#○ — 「 verse 」 there is only one god.

[valtsv]

this part of VAL's monologue about how she was created keeps coming back to me, because while it isn't the only time that we see her being capable of empathy or sympathy, and of recognising other people as victims of the same cruelty and violence that she herself was (as we hear when she talks about the civilians killed at dutler's weald), it is the one time that she doesn't try to separate herself from them entirely, as though that will protect her from being made the same - helpless, and suffering at the whims of others. perhaps because she sees the person she was before she was hallowed as a separate entity already - the one who made the decision that damned them both - but perhaps also because they are her, or what she could have been, and she them. i can't help but wonder how many nights she spent telling herself that the doors to the cells in that substation would miraculously unlock, and they would all walk free. that the cellmate whose screams kept her awake would take to the latest hallowing brands, or at least stop being in so much pain. that her mother would come back, and her hands would be soft. that someone would apologise for what they were doing to her. to all of them. i wonder how many lies she whispered into the dark before she stopped believing them. perhaps it was when she realised that hers was the only voice left calling out into the silence.

[crimeronan]

doing a re-listen to my favorite parts of season 3 of the silt verses and i gotta just post this bit of faulkner's dialogue from chapter 38:

the silt verses is a STUNNING example of a narrative that ties all of its external stakes to internal character arcs; the gods are metaphors for the characters, the characters are metaphors for the gods. it's Brilliant

and this is one of my fave bits, every time. because i love it when a character is clearly talking about themself while addressing a different force.

they'll give you a new name (faulkner) that suits their purpose. they (mason) will keep you like some kind of pet. they'll twist you out of shape (murder, torture, what did you do to your brother, what did you do to your sister??) until you no longer recognize yourself (is "richie" still your name??) until you forget what you used to be (what is a high prophet to a simple farm boy with a sick father??)

makes me fucking CRAZY. all of the arcs are so good but faulkner's tragedy is just. MMM . MMMM FOREVER.....

[lil-vibes]

Hi! Sorry for notification spamming you but wanted to tell you that your TROD tags made me lol, I LOVE your art so much and I’m interested in your AU too. Anyway, love your blog!

P.S. maybe I missed it but you said somewhere that your Narinder was pretty messed up for a few years post revival. Could you give some more details on that? Did he try to hurt them? Who had to take care of him, the lamb? What’s been the downstream effects? Basically, how is this cat still messed up lol.

dont be! everytime i get a notification i go yuppiee!!! im glad you enjoy my art :DD

okay okay its prime yap time under the cut oof i love my fucked up cat sm

Lambert, mainly, took care of him! They made sure that every comfort he needed was provided and were worried out of their mind the entire time. Their disciples helped watch over Narinder when he was unconscious, just so he wouldn't bolt the moment he awoke, and Witness Allocer stitched some of his wound and prepared a special painkiller blend for him. (in my au the high priests, aka the mini bosses, and the witnesses were very close to the bishops! Allocer made the same painkillers for Shamura as well.)

Okay so obviously his wrists and ankles were pretty fucked up from being chained for a thousand years and he's got a lot of internal damage as well bc some of the chains went through him (og Stychu hc that I adopted bc it's so good). Also just general wounds from the final fight and the unfathomable pain of shrinking down from his godly form.

Upon being spared, he did attack them in a post battle adrenaline and hate fueled delirium, right on the indoctrination stone and not only broke his arm (bc he put too much weight on it), but probably gave himself a heavy concussions by slamming his head on said stone seconds after the break happened lmao. After waking up in,,, just a Haze of agony he tried to get up and run away bc he was scared that the lamb would just keep him existing in this special Purgatory and shattered his opposite calf so there's that as well. Unlucky tbh

He bleeds like,,, constantly. All of the time, for literal years on end. From his eyes mostly, but also nose and ears and he throws up ichor a lot in the beginning as well bc his body is adjusting rapidly to being smaller and there's just No Space for the ichor to go, other than out. He’s constantly exhausted and spends a lot of time sleeping, and is very frail physically, if snapping two bones by simply putting weight on them didn't make it obvious enough lol

All and all not a great shape to be in, but! His wounds aren't actually what caused him to be bedridden for so long. It was the fact that he no longer saw himself as a god while still being one and suffering injuries befitting of one!

