#i think this is space ishtar???

[yagi-arts]

spishin out

comm for a friend who doesnt have tumblr

[celestialmancer]

☀️.

[roadkillstag]

hiii tnmn fans hiiii

wanted 2 do my own version of ishtar bc i think shes neat :)

(shes /slightly/ inspired by my nacha hc whom i'll post later on....)

bonus hcs for ur pleasure

- def unorganized apartment

- head aint in the right space and often dozes off

- in NO condition to raise her demi goddess daughter

- many rats, many pests, names them all (even if not creative whatsoever)

thas all ty :) (my friends convinced me to post 2 tumblr so howdy there)

[gmanwhore]

Alright. Nightmare Mode headcanons because I CAN and I have been thinking about it.

In their world, the Nightmares are actual demons and creatures of the night. There are humans but none that live in the apartment.

The "apartment" is actually just a front so humans don't enter the domain of the Nightmares. The actual building is a huge castle with everyone having their own rooms. Really the floors are just for formalities as many people switch rooms or end up living with other people. The castle encloses a huge courtyard with an altar and plenty of space for rituals. A forest surrounds the whole grounds.

The Clown is also technically a nightmare but isn't part of the main group, it is particularly for the doorman

The rest of the Nightmares are distorted versions of the neighbours, based off the outside world's perspectives on them

Yan Luo Wang Diyu is the leader, but her very inner circle consists of the other four horsemen of the apocalypse: Shub (famine), Ishtar (Pestilence), and Teutates (War)

The next closest circle is the lovers and family members of the four: Orcus, Quachil, and Ah Puch (Yog was in here once but he's fallen out of favour)

The next circle are the ritual performers: Chaugnar, Zoth, Lilith, and Anazareth. Barbatos and Abducius are also included here are they provide sacrifices and kill sacrifices respectfully, even though Abducius isn't really seen as an equal to the rest.

The most outside circle is everyone else. They are treated with the same amount of respect as the other circles but are often not privy to the inner secrets of the groups.

There is a large ritual held every full moon to replenish everyone's power, and the group spends a lot of their month preparing for it. It usually includes a bonfire and a dance which is fun.

I still believe the couples in "real life" are still couples in the nightmare. Yan Luo and Orcus are just married now. All family relations also stay the same.

The D.D.D. guy's head can just come off. He's actually chill with the clown they are buddies.

42 and Peach Peach are just sort of. Guys that hang out around the place. They are regarded as like. Stray cats you aren't meant to feed.

The Mask Ghost is a former nightmare. No one knows what happened to her but it is theorized that she has some relation to the doorman.

[writing-for-life]

The Ultimate Sandman Character Tag List!

I recently published a tag list for all female Sandman characters I have written about or posted art for (I’ve just added to it and tidied it up. The tags auto-update, so feel free to bookmark it if you want to stay in the loop about the Sandwomen), which made me think:

Why not do that for all the characters for quick reference?

So if you’re interested in one particular character, you can just quickly go to their tag on my blog. These are character tags, so you’ll find anything from metas to fics/poetry and art in no particular order. If you are looking for something more specific, please have a look at my pinned post.

I will not pretend I wrote and posted equally for all of them (some might just have one entry), and a few are missing (I’ll add tags when applicable). But right now, I have roundabout 100 Sandman characters waiting to get explored, and existing tags will auto-update whenever something new gets added, so feel free to bookmark this post.

I tag pretty consistently (some characters have two tags because I initially didn’t 🙈), but the odd one might slip through and float around on my blog without being tagged; you can also try to use the search function on my blog.

So without further ado, here they are (and now I’ll need to lie down):

The Endless

Destiny

Death

Dream or Morpheus

Dream/Daniel or Daniel Hall

Destruction

Desire

Despair

Delirium/Delight

Dream’s Lovers

(Yes, they get their own space for quick reference, but they’re also under their applicable headers)

Alianora

Calliope

Killalla

Nada

Thessaly

Titania

Denizens of the Dreaming

Cain and Abel (Cain here, Abel here)

The Corinthian

The Cuckoo

Eve

The Fashion Thing

Fiddler’s Green/Gilbert

Gault

Goldie

Gregory

Guardians of the Gate/Gatekeepers

Jessamy

Lucien (comics)

Lucienne (Netflix)

Martin Tenbones

Matthew the Raven

Mervyn Pumpkinhead

Gods and (Fallen) Angels

Bast

Calliope

Duma

The Fates (Furies, Kindly Ones, Hecateae etc)

Hades

Ishtar

Loki

Lucifer Morningstar

Mazikeen

The Creator/Presence and Glory

Persephone

Remiel

Fae

Auberon

Cluracan

Nuala

Titania

Immortals and Long-Lived Humans

Bhartari

Hob Gadling

Mad Hettie

Orpheus

Thessaly

Mortal Beings and Humans

Alex Burgess

Alianora

Augustus

Barbie

Barnaby Farrell (Uncle Barnaby)

Carl/Carla

Chantal

Clarice Farrell (Aunt Clarice)

Ethel Cripps

Foxglove (Donna Cavanagh)

Gwen

Hal Carter

Hazel McNamara

Hope Beautiful Lost Nebula

Jed Walker

John Constantine (Comics)

Lady Johanna Constantine (Comics)

Modern Johanna Constantine (Netflix)

John Dee

John Hathaway

Joshua A. Norton/Emperor Norton

Killalla of the Glow

Lyta Hall

Marco Polo

Nada

Paul McGuire

Prez Rickard

Rachel Moodie

Richard Madoc

Roderick Burgess

Rosemary

Rose Walker

Ruby

Unity Kinkaid

Wanda

Wesley Dodds

William Shakespeare

Zelda

Other

Barnabas

Night

Time

[thefirstknife]

I love all the little details that directly quote Books of Sorrow this season.

Eris in the cutscene last week:

All things must prove their right to exist. The rest will die in terror. There is neither escape nor exemption. Simple. Essential. Beautiful to know.

Books of Sorrow:

I’m glad I learned that the universe runs on death. It’s more beautiful to know.

