#//While Lore does have items he's sentimental about

[blackstarchanx3new]

FSR Rambles 16

Dark spiraling into an episode is halted by a "Distraction" aka a flower.

Shadow being disturbed at Dark's response to eat it, just goofy shit.

Dark doing horrible to thinks he supposedly "Likes" is a trend with him. I discussed the "dark eating flowers" symbolism awhile back.

Dark just settles into being kinda forlorn again.

"I like Vio the most" pisses off Shadow. Obviously.

Dark's reasoning for liking vio is just "Everyone else does".

Which. Is just an implication he is feeling the vibes of everyone else and how they feel towards Vio. Thus. Dark likes Vio.

Lore about Dark Link's creation:

Vio's panicking was a caducous in a way to why Dark appeared in the form he did.

Dark Link wasn't entirely aware of his own presence at this time until Vio noticed him.

Dark continues to just point out Shadow's past wrongdoings lol.

I don't think many people noticed the shift in Dark's hair here to match Shadow's hair and not Vio's becoming a warmer shade of purple.

I ALSO don't think people noticed what Dark said here wasn't his own opinion. At least the 4th panel.

His immediate "hm?" as if he had no clue what the hell Shadow's reacting too made that more obvious.

Dark quickly gets mad at the notion he'd think something like that when that was smth he was just parroting from Shadow's internal thoughts.

Repeating what Dark actually thinks of Shadow and himself: He thinks Shadow Link is an outright monster and he himself a hero.

Dark being high key delusional about his standing in the world is just par for the course.

He keeps pissing shadow off and gets angry about that himself. Really in darks mind he isn't doing anything wrong so everyone else is just being unreasonable. 🫠

Shadow tries to deliver the same sentiment that Green gave him earlier to...different results.

Darks lovely thought process:

Family. Link had a father. His father was his family. Thus, if shadow is his family, Shadow is his dad.

He even elaborates that him having a father is a lot like link lol.

Shadow, is reasonably confused as hell at this response.

Shadow tries and fails to explain they're just friends not THAT kind of family. But Dark is stubborn and insists shadow is his dad now.

Repeating that shadow would drag his "son" to be an accomplice in lying to the others about being a part of Gannon.

Shadow tries to justify, and is worried about how dark even got this info to begin with.

Memory shinanigans.

Shadow cant deny cool powers when he sees em but darks lil internal monolog (a first with him having a thought bubble if I remember correctly) he expresses confusion at Shadow not being able to see into others memories too.

Dark just assumes everyone else can do what he can haha.

Shadow pushes for dark to do the right thing. But dishonesty isn't smth dark likes to do so, dude just roasts Shadow again for his lies.

His word choice of "I don't like lying" not that he DOESN'T lie is pretty accurate as to get shadow to accept him he lied XD he just didn't like doing it.

Well. Someone sleeps like a rock.

Dark just wants to kiss people lmfao. A weirdly sweet and creepy gesture from him towards vio.

Asking his dad if he can sleep, obviously that's just how that works hah.

Dark's wings haven't made an appearance in a long time lol.

Dark is now a key item. Lmfao. My way of putting off dark and vio talking rn hahahaha. Not yet...we're not there quite yet. 😈

Shadows inventory being call backs is just funny to me personally.

Obviously the triforce of power, the cups he used to drink with vio and his sword.

Shadow continues to admit he doesn't like dark what so ever lmfao.

Poor vio fell asleep while reading again lol.

... Someone's not talking...how suspicious.

Hahahahahaha. Not responding to your "name" is kinda odd.

WELL OKAY THEN.

Vio thinks he's Link lmfao. No wonder dude wasn't speaking.

Smth to consider...

If everyone is talking and speaking normally, but Link himself was silent.

Who was causing link to be mute?

A horrifying thought:

What DOES happen if a Four Sword user pulls the sword twice?

There's no true guarantee that it'd split them the exact same way as it did previously.

Especially after 7 years...

Who's to say this is "Vio" and not, a part of Link who thinks they're Vio? How would they KNOW for sure they are 1 to 1 with the Vio that was created all those years ago?

Even if the sword COULD do that...it's been 7 years. Link is a VERY DIFFRENT person since he first pulled the sword.

Whatever made up the previous four Links, could just NOT exist or be different now.

After all, they all LOOK different now. They don't even have the same face as Link.

How much is THIS Vio the Vio from back then?

Hey Vio's using his big boy words again.

Shadow references when Vio was talking about his home back in the flashback chapters.

So we FINALLY get an answer as to what freaked Blue and Green out back in page 108.

The presence of Mr. Demon king.

That was a LONG time for pay off lol had to do other stuff. XD

...Green. Your eyes are green. :)

Leave Vio alone Blue he's exhausted and his brain is working at 5% capacity atm.

Shadow and Green having a fun ol convo about how Green lowkey doesn't trust Vio right now hah.

He did catch Vio staring at the sword pedestal after Link ripped that thing out like a bayblade.

Shadow gets pissy about the implications.

"you trust me don't you green?" he asked in a very untrustworthy way.

I get it Green this dude spent your entire mission being an enemy and tried to kill Vio, trusting him is going to be difficult. Even if they spent 7 years together.

Shadow trying to urge Green away so he can talk to him in private. Perhaps share a smooch-

Anyway, I love this moment between Vio and Blue in the background of these pages. XDDD 💙💜

Blue willing to beat Shadow's ass at the drop of a hat lmfao.

Considering how Vio and Shadow's "Friendship" ended up last time...I'll let you decide if Blue's being over protective or not.

Blue points smth out that's been a visual thing for awhile: Vio's the most covered up one out of all of them.

He has gloves + arm guards, chainmail under his tunic, and is the only one with his sword visible at ALL TIMES.

Vio from a visual standpoint is always ready for a battle/on the defensive.

Huh. Okay. Vio's arm is scarred to hell. Wonder what that's about...

Blue's concern continues to be cute to me.

Haha it moves. It moves when you feel bad about it.

Vio's dismissive about it though.

Oh hey! It's our bestie Dark! Doing his job still hahaha.

The transition to real world to the headspace is one of my faves just because it's so quick.

Whipped his head around to see who was talking and bam. Dark Link.

Visual notes for the headspace: it's visually COLD here.

People didn't get Dark's cruel reference to it "being cold in the house' as him messing with Blue over the fact he was frozen. 😭

Unlike Vio, he doesn't get a real response out of Blue....So he baits again to no avail.

Dark's hair shifts to being blue, a clear sign he's mimicking someone directly and acts. well a lot LIKE Blue. Getting angry Blue is "Staring at" him, proclaiming Blue is "Boring" for not responding to him.

Dark's form starts to melt away as he promises they'll have fun "Later" whatever that means.

Vio: The master of tugging on people if he wants their attention.

Blue's helpful. Even if he's a dick about it.

HAHA WHAT DOES GREEN'S STOMACH LOOK LIKE AFTER VIO WHACKED HIM?

I'm not tellin'. Just alluding to it's existence.

Dark being cute as hell and for what.

Shadow deciding it's "Safe" to confide in Green about Dark is an interesting choice.

Hiding it would have meant issues and Green IS mr. Leader so. It makes sense.

Of course...Shadow ya don't need to shake Dark around and grip him so hard. Really makes you no different than vaati in that sense.

In the final panel you can see Dark's hair is just...Vio's hair. And he's in a very bad mood.

For whatever reason he doesn't want to come out even on Shadow's command.

Cut off time! Bleh.

[gamebunny-advance]

I didn't get a chance to vote on the poll, but also noticed what would have been my answer wasn't there so I'm writing it in now- I personally see it as he's their CREATOR first, manager second. They don't call him manager in a lot of materials, and they also don't call him father, they call him "Captain" or "sir," (this being pulled from largely the additional voice actor's portrayals at least, which I think are worth at least considering in a wider scope of interpretation)

That feels like the title or nickname he'd prefer they use, hence programming them TO use it for him- and that betrays neither fatherly intent nor producer intent, but pre-existing intent he didn't change (lifting from prior coding) or that he preferred. Beyond that he definitely refers to them as troops- it is their aesthetic, but it's more impersonal

the items you get for the lore on 1010 are toys, and while it's not stated, I've always thought there was an implication that he had made them- His relationship then isn't one of a father to sons, but of a creator about his creations, which IS different. It's why he's as willing to literally throw them at you in combat and, simultaneously, seemingly instinctively, puts a hand out in front of himself to protect them when the final attack is coming- even if they are tools to some degree, he MADE them what they are and he's PROUD of that- He doesn't want to see his work destroyed

Obviously this gets increasingly more complicated if you believe that 1010 gain sapience of some degree, but I still think the relationship isn't quite what I'd call fatherhood. He is simultaneously all the family they have and deeply, inherently unlike them- yet there is undeniably pieces of him and influences from him present in them, because every creation will reflect its creator in some way, in ways they can't even predict

Then, y'know, yeah, it's being a manager time. Ultimately he's gotta organize them and tell them what to do- how he feels about that could be a variety of ways, but he is doing it nonetheless, so something about it matters to him as well- likely the vow to serve the city thing, if leading a boyband is the way to ensure the lights stay on, then he's going to do it 'till his heart gives out.

To start, I do think you're getting a little caught up in the semantics of the poll, but since you're making the case that "creator" is different from "father," I'll hear you out.

And tbh, I really like that interpretation. It's a little more nuanced from what I'm used to seeing, and it is giving me something to sink my teeth into.

I do differ in that I don't think Neon J. personally made the toys or the base 1010: I felt like the implication of the MKI - MKIII standee was that 1010 has actually been around since the wartime era, since MKI 1010 are build more similarly to the recycled battlebots in the Metro Division. Parallel to that, I think it's implied that Neon J. is a cyborg due to suffering injuries in the war. Since they appeared to exist at the same time, it seemed more likely to me that 1010 and NJ's body originated from the same source, but not that NJ was necessarily the direct creator of either them or the toys. (Though, I will admit that knowing that the toy company is called "J-1" does imply that he has something to do with it. But to rectify that, I'm gonna say that he just bought out the company/factory, but he didn't start them.)

But that's just an argument of history. Both interpretations can still lead to the "creator" theory in the sense that NJ still views 1010 impersonally, but still fondly. Even if he didn't make the base, he still turned them into what they are today, which is still a lot of hard work and dedication to the craft.

It's not making him out to be this overly sentimental guy (which is ultimately what I dislike about most "father first" interpretations), but he's also not heartless, and I like that. It's retaining what many interpretations (including mine, sadly) sometimes miss out on, and that's that he's an artist, just like all the other stars. He values his craft, and 1010 are the result of that, for better or worse.

[fire-branded]

8 & 14

8. What makes you stray away from canon material and base your character, in case of canon muse, on your own headcanons?

A lack of detail, most of all. If canon gives me the barest bones of information to work with, I will run with that sliver of info, dive into Headcanon Land, and never look back.

Or canonical details that I feel don't line up well enough with other details established in the content(game, in this case), things that come across to me as contradictory, things that I don't personally feel comfortable with utilizing(especially when it comes to ages of characters), or information presented in the Ultimania that don't make sense with what we know from the game itself. Because for me, the game's lore takes precedence over an outside source like the Ultimania. (Though no shade to anyone who does choose to use its info.)

That and just... the general notion of adding a personalized touch to my blorbo, you know? I do try to use canon material as at the very least a basic foundation and build off of it, but sometimes there's not enough background information, so you just have to fill in all of the details yourself.

Especially when the character you're playing as dies within the first like fifteen to twenty minutes of the fucking game, and you learn more about him through other characters than through actually ever having gotten to know him through seeing him.

14. What is the most annoying fact or trait or fanon that is attached to your muse and bothers you?

I ... admittedly have no idea. I never kept up with fandom opinions outside of my little corner here on Tumblr. Like, I'm sure Twitter and Reddit and whatnot have A Lot to say regarding him as a person, regarding his parenting, regarding his rulership over Rosaria, etc.

There is one fact that bothers me, even though I can see where people get the idea from overall despite me disliking the theory. And that's the theory that Elwin and Hanna Murdoch were having an affair behind Anabella(and Rodney too I guess?)'s back.

I can, again, understand where the theory comes from, despite heavily hating it. I don't hate it purely because of my personal feelings towards adultery; I just don't see it as a proven fact. The absence of evidence does not make evidence. We don't see enough of Elwin and Anabella on a personal, more intimate level to know what their relationship was like behind closed doors. We know Anabella was pissed at Elwin, yeah -- but again, in my personal opinion, her grievances sounded more directed at his method of and priority while ruling(putting the people first, and their territory/land second), and the decisions he made combined with his ambitions for the duchy's future. Her remarks in her Inner Thoughts thing are surprisingly neutral, with statements like, "My husband, for better or worse" and ... I forgot what exactly the one with Phoenix Gate was, but it read to me like, "Nothing personal, kid".

We also know that Elwin is very big on being an honorable, just, compassionate, and duty-driven man, and I personally doubt that excludes in his personal/familial life.

Again, these are all my personal views and interpretations.

Even the fact that Hanna still had Elwin's old outfit and whatnot doesn't automatically spell "cheating" to me, considering the home is the Murdoch's home, and Elwin and his family visited Eastpool to spend time with the Murdochs there every summer, where the description says Elwin left the clothes there to wear every time he returned to Eastpool on vacation. It screams of sentimentality to me, of the same intense grief and not wanting to move on that Hanna also shows towards Rodney. She still wears her wedding band, even nervously fidgets with it when she talks about Rodney having died at Phoenix Gate. The fact that she never moved away from Eastpool to seek refuge in Rosalith, didn't even move out of the Murdoch's home... The fact that she was selling other items from the house and family to take care of the people of Eastpool and the displaced Bearers, but never sold her wedding band, Elwin's clothes(including the Metian Bonds, which were forged for Elwin by his dad when Elwin came of age, as was tradition. They probably would have sold for a pretty penny.), or Invictus -- which was Rodney's sword.