His body/the Red Crown isn't healing him as much as it’s literally regenerating parts of itself while he suffers everything that comes with that, alongside being out of the Veil/Gateway for the first time in forever and emotionally dealing with the deaths of his acolytes and the supposed betrayal of the one he allowed himself to trust after his family. In fact, Narinder barely heals at all for a while bc he was just mentally stopping the process. And also unconscious for a lot of it.

The other big reason is that god hearts are a great power source, but his heart has been in Lambert's chest since Silk Cradle. So he is Struggling ™ but he’d actually rather die than take his heart back he’s a simp like that smh

After he inevitably breaks and he and Lambert finally talk, he gradually starts seeing himself as a person again and his healing process gets easier. He still has chronic pain for his joints but eventually everything else heals alright :3

On a side note, his siblings bleed excessively and are disoriented for the first couple of days but are ultimately fine within the week. They are kind of horrified to learn that their brother is STILL struggling with the side effects of his imprisonment

[littlebigmouse]

The utter tragedy that is Gwen Stacy.

Like all spider people, she has to figure it out by herself. An endless slew of villains and only one teenage girl against them. An endless slew of villains and one of them turns out to be her best friend.

Peter Parker was bullied until he couldn't take it any more, and decided to fight back. She must not have noticed him cracking, breaking. He knew her secret the entire time, was there for her the entire time, and she didn't even realize his true identity until he was already burried under scaffolding and rubble.

"I just wanted to be special, like you." She's a wanted criminal now. She's always alone. She's hiding increasingly bigger and bigger parts of herself from her father, who loves and supports her and tells her he's going to lock her up as a means to comfort her.

And then he tries to. And she takes the mask off and he keeps trying. Gwen Stacy held at gun point by the last and only loved one she has in the world.

A freak accident happens and she winds up in a place where a Spiderperson has it all figured out and is a well respected member of their community. A place where her best friend is alive and well and special right up until she sees his corpse plastered on news reports all over a foreign city. And there are other Spider people. Other Peter Parkers, all haunting her with never-ending "What could have beens". Gwen isn't alone any more until she is, two days later and with no means to ever see the one tentative friend she may have made, ever again.

A year passed and he might have just moved on from her, anyway.

Gwen Stacy meets a Spiderwoman who is cool and capable and doesn't let love drag her down, but she still gained happiness, somewhere out there. Jessica Drew is a flicker of hope for Gwen that there might be happiness waiting for her, for a Spiderperson that isn't Peter Parker.

Except of course, Jess seems to barely tolerate her. The rescue, safety, is conditional. If Gwen falters, if Gwen isn't good enough, if Gwen slips up even once, she will prove herself a liability, will be send back into isolation, a hopeless situation, home. Will disappoint a person she's trying so hard to impress and connect with.

Spider society is still haunted by the countless ghosts of her best friend. Because every Peter Parker became a hero except hers. Every Peter Parker is fundamentally a good person who wants to save people, every Spiderperson is a good person who wants to save people, except her Peter and this Gwen, who has his blood on her hands. Notice how Gwen and Peter B barely talk, never have a real emotional conversation with each other. They treat each other as equals, and they do care about each other, but they can't shake off the ghosts haunting each other's faces.

Gwen tells Miles "in every other universe, Gwen Stacy falls for Spiderman." People don't soften their blows for Gwen. How did she find out about all the dead Gwen Stacys? She spend several months dimension hopping on missions, did she witness a Peter Parker fail to save his best friend? Is that a "canon event" for Peter Parker? For Spiderman?

Maybe Gwen and Peter can't coexist in the same universe without one of them dying tragically young. Maybe Gwen was never supposed to be Spiderwoman, stole the spot from Peter Parker, robbed him of his life, and her universe hates her for it now. One more anomaly for Miguel to catch later, once he finds out.