Eris in her chat with Drifter:

Books of Sorrow:

I am war, and you have conjured me back with war. ... I am trickery, and you have conjured me back with trickery.

And this week, with all the mentions of the species they exterminated, but especially the Ammonites:

The "bait stars" goes back all the way to when they were still krill, from a life form (stormjoy) on the Fundament that Xivu (then Xi Ro) was proving herself against by cutting off the ends of the tentacles called "bait stars" from them:

A STORMJOY. A stormjoy is a living cloud. When it passes over our continent, it lowers its feeding tentacles. On each tentacle are the BAIT STARS. Although light makes you happy, you must avoid it. You will be eaten. A stormjoy is a good way for an old person to choose death. Also, a daring knight can cut the bait stars from the tentacles. I have six!

It seems this has turned into some sort of a saying in their language given what she said in the radio and also in Books of Sorrow later:

These are the bait stars the Sky uses to blind its slaves.

The story of how the Ammonite hero, Chroma-Admiral (called Rafriit) went to protect the Leviathan:

...is also in the Books of Sorrow:

The Leviathan has broken cover. The old priest is in open space, moving towards the Ammonite home moon. Chroma-Admiral Rafriit and his elite guard move with it. Rafriit is the hero of his generation, an Ammonite of peerless battlecraft. He’s danced circles around Xivu Arath… but now he has to protect his holy Leviathan.

This is, for the record, the Leviathan from the Fundament. Once the Worms were free, it fled to try and help the Ammonite, as well as still pleading with the Hive siblings to think about what they've done, and also ominously asking them to truly think "who made you monsters" and "who summoned the wave."

I'm sure there's more, especially in Sororicide lore book, and/or that there will be more. I feel like this is such a nice way to tell these old stories that many people have probably not have had the chance to read or even know about. It gives just enough details about some ancient wars to make you interested and maybe point you in the direction to ask someone about it or start looking for more and then stumbling on Books of Sorrow. Like a crash course about this ancient history-rich universe that awakens a sense of wonder and maybe interests you into reading some lore.

Unfortunately, Books of Sorrow have never been readable in the game (either of them), but I hope that stuff like this presented in the main storyline for everyone to hear will motivate people to look deeper into the lore. It's basically like a little teaser and I love it. For us who know, it's such an honor to finally hear this being narrated to us by those that committed these acts, and for those that are hearing it for the first time it should spark curiosity about these ancient tales and battles. I hope so at least! If you haven't already, I highly recommend reading the whole Books of Sorrow which are up on Ishtar in their entirety.

[noemilivv]

Hi! I saw that a matchup event is open and I (of course) had to join : ) here I go!

FANDOM: I would like a MALE HAZBIN HOTEL matchup request please! the characters I don’t want is husker or angel dust (I have no problem with them but I don’t feel comfortable with having them as romantic partners…..)

ABOUT ME: My name is Jaxrel! People call me "Jax" for short. also use other names like Himawari, Rin, etc, He/Him (They/Them is acceptable), I'm a Trans Man who's pansexual and l've been diagnosed with mental illness and disorders that I do not wish sharing ATM.

Personality(+ Notes): I'm a ENTP Ravenclaw, 5w4, Extroverted. I'm a very chill and intelligent person I'm very polite and sweet! at first awkward, shy and distant when meeting people, extremely independent, when comfortable I talk about a lot of stuff for hours, loud talker, emotions come off as sarcastic or silly (due to autism), confident, straightforward (I have a urge to correct someone of faulty information), uses "big" words, good sense of humor, playful, entertaining, optimistic, mischievous, curious(l'm nosy and I love gossip), i can be a rule breaker(sometimes don't mean to), dad/ tharapist friend, when I go out I bring water bottles, first aid kit, chapstick(s) just in case, chill but some people would say I have some "repressed anger issues, I get a realllyyy overractive Brain, I tend to get deep and philosophical when l'm left on my own for to long, I can be verbally aggressive when prevoked. If this helps more the characters I kin a lot are: Victor Nikiforov (Yuri On Ice), Tei (Nameless), Gojo Satoru (Jujustu Kaisen), Cutthroat (Akudama Drive, Except the Bloodlust cutthroat has.), Ranpo Edogawa (Bungo Stray Dogs), Dazai Osamu (Bungo Stray Dogs), Space Ishtar (Fate), Okita Souji (Fate), Langa Hasegawa (Sk8 The Infinity), Sherlock Holmes (TGAA), Zack (Final Fantasy 7), Vash The Stampede (Trigun), Roy Mustang (Fullmetal Alchemist), Otonashi Yuzuru (Angel Beats), Karma Akabane (Assassination Classroom), Vanitas (Study Case of Vanitas), Zoe Hange (AOT), Shinoa Hiiragi (Seraph of The End) + more

MORE KINS: hiyori tomoe (enstars), yoosung kim (mystic messenger), jumin han (mystic messenger), hanako (tbhk), felix kranken (twf), albedo (genshin impact), shoya ishida (a silent voice), tom (eddsworld), eridan (homestuck), karkat (homestuck), shu itsuki (enstars),miyamura izumi (horimiya), micheal afton (FNAF), lolbit (FNAF), mangle (FNAF), natsume sakasaki (enstars), sora harukawa (enstars), urumi akamaki (alice in borderland), V (mystic messenger), hagumi kitazawa (bandori), matsubara kanon (bandori), shinji ikari (neon genesis evangelion), minami kotobuki (oshi no ko), lain iwakura (serial experiments lain), hajime hinata (danganronpa), k-angel (needy streamer overdose) and more 😃

Looks: Half Polish and Vietnamese with Some Scottish and Half Middle Eastern(Iraqi) /Filipino with Some Russian, I'm very skinny like just flat, I have hazel eyes and some slight flecks of amber and blue, I have upturned eyes but they seem like they are almond shaped but they aren't too noticeable, I think I have a heart shaped face but from different angles it looks more diamond shaped(?), I'm approximately 5'8, I have a dimple only on my chin, I have dyed black hair, I also have bangs too, my clothing style tends to stretch widely from comfy to... a lot like this! I wear gyaru (hime gal, himekaji, agejo, gyaruo, rokku, manba, baba, kogal, tsuyome, and kigurumi), goth (trad goth, romantic goth, mall goth, cyber goth, and victorian goth), scenemo/emo (ofc), & vkei ouji and lolita, I can also pull off a kpop idol look, i also wear a lot of cool dresses and suits, I also wear Y2K and I also dress in alternative clothing a LOT, I wear a lot of other harajuku styles such as, jirai kei, decora and more so on.