She held on to these specific items that had been important to the two men, in my belief because of the strong emotional attachment she has to those items -- because those items are the only things she has left of Rodney and Elwin.

Oh god I rambled I AM SO SORRY.

[roleoflore-blog]

Coral Fragments, Sapphire Depths, Moonstone Luster, and Prehnite Memory

Stonework Headcanon Asks | Accepting 

Coral Fragments: How well does your muse deal with stress? Do they do anything in particular to help them deal with it, and if so what do they do?

His typical way to deal with stress is to ignore it as much as he can. Give it the little time of day it deserves and leave it nagging at the back of his mind. Go with the flow. It’s not worth the bother. Though that only works if the stress is menial. When it ends up eating away at him, he has trouble sleeping or maybe sleeps more, his thought process may become incoherent as the cause of his stress becomes prominent, and he ends up being more reclusive than he already is. When it truly distresses him, he doesn’t think straight, but it isn’t in his control to confront the cause. It’s rather difficult for him.

A couple of ways are reading, video games, writing, and exploring the forest. Talking is out of the question because talking about them is difficult to get out of his chest. However, Baron’s there to stay with him, although it eases the stress, it doesn’t completely relieve the boy of it. When it comes to reading and video games, it’s usually he ends up being more focused on their story than his own. It’s a distraction, and he’s grateful when they work. In writing, although he never directly states his feelings, Lore weaves his words into some sort of story to express himself. Maybe it’s a story of a knight, a hero, or two Vikings, but sprinkled within it is his own perspective. 

Sapphire Depths: Do they prefer to think ahead or to leap right in and wing things?

Although Lore’s preferred method is to think ahead and consider all the possibilities, it depends on the situation. If he isn’t given enough time to formulate a proper formula, he’ll choose to wing things. However, he’ll keep an eye on his surroundings for when he actually concocts a viable plan of action. He’s not above using dirty tricks, so a plethora of options is open to him. The only time he’ll leap right in is when he’s enraged and can only see one path.

Moonstone Luster: Are there are any items they own that have sentimental value to them?

The green hoodie he wears all the time. It’s something he had for a long time and many memories are associated with it. Both good and bad. Another is a journal, safely tucked away in one of the drawers in his room. Snippets of ideas are scribbled in that one journal. He’s not willing to share any of it. He isn’t sure what he would do if he lost either of those.

Prehnite Memory: How good is their memory? Has it always been like this or did something happen to make it this way?

 Lore’s memory is pretty decent. He’ll remember important things, sometimes he’ll forget the little things such as what he ate for a snack or what he was doing last night before he fell asleep. Make him study the whole night, he’ll probably not remember the material for being sleep-deprived It’s not something he really bothers about. Some memories don’t match up to the testimonies of Baron... he’s figured out the reason for that at least. Mom. Then there are the memories that are just blank. Like someone placed a black hole in there. It’s disconcerting. Though, that’s something that has been plaguing him for the longest time. 

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Ooooo okay overall thoughts on what Tommy did on stream today? As someone who’s been around for a while I’d love to hear your thoughts :)

Anon, you have sparked a ramble because I love talking about meta shit like this. Be warned and also thank you >:)

So...

Remember this?

And this?

And this?

One thing that makes Dream SMP alive is the constant change. Nothing is permanent, nothing is sacred. As much as it hurt, the New L'manburg Festival's impact came from seeing the Community House, which everyone thought for so long surely couldn't be destroyed, in ruins.

Even before then! It was strange to see the old Community House everyone loved go when Dream, Sapnap and George remodeled it after the Reddit post.

But, you know Quackity's second Las Nevadas stream? Do you remember what made that flashback scene so, so impactful when you first saw it?

The fact that, before anything else gave away that it was a flashback, before you saw the black walls of L'manburg cluing you in, you saw this:

Nothing in those pictures looks like it does today. The instant you see that, you know it’s the past. And when you finally saw the walls, it was all the more impactful from that build-up.

Where Purpled's Walmart once stood, Puffy's Targay stood next. Jack Manifold's Tesco in the sky above it was destroyed a long time ago. And now there's room for something else.

Where Fundy's Socializing Club once stood, Ponk's essential oils shop stood. And now there's room for something else.

The Community House has been blown up multiple times. Even Dream's bedroom underneath it was taken out in the explosion from Fundy's prank.

Where Skeppy's house once stood, Bad and Skeppy's mansion now stands.

Tommy's house has changed faces so many times, it hasn't been the original since July of last year.

You can't just carbon date the SMP by which version of Tommy's house you see, or what the I <3 ANDREA sign reads -- you can do that for the whole thing.

Ponk's casino was built on land that used to be taken up by Sam's little castle from when he rejoined the server after his hiatus.

Eret's museum had room made for it by taking down an old frame of a build that was never finished.

The original Camarvan, as iconic as it was, was taken down only a few days after the L'manburg War!

Eret's entire tower -- yes, this tower

was completely destroyed, top to bottom. Entirely demolished. (Thanks, Fundy)

There are a few cases where it definitely hurts. Alyssa's house is the last remnant of the lake area from the early days, one of the very few builds from that time still standing. Wilbur's ball house is the one remaining marker we have of his time on the server from before L'manburg. Those, I think, I would be genuinely sad to see go. The ones where they’re the only remnant of that time, y’know?

But the gingerbread house? That's only been here since December, man, and it takes up so much room. Targay's only been there since November and it had already replaced another build before it. This is a lot more room to build, some much-needed change on the Prime Path tbh.

I was sad to see the CRY sign go a while back purely because it made angsty lore 10x funnier with it in the background, but it's gone now and that's that.

Besides, we'll always have builds somewhere on the server that remain from the old times. Whether it's the escape tunnel to Pogtopia that managed to survive Doomsday, or Techno's old base, or Dream's grave marker for his parrot who died on his journey home with Spirit that still stands, somewhere out there in the ice spikes, waiting for someone to come across it someday.

I mean, this isn't even to mention the sentimental items. 

Spirit's leather is fake. The original was destroyed. For all we know, Tommy's discs are just two of the many decoys that circulated around throughout the saga with no way to tell the real ones apart. Hell, Tommy got attached to the fucking decoy discs back in the day and Tubbo scolded him for that lmao. They got rid of those eventually though. 

This probably all plays a big part in why attachment and legacy are such big themes of DSMP's story. People get attached to things, people get nostalgic, people care about things, but everything in the story has to be let go of at one point or another. It's a balance.

So, time for some summer cleaning!

[cregla]

I've rewatched some of Season 1 and 2 vods and I think I need the new people on the fandom to understand that Tommy became obsessed with the Discs only when they were the only thing that he believed he could still have.

A quick explanation for who doesn't know what I am talking about (and by quick, I'm sorry, I already know it's not going to be quick).

Back in Season 1, before they even started Roleplaying, Tommy found some music discs - the two we're talking about are Mellohi (the first one, which he found by actively farming discs with Skeletons and Creepers) and Cat (which he found accidentally alongside with a spider spawner nearby his home). Tommy always cared about these discs, of course, as they were his first one on the server and CC!Tommy has said that both he and the character like Minecraft music discs.

At the time, the lore of Dream SMP is really smoky, because since they were not really roleplaying but merely playing around, everything that happened was canonized later. However, what we know as canon is that Dream stole Tommy's two discs after his involvement in Ponk, Alyssa and Sapnap's war (not one that Tommy started, even if people believe him to have done so. The fact that Tommy brought war and chaos with him when he came in the server is a wrong one, as things happened even before his arrival) and Tommy, of course, tried to take them back - leading to the first Discs war alongside Tubbo.

Of course Tommy cared about his disc. They were his, and they were wrongfully stolen. However, he easily accepted giving up Mellohi to Dream in case he lost the bow duel, if that would help gain L'Manberg independence. And after that, to win the Revolution, he proposed on his own will to give the man Cat too. He was sad about it, and angry, and promised to take them back one day, but he gave them up and he did it willingly for something he cared more about. A person that's obsessed with something would not do that.

The discs were always there in Tommy's mind, of course - but they were a "distant" objective, something he needed to take back because, again, he cared about them, and they were his, but they were not his priority. They were not his priority during the Election Arc, nor during Pogtopia. On November 16th, he actually declined the role of President to actively START seeking the discs - because he was responsible enough to know that by being the President of L'Manberg, he would have to not seek war with Dream again, as he would involve L'Manberg with him by doing so. He, however, was made Vice President (although he had said before that he didn't want to be VP exactly for this reason) and again didn't start a full war on Dream because of it. He always wanted to take the Discs back, but he wasn't obsessed with them enough to ignore everything to go after them. For him, the Discs canonically came after his friends - they came after L'Manberg, after all.

Then we go onto Exile.

I already said here and here what I think about Tommy's exile but TL;DR for those who didn't see the videos or didn't realize it: Tommy was not merely exiled, but kidnapped and abused, and manipulated to believe himself to be alone even if people would be there.

During exile, Tommy started believe to have nothing, no one there - he had lost Wilbur, he had lost Tubbo, he had lost L'Manberg and everything else. There is nothing there for him anymore - and he can no longer bear the abuses and the loneliness and everything else to the point that not only he actively become suicidal, but he would have actually killed himself once if Dream wasn't there and would have jumped to his death if he hadn't suddenly realized that Dream was abusing him.

From that point on, Tommy escapes - and he goes to Techno, and what does he have?

He lost Tubbo, he lost Wilbur, he lost L'Manberg and all his friend, and he lost Dream too - the fake friend he had and the only thing that he had was a tentative alliance with Technoblade. An alliance for what?

To retake what it was his. The only thing that, while lost, he could have obtained again. His discs, with help from Techno - and for how much I believe that Techno believed he was doing the best for Tommy, and while he didn't say so out loud (and in contrary, he denied this several time) he considered Tommy a friend and an ally in that moment, he was also... shoving him towards a really, dark path, unaware of this or not.

Because Tommy started his villain arc right there. He started torturing people, for god sake. Even Technoblade said to him that he was exaggerating! And he continued, on and on.

Until that line. The line that everyone love to quote out of context.

"The Discs were worth more than you ever were!"

But what is the context of this quote? Tommy's angry. Tommy's angry, because he feels that everyone's (besides Techno) has left him behind. Tubbo exiled him, his friends didn't visit (again, they did, but I already explained here why he felt he was alone), everyone believed him to be a villain who had destroyed the Community House and Tubbo, Tubbo was going to give his disc, his precious disc that was in his care because Tommy trusted him to keep it safe, to Dream. His abuser. And so Tommy attacks, and starts screaming at Tubbo, and in rage, he says this phrase which is absolutely not true.

And then, Tommy stops. Tommy realizes what he has said - and he realized how's spiraling to a dark place. He says it later - "I'm worse than everyone I didn't want to be". Because this obsession is not worth it and he, himself, realize it. And so he gives up his discs - he says to Tubbo to give it to Dream.

People also love to bring Doomdsay and what Tommy was saying - except, Tommy wasn't saying at all to Techno that he cared only about the disc and that he betrayed Technoblade for that, which is way the phrase "Discs aren't people" (which, by the way, is followed by Tommy saying that they are people too, but go off and don't quote that, I guess...) is very out of context there for Technoblade - because Tommy GAVE UP his discs. He gave up them for L'Manberg and he gave up them for coming back to Tubbo. And that's what he was explaining. Him talking about the discs in that situation is for a different reason than "I want my disc back I am obsessed", but it's the one that the fandom actually got out of it.

"But Tommy wanted to take back the discs later too! He didn't gave them up, then! He was still obsessed!"

He wasn't. The fact that he still cared about sentimental objects that were rightfully his in the first place is no sign for an obsession. The fact that he decides to continue trying to get them is not an obsession - because this time, it's not his only reason. He's not alone. He has other priorities and the discs have now a new meaning.

People say "Tommy and Tubbo could have not tried to get the discs back, could have just let Dream burn them." And while that's right, what then? With the discs destroyed, what would have happened? It would have happened exactly what happened in the Season 2 Finale - in the exact, precise moment Tommy would have REALLY renounced the discs, then Dream would have found ANOTHER excuse. After all in the exact moment Tommy gave up the discs, he took Tubbo's hostage!

Do you believe Tommy to be so ignorant? He and Tubbo were going there for the Discs, sure, but they were going there mostly to end the fight once and for all. To end it. The discs were important, but they also were a narrative excuse both in canon and out of it.

And we go to the season 2 finale. In which, again, Tommy renounce the Discs for Tubbo. And sure, then he grabs them, he asks Tubbo if they could stole them while they were in the vault, but again - people are allowed to care about things, even material things. Unless it is really an obsession, there is nothing wrong with wanting to take back something personal.

Fandom likes to put everything on Tommy's shoulder and the importance of the Discs is one of these thing - except, it was Dream that used them against Tommy, and Tommy put them on the side many times, and was only obsessed with them, and I mean the REAL meaning of the word "obsession", when he was at his lowest - in the post-exile and pre-doomdsay period of thime. They were never as "cursed" of an item as the fandom wants them to be.

And, again, if Tommy had burned the Discs, it would have not solved anything. Dream would have just went on to hurt Tubbo.

[king-there0f]

1, 8, 13?

@mystery-salad

Thank you for the ask!! Oh man…its been a while since I’ve looked at my askbox and there is….so much in here yall get ready for a backlog of accidentally unanswered asks.

1) What was the current story release when you started playing?

