fact the she was born into the syndicate, I’d say they technically joined around the same time. He probably joined 5 years ago around the same time when Akai also joined. At the time, Shiho was 13 when she started working on the research and became Sherry. 

As for him not investigating her thoroughly, I believe he just didn’t have enough outlets to help him investigate her. Yes he knows she is Elena’s daughter and that’s not surprising. The BO has a database of all its members listing all their information. When Haibara first met Conan and they went to retrieve the disk that got mixed up in Akemi's holiday pictures, Conan got excited when Haibara told him the disk did not just have the drug's data, but also sensitive information about some BO members.

Another instant is when Gin told Pisco he can look up Shiho's data on the organisation's computer when they suspected she was going to Haido City Hotel. So I'm pretty sure Bourbon would have easily accessed the same database for his mission to capture her as per the organisation's demands.

By that logic, he’d have looked her up in the database to know what she looked like, her family, where she lived, etc. Butttt I don’t think he knew any more than that. Why? Well, I have a bunch of reasons why I think so, and it might get confusing but please bear with me 😂:

1. While in the organisation and after her escape, Shiho herself did not know anything about her family except for what she was told by the organisation, so how would Bourbon know anymore than her? It wasn't until she visited her father's childhood house and got the tapes that Akemi left for her when she learnt the truth about her family's past.

2. There aren’t a lot of people for him to provide him with information about Shiho (except maybe Gin and Vermouth). By nature, Shiho is reserved and was more of a loner (her sister was the only person she was close to). She barely interacted with anyone outside her department and when it comes to her lab-mates, I highly doubt they knew the pressures her parents endured before joining the syndicate.

3. When it comes to Gin and Shiho, we don’t know yet the extent of their relationship. And let’s assume they were romantically involved. I don’t think he’d know about her family’s past because she herself was oblivious to her parents’ past and Gin is not that good at remembering people who died anyway. And regardless, Gin and Bourbon don’t like each other. Gin even said he neither keeps tabs on Bourbon, nor does he like to share information with him. Also, since Shiho kept to herself in the organisation, it’s unlikely other members (including Bourbon) knew of her possible relationship with Gin. 

4. As for Vermouth, she seems to know the most about Shiho because of her mysterious link to the research and blatant hatred for Shiho and her parents. Now, there are two possible scenarios:

Vermouth knew the Miyanos' history before joining. She may have been kept in the loop to help with pressuring them so they could join. I'm basing this on her history with emotionally manipulating and tormenting people into doing things for the organisation (Itakura Saguru and the murderer who killed Fukuura Senzou in the off-season halloween party case are prime examples).

Eventually she clashed with them when they joined the organisation just like she clashed with Itakura Saguru later on.

The second (less likely situatuon imo), is she was unaware the organisation bullied them. She probably thought they willingly joined when they shouldn’t have, and she hates them because of their research.  

So, if Bourbon learnt from Vermouth that Shiho’s parents were forced to join the organisation, why was he still willing to hand Shiho back to the organisation? (I mean I don’t want to believe he’d stoop that low. Even if he had a plan to get her out later, I don’t think he’d risk exposing himself after handing her knowing she’ll only be killed or forced to complete the drug). And if the second scenario was true, it would explain why why he wanted to return Shiho to the organisation. But I don't think she told Bourbon anything and I'll explain why in a bit.

Based on all that, my theory is this: Vermouth played a part in getting Shiho’s parents to join the organisation. Later on, things didn’t go according to plan with the research so she began feeling animosity towards them. She never shared any of that with Bourbon because she didn’t want to risk him finding out about the drug’s de-ageing effects (he definitely doesn’t know otherwise he would have figured out Conan and Haibara's identities). And because he doesn't know the truth about her parents, he didn’t feel guilty about handing Shiho back to the organisation. 