Likes: Chocolate, Strawberries, Iced Coffee and Boba Tea, Anime/ Manga, Music, Food, Winning in arguments online or irl, Reading, Art (Digital Art, Drawing, Painting, Pottery, etc), Cats, Sharks, Animals in general, Anthropology, Zoology, Theology(+ more) Cold/or Rainy Weather, Cooking, Cosplaying, Shopping, Playing Tabletop RPG's, Chess Board Games or just Gaming, Dancing, Abstract or Romance movies, Murder Mysterys, Kdrama, Spicy or Sweet Food, Ramen, learning new languages/instruments and much more.

Dislikes: Loud Noises, Slow Walkers, People who don't know when to close their mouths when chewing and hot weather.

Love Languages: physical touch & words of affirmation (giving). gift giving, words of affirmation & physical touch (receiving).

Thank you so much! I can’t wait to see who I got!!!! :-)

hey jaxrel!! i knew pretty much immediately before you even submitted who i was doing for ya haha, and that person is…

Lucifer !!

You and Luci are like the gay dads to Charlie and the gang it’s actually so cute

Lucifer lovesss to get deep into shit and philosophical with you haha

He loves having lazy days in bed with you, just curled up together, talking about anything or just fuckin’ sleeping lmao

Both of you two struggle with mental health on your occasions, so the fact that you two can pick each other back up is super sweet, you and Lucifer grow to better understand eachother and pick up on the little cues which make handling the harder days a lot easier for the both of ya!

Lucifer also loves your various styles, as I said in your last request, he definitely has you style him some sick fits for his important meetings haha

He also loves making you little small duck related gifts, because ducks are the only thing he knows how to make😭💕

[deamare]

♡ ˚·  @peerlessscowl asked:

[ 𝐰𝐡𝐲 by way of 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞 ] : sender has just asked receiver "why don't you love me"; sender is getting frustrated with their repressed affection and asks receiver to leave them alone. It took him a long time to notice the ghost in between them, if only because it was not his own. So used to the distance that he had put around himself from those who might approach him, Raven scarcely considered the tug of his footsteps in her direction might be met with the similar chill, the rift and the call from the other side of the veil haunting each of her footsteps away from him. It was in the small things, the gestures that he performed not by rote but by instinct, the hand not meant to be taken as they dismounted stairs or a carriage ride into the surrounding cities, the glimpses in one another's direction during a conversation with a third party, the tacit understanding they had begun to develop. And yet always, the invisible barrier that he had not until that moment noticed was the grip of fingers, at her elbow, at her hip, around her heart. She was no more distant with him than ever, but now that he saw the figure lurking in the background, she felt as faraway as if leagues of black ocean lay between them. "We'll stop in town," he said, at first softly, breaking the easy silence that had settled upon them during the ride, nudging his horse in that direction, and then said no more until they had stabled at the inn. "I'll go ahead and pay for two rooms." His tone terse, hardened and chilled, his boots hitting heavily against the rushes of the floor until he reached the door, jerking it open and stalking inside, allowing it to slam behind him in the cool night air.

Inexplicably, something between them shifts.

It is foreign and familiar all the same; the way that everything with him seems to be. There is a security to his company, an understanding that Ishtar has grown to quietly covet, that she has begun to notice when she is without.

As she adjusts her hold on leather reins and moves to follow without question, she can convince herself that the chill seeping in to the space between them is nothing but her imagination. It would not be the first time that love's ghost has tightened his hold on the threadbare rope once woven around her throat, pulling her away every time she dares step too close.

Only as she watches his back disappear behind a door does she dare to think it may have been otherwise.

So she lets him go without chase-- stepping within the building only well after he had, disappearing into the room he had secured for her without inquiring after which might be his. That is what he had wanted of her, surely, and yet she spends the next hour watching the door as though expecting him appear through it.

He does not.

Before she can think to stop herself, Ishtar steps out into the hallway. By this hour the inn has quieted, lights beneath doors extinguished. All but one, situated not even a full stride across from her own. She swallows hard against the hand that has returned to its place around her neck and steps forward, knocking against the frame once.

"If I have done something to offend you," her voice is quiet, suddenly timid, "please allow me to apologize..."

[speaker-of-the-void-cats]

"When he reached a displacement of eight he told us he was dead."

"He sees the wolves have formed up around him. Eight of them."

"The greatest gaiaforms of our solar system are eight in number—or, if you prefer, [N]ine—but asteroids and minor planets have them too. And in their sidereal generosity, these gaiaforms will protect us, if we ask them."

Fist of Eight Moons

"Only in the Ascendant Plane—where a well-defended idea is a reality—do these moons, in this small way, still exist."

"Eight Barons and an Awoken prince - and only one of you. I so dislike betting on the underdog… But you are resourceful…"

"The man turned to his left and saw a familiar, weathered face staring up at the eight Barons of the Tangled Shore."

[...]

"’Sundance’ appears to be the victim of a single, catastrophic wound from a Devourer Bullet, modified to fire from a Scorn launcher. Projectile classified as ontological.”

“Define Devourer Bullet.”

“Payload matches the ballistics of a Weapon of Sorrow or a comparable Hive implement.”

"We are all pinched silhouettes impaled on the twitching of infinitely long spiderlegs."

"You must reckon with yourself. Can you see the path ahead?

Do you know the shape of your trial?"