Unofficially I started playing during the beta! My first character was a Norn Elementalist and I played it over at the house of a guy I really hated because my beta key didnt work but he had offered to let me use his if I came over. So my first play experience was on a wonky green TV screen sitting on the gnarliest couch you’ve ever seen while a bunch of guys tried to impress me with how many words per minute they could type. Classic.

Officially tho I started at launch! It was all so new and exciting and I was so fresh off all the leading preproduction hype. As an avid GW1 player I was so excited for continued lore and was also sinking deep into the nostalgia and missing my friends who used to play with me. It wasn’t dissimilar from when I started GW1. Where I started playing alone but was determined to rope other friends into playing with me. And this was before I had even really gotten much farther than character creation haha. Despite how I feel about the personal story now (which is not that its outright bad, just that its kinda boring) it was really fun back then! I crafted all my characters’ stories to fit into it somehow because I had this weird idea that I had to for some reason, but they’ve all changed drastically since then.

8) Do you have any items you keep in your characters’ inventory for purely sentimental reasons?

I cant think of anything specific I keep in anyones inventory for sentimental reasons but I do keep a very cluttered inventory. I’m what you might call an in-game hoarder. You never know when those random item drops might come in handy! This one even has flavor text! What do you mean its a junk item?!

I am guilty of playing the game sub-optimally for character driven reasons though. Like how I refuse to elite spec Matthias because None Of The Ranger Elite Specs Suit Him And I Was Really Hoping EoDs Would But It Still Does Not. 🤣

13) Do you have a favourite story episode (including expansion chapters)?

Tbh I’m really fond of a lot of the stuff they did with season 1 and Im really glad its playable again! I think it can be hit or miss for a lot of people but back then it was really impressive and immersive how many big, lasting changes they made to the world during the events of LW ssn 1. The battle for lions arch was big and dramatic and felt high-stakes. There were some awesome locale introduced and some really interesting narrative ideas. It wasnt all good, and a lot of it had its flaws, but it was still exciting to see things being altered and affected by the story on such a big scale.

[lazyliars]

/rp

DreamXD actually slots very nicely into a working theory I've had for about two or so months now, mainly centering around one question:

What happened to Dream?

Namely, why did Dream change, when exactly did it happen, and was it solely an internal change, or was there an external force at play, specifically a preternatural one?

I think with DreamXD, we might finally have an answer.

Or at least some clues to follow. DreamXD presents a shift in every single paradigm the Dream SMP has had. Like, I think most of it is just being so utterly blind-sided by George Lore Real, but part of it is the massive ramifications of an Actual God* being present in the storyline.

((*On the other resident god of the server, Foolish:

DreamXD is different than Foolish, in that his characterization is so dramatically inhuman - Foolish talks and acts like a (somewhat eccentric) person, and his powers are, as far as we know, limited in comparison to the creative-mode godhood that DreamXD occupies. And whether that is because Foolish is not a "full" god (having been referred to as a demigod) or simply because he's spent so much time around humans, we don't know, but we do know that either way, DreamXD is NOT that.

DreamXD's voice is marked by glitches and dramatic shifts in tone, he seems to lack control over the different aspects of his personality, like the more "Dream" part vs. the darker one that threatens to eat peoples souls. The "normal" part even displays confusion when George references things that the "darker" part said, implying that it may not be fully aware of itself.

TLDR: Foolish acts more human than DreamXD, who has a very eldritch personality.))

To get right to the point:

The Dream we knew before November 16th, and the Dream we know now are not the same. Something changed, and it changed for the worse.

Consider: Dream was always antagonistic to the L'manbergians - he was always imperious to them, and he was responsible for starting a number of fights between his faction and theirs, just as many if not more than they were.

But, he was also not... evil. He'd pick fights with Tommy, the disc wars were still a thing, but the gravity of the spats they had weren't dire. They were fun. They were... actually a game. He wasn't like the way he is now. While in hindsight we can look at these events and detect a serious undertone knowing what's to come, at the time they were far from it.

There is an argument to be made that he had the same tendencies as now, just not expressed as loudly, and while I believe it's a valid argument, I disagree that it's proof of Dream always being the way he is now.

Sapnap, Badboyhalo, Sam. They all remember Dream as their friend - they remember someone who was, maybe a little aggressive and a lot competitive, but not cruel. Not needlessly murderous. Not someone who steals sentimental items and lines the walls of a disgusting museum to use against them.

Dream cut them out. Sapnap was totally blindsided. Bad doesn't seem to fully believe it. Sam blamed himself for not realizing and tried to take the weight of that crime on his own shoulders by becoming the Warden.

There's also the competing theory that what happened to Dream was purely psychological - either the circumstances slowly isolating him from his friends driving him to the do things he's done, or a desire for control that started early and continued to fester until it overshadowed everything else, or any combination of both.

And those theories are still valid, they could still be the case, but I haven't been able to shake the idea that there is something deeper at play. I can't overstate how the exile arc and everything after it have been so inhumane, so cruel, and... not exactly out of character in the sense that I could never see Dream doing them, but in the sense that I could never see him doing them for no reason.

And there really doesn't seem to be one. Dream says himself, it's like a game. He sees people as toys, puppets. And there just doesn't seem to be an inciting incident that could explain how he made the leap from semi-authoritarian leader who, despite being a warmonger, does love his friends, to heartless murderer who wants to reduce everyone he knows to dolls.

There's... ways, he could get there, but nothing that we've seen makes sense. There is a missing piece, something that must have happened from his POV that we didn't get to see because he doesn't stream.

And DreamXD could be it. This godly entity that claims that it is "a part of [Dream]" but that it isn't him entirely. That seems to share the lack of understanding of humanity that Dream has been displaying like when he asks if resurrecting Tommy was “cool.” But that still loves George. He still, despite apparently not having the same history as Dream, desperately wants to be George's friend.

If I had to pinpoint the moment Dream changed, it would be the day that he revealed that he switched sides, and was going to be fighting against Pogtopia. He was paid for this betrayal in the Revive Book.

I mark this as the turning point in my theory because it is the first time Dream mentions his affinity for chaos in the context of hurting others. However, we also know that this likely wasn't the day he actually made the decision to betray - as he revealed that there was a traitor among the Pogtopians, a fact that he likely would have learned before this.

Now, I mark George's lore stream as the introduction of DreamXD proper, and I want that on the record because it isn't technically his first appearance on the server.

Most people will remember him from Techno's stream, where he logged on to break the End Portal in a panic. I doubt the character was properly written into the lore at that time, but it fits neatly with the rest of what we know about him - a guardian of the server, and the keeper of it's rules. No contradictions.

What less people might know, is that DreamXD has made an even earlier appearance, and it's this one where things begin to get... interesting.

Around roughly October of 2020, Tubbo and Fundy did some improv'd streams centering around Demon Hunting, or rather, "Dreamon" Hunting, and it's during the first of these two streams that DreamXD makes an appearance.

The bare bones of it was - Tubbo is an experienced "Dreamon Hunter" and teaches Fundy his ways. They find Dream, and realize that he has a Dreamon inside of him, which is basically an evil version of him. They attempt to exorcise the Dreamon from Dream via various shenanigans, and eventually, they do a ceremony to free Dream. However, they apparently botch it, and unleash the Dreamon within. After more shenanigans, one attempt to fix it utilizing Fundy and Dream's wedding appears to work, but then DreamXD logs on, flys around at Tubbo and Fundy threateningly, and they end stream on the idea that there are probably more Dreamons to hunt.

Now. There's a lot to unpack here. I'm not gonna go into the nitty gritty details in this post, but I do recommend watching the Dreamon streams, as they have A LOT of details that, if this is getting incorporated into the main story line, could be important - especially the focus on duality, having TWO versions of Dream, which end up being potentially separated from each other.

(Also, they're just really funny streams. Tubbo and Fundy are at PEAK chaos and Dream plays along with their inane bit perfectly, it's just good content.)

At the time of the Dreamon streams airing, they were explicitly non-canon. IIRC Tubbo and Fundy referred to them as taking place In an “alternate universe,” which makes sense considering they would have been on opposite sides at the time (Manburg and Pogtopia.)

However.

And this is where I show you my wall of red string and newspaper clippings.

My singular piece of evidence for this comes from one line DreamXD drops. He simply says: “At least you're not hunting me.”

The Dreamon streams take place around early October. Dream reveals his betrayal of Pogtopia around November 6th-7th. The timeline of the Dreamon streams would line up perfectly with the idea that there was a catalyzing event that put Dream on the proverbial path to hell.

I do not believe that they intended the Dreamon arc to be anything other than a side story at the time, but considering that DreamXD himself was barely canon until now, I don't think it's out of the question that they took a look back at a fan-favorite minor arc, saw an opportunity to co-opt it into the current story line, and potentially fill in some holes regarding Dream's characterization all in one move.

On the question of whether this would be a GOOD storytelling move?

The Dreamon theories were prevalent during the exile arc, and I've got to say, I was never a huge fan. The detachment of Dream's actions from his intentions, and by extension his morality, never sat right with me. It feels cheap to make him a victim and say “a Dreamon did it!” in regards to all of the horrible things that he's done. It strips his agency and makes everything that happened less impactful in my opinion, and I stand by that reading.

BUT. With DreamXD introduced, I feel like it's necessary to look at this from all angles. And with the way DreamXD was characterized in George's stream, I don't think it necessarily ruins Dream's character to say that an external force was involved with his descent into evil.

Namely, the idea that whatever happened to Dream was not really a “possession” so much as a gradual loss of humanity, could be an interesting way to look at this. It implies that Dream was always capable of his actions, but grants us understanding as to why he would actually perform them, and why he might have become isolated enough from his friends that they would let this happen.

The Dream we know now could be an expression of his “worst self” brought to the surface by a Dreamon/DreamXD/other. It also begs the question of what would happen if that force were to leave him, and how it might cause yet another shift in character, especially if it were to be portrayed as less of a switch being flipped, and more of a withdrawal, with a gradual process of realizing how far gone he was.

To close this out, I've been stewing on the idea that Dream hasn't entirely been himself since the climax of the Exile Arc.

I think this theory holds water, but it's also not waterproof... there are plenty of holes, and a lot of that comes from the fact that Dream doesn't stream. We're left in the dark when deciphering his character, and what might appear to be the key, could just as easily be revealed as a red herring, or even nothing at all.

Regardless of the validity of the Dreamon theory, I think that DreamXD is one of the most interesting developments we've had on the SMP in a long time, if simply because his arrival coincides with fucking George Lore Real. God. I still don't know how to deal with that.

I always appreciate people adding to the discussion by the way! Feel free to reblog with additions if you like or leave them in the replies.

And if a single one of you comes to my blog on THIS. THE DAY OF MY DAUGHTER'S WEDDING. And calls ME a c!Dream Apologist to MY FACE..... I will be v sad.

[palimpsessed]

The Welsh Red Dragon, Kurt Vonnegut, and Social Activism

The inspiration behind Shepard’s pins

(original post with full artwork here.)

So, I spent A LOT of time thinking about the kind of pins our good friend Shepard (from Omaha, NE) would have on his denim jacket. Like a lot. Like an obsessive amount of time. I made a list, which seemed appropriate for this fandom. And because I’m a nerd and this sort of thing really interests me, and I’m proud of what I came up with, and because I think some of these items open up the possibility for some good, good literary analysis, I decided to make a whole post dedicated to Shepard’s pins. You’re welcome.

First, a little bit about my thought process. How did I decide what kind of pins to give Shepard? Well, he’s a guy full of stories. Stories that he can’t wait to tell anyone and everyone. And stories that others (mostly Maybes) have told him, once he’s earned their confidence. So, I wanted his pins to tell a story, his story in particular. What is the story that Shepard wants to tell about himself? More precisely, what is the story he wants to tell his new magickal friends on a disastrous summer holiday? The story is that of his own magickal credibility. His journey to magic (his come to Crowley moment, perhaps?) (I’d apologize, but I’m not sorry…) and his trustworthiness as evidenced by all of the Maybes he’s met along the way. He’s gotten drunk off dandelion wine with a creek dryad, given a toothbrush to a Sasquatch. spilled the tea with a jackalope, midwifed a centaur foal. Shep’s journey is just as impressive as Simon’s, and while Simon has been collecting notches on his dead dark creature bedpost (that’s a weird fucking metaphor…) (and now I’m thinking about dark creatures and Simon’s bedposts…so, you’re welcome, Basilton), Shep’s been collecting notches of the friendly variety. (Shoutout to @adamarks who did some super lovely analysis on Simon and Shep as mirrors here: https://adamarks.tumblr.com/post/188046272067/ok-so-when-shepard-said-he-was-cursed-the-first). So, I decided that I wanted to use Shep’s pins as a way to show the notches on his bedpost, so to speak. (Okay, I’m really losing this metaphor, but I think you’re still with me.)

Let’s dive in!

(I’m working my way down one side of his jacket at a time, for those following along at home.)