Maybe Gwen is the one who got away, she one Gwen who's supposed to have got it good, who made it, will live to see 30. The one Gwen to survive and she's alone, unloved, teetering on the edge. The Gwen that is special and thus shares her fate with all the spider people - will either watch her father die or watch him lock her up or even shoot her on sight. Which is worse? Miles asks Gwen whether that's it, and she just says "Yeah". She gets to chose between the rock and the hard place. Maybe she doesn't have a choice. Gwen Stacy either dies or watches everyone else die. Does it matter, which is written into the fabric of the universe and which is a fluke?

Gwen tries to play by the rules, can't risk messing up again for Jess, can't risk losing Miles, can't risk losing one more friend. One more friend because she can't help but get attached to people, can't help but fall in love with a Spiderman, like all the other doomed Gwens in other universes. But Miles is so fundamentally good he's burried under scaffolding and rubble, curled around a little kid he's saved. Gwen almost watches her best friend die a second time, willing to watch a few civilians die instead. She's been on the other side of that equation and the regret is tearing her apart, the other way around must be better, right?

Would Gwen do it again, knowing who was hidden beneath the scales? Would she sacrifice his bully, her classmates? A little kid and a police captain? Her police captain?

The tragedy of the classic trolley problem is that someone always dies anyway, no matter whether you pull the lever.

Gwen has alltogehter pulled way too many levers.

[ahopefulbromantic]

Song of Songs 8,1 is about Christ's incarnation no i will not be taking constructive criticism

[hallowed-nebulae]

I have written! 2546 words today! half of that is only adding to one scene after my beta-reader looked over it and thought some things needed clarification! the other is a second scene! i still have several more things i wanted to have written today!! the writing never ends!!!

[ameliafuckinjones]

Interesting tidbit from Magnalia Christi Americana by Cotton Mather, which showcases what the early colonists of New England thought about old England:

They pretty much saw themselves and their settlement as an extension of the old country even as they were thousands of miles from it. And didn't want to separate from it so much as they wanted to become an ideal version of it. I imagine this sentiment stayed with the colonies even as they were in the throes of Revolution and especially during the setup of the US government. Good info to understanding the foundational relationship between America and England pre-revolution and pre-Enlightenment (though this book was published in 1702, around the age of Enlightment, it is in spirit an in depth analysis and recollection of early American religious history from the viewpoint of a late 17th/early 18th century puritan minister). The language, though, is what really interests me, "the little daughter of New England in America," "Mother England," "local secession, yet not a separation." and "Undesired local distance from her dear England". Family, though not separated emotionally, are distant physically against their will, and the child is still loyal to the mother country, at least from the pov of the English settlers. There is no true resentment for the mother country yet. I highlight this because it has become a sort of myth - especially in real life - that there was incredibly bad blood from the start when it's far more nuanced than that. The resentment that was built was gradual, it didn't happen all at once, and when things finally did "explode" emotionally speaking, it wasn't nearly as violent as it could have been. Of course, relations between America and England were strained after the Revolution (and 1812), but not so much that they wouldn't do trade deals immediately after the fact or make efforts to mend old wounds or even form a military alliance. I think the "bad blood" between them is often overstated, which turns England into a spiteful, mean creature, and America into some strange pitiful caricature of himself (or vice versa). The former is far to level-headed for that and the latter to sentimental, and for that reason I always try to approach their relationship with a bit more nuance (and realism?) in lieu of letting my fandom brain, hungry for dramatic angst, take over.

The main point is that yes things were rough between them, especially circa 1812, but not as rough as any of the complicated relationships England has with his other kin or neighbors with whom he shares centuries' worth of animosity. I think it's probably why he was comfortable and confident enough to make such a concerted effort with America (via Rapprochement and Dollar Princessess marrying into his aristocracy among other things) even after the Revolution and War of 1812 (and after it was determined that America would not be collapsing anytime soon and crawling back to him on begging hands and knees), because he knew that things could always be much worse and he was smart enough probably to understand that many of America's motivations and ideologies were inspired by him, even if he was perplexed by such childish rebellion.