Auseklis

Ogdoad

Guñelve

Arevakhach

Schläfli

Compass rose

Isotoxal | edge transitive

Eightfold Path

The Star of Lakshmi

The Star of Ishtar

The morning star

First light of the new dawn

Venus

[Consult Cryptarchy's pre-Golden Age stacks for more information]

"Is it a simple answer? Perhaps none who serve you have the capacity to grasp your vision. And so, rather than waste more of your time and attention on explaining something they will never hold, it is enough that they act as you will. The Witch and her Hive carving single-mindedness out of the cloth of the universe, that whispering Nightmare seeking the fullest gamut of existence, the Upender destroying all differentiation. Shadows on the wall.

In this case, it would be hubris to think I have understood your work, that I alone among your Disciples have grasped what purpose it is we serve. All of us must see darkly reflected.

But there is relief in simplification. There is kindness in winnowing. So then, why is this proliferation permitted?

The shadows, showing the truth by their casting. [...]

There: I have resolved the conflict within my thoughts, and I am at peace again. Once more, I am only your violence and nothing more.

The Final Shape will realize us as we strive."

—Unknown Disciple of the Witness, Inspiral

Who am I?

Call me Coyote. Call me mantis, serpent, Cagn, Anansi, call me Sri-cleans-his-brother's-stomach. Call me the grandmaster of semiosis, the jeweler's hammer which gilds the signal, a purposeful mob none of whose members know its purpose, the infinite regress of enigmas, a self-questioning answer, the word not spoken, black ice, cataract of mimes, the ache and fever of overthought while bedridden with illness, the intolerable thorn of frustrated inquisition, gray regret at the end of a fruitless day, the thing which is unlike your beloved but arbitrarily recalls your beloved to agonizing effect, architrave of the no-window, needle driven in flush with skin so that desperate fingers cannot pull it out, sweet petal, unmemorable, crystal death, the provably improvable.

Here at the center, I lie to you the truth. You have everything you need to know it, but I will give you a clue, as the duelist gives warning before she draws. The answer you seek to the Dreaming City is simple, not complex.

In primordial space, timeless creatures made waves. These waves created us and the others. Waves were the battles, and the battles were waves. Fleeing all W'rkncacnter, Yrro and Pthia settled upon Lh'owon. They brought the S'pht, servants who began to shape the deserts of Lh'owon into marsh and sea, rivers and forests. They made sisters for Lh'owon to protect and maintain the paradise. When the W'rkncacnter came, Pthia was killed, and Yrro in anger, flung the W'rkncacnter into the sun. The sun burned them, but they swam on its surface.

Marathon 2, Six Thousand Feet Under terminal: ax1-40^23<094.95.28.85>

Oryx went down into his throne world. He went out into the abyss, and with each step he read one of his tablets, so that they became like stones beneath his feet. He went out and he created an altar and he prepared an unborn ogre. He called on the Deep, saying: I can see you in the sky. You are the waves, which are battles, and the battles are the waves. Come into this vessel I have prepared for you. And it arrived, the Deep Itself.

Books of Sorrow

XXXI: battle made waves

Verse 4:1 — battle made waves

[rollforalis]

Kiss Prompt

Harth/Aysel: Distract-Someone Kiss

It was already a shitty day, as far as Aysel had been concerned. Stuck underground, far off from the stars or from the crisp ocean's breeze, she could feel herself getting more and more restless. Feeling increasingly trapped. Fingers drumming on her thigh, breezing through the rooms of this ancient temple to try and trick herself into thinking there was more space, stretching to prove she wasn't about to touch the ceiling, none of these things worked as well as she’d hoped.

It wasn’t made much better by having Harth assigned to her, something stupid about "not wandering alone" and a “buddy system” as if her god wouldn't keep her safe. As if Aysel wasn't the apex fucking predator of this stupid temple.

Harth had been...a hinderance, as much as Aysel didn't want to say out loud (more than twice). She couldn't really see, was kind of clumsy, she had to be led through the dark with precise directions or by holding her hand. Not to mention, every little thing startled her, which sometimes startled Aysel (not that she'd ever admit it) and that made the claustrophobia feel like it was setting in even faster.

Aysel led Harth until they found a large room - some sort of barracks for priests of a time past. It was taller than the other rooms they'd been in, with vaulted ceilings painted to look like the sky above, and for that Aysel gave a sigh of relief. But that would be short-lived, as Harth stumbled on, Aysel noticed something. Not that Harth could see, but there was a huge rat perched on the base of a torch affixed to the wall. Aysel could only imagine the ear-splitting sound a prissy house agent like Harth would make if she saw THAT creature. No, that would not do. This ONE moment of being able to breathe would not be ruined.

Before Aysel could think about a way to scare off the rat or get Harth's attention, the Lyrandar girl had already brushed her fingers against the torch, luckily missing the rat by a few inches.

Aysel acted before Harth could further inspect the torch's fastening, grabbing Harth by the arm and pulling her close. With a fluid motion, she cupped Harth's cheek, turning her head towards Aysel's. Goddamn, shame that nobody was around to see it, Aysel lamented briefly, because that was the smoothest shit she’s pulled since she got stuck with this party. Ishtar would have clapped.

The kiss was brief, chaste even! Aysel hardly even brushed their lips together before Harth sent her tumbling backwards with a shockingly strong push. Right, she worked metal. She would be stronger than a wet noodle. Harth's pink cheeks were almost cute, and her angry, flustered spluttering was kind of funny, it made Aysel wonder briefly if this had been her first kiss.

Thankfully the lack of light hid the flush of Aysel's own cheeks, and she'd never admit to her own pace quickening. She picked herself off the ground with a laugh, holding her hands up disarmingly. "Hey, jeez! Sorry. I needed to distract you; you know how it is."

Pointing to the torch, Aysel’s hand sparked with electricity, illuminating the rat clearly unhappy with the sudden light AND having to hear these two big, loud creatures make a fuss. Aysel flashed a toothy grin at Harth "Didn't have time to warn you away from that".