RIGHT SIDE

Welsh Dragon: I made this one very large, and easy to spot on his right shoulder. Of all of his accoutrements, this one felt like the most important. Mainly, because of Simon. Simon is, after all, half-Welsh. (The Mage, may he rest in pain, came to Watford from Wales.) And, of course, Simon, just like the Welsh Dragon, is a red dragon. (Or in the process of becoming one? Or a half-dragon? Or a dragon kitten?…) And the dragon that Simon and Baz fought on the Watford lawn, when they first worked together, and first shared magic, was a red dragon. Of course, the actual dragon in question here is Margaret. Shepard would absolutely have a pin to commemorate his friendship with her. And since I was going to give him a pin with a dragon, I knew I was going to have to use the Welsh Dragon because it would perfectly capture his burgeoning friendship with Simon, as well. Now, I want to go on a slight detour here (this blog post will be its own Odyssey) and talk more about the Welsh Red Dragon. I took the design for the pin from the Welsh flag, which is the thing that first made me think more about Simon’s Welsh connection. I’m not really making a point here, I just think it’s fascinating! There’s a lot of Welsh lore about the Red Dragon (and Margaret herself calls Simon “Great Red” - that ‘R’ is capitalized, by the way, so this seems to be a proper name for the kind of dragon that she thinks Simon is). Full disclosure, I am not Welsh and I am not a scholar on any of this by any means. That being said, a cursory, and super academic, perusal of the Wikipedia article on the Welsh Dragon led me to a few different history websites that linked the symbol of the red dragon with Merlin and King Arthur (son of Uther Pendragon, literally dragon head). Merlin, one of the most well-known magical figures and Arthur, one of the most well-known Chosen One figures in literary tradition. I know very little about Arthurian legend, and Welsh history, and dragon lore, though, so I’m going to just say, do a little research on your own when you’re bored and feeling nerdy!

Resist!: Shep is a young black man (and reasonable human being) living in the U.S. during the [redacted] Administration. I should hope this one is self-explanatory.

Hoover Dam: At some point in his visits to see Blue, I’m sure Shepard stopped off at the gift shop and bought himself a souvenir pin to mark the incredible experience he had making friends with an actual river. (This pin design is based on an actual souvenir pin of the Hoover Dam I found on Google Images—along with most of the other pin designs. I think it’s vintage, which just felt even more like Shepard to me, because he’s the kind of guy who would appreciate stuff that’s got a past.)

Deathly Hallows: I mean, IF the Harry Potter books/movies exist in the Simon Snow universe (which hasn’t been confirmed, as far as I know, by our Queen) I’m sure Shepard would have been totally into it as a kid, and probably would have found greater significance in its magical lore once he discovered that ACTUAL MAGIC EXISTS! So, he would have a pin to show his belief in the magickal world, and maybe also as a nostalgic reminder of when magic was still just something fictional he could turn to for escapism (and not something that would result in being cursed by a demon…).

The Truth is Out There: So, I know virtually nothing about The X-Files (my sister was obsessed with it to the point that she wanted to become a FBI agent for a few years, but I never watched it), but I’m sure Shepard is a fan. If nothing else, the sentiment is awfully apropos.

So It Goes: This one is very hard to see. It sort of looks like a black teardrop with a bar on top of it (it’s supposed to look like a bomb). The pin I based this off of reads “So It Goes”, which from my very superficial research, is a line repeated in Vonnegut’s anti-war novel Slaughterhouse-Five every time someone dies. I don’t know anything more about it, other than that it is a Kurt Vonnegut-inspired pin available for purchase on Etsy, and Shep mentions that he wanted to get a Vonnegut quote tattoo, even though “everybody has those.”

Green Alien Head: You will never be able to convince me that Shepard does not 10,000% believe in the existence of aliens. If he were still in the U.S. during the Area 51 Raid, I’m sure he would have stopped by, just, you know, for science…(I’m thinking he was probably still in the UK, but I guess we’ll see in AWTWB.)

Centaur: This one is also hard to see, but I took the design from a pin I found of one of the centaurs (the blue-haired, blue-bodied one, if that rings a bell for you) from Disney’s Fantasia. (Fun fact: I was super into Fantasia as a littlun, and I attribute my lifelong love for classical music in large part to the centaur sequence and my latent lesbianism—I mean, it was ludicrously erotic. Watch it sometime and tell me it would not make an impression on a sapphic three-year-old.) Midwifing a centaur foal was probably a very emotional and formative experience for Shepard. Buying this pin would be his way of remembering that experience, and the excitement and gratitude he likely felt to have been entrusted with that kind of acceptance from the centaur(s).

Jackalope: It doesn’t help that this pin is almost the same color as Shepard’s jacket, but it’s based off a design of a jackalope’s head that, again, I found on Google Image search (honestly, I don’t know how I ever made art without it). We know that Shepard once got some gossip from a jackalope, who vented to him about magicians calling “themselves ‘magicians’”, like “they’re the only ones with magic”. (This is totally irrelevant, but I always think of Americans when I read this. I am an American, by the way. America is a continent, but those of us living in the U.S. calls ourselves Americans, like everyone else living in America doesn’t matter.) Anyway, the jackalope offered Shepard some valuable insight into the political workings of the magickal world, so it gets its own pin.

LEFT SIDE

Pansexual Pride Flag Pin: I mean, technically, canonically, we don’t know what Shepard’s sexuality (or asexuality) is, but I just get some vibes from him. Plus, if we take him as a mirror for Simon (who is somewhere on the bi-plus spectrum), it’s not a far cry to imagine he also identifies somewhere on that spectrum.

Pentagram: This is another symbol that I chose based on my interpretation of Shepard’s character, and not so much on a Maybe or a story that he mentioned. The pentagram, or pentacle, is typically associated with the occult and witchcraft, which is something that could potentially also be said of Shep.

Sasquatch: You don’t go backpacking—or not backpacking—and introduce a Sasquatch to the benefits of dental hygiene without getting yourself a souvenir of the hike.

I [heart] Mystery Spot: The Mystery Spot is a weird sort of phenomenon in California (my home state). It’s a place outside the beach town of Santa Cruz that boasts of a “gravitational anomaly” on its website. I went once, years ago, and while you’re there, it can feel pretty convincing. (Also, I was probably like 10, so…) People outside of California will likely never have heard of this place, but driving around here (at least in the Bay Area, where I am, which isn’t that far from Santa Cruz) you’ll see yellow Mystery Spot bumper stickers on cars everywhere. I’m not really sure what the thing is with the bumper stickers. Like, I’m sure not that many people actually think it’s legit, and maybe it’s like one of those things that Californians just do (like freak out and forget how to drive when we feel water falling from the sky). But yeah, these bumper stickers are everywhere. Anyway, Shepard drives around a lot. He knows about the Vampires of Las Vegas (how is that not an indie rock band?) and the Katherine Hotel, and the Next Blood. So, he’s probably made it past Nevada and into California before. And while he was there, it’s not a great stretch of the imagination that someone who chases after magic wouldn’t wind up at a place called the Mystery Spot and get himself a pin while he was there. (And maybe even a bumper sticker.)

Black Power Fist: Unfortunately, this one is also hard to see, because the fist is black and I didn’t have anything to go over the outlines of the fingers with, which I sort of didn’t think about when I colored it. This one also feels self-explanatory. Shepard is black. Blackness has long been treated in itself as a crime by non-black members of law enforcement, and just the general racist population of the U.S. Young black men are especially vulnerable to racially motivated violence. I’m sure Shep, who drives all over the country by himself and gets into high speed chases at night in the middle of nowhere Nebraska while hunting super shifty rando Maybes has had a run-in or two. Stay safe, Shep!

Every Pronoun Belongs Here [Trans Pride Flag background]: Also, super hard to see because the letters are too small to read. I found this exact pin in a basket by the register at my local bookshop. (Support local bookshops, people!) They were being sold as a fundraiser for a LGBTQ club at one of the high schools, and I loved the idea that I could help them raise money and add this pin to my own growing collection to show off my support for trans rights. (Support trans rights and trans people, people!) I decided to give Shepard this same pin, because I could imagine him having an almost identical book buying experience in a dozen other towns that he’s probably visited. And I love the simplicity of the message, because it’s one of belonging, which EVERYONE is desperately seeking, no matter who they are or how they identify, and Shepard, and every character in this picture, is no exception. (Plus, it seemed like a cool way to connect my pin collection with Shep’s. Maybe I should have mentioned the fact that I’m also a pin person at the beginning? I walk to work and on my lunch breaks, so I carry all of my stuff in a backpack. And I proudly display my random pin collection on my backpack. Including several Simon Snow-related pins.)

Don’t Panic: This was based off a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy pin. I don’t really know anything about the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (including if it’s okay to abbreviate it as HGG? THGTTG? whatever), even though I did watch the movie years back when it was on TV and I still lived with my parents who had a TV. But the sentiment felt appropriate, and Shepard is a sort of magickal hitchhiker. Apart from managing to hold down a job at Dick Blick, he appears to lead a somewhat nomadic lifestyle. He tells Penny, “the road is my teacher”, and if that’s not a hitchhiker slogan, I don’t know what is. (Ass, gas, or grass?)

Black Lives Matter: They do. Just sayin’.

Magic Troll Doll: When I was growing up, the Troll doll was all the (nightmare-inducing) rage. Trolls are one of those magickal creatures that are continually mentioned in the series. Shepard talks about lonely trolls under bridges. Simon talks about killing trolls. Agatha would rather kiss a troll. And Baz was kidnapped by numpties, who are sort of like trolls. I couldn’t not include a troll. And the Troll doll specifically felt perfect, because the full name was Magic Troll Doll. You can bet if Shepard had to pick a troll-related pin, it would be a magic(k)al one.

[Asshole]: This is another Kurt Vonnegut pin. It looks like a messily drawn asterisk (*), but it’s actually meant to be an asshole (taken from the preface of Vonnegut’s novel Breakfast of Champions, and drawn by Vonnegut himself). I just thought, why the fuck not? So, here. Have an asshole pin. (I should have put it on a buttonhole…)

HONOURABLE MENTION

Shepard’s Phone Case: Remember that line I quoted earlier, about Shep wanting to get a Vonnegut quote tattoo? Well, when I was trying to figure out what to put on his phone case, I thought that seemed like a reasonable place to start. So, I googled Vonnegut quotes, to see if I could find one that I thought Shepard would like. Here’s the quote: “a purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.” I just loved that for Shepard.

[juleswolverton-hyde]

The Castle on the Hill Chapter 1: Hyde

Genre: Smut, Romance, Fluff, Thriller, Werewolf AU

Pairing: Werewolf!Bangchan x Reader

Warnings: No warnings apply

Summary: Superstition is as powerful as religion, especially to those living in the countryside. Nevertheless, the sole outsider in town fully joins in the belief of the Last Warden of the North and is insistent on protecting the only girl who accepts him yet refutes the local lore.

However, there is something in the castle on the hill.

And it hungers for something in the village below.

Someone.

You.

Author’s Note: Hello,

Indeed, I am still very much alive but have been extremely busy with university and my job. However, now that the holidays are coming up and I am on my Christmas break, I have a wee bit o’ time to write leisurely again.

I came up with this tale when I was in Cardiff in November, strolling around Bute Park and thinking of ‘Castle on the Hill’ by Ed Sheeran. And, let us be honest, I was thinking of Chan as well (though that should not come as a surprise at this point).

Regardless, hopefully you will enjoy this wee trilogy.

Forever yours,

The Red Raven

Hyde / The Marriage of Man and Beast / Jekyll

Masterlist

Religion is a form of superstition, but just as powerful as the latter for it has ruled mankind in equal amounts, co-existing yet often the cause for war as well. In contemporary times, however, the belief in all folkloric creatures seems to have faded into a case for a good laugh rather than truly believing death will come at hearing the wail of a banshee or swearing the ghost of the black nun continues to haunt the ruins of the friary at which entrance she is buried. Withal, the faith in a particular mythological being has been altered time and again thanks to pop culture but, perhaps fortunately so, the origins of the legend remain remembered vividly by the people who inhabit the area the tale stems from.

The golden sunlight outlines the ruins of the majestic castle that once graced the hill outside the park, mustard and amber leaves littering the pathways frequented by strollers while the weather still permits it. Soon, winter shall conquer autumn and the rains increase in frequency. Henceforth, the days running a small café in the middle of the park is enjoyed the most when all is grand, the world frozen in a perfect seasonal frame.

‘You’re either immensely stupid or incredibly brave to run this establishment, lass.’ A cup of steaming black coffee is served to the wise old man living around the corner of the recreational ground, the white brick worker’s house providing a view on the scenery that everyone seems to fear even in the twenty-first century. Always up for conversation, Paidraigh has helped a novice independent entrepreneur almost flawlessly continue the business formerly run by one of the local women who had to stop due to health issues. He might look like a grumpy soul despising the world, but the stout figure with wise wrinkles and bushy pale beard is actually one of the kindest people residing in the wee village. 

‘How do you mean that, sir?’

‘Have ye nay heard o’ the wolf inhabiting the castle?’

‘I have heard the whispers of strange sounds coming from the ruins at night, aye, but I am sure it’s nothing to worry about.’

‘The word’s it’s a wolf, the spirit of the fierce Last Warden of the North to whom the castle once belonged. It’s said that once he entered the battlefield, all that would be left o’ the enemies were bloody carcasses. As if eaten by, ye guessed it, a wolf.’ Kind stone irises gain a wary glint once they wander to the edge of the sandstone terrace, noticing the heavy boot fall of the town’s most recent inhabitant. ‘Speak of the Devil and he shall appear.’

‘Paddy, don’t be mean. Drink your coffee and leave the lad be, alright?’ A palm amiably pats a broad shoulder before tucking the serving plate under the armpit and heading back to the counter to take a new order.

And likely do more than that, knowing the newcomer.

‘Alright, fine. Just watch yersel’ around him. One wolf is more than enough for this village.’

‘Hiya, how are you?’ Before the habitual order can be placed with as few words as possible, attention is called to the deep scarlet scar running over the bridge of a big nose. ‘What did you do to get that?’

‘Bar fight.’ A soft smile is laboriously carved onto roseate lips, likely albeit clearly suppressing the memory of the scene causing the physical damage. Nevertheless, once gazes lock, the hatred is actively tried to be kept to a bare minimum and show a friendly side the reclusive does not always reveal to anyone. ‘An americano, please.’