I believe l've already made a post about why he didn't respond to the Revolution in the fashion America might have wanted him to and the conclusion was that he obviously did care but was under the assumption that America would fail and so he dedicated his energy to what he saw as the bigger threat in Europe. With the analysis above, I'm simply bringing forth the argument (again) that America as a child and a teen idolized England enough to emulate him and become a better version or at least his definition of a better version, and the seed to do so was there from the very beginning. And that for this reason, the relationship isn't as venomous as most make it seem. Both parties very much wanted to connect with each other for a myriad of reasons and did just that even with minor hiccups. It took centuries for France and England to reach such a point (though I'm sure they're both glad that they eventually did). It took America and England a few decades even after the war of 1812. That two stubborn and prideful nations would quickly let bygones be bygones after war, and separation is a miracle and evidence that even with minor and major contention, there is an innate desire to be closer despite everything.

I can go on and on about this, but I think I'll stop here.

[ao3-anonymous]

Fastest Growing Fandoms on AO3 This Week (09/18/2023)

Every week I pull data on how many fics are in each fandom and compare to the previous week, then calculate the percentage increase to determine fastest growing fandoms.  Since this naturally skews towards smaller fandoms, I have included the same data filtered to Over 1k, 5k, & 10k fics.

Overall:

Over 1,000 Fics:

Over 5,000 Fics:

Over 10,000 Fics:

Source: AO3 Fandom Dashboard

[aspirant1598]

[soyoudneverguess]

SPOILERS THE SILT VERSES 36

This is a little bit of a live blog

HEART BROKEN HOLY FUCK

RELATIONSHIP ENDED WITH THE JOY OF HAYWARD AND CARPENTER FUCKING AROUND, RELATIONSHIP STARTED WITH THE TRAGEDY OF SEB AND DEV MY LOVES MY DARLINGS MY AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MEAN MEAN MEAN YOU MOTHERFUCKERS ARE SO MEAN CANT THEY JUST BE HAPPY CANT THEY AKNDKDNFKEBDUEHFBKDLXNDHDJDBEJDBDJDNEBEBDNNDKDNDJDBDNDNDKKDKDKFKRKRBRJSJBDHDIEBJ DE IEKRJJDHJEE DE

Anyways, happiness is fleeting but “hold on Dev, I’m coming” for a man you’ve known for days who’ve you loved almost upon first sight.

HOLY HOLY HOLY HOLY SHIT HES ALIVE SEB IS SO POWERFUL SEB SEB SEB SEB SEB YOU FUCKING DID IT OH MY GOD MY LOVE DEV DEV DEV DEV DEV YOU MET A MAN AND HE FELL IN LOVE WITH YOU AND HE WENT INTO HELL FOR YOU AND SAVED YOUR SISTER AND AND AND EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OKAY NOW YOU KNOW EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE BETTER FOR BOTH OF US

Oh bitch. Oh you fucking bitch. I’m. I. Yeah. It truly was too good to be real.

[awfullybigwardrobe44]

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. (26) My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. —Psalm 73:25-26

[chill-vibes-but-rainbow-panic]

I like to see fingers as a sign of Godhood in the Miitopia universe

[truearchangel]

@adflictus | 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋

"While your theory is facinating and cute, little brother, and I've been humoring you talk for the past—" a glance at the clock on his desk, "hour. I regret to inform you, as someone born at the start of the universe. There is One God, and one universe made by the One God. It's the first commandment, if you forgot. I am the Lord thy God, you shalt have no other gods before me. He's kinda picky on those."

[unproduciblesmackdown]

going wow i can't believe this canon url is still available for all the nichest characters you know

[dhmis-autism]

hi hello here’s a horrid concept for you all that has been haunting me for weeks. the idea of this as a fluffybird song ok goodnight

[logs out immidiately]

[astarionsilverbough]

tlogm is the only work in gale/raphael i have found the ultimate rarepair and it consumes me daily