Harth turned towards the torch, squinting as her gaze found the perched rodent in the dim light. A moment of silence - much too long for Aysel's liking, before an irritated sigh left the shorter girl. "What, the rat?" Harth's hand shot out, quick as a whip, and grabbed the rat. Leaning down and setting it on the floor, her hand retreated before the rat could even think about biting her. “There, it is fixed. May I light the torch now?” she said with a pout, ignoring the dumbstruck look on Aysel’s face

[celestialmancer]

Me shoving all my own issues into my ocs & my sona (my sona getting the full spectrum of my issues)

Free therapy

[cookiesupplier]

A Friend Down In Hell - Part Twenty

pairing: Nick Folio x ofc (Ishtar)

warnings/tropes: slow burn, pining, idiot in love, language, drinking, mentions of violence, mentions of torture, mentions of religious mythology.

summary: Folio can't quite tell you how long he's been dead, but it doesn't matter when he has friends like his, and Ishtar. Ishtar, with whom he fell in love the moment he met her. The problem? She doesn't know it. How does he convince a demon, who is practically immortal, to date him when he's dead? How did Ellie do it so easily?

author’s note: Unbetaed.. Enjoy! You want a background scene, a moment you thought got lost in the shuffle? Feel free to message or inbox me.. it may or may not make my outtakes eventually :P

To read from the beginning: A Friend Down In Hell Masterlist

And for those that missed Noah & Ellie's Story previously, all Hell-Verse stories will be included here: Combined Hell-Verse Masterlist

tags: @spicywhenspeaking @tearfallpixie @cncohshit @nyxthedestroyerofworlds @lyschko666 @bngurngheart @lacktoesandtoddlerants @sorrowsofsilence @collapsedglasshouses @vinyardmauro @dsireland86 @4rtificialfolio @emmmm127 @badomensls @agravemisstake @sunsshinesunny @blackveilomens @jilliemiw86

Tag lists are open, please let me know if you'd like to be added to this story, the Hell-Verse as a whole, or Everything

She was never going to forgive him.

That was all Folio could think about when he headed home from the bar like she told him to. Told him to go home, and she’d talk to him tomorrow. When tomorrow though, tomorrow morning, tomorrow after work, when? His mind was reeling, and he couldn’t stop as he pulled his bike into his space at is apartment building on autopilot. Shit, he’d fucked up so bad, but he had just wanted to help Kera, he should have just stopped him without putting his hands on him, so stupid. He knew better, he knew better, he was Ishtar’s boss! Well, one of her bosses. As much as he’d been wanting to knock his teeth in for donkey years now, he knew better than to try, and now look at what he’d done.

He had just gone and made Ishtar’s life even worse! Dammit. 

Pacing around in his apartment, he just kept going over every moment of what happened in the bar. From the way he was treating Kera, to the way he’d shoved Folio when he’d pulled him off of her, and hell, even pulled a knife on him! What kind of idiot carried a tiny ass little knife in Hell? The way he’d handled it, he didn’t even know how to use the damn thing. Folio pulled the blade from his pocket, staring down at it in his hand, flicking out the blade from the handle, and then pushing it back. It had been so long since he’d held something like it in the palm of his hand, and yet it was almost like it was yesterday.

Just from the weight of the weapon, he could tell that it was only cheap, not that Folio was surprised. Why would someone have a fancy switch-blade in Hell? If you were going to have a good blade, you should go with a real dagger. He had seen some of the weapons that Noah could wield, and they were something wicked. This one, was obviously a cheap piece of crap, Tony, was a cheap piece of crap. He was the barest of minimum of humans in hell, and must have worked his way up in the bar by being the biggest brown noser. 

“Dammit no, no I can’t just sit around here.. I can’t wait until tomorrow.”

Muttering to himself, Folio grabbed the rest of the vegetarian spaghetti bolognese he’d made for Ishtar’s dinner. Oh yea, he’d been learning, attempting to make different things. This one, well, this was one of the FEW dishes that he felt like he could make pretty well on his own for her, which was why he’d made it to take down to her at work tonight. As a surprise. Well, that had turned out to be a flop, now, hadn’t it? With the rest of it packed up in a container, he’d planned for her to be able to have easier dinners for the week all along anyway. So now he could just take them over to hers, no harm in that, and wait for her. She might get upset, but he had to explain, he had to.

Getting to her apartment, of course she wasn’t home yet, she was still at work. He didn’t care how long he’d have to wait for her to get there, he would wait as long as he had to. Now, Folio could just let himself in to her apartment with the spare key she’d given him two weeks ago, but he didn’t deserve that after how upset she’d been tonight. He wasn’t technically even supposed to be here, after all, so he should at least wait for her to get home before going in. So he set himself down on her doorstep, waiting for her.

That was exactly where Ishtar found him, sitting cross-legged with the container of food in his lap. She wasn’t pleased to see him after the night that she had had. 

“Nick, what are you doing here? I said I’d see you tomorrow.”

He scrambled up from the stoop, the look of surprise in his eyes wasn’t unexpected to her, she was home earlier than she would have guessed too. She’d been sent home halfway through her shift because of what happened, with how they’d finally decided to handle it. She’d gone back inside and Tony had ranted and raved to the other manager he’d called in because he couldn’t get a hold of the owner tonight. Ishtar knew he would have tried, those two were as thick as thieves, there was a reason the man still had his job after all these years, despite how bad he was at it.

“I know, I know, but I couldn’t just leave it like this, I needed to explain, I’m so sorry, Baby, I know I fucked up, but-”

Ishtar sighed, this wasn’t a conversation for them to have in the hall outside of her apartment, where her neighbours could probably be snooping, likely be snooping. Some of them were right busy bodies sometimes.

“Come inside, we’ll talk, you could have waited inside you know, you have a key for a reason. Silly Goose.”

Unlocking her door, shaking her head, of course Nick would be silly enough to punish himself by banishing himself outside of her apartment, but still she brought him right inside without another word. Making her way into her apartment, shrugging off her jacket, she didn’t hand it up at the door, she wasn’t bothered tonight to be precise, and neat, she didn’t have the mind to care. Not after everything that happened. She didn’t even really pay attention to Nick putting something in her fridge. Ishtar would find out later it was the rest of the food that he’d brought to the bar, the food she’d not even gotten the chance to eat. The food that was still at the bar, it wouldn’t go to waste though, nothing ever did. Plenty of time homemade meals disappeared in the staff room so fast if you didn’t label them, and even if Nick had, she wasn’t there to defend it tonight.