Without speaking further, the beverage is prepared. However, as the coffee machine is buzzing while freshly grinding beans to create a perfectly brewed medium roast, the first-aid supplies stored in a cupboard beneath the counter are sought out and taken alongside the drink to the outside of the little booth. Of course, it could have been slid to the customer immediately through the window but it simply happened to unnecessarily be carried as well.

‘Here’s your americano.’ Sitting down on the empty stool across from the silent force looking on in surprise while maintaining a friendly though slightly tired tone, fingers search among the medical care items for the disinfectant and a cotton pad. The frustration wants to be kept to a minimum but it is hard to do so when this very same scene keeps repeating itself and fuels the bad image the villagers have of, in their eyes, a stranger.

Bruises and open wounds thanks to fights that were either started by one’s own volition or after provocation.

Cuts thanks to carving the wooden pillars dotting the grand park, curiously staying close to the little café and helping out at times by remaining on the grand lawn regardless of how many meters need to be bridged to get the new piece of art where it belongs.

‘I’m fine.’ The remark is clearly meant to dismiss the caregiving yet results in all but that since physical damage, no matter of what nature and source, do ignite a genuine worry for the local woodcarver.

Although the habitual resorting to sarcasm protects sincere emotions from showing. Nonetheless, it is helpful in chastising, never failing to eventually get Christopher to look like a guilty puppy while patching him up. ‘And I’m the Queen of Sheba. You strained yer knuckles too much and now they’re bleeding again.’

‘It’s but a scratch.’

‘Is what the Black Knight said before he got annihilated by King Arthur. Give me your hand, you eejit.’

‘Y/N, it’s fine.’

‘No, it’s fecking not.’ A deep sigh lowers tense shoulders admitting that stubbornness will lead nowhere and thus take a soft-spoken yet still genuine approach. ‘I just want to help. Please, give me your hand.’

Howbeit reluctant, the damaged calloused palm nevertheless reaches out and comes to rest in a concerned lap as small digits wrap lightly around the wrist to keep it in place. ‘Thank you.’

The bystanders are ignored as the fresh ugly patches of broken skin are taken care of, taking great care to clean the wounds properly before bandaging them up. Withal, what cannot be ignored is the low threatening growl rolling from plush lips with every touch of disinfecting cotton. ‘Excuse me?’

‘Sorry. It’s just that, grm, it really fucking hurts.’ Teeth grit, snarls and hisses alternating with the light dabs as irises shoot invisible daggers. The free hand which has yet to be treated moulds into a trembling fist trying to remain static despite the agony.

‘Then maybe you shouldn’t get into fights in the first place. What even was it about?’ The damage has been cleaned enough to apply an ointment and bandage the harmed knuckles, gaining the same feral reaction as before.

Notwithstanding, the silence is filled by wordlessness and primal noises, igniting an irritation at the deduction the chastisement is ignored in stubbornness. However, the assumption is counteracted when a whisper provides a muttered surprising answer that fuels a novel sort of annoyance in the mocha locks sitting on the stool. ‘Someone insulted you.’

No, it is not irritation.

Rage.

Pure fury, barely contained.

‘Me? Why?’ Puzzled by the confusing display of hatred against an absent party, locks tilt in patient curiosity waiting for the story.

‘It wasn’t really an insult. Just men drunkenly talking about how they’d show up here to surprise you and you’d be the girlfriend of one of theirs and how lucky you’d be with one of them.’ The split bottom lip is caught between pearly teeth, nibbling while trying to regain a calmer composure even though it is hard when the second set of broken skin is about to be treated. ‘I couldn’t- couldn’t, fuck, that stings! I couldn’t stand the arrogant, hrm, tone and nonsense so I... I just lost it. Snapped.’

‘Christopher-’ The imminent correcting in spite of secretly being flattered by the reason that likely holds no meaning whatsoever since there is more of a patient-nurse relationship is cut short by a low snigger. ‘Hey, why are you smiling like that?’

‘I just like the way you say my name.’ Bright earthly irises set above a big nose marred by a scar likely inflicted by a knife blade are humoured, the sentiment filtering through in the gentle curve of plush lips. The playful aura makes the woodcarver appear quite boyish, a stark contrast with the pub brawler the village has cast out from the beginning.

‘Well, it’s yours, aye?’ Heated cheeks faking casualness return to the task of taking care of the other damaged hand, trying badly to ignore the sweet smile now vividly engraved into memory.

Keep it together. It means nothing. You’re more his nurse than anything else. You’re just friends, if there is any friendship at all. He simply trusts you.

‘Yeah, but-’

‘And I’m sure I don’t say it any differently than any other person.’

‘Still, I like- fuck!’ A giggle flows over into a curse when the bandage is tugged perhaps a bit too tightly to nevertheless teach the lesson of not getting into fights as often as one does. A pleased little grin cannot be suppressed, hiding the delight at the hopefully effective teaching method that will lessen the scene which is exhaustingly re-enacted over and over.

‘If you didn’t get into fights, I wouldn’t have to keep patching you up and you wouldn’t have to deal with the pain.’ A new cotton pad is soaked in disinfectant while throwing a cautious glance in Paddy’s direction, the old man’s lips tightly sealed as grey whiskers move ever so slightly in discomfort.

‘He doesn’t like me.’ A sombre self-aware tone sneaks into lowered defeated shoulders turned towards the old cod, gaze softening in powerlessness.

‘That’s not true.’ The seemingly misplaced remark pulls the young man’s attention, head slightly tilting to the side while irises remain strangely heart-wrenchingly grave.

If only they could know you the way I do.

‘Y/N,’ the powerful mere word is spoken as if surrender is not an option, that the truth of being disliked has to be admitted even though it does not want to be, ‘It’s obvious. Everyone’s afraid of me.’

‘The only thing they’re really scared of is the wolf up in the castle.’ Mocking local superstition, a sigh rolls from the lips setting to work on the carmine single cut running over the nose. There is no resistance this time, Christopher moving, in fact, to the edge of the stool for better access and to make cleaning the scar easier. ‘Guess I’ll hear the same uselessly worried whispers again from the customers tomorrow.’

A hand rests leisurely on the thigh for support, but is taken to come to rest on the brawler’s cheek and kept there, a content hum filling the air scented by coffee and cologne. Lashes flutter shut as mocha locks lean into the touch, almost as if falling asleep right here and now. It would be a lie to say the display does not spread an odd fuzzy warmth throughout, especially when memories of healing up close, observing wood being carved from a distance or problems with difficult people were solved in the same proximity as now resurface. 

Unfortunately, the delightful image is disrupted a second later for the jaw clenches as a low beastly rumble rises from a broad chest trying hard to remain casual as the disinfectant once again stings in the stupidly acquired cut. Irises light up in an amber flash, bearing a terrifying violent hatred that calms down immediately upon establishing a bit of distance that nullifies the intimacy. A confused heart does not know what to make of it, only that the rage that surfaced as rapidly as it disappeared never wants to be directed towards oneself. 

Still, a normal question is raised in an odd undefinable manner that rises from the fearsome wolfish attitude, voice sounding apologetical and clearly wanting to move past something as digits vaguely reach out but drop restlessly in ignorance of what to do. ‘Are you staying open much longer?’

The throat is cleared to regain composure, hardy succeeding yet enough to answer as if nothing happened. ‘Till six, as usual.’ The resumed dabbing briefly stops at the notice of an uneasy shift in weight, a panic without direct cause causing the action. ‘Why do you ask?’

Bandaged hands awkwardly occupy one another in futile twirling of cared-for fingers as the tongue staring at the sandstone is hesitant to voice what suddenly has become urgent. ‘Can you close earlier?’

‘I could but why would I?’ Feigning not having taken notice in the change of demeanour, the last straws are laid in nursing the bloody scar. The palm leaning on the knee of mocha locks, put there in an unconscious move after pulling up the unresisting chin for better access, does seem to calm the nerves somewhat as the regulation of breathing suggests.

When applying the ointment, it is entirely regular and a sigh is relieved with the company.

Only to speed up again when worriedly mentioning the legend that has the entire village spooked even in the twenty-first century. ‘The wolf.’

‘Christopher, don’t you get started as well. There’s no wolf in the castle, no spirit of the Last Warden of the North.’ Shuffling to the edge of the stool, something is attempted to be done about the split lip which has started bleeding again. ‘Your lip is bleeding. Sit still for a wee bit, will ye?’

Calloused fingers wrap firmly around the wrist reaching out after soaking a new dot of cotton in disinfectant, earthly irises ablaze with superstitious concern flowing over in pleading speech. ‘Please close the café before it gets dark.’

‘Look, it’s my business so I decide the opening hours.’ Budging results in nothing but a firmer, even painful grip. Withal, knowing the novel local woodcarver, panic does not set in as it would have had it been anyone else. Still, a meaningless glance sideways is picked up by Paddy as something which does hold significance, the stout old man already rising from his seat when a quick denying nod assures all is well. The command is tranquil yet effectively fierce. ‘Chris, let me go. You’re hurting me.’

As swift as lightning, digits unravel upon hearing the response and move away to create a distance filled by curious emotions that would hint at an intimacy going beyond what is truly present. ‘I’m sorry, he- we didn’t mean to... I- I mean, I didn’t mean to… to...’ A shivering sigh precedes a steadier repeated request, trying to move past the incident while remaining clearly doubtfully calculating of words and actions. ‘Y/N, please. Please close before it gets dark. We don’t- I want you to be safe.’

We? He? Why are you talking like this?

‘I’ll be regardless because there’s no ghost or monster that will slink down the hill to devour me.’ The remark tries to be amusingly sarcastic but it has no effect on the outcast whose grave expression does not change, continuing to stare remorsefully at the red band around the wrists.

The shaking fingers holding soft cotton meant for healing.

Yet ends up hurting.

‘Even if you don’t believe my reason nor the villagers’, close early.’ Lashes are brave enough to look up, keep up the pleading despite being refused over and over.

Maybe I should... no, what am I getting at. It’s just a story, a myth.

‘Can we stop talking about this?’ A palm finds the courage to rise and endeavour to nurse the split lip anew. ‘Sit still and let me help you.’

But soon retracts in heart-pounding concern when unspoken consent flinches as bodies come a wee bit closer to make it easier. ‘Are you alright?’

‘Yeah. Yeah, I am. Ehm,’ mocha locks confusedly and haphazardly glance around the terrace, questioning eyes flitting over the customers as a quite adorable big nose sniffs the air before leaning in to take a whiff, ‘Are you wearing perfume?’

‘No, why?’ The head buzzes with what to think of the weird gesture and unanswered inquiries about how the sudden change of topic has come about alongside the earlier talk in the third person. Brows furrow in wonder of the easiest topic for contemplation since perfume is fairly ineffective if unnecessary for the scent of coffee replaces the function on a daily basis.

‘Oh. Well- You- Never mind.’ A shadow movement forward remains just that, a hallucination without certainty. What is real, however, is the rapidity to get up and turn halfway away yet having the politeness to end the conversation by an unsettling awkward look over the shoulder. ‘I should go finish that pillar.’

‘But... your coffee?’ Christoper is already gone before the sentence can be finished, a gobsmacked offended finger pointing to the cooled cup on the counter containing liquid cold. In an instant, likely due to the great offence taken at letting such a precious gift to mankind waste away, the confusion of the chaotic farewell turns into a barista’s rage directed towards the woodcarver who has fled the scene. ‘The bastard just left the coffee to cool? That barbarian!’

The key turns in the lock, definitely closing business for the day. The moonlight falls in through the autumn leaves, casting moving shadows enhancing the dark of the dusk which has overtaken the quiet town. In the slightly clouded sky, the moon shines bright and illuminates the ruined haunted castle on the hill.

Y/N, please. Please close before it gets dark. We don’t- I want you to be safe.

‘I am completely fine. There’s nothing out here to get me. Also, who is ‘’we’’?’ Jeering strands shake in partial self-mockery at the brief spark of fear quickly running through veins at the recollection of the wish spoken in an oddly worried tone, foolishly spooked by mere folklore. ‘And here I thought you and I were the only sane people around, Chris. Guess it’s just me.’

After a final tug on the doorknob to ensure the place is neatly closed off until the dawn, sneakers start their wading path among the fallen mustard and ruby leaves that have been shaded a hue of onyx, tiger’s eye or plum in the twilight. The wind has calmed from its fierce mannerisms, now only softly blowing among the trees densely planted in the great park.

Carrying the sound of a low rumble as it smoothes over branches.

A snarl.

In the twilight silence another disconcerting noise resonates between carved pillars and trunks.

Padding.

A faint tinkling.

Of iron.

Shackles.

No, I must be hearing things. His and Paddy’s words are just getting to my head. There’s nothing. Nothing.

Withal, the bright amber lights are no will-o’-the-wisps and the appearing fur does not appear in the adorable shape of a squirrel. There is not the faintest trace of innocence to be found in the extraordinary meeting between a gigantic wolf cuffed by a firm iron collar around its neck, the broken chain clinking loudly as it drags over the ground and creates a hideous symphony in combination with the violent low growls of the beast.

‘That’s not possible. There’s no Warden, no wolf. This isn’t real.’ Even as the words are spoken in the futile hope of regaining a sense of logic, the conviction is hardly there. In fact, it is entirely absent. ‘This isn’t happening.’

Nevertheless, the snarled warning tone is too near, the impact too tangible in nerves standing on edge in alarm to dismiss the current situation as mental trickery. Especially because the silver light reflecting off of dagger-sharp canines comes too close for comfort, sending raggedly breathing feet fleeing to the wee café a few meters away while silently praying to reach it alive.

However, every rush forwards paradoxically yields nothing to a panicked mind who can feel warm predatory breath heat the back of the brown leather jacket and slowly rise to the back of the neck. Mortified tears start to brim in the corners of the eyes, damnably obscuring vision at a time when errors cannot be made for one, be it stumbling over a fallen branch or temporarily slowing down, will mean the end.