5. Finally, when we look at Haibara talking about the White Dove pharmaceuticals, she suddenly became so knowledgeable about her parents' history when initially she knew nothing. She revealed all this information AFTER she got the tapes. That’s why I’m convinced it was Elena’s tapes that got her to know everything. Haibara probably also lied when she said it was her sister who told her. It is less likely for that to be the case because Akemi wouldn’t have been born to know what happened 30 or 25 years ago. And even if Elena spoke a little to Akemi about what happened, Akemi would have still been too young to understand. The only thing Akemi knew was the drug her parents were making was supposed to be a Silver Bullet of Justice.

So in conclusion, I feel the strongest pieces of evidence to prove Shiho and her parents were forced into that life would be the tapes and Vermouth. Rei never had access to the tapes nor does he know they exist. I’m guessing if he gets his hands on those tapes, they’d be a valuable lead that can help him link Vermouth to the Miyanos and somehow confirm everything.

I know this was reallly long and probably exhausting to read but I hope it made sense.

And yes, she will definitely despise Rei and she has every right to. Not just because he is PSB who planned on using her as a pawn, but  because of his relationship to her mother. I have a gut feeling Elena even mentioned him in her tapes (it is very likely since she too loved Rei) and once Shiho realises the boy from the tapes and Rei are the same person, it will leave her feeling gutted.

Again these are all just my theories and I could be very wrong but I can’t wait for everything to be revealed 🙌🏻

#dcmk #case closed #detective conan #ai haibara #haibara ai #miyano shiho #shiho miyano #amuro tooru #bourbon #furuya rei #rei furuya #gin #vermouth #elena miyano #miyano elena #akemi miyano #sherry #aptx-4869

[asexualzoro]

list of reasons i find Brook ridiculous

for brook’s birthday, ive decided to follow up my other two posts of this genre by dragging yet another idiot swordsman. i have everybrook open on my phone next to me. here we go

- first and foremost his most ridiculous crime is existing. as he’s already so ridiculous as a character, im going to talk only about things hes done

- i want to know, did Brook make a conscious effort to change his laugh to sound like his favorite song? how long did it take? what was the in between period like? what did his crew have to say about this? the rumbar pirates were big on playful teasing, did they let Brook live this down? 

- ALTERNATIVELY: was brook’s laugh already like that? is that why bink’s sake is his favorite song? is that why it was York’s favorite-- oh we only made it two bullet points before i made myself sad

- relatedly i cannot make fun of anything Brook did in his backstory it will make me too sad. hes spared for now

- i DO want to say from a writing standpoint its so fucking ridiculous to me that he mentions twice being a convoy captain in the past and it never comes up again. oda?? why even bother to include something that cool if you weren't even going to do anything with it?? you could have said hes just always been a pirate but no. oda?? oda

- there was that bit where a bunch of people thought Brook was satan and addressed him as such (i think Satan-sama in the original, and the translation i read was like... Lord Satan or Lord Demon or something). not only did Brook never correct them, but he also ran with it and later used this case of mistaken identity as a reason to threaten to eat a man’s heart 

- also both men and women were showing him their underwear in that bit. bi rights

- those satanists let Brook get kidnapped while saying they would try to summon him back. do you think they're still at it

- Brook is older than... basically every old man in the series. Garp, Whitebeard, Rayleigh... all of them. something about that is so weird to me and i cannot place why

- Brook has seen and can prove the existence of an afterlife in One Piece canon and its then never addressed again

- Brook missed so many huge events while being dead. im looking at a timeline rn and these include the obvious, like, roger’s execution and subsequent effect on in-world culture and society and whatever. but also things like the destruction of ohara (which was in his home sea), the founding of the world power known as the revolutionary army (which was about 20yrs ago), and the births of every other member of his crew. wack

- he seems to know about stuff related to the pirate king post time skip, and i wonder if thats because someone told him or he’s just playing along now. maybe he just thinks Luffy made up the term pirate king cuz it sounds cool and he wants to support his captain’s interests

- if he DID ask though, like, who did he ask? his managers? did he pull aside some fan asking for an autograph at a concert like “hey, you look like a knowledgable young lad, mind helping me out?”