Ishtar just dropped her jacket over the back of one of the chairs when she heard Nick come back up behind her from his detour.

“Nick-”

“Please, let me explain-”

She sighed heavily, they’d talked about Tony, they had so many times when she’d vented about him, and Nick had offered, jokingly, to kick his ass for her, because she couldn’t do it without getting in trouble. She’d always pointed out she’d get in just as much trouble if he did. Condoning him beating on her next level boss would not be good for her job, in any way. It would destroy everything she’d been working for. Turning to look towards him, gesturing with a wave of her hand, a silent continue.

“He was assaulting Kera, and I know, I know I shouldn’t have done it. I get that, I acted rashly, I know that now, but when I see a man put his hands on a woman, I have a problem with that. I tried to get him to stop, and he wouldn’t, so I hit him.”

Ishtar raised an eyebrow, she’d seen the bruise that Tony had been sporting, even an hour after the fight, it had not just looked like a simple punch.

“That’s it? You just hit him?”

“Well, I flattened him, actually. I swear, it was only one punch! The guy must have a glass jaw or something, he went down like a sack-o-potatoes! Just laid there staring up at me too, freaking little fucking coward. Wait, it doesn’t end there.” She frowned, okay, she remembered coming out to see Nick holding Tony down so that much she believed that that wasn’t all. The issue was, the fight getting worse did not bode well in Nick’s favour, as Tony going down in one punch and Nick still continuing to fight him was bad news, for both of them.

“So I turned to Kera to see if she was okay, she was, thankfully, and the next thing I know, the man is coming at me with a blade, Princess, a fucking switch-blade!. Here, I took it off of him.”

“What?!”

Nick pulled a foldable human styled pocket knife from his pocket, and she was shocked, she’d seen it before alright, it was the one that Tony carried. Thought it made him look all tough, and suave. She never in her life actually thought he’d use it, or that it was remotely even sharp. Many a time she’d seen him flick it open in front of women to try to make himself look worldly, and rugged, as if that would do either of those things. 

“I was disarming him when you came out, I wasn’t about to let him walk away with a weapon after he just tried to use it on me either. I might already be dead, but I ain’t stupid. I’ve been stabbed before, these things fucking hurt babe.”

None of what she was hearing was doing anything to ease the ever-growing distress she was feeling about this entire ordeal, even knowing that Nick was dead, and couldn’t die again, didn’t make her feel any better. Swallowing, it also didn’t help her thoughts to know that Nick, her Sunshine, knew what it had been like to get stabbed, living or dead. 

“By the Deities this isn’t helping me, Nick, Nicky, Baby, I am so glad you are okay, I am, but this doesn’t help me at all. They won’t care, Tony-”

“I’ll go and-”

“They fired me, Nick!”

She hadn’t wanted to tell him like this, she had planned to go into the bar tomorrow morning and demand to talk to the owner directly while he was at work. It wasn’t fair what they were doing, and the fact that Tony had had to convince the other manager that she was more trouble than she was worth because of Nick, and she was always being difficult, proved it. 

Folio fell into stunned silence. He hadn’t just made her time at her job worse, he’d caused her to actually get fired. She’d lost her job because of him. Ishtar might hate working with Tony, and dealing with drunken idiots at the bar, but she loved her job. He knew she had dreams of working her way up to owning her own place one day, a bar, or maybe even better, a restaurant of her own one day, she’d told him. 

Swallowing as he looked to her, neither of them saying anything for a long moment, he didn’t know what to do, what he could say… he’d ruined this for her, and he knew it. She’d have to start all over again, and she’d been working at that job longer than he’d known her. Putting up with Tony longer than he’d known her, and in one night, it was all gone.

“I, are we breaking up?”

He’d had girlfriends breaking up with him for less, him with his stupid fighting in bars. Sure, it was different, it hadn’t been a stupid drunken bar brawl with the boys that she’d had to come down to the police station to bail him out for the millionth time. It did however, feel like he’d ruined her life, and the thought of her wanting to have nothing to do with him because of it just made him want to rip out his heart.

Are we breaking up? Hearing those words coming out of Nick’s mouth almost broke her, did she really think that she cared about her job more than him?

“Oh Sunshine, babe.”

Stepping towards him, moving closer to him than she had since she got him, her hands finally touching him. She didn’t think she’d been keeping her distance, but maybe she had been. She’d needed space to cool down a bit, Nick wasn’t the only one that wanted to punch something at times, and hurting him was something she never wanted to do, even if she knew he’d heal. Case in point, broken noses from door handles. 

“I love you, I love you so much. I think what you did was so stupid. Noble, but stupid.”

Knowing the kind of man Tony was, beyond stupid, there was no winning with him, getting Kera away from him yes, but starting a fight? It could only end badly, and here they were.

“But no, I love you so much, not even you being so ridiculous sometimes could make me break up with you, you silly goose.”

Leaning in to bring her lips to his in a much-needed kiss, reassuring him of all her love, every little bit of it, she never wanted to let him go, not in this life, or the next.

Dividers by @saradika-graphics

[gremlins-hotel]

Could we know about catalhoyuk and their relationship with other nations 👀

Ah, that can be hard to say. For Çatalhöyük I am going off of archaeological evidence (namely excavations and studies of murals and artifacts from the site itself). I would argue it's even dubious for me to consider Çatalhöyük as a personification given we have no way to know if they had such a solidified identity. It's not considered urban nor was it a larger city-state that encapsulated further-flung agricultural villages/borderlands spaces into a politically influential region (though proto-city and proto-urban community are two terms generally accepted to use in reference to it in most literature I've consumed). We aren't sure if they would've had an established political body, though I would imagine with 3,000-8,000 clustered together, the people of Çatalhöyük would've had some sort of order in place.

This is a long-winded and rather roundabout way to say that the settlement of Çatalhöyük had no neighbors of similar size or capacity (as far as we know). Any 'neighbors' they may have had were most likely significantly smaller hunter-gather bands - which are typically made up of one to a few family groups, numbering in the tens, not thousands - or were smaller settlements whose legacies didn't preserve in the climate of south-central Turkey. Çatalhöyük as a personification may have been uniquely alone, whether through the fact that she is/they are the "first city" and had no one to compare to, or that any contemporaries they would've had might have come and gone long before they ceased to live. It's good to note that Çatalhöyük would've lived for approximately 1,000 years. (Estimates of continuous settlement of the site range from 1,100-1,500 years.)