Christopher, Paddy, I’m sorry I didn’t listen. Youse were right and I’m a feckin eejit. I’m sorry. Chris, I’m sorry.

Growling grows ever closer, whispering of there being no escape because paws shall at one point do more than brush against ankles.

Rampant fingers search the pockets of jeans, cursing while feeling around the fabric for the damned key to open the lock to the safe haven.

Sneakers halt in front of the inaccessible door, still searching.

The wolf has slowed down, no longer running yet not giving up the chase now that the helpless prey has been forced into a corner. Big paws as black as a starless sky in winter pad languidly, bright eyes the colour of the pumpkin spice latte that forms the seasonal special obviously finding joy in the hunting game.

In toying with a hopeless target.

One step forwards.

One step back.

To and fro.

I can’t turn my back on it. Still, I have to if I want to get into the damned café. What do I do? What the fuck do I do?

The shivering spine is frozen in place thanks to paralysis due to pure horror, though digits carefully and hopefully unnoticeable continue rummaging through pockets as they keep a close watch on the impending beastly enemy.

Where the fu- By Jaysus, there it is!

Tense shoulders lower slightly in relief when the key is found on the bottom of the right pocket, the brief second of peace of mind carrying over in an unconscious sweetly delighted sigh.

Which evidently triggers the haste to attack because the sadistic game of threats is cut short as the wolf lunges forwards at the speed of lightning.

Fortunately, sharp-fanged jaws are evaded just in time when the key is rammed into the lock, opening the blasted barrier before slamming the door shut and sealing it off once again. All the while cursing Heaven and Hell together.

Hastily, steps lead around the tiny kitchen in search of anything to barricade the door with. An effort which proves fairly futile as basically all equipment is installed in such a manner it cannot be moved and all tables and chairs are kept outside since thieves do not tend to take furniture when on a heist around here.

Or such is the sentiment with which they are stored outside.

Why, of all the times, did I store them outside? Why couldn’t I at least put one table and chair inside? There has to be something around here, there’s got to be.

The fierce longing finds a wonderful answer in the old yet glistening iron chain lock that the former owner of the establishment used before getting proper locks installed and which has been stored away in the back of one of the counters. Sneaking glances to the amber-eyed predatory shadow roaming the terrace through the window of the main counter, horrified palms reach for the sole barrier between life and death.

Flinching back while hardly suppressing mortified screaming, allowing a meek gasp to escape, when the door leading to the hunting dark rattles as if a great weight has been thrown against it in an attempt to force it open. Blood rushing in the ears of accelerated breathing on the edge of breaking down backs away from the tightly sealed entrance, putting the key that was kept inside the lock into the pocket, shivering thanks to the ice veins have turned into.

Finding safety in the corner of the kitchen, wrapping arms around the knees that have fallen to the ground without muscles and pressing tears knowing this is the end of the line into stony grey denim.

Paddy... Christopher... Chris, I’m so sorry. I wish you were here. Fuck, I should’ve listened to ye instead of being such a gobshite.

The memorized phantom of lush lips take a shivering figure soon to meet death into sturdy woodcarving arms dusted over with soft thin black hair, head resting against the secure chest that has been healed from sickly bruises, bleeding bullet wounds, fresh deep dagger scars or a combination of all. Because, despite the chastisements each time the curious artists shows up at the café in a worsened condition, there remains the recalled moments of mocha locks helping in dealing with difficult customers and men trying their futile luck by going too far. Christopher had been there at an oddly fascinated barista’s side, leaving as little distance between bodies as possible while snarling in warning of touching the boundaries of patience so desperate men would see their chances ruined and people complaining about the pettiest things would know the customer is not always king.

Day in, day out. From the moment the café opens until it closes, staying close by while creating the gorgeously engraved pillars dotting the landscape.

Sometimes even walking homewards together, wordlessly refusing to part ways before having made sure the sole girl in town not distrustful towards an “outsider” has arrived safely and only then cracking on to the personal roof. When not doing so, it is towards working places set in nature, enjoying the hush of the morning as the sun rises in the golden sky.

Hands used to meaninglessly brush against each other.

At some point, it has become a habit to hold his pinky from the moment of being picked up without an explicit arrangement until the destination is reached.

In blissful small talk or a comfortable silence.

I wish you were here. See you one last time.

But death is lonesome in the growling silence of the lush park.

[thesevenseraphs]

Bungie Weekly Update - 2/27/20

This week at Bungie, Trials is back on the menu. It’s been an exciting week. You all came together and donated your stockpiles of Fractaline to the ongoing effort to build the new Lighthouse and usher in the return of Trials of Osiris next Season. As soon as the final stage was complete, you were invited to survey the completion of the project and light the beacon. We saw your signal as our cue to release this developer insight video confirming what many have been speculating for a while now.

To follow the video, Luke Smith wrote another Director’s Cut that covered a few topics, including our philosophy on Seasons and some challenges in sustaining a game with weapons that last forever. Similar to the three-part epic he put out last year, it contains a lot of important info you won’t want to miss.

SUBCLASS CHANGES

With the return of Trials and a new Season on the way, we’re planning to shake things up with some changes to your Guardian abilities. The Dev team has the details, so I’ll let them do the talking.

Dev Team: Hey, Guardians. Trials is coming back, and the Combat Systems team has been hard at work preparing Destiny 2 for its arrival. We’ve made a number of big changes to the abilities sandbox, and instead of simply dropping them all in the patch notes, we wanted to take this opportunity to offer some transparency for our decision-making process.

Before we begin, we want to give a big shout out to the data scientists here at Bungie. They provide us with mountains of valuable data to sift through—from the win rates of each subclass in each Crucible game mode to the kills-per-minute of each weapon on each platform in each PvE activity. This data allows us to make sure we’re making informed decisions when balancing the game. It allows us to separate the perceived power of abilities, weapons, and armor, from their true, objective power. But The data doesn’t always tell the whole story, and we believe strongly that perceived power and community sentiment are just as important as cold, hard data. Even as Trials returns, we’re committed to maintaining a fun and fair sandbox for both PvP and PvE, and we considered data for all game modes when making adjustments. 

WARLOCK MELEE

Warlocks have long been at a disadvantage in melee fights because it takes them slightly longer than Titans and Hunters to recover from making a melee attack. So, next Season, we’re extending the Warlock’s basic melee range by one meter to a total of 5.5 meters. Warlocks will still melee slightly slower than the other classes, but they’ll now have a one-meter advantage. If you can use this window to land the first melee attack in a slap fight, you’ll likely emerge victorious. We feel this is a more interesting solution to melee disparity than homogenizing all of the melee attacks, and we’ll be studying the data as it rolls in to make sure it’s balanced.

TITAN BARRICADES

A Titan’s barricade is incredibly powerful in Trials because you can use it to safely resurrect your fallen teammates. Next Season, we’re creating counters to the barricade while also raising its health from 500hp to 600hp. Barricades will now take extra damage from Special-ammo weapons, anti-barrier weapons, and certain Heavy weapons. This change makes barricades sturdier while giving opposing players the option to use their Special ammo to bring down the barricade more quickly.

The following weapons now do 30% extra damage to Barricades:

Sniper Rifles

Grenade Launchers

Linear Fusion Rifles

Machine Guns

Trace Rifles

Anti-Barrier Weapons

The following weapons now do 60% extra damage to Barricades:

Shotguns

Fusion Rifles

You’ll see yellow damage numbers when hitting a barricade with a counter weapon, which always feels good.

ONE-SHOT ABILITIES

With the introduction of the Hunter’s Weighted Knife in Season of Dawn, each class now has a neutral-game ability that can kill PvP opponents in one hit. We’ve taken a pass at all of the one-shot abilities to tune their risk/reward factor. We’ll warn you that some these changes look extreme on paper, but we made a point to make sure these abilities retained their overall feel. 

For the Titan’s three Shoulder Charge abilities, we reduced the auto-targeting angle by 50%. That might sound like a lot, but acrobatic Titans could previously auto-target to make an instant 90-degree turn. We also adjusted the lunge distance to 5.5m for both targeted and untargeted lunges. Targeted lunges were previously 6m, while untargeted lunges were previously 4.5m. These changes make for a more consistent experience while lunging.

For the Hunter’s Weighted Knife, we’ve reduced its tracking significantly and created new tracking tech that will make the knife more faithful to its initial throw trajectory.

As for the Warlock’s Handheld Supernova, we’ve made a number of changes to bring this ability in line with the other one-shot abilities. While part of HHSN’s strength lies in its pairing with the Contraverse Hold Exotic gauntlets (which are also being tuned this Season), our data indicated that even without Contraverse Hold, Handheld Supernova needed to be adjusted. Here are the changes:

Increased activation time by 0.6 seconds

Reduced hold time from 3.5 seconds to 2.5 seconds

Reduced range by 20%

Tightened horizontal spread of bolts by 25%

Bolt explosion now does self-damage

Reduced bolt explosion radius from 3m to 2.5m

In our playtesting, we’ve found that the product of these changes is an ability that is still incredibly strong but now has a risk/reward ratio commensurate with its power. (After all, this thing can vaporize multiple PvP opponents instantly.) There’s even a bit of silver lining here —the tightening of the bolts leads to more concentrated damage at range, improving its viability against Supers. To compensate for this change, other elements of the middle Voidwalker path are being buffed, including the Nova Warp Super, which now has increased damage resistance, a longer duration, and a reduced blink cost.

GENERAL SUBCLASS TUNING

We’ve made changes to a number of subclass paths in an effort to tighten the gameplay balance. For example, Stormcaller top, Striker bottom, and Arcstrider bottom have remained dominant in PvP for multiple Seasons now, consistently beating out all other paths in both win-rate and average efficiency. These paths have also ranked among the top PvE paths in terms of kills-per-minute. We’ve adjusted these paths (and others) to bring them closer to the middle of the pack. On the other end of the spectrum, paths such as Voidwalker bottom, Nightstalker bottom, and Striker middle needed some love, so we’ve taken steps to lift them up.

In the spirit of transparency, we take no joy in nerfing the abilities, weapons, and armor that we all love to use. We wish the answer to keeping the game balanced and fresh was always to buff the underperforming elements. But such an approach leads to power creep—the slow and steady increase of the average power of everything in the game—which trivializes the incredible game modes and encounters that the other teams at Bungie work hard to create. After all, as Destiny players ourselves, we go home and play the game too, and we want the game to be as fun and as healthy as possible.

That’s it from us today. You’ll find more details about these changes and more when the patch notes drop in early March. 

Oh yeah . . . and Hunter Tripmines are sticky again. Stay sharp, Guardians.

As promised, in addition to these explanations, there will be patch notes when the new Season begins. Those should give you the full illustration of how the game is changing. Until they arrive, we hope you enjoyed this preview.

As promised, in addition to these explanations, there will be patch notes when the new Season begins. Those should give you the full illustration of how the game is changing. Until they arrive, we hope you enjoyed this preview.

TWITCH PRIME REWARDS

More Twitch Prime Rewards go live this week. If you’ve already signed up, Amanda Holliday has your new items waiting. Everyone else can sign up now by  linking your Bungie.net account. Here’s a look at what rewards Amanda will have for you this month:

Poultry Petting – Exotic Emote

Praxic Finery - Exotic Sparrow

Age of Tomorrow Shell - Legendary Ghost

Sails of Osiris - Exotic Ship

Pick up a hot ride or the ability to pet a fine feathered friend. Don’t forget, there will be a new set of Twitch Prime Rewards coming up next month too!

END OF THE SEASON

With the Empyrean Foundation restored, the last Triumph to acquire the Savior Seal has been unlocked. Players completing this Seal should claim and equip it to ensure it isn’t removed when Season of Dawn ends on March 10.

Additionally, players have until 9:59 AM PST on March 13 to claim their Season of Dawn rewards on their Bungie Rewards page, with a deadline to purchase being 11:59 PM PST on March 31.

Finally, the Player Support team is working on an End of Season article highlighting quests, items, and Triumphs leaving with the transition to Season of the Worthy.

STONK MARKET CLOSING SOON

The community has been questioning if they can continue donating to the Empyrean Foundation. Players will be able to donate their Polarized Fractaline until the Season ends on March 10.

UPCOMING RESOLVED ISSUES

Below is a list of issues that will be resolved when Season of the Worthy and Update 2.8.0 becomes available on March 10:

Tower travel loading times will be returned to normal.

The Prime Attunement buff will once again show up on new characters after previous character deletion.

The Pigeon and the Phoenix lore will become available again to those who earned the lore. Players who acquire Bastion in later Seasons will be granted all Pigeon and Pheonix lore.

The empty Solstice of Heroes gift message from Tess will no longer show up.

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.

[afierosii]

@cybled ; another meta question: what’s shin’s cloak like? did he make it himself? does he have a story behind it? how about the rest of his armor?

          i use the gunslinger lore page art as my design for shin’s armour and cloak!