- i would love to be there when someone takes the time to explain roger, the pirate king, raffle, the One Piece.... and Brook asks them “what is the One Piece?”.... and someone has to look him in the eye (...or not) and tell him “i don't know” 

- Brook has technically died of fright (his soul left his body), like... at least once? it was luffy’s fault

- Brook was an urban legend on the florian triangle and i doubt he even knows that about himself

- when they're heading to fishmen island Brook gets all scared when they encounter a possible ghost ship and Usopp slaps him

- when captured by big mom he sleeps so godamn soundly and securely that he is harder to wake up than she is and this fact nearly gets a bunch of his crew killed

- Brook is the only character i can think of who has ever broken the fourth wall. he only did it once. maybe seeing the afterlife means he now knows hes in a manga. or maybe being isolated for 50 years just made his head be not screwed on right

- speaking of, there’s a bit in WCI at the wedding where Brook is decapitated. i don't know how it goes in the anime, but in the manga like... no one is shown to have decapitated him. his head just pops off. maybe he was just having fun

- also the bit where he rips the fake face off in wci. when someone calls him gross he cries

- there’s a bit in fishmen island where Brook is trying to ask Nami if he can see her panties (disgusting bastard) and he inadvertently protects her from being dehydrated by some guy they were fighting. except the panel setup reminds me a lot of / mimics ace protecting Luffy from Akainu, and it haunts me

- speaking of bits from fishmen island that haunt me, there's a page where it’s strongly implied Brook fucked a mermaid (maybe two). i will of course include the page here

- yeah. sorry. 

- when Brook first meets the strawhats he invites himself inside because “it’s cold out!” but he later admits in punk hazard that he cant feel cold. he was just lying

- no one introduces himself to Brook except Luffy for the entirety of thriller bark

- half related, Franky cradles Brook in his arms / carries Brook around for like a full scene in thriller bark 

- there's a link two second bit in film gold where the crew is just relaxing while they're planning for how they're going to get Zoro back and they're all shown eating burgers from pirate mcdonalds or whatever. and Brook is eating a burger and hes so messy that hes got burger on his forehead, and Franky is next to him just looking at him

- Brook also wears fake skin in that movie

- Brook has a running gag where he gets upset when things refuse to eat him and i was going to make a joke about it but im wondering if maybe hes just afraid of being left behind........ made myself sad again

- he cries when a dragon won't eat him tho

- Brook admits to reading monster hentai when talking to Sanji and Kin’emon and if i have to be burdened with knowing that so do you

- when hes trying to figure out the weakness of the zombies on thriller bark he overhears one ate a salted fish and lost its shadow and immediately assumes “oh, must have been the fish!” idiot man

- where does his sword cane go when hes not using it. it just appears. where does he store it

- there's a bit where the strawhats all use a combo attack at thriller bark and the first step is firing an electrically charged Brook in a slingshot through oars/oz. he ends up in a wall and no one ever pulls him out. i don't even think the manga shows how he got down

- enemies post time skip regularly assume Brook is dead when they manage to knock the crew out and it makes me wonder how popular of a rock star Brook actually was

- Brook goes on a mini rant to no one while they're descending to fisherman island where he wonders aloud how he sees without eyes and it makes me lose it

- this isn't Brook technically but Nekomamushi is based on a song Brook’s voice actor wrote about his cat.

- Brook literally doesn't have a brain. like i know we all know that but its so fucking funny. we make jokes about other strawhats only having one braincell or whatever but Brook straight up 100% just has a seashell where his brain is supposed to be 

-  why does he have rubber glove looking hands when hes haunting the castle at wano i fucking hate them

- relatedly, there’s a bit where Brook mentions he’s been, at kinemon’s interaction, sitting in a well for like... possibly days? is he okay

- honestly i love everything about Brook’s actions as a ghost in wano bc its so fucking funny but my FAVORITE fact is that Brook is in the wikipedia article about starving skeletons

im leaving you with that. appreciate ur local skeleton today

#brook #soul king brook #One Piece #my posts #ridiculous lists #zaria dont look #long post #this is like a condensed version of what its like to follow me pn twitter i think #i could probs add more but i wont