Overall though, Çatalhöyük (personification) would've been living like her/their people. In oak-timber proto-row houses without doors, climbing via ladders to rooftops and to other homes. We theorize most things would've been done up on these rooftops; trade, conversation, fabrication of clothes and baskets and necessities, etc. as an early form of market since the site has no "public buildings" and no streets or walkways. We know that the people of this early society participated in early agriculture, farming wheat, barley, peas, lentils, and other legumes. They would've herded goats or sheep, as domestication and agriculture have gone hand-in-hand, which they would've used for food and for their hides as clothing. They also likely made clothing from woven bast fibers - textiles made from the inner bark of trees like willow, oak, and linden!

What we know about religion at Çatalhöyük is also vague. There was no known writing system and our information has mostly come from potentially ritual figurines and murals found throughout parts of both mounds of the site. But I personally would imagine that seeing this person who does not age - at least not like she should compared to everyone else - and seeing that she can perform feats that normal men cannot might make her seem like much of a divine figure. I know it's rather common fanon that the Ancients in Hetalia (or modern Nations who have also been around long enough to be considered so) would've been revered like gods. That, I think, would be interesting to play with. (A personal side note, I like to think that personifications of the later cities Eridu, Uruk, and Ur were female and therefore seen as emissaries of/faces of the goddess Ishtar (or Inanna).)

As for Çatalhöyük's relationship with other Nations, who at this time would've simply been cities or city-states, not nations as we see them today, I think their relationship is murky at best. No modern National personification we have today would have met Çatalhöyük. They know about them from archaeology, from literature, or from stories passed poorly down more in the cadence of a legend than factual anecdote. They are The First if not merely one of the firsts of their kind, which makes them special, but with that comes packaged the unfortunate tragedy that so much of Çatalhöyük's everything has been lost to time, to modern factors, and to the Earth itself.

However, this is something I'd love to do more research on so I could theorize better.

[justapalspal]

So here is my self-made fic reading and commenting challenge bingo card. Categories will also be listed under the cut lol

I tried to make this as specific to my fic reading track record as possible given that, well, it’s a challenge for me, but if anyone’s interested in me making a spruced up version for others to use just let me know!! Also feel free to make your own version custom-tailored to your own reading habits and read along with me (when I get to reading) because, as they say, it’s free real estate :)))

You’ll notice that many of these categories could overlap with each other, which I did on purpose as a way to encourage me to read more instead of less (I might get discouraged to read something if, say, it doesn’t get me a bingo) which I think with this selection reading more is possible to achieve!!

As for the technical aspects of this, I originally came up with 26 categories and then used a random number generator to determine placements (the two categories that didn’t get used, surprisingly, were Tendies and Malik Ishtar Centric) and put a free space in the middle because oh golly we love us a free space don’t we <33

I’m thinking of either doing this as a two week, four week, or 31 day challenge… will just have to see what I end up projecting I have time for!! But for now, at least I have a card mocked up

TLDR Bingo time here we come (soon!!)

ROW 1

RYOU WRITES TO AMANE

FIVE COMPLETED MULTICHAP FICS

CONSPIRESHIPPING SHENANIGANS

TRAPSHIPPING SHENANIGANS

YAMI BAKURA HAS HIS OWN BODY

ROW 2

FIVE POST-CANON FICS

TORNSHIPPING SHENANIGANS

THIEF KING BAKURA CENTRIC

YAMI MALIK HAS HIS OWN BODY

FIVE UNDER 10K FICS

ROW 3

FIVE GEN FICS

FIVE REREAD FICS

FREE SPACE

HEARTSHIPPING SHENANIGANS

FIVE ALTERNATE UNIVERSE FICS

ROW 4

FIVE UNDER 1K FICS

DEATHSHIPPING SHENANIGANS

FIVE MID-CANON FICS

YAMI BAKURA CENTRIC FIC

FIVE UNDER 50K FICS

ROW 5

GEMSHIPPING SHENANIGANS

BAKURA RYOU CENTRIC FIC

THIEF KING BAKURA HAS HIS OWN BODY

FIVE WIP FICS

YAMI MALIK CENTRIC

[thefirstknife]

Have we learned how Elsie got her Pouka yet? It still seems that nobody had been to Neomuna before Lightfall began, so did she just like. Sneak in and steal one?

We did! Detailed in Speed Metal Ghost shell and Quicksilver Storm lore!

Elsie was exploring the outer system where she found an abandoned space station. She identifies it as very old and with Ishtar registration. The base of it is old, but inside it's very new and shiny. It also includes stuff that's clearly human, but sized up:

But what's waiting past the hatch isn't stock. Atmo gear—shiny and new. Someone's been here since the Collapse. I unshoulder my rifle and warm up her power cell. A handprint. Grease and dust pressed sharp against the white wall; sized for a Cabal, but… Five fingers.

It's clearly an old Ishtar station that was used to monitor stuff in the outer system, but was later converted by Neomuni and included additions for Cloud Striders. It's unclear if this was official work or if some Cloud Strider did it on their own in secrecy, but they were in this station and it was made to fit them.

Elsie also found a Ghost in this station, called Tokki, who claimed to have heard a "call" from this far out to find her Risen. She didn't find anyone to rez, but she found a curious creature: a pouka. She also found some nanotech which you can see on the shell and on Quicksilver Storm, which Tokki used to decorate herself.

As soon as Tokki showed Elsie the pouka, Elsie experienced a flashback which was the earliest time we've seen the pouka's power over memories and emotions. Quicksilver Storm lore identified the creature as a pouka and it started sticking with Elsie. Elsie also called it "fish" which ended up being its name.

This is also a little expanded in the Lightfall Collector's Edition in Elsie's section. Elsie travels a bit with Tokki and keeps the pouka with her, and tries to figure out what the creature is:

The alien—the fish, for lack of a better word—had lived alone on that abandoned Ishtar space station beyond Uranus for who knew how long before Tokki found it; and Elsie, in time, discovered Tokki. Elsie assumed a Human had brought the fish—after all, the station had shown signs of habitation in the last decade or so by someone Human, or at least close enough to it.

Elsie also realises from the way pouka is friendly that it was most likely a pet; probably from a Cloud Strider that frequented this station, as we now know that Cloud Striders use poukas for mental health help:

"Pouka? Like the faerie? Is that your name or your species?” "I think it's a lovely name," Tokki offered. Pouka only rubbed its face into Elsie's waiting hand, demanding attention. "You were a pet." Elsie gave the shiny carapace a scratch, triggering a wave of... purrs? Pouka's six eyes focused independently up at her and glittered. "Someone taught you those tricks. And then left you—”

And:

"You were trained for this kind of work, weren't you? Some kind of…” She struggled for a clever analogy. "Field therapist? Trained you to soothe, maybe work with exposure therapy?" She stroked absentmindedly at Pouka's smooth body, losing herself in possibility the way she hadn't let herself since the Europan think tank.

She actually uses the pouka's power of memories to re-learn stasis because the pouka keeps giving her memories and flashbacks which are meant to help people process and cope with trauma and any other problems. Elsie realises she can use that to draw back on her memories from other timelines where she knew stasis and figure it out in this timeline. All of this puts Elsie's discovery of the station and pouka well before Beyond Light, though it's unclear how far back.

[raetoria]

Let’s talk about the Veil

I’m gonna start out by saying this fully theorizing, complete spinfoil, little evidence but big dreams.  This post is not going to be about the campaign, I have different post on my blog talking about it if you really want to know.  As you might expect, huge spoilers for the campaign.  Alright, it’s lore time babey!

Alright so the Veil is super mysterious.  As mentioned in the campaign, there is very little we understand about the Veil.  Osiris has never seen anything like it, the Neomuni really just use it as a battery.  We really only know three things:

The Witness used it to open a portal (of some sort).

In interacts with both the Light and the Darkness.

It powers Neomuna and specifically is integral to the operation of the CloudArk.

That is really not a lot to go on.  However, I do think it is actually enough to figure out what is going on.  I believe that the Veil acts as a gateway between the Light and Darkness, or more specifically the physical and the metaphysical.  Now that is a pretty wild claim but here’s why.

During the campaign, Osiris muses on the nature of Light and Dark.  Specifically, he mentions that the Light deals with the physical: causing things to grow, letting us bend the rules of physics, etc.  On the other side, the Darkness deals with the metaphysical: dreams and nightmares (Nezarec alert!), feelings of control, emotions, etc.  He notes that these two forces are fundamentally incompatible.  Frankly, I disagree, I think this is a case of Osiris purposely coming to the incorrect conclusion to have a reveal in Final Shape but that’s a different theory entirely.  For now, the important thing to note is that there are a lot of questions around what happens when Light and Dark collide (Strand, Tormentors, Savathun, both “sides” using both powers, etc). 

Now let’s look at the Ishtar Collective facility and Neomuna.  In the final mission, Nimbus notes that a device we see is a CloudArk prototype.  Later we see some wacky chairs that probably were part of that project.  I cannot fully remember but I also remember the implication that the Veil is used in part of the upload process to the CloudArk.  Here, we see minds crossing into a digital space, disconnected from their physical body.  They go from entirely physical to entirely mental.

Okay Witness time.  We see the Witness carve a giant triangle into the Traveler and then open a Veil portal, passing beyond it.  I am reading this as the Witness has entered the Traveler. I’ll come back to that.  But again, the Witness has passed into an unknown space, Darkness goes into a space that is ostensibly defined by the Light.  Furthermore, the Radial Mast is specifically identified as a source of Light during the campaign and our ghost (a creation of the Light) is used to channel the Veil’s power with Osiris telling us to get our ghost away from the Veil.  Again, the convergence of Light and Dark.

Alright let’s bring it all together.  In all of these cases, we see the Veil being used as a sort of translation layer between physical and nonphysical states or more specifically, Light and Dark.  I think the Veil allows for Light and Darkness to coexist in a way that is otherwise impossible.  This is why Strand is present on Neomuna (our Light powers getting reflected into a metaphysical state), this is why our ghost can be semi-hijacked by the Witness, this is why Neomuni can be uploaded to the CloudArk which really feels a lot like the VexNet, and this is why the Radial Mast / a source of Light (us) was needed for the Witness to interact with the Veil.  It plays really nicely on the phrase “beyond the Veil” which, while often used in conjunction with death, actually just refers a mysterious division between worlds.  Again, plays really nicely with the ideas I mention here about moving between worlds, and moving between the domains of Light and Dark. 

So that begs the questions, what the heck is going on with the Witness and the Traveler?  Well take a trip with me into deep theory territory here cause I’m moving from little evidence to zero evidence.  In the final cutscene, we see the Witness send its Pyramid ships into the portal before following.  We know a couple of things.  According to Osiris, the Light deals with the physical.  We also know the Pyramid ships respond, at least in part, to our thoughts and desires.  What if the inside of the Traveler is a massive space, able to fit in the relatively small Traveler ball Tardis style because of the physics warping nature of the Light like the thought warping nature of the Darkness in the Pyramids?  The Witness needs some way to enter that space, but literally cannot because it is such a channeller of the Darkness. So, to get its ships and forces inside, it needs a translation layer.  Something that will allow it to enter this space and allow the Darkness and Light to mix.  That’s why it needs the Veil, to pass beyond, to actually get to the heart of whatever the Traveler is, whether that’s a Witness-like creature or of something more abstract. 

Also, I am wondering if the reason why nothing we do gets past the Veil is because we are all physical and Light based.  Would explain why the Witness converts its ships into smokey wisps to pass through.  So perhaps the answer is we have to become heavy on the Darkness side or... think our way through?  Not sure about this one tbh XD. Either way, I am sure we will see more about the Veil in the lead up to Final Shape.