          SO. his cloak is made from an old flag that used to be hung outside of his town palamon - one that was made of scraps that the inhabitants had found while on their travels. there’s material from fallen banners and even materials from before the collapse. anything that would still hold up to the wear of being used as a cloak. there’s more than one story surrounding the materials used, though the main one being the flag. the fact that he took it from the ashes of his home and turned it into something to shield him from the cold. something that he could carry with him and eventually something that would strike fear into the hearts of anyone who dare cross him. who dare follow too close to dredgen yor. shin made it himself, modelled it after jaren’s own with the detailing at the bottom and the way it crosses over the front of his shoulders and fits in two layers, a part that is attached to the high collar and covers his shoulders, this part also hangs lopsided above the main part that makes up the hood and back of the cloak. (there’s a point i could make here about the renegade vs shin and the struggle between these two identities considering how the back material of the cloak splits in two about half of the way down but i won’t get That Far into it i swear) really the main story about it is the fact that he carries jaren with him still in more ways than just the gun, that he carries his town and his parents with him in the materials he used and the colour of the cloak. the shape that it makes at a glance is the only real Threat display behind it, it’s more of a sentimental item than anything he intended to use as a defence. 

          the rest of his armour is more just things shin picked up along the way. ‘armour’ is really the wrong word for it. he prioritises being able to more fast and easily so there’s very little actual protection to be offered from what he wears. the only real padding he has is the kneepads he picked up shortly after jaren died, things that he picked up off of their travelling band as they slowly fell behind or died on the travel. he doesn’t much care for the fact that most of it isn’t actually his. shin just sees it as a means to an end. because he does plan on ending the dredgens. he plans on eventually being able to put this armour down and lay his friends, his father and his home to rest. but he doesn’t know when. so he carries them with him like a shield from the world around him. 

[aigoootome]

7′scarlet - otome

The main screen changes as you unlock more routes. The main screen is very fitting in many ways as well, very very good..  This is a really lovely otome, with a lovely overall feel/meaning. It combines bitter and sweet really well.   Sweet childhood friends are the protagonists of this clsassicotome game.   I missed those kinds of moods in otome. It is a carefully crafted story with a good and discernible and most of all engaging premise. However, it does feel a little underdeveloped at times. But the writing and translation are delightful - I really miss such good translations. 

Story: A girl comes to a small,  seemingly inconspicuous town in search of her brother...but discovers more than she bargained for and meets a cast of characters. Strange things keep happening. The overall mood is that of a supernatural/urban legend kinda thing with moments of fairy tale beauty. 

some lovely locations: 

MC

MC as a child. She’s cute. 

I really like the MC. She's a girl thrust into unusual situations and on some routes, like Isora, she makes thoughtful decisions. Happy ends require trust and MC, say with Isora, considers the potential risk as Isora is a little suspicious but still decides to trust him. I liked that. She has integrity and is far from stupid.  It is explained what makes her so special. 

GAME structure There is a purposeful structure to the story and playing the routes, the story is unravelled piece by piece, each route adds something new, explains and also explains the links between characters, opens a new memory box.  

Route order: Hino > isora > Toa >sosuke > Yuzuki > true route (start a new game after completing others, true route will open next to character ending > secret character (start new game after completing true end)

Hino  childhood friend who is always there for  MC. Item of note: gun. He really wants to be MC’s knight in shining armour. He does his best but he’s got a long way to go. 

Isora   chef at the hotel. Item of note: strawberry cake. There was something really interesting about this character. Isora is sweet but can be a little intense, and the masked man really is right when he says that it makes Isora the perfect suspect - I do like that aspect of this character - I  had suspected him to be the culprit but then it was just appearances. It made MC's decisions all the more important: to trust despite appearances or not?   

Toa  A bit of a surprise character

Sousuke  the reliable, logical student of medicine who does his own investigating on the side. 

Yuzuki  the lonely heir  / owner of the hotel who has a different vision for things than his father. Had a tough cal to make once. 

The route order is how you play it and routes unlock after some others are played first. You start with Hino and Isora and the rest become gradually available as you complete more routes. 

It makes a lot of sense in the context of the whole story and needs to be done this way as each route reveals pieces of the mystery and explains the connection between characters, one route kinda ties to another in a certain logical chain.  Hino must be played first because he introduces the whole thing and then each subsequent routes not only logically fill certain gaps in the story (so: hino intro then we see isora perspective then  we see what happens with toa's concert then we fill the parts with sosuke going up the moutain...and then what happens to karasuma..Yuzuki route also explains the opening prologue and why mc is targeted..and then there's the rest of the unlockables that really complete the big picture. Each route is like a memory box that we help the protagonist to unlock. 

THEMES The overarching story is a little bittersweet but I just love how some things said on the routes that are purely happy complement the secret and true character routes. in fact...once the secret character ends, I got a strong feeling that yes...now the other routes can happen as we want, we can really choose which ending we want because the routes perfectly fit into the gaps created by every another. 

Yuzuki might be the best for me after the  secret character  Our hearts can be full of holes...but if we are lucky we will find someone to fill those holes for us, this is a really well put sentiment and to me, expresses the mood and point of the entire game perfectly.  

I really loved the secret character route.  The secret route is the definite end, a special story but it never invalidates the other routes. It is brief for a very good reason and it highlights the theme of memories prevalent through the game. And also it really fantastically writes itself into the other routes...the writer did put effort and thought into it to tell a lovely story and I for one really appreciate it.

Other than that, I really like all characters, Yuzuki and Sosuke taking the lead. But I believe all characters have a good reason to "fawn" over, love the Mc as their destinies were long intertwined and she is precious to them ....it's a really charmingly played out red string of fate kinda thing.  Side characters were likeable and all well-used, important in one way or another. 

OTHER

another plus;  bad ends and normal ends are actually bad and normal, not pretend to be bad. I like that, a lot of otomes forget about it. The result is bittersweet but thanks to that I treasure the happy ends and the meaning for them.

Each end has a distinct ending theme. The character artwork is absolutely lovely and one of my favourite styles. Voices are as always pretty much perfect fits. I also really like the overall app design and UI - the routes played are organised neatly and when you begin the new game you can pick a part to start playing from. There is also a gallery of cgs. The opening and ending themes are lovely. 

CONS

I do wish there were more details, sometimes things felt like the stories could be a little more descriptive with slightly more developments because some actually felt a little too flat and the mood/atmosphere, as well as the lore behind the story, could have been better elaborated as the story, while good, did not always resonate strongly enough and some developments felt abrupt. But that's my only complaint. 

OVERALL

I find it a very charming otome game, it has the sort of charming / nostalgic feel I definitely find missing from modern otomes. What an absolutely lovely find.

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Oh, interesting take. It is like the original right are like the founding figures of Dream SMP and they all broke off in their own different ways. For me Sapnap brings not only death to pets but also bloodshed and fire. Like Ares, I guess. May I have more of your Dream analysis? Cause that performance was fantastic and we finally got some Dream lore. Thank you.

Yeah, that’s how I see it! It’s interesting to see that George and Sapnap are streaming more often nowadays, but with most of the original eight, they’re kinda more neutral parties? Sapnap as we all know just goes with whoever pays him the most. (He’s betrayed Tommy and Tubbo how many times exactly, now?) No one from the original eight really sided with either Manberg or Pogtopia, really. Sam was helpful, but he wasn’t a Pogtopian. Dream switched sides to benefit the ultimate goal of chaos, Sapnap followed Dream, and George was off on his own the whole time instead of being vice president. And while George is now king and has been more active recently, his whole purpose from Dream is to stay neutral. 

But yeah, Dream has lost all care for the types of things that other people have care for on the server. The server operates on items and builds of sentimental value - how do you fight against someone who lacks those weaknesses? 

Forget three lives - Tommy has three discs, and if he loses all of them, he’s got no purpose left on the server. Wilbur lost L’manburg, in his eyes. Even if he got it back technically, it wasn’t the same “special place.” He had nothing left to be there for since he no longer had his son, either (again, just in his eyes), and that’s why he died permanently.

Schlatt lost everyone, he had no power, he had nothing. That’s why he died.

Dream, though...Dream doesn’t have anything like that. Dream SMP is the default nation, he didn’t have to construct walls for it to exist. You can’t destroy the entire SMP like you can with L’manburg. He’s lost all sentimentality, so he says, for Spirit’s leather. 

Notice the things he says he stands for - “justice” and “chaos.” Both depend on the reactions, actions and beliefs of other people.

Notice the things that get him to act - the destruction of George’s house. Dream doesn’t care about George’s house but George does.

Dream only cares about Tommy’s discs because the discs are all that Tommy wants. If Tommy gets all his discs back, he’s done. He’s finished with the server. Plot’s over, go home. Dream has no other anchor point other than those discs. He and Tommy are a balancing act. He can’t let Tommy win because he’s afraid of having nothing to be there for. He’s afraid of losing his purpose, because he has no purpose outside of being “the villain.”

[italicwatches]

I Couldn’t Become a Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job - Episode 03

Alright, I have actual time today, so let’s get to it. It’s I Couldn’t Become a Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job, episode 03! Here we GO!

-We begin with Fino’s clock reaching seven AM, and trying to wake her up. Which also gives us a good view of her shiny new apartment, which is…I mean, look, the kid’s had it for like a week, tops. It’s a futon, a table, and a couple boxes of crap she presumably managed to haul out of the old castle, and that’s about it. Her alarm clock’s not even on a table, it’s just kind of sitting by her. It’s also loud and Fino’s a deep sleeper, forcing Raul to come in and wake her up.

-A deep, naked sleeper.

-So the blushing comes. And then Fino has to try and find her clothes and is all squirmy and naked and Raul finally just throws one of his old t-shirts at her. And that’s all she’s wearing and well it’s the whole “wearing your boyfriend’s big t-shirt and nothing else” look and Raul’s brain just kinda cracks like an egg. He’s trying, guys, really.

-Opening!

-Episode 03: We Should be Careful When Handling Weird Products Sent to Us by Corporate.

-Raul and Fino are out and about, and Raul is kind of grumbly about that alarm clock. How the hell did you not wake up from it. It woke him up and he’s an entire apartment away. Also Fino has, instead of getting actual clothes that fit her, chosen to just tie off Raul’s t-shirt under her cleavage. It’s equal parts adorable and absurd and it even still smells a little like Raul. Shit, I think that means you’re engaged.

-To work! Where Seara tries to get them both to perk up despite Raul trying to complain about the whole “Fino is a terrible neighbor” situation, and Fino trying to steal herself a snack from the bowl of treats. Also Seara and Viser have to go off to the corporate offices for a meeting. Again.

-Hard cut to Fino working on an ad for the new washer they just got in. …Fino has, instead of drawing an actual ad, chosen to draw a horrifying warscape full of undead and dying and blood and just kind of put a washer in there. It’s like if you made Suzu from Comic Girls do ad copy. They are not putting that up on the wall, Fino. Just, no.

-Also there’s a customer who needs help. Seems she’s got an old, beat-up fan she’s hoping they could look at…And Raul can see it’s pretty old and battered. Might just be time to get a new one…But Fino sees the disappointment in the woman’s face, how even this small thing has so much sentiment tied up into it, and she wants to try and fix it! If there’s anything at all they can do…! Alright, into the back. No guarantees, but it’s not like they can make the situation worse, right?

-A blue haired woman disagrees. Meet Lore, the delivery and maintenance woman. She takes two seconds to look over the fan, sees the problem, and she can fix it. Come over here and she’ll get the paperwork ready. And of course the woman is ever so thankful, not just to Lore for being so confident she can fix the problem, but to Raul and Fino for being willing to take on the challenge at all instead of just trying to sell her something…

-And oh, dear sweet Fino, she’s so excited at the idea of being appreciated by someone. You’ve got a good heart, kid.

-Then over to corporate, where Seara is basically having to deal with the reality that her customer satisfaction ratings are amazing, but her sales are shit. And she pretty much stonewalls her boss, as she always does, to keep the stress of this from ever hitting her floor-staff…Sooo the orders come down hard. In short, they’re going to start carrying more budget items and do a big promo about all the new deals, and get people in the fucking door.

-Lunch break! Raul brought Fino over to the convenience store, and we get the name Elza for the busty woman who works the counter. Also, Lam-chan continues to try and be serious. It’s not working. Even as she…

-Well, I was going to say “sees Fino as a rival”, but considering the overwrought name, I can’t help but wonder if Lam-chan is also a refugee from the Demon Lord’s kingdom…

-So, lunch, then back to the shop, where it’s the kind of quiet part of the day. Sweep the floors, fix broken goods, and just kind of kill some time.

-And then All A walks in. And to be fair, that was a nickname. Now that she’s not in the heroing game, it’s just Airi. So what brings her in? Here to gloat over him? She’s out shopping, is all. Uh huh. …So where’d you end up, Airi? If you’re out shopping, that means you have real money. The kind you get from a job, not the petty cash their old classmates scrounge for.

-Well she’s all blushy so I suspect she’s lying when she says she ended up working security, but Raul is impressed. That’s good work, the kind that really puts her skills to use…Also out comes some long lingering hatred of demons. Don’t let Fino hear that kind of talk, Airi. She’ll get mad.

-Cue Fino. This is the worst possible time of all times. Also, Fino can only deduce that, seeing as Airi isn’t at the counter with anything to buy, but instead is acting all confrontational, that trouble is afoot! Fear not, Raul, she’ll save you from this would-be complainer! The most ferocious enemy of all corporate life! Stay behind her, Raul! She’ll take this foe down with her greatest demon magic!

-Please be quiet, Fino. And finally they manage to get her to walk off and start browsing…Aaaaand she’s totally watching how Raul interacts with Fino. I’m going to assume Raul was never that loose and casual with anyone back in the hero academy. (plus ultra)

-Cut to when some of the stuff from corporate arrives! Including a shiny new air purifier! They’ve never even carried air purifiers here, and Fino is all impressed! She wants to see it working! You, are not, going to be the one to turn it on. They’ll wait for the manager to get back, and that’s th—

-Cue Elza. Who’s gotten off work and come over to hang out. She wants to see the shiny new stuff! What’s this brand? Domos? She’s never heard of it…

-Must be small. And/or new. Well, corporate’s making them carry it, so, time to see if it—

-Click.

-It’s not doing anything.

-Did they get a DOA? Fino is so very disappointed that she tries turning it off and on again, wait dammit FINO NO—

-Shit.

-…Shit shit shit SHIT

-So let me paint you a word picture.

-The air purifier gets all sparky like the last thing Fino touched and overloaded with magic. But instead of just running into overdrive and burning itself out, the air purifier kicks out belches of black smoke, and from those emerge phantasmal claws! Claws that steal Elza into the air!

-Fino is still impressed. THAT IS NOT WHAT IT’S SUPPOSED TO DO YOU STUPID GIRL. Also it steals Nova too. …Wellllll shit.

-Okay they’ve got to turn it off! One problem, the countless grasping hands are trying to keep them from the actual air purifier! Fino manages to get behind the counter, while Raul grabs the mop and starts clearing some space…But fresh hands leap out of the clouds! They need an actual plan here…

-Which is when Airi sees what’s going on, and jumps straight in! And not just her, but Lore, who identifies this whole mess as witch’s arm. It’s one of the natural shapes magical build-up can take when it’s not properly gathered, shaped and stored, and can happen when the entire syntax of a magical item is damaged and cannot be shaped. And then she gets snatched up because she’s not a fighter.

-But fixing the problem is, if not easy, at least simple. The problem is that the purifier is drawing in magic relentlessly and spitting it out unshaped. You stop that by turning off the purifier. You get to the purifier by getting through the witch’s arms. That’s the rub.

-So Airi steals the mop, pours an enchantment in, and goes through with her THOUSAND BLAST! One strike propagates through the field, clearing out the witch’s arms for a split second! The girls are dropped, spilled away from the core of the purifier… If you can’t fight, get running, NOW!

-So that was the good news. The bad news is mops aren’t designed to have magic woven into them, and the thing just melted under the push Airi put on it. And then she gets caught by the next wave of arms, and is all fully tentacle-grasped! Oh dear. Oh DEAR. That, uh, I think that goes past ecchi.

-Raul needs options and methods, and now. He tries to think, to figure out his plan….When Fino races in to try and save Airi, only to get swarmed! Yet she won’t give up, because THE CUSTOMER COMES FIRST! You’re taking your job too seriously, Fino.

-But that gets Raul to realize what he’s got to do, as he runs into the back…Pulls aside all the mops and brooms…And finds that which he buried here, to never be reminded of it. His sword.

-BOOT! A single charge of magic pours through the blade, and he cuts Fino free, before raising the charge! And then he’s in at full force, cutting Airi free in a flash! He didn’t even know if he still could do this, but it worked…And that’s when Fino really realizes, that was demon-killing magic.

-But Raul is too busy dealing with the aftershock, trying to focus. All he did was get them free. He’s out of shape, rusty. But the job’s not over—And then Airi gets caught again when she knocks Raul out of the way of the grasping hands. That’s…Not…Great.

-And Fino can’t actually do much. Her demonic powers haven’t awoken…

-Airi has a good view of the purifier, though, and she can see. It’s almost all coming from the front, where the purified air should be. If you strike from the back, it might just work! Okay. OKAY! They can do this! Fino races out in front to be a big distraction, trying to gather this natural force to come at her, while Raul pours everything he has in. BOOT! FIVE THOUSAND AMPERES! He pours it all into a single shot of raw magical force, blasting through in a flash down the aisle! The witch’s arms are torn to shreds, the entire core shattered, and Fino sprints in before it can reform, hitting the off switch in a flash! YES! THEY WI—

-Oh god it turned to white sticky goo. Oh god she’s covered in sticky white gooooooooo.

-While Raul is busy really parsing what he managed to do there…Until a goo-coated Fino latches onto him! They did it! That was so COOL, Raul! And then Airi’s words hit him, as he realizes that the very task of being a hero would mean one day having to strike this girl down…This kindhearted, ditzy, over-enthusiastic, sticky girl. Wait, sticky? Q-Quit clinging to him while you’re like that!

-And when it’s all over, Fino properly introduces herself to Airi. And Raul has to desperate keep Airi from realizing that Fino isn’t a demon. Fino is not listening in the slightest and he can only despair. I’m sorry, Raul.

-Credits! Full of KNIGHTLY FANTASY.

-Aftercredits! Raul has dragged Fino to the public bath to clean up, and she’s like a tiny child there. But after they leave…Fino really, really realizes the idea that her very nature is something humanity would suspect and hate…

Well that main episode was…Absurd. And then bam, they just slam in the feels and hard questions right after the credits just to make sure you can’t call the whole thing meaningless fluff. You’re sneaky, anime. But I’ve got my eye on you. We’ll see if they pull that trick again next time, in episode FOUR of I Couldn’t … Job! Wait for it!

[thetygre]

Dark Souls Lore Ramblings #2

Oh, I should not be allowed to go off by myself. This was originally just going to be a part of the greater Dark/Dark Soul/Humanity post. But then I got my teeth into it and it just kept growing and growing and now it’s its own thing. And I guess there’s no sense in making you folks wait any longer if it’s already done. I’ll be along with the Dark Soul post proper in due time, but until then, here’s this.

Manus, the Father of the Abyss

So King Kong here and Oolacile. I think it’s a valid theory to assume that Manus was the Furtive Pygmy, but I’m personally not fond of the idea. I just don’t like the idea of giving up two distinct characters for one. But, it’s still plausible, and it really doesn’t matter much who Manus was before he became Manus. All that’s important about his identity was the he was the man holding the Dark Soul. Although if he wasn’t the Pygmy, that does raise the question of why Manus had the Dark Soul in the first place. Would it have been passed down to him? Does it just jump around when its host dies?

Taking an aside, I dig Manus’ overall design, and I think it’s got some interesting details in it worth noting. First off is the obvious; he’s a big-ass monkey. Covered in fur, bowlegged, has a long tail; he’s a monkey. And that’s kind of an interesting aesthetic choice to make not just because primates aren’t usually fodder for monster design, at least without being goofy, but because it’s part of Manus’ description. Manus is ‘the Primeval Man’, the ancestor of all humanity, and from an evolutionary perspective, that’s what apes and primates are. Manus’ humanity reverted him back to an earlier stage down the evolutionary ladder. Humanity, gone wild, goes into a primitive state. I dunno’, I think it’s just a cool idea, even if it gels more with real world science than Dark Souls’ fantasy logic.

Second off is his giant hand. At this point, we all know Manus’ tragic backstory, or at least one version of it. Oolacile mages dug him up, brought him back to life/woke him up, tortured him, tortured him some more, mind-tortured him, and then threw in a couple of hours of extra torture before calling it a day. Manus, not a fan of this process, used the only thing he had, his good fist, to try and punch his way out his cell like some kind of Alexandre Dumas protagonist. Now, in beast mode, it’s all gnarled and giant.

But look closer at Manus’ hand; you get a great view of it whenever it reaches out to grab you. It’s absolutely covered in teeth (molars, to be exact). And right in the center there is a great big puckering orifice. Manus’ hand isn’t just a hand, it’s a mouth. And just what happens to be the hot ticket item for the Darkwraith covenant? That sweet ass armor. But after that, it’s an evil magic hand that lets you eat humanity and summon raw Darkness. Manus’ hand is the predecessor of the Dark Hand. (Or an imitation of it.)

Let’s reel back some here; the Dark Soul proper and whoever was carrying it. According to Kaathe, the Dark Soul bearer was supposed to lead humanity against the Light and the Lords. Even if Kaathe is just talking out his non-existent asshole, eventually the natural cycle of the universe is supposed to favor an age of humans. There was supposed to be some titanomachy here; just as the Lords overthrew the Dragons, the humans are supposed to overthrow the Lords. But there wasn’t; if anything, it looks like humans started working for the Lords. And at the bottom of the Chasm of the Abyss, right where Manus is, we find a grave.

Let’s all take a moment to celebrate the serendipity of three of the Lord Souls bearers having graves. Nito is in a grave because he’s a giant goth, Gwyn has a grave as a memorial, and Manus has a grave right next to where he was tortured. I mean, the game could not be whacking you in the face with the whole ‘the world is dying’ theme any harder if it tried. Not only are the gods dead, but you can dance on their graves.

But that gets to the real heart of the issue here; Manus was in a grave. A Lord Soul bearer was buried. Why? How? There’s some different routes you can take here. The obvious answer is that this isn’t just a grave, it’s a murder scene; if you believe Kaathe’s narrative, Gwyn put down the humans and the age of the Dark. It’s only natural that that would involve killing the bearer of the Dark Soul and hiding them away. But I don’t wholly buy into into that. When you look around the main grave, you see all these little stones in what are clearly arrangements, like a little mini-Stonehenge. I think that if this is a grave, it was a burial mound, made by the Dark Lord’s people. You can still say that Gwyn killed the Dark Lord, but there’s one final detail that sticks out clear to me.

When asking around Oolacile, Gough and Chester mention that Manus was ‘awakened’. Not resurrected; ‘awakened’, or ‘upturned’. Put simply, I don’t think that Manus was dead when he went into that grave. He deliberately put himself there, and just kind of went to sleep or half-death, a centuries-long coma that he didn’t intend to wake up from. My reasoning’s not exactly solid on this, so bear with me.

First off, while the term ‘god’ in Dark Souls is pretty nebulous, the bearers of Lord Souls are probably the closest thing the universe has to genuine deities. With that, they seem to be apparently immortal. The Witch of Izalith is still kicking, and her Lord Soul went as crazy as Manus’. They can’t die from natural causes; the only way they can go out is through violence. Now that makes it look like it reinforces the whole ‘Gwyn killed Manus’ thing, but then why would he leave the Dark Soul? Especially a guy as hard up for Lord Souls, or as afraid of the Dark, as Gwyn?

And second, frankly, I believe that just straight-up necromancy is beyond the scope of Dark Souls’ magic. Yeah, I know we fight armies of skeletons, and I’ll touch on those guys when I get to Gravelord Nito and Pinwheel, but other than them, the majority of undead we see in Dark Souls are… well, Undead. The mages of Oolacile might have been pretty strong but a.) Oolacile’s specialty appears to have been illusory magic, not necromancy and b.) it took an occult rebellion stealing power directly from a Lord for someone like Pinwheel to get as far as they did, and his work was a dismal failure. Once people are dead in this universe, unless they have the curse, they’re pretty effectively dead. (Time shenanigans notwithstanding.)

Finally, the whole game seems to be built around the notion that the Dark Soul, as an individual item, isn’t that important; it’s not like the other Lord Souls. All is not lost because Manus went crazy and turned the Dark into the Abyss. Any Undead and their fragment of the Dark Soul will do in linking the First Flame. That’s the rug that gets pulled out from under you once you find out Frampt was lying to you. The Furtive Pygmy’s original plan was that the Dark Soul proper could be bolstered by being regrown in fragments. Even if the original Dark Soul was destroyed, there would be another to take its place.

So what all this adds up to is that if Manus was immortal, Oolacile mages couldn’t raise the dead, and the Dark Soul wasn’t actually that important, then killing Manus would serve no purpose, and he wouldn’t be able to be resurrected even if he was killed by the Lords. Ergo, Manus’ grave was not for Manus’ corpse, but for him while he was still alive (or at least Undead). Now, maybe he was bound down there, but I’m drawn to the sleeper theory.

Manus chose to lock himself away; he did, in fact, go gently into that good night. If he was the Furtive Pygmy, then he started out dreaming of revenge and rebellion against the Lords, breeding an army to usher in the Age of Dark, with him as the Dark Lord. But over time, he mellowed with age. Manus came to understand that people, his literal children and grandchildren, aren’t tools just to be used for power. And eventually, he may have even made his own kind of peace with the Lords. Not to get too sentimental, but what Manus came to value was the well being of his fellow humans, of prosperity and love.

Remember, the item that can control Manus is a pendant from when he was still human. What drove him over the edge was the mages of Oolacile destroying that little piece of jewelry. That trinket, that bit of nostalgia, was the personification of Manus’ humanity. So, when Manus saw that his people didn’t need him, whether because the Age of Dark was prospering or because he trusted the Lords, he locked himself away in some deep place, to sweet dreams and a long rest. If I was the accusing type, I might speculate that Kaathe wasn’t particularly pleased with this development. His whole purpose is to bring about the Dark, and now his strongest champion just up and quit. So Kaathe decides that he needs to kickstart things back in the right direction. And you know the rest from there.

Why am I so drawn to this theory? Well first off, it’s the simpler theory; assuming Manus was killed by someone implies a lot of off-screen dickishness from the Lords mixed with a lot of divine incompetence. Too many hypotheticals spoil the broth, so to speak.

But I think more drawn to the tragic optimism of it. That seems more in line with Dark Souls. For however grim the world may be, Dark Souls doesn’t seem particularly misanthropic or critical of human nature. Most of the NPCs you meet in the first game are laid back and even helpful. They only go Hollow when they’re without a purpose. Even the Gwyn and Gwyndolin aren’t total assholes. That’s what makes an effective character, isn’t it? That they have some goodness in them, something that you can see driving their darker nature?

Places like Oolacile and New Londo are as dark as we see it get. Humans praying on each other for power. Oolacile was straight up torturing people for magical experiments. All through it, we’re taught that Humanity is this base, ugly thing that devours and hurts and runs wild. It’s not a pretty picture, but it’s where things are at while the world is crumbling apart. But if the sleeper theory is true, then Humanity isn’t inherently cruel. It has the capacity to be, but that’s balanced by a capacity for love and kindness as well. We go looking for the Dark Soul, building up to some Dark Lord at the height of his strength, and in the end, we find out that he was sleeping, that the real face of the Dark Soul was a memento of happier times. It’s tragic, but it also reaffirms that people can be good, especially if they have something worth living for. And honestly, that just seems more in tune with Dark Souls